Work Text:
Magnus was running so fast that Natalie was actually struggling to keep up with her son. This was a warm, sunny day and the gentle breeze was just cold enough to balance the weather. On days like these, she couldn’t help but remember Frey.
“Mooom, c’mon” Magnus insisted, jumping up and down with both arms raised up.
“We have enough time, try to enjoy the view of the forest too” his mother said, walking calmly down the path they had set.
“But we need to be there by sunset!”
Magnus couldn’t help it, he was excited today. His mother had promised that she’d show him the best place to watch the sunset, so obviously he was urging Natalie to get there as soon as possible.
They walked like that for a while, this time Magnus actually stopped every now and then whenever his mother pointed out something interesting or pretty. Besides, all this running was starting to make him feel a bit tired. He had just started panting when Natalie decided they should take a break and eat something.
“You can explore around while I prepare our picnic, but don’t go too far away, okay?”
“Okaaay” he answered, a hint of annoyance in his voice. Every time she made him promise the same thing, as if Magnus hadn’t understood the first hundred times.
He had caught a glimpse of something moving between the bushes before stopping, so he’d go to check that out. Maybe it was a cute animal, or maybe it was some sort of spirit or magical creature from his Norse mythology storybooks.
Magnus walked slowly, careful not to make any noise that would alert the creature, if it was still there. When he finally saw what it was, he completely forgot about being silent.
It was a squirrel! A tiny, adorable squirrel that was looking for food. Being alone, he had no one to warn him about the animal trying to bite him if he touched it, so obviously he tried to go and pet the squirrel.
The squirrel was smarter, and did not feel like dealing with a small human trying to play, so it ran away as soon as he got too close. But Magnus was stubborn and he had nothing else to do, so he chased after the squirrel without thinking about it twice.
He was having fun, all giggles while he tried to follow the little animal. What he did not see, since his eyes were fixed on the tiny brown blur, was the root. A moment he was running and the next he found himself face first on the ground, his face dirty and his body hurting from the fall. Worst of all, his foot has stuck under a giant root that had made him trip. Magnus did his best to sit down and take a better look at it. He tried to pull free and…
“Ooouch!” he whined. Bad idea, he wasn't getting free that way.
He looked around, trying to see if he wasn’t too far away from where his mother was. He could see the path he had come from, but he couldn’t really see Natalie. The squirrel was also gone, leaving Magnus all alone, alone and afraid. What if his mother didn’t find him? What if no one ever found him? He could not tell how far away he was.
The tears were quick to fill the little boy’s eyes, and just a few seconds after that they were running down his face; he was crying out loud. Hopefully, someone would hear him and rescue him. He tried calling out for help, but the sobs made it difficult.
When he was getting tired and his voice was starting to get hoarse, someone appeared right in front of him. Magnus hadn’t heard them approach over his own sobs, and his vision was still blurry with tears so he hadn’t seen them clearly either. The boy wiped the tears away with the sleeve of his shirt and looked up at the stranger. He could have sworn that standing right in front of him was one of the beautiful nature spirits his mother had told him about, but he did not recall those spirits wearing bright pink clothes.
“Stop looking at me like that” the not-nature-spirit said, trying to catch his attention.
Magnus blinked, he had not noticed that he was staring at their eyes. Each was a different color, one brown and the other amber. The stranger also had very pretty dark hair, and an expression that told him he should say something before he ended up staring again.
“H-hi” Magnus said, his voice still a little shaky.
“Why are you crying? You’re scaring all the birds”
He hesitated. Should he apologize for that? The stranger looked annoyed, but Magnus couldn’t care less about scaring birds when he was scared about not finding his mom ever again.
“I… I’m stuck” he confessed, and tried to pull free again without any success “I can’t get it out”
“Oh, okay I can get it out but don’t cry”
Magnus didn’t know this person at all, but at this point he could trust just about anyone. He nodded and closed his eyes, not wanting to see what they were going to do in order to get his foot unstuck. It’s not that he was a coward or anything… it just felt a little scary.
He made sounds of complaint when he felt the stranger pushing, pulling and just doing their thing.
“I said don’t cry” they huffed “Look, it’s out now”
His eyes opened one at a time, slowly, and then widened when he saw it out from under the root. Magnus sighed, relieved, then looked up at his savior’s face.
“Thanks” he said, with a soft smile on his face.
Magnus tried to get up, stumbled a little, and finally managed to regain his balance. The other one clapped as if he had just done some sort of trick. It was a little rude, yes, but they had saved Magnus and he was very grateful for that. Because of that, he didn’t want to just leave now that he was free, even if he really really wanted to go back to where his mom was.
