"They're going to be here soon," Ty said, sounding agitated.

His hands were working quickly at his sides and he was rocking from the heels to the balls of his feet. Kit, sat on Ty's bed, watching, stood up and stepped before him. Ty took a deep breath and Kit smiled.

"You know it makes me feel even shorter when you stand on your toes like that, right?" he joked.

Ty smiled a little and Kit reached over to take Ty's hands in his, rubbing his cool, pale fingers firmly. Ty breathed out, and Kit touched his shoulder softly. A single curl stuck out from Tiberius's well-smoothed hair (courtesy of Livvy).

"May I?" Kit asked, and Ty nodded, allowing Kit to reach up and carefully tuck the wisp of hair behind the boy's ear. "Perfect," he said, and Ty blushed. The pink drained quickly from his face when he saw the time on his phone.

"They're going to be here soon," he repeated anxiously.

He caught Kit's eye and Kit could see the fear behind the grey irises. Kit was reminded – as he so often was when being granted the pleasure of looking Ty in the eye – of the time when Kit had run away on the beach for fear that Ty would know he was crying. For a while after that, the privilege of being one of the few people Ty would properly looked at had been revoked, and Kit had been furious with himself for ruining something that fragile and special. Even then, he'd wondered how much worse the Institute would've been without the respite of Ty's grey eyes. Of course, he'd earned that trust back, slowly but surely, but he was ever careful now not to take it for granted.

"I'm scared," Ty admitted, and Kit shook his head.

"You don't need to be. You've done the hard bit. You found the demon, did the research, went on an interstate trip to find the only book with the information you needed on it. This is the easy part now," Kit assured him. "Now you just need to go out there and show up some Clave members by being way smarter than them at half their age. And," he added firmly. "Make those Scholomance assholes sorry they ever doubted you."

From downstairs, the doorbell rang, and Kit gave Ty a reassuring nod.

"Knock 'em dead," Kit said, then amended himself quickly. "I mean, go and do an amazing job."

Ty nodded and let Kit give him a quick and encouraging kiss on the cheek. As he did, Mark opened the door, making the boys draw swiftly and embarrassedly apart. Ty spun and slipped past his older brother quickly. Mark gave Kit an amused sideways look before beckoning the boy after him.

"It wasn't…" Kit began.

"Jia Penhallow is here. And," Mark added excitedly. "So are Helen and Aline."

"No way!" Kit exclaimed. He'd heard so much about the couple, though he'd never met them because of their exile. He was hugely excited to meet them, though evidently not as much as Mark, who hurried off down the hall, Kit close behind. He could still feel his cheeks burning, and he was unbelievably grateful Mark hadn't made a fuss. Thankfully, the eldest Blackthorn child was here with her wife, their unannounced arrival creating quite the convenient distraction.

All the Blackthorns were swarming Helen in a huge crowd of love and smothering affection. Kit held back uncomfortably. Even Emma was joining in the crush of happiness. He glanced at the other unfamiliar girl, who he assumed to be Aline, Helen's wife. She walked over to him and stuck a hand out.

"You're Kit, I assume?" she asked. His eyes widened, and she grinned. "Julian sends us letters and keeps us updated."

"Oh…um…" Kit said in discomfort. "What kind of things has he told you?"

"All good stuff," Aline assured him. "We know you're related to Jace, that you and the kids go to the library and train together, that you're really close with Ty." Before Kit could give an awkward laugh, she continued. "And, of course, that you're Livia's parabatai. Congratulations on that, by the way."

Kit smiled. "Thank you."

As he said so, Helen turned and drew him into a warm and familiar hug. Kit was slightly taken aback and stumbled a little as he put his arms around Helen. She smelled of coconut shampoo and old books. The latter reminded him of Ty; the former of Livvy. When she drew back, she was beaming.

"Christopher Herondale," she breathed. "Every time we think the Herondale line ends, another branch of it pops out of nowhere."

