#just kept thinking about that part where howl tell sophie that her hair looked like starlight and-

[woliamakesamess]

howl and sophie :3

(DO NOT REPOST)

[angelfiume]

Mouth Like A Sailor Part 1

Hey so I have no idea how to publish a fanfic on tumblr besides just putting it up like this so hopefully this goes well.  I was posting on qoutev but it kept crashing my computer so tumblr it is.

Marlena Curtis May 1965 5 months before    "I hope all of you will take this summer to exercise your minds... You wouldn't want to go into your senior year with a head full of nothing, would you?"  Mr. Mays shouted at the class, he wasn't angry, just obnoxiously loud.  I looked across the room at my brother's best friend, Steve, hoping to have someone to smile with or pass a note too, but he obviously was not interested and instead was tracing the hand of a short girl with bobbed hair.  She was giggling as he made ugly monster claws out of her manicured fingers, it was kind of sweet honestly.  I sighed and leaned back in my chair, looking around the room for anyone else that might be alright with me.  Mr. Mays voice quieted as he saw no one really cared about his speech on polishing the young mind, he resulted to letting us free for the rest of the period.  I rested my head on my arms and decided to spend the class just sleeping instead of awkwardly trying to make conversation with the dry, ginger soc next to me.  She seemed like she wasn't very interested anyways.    The bell rung two minutes in to my daydream, which couldn't have made me happier, I jumped out of my seat and yanked my bag with me out the door.  Finally I could just do jack-shit and paint my nails instead of listening to the same monotone creeps lecture for hours and hours.  I nearly ran down the hallway towards my friends, Sophie and Jean, they were talking fast and smiled big when they saw me running down to see them.    "MARLI, tell your brother you're gonna be at my house tonight baking cookies or some sweet shit, Gene Vincent is gonna be at Sophie's cousin's bar tonight in Oklahoma City!  Her cousin said we can all get in no sweat."  Jean said, she was so excited her heavy eyeliner was creasing from smiling so wide.       

  "Holy shit, Sophie did your cousin really say we can go?  How much money?" I asked with a small twinge in my stomach, the past few months have been pretty tough on my wallet, I really wanted all my money to go into my younger brother's secret college fund.   

 "None baby!  That's a perk of having friends with connections, just pitch in two bucks or so for gas, my daddy is letting me take the Malibu, ain't that exciting?" Sophie cooed, she had this soft voice that could have sounded polite even if she was telling you where it seemed your head was stuck.  She was   rich too, man her family did well.  But she was still my friend, because she didn't care if I lived in a hollowed out coat closet my brother set up for me, she didn't believe in the social class war going on.    

  "I'm in man!  I'll tell Darry I'm going to have a sleepover with ya'll, he won't ask questions, he's too wrapped around the axel with Soda right now."  I grinned at them and listened quietly to the rest of their chatter.  They could get awful excited about something real fast, it was damn cute.     

 We walked out to Jean's boyfriends car, he was a doll, always chauffeuring her and her friends around Tulsa.  Speaking of the devil, Tommy came sprinting down the concrete steps and bear-hugged tiny Jean, making her scream and laugh.  

    "Hello sweetheart, ready to be done with the bullshit for a whole 2 months?" he was another one of those guys that seems to really just shout instead of talk, he nodded to Sophie and I and smiled nicely, "ya'll hangin' or goin' home?" 

   "I can stay a little, we're supposed to be in the City by 9 and we gotta leave at 7 or so.." Sophie chirped    

   "Just straight home for me, thanks, I gotta make an appearance so Darry doesn't get suspicious"  I knew full well that he would expect the worst if I never showed up at home.    I jumped down from Tommy's pick- up and yelled to Jean I would be at her house at 630.  I smoothed out my black corduroy skirt and re-tucked the ratty pink shirt I had owned since 9th grade.  My sneakers crunched down the gravel covering the alley behind my house as I walked towards the backward, where I heard my brother and their friends.  Not even the whole gang was there, but it was still loud as hell.     

          "Hey Marls how was the last day of school?  I  miss anything important?" laughed Two-bit, the rusty haired boy lay lazily on our back steps.      

