They stayed a little while longer.
Enough for Alex to steer him through a few more conversations, enough for people to put names to faces and stop treating him like a novelty that might vanish if they blinked. Enough, she decided, for the curiosity to settle into something less sharp. And not a minute longer!
By the time they said their goodbyes and left the party, Magnus was painfully aware of how little distance there was between them — and how much effort it was taking not to close it.
The kissing started before they even made it back to his room.
The door had barely shut before hands were everywhere, urgency overriding coordination. Shoes were abandoned wherever they landed, clothes discarded without ceremony. Whatever coherent thought Magnus might have had dissolved the moment Alex laughed against his mouth and pushed him backward.
The rest of the night blurred into warmth and breath and familiar skin.
They broke once to order pizza — fast, efficient, and useful as a bribe, since Tony was inevitable — and again when the raccoon actually came.
The pizza couldn't cancel training, but it did shorten the session.
After that, however, it was just the two of them again. The world narrowed. Everything else could wait.
***
Alex woke up the next morning in a good mood so vivid it surprised even herself.
Jordan's hours — normally a personal insult to circadian rhythm — barely made a dent. She hummed as she got dressed. She kissed Magnus awake instead of nudging him. When he groaned, she laughed and told him he was adorable. She even decided, unprompted, to come with him to training.
Jordan noticed immediately.
The session itself was as brutal as ever, but when it ended — Magnus bent over, hands on his knees, lungs burning — Jordan tossed him a towel with more force than necessary.
"Seriously," she said, unimpressed. "You two are being disgustingly obvious."
The towel hit him square in the face. Alex laughed as Magnus peeled it off. "Good morning to you too!"
Jordan rolled her eyes, already turning away. "Get out of my stadium before I start charging you rent. And take your honeymoon phase with you!"
She half-chased them out, scowling all the way.
Alex didn't let go of his hand the entire walk to breakfast. They ate together, shared bites, laughed too loudly at nothing. It felt easy. Earned. Like a rare pocket of normality Magnus didn't trust yet — but wanted to.
It was only afterward, cutting across the quad, with a familiar figure hurrying past in the opposite direction, that everything shifted.
The System chimed.
[Conquest Quest Initiated: Seduce and Sleep with Target — Riley Novak…]
Magnus stiffened. Alex felt it immediately. "Quest? Who's the—?" Then, following his line of sight, "Riley?!"
He nodded.
"…Okay," Alex said slowly. "Feels like somehow we should have seen that one coming."
They slipped inside an empty lecture hall and locked the door.
"Well," Magnus said, running a hand through his hair, "at least we didn't accidentally burn that bridge."
Alex nodded. "Thank god! Politely declining was the right call."
They talked it through carefully. Riley was a friend: friendly, open, but not someone Alex trusted enough with the truth about the System. And her being the same age as them meant her schedule was probably packed.
They weighed comfort levels. Time constraints. Logistics. Risk.
Eventually, they came to a conclusion.
"…Modeling," Magnus said.
Alex exhaled. "Yeah."
It was neither perfect nor clean. But it was plausible, contained, and — critically — an excuse to spend time with Riley naturally.
"With luck," Alex added, "we can steer this where it needs to go without everything exploding."
Magnus nodded. "Let's hope! Under a week. Minimal awkwardness."
She squeezed his hand once, then pulled out her phone. "I'll call her."
***
Riley Novak was having a bad morning.
"You can't cancel on me last minute like this," she hissed into her phone, pacing the girls' bathroom. "No, I don't care that something 'came up.' I built the entire schedule around—"
She stopped. Closed her eyes. Took a breath.
"Fine. Whatever! I'll figure something out."
The call ended.
Riley stared at her reflection, rubbing a hand over her face.
Her phone rang again.
Alex.
She straightened instinctively, schooling her voice. "Hey, Alex! What's up?"
Silence.
Riley's expression shifted — confusion, calculation, relief tangled with uncertainty.
More silence.
She leaned back against the counter, biting her lip, thinking hard.
"…Can we talk somewhere in person?" she said finally. "There's a… situation I need to run by you two first."
Another pause.
"Yeah," she added. "Lunch works. I've got classes too."
A small, strained smile tugged at her mouth. "See you then."
Riley hung up, stared at her phone for a moment, then sighed and reached for her bag.
