A/N: Hey guys! So, I apologize for disappearing for so long. School started up again, and things have been absolutely insane lately. I've been working on a new project recently, also, that should be coming out pretty soon. It won't be on my account, since it's a co-write with shadows and silhouettes. I'll try to keep updating this, but if I don't post as much, you know why.
Tessa had only been in the Institute for a few weeks, but she was already starting to feel at home. Everyone was treating her so kindly! Even Jessamine, who had a reputation for being rather blunt, was treating her as if she belonged there, which was reassuring to Tessa. She wanted to find her brother and live her own life, but as long as she was at the Institute, she wanted to feel at home.
While she was there, though, she couldn't help but notice how odd the dynamics were between the Shadowhunters living there. They seemed to act as if they were a single large, rather dysfunctional family. Henry was the father, absentminded but caring. He was often in his own little world, but he always meant well, it seemed. Charlotte was the mother, and, although she was female, she appeared to be the head of this household. She was an interesting combination of stern and loving, professional and genuinely concerned for the lives of her charges. She made sure everything was moving smoothly, and the others seemed to treat her with a fair amount of respect.
The "children" in this family were an interesting lot as well. There was Jessamine, who was the difficult one. Tessa found it hard to place her within the family, because she did not seem to want to be a part of it at all. She did not want to be a Shadowhunter—she wanted the life of an affluent young lady, with expensive dresses, a governess to care for her, and equally affluent young men around to dote on her. The others included her as part of the family, but she didn't seem to include herself.
The oddest part of the makeshift family, however, had to be Will Herondale and Jem Carstairs. Tessa did not understand the pair of them at all.
Will seemed to be slightly cold, and Tessa would not call him a gentleman, by any stretch of the imagination. He would return home in the morning, having disappeared for the entire night, smelling of alcohol. He was rude and blunt and clearly seemed to be hiding something, but Tessa couldn't fathom what it was. It was hard to believe he was awful as he sometimes made himself out to be, but he could be so convincing at times. Tessa found it hard to believe that Jem could be friends with someone who was at times needlessly bitter and inconsiderate.
Jem was Will's opposite in every way. Where Will was dark and mysterious, Jem was bright and open. He wasn't without his mysteries, of course. He would sometimes disappear into his room for days at a time, and whenever he began to cough, the entire room froze, acting as if each cough would be his last. However, his very personality seemed to welcome people in. He was polite and courteous, the model of a gentleman. He was caring and honest, and he even managed to soften Will's biting wit.
Those two were night and day, but they were closer than Tessa could even begin to comprehend. When she watched them interact, she suspected that she was missing half of the conversation. They seemed to instinctively know what the other needed. Tessa decided that the pair knew each other so well that they did not need words to speak, and basic, commonplace gestures could convey a thousand words worth of meaning. It was unfathomable to Tessa, whose life was built on words. Words in a book, words from people's mouths… those made sense. The way that Will and Jem seemed to transcend words was not something that made sense.
Sometimes, when Will thought no one was looking, he would stare wordlessly at Jem. Jem didn't seem to notice Will staring, but Tessa found it hard not to. Will looked at Jem with a concern and fondness that Tessa didn't think was possible from him.
Jem was the only person who deflected Will's biting comments as if they had never been said in the first place. He took care of Will, in his own sort of way. He kept him from flying off the handle. Without Jem, Will would be even less grounded, or dead, most likely. Jem was an unreasonably understanding person, and Tessa couldn't understand how he managed to make sense of the mystery of Will without being pushed away.
Tessa didn't know where she would fit into the large, unorthodox family, but she hoped that she could form bonds a fraction of the strength of Will and Jem's.