           "Ha, it was fine, you didn't miss anything important.  Just that Mark guy offered me a whole year supply of marijuana if I would flash the principal at the assembly this morning"  I told him as I took a carton out of my bra and lit a smoke, I giggled a little when I saw him cock an eyebrow.  The nimrod probably thought I went through with it.     

           "So ya did it right?"  Demanded a bored looking Dallas Winston.  He sat next to my twin Soda, who was laughing quietly to himself, he probably knew I was too much of a wimp to leave school one some crazy note like that.   

           "Nah," I took a long drag, "I could get that shit for free by just winking at some of the squares in this town... But anyways, where did Darry go?  He working late or something?"   

           "No, he should be home in ten minutes or so, you gonna bail soon?" Soda asked   

            "Around 6ish I'm going over to Jean's, Sophie and I are gonna spend the night with her."  I told him without much worry, I was used to making up white lies at this point, Soda would likely not even care that I was going into the big city tonight, maybe he'd even think it was tuff I was sneaking off to a high class bar with my socy friends.   

             "Ain't Jean that middle-class broad with the giant jugs?" Dally half-joked, it was almost a long running gag that we had, since he couldn't make a move on me, being three of the gangs' sister, he has always tried his best to get at my friends.    I just rolled my eyes and took another drag of my cigarette, lettings the boys' conversation go this way and that and just listen.  That's kinda been my go-to lately, when my mom and dad died three months ago I lost a lot of my talkative edge.  Shit it's been three months already... I pushed my body lightly off of the side of the house and dragged myself inside.  My room really was just a scraped out coat closet.  I ain't gonna complain too bad about it though, Darry really did make it alright and it wasn't even too small of a closet to begin with.  Hell, if we were able to fit my little mattress and even my record player I bought when I was 11, it can't have been that bad.  My stomach was beginning to feel a little green, I had been smoking like a chimney since I got home, and my room ain't too breezy so that tobacco stench really liked to hang around.   

           "Marlena?" I heard my oldest brother knocking at my door, he opened it and immediately looked a little peeved, "Oh lordy!  Did ya just set a whole carton of marbolos on fire?  It's a goddamn wildfire in here, you keep smoking like this and I'm gonna have to start checking what you buy at the store now, ya dig?"    

           "Yeah, I know.  Hey Darry?"  I said, without the slightest intention of cutting down on my habit, "I'm gonna go to Jean's tonight, Sophie will be there too, that cool?"    "That's fine" he said walking back to the kitchen.  I followed him out and just followed suit, he got a glass of water, I got one too.  We didn't even talk the whole time,  he's kinda been quiet lately too.  When our parents died in that accident everyone took on a different kind of burden, but sometimes I think Darry feels like he took the whole load, and maybe that's why he's so damn stressed. Coming home from the funeral with my brothers felt like I had just taken a few strangers from the graveyard and said "you'll do."  Darry used to be that real fun, hilarious older brother.  We used to go out all the time and just talk about everything.  We would talk about how mom was a little too harsh sometimes on people and that it was pretty funny that dad would just push her buttons when she would get annoyed by the little things.  My youngest brother, Ponyboy, well he just downright terrifies me the way their deaths changed him.  He didn't use to be so dreamy all the time, he always had a big imagination, but this time it's different, he tried to follow mom and dad's souls up to heaven and got stuck somewhere between space and the East Side.  Sodapop though, he seemed to take it the healthiest, he wasn't shy about bawling and howling like an idiot at the funeral.  He had to express how he felt, so he did.  But one thing that did change was the side of him people usually forgot about started to rear its ugly head just a little more every once in a while.  Soda is charming and nice, but he's also reckless and clumsy and he won't look before he just starts running.  I'm not trying to  but my brothers in  a bad light though, I certainly haven't been perfect since the accident either.

             Jean's dad was in the army, and her mom was a nurse, so they got along pretty okay.  She wasn't by any means rich, but she surely never had a shortage of cash by the end of the month.  Her house was just a quick bus ride from my neighborhood, it was two stories, well kept, and all the bathrooms were pink.  I knocked on the door and not even a second later it was the bermuda triangle of "can you answer that?" between her and her parents.  It was her mom who came to the door, she was a real neat lady.  Joan's mom was actually real tough, she had a hard life as a kid and she don't have the easiest job in the world.

