sunlight | a.lightwood x male oc

Prologue

When Teddy moved to New York, he had two bags. One held his clothes, his jumpers and shirts, with books tightly packed into the corners, their curling pages and cracked spines acting as time capsules to him, the embodiment of memories. In the other was a box, sealed with a rune, and containing the most precious pieces of writing to Ted.

A collection of letters, addressed to a multitude of people, in swirls of calligraphic handwriting, and signed off with the same flourish each time: 'your dearest Magnus'. Each line in the wad of papers detailed the updates on one side of an exchange dating back to the 1800's, and Ted was determined to find the rest of the letters, the ones from his ancestors, and a warlock was rather the right way to go about it.

"Welcome to the New York Institute Mr. Herondale, I trust the portal journey wasn't too disorienting." Spoke a beautiful but stern-face woman, a tight smile on her face.

"Of course Ma'am, and may I say it's a lovely institute you run." He replied after shaking her hand, his eyes wide with awe as he glanced about the place, where shadowhunters were milling around large monitors like bees in a hive.

She smiled properly, then, and turned slightly, gesturing to three younger shadowhunters, who looked around Ted's age.

"These are my children, Alec and Isabelle," she looked at the two dark-haired figures, "And this is Jace Wayland, he transferred here a few years ago, I imagine you'll get along just fine."

Ted exchanged handshakes with each of them, finding it a tad too formal, and their grips a tad too tense—it was fairly obvious the three of them didn't  trust him, although the girl, Isabelle, gave him an actual smile. Maryse clasped her hands together, and asked her kids to show Ted around, before sharply walking over to one of the men working on the screen, who the British boy recognised as Hodge Starkweather, the man with the circle rune on his neck; from what he was told, he was a good man, a tutor to the younger shadowhunters at the institute, but was bound to the premises to pay for his crimes.

"So uh, this is the Ops Centre, you report here for missions and updates, Izzy'll get you started on the software." Alec mentioned, snapping Ted out of his curious gaze.

"Sure, I'm kind of the smart one around here," she smirked, clearly revelling in the annoyed looks her brothers shot her, "Anyways, I wanna show you the weapons room, it's just down here and it's amazing."

"He's been inside an institute before, Iz."

"Not this one." She replied, opening the large double doors with a flourish. She strutted about the room comfortably, easily talking through the basics of the room, casting a longing look to the walls full of weapons, causing Ted to guess that she wanted to be Weapons Master; she looked like a kid at Christmas, though she couldn't be much younger than him.

"Onto the cafeteria, just down there—breakfast starts at 7, ends at 8, pretty much the same as each institute but the kitchens are open 24/7 if you miss it for a mission." The blond boy explained in an almost bored voice, before sauntering over to the infirmary and then the living quarters, where Ted was directed to his room, which was next door to the Lightwood girl's. He gave a curt smile, thanking the trio as the door gave a squeal upon being opened.

It was big, Ted noted, there was a four poster bed like in London, and a desk in the corner, with enough space on the walls for posters and shelves, as well as a walk in wardrobe that he'd find some other use for, seeing as though all he had were black tops, a nice shirt and jumpers—there was no way he'd need all that space.

He paused in his observations, and it was as though the box in his bag was searing a hole in his hand as he held it. He could practically recite half of the letters he'd had them for so long—his first day off was as good a time as any to talk to Magnus Bane.