When Edward woke again, Celine was still asleep on his shoulder. He smiled a little at her dozing figure, stretching slightly. "Well, that's what I get for dozing off in the kitchen with you, I guess," he muttered, wrapping an arm around her. As if hearing Edward, Celine smiled a little and curled up against him. The boy raised his eyebrows, but remained silent, his smile growing a little wider.

"Wake up, Sleeping Beauty," he whispered, catching himself a split-second later. Edward felt his cheeks redden; he could only hope she wouldn't tease him about it later.

Celine, who had definitely heard him, opened her eyes in a flutter of gold, looking up at him silently and smiling.

"Hey, you're awake," Edward said somewhat unnecessarily.

"Yeah, sorry for falling asleep on you," Celine replied, a light blush dusting her cheeks as she looked up at him, making them turn a slightly darker gold. Edward couldn't tell if she was joking, though the blush made him raise an eyebrow. He shrugged and smiled down at her.

"Don't worry about it, Cel. Do you mind if I call you that?" His mouth quirked up absentmindedly as if he was nervous, despite the conversation they had had before they fell asleep.

"No, of course not. Everyone calls me Celi anyway." The girl smiled at him softly, her eyes twinkling a little from the mysterious torchlight in the halls. Or perhaps that was just his imagination. "How long were we asleep?"

"I'd tell you if I had my watch or phone. Then again, there is my stomach-" as if illustrating his point, said organ began to growl fairly loudly "-which thinks we should have breakfast."

Celine laughed again, agreeing with a nod. "There's cereal in the fridge, and bacon and eggs, fruit, bread... we basically have half a warehouse of choices in there."

"Well, I don't know how to cook bacon and eggs," Edward replied as if that were the most obvious thing in the world. "I guess I'll have to settle for cereal."

"I bet you haven't even stuck your nose in a cookbook once," Celine teased, slapping his arm lightly.

"Yes, mainly because I spend more time around computer manuals or Star Wars novels."

"We're terribly sexist, aren't we?"

"Awfully," Edward said with a grin.

As soon as Edward had taken some cereal and fruit out of the fridge, he noticed that Celine was merely sitting on the countertop, looking like she was waiting for something to happen. It seemed a little strange to him that she wasn't hungry by that point, considering the fact that she had probably been out all night.

"Cel?" he said as he started pouring the milk, his eyebrows drawing together. "You gonna get something?"

The girl looked up as if startled, then attempted to recover. "Oh, no," she said, "I'll just grab an apple."

Flabbergasted, Edward let his milk overpour, causing the white liquid to spill over onto the table-along with some bits of cereal-while his mouth hung open. "That's it? But you just came back fighting a demon... I get super hungry in the morning without doing that."

Celine merely shrugged in response. "I don't normally eat physical food" was all she said, walking towards the fridge as if it her statement was completely normal.

"What the hell do you mean, you don't eat physical food? How do you survive?"

"Nourishment runes," she replied, smiling back at him. "They're really quite-"

"CELINE MARYSE HERONDALE," Katie shrieked from well outside the kitchen, startling them both (Edward's cereal ended up on the floor, but neither of them bothered to clean it up), "IF YOU DON'T EAT RIGHT THIS MINUTE, YOU WILL NEVER BE MY BRIDESMAID FOR MY WELL AND TRULY OFFICIAL WEDDING!"

Celine-after recovering from the shouting-rolled her eyes. "Who said I wanted to be? I hate dresses!" she called back just as Katie entered the kitchen.

"I was going to get you to wear a waistcoat, tie and skirt," Katie whined. Celine shot a glance over at Edward that he somehow knew meant, "There is no way that is ever going to happen."

"Bit of a tomboy, huh?" Edward said, winking at Celine. To his slight yet pleasant surprise, she winked back.

"And proud," she said, causing Katie to give a slightly frustrated grunt.

"Okay, I don't care what you wear, but if I've managed to get your parabatai in a dress-"

"Wait, WHAT?!" Celine was suddenly appalled at this news, her golden head snapping back to Isla, her mouth open and her eyes wide. "Did you actually get Aerin in a dress?"

"Once or twice."

