Disclaimer: I do not own The Dark Artifices or anything pertaining to this series except my own writing. I would like to give credit for this idea to the lovely clockworkalec on tumblr. It's thank to the Kitty headcanons on clockworkalec's blog that I was so inspired. Thank you. I published this story on Archive of Our Own as well (as I am IzzyLightwood there), so read this wherever you like. *smiley

"Falling in love is very real, but I used to shake my head when people talked about soul mates, poor deluded individuals grasping at some supernatural ideal not intended for mortals but sounded pretty in a poetry book. Then, we met, and everything changed…"

–E.A. Bucchianeri

"No, this trick won't work... How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love?"

–Albert Einstein

It had occurred to Ty that withholding his and Kit's relationship from his family was not wise. For a brief moment, he wondered why they hadn't said anything to the rest of the Blackthorns, and then in the next second he thought that none of them should really care and not telling wouldn't make a difference. It had all happened so quickly—while at the same time somehow at a snail's pace—and before Ty had known it, Kit wasn't just the only other boy in the Institute of the same age. He was suddenly the first person, in that way, that Ty could look at with true interest, wonderment; it was all such a strange emotion for Ty that he, for whatever reason, wanted to keep it for himself.

When Ty told Kit about his feelings, about a year and a half after the latter's moving into the Institute, he did so with pipe cleaners twisting anxiously in his slender fingers as he worked to keep his gaze on the subject. It was difficult, as it always was, but he enjoyed looking at Kit, he found. Kit's eyes resembled the sea water that sparkled beneath sunlight, Ty's matched the storm of the night. It was a comparison Ty had found himself caught in more and more, in bed before sleep unable to close his eyes without seeing Kit behind the lids. He'd never, ever experienced anything like it.

He hadn't expected anything from Kit, not really. Ty knew he wasn't like everybody else, and that on top of that Kit had only just been brought into the Shadow World. There was also the fact that boys usually liked girls. Ty had met Alec Lightwood and Magnus Bane, and grew up with the relationship of his sister Helen and her wife Aline; their love were, most likely, successful examples of… whatever Ty felt for Kit. But it was all very new, and odd to process. He wasn't skilled in talking about these sorts of things, as he'd never had to before, so he spoke to Livvy. If no one else, he thought discussing his predicament with his twin could prove at least a little helpful.

Livvy—though desperately wanting to throw her arms around her brother because she had known, she had known that there was something, a spark between him and Kit—sat down with Ty and let him try to explain. He didn't have much to go on, but she was able to tell him that, yes, he most likely had those feelings for Kit. That is, if liking his voice and hands that always seemed to drum on the kitchen chairs had anything to do with those feelings.

He thanked Livvy and, without waiting, went to find Kit. He found the Herondale in the front yard beneath the shade of the oak tree, a book in hand. Ty knew what he was reading: The Picture of Dorian Gray. It had been recommended to him by Julian and, from the moment Kit had taken it from the older boy's bookshelf, he hadn't put it down for a second. (Except to train, of course, but that especially seemed secondary when compared to an Oscar Wilde novel.)

Ty walked down the porch steps and, without a word, sat Indian-style on the grass before Kit. Kit, leaning against the tree with his legs stretched out and crossed, looked up from the book to look at him. He smiled, all white teeth and golden skin. Ty wrung the pipe cleaners tight. He tried to ignore the contrast of baby blue T-shirt against years-old jeans.

"What's shakin', Bright Eyes?" Kit inquired, his long fingers tapping at the book in his lap. His bare arms were, after so long, marked with runes new and old. (On the side, 'Bright Eyes' referred to the name of Kit's favorite musical group. One of their many songs, We Are Nowhere and It's Now, managed to get him to sleep his beginning nights at the Institute, as did Ty's forthright encouragement in navigating the new world Kit had found himself in. Hence, the nickname.) On Kit's hand was burned the rune for clairvoyance, the rune Ty himself had put on Kit as his first.

"I need to talk to you," Ty said. Kit stuck the scribbled-over Post-It that served as bookmark onto his page and, setting it beside him, nodded as a gesture for Ty to continue. "We're friends, right?"

