Me and My Best Friend Put On A Show That Would Make Freya Totally Jealous [closed post]

[summerdude]

Magnus wakes up, normal again except for how he's in an unfamiliar room. Not Galahad's old room, either. A nondescript one that, as far as he can tell, just has a bunch of clothes and stuff. Also he's wearing silky pajamas he'd never pick out automatically on his own?

It doesn't take long for him to feel like the walls are closing in on him. It's out of respect for Aornis that he stumbles out of her room through the door (barefoot and in the silky pajamas) and goes outside the normal way. Once outside, he flops into the snow, calling summer and feeling the way the snow steams against his skin as it melts.

He's not feeling totally regular again when he sits bolt upright, remembering that Drosera is probably in Galahad's old room with two people that aren't Magnus or Galahad. Existential crisis over, there's a child to retrieve! And hopefully, he'll run into Galahad in the halls.

Comments

[onthewillowsthere]

"It's not," he answers truthfully. But only barely. He reaches into the closet again for another Magnus outfit.

[summerdude]

Magnus refuses to be morose when he's having a nice time with his best friend, so he doesn't joke about how long his hair will get if he never sees Alex again. He joins Galahad at the closet.

This time, he pulls a slate-blue skirt, pleated, that should fall just below Galahad's knees. With it, he gets a soft short-sleeve pullover sweater a few shades grayer, with little pearl button details around the collar. White socks and blue patent-leather mary janes complete the ensemble.

[onthewillowsthere]

What Galahad pulls out for Magnus is a cropped green sweater with a ribbed knit and mushroom and squirrel embroidery, and a pair of jeans that will probably go with anything, plus slip-on ballet flats. He hands them over and begins changing into the outfit Magnus picked for him.

[summerdude]

"Oh, this is comfy," Magnus enthuses, as he pulls on Galahad's selections. He laughs, tracing one of the mushrooms with a fingertip, but waits on checking out the mirror reveal for Galahad to be done changing, too.

[onthewillowsthere]

"You like things that are comfy." He buttons up the skirt and turns to the mirror: the pleats swirl appealingly as he does, and he notes it with a little frisson of delight.

[summerdude]

"I guess I do." Magnus has actually not really considered this before -- he's never really spent a whole heck of a lot of time thinking about the clothes he wears at all -- and it's actually kind of blowing his mind.

[onthewillowsthere]

He's not convinced on the shoes and socks together, but he loves the sweater and skirt. They're both so soft, and the pearl buttons are smooth and cool when he touches them. He gives the skirt another experimental twirl.

[summerdude]

"It looks good on you," Magnus says, grinning. "So... swooshy."

[onthewillowsthere]

"It feels good. Do you like how yours looks?"

[summerdude]

"I do." Magnus tugs at the hem of the cropped sweater and then stops, striking pose with his hands over his head so that it rides up. "I think these things are kind of in fashion in my time." He laughs. "Maybe I could wear this and sneak into an actual high school class. Finish learning geometry finally."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Come back and teach me."

[summerdude]

"A squared plus b squared equals c squared," Magnus says, promptly. "So you like yours?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"It's soft. I like how it feels. And I like this," twirling the skirt again. "At the dance, when Sagramore was wearing the red dress-- I didn't understand before."

[summerdude]

"Didn't understand what?" Magnus asks, curiously.

[onthewillowsthere]

"Why he would want to dress that way. I didn't understand how it could feel."

[summerdude]

"How does it make you feel?"

[onthewillowsthere]

He hesitates, only because he wants to be sure he has the right words. "Like flowers. Like-- something that's growing. And beautiful."

[summerdude]

Magnus grins at him. "You look beautiful."

[onthewillowsthere]

The soft fabric of the skirt brushes against his thighs, smooth and light, and he focuses on that, on the softness of the sweater against the skin of his stomach and chest, and when he looks at his pale narrow self in the mirror it feels less like he's looking at a stranger. He exhales. It's not so hard to feel close to beauty when Claudius is looking at him, or when he only considers the tactile aspects of beauty, the swish of the skirt or the braid of his watch against his wrist -- harder, when he can see himself in this object of a body. He assesses it and tends to find it lacking: too thin, too cold, the body of a person who has never treated it as anything other than a workday horse-cart. Not a palace, or a tabernacle, cunningly worked with hooks of gold and sockets of silver.

Now he focuses on the blues and greys and how they make the blue of his eyes seem brighter, the ash-light color of his hair matched in the pearl buttons. Beautiful, he tells himself. Thou art beautiful.

[summerdude]

"Wait, hang on, I just had a thought," Magnus says. He goes to the same dresser drawer where Galahad got his barrettes; there, he rummages until he finds a headband in silvers and blues. It has a few seed pearls tucked into the stamens of stiff fabric flowers, and the band itself looks braided like Galahad's watch.

He carries it over back to Galahad, twists it back and forth a few times to see what angle might look best, and then carefully puts it on him, using it to push the fluffy front of his hair back. "How's that?"

[onthewillowsthere]

He looks over at Magnus in pleased surprise. "It's good."

[summerdude]

Magnus adjusts a strand of Galahad's hair and grins. "You're flourishing."

[onthewillowsthere]

"It's easy to grow in summer."

[summerdude]

He gives Galahad a suspicious look. "Is that a compliment?"

[onthewillowsthere]

A serene smile.