The Shadowhunter Twins

The Story Of How Nobody Is Allowed To Touch Me

Munching our sandwiches and downing them with sprite, we watched the sun set over the ocean. Best view ever, I tell you. We talked about this and that but I could feel that Christopher was a little uncomfortable. He probably felt a bit like the fifth wheel, I mean, I totally get that. Andrew and I are just one unit, more or less. We do the same things, even think the same things sometimes. We are just so comfortable with each other, have been together our whole lives and then Christopher comes by. Naturally he felt like he didn't belong, but we obviously didn't feel like that. We always joke about how totally awesome we are together, but we are not assholes.
"Ok guys, I'm actually quite tired, you wanna go back to the Institute?" Christopher asked. "Yeah, sure." We both said, so we gathered our things and went back to the Institute, going over the almost empty beach and the still quite busy streets. When we arrived Christopher went into his room immediately. "Well, that went good, didn't it?" I asked. "Man, I hope so." Andrew answered and opened the door to our room. We entered and got into our pajamas.

Andrew and I watched a few episodes Adventure Time together on my laptop that I may or may not illegally own (Catarina would never approve) then Andrew went to sleep. I wanted to sleep, too, but my mind wouldn't let me. I thought back to what Catarina had done for us when mom and dad died. As I've said, she did almost everything to comfort us, did research on how to best cope with that. Shadowhunter are expected to cope with that, but children? How should they know how to? It's quite a bit traumatizing when your parents die. I remembered how Catarina said that maybe I should keep a diary and write down one good thing that happened each day, whether it was a big or a small thing. I still do that sometimes.

There was one thing though, that Catarina didn't want to let us do. Well at first at least.

13-year-old Andrew and me stood in the training room, Catarina in front of us. The death of our parents was only three weeks ago. "Okay, so what do you want to tell me?" Catarina asked. We both looked at each other. "We want to be Parabatai." We said simultaneously. Catarina looked at us. "Are you sure?" She asked, not very enthusiastic. We nodded. "Look, I don't think that's a good idea." She said. I looked at her in disbelief. "Why?" I asked, actually sounding more demanding. "I know you guys just lost your parents and you are afraid of losing each other, but a Parabatai oath is a big thing. You should be really sure of this." She said. "But we are!" I argued. "No. I don't think so. You should wait. Think about this some more." She said. "But-" I wanted to argue. "I said no." Catarina cut me off. Tears started filling my eyes. There was nothing I wanted more, she was just being stupid. Yes, I was afraid of losing Andrew, I was freaking terrified of it.

I turned away from her and started crying. My nerves were just done, so I just broke down crying. I felt Andrews arms around me, and flung my own around him, holding onto him as if I were drowning and he was the only thing keeping me from it. He let go of me again and went over to Catarina. "Look." He said. "I know you don't like it, but just look at her. Please, just promise her that you'll think about it again. Promise her that there's at least a chance that we'll become Parabatai. Please." Andrew begged. I could hear the sadness and worry in his voice, while I just sat there, crying on the floor. I heard footsteps and Andrew sat down next to me, holding my hand. Catarina tried to put her hand on my shoulder. "Don't fucking touch me!" I hissed, backing off. Catarina looked taken aback and even a bit hurt, but I just didn't care. Who was she to be hurt? "Ok, I promise that I will consider this again. I promise you, that there is a chance for the both of you, ok?" She said. I didn't answer her, I just looked at her for some time, then I stood up and left the room. I heard Andrew say a relieved "Thanks." And then he followed me, guiding me into our room, so that we could have a bit of privacy. He knew I hate it when somebody sees me crying.

Yeah, and that's the story of how nobody is allowed to touch me except for Andrew. Weird thing, I know. My mind wouldn't let me sleep for another hour or so, but then I finally passed out.