"Kit," Julian corrected from over her shoulder. "He prefers Kit."

"Kit," Helen amended. "You're a lucky kid getting to be my Livvy's parabatai."

"Helen," Livvy blushed, grabbing her around the waist and Helen bent down, kissing her little sister's cheek. It was like she was still ten, like she had been when Helen had left.

"We need to go," Ty said anxiously. "Where's Jia?"

"They're all in the dining room," Emma said, attempting to prise Tavvy away from his big sister. He hardly knew her, but the others' radiating love was clearly contagious, because he clung to her like a koala. Ty froze. The dining hall. They never used the dining hall except for when important meetings happened in their Institute – which was about once every two of three years. And besides…

"All?" Ty repeated shakily.

"Turns out a lot of people are interested in the discovery of a new demon," Emma said. "Especially when it's the first time it's happened in 60 years."

Ty had paled to a peculiar grey-white, like ivory. "How many people?"

Mark and Helen exchanged a look and she nodded.

"150, give or take?" Mark estimated.

Ty looked nauseous. "I don't feel good," he said quietly. Livvy put a hand out to steady him on his shaky legs.

"You'll do great. I can stand with you if you like. Just look at Kit, yeah? Or read from your notes. They're here to hear what you have to say."

"Exactly," Julian said, putting a comforting hand on Ty's arm. "If you need a minute to calm down, that's okay." Ty tugged at Julian's arm and pulled him to the side. "Kit, Livvy, you stay with me and Ty," Julian said calmly. "We'll meet the rest of you in the dining hall in a moment."

The others disappeared out of the room and Julian beckoned Ty over to a sofa, which he sunk onto gratefully. His knees were shaking. Livvy perched on the arm of the chair and Kit stood flanking him on the opposite side, one hand stroking idle circles near the top of Ty's back.

"Right, I know you don't like crowds but there's something else going on. What is it?" Julian asked.

"They don't like me," Ty said quietly. "I'm scared that they won't take me seriously."

"And why wouldn't they?"

"I'm different," Ty said softly. "I'm autistic. They don't like different."

Julian nodded and took Ty's hands in his own ones, which had paint under the nails. "Tiberius, I promise I am telling you the truth, not just trying to make you feel better; I genuinely believe this is the moment you have to worry about that the very least."

"Why?" Ty whispered.

"Because you are in control now," Julian said, squeezing his hands firmly. "I've always helped you to blend in when you were in front of the Clave because they were the ones with the power. But you are who they came to talk to. If you don't want to, you don't have to give them your research. It's them who need to be on their best behaviour, not you. Ty, you can be exactly yourself. You don't need to change for the Clave."

"Like Helen and Aline. Right, Julian?" Livvy put in.

Julian nodded. "Exactly."

Kit looked at Ty. Ty liked control, liked a plan. That was the problem, that he couldn't control what was about to happen in that meeting. There was the solution, Kit realised: they needed to give Ty back control. He understood now why Ty liked solving things so much. There was a sense of satisfaction that came with pitching his solution.

"We need a code," Kit proposed. "If you feel like you're starting to panic, Tibs, or you need to leave or can't think of what to say, you can give us a sign. Then we'll know to help."

"What kind of sign?" Ty asked curiously.

"How about if you drum your fingers, we'll know there's a problem," Kit suggested. Ty nodded.

"That sounds good," he said, and Ty took Kit's hand and squeezed it quickly as they walked out of the room, Livvy and Julian just ahead of them. As they entered the room, hands no longer in one another's, Kit saw why Ty was so anxious. Every seat had a council member in, every wall was lined with shadowhunters. He gave Ty a concerned glance and froze. The Ty from the drawing room was gone, replaced by a boy who looked professional and grown up, in a shirt and sweater. His jaw was set firm and he had a certain air about him that Kit recognised. He was playing a character, Kit realised in fond awe at Ty's eclectic coping strategies. He was pretending to be Sherlock Holmes, who always had the answers, who was never scared. Kit stepped back with the rest of Ty's family as Tiberius took to the only empty seat, at the head of the table.

