Magic, Memories, and Malec

The Ache For Home

"The ache for home lives in all of us. The safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned."

All God's Children Need Travelling Shoes, Maya Angelou

A cheer went up and the graduates of the Shadowhunter Academy all heaved a sigh of relief. Toby slumped back in his first row chair and dropped his hands from his face. Thankfully, every single mundane had survived drinking from the Mortal Cup. Toby had spent the entire ceremony pretending he was resting his face on his hands, but was really just hiding his squeezed-shut eyes so he didn't have to watch if anything bad happened. Whilst Toby didn't technically 'graduate', since he was only a part-time student, he was still asked to sit on the Shadowhunters row of the audience – the second row. Instead, he gave his seat to some new Shadowhunter who'd had a full breakdown before drinking from the cup.

"Here," he'd said, sliding out of his seat and into the aisle. "You deserve to be on the Shadowhunter's row. Good job up there. Congrats on Ascending."

The boy, who must have been around fourteen or fifteen, smiled gratefully and swapped seats with Toby. Now that the ceremony was over, Ava and Zander turned around to talk to Toby.

"Congratulations, guys." He smiled. "Graduates of Shadowhunter Academy. How do you feel?"

"Hungry." Zander admitted. "Can we go?"

Ava looked at him in mock horror. "You don't want to celebrate?"

"If you guys want to stay for whatever alcoholic, raving after party Scarsbury has planned, feel free." Zander grinned. "Just give me the keys so I can go and sleep."

"Boring!" Ava pouted, sticking her pointy pink tongue out at him, but surrendered to a yawn. "Fine, I could do with a movie and some noodles anyway."

"Ramen and asleep by ten? Part-ay." Toby drawled.

His friends rolled their eyes. All of them knew that sounded like pretty much the perfect night. All three of them loved – loved – parties. Zander liked casual, friendly drinking; Ava liked dancing; Toby just liked talking to people. However, nights at the Academy or apartment, tangled under a mess of blankets while Toby aimed M&Ms into Zander's mouth and Ava – always, without fail – fell asleep before their movie was over were equally appreciated.

They wove their way through the crowds, stopping to be congratulated or to congratulate others on their graduation. They found Magnus and Alec in the middle of a small circle of people, most of them either young Shadowhunters, either with Nephilim blood from birth or having just Ascended. Some of them, Toby noticed, seemed to be gazing reverently at his dads, and many were the types of Shadowhunters who hadn't been represented in the past or didn't fit the Clave's rigid mould of what their warriors should be. There were Shadowhunters with headdresses, or with hands that fluttered and chests that rose and fell rapidly in the crowds; Shadowhunters with their hands clinging to partners of the same gender, or with scars that didn't look like runes or training room wounds.

"Come on." Toby said, pride swimming through him as he watched his parents talking to the people around them, taking long and deliberate time to talk properly to every individual. "Let's leave them to it. They're busy. We'll meet them for breakfast tomorrow."

Zander and Ava agreed easily, and the trio slipped outside into the bracing Idris night air. The wind was slow but cold, kissing Ava's cheeks with frozen, whispering lips that pinked her pale cheeks. She shivered, leaning into Zander as she walked. The hilly, meandering path down into the centre of the town, where the majority of the houses resided was brief, but it was another thirty minutes to the place that Toby, Ava, and Zander were staying: the old Graymark house.