After breaking the ice and melting away the last remaining chunks of shyness and awkwardness, they couldn't keep their hands off each other. Every little thing, whether it was a fleeting touch or an unrestrained kiss, gave them the excuse they desperately needed to pull each other's clothes off and lose themselves in the throes of passion. Eva was slowly starting to understand why people lose their minds over this, because she was starting to think it was happening to her. His touch was exhilarating; it sent bolts through her body like the adrenaline she feels in a fight. She lived for catching him off guard because it forced him to take deep breaths and sigh against her. In return, he reveled in making her a trembling mess, worshipping her with everything at his disposal. His tongue was especially dangerous, but Eva was a quick learner, and it didn't take her long to master the skills that drove him crazy.

"You need to learn patience, cielito," he scolded her lightly. "You move too fast; así no se hace el amor."

"You enjoy it as much as I do," Eva raised her head to meet his eyes. She was laying right on top of him, their bodies fitting together perfectly as if they were made for each other. Eva was nimble and light, a product of her Shadowhunter blood and training, but it was impossible to smother him anyway. Raphael loved feeling her weight on him; it allowed him to wrap his arms around her if he wished, or trace the bumps of her spine or the silvery scars on her back, or pinch her butt when she was being annoying.

Like she was now. He smirked when she squealed in surprise. "I hate when you're right."

Eva lowered her head back onto his silent, unmoving chest. Her fingertips traced the faint scar of a cross right below his collarbones. He'd opened up to her with snippets of his past, how he was Turned, how he didn't accept what he was for a long time and a warlock helped him through it, how he tried to be normal, how he had to leave his family and watch them grow old and die from afar. His tone was very collected and his expression even more so, but Eva could feel the grief suffocating his soul, the resentment and bitterness that came after, and then the apathetic acceptance.

"I'll have to submit my name to the Clave next month," Eva said, tracing patterns of runes on his ribcage absentmindedly. "I don't know if they'll accept it though."

"Why wouldn't they?"

"I don't know; the Clave can be unpredictable sometimes."

"Don't tell me it's Skywalker or some other stupid name from those movies you make me watch."

"I thought about Greenleaf, like Legolas," she giggled. "Or Oakenshield, like the dwarf from The Hobbit."

"All stupid names."

"Vampires have stupid names too!" she laughed. "Santiago's one of them!"

Eva laughed when he groped her behind and flipped her underneath him. He anchored her to the mattress with his body, his forearms on either side of her head. His fingers caught one of her curls and twirled it as he stole her breath away with a kiss. "What did you say? I didn't hear you."

"I said Santiago is a stupid vampire name; I thought I was clear enough," she taunted playfully. "You should consider changing it to Nosferatu—it has a nice ring to it."

Raphael mumbled something under his breath before burying his face into her neck, inhaling her scent of coconuts and gardenias and sweet blood. He let some of his weight fall on her, but she didn't mind and simply wrapped her limbs around him like a sloth on a tree branch.

"Will you tell me what it is?" he asked.

"I haven't even told Izzy, despite her attempts to trick me into telling her," she ran her fingers through his soft hair, making a sigh escape him. "I think those Faeries she's dating are rubbing off on her..."

"Dios mio, if you haven't told anyone, it must really be stupid," he joked. "You're afraid they'll try to talk you out of it."

"Not really. I've had it in mind ever since the Clave told me I'd be allowed to choose."

Eva brushed his dark curls away from his ear and leaned forward, whispering the name into his ear. His chest rumbled with a hum. "I thought it would be worse."

"You like it?"

"It's pretentious, but clever."

"Only you can give a complimentary insult."

"My very special skill," he joked dryly. "That, and drinking holy water while sunbathing."


February arrived in New York City and Eva always loved the way snow blanketed the courtyard of the Institute and gathered on the windowsills. She loved the crunching sound it made under her boots, and she loved the intense snowball fights she and Izzy always had against Alec and Jace to see which parabatai pair was the better shot. Max would join in as well, usually siding with the boys, but would quickly become a turncoat when the girls tipped the scales in their favor. They'd always come in drenched and freezing, and it was up to Hodge to light the fireplace in the library and give them steaming mugs of hot cocoa to warm them up.

It was Hodge's birthday on the fifth of February, and they always surprised him with a box of his favorite powdered jelly-filled donuts. They all pitched in and bought him a wooden tea box that was large enough for him to organize all his herbs and spices and homemade tea bags. Jace jokingly managed to get his hands on a bottle of brandy he decorated with a red bow, and while Hodge scolded him lightly for the joke at his expense, he nonetheless laughed.

