Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

1878, London Institute.

Tessa, I must tell you that when I received Charlotte’s demand to come here, it was against my wishes. 

Tessa, still delirious from her week-long period of unconsciousness after Changing into the angel Ithuriel to defeat Axel Mortmain in battle, felt the telepathic words of the Silent Brother by her side ring through her ears. This Silent Brother was unlike any other Silent Brother, though – it was her once-lover, Jem.

“Why?” she asked, her eyes narrowing. 

Because you are a reminder of everything I am losing … the life I will not have.

Tessa had Changed many times, her soul being replaced by another’s every time. The sensation she felt at this moment was as if she was about to Change – she almost felt as if her soul was being ripped from her body, but this time with no replacement but the heavy weight of guilt.

I heard what happened.

“Jem, what do you mean?” Tessa played dumb, but her mind flashed back to what had happened the week prior in the dungeon with Will. After being informed of what they thought had been Jem’s death through Will feeling his parabatai bond with Jem being severed, Will and Tessa had ended up making sweet love in the dungeon of Mortmain’s lair. 

Throughout my time at the Institute, I’ve felt as if I’ve been treated like an afterthought. When you came, I thought, stupidly, that me being an afterthought would change. You made me feel special and loved for the first time since I came here from Shanghai. The demon who poisoned me drained the life out of me, and you brought that life back to me, but like everything, I’ve been slowly realizing that was all a façade. That’s why I chose life, Tessa.

Tessa panicked, “Jem- I’m so sorry, I had no id-” 

You can’t say that when you’ve known the whole time that your heart was torn.

Even through her hurt at Jem’s confession, Tessa could hear loud and panicked footsteps from outside the door. She knew that gait by heart, but she didn’t have to rely on her knowledge for long, as Will burst through the door just as Jem was finishing his speech. 

“Tessa, I’ve come with good-” Will stopped in his tracks when he noticed his former parabatai standing at Tessa’s bedside. “Jem?”

Will…

Through panicked gasps and sobs, Tessa tried to reach for Will. “Will- how much of that did you hear?” 

I hope you heard all of it, Jem telepathized to Will. Because, to be quite honest, I don’t want to explain my case to someone who I know won’t listen. 

“Heard what?” Will tilted his head in confusion. “I can’t possibly imagine what you could be talking– well, telepathizing about.” Will was about to laugh at his own joke, but Jem stopped him.

I know you’re about to laugh at your own so-called wittiness. I know you so well, but it feels like you don’t know me.

Will took a step forward. “We were parabatai. I know you better than anyone. Don’t be silly!” 

Easy for you to say. Everything is silly to you. 

“Jem, this isn’t you!” Tessa interjected from her bed. 

Will laughed. “Of course. It’s Brother Zachariah.” 

Jem threw his head back in desperation. Point proven, he telepathized. 

“No, but seriously,” said Will with a sigh in his voice. “What are you even talking about?”

Not usually one to notice things, Will noticed a tear rolling down Jem’s cheek, an indicator that the yin fen poisoning from which Jem suffered had prevented him from undergoing a full transformation into a Silent Brother, allowing him to keep more of his humanity than the other Silent Brothers. Enough of his humanity had been stripped from him so that he could no longer speak, only communicate telepathically, but the humanity that allowed for crying still remained in him. 

I can’t take this anymore. Jem would have been close to screaming if he could talk, and Will and Tessa should have been able to feel his exasperation through his telepathic communication. 

“Take what?” Will looked concerned, but both he and Tessa could tell that Jem was having none of it. 

Being treated like an afterthought. As I was telling Tessa, I’ve always felt secondary ever since I came to the institute. And useless too. It was always Will and Jem, or poor sick Jem, never just Jem. 

Will shook his head. “You’re not an afterthought. You’re not secondary. You never have been. What are you going on about? Is this some sort of weird side effect of becoming a Silent Brother?”

If I’m not secondary to you two, Jem looked at Will and then Tessa, then why was your first reaction to what you must have thought was my death to make love in the dungeon of Mortmain’s lair? 

“We thought you’d support our love…” Tessa panicked, trying to save the situation.

Because you’re all used to me letting you walk all over me. I’ve had enough of being fine with everything. Some lover you’ve been, Tessa, and some parabatai you’ve been, Will. And with what seemed like a flash, Jem was gone. 

Will looked down at Tessa before taking a seat on the rickety chair next to her bed. The chair was built in such a way that sitting down on it made Will feel like his bones were being stabbed, but the pain he felt from sitting was still not as deep as the pain he felt from Jem’s heart-wrenching confession. 

“I guess he was hurting much more than we realized,” said Tessa, her cheeks still wet from her own tears. 

Will thought for a moment about how he should react. After a few moments of staring blankly into Tessa’s eyes, he sighed and threw his hands up in despair. “Ugh! He ruined everything. Now I feel guilty for loving you!” 

Tessa reached her hand out, and Will reluctantly took it. “I know his heart, Will,” she consoled. “I know this wasn’t him. You were probably right that him acting out is a weird side effect of becoming a Silent Brother.” 

Will looked confused. “You’ve nearly memorized the Shadowhunter’s Codex, haven’t you? Is there anything about this in there?”

Tessa flipped onto her side so that she could put her free hand on top of Will’s. “Anything is possible.” 

———

1937, London Institute. 

Will had accomplished a lot in the past fifty-nine years. He had been appointed the head of the London Institute after Charlotte Branwell became the head of the Clave and relocated to Idris. He and Tessa had become the parents of two children, Henry and Lucie – Will wondered if the former would have been named James in honor of Jem if not for their falling out. Most importantly, he had loved Tessa, even though the guilt induced by Jem’s confession occasionally nagged at him. After all, it wasn’t like that guilt nagged at him often. It was more like a bi-decadal nag, much like the bi-annual Will-is-a-lunatic meeting that Jem had joked about during their time as parabatai. To go back to those days, Will thought, but only twice every ten years. The rest of the time, Jem was not on his mind. 

As Will laid in what very well could have been his deathbed, that bi-decadal guilt began to nag at him again. You shouldn’t love Tessa, the voice in his head told him. You were not the considerate parabatai you thought you were. 

Usually, Will could brush the guilt away by reminding himself that his brain had lied to him about having a demon curse that made him unloveable with the punishment for loving him being death. But this time, that tactic failed to work. Will closed his eyes and did something he rarely did: 

He thought. 

For the first time since Jem’s confession, Will allowed himself to sink deep into thought about the whole situation. He had spent nearly sixty years avoiding true, deep reflection – maybe it was his impending death that caused a switch to flip in his brain, but he started to think.

Was I a bad parabatai?

Were Tessa and I actually wrong for what we did?

Did I treat Jem as secondary to me?

Thoughts of this nature flooded through Will’s head for what felt like hours. At one point, the thoughts became so intensely shame-striking that Will began crying and convulsing, causing Tessa to grab him and shake him awake. 

“Will, no! Don’t leave me!” Will heard Tessa scream and became aware of a soft wetness on his chest from her tears. 

At that moment, Will opened his eyes. “I won’t. Not ever.” 

Tessa was relieved that Will had not died just yet, but confused at his statement, as his death was clearly impending. Tessa knew she would outlive her husband, as her status as a warlock granted her immortality, while Will, as a Shadowhunter, was mortal. “What do you mean, you won’t, not ever?” 

Will sat up and looked at Tessa with the same sincere intensity that Tessa had looked at him with nearly sixty years earlier after Jem’s confession. “I want to become immortal.” 

“Are you serious?” Tessa’s face lit up.

“Yes,” Will said with a confident smile. “I would give up being a Shadowhunter just to spend eternal life with you.” 

It wasn’t just about Tessa, though. Will wanted to find Jem, who had spent the past fifty-nine years seemingly avoiding London. Tessa and Will had both expected to run into him at some point through his Silent Brother duties, but they never did, so Will had thought that Jem had been avoiding him and Tessa purposefully. 

Tessa felt her lips curl into a soft smile at the prospect of getting to love Will for eternity rather than letting him go like she had expected to do, but her happiness quickly turned into confusion. “Will… how?”

Will shrugged. “I don’t know,” he said.

”You don’t know a lot of things, my love,” said Tessa with a sympathetic yet somewhat condescending tone. 

“That’s true, I guess.” Will reached his hand out for Tessa to hold. “But what I do know is that I want to spend eternity with you.” 

“That’s fair,” said Tessa, taking Will’s hand in hers. “Say, I wonder what Magnus Bane is doing these days.” 

”Last I heard, he was in New York,” replied Will. “So? What do you say? Shall we go?”

Tessa nodded. The next day, the couple were off to New York to consult with the all-knowing and ever-so-helpful Magnus about potentially having Will become a vampire in order to gain immortality. 

When Tessa and Will met with Magnus at his shut-down speakeasy in New York and proposed the idea of Will’s immortality, they saw Magnus narrowing his eyes and tilting his head. “Why?” 

“Because I want to,” retorted Will, feisty even in his old age. “Can’t I just do what I want because I want to?” 

“He’s not gonna buy that, Will, and you know that,” said Tessa, elbowing Will gently. “Tell him the real reason.” 

“Here goes nothing.” Will let out a sigh. “I need to make things right with Jem.” 

“Seriously?” Magnus asked. “Your old parabatai who became a Silent Brother because you and Tessa treated him as such an afterthought that he felt like he had to give up his voice and half of his humanity just to feel centered in his own life for once?” 

“Yes, exactly that,” said Will. “I felt a pang of guilt that almost killed me, so I feel like… I need to resolve this before I die.” 

“And that means you need to be immortal because…?” Magnus looked confused. Never in his hundreds of years of living had he encountered such a bizarre situation. 

“What better way to make sure that happens than making it so that I never die?” 

Confronting the ever-dense man who had asked him to heal a curse that never existed nearly sixty years prior in the best way he knew how to, Magnus looked into Will’s eyes and said, “Will, are you fucking dumb?” 

Will looked offended, even though he had been hearing these types of comments for his entire seventy-six years on Earth. “Yes, maybe I am. But the age of foolishness is also the age of wisdom. Right, Tessa?” 

Tessa rolled her eyes at Will’s blatant misinterpretation of the opening of her beloved A Tale of Two Cities, but played along anyway in order to help Will. “Yes, absolutely!” 

“Sigh. Okay. Fine,” Magnus said, shaking his head in defeat as Will and Tessa smiled and sputtered their gratitudes. “I’ll find you a vampire to turn you. Camille is out of the question. We broke up. I think the falling-out we had was nastier than you and Jem.” 

Will’s head tilted to the side in confusion. “That’s possible?” 

“Yeah,” Magnus replied with a wistful look in his eyes. “But let’s not talk about that. Would you like to be restored to a youthful appearance?” 

Will nodded. “That would be nice. I don’t like being ugly.”

Tessa started to laugh when she found herself cut off by Will. 

“Did you just call me ugly?!” Will’s cheeks went red in anger. 

“Yeah,” said Tessa with a laugh.

“You’re right,” said Will, his voice and face softening. Tessa had grown to enjoy a good bit throughout her marriage to Will, but behind the playful façade, Tessa’s love for Will was strong. She truly thought he was beautiful, and he thought the same of her. 

Magnus couldn’t help but let out a soft chuckle. “I’ll find you someone,” he said. “Come with me.” And with that, Magnus led Will and Tessa to a den of vampires.

——

2025, London.

“Ugh, I’m bored,” said Will, collapsing onto the sofa in the living room and immediately pulling out his phone to scroll on TikTok. Tessa, with whom Will shared a luxurious flat in London, appeared to be busy, presumably with organizing her project for her favorite band’s upcoming European tour. Will and Tessa had both recently fallen in love with Korean idol-pop, with Tessa taking a liking to the group Stray Kids, Will falling in love with MONSTA X, and their tastes uniting with ENHYPEN. The ever-passionate and driven Tessa had taken it upon herself to organize a project for fans to show support for Stray Kids at their tour stop in London, and Will was behind her every step of the way. 

Tessa looked up from her work. “If you’re so bored, why don’t you help me paste the instructions for the fan project to the banners?” 

Will rolled his eyes. “No, that’s boooooring,” he said, not even looking up from TikTok. Maybe he wasn’t behind her every step of the way, but he was behind her for most of it. Or some of it. Tessa was grateful for his presence nonetheless. 

“Whatever,” said Tessa. “At least my Bang Chan photocard is here to motivate me.” 

Will scoffed and continued scrolling on TikTok. As usual, he became engrossed in a series of videos in which an AI-generated voice recited unbelievable stories from Reddit while Subway Surfers gameplay rolled in the background. His favorite account for this type of content was @parisienne_ame, who also sometimes posted videos of their conversations with ChatGPT about astrology. 

After nearly fifteen minutes of scrolling through @parisienne_ame’s account, Will decided to go back to his “For You” page and see what the algorithm had to offer him that day. He scrolled mindlessly for a minute or two until he landed on an eye-catching video of a young man with almost-iridescent silver hair dancing to a catchy song with violins integrated seamlessly into the TikTok-y beat. The song appeared to be of the user’s own creation, given that the user was known as @lilunicorn11 on TikTok and the song was by an artist known as Lil Unicorn. Will chuckled at the stage name, but was drawn in by Lil Unicorn’s alluring looks, fluid dancing, and most of all, the lyrics to the song. 

