By the time Magnus made it to class, he'd managed to sand himself down into something functional.
Not yet calm, not really, but steady enough that his legs worked and his hands stopped shaking if he kept them busy. Whatever had happened at the track that morning had been filed away under "deal with later," which was the only way he knew how to survive things that didn't make sense yet.
Alex noticed anyway.
They were in Power, Media, and Society, an upper-level course both their majors overlapped on. Big lecture hall. Tiered seating. The kind of class where people pretended to pay attention while actually monitoring each other's social lives.
They'd fallen into the habit of sitting together ever since they started going out — close enough that their knees touched, close enough that Alex could lean over and murmur comments under her breath without anyone else hearing.
Today, she leaned in like usual.
"You okay?" she whispered.
Magnus nodded automatically. Too fast. She studied his face for a beat longer than normal, eyes narrowing just a fraction, then leaned back. She wasn't convinced, but was letting it go for now.
The professor finished reviewing the week's material and glanced at the clock.
"Before you go," she said, "a reminder that we're nearing the end of the term. Your group presentations are scheduled in less than a month from now. You should be coordinating with your teams if you haven't already."
A few students groaned quietly.
"And," she added, tone shifting into something dry but pointed, "while I remember very clearly what it's like to be young and in college, I'll remind everyone that this is still a professional setting. Your personal lives should stay separate from your academic work."
As she said it, her gaze drifted, and lingered… right on Alex.
Alex, who had just leaned in again to whisper, "Seriously, you're acting weird," clearly clocked it a second too late.
A ripple went through the lecture hall. Some people didn't react at all. Some rolled their eyes. A few snickered. Someone somewhere gave a low whistle. Magnus felt heat crawl up his neck.
Alex raised an eyebrow at the professor, unapologetic, then leaned back in her seat like she hadn't noticed anything at all.
The professor cleared her throat and dismissed the class.
***
Their group met up in the quad afterward, same as always.
What had started in the second week of the term as an awkward logistical necessity had quietly turned into routine: same bench, same patch of grass, same loose circle of backpacks and laptops. All four of them happened to be free this period, which felt rare enough to be worth using.
Magnus checked the time, then stood. "I'll grab food and drinks!"
Alex was already on her feet. "I'll help."
One of their groupmates blinked. "Oh, I can—"
"I've got him," Alex said easily, already reaching for Magnus's sleeve.
The other colleague caught the cue a half-second later and tugged the first one back down. "They've got it!"
Magnus didn't question it. He just let Alex steer him away.
They didn't say anything at first. The campus hummed around them — students crossing paths, voices overlapping, bikes rattling past.
When they were far enough from the quad to feel private, Alex spoke again. "What's wrong?"
Magnus hesitated.
"It's gonna sound crazy," he said finally.
Alex didn't slow. "Crazier than a System forcing you to bang different girls every week?"
He huffed despite himself. "Yes! Probably? Maybe…"
She stopped walking and turned to face him. "Try me! We agreed on full honesty when we started dating, remember?"
He exhaled. Then, slowly, he told her.
About the track. About the thing that had appeared out of nowhere. About the way it hadn't felt solid or unreal, just wrong. About the words it had said, and how they'd lodged somewhere deep and sharp. About the thought that kept circling back, no matter how hard he tried to push it away:
"What if this isn't real, and I'm just losing it?"
He could hear himself spiraling even as he spoke. Alex stepped closer and cut him off by wrapping her arms around him.
"Hey," she said — firm, grounding. "Whatever this is, we'll figure it out together. You're not going crazy. If you said it happened, then it did. I believe you."
He blinked. "You do?"
"Yeah."
"But I sound insane! Even to myself."
She snorted softly. "We're dealing with a System that knows people's private kinks, their sexual history, and…" she glanced around, lowering her voice "…Jordan's full name. We passed normal weeks ago."
A beat.
"This could just be another trick," she added. "Something your System's doing."
Magnus grimaced. "Great. A whole new way to mentally torture me. Very creative!"
She squeezed him once, then deliberately shifted gears as they turned back to the task at hand.
"You know," she said lightly, "you've been getting food and drinks for everyone every week now."
He blinked. "…Oh."
Color rushed to his face.
"I mean," he said, scratching the back of his neck, "at first it was mostly to impress you. But then it'd be weird to stop right after we slept together. And then we started dating, so now it's just… a thing."
She giggled. "It's kind of cute you think that's what impressed me."
"It wasn't?" He winced. "Figures! You didn't even like me touching you back then."
She stopped walking.
"…Right," she said quietly. "Of course you still think that!"