    "Hello Marls!  Don't you look like a doll tonight?"  She smiled up at me, I am pretty tall for a girl and I usually tower over most ladies I meet. 

   "Thank-you Mrs. Massey, it's just my school clothes, but I figured it would be alright for tonight, ha," I tried my best to sound like a nice girl, but she was just so damn down to earth I really don't think she'd judge me too harsh.  She let me in and walked me all the way to Jean's room, asking about my brothers and if Pony was proud of himself that he came in 2nd at his last track meet.  It was nice talking to a mom.

      Jean popped up from the floor when I walked in, "You ready to leave soon?  I just gotta find my lipstick and Sophie will be here soon, we're gonna get burgers at Dairy Queen on the way out of  town, my mom gave me food money if any of us need."  she spoke briskly and with a butt-load of excitement. 

   "Yeah I'm all set" I giggled quietly as she threw tubes of makeup to the floor trying to find her token lipstick. She got it and we tumbled down the stairs just as Sophie was pulling up to the house.

[qveensbury]

ch3: the cleaning lady

ch 1    |     ch 2    |     AO3     |     ko-fi

Markl asked Sophie to meet in the Chemistry tutoring center. He needed to be available in an emergency and got called away in the middle of tutoring.

“You can sit at the Howl’s desk. I’ll be right back.”

Sophie reached across the desk and pulled out a highlighter. She underlined some parts of her reading. She began to put the highlighter back when she realized markers, highlighters, and pens were all over the desk. She began to arrange them in a penholder according to color.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

Sophie jumped up, straightening her back. She whirled around to the voice.

Howl was bent forward, looking at his desk.

“I was organizing. This makes more sense.”

“To you,” Howl took what was in her hands back, placing them back where they were. “I have a system.”

Sophie bristled.

“Sorry.” She moved out of his way.

“Oh, Howl. Sorry if I knew you were coming back, I’d have ask Sophie to sit somewhere else,” Markl closed the door behind him.

“It’s fine. We’ve come to an agreement.”

Sophie rolled her eyes. In the month of tutoring, she’d barely run into Howl. He kept floating in and out and Sophie couldn’t figure out if she wanted him to stay or go.

Howl found her in the library.

Sophie frowned at him as he made himself comfortable at her table. He was doing it again: invading her personal space, acting as if they knew each other.

“I’m avoiding a meeting with my advisor,” he mentioned.

“You’ve got to be joking with me.”

“She scares me half to death.”

“Howl, you’re what 23, 24?”

“24.”

“And you’re afraid of your research advisor?”

“I’m afraid I’ll disappoint her.”

Sophie raised an eyebrow.

Howl continued, “She has really high hopes for me.”

“Well, you can’t exactly meet them if you don’t do anything.”

He shrugged, opening his laptop.

“Go to your meeting.” And leave me alone so I can study.

He ignored her.  

“So you’re just not going to go?” Sophie gaped at him. “You have a year left in your program...What do I have to do? Walk you there like your first day of kindergarten.”

“Will you?” Howl bolted up.

“Will I what?” Sophie recoiled back.

“Walk me there.”

Sophie paused, unsure if he was pulling her leg. “Okay,” she responded with hesitation.

He began putting his things away.

She exhaled in defeat, clearing her things. “Lead the way.”

If Sophie thought Howl was lying, the waves of nervous energy coming off of him corroborated his story.

“Isn’t it just a check-in?”

“It is.”

“Aren’t you on schedule?”

“I am.”

“So why are you worried”

“Some stones should stay unturned. I don’t want to be pushed in a direction I don’t want to go in. I chose to go into Chemistry because of how close it was to magic. There’s so much good that can come from unlocking these mysteries, figuring out spells…” His face grew dark. “Somethings should be left alone. The school has this relationship with the Department of Defense and I’ve had professors introduce me to personnel and...I never want to be a part of a plot to take human lives. I’m afraid one day I’ll walk into a meeting and I’ll be up against the wall.” His tone shifted, mimicking someone, “Our most promising student, an asset to our country.”

“Can’t you plead your conscience?”

“In theory.”

“Isn’t theory right up your alley, Mr. Scientist?”

Howl laughed, throwing his head back, “You got me there.”