“You just never seemed so happy, always hated what you had, 

Cause you didn’t know you loved me ‘till you lost my moneybags.” 

Chapter Text

Will could have easily brushed off Lil Unicorn as yet another silly, self-important, braggadocious TikTok singer, but there was something about the strange man that made Will think that there was more to Lil Unicorn than meets the eye and ear. Intrigued, he watched the video on loop as gears turned in his brain, scrolling back up to it whenever TikTok tried to auto-scroll him away from it. 

Nearly ten minutes passed of Will doing this, and Tessa was getting tired of hearing the same thirty-second snippet over and over again. “You okay, Will?” She said, barely looking up from her Stray Kids banners. 

Will didn’t hear her. All he could hear was Lil Unicorn singing about his moneybags, which Will wondered if they were real or metaphorical. 

Exasperated, Tessa got up from the table and walked over to Will, who immediately locked his phone upon sensing her presence. “What is it, Tessa?”

”Are you okay? You’ve been watching the same TikTok on loop for what feels like an eternity,” said Tessa, standing over Will. 

“It’s nothing! I just… found a new artist I like on TikTok.” Will replied. 

Tessa shrugged. “Okay, suit yourself,” she said as she walked back to her table to continue working on her fan project. She had been listening to Stray Kids on her headphones before, but after walking away from Will, she decided to connect her phone to her Bluetooth speaker instead and blast “Wolfgang” on full volume. 

Infuriated by Tessa’s decision to drown out Lil Unicorn, Will got up from the sofa and stormed over to the table. “Did you have to?” asked Will, emphasizing the “have” in an attempt to appeal to Tessa’s love for him. 

“Yeah, it was getting annoying,” said Tessa with a nod. “Why don’t you come join me? I still have a lot of instructions to paste and then I have to pack them all up for next week’s concert. Oh, and before I even pack them up, I have to take some pictures to promote the project on Instagram and Twitter.” 

Will sighed and agreed to join Tessa in this oh-so-arduous endeavor that she had taken on. For the next hour, he found comfort in cutting out pieces of paper instructing Stray Kids concertgoers on when and how to hold up the thousands of banners Tessa had gotten printed, pasting those papers to the banners, setting up the ring lighting for Tessa to take promotional photos of the banners, and helping her pack the banners into boxes to take to the concert. 

After they finished setting everything up, it was time to eat dinner, and after they finished eating dinner, it was time for them to go to sleep. But even as Will curled up in bed with Tessa in his arms, he couldn’t take his mind off of the TikTok he had seen earlier that evening. 

——

The next day, Will woke up to an empty bed. Taking advantage of Tessa’s absence, he immediately reached for his phone and opened TikTok. It was unsurprising but incredibly joy-inducing that the first video on Will’s “For You” page was a new video posted by Lil Unicorn. He was dancing to “Moneybags” again, which Will later discovered had gone viral on another side of TikTok due to its catchiness. Not having been able to do so the day before, Will clicked on Lil Unicorn’s profile and immediately hit the “follow” button. 

After finally following Lil Unicorn, Will decided to take a few minutes to scroll through Lil Unicorn’s videos, mostly consisting of dance challenges, videos with his friends, and videos following the latest trends on TikTok. Will stumbled upon a particularly concerning yet compelling video in the latter category: 

@lilunicorn11

lil unicorn loredrop of the day: i used to be addicted to demon drugs lmao

Your Love Is My Drug - Kesha 

“Hm, what an interesting story. I hope he’s okay,” said Will to himself. He scrolled down to the next video, which consisted of Lil Unicorn going to a fashion event with five people who appeared to be his close friends. 

@lilunicorn11

went to see @malikai_leblanc on the runway today with @elliexu @chelsiialder @kimbyulyi_ and @dovemariea ! 6S4L always gotta show up for each other iktr

scenez - Lil Unicorn

“6S4L?” Will asked himself. “What does that mean? The song is good though.” 

Will continued scrolling through Lil Unicorn’s page. He eventually figured out that 6S4L stood for “six Shadowhunters for life” and was Lil Unicorn’s core friend group consisting of, well, six young Shadowhunters residing in London. It appeared that one of those six Shadowhunters, Malikai, was a famous model who used his platform to share Shadowhunter culture with the world and promote unity between Shadowhunters, Downworlders, and the mundane world, as Shadowhunters referred to the non-Shadow world. 

Wow, Will thought to himself, Lil Unicorn really is famous. 

As he scrolled, he discovered a video from that January of Lil Unicorn and another member of 6S4L, Dove-Marie, vlogging their attendance at the K-pop group ATEEZ’s recent concert in London. 

@lilunicorn11 

saw ateez today with @dovemariea <3 i almost cried at silver light… 

Silver Light - ATEEZ 

Will did not particularly like ATEEZ due to the way MONSTA X’s fanbase portrayed them as copycats of MONSTA X, but he did have a favorite member and liked a few of their songs, so he decided to use that in an attempt to get Lil Unicorn to maybe, potentially notice him. 

@willubemybebe: Omg I love ATEEZ! My bias is Wooyoung.

He had a satisfied smile on his face as he pressed “send” on his comment on Lil Unicorn’s vlog. The second his fingers left the screen, though, he heard Tessa call out for him from her office. 

“What?” Will shouted back, locking his phone and throwing it on the bed as he got up to see what was going on with Tessa. 

When he arrived in the office, Tessa was frantically typing at her computer, eliciting a confused stare and head-tilt from Will. 

“I’m xeeting,” Tessa laughed, “On X. Look at this shit, Will. People are trying to cancel ENHYPEN on Twitter again.” 

Will sighed, rolled his eyes in exasperation at the constant attacks on his favorite group, and opened his laptop to attack ENHYPEN’s haters on Twitter. “They’re dragging MONSTA X into it this time.” 

“And Stray Kids…” Tessa continued to type. “Quick, get your Kihyun activism thread ready!” 

“You get your Bang Chan thread ready,” replied Will. “Oh, can I have the Bluetooth?” 

“Sure,” said Tessa, fully expecting to hear the catchy violin-influenced song that Will had been looping on TikTok the previous afternoon. 

“Thanks!” Will connected his phone to Tessa’s Bluetooth speaker, opened Spotify, and put Lil Unicorn’s discography on shuffle, proving Tessa right in her expectation. The first song that played, “rainb0y,” was a confidence-inducing song perfect for boosting Will and Tessa’s morales as they defended ENHYPEN from edgy girl group stans on Twitter.

Slowly, Lil Unicorn’s discography became a part of Will and Tessa’s Bluetooth rotation alongside the usual suspects of Stray Kids, MONSTA X, ENHYPEN, and the occasional throwback song picked up at some point throughout their immortalities. Will particularly enjoyed “Moneybags,” but “scenez,” “rainb0y,” and “bettRthan meee” were also among his favorites. Lil Unicorn’s unusual way of stylizing the titles of his songs was confusing to Tessa, but added to his appeal to Will. Will and Tessa could agree, though, that Lil Unicorn’s second album, My Life Is A Movie, was a step up from his debut album, xoxo SilverGlitter. 

Tessa never once expressed curiosity in seeing Lil Unicorn’s TikToks, claiming that TikTok was where Stray Kids’ haters thrived and using that as her reason to avoid the platform entirely. One day, while she and Will were playing a board game that Will referred to as a “bored game” because it was “making him bored,” Will asked her if she was sure she didn’t want to see Lil Unicorn’s TikToks. 

“I’m sure,” said Tessa. “Also, what if he’s ugly? Ignorance is bliss, you know.” 

“I can’t judge. I’m straight,” Will deadpanned. 

Tessa burst out laughing at this comment, for some reason. “I’ve married an idiot.” 

“Yeah, and this idiot chose immortality to spend eternity with you,” Will said with a smirk. 

“And for another reason, right?” Tessa questioned, thinking back to the conversation with Magnus when Will had decided to become immortal. 

Will paused. What? He had absolutely no idea what Tessa was talking about, but he absolutely did not want to look stupid in front of her, so he replied with a simple “I guess.” 

Tessa accepted that and the two went back to their game. 

——

A few days later, Will and Tessa had just finished eating breakfast — vampires didn’t need to eat, but Will enjoyed the time spent with Tessa, who spent her weekdays working remotely at some boring tech job that she had taken on as a way to experience mundane normalcy as an immortal warlock. Tessa seemed to enjoy the mundaneness of it all, which confused Will, who could not handle even a second of boredom. Nonetheless, he accepted his beloved’s seemingly strange ways and helped her clean up the kitchen after they finished their meal. 

Will had nothing to do that day, so he plopped down on his bed and opened his phone, wondering what Lil Unicorn had posted that day. He clicked on Lil Unicorn's TikTok account to find a video of the silvery man dancing to a K-pop song with a caption that Will found so offensive that he almost started hating Lil Unicorn on the spot. 

@lilunicorn11

propaganda i won’t fall for: labubus

Hands Up - MEOVV

Will recoiled at the insult, looking at the blue-gray Labubu sitting on his desk, finding comfort in its soulless black eyes. What?, he thought, and before he knew it, he felt his fingers flying to the "comment" button as if guided only by his subconscious. 

I'll have you know that the Labubu is a tortured soul and undeserving of the incessant hatred it receives online, Will typed and pressed "send" almost without thinking. 

He decided that he had had enough TikTok for the morning and went to the kitchen to make tea for himself and Tessa. As the water in the kettle boiled, he thought to himself, wow, just like how my blood was boiling when I saw what Lil Unicorn said about Labubus. After pouring two cups, one for himself and one for Tessa, and bringing Tessa’s cup to her in her home office, he went back to the kitchen and looked in the cabinet for cookies to dip in his tea, but to no avail. 

“Fuck,” he lamented at the lack of cookies, “as if today couldn’t get any worse. Lil Unicorn hates Labubus and now we’re out of cookies.” 

He sat down at the kitchen table with his tea and no cookies. “God, this tea is bitter. How perfect to complement the bitterness of my day.” 

Ding!

A notification appeared on Will's phone. It was a reply from his beloved mystery TikTok singer, which immediately brightened Will’s day. He knew he had to tell Tessa, and he knew today had to be the day that Tessa saw Lil Unicorn’s TikToks for the first time.

"Tessa! Tessa! Lil Unicorn noticed me!" Will shouted as he ran to the office, taking a seat on the beanbag chair a few meters away from Tessa’s desk.

"That's great, Will," said Tessa, looking up from her computer and immediately looking back down at it.

As Will clicked on the notification, he wondered which of his many comments Lil Unicorn had replied to. Could it have been the one he left on his video about seeing ATEEZ in London? Could it have been the one about the violin section of one of his songs? Or was it, God forbid, the one from today on the video about Labubus?

The answer to his question made his face twist in a mix of horror and anger. 

@lilunicorn11: enlighten me. what tortures the labubu, will?

“Oh, shit, oh, fuck, what-” Will started cursing, eliciting a confused noise and head-tilt from Tessa, who was concerned enough to finally look up from her computer. 

“Sigh. What is it?” Tessa asked as she rolled her chair over to the beanbag. Even though she knew Will was probably exaggerating as he always did, seeing the pain in her beloved’s face still broke her enough to distract her from her work. 

Will looked up at Tessa with the saddest eyes she had ever seen. Or rather, they would have been the saddest eyes she had ever seen if Will didn’t pull a stunt like this on her every other day. “Tessa… he doesn’t see what I see in Labubus.”

Tessa shook her head in disbelief. “And that’s an issue because…?” 

“Look at this!” Will nearly shoved his phone in Tessa’s face, causing Tessa to jump back in surprise before leaning in to view the oh-so-offensive comment. But upon viewing the video and the profile picture belonging to @lilunicorn11, Tessa’s surprise only grew. Her eyes widened as she realized the true identity of the mysterious Lil Unicorn and wondered how Will had been so stupid as to not recognize him. 

Confronting her beloved in the most effective way she knew how to, Tessa looked into Will’s eyes and said, “Will, are you fucking dumb?” 

Will shook his head with an aggression that had the potential to knock his head off of his shoulders. “What? I’m clearly smart enough to see the hidden story of the Labubu. Do you not see it either, Tessa? Have I been betrayed by both my idol and my wife in the span of an hour?” 

Tessa continued staring into Will’s eyes without being fazed by his outburst. “You’re telling me that after following this TikToker for, like, a week and watching so many of his videos, you didn’t once stop and think that he looks somewhat familiar?” 

Will looked blank. 

Being used to Will’s obliviousness, Tessa had no trouble deciding to tell Will the truth to his face. 

“It’s Jem.” 

Chapter Text

Will froze, his phone still in Tessa’s face and “Hands Up” by MEOVV still playing in the background from Lil Unicorn’s TikTok. 

Jem?

Before he could let a hundred and fifty years of guilt fully wash over him, Will attempted to break the silence. “This has to be some sort of sick joke, Tessa,” he said, dropping his phone on the carpet. 

“I’m not joking,” said Tessa. “But just to confirm, can you answer a few questions about this guy?” 

