1. His glasses fall down his nose as he alternately scowls or squints at the painting, and more than once he smudges them with paint and he pushes them back up. Were the painting perched on an easel in front of him, rather than in his sketchbook below, he would regard it only with that intense concentration Emma has seen. The once she often wonders if she has herself when training.

His hand, long-fingered and callused, making short smooth lines in a multitude of colours. The pigments on the canvas seemed to pale to the vividness of his eyes.

Even his rendering of the ocean could not battle his eyes.

Emma wondered what exactly made him the perfect choice for her parabatai.

There were other friends for Emma to have. She could have grown up knowing only Christina. There were other artists; California was full of contemporary artists. There were other boys, at least, according to Emma.

But they did not have his quiet smile. His ability to be silent without being despondent. His tolerance for her mercurial temper. His graceful bearing, even with his height and lanky build Julian must have felt her looking, for he glanced up from his painting and flashes her a crooked smile. In that moment, Emma hated the Shadowhunter Law.

2. Emma tries not to let it happen too often. But she has a tendency to be bored when she has gone too long without fighting, and she can't help but imagine other types of physical contact.

It can begin innocently; their legs tangling on the bed, like they have done since they were children, yet it ends with trembling and broken voices and caresses between breaths.

She imagines lips on cheeks, discarded fabric, fingernails raking shoulder blades.

She images them in the dark night, beneath stars, or trying desperately to stay quiet in his room. Sometimes it is simpler: they stand in the bronze autumn light, in the park, close enough together to keep warm, and she draws her hand up the nape of his neck and tugs him down (because he's still taller than her, and it may always annoy her) so she doesn't have to stay on her toes. Though the moment their lips meet her toes seem unimportant, and it doesn't matter whether she stands on their tips or not.

Julian has to shake her shoulders, often very vigorously, to retrieve her from these fantasies, and to the present moment. When he tilts his head in question, she can only hope he doesn't notice the roughness of her voice as she evades answering with anything other than sarcasm.

3. These moments are fleeting. So she will grasp them with both hands and hold them to her chest. The darkness of her parents' death took permanent residence in her heart, like dust in corners that blows into her face with every harsh gust of wind. There is no reprieve to the absence, to the expectation that they will be there when she wakes or sleeps. It has been years and yet the habit of waiting for them before she finally drifts off sometimes disturbs her sleep patterns.

She does not mention these things to Julian, whether for his sake (he worries about her too much, in her opinion), or for hers (why feel this way more often than she must?), she cannot tell. Yet Julian seems to know. If he does not know the reason for her quiet despondency, it does not matter. He is by her side, distracting her, drawing her attention to his paintings, or coaxing her to spar, without request. He gives no indication of sensing her turmoil, only his constant presence, and his closeness. She could not negotiate the feelings away, if it meant losing these precious times with Julian. Alone, together, when she does not have to voice what she is so accustomed to keeping down, and is understood anyway. These moments are fleeting, and completely worth it.

Were she to demand Julian to arm her, and were he to give her the crossbow she has had for years, she would push it aside and take his hand in hers instead. Were he to ask what she is doing, remind her, "You asked me to arm you," she would reply, "You just did."

A/N: I will now be taking requests for oneshots set in ANY Shadowhunter series (The Mortal Instruments, The Infernal Devices, & The Dark Artifices). Just PM or send me a review with characters and prompts.

Thanks for reading!