Alex had known for a while, of course — ever since the day he confessed everything to her about the System. But at the time, she'd been too busy pretending to be mad at him to correct him. And if she was being honest, back then, she hadn't been quite ready to admit it to him yet either.
They finished grabbing food and drinks and headed back. She didn't say anything until they reached the quad again and set everything down. Then she leaned in close, lips brushing his ear.
"When you touched me that day," she whispered, "and I pulled back? It wasn't because I didn't like it. It was because I liked it more than I was ready to admit. And I didn't trust my heart — or my face — not to give me away if I'd stayed like that any longer."
Magnus froze.
His brain stalled. Then rebooted. Then stalled again.
Heat exploded across his cheeks.
One of their groupmates cleared his throat loudly. "Could the happy couple please ease up on the PDA? There are single people present."
Magnus made a strangled noise and blurted an apology out of pure reflex. Alex just laughed and leaned back against him, comfortable as gravity.
He felt eyes on them — colleagues, passersby, strangers — and somehow blushed even harder. He didn't push her away, though. His hands hovered for a second before settling awkwardly on her shoulders.
Groans rose from the bench. Someone walking past very deliberately looked anywhere else. Magnus hid his face behind her neck — which, unfortunately, only made it look like even more PDA and earned another round of groans.
Alex smiled like she'd won something.
***
Sofia joined them for lunch that day.
Riley had class that period, while Magnus and Alex both had one right after — different courses, different buildings. No debriefing over lunch this time. They'd meet Riley later for the photo session, after the couple finished their respective classes.
Sofia had class next period too. One she shared with Magnus, actually.
Audio Culture.
It was one of those overlap courses — Music on one side, Media and Communication on the other. Upper level. Discussion-heavy. Deceptively light at the start. The kind of class students felt comfortable skipping early on. Which was how, somehow, they hadn't realized they were in the same course until nearly halfway into the term.
The same week they'd scheduled their threesome. Two days before it happened, to be exact.
Since then, Sofia had announced she would occasionally join them for lunch like this — eat together, walk to class together, be normal human beings. She started regretting that decision about halfway through today's meal.
"Alex," Sofia said, setting her drink down and rubbing a hand over her face. "Bestie!"
Alex didn't look at her. She was leaned in toward Magnus, shoulder pressed to his, murmuring something too quiet for Sofia to catch.
"You are not beating the allegation of being annoyingly in love," Sofia continued, "if you're going to behave like this every moment you're with him."
"Nobody asked you to intrude on my time with my boyfriend," Alex replied, still not looking away.
Sofia closed her eyes for a second. Then she turned to Magnus.
"Magnus, my dude," she said solemnly. "You have accomplished something no boy or man before you has ever managed!"
Magnus froze mid-chew, eyes widening.
"You brought a true monster out of this one," Sofia continued, stabbing a finger in Alex's direction. "It's like she's completely forgotten the concepts of embarrassment, shame, and humility."
Alex smiled — sweet, serene — and leaned in to press a quick kiss to Magnus's cheek.
Deliberate. Weaponized.
Sofia gagged.
"She wasn't even this bad when she was dating Sammy," Sofia went on, voice rising. "And he was her first love. First kiss. First time. First everything!"
Magnus very nearly choked. He managed to swallow, then immediately flushed so hard his ears turned red. His eyes dropped to the table, like it might open up and swallow him whole.
"I—uh—sorry?" he said, purely on instinct.
Alex finally looked at Sofia, unimpressed. "Why are you bringing up my ex at lunch?"
"Because it emphasizes the scale of the problem!"
Magnus looked like he was about to apologize again. Or vanish. Or possibly both — which was actually a real possibility, considering Invisibility was one of his superpowers.
Sofia sighed — long, dramatic, long-suffering — and picked up her phone.
"You know what?" she said. "I refuse to be a captive audience to this level of PDA!"
She scrolled with purpose, eyes firmly down, determined not to witness Alex leaning into Magnus like it was instinct now. Like it had always been that way. Then something on her screen made her pause. Her thumb hovered.
Sofia glanced up. Just once. The sight was blinding.
Alex was relaxed — unguarded in a way Sofia rarely saw outside their dorm room. Magnus was still flustered, still pink around the ears, but he let her stay there without hesitation, his posture shifting automatically to make space for her. No thought. No performance. Just quiet accommodation.
Something clicked. Sofia's lips curved — slow, thoughtful, mischievous.
She looked back down at her phone and started typing. It wasn't casual scrolling anymore. Instead, she was focused, intentional, fast.
Alex didn't notice. Magnus didn't either. They were still wrapped in their own small orbit as Sofia typed, expression unreadable — already several steps ahead of the moment she was standing in.