•·.··.·•вecaυѕe aleх•·.··.·•

Fandom: Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard

Relationships: Magnus Chase/Alex Fierro.

Characters: Magnus Chase. Alex Fierro. Samirah al-Abbas. Jack.

Warnings: Attempted humour. Possible OOC. This is a FANFICTION. Death. But they come back to life, since they're in Valhalla and einherjar. SPOILERS. FIRST PERSON: MAGNUS.

Summary: Einherjar play Team Tag To The Death, Magnus has a plan, two dead demigods share a kiss and Magnus finds out something obvious before he gets killed. . . . It's nicer than it sounds?

Additional Notes:

I do not own Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, Rick Riordan does. I'm only making this for a challenge. And I really wanted to write a Magnus Chase oneshot since I just finished reading Ship of the Dead.

ADDITIONALLY, here's a glossary I made a little while back and since I laughed at it, I wanted to put it here. sorry not sorry:

Hotel Valhalla: Place where dead warriors are taken by Valkyries. It got renovated into a hotel at some point in the past. It has a lot of floors, residents and einherjar. They do everything "TO THE DEATH".

Einherjar (or einherji if you wanna go singular: Brave "warriors" who died on Earth and got escorted to Hotel Valhalla by a Valkyrie. They live in the Hotel. As long as they stay in the hotel, if they die they can come back to life.

Team Tag To The Death: Basically, you pick someone to be your partner until the end of the game (aka until everyone dies), have to hold hands until you get killed. One team is the seeker and have to hunt everyone down, unless they get killed — in that case the team who killed the team is now IT.

Magnus Chase: Son of Frey, main character of Magnus Chase.

Alex Fierro: Son/Daughter of Loki. Literally genderfluid. Shapeshifter.

Jack: Sword of Summer. Magnus's talking sword. Snarky.

NOW ONTO THE LONG STORY/DRABBLE/ONESHOT. Also, be prepared for a bad fight scene.

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I should've expected to get a neck full of weaponized IPhones as soon as Helgi told us about the afternoon tag game. Really, I should've expected it as soon as I woke up to a face full of feathers. (Don't ask, it's a Floor Nineteen thing.)

Yeah, you're probably wondering what I'm going on about right? And you don't even know who I am? Well them, let me be a good Freyson and quickly explain.

I'm Magnus Chase. Forever sixteen einherji living in Hotel Valhalla. Long story short; I died heroically, got taken to Valhalla by my trusty Valkyrie Sam, and got appointed as one of Odin's immortal warriors. Fun, right? Yeah... Not really. The immortal part of my life has been full of quests to stop Ragnarok, AKA Doomsday. And me and my friends succeeded. (Let's not mention the whole sorta helping Loki escape his prison thing. It does a bad thing to a rep. He was recaptured anyways.)

And when you're an einherji living in Valhalla, you know that every step could lead to your death. Quite literally in fact. There was this one time involving a Valkyrie, a guy from Floor Seventy with a grudge, and a butter knife which left me without a head. But don't worry; as long as an einherji stays in Valhalla, we're practically immortal.

But that's besides the point. Wait, no, it isn't. The whole reason I'm doing a little mind monologue is because it revolves about Valhalla immortality.

Er, excuse my momentary lapse of stupidity. Back to the point. Since we're immortal, we do everything To The Death. Even ping pong and hide-and-seek and pool and team tag.

Yay. Team tag. Great. Who was I even supposed to pair up with? Blitz and Hearth weren't einherji, so they couldn't play, and even if they were I'd bet my sword they would pair up. Mallory and Halfborn just agreed to be each other's partner (and oh Asgard, that was a disaster in the making). T. J. would be the perfect choice, but I think I just saw the son of Odin, Lars-something-or-another, snag him before he could even move.

Great, I cursed in Norse under my breath. I've been getting better in that; Mallory is a good (unknowing) teacher. Sam obviously couldn't be my partner since she was a Valkyrie. That meant I had to pair up with some random dead person I didn't know.

A flash of pink caught my eye and I blinked.

Little, non-lethal Jacks fluttered in my stomach. There was still one more person I knew who I could pair up with, but since sharing a kiss in my bedroom I may or may not have been avoiding him. Or her. It was too early to tell what gender Alex was.

I glanced in her (or his) direction. Gray eyes connected with amber and brown and I jerked in surprise. My eyes were blown wide.

Yup. Alex was definitely a girl today. She was wearing like green jeans with her knife tucked into her belt at the side. A hot and soft pink checkered vest was thrown over a dark green sweater. It made her look like a crazy rebel kid, but that was Alex's charm.

But let's ignore that for now, no matter how good she looks in it, and go back to the problem at hand!