"How come no one ever told me?"

Katie smirked and put on a mock pondering face. "Um, because you never went to my last wedding, Celine Herondale?"

"I told Jason to tell you that weddings aren't quite my thing. Also, call me by my last name again, and I definitely won't be coming."

Katie's blue eyes suddenly widened into an expression of begging, her mouth reforming into a pout. "Pleeeeeease, Celi? You know you love me..."

Celine scoffed, a strand of her hair flying out of her face. "Fine. But don't expect me to be there unless I'm free. When is it?"

"No idea. But still, yay!" The girl clapped her hands together excitedly and giggled. "And you have a date now, too," she said before dashing off, her dark brown hair flying around her as she ran out of the kitchen.

"Uh... Okay, then," Edward said, furrowing his dark eyebrows, slightly weirded out by Katie's strange behaviour-or perhaps this was normal and he just wasn't used to it yet. "She's your friend, I guess?"

"You could say that. She's more my brother's friend, really. But I don't quite get what she meant by 'date.'"

Edward shrugged casually. "I guess she thought we were a thing already," he said, causing Celine to blush as if on cue, her skin darkening to a more noticeable gold colour. It was strange, he thought, considering no other person blushed gold. Then again, she did have extra angel blood in her, apparently.

"I guess you could say that," she mumbled.

Edward turned his head towards the girl, his teeth digging into his lower lip gently. He'd abandoned any pretense of asking who Isla was getting married to, distracted by Celine.

"Why the blush?" he asked, his head tilting to the side.

"No reason!" Celine said quickly, blushing even further. Edward grinned at that, shaking his head. The answer was fairly obvious now.

"You want that to happen. No need to be embarrassed, really."

Celine looked quite shocked-despite him basically asking her out the previous day-and stuttered for a few moments before giving up and looking down, her cheeks reaching their apparent darkest point.

"Is it really that obvious?"

"Yeah, just a little," Edward replied, rubbing the back of his neck, the rest of whatever he wanted to say suddenly stopped by the pulse in his neck as if it were creating a kink in his windpipe. He took a deep breath and continued. "Don't worry, though. I... kind of want that to happen, too."

Celine's head snapped up, and Edward flinched as if she had pulled out a knife. Her catlike eyes were wide with disbelief, and he hoped she hadn't caught his flinch. "Really?" she asked, the word spilling out alongside a wave of disbelief.

"Yeah, actually," Edward said, feeling heat build up in his own cheeks. "Are we still on for this weekend?"

"Yes, of course."

"Then I guess we should call that a date," he said, a nervous smile spreading across his face, which Celine returned.

"A date it is," she said, looking back at the spilled cereal on the floor. "Think we should clean that up, by the way?"

Edward smacked himself in the forehead, cursing softly. "Yep. That would be a good idea."

When the cereal had finally been cleaned up, taking a good ten minutes, Edward turned to Celine. "So, what about classes?" he said.

"Oh, right, yes," she said, perking up slightly. "You get to meet my wondrous father."

"Was that sarcastic?" Edward asked, noting the marginally bitter tone in her voice. He had read so many novels to know that a girl with parental issues was more common than you'd think.

"Slightly. He is a great father and all, but he seems to be really protective of me because I'm the youngest."

"Ah, I see," Edward said, nodding, though he didn't quite understand the feeling. "I'm the oldest one in my family, even considering my adoptive brother."

"Lucky you. Charlie's barely an hour older than me, and my parents aren't as protective over him."

This made Edward raise an eyebrow. It made absolutely no sense; technically, Celine and Charlie should have been twins. He ended up merely shrugging and letting the thought pass. "We should probably get going to wherever we're going, shouldn't we?"

"Mm-hmm." Celine nodded, standing up and beckoning for him to follow. He did so, brushing off his pants and walking along beside her.

"We'll likely be learning about runes today. I'll teach you a few of the runes I know, and my dad'll teach me some new ones while you get used to your stele. Sound good?"

Edward nodded and scanned the tapestry walls of the place. Suddenly, he frowned as he remembered the fact that he hadn't yet asked what this place was called. "Er, Cel," he said, "hate to sound like an idiot, but did you mention what this place was called?"

