So this is my attempt at a modernization AU for The Infernal Devices. R&R it's been a while since I wrote a fanfic so yeah.

The day I decided to go to the bookstore was the best I had in a long time. My Aunt had been dead six weeks to the day when I pulled the shop's front door open and heard the pleasant Ding! of the bell. My brother Nate was a lawyer for some big firm and had been transferred to their London office 6 months before Aunt died. As soon as he heard the news I was sent a plane ticket and a hand written letter telling me to pack the essentials and get on a plane to England. So I packed up all I could and left behind my books, my flat screen, my dresser, my bed and left the tiny New York apartment I had grown up in to move to a strange new city in a much older country with a new school and weird accents. I had officially come to London two weeks earlier and Nate gave me his credit card and told me to buy whatever I could, within reason, to make up for what I had left behind. So I was shopping around and the first place I went was the bookstore.

At home I had almost an entire library. The walls of my room were decorated mostly by shelves filled to the brim with books. Some shelves were even double lined with them. Most of them were fiction but I had a few non-fiction books as well. I had probably read more books between the ages of eleven and sixteen than most Americans would read in their entire life. Now, when I say novels I don't mean 50 Shades of Gray kind of novels. I mean classics. I loved Victorian Literature; the way they could paint a picture through the words in the most poetic manner truly amazed me.

So I decided the only way to fill the void and span the Atlantic to make me feel better would be to buy books. And I mean lots of books. I had a list of 10 books I wanted and I would continue to buy ten books each visit until I was satisfied and surrounded by old friends.

I went into the bookstore and it smelled British like someone who enjoyed tea obviously spent a lot of time in there. It felt like a home. I was surrounded by a feeling that I knew where I was, that I could spend all my life in there. It was an amazing feeling considering that I felt so homesick for people who drive on the other side of the road, American television, and the lack of the letter U in words like "favorite" and "color".

I was greeted by the person working the counter. She had very sleek blonde hair curled up in a fancy style. Her brown eyes seemed cold and unloving, as if she wished she were somewhere else. I smiled at her and walked through the small shop looking at the books. Not just looking at them but smelling them as well. The shop had a section of used books and they were old. Like your grandmother's youngest sister old. Older than both the girl at the counter and myself. I loved the feeling that section gave me. Most of the books on the shelf were ones I was comfortable with, ones I had read many times over. Hell, there were American novels too, which made me smile.

I walked around for a while just browsing the shelves. They had a nice Employee's pick section that both fascinated and angered me. I read the backs of more books than I had intended. The sound of the bell announcing a new customer broke me out of my revere. I jumped a little at the sound as sat down the biography I had been skimming. I pulled the list of ten books out of my purse and began trying to find them. I didn't see the other customer for a long while until I made my way back to the Used Books section. I was looking for The Wide, Wide World and as I went back to the used section to see if it was placed there, I saw a boy standing in the isle.

In all of my imaginings I could have never imagined a boy a beautiful as him. He was tall, at least six feet and strong; you could see his muscles from underneath his collared shirt. And he had the most beautiful face imaginable, more beautiful than any actor with a picture on the front cover of a magazine. His eyes were violently blue but bright with intelligence underneath them that stood out. His lips made a perfect bow shape though they were not pulled into a smile, they looked soft and warm. And his dark black hair was messy and wanted cutting but he pulled it off perfectly. I flushed slightly when I realized I had been staring at him so I turned and began looking aimlessly at another book on a shelf not far from where he was standing.

"Oliver Twist." I heard a voice say quietly behind me. I was covered in goose flesh not seconds after the voice spoke and I knew instinctively that the voice was that of the boy I had been staring at. His voice was normal and most clearly British. I don't know if I was expecting more from his voice or if I was delighted that someone so angelic sounded so mundane.

"What?" I asked as I turned to face him, the book still in my hand. I was so nervous to even utter that one word that I knew my hand must be shaking.

"The book," He pointed at it clutched in my grasp, "Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. Have you read it before?" He asked. I looked down at the book and I realized it was Oliver Twist.

"Um, yes I have and I've seen the musical Oliver. Have you ever seen it?" I asked him in return.

"Once. I was not entirely anxious to go but I got dragged and I ended up loving it. It did some justice to Dickens's novel, don't you think?" He told me. He spoke as if he thought was everything funny and yet terribly sad at the same time.

"I supposed. Who are you?" I asked him. I wanted to know his name, I wanted to speak it on my lips. I don't know why I felt that way suddenly but I did.

"Herondale. William Herondale. But most everybody calls me Will. And you?" He stuck his hand out. Mr. Herondale.

"Theresa Gray. Tessa." I took his hand and shook it, enjoying the sparks that raced their way up my arm as I did so.

"Good to meet you Miss Gray." He said politely pulling away.

"You as well Mr. Herondale." I smiled at him and he turned on his heel and walked away. I was so shocked that he just disappeared on me that I was left standing there for several minutes completely dazed.