Magic, Memories, and Malec

All Who Talk

"And so I appeal to a voice, so something

               shadowy,

a remote important region in all who talk:

though we could feel each other, we should

               consider –

lest the parade of our mutual life get lost in the

dark."

-          A Ritual to Read to Each Other, William Stafford



The clock struck midnight and, right on time, Ava opened the door, pillow and blanket tucked under her arm, grin plastered on her pale face. Zander and Toby, curled under the duvets on their respective beds, sat up, smiling back and the three fell into their usual routine. In less than a minute, the two beds had been pushed together, closets had been moved back, and a perfect blanket nest had been built. A tangle of throws and pillows and bodies, the three of them buried themselves in their cocoon and their usual routine began, just as it had in the field behind the Academy, three years ago: with secrets. Over the years there had been a plethora and a hundred different types; funny stories, embarrassing moments, childhood memories, and the deep dark confessions that seemed less scary in the dead of night.

Toby remembered, suddenly, when there had been a night of secrets so personal that none of them had slept, just held one another in silent thanks – both for the others sharing something so meaningful, and for accepting them with all their faults. The words, the exact phrasing, stuck in Toby's mind, even after three years.

"I'm scared that I'm not skinny enough to be a shadowhunter." Ava had whispered, her hands finding the soft curves of her body that, yes, weren't like the typical shadowhunter physique, but were so beautiful and classic and magnetising that it made Toby want to paint her a million times. And he had.

"Black shadowhunters don't get into high ranking positions. Yet." Zander had said, and the firmness with which he'd said that last word made Toby believe Zander would be the one to change that. "I'm worried that my little brother and sister will think they can't do it I want to be their role model, but they'll grow up before I can change anything. I'm scared I can't change it."

Toby had marvelled at how he could possibly doubt that. Zander was born to be Inquisitor or Consul. He was the smartest, most diplomatic, most politically aware sixteen year old Toby had ever met. The fact he doubted it made Toby want to tear apart the unfair course of history had taken, rewrite it to make Zander feel like the hero. Toby had swallowed the secret he wanted to tell him. He had to tell them. Sometime. Or did he? He could keep it a secret. But he felt like the weight on his shoulders would – if not evaporate – lighten if he voiced it. He couldn't. Not now. Not yet.

"I'll never be good enough." Toby admitted, his second greatest secret. That was enough, right? "I was raised a mundane. I'm ten years behind everyone else. I'll never make that time up, not unless I could freeze time for everyone around me until I caught up. I'm never going to be as good as my dads. I'll never stop a war like Alec. I'll never be my brother Jace. I could work so, so hard, but it isn't enough. It never is. For Magnus and Alec, yeah. But not for me."

Whilst the three of them had lain awake, Toby felt the acceptance radiating from them. In their presence, he almost felt that fear melt away. They made him feel good enough. They made him believe maybe he was. But the guilt at having not told them what he wanted to ate him away, keeping him awake far more sharply. It wasn't he didn't trust them; he trusted them with his life daily. It was just...he felt like this was bigger than him, bigger than what his life was worth. The thought that this part of him might have grown to more than his own being made his stomach turn.

Now, though, huddled under their blanket, new admissions were voiced.

"I'm scared I won't be respected as a fighter because I'm all feminine and girly."

"I don't want to let my family down."

"I feel guilty that I'm not doing my dads' names justice."

They never offered counter-arguments. Toby could have told Ava that Isabelle was the famed shadowhunter in dresses in 7 inch heels, but he didn't. It wasn't about wanting reassurance; it was about wanting someone – anyone – to listen. It was about the way it had become subconscious for Zander to comment how proud Magnus and Alec had been over a test score or drawing of Toby's. It was the way Toby told Ava how good she looked in a dress she looked hesitant about. It was the way Ava voted Zander forward for leadership roles with complete assurance he'd be the ideal choice. It wasn't someone arguing 'no you're great'! It was someone acknowledging the fear they weren't, and loving them regardless of their view of themselves. It was acceptance and trust and unconditional camaraderie. Most of all, it was a sense they belonged, for a group that had oftentimes felt like they didn't.



