I Lived, Grinch! [open post]

[summerdude]

The first thing Magnus does -- with Alex's help -- after fully healing is board up the hole in the side of the greenhouse where the cheetah ran through. The second thing, once he learns the full scope of Dark (it's different at camp; he'd already taken out a ton of camp-appropriate food for when Galahad and Laertes couldn't make it out there, and so he and Alex have been fine on the eating front) is go to the greenhouse again to figure out what plants in there yield edible produce. (Also, he tries to scrub his blood off the table. It... partially works?)

Partly it's that he's still feeling weird after the whole affair. The season doesn't help, but he does feel closer to his own mortality than pretty much any point since he died for real the first time. Being around growing plants helps that. Mostly, though, it's because he doesn't want anyone to get, like, scurvy living on bushels of rice alone.

He doesn't want to overtax any of the plants, but some can be cajoled into fruiting. Right now, he's got his hand on a kumquat tree, and he's trying to convince it that it can speed up the growth process by a few weeks. Drosera is with him, 'helping:' she's found a dead leaf, and she's chasing it down the pathway between some plants. If anyone shows up -- either because they've heard of his near-death experience and want to check in on him, or just to hang out, or even because they're drawn by the way it looks like sunlight is coming from the greenhouse itself -- he'll be glad for the company.

Comments

[summerdude]

"Yeah, I guess. If anyone asked me, I'd have been, like, 'no thanks! I'll pass!'" Magnus pauses, breathing in the sandalwood scent of Lan Wangji's robes, then says, "But if it had to be anyone, I'm glad it was me. I don't think anyone else would have, like. Uh." It occurs to him, maaaaybe a little too late, that Lan Wangji probably won't like to hear him finish that sentence.

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji is, again, quiet for a long moment. He tightens his arms around Magnus, forceful enough in that moment that it would not be comfortable for anyone but a demigod, and only then does he return Magnus to the ground and release him from the embrace. He struggles to find the words that he wants. He knows everything that he is feeling, but his own fear should not find its way onto Magnus' shoulders as well. Carefully, he says, "I am grateful that you were able to withstand the attack in a way that another could not have. But you felt the pain of it still."

[summerdude]

"I've had worse," Magnus says. It's basically, like, a mantra at this point. "The grenade? That was way worse."

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji, who does not know what a grenade is, struggles to master his expression regardless. "Magnus--" He puts a hand to his face and breathes as slowly as he can before he drops it again. He doesn't know where to begin. Belaboring the point of his own concern would be selfish, but Magnus seems immune to caring about what befell him otherwise. He was moments from death, and Lan Wangji will not soon forget his wan face or the sluggish blood seeping from his constellation of wounds.

[summerdude]

Magnus sighs. He can't let himself get worked up about it, because he doesn't want to be scared all the time. "Don't worry," he says, and then, "I'm really glad you were there."

[lightbearinglord]

Obviously, Lan Wangji is going to continue to worry, but that would be pointless to say. His face softens as he looks at Magnus. "I am, too." With the briskness of someone who is suppressing a greater display of emotion, he smooths down the front of Magnus' shirt where it's the tiniest bit rumpled in the wake of that hug.

[summerdude]

Maybe he can acknowledge the emotion without feeling the emotion. "I was really scared."

[lightbearinglord]

Any shirt-tidying was a waste of time, because Lan Wangji pulls him right back into a hug at that. It's less dramatic than the first one, but firm, like if Lan Wangji only keeps his arms around Magnus and hangs onto him unflaggingly enough, no further pain can ever afflict him.

[summerdude]

Oh no. That was a load-bearing admission. Now everything is getting all loose. Maybe if he says one more thing it will all shore up? "I don't, like. Want to die. Again. For real."

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji tucks Magnus right up against him, one hand cradling the back of his head. "No," he says, low and in complete agreement with the sentiment: Magnus must continue to live. "You have more to do."

[summerdude]

"Yeah, like figuring out what I should do. As my thing."

[lightbearinglord]

"Like that," Lan Wangji agrees. There may be other lives, but it is as he told Claudius. Magnus is not finished with this one. "And like merely living in peace, as you desire."

[summerdude]

"With Alex." Gods, Magnus is so glad Alex is here.

[lightbearinglord]

"With Alex." Improbably, he holds Magnus a little closer. He wants to promise that Magnus will be safe and that he will protect him from anything that could hurt him again, but how can he? He could never have seen this attack coming, nor does he know how he might have prevented it.

[summerdude]

"Isn't he the best?" This is a safe topic!

[lightbearinglord]

It's a subjective question, but after seeing the speed and urgency with which Alex came to Magnus' side, Lan Wangji has a renewed appreciation for him. He lets out a tightly-held breath and allows himself to curl around Magnus just a little, forehead to the top of his head. "Mn. You are lucky to have one another."

[summerdude]

"Yeah," Magnus says, blissful. "I'm so glad he's here now."

[lightbearinglord]

"I am glad, too." There are too many horrifying possibilities to contemplate. If Alex had arrived, after all of that, only for Magnus to die unattended in a nondescript corridor, Lan Wangji might have taken a very long time to forgive himself for his failure of vigilance. Magnus is solid and sunshine-warm in his arms.

[summerdude]

Magnus doesn't know what Lan Wangji is thinking, obviously, but he's thinking the same thing. He's really, really glad that he didn't end up having to leave Alex two minutes after Alex arrived.

[lightbearinglord]

Though this is already the second hug of this fairly short interaction, Lan Wangji holds onto Magnus for a very long time. He is thinking of A-Yuan in the Burial Mounds, how sickly he was and how he would have died, too, if Lan Wangji had come even a day later. He is thinking of Magnus telling him, for the first time, that he died bravely, with a weapon in his hand. It is quite a while before he manages, for the second time, to relax his hold.

[summerdude]

Too bad for Hanguang-jun, though; Magnus is just getting comfortable! He keeps clinging. He's just letting himself feel the edge of a feeling about the whole affair, since he's safe here.

[lightbearinglord]

If that is the way it is to be, then Lan Wangji has no objections whatsoever. He can maintain an embrace for as long as needed when it is someone he loves as much as he loves Magnus. He keeps his hand at the back of Magnus' head, gently tucking Magnus' face to his chest, and uses the other to rub his back in wide, careful circles.

[summerdude]

"Do you think I should start using Jack again?" Magnus asks, quietly.

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji is also quiet in answer to that. He would like to say no, but circumstances have conspired to make that a potentially foolish response. He stills the hand at Magnus' back, leaving it flat between his shoulder blades. "Until this is resolved, yes."

[summerdude]

Magnus nods against Lan Wangji's chest, resolute. "I've been carrying him ever since," he says. "But I guess maybe I should stay in practice."