Ho, Ho, Ho Merry Christmas everyone!

It's me EpeonAuraGirl here with another Christmas special! Last year I did BlakexSun story for RWBY. This year as you have guessed from the title I am going with a Magnus Chase and Alex Fierro story.

From what I have read of The Ship of the Dead so far it is very pro Malex shipping. Yeah you saw right I haven't finished reading it yet, but I think I know Rick Riordan well enough to know that he won't kill off any of the main characters, and if he did….uh oh well this is Fanfiction you can write whatever you like!

Anyway onto the Summary.

Summary: T.J, Mallory Keen, and Halfborn Gunderson are ready to see the Malex ship set sail, but with Magnus being so unsure about Alex's feelings, they decide to help him out a bit. From rigging the Secret Santa, to setting them up, to even getting help from Hearth and Blitz! Will these three succeed in getting this Child of Loki and Son of Frey together?

Well let's find out now!

Disclaimer: I don't own Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, all these Characters belong to Rick Riordan.

I groaned in pain as I found myself in my bedroom. Note to self NEVER volunteer to be the distraction ever again. Being killed twenty different ways all at once is no fun.

I rubbed my aching shoulder which had either been dislocated after a shoulder charge or been slashed in half by an axe, or maybe both. I then sat up in my bed and marveled how once again I was alive and well. Well sort of alive, technically I died almost a year ago to the Fire Giant, Surt. But I had been lucky enough to have my soul taken to Valhalla where I could live the rest of my afterlife as an Einherjar for Odin's army until Doomsday where I would die a very horrible and probably painful death, hooray!

The deal was that as long as I died within the Hotel of Valhalla I would come back to life in my room on Floor Nineteen. But if I die in any of the Nine Worlds outside of the hotel, that's it I'm dead for good, no third chances.

There was also the deal with how we Einherjar would sometimes do quests in order to delay Ragnarok. See a lot the Einherjar have lived here for thousands of years and the goal was to delay Ragnarok as long as possible, so everyday we do activities that will prepare us for any kind of death you can imagine. We had been doing one of my least favourite things before I died, once a day we go out to the field and have all the Floors face one another in a bloody free for all where anything goes and the goal is to survive as long as possible until everyone else is dead.

Normally I would just stick back and heal anyone from my floor who needed it, but today for some reason I had volunteered to be the distraction while my friends went for the frontal assault. Not my best plan.

I was about to head out to Boston get some falafel when something caught eye. It seemed that while I was dead, someone had come into my room and left me a note. Which wasn't unusual. I for some reason always take the longest to revive. The note was from one of my floormates, T.J, Thomas Jefferson Jr.

Hey Magnus, meet us in the Games room when you wake up. Time to pick who you get for Secret Santa.

-T.J

Secret Santa? I then looked at the Calendar and saw that it was December. 23. Two days before Christmas. How could I have forgotten? I still needed to get a gift for my cousin Annabeth as well as gifts for Hearthstone and Blitzen. Though it seemed a bit strange for a place that was the home for Odin's soldiers, the king of the Norse gods, to celebrate Christmas.

Though I guess it was less strange than believing that there were Norse Gods, Monsters, and even Greek Gods roaming all over North America. Yeah you heard right the Gods from ancient myths were real and North America seemed to be a hotspot for them. My dad is actually Frey the God of Summer, Fertility and a bunch of other stuff. While my cousin Annabeth is a Greek Demigod, the Daughter of Athena.

It's a crazy world that we live in.

As I left my room though I noticed that Alex Fierro was just leaving as well, perhaps he had just woken up as well. He must have switched genders since dying cause I could have sworn that he was a girl when we were in battle earlier but now Alex was definitely male.

Alex, like me, is one of the newest Einherjar to Floor Nineteen. He is also a Child of Loki and because of his ability to Shapeshift his gender tended to shift as well. I should also mention that Loki is his mom. Loki, like Alex, tends to shift between genders. So needless to say Alex takes after his mom, but I wouldn't say that to him out loud for fear of being beheaded.

