Jordan was strangely cooperative when Magnus called to ask for a day off.
She didn't complain or threaten him. She didn't get angry or accuse him of slacking off, either. Honestly, he'd made the call expecting at least three insults before breakfast. But instead, what happened was Jordan answering the phone after two rings:
"Yeah?"
"Uh," Magnus said carefully, "I think I need to skip training today."
"Okay."
Magnus blinked. "…Okay?"
"Yep." She sounded distracted. "See you tomorrow morning."
Then she hung up immediately.
He lowered the phone and stared at the screen for several seconds, unable to determine whether this was reality or one of his dreams. Because that was deeply suspicious behavior from Jordan Hale.
Jordan had glared at him for simply being three minutes late to training, so he'd expected her to treat cancelling training like an act of treason.
He slipped his phone back into his pocket and turned toward Alex again. She was still sitting on the folding bed, hair messy from sleep, one of Harper's blankets wrapped loosely around her waist. Despite everything, despite the emotional conversation hanging between them, Magnus's brain still supplied the deeply unhelpful observation that she looked unfairly pretty at four in the morning.
Alex patted the space beside her. He came over and sat down.
"So," she began. "I've been thinking. And after talking with Harper last night, I came to a conclusion."
He waited quietly.
"I don't want us to fight anymore."
"Yeah," he admitted cautiously. "I don't want to keep fighting either." A pause. "But didn't you say the fight wasn't going anywhere until we actually resolved the problem between us?"
"About that…" She rubbed the back of her neck. "That's what Harper and I talked about, actually."
Magnus straightened slightly.
"She pointed out I've been approaching this the wrong way." Alex stared down at the blanket in her lap for a moment before continuing. "I was… so afraid of losing you that I tried to override who you are and turn you into someone you aren't. Which kind of defeats the point, since I fell for you because of who you are."
He looked at her quietly.
"So," she sighed, "I'm going to stop trying to force you into becoming more pragmatic than you actually are. And I'm going to try trusting your instincts more. Even when I think they're irrational. Or reckless. Or completely insane."
"To be fair, you're not entirely wrong there. Some of my plans sound insane to me, too," he muttered.
"Only some? That description fit most of your plans," she shot back automatically.
That eased some of the tension between them.
Then Magnus shook his head slightly. "It wasn't all on you, though. I should've talked things through with you properly instead of just making the decision myself and hoping you'd understand afterward."
Alex huffed out a quiet laugh.
"No," she admitted. "At the time, it probably was the right decision."
Magnus blinked. She looked deeply unhappy about admitting that.
"You wouldn't have convinced me back then," Alex continued reluctantly. "And honestly? I probably wouldn't have been able to come to my current conclusion if you hadn't done exactly what you did."
She realized then that Harper had been right: Magnus had somehow read both Harper and her correctly from the start and made the only choice that was best for everyone in the long term, even if at the time it had looked catastrophically stupid and emotionally self-destructive. But realizing that only made Alex more irritated.
"But this does not mean I suddenly like what you did," she added immediately. "Or forgive you for it completely."
Magnus opened his mouth. Then wisely closed it without saying anything.
Alex's lips twitched upward slightly despite herself. She pressed them together for a second before continuing. "So from now on, we handle things as a team."
Magnus nodded immediately.
"We both seriously consider the other person's perspective before making decisions," she said firmly. "I don't get to outright refuse your choices without reasons that actually convince you. And you don't get to ignore my objections and do whatever you want without talking to me first."
"That seems fair," Magnus admitted.
"And if we still can't agree, then we bring in a third party. Sofia. Harper." She paused like she was already regretting the next words. "…Even Tony."
He blinked. "You're seriously willing to let a raccoon mediate our relationship disputes?"
Alex closed her eyes briefly.
"Last resort only," she said. "Only if Sofia and Harper somehow disagree on which one of us is right."
He stared at her.
"Deal?" she asked, extending her hand toward him.
"Deal." He took her hand.
Silence. Then Magnus asked carefully:
"So… are we good now?"
Alex answered by grabbing the front of his shirt and pulling him into a kiss.
He made a startled sound against her mouth before immediately kissing her back. The first few seconds felt hesitant, careful, like both of them were still testing whether the distance between them had truly disappeared.
Then she shifted closer against him. And just like that, something loosened. Days of tension, frustration, anger, fear, exhaustion — all of it seemed to unravel at once beneath the simple familiarity of kissing each other again. His hand slid carefully to her waist like he was still afraid she might change her mind. She responded by climbing fully into his lap. Which answered that concern pretty decisively.
By the time they finally pulled apart several minutes later, Magnus looked slightly dazed. Alex rested her forehead lightly against his and asked:
"Did that answer your question?"
"Oh," Magnus said faintly. "Good. We can kiss again now?"
Alex snorted softly.
Then, before she could respond, Magnus leaned forward and kissed her again. And this time, they didn't come up for air for much longer.
***
Somewhere across the city, Jordan Hale put her phone down on her desk and stared out her bedroom window.
Honestly, Magnus's call had been convenient. She had already been debating whether she should cancel today's session anyway.
Because after returning her parents' car yesterday evening, her mother had insisted she stay for dinner, which had somehow turned into staying the night. So now she was still at home, staring out into the yard where her dad was going through his morning routine.
Jordan briefly considered going out there to join him.