+

“How was the last meeting?” Markl opened a container of steamed rice and started dividing it between Howl, Sophie, and himself. Sophie and Howl continued unpacking the Chinese takeout.

“Had my good luck charm, so it went well.” Howl winked at Sophie, who snorted and rolled her eyes.

“Oh boy Sophie.” Markl snorted. “How do you put up with it?”

“You guys started feeding me and giving me coffee. I’m impossible to get rid of now.”

“We’d never let you go!” Howl leaned forward grinning.

Sophie had to remind herself that his eyes only sparkled more because Howl died his hair black.

‘My professor take me more serious like this.’

Only because his hair was different, right.

Lettie had midterms around the corner and trusted Sophie’s new friends would be decent fill-ins.

Instead of listening to Business department gossip or what happened at the coffee shop Lettie worked at, Sophie did her art homework to chemistry fun facts and mini research presentations.

This was the latest one about Howl’s compost experiment.

+

Of all the meetings to be late.

Sophie huffed crossing her arms.

She pulled her phone and sent him several texts. Her knees bounced up and down.

She checked both sides of the hallway. She sighed again. Howl was close to being ten minutes late.

Sophie knocked on the door.

“Come in.”

She followed the instructions. “Hello Dr. Sulliman.”

“Yes?” The older woman appraised Sophie.

Sophie felt her corduroy overalls threw a neon “Unpolished” over her head. “Doctor Sulliman, hello. My name is Sophie. I’m Howl’s friend. He’s running late and I didn’t want you to think he’s skipping his meeting.”

Dr. Sulliman pressed her lips together in a line and turned to her computer.

“Howl should be here soon,” Sophie blurted. “He was telling me about his last experiment and I’m sure you’ll find it fascinating. He’s really passionate about plants. I didn’t even think you could make a connection between chemistry and plants but the biochemistry bridge Howl explained really put it all together. What pun did he use again? Something about a blossoming bridge because it was still kinda new.” Sophie chuckled. “I’m sure you know this but he’s really good at, I mean he’s very skilled in breaking down big science concepts. Howl didn’t patronize me because I’m not in the sciences and avoid showing me what he’s working on or discovered. And he makes it super accessible. But it’s still so amazing.”

Dr. Sulliman raised a hand. “Howl’s appoint was actually rescheduled for 2:45 not 2:30.”

Oh. Sophie felt her face burn as the blush marched across her cheeks.

“But, I see Howl has some good friends. We’ve been wondering who has been getting Mr. Pendragon to show up to his meetings. We sort of figured it was a person who caught Howl’s eye he was trying to mature for.” Dr. Sulliman leaned forward and rested her chin on her bridged fingers. “But, I never imagined flighty Howl would enamor such a practical girl. Blossoming, bloom, an apt word for your relationship. I’ve seen your disposition towards Howl change.” The older woman smiled, “You’re in love.”

Sophie couldn’t breathe. Her ears started ringing. “I’m sorry. You must--”

“Sulliman!” Howl opened the office door. “You won't believe what my freshmen did in lab today. Next year we’re going to crush Ingary U in the state competition. Oh! Sophie.”

“I was just leaving!” She shot up clutching her bag to her body. “I mixed up the times. I’ll let you finish. Goodbye Dr. Sulliman.”

“Goodbye dear. Do consider what I said.”

“Later Soph.”

“Bye,” she squeaked.

next >>

[missvalerietanner]

The Unseen Soldier | Part 39 | Up In Smoke

Subject: Hades & Persephone (aka Aiden & Sophie)

Genre: Southern Gothic retelling

Words: 1,766

Summary: Sophie chooses her ending.

Updates every Sunday! Click to read.

Midnight.

The weather was calm, and the forest was cool.

Sophie stood on steady legs with fire nipping at the ends of her hair. Aiden stood at her back, and before her Harvesters stood before each panel of the mirrored wall. Among the silence of the forest, she drew in a long, slow breath and began.

The Harvesters raised their arms as one and struck the glass with their bony fingers. Their claws dragged down the surface, sending high pitched screeches into the air. Fresh scratches disrupted the pristine glass, marring it face, but they continued, urged onward by Sophie’s orders.