He was dressed in his usual pinks and greens, his green hair was as unruly as ever with just his black roots showing. I then realized that this would be Alex's first Christmas in Hotel Valhalla as well. To think that just last Christmas I was homeless and living in the streets of Boston, so much had changed since then, I'd died, I had almost died again countless times, I'd faced Giants, Loki, Wolves, Potty Mouth Squirrels and prevented Ragnarok. The wolves were my least favourite part about all that.

My mother had been killed by Loki's wolves when I was fourteen years old and ever since then, wolves have always terrified me.

"Oh hey Magnus, you just wake up too?" Alex asked as he approached me.

"Yeah I did." I answered him. "Take it we lost again?"

"Yeah we didn't really last long after you died." Alex told me as he let out a chuckle. "Wish you had lived long enough to watch Halfborn get sliced in two by a flying Halberd. The look on his face was priceless."

Alex then made an impression of the face that Halfborn had made I guess, it looked like a mix between anguish and surprise. Alex laughed rather hard when he finished and I laughed along with him. His laugh was rather infectious, and I knew Halfborn wouldn't mind. He had a pretty good sense of humour when he wasn't in the middle of a break-up with our other floormate Mallory Keen. They had an On-again, Off-again kind of relationship. Hotel Valhalla is the only place where you could see a Berserker in a relationship with a hot headed Irish Demigod.

"Yeah wish I had seen that myself." I then laughed again before holding up the note from T.J. "You get one of these too?"

"Yep. I was just about to head that way when I saw you." Alex told me. "Figured that since you're awake and all that we should head there together."

"Oh, uh thanks Alex." I told him not mentioning that I had been about to do the same thing. Knowing he wanted to walk there with me made me feel...happy? Man, I'm weird.

Alex and I had become close friends since his soul was brought to Hotel Valhalla by my Valkyrie friend Samirah al-Abbas. Sam was also his sister, well his half sister, since Loki is Sam's Dad. Anyway after our adventure when retrieving Thor's Hammer it was safe to say that Alex is one of my best friends. After Blitzen and Hearth of course.

Once we arrived in the Games room we saw our floormates near the back corner trying to avoid some Einherjar from Floor Thirty-Three that were playing Pool to the Death. Pretty much every activity done in Hotel Valhalla was done to the Death. Alex and I tried to dodge darts and pool balls as we headed over to where our friends were. Mallory Keen, Daughter of Frigg, sat on the edge and was a mess of red curls and attitude, wearing a green Hotel Valhalla t-shirt and a pair of faded jeans. Next to her was her boyfriend, the Berserker Halfborn Gunderson. His shaggy brown beard and hair were as messy as always and he wore his usual Viking gear. Then on the other end of the table was Thomas Jefferson Jr, son of Tyr. His dark complexion made it a little hard to read his features due to the lighting but I could tell that he was sporting his usual Union Army getup with his bayonet strapped to his back.

"Well look who finally decided to show up!" Mallory Keen announced as loudly as she could. "You two sleeping beauties have a nice nap?!"

"The best." Alex then drawled. "Nothing like death by Cannon Fire."

It was hard to tell if he was joking or not but I was gonna take that comment as sarcasm since I have died by cannon fire many times and let me tell you this, it's not fun.

Halfborn Gunderson then let out a thundering laugh. "See? What'd I tell you? I love this guy! ...er it is guy right now right?"

"Yep! I'm a boy now!" Alex announced. "Give the Berserker a prize for getting it right on the first try!"

"His prize should be fashion tips." Mallory then commented snidely which made Halfborn glare at her.

"Don't go trying to change my look woman!" He then barked at her. I had learned from my time on floor nineteen that these two normally show their affection for one another by bickering like an old married couple. But when they were broken up the fighting just got worse. Right now though it looked to me like they were still together. If they weren't well they'd be trying to kill each other.

"Alright, alright settle down everyone." T.J then said with a chuckle of his own. "Now that Alex and Magnus are here we can finally get this Secret Santa started."

T.J then brought out his old war helmet which had some pieces of paper that were folded up inside of it.

"Here Magnus why don't you do the honours of having first pick." T.J then said with a smile but it almost looked like a smirk to me, but that couldn't be right. So I picked one of the folded pieces of paper out of the helmet and unfolded it to see who I got.

I didn't even pay attention as the others picked theirs because I was a little too shocked by the person I got.

I had to play Secret Santa for Alex Fierro.