Ava eventually got up to grab another blanket from her room and Zander turned to Toby, looking nervous.

"You talk to Ava a lot." Zander stated, a fact rather than a question.

"Yeah." Toby shrugged. "So do you. She's our best friend."

"Do you think she likes me?"

Toby blinked, surprised. "I...I don't know. Do you like her?"

Zander nodded mutely.

"Go tell her." Toby said. "She's cool and funny and beautiful. She's perfect. Ask her."

"Do...you like her?" Zander asked.

"No!" Toby exclaimed. "She's, like, my best friend. I love her, but I don't love her."

"What if I ruin everything, for all of us?" Zander pointed out desperately. "What if she says no, or we have an awful breakup, and then it's really awkward and we hate each other or...?"

"Zander!" Toby interrupted. "Chill out. You're the calm one. If you freak out, where does that leave the rest of us?"

Zander nodded and patted Toby's shoulder.

"Thanks, dude." He smiled. Then he steeled himself and disappeared in search of Ava.



When neither returned within ten minutes, Toby thought he had better go mediate. Toby had never dated anyone, but surely asking someone out took less than ten minutes? How long did it take for someone to ask a question and the other person to say yes or no? Not ten minutes, Toby decided, and got up to leave. As he opened the door, he was promptly coughing when the breath was pushed from him by Ava and Zander, who were currently on top of him. Toby's mind whirred, and he suddenly understood. The two had been leaning against the door doing...what? Kissing? Kissing! They liked each other! This thought was confirmed as Zander laughed uncomfortably and got quickly to his feet, reaching a hand down to help a pink-cheeked Ava off the floor.

"Sorry." Zander said sheepishly and she laughed. Toby rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, don't mind me. I actually quite like the floor. Maybe if I stay down here long enough, I can contract demon pox, or make friends with the mouse I can currently see under my wardrobe." Toby drawled.

The two of them snapped out of their trance and leapt into action, apologising and pulling Toby to his feet. He lifted his gaze to the ceiling, fondly exasperated.

"Did you bring food?" Ava asked.

"Don't I always?" Toby countered, mock-hurt.

"By the way," Zander told him. "Next week the Academy vacation starts. So we won't be here."

"Wait, where are you going?" Toby asked quietly. "Home?"

Ava fell silent, staring down at her hands. This was her home now. Zander, too, was unenthusiastic to go back to his shattered home life. Since their Institute had been wrecked, his family life was messy. They had created for themselves, in the Academy and the safety of the three of them, a family more stable and present than what the two of them had now. Toby felt eternally lucky to have been welcomed in to that kind of sacred environment. He supposed it was how he'd felt when he'd been welcomed into Magnus and Alec's life; it wasn't until you didn't have a home that you realised how special it was when you finally found one. Abandoning that comfort they had for so long – a whole month and a half – looked as if it terrified them both.

"Well...you could stay with me?" Toby offered. "Magnus and Alec like you. I'm sure they wouldn't mind. The apartment is practically a hotel for lost souls. Last week we had a faerie that had been tricked into falling for a shape-shifting Nixie on our couch for a week, sobbing into the pillows. You two would be the most normal guests we've had stay. Like, ever."

Ava looked up at him, big eyes wide. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah, sure. Even if Magnus and Alec say no, the Institute has to provide accommodation if you need a place to stay."

Zander pulled Toby into a crushing hug and Toby reached up to puts his arms around Zander. God, he was tall.

"Thank you." Zander said softly, and Toby felt the appreciation in the hands on his back, the way they held him, vice-like and safe in Zander's arms.



A week later, Toby was accustomed to the sight of Ava and Zander slumped on the sofa or curled under blankets on the floor or helping themselves to food from the apartment's kitchen. The two of them were like his siblings, and Magnus and Alec's care of them was almost parental. Magnus smiled, leaning happily against Alec where the two slouched against the kitchen counter, watching the three kids scrambling for the TV remote and elbowing one another inelegantly out of the way in a move completely unbecoming of the future generation of shadowhunters. Toby had never looked so happy, so comfortable, so at home. And, thus, if Toby was happy, so were Magnus and Alec. Zander and Toby were like brothers. Zander ruffled Toby's hair affectionately and the two fought amiably over stupid things, like – their most recent debate – the pronunciation of the word 'wall'.

