troubled waters (FierroChase AU)

three

Magnus Chase was not normal. His life had been shaped by destiny, cutting deep in the bonds that connected him to the outer world, carving his soul out of pain and misery. Magnus had lived a lot of misery in his life. But he had also known happiness, lucky of having true friends, people supporting him, whenever the memories were threatening to overwhelm him, whenever he did not feel comfortable, whenever he did not feel safe in his life as he lived it, struggling to move forward, but always looking back. His soul had once been perfect, whole and beautiful, delight and enchantment. When his mother died, this soul lost a huge part, cut off in a moment, violently, the way of cut, that usually doesn't let people live, that hurts vital organs, that provokes a bleeding one cannot stop.

However, the soul is not a body, it has no organs, it is not made out of mortal matter. And the many splinters of which the shrinking soul now consisted were held together by something not even Magnus could explain. They were held together, when he lived on the streets of Boston, in the cold, in pain and misery, in hopelessness and violence. They were held together as his companions were dying one by one, struck down by cold and hunger, sickness and syringe. His soul did not fall apart, when he slept alone under a bridge in November nights, it did not shatter, when he cried silently in the rain remembering his mother, their laughs and their talks, their hikes and watching the sunrise together in the Appalachian Mountains on a july morning. It did not break, because all of these splinters were hold together by a purpose, by another soul to heal Magnus', to build it back together and to reunite with his, to create, finally, the beauty, Magnus soul had ever kept.

Those worst of days had ended already. Magnus had found friends, he had found purpose, he had found shelter. As his uncle's family died tragically off the Boston coast, he inherited enough money to recommence a stable life. There was a deep story of conflict and sadness that connected him to his uncle, leading to him rejecting all aid while on the street and later to refusing to live in the large estate his uncle had owned. He had rented a small apartment in East Cambridge and started to go to the local college. In the beginning he didn't really know what to study, but after some talking and thinking he understood and rediscovered his love for literature. He had always loved to write short stories, or little theatre pieces he would act out with his mother, but since he was on the streets, he had never the chance to write more than some poetry and as he always kept this to himself, nobody had the chance to tell him how good he actually was. This and his enduring love for books, his main time killer out in Boston, led to his decision to study English as a major. He did not regret it.

While catching up on high school matters for repeating graduation, he was allowed to attend some classes in college already, once they understood his talent and his passion. Having lived a year like this and graduated successfully, this was the first year to study as an official student. That was also the reason he left his apartment, looking for and finding a new one, down in Jamaica Plains, to be closer to Boston College. Simultaneously to resetting his life into order, he finally found friends again after his social isolation.

Blitz and Hearth, of course, had always been there, the two young adults had gotten to know him in a homeless shelter, instantly developing a feeling of sympathy and responsibility for the boy. They had stayed in touch, becoming the two closest people for Magnus.

Then of course, there was Samirah, a girl Magnus had met while graduating, and who now he became friends with. Now though, she had gone off to Harvard, while still taking care of her grandparents, leading to an evident lack of time for their friendship. They still met sometimes, but time management simply did not allow them to spend much time together and deepen their bond.

There was also TJ, a boy one year younger than Magnus, who was now in his senior year at high school. They did a lot of things together, considering each other as something like best friends, but when TJ had confessed to Magnus the feelings he had for him, and Magnus rejected him, still not really being able to feel something like affection or love, with his heart and soul, still wounded and slowly healing, they had mutually agreed to keep some distance for TJ to recover. Now living in different areas and TJ having to study a lot for his exams, that worked pretty well, and they kept only some loose contact, meeting or texting from time to time. The same was valid for Mallory and her boyfriend who was simply called Halfborn, nobody seeming to know where exactly this name had its origin. Magnus had met them mainly through TJ and did not have a profound link to them.

There was a hole in Magnus' social life, as he was starting college. All being new and exciting despite his partial classes there last year, Magnus had not recognized this at first. He was so intensely captured by this new life, by literature, by his teachers, the other students, their works and ideas, sometimes he forgot the still-open wounds in his soul, the fragility and vulnerability, he knew, deep down, was still there, only waiting for a chance to break up again. Magnus was caught up in this contrast of life and past, a dangerous mixture only waiting to explode; with nobody, to hold the splinters together once it got this far...