They withdrew their bony claws and struck at the glass again and again, lashing against its like a whip striking a victim’s back. They clawed and swiped, tearing through the glass without pain, and with each pass, the glass grew weaker, more unstable. Fragments began to crack and separate from the whole and fall to the ground and land at the ends of their dirty robes.

Sophie squeezed her eyes tight and clenched her jaw to suppress a pained groan as she shifted on her feet. The flames fully engulfed her hair now, lifting her orange strands in waves that cracked and weaved behind her head, lashing hungrily at the open air like tongues.

Aiden stood to her side suffering in silence.

Don’t touch me. Don’t leave me.

The two things she requested of him before setting out tonight, and he had promised to oblige. But watching her struggle now, watching her flinch beneath the pain of her own power, and listening to her moan in agony--it was breaking him not to intervene. But this was her idea, her solution, and their last resort. So he kept his distance despite the ache in his bones telling him to react.

With a sharp, splintering crack that bit at their ear drums, the interior mirrors fell into piles of broken shards as sharp as spears. Urged onward by Sophie’s drive, the Harvesters attacked the exterior mirrors with fierce dedication. They stood as the final barrier between the forest and the town, and the Harvesters were eager now, staring for the chance to touch the town and taste its air.

Sophie whimpered and stumbled forward, mashing her teeth harder to keep from screaming as the boiling heat of the Hollow flooded through her veins asif her blood were gasoline ignited by the match of her anger, her rejection from the town, and her desperation to save people who refused to save themselves. She focused on that anger and let it warm her.

She stumbled forward again and caught herself on the wooden frame of the Wall. The broken shards still clinging to its sides cut into her palms and set rivers of blood streaking down the wood. But she didn’t feel the cuts or the sting of the glass biting into her skin.

She felt only a warmth spreading through her limbs as the fire leaked from her hair and danced down her arms and around the curve of her hands. The flames ignited her blood and gobbled up the entirety of the frame. The flames incinerated the wood in a flash, leaving ashes in their wake.

The fire spread like a cancer across the frame, chasing down the paths on either side of her to complete the circle on the other sides. As the flames of the Hollow reached the Harvesters, they reeled back their jawless heads and stared to the ebony, cloudless night sky with those empty eye sockets and screamed as if they themselves were burning.

The sound of their screeches pierced Aiden’s ears, and he clamped his hands against the sides of his face to block their shrill cry. The three dogs whimpered at his back and dropped their heads to the ground, seeking any kind of relief from the noise.

Outside the Wall, the whole of the town was awakened at once by the shrieks. Families exited their homes as one and hurried to the outskirts of town to see the Wall for themselves, to prove it was still there. Others cowered inside or on their porches, shielding their ears from the piercing howls.

But all of the town could see the smoke rising from the forest’s edge in hefty gray puffs reaching high into the sky. And those who dared to reach the Wall witnessed the wrath of the flames burning the frame to the ground; they felt the scorching heat against their skins and wiped sweat from their brows despite the chill in the air.

The Harvesters’ fingers pierced the glass and dragged down, shattering the mirrors from the backside. The heat singed their bones, leaving black stains on their brittle bodies. Many of the Harvesters’ robes caught fire and were eaten away in seconds, leaving the frail, skeletal body behind without cover. Their slender gray bodies slouching forward ended with rounded ankle bones protruding through torn skin that now dangled for all to see.

The townspeople began to scream as they watched the outer mirror being ripped to shreds like fabric before their eyes. Soon, the black, eyeless and open maws of the Harvesters came into view through the holes, and the townspeople began to huddle together for safety. A few of them thought clear enough to bring weapons: rifles and shotguns. A few of the housewives wielded knives while the rest shielded their children from watching the destruction.

Amid the screams and roaring fire, through the haze of the smoked filled town lit up by lanterns and flickering street lamps, the exterior mirrors fell in a wave, dropping with a crash that silenced the Harvesters and the townspeople at once. The fire faded from life when the last of the wooden frame rotted beneath its heat, and all that remained was a crowd of people staring wide-eyed and terrified into the faces of the naked Harvesters with burned skin and charred fragments of their robes hanging in ropes from their misshapen figures.

With a soft exhale, Sophie collapsed. Aiden rushed forward to catch her in his arms, but he stumbled to his knees in his haste. He curled his large arms around her ashen body and cradled her at his chest. He tried to wipe away the stains of the fire from her face, but his sweaty fingers only smudged the ash into gray streaks across her face.