Will nodded hesitantly, not wanting to believe that his beloved TikTok singer was his parabatai in whom he had instilled a sense of betrayal over a century prior but going along with Tessa’s demands anyway. 

“The tattoos on his arm are Shadowhunter runes, right?” Tessa said, pausing the video and zooming in on Lil Unicorn’s arm. 

“Yeah, he’s a Shadowhunter, I thought that was a given,” said Will, trying to laugh to ease both the tension in the room and the guilty thoughts coming into his head. 

“Okay,” said Tessa, “where is he based? Do we know?” 

“London. He went to the ATEEZ concert!” Will’s anger was starting to show in his voice. 

Tessa sighed at the mention of her beloved Stray Kids’ mortal enemies. “Of course the guy who turned his back on both of us after we literally defeated Mortmain would be an ATEEZ fan.” 

“His favorite song is Silver Light,” Will blurted out as if his subconscious had ignored his conscious. “He said he almost cried when ATEEZ performed it live.” 

Tessa nodded, taking that as another piece of evidence. “Okay. Does he have a cat?” 

“Yeah,” said Will. “A silvery-blue cat. He used the cat to promote rainb0y.” 

Tessa nodded intently. “Look, we’re looking at a London-based, silver-haired Shadowhunter who has a blue cat and cried when ATEEZ played Silver Light,” she said, emphasizing the word “silver” to drive home her point. “Think about it for a second, Will. Or two. I know it’s hard for you.” 

Will thought for a second or two before coming up with a refutation. “But how can he be a famous TikTok musician if he’s a Silent Brother?” he asked, preparing to be able to bask in the glory of finally outsmarting Tessa. 

Tessa stared at him blankly. “Did you really forget he got turned back and cured a few years ago?” 

“He what?” Will said, entirely surprised at this new information. 

“I literally told you when it happened. He and a girl who had become an Iron Sister after being poisoned by the same demon went viral on Twitter after being cured by Jace’s Heavenly Fire. You know, Jace. Our great-whatever-times grandson.” Tessa was beginning to grow frustrated with Will. 

Will shrugged. “I forgot,” he said, “because I’m not hung up on that loser like you are.” 

Tessa’s hand flew to her chest as she gasped in shock at Will’s insult. “I’m not hung up on him, Will. I just have a fully functioning brain, unlike you, who forgot the whole reason you became immortal in the first place.” 

“Tessa, I did it for you-“ Will tried to say in order to push back his guilty conscience, but Tessa cut him off. 

“No, you did it for Jem,” she said. “You got turned into a vampire because you wanted to find him and apologize to him for… whatever. Now, I need to get back to work.” With a final sigh of exasperation, Tessa rolled her chair back to her desk and began typing with a vigor and speed that made Will worry that the keyboard was going to break. 

“Whatever. I still don’t think it’s him,” Will said as he picked up his phone from the ground and walked back to the bedroom. The second he laid down on his bed after shutting the door, all of the guilty thoughts that he had been suppressing for the last century-and-a-bit began to flood his mind again. Wow, he thought, I really became immortal to apologize to him just to forget about him. I really am a fuckup.

Before he could think for too long, though, he found his arm reaching for his phone and his face unlocking it. Of course, his phone opened to Lil Unicorn’s- Jem’s?- most recent TikTok, but when he tried to swipe away from it, he was met with yet another Lil Unicorn TikTok gracing his “For You” page. 

“I really can’t avoid Jem no matter how hard I try,” Will said to himself as he reluctantly clicked on Lil Unicorn’s profile and began scrolling to where he had last left off. He had left off somewhere in 2024, when Lil Unicorn had begun to tease his second album, My Life Is A Movie. Upon revisiting the title, Will couldn’t help but think that his betrayal may have been the start of a conflict in the plot of this movie. 

Ignoring his feelings once again, Will decided to pretend he didn’t believe Lil Unicorn was Jem and continued to scroll through his TikTok. The next few TikToks were dance videos following the trends of the time, with one particularly appealing one playing off of the “aura points” trend that had been popular at the time. 

@lilunicorn11 

how many aura points did i lose when my friend knocked on the door and when i answered her i was still wearing my cat ears 

yesterday vs self (slowed + reverb) - Casa Noir

The video featured Lil Unicorn doing exactly what he claimed to have lost aura points for: wearing cat ears. He was winking, his hand shaped into a claw and his mouth opened like a growling kitten. Cute, Will found himself thinking while making a disgusted face. He hurriedly brushed the thought away and continued to scroll. 

Unfortunately for Will, the next few TikToks featured Lil Unicorn wearing the same set of cat ears that he had been wearing in the first video. The ears were silky silver and slightly iridescent to match the rainbow streaks dyed in his silvery hair. 

His attention drawn to Lil Unicorn’s hair by the cat ears, Will began to try to further convince himself that Lil Unicorn wasn’t Jem by thinking, if Jem had been cured of his yin fen poisoning, he wouldn’t have silver hair, would he? So this can’t possibly be Jem. “Checkmate, Tessa,” he said to himself with a chuckle as he scrolled down to the next video. The next video disproved his point: 

@lilunicorn11 

come with me to get my roots redone !

Hot Mess - aespa 

In the video, Lil Unicorn described how his hair used to grow silver naturally due to what he described as “an incident with a Greater Demon back home,” but after being cured of the poisoning that resulted from that incident, it started to grow black again. 

“But I kind of missed my silver hair,” Lil Unicorn explained in the voiceover as a hairstylist with what looked like Shadowhunter runes carefully applied bleach and then silvery-gray dye to his hair. “It made me who I am. So, I started getting it dyed again. Sometimes I get little streaks of rainbow in my hair because, you know, I’m Lil Unicorn. Cute, right?” 

Will found himself nodding in agreement, his brain giving him flashbacks to when Jem had first started talking to him after arriving at the London Institute. At only twelve years old, his hair had started to grow silver as a result of his encounter with the Greater Demon Yanluo, who had killed his parents and poisoned him as an act of revenge against his mother, the leader of a group of Chinese Shadowhunters sent to kill lesser demons that answered to Yanluo. The encounter had left Jem addicted to yin fen, a demonic substance that kills a user slowly if they continue using it but quickly if they stop. 

Upon thinking of this part of Jem’s story, Will remembered one of the first TikToks of Lil Unicorn’s that he had seen, in which Lil Unicorn used the “Your Love Is My Drug” dance challenge to tell his followers that he had been addicted to what he referred to as “demon drugs.” It was at this point that the evidence in favor of Tessa’s argument had become too ample for Will to ignore: 

Lil Unicorn had to be Jem.

Lil Unicorn had to be Jem, and Will had to present his findings to Tessa. So, he jumped out of his bed and ran to Tessa’s office to find her engrossed in a project. “Tessa!” 

Tessa rolled her eyes and looked up from her laptop. “What is it, Will?” 

Will looked at Tessa with the most pathetic puppy eyes she had ever seen in over a century of being in love with him. “I’m sorry,” he said.

”Wow, that’s a new one,” said Tessa. “What is it?” 

“You were right,” said Will, lifting his phone in shame to show Tessa the TikTok in which Lil Unicorn told his followers that he had been addicted to a demonic substance. 

Tessa laughed a little. “Sounds like Jem,” she said. 

“It gets worse,” said Will, going back to his TikTok bookmarks and clicking on the video of Lil Unicorn at the hairstylist. Tessa watched the video intently, but when the video finished playing, she laughed again, eliciting an annoyed growl from Will. 

“Maybe you should trust me more often,” said Tessa with an annoyed look on her face. “Look, Will, maybe this is a chance for you to make things right with him. The universe clearly wants you two to talk. His videos didn’t appear on your TikTok feed for no reason.” 

Will shrugged. “I guess.” 

“You know what? I’ll make you a deal,” Tessa smirked. “If you reach out to Lil Unicorn tonight and ask him if he’s Jem, I’ll get us both tickets to KCON Los Angeles and we can see MONSTA X. Okay?” 

Tessa’s proposal was appealing, making Will furrow his brows and consider it strongly. Do I really want to lose aura points for this? He thought, being reminded of Lil Unicorn’s- well, Jem’s TikTok about losing aura points for wearing cat ears. By losing aura points, though, Will meant sacrificing his pride, which is something he had done once, maybe twice, in the past century and a half. 

After a minute of thought — a new record for him, Tessa would remark — Will smiled deviously. “Sure,” he said with an enthusiastic nod. “I’ll message him right now if it means I get to meet Kihyun.” 

“It’s a deal,” said Tessa. “Show me after you’ve messaged him and I’ll get the tickets tonight.” 

“Deal,” Will said, excitedly sitting down on the beanbag by Tessa’s desk and opening his phone to message Jem. 

“I’m nearly done with work, so I’ll start checking ticket prices in a few minutes, okay?” said Tessa from her desk. 

“Okay!” Will replied as he clicked the “message” button on Jem’s profile. Given his large following, it was surprising that Jem’s DMs were open. Excited at the idea of being able to see MONSTA X and potentially meet his beloved Kihyun, Will forgot his pride and typed out a simple message to Jem.

Hey Jem, I’m sorry. 

“And… send.” Will narrated his actions, then ran over to show Tessa what he had done as if his four-word message was a prized piece of art. Upon seeing the message, though, Tessa looked up at Will in disbelief. 

“That’s all you’re gonna say?” Her stare was blank. 

“Yeah, I’ll let him reply before I go into great detail,” said Will. 

Tessa sighed. “Whatever. A deal’s a deal. There are VIP tickets left for a good price and my mutual on Twitter needs two hotel roommates.” 

Will almost jumped up and down in excitement. “Okay! Thank you so much, Tessa! Have I ever told you I love you?” 

“Yes, dear, thousands of times,” said Tessa, “but I never get tired of hearing it.” 

Chapter Text

Meow?

Jem had been fast asleep, his right cheek squishing against his pillow as he dreamed, but his dreams were interrupted when he heard a soft meow coming from outside the door to his bedroom. He always left his bedroom door ajar when he slept to ensure that his cat could come in at any time, but Ssamu always insisted on meowing before making her entrance, even at 4:52 in the morning. 

“Meow,” Jem meowed back at his beloved cat, eliciting another meow from her as she jumped up onto the bed. Jem slowly opened his eyes, his right eye opening before his left, to see Ssamu curling up underneath his chin. He had adopted her as a kitten nearly seven years before, and she was still as cute and cuddly as she was at the shelter. 

“Hi, baby,” he whispered, his eyes drifting to Ssamu’s paws that were positioned as if they had gotten tangled up with each other. Even in the dark, the perfect pink of her paw pads seemed to glow against her silvery-gray fur. Thanks to Ssamu’s silver coloring, Jem had seen himself in her back then, which was ultimately why he had chosen her out of all the kittens at the shelter.

He had also seen his favorite idol at the time in her, though. The kitten had come home without a name, but after Jem had finished watching the tenth episode of the K-pop competition show Produce 48, which had been airing at the time, he knew he had to name her after his one-pick, Kim Chaewon. After Chaewon’s performance in that episode, fans had started to compare her outfit to a Korean radish wrap known as a ssamu, earning her the nickname and leading to Jem naming his newly adopted kitten Ssamu. Like a radish wrap, Ssamu was delicate and refreshing, always being able to bring a smile to Jem’s face. 

Jem moved his hand to lazily pet Ssamu, eliciting a few happy mrrps and purrs from her before they both started to doze off again. 

——

Unforgiven, I’m a villain, I’m a-

Jem jolted awake at the sound of his wake-up alarm, which he had set to a song performed by his beloved Chaewon and her newest venture, the K-pop group LE SSERAFIM. He scrambled in bed for a few seconds to find his phone only to conclude that Ssamu was curled up on top of it, completely ignorant to the vibrations and noises coming from beneath her. Not wanting to disturb Ssamu, Jem decided to let his alarm play until it automatically snoozed. After all, the alarm was one of his favorite songs, so he could tolerate it playing for a bit while he waited for Ssamu to move on her own. 

After about a minute or two of “Unforgiven” playing, Ssamu figured out that Jem was awake and stretched out to expose her belly for belly rubs, allowing Jem to quickly grab his phone and turn his alarm off before scritching Ssamu’s belly for a few minutes. “You’re such a cutie,” he said to her, his smile widening with every second that passed. 

Ssamu meowed. 

“What’s up, little kitty?” asked Jem, using his free hand to scritch Ssamu’s chin. 

Ssamu meowed again. She had a look in her little kitteny eyes that indicated that something was about to be wrong — it wasn’t wrong yet, but it was going to be wrong today. 

Jem’s face fell. “Oh, Ssamu,” he said, leaning in to give his cat a kiss on her forehead, “we’ll make everything okay, won’t we?” 

Ssamu mrrp-ed contently and let Jem continue to pet her until her automatic food dish went off, causing her to bolt to the kitchen. Jem watched his cat run to eat her food, then stretched out as if he, too, was a cat and got up to make his own breakfast. He set water to boil for a cup of tea, then blended together frozen mangoes, frozen dragonfruit, plain yogurt, a splash of milk, and a scoop of protein powder to make a smoothie that would both fuel him throughout the day and help him beat the brutal UK summer heat. Naturally, Ssamu was scared of the blender. 

Meow?