***
They met Riley for lunch at a small deli just off the edge of campus — busy enough to blend in, quiet enough to talk.
Magnus focused his new power on Riley and felt it almost immediately.
Not thoughts. Not words. Just pressure, like standing near someone holding their breath.
Nervous. Hopeful.
Probably both.
He frowned faintly. Affective Discernment didn't come with neat labels or certainty, just impressions: tilted, incomplete, colored by intensity. The System's phrasing was about as helpful as always:
"The bearer may perceive prevailing emotional states and directed inclinations of nearby sapient beings. Strong or unresolved affect registers more clearly; muted, conflicted, or suppressed states may appear distorted or incomplete.
"This faculty observes disposition, not declaration. Thought remains unspoken; intent may contradict feeling."
Riley's affect felt unresolved. That much was clear. But what it meant, he couldn't tell.
They ordered at the counter separately, then took a table near the wall. For a few minutes, they ate in silence — not hostile, just loaded. Riley broke it first.
"So," she said, setting her sandwich down and folding her hands together, "what made you guys change your mind?"
Alex glanced at Magnus, then back to Riley.
"We talked," she said simply. "We're… experimenting. Together." A small, careful smile. "At first we weren't really interested. But after thinking about it, we figured trying new things might not be such a bad idea."
Riley listened, nodding slowly.
Magnus watched her reaction and focused his power again. Hope flared sharply, then tightened into caution.
She didn't fully buy it. But she didn't challenge it, either.
"Okay," Riley said, taking a breath like she was bracing herself. "Then I'm going to be totally honest with you two."
Magnus tensed slightly.
"You called at a really good time," she continued. "Or a really bad one. Depending on how you look at it."
Alex waited.
"When I talked to you at the party, I meant normal modeling. Clothed. Safe. And that's still on the table, if that's all you're comfortable with."
She paused, then added more carefully, "But when you called this morning… I'd just been canceled on by my models for this week."
Magnus felt it through the power — the last use for a while. Frustration, sharp and fresh, layered over nerves.
Like Invisibility and his lost Telepathy, the new power came with hard limits: three charges total, each with a one-hour cooldown. He'd tested it once on Alex earlier, right after she'd called Riley — just to understand the power — confident the cooldown would be over by lunchtime.
"The week's project," Riley said, "is nude."
She held their gaze, not defensive nor pushy. Just honest.
"So," she continued, spreading her hands slightly, "if you're not comfortable with that, we reschedule. I'll find replacements. But if you are… you'd be doing me a huge favor!"
She glanced between them.
"I know that's a lot to dump on you," Riley added. "There will be props and lighting, but it'll still be nude modeling. So you can talk it over. Take the afternoon."
She hesitated, then said gently, "But if I don't hear back by tonight, I'll assume it's a no and move on."
Magnus and Alex exchanged a look — not panic, not alarm. Just understanding.
For the first time since the System named Riley, Magnus felt like they were standing on solid ground.
Slippery, maybe.
But solid.
***
They could have agreed to Riley's offer on the spot. The System's deadline meant they didn't really have many options — if any at all. But they didn't.
Part of it was strategy — waiting a few hours made their hesitation look natural, human. Two people actually talking something through instead of jumping at an opportunity the moment it appeared. The other part was simpler, and heavier: they needed to check in with each other before committing to something that would change the shape of things, however temporarily.
Alex's room was quiet when they got back, afternoon light slanting in through the window. She didn't bother with subtlety — she climbed into his lap, knees bracketing his hips, arms looping loosely around his neck like that was where they'd always belonged.
"So," she said, studying his face, thumb brushing idly along his jaw. "We're really doing this, huh?"
Magnus's hands settled at her waist, steady but not gripping. "If you're against it, we don't have to. We can back out. Try another route." He hesitated. "I don't want us doing anything we'll regret later."
She laughed softly — not mocking, just honest. "I won't pretend this is something I'd be considering under… normal circumstances." Her expression sobered. "But given our situation, we both know there isn't an easy route — or even a viable one — if we back out of this."
She leaned her forehead against his for a moment before continuing. "And it'd be weird to push her toward sex when we're not even comfortable being naked around her in a professional context. Nude modeling is hardly a crime, or anything shameful."
A beat passed.