“I’m Magnus”
“Alex” they introduced themselves. They didn’t look like they wanted to leave so soon either, so perhaps he could make a new friend.
Then Magnus, poor little precious child who was just trying to ask an innocent question, said “Are you a boy or a girl?”
He had been wondering that and he didn’t want to assume their gender, even if it meant asking something he didn’t know was awkward.
Alex hesitated for a moment but, without looking at him directly, said “She” and then fidgeted with the hem of her shirt before looking back at him.
Magnus didn’t question it at all, so he just nodded and then added “I’m a he!” with a tiny smile on his lips. Because that’s why Alex had seemed nervous, right? Because Magnus hadn’t said his pronouns first; it made sense in his little head. Alex’s face lit up when he said it, so that must have been it.
“I have to find my mom, can you help me?” he asked. Maybe she knew how to go back. For some reason little Magnus had just assumed she lived here, or at least she had been here enough times to know her way around.
“Yeah, I come here some weekends”
He was feeling a little better now that it looked like everything was going to be okay. The panic he had felt not so long ago felt distant now.
“I came from here” he pointed out the way he had come from and Alex nodded.
“That’s one of the paths, I’ll take you there, but it costs chocolate”
“W-what?”
“I want a chocolate bar for taking you there and for scaring the birds”
Magnus could not figure out why a chocolate bar would do anything about the birds, but he guessed it was a fair price. Sharing chocolate with the person who had helped him was a nice idea.
“Oka–hey w-what are you doing!?” he squeaked.
Alex had wrapped her hand around his wrist, Magnus’ face turned red faster than he would have liked. He had not agreed to hold hands with pretty people. Not that he was complaining anyway.
“Don’t be dumb, it’s so you don’t get lost” Alex said, rolling her two-toned eyes.
“Oh, okay” Magnus said, trying to sound all cool and calm. He failed at it, obviously.
“Moom!”
Magnus was running towards Natalie the moment she saw her, leaving Alex behind. His mother didn’t even have the time to react before her son hugged her with all the strength a nine year old kid could gather.
“Hey sweetie, did something happen? I was starting to get worried” she said, caressing his hair softly.
“I-I wanted to pet this squirrel but i-it ran away so I ran too but then there was a r-root and my foot and–“ he talked so fast that it sounded like unintelligible mumbling, he only stopped because he needed to breathe.
“It’s okay, you’re here now, it’s okay” she rubbed his back gently, then looked at Alex who was standing there looking at her shoes “Who’s your friend over there?”
Magnus turned to look at Alex, whom he had completely forgotten about for a moment.
“She’s Alex, she saved me”
“Yeah, from an evil root” she said, teasing him.
Magnus would have said something about it, but right now he didn’t mind letting the very pretty girl tease him.
“I see, then we should thank her”
Magnus unwrapped himself from his mother and sat on the spot closest to the sweet foods of the picnic Natalie had set up.
“You can eat with us!” he offered, a little too excited to spend more time with his new friend “We have PBJ sandwiches”
“Would you like some?” Natalie offered “I always bring a few extra ones because this little champion eats a lot” she poked Magnus’ tummy and laughed softly when he huffed all grumpy about it.
“Mom!” he complained, hugging his stomach.
Alex should have refused. Her parents had told her not to trust strangers. Maybe she should have done as they said, but it was hard when the strangers were way nicer than her own family. Besides, she was pretty sure she could kick Magnus’ butt if he tried to kidnap her or anything.
“I like to eat a lot too” Alex admitted, without a hint of embarrassment in her voice, and then proceeded to sit down next to Magnus and grab one of the PBJ sandwiches.
“See? Your friend is smart. Besides, you still have to grow up a lot”
“You will be a shortie if you don’t eat”
“That’s not true! I’m gonna be super tall” Magnus complained with his mouth full of sandwich.
“Itty bitty shortie, and I’ll be taller than you” she laughed. Now that she could tease him and get a funny reaction out of it, she liked it.
Alex stayed with them for the rest of their picnic, laughing and enjoying the food Natalie had prepared. None of them seemed to be bothered by their unexpected guest. It was the best time she had had in the entire week; she wished meals with her parents were this fun.
“Magnus, we should get going” Natalie said when they had finished eating and tidying everything up.
“The sunset!” he jumped, suddenly remembering what their whole trip was about. He was having such a good time with Alex that somehow he had forgotten “You want to come with us?”
“Magnus, dear, she may have to go back with her parents we–“
“I wanna go” Alex said immediately, she did not feel like going back this soon “Is it up there?” she pointed at the path Natalie and Magnus had, indeed, been following “My parents know, it’s okay”
Alex wasn’t really lying. Her parents knew she liked to explore on her own and she always found her way back. It was not like they cared about her being away for too long anyway. Just in case, she adopted her most adorable expression.