Toby's relationship with Ava, however, was different. The two of them interwove in souls like vines through branches. There was banter, and love, and a level of intimacy and closeness that was unequalled. Her fingers traced the runes on his arms gently, autumn breeze light. His hands found their way carefully through her hair, fingers teasing out tangles and plaiting the long blonde locks into a single silvery rope. Their gaze on one another was electric, their individual presences more pronounced and elevated in each other's company. Ava wasn't the other half of Toby – nor was he hers. Rather they brought one another into focus; when Ava was with him, Toby was still himself, but with the brightness inside of him turned all the way up. Zander and other Academy students had noticed too that Ava was a better fighter when she was with him. Any training exercise they did together, they won.

One moment in particular that stood out to Zander was in a training test where they had had to evade and fight off a minor demon, one that slithered and slunk and resculpted itself around its enemies, ensnaring them in its globous form. Thus far, not one pair had scored higher than a C. Zander, working alone, had killed the thing and scored a B upon getting splattered with the demon's poisonous, gelatinous flesh when his throwing stars lodged themselves in the creature's flank.

Ava and Toby were up next, under Scarsbury's frankly underwhelming motivational pep talk of "Don't die", Toby, sword-cane in hand, and Ava with her emeici spinning rapidly on her middle fingers. The whirring blades, like arrowheads on gold rings, sounded like tiny windmills, confusing the demon. It was an Eidolon demon, Toby thought, slimy formless creature like a Behemoth. Thank the Angel it wasn't a Behemoth. They'd be there all night before they could hope for a pass, killing all its different reforming versions. The two of them looked at one another and nodded, Ava giving Toby a knowing wink. She surged forward, emeici whirling, and dived sideways, pulling the demon's focus from Toby and allowing him to pop the sword from the end of his cane. He looked up to see Ava darting back and forth, dodging and ducking around the Eidolon, hands a blur of gold. If Zander brought the plans, Ava brought the speed. She circled the demon in a wide sprint, weaving easily around the slimy tendrils the demon shot out like tentacles, fast enough and agile enough to evade the thing. Toby, on the other hand, was not like his friends. He wasn't the mastermind that Zander was. He wasn't the Olympic-grade runner that Ava was. He was long and elegant and arms and legs too long for his body. He'd broken his arm on the Institute's stunt rig. He'd grown up falling – and falling and falling – onto the spring-loaded but hard training room floor. Tiny – and sometimes not so tiny – scars littered his skin from all the times his body had slammed the ground. There had been a time when Alec and Magnus had kept icepacks in the freezer to take down the bruising and swelling Toby inevitably sustained, hot water bottles to ease his aching muscles.

Toby was the gymnast of the group.

The demon flung out as Toby approached, poison fanning from its pores in a furious arc. Cane pulled tight to his chest, neck and elbows tucked, he executed an easy front aerial, landed, and darted after Ava. Sword canes, Toby knew from experience, were both wonderful weapons and perfect instruments from which to project oneself into a variety of stunts. Whilst Ava and her emeici distracted the creature, Toby was busy working his way around the demon's tentacles, taking one out at a time, until his feet were sliding on pools of ichor. Luckily for them, the ichor wasn't poisonous because with every landing, black demonic blood splashed Toby's boots, splattering his ankles and gear. The demon, now at least unable to snatch them from combat with sliming toxic tentacles, still remained snarling and snapping its jaws, globous form weaving its way around the two, enclosing them in its gelatinous walls of poisonous flesh. Ava and Toby wove around one another, as aware of where the other person was as their own position.

"Hold it there while I fall back." Ava instructed, and Toby obeyed, sword-cane jabbing and darting distractingly to let Ava drop behind. "I hate to go all Alice in Wonderland on you but I'm slaying this jabberwocky style."

"It's Jabberwock, and that doesn't happen in the..."

"Shut up and get ready to move back – and fast." Ava instructed.