"I'd think so," Kit said, smiling in that way he had, where his eyes somehow grinned along with his mouth. Triple the power. "Why?"

"We haven't known each other an extensive amount of time, but I haven't had many friends, ever." Ty burned holes into the patch of grass at Kit's side. "And I've heard that, for some people, feelings like I have can ruin a friendship."

Kit straightened slightly in his place on the ground, eyebrows coming together. "Feelings like you have? What feelings do you have?"

This was a bad time to be counting and memorizing the sprinkled assortment of freckles that spattered Kit's body. Ty squeezed his eyes shut, and then forced himself to look up, directly at the boy in front of him. He'd discovered recently that focusing on the mole right below Kit's right eye helped in this. "I like you. At least, that's what I've been told. And what I've come to believe."

Kit stared at Ty for a second. "You're serious?"

"I didn't think I sounded anything less."

"No, I just—Ty," Kit said, "I've liked you since I met you."

Ty blinked. "What?"

"Since the night you held a knife to my throat and I first saw your eyes, darting around at everything but me. You're incredible, Ty. What's not to like?"

"So I'm not—you don't think I'm weird or anything?" Ty clarified, fists clenched around the pipe cleaners.

Kit remembered what he had said to Julian: Ty isn't weird. He's just autistic. "Yeah, right," Kit said, prodding Ty's leg lighlt. "But what does this… mean?"

"What does what mean?"

"Why're you telling me this? Do you wanna, like… go out?" For the first time Ty could recall, Kit appeared nervous. Ty felt that sense of pride that he rarely ever got, and it was because he suspected that he was the reason for Kit's current hesitant state.

"What would that entail?" he asked.

"I know you aren't big on the—touching, and whatever, for the most part, but that's all fine." Kit was clearly attempting to wrack his brain for an idea that would suit Ty. "Maybe just… I don't know, a movie? Just anything you want to do."

"There are music stores around here," Ty said. "I like music."

Kit smiled. "I know." He scratched his head with a short breath out, his hair longer than he normally let it get. "How 'bout tomorrow? We can walk around a bit, check out the record shops."
"That sounds… good," Ty agreed, a smile pulling up his bow lips. Kit grabbed the book at his side and nodded, as if the case were closed. He had a goofy color to his cheeks and his grin was too large; Ty felt nauseous. Maybe that was the feeling Livvy had mentioned? Nothing to be alarmed about.

"Then I'll… see you later?" Kit, on his feet, gently tugged at a curl on Ty's head before heading back into the Institute. Ty fell onto his back against the hard ground, staring up at the cloudless sky. He had made a date with Kit. A Herondale.

How had that happened?

^.^.^.^.^.^

Kit and Ty had been 'together' for nearly seven months. Dating in the Shadow World was simpler than that of the mundane, it seemed, to Kit. All he wanted as of late was to be with Ty, and Kit hadn't ever thought of himself as a one-guy (or girl) kind of guy, not when he was only (soon to be) 17. Ty felt the same, considering the thought of dating hadn't occurred to him basically ever.

And after those few months, the Blackthorns still had no idea that the two boys were more than best friends. It wasn't like there was a ton of blatant affection, because Ty didn't like that sort of thing, and Kit was eager to make Ty comfortable.

On their third date, they held hands. Kit had fought with himself about it, wondering if he should let Ty do the touching first, just to be safe. But if he did that, the unreasonable Herondale part of his brain yelled, then it could never happen. So during a walk around the Pier, the boys unglamoured, Kit tentatively wrapped his fingers into Ty's. Ty was surprised and made frozen for a few seconds, but he accepted the grasp every time after that. To most people it was a small thing, but Kit was beyond grateful. Ty had even taken off his headphones for a bit, though Kit knew how hard it was for him to deal with noisy crowds.

Cuddling was not Ty's preferred style of displaying fuzzy sentiments. Extended periods of so much contact. So the boys didn't do that too much, but the First Kiss happened one night—actually, 2:31 in the morning nearly three weeks after the Pier. They had gotten out of their respective rooms to talk around 11; Ty'd brought his tablet to show Kit all of the research he had done to find evidence that Sherlock Holmes may have been a real person. They were sitting against the far wall of the dimmed Training Room. Kit was enjoying the sound of Ty's organized ramblings when, face glowing above the light from the screen, Kit glanced over to Ty. He had paused in his explanations, eyes on Kit's mouth. And not in Ty's usual way of not being able to look in the eyes of others.