Natalie thought carefully about it for a moment, but this kid was seriously good at making puppy eyes. She knew how to take care of Magnus just fine, she guessed Alex couldn’t be that difficult to handle, she didn’t look like a bad kid.
“Alright, but we can’t be there too long then, I won’t allow you going back to your parents after dark” Natalie finally agreed.
“I have a flashlight and they are close” Alex said, and this one was completely true.
“Let’s go!!” Magnus said excitedly before taking Alex’s hand and following the path his mother had set.
Natalie caught up with the two kids and led them all the way to their destiny, always keeping an eye on them so no one decided to chase after wild critters again.
Magnus pointed at the horizon then looked back at Alex “Look! Look!” he ran all the way up to the top of the slope “The sun is going down!”
It took very little time for all of them to get to the spot Natalie had mentioned, Magnus looked even happier because now he had another person to share the view with. Natalie sat down on a fallen log that was just perfect to rest comfortable while both kids enjoyed the sunset.
“Mom says it’s the best spot to see it” he said, staring at it full of wonder.
It truly was. Alex had been here before, but never during sunset. She stayed very still, looking at the sun descending lazily on the sky. Its rays made everything shine with a golden glow and the gentle breeze made the leaves of the trees sway softly.
“See?” Magnus insisted, he was trying to get her to say something.
Alex averted her gaze from the sunset to Magnus, whose hair was glowing with the same shade of gold “Yes, it’s very pretty” she answered honestly.
Then this kid, who had looked like such a dork with his foot stuck under a root, smiled at her showing a missing tooth and Alex could swear that he was shining like the sun behind them. This time, she was the one staring.
Alex didn’t understand why her face felt hot now, so she figured out that the best way to make it go away was shoving Magnus. She wasn’t actually trying to make him fall, it was a gentle push, and she just wanted to make him stop smiling so the feeling stopped too.
Natalie could guess what the whole deal was about, so she just covered her mouth with her hand to keep a soft laugh from coming out of her lips.
“Why did you push me?” Magnus asked, kind of hurt, he was even pouting.
“You… you had a bee on your shoulder and I made it go away” she lied, her eyes on the sunset so she didn’t have to look at his eyes.
“Really? Thanks”
And there was that smile again. Just before Alex could get more confused about her feelings, Natalie intervened.
“I think we should go back now, we can’t wait until it begins to get dark” she reminded them.
Magnus obviously complained arguing that he wanted to stay there a bit longer, but Natalie wasn’t taking any risks. She only had to give him the look to make him agree with her and they went down the path they had come from.
“Alex, we can take you back with your parents, it’s no big deal” Natalie offered once they were back at the place they had met.
“I’m okay, I can go alone” she said firmly, but it looked like Natalie Chase has having none of that.
“At least let us get you closer where they are, okay?”
Magnus wasn’t saying anything about it, but his face was definitely begging to spend a little more time with her. The last thing Alex wanted was for her new friends to see their parents; she couldn’t even imagine how they would react.
Stupid Magnus and his stupid cute face, she thought before making a choice “Okay…” she still sounded hesitant, but that was all Natalie needed to escort her safely back to them.
“Hey, where do you live?” Magnus asked once they were on their way.
“Far” Alex answered dryly; she was getting a little nervous at the thought of getting caught and being yelled at for hanging out with strangers. She didn’t want her parents to say mean things to Magnus or Natalie.
“Oh… but do you come here often? We could meet again and you can show me those birds” he said, trying to cheer her up.
Actually… that didn’t seem like a bad idea in Alex’s head. They could agree to see each other in the sunset spot and Alex could sneak out whenever they came back. There was no way she could contact Magnus without her parents knowing, so they’d have to get lucky.
She nodded “Yes, where we saw the sunset” she noticed they were close enough for her to continue walking alone and added quickly “I come here some weekends”
Alex stopped and turned so she was facing Magnus and his mother.
“But no scaring the birds again” she warned him “I can go back from here, thank you” she said to Natalie and turned her back to them to continue walking.
“Wait!”
Alex spun yet again only to catch something Magnus had thrown at her. It was a chocolate bar.
“I forgot” he admitted “See you soon!” he said, and there was that smile of his.
“See you… soon” Alex said. She hoped those words would become true.
“Be careful” Natalie said before saying her goodbyes too.
Maybe she wouldn’t see them ever again, or maybe it would happen in the distant future. No matter what option became true, Alex felt a happiness she hadn’t felt in too long for someone her age. Even if she had to go back to a life of being neglected by her parents, at least she knew that people like Magnus were out there.
She would wish each and every day to see the boy that looked like the sun again.