He heard the whoosh above him as emeici flew over his head, and threw himself backward in a powerful back handspring. The second his feet touched the floor, Ava yanked him towards her and the two collapsed in a heap, only a foot out of range as the Eidolon exploded into lumps like flesh-coloured Jell-O, which rolled back into one mass, sunk through the grass, and disappeared back to its home dimension.

"Get up." Scarsbury barked. "Removing the tentacles was overly involved. If you insist on those ballerina moves, boy, at least use them." He looked down at his clipboard and muttered gruffly, "You score an A+."



Magnus and Alec – like everyone else – were well aware of the compatibility of the duo. However, it didn't stop them being surprised when Ava pulled them aside to talk whilst Toby helped Zander pack. After three weeks at the apartment, he'd decided to go and spend the remaining half of the vacation with his family in Kenya, where his parents were staying for the last two weeks of summer break. Whilst Toby attempted unsuccessfully to persuade Zander to leave his "weirdly awesome" David Bowie CD collection, Ava pulled Magnus and Alec into the dining room.

"I need to talk to you." She said, looking up at them with hands that fluttered with nerves.

"You alright, sweetheart?" Magnus asked. "You need anything?"

"I...I want to ask Toby to be my Parabatai." Ava announced. "Would that be okay with you?"

"Avey," Alec said, smiling. "We'd love that. He'd love that."

"Really?" she squealed in excitement.

In answer, Magnus dropped an affectionate kiss on her head. "Really. Go ask him. And Ava?" she looked up. "Welcome to the Lightwood-Bane family, Avey baby."

She beamed and hugged them both hard, then dashed off to Toby's room to help pack, bubbling.

It was after Zander had left – with a fierce and emotional hug from Toby and Ava – that Magnus and Alec heard the loud exclamation of an excited "YES!" from Toby and met each other's eyes with laughs. The question had been asked. Their son had a Parabatai. He was one of the lucky few, like his dad. Both had seen what having a Parabatai had brought Alec, and the thought Toby could have something like that pure ecstasy.

"Should we go and see them?" Magnus asked, nodding towards the bedroom door, behind which the burbling chatter of Ava and Toby came, loud and fast.

"Give them a minute." Alec said, smiling, fondly nostalgic. "Let them be for a while. We'll see them in a bit."

Alec remembered the way it felt, like someone taking your hand and never letting go, like half of the worry in your life had been lifted and replaced by that of your other half. He'd never had that before. Isabelle, he'd had always known, was his confidant, the safe place where he could be exactly who he was. With Jace, it was different. To be exactly who he was, vocally and openly, was too dangerous. To fall for his Parabatai was forbidden, and to fall for his best friend could crumble the relationship they had. It was too important to him to lose. Jace was his everything. The worry he could have saved himself if he could have saved himself if he'd realised he didn't actually love Jace, just loved the idea of a relationship with someone he was  actually attracted to, his teenage life would have been a whole lot simpler. He remembered how he'd felt when Jace had confronted him so long ago, telling him that Alec only had a crush on him because he was "safe" and he could hide his true feelings and avoid the backlash. They'd kissed, and Alec had realised he was right. But Toby, he knew, wouldn't have those same worries. And Ava was with Zander. Ava and Toby loved each other, but it was different from the way Alec had loved Jace, with a fierce protective jealousy and constant feeling of emptiness that Jace would never love him back. Toby loved Ava so deeply and purely that it was a perfect encapsulation of what it was to be Parabatai. Fifteen, the two of them would finally have the rune to prove to everyone who did not know them exactly how much they loved each other. But, who needed that? Alec had always thought that if you needed a rune to show who you loved, then you didn't love them enough. Anyone who mattered would already know, and everyone else didn't matter. That's what Alec told himself. He glanced at Magnus, and smiled sadly. But it would certainly be nice to have the marriage rune on his heart like his brothers and sisters would.



The day of the Parabatai ceremony, an unusual visitor was present at the Institute: Catarina Loss. Toby beamed, welcoming his Aunt Catarina through into the main hall and running off to find his dads. She'd known him since that first month he'd stayed at the apartment and the two were good friends. However, the activity around the Institute was dulled to the soon-to-be Parabatai as they disappeared to get ready together. Toby's hands wove a beautiful braided updo into Ava's hair, pearly pin stuck through the golden locks and making her look like a mermaid. Her hands laced up his boots as he straightened his jacket in front of the floor-length mirror. They moved around one another like water around rocks, natural and easy and instinctive.