Alex was staring at me with a frown. I winced, thinking of the numerous times I dodged her during the past couple of weeks. Yeah, I know, I know. Kissing her — well, technically, she kissed me — and avoiding her afterward is not something that would make any girl happy. Or boy. Because Alex.

But then, oh my Asgard did my heart just tingle, a slow smirk crawled its way onto Alex's face. I was suddenly reminded of her mother, Loki (yes, mother, because Loki), but her smirk had none of the cruelty Loki's did. It did have the mocking hint to it thought.

And then suddenly she stood up and sauntered over to me. I was frozen, staring at her wide eyed. I knew I could've probably — should've — gotten the heck out of there, but something about her eyes just... Held me in place? Captivated me? Made me so terrified I couldn't move in fear of peeing my pants? It was definitely one of those.

She stopped next to me and placed a hand on her hip. That smirk was still pulling her lips. A shiver crawled up my spine.

"H-Hey," aw man. Did I have to stutter?

Amusement twinkled in her eyes. "Hey. So. You've been avoiding me."

I hid a wince. There was something in her tone that made my heart do a little painful twist. "Yeah, sorry about that."

She raised an eyebrow as if to say, 'Really Magnus? A little sorry is not what I want.'

I wondered what she wanted. Perhaps me getting on my knees and begging for forgiveness? Decapitating myself? Yeah, that seemed like an Alex-like thing to wish for.

Jack, my sword in pendant form, heated up against my neck uncomfortably. I got the feeling he was either laughing at me, composing a song about my stupidity, or wanted to wack me upside my head. Or all three.

Alex's smirk widened. "Sorry? Oh no, no, no, Magnus. A little sorry won't make me forgive you for weeks of avoidance~" The glint in her eyes was pure diabolical. Something settled in my gut, and that something told me I was screwed.

"O-oh yeah? Th-then what will?" I gulped, throat dry.

I thought I had seen terrifying grins. From Loki, from giants who were about to eat me, Heimdall's grin when he found out about the new IPhone coming out. But none of those had anything on the one that Alex had as soon as those words left my mouth.

Stupid Magnus, I scolded myself. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Next time just hold your mouth shut.

"Well," she purred. "To start off your week of begging for my forgiveness, you can pair up with me in the Team Tag game."

I blinked. I had expected something worse than that (I skillfully ignored the 'week of begging for forgiveness'), like her banning me from falafel or something.

"Er, okay. Sounds good to me."

"Good," she spun around on her heel but not before sending me a wink. My face felt like it was dumped into a fireplace. She called back over her shoulder. "Meet me outside of my room five minutes before it starts!"

As soon as she was out of my sight I slumped, leaning against the table. Sam appeared next to me, looking at me like I was her favourite comedy. I probably was.

"You know," she started after a moment of silence between us. "You're lucky she didn't change into a wolf—" I shuddered. Ugh, wolves. "—or something and bite your head off. Ignoring girls you kissed is a big no go."

She was laughing at me. I could here it in her voice. I didn't know how she found out about the kiss (and which one, since there was the one in Niflheim and then another in my room).

My head hit the table.

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Exactly five minutes before the game started, I was waiting outside of Alex's door. I fidgeted with my armour, ignoring Jack heating up warningly.

For some reason, my heart was doing a great impression of drums. I could even hear the beating of my heart in my ears, drowning everything else out like a tidal wave of anxiety, excitement, apprehension, happiness and another emotion I couldn't exactly place.

The door opened, revealing a knowing looking Alex decked in her armour. No, wait. My eyes narrowed. His armour. I had gotten quite good at placing Alex's gender over the time we've known each other, and I knew the short air and that-that LOOK in general meant he was a boy now.

And now that I got a closer look at him, I could see how well the vest hugged his curves, and how nicely the jeans made his legs look. There was no doubt about it that Alex was one hell of a hot demigod.

My face heated up as soon as that thought popped into my mind. Oh.

"Hey," I greeted the shapeshifter weakly.

"Hey," he said back. I noticed how cheerful his voice was to, let's say, yesterday. I had the foolish hope that it was because he and I were interacting again. "Ready to go?"

I nodded silently. He looked at me confused. Apprehension filled me as that confused stare turned into a knowing, satisfied one. Alex looked at me as if I was a confused puppy and smiled.

"Great, come on then. Don't want to be late. Sam would be so disappointed." Even Percy would be able to hear the sheer mocking in my-er, in Alex's voice.

We arrived shortly before a randomly chosen, and peeved looking, Valkyrie explained the death game.

So, according to the Valkyrie the rules were as following:

We were supposed to be in pairs – check. And no, my heart did not flutter at the other meaning of the term 'pair'.