The table was set for a meeting and Ty took his seat when the collected confidence of his beloved detective. It would be okay. Julian had left his younger brother a glass of water to the right of his place at the table and had stacked his files into alphabetical order – which Livvy had then reshuffled into chronological order, which she knew her twin vastly preferred. He shot a troubled look to Kit, who motioned for him to open the first folder. Ty did so. Inside, on a pale blue index card, was a quote scribbled in Kit's handwriting;

'"What one man can invent, another can discover." – Kit.'

Ty looked up and saw Kit gave him an encouraging nod. It would be okay. He swallowed hard, channelled his inner Holmes, and began to speak.

"I trust you're all here to hear about my research into a newly discovered demon. My proposed agenda for the meeting is threefold; I will present you with an abstract and outline to my research. I will take any questions. Then, lastly, I'll decide who to delegate my research to, who I want on my team," Ty announced. He paused to wait for any protests. When none came, he proceeded. Ty drew out his copy of the Clave report on the demon attack from the day Kit and Ty met the demon for the first time. "We first encountered the demon at hand in a nearby beach cave. It had killed a mundane. From a strategic battle plan, accompanied by Kit Herondale," he added, casting a quick smile at Kit. "We established that the creature was photophobic.

"It disappeared with a high-pitched scream and an explosion of ichor. Though it was made of smoke, it was clearly at least semi-corporeal. It was able to cut Kit in the arm and knocked him out. Due to this effect, I would assume the demon possessed a venom or poison that had some kind of syncopal properties. So, by the end of this mission, that was all the information we had on the demon. It didn't fit the description of any creature in the encyclopaedia daemonica . Thus, we seemed to be at a dead end.

"Academic research led me to a Japanese text called Konjaku Hyanki Shūi," Ty continued. "Which I found in New York with the help of Alec Lightwood and Magnus Bane." He glanced up and Alec gave him an encouraging smile from the back of the room. "From that, I found out that the demon is an Enenra, a Japanese demon that, as far as I can tell, has never been spotted outside of its native continent of Asia. It hasn't been documented in our official Nephilim texts in any capacity. Until now that is."

"This is an immense volume of information to take in, Tiberius," the consul, Jia Penhallow, put in. Ty nodded. He knew Jia; talking to her was okay. She was Helen's mother-in-law. He counted the pins on the breast of her red Consul's robes to calm himself before he replied.

"I know. I would hope that if my work is published, any shadowhunter can study these findings at their own pace and apply their own individual knowledge to it in order to further develop the theory I propose."

"The question still stands, Tiberius," a familiar voice put in. Ty looked up and froze. Adelaide Cartwright. The head of the Scholomance. The last time he'd seen her had been in his failed interview, when she'd said they were looking for someone 'more normal'. His heart dropped and then sped up at the memory. "Where do you wish to delegate your research? I assume," she added. "It would be to the Scholomance."

Ty looked lost, panicked, and Kit cast him a quick glance and nodded in earnest encouragement. He mouthed something that took Ty a couple of moments to understand: 'Holmes'. Be Holmes, he realised Kit meant. What would he do? Ty took a deep breath and spoke again.

"And why would you assume that?"

The intake of breath that seemed to have been drawn by the room as a whole was audible. Ty didn't mind. It wasn't like he was going to be a centurion now anyway. That was no longer a realisation that hurt. He kind of felt like he'd avoided something that could've been terrible. As Kit would say, he'd dodged a bullet.

"Well," Adelaide proceeded after a moment of reeling in shock. "We have the elite of the Nephilim's greatest scholars, the most extensive library the shadow world has to offer, and we have published the largest volume of texts that are now staple texts in every institute worldwide."

