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Avi catches up with them just as they reach the elevator. He's got a black eye and looks somewhat traumatized.
Once they're inside the elevator Magnus puts a comforting arm around his (still bare) shoulders. "You look like a man regretting his life choices."
Avi's eyes glaze over for a second. Then he shakes his head and focuses. "I don't, uh, really want to talk about it..."
"That's fair," Magnus allows, and Johan hums agreement.
The elevator pings and the doors slide open. Magnus cheerfully taks on: "I have just the thing, my friend. Alcohol is totally going to help with whatever you just saw."
He steps into their living quarters and immediately kicks off his shoes.
When he goes for his belt, Avi reaches out to stop him. "Now hold on," he says, half amused half shocked.
Magnus rolls his eyes at him. "I'm wearing underwear, geez. Just chill for a second. Are you really going to stop a man from taking of his pants in his own home? Fantasy Jesus didn't die for this."
"I have no idea what you just said. But sure, dude. It's your dorm."
"You can take your pants off too," Magnus says, magnanimously.
"I'm good," Avi says, and crosses his arms. Which highlights his biceps and reminds Magnus he's still only wearing a tanktop. No pants is probably overkill, then.
To Avi's evident surprise, Johan wordlessly takes off his pants.
Meeting his eyes, the greatest violinist in the world shrugs. "It's comfortable," he mumbles.
"Good man," Magnus says approvingly. He slaps Johan on the ass before heading towards one of the three doors. "Now, where is the Gogurt? If I were Taako... Wait." He cuts himself off, before continuing in a higher pitched voice: "If I were me, where would I put it? Obvious. Behind a hidden door next to the walk-in closet."
He walks over to the (unlit) sconce on the far side of Taako's bedroom and gives it a hopeful tug. Johan and Avi, who've trailed after him and a curiously peering into the room, watch him frown when nothing happens and tug harder.
The sconce breaks off and Magnus blinks down at the metal now in his hand. He shrugs and throws it over his shoulder. It lands with a clatter and rolls under the bed.
"The bed," Magnus says, then clears his throat and tries again. "The bed."
"You're getting better at the Taako voice," Avi says. Johan nods solemnly.
"Thanks guys," Magnus says, voice going even higher.
"Now you're just... No. It's too much."
"Ugh. Fine," he complains, before crouching infront of the bed and reaching underneath. His grasping fingers close around something solid and he pulls out a large briefcase. There's a sticky note stuck to the top of it.
It reads:
Property of Taako. Do not touch or you WILL be turned into a badger. This is totally cursed. Peace out - T.
There's a crude drawing of some kind of animal, maybe? Going from context clues, it's probably a badger. But you really can't tell just from the doodle.
"Sweet," Magnus says, and opens it. Nothing happens.
To his immense disappointment, there's no Gogurt inside (magically alcoholic or not). Instead, it's filled with several candle sticks, a tiara, some rubies and what looks like a complete set of silverware. "Son of a bitch."
He stares down at it for a second. "This feels like something I should probably deal with at some point," he reasons. "But right now I just want to get drunk." He closes the briefcase and slides it back under the bed.
"Avi, Johan, why don't you check the bookcase and closet? I'll check out this nightstand.
Avi hesitates. "Won't Taako mind us going through his stuff?"
"Dude. He'd do the same to you. Probably has, considering the amount of stolen shit he's hoarding."
Avi nods, then wanders over to the bookcase and starts systematically pulling out every books before placing it back in. Magnus is glad he's not the only one who loves scooby doo. Besides, this is a secret moon base. Hidden hideouts and tunnels are totally a possibility.
Johan sighs, but disappears into the closet. He comes out a minute later looking frazzled. "It's just dresses and robes," he reports. "And shoes. Like, a ridiculous amount of shoes. Like, it's close to what a centipedes' closet looks like, probably."
"Nothing here, either," Avi says a moment later.
Magnus slides out the top drawer and peeks inside. He very quickly slides it shut again. Some things, he thinks, you just don't want to know about your party members.
"Well, it's not nothing," he says. "But definitely not what we were looking for."
He slumps backwards onto the floor and glares up at the ceiling.
Avi sits down next to him and smiles down at him. "The mighty Magnus," he teases, "defeated by a lack of booze."
Magnus flushes. It's a lot harder to blame it on the alcohol this time. "That's Captain Magnus," he says after a second.
Avi laughs. "Well, Captain, I think I have something that can cheer you up." Out of his trouser pocket, he fishes his omnipresent flask.
"It's only half full, so we're going to have to share," he says apologetically.
"I could kiss you right now," Magnus blurts out as he surges up. "More booze. Finally. Let's get fucked up."
"Fucked up on half a bottle of brandy? None of us are really a lightweight..."
"Don't worry!" Magnus says, jumping to his feet and rushing out of the room. "I have a plan!"
When Johan and Avi arrive in the shared living room, Magnus has a flask of his own in his hands. "This," he explains, "makes everything you put in it more potent. So basically we can use this to get super drunk super fast."