"Aw come on Senor, it's just a present for a friend. It can't be that hard." Jack said as he floated around me his runes glowing as he talked. Jack is my magical talking sword. Yes I have a magical talking sword. He also sings and fights my battles for me. Only drawback is that when I return Jack back to runestone form, all the fighting and exhaustion he took while fighting take its toll on my body because, Magic. I normally pass out when this happens.

His previous name was Sumarbrander or The Sword of Summer. He used to be my Dad's sword until Frey decided to choose some lady giant over his own sword. My first adventure as an Einherjar had actually been retrieving The Sword of Summer before Surt could in order to delay Ragnarok from coming any faster. That and rebinding the Fenris Wolf. Have I mentioned how much I hate wolves? And that I hate how they are everywhere in Norse Mythology?

"Easy for you to say. You're not the one he'll behead." I then complained to Jack. "Besides I barely know Alex, I wouldn't even know what to get."

"Senor it's not about what you get, it's about the thought you put into the gift that counts." Jack then said rather wisely. I guess it shouldn't have surprised me for Jack to be so wise, he was thousands of years old.

"I suppose you're right but I still don't have a clue about what to get Alex." I told him glumly as I slumped down onto the grass in my room.

The rooms in Hotel Valhalla were personalised to fit our personalities and interests. Thanks to my mother (And maybe partly my Dad), Natalie Chase, I have always had a fondness for the outdoors. Which was why even though we were inside the hotel my room looked more like the outdoors. Alex Fierro's room I had discovered wasn't so different from mine except for all the pottery.

"Well you know, you can never go wrong with a gift from the heart." Jack said. "Why not write Alex a Poem?"

"A Poem? Why would I write Alex a poem?" I asked but I sounded a bit more flustered by his suggestion than I should have been. I didn't even know if Alex would like something like a poem from me.

"Well you drank Kvasir's Mead didn't you? That should make you a natural poet!" Jack told me. "Besides don't you like Alex?"

"W-well of course I like Alex! He's a good friend!" Once again I sounded more flustered than I should have been….what is going on with me?

"Are you sure that's all he is?" Jack asked and well I didn't exactly know how to answer him.

I mean yeah Alex was really fun, sarcastic, crazy sometimes and downright deadly. But he also had a vulnerable side and didn't try to act like someone he wasn't. He knew who he was. He embraced his shapeshifting and made Loki's symbol his own. He did pottery for the art and his heritage, not for the money like his father. He was truly an amazing and unique individual. There was no one else like Alex that was for certain….but how do I truly feel about him? And more importantly how does he feel about me?

"Well while you're figuring that out, mind if I go pick something up for Riptide?" Jack then asked drawing me out of my thoughts.

"Riptide? I thought you were over her." When I met my cousin's boyfriend Percy Jackson, Jack had sort of gained a crush on Percy's Celestial Bronze sword, Riptide. But when Riptide had to go back with Percy, Jack had gotten all depressed and tried to get over her.

"Yeah but I thought that since we're going to see Annabeth anyway, then I should at least get her a present." Jack chided. "I wonder if they have any polish in the weapons room."

Jack then flew off and left me alone with my confused thoughts.

After a while I had gotten up started writing how I feel about Alex on paper. Trying to sort through my thoughts and after about an hour I had finally written what Jack had suggested all along.

A Poem.

Not that it was weird for a guy to write a poem, guys do it all the time for girls they like. What bothered me was whether this meant I liked Alex or not. It was all so confusing.

"Hey is that your poem for Alex, Senor?" Jack asked from over my shoulder and made me jump. I hadn't even heard him come in. Then it hit me like Duh. Floating Sword, of course he doesn't make a sound when he comes in.

"Uh, yeah it is… not sure if it's any good though." I told him looking at the poem once more. I would be more than humiliated if Alex didn't like it.

"Come now Senor have some confidence." Jack then said trying to cheer me up. "I think it's good."

"So Alex won't laugh at me?" I asked still unsure.

"I guarantee it." Jack told me.

It was later when I went to buy my gift for Annabeth from Blitzen's shop, that I found out my sword was lying to me.

Blitzen and Hearth laughed like hyenas as they read my poem for Alex. Well Hearth laughed like a silent hyena since he's deaf.