Then she thought about Magnus — or more specifically, the way he often looked at her like she was actively trying to murder him with exercise — and smiled slightly. If Magnus thought her training regimen was insane, he absolutely would not survive General Hale's.
She watched her father through the window for another few moments before ultimately deciding against joining him. Not because she was scared. Jordan Hale did not get scared. She simply did not want to deal with her father before sunrise, which was completely different. Also, she already had her own training regimen and did not particularly feel like becoming General Hale's disciple at this hour.
So instead, she turned around and started working out in her room while mentally pretending the situation downstairs did not exist.
Breakfast at the Hales' took place at 6AM.
Katherine looked between her husband and daughter, then complained for the nth time about their biological clocks. Then she clapped her hands together. "Since you're both here today, how about spending time together as a family?"
James and Jordan both looked up.
"But Kate, the investigation—"
"—is mostly done, you said so yourself. Your subordinates can handle it, and they'll call you if they need you."
Jordan opened her mouth. Then wisely closed it at the look her mother gave her.
"Good. Now that you're both on board," Katherine said, "what shall we do today?"
James and Jordan looked around uncomfortably. Katherine rubbed a hand down her face.
"Seriously, you two. It can be anything. We don't have to do what other families do. We can do something you both enjoy."
James rubbed the back of his neck. "Maybe sparring? We can work more on her self-defense techniques."
Katherine pointed at him. "Yes, do that! I'll supervise."
They both started to say:
"Mom, you really don't have to—"
"Kate, it's fine, we can—"
"I'll supervise," Katherine Hale repeated.
And that was that.
After breakfast, in the Hales' backyard, James handed Jordan a training knife.
Katherine looked between the two of them. "When you mentioned self-defense, you forgot to mention the knives."
"Kate," James said reasonably, "she needs to be prepared."
Katherine just stared at him.
James folded almost immediately. "Fine. Unarmed combat only."
Then, quieter, to Jordan:
"I'll teach you knife work later when your mother isn't around."
"I heard that," Katherine said flatly.
And for the first time in her life, Jordan finally realized her mother wasn't the only one who compromised and adapted in their marriage.
***
Magnus and Alex didn't do anything beyond kissing and cuddling, on account of her period, but after the week they'd had, it felt earned.
They stayed wrapped around each other until five in the morning before exhaustion finally caught up to Alex. One moment she was still kissing him lazily between half-finished sentences. The next, she was asleep against his chest, one arm draped across his stomach possessively like she was worried he might somehow escape while she was unconscious.
Magnus stayed still for a while after that. Partly because moving her felt illegal. Partly because after the past few days, having Alex peacefully asleep on him again felt like something he wanted to savor. Eventually, though, he had to extricate himself from her grip because the daily quest was still a thing and, whether he liked it or not, he usually exercised at this hour — routine was routine.
He powered through the push-ups, sit-ups, and squats in complete silence, all while trying not to think too hard about the fact he was technically doing bodyweight exercises in Harper Ellis's apartment at five in the morning after surviving every crazy thing that had happened in the last forty-eight hours.
Honestly, he didn't know what counted as normal in his life at this point anymore.
Afterward, he stepped out into the kitchen to make breakfast, because he had time and wanted to do something nice for the two women.
His mother had always insisted he learn enough life skills to survive independently before leaving home, which had included cooking. Magnus wasn't great at it, but he could make edible food. Occasionally even good food, according to the extremely limited sample size consisting of his mother and their neighbors back home. They could have just been polite, of course, but statistically speaking, eggs were hard to catastrophically ruin.
The smell of breakfast drifting through the apartment eventually woke both Harper and Alex. Harper emerged from her room first, still wearing an oversized sleep shirt and looking mildly surprised to discover someone else was already awake and functioning before sunrise. Alex shuffled out a minute later looking sleepy, slightly disoriented, and immediately calmer the moment she spotted Magnus in the kitchen.
Magnus finished setting plates down on the table and awkwardly gestured toward the food. "Uh… breakfast?"
Harper took in the sight in front of her: Magnus cooking, Alex already unconsciously gravitating toward him, the domestic atmosphere somehow materializing around the two of them less than twelve hours after a deeply emotionally complicated threesome. Then she looked at Alex.
"He's sweet, great in bed, emotionally sincere, and he cooks?" Harper said flatly. "Damn, Alex. If you weren't already dating him, I'd seriously consider making him Danny's stepdad."
Magnus nearly dropped a plate.
Alex immediately reached over and smacked Harper lightly on the arm. "Harper!"
"What?" Harper asked innocently. "I'm just acknowledging talent when I see it."
Magnus turned bright red and focused very intensely on the eggs like they required his full attention. Which only made the two women laugh harder.
Breakfast itself was peaceful and comfortable. The kind of quiet domestic moment Magnus hadn't realized he'd desperately needed after the emotional disaster spiral of the past week.
Harper drove them back to campus afterward before heading off to pick Danny up. When the car stopped outside Alex's dorm building, neither Magnus nor Alex seemed particularly enthusiastic about separating again. Which was admittedly a problem considering finals week started tomorrow and both of them still had hundreds of academic responsibilities waiting to ambush them.
So after getting out, they lingered for a moment, then simultaneously leaned toward each other and shared a long kiss.
Harper watched the entire thing while turning her car to leave and rolled her eyes like she was witnessing two extremely dramatic young people emotionally rediscovering gravity.
"You