AN: This is entirely a Herongraystairs fic. 110% Herongraystairs. Lots of Jessa, lots of Wessa but totally headed in poly directions. Which also means there is a lot of Heronstairs stuff. Not "maybe if you read it the right way" Heronstairs, no this is proper Heronstairs. I mention this because if that isn't a thing you like, you might want to back out now before we get to the real kissing scenes. If this is a thing you like, send me fic recs because I need more in my life. :)

Will had only been staying at the Institute for two days and he missed Tessa and Jem's little flat far more than he was willing to admit. The New York Institute wasn't nearly as settled as the London Institute he had left. It was a place that didn't serve breakfast or dinner but simply left the kitchen door open so you could grab what you wanted. There were few Shadowhunters permanently posted there and a large number who cycled through using portals to appear and disappear almost on a whim.

The Arrivals didn't make things better. They were a scattered group and the Shadowhunters were keeping them all busy doing different things. Will had seen Alison but not Edith or the others since he'd come in by portal with Magnus. As Shadowhunters, Will had expected that he and Alison would be treated with more respect than the others but that didn't seem to be the case.

Everyone was treated equally.

They were all treated as though they were idiots and inconveniences.

He had learned the names of the group of roving Nephilim who all knew Jem but hadn't really made any attempts at making friends. He wasn't sure he remembered how to make friends with strangers. He had been relearning how to be a friend to the people he already cared for when he'd stepped through the portal.

There were little flurries of curious conversation and then everyone would be called out to deal with other things and Will was left behind the Institute walls and warding with the other arrivals. There were little magical tests done in back alleys not too far from the building but beyond that he wasn't allowed anywhere else.

Two days was enough of that. Three hours was enough of that. He had started wandering London at 13. Now he had nothing to wander but hallways. It might not have been so bad if it were his own Institute but it was not.

This was an Institute filled with people who were distantly related to people he knew. When Magnus had introduced him as "William Herondale" he had received all manner of curious glances. The Herondales were a family name that he'd expected to die with him but it hadn't. The blonde Shadowhunter Jem had introduced only as Jace was a Herondale though there was some joking about his name that Will was too shocked to pay much attention to.

Magnus's Alec gave him a curious look that in other situations might have made Will badger him to explain but at that moment he was being introduced to Fairchilds and Lightwoods and kept expecting mad old Starkweather's great grandchildren to start popping out of the walls.

Alec and Jace had been making an effort to come and see him and their friend Simon, the only one of the little troupe of them with a last name that Will didn't know, had brought him things to read. Tessa had already brought him a bag of books with little notes tucked into the front covers about when it was written and whether or not she thought he would like it.

He'd been sitting in the dining room at the time listening without fully comprehending the sheer number of changes that had occurred in the Clave over the most recent decade. Jace and Alec editorialized and when Clary arrived all red hair and sitting on tables it became impossible to sort out the details though there was enough information for Will to understand the scope of the change.

The Clave had always seemed immovable to Will. He'd never fully shaken his mother's belief that they could never be reformed. He could see the good in Shadowhunters but he had always assumed that the Clave would always be one wrong move away from torturing people who did not deserve it. Now they had Downworld councils and all sorts of new rules and accords being drafted.

Tessa had appeared in that crowd around the same time Clary started telling a story about Maia. She sat down beside him with the bag on her lap and the shy smile he was starting to expect from her. Since she'd recovered herself, she'd been warm and kind but shy and just a bit distant. She brought him books but rather than sit with him and tell him about them she left notes. He tried to convince himself that this was better and that he didn't want her any closer.

It was easier.

He told himself that over and over.

Easier was better.

They were going through the pile of books and Tessa's hair kept falling over her face and Will kept having to curl his fingers around the page in hand to resist touching it. Simon managed to accidentally sneak up on them both and when he leaned over the table to pull one of Tessa's recommendations towards himself, Will jumped.

"This is literally a hundred years old," Simon said flipping it in his hands to read the title as Will composed himself enough to remember that there were people in the room beyond Tessa and himself. Most of them were involved in a debate about where to order dinner.

"98 actually and that is a first edition so you had better not have doritos dust on your fingers," Tessa said.