Her hair had returned to its normal orange thickness, and it too was covered in soot, lying lax beneath her head and entlanged among his arm as he held her. Her chest rose and fell in long, slow bursts, proving she was alive but unable to witness the remains of her success.

The Harvesters lingered at the edge of the forest, wavering forward and backward like dogs testing the strength of their leash. The shrinking group of frightened townspeople wavered on nervous legs. Most had already departed, running back to the safety of the town while the bravest remained, too curious and too hypnotized to look away.

Aiden stroked Sophie’s arms, hoping to wake her from whatever darkness held her under.

“Come on, darlin’. Come back.” He glanced between the leashed Harvesters and the terrified and huddled mass of people. “I need you to take charge again.”

From outside the remains of the Wall, Denise watched the remaining embers die away. Her eyes were locked on the Harvesters; their hideous, jawless faces gaping at her, and their black, empty eye holes staring through her rattled her bones with chills. Somewhere in the distance of her foggy mind, she felt someone shaking her shoulder and shouting her name--but to her ears, the shouts were a whisper lost in a daze.

“Denise,” Susanna shook her shoulder violently, trying to jar her out of her stupor. “What do we do now? Those creatures--Denise!”

But Denise could only stare back at the Harvesters while her daughter's words looped in her head.

“I’ve made my choice, Mother.”

“I will not apologize for finding my true place in the world.”

“If you care about me as much as you claim you do, then you will think hard on what I’ve said.”

Denise blinked and tore her eyes from the creatures. She scanned the remains of her Wall, of all her hard work and rage, and at the center the destruction, she saw the Soldier kneeling in the mud with Sophie cradled in his arms.

“My…” she huffed a panicked breath and reached forward. “My baby girl.”

“Denise,” Susanna shook her shoulder again. “We should go, get away from this place before—”

Denise heard none of her friend’s pleading words. She didn’t notice when Susanna dropped her hand from her shoulder and left the scene to seek shelter in town. Denise didn’t notice when the others left her too. She didn’t notice when she was the last person standing on the blacktop under the hissing streetlamp in the center of a pack of carnivorous creatures. All she focused on was her daughter at its center and the man who took her from her.

Aiden swallowed his worry and slid his arm under her knees to lift her from the muddy earth. He rose to his feet and drew her body close against his chest, folding her small frame into a half-circle so that his body would shelter her from the cooling wind on the way back home.

But before Aiden turned away, he felt someone’s eyes on him, watching him, judging him.

Denise watched the Soldier raise his head, and for the first time, she looked the beast in his light gray eyes--the eyes of his mother. She almost felt pity for him, recalling all his mother suffered through before she finally took her own life. But that was a long time ago, and it didn’t excuse what he had done now to her baby. But she found her muscles refused to move under the watchful eyes of those hideous monsters; and so she just stared back at the Soldier as he frowned, shook his head, and turned from her. He disappeared among the thickness of the trees along with her daughter.

Denise released a heavy sigh and stumbled backward, finally able to feel her legs again. As the final smoke clouds cleared from the forest, she saw the Harvesters turn their heads as one, all of them looking to the path where the Soldier disappeared. And they followed him, leaving her and the town untouched.

A sob left her throat like a cough, and Denise sank to her knees and wept in silence beneath the clearing skies.

[lucybelle00]

The Silentbrother's carriage had always made Tessa feel anxious. The way it drove through objects and over landforms like a ghost, and though she knew that they would pass through the closed gates of the institute, it never ceased to unsettle her.

Today was different though. She was anxious, but for another reason entirely.

She was done up in a simple olive dress that unbuttoned down the front—though it had to be, Tessa mused. Little James seemed to eat more than his father did. Her hair was braided simply and held at the back of her neck by a silver hair pin. She saw no need to dress up for the Silent City, even if Jem was there. He hardly cared for her physical appearance.

Across from Tessa sat her husband, his face obscured by dark curls as his head was bent looking at a small swaddled up bundle in his arms. Will had been that way the entire ride—looking up briefly at Tessa when James would open his eyes or coo the way babies did. Three times already had Will jerked up to exclaim, "Tess. Tessa, look. Look at him. Watch."