Hearth was wearing his normal attire. Dark clothing to make his pale complexion and pale blond hair really pop. The only colour he had on him was his candy cane striped scarf. While he looks human he really isn't. Hearth is an Elf from Alfheim, who had been by trying to learn magic. (Despite what other elves thought about him doing so.) A long time ago elves were experts with rune magic but over the years they had given up the practice. Hearth wanted to bring it back, and I had always admired him for that. That and because for the two years that I was homeless he and Blitz had been the ones taking care of me.

Blitz was wearing was wearing a rather strappy looking black blazer over a nice teal coloured shirt that did well with his dark complexion and black hair. Blitzen was a little on the short side but that's because he's actually a dwarf. Well technically he is a dark elf which is a type of dwarf. I had learned during my first adventure that Blitzen was also a son of Freya. And that unlike most dwarves Blitzen prefered to craft clothes rather than weapons and furniture. But Blitz had found a way to make armour and weapons out of the clothes he crafts thanks to a contest against an elder dwarf in Nidavellir.

Needless to say that these two are my dearest friends and are pretty much family to me. Though right now I just wish they would stop laughing.

You actually wrote this?! Hearth then signed in ASL (Alf Sign Language) though because he was laughing so hard his signing was a little messed up and it looked like he said. You appley road this?!

I would assume he meant the first one since there was nothing appley about my poem nor was there mention of a road.

"Is it really that bad?" I then asked and signed to them feeling humiliated.

"S-sorry kid we didn't mean to make fun of yah." Blitzen then said as his laughter died down. "But this is pretty cheesy."

"Ugh. I knew it!" I then exclaimed as I buried my face into my hands. "I can't give this to Alex! ….Blitz please tell me you have something I can give to Alex that won't embarrass me?"

"I have just the thing!" Blitzen said as he got up and went to a tie rack in the back. He then came back carrying a pink and green striped scarf. "Ah, here we are this should do nicely. Not only is it fashionable but it's also bullet proof, fire proof but it can also do this…"

With a flick of his wrist the scarf became became as long and flexible as a whip and as sharp as knife. It was both scary and impressive.

"I know Alex already has a garrote but doesn't hurt to have a backup." Blitz explained as he handed it to me. "Should suit Alex quite nicely don't you think?"

"Well it's better than my gift. Thanks Blitz." I said to him as I accepted the scarf.

Tell us what Alex thinks next time we see you. Hearth then signed to me.

"I will, thanks guys." I then told them both while signing. "Now do you have something for Annabeth?"

The next two days seemed to go by too fast for my liking because before I knew it, it was Christmas day. I was supposed to exchange gifts with Annabeth, Hearth and Blitz this afternoon and later meet up with floor nineteen for Secret Santa.

I thought that we would be meeting up somewhere in the hotel but then I found a note under my door telling me to go to Fadlan's Falafels at 7 O'clock.

Now this meeting place confused me for many reasons but the main would be that the mall and Fadlan's Falafels would be closed today even if Amir and his family didn't celebrate Christmas. Which according to Sam they don't.

Sam and Amir are both muslims, so naturally they don't celebrate Christmas. I got Sam a gift anyway since it didn't feel right to not get her one. I even got something for Amir as a way to say thank you to him and his father. They had supplied me with leftover Falafels while I was homeless.

Amir is one of the the only normal human friends I have and he is also Sam's betrothed. Muslims apparently still do arranged marriages, and while Amir and Sam do date and are head over heels in love with one another they can't touch or kiss each other until the day they are wed. But this doesn't seem to bother them because they know it is custom.

But still it didn't make sense as to why we would meet there to exchange gifts. And what made even less sense was what was written on the back.

P.S

Please dress nicely Magnus.

-T.J

This made me look at my closet and wonder what I had nice to wear. But I was also wondering why I needed to if it was just a small Christmas gathering for the floor. There was something fishy about all this but I didn't have time to worry about it, so I changed into a nice jacket, a clean Hotel Valhalla T-Shirt, and a pair of nicer jeans. Being the son of Frey had its advantages. Even in the dead of winter I never had to bundle up too much, for some reason the cold never affected me like it did regular humans. It must have something to do with my dad's powers over summer, but anyway I threw on my sneakers and left to go meet up with Annabeth.