"Ready?" Toby asked, and Ava nodded.

"Ready."

They pushed their way out of the Institute changing room – a small alcove attached to the training room. But it wasn't the training room that greeted them. At least, it wasn't the training room as Toby had seen it. A raging inferno had engulfed the space, flames high enough to lick the wooden beams of the ceiling. Toby spun instinctively to Ava, but she was gone, engulfed in the smoke and fire.

"Ava!" Toby cried, eyes watering with the smoke.

The wall of flame grew higher at his voice, and Toby braced himself, plunging through. All logic screamed at him to escape; but all logic didn't take his Ava into account. She was lying, eyes closed, under a fallen beam, trapped and breathing thickly. Through the smoke, Toby could only just see her. But he could. Just. He could always see Ava. Fire snatched at his clothes and he went to apply a Fireproof rune that dissolved ineffectually on his skin the second he finished drawing it. Already, he could feel the exposed skin on his hands and face beginning to blister. He gritted his teeth and called out Ava's name, gulping in smoky air that caught in his lungs and made him choke. Her only response was a weak cough that, if anything, only scared Toby more. He surged forward toward her, only stopping when a creak wrought the air above him. He looked up in time to see one of the rafters burn and splinter away from its supports and threw himself back in time to not be crushed. He vaulted the beam as it fell to rest and stopped. Crouched before Ava, guarding her from Toby, was a man. A man with blonde hair, and long eyelashes, and a bottom lip that jutted slightly. Just like Toby. He looked just like Toby. Like the pictures in the photo album Magnus had given him so many Christmases ago.

"Dad?" he whispered.

The man was quiet, but the boy knew his guess was correct.

"Dad, I...I need to get to Ava. Let me past. That's my friend." When the man didn't move, he yelled. "Dad!"

He recoiled back at how ugly the word sounded in Toby's mouth when applied to this stranger. Dad was Alec. Dad was Magnus. This was the man who'd cheated on his mom and died before Toby could even meet him. He ran toward him, trying to push past. The man caught at Toby, grabbing him in his arms roughly, throwing him to the ground. As his back struck the floor, the wooden boards beneath him shattered in place around him. He screamed, throwing out his hands and catching at the splintering wood, flakes of timber driving into his blistering hands. A sob rose in his throat. The man loomed over him, and a single thought pierced Toby's mind: Ava. He could get to her now. This man, Toby's father or not, could kill his precious Ava. He yanked himself up and wriggled through the hole in the floorboards he clung to, pulling himself onto the training room floor, into the room that was roaring with flame. The man had resumed his position in front of her.

"Move." Toby commanded. The man stared at him, silent, refusing to acquiesce. "Move or I swear I'll kill you!" he shouted.

He pulled a dagger from his belt, a dagger he didn't even remember putting there when he was getting ready with Ava, and raised the weapon. When the man took a step forward toward Ava, Toby lunged forward and plunged the blade into the man's back. He collapsed to the ground soundlessly, looking so like Toby as he rolled with his face to the ceiling that the boy burst into tears. He ignored the body, pulling Ava out from under the beam and sinking down beside her, tugging her limp body into his arms.

"Ava." He cried, the salty tears burning the scorch marks on his face with every sob. "I killed him. I killed him."



"Toby?"

Ava's voice. She was okay. He opened his eyes, and blinked up at the training room ceiling. No burning. No fire. He felt his face, the place where burns should have been, where skin should have been peeled away to redness. Nothing. His hands were smooth and unmarred by fire. Only tears lingered on his eyelashes.

"Ava?" he asked, voice rising in panic.

Her hands went to his shoulders, pulling him up and hugging him tight. He pulled her towards him, and she curled around him where he stroked her blonde hair.

"Did you...?" he asked.

"The fire?"

"Yeah."

"It was a trial." A familiar voice said.