Ty nodded in agreement. "Exactly. It's elitist. I don't want a research team with such an obvious bias."

He heard Dru smother a laugh from somewhere near the door. The centurions look scandalised. Eventually, Adelaide spoke up.

"I assume this is because you weren't accepted into the program."

Ty glanced across and saw Livvy, Kit, Emma, and Jules all looking as if they were on the verge of leaping up to kill the woman. Ty, however, was composed. He wasn't Ty Blackthorn; he was Sherlock Holmes, consulting detective, and nothing could shake his calm. As long as he remembered that, it would be okay.

"You assume a lot of things," Ty pointed out. "And you're correct that this does have something to do with my interview. You said you wanted scholars who were 'more normal' than me. I can't hand my research over to you now. It was discovered by someone who didn't fit your ideals of normal, so I don't trust that your scholars are lateral-minded enough to see the solutions that might not be immediately obvious."

"The Clave then," Jia said, and put her hand out for his notes. He put a hand over his work protectively, shaking his head firmly.

"I don't want to give the Clave sovereignty over my research either. They're no better. The progress of the Clave in diversifying its board is too slow. This demon is risking lives right now; we don't have time to waste waiting for the Clave to revise their views."

This time, Ty wasn't even sure anyone sucked in a breath in horror. Everyone just looked at Jia, who was suppressing a smile.

"What would you have done with your research, Tiberius?" she asked.

"I want to head the research team."

"He's only sixteen!" someone from the Council protested angrily.

"And I was fifteen when I found the demon," Ty said, wincing a little at the noise of the room's hubbub. "I'm not concerned my age will inhibit me in doing what I need to in order to investigate and document this creature."

"This is ridiculous!" said Horace Dearborn, deep voice gruff and rumbling throughout the room. "We cannot leave the investigation of something this important to a child, let alone one like that."

"Like what?" Emma snapped. Julian had paled angrily but he put a hand out to stop her standing. Livvy cast Ty a look. He looked composed, but she could see the stain of red spreading across his cheekbones like a drop of dye soaking into white cloth. She didn't know whether it was a flush of anger or embarrassment.

"Like me," Ty answered, quiet voice determined and hard. He turned to Horace. "Well, make your objections. We don't have time to sit around while you edge around what it is you want to say."

"Weird," Dearborn spat. "We cannot leave this job in the hands of a child, let alone one who is no more of a shadowhunter than the chair he sits on."

"That's enough!" Robert Lightwood snapped.

Ty took a shaky breath. His chest hurt. This was why Julian had kept their family in the shadows for so long; they had too many secrets that the rest of the Nephilim world could never understand. His stomach was churning. He felt sick and ashamed and indignant. The pressure of the whole room's gaze was boring into him like lasers, burning at his skin. He writhed uncomfortably. Alec, leaning against one of the far corners of the table, looked devastated and furious in equal measure. He was glaring at Dearborn like he could kill the man with the ferocity of his eye contact. Dearborn, surrounded by his fellow Cohort members, looked smug. That was what hurt, Ty thought. Dearborn was just a single leaf on a tree of ignorance. Every Cohort member, every person who believed people like Ty couldn't be the heroes, every mundane who perpetuated rumours about vaccines and cures and therapies, they were all leaves. But then there were people like Kit, like Emma and his family, who saw Ty as just Ty. They were like termites. Eventually, the tree would come down, and the leaves would perish, and the termites would survive. One termite might not be enough to bring down a tree with such deep roots, such ingrained ignorance, but 100? 1000? Ty closed his eyes and thought of termites. Subterranean termites were found in every state except Alaska. They worked for 24 hours a day and never slept. They –

"Ty," Julian said gently. Ty glanced up. The room was waiting.

"I want to head the research team," Ty repeated, fingers knotted in his lap. They were shaking, itching to move. He uncurled his hands and let them bounce against his knees. That felt better. His mind felt quieter now, the noise of the crowd diminuendoing to something closer to bearable. "I want to head the research team and I want to choose my researchers from the Shadowhunter Academy."