Annabeth had given me a the recipe on how to make Greek Fire, telling me it might come in handy one day as well as a book battle tactics. That's my cousin always thinking and planning ahead and trying to stay one step ahead of her enemies. Or my enemies in this case. She knew that or fight to keep Ragnarok delayed would never end so she was just making sure I had stuff I might need.

I then had given her the chainmail jacket I got from Blitz's shop, and Jack had given her the polish for Riptide. We talked for a bit before she had to get going to meet up with Percy then get back to Uncle Frederick's for Christmas dinner.

I then met up with Hearth and Blitz to give them their gift before I headed to the mall.

When I arrived at the mall, it was just as I expected. Completely abandoned, not even a sign of the custodial staff in the parking lot. But this is where we said we meet so I just continued my way to the front door. I was afraid I might have to pick the lock but to my surprise the back entrance was open. Going inside I found that the mall was lit purley by christmas lights as to not attract attention from outsiders. Going even further I found one of the food court tables was draped in a table cloth and was set with two plates and glasses and there some lit candles on the table.

It was a candlelit dinner for two I realized. But for who?

"Magnus? What is all this?"

Looking up I saw Alex Fierro, she had her green winter coat draped on her arm and was wearing to my surprise a dress. She'd never really wore anything that feminine before around me. The only exception was when she wore a dress for Sam's fake wedding to a giant. (That is a long and complicated story that I'd rather not explain.) Her green dress matched her hair and she had a pink sash tied around her waist which is where I imagine she had hid her garrote. Instead of boots she wore pink dress shoes with a bit of a heel. Which begged the question of how she had gotten here without freezing to death. Unless she had Sam fly her here.

"I-I don't know!" I stammered out while answering her question, hoping she wasn't blaming me for all this. "I-it was like this when I got here!"

I then noticed that Alex and I were alone in the food court. "Wait a minute where is everyone? I thought this was where we were meeting up!"

"I don't know!" Alex then said now sounding annoyed. "All I know is that I got a note telling me to come here and to dress nicely. Sam came over to help me get ready and then she flew me over here."

"Ah there you two are, I was beginning to wonder when you would arrive." A voice then said from the Fadlan's area of the food court. I didn't even have to look to know who it was.

Amir Fadlan.

Dressed in his teal work shirt, dark jeans and more than likely sneakers he smirked at me and Alex with mischief twinkling in his brown eyes. He was the last person I had expected to see tonight with his dark hair and caramel complexion.

"Dad will only buy that I'm checking our inventory for so long you know." Amir then said as he finished cooking something. Amir's father Abdel was the owner of restaurant fast food-chain known as Fadlan's Falafels. So he was more than likely cooking up my favourite a Falafel sandwich.

"Amir! What is the meaning of this?!" Alex exclaimed in either annoyance or a flustered tone. It was a little hard to tell. "Did you set this up?!"

"Me? No, I just merely helped." Amir explained as he started cooking something else up. "The card on the table should tell you who the real masterminds are."

"Masterminds?" I questioned as I went to read the card left of the table.

Merry Christmas Magnus and Alex. If you haven't guessed by now we were your Secret Santas, as well as your Christmas Cupids. Enjoy your date!

T.J, Mallory and Halfborn

They had purposefully set me and Alex up on a date, and Amir and Sam had been in on it. Which made me wonder if Blitz and Hearth and Jack had also known about this plan. It would make sense as to why Jack had suggested the poem idea for Alex's gift. And why I had gotten Alex Fierro out of all the other names that should have been in that helmet. This had been a set up from the start.

So why wasn't I more angry with them about this?

"Ugh! Give that here if you aren't gonna tell me what it says." Alex then said before snatching the card from my hands. Now that she was standing close to me I had to admit she did look really pretty tonight. In a punk princess sort of way. Kind of like Avril Lavigne or Pink.

As she read the note I noticed that her cheeks had turned pink in what looked like a blush...but that couldn't be right, I had to be seeing things. Surely Alex wouldn't blush because of me. That was crazy. Right?

Alex then looked up at me as she finished reading the note, her heterochromatic eyes almost unreadable. She then nervously tucked a hair behind her ear. "I should have known something was fishy when I pulled your name, Chase."

