(Almost) Everything Is Comin' Up Chase [closed post]

[summerdude]

Magnus, triumphant, has finally managed to make some old bamboo sprout. With Drosera fed recently enough that she's not complaining of hunger and resting in her new favorite perch (lounging on his shoulder tucked right against his neck, her beak tangled in hair that is once again getting long), he sneaks it into the Mansion, hides it in a large gift-bag a closet gives him, and hangs it on Claudius and Galahad's doorknob with a quickly-jotted note that reads Claudius, What next? - MAGNUS CHASE.

Then, since he's already inside, he figures, why not wander around until he finds someone to talk to?

Comments

[onthewillowsthere]

"Yes."

[summerdude]

So Magnus closes his eyes. Signing as he talks, he says, "Dear Alex. It's getting cold enough here that I need a hoodie outside or else even I start to feel chilly. I keep thinking about that time in Niflheim when you kissed me for the first time. I've never been that cold, before or since, at any point in my life or death. We both know that you saved us both with that kiss, but what you don't know is that I think, in that moment, I could have died happy. Like, I don't ever want to go back there, but... in a weird way, that was the best day of my life. So it makes sense that the cold makes me think of you more acutely than usual, I guess. Also, I made you a bed in my camp, just in case. It doesn't have to be the same one as mine; there's enough pillows for two piles. Since winter is setting in here, and you prefer camping, too, I keep thinking about you sitting on a cooler at camp, your nose pink from the cold even as you insist that you're totally fine and it's not affecting you at all. Maybe you'd turn into a bear to sleep, though, since you do feel the cold even though you like to pretend like you don't. Maybe you'd let me curl up next to your big bear self so we can pretend I'm just as cold as you were. Or maybe you'd stay human and let me kiss you until we're both completely warm. Your hair feels so nice when you let me put my hands in it when we kiss. I like the way your curls feel thick and springy around my fingers, and the way you pout at me if I get it tangled, and the way I can always tell where the dye starts without even looking. I like the way that I know it's a little longer when you're a dude, but most people can't tell. I'm not mad that you had to go back to Valhalla. I know the Chase Space is in good hands. Strong hands, quick with a garrote and sturdy with a lump of clay. Sometimes I wish I could be your lump of clay. Sometimes I think about it, about the way you've shaped me. The way I want you to continue shaping me into the kind of guy who can always be good for you. I would pick up the sword again in a second if you asked me to, but I also know you'd never ask me to. If I truly do manage to keep Ragnarok from happening by keeping Jack here forever, then I think I'm going to love you for eternity. Definitely at least until the heat death of the universe. I hope you're having fun. Love, your Maggie."

Then his eyes fly open and he looks at Galahad, eyes wide. Nobody here knows that Alex calls him Maggie, much less that he's kind of, sort of, started to get used to it... that he even kind of misses it. Oh well. It doesn't have to be weird that he's let the nickname slip unless he makes it weird?

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad is watching him with his usual blank intensity, but Magnus, who is used to him, can probably tell that he's affected.

But that's beautiful. How???

[summerdude]

Magnus is so embarrassed, actually, that he just... rambled like that for so long. It's not like the stories he usually tells, which have a point besides the fact that he's a total sap for his boyfriend. It's nice that Galahad clearly liked what he had to say, but... surely he could have kept it tight for him and just done a little bitty example! But he misses Alex so much that it feels like miscounting the steps on a staircase and tripping because you're expecting just one more that isn't there. How what?

[onthewillowsthere]

You said things about your memories of her, and how you love her, what you like about her, what you'd do if she were here. How she matters. I want to be able to say things like that too.

[summerdude]

I think you can, Magnus says. Galahad has definitely gotten super sappy about Claudius before. What have you tried so far? Can I see?

[onthewillowsthere]

He retrieves one of the pages from the wastebasket and smooths it out.

Beloved Claudius. Shen Yuan said if I try to write about how you're beautiful, it won't sound right, because it's impossible to make any words live up to what you're really like. He said I should write about how your beauty makes me feel. It makes me feel speechless. If I could take a picture of you every day or draw you whenever I wanted to I still wouldn't be able to look at you enough. Every time I see you I want to kiss you. I want to kiss every part of you. I want too much of you, like a flood covering the earth. I think living with you is what a miracle must feel like.

[summerdude]

Magnus skims the letter, and then rereads it carefully. Wow! If he got a letter like that, he'd be really emotional about it, actually. "Dude, this is like, really good," he says.

[onthewillowsthere]

He's not the sort of person who'd look suspicious, but his gaze does lift to Magnus' face uncertainly. "It's not the way he talks. He'd say something better."

[summerdude]

"He'd say something different, maybe," Magnus acknowledges, because Claudius and Galahad do have different ways of communicating. "But do you wanna sound like him or like you?" It's a genuine question. If Galahad doesn't want to sound like himself, Magnus is fully committed to helping him.

[onthewillowsthere]

"No," with a little sigh, because the whole point of writing his own love letter is not sounding like anyone else -- King Solomon or one of the Apostles or prophets or psalmists. "Like me."

[summerdude]

"So you want to sound like you," Magnus says, trying to think of ways in which Galahad might want to sound like a Claudius-adjacent sort of Galahad. "But maybe a more, like... gush-y version of you?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"More eloquent," he says at once. "I stop and start all the time. It's halting." Like Jacob walking home after wrestling the angel, halting upon his thigh.

[summerdude]

Magnus considers this for a long enough moment that Drosera resettles herself twice in Galahad's arms. "I have an idea," he says, eventually. "Maybe it's a stupid one."

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad waits.

[summerdude]

"What if you started by writing a letter to Percival? Telling him about Claudius. Or me or Shen Yuan, I guess, if you want, but we're here and we know him, so that might be harder. Maybe if you're explaining what you love about him to someone else, you'll get a draft of something you can turn into telling Claudius what you love about him more directly."

[onthewillowsthere]

"That's not stupid. That's-- that's a good idea." He squeezes Dro, and she snaps at him. "--Sorry," he murmurs, stroking her feathers. "That's a good idea," back to Magnus. "I could try that."

[summerdude]

Oh! Well then! Magnus flushes lightly, pleased. "Good," he says. "I hope it helps."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Thank you," with a little smile. "How are you?"

[summerdude]

"Oh, fine." Magnus nods at the gift bag on Claudius's vanity. "I managed to sprout bamboo!"

[onthewillowsthere]

"Oh!" he says, brightening. This is, at least, something unequivocally good.

[summerdude]

"I was going to leave it here for Claudius, so he could do whatever's necessary to keep it, like, viable until whatever it is we have to do next to turn it into enough bamboo for a bamboo grove in the forest."

[onthewillowsthere]

"He'll take care of it. He's good at taking care of things."

[summerdude]

"Like you?" Magnus asks, teasing now.

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad flushes, dropping his gaze to the top of Drosera's head. "Like me," he agrees softly.