They both spun to see Catarina walking in, Alec and Magnus behind her, looking palely anxious.

"It's a – what do you mean?" Toby asked breathlessly.

"A trial. To see whether you would truly do anything for one another, whether you are true Parabatai." She said, and smiled. "And you are."

Toby folded forward, head buried in Ava's shoulder, her hands knotted into his jacket. She was shaking. He was shaking. They'd lived. That was all that seemed to matter, even if it was all an illusion, even if they weren't ever in real danger.

"My father." Toby whispered, and Ava's arms tightened on him, complete understanding in the way she stroked a hand carefully down his back.

Alec and Magnus walked over and Alec kissed Ava's head gently, Magnus pulling Toby towards him.

"Come on, sweethearts." Magnus said, helping them carefully to their feet. "You're okay. Let's get you down to the ceremony."



The sanctuary provided a perfect stage for the ritual to take place.

"It's the type of place for celebration." Alec nodded. "The sort of place I would want to get married."

Toby and Ava had been given a few minutes of privacy to recollect themselves after the trial.

"I wish my parents could see this." Ava said quietly as they waited outside the sanctuary in anticipation for the Silent Brother performing the ceremony to beckon them in.

Toby smiled sadly and took her hand. "Me too."

A voice echoed in their minds, the timbre making them both shudder: 'Please enter, prospective Parabatai.' The door opened, seemingly of its own accord. Toby squeezed Ava's hand, and they stepped inside and saw the scene within.

Magnus and Alec stood, Catarina and a Silent Brother too. And in the corner, watching happily, was a boy with dark skin, black hair and brown eyes, lanky limbs and a smile on his face. In his arms, a chubby toddler clung to his neck, a pretty girl who looked like a doll. Leaning against him was a scrawny young child, a miniature version of his big brother.

"Zander!" Toby exclaimed.

Zander smiled. The Silent Brother made a noise that drew their attention back on the three rings, scorched into the marble, dominating the floor. Gathered in a silent, sombre crowd were the Council, who the duo eyed uncomfortably. Robert Lightwood was among the group and Toby relaxed slightly. He and Ava stepped into their respective circles and both flinched as the walls of flame locked them in their rings. After their trial, the idea of flames splitting them from each other was enough to make Toby's heart race.

'Speak the Oath.' The Silent Brother breathed.

Toby took a deep breath and began, at exactly the same time Ava did. As the Oath came to an end, their voices meshed on the final line: "If aught but death part me and thee." The fire melted and they stepped into the middle circle of their Venn diagram trio of rings. As they met, the middle circle rose, encircling them both in the tube of flame. They jumped, startled as the fire grew taller, and took each other's arms, hoping to steady one another. They giggled embarrassedly and let go of each other.

'Apply the runes where desired.'

Toby took out his stele and Ava bore her neck, throat bare and unmarked with her hair tied up. Toby cupped her jaw carefully, tilting her face so he could etch the rune on her neck. When Ava took out her own stele, Toby unbuttoned his shirt and tapped his chest, over his heart.

"I can't." Ava said quietly. "Your Marriage rune has to go there."

"Ava..."

It was all he had to say. She looked up at him, round green eyes meeting his. Her hand lingered where it was on his chest, over his heart.

"It's what you want?" she checked.

"It's exactly what I want, Avey."

She nodded and slid a hand behind his back, steadying him, as she drew the Parabatai rune over his heart, exactly where the Marriage rune would normally go. Toby didn't want a Marriage rune, didn't ever see that rune on his skin in his mind's eye. If for some bizarre reason he decided that was what he wanted, then it wouldn't make any difference. The placement of a rune wasn't all that important, especially with symbolic ones like this. Alec and Magnus had always asserted that runes like Marriage and Parabatai didn't mean you had a stronger bond anyway. He knew they'd both adore the Marriage runes on their skin, but because of the attitude they held, Toby wasn't overly sentimental about certain bits of skin being reserved for particular runes. Ava's hand drew carefully, unlike her usual quick strokes, making sure every edge was perfect. When she pulled back, the Council sucked in a collective breath at the placement of the rune, and Toby rebuttoned his shirt swiftly and uncomfortably. The fire around them burnt down and they fell into one another's arms, Ava planting a kiss on Toby's cheek. He felt the strength in his blood sing with the Parabatai mark. He could do anything because Ava had the other half of his heart. All was right with the world, because it could never be wrong if Ava was there. No harm could come so long as no harm came to her.

