ELYSIAN, the riordanverse

03

ERRATIC

'Come on, Beantown.' Alex yelled as he fixed his eyeliner and sighed in frustration. He was supposed to be going to a Pride Parade today and the idiot known as Magnus Chase was still getting ready.

'Coming.' Magnus yelled back as he exhaled lightly, standing in front of the mirror. He looked ok, right? He obviously wouldn't look as great as Alex did but then again, no one could look as beautiful as that boy. Yeah... so, maybe Magnus had an itty-bitty crush on the green-haired boy in the next room.

But he couldn't help it, Alex was amazing. Oh and, it wasn't exactly a small crush... Magnus thought the correct word was... Love.

Yup, that was it. He loved the fiery boy with the heterochromatic eyes.. He'd come to that conclusion a year ago but it wasn't like he would ever do anything about it.

'You've been saying that for the past fifteen minutes, I'm pissed.' Alex said, storming inside the room. Magnus turned to greet him but he couldn't talk. Physically couldn't talk. Because no one and he meant no one, especially not Alex Fierro should be allowed to look that handsome.

In that blue and pink shirt, those black pants and that purple choker... Magnus groaned internally. This was going to be a long, long day.

-

So...?' Alex asked him as the two sat at Fadlan's Falafel for a quick breakfast.

'So...?' Magnus repeated, taking a bite of his third falafel as Alex rolled his eyes.

'So, do you think I look cute?'

Magnus spit out his food. Alex laughed.

'Uh, um... I-uh... um, Uh... Y-you look very, uh... c-captivating.' Magnus spluttered, before deciding on an answer.

'Captivating, huh?' Alex said, toying with the collar of his shirt which just had to mean that Magnus could see his collarbone.

'Uh, yeah?' Magnus said though it came out as more of a question. Alex smirked and leaned across the table, 'Yeah?' Magnus gulped visibly, he didn't trust himself to talk right now. Not when Alex was so painfully close to him. Not when if he moved just a little, his lips could be on his. Not now.

So, obviously, the grey-eyed boy started to sputter nonsense and turned a bright red as Alex chuckled and sat back in the chair. Magnus immediately sighed in relief as the space between them returned to normal. Having Alex close to him was a blessing and a curse, all in one. 'You know what I think?'

He hummed in question, again, not trusting himself to talk. 'I think... you look cute.'

Magnus spit out his food again.

-

'Hey, pronouns?' A guy asked Alex. A guy who Magnus already hated.

'Woah, pronouns before name?' Alex asked, a smile on his face. The guy who Magnus wanted to kill, flashed a smile and ran his hand through his brown hair. Now Magnus wouldn't deny that the boy was kind of cute, brunette, blue eyes, tall... But he was talking to his Alex.

The Alex he loved with all his heart. All his soul.

'He/him today.' The gender-fluid boy said as the guy who introduced himself as "Mark" nodded in acknowledgement.

'Alex Fierro, right? You have a lot of followers on Insta? Run a fashion blog?' Mark asked as Alex nodded enthusiastically. As the two engaged in conversation, Magnus slipped away.

But the Alex who could never be his.

As Magnus ran off, Alex continued to talk to Mark. He seemed like a pretty nice guy, bisexual, same age as her but it was different than talking to Magnus. Magnus, who made him contemplate every single thing he'd ever done. Magnus, who made butterflies burst in his stomach. Magnus, who was everything Alex ever wanted. With that dorky smile and those stupid blond locks he loved so much.

That's why, when Alex turned to introduce Mark to Magnus, he panicked. Where had the idiot gone?

'Oh, looks like he went somewhere.' Alex said as his breathing quickened. 'I have to go look for him.' Mark nodded, flashing Alex one last smile before exchanging numbers. Alex ran off into the crowd after that, fishing open his phone and calling that stupid boy.

After calling him about a dozen times, spamming him with loads of messages and leaving a million voicemails, Alex groaned and buried his face in his hands. He hated Magnus. Did he have any idea how worried he was right now? That boy meant the world to Alex. And he just thought he could run off to wherever the helheim he wanted to.

'Of course, gods, I'm such an idiot. Maggie's probably eating falafel at Amir's.' Alex muttered to himself, hailing a cab. Practically sprinting into the restaurant, he moved his head vigorously, looking for Magnus. Finding the boy sitting in a corner, scrolling through his phone, Alex sighed and walked over to him.

As he moved to lean over Magnus, wanting to surprise him, he stopped. 'You have a folder called, "Alex being cute"?' Alex whispered in Magnus's ear as the blond boy let out a yelp.

'Um...' Magnus said as Alex snatched the phone out of his hand, taking a seat across from him.

'But we'll get to that later, why the hell did you leave?'

'Uh...'

'Ok, so you can't talk? That's fine. I don't forgive you, by the way. Leaving me all alone...' Alex groaned and started to scroll through the folder on Magnus's phone as the boy's eyes widened.

Not that folder, he prayed to the gods. Please not that folder.

Alex swiped up on the photo of Magnus's hair in braids as he came across a note typed there.

'Alex decided to tie my hair up and decorate it in ribbons today.' The shorter boy said, reading out from the phone. 'I would've said something but... I can't exactly say no to her. And she was being so adamant about it, so here we are...'