“What is it, baby?” said Jem as he sat down to drink his smoothie. The second he sat down, he felt a soft brush of fur against his leg and heard yet another soft meow. 

At that point, Jem was starting to become concerned. “What’s going on, my sweet little kitty?” He asked, knowing he would get no response from the cat. His mind was running a marathon, though: Is Ssamu okay? Is she hurt? Has she gotten sick? Do I have to take her to the vet? Or is she just sensing something? What did she sense? 

Ssamu couldn’t sense things in the magical way that a Shadowhunter would think about sensing things, though. Ssamu was a mortal, mundane cat adopted from a shelter, unlike Jem’s previous cat, Church, whom he had saved from a fate of being an experimental pet for the Dark Sisters over a hundred years prior. Jem had been forced to rehome Church, though: during Jem’s time as a Silent Brother, Church had been taken from London to New York by Magnus Bane, and over a hundred years later, forcibly moved to the Los Angeles Institute of Shadowhunters. When Jem had protested, the Clave had told him that an immortal cat needs to be tied to an Institute, not to an inactive, mortal Shadowhunter. No offense, though, the representative from Idris had added. 

So, after being forced to lose Church, Jem had adopted Ssamu. Ssamu and Church were nearly nothing alike: Church was a grumpy, immortal cat who hated everyone and everything, while Ssamu was possibly the sweetest creature alive aside from Jem himself. Nonetheless, Jem saw bits and pieces of Church in Ssamu, not thinking of her as a replacement of him but rather as a continuation of his story.  

Jem gave Ssamu a cat treat, then finished his smoothie and put his dishes in the dishwasher, rinsing them in the sink first to ensure that the protein powder wouldn’t stick to the walls of the blender. He then opened his cupboard to select a blend of tea, eventually deciding on a type he had bought in Shanghai while visiting his relatives. After his tea was ready, he took it to the couch and sat down to check his TikTok. Of course, Ssamu followed him to the couch and curled up next to him with a soft mrrp. 

As usual, Jem had received a good number of likes and comments overnight, mainly from his fans in different time zones. One comment stood out, though, as it had been left on his ATEEZ concert vlog from nearly six months before. 

@willubemybebe: Omg I love ATEEZ! My bias is Wooyoung.

“Hm,” Jem said to himself, “it’s not everyday you get someone scrolling deep into your account.” Checking his likes, he noticed that @willubemybebe had liked nearly a thousand videos of his in the span of a few days, going all the way back to August of the year before. “Look, Ssamu, I have a new fan,” he said, showing Ssamu his phone as if she could understand what was going on. 

It seemed like Ssamu could understand, though, mayhaps even better than Jem: she let out a soft growl and attempted to bat Jem’s phone away as if it had been possessed by something evil. Jem was taken aback — what could possibly be wrong? He put his phone down and started scritching Ssamu behind her ears in an attempt to ease her mind. “It’s okay, Ssamu. Whatever it is, I can handle it. We can handle it.” Ssamu was his rock, and when his rock began to crumble, he knew he had to stabilize it the best he could. 

Eventually, Ssamu drifted off to sleep again, allowing Jem to pick up his phone and continue to scroll through TikTok. Bored of checking his notifications, he decided to switch to looking through his “For You” page, which was a mix of K-pop videos, featuring groups such as LE SSERAFIM and UNIS, and the latest trends, such as Dubai chocolate and Labubus. Jem had never been one to fall for a trend, despite him as a TikTok creator being forced to use them in order to gain a platform that would sustain his music career. Labubus were particularly offensive to him, though: he recoiled at the sight of them every time they (dis)graced his “For You” page or his Instagram or Twitter feed. 

“Ugh, those demonic creatures,” he said to himself as he swiped away from a video of a creator unboxing a Labubu, only to be directed to another creator showing their massive collection of Labubus. “Seriously?” He swiped again. 

Thankfully, the next video he saw was a throwback video of his idol, Chaewon, during her time in IZ*ONE, the group formed by the twelve winners of Produce 48. Chaewon and her then-groupmates Wonyoung and Hyewon’s cover of “Catallena” by Orange Caramel always brought a smile to Jem’s face, even though the online concert at which it was performed was bittersweet for IZ*ONE’s fans, as it would be one of their last concerts before their disbandment. Nevertheless, Jem loved this performance, especially Chaewon’s iconic-to-fans “la-la-la-la” part in the second pre-chorus. He watched the video in full, then scrolled down to see a few more videos of Chaewon in her various endeavors. 

His Chaewon streak was quickly interrupted by a video of a British woman bragging about being the owner of what she called “the one and only 24-karat gold Labubu” while holding up a Labubu that had clearly been spray-painted with cheap gold spray paint from her local home supply store. Jem had seen this creator’s viral videos before, particularly the ones in which she had held up colorful Labubus and claimed they were made of different gemstones. As a Jem himself, he had been somewhat offended at the claims — is this me shade? He had thought to himself before realizing that he sounded like Mr. Krabs at Sephora. 

The video currently disgracing his screen consisted of that British woman blinking her clearly-fake eyelashes that reached her Sharpied-on eyebrows while pretending that a screwdriver was a gold tester that she had ordered from the United States and using that screwdriver to “confirm” that her Labubu was, in fact, 24-karat gold. When she touched the screwdriver to the Labubu, a noise played that was meant to signify that the Labubu was made of real gold, but the sound had clearly been ripped from generic iPhone typing noises. Jem let out a giggle at this, but the video also let him know that with the rise of Labubus, he had to set the record straight with his fans that he would not be falling for the Labubu propaganda. So, he resolved to make a TikTok telling his fans exactly that: after showering and getting dressed to go out, he opened TikTok and filmed a short dance video to a newly-released K-pop song that he had been looping as of late. 

@lilunicorn11

propaganda i won’t fall for: labubus

Hands Up - MEOVV

“And… post!” Jem said to himself, immediately receiving an influx of likes and comments. He closed TikTok, turned off his phone, said a quick goodbye to Ssamu, and set out to walk the short distance from his place to Chinatown, where he and his friends had planned to meet for brunch. 

As it always was with Jem and his friends, brunch was exciting yet somehow peaceful. Ellie, another inactive Shadowhunter who had suffered a similar fate to Jem, told stories of her mundane tech job, ranting about a particularly annoying co-worker named Theresa. Chelsea, the most active Shadowhunter in the group, vented about the current Head of the London Institute and her disdainful attitude towards Downworlders, which made Jem glad that he had become inactive. Malikai reminisced about his time spent in Paris for Fashion Week, during which he shared a runway with Seonghwa, a member of ATEEZ. Stella shared that her family back home in South Korea disapproved of her public obsession with manhwas depicting same-sex relationships — her TikTok account on which she reviewed these manhwas had over 500,000 followers. Dove-Marie told the group that she had a “very exciting secret” that she needed to keep for the next month or so, but hinted that Jem would be particularly happy about it. 

“So, how’s your life, Lil Unicorn?” Ellie asked. 

“It’s been good,” replied Jem, giggling a little bit at Ellie’s use of his stage name. “Just normal. TikTok is TikTok, music is music, life is life, that Tarzzan guy is racist, you know? Ssamu has been acting up recently, though. I showed her a comment I got and she growled at my phone as if she could read it.” 

“Ssamu is usually so sweet! Something’s gotta be up,” said Stella. 

Jem nodded. “If there’s anything I’ve learned in life, it’s that you always have to trust a cat’s instincts. I’ll be on guard, guys. Don’t worry too much about me.” 

“I do worry about you, Jem,” said Ellie, putting her hand on his shoulder.

“And I worry about you all too,” said Jem. “It’s a natural thing for friends to do. I just wish you didn’t have to worry about me so much.” 

“Real,” interjected Stella. “Speaking of TikTok, I saw your Labubu video. Fuck Labubus for real.”

“Yeah, fuck them, man!” Malikai couldn’t help but shout. “So many of the models had them in Paris and I was like… you are under spells, people!” Jem couldn’t help but giggle at this.

“I saw it too,” Dove-Marie pointed out. “And you spoke nothing but the truth. Some MONSTA X fan commented something weird on it, though. He said something about Labubus being tortured souls?” 

Jem’s brows furrowed. “You said a MONSTA X fan?” He asked, thinking back to the comment left on his ATEEZ concert vlog earlier that week. The user who had left that comment had Kihyun, MONSTA X’s main vocalist, set as their profile picture. 

“Yeah. His profile picture was Kihyun and his username had -bebe in it. Like how MONSTA X call their fans Monbebes,” said Dove-Marie. “And yeah, I checked the pronouns on his profile. His name is Will, by the way. He’s a private account, though, so I couldn’t get much more on him.” 

Upon hearing the mysterious commenter’s name, Ellie, the member of the group who knew the most about Jem’s past, immediately grew concerned, but out of respect for a boundary Jem had set with the group a while back, she kept her thoughts to herself. 

“Interesting. This same person left a comment on our ATEEZ vlog. He also liked, like, a thousand videos of mine,” said Jem.

“That’s crazy,” said Stella. “Who wants to snoop on him?” 

Chelsea, the only one in the group without a large social media presence, raised her hand to volunteer. “I’ll do it,” she said, “and report back to the group chat this afternoon. The Institute is slow today, so I have time.” 

Jem smiled brightly at his friends. “Thanks, Chelsea. You’re a real one. And thanks for the intel, Dove-Marie.” 

“No problem!” Dove-Marie flashed back her signature bright smile. 

Malikai looked up from his watch, his face furrowed in disappointment. “Aw, man, I gotta go. I have a photoshoot in, like, two hours.” 

The group let out a collective aw of disappointment, then started saying their goodbyes and leaving the café one by one. Jem was one of the last ones to leave, only leaving after he and Ellie had completely sorted out the bill, calculating everyone’s totals to be paid back to Ellie later via bank transfer. As he walked home, he wondered what exactly had been so appealing about @willubemybebe’s comment that Dove-Marie felt the need to bring it up at brunch. 

When he got home, he immediately curled up on the couch with Ssamu, who was still sleeping peacefully in the exact spot she had been left in. “Hey, little kitty,” he said to her, reaching over to scritch her between her ears. “What’s bothering you, baby girl?” 

Ssamu mrrp-ed indignantly, then went back to sleep. 

“Okay, I’ll let you be, then,” said Jem, opening his phone to check the comments section on his recent video to see with his own two eyes the comment that Dove-Marie had mentioned to him at brunch. After a minute or so of scrolling and liking some particularly funny or relatable comments, Jem found what he thought was the most dramatic reaction possible to a lighthearted video about disagreeing with a trend. 

@willubemybebe: I'll have you know that the Labubu is a tortured soul and undeserving of the incessant hatred it receives online!

Jem laughed a little at the comment and decided to reply to his mysterious new superfan. 

@lilunicorn11: enlighten me. what tortures the labubu, will? 

He sent the reply, put down his phone, picked up the book he had been slowly working through, and began reading. He wasn’t very busy today, having already posted his daily TikTok and replied to all of his brand deals before going out to brunch with his friends. He could work on music, he thought, but he had been working especially hard for the past few weeks planning his upcoming trip to Los Angeles, so he decided to take the rest of the day off to become engrossed in a story and spend time with Ssamu. 

After about an hour of reading peacefully, Jem opened his phone to see a couple of text messages from the 6S4L group chat, all talking about the mysterious commenter. 

Chelsea Alder

ok so guys I made an alt account and requested to follow him 

Chelsea Alder

wait jem. you replied to him

Stella Kim

ur kidding.  

Dove-Marie Aladesanmi

i cant with you sometimes lmaooo 

Ellie Xu 

Fr like do I have to restrain you?

Stella Kim

”what tortures the labubu, will” lmfaooo this 1860s ass way of speaking??

Malikai Leblanc

Clocked him lmao 

Ellie Xu

Not too much!

Stella Kim

omg yes you were a demon druggie and an iron sister too icb

Dove-Marie Aladesanmi

malikai aren’t you supposed to be getting ready for your shoot 

Malikai Leblanc

They’re doing my hair rn I can text while I’m getting my hair done lol

Dove-Marie Aladesanmi

good luck out there diva 

Chelsea Alder

rt

Jem laughed at the silliness of his friends and decided to join in on the fun. 

Jem Carstairs

hello

Chelsea Alder

heyy

Stella Kim

WHY DID YOU REPLY TO THAT GUY

Dove-Marie Aladesanmi

WHERE WERE YOU

Jem Carstairs

i had my phone on dnd i was reading my book lmao

Jem Carstairs

also ntm on people born in the 1860s </3

Dove-Marie Aladesanmi

oh fun how is ssamu

Stella Kim

right has she chilled out at all 

Jem Carstairs

ssamu is sleeping peacefully ^^ she’s so cute and cuddly

Stella Kim

we cheered

Chelsea Alder

omg guys I need a distraction fucking Highsmith is going on and on about how much she hates Downworlders 

Stella Kim

oh thats not

Dove-Marie Aladesanmi

can she shut her bitch ass up 

Jem Carstairs

girl wbk she’s rotten like do the accords mean nothing to her

Jem typed his message referring to the peace treaties between Shadowhunters and Downworlders signed every fifteen years. He had been alive when the first Accords were signed and been present at every signing since as a Silent Brother, but he stopped going after being cured of his yin fen poisoning and becoming an inactive, mortal Shadowhunter.