"You want to choose shadowhunters who haven't even finished formal training yet?" Jia asked.

"What better way to prepare them than with some hands-on work?" Robert pointed out. "Besides, he'll be the same age as many of them. They might respond well to a shadowhunter their own age."

"I don't want them from the elite stream. I want to scout the dregs," Ty said stubbornly. "I want those shadowhunters."

"Oh great, a whole team of second-rate shadowhunters," a Cohort member commented. "It's like the blind leading the blind, for Angel's sake."

"I'm failing to see the problem here," Alec said shortly. The words exploded out of him like he'd been holding them back, like a coiled spring building up pressure. His pale cheeks were aflame with anger. "He wants to take all of the shadowhunters you couldn't care less about off your hands. What's the issue? You can't pretend to care about the shadowhunters in the dregs program now when you've never given them a second glance before."

"Furthermore," Ty continued, ready to conclude before another argument could break out. "I would like to work with the Japanese shadowhunters. The enenra is a Japanese demon and they're far more likely to know about it than me. That is all."

Robert and Jia exchanged a look.

"That all seems perfectly doable," Jia said, nodding. "I'm more than happy to authorise that."

"As am I," Robert agreed.

The majority of the Cohort replied loudly. A few centurions looked disgruntled. Even a couple of shadowhunters Ty had never met looked uneasy. He couldn't help thinking they were protesting to him rather than his ideas. Were they really not happy with his research propositions or was it something more fundamental about him that they didn't like? They didn't trust him to do as good a job as someone else. Clary had been 16 when she'd taken down Valentine. Shadowhunters younger than Ty went out on missions. But there was something they all had in common with each other that Ty couldn't relate to; they were all neurotypical.

"Tiberius has answered all of your concerns with expertise, confidence in his knowledge, and politeness," Robert countered to the crowd.

"Which is more than you've offered him," Jia added. She turned to Ty. "We'll organise your transport to Idris and Japan to recruit your researchers. Thank you for your valuable assistance to the Clave."

Ty stood up and tilted his chin defiantly.

"Thank you, Consul," he said, and left the room. He knew people would speak about him now the verdict had been reached and he didn't want to stick around to hear what their opinions of him were. He could hazard a guess.

