riordanverse one shots

🪐fierrochase🪐

currently hyperfixating on the whole magnus chase trilogy and specifically jack, gunderkeen, and fierrochase. so have some fierrochase.

Magnus rolled over, sighing. He could hear Alex throwing imperfect pots against the walls of his room and loudly swearing every so often. He considered going over there and asking him to shut up, since he was trying to sleep, but decided against it. Alex was known to be violent in his best moods - and the gods knew this was not one of his best moods.

Following a particularly loud crash - "SON OF A BITCH!" - Magnus decided to go and investigate. Usually, Alex stopped smashing pots after 23:30, but this was obviously not the case.

When he stuck his head out into the hall, he saw TJ standing outside his door, rubbing his eyes. When he saw Magnus, he walked over to him.

"He's been at it for ages. I've been meaning to ask him to keep it down, but I think he'd just be louder," he whispered.

"Yeah, I know. I was trying to sleep, but..." Magnus gestured at Alex's door, and TJ nodded. Even Jack buzzed on his chest, as if to say, 'yes, I agree, Alex is way too loud.'

"So, will you talk to him?" asked TJ hopefully.

Magnus sighed.

"Fine, I will."

Inside her room, Alex just couldn't understand what she was doing wrong. She'd made at least twenty of the same pots, but none of them could turn out well. Not just well. Alex wanted them to be perfect. Sometimes, she would leave a couple of imperfections on them, to remind her that nothing could be truly perfect, but right now, she just wanted a pot with no flaws. None at all.
And with every pot she'd made tonight smashing against the wall, Alex got more and more convinced that she just didn't have it in her today.

When she heard a knock on her door, she smashed the pot she was holding between her hands out of sheer frustration. Between gritted teeth, she yelled out, "Come in!"

"Hey, uh, Alex..."

"What do you want, Beantown?" Alex was irritated. And when Alex was irritated, it was way too easy for her to start smashing pots. Or, in this case, resume smashing pots.

"Uh, I was just... um, listen, everyone out there is kind of getting kept up by... you know... so, maybe, you could, you know, maybe keep it down a little?"
Magnus was expecting to get a pot thrown at his head. Instead, when he opened his eyes, Alex was... crying?

"Hey, hey." He went over to her - Magnus couldn't pin-point when it had happened, but Alex was definitely a her now, not a him - and tentatively out his arms around her. She didn't react, just continued sobbing.

"It- it'll be okay, Alex." Magnus tried rubbing her back, and she seemed to calm down a little.
"No, it won't," she sniffed. "Everything feels off today, I can't explain it, and- and I can't get this pot right, and it has to be perfect, but instead it's just... I can't get it right, and every time it goes wrong, I get mad and throw it, and..." Alex gestured to the mess of broken pottery on the floor, and bit his lip. "And, for some reason, my gender won't stop switching, so I had to keep changing clothes before I had the common sense to just put on jeans and a hoodie."

Magnus didn't really know what to say to that, so he didn't say anything, just carried on rubbing Alex's back. He offered him a tissue, and Alex accepted it, using it to wipe his face carefully - because heaven forbid he rub off the eyeliner.

He sniffed again, and then turned to Magnus. "We're friends, right?" Magnus nodded. "So that means I can ask you for your advice then, right?" Magnus nodded again. "So, if you liked someone, how would you tell them that you liked them if you weren't sure they'd like you as... um, as both genders? Oh, and she and her now."

Magnus's heart sank. Alex liked someone else. It was inevitable, he supposed, so he tried to put his own feelings to the side and help her.

"Well," he said, choosing his words carefully. "I would just tell them how I feel. Maybe get them flowers? I don't know, I'm not a very touchy-feely person."

Alex nodded, and walked over to the centre of her room. She carefully picked out a pretty flower that was growing in the grass, and presented it... to Magnus? He felt his face heat up a little.

"F-for me?"

"Yes, Maggie, for you. I, uh, I like you. Kind of a lot, I think." Alex bit her lip, and stared at her shoes. Magnus smiled down at the flower, and then, in a moment of boldness, tilted Alex's chin up so that her eyes met his.

"Hey. I like you too. And I don't care about your gender, okay? I like you both ways, equally."

"You mean that? You're not just saying it?" Alex challenged him.

"Why would I say it if I didn't mean it?"

"Because I might cut off your head again otherwise," said Alex matter-of-factly.

"True. But why would I get myself into something I wouldn't want to be in?" Magnus returned. Alex nodded slowly.

"Okay, Beantown. You win."

"I always win," teased Magnus, and Alex swatted his arm. "Ow! Okay, maybe not always."