Chelsea Alder

clocked

Chelsea Alder

anyone wanna play roblox 

Dove-Marie Aladesanmi

i cant im teaching in an hour :( 

Jem Carstairs

have fun dove-mariee

Jem Carstairs

im down to roblox

Stella Kim

im free 

Chelsea Alder

ok gimme 5 

Jem put his phone down on the coffee table and slowly and carefully moved out from under Ssamu, who had adjusted her sleeping position to be right on top of his foot. He walked to his PC in his home music studio and closed his music production program, making sure to save all of his files before opening Roblox. He saw that Chelsea was already online playing Death Ball, so he decided to join her, and Stella joined a few minutes later. 

The old saying was true: time flew when Jem, Chelsea, and Stella were having fun playing Death Ball. All was interrupted, though, when Jem got a notification for a direct message on TikTok. Hm, fans don’t DM me often, he thought to himself. I wonder what this could be about? 

“Guys, I got a DM on TikTok,” he announced to Chelsea and Stella through their Discord voice chat. 

“From who? The MONSTA X fan?” Stella asked. “Any updates on that, Chels?” 

“Um- FUCK!” Chelsea screamed as she narrowly dodged a ball, winning the round for her team. “Okay. Yeah. Let me check.” 

While Chelsea checked to see if @willubemybebe had let her into his account, Jem decided to check his own TikTok, going straight to the direct messages and opening the message about which he had received a notification. The message was simple and straightforward, yet shocking and unexpected:

@willubemybebe: 

Hey Jem, I’m sorry.

Jem blinked a few times. Fans don’t usually call me that, he thought to himself. And why would he be apologizing for a harmless comment about Labubus?

“He let me in!” Chelsea shouted, preventing Jem from getting lost in thought about the strange nature of the message. 

“Oh my god,” Jem’s voice was weak as he realized what could possibly be happening to him. He didn’t want to believe that @willubemybebe could be his former parabatai who had backstabbed him over a century ago — besides, shouldn’t he be dead? 

“Guys, let’s get off Roblox. I think I need to investigate this,” said Chelsea, exiting Death Ball. Jem and Stella followed her in closing Roblox, both of them focusing their attention on what Chelsea was going to do or say next. Chelsea started typing something in their Discord chat, sending a ripple of worry through Jem’s body, as nobody ever used the Discord chat to type.

chels

@everyone EMERGENCY VC. NOW.

“What? Why?” asked Stella. 

“Cause this shit is crazy and I need us all to be here for it.” Chelsea said as Malikai, Ellie, and then Dove-Marie joined the voice chat. 

“What’s going on?” asked Dove-Marie, who was taking the bus home from work. 

“Yeah, is everything okay?” added Malikai, who was walking home.  

Chelsea turned her camera on and sighed. “Cameras on. This is gonna be hard to hear, so I wanna be able to see everyone’s faces just to gauge if everyone is okay.” 

Jem reluctantly complied, as did everyone else in the call. Ellie’s hair was a mess, Stella’s room hadn’t been properly tidied in God-knows-how-long, and Dove-Marie was sweaty from her job as a dance teacher, but nobody cared: the six friends promised to be there for each other through thick and thin, so a bit of disheveledness was never something to worry about. 

“Okay, now that we’re all here, I’ve discovered something that’s like, really concerning,” Chelsea announced. 

“What is it?” Jem asked, hoping that Chelsea would disprove his suspicions that @willubemybebe was, in fact, that Will. 

“Jem, forgive me for breaking our rule,” said Chelsea. 

Jem’s heart sank. Ellie’s expression became more concerned. Stella’s cheeks grew red in anger in advance. 

“I think we may be dealing with Will Herondale.” 

Chapter Text

The call went silent. 

Malikai covered his mouth in pure shock. Dove-Marie’s eyes widened as her grip on the pole on the bus strengthened. Stella’s jaw dropped. Ellie shook her head in disbelief. 

And Jem was shaking. He could feel himself shaking, but he didn’t think that his friends could see it through the webcam. So, he took a deep breath and pretended everything was okay. 

“Before I go on,” Chelsea said, “Jem, are you okay? You’re shaking.” 

Jem blinked twice. “No, I’m fine, it’s just… a lot to think about,” he said. “Can I see the account?” 

Chelsea nodded. “Let me screenshare.” 

As Chelsea set up her screensharing, Jem looked down at his hands. His palms were wet and salty-scratchy from the layer of nervous sweat that had accumulated on them. 

“Okay, so, he doesn’t have a lot up on his account. His most recent original upload was from…” Chelsea trailed off as she clicked on the video and checked the date. “The 10th of July, 2019.” 

@willubemybebe

I’m still in shock over Kihyun noticing my hand heart and Shownu waving to me and my wife??? #vlog #kpopconcert #concert

Alligator - MONSTA X

“A concert vlog. Looks like a MONSTA X concert, right?” said Chelsea. 

Stella rolled her eyes. “Of course the motherfucker who hurt Jem stans fucking MONSTA X,” she complained. 

Jem giggled a little bit at Stella’s comment, then turned his attention back to the video. In the video, a young, dark-haired man whose face brought back memories held up a sign that said “Kihyun you’re the best singer” and flaunted his VIP lanyard that granted him special privileges at MONSTA X’s London stop of their We Are Here tour held in the summer of 2019. 

“Jem, is that… the guy?” Malikai said, not even wanting to say his name. 

Jem paused for a second. “Looks like him,” he said, “but I’m confused as to how he’s alive?” 

Chelsea continued to present her evidence. “I think we’ll see if we check his reposts,” she said, swiping from Will’s posts to his reposts. 

Reposted by @willubemybebe

@bangchanluv

pack banners for Stray Kids DominATE in London with me (feat. my husband) ! 

Chk Chk Boom - Stray Kids

Jem felt like his heart had gotten caught in his throat when the face of the woman in the video struck the same sense of familiarity into him as Will had done in the MONSTA X concert vlog. “That can’t be… Tessa?” He said, his eyes starting to well up with tears. 

Chelsea clicked on the username of the original poster of the video. @bangchanluv’s profile showed a display name that confirmed the group’s suspicions even more: tessa <3 !! 

Before Jem could even process what he was seeing, Stella interjected, “What do you mean those two fuckwits are still married and happy together?” 

“They definitely deserve each other. Losers!” replied Malikai. 

“Did you guys notice how the MONSTA X vlog was taken six years ago and Tessa’s banner video was posted like a few days ago but Will still looks the exact same?” asked Dove-Marie, who was now walking from the bus station to her place. 

Chelsea nodded. “I was getting there. Looks like he became immortal.” 

Everyone gasped. 

The conversation and amount of realizations had gotten to a point where Jem could no longer hold back his tears. His elbows flew to his desk to support his hands covering his eyes as he sobbed, his high-quality recording microphone picking up every noise. The confused chatter of the group came to a halt. 

Ellie, who had been silently watching and listening to the whole conversation, finally unmuted herself. “Jem, I’m coming over, okay?” She said. 

“Please,” Jem said through broken sobs. 

Through his headphones, Jem could vaguely hear Malikai telling him to take deep breaths, Chelsea saying everything was going to be okay, Stella jokingly threatening to send her yaoi-obsessed TikTok followers after Will and Tessa, and Dove-Marie telling Ellie to stop by the grocery store for ice cream on her way. Even though he was too overwhelmed to process everything his friends were saying, he could feel how much they cared about him. The feeling reminded him even more of Will, though: at the beginning of their friendship, Jem sensed that same feeling of care from him, but as they grew up, the feeling of care became less strong, especially following Tessa’s arrival at the London Institute. During his early days as a Silent Brother, Jem had telepathically joked with the other Brothers that Will only felt their parabatai bond sever upon Jem’s ascension to the Brotherhood, but Jem had felt the bond sever much earlier. 

Aside from Ssamu, Jem’s friends were his rocks. Ellie’s life was a near parallel of his own: the two had grown up together at the Shanghai Institute until the Greater Demon Yanluo’s vengeful raid on the Institute that left them both poisoned and addicted to yin fen. Ellie, being French from her mother’s side, had been sent to the Paris Institute to recover, became an Iron Sister as a teenager after realizing the importance of choosing life, and asked to be burnt with heavenly fire after hearing about how it had cured Jem of his addiction and released him from the Brotherhood. When the two reunited in London, they became as inseparable as they had been as children. 

Soon after their reuniting, Ellie had introduced Jem to Malikai, her Shadowhunter friend from Paris who had signed with a modeling agency at a young age. The three of them had met Chelsea, Stella, and Dove-Marie at the London Institute, a place at which Jem and Ellie used to spend a great deal of time despite their statuses as inactive Shadowhunters. Over time, the six of them had developed a close bond, eventually leading to the official formation of 6S4L — six Shadowhunters for life. 

“I fucking love you all,” Jem blurted out after being reminded of how they had all met. 

Stella giggled. “We love you too, Jem.” 

“I’ll be there in ten minutes,” said Ellie. “What kind of ice cream do you want?” 

“Cookie dough would be great,” said Jem, his voice still somewhat broken from crying. “Thank you, Ellie. And Chelsea, thank you for putting this all together. And everyone else, thank you for being here.” 

Dove-Marie smiled. “I’ve always thought of ‘six Shadowhunters for life’ as meaning that we not only fight demons, work with Downworlders, and protect the mundane world. We fight our own demons, work with each other, and protect our peace.” 

“Felt that,” said Stella. “You put it really well, Dovie. I love you guys.” 

Chelsea nodded. “I never had a parabatai, but I feel like I don’t need one when I have you all.” 

“Yeah, parabatai are overrated anyway, right, Jem?” said Malikai. 

“For real,” Jem said, Malikai’s lightheartedness cutting through his tears a bit. Something Jem had always appreciated about Malikai was his ability to help the group get through difficult situations with a bit of whimsy.

“Yeah, if yours was so shit that even the possibility of his resurgence made us schedule an emergency video call, then parabatai really are overrated,” remarked Stella.

“Besides, my gay ass would not be able to follow the rule about not falling in love with your parabatai,” Malikai added, making Jem think of his distant cousin, Emma, whose ex-parabatai was now her boyfriend. 

“I don’t know if you guys remember, but my cousin and her parabatai fell in love. Their love strengthened their bond for just a little bit when it was necessary to defeat their enemies, but then it broke it,” said Jem. 

“Oh, yeah, my cousin in LA saw it all go down,” said Dove-Marie. “They’re dating now, right?” 

Jem nodded. “I still don’t know how to feel,” he said. “As long as Emma’s happy, I’m happy.” 

“Yep,” said Malikai. “Feeling any better, Jem?” 

“Thanks to you guys, I am.” 

——

An hour or so later, Jem and Ellie were curled up on Jem’s couch, their ice cream long gone and Secret Lives of Mormon Wives auto-playing in the background. Ssamu was curled up on Ellie’s lap — another thing that set Ssamu apart from Church was that Ssamu actually liked people other than Jem. 

“Mayci is such a peacekeeper,” Ellie commented on the behavior of one of the cast members of Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. “Sometimes people have to hear the honest truth.” 

“I had to hear the honest truth tonight,” said Jem. “If Chelsea had hidden the whole Will thing from us like how Mayci constantly hides stuff from the other MomTok women in order to preserve the peace, I think I would have taken it so much worse.” 

Ellie wrapped one arm around Jem and pulled him closer. “I know, and that’s why I’m so glad she’s our friend.” 

“Will and Tessa hid stuff from me all the time,” Jem felt his eyes flooding with tears again as he said this. 

“They’d make good Mormons, wouldn’t they?” Ellie said as she plucked a tissue from the tissue box situated on the coffee table and handed it to Jem. 

“Yeah,” said Jem, taking the tissue with a grateful smile and wiping his tears. 

“Speaking of Will, how do you think you’re going to deal with his DM?” asked Ellie. 

Jem closed his eyes, not sure of how to respond. It must suck to live an immortal life with such a stain on your conscience, he thought, so helping him clear it would be the right thing to do. But the petty side of him, the side that had exploded and called Will and Tessa out over a hundred years prior, told him that Will didn’t deserve to have his conscience cleared. 

“It’s okay if you don’t know yet,” Ellie said, gently rubbing Jem’s shoulder. 

Jem let out a sigh. “Honestly, if he’s interested in apologizing to me for his own sake, to clear his own conscience, I can accept that,” said Jem. “He chose immortality for a reason, and I know that reason isn’t just Tessa.” 

“The shade!” Ellie giggled, causing Jem to laugh along with her. Ssamu was a bit disturbed by the sudden loud noises, but remained calm, keeping her place on Ellie’s lap. 

After calming down from his laughter, Jem reached into his pocket and unlocked his phone. “So, I think for now I’ll just check one more time to see if it’s really him,” he said, opening TikTok and clicking on his direct messages. 

“Good idea.” 

“Thanks,” said Jem as he typed a quick message with shaky fingers. Before sending it, he tilted his phone so that Ellie could see it. “Okay to send?” 

“You made a typo there,” said Ellie, pointing to a word that had one letter mistyped. 

