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Alex was surprised when he saw the newest arrival to the nineteenth floor of Hotel Valhalla.
Y/n L/n had died at a protest, and the Valkyrie's footage showed them shielding a child with their own body from the men that surrounded everyone else.
Alex looked across the table at Y/n, studying the expressions dancing across their face as they watched the video of their own death. They turned to look around the room, catching Alex's heterochromic eyes with their e/c ones. He smiled at them mischievously as a light blush rose to their cheeks, turning back to the video.
***
They continued to cross paths the next few days, only ever making meaningless small talk before going their separate ways. Y/n didn't want to admit it, but whenever Alex flashed her signature smile, it made their face heat up and sent butterflies to their stomach. They'd come to expect it at this point.
What they didn't expect was to see Alex sitting in the lounge alone at three in the morning, sprawled across the couch in all her pink and green glory.
"Hey Y/n," Alex flashed a smile, pausing whatever she was watching. "What are you doing here this late?"
"I could ask you the same thing," Their favorite blanket was wrapped around their shoulders as they headed to the fridge in the corner. "But the main purpose is snacks. What are you doing here?"
"Couldn't sleep, so I decided to come down here and watch some movies." Alex sat up, then patted the seat beside her, "Come on. You wanna watch anything in particular?"
Y/n took their snacks and sat down. "Not really. What's this?"
"The Princess Bride. Have you seen it?" Alex tilted her head towards Y/n.
"Nope, never." Alex's eyes widened.
"You've never seen this movie?" She immediately grabbed the remote and skipped back to the beginning. "You at least have to see the whole thing, then!"
They were a few minute in when Y/n turned to watch Alex as she watched the movie.
Alex felt Y/n staring at him, and a lopsided smile grew on his face as he asked, "You like the view?" turning to look back at them as their cheeks grew hot. They mumbled out a short apology before redirecting their attention to the movie.
The two einharji slowly drifted closer as the movie progressed, and Alex pulled the classic stretch- and- put- your- arm- over- their- shoulder tactic, which worked flawlessly.
But eventually, the movie ended, and Y/n left back to their room, mumbling about needing to rest for a busy day tomorrow, with Alex smiled at them as they scurried away.
***
The next day, Y/n heard a knock on their door around noon. Confused, they stopped what they were doing to go and see who it was.
"Alex, hi," They opened the door to let her in. "What are you doing here?"
"Wanna watch another movie with me tonight?" She held up a selection of DVDs. Y/n smiled wide, nodding.
And just like that, a new tradition was formed.
***
Alex let herself into Y/n's room with a small stack of movies to choose from.
"Hey Y/n!" Alex called out, walking to her friend's living room, "Today we have many wonderful options, including but not limited to: Wall-E, Up, The Little Mermaid and Treasure Planet."
Y/n sat on their couch with a big bucket of popcorn. "What else you got, Fierro?"
"Uhh-" Alex looked through the DVDs. "We also have Pride and Prejudice, Newsies, Thor, and, uh... that's it,"
Y/n's eyes brightened with excitement, snatching up Newsies and putting it in the player.
Alex grinned, "I should've known you'd pick Newsies, you're such a theatre kid," She mocked her friend's love for Broadway, retreating back to the couch and holding out her arms for Y/n.
"Oh shut up, it's a good movie," They laughed, sitting down next to Alex and immediately sinking into her arms.
Watching movies together had become a pastime for the two einharji. Y/n always found themself staring at Alex nearly the whole time, always prompting Alex to respond with some kind of sassy remark. This time was no exception.
"You were so excited about this movie, why am I suddenly more important than Christian Bale?"
"You're prettier," Y/n blurted. They mentally berated themself for saying something so stupid, but Alex just laughed.
"I'm flattered, but young Christian Bale is absolutely prettier than me." I gasped dramatically.
"No he's not!"
Alex snorted. "Yeah, and your reasoning is...?"
"Are you kidding? He may be cute as a boy but he could never pull of looking feminine. But you look gorgeous either way, so I really don't think there's any competition here."
"A minute ago you just thought I was pretty, but now I'm gorgeous?" Alex whistled.
Y/n felt their cheeks get hot. "Just shut up and watch the movie."
Alex ignored them, asking, "You've got a crush on me, don't you?" She teased.
"I said watch the movie." Y/n huffed.
***
It felt like only a moment later Alex was waking up on Y/n's couch. He tried to get up, but something clung to him that kept him from leaving. It was Y/n, still fast asleep.
He grinned at them, "And I thought you were clingy before," He pried himself out of their arms, only for them to grab his hand and pull him back to them.
Alex sighed and gave up, settling in and holding Y/n close to his chest. He stayed there motionless for an hour, like when a cat comes and curls up on your lap and you don't move because you don't want to scare the cat away. Because Alex really didn't want Y/n to leave him.
He'd never admitted it, but he really did like Y/n. He liked how they stared at him during their movie nights, he liked how they'd blush at his flirty comments, and he liked how they trusted him, despite being a child of the trickster god. He loved it all.
He was pulled from his thoughts as Y/n stirred beside him, starting to wake up.
"Good mornin, sleeping beauty," He smiled softly as he watched them slowly look up at him.
"Alex Fierro has finally given me a nickname, I'm so honored." They said, sleep evident in their voice.
Alex laughed, "Damn right you're honored." He placed a small kiss on Y/n's head. "I don't give nicknames out to just anybody."
Before Y/n had showed up, Alex had found the afterlife incredibly dull. But now? He could see himself with Y/n, together and having movie nights all the way until Ragnarok. And for the first time in his afterlife, he was excited.