The kiss wasn't long, but it was enough. From then on, if they were alone, sometimes Ty would be the first to lean over and press his lips against Kit's, becoming less awkwardly stilted as time wore on.

It was one Tuesday train session that found Kit and Ty together again in the Training Room. Ty had his earbuds in, a wordless melody blasting as he threw daggers into the targets on the wall. Kit's gaze, as it usually did, slid over to Ty's slim frame, and he grinned. He set down his chakrams and walked on over to him. He had only just poked one finger against Ty's shoulder when the other boy spun round to hold the blade of his dagger on Kit's throat.

"All too familiar," Kit said, his surprise (among other things) making his voice come out a tad breathless.

Seeing that it was not an imminent threat but a Herondale, Ty fell off him and sighed. "One of these days, I'm going to accidentally kill you."

"Would that be any way to treat your boyfriend?" Kit teased, carefully pulling Ty close again. Ty looked down, grinning, then pulled his eyes up to Kit's. His face reddened as he blinked and moved for the target to collect his daggers. "Cuz, honestly…" Kit went on as he watched this, "I can think of other stuff." Ty had only just turned back around, knives in hand, when Kit was suddenly not a foot away.

"Are you trying to be funny?" Ty demanded.

"I'm trying to be cute." Kit leaned forward, allowing Ty to be the one to kiss him. After a single second, Kit pulled away from Ty, but just enough to grin. "Is it working?" Ty laughed a little, grey eyes crinkled at the corners, and Kit took the opportunity to hold him against the wall at his back. Ty looked directly into Kit's eyes, then, lips parted slightly in surprise. Kit took the daggers from Ty and set them down.

Then, with no protest from Ty, Kit pressed a soft kiss to his mouth. He felt Ty's hands find their way into his hair, shorter than it had been months before, and tighten at the soft hair near his neck. Kit held Ty's slender waist, the fabric of the black training uniform rough beneath his fingertips. If only it weren't there. Ty had just released a startling sound, the Angel help Kit, when all of a sudden the latter went flying onto the cushioned mat some feet away.

"What the hell do you think you're doing to my brother?" Julian demanded of Kit, who was jumping to his feet in perfect Shadowhunter form. Despite this being something that Julian would normally praise Kit for, in this moment it was as though Kit hadn't ever been present at family meals and events or working hard in training alongside the other Blackthorns; he was again the boy from the Shadow Market known to most L.A. Nephilim as the crooked son of the crooked Johnny Rook.

"Julian, I wasn't–"

"He isn't some toy for your pleasure here, Kit," snapped Julian. "What's wrong with you, jumping him when no one else is around?"

Kit stepped forward, hands up. "It's not like that, I swear."

"Really? What's it like?"

"Julian!" As if Julian had forgotten that Ty was still there, he faced the younger boy with dropped jaw. "Stop yelling at Kit."

"What? Ty, don't you see that what he was doing to you is bad?"

"Kit and I are dating. He is my boyfriend." Julian stared at Ty, face flushed. Of all the responses to this situation, Ty's words had not been among the ones Julian had considered. "And I'm not a child," his brother added. "I can protect myself."

"Ty, I didn't know…"

"Because I didn't tell you. I suppose I should have." He leaned over to see Kit, who was standing behind Julian. "Are you okay?" Kit breathed out and walked, hesitant, around Julian before stopping at Ty's side. He quickly dropped a kiss onto Ty's black curls, gaining a smile from the boy and pink cheeks from Julian.

"I'm sorry. I just didn't think… Well, anyway, I'm glad you guys are… happy together. See you at dinner." Julian hurried out the doors of the training room with his head down, and Kit and Ty glanced at each other.

"So…" Kit said with a joking smile, "at least we can do what we want now."

Ty rolled his grey eyes. "As if we weren't before?"

Kit laughed and nudged Ty's arm with his own and, without another word, both returned to their training as if nothing at all out of the ordinary had happened.