I Embrace My Inner Tarzan [open post]

[summerdude]

There's a massive old oak about fifty yards west of Magnus's favorite clearing. It has thick, sturdy branches; he can climb nearly forty feet up it before he starts to worry about them holding his weight. There's a family of squirrels that lives nearby -- good squirrels, nothing like Ratatosk -- and Magnus likes to listen to them discuss their acorn deposits. Sometimes, when they're not looking, he'll grow and stash more acorns for them to discover; he's not sure how long the winters here get.

He's pretty sure it's cold outside, but it's not cold enough to affect him, and so he's still barefoot and in a t-shirt pretty much all the time.

Today, he's been scrounging in some of the out-buildings. There's a portable outdoor fireplace. While he doesn't feel the cold, he finds (contained) fires comforting, and it'll be nice to have some hot food, so he shoulders it and a makeshift grill surface, and lugs them to the base of his oak tree. Now he'll have an easier way of preparing the fish Mothwing sometimes leaves him than trying to summon the right amount of summer into them so that they cook and don't explode, at least.

He lights a modest fire, feeding it with fallen sticks. Then he shoves an apple, picked from another nearby tree, into his mouth and a book he'd pilfered from the library into the waistband of his pants, and climbs up an easy ten feet to his favorite branch. Things don't seem so bad, living out here.

Comments

[onthewillowsthere]

"He told me there's one by the lake that traps flies to eat. It smells good to them and it's smooth inside so they can't fly away. He liked that."

[summerdude]

"Oh, like a venus flytrap!" Magnus says. "Or maybe a pitcher plant? Yeah, those are really clever. There weren't so many like that outside in Boston proper, but there were a few in this place Mom and I used to go camping." There had been a museum demonstration once, too, that he'd wanted to go see, but he couldn't afford the tickets and since he was a street kid, he didn't have any of the necessary paperwork to get in for free.

[onthewillowsthere]

"A pitcher plant," he agrees, pleased that Magnus knew. "I want to learn more about plants like that, and draw them."

[summerdude]

Magnus wishes that his plant powers extended to being able to create something from nothing, just so he could conjure up some other plants for Galahad to draw. "Maybe there are seeds somewhere, inside the Mansion," he says, trusting Galahad to follow what is, largely, a non sequitur.

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad, whose mind often does something similar, nods. "I can look." He tilts his head at Magnus. "I can bring you things you need from inside, too, if you want. So you don't have to go in."

[summerdude]

Warmth floods Magnus's chest and spills over; the temperature around them raises a few degrees. "Thanks, man, I love you," he says.

[onthewillowsthere]

"I love thee too," softly.

[summerdude]

Magnus squeezes Galahad's hand happily. "I don't know how much longer I'm going to stay out here," he admits, because Galahad is safe, and his best friend, and Magnus can share his insecurities freely. "I should probably try to get used to being inside again soon. I don't know how the weather gets here in the winter."

[onthewillowsthere]

He nods. Since Magnus has said inside is easier with someone else, he adds, "If you want company, I can stay with you at first. If you need it."

[summerdude]

This, frankly, shocks Magnus. A good shock, but totally unexpected nonetheless. "Really?" he asks.

[onthewillowsthere]

"If you want me to," with a touch of shyness now -- he's second-guessing whether he read the situation right.

[summerdude]

"I'd love that," Magnus says, thinking of the easy comfort he felt when they were curled up around each other right after the zombie attack. "I think it would really help. You really wouldn't mind?" He had it in his mind that Galahad really likes the fact that he lives with Claudius. Not that Galahad would be moving in, really, but still.

[onthewillowsthere]

He's fairly confident Claudius will understand this -- Claudius likes Magnus, he's said so at length, and it won't be a long time. Galahad can think of ways to make that easier. "Thou art my best friend."

[summerdude]

"You're mine." Magnus is fiercely grateful to know Galahad. "I'm not ready yet, but when I am -- I'll take you up on the offer. Thank you."

[onthewillowsthere]

He nods: that's fine. Whenever Magnus is ready.

[summerdude]

After a companionable stretch of silence, Magnus says, "I wish I could show you Boston." It's a new thought, not something he's been ruminating on, but it hits him like a brick, how much he wants this.

[onthewillowsthere]

"Tell me about it."

[summerdude]

"It's the center of the universe," Magnus says, with a half-laugh. "By which I mean, it's at the trunk of the World Tree. Most people not from Boston would argue it's not the center of the world at all. It's, like, fine? As a city? I don't actually have a lot to compare it to. Lots of buildings, lots of bridges, lots of angry drivers. But it has some of my favorite things in the world. Fadlan's Falafel, for example, the best restaurant in Midgard. My friend Blitzen has a clothes store. The Chase Space is there. It's -- it was my uncle Randolph's house. He left it to me and my cousin Annabeth in his will, and when I stopped Loki the gods did some magical paperwork so that I could turn it into a better shelter for kids. Alex helps me run it. Hearth and Blitz help out, too."

[onthewillowsthere]

"You made something good there. It's your home."

[summerdude]

Magnus is quiet for a long time. Eventually: "It's one of them."

[onthewillowsthere]

It's Galahad's turn to be quiet, waiting. Although his hands tend to be cold, the rest of his body is a warm weight against Magnus'.

[summerdude]

"Do you want to stay here? At the Mansion, I mean."

[onthewillowsthere]

He's still quiet; that bears thinking over properly. "I want to be where Claudius is, and you, and Shen Yuan," finally.

[summerdude]

Magnus nods. As they're talking, he registers the chill in Galahad's fingers, where they're tangled with his own, and sends the warmth he's feeling in his chest at what Galahad's saying down along his arm and into their joined hands. "I was talking to Hanguang-jun out here earlier," he says. "About Ragnarok."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Your fight?"