Alex exhaled slowly, like she'd been holding her breath for hours.
Then, barely audible — so soft he almost thought he imagined it — she said:
"I believe you."
Magnus stared at her.
"…You do?!"
It came out too loud, too hopeful, too everything.
She looked completely calm; he felt like he'd swallowed a live grenade.
Alex's eyes lifted to his, unreadable.
"I do. But what I decide to do about it — about you, and about us — depends on how you answer the following questions."
Oh no.
Oh god no.
Magnus nodded so fast his vision blurred. "Y-yeah, anything, ask anything, I'll… I'm not hiding anything… I mean, not on purpose…"
She crossed her arms, expression unreadable.
"Was I just a quest target to you?"
His brain blue-screened.
"Wh… no! No, I-I mean… yes? I mean, at first! At first you were, technically… not… not you you, just… the system… I didn't…"
He scrubbed a hand over his face, wishing the floor would open and swallow him.
"I didn't think you'd even notice me, okay? And then it started and I panicked and… but it hasn't been… it hasn't been like that since… since way before last Sunday."
The words tripped over each other, tumbling out too fast.
"I swear. I swear it hasn't."
He kept his eyes on his own trembling hands because looking at her felt like trying to stare at the sun.
"I just… I didn't know how to say any of it without sounding like a lunatic."
She didn't smile.
She didn't blink.
She just continued.
Question after question after question.
At first, he tried to sit up straighter, to look "trustworthy" or something, but his body had other plans. His knee was bouncing, his palms were sweating, and every second sentence he said started with "Uh…" or "Look, I… I don't…" or "Okay so this is going to sound stupid, but…"
The worst part:
She didn't look angry.
She looked focused.
He would've preferred yelling. Crying. Throwing things.
Anything but this calm, surgical precision.
She asked about the powers, mostly Invisibility. She asked for a demonstration, watched him vanish, reappear, then:
"Why didn't you tell me you could disappear?"
"I… I didn't have that at first! It just… happened! The system threw it at me when it gave me the 'Seduce Lila' quest… I… uh—"
"So, you practiced?"
"Kinda? No? I mean… Yes, but nothing creepy… mostly just use it so I could get close enough to look at her notebook… Well, there was some minor stalking her to the gym… and while she was jogging… But I didn't attempt anything… uh, else…"
She hummed, thoughtful.
Thoughtful was worse than pissed.
She poked at details he barely remembered, things he thought he'd said or done or maybe dreamed he'd done while operating on fear and adrenaline. He tried to recount everything he could: quests, system pop-ups, how Invisibility felt, how Telekinesis tugged at the inside of his ribs.
He couldn't even tell if he was making sense anymore.
She just kept nodding for him to continue, and every nod made him sweat harder.
At some point he realized he was rambling about how he thought she hated being touched by him last Thursday during their group project and he didn't even know how that subject even came up. She didn't correct him. She didn't interrupt.
She just listened.
It was awful.
He didn't remember half of what he said.
He remembered being sincere. He remembered panicking.
He remembered desperately trying to look as honest as he could even though he was literally trembling.
And then…
Just when he thought she was reaching some sort of terrifying verdict, Alex stood up.
So abruptly he actually flinched.
She grabbed her bag.
Shouldered it.
Looked down at him with the same expression she might use on someone who'd broken an entire lab set and didn't understand how.
"I'm still mad at you."
He nodded quickly — too quickly — like a bobblehead on caffeine.
"Yes… yes, that's totally fair! I'd be mad too… I mean I am mad at me… I… uh—"
"But I'll take care of it."
He blinked.
"…Take care of… what?"
She was already walking to the door.
She looked back just once, jaw set, eyes sharp with something he couldn't name.
"You're not dying on my watch."
And with that, she darted out the door.
Magnus stayed frozen exactly as she left him.
A full five seconds passed before he whispered to the empty room:
"…Am I dreaming?"
He pressed both hands to his face.
His heart was pounding like a trapped bird.
His breathing wouldn't regulate.
His brain refused to reboot.
Maybe he'd fainted in the cafeteria.
Maybe this was a stress hallucination.
Maybe he'd actually died somewhere and this was a weird limbo fever dream.
Because Alex Reyes believing him, interrogating him, and then swearing to "take care of it"?
That couldn't be real.
Not in any universe where Magnus existed.
He stared at the door she'd vanished through, completely dazed.
"…What the hell just happened?"
***
Alejandra Reyes was sprinting through campus, weaving between benches, clusters of students, and a very confused tour group, her pulse thundering in her ears.
She was looking for one person.
Lila Voss.
And as she ran, her mind finally — finally — caught up to her heart.
Flashes of the last week rose like someone opening a floodgate she didn't know she'd slammed shut.
Her decision to save Magnus had come from somewhere instinctive, emotional, reckless.
Now her brain was racing to rationalize it.
It started with last Monday.
The day Magnus Chane had apparently gotten this "system."
She'd noticed him immediately — not because he was handsome (he was, but that wasn't unusual on campus), but because something about him had been… off.
She'd pegged him immediately as "probably another admirer."