'Ava Bayheart and Tobin Lightwood-Bane, you are now Parabatai. Your bond is eternal, powerful, and of great importance. Use it to guide the Shadow World into lightness, and your collaboration shall be a service unto Johnathan Shadowhunter and David the Silent, as well as to the Angel. In the name of the Raziel, you are Parabatai.'

The two smiled at the Silent Brother who proclaimed this, before rushing off to greet Zander.



"Congratulations, guys." Zander smiled, bouncing the little girl he held higher onto his hip. "I couldn't get away until this morning. Sorry I didn't come earlier."

"Who's this?" Toby said, waving to the little girl, and smiling broadly at the boy stood beside Zander.

"This is Imani." Zander smiled happily. "Tell them how old you are."

"Three." She said, holding up four fingers. Zander laughed.

"Three." He confirmed, and looked to his brother.

"I'm Kellan. I'm nine." The boy said, and looked at Ava. "Are you Zander's girlfriend?"

Ava nodded, laughing at Zander's sheepish look. "Yeah, I am. Hi, I'm Ava. This is Toby."

"He talks about you all the time."

Zander swiftly put down his sister and thrust a hand over his brother's mouth, letting out a high laugh of embarrassment.

"Don't listen." He begged her. "They're both compulsive liars."

"Zandee." Imani said, holding her arms up, and he scooped her back up onto his hip. She rested her head against his chest, a thumb in her mouth, and Zander smiled down at her, bouncing her gently. It made Toby feel all warm and satisfied to see how much they loved each other, to see siblings like that. That was the kind of family he'd always wanted; big, and loving, and full of joy and support, even through hard times. Zander's home Institute had been destroyed, but still his family clung together. They clung to him. Toby had that in his dads, but it wasn't the same as having all the siblings, the extended family. His mother had kept so much from him; his father was a practical stranger. And as for any biological family beyond that? Huh, he might as well forget about it.

"Tobee." Imani sung happily, and Toby was pulled from his reverie as Zander put her down on the floor. He smiled and sat down beside her.

"That's a pretty dress, Imani." He said, and she giggled and stroked down the puffy skirt.

"For special days." She told him in a conspiratorial whisper. "Because of the pa'ba'ti ceremony."

He smiled as he looked up, watching Zander walk over to where Ava and Kellan were talking.

"Your brother," he heard Ava tell Kellan. "He's the smartest boy in the world. One day, he'd going to be Consul."

"Really?" Kellan asked, looking up at Zander in awe.

"Oh yeah." Toby cut in, from where he sat on the stone floor. "I wouldn't be surprised if he was the youngest Inquisitor ever."

Zander looked down, modest, shrugging as he mumbled an "Oh shut up, you guys." Toby looked over to see Robert Lightwood and Jia Penhallow in deep conversation, both looking between one another and Zander. They seemed to be discussing this statement of Toby and Ava's and how seriously they should take it. Zander glanced over and they looked away. They'd be keeping an eye on him, Toby thought with a smile. He'd be in a position of power yet.

Ava slumped down beside him on the floor, waving her ring-laden fingers at Imani. Wisps of blonde hair like thread that had escaped from her hairstyle hung down over her neck like individual strands of silk. The way it created a kind of transparent curtain over her new Parabatai rune made Toby's eyes hold in awe. They were Parabatai. Finally. Magnus and Alec came over then, congratulating them all and introducing themselves to Zander's siblings. So many people surrounded them, a crowd or love and acceptance, and Toby shared blood with none of them. Perhaps, Toby thought, it didn't matter about bloodlines. Family, as he'd told Ava once, came in all shapes and sizes. His might be eclectic, it might be patchy and made of lots of other broken families. But a mosaic was made of shards of broken glass, and they didn't match, and the final creation was still beautiful, still a work of art. And, Toby thought, this particular mosaic was pretty spectacular.