"No, actually," Celine replied, and launched into an explanation of the church-like building. By the time they had reached the library, Edward knew that the place was called an Institute and that every major city had one; the Institute in the capital city of a country controlled that country's group of Shadowhunters, called a Conclave or an Enclave, depending on the country.

"If I'm honest, the London Institute is the most popular," Celine ended up saying. "Most of the inhabitants in this Institute actually came from London."

"Really?" Edward asked, intrigued. He normally wouldn't have expected a strong British presence within the United States. Then again, Shadowhunter history most likely worked far differently than human history.

"Mm-hmm. My family, for example. Which is why I sound kinda British."

"Well, I thought you came from the UK somewhere," Edward admitted.

"Some people even ask me when I immigrated," Celine said, rolling her eyes. "It gets kind of annoying but oh well."

"I was actually about to ask that," he said with a nervous chuckle. "Before you mentioned the whole family coming here thing."

Celine grinned at that, shaking her head, her long hair bobbing slightly with the movement. "I wouldn't exactly blame you," she said. "I'd probably ask the same thing."

"Not surprising," Edward said just as Celine turned, arriving at a massive set of double oak doors. They were somewhat intimidating if anything was to be said about them, totaling at about double Edward's height. However, he figured they housed a millennia's worth of information, just judging by the sheer size of the entryway.

"This is it," Celine said. "The library, where I hid for days on end trying to catch up with the other kids my age."

"Huh." Edward nodded. "Wait, didn't you mention something about your dad tutoring us or something?"

Celine merely shrugged. "Slight change of plans" was all she said, pushing open the doors. As soon as Edward saw what was inside, his jaw dropped.

The library was as massive as the doors foreshadowed, lined with shelves and books filling them to the brim. In the middle sat a polished wooden table, supported by two carved angels, their faces contorted in effort. Leading up to the table was a carpet depicting an image of an angel with a sword and cup. The smell of thousands of old books hit him like a wall, except it was a wall you would have enjoyed smacking face first into. Edward's jaw dropped as he stepped inside the immense room, uttering the words: "Ho... ly... crap," as he turned in a slow circle, taking everything in. Celine giggled again beside him.

"Big, isn't it?"

"Bit of an understatement," Edward replied, still staring at the enormous stock of books.

"Then how big would you say it is?" Celine replied, and Edward finally looked at her, his eyes fixed on the grin that seemed to be expertly carved into a gold canvas.

"I am never going to be able to give you an exact measurement, so... I'll say absolutely mother-effing massive."

Celine giggled. "If you say so," she said, moving to stand next to him and leaning into his shoulder gently. Edward looked down at her, resisting the urge to kiss her on the forehead. She was almost too cute and beautiful not to, but no. They'd only known each other for a day.

"Where do we start?" he asked instead. Celine took hold of his hand in response, leading the two of them to a shelf before reaching for a selection just out of her reach. Edward let her try for a few seconds before reaching out and pulling out the book himself, hardly noticing the fact that it flew straight into his hand a split second before he actually got a grip on it. He frowned, but shrugged and showed her the cover anyway. Celine stared at it for a few seconds before looking at him.

"How did you do that?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

"No idea," Edward replied, shaking his head. "I didn't actually know I was even the one doing it."

"Well unless Matt's enchanted the books, it had to be one of us. And I didn't do it, obviously."

"I honestly have no idea. I guess I just thought about the book and... It just flew right towards me." He shrugged.

"Hm, and the mystery of you grows... But I don't mind. Most of the people I'm close to have some kind of weirdness and mystery to them."

"That's called a quirk," Edward said with a grin, causing Celine to hit his shoulder lightly and take the book from him. It was leather-bound, with a strange marking on the front cover and no text. "But yeah, I've been a little confused about Isla's 'orbing' thing."

"Same here. And before you ask, I have no idea how that even works. No Shadowhunter's ever had that ability before," she said as she walked over to a desk and opened up the book, flipping through it. Within were a bunch of strange symbols, one per page; under each symbol was a name: Angelic Power, Friendship, and something called an iratze caught his eye.