Cute in a quiet way, nervous, awkward… but something about his approach was strange. He didn't have the air of someone eager to flirt — more like someone who was doing it because he had to. Like he'd lost a bet, or someone dared him, or he was fulfilling an obligation he didn't believe in.
She was polite, but distant. No reason to be rude. No reason to engage.
She hadn't thought about that moment again until today.
Now that strangeness slotted neatly into place.
The next morning, she'd gone to the campus café to decompress. He'd shown up at the café again, trying — very transparently — to flirt. Normally, that would have annoyed her, especially considering her period had just started that day, but there was something disarmingly earnest about him.
He'd left while she was checking her texts.
But she looked up just in time to see Magnus stop abruptly, turn around, and jog back toward the café.
Her first thought was, "Did he drop something? Or is he circling back for my numbers?"
But then she saw it properly:
An elderly man struggling with two heavy grocery bags. Nothing dramatic — just slow and overwhelmed.
Magnus walked over, said something she couldn't hear, took one bag, and matched the man's pace toward a nearby apartment building. The walk wasn't far, but at the old man's speed, it took time.
He came back ten minutes later.
No fanfare. No checking if anyone noticed.
Just… going on with his day.
At the time, she'd thought: "Okay, cute and kind — maybe there's something more to this guy."
She didn't think deeper.
Now she wished she had.
Wednesday brought two things.
First: the stroller near the animal shelter.
She'd seen the tail end of it — the mother losing her grip, the wheels skidding toward the street, Magnus jerking unnaturally fast. Something about the way the stroller stopped had made the hair on her arms rise.
She hadn't understood then.
She definitely understood now.
Second: overhearing his group partners arguing. "He shouldn't have been late yesterday," one guy grumbled.
"He's doing more than half our work," another shot back. "He can be as late as he wants. You haven't done anything."
The complainer, embarrassed, muttered:
"Well… I'll present. Not like he can do that without making a fool out of himself in front of everyone."
She hadn't stayed longer.
But that night she pieced it together:
He'd been late Tuesday because he was helping the old man home.
He did more work than everyone else and didn't complain.
And that stroller save — the way he glanced around nervously as he quietly slipped away — somehow haunted her.
She'd fallen asleep thinking about him when she hadn't meant to, and from that point forwards, her behaviors had started to change around him without her even realizing.
Thursday, she caught him again. He'd bought snacks and drinks for their group project and was on his way back when a freshman's bag tore, papers scattering everywhere. Everyone else walked past.
Magnus set everything down and helped pick up every sheet.
And then Friday… Friday had been a big one!
She witnessed a side of him she never even knew existed until that point…
She boarded the bus, mid-afternoon slump. No seats. No energy.
Magnus stood in the center, hugging his backpack.
He noticed a heavily pregnant woman swaying for balance. The guy in the seat beside her was looking at his phone and had headphones blasting.
Magnus walked over and tapped the guy's shoulder.
"Hey. Could you let her have your seat? She looks like she's having a rough time."
Not rude.
Not demanding.
Just firm enough that saying no felt impossible.
The guy bolted up. The woman sat down gratefully. Magnus stepped away, not waiting for thanks.
And for the first time, Alex watched him.
Not the awkward, flustered version around her.
This version — calm, decisive, instinctively kind.
It was… disarming.
Unexpected.
Attractive in a way she wasn't ready to admit.
That was the moment she knew she was in trouble.
That night, in her dorm, she tried very hard — and failed — to not think about him.
Saturday…
On her way to yoga, she caught him helping a tiny transfer student who was drowning in luggage.
Magnus wasn't athletic — he looked like he was about to rupture something — but he smiled through all of it, encouraging the kid like it was no big deal.
Later, during their café date, she went to the bathroom.
When she came back out, she caught the intern waitress about to trip while balancing a mountain of plates.
Magnus nudged the obstacle out of her way as he passed by without missing a step.
The waitress didn't notice.
But Alex did.
And it wasn't just last week.
Even this week — when he was supposedly being "forced by the System" to seduce Lila and spiraling even harder — she'd still caught him doing it.
Holding doors open for people he never even looked at.
Picking up trash and tossing it into bins without breaking stride.
Helping a professor haul two boxes of equipment up the science building stairs — then vanishing before the man could thank him.
He never lingered long enough to be remembered.
Half the campus didn't even realize the guy who made their day easier was a guy at all.
And that brought her brain directly to…
Earlier, after he confessed everything, and as she was grilling him for details…
***
After she had grilled him about the powers, and what he knew about the system, Alex crossed her arms, jaw tight, eyes fixed on him like a detective lining up evidence.
Magnus sat stiffly on the edge of the couch, hands on his knees, already in "I'm about to be scolded" posture.
"Tuesday morning," she began. "After the café. What did you do?"
Magnus blinked. "Uh… I had the group project meeting? I bolted for that. And I guess I was late… again. They kind of yelled at me."
Alex's eyes narrowed. "You didn't… come running back for anything?"
"I did?" He frowned, searching his memory like a corrupted file. "Uh… must've dropped something? I don't really remember much of that day. Just that you still didn't know who I was."