The snow melted when spring arrived and Eva and Raphael celebrated their one-year anniversary at Doña Flor and then had a gelato in Little Italy. Raphael bought her a pair of very expensive boots she'd been looking at during a date night weeks ago, and she got him a leather jacket because he looked so good in them.

In July, it was Eva's eighteenth birthday. Hodge baked her a delicious cake with her name written terribly in frosting by Izzy, there were balloons and confetti floating around the kitchen. She was notoriously easy to buy gifts for because she always asked for the same things: boots, sweaters, hair products, and fantasy novels.

That night, Raphael picked her up for a dinner date at Doña Flor where she ate her favorite tacos al pastor. When she ate her fill and washed it down with horchata, Eva was glad to finally relax in the penthouse of the Four Seasons. Raphael helped her out of her jacket, and before she knew it, they were both naked and tangled beneath silk sheets.

"That wasn't your birthday present, just so you know," he told her lightly. His hand was tracing the dip of her waist before trailing up the rise of her hip bone. Eva's skin was humming from the afterglow of their love and his featherlight touch was making her eyes heavy with sleep.

Eva watched him swing out of bed and look for his jacket among the many layers of clothing scattered over the floor. The warm glow of the streetlights outside the window paired with the dimness of the bedroom outlined his body, making his skin stand out like polished marble in a fine art museum. When he returned to bed, Eva sat up as he showed her a thin golden chain. Attached to it was a hollowed glass pendant in the shape of an hourglass, the imperfection of its design telling Eva that it was handcrafted. Against the streetlight streaming in from the window, Eva could see a fine grey dust was moving around inside of it.

"It's dirt from my grave," he said. He circled it around her throat to clasp it securely. The hourglass situated itself right below her collarbones. "If you ever need me for anything, you break that and I'll be at your side, wherever you are."

Eva turned to face him, touching the smooth glass between her thumb and forefinger. It was surprisingly warm, as if it were alive. She parted her lips to thank him, but he silenced her with a quick kiss.

"Emergencies only," he told her firmly, though Eva knew he wasn't scolding her seriously. "If you summon me to help you choose between sweaters at the mall, we're going to have a serious problem."

A few days after her birthday, Eva wrote a formal letter to the Clave using one of Hodge's fancy fountain pens. She then folded the letter neatly and gave it to Maryse to seal with the Lightwood wax stamp and send it off. The Clave was surprisingly quick with their reply, which made Eva a bit nervous. A decision made quickly was never anything good, but she remained hopeful.

"Hurry! I'm dying to know!" Izzy bounced on her heels. Eva smiled as she saw Alec and Jace's eyes flicker with curiosity, Max pushed up his glasses as he looked up from his comic book, Hodge sitting at his desk with a mug of Earl Grey and Hugo on the backrest of his chair.

"Let's see if they approved it first..." Eva opened the letter, her golden eyes skimming the page rapidly. Finding the inked words she was hoping for, she let out a heavy sigh with a hand over her heart. "It's approved!"

"Well?" Alec raised his eyebrows. "What's the name?"

"Starkwood!"

Hodge choked on his tea so abruptly, Hugo cawed and flew away. Everyone else was genuinely shocked with jaws dropped and eyes wide. Eva explained herself, "You've all been my family for as long as I can remember; if I was going to pick a name, it was going to be a combination of Starkweather and Lightwood. I didn't like Lightweather too much, so—"

Izzy brought her in for a hug, cutting her off in the process. She was laughing, "I hate you for almost making me cry!"

"Hodge is crying," Jace pointed out. Everyone looked over at their mentor who had turned away from them on his chair with one hand holding his glasses and the other slapped over his eyes. Eva's eyes stung as she crossed the room and hugged him, pressing her cheek against the scar on his face and feeling the warmth of his tears.

"C'mon Hodge!" she told him with a laugh. "Don't cry!"

"I didn't think…" he replaced his glasses with a deep breath, no doubt trying to swallow back the sobs threatening to leave his throat. "I didn't think you thought so highly of me."

"Hodge, I think the world of you!" she smiled. "You're the dad I never had."

He blinked, making tears stream down his flushed cheeks like raindrops on glass. Eva embraced him tightly, shocked that he would get so emotional over something so silly. Hodge was always so composed; it was odd to see him break down and cry like this.

"But what about me?" Jace suddenly said. When Eva pulled away from Hodge to look at the blonde boy, he continued, "You didn't include Wayland in your name! How rude! Life didn't begin until I walked into this Institute!"