He glances down at the floor and grimaces. "Let's move this to the bedroom. This see-through floor shit is trippy enough when you're not wasted on magically enhanced liquor."
They do that. Avi flops on the mattress, testing it's bounciness. Johan carefully sets his violin case on the floor and then sits down next to it. Avi throws him a pillow and, with a small smile, Johan catches it and makes himself a little more comfortable.
Magnus ends up sitting on the bed next to Avi, carefully pouring the brandy from one flask into the other. When he's done, he takes a sip and makes an appreciative noise. Avi laughs.
"Good stuff," Magnus says, passing the flask on to Johan. "Where did you say it was from again? Fannyfuck? Name seems a little vulgar to me, but they sure know their shit."
"Brandybuck. God." Avi sounds like he's in pain. He accepts the flask from Johan and takes a deep swig. When he's done, he lets out a helpless sort of giggle. "Fannyfuck..." It quickly turns into snorting laughter.
Magnus rescues the flask from Avi and pouts. "Hey now, I was pretty close."
"Only three letters off," Johan agrees, and Magnus gives him a fistbump.
They pass the flask around for a while, drinking in near silence - except for the occasional giggle from Avi. By the time those have mostly stopped, Magnus is back to pleasantly buzzed and grinning.
Only Johan (though he's drinking with the rest of them) doesn't seem to be enjoying himself too much. Magnus zeroes in on it.
"Hey Yo," he says. "Why were you so sad today?"
Johan stiffens. "What do you mean?" He asks, voice still dull and bored despite the confused crease between his eyebrows.
Magnus waves a hand. "Oh, you know. You're pretty much depressed all the time, which sucks but isn't really anything new, and is pretty understandable really-" Avi winces, looking tempted to interrupt, "But today you were sadder than usual."
"How do you know that?"
"Well, your music, obviously."
"Obviously," Johan echoes, sounding unsure.
"Yeah. Earlier at the party you were basically playing funeral music. Which was kind of out of place? And you're obviously capable of producing all different kinds of music, so there must be a reason you played that. And it's usually your emotions that color you work. So it wasn't really hard to figure out that something was up," Magnus says, passing him the flask.
Johan takes a swig with his cheeks burning. "It was about the party," he admits finally, passing the brandy on. "I just got thinking about the last time I celebrated a birthday with my... with my family, you know. And Davenport wanted me to play this one piece... but I used to play that every year for my mother. So I just... couldn't do it. Which is sad, because I love that song. I don't want to be able to never hear it again without thinking of the people I lost."
Magnus closes his eyes and swallows. That hits a little too close to home.
"There's this one song... It's just, just a sort of folk music tune. Really simple but catchy. And in my town, we had a sort of dance to go with it, a type of jig. And Jules... my Julia... she loved dancing. Whenever there was a festival, or a wedding or birthday she'd be whirling around the dancefloor." He opens his eyes, looks down at the wedding ring he's still wearing, even after all these years. "This one song was her favorite... I've forgotten the name but I still remember how it goes..."
He starts quietly humming the tune. Avi and Johan are silent and solemn as they listen.
Then, after a moment of hesitation, Johan gets out his violin and bow and starts playing.
It's unmistakeably the same song, but it sounds different on an instrument. More lively, closer to the original. Cheerful. And Johan is clearly far more skilled than the local Bard ever was but it's so much like it was then that Magnus chokes out a sob.
Memories are flooding up, of friends and neighbours laughing, his father-in-law smiling and Julia dancing, always dancing, curls bouncing and cheeks flushed with the joy of it. She turns to Magnus and her eyes shine, she laughs as she reaches out a hand and invites him to join her.
And Magnus remembers taking her hand, letting himself be swept up in her whirlwind of cheerfulness and excitement, and it hurts. There's a pain in his heart that increases the more happy memories he recalls - her lips curled up in a smile, the warm glow of satisfaction at being the reason for that smile - because he's lost it. Lost his happiness. Lost her.
He comes back to himself when an arm settles around his hunched up shoulders. He jerks, disoriented, and the motion causes the tears to spill from his eyes. Oh. He's crying? Good thing that Taako and Merle aren't here to see it. They'd never let him live it down.
It's Avi hugging him, of course. Avi, who is the nicest guy he's ever met, who doesn't say anything but tightens his grip a little when Magnus doesn't push him off.
By the time Johan finishes the song and puts down his violin, Magnus has mostly stopped crying. Now it's Avi who looks close to tears, beautifully empathetic Avi who is far too good for Magnus (just like Julia was).
Magnus wipes the wetness from his face, suddenly exhausted. The mattress dips as Johan settles on the bed too, close to Magnus but not quite touching. "I'm sorry," he offers after a second. "I thought it would... I'm sorry."
"No," Magnus says, and his voice sounds completely wrecked. He clears his throat and tries again: "No. You did good. Thank you... both of you."
He reaches over and takes Johan's hand. On his other side, Avi slips his own into his left. And they just hold on for a while.