Kit was itching to leave. He and Livvy both flicked their gazed toward the door after Ty when he left, but Julian gestured for them to stay where they were. Like the slowest trickle of treacle, the shadowhunters began to leave, many muttering unhappily. A few though, Kit noted, looked strangely glassy-eyed. One of these few came up to Julian when the room was almost entirely thinned out. She said something softly to him, glancing behind her nervously. He nodded, spoke back, though Kit couldn't read his lips to understand what he said. When only there were only a handful of people were left, Livvy turned to Julian.
"What was that about?" she asked.
"He...he said that his daughter was like Ty," Julian said, sounding shell-shocked. "He said it was nice seeing someone like his daughter being such an influence in shadowhunter society when they'd felt like they'd always have to keep her away from Clave activity."
"Ty will be so happy," Emma smiled, resting her arms on Julian's shoulders, leaning on him from behind.
"He'll want to meet her, knowing Ty," Livvy grinned. "That's...amazing. There are other shadowhunters like Ty then?"
"Apparently so," Julian nodded. He cast a glance at Kit, who was hardly listening. His foot was tapping impatiently, gaze fixed on the door. Julian tapped his shoulder gently and Kit turned in surprise. He'd almost forgotten everyone else was there.
"Go on," Julian said, and Kit was throwing the door open before the second word was out of his mouth, sliding out into the hall and skidding to a stop at the fork of the corridors. Where would Ty be?
"Drawing room!" Livvy called and Kit mouthed a 'thank you' before he set off running. His heart was pounding and by the time he reached the room, he could feel his breath coming in gasps with eagerness. He yanked the door open and Ty, sat on the sofa, yelped in surprise before Kit had taken Ty's face in his hands.
"You were amazing," he said, kissing the other boy, knees braced on the sofa cushion either side of Ty's hips.
"Kit, the Clave is here and-"
Kit sat back, nodding. "And your family. Shall I stop?"
"No," Ty said, pulling Kit back toward him by his jacket. "Stay here. Just for a second. I feel like I have too much adrenaline after that meeting. Stay."
Kit obliged silently, kissing Ty back frenetically. It was always like this. Every second felt precious, every moment they were away from the eyes of siblings or friends a sweet beacon of opportunity. Admittedly, not every time was like this. Their kisses were usually chaste; pecks of lips on lips, lips on cheeks, lips on forehead. But today was deserving of the kisses Kit wanted to be their norm, long and full of things Kit didn't know how to say out loud;
I'm proud of you
You're so intelligent
I love you
I love you
"I love you," Kit said softly and Ty nodded against his head.
"I love you too," he said, and brought his lips back to Kit's. He wasn't sure quite what it was, but he couldn't have adored Ty more than he did in that moment. He was never usually like this, so clingy and cloying. But he was awed by this boy, and so completely smitten. Kit's entire life he'd been taught to hide his emotions, that it was safer to be stoic and cold than risk seeming weak or having your feelings go unrequited. He was sick of all that. Kit relaxed back, settling himself on Ty's lap, hands holding Ty's head steady as he brought his lips along the boy's cheekbone then down along his sharp jawline.

"I called it!"
The two of them broke apart, Ty's hand shooting out to grab Kit before he fell backward onto the floor.
"Oh your money is mine, Mark," Dru smirked.
"I may or may not have had a slight tip off that I could be on the losing side of this wager earlier," Mark commented and Kit glanced at Ty, whose gaze was fixed in firm horror over Kit's shoulder. Kit turned and shifted himself quickly from Ty's knee and onto the sofa beside him. The Blackthorns looked more amused than scandalised - which Kit should've expected. Helen, though smiling widely and genuinely, looked vaguely nostalgic for the Ty she'd left behind so many years ago. Magnus and Alec, lingering to congratulate Ty on his meeting, exchanged a quick and knowing glance that seemed to say 'remember that?'. They both slipped away silently, and Kit was fairly certain he was the only one who saw them go. He glanced at Ty, who was flushed pink from his neck to the tips of his ears. He shot a glance at Livvy, who was grinning like the Cheshire Cat. He narrowed his gaze, glaring at her, and her smile only widened.
"So...are we going to talk about this or...?" Dru asked. "Like, we did all just see that, right? Are we all just ignoring-?"
"So, um, what did the Clave say?" Ty said, sounding more composed than he looked.
"They...they were very impressed," Julian nodded, a wry smile tugging at his lips. This was for a later discussion, he'd decided. The last thing Ty - or Kit, for that matter - needed now was an interrogation. "They're more than happy to approve your research."
"That's good to hear," Ty nodded and stood up. "Okay, then I'm going to go and prepare for the meeting with the Academy."
"What, no time for family dinner?" Emma asked, sounding amused.
"Call me when it's ready," Ty called back, and disappeared upstairs. The second the sound of Ty's door shutting came from upstairs, Livvy burst out laughing. She wiggled her eyebrows at her parabatai and he shook his head bemusedly.
"Help me wash the vegetables for dinner, casanova" Livvy said, beckoning Kit after her. "Kitsanova."
"I do not approve of that pun, nor do I consent to my name being used in such a terrible instance of wordplay," Kit said, following after her. He tried to ignore the explosion of conversation that punctuated their exit. That was a problem for another time. Maybe not a problem, he reminded himself. Everything was out in the open now, he thought, and heaved a sigh that felt like the first exhale in years.