Not a single mention of the old man.
Not even a flicker of recognition.
Alex's lips parted slightly. He seriously doesn't remember.
She continued. Calm. Too calm.
"And the baby stroller near the shelter? You used telekinesis to save it, right?"
Magnus stared.
Then blinked. Twice.
"Oh god. You saw?! Did anyone else see?"
Not: Oh yeah, I saved a baby.
Not: That was scary, I thought I was going to die there!
Just panic about being seen.
He didn't remember the mother's grateful face.
Or the child he saved.
Or the truck that nearly clipped him.
Nothing but social fear.
And when he rambled on about avoiding touching her the next few days because he'd thought she'd hated it, pulling back that time during their group project — when in reality, it had been the exact opposite, she'd liked it… a little too much — she'd wanted to kiss and strangle that idiot at the same time.
She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling and pressed on:
"And Friday evening," she said lightly, "Where were you going?"
"Supermarket," he answered automatically. "Had to restock since I was out of food. But at the same time, I kinda, you know, might die in forty-eight hours. So I wasn't thinking straight."
"Anything interesting happen on the bus?"
"No?" His eyebrows knit. "I was thinking about how much food I should buy since, uh… you know… possible death approaching, if I buy too much, it might be wasteful… but at the same time, maybe I should eat something good before dying… last meal and all. I wasn't really paying attention to anything else."
Of course he hadn't been.
"And Saturday morning," she pressed on, "you came looking for me?"
"H-how did you know that?! Did someone see me? Did they tell you later? I only got there after you'd already left—"
"Uh-huh." She didn't let him breathe. "And when I went to the bathroom at the café… did anything happen?"
Magnus nearly choked on air.
"I also went after you!"
His eyes widened.
"N–No! NOT after you! I mean I went to the men's room… Not following you… Obviously! I mean—"
She raised an eyebrow, still stone-faced.
"So nothing happened?"
He shook his head quickly.
"Probably nothing. I… I was too worried about messing up in front of you to pay attention to anything else…"
She pinched the bridge of her nose.
He genuinely had no idea.
Not about the good things.
Not about the moments that made her chest twist.
Magnus finally hesitated.
Voice small.
"Alex… what does any of this have to do with—"
She snapped:
"Quiet. I'm asking the questions here. You focus on answering."
"O-okay!"
He sat up straight immediately like he'd been called on in a class unprepared, shoulders square, eyes wide, textbook panicked hamster interviewing for a job he didn't apply for.
It should have pissed her off.
It did.
But God, it also made it so much harder to keep her angry face in place.
Because now she knew:
Every single time he'd done something good — the entire time she'd known he existed, and probably before she even had any idea — he wasn't trying to impress anyone.
He wasn't trying to look noble.
He wasn't even thinking.
His mind had been a constant loop of:
(1) Alex
(2) Don't die
(3) Alex again
And still, somehow, on autopilot, he'd been gentle and good and conscientious.
Her mind wanted to stay mad.
Her heart… had decided something else over a week ago.
Even before the night they first slept together.
She scowled deeper to hide the way her stomach twisted.
And Magnus, poor idiot, mistook the scowl for fury and straightened even more.
Which, annoyingly, made him look kind of cute — an endearing mix of a panicked hamster and a nervous golden retriever.
(Infuriating.)
She inhaled sharply and fired the next question — partly to keep control, partly because if she didn't, she'd smile like an idiot too.
***
One last memory hit her then… one that made her entire body hot and bothered just remembering.
The incredible sex their first night together — his first time ever: the way he was fumbling with the condom had screamed "virgin" in the most endearing way.
Everything strange from last Sunday clicked sharply into focus now: the impossible angles, the weightlessness, the pressure that wasn't hands, the moment she was lifted just a little, blindfold or not…
Telekinesis.
He'd shown her telekinesis before, claiming it was a family thing. Now, with the system confession, it slotted into place with unnerving clarity:
The way he'd used the power on her like it was second nature.
The way he'd hit all her weak spots, and adapted to every reaction — even the smallest ones — from her like someone experienced.
Yet somehow still been shy and awkward about everything else.
It was like he was an entirely different person when he let his instincts take over…
Everything made sense.
Too much sense.
Her heart skipped as she ran harder.
***
Alex cut across the courtyard toward the building she'd been told Lila was in.
She wasn't going to tell Lila about the System.
She barely believed half of it herself.
But she was going to control the situation.
Magnus was too oblivious and too stressed to steer anything right now.
If she didn't intervene, the whole thing would spiral into a disaster neither of them could walk back.
"This isn't even your boyfriend," she muttered, dodging a cluster of students. "This is not normal. This is not sane. Why am I the one doing this?"
But her chest already knew the answer.
She cared.
More than she wanted to admit.
And if Magnus was getting dragged into something irreversible, she refused to let it happen with someone who wasn't her — or wasn't prepared.
She pushed the door open.
Time to talk to Lila Voss.
Not with the truth.
Just with enough honesty, charm, and diplomacy to make this work without sounding like a lunatic.