"I bought you a present," Simon said looking slightly offended at the suggestion that he might have doritos dust on his finger tips. He didn't really look like a Shadowhunter to Will. He didn't carry himself properly. Shadowhunters were gentry and this boy was not. He was not a gentleman and he seemed proud of it, all big, floppy gestures and sarcastic comments and dirty fingers, "I heard you had gotten hurt in Italy so I thought I'd do something nice since I'm such a good friend. Do you bring injured warlocks gifts, is that appropriate?"

"It depends on what it is," Tessa said smiling. Will reappraised Simon not as Jace's friend but as Tessa's. He wasn't a gentleman but he was bright and enthusiastic and Will could see why Tessa might befriend someone like him. Simon pulled a white paper bag out of his bag where it was slung across his shoulder.

"Are there men in tights? If there are men in tights, I won't like it," she told him.

"This is not classic superhero stuff. It's called Runaways," Simon passed a thin but oversized book over to Tessa and she took it with a skeptical look as he launched into an explanation of the story and the author and why it wasn't like the stuff that Tessa apparently hated.

Will picked the book out of her hand as she talked to Simon. Simon was an ascendant, rare enough on its own, and parabatai to the red headed Clary who was currently sitting on the table with her feet up on Jace's knee. He sometimes wore glasses he didn't need and always wore a t-shirt with a joke printed on it that Will did not understand. He was also one of the least pretentious people Will had ever met and that alone made him likable.

"It's an art book," Will said paging through it, "Are they painted?"

"It's called a graphic novel," Simon said and something about the light in his eyes told Will that this had the potential to be the start of a very passionate explanation.

"Comic book," Tessa interrupted before he could start. "They're picture stories for children."

"Not for children!" Simon snapped. "Read it before you pass judgment. You liked Sandman."

"Yes, Sandman is an exception to your entire ridiculous genre of caped heroes and silly villains," Tessa said and then her whole demeanor changed. All the years and all the things that stood between them were suddenly gone with Tessa's shyness as she turn to Will and gestured with her hands, "You should read Sandman, the bit where he's adapted the Tempest is just brilliantly done. The images and the dialogue and the way the story fits together. But don't listen to him about Spiderman. Spiderman is as stupid as it sounds."

"It isn't," Simon said, "The themes-"

"Are overshadowed by the idiocy of a man getting bitten by a spider and developing spider powers and wearing a costume to fight a man dressed as an octopus," Tessa said.

"It does sound silly," Will said, "Though I did once hear of that happening to a man in Kent though it was a spider demon, not a normal spider. I think he started eating flies and making webs in corners. All very strange."

"HA!" Simon said, "All the stories are true. Even Spiderman."

"Shut up," Tessa said. She swatted Will in the arm, "Don't encourage him."

The same afternoon, a few hours after Tessa had left, Simon had dropped off a second collection of books, all of them thin and colourful to add to Tessa's pile. Will had started with hers though he'd leafed through Simon's as well. He hadn't had as much time for it as he might have liked.

He had lessons.

The lessons were in the "interest of normalcy" he had been told. The tutor was a young woman who was about twenty five and was giving lessons to both Will and Alison. The Downworlders hadn't been invited. The lessons were not about the history of the world that they had missed. They were about the same bland and mind numbing bits of physiology and demon lore that Will had been taught in lessons at home.

"Either she is very stupid or the courses of study have been greatly reduced in recent years," Will muttered to Alison about an hour into the first one of these lessons. He had been given a pencil and a piece of paper and he was trying his best not to behave as a child and throw the pencil at the tutor's head as she explained the differences between animal demons and the higher demons.

Alison walked out a few minutes later, "I'm 21, I should not longer be expected to attend lessons."

Will felt sorry for the poor woman and her carefully planned lesson. She had a little page of notes she kept referring to. She was four years late for the lesson to be in the least bit helpful but she'd put in so much effort. The look on her face when Alison had left was enough to keep Will from following. He wasn't sure 30 minutes later that he was truly as committed to kindness as he thought he was.

His salvation came from the same person that his salvation had always come from.

Jem appeared in the doorway and frowned at the tutor just a little bit. She was facing the wrong way to see it but Will cracked a smile and she turned to see Jem and suddenly got very tense. Jem's slightly arched eyebrow was all the evidence he gave that he had noticed. It wasn't intended for her and Will wasn't surprised that she didn't mention it. They could still have conversations without speaking and it made Will smile.

"Hello Br.. Hello Zachariah," she said.

