Work Text:
Alex and Magnus had met each other by accident.
That’s what Magnus said, anyway. Alex bitterly disagreed with him, saying that he had intentionally crashed into him in the corridor one fateful day. Books and bags had gone sprawling, curses went sprawling further and Alex had spat a few choice words about bullying while Magnus had tried to defend himself while gathering his things up and trying to get to his next class on time. Magnus had managed to get to his next class on time, though once there realised that the teacher had made a new seating plan and that he was now sat right next to Alex Fierro.
“Oh great.” Alex said when Magnus sat down next to him.
“Rude.” Magnus muttered.
It did not seem like the start of a friendship, or even anything remotely amicable, frankly, but somehow, presumably, after an intervention or two from some far away deity, they didn’t kill each other during that first lesson, or any other.
Instead, they sat in deathly silence, both staying very, very still so there was no actual physical contact.
Magnus had never been more glad to hear the bell ring as he was that day in that lesson. He picked his bag up and left as fast as possible.
-
Towards the end of their second shared lesson, Magnus glanced over at Alex’s work and saw just how much further ahead Alex was than him. Magnus glanced up to make sure that the teacher was busy, then slid the worksheet over to Alex, pointing silently to the question he was stuck on.
Alex wrote the answer, much to Magnus’s surprise as he had been expecting a rude drawing instead, then pushed the worksheet back. It was shortly followed by a note.
If I’d known you were bi I would have been slightly less rude yesterday.
Magnus replied. Only slightly?
Don’t push your luck.
Magnus did push his luck, though not until the next lesson. He was getting stuck, again, and after the teacher gave them permission to work in pairs if they needed to, Magnus turned to Alex with a hopeful look on his face.
“You look like a golden retriever that had an accident with some watered-down bleach.” Alex said flatly.
“What?”
“You’re looking at me hopefully like golden retrievers do, except your hair is the wrong colour.” Alex explained. “What do you want help with?”
“I don’t get the thingy with the rocks.”
“The waterfall formation?”
“Yeah.”
“Hang on.” Alex began to draw a diagram on a spare piece of paper.
“Your bracelet.” Magnus said quietly. “It’s pink. Does that mean you’re a…” he hesitated.
“Girl?”
Magnus nodded.
“Right now I am, yeah.”
“Oh. Okay.”
Alex finished drawing the diagram, and showed it to Magnus. “Does that make sense?”
“Yeah.”
They carried on working.
“Do you change your bracelet when you aren’t a girl?” Magnus asked.
Alex gave him a withering look. The bell rang.
-
When Magnus opened his mouth to ask Alex for help in the next lesson, she spoke before h could. “You’re clearly terrible at his, do you want me to tutor you?”
Magnus breathed a sigh of relief. “Yes please.”
“Fine. But only a your place. Pay me in chocolate.”
“Falafel?”
“Even better.”
-
After three tutoring sessions, Alex deemed Magnus worthy of being allowed to ask questions about her genderfluidity.
“You may ask two questions.” She told him.
“Really?
“Yes, really, you barnacle, or I wouldn’t have told you that you could ask two questions, would I?”
“True.” Magnus thought for a moment. “Do you- do you only change between being a boy or a girl of are there other things?”
“I change between being a boy and a girl.” Alex said. “Not all genderfluid people are like that, though. Next question?”
“I know this hasn’t got anything to do with your gender, but because I can’t think of nay questions about it, can I ask about your sexuality?”
Alex smirked at Magnus. “Take me out for dinner first.” She opened her copy of the textbook. “Did you remember to learn the names for the different parts of a wave?”
-
After the next tutoring session, Magnus asked Alex if she wanted to stay and watch Dr Who for a bit. She said yes and made herself comfortable on the sofa while Magnus turned the TV on.
“Can I ask my second question about genderfluidity as I only asked one earlier?”
“You’re a twerp.”
“Is the Doctor genderfluid?”
“The Doctor isn’t even human.”
“Point.”
-
They walked home together after school the next day. Alex kissed Magnus in an alleyway just out of sight of her house.
-
Alex wasn’t in class the next day. Magnus tried texting her and calling her, but there was no answer. At lunch he took a deep breath and went over to the table where Alex sat with her friends, except only the friends were there that day. Magnus had ever spoken to them before and had no idea what nay o their names were but he hoped that they would know who he was.
“Have any of you seen Alex today? Or heard from her? She hasn’t been answering me.” Magnus squeezed the handle of his rucksack and waited for the scathing remarks he imagined the kind of people who would be friends with Alex would make.
The group exchanged worried looks. “We were just about to come and ask you that.” one of them said.
-
Alex showed up at Magnus’s house that night with a rucksack and a black eye. She didn’t say anything when Magnus opened the front door and saw her there.
“How long do you need to stay here for?” Magnus asked after a moment.
Alex shrugged.
“Mom, Alex is coming to live with us!” Magnus called.
Natalie came to the door, took one look at Alex and put her hands on her hips. “I know you aren’t a fan of hugging, but can I hug you?”
Alex looked like she might have been about to cry. She nodded.