It was a cold winters day when twelve-year-old Tessa, and fourteen-year-old Nate Grey arrived at the London Institute. But then again, almost every day was cold in London. The polite but quiet man that had delivered them to the Institute had dropped their luggage beside them, knocked on the massive front door, got back into the car and drove off without a word.

The door opened, and a small woman with thick, dark brown hair, brown eyes and a kind face appeared.

"Theresa and Nathaniel Grey, right?" she asked them. When they confirmed this, she said "Well come in, out of the cold then. You'll end up freezing to death"

They walked inside to see a corridor lit with witchlight on the walls and a chandelier in the middle. She led them into a room with a blazing fire. The lady turned to Tessa and Nate.

"Now then, that should heat you up. My name is Charlotte Branwell. Me and my husband, Henry, run the Institute. Will, Jem and Jessamine are the only other children here. Will can be quite the handful, but Jem manages to rein him in."

"And by 'handful', you really mean 'a complete and utter nuisance'" said a new, amused voice. It sounded British but with a faint trace of Chinese.

The voice belonged to a boy with dark brown hair and eyes. Both seemed to have a silvery tint. He was followed by a boy with hair as black as night and eyes the striking blue of a cloudless sky. Both were dressed in Shadowhunter gear. Both looked to be a little younger than Nate.

Blue-eyes looked towards brown-eyes with mock betrayal.

"I resent that! My ego is bruised."

"I think your ego will survive, Will"

Ahhh Tessa thought Blue-eyes is Will, so that must mean brown-eyes is-

"I'm James Carstairs. Most people just call me Jem though."

Brown-eyes-Jem- reached his hand out for Tessa to shake. She took it while telling him:

"I'm Tessa Gray, and," pointing towards Nate said, "this is my brother Nate."

He moved from Tessa to shake Nate's hand. They got into a quiet discussion about cars or whatever teenage boys chat about these days. Will walked over towards Tessa and reached out a hand. She took it.

"William Owen Herondale," he had a faint Welsh accent and his eyes seemed to sparkle with amusement and mischief. "I go by Will though"

"Where is Jessamine?" Charlotte asked suddenly

"Headache" replied Wil and Jem simultaneously, as if this was a normal occurrence, "well that's what she said anyway" Will continued with an amused glance towards Jem, "personally, I think she just didn't want to go to training"

"Yes well, I'll go check on her all the same." She left the room while yelling behind her "Give the Gray's a tour of the Institute."

"Well come along then," Will said, "We haven't got all day."


Will and Jem showed Tessa and Nate the numerous bedrooms, the glorious ballroom, the humongous library-which is where Tessa would most likely be spending majority of her time-, the lounging area, the dining room, the kitchen-where Will stole sweets for the lot of them- and finally the training room.

"Me and Will were about to train before you came, want to join?"

Tessa nodded her head in excitement.

They started off just joking and laughing while doing stretches. Of course, Will quickly got bored of this and wanted to start sparring. Tessa offered to spar with him.

"You're half the size of me. I'll take you down in half a minute" Will argued.

"Don't underestimate Tessa, Will." Nate warned. "She's one of the best Shadowhunters in New York."

"Alright then, come on"

Will-rather reluctantly-led the group to the sparing ring. Will and Tessa each grabbed a training blade while Jem and Nate stood to the side. Will got into the fighting stance, and Tessa followed.

"Last chance to back out" Will said cockily.

Tessa just smiled and raised her blade. Will brought his blade down to meet hers. And the chase was on. It was an endless game of cat-and-mouse. Both as good as each other. Neither wiling to let the other win. When Will feinted Tessa was there to block him. When Tessa slashed at Will's chest, he was there to parry her. Eventually Tessa managed to duck between Will's legs and kick them out from behind him. He landed with a thud on the floor. Tessa kicked his blade away and held hers to his throat.

"Lesson one of training" Tessa said while panting slightly, "Never, under any circumstance, underestimate your opponent."

Will just looked her with complete and utter astonishment. She removed the blade from his throat and reached down a hand to help him up. He grasped it gratefully and hauled himself to his feet.

"Holy shit!"

Will and Tessa turned towards Jem and Nate. Jem looked as shocked as Will was. Nate just looked proud of his younger sister.

"How did you do that?" asked Jem, still completely and utterly shocked out of his mind. "No one has ever beaten Will before."

Tessa just smiled, "Well now someone has."


There was a storm that night. Tessa could never sleep in stormy weather. She hadn't a clue why, she just couldn't. When she was younger, she'd try and try and try again, she was given sleeping potion after sleeping potion, but nothing had ever seemed to work. After a while she gave up trying.

She walked downstairs to get a drink. She opened the door of the kitchen, only to walk into another wall. A wall that grunted. The wall reached over to the light switch and flicked it. The kitchen flooded with light. Tessa looked up to see Will blinking sleepily down at her.

"What are you doing up?" Tessa asked.

"Can't sleep" he murmured.

Tessa looked up, into his eyes. They were half closed. Will himself looked like he was about to collapse from exhaustion.

"Will," Tessa said, "you're obviously exhausted. C'mon, I'll take you up to bed."

He shook his head.

"Why not? You look as if you're about to just drop to the floor and pass out."

He just sighed exasperatedly and ran his fingers through his hair. Even that action seemed tired.

"Well then, if you're not going to go to sleep, you can keep me entertained."

She reached out to grab his wrist, but the moment they made contact, he flinched and yanked his hand away.

Will mumbled an apology, saying something about how he was jumpy this during storms. Tessa knew he was only telling her half the truth but didn't press him. He obviously didn't want to talk about it, and she wasn't about to force him into talking to her. After all Tessa thought We haven't even known each other a day.