"Good afternoon Lauren," he said and his small smile wasn't Jem's it belonged to the stranger he must have been as a Silent Brother, "How are you? Your memory is excellent, that passage was almost word for word."

Will hadn't any idea what the passage was or even what topic they were discussing at this point. Her lesson was so carefully planned it didn't really require any input from students.

Jem crossed the room, his eyes scanning the bookcase quickly before pulling down a volume and leafing through it. It was a heavy leather bound book with a 3 and a seal printed on the spine, a part of a series published by the Clave. Will's lessons had been filled with books like this. He got up and followed Jem to where he laid it out on the teacher's desk.

"See, you got it just right," he said. It was a passage on greater demons. Will looked up at Jem, searching for the explanation for this little show. It was obviously meant to show someone something and Will wasn't sure yet if he was the one meant to be learning.

"This is a very popular series of histories," Jem said. "Seven volumes I think. Multiple editions though I prefer the originals. I knew the author so perhaps I have a bias but the midcentury edited versions were rewritten so heavily that they are very nearly propaganda."

He flipped through the book so that the author's name was visible printed on the front page. Will frowned deeply at it. The tutor looked up at him with a little frown of her own. This was a second edition with an updated foreword by the author, William O. Herondale. It had been published in 1931.

"I need to borrow Will for a little while, please excuse us," Jem said and then pulled him out of the room. The tutor stared blankly at the backs of their heads looking startled and uncomfortable. Will only looked back once before he turned his attention to Jem. He hadn't seen him enough in the past two days.

"I wouldn't have thought I'd ever have the patience to write books," Will said trying to cover up how hard it was to imagine being an old man writing books that would still be read a hundred years later. He would have been old enough to have grandchildren in 1931. Once they were clear of the room his discomfort flashed into anger.

"What was the point of that?" he snapped at Jem. He spun on his heel in the empty corridor and only just stopped himself from shoving Jem with all his strength. Jem rocked back from the impact. His face was impassive and Will's anger flashed a little brighter but Jem didn't give him a chance to start a rant.

"They are treating you like a lost child," Jem said in the same calm voice he'd always used when Will had gotten angry with him. "They send you to classes, they refuse to allow you out of doors, I had to lie to Maryse to be given permission to come and see you. Someone needed reminding who you are."

"An old man who wrote a stodgy old book," Will said.

"An expert in your field. You took over the Institute at 18," Jem said, "They promoted Charlotte and she appointed you. That lesson we took with Fredrich where you drew rude pictures in the book for forty minutes and then made up limericks to accompany them for the next thirty was the last formal Clave required lesson you ever took. You may like to pretend that you aren't worth much William but you are one of the best. I say that having seen generations of Shadowhunters go from naming ceremonies through final rites. Do not sell yourself short and don't allow others to either."

"They promoted Charlotte?" Will said.

"Yes," Jem said allowing Will to pretend that the rest of his statement hadn't existed. Jem had been leading the way through the Institute, obviously knowing where he was going. When Will didn't question him again, he turned and continued. Will fell into step and nudged Jem with a shoulder. He hoped that some of his gratitude came through in that little moment of touch. The words were too big to say. Imagining himself as an old man was upsetting. Imagining himself as someone others respected enough to buy books from was less upsetting.

The corridors of the Institute were narrow in this part and when they reached the stairs, Jem took them two at a time and stopped at the door at the top. Unwinded. Healthy. Smiling. Will stood on the stairs below him and waited.

"Are you planning on seducing me in some dark corner?" Will asked. "I feel you could do better on ambiance if that were the case."

It was Jem's turn to ignore him, "I want to train."

"That's not a problem but I'm hardly dressed for it," Will said.

"Me neither, I don't really care," Jem said. "You are on house arrest. You are not meant to see anyone to preserve the sanctity of the past or some such garbage. Let's not advertise."

The training room looked as Will expected a training room to look and that was enough of a relief that he gave up his plans to argue. The layout was different, the ceiling was higher, some of the weapons were of a different style than he had seen before but it looked more familiar than anything else he had seen since that first glimpse of Tessa. Will ran his fingers along weapons and it all smelled of metal and leather and old wood. He closed his eyes and when Jem came to stand beside him he could almost imagine he was home.

They ran drills that to Will were so familiar that he could have done them in his sleep and had on mornings when he hadn't gotten to bed before dawn.

