Magnus was shocked when there was a knock at his door. As far as he knew everyone on his floor had either gone to sleep or had died – so there was no reason why someone should be trying to break down his door.

He looked down at the sleeping bag that he had just been about to crawl into and sighed. He stumbled towards the door and was shocked to find Alex with his green hair rumpled and a glare firmly situated on his face. Magnus was shoved out of the way by the boy's green and pink pillow as Alex walked into the room.

"Come in?" Magnus asked the now empty hallway.

Magnus turned around to find Alex crawling into his sleeping bag. Once he seemed comfortable, Alex looked over to Magnus and sighed.

"What's with you and always keeping the door wide open? Now close it and grab a sleeping bag. I'm tired."

Magnus would be lying if he said that he had any idea of what was going on. Frankly – he would be lying if he said he ever knew what was going on with Alex. Just when he thought that he had figured the other out – Alex had gone and kissed him and left Magnus hanging. It had been months and things hadn't gotten any clearer.

However, Magnus was very good at following orders. So he closed the door and grabbed a second sleeping bag from his storage closet.

When he got back, he realized that since Alex had stolen his sleeping bag, the green-haired boy was also in Magnus' favourite spot to sleep. He knew better than to try and talk Alex out of anything – especially moving when he was comfortable.

So Magnus found another soft spot in the atrium and prepared once again to lay down. Just as he was about to step into his sleeping bag – Alex coughed at him.

"What?" Magnus asked as he looked over to his guest.

"You forgot the lights," Alex stated as he wiggled further into his sack.

"That I did," Magnus mumbled as he walked back over to the door and got ready to turn out the light. "Is there anything else you need, before I try to sleep again?"

"Nope, that should be all," Alex chirped as Magnus turned out the lights.

He had to shuffle back to his sleeping bag, because for whatever reason the cleaning crew liked to keep him on his toes with the placement of things in his room. By the time he reached his sleeping bag, he couldn't tell if Alex had fallen asleep yet or not. He was half tempted to reach over and see if there was something wrong – but his common sense told him that that would only get him killed.

"Goodnight to you too," Magnus muttered as he rolled over and tried to get comfortable in his new spot. He was almost sure he could hear Alex mutter a goodnight in return, but it could have been the start of his monstrous snores. He really needed to get to sleep before that started.

…

"Look at our boy," Blitzen sniffled as he and Hearthstone looked down at the two sleeping boys from the world tree. "He's got himself a Hearth."

You mean someone to protect him? Hearthstone signed.

"And someone to protect," the dwarf bit back, though there was a fond smile on his face though. "I think that they could be good for each other."

The two kept looking down at the two sleeping forms until Blitzen swore that he saw Alex glaring up at him.

"Okay, okay, we're moving on," Blitzen stated as he ushered his elf away from the atrium.

Hearth turned briefly so that he could sign a quick question to Blitz. The question had the fashionable dwarf reeling in slight shock.

"Of course we're going to keep checking up on him," Blitzen stated as he straightened his ascot. "I may think that Alex is good for our boy – but that kid is going to get our boy into so much more trouble."

…

It was Halfborn who was the one who saw Alex leave Magnus' room the next morning. He knew better than to bring it up with the argr. He watched as she shuffled across the hall into her own room and slam the door. Halfborn then made his way into café floor 19. There T.J. and Mallory were already waiting for him.

"I don't think that we should be expecting Magnus before lunch," Halfborn stated as he sank his teeth into a bagel.

"And why is that?" T.J. asked.

"I just saw Alex leaving his room," Halfborn explained.

"I wonder what he did this time," Mallory mused over her own breakfast. "I mean Alex hasn't made the effort to go out of her way to murder him in a while."

"Alex leaves my room first thing in the morning, and you all automatically assume I'm dead?" Magnus groans as he takes his seat next to T.J.

"Is that shocking?" Alex asks as she appears from the hallway.

"I wish it were," Magnus mumbles into his bagel.