“Probably on account of my shaky fingers,” Jem laughed a bit as he corrected his mistyping. “Good now?” 

“Yeah,” said Ellie. “You got this.” 

His fingers still shaking slightly, Jem clicked the “send” button and watched as the status of his message went from sent to delivered — not read yet, thankfully, as Jem did not know if he could deal with a response from Will. 

@lilunicorn11: 

no way… is this the will i think it is? 

“Good job,” Ellie said.

“Thank you, Ellie,” Jem replied with a bright smile. “For being the best friend I could imagine.” 

Ssamu meowed indignantly, as if to say, but I thought I was your best friend? 

“Oh, Ssamu,” Jem said, leaning over to give his beloved cat a kiss on her forehead. “You got offended that I called Ellie my best friend? What are you gonna do about it? Be cute about it? Hm?” 

Ssamu meowed again in response, eliciting a fit of giggles from both Jem and Ellie. 

“Hm, maybe she understands more than we think,” said Ellie, looking down at Ssamu on her lap. 

Jem thought back to that morning, when Ssamu had meowed and acted aggressive at being shown the comment Jem now knew had been written by Will. “Maybe her attitude this morning was her trying to tell me something was off,” he said, cuddling closer to both Ellie and Ssamu.

Ssamu put her paw on Jem’s wrist as if to comfort him. 

Chapter Text

The next morning, Will moved his arms through the blankets and reached out for Tessa in a state of half-consciousness, but he was surprised to not feel anything — in fact, Tessa’s spot in their bed had already cooled down. The shock of Tessa’s absence caused him to wake up fully. 

“I must be late,” he thought before checking the clock and learning that it was 6:45 in the morning. Oh. “I guess Tessa’s just up early.” 

Will decided to make the best of Tessa’s absence by turning around to face his bedside table, unplugging his phone from its charger, and checking TikTok. For a few minutes, he let his brain rot more than it already had been rotted by letting @parisienne_ame tell him AI-generated stories while gameplay footage of trashy mobile games akin to Subway Surfers played in the background. However, after a few videos, the algorithm seemingly grew tired of recommending AI stories to Will and decided to throw him a music reaction video. 

@claryfairchild

reacting to lil unicorn with @izzy_isa did not go as expected lmao  

My Life Is A Movie - Lil Unicorn

Will watched as two young Shadowhunters whom he recognized as being from the New York Conclave reacted to Lil Unicorn’s music video for “My Life Is A Movie.” The two young women’s eyes seemed to be locked to the screen of Clary’s laptop, their expressions shifting from excitement to awe and back again as Lil Unicorn told a story through his music video. Their reactions were interrupted, though, when the door behind them opened suddenly and a man who Will recognized as having worked with him and Tessa as part of the Downworlder-Shadowhunter Alliance walked in.

“What the fuck, Alec?” said Izzy in the video, rolling her eyes and pausing Lil Unicorn’s music video. It was lost to Will why Clary had decided not to edit this part out. 

“Dinner’s ready,” said Alec, Izzy’s brother and the current Consul of the Clave, the highest position able to be held by a Shadowhunter. It was also lost to Will why the Consul of the Clave would be the one to call his sister down for dinner, but his thoughts were interrupted by Alec. 

“You guys do know that Lil Unicorn is Brother Zac-” Alec said, but the last word was cut off by a beep censor as Clary and Izzy covered their faces in shock and stopped the recording. 

Will had already figured out- well, he had been told that Lil Unicorn was Jem, but hearing Alec refer to him by his Silent Brother name made it all the more real for him. He decided to check the comments section to see if anyone was as surprised as he was, but the first comment he read made his eyebrows furrow in confusion. 

Liked by author!

@lilunicorn11: LMFAOOOOO

Will shook his head in disbelief: the video had been staged by Clary, Izzy, Alec, and perhaps Jem to gain clout. Was this some kind of inside joke? He thought. Am I really the only person who didn’t know this? 

Just as the clock struck seven, Tessa walked in, interrupting Will from his spiral. “Morning, sleepyhead,” she said, ruffling Will’s hair. Will tried to reach his hand out to ruffle Tessa’s hair back, but Tessa grabbed his wrist to stop him. 

“Oh,” said Will, noticing the hot curlers in Tessa’s hair. “You’re getting all dolled up. What’s the occasion?” 

“The Stray Kids concert, dummy,” said Tessa. “You know, the one you helped me pack thousands of banners for.” 

Will removed his hand from Tessa’s grasp just so he could facepalm. “Oh. Right.” 

“You know, you should get ready too. We’re leaving at 10:00 to be at the venue by 11:15 so we can start handing out banners early. Traffic is crazy. Make sure to pack your daylight pills. The Silent Brothers worked their asses off to invent those after the Alliance, so you’d better…” 

Tessa’s words became a blur in Will’s head after she referred to the Silent Brothers, the monastic order of Shadowhunters that Jem had joined to keep himself alive until he could be cured of his yin fen poisoning. 

“Will. Are you even listening?” Tessa snapped her fingers. 

Will looked up at Tessa with the same pathetic puppy-dog eyes he had given her the day before.

“I’ll take that as a no. Stop thinking about Jem and get ready for the concert,” said Tessa as she grabbed Will’s wrists again. 

“Okay?” said Will, allowing Tessa to drag him along to their shared bathroom. “Wait, what?”

“You were watching Lil Unicorn videos again. You know, Downworlders have always accepted bisexuality,” said Tessa. 

“What does that have to do with anything?” Will pretended like he had no clue what Tessa was going on about, but in reality, Tessa’s words made his stomach churn — not in distaste towards bisexuality as a concept or bisexual people, but in disbelief that he could be one of them. 

Tessa closed the bathroom door behind them and began to shuffle through her eyeshadow palettes. “You’re obsessed with Jem.” 

Will rolled his eyes. “If I were bisexual, I wouldn’t fall for people who hated me. I have more self-respect than that.” 

“You really don’t,” said Tessa, who had settled on an eyeshadow palette with red tones to match the theme of Stray Kids’ tour. “Now get in the shower while I do my makeup and hair. Maybe reflect a little while you’re in there. Shower thoughts reveal a lot about a person.” 

“Okay,” said Will, making sure the water was at the right temperature before stepping into the shower. As a vampire, things like temperature, taste, and scent had less of an effect on him as they did when he was a mortal Shadowhunter and thus still subject to the whims of nature and their ability to take him out at any point, but he still had his preferences. Perhaps one of those preferences was for the romantic company of men: before Tessa’s arrival at the London Institute, attraction to women was something that he had always felt like he had to perform. When he had been searching for demons in an attempt to heal his supposed demonic curse, he had always told the other residents of the Institute that he had been frolicking with women. That’s a normal thing for a teenage boy to do, he had thought at the time. Like women. No strings attached, though, asnthey’ll die if I love them. And when Magnus Bane had kissed him that one night, he had felt something. 

Tessa, the one girl he truly loved, allowed him to push down any thoughts of not being attracted to women. He had just enough logical reasoning ability, though, to figure out that being into one woman didn’t mean that he couldn’t be into men as well. He lied to himself and others frequently, but he couldn’t lie to himself that Jem was alluring. Attractive, even, especially when he was wearing cat ears. And as Will washed his body, his mind wandered to an imaginative place where Jem was touching him instead. 

As soon as he realized what he was thinking, he slapped himself across the face with his washcloth. “Stupid, stupid vampire,” he said to himself as he rinsed his body and stepped out of the shower, grabbing a towel to cover himself before walking into the vanity area where Tessa was applying red blush to her cheeks and the tip of her nose. Instead of admitting that Tessa had been right, Will decided to confront her. 

“Why did you never act like this about Kihyun?” asked Will, standing in front of the second mirror and sink in their bathroom. “I’ve been a fan of MONSTA X for ten years and you’ve never once insinuated that being a fan of a boy group makes me bisexual.” 

Tessa put her blush applicator down and began to work on her eyebrows. “Does me liking Bang Chan from Stray Kids mean I’m cheating on you?” She said without batting an eye. 

“No, it’s just K-pop,” said Will. “That would be stupid!” 

“Exactly, Will, it’s just K-pop. Besides, Kihyun is the most heterosexual man I’ve ever seen, and Jem isn’t,” said Tessa. 

Will nearly dropped his blowdryer. “What do you mean, Jem isn’t straight? He was literally obsessed with you!” 

Tessa put her eyebrow pencil down just to roll her eyes at Will. “Him being into one woman doesn’t mean he can’t also be into men as well,” she said. 

Will blinked in confusion, despite having the exact same realization about himself in the shower less than five minutes prior. 

“Now, when should I drop the bomb on you that Magnus told me that Jem had taken on a male lover about eight years ago?” Tessa picked up her eyebrow pencil again and nonchalantly used the brush end with a bit of gel to make sure every hair was secured in place. 

“You mean he had a boyfriend eight years ago?” Will was shocked. “You mean he got over us?” 

“Of course he did,” said Tessa, moving on to her eyeshadow. “I don’t know anything about the guy. Magnus stopped telling me about Jem ages ago, and I don’t talk to Shadowhunters outside of Alliance stuff and Twitter, so I don’t know anything else.” 

Will had to take a moment to process the fact that he no longer meant something to Jem, which hurt more than he had expected. “Whatever,” he eventually said, picking up his blowdryer again. “I hope he’s fucking happy or whatever. Anyways, Tessa, you look beautiful.” 

Tessa smiled brightly. “Thank you, my love. My makeup isn’t even done.” 

“I know,” said Will, “but you still look so beautiful that I could kiss you right now.” 

“Not now,” said Tessa. “You kiss messily and I don’t want to mess up my foundation. Besides, you’d probably start thinking of Jem, and I don’t want to process that right now.” 

Will’s chest tightened as if something had clamped on his heart. Tessa could very easily be right: she was often right, nearly always right, but her potentially being right about this one thing sent waves of fear down Will’s body. Whatever, he thought, shrugging off the feelings and continuing to dry his hair. 

——

“Okay, Will. You need a whole bottle of daylight pills, two bottles of coconut water, your phone, and a charger in your clear bag,” said Tessa. 

“Got it,” Will replied, popping a daylight pill before obediently packing everything into his clear concert bag that he had bought six years prior for MONSTA X’s concert in London. The bag was a bit tattered from years of use, and Will realized that he would have to buy a new one in the next year or so. Ever since becoming immortal, he had begun to realize just how impermanent everything in his life was, but he had always had a more difficult time losing attachment to things than other immortals seemed to have, despite presenting low levels of awareness of himself and others. Maybe that’s why Jem always came back to me, Will thought to himself. Maybe that’s why I always felt guilty about him. Not because I love him. That would be silly. But oh, his cat ears… 

“You okay?” 

Will snapped out of his daydream before it could even start. “Yeah, I’m fine, just distracted.” 

“Well, can you not be distracted? We have banners to pass out today,” said Tessa, gesturing to the boxes of banners that she and Will had prepared earlier that week. 

“Right,” Will nodded. “Can you glam me up?” 

“Of course, my love,” said Tessa, casting a quick glamour spell that would hide Will’s vampire fangs from the mundane attendees of the Stray Kids concert. Will was perfectly capable of glamming himself up, as he called it, but he liked Tessa’s glamours better. “There. Now you probably look normal. Let’s go!” 

Will and Tessa worked together to load the boxes of banners into the back of their car, which Tessa drove today in order to protect the both of them, as Will was too distracted to drive. Tessa had picked out a K-pop playlist for them to listen to on the way to the venue, which they were both enjoying, singing along to every song to which they knew the words. Will was especially happy to hear “Beautiful Liar” by MONSTA X in the playlist, singing every word until his voice gave out. 

However, following the ending notes of “Beautiful Liar,” an ATEEZ B-side started to play. “Silver Light” was a song that Will would have sung along to in normal circumstances, much to the disappointment of his ATEEZ-hating MONBEBE friends, but after the events of the past week, Will couldn’t help but be silent. 

“What’s wrong?” Tessa asked, not diverting her eyes from the road. 

“This is Jem’s favorite song,” said Will, not wanting to spiral on the way to the Stray Kids concert. 

“You can skip it if you’d like,” said Tessa, using one hand to push her phone towards Will. “Speaking of Jem, do you think he’s messaged you back?” 

Oh. 

Will had been on TikTok all morning until being forced to get ready for the concert, but he had forgotten to check his direct messages. “I don’t know.” 

“Do you want to check?” 

Will sighed, opening his phone and checking TikTok. Sure enough, there was a notification indicating that he had received a direct message: 

@lilunicorn11: 

no way… is this the will i think it is?

Will stared at his screen. He’s not fuming with rage? He thought to himself before realizing, of course he’s not. He’s Jem. Always so forgiving, except for that one time… 

“So?” Tessa asked. 

“He replied,” said Will. “He asked if I was the Will he thought I was.” 

“You are. Say yes,” commanded Tessa, “or I’m putting the KCON tickets up for resale.” 

Will gulped. Under the threat of not being able to see his beloved Kihyun, he typed out a quick response. 

@willubemybebe: 

Yeah lol are there other Wills in your life? 