One pair was chosen to be 'It' and they had to hunt down the other teams and kill them. I was relieved the Valkyrie chose some pair from Floor Who-knows and not us. But the 'hunted' could fight back when 'It' catches them, and if they kill 'It' they are the new searching team.

And the last rule was that pairs had to hold hands unless they wanted to be vaporised. Eh, I've heard stranger things here at Va-wait, WHAT?

I choked on my spit. Me. And Alex. Hold hands. Hold hands. HOLY FALAFEL ME AND ALEX HAD TO HOLD HANDS!

I was pretty darn sure Alex could hear the THUDTHUDTHUD of my heart.

The said person pounded me on the back until I could breath normally. With a burning face, I turned to my friend (and crush, there was no way he wasn't my crush), who looked like a cat that just caught the canary by cornering it in a small hole as it stalked towards its prey.

I gulped. I hoped I wasn't the prey. I wouldn't want Alex to eat me.

"Hear that Maggie," he grabbed my hand in a surprisingly tight hold. Probably to make sure I didn't try to skewer myself on the axe that some dude was holding. "We have to hold hands~"

"Yup. Looks like it." My voice was suspiciously high. I swear I could be an opera singer.

Alex nodded and turned back to the droning Valkyrie. Even she looked like she was about to fall asleep.

He gripped my hand tightly, not letting go. I was actually a bit surprised, since my hand was pretty sweaty. Alex didn't seem to mind.

A horn sounded throughout the battlefield and we were off. It was a bit weird to run with someone while holding their hand, but I managed. Somehow.

As soon as we were far away from snooping-ready-to-kill-us einherjar, I summoned Jack. Jack, ladies and gentlemen and nonbinary, is the Sword of Summer. He also talks.

"Heyo, boss!" He chirped, floating around me and Alex. For some reason, I felt he was laughing at me. Why was he laughing at me? "Do you have my epic yet?"

I grimaced. Right. During my trysting with Loki, I forgot to mention the awesomeness of the Sword of Summer and he got a bit upset. I had to promise him an epic from Bragi. Last I checked, Odin got it covered.

"Bragi's still making it. It's just taking him so long to describe your awesomeness in one epic, ya know how gods are." I cheerfully lied.

Jack heated up. "Yeah, like you wouldn't believe. Gods live to procrastinate. There was this one time that—"

"This is interesting and all, but Magnus? Jack? In the middle of a battlefield. Hellooooo?" Alex waved his free hand around, and an enraged shout went off in the distance. All three of us winced, or at least Jack did a good impression of it. That sounded like a Halfborn gone berserk.

"Yeah, right. Jack," I turned to the sword. "If anyone comes at us trying to kill us-"

"Yeah yeah," he rolled twice, which I realised was his imitation of an eye roll. "Kill them, chop 'em up and the like. That's nice and all, but, well, we have more important things to discuss."

"We do?"

"Yeah, like since when are you and Alex together? Dude, you tell things like that to your bro!" I wondered if a fire giant threw a fireball at my face because I was pretty sure it wasn't supposed to be that hot.

"Jack!" I hiss-squeaked. It's a new sound, don't think that much about it.

"What?" He asked like it wasn't obvious. I was so mortified I didn't dare look at Alex.

That is, until he squeezed my hand and made me face him. I blinked, and the next thing I know, there was something warm and soft on my lips that tasted like guava juice. Oh yeah, Alex liked that drink didn't he?

But more importantly, Alex was kissing me. As a dude. For the second time. Third if you count his girl form, which I totally do. And holy Frigg, it was amazing!

A moment later, he pulled away with that self-satisfied smile on his face. I gaped at him, stuttering to for something to say.

"Since now." He grinned.

"You-you! How-? Why-? Euflgh?"

He sighed. "Well, I've made my decision and it's quite obvious you have the emotional capacity of a deranged, neanderthal viking and most of all, undead puppy. So I made the first move because if I decided to wait, Ragnarok would come and pass before you decided to repeat the words you said on Naglfar."

My face hurt from all this blushing. I remembered I sort of maybe declared my affections for Alex in front of his sister, our friends, his mother and hundreds of giants and undead.

"I, uh, I, well, that's smart." I realised what she said was true. Besides the puppy part. But yeah, it would take—

My thoughts were cut off midway when Alex pulled me down and out of the way of an incoming throwing axe. I stared at it for a moment, and everything turned to chaos.

Some guy I remembered being from floor twenty jumped out of the bush. One hand had axes in it, the other had a small, almost teenage boy in it. The boy looked distastefully at their joined hands, but no less out for our blood.

Great.

"Jack!"

"Right-o, boss! Leave it to me!"