Alex then handed me a gift bag that had been hidden by her coat. I in turn handed her the box that I had wrapped hers in.

"Yeah...guess I should have to." I answered as I felt my own cheeks heat up in a blush. She still had yet to hit me or anything so was it possible that Alex really does like me? "They played us good though didn't they?"

"Just shut up and open your gift Chase." Alex said and I did as I was told.

Opening Alex's gift I found that it was a vase. Done in a similar style to the art her grandfather had done. A vase with two faces side-by-side. Only the faces were mine. One showed me with a goofy smiley face while the other showed me with a more serious looking face. In between my two faces though was a sword, and on the parts of the vase that didn't have my face were suns with the runic F for Frey in them. Just by looking at it, I could tell this had taken Alex a lot of work. Not only that but it showed all the sides of myself, a true show that she knew who I was. I couldn't help but be touched by the heartfelt gift.

As I looked up to say thank you though I saw that Alex was already testing hers out and decided to stay quiet in case she decided to to hurt me with it. Why had I given her another weapon that she could kill me with? Oh that's right because my poem had sucked.

"Let me guess you got this from Blitzen's shop?" Alex then asked as she put the scarf around her neck, I responded by nodding my head. "Figured, he's the only one I know that can turn a fashion accessory into a weapon"

Just when I thought I was safe from possibly getting hurt today though Alex then pulled out a piece of paper from the box, and I was mortified for somehow my poem had ended up in the box with Alex's gift.

"Uh...Magnus? What is this?" She then asked showing my poem to me.

"I-It's a Poem that I had written for you…" I said deciding to tell her the truth and get the humiliation over with. "It was supposed to be your original gift cause Jack said it was good but then Blitz and Hearth told me it wasn't and…"

Suddenly Alex showed the poem into my hands, her face was red and she looked rather flustered. "Read it to me."

"Wh-what?!" I exclaimed in surprise and embarrassment as well as a bit of confusion.

"You heard me, I said read it Goldilocks!" Gulping out of fear of what she might do if I didn't read it, I took a sip of water and cleared my throat.

"Your hair's as green as grass.

Your eyes are brown and gold.

I have never met one so bold.

You're more unique and different than anyone I know.

And I know an elf who's skin is as pale as snow.

Whenever you tell me not to die.

I feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

You shift and bend and are crazy sometimes too.

But I know it's just you, being you.

Ever since we met.

I have felt us connect.

From our love of the great outdoors.

To facing evils we've never seen before.

Though you tease about my golden locks.

I know my haircut rocks.

So, though we just met.

It's a pretty safe bet.

That you Alex Fierro are one of the best friends I have ever met."

Once I had finished I waited for her to turn into a literal hyena and laugh at me. But instead she just continued to stare at me in stunned silence. Perhaps this was worse than I had feared. Though as I was thinking of the possible outcomes, Alex suddenly started hugging me.

"Wow Chase you sure are full of surprises." Alex said before she took the Poem from me. "Who knew that under that mess of hair was a poet?"

"S-so you actually like it?" I questioned her. This had not been the response I was expecting.

"I said I did, didn't I?" She then lightly punched my shoulder. She then something quietly under her breath that I wasn't able to catch, but before I could ponder on what she could have said Amir startled me by bringing us our food. I had almost forgot that he was here too.

"Enough mush let's sit and eat before the food gets cold." Alex then said and I couldn't argue with her there, I was never one to turn down free falafels.

Though as I sat across from Alex and began to eat my food, I couldn't help but wonder what we were now.

"So um...are we a thing now or what?" I decided to ask her rather dumbly.

"What do you think?" Was all she said before going back to devouring her Falafel.

And well I'd like to think of this as one of the strangest yet also one of the best Christmases I have ever had.

And that is a wrap. I decided to leave this sort of open ended because I believe that is what Rick Riordan would do. Kind of like how he left SolAngelo open ended until the Trials of Apollo.

So what did you think? Did you like it? Did you hate it? (Please don't hate it). Or are you somewhere in between?

Either way I'm glad I wrote it. It was fun and challenging and I still have yet to finish reading Ship of the Dead. Aw well hope you all enjoyed.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

And Happy New Year! :)