To Will’s surprise, his message was marked as “read” immediately, and a little typing bubble popped up in the bottom left corner of his screen. 

@lilunicorn11: 

my will to live lmao

Will let out a chuckle at Jem’s message. Jem had always been a little bit sarcastic and funny, and his humor had always brought a smile to Will’s face. His laughter stopped when he saw that Jem was still typing. 

@lilunicorn11: 

speaking of living, how are you even alive? 

Will paused for a second, then decided to answer Jem’s question with a picture. “Tessa, if I send a selfie to a Shadowhunter but I’m glammed up, will they still see my fangs?” He asked, wanting to flash his vampire fangs to Jem. 

Tessa nodded. “Yeah, that’s how I discovered Lane and Demi from Twitter were warlocks. The Sight goes through phones.” 

“Okay! Thank you!” Will opened his camera app and took a picture of himself to send to Jem. He positioned his mouth like a growling kitten and made a claw with his hand with two purposes in mind: firstly, to prove to Jem that he had been turned into a vampire, and secondly, to hopefully elicit a similar picture back from Jem. 

@willubemybebe: 

Yeah I’m a vampire now raaaahhhh 

[1 file attached]

“You know, even if Jem doesn’t think you’re cute, I definitely do,” said Tessa. 

Will scoffed. “You weren’t even looking, were you?” 

“We’re at a stoplight, dummy. I glanced over while you were taking the picture.” Tessa giggled. “Have fun texting my ex.” 

Will laughed a little bit at Tessa’s comment, then continued to wait for Jem’s response. 

Chapter Text

The first sensation a human feels when coming into contact with a cat’s paw always indicates the type of interaction from which that contact occurred. If the fur is felt first, the human was most likely the one to initiate the interaction, probably playing with the cat’s paw in an act of affection. If the digital pads a.k.a. toe beans are felt first, the cat initiated the interaction, probably pawing at the human to get their attention. And if the claws are felt first, the human must have initiated an interaction with an unwilling cat. 

Jem was lucky to be experiencing the second type of sensation, as he woke up to Ssamu’s paw gently pressing against his cheek. “Good morning, baby girl,” he said, slowly realizing that Ellie had left him on the couch to sleep. He gave Ssamu a quick kiss on her forehead, then stretched out to reach for his phone that he had left on the coffee table. 

“Morning,” said Ellie, walking back to the couch with two cups of tea. 

Jem immediately ignored his phone and sat up, unable to hide his excitement about his best friend still being at his place. “Ellie! You stayed?” 

“Of course I did! I couldn’t leave you alone in this state,” said Ellie as she sat down on the couch, being careful to set the teacups down on the coasters laid on the coffee table rather than directly on the table. The coasters were designed to depict the album covers of the six albums LE SSERAFIM had released thus far: Fearless, Antifragile, Unforgiven, Easy, Crazy, and Hot. Unwilling to buy official LE SSERAFIM merchandise due to the organized boycott against their management company, HYBE Labels, Jem had ordered custom coasters depicting each LE SSERAFIM album in order to show support to the group without being noncompliant to the guidelines of the boycott.

“You’re the best,” said Jem, picking his cup of tea up off of the Unforgiven coaster. Jem had originally become interested in LE SSERAFIM before they even had their name, as he had heard rumors that his beloved Chaewon had joined HYBE Labels in preparation for a re-debut following the disbandment of IZ*ONE. He remembered booking a flight to South Korea to attend LE SSERAFIM’s debut showcase and a few of their performances on the weekly music broadcasts in South Korea. The following year, he had gotten accepted into an album signing event in China, allowing him to finally meet Chaewon after supporting her since her appearance on Produce 48. 

“I ordered cinnamon rolls for breakfast,” said Ellie, also picking up her cup of tea. “Stella is picking them up for us. They should be here in a few minutes.” 

“I would hug you and Stella both if I didn’t have a cup of tea in my hand,” said Jem. “Thank you for everything. I mean it.” 

“Anything for my best friend,” said Ellie. 

“If you were in this situation, I would do the same for you,” Jem said before taking a sip of his tea. 

“And you have,” Ellie smiled. “Remember when Florine cheated on me?” 

Jem nodded his head, thinking back to when Ellie had started dating a faerie girl only to get her heart broken. Florine had spent her life playing tricks on the mundanes of France, but after a fateful incident with the son of a French politician that had caused national outrage, she had been banished to England and told to mess with the Shadowhunters there. And mess she did: after playing the pretense of Ellie’s loyal, devoted girlfriend for three years, she made Ellie watch as she kissed a vampire whom the pair had both considered as a close friend. At the time, both Ellie and Jem had compared Florine to Tessa and the vampire to Will. 

”I wonder if Florine and Rodney are happy now,” said Jem, looking back at Ellie. 

“Is it selfish to hope they’re not?” asked Ellie with a soft laugh. 

“No, they don’t deserve happiness after what they did to my best friend!” Jem exclaimed with a pout. 

Ellie put her cup of tea down on the Antifragile coaster and wrapped an arm around Jem. “And neither do Tessa and Will after what they did to my best friend.” 

Jem nuzzled his head into Ellie’s chest in response as if he were a cat. From the perspective of an outsider, Jem and Ellie looked like they could be a couple, but Ellie preferred the romantic company of women and Jem had almost sworn off dating after how both of his previous romantic relationships had ended. His first love was Tessa, of course, who had responded to what she thought was his death by sleeping with his then-best friend. After being cured of yin fen poisoning and leaving the Silent Brotherhood, Jem had started dating a mundane named Daniel in a desperate attempt for normalcy, but the relationship had been such that Jem left it feeling as if romance was not meant for him. 

After a few silent minutes, Jem’s phone broke the silence with a notification, so he reached over to the coffee table and picked up his phone. 

“Is that Will?” asked Ellie. “Speak of the fucking devil, am I right?” 

Jem giggled. “I guess we can never use the future tense again,” he said, opening his phone to find out that the notification was, in fact, a message from Will. 

@willubemybebe: 

Yeah lol are there other Wills in your life?

Jem rolled his eyes at Will’s attempt at humor. “Look at this shit, Ellie,” he said, tilting his phone so that Ellie could see Will’s pathetic message. 

“Honestly, just hit him with another joke,” advised Ellie. “If he’s not taking this seriously, you need to be just as unserious.” 

Jem nodded and typed a quick message: 

@lilunicorn11: 

my will to live lmaoo

“But I do want to know his real intentions behind sending this, though,” he said, typing another quick message: 

@lilunicorn11: 

speaking of living, how are you even alive? 

“Good question,” said Ellie, still looking at Jem’s phone. To both of their surprises, Jem’s messages were marked as “read” instantly, and a small typing bubble appeared on the bottom left corner of his screen. Will was still online, and Jem’s confidence was dwindling by the second. But before he could go too deep into a spiral of insecurity, he heard a sharp knock on his door. 

“Open up, bitches!” Stella’s voice was muffled by the door, but still audibly and identifiably hers. “I have cinnamon rolls.” 

Jem stretched like a cat, then realized his own cat was on his feet, rendering both him and Ellie unable to move. “Key’s under the mat. Ssamu’s not budging,” he shouted back to Stella. 

“Got it,” said Stella, quickly shuffling her free hand under the mat to find the key. Once the door was open, she took care to remove her shoes before fully entering the building. “Hey, besties!” 

“Hi, Stella. Thank you so much for doing this,” said Ellie, gesturing for Stella to put the cinnamon rolls on the coffee table. 

“No, really, thank you. I was just telling Ellie how grateful I am for all of you,” said Jem. 

Stella laughed as she sat down on the armchair next to Jem’s couch. “I’m just doing it for the free cinnamon rolls,” she joked. “So, what’s the drama? Did the guy respond?” she asked, resting her elbows on her knees and placing her chin on her hands. 

“Yeah,” said Jem. He reluctantly opened his phone to show Stella the exchange with Will, but he was shocked to see a picture of Will’s face in his message box. 

@willubemybebe: 

Yeah I’m a vampire now raaaahhhh 

[1 file attached] 

“Ew! What the fuck is that thing?” Stella jumped back in disgust. 

“A vampire,” said Ellie. “Don’t be weird to Downworlders. It’s against the Alliance.” 

“That’s Will Herondale. All’s fair in love, war, and dealing with Jem’s stupid fucking ex-parabatai,” remarked Stella. “And why the fuck is he acting like that guy from SEVENTEEN who thinks he’s a tiger?” 

Jem put his phone down and reached over to grab a cinnamon roll, being silently grateful that Stella had loaded up on napkins at the bakery. “He looks just like how I remembered him to look,” he said. “I am curious as to why he chose to become a vampire, though.” 

“Do you think he could have done it so that he could be with Tessa forever and ever?” asked Stella. “I know she’s a warlock. My parents saw her at the Accords before I was even born.” 

Before Jem could even finish chewing his bite of cinnamon roll enough to respond to Stella, Ellie shook her head. “I seriously doubt Tessa was the only reason,” she said. “I had a few encounters with her back when I was an Iron Sister. She always-” 

Stella cut Ellie off. “Old ass.”

“Not too much on me and Jem,” said Ellie with an air of fake offense. “Anyways, Tessa always said Will seemed distracted in their relationship, so I don’t think he’d stay alive just for her.” 

“Right. Besides, how can a bond built on betrayal be so strong?” said Jem, having finally swallowed his bite. Before he could take another bite, though, he noticed a devious grin taking form on Stella’s face. 

“What?” he asked, his expression shifting into one sending the message of ah shit, here we go again.

Stella’s only grew wider as Jem stared at her. “I have a dare for you.” 

“Seriously?” 

“Come on!” 

Jem rolled his eyes and laid his head back down on Ellie’s chest. “Fine, whatever. Shoot.” 

“I dare you to send a pic back and ask him what happened.” 

Not one to back down from a dare, Jem picked his phone up again and opened his camera app. “If you insist on me doing this so badly, can you grab my cat ears from my studio?” 

“Why are your cat ears in your studio?” Stella asked, but got up to get them before Jem could even answer her. She was back before thirty seconds had even passed, Jem’s silvery-iridescent cat ears in hand. “Here.” 

“Thank you,” said Jem, putting the cat ears on his head and adjusting them to perfection before copying Will’s growly expression and clawed hand. Making sure both Ellie and Stella were out of frame, he photographed himself a couple of times, switching the angle each time in order to get a good variety of photos from which to select. He then showed the pictures to Ellie and Stella, asking them which picture they liked the best — Ellie liked the first picture Jem had taken, while Stella liked the third. Eventually, Jem settled on the first one, causing Stella to roll her eyes in fake disappointment. He decided to type a reply to Will before sending the photo: 

@lilunicorn11: 

i have so many questions 

@lilunicorn11: 

also, it’s only fair 

[1 file attached]

“Sent,” said Jem, setting his phone down on his lap and picking his half-eaten cinnamon roll back up from the coffee table, where it had been sitting in its accompanying napkin. “I can’t believe this is happening.” 

“I fully thought Will was dead,” said Stella. 

“I thought so too. Tessa stopped contacting the Iron Sisters after the first World War. I’d always assumed Will had died of old age and Tessa had moved on as warlocks do,” said Ellie. 

“You two are ancient,” interjected Stella. 

“If you don’t count the years we spent as slow-aging monastics, we’re basically your age,” said Jem, shifting in position in a way that forced his feet to move under Ssamu. 

Before he knew it, Ssamu was awake and pouncing on his phone, which he had accidentally left open, displaying his TikTok messages with Will. This was a fourth type of paw-interaction, one in which the cat sensed something amiss and decided to do something about it before its human made things all the worse for themself. Ssamu was acting in a way that most people, especially the non-cat-savvy, would perceive as violent, but Jem knew that Ssamu was an intelligent cat with sharp instincts, so he took her actions as attempts to protect him. 

Ssamu continued to growl and hiss at Jem’s screen, prompting Jem to pick her up and attempt to soothe her. “Baby, it’s okay,” he said, holding his beloved cat like she was a little baby. 

Ssamu hissed at him as if to say, no, it’s not okay.

“You don’t like Will very much, do you, sweet kitty?” said Jem, looking down at Ssamu with all the patience and love in the world. “It’s okay. I don’t like him either, baby girl. At least right now I don’t. But let me handle it, okay?” 

Ssamu seemed satisfied at Jem’s calm tone and jumped out of his arms to go scratch at her scratcher. 

“What a smart cat,” Ellie remarked. 

“She knows trouble when she sees it,” said Stella. “Wait, Jem, look at your screen!” She pointed at Jem’s phone. 

“Huh?” said Jem, wondering if Ssamu had scratched it or caused it to crack. He had a screen protector and a camera cover, though, so he wasn’t too worried about damage. His phone was what he used to create the content that made him so famous on TikTok, so he was generally very careful with it. However, no screen protector could protect him from what he saw on his screen: 

@willubemybebe: 

I WILL tell all later, beautiful. I have a Stray Kids concert to go to ;) 

@willubemybebe left a “heart eyes” reaction!

Jem stared at his phone in shock at Will’s flirtatiousness for a few seconds, eliciting concern from Ellie and Stella, the latter of whom dropped her cinnamon roll on the ground upon seeing Will’s messages. 

“What the fuck?” said Stella.

