(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

[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.

[summerdude]

"Good," says Magnus, firmly. He really has no concerns about Claudius treating Galahad well -- it's so obvious how much he loves him -- but if that did change, Magnus is pretty sure he'd go full berserker. He'd put Halfborn Gunderson to shame! "Oh! Uh. Um. Did he tell you that I did end up asking him for The Talk?" he asks.

[onthewillowsthere]

"Did it help?"

[summerdude]

Magnus considers the question seriously. "...Eventually," he decides.

[onthewillowsthere]

"Did you ask anyone else?"

[summerdude]

"Yeah, like fourteen other people," Magnus admits, face blazing. It's still so embarrassing that he did that, so he tries to deflect. "Hey, speaking of sounding like Claudius, I told him I was going to write down the way he says all the stuff he says and use it to make Alex laugh at me."

[onthewillowsthere]

The thought of that makes him laugh, too -- Alex is so blunt and straightforward, and he doesn't think Claudius' flourishes would appeal to her.

[summerdude]

"Exactly, you get it," Magnus says. "He was like, 'what are your desires?' and obviously I was like, 'pretty much just to make Alex happy,' and he was like--" here, Magnus tries to do an impression of Claudius, sitting up straighter and doing his best to emulate his voice. "'It's a heady thing, to have a lover whose foremost desire is your happiness. You can say so to Alex, say you want above all things to please him -- in your own charming style,' and I was like, 'actually if I say it exactly like you did she would make so much fun of me.' And I guess I'm into that. So then he said I could take notes on Claudiusisms."

[onthewillowsthere]

"You can't do that. I'm not good with faces, I won't know who's in here with me." He does not linger on the content; Magnus doesn't need to watch him blush.

[summerdude]

Magnus laughs. He loves that Galahad's jokes so often come when he could kinda use feeling a little more settled in his own skin.

[onthewillowsthere]

"Do you like it when Alex laughs at you?"

[summerdude]

"Um." Magnus is definitely blushing again! "Yeah."

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad just nods, watching him (he's so grateful for Magnus, with whom everything feels less dire and easier to bear, including his inability to express himself -- Magnus is like Percival in so many ways but in so many other ways he's something new and wonderful, and Galahad loves him).

[summerdude]

"That was one of the things I asked some of the, um. Seventeen people, actually," admits Magnus, who is glad that an adult-shaped adult like Sagramore said some of the things he thinks he might want are normal, but who would rather have the reassurance of his best friend. "If that's, like. Normal."

[onthewillowsthere]

"It is, isn't it?" asks Galahad, who is fairly certain that Magnus is normal, and thus, by transitive property, so are his desires.

[summerdude]

"To, like. Really like it?" Magnus shrugs. "I guess."

[onthewillowsthere]

He contemplates. "I really like it when Claudius does what I tell him to do," carefully -- he's trying to commiserate, which always makes him nervous; it's easy to get wrong.

[summerdude]

It works! Magnus visibly relaxes, slumping against Galahad's legs^* with relief. If Galahad is into it (albeit from the other side) then maybe possibly it's actually genuinely fine. "I think I want Alex to tell me what to do," he admits.


*This typist realizes they forgot to write Magnus sitting down at some point, but he did! On the floor next to Galahad.