She had smiled and shared his joy, though her mind was elsewhere.

Jem.

She ran over every possible thought that he might have about her and Will's small son. Happiness for one she was sure. It was Jem, he would always be happy for anything that brought happiness to Will or herself. Though she wondered, that in his secret heart of hearts if perhaps there would be some sadness, or worse, betrayal. She worried what he would think of her baby's name, James. If he would look at it and think they had named him that as a memoir. That he was only a memory to them, and that they had forgotten he lived still.

Jem had not seen James yet, though he had been to the Institute on account of Will's broken arm—that for one reason or another couldn't have been healed with an iratze—when Tessa was eight months with James. Jem had known of the child before of course. It was he who had told her of him when she visited him on Blackfriars Bridge as they did every year.

They had sat against the balustrade of the bridge, hands laced. Tessa knew that he did not feel the physical contact. Not like she did at any rate, but he knew that she could feel it.

They had talked of everything—of her and Will, all the new children that just kept showing up—Cecily and Gabriel's, Charlotte and Henry's, Sophie and Gideon's. She told him all the stories she had stored in her mind over the last year. The ones that she had turned to tell him only to realize that he was not there. That he was far beneath the stones and graves in the Silent City. They had sat almost the whole hour before his voice came in her mind, suddenly different from the tone he had used before. She didn't imagine that most Silentbrothers really had a tone, and perhaps that was true for the rest, but she could always tell even the slightest change in Jem's.

Tessa, he had said. And then he had said it. It had been blunt, and she had sat still, her hand going stiff in his, her mind racing. Elation was the first thing she felt. Then worry, and then fear. Was Jem hurt by it? Did he resent the blessing he had given her and Will?

Of course, Jem was there to comfort her and quell the thoughts.

I do not think ill of you, he had said. Neither do I think ill of Will. If there are two people who deserve happiness any more than you both, I could not name them. Will and I were one—we still are at one in our hearts, despite the physical distance, and you share both our hearts as well. To hate my own heart—to not feel joy when my heart does, he paused. Tessa, when you or Will rejoice, I rejoice. When you feel pain, I feel pain. Will once told me that I was his compass, and now it is his turn, and yours, to be my compass. We shared our hearts when we were young, and yours still beats and breaths and burns. And in that way, so does mine. Our hearts beat together, Tessa.

James cooed again and Will let out a laugh and his face broke out into an even larger grin. "Tess. Tess, look."

She did. Little Jamie had both eyes open, and though they were unfocused as newborns were, he was staring up at Will, two pink chubby arms reaching out. Will laughed as James grabbed at one of his wayward curls, gripping and pulling his father's head down.

It wasn't hard for him to grab. Will hadn't cut his hair and had hardly shaved in the last months of her pregnancy and the days following the delivery. He had been so worried and anxious and excited—more so than even herself.

"He's got a good grip," Will said, still laughing. Tessa moved over to the side he was seated on and leaned over his shoulder to peer down at their son. What they had created together.

"Hello Jamie," she said rubbing back his dark wisps, the same color as his father's, from his face. She would have held him, but she could not bear to take him away from Will. Ever since he had arrived Will had hardly set him down or given anyone else a turn, except for Tessa of course, though she had let him keep James for the most part, which usually included any time he wasn't eating or sleeping, and even then he liked to hold him as he slept.

James pulled at his father’s curls again, this time harder so that Will's head was further down and he could reach up and get another handful of black hair.

"Now why didn't I think of that," Tessa said, still petting at her son. "James, I might have to steal your idea. It seems to keep him in line doesn't it." And it had. The whole time James was having his fun gripping and pulling, Will had sat still, smiling down through his winces.

The carriage lurched to a halt, James fists losing from Will's hair and a cry tearing from his throat. It appeared he had not liked the sudden stop anymore that Tessa did, though, like his father, he was quite inclined to share his opinion on the subject.

"Hey now," Will said pulling him up to hold him close and rock him. It was such a funny sight, Tessa thought. Will had only grown broader since they had married, his arms now larger and more muscular than ever, and James looked so tiny in them. Though there was something else, less funny about it. The muscular arms around their son spoke a silent vow to keep him safe, to guard him against anything that might try to hurt him, and to comfort him should he need it.