“I have to echo Stella on this one. What the fuck?” said Ellie. 

“He really hasn’t changed much,” remarked Jem with a giggle and a few quick taps at his screen. 

@lilunicorn11: 

thanks for sharing that :3 have fun! 

Chapter Text

“And… heart eyes reaction, and… shady comment, and… send!” Will tapped at his screen with a force and speed that would have made Tessa think he was going to break it if she had been watching. He put his phone back into his concert bag and looked out the window as he and Tessa sat in a seemingly never-ending traffic jam. 

“Hey, Will, could you do me a favor?” said Tessa, distracting Will from the argument going on in the car next to his and Tessa’s. The windows of that car had been opened so that the entire traffic jam could hear a woman and her husband arguing about something involving a brother-in-law, and Will had become invested. 

“Oh? Yeah, sure,” said Will, turning to look at Tessa. 

“What, was the neighbors’ argument too good?” Tessa said with a laugh and handed her unlocked phone to Will. “I gotta keep my eyes on the road, so can you make a TikTok about us being stuck in traffic? I’m sure the people who wanted my banners are looking for updates.” 

Will took the phone from Tessa and immediately opened TikTok. “Got it.” He opened the built-in video recorder, selected his favorite Stray Kids song as the background music, and took a short video of himself and Tessa waiting for the traffic to clear up. 

“Can I trust you to write a good caption?” 

“Yeah, I think,” said Will. “I’ll run it by you.” 

@bangchanluv

Hey London STAYs it’s Tessa’s absolutely gorgeous beautiful stunning amazing husband (everyone follow me @willubemybebe btw) letting you all know we’re stuck in traffic so we’ll be later than we expected to start handing out banners @ DominATE but we’re on our way 

Walking on Water - Stray Kids

“Seriously?” Tessa rolled her eyes as Will read the caption he had written out loud to her. “The content is good, but did you have to write it like that?” 

“Did I lie?” Will would have flipped his hair if it were any longer. 

“No, you didn’t, I guess,” said Tessa. “Go ahead.” 

After clicking “send,” Will put Tessa’s phone back where it had been placed and continued listening to the argument in the car next to him. Yes, he thought to himself, the neighbors’ argument was too good. The man, whose name Will had gathered to be Leo, was accusing his wife, Joy, of cheating on him with his own brother. Joy was arguing back, saying that Leo’s claims were a projection of his own infidelity — Will heard Joy saying that Leo had been sleeping with his boss. 

“You’re fucking gay, aren’t you?” Joy shouted to Leo, confirming Will’s suspicion that the boss was a man. 

“Bitch, stop breathing!” Leo shouted back at his wife, positioning his hands in a way that rang alarm bells for Will. 

Will was many things: oblivious, passionate, arrogant, clumsy, self-tortured yet self-important, and addicted to TikTok, to name a few. But one thing he was not is a person who would let an act of wanton violence go unstopped. So, he rolled down his window, and gave Joy and Leo a piece of his mind: 

“Joy, denial is a river in Egypt. Your husband is gay,” he shouted, causing heads to turn in the middle of the traffic jam. “And Leo, just because your wife clocked your tea doesn’t mean you get to call her a bitch and tell her to stop breathing,” he said, opening his phone and positioning it as if he were filming to scare Leo. 

“Dude, what?” Leo stammered. “I- I never said anything! You’re crazy!” 

“That I am,” said Will with a nod. “And I’m keeping this thing on,” he gestured to his phone with his free hand, “so you better not try anything.” 

Leo sighed in defeat and put his hands down, staring pathetically at Joy. Will continued to hold his phone up, primarily to scare Leo but ready to record at any second in case Leo decided not to care about the cameras. Will knew very well that the audacity of the male gender often transcended any potential hits to their reputation, especially since their privilege acts as a shield against the hits in question. As an immortal vampire with anger issues and opinion rigidity, Will had powers both natural and supernatural that he could harness effectively due to his century-and-a-half of life experience. 

Eventually, the traffic jam cleared up, allowing Will and Tessa to move forward on their way to the Stray Kids concert. Throughout the drive, Will couldn’t help but wonder about Joy’s safety at the hands of Leo. 

“Good on you for doing that, Will,” said Tessa. “A lot of guys wouldn’t.” 

“Yeah, and that’s a problem,” said Will, shaking his head in disgust. 

“You may not know a lot of things, but you’ve always known when to step in and be the helper. A commendable trait, really,” Tessa said as she navigated a complicated intersection. 

“Thanks,” said Will, completely oblivious to the fact that Tessa had just indirectly called him an idiot. Any thoughts he would have been able to have were interrupted with a notification from TikTok. 

@lilunicorn11: 

thanks for sharing that :3 have fun! 

Will was utterly confused. “What the fuck do you mean, thanks for sharing that?” He scoffed. “Thanks for sharing that,” he said, raising the pitch of his voice to match how he remembered Jem’s to have sounded way back then. 

“You sounded a lot like Jem there,” remarked Tessa. 

“That’s the point. I told him we’re seeing Stray Kids today and he said, and I quote, ‘thanks for sharing that’,” said Will, his metaphorical blood boiling. 

“That shady motherfucker,” said Tessa. “I wonder if he still hates you.” 

“Well, only one way to find out,” said Will as he tapped on his phone. 

@willubemybebe: 

Thanks. We should hate me

“I told him we should talk and asked him if he hates me,” Will smiled proudly as he narrated his actions to Tessa. 

“How forward,” said Tessa. “The venue is in sight.” 

Will looked up from his phone for a brief second to glance at the arena at which Stray Kids would be performing that night, seeing the sign announcing their performance. He was forced to look down once again by a notification. 

@lilunicorn11: 

?

“A question mark? What the fuck is wrong with you?” Will almost shouted at his phone in lieu of shouting at Jem. “Tessa, can you tell me why the fuck he would have responded with a question mark?” 

“Shut the fuck up and let me park!” 

Will sighed in defeat and read his message to Jem again, wondering where he had gone wrong. I was probably too direct with him, he thought. Always been an issue for me, hasn’t it? 

“Thanks. We should hate me,” he read his own message to himself. “We… should… hate… me. We should hate me… we should hate… me?” What? Realizing his mistake, he tapped frantically at his phone: 

@willubemybebe: 

FUCK MY STUPID FUCKING LIFE JEM

@willubemybebe: 

I mean we should talk and do you hate me? 

Just as Will was finishing typing his messages, Tessa pulled into an empty parking spot and turned off the car. “I can check your messages now, my love.” 

Will smiled proudly. “No thanks, I got it.” 

“You figured out where you went wrong on your own?” 

“Yeah.” 

“Shocker,” said Tessa, “but I’m proud of you. Why don’t you tell me what happened while we hand out banners?” 

“Sure,” said Will, getting out of the car and opening the back of it, where he and Tessa had put the boxes full of banners earlier. They had decided to let fans walk to them to pick up the banners so they would not have had to carry massive boxes around to thousands of fans lined up in the summer heat. Tessa quickly filmed a TikTok, twote a tweet, and posted an Instagram story letting her followers know that she and Will had arrived at the venue and to look out for a silver car parked near the venue with its trunk open, then turned to face Will. 

“So…?” said Tessa. 

“I accidentally said, I quote, ‘we should hate me’ to Jem instead of ‘we should talk, and by the way, I wonder if you hate me’,” said Will, hanging his head in shame. “And that’s why he sent a single fucking question mark.” 

“Did you correct yourself?” 

“Yes.” 

“Good.” Tessa sighed. “If you need to step away to talk to him, let me know. Otherwise, I need your full cooperation with this banner project, okay?”

“Okay!” Will nodded enthusiastically, preparing to put down his phone and dedicate his attention to Tessa and her banners. However, as he was taking one last look at his screen, he noticed that Jem had read his message and was typing one back. 

@lilunicorn11: 

ohhh lol

@lilunicorn11: 

it’s been like 127 years

Will was confused by what Jem meant by his last message, but his neurons had activated at the sight of the number 127 for reasons only known to the chronically online: 

@willubemybebe: 

Like a sticker sticker sticker

“Will, remember, you’re handing out the banners for the upper sections while I’m handing out the floor ones,” said Tessa, her eyes drifting to Will’s screen. “Unless you need me to do both so you can talk to Jem.” 

“Honestly, I might need that,” said Will, waiting patiently for Jem’s response, which came in quickly. 

@lilunicorn11: 

you get itttt

@lilunicorn11: 

but yeah enough time has passed 

@lilunicorn11: 

let’s talk

“Yeah, I’ll need it,” said Will. “He wants to talk to me.” 

“Then talk to him. You spent almost a hundred years avoiding him, didn’t you?” 

Will nodded. “Wish me luck,” he said, typing a message into his chat with Jem. 

@willubemybebe: 

Tessa said I can step away from handing out concert banners for a bit right now if you’re free! 

“Is he free right now?” asked Tessa. 

“Just asked. By the way, you didn’t wish me luck,” said Will. 

“Good luck, my beloved.” Tessa rolled her eyes, but Will could see that a soft smile was forming on her face. Will didn’t know whether Tessa was proud, amused, or something else, but he knew that she loved him, which was usually the only thing that mattered to him. Today was different, though, as he and his old parabatai had reconnected in a way that he had never expected. Will hadn’t even been fully aware that Jem had been released from the Silent Brothers, healed from his yin fen poisoning, and resumed life as a mortal Shadowhunter, let alone become a successful, self-made musician and TikTok sensation. 

@lilunicorn11: 

i can call rn if you’re sure you’re free :3 

“Cute,” Will said to himself, typing on his phone.

@willubemybebe

Amazing perfect splendid my number is 07 XXX XXXXXX

Jem responded almost instantly: 

@lilunicorn11:

okayy 

@lilunicorn11: 

mine is 07 XXX XXXXXX :3 

——

Upon receiving Will’s message, Jem copied and pasted the number into his phone’s address book, saving it under the name “ducky” with an emoji of a duck next to it. Will had always been afraid of ducks, and back when he had been Jem’s parabatai, it had been a bit of a running joke between them. So, if the two were going to start talking again, it would be funny to rekindle one of their inside jokes, Jem thought.

“Besties, I’m gonna call him,” he announced to Stella and Ellie. Ssamu immediately growled and tried to bat Jem’s hand away from his screen as he messaged Will his own number. 

“Tell him to die!” Stella shouted too loudly for how close she was to Jem. “Oh, wait, he’s immortal.” 

Ellie placed her hand on Jem’s shoulder, the two of them ignoring Stella’s comment. “Are you sure about this?” 

Jem’s smile was bright as he nodded. “I want to see what he has to say for himself after all this time,” he said, exiting TikTok and opening WhatsApp to message his friends. 

Jem Carstairs

guys im gonna do something 

He barely had to wait for a response: 

Dove-Marie Aladesanmi

should we be concerned

Stella Kim

YES. (im in his living room)

Ellie Xu

NO. (so am I)

Jem Carstairs

maybe. 

Stella Kim

chelsea please be ready to sic the london enclave on this guy

Stella Kim

chelsea are you even awake

Dove-Marie Aladesanmi

SIC THE SHADOWHUNTERS OF LONDON ON JEM? 

Jem Carstairs

no she means will

Dove-Marie Aladesanmi

what 

Jem Carstairs

long story short i agreed to call will 

Dove-Marie Aladesanmi

omfg

Malikai Leblanc

Can you please tell him to kill himself

Stella Kim

THATS WHAT I SAID but my rational brain was like “well ackshewally he’s immortal” 

Jem Carstairs

i’m genuinely interested in what he has to say ^—^ 

Ellie Xu

Kinda same tbh

Malikai Leblanc

Well keep us posted kittenboy 

Jem Carstairs

i will

Dove-Marie Aladesanmi

will if he were a caveman: 

Malikai Leblanc

LMAOOOOOO 

Jem reacted to Dove-Marie’s message with an emoji signifying that he was crying from laughter, then stretched out like a cat before trying to escape from the couch to call Will. He was stopped by his own cat, though, who meowed at him with worry in her eyes. 

“Ssamu, baby, I’ve got this,” said Jem, gently lifting up Ssamu and placing her on the ground before getting up and walking to his studio for more privacy. 

“Good luck out there!” Stella shouted.

“Thanks,” said Jem. “I’m gonna need it.” 

Jem closed the door to his studio, pausing to take in the pink glow coming from the fluorescent lights that he had installed. The lights usually served to differentiate his studio from the rest of his place and inspire creativity, but today, Jem hoped that the lights would bring him calm and familiarity as he talked to the man to whom he had been tied under Shadowhunter law nearly a century and a half prior. Sitting down on his desk chair, he opened his phone again, swiped away a few concerned notifications from Chelsea and Dove-Marie, and messaged Will a quick “hey”. 

ducky

Jem? 

yeah hi will :3 

ducky

Prove it. 

“He hasn’t changed a bit,” said Jem to himself as he set his phone up on his stand and pressed the little video icon on the top right corner of the screen. As he waited for Will to pick up his call, he ran his fingers through his hair, making sure the rainbow streaks could be seen against his silver-dyed hair. 

Will picked up the phone in a matter of seconds, leaving Jem little time to fix his hair.