A/N I don't own The Infernal Devices or any of its characters, but I wish I did!

Ten-year-old James Herondale chased his five-year-old sister, Lucie, around the library of the London Institute.

"Jamie!" Lucie squealed, battling with her skirts. "Stop! You win!"

"Did you just surrender, Luce?" Their father, Will, called out from the armchair near them where he lounged, reading. "You can't surrender in a battle! What if Jamie were a demon?"

The young girl stopped in her tracks. "If Jamie were a demon," she raised her voice, "I'd have killed him by now!" She then proceeded to reach up and poke her brother's shoulder. He feigned hurt.

Their mother, Tessa, walked in at Lucie's proclamation of killing her brother. She looked accusingly at Will, who was trying, but failing, to stifle a laugh. "What can I say, Tess? They're Herondales!" He pecked his wife on the cheek as he stood up. "Who wants to bake some cookies?"

Tessa, James and Lucie proceeded to follow Will into the kitchen, where he ran them through his not-so-innocent plan. He intended to mix in some faerie leaves with the batter and give the cookies to Gabriel Lightwood, his sister's husband with whom he'd had a lifetime of conflict. Will knew the leaves would do something... just not what. Hopefully it was embarrassing.

"You really think this is going to work, Dad?" James questioned, helping his sister search a low cupboard for a sizeable container to store the revenge cookies in.

Will removed them from the oven wearing very feminine oven mitts with little hearts on them. They were a wedding gift from his sister, Cecily, who obviously shared in his sense of humour. When she gave them to him, she demanded that he wear them as frequently as possible as they, in her words, brought out the colour of his eyes. At the time he vainly accepted it as a compliment, until Tessa had to explain how Cecily wasn't serious (however withheld her thought that the pink did indeed suit him.) Now, he saw his son eyeing them suspiciously. "What?! They're Tess'," he lied.

"No they're not," Tessa countered, helping him get the tray out. "Will, do you really think this is the rational way to settle an argument? What if it doesn't go how you think? I mean, you could easily-"

"Yes," Will cut her off, "this is indeed the only way it should be done. Plus, it's not an argument. It's the argument."

Tessa shook her head resignedly. Sometimes it was easier to agree with Will than to trouble herself with trying to understand him, she had learnt.

Gabriel Lightwood had just returned to the Institute from a nice day out with his wife, Cecily; their twelve-year-old daughter, Anna; and their nine-year-old son, Christopher. Upon entry, he could smell a delightful vanilla aroma wafting from the kitchen. He looked to his daughter. "Race you to the kitchen!"

Lucie heard the Lightwood speaking and alerted her family. "He's coming! Quick, Dad, hide the leaves!"

Will swiftly dusted the faerie leaves into his palm and threw them into the bin, closing the lid as to not get found out. "Gabriel," he not-so-warmly greeted the other man. Tessa nudged him with her hip, trying to make him be polite to his brother-in-law.

"William," Gabriel responded, matching Will's cool tone, "you've been baking." He (rudely, as Tessa noted,) proceeded to reach forward and take a cookie from the plate. Lucie beamed excitedly at her brother, who shot her a coded glance, don't make it too obvious! She nodded in understanding.

The cookie, as Gabriel noted, seemed to not just taste of vanilla and sugar as he'd initially thought, but also like a herb or something of the like. He felt odd after that, because he looked at Will without wanting to throw a seraph blade at him. Could it possibly be that he liked Will now? Had he grown to like him without noticing? Weird.

"Something wrong, Lightwood?" Will asked, trying with all his might not to smile. He could feel Tessa giggling behind him, busying herself and the children with cleaning the dishes.

Gabriel looked up at Will, actually smiling. "Actually, this is going to sound strange, but" - Will felt triumphant: the cookies must have had an effect and Gabriel was surely about to embarrass himself - "I think I like you now. Do you want to train together? We've been family for years now and we've barely done any bonding. We're both brilliant shadowhunters, let's go show those demons all of our skills!" His smile was sickly enthusiastic.

Will looked as if he were about to vomit. He looked to Tessa, whose triumphant smile had I told you so written on it ten times over. He shook his head in frustration. It was going to be a long day until the leaves wore off.