"I guess no Shadowhunter has ever had telekinetic abilities before?" he said, interrupting Celine's page turning.

"Again, not that I know of, but then again, no Shadowhunter was ever supposed to make runes. My mother could, though."

Edward raised an eyebrow. "And then everyone started doing it?"

Celine looked up and at him. "Nope. Only myself, my sister Jocelyn and mother can create runes. But mine and Jocelyn's skills are limited."

"Oh, you meant create runes..."

Celine just rolled her eyes, smiling a little. "Now, have you ever wanted night vision?" She asked, flipping through a few more pages until she stopped at one. Of course, to Edward it was just another rune until he read the caption and his stomach clenched in excitement.

"Oh, yes," his eyes brightening dramatically, and Celine smiled wider.

"Give me your arm, then," she said, pulling out a fancy, thin rod from her jacket-a stele. He nodded and did as she asked, pulling his sleeve back while she disappeared to close the curtains, cloaking the room in darkness. Edward blinked as his eyes tried to adjust to the lack of light, but ended up relying on the sound of Celine's footsteps to know when she was close.

Suddenly, he felt his sleeve being pulled back. Edward bit his lip in anticipation at what would come next. As soon as his whole forearm was exposed, he felt a cold burning, like snow being dumped onto his arm in a single point.

Just like that day, he thought with a wince that Celine seemed to ignore. This sort of thing was apparently normal.

The feeling of snow on his bare arm continued until Celine had pulled the stele off his skin. Edward blinked, and nearly jumped when he suddenly saw Celine as if she'd opened the curtains in a split second. But when he turned his head to look, the curtains were still closed.

"Nyx," Celine said, her voice gentle. "The night-vision rune. Like it?" she added, grinning.

"No, Celine, I don't like it," he said, doing his best to keep his voice serious. At her clearly disappointed face, he broke into a grin and said, "I love it."

Celine looked she was about to jump through the roof in joy. "Great! It's not permanent, unfortunately, so it does fade. But it lasts a fair while."

"I'd take temporary night vision over permanent night vision anyway."

"Well, I'm glad you like it anyway," Celine said, closing the book and looking at him directly.

"Not a bad way to start my new life," he said, resting a hand on the table and looking around, a grin taking residence on his face.

"So," Celine said, her voice taking on a mock dramatic tone. "It seems I have made this lesson mysterious. Two teenagers left alone in a dark spooky library."

"You know that never ends well," Edward replied, mimicking her voice's drama.

"No... Will they ever make it out for their date at the weekend?" She ducked behind a bookcase and added, "We shall see," peeking her head out.

Barely suppressing a grin, Edward stepped behind a bookcase, his head peeking out and looking at Cel. "Indeed we shall," he said, trailing off for even more "drama." "What lurks in the shadows?" Inside his head, he was already bursting with laughter. The whole thing was so ridiculous, and yet he couldn't stop himself from doing it.

"Mysteries. Mysteries that are hidden from the human eye." Edward could have sworn he'd heard her giggling, but he couldn't be entirely sure.

He looked up, as if seeing something. "It appears something is right above young Celine," he said, knowing full well that whatever was above her was just air.

"I wonder what it may be," Celine said, looking above her. Edward took his chance, dashing over and crouching on the other side of Celine's bookshelf.

"A winged demon, perhaps?" Edward replied, biting down on his lower lip to suppress a laugh.

"Oh, how I wish I had my seraph blade!" Her voice was oozing with that classic overexaggerated damsel-in-distress tone. "I don't think I will ever survive this encounter!" Celine added, surpressing another giggle. Edward could almost imagine her putting a hand to her forehead and nearly burst out laughing himself.

Slowly, Edward crept around the book case, behind Celine and shouted "GOTCHA!" while grabbing her shoulders. "It is I! Edward Whitelaw, the Shadowhunter turned demon!" His grip fumbled and Celine stumbled away from him, falling over.

"Oh, but what is this? Tragedy, that's what! The upcoming date of our two unfortunate teenagers has been thrown out the window!"

"But wait! How will Celine deal with this new revelation? Find out next time on Library Tales: Shadowhunter Edition!"

They both burst out laughing.