Tessa led Will to her room, only barely managing to find it in the maze of corridors. Will followed silently behind her. When they reached her room, Tessa beckoned him inside. She sat on one side of her bed, leaning against the headboard. She patted the space next to her, signalling to Will to sit down. He sat down next to her and mimicked her position.

"Why are you awake?" he asked her suddenly.

Tessa shrugged her shoulders and said, "I've never been able to sleep during a storm. Don't know what it is that keeps me awake but I'm never tired the day after either. Not until I actually, go to sleep. Then I pass out. What about you?" when Will opened his mouth Tessa quickly said, "And don't give me any of that, 'I can't sleep' bullshit. I saw you in the kitchen, you looked about ready to fall asleep on the kitchen floor. You still do. I can tell you're struggling to keep your eyes open."

Will looked at Tessa for a long moment. Finally, he said, in hushed voice-almost as if he was ashamed of it- "Nightmares". He looks down, embarrassed. She reached over and grabbed his hand slowly, so that he wouldn't jump. She gave it a gentle squeeze. He looked up and locked eyes with her. He smiled sleepily, but genuine. Tessa knew the only way to get him to sleep was to distract him. They chatted about nothing and everything. When Tessa asked about his parents, Will's face grew very dark.

"My parents are assholes." He said simply.

"What about siblings? Have you got any?"

"One sister," He said, "I used to have two, but she was murdered during the winter"

"I'm sorry, Will,"

"Don't be. You didn't kill her," He spoke bitterly "After all, I would know. He made me watch"


The flashbacks were coming full-force now. There was nothing Will could do to stop them. He squeezed his eyes shut. He could feel Tessa beside him, holding his hand, whispering reassuringly to him, but it was like he was watching them. Watching like a spectator from the stands of a football game. He felt like this was happening to someone else, but not him.

And then suddenly he wasn't there. He was a seven years old boy in Wales, Cadair Idris to be exact. He was on the floor of the living room. His deadbeat father was hitting him, punching him, kicking him. Hurting him wherever he could.

Distantly he could hear Tessa asking him if he was okay. So, he told her. He told her exactly what was going on inside his head.

He told her about the countless hours of beatings that him and Ella had to go through to protect Cecy. How he used to be a good father, until he lost the manor in a poker match. How he'd spend hours upon hours at the local pub trying to win back their money and only succeeding in losing more of it. How his mother had to work double shifts until she got fired from work and eventually got caught up in the alcohol as well. The more his father lost, the more he got angry. The more he got angry, the more scars he'd give his children. The more scars he gave, the more he'd go to the local pub to drown out his sorrows and gamble away more of his money.

And then one day he came home. He was different. More sober than usual. Not completely wasted. Will and Ella had hoped this meant a change. Maybe, for once, he'd won something? But no. That wasn't why he was sober. It was because he'd had a task to compete. He'd somehow gotten it into his head that it was Cecily's fault he never one anymore. He had claimed that "he had always won before she was born".

All the children were sleeping and so was his wife. He had snuck out of bed and grabbed a dagger. He had crept into Cecy's room, but she was awake. She saw him lift the dagger and had screamed. Hearing the commotion, Will and Ella- their mother was still passed out from all the alcohol-had sprinted into their younger sibling's room. Their father was bringing the blade down. Will and Ella had sprinted towards him, but Ella had gotten there first and had shoved him off Cecily.

The next morning, Will had woken up, only to be knocked out again. He had woken up for the second time that day sitting on the armchair in the living room. Cecily was curled up in a ball, crying into his shoulder. He had immediately wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer. He had looked over her shoulder to see Ella tied to the wall and their father beating her senseless and yelling profanities at her. Will had tried to get up to help her but his legs were bound by a rune. He had been stuck there, holding his little sister as tears streamed down both their faces.

Eventually their father took a knife to put Ella out of her misery. He hadn't made it quick. He had made it gruesome and horrible. Will hadn't wanted to watch so he buried his face into Cecily's hair, trying to block out the sounds of one sister's sobs and the other's screams.

Eventually the screams had stopped. Will had looked up from Cecily's hair and had immediately wished he hadn't. He had felt like running to bathroom and vomiting, the image was that gruesome. Ella was still hanging from the wall but now she was a mess. Blood had been dripping from her mouth and pouring from a gaping hole in her chest. There had been a puddle of it on the floor at her feet. The dress she'd worn was one of her favourites. What had used to be a simple blue knee-length dress was now in tatters and a horrid red colour. She had been pale and her eyes. Eyes that would haunt Will for the rest of his life Eyes that had once been a bright blue, full of life, were now pale and dead. That had been when the realisation had set in. She had died. Will's older sister had died. And it was only then that he had distantly realised, thunder had been shaking the house and lightening had been lighting the room.


Tessa had held him as he'd recounted the story of his childhood to her. He'd never been more grateful though, as she'd wiped his cheeks free of tears that he hadn't even realised he'd been shedding. She'd held him all through the storm, as sobs wracked his body until they were just quiet little things. She held him as he fell asleep in her arms. And for once, Will fell into a dreamless sleep during a storm.


Something passed between the two that night. As twelve-year-old Tessa Gray held thirteen-year-old Will Herondale in her arms, she realised she didn't want to be anywhere else. She wanted to comfort the black-haired boy. And, as Will was held by Tessa, he realised that he wouldn't want to be in anyone else's arms.

From that day onwards, the duo was inseparable. In a storm, Will always came to Tessa's room for comfort, and Tessa was always awake. She soon found that she could sleep during storms, but only if Will was with her. They both needed each other. And neither was ready to give the other up. The two were the best of friends, and always would be.


This is my first Fanfiction so please please please review. It would be greatly appreciated. Critism is welcome.