FierroChase adventure, with Samirah and Sleipnir!

I accidentally offer to shower with Alex

Sleipnir descended at the entrance to Valhalla. It was well and truly night, and nothing but faint rustling up in the branches of Yggdrasil could be heard. I prayed Ratatosk wouldn't drop down onto us in the dark.
My cold hands were cramped and sore from holding the rope and I collapsed onto my knees when I took hold of Jack. I returned him to pendant form. Sam looked ready to pass out but she stood victorious beside Odin's stallion.
"I will take Sleipnir back to Asgard, and I'll tell Odin that you both helped me rescue him." Sam said to Alex and I, beaming. "You better get Magnus inside before he's out for the next eighteen hours." She tells Alex, her face looking unsettlingly smug in the dark, even with the bruises across her brow.
Alex offers me his hand and I take it wearily. He hauls me up to lean against his side, my left arm draped around his shoulders. In the moonlight, I can see he is flecked with mud and giants blood on the collar of his shirt. We both are in desperate need of a shower.
Sam collects Sleipnir's rope but the stallion suddenly bows down onto his two left knees, offering the Valkyrie his back. Sam inhales a little gasp and looks at us with tired, but sparkling eyes.
Alex and I nod encouragingly and she climbs up onto the noble horse and twists her hands through his long, streaked mane.
We watch them gallop up towards the peak of Yggdrasil and disappear in the dark behind its branches.
Alone with Alex now, I feel rather content.
For a pause, we don't speak, just stare at the stars, leaning against each other. If my eyelids weren't so heavy and my clothes were dry and clean, I'd happily stand like this all night. Reluctant to break the peace, I say,
"We should go inside. We need to shower."
Alex looks at me, incredulous. I suddenly regret saying anything and ruining the tranquil moment I just had with Alex, and probably ruining any hope of having another one.
"I'm not having a shower with you!" He bursts, leaning away from me with a wrinkled nose. He is still supporting me so my body just leans in with his momentum.
"No - I - what do you think I meant? I didn't even-" I stutter, frustrated, my face burning, but Alex's two-coloured eyes are bright and playful.
"Come on. I'll get you to your room before you keel over." He says, guiding me into the quiet halls of Valhalla. Did he mean from exhaustion or embarrassment?
I couldn't help but wonder if Alex wanted to shower with me. That seemed as likely as him giving me up as a mocking subject.
Alex promptly dumps me at the door to my room and disappears into his own room with a "see you soon." For a short second, I thought that meant he was grabbing a towel and change of clothes and coming back, but I mentally slapped myself. No Magnus, you'll see him tomorrow at breakfast or Ragnarok, whatever comes first. Did I even feel that way about the guy to want to shower with him? I needed some time to seriously detangle the thoughts in my head right now.
The hot water was soothing. I shower alone, as I always have, and delight in pulling on a dry shirt and pants.
My stomach growls as I climb into bed. Now that I'm alive, clean, and back in Valhalla as an immortal, I can worry about other significant things like missing dinner.
There is a rap on my door and it opens slowly. I can make out Alex's - now female - figure in the dark of my room as she slips in.
"Hey," she says.
"Hey." I say as both an answer and a question. I sit up in bed, so tired but my heart rate annoyingly increasing. She comes over and sits at the end on my bed. Her hair is still wet, and she's dressed in fluoro's, which seem to glow in the dark.
"You look and smell much nicer now." She says.
"Is that a compliment?" I ask.
"Just an observation."
"So do you." I observe and compliment. The fluoro's didn't come at me so I presume Alex accepted the compliment.
"How did you untie that giants knot today?" I ask, having felt curious about it before.
"I'm not entirely sure..." she says thoughtfully. "The shape of the knot, it reminded me of the Urnes snakes, my tattoo. It felt like solving a magical puzzle, and I don't know, maybe it was something to be undone by a child of Loki."
I nod, deeply confused. I could vaguely see that she was staring at the wall behind me, lost in thought.
"So...what did you want to talk to me about other than how good I smell?" I ask her.
"I can leave." She says, making a move to get off the bed.
"No!" I say a little too desperately. It makes her sit back with a grin I could definitely see in the dark.
"You can barely keep your eyes open." She points out.
Alex leans on one hand towards me, the other stretching outwards. For a second I think she's about to pull me in for a hug, but she just ruffles the hair on top of my head, probably keen to hack it all off again soon. She gets up and walks away from where I lay.
"Meet you at Café 19 tomorrow for breakfast?" She says, turning to look at me one last time, her hand on the doorknob.
"Yeah. Sure." My eyelids droop, but my spirits are soaring. Alex exits, closing the door softly behind her.

That's it for now! I'll be back with a canon FierroChase fic based after Ship Of The Dead soon! ^^