The door to the carriage opened and a Silentbrother stood, hood drawn back. Welcome to the City of Bones, Herondale family. He held a stiff arm out towards the entrance.

Tessa held her breath. Will handed James over to her, carefully so that his head did not bob, and then exited the carriage. When he was down he helped her out, more help than was required by propriety, but Will had been nervous about her after the birth anyway, as it had not been an easy one, and she held their child in her arms.

The Brother led them into the Silent City and through the stone halls. Tessa was used to them by now though, and they no longer made her feel nervous or frightened. They shouldn't have. She had been here enough times, very few times that weren’t in reason with Will and his antics to see his parabatai, and though she never minded seeing him and was glad at any chance, she sometimes wished she did not have to discuss her husband's broken green toe with Brother Enoch, who took it in an uncomfortably serious manner.

I suspect, said Brother Enoch in front of them now, having been the one to lead them in, that you wish for Brother Zachariah to perform the ceremony.

"I will have no one else," Will sounded absolute.

Brother Enoch did not respond, only continued to lead them down a series of winding hallways to a far door in one corridor.

Sister Magdalen and Brother Zachariah await you, was all he said.

Tessa and Will stopped outside the door. Will did not look at her, only straight ahead at the stone door. Tessa could see the excitement—it was the same look on his face every time he got to see Jem—but she could also see the worry in his posture and his blue eyes and she wondered if perhaps he had the same fears she did.

Holding James tighter to her bosom, she walked forward to the door. Will, seeming to come out of his daze, opened the door for her and allowed her to enter before doing the same and then closing it behind him.

The room was dimly lit by witchlight, as everything in the Silent City was, giving it an eerie glow and a cast shadows in every corner. In the middle of the room was a stone table, where she assumed she was to set her son. It looked very hard and unwelcoming to a newborn.

"Brother Zachariah," said Will, even though he detested calling Jem that, there was an Iron Sister in the room and he did not want to get him in any trouble. "Sister Magdalen. We are here for the protection ritual for our son."

"We are aware what you are here for, William and Theresa Herondale," Sister Magdalen said. There was nothing harsh in her tone, neither was there anything welcoming, as was the case with the Brothers and Sisters of the Nephilim. It made Tessa see just how set apart Jem really was from them all. "Place the child on the stone slab and we shall begin."

Jem had stood in the background, though when Tessa walked forward with the child he did the same, stopping at the table and pulling his hood back to expose his young face and closed eyes. The marks of the Brotherhood stood out stark on his cheekbones.

Tessa wrapped her sons blanket around him tighter as she went to place him on the table, though Will held up a hand to halt her and took his jacket off to place it on the table in a bundle so that it made a cradle of sort.

Smiling at the gesture, she pulled her son from her chest and laid him down on his father's jacket. Jem stayed on one side of the table while Sister Magdalen moved to the other.

Then Jem spoke for the first time since they had entered the room.

And what is his name, he asked.

Tessa went still and looked to Will.

It was a moment before he spoke.

"His name is James," he said. "James Herondale."

The room seemed to go quieter than it already was. Even the howling dead seemed to still.

Little James cooed, breaking the void, and outstretched his tiny arms upward towards Jem, something his did often to Will and Tessa, but hardly to anyone else.

Jem stood stonily above him, his closed eyes staring down at James unseeingly. Though Tessa did not doubt that he saw. He saw more than anyone else, she believed. He had always seen her, he had seen Will, and the Brotherhood could not change that.

Then he turned, slowly, away from the table. Tessa was about to go forward but then he took his scarred hands and covered his equally scarred face, his shoulders turning in, and though he made no sound, Tessa knew he was weeping.

James continued to coo and make soft noises in the background.

This is my interpretation of the picture by Cassandra Jean. I’m not stealing her art, just using it as inspiration and I thought I’d post it with the story. We all know who drew it anyway. All characters are Cassandra Clare. Hope you guys liked it :)

art source: Cassandra Jean

Edit: I’m trying to get my followers up, so if you follow me, I’ll write a scene for you of your choice. I mean obviously there’s a limit on how much I can write, but for the first followers, let’s say 20 (if I ever get that many). Just write in the comments on here what you want me to write. Anything after 20 I’ll sift through and see if I love them.