The fight passed in a blur to me, Jack fighting with the axe man and boy as me and Alex dodged throwing axe after throwing axe. It took us a small amount of time before we got far enough from them to collapse in a heap. Jumping around like a rabbit tires you out fast, kids.

We stayed there panting for a bit. I glanced at a pink faced Alex. Even he looked tired. I wondered what he was to me now. A boyfriend? Well, he certainly kissed me, and it was a nice kiss.

"They're going to come after us. Jack can hold them off for a little while, but..." I decoded to ignore my thoughts and focused on Alex's words. I nodded; mind going a mile a minute, trying to think of a plan.

Nothing seemed to come to me until I heard the clashing of axe and sword coming closer. Then I just had too many stupid ideas to sort through.

"Okay, I have a plan." I said after a moment. Alex raised an eyebrow as if to say, ' You? A plan? Are you on mead?'

(Okay, one time your plan is to challenge Loki to a trysting, and nobody trusts you after that.)

"Is it a good plan?"

A pause. "I have a plan."

Alex sighed. He should've expected that. "Fine, lemme hear it. They're getting closer, so hurry up."

I told him my plan.

He stared at me for a moment before sighing and hiding his face in his hands. Of course, my arm was dragged up with his to hid face. I could feel his warm breath ghosting over my fingers. I blushed.

"Okay," he said after a moment.

"Okay?"

"Yeah, okay. Fine. I agree. Yes. I'm going along with you stupid, insane, dangerous, idiotic, suicidal plan." He seemed resigned.

"Half of those are synonyms."

He looked at me as if he was surprised I knew such a big word, but before he could answer, my sword flew through the bushes and nearly took my head off. The only thing that saved me from that fate was my quick thinking. I ducked.

"Sorry, boss!" He apologised and floated next to me. "Axe dude threw an axe at my hilt, and there was no way in Helheim I was getting my nice pretty hilt damaged because of some game. The ladies wouldn't have even looked at me if I had a damaged hilt!" He scoffed.

"Er, Jack, where are they?" I wondered as I got up from the ground, pulling my — boyfriend? — along with me.

"Oh, right behind you." We stared at each other before bursting into action. I pulled Alex to the side just as an axe sailed by our heads.

The fight was sort of one-sided as Alex, Jack and I dodged axe after axe after axe. It wasn't until axe man ran out of axes (what a surprise) and cursed. The boy with him scowled.

Alex grabbed his garrote wire, and for once the luck was on our side. The tables turned and it was the other duo that had to dodge, duck and dive out of the way of a murder-happy child of Loki.

For a guy in pink and green, Alex sure made for a terrifying sight.

The fight was cut short when Alex finally managed to wrap the wire around the axe maniacs head — and he pulled.

Well, one enemy down.

We were left with a sulky boy glaring down at his partner. He was still holdingthe axe dude's hand so I guess that's why he wasn't fried yet.

He looked at us and I felt a bit bad for him. His eyes had that look that street kids usually had. My composure softened. I had a soft spot for kids.

And yeah, now I realise that I should never let my guard down. Especially against kids with too big, too sad eyes.

Before I knew it, the small guy struck out — and this kid was definitely a child of Heimdall. There was no way any other demigod could have so many IPhones, and weaponized ones at that.

Who in their right mind WEPONIZES IPHONES?

A child of Heimdall apparently.

The last thing I saw was little black boxes of doom and selfies hurtling at me in impressive speeds before everything went black in the familiar feeling of death.

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I awoke to a throbbing pain in my neck.

A groan escaped my lips and I rolled over into my side. Neck deaths were always the worst. I could barely talk after I got revived.

I opened my eyes and blinked.

Heterochromiac eyes peered at me warily. "Good morning."

I nodded and croaked out a weak greeting. Alex sighed and leaned back in his chair. It looked comfy, so it obviously wasn't from my room.

"Wh-what... Why y-you here?" I croaked, curious. My mind flashed to the game of tag and I remembered the kiss. I gulped. I regretted it immediate, because sore throat.

Alex rolled his eyes like it was obvious. "A good boyfriends checks on his idiotic boyfriend every once in a while, y'know."

I blinked. Wait, did that mean... I looked at him closely. There was a soft look in his eyes, and his face was less mischievously sarcastic. (Please, don't ask.)

Oh.

I looked at his eyes closer. Yeah, definitely oh.

I sent him a small smile as he leaned down to peck my cheek.

He sat up straight and aww~ His cheeks were pink~ That's so cute!

(One death into the relationship and I'm already turning into a puddle of goo.)

He glared at me like he knew what I was thinking. I smiled at him innocently.

So yeah, Alex is my boyfriend now. And girlfriend. And occasional cat. Because Alex.

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The end. I have failed in this.