New Plan, Step One: Provide For My Community [open]

[summerdude]

Magnus needs something to change, so when a Mansion calendar helpfully informs him that it's International Falafel Day back on Earth, he goes to the library for some cookbooks, and then to the kitchen.

He lays out ten different falafel recipes. He gathers the ingredients they list, as best as he can understand them. He has canned chickpeas and fresh chickpeas and dried chickpeas and chickpea flour and box mixes of falafel that say 'just add water!'

Cripes.

"I can do this," he says, peering at the assorted recipes intently for a good ten minutes, and then takes the dried chickpeas over to the sink to rinse and soak.

Comments

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad is quiet. He thinks about Claudius tending to the claw scratches on his back, and how he liked listening to Claudius tut and explain the herbs he was using, and the way the cool salves felt on his skin; and how it also felt wrong not to have Magnus heal him with a burst of summer, the buzzing warmth under his skin -- for Magnus to tease him if the memory he saw was one of kissing. He thinks about how it felt when Alex came, and how he was afraid that Magnus wouldn't have time for him any more now that his favorite person was here. He thinks about how Lan Wangji is Magnus' adult-shaped adult.

"I think I do," he says at last.

[summerdude]

"You do?" Magnus drags his head up -- he's been staring at his hands -- and catches Galahad's eye. "Can you explain it to me?"

[onthewillowsthere]

Carefully, "I think-- I am Lan Wangji's student now, and you aren't. But you don't want to be a Sword Guy, so you can't ask to join me. And you know I don't want this, so it feels wrong to envy me." He watches Magnus closely as he speaks, in case there's any obvious sign that he's getting it very right or very wrong.

[summerdude]

Magnus turns this over a few times in his mind, weighing it against the weird, clawing feelings he's been having and the choices he's been making lately. He's been doing what he has to do, mostly, for his friends and his community. But it's also been at the expense of his community. He's spent more time in the past few weeks with Luo Binghe and Lancelot (separately) than with Lan Wangji or Galahad (separately or together). That's -- that's just weird. He might be of the mind, privately, that Luo Binghe isn't the same guy he was when he tortured Claudius. He's not opposed to being friendly with the guy. They've gotten closer, mostly because they have to. But would he be spending so much time with the guy if Galahad and Hanguang-jun weren't so often together?

He doesn't know. There's no way to know for certain, and it's driving him crazy. The fact of the matter is that events have unfolded in a particular way, and Magnus has reacted the way that he has, and he can't ever be sure if he'd be spending this much time with Luo Binghe, meditating under that pavilion and trying to imbue as much as he can with that 'summer qi' Shen Yuan talked about so much (it's not directly growing the body -- he doesn't want to fuck the body up -- but it helps. It helps) if Galahad or Lan Wangji were less busy. And it's that kind of uncertainty that has him wondering what kind of guy he really is.

Then he shakes his head. "I mean," he says. "Maybe. I don't think you're wrong." Except for how Magnus is secretly Sword Guy again, but he doesn't want anyone to be sad about the choices he's making, so he's just not talking about them. Nobody except Lancelot and Lancelot's girlfriend know that Magnus has been training. Well, maybe baby Sunny. He tells her an awful lot. And Shen Yuan's growing body, which he talks to whenever Luo Binghe isn't there. Oh, gods, he really has to start telling other people before this becomes a huge mess. But he doesn't want them to be sad! "But I'm also, like." Jealous, again signed. "Of him?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"Lan Wangji?"

[summerdude]

"Yeah. Him."

[onthewillowsthere]

"I am envious that you're helping Claudius with the spring planting." He rubs the braided band of his watch. "I'm sad that-- things have changed."

[summerdude]

"Yeah." Magnus fiddles with his necklace. "I kinda like being Farm Guy? I've been helping Uncle D, too. It's nice because, like, I can do something for everyone but if I take a break it's fine." He sighs. "I also know you want someone with Claudius while you can't be there, so." He's swinging his legs, his heels thudding lightly against the cabinets below. "I'm also, like. Sad things have changed. I don't like it."

[onthewillowsthere]

"I miss you. I'm sorry I haven't looked for you."

[summerdude]

Magnus can't stop noticing that these jeans are getting worn. He's pretty sure the knees are going to split sooner rather than later. He really should go back to Kade for another mending lesson. "I miss you so much," he says, quietly. "I'm sorry I keep telling myself I shouldn't, like, interrupt."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Will you make falafel with me? And tell me about everything?"

[summerdude]

"Only if you make falafel with me and also tell me everything."

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad picks up the bowl of unshelled chickpeas and hands it to Magnus up on the counter.

[summerdude]

Magnus takes the bowl, sets it to the side, and slides off. He's gonna get another hug in before they do anything.

[onthewillowsthere]

That's fine, Galahad wants that hug. He slips his arms around Magnus' waist and leans on him, holding him as tightly as he can. Again, he has biceps now! Thanks, Lan Wangji!

[summerdude]

Magnus notices this, too. "Getting strong, huh," he says, tucking his chin over Galahad's shoulder and slumping fully against him.

[onthewillowsthere]

"Soon Lan Wangji will teach me to fly on my sword," Galahad says seriously.

[summerdude]

"Wait. Really?" There's another tiny flare of jealousy. Magnus tamps it down. He can fly on a sword too. Well, fly dangling from a sword. If he's willing to pass out about it later.

[onthewillowsthere]

"No."

[summerdude]

"Dude," Magnus complains. Half-complains. "I'm too gullible for your jokes, man."

[onthewillowsthere]

"You need to practice. Be a Jokes Guy."

[summerdude]

"Will you help me with that?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"Yes. I will help you with anything."

[summerdude]

"Good." Magnus gives Galahad another squeeze. "Where should we start?" (He means, of course, with everything: reconnecting, dealing with the way things have changed, making the falafel...)

[onthewillowsthere]

"Lan Wangji says there are four gentlemanly arts. Calligraphy, painting, weiqi, and playing the qin. You don't have to train with us. We could both be his students."