They were drills that Jem kept making mistakes on. Little errors in footwork or spacing.

With any other drills it wouldn't have seemed like much but these were things they'd been doing for years. Jem wasn't late on the second piece of footwork. He didn't miss a swing and bump Will's elbow. Jem didn't make mistakes like that. And yet, he did, over and over.

Neither of them said anything. They ran the drills until he didn't make the mistakes any more, until they could move in time again.

Will kept waiting for him to start failing, for him to start rolling his shoulders as the weakness set in or breathing hard as his lungs protested. When he finally stopped, it wasn't because of weakness. He dropped to the ground for a drink of water from a bottle he pulled out of a little case set against the wall. He tossed a second one at Will and it was cold.

"Some things about your future are good," Will said as he sunk down beside him. Jem leaned back against the wall with sweat on his forehead and a smile on his lips. They'd been working hard but Jem wasn't suffering for it.

"They're trying to send me back," Will said staring off into space.

"I know," Jem said. "Tessa and Magnus are both involved in all the planning to figure out the spells. The Clave is monitoring Venice in case more people arrive but there's been nothing."

"I'm going to live to be an old man," Will said.

"Yes," Jem said, "It'll be a good life Will. It's a life you deserve to have."

"It's a life without you," Will said. "You're young now. To be this young now you couldn't have been more than twenty when you joined the brothers, when you left."

"Not even that old," Jem said.

"Did you make it to your wedding day?" Will asked.

"Yes, it was 130 years late but yes, I made it there," Jem said.

Will closed his eyes and tried to find that calm that he had had when he'd been looking at the weapons and it had seemed like home. It wouldn't come. Jem had forgotten the drills because it had been more than a century since he'd done them. It had been more than a century since he'd trained with another person who could match his steps exactly.

Will had lived long enough that he had probably forgotten it too. It seemed impossible - like forgetting how to breathe - but maybe if you didn't breathe for long enough you could forget that too.

"It's not fair," Will said.

"Life isn't," Jem said and he sounded older. Will could hear the Silent Brother in his voice. He could imagine Jem's voice stretched paper thin and whispering through his mind and it made him want to hit things. "But if it were fair we'd never get our miracles because those aren't fair either."

"You deserved more than that," Will said. "You lost more than most people will ever have."

"I never saw it like that. I made a decision. I could have died. I should have died but if I had died I could not have been there for you or for her or for any of the people who have needed me to be there in the years since. There are worse things than dying. Have I told you that yet? It's true. There are worse things than dying but to die and leave those you love in danger… It wasn't something I was prepared to do. Not if I had another option," Jem said. His eyes had stayed shut as he'd spoken and his voice came from far away in memories deep in the past.

"Tessa waited for you," Will said.

"Tessa came back to me and I count that as one of my miracles," Jem said. "And you've come back to me and that is more miracle than I had even thought to imagine."

"And if they send me back tomorrow?" Will asked.

"Then I will be glad that I lied my way in past Maryse to see you. You deserve to go home. I would not wish you out of your own life just so I could have you in mine," Jem said.

"I would," Will said in a soft voice. "I would have traded anything I had in this world to give you this life. I just wish that I hadn't had to lose the chance to be a part of it. We are one person James, we weren't meant to be divided."

"We were never one person," Jem said turned to look at him and Will was surprised again to find dark eyes and golden skin instead of pale silver. "But we were also never really divided. The Brotherhood built walls between me and the world but some lines cannot be severed. You and I are tied together William. You kept me human in the dark and as the wheel turns, we turn together. When you go back, go back knowing that no matter what else changes, you and I will find each other again. Our families, our selves, our souls, they are never alone. You and I and Tess. I don't know if you can see it yet but Tess as well. We will always find each other again."

Will's words failed him but he held Jem's eyes and remembered the boy who had had eyes like that before demon drugs had started draining the life out of him. It was a promise, an oath that had already come true. They had found each other again.

Will nodded and Jem pulled him in to kiss his forehead. It was quick and soft. Lips on skin. Will was too surprised to react.

"Stand up," Jem said when he pulled back, "I might be terrible at the double katas but I can hand you your ass in a sparing match."

"Bullshit," Will said.

Twenty minutes later Will had been knocked down enough times that he had almost forgotten the promise that they would find each other again and Jem's lips had felt against his skin. Almost.