"Unless you don't want it," she added quietly.
Magnus exhaled. "Like you said, we're trying to sleep with her, even if it's not by choice. Pretending otherwise would be hypocritical." His fingers flexed slightly at her sides. "But letting Riley think we're doing her a favor when we've got our own motives feels wrong."
Alex hummed, thoughtful. "Then we don't let her think that." She tilted her head. "We don't tell her everything, but we're honest enough. We say we're experimenting. That we're open to including her, if things go there naturally." A small smile tugged at her mouth. "It's what I've been telling people anyway. Lila, Mia, probably even Jordan when it's time to cross that bridge. And honestly? The modeling might make it easier to steer things in that direction."
She leaned in and kissed him — slow, deliberate, just enough to blur his thoughts — then pulled back before it could deepen.
"Speaking of experimenting," she said lightly, eyes bright with mischief, "there's something I want to try."
Magnus narrowed his eyes. "That sentence never leads anywhere safe for me."
"Oh, I don't know, you may like this one," she grinned. "I'm going to call Riley. Tell her the good news, talk details." She shifted on his lap, close enough that he became acutely aware of every point of contact. "And while I do that, I want you to try your best to distract me."
His throat worked. "Distract you how?"
"You can kiss me," she said casually. "Touch me. Wherever." Her voice dipped just a little. "If I finish the entire conversation with Riley, I win. If I have to hang up and call her back later, you win."
Magnus stared at her. "And what do I get if I win?"
"Trust me," she said, winking. "I'll make it worth your while."
"And if I lose?"
Her smile turned dangerous. "You'll find out. But you probably won't like it."
A beat stretched between them.
"So?" she prompted.
Magnus's gaze darkened, his hands tightening at her waist just enough to promise trouble. "Call her!"
Alex laughed, already pulling out her phone as she settled more firmly against him.
Game on!
Alex hit dial before she could second-guess it, pressing the phone to her ear as Riley's line rang. She shifted her weight on Magnus's lap, her shorts riding up slightly against his jeans, but she kept her focus… mostly.
"Hey, Riley! It's Alex," she said when the call connected, her voice steady despite the heat of Magnus's body beneath her. "We talked it over, and yeah—we're in for the modeling gig this week. Nude's a bit out of our comfort zone, but we get it. Last-minute cancellations suck. Happy to help out!"
Magnus didn't waste time. His hands slid up her thighs, thumbs pressing into the soft skin just below the hem of her shorts, slow and deliberate. He leaned in, lips brushing the curve of her neck, then nipping lightly. Alex's breath hitched, but she powered through. "Uh—yeah, so when were you thinking?"
Riley's voice came through, bright with relief. "Seriously? That's amazing. My studio slot's open from two to five tomorrow. We can set up the lights and everything. You're sure you're okay with it? No pressure if—"
Magnus's mouth found her earlobe, sucking gently. One hand ventured higher, fingers tracing along the edge of her shorts. Alex clamped her thighs together instinctively, trapping his wrist, but that only pressed him closer. "We're good," she managed, her voice a shade breathier. "Experimenting a little, you know? Open to… new things."
He smirked against her skin, his free hand pushing her tank top up just enough to skim her stomach before sliding higher. Alex bit her lip, stifling a sound as Riley talked about poses and logistics, carefully reassuring them they wouldn't be pushed past their limits.
"Sounds perfect," Alex interrupted, gripping Magnus's shoulder for balance as his touch grew more insistent. "Why don't we meet in person for the rest of the details? There's something we wanted to tell you face-to-face."
Riley laughed. "Sure. Lunch tomorrow? Same deli?"
"G-great! Bye," Alex said, the word tumbling out with a moan as she ended the call and tossed the phone aside.
She turned on Magnus immediately, eyes blazing. "You win," she said, breathless. "Now come take your prize!"
Magnus grinned — clearly pleased with himself, and a little surprised he'd actually managed it. Moments later, they were tangled together on the bed, urgency overtaking restraint. Clothes were shed hastily, the world narrowing to heat, movement, and the familiar rhythm between them.
They came apart only after, collapsing together in a breathless heap.
After a while, Magnus spoke, voice lazy. "Just out of curiosity, what would've happened if I'd lost?"
Alex traced his jaw with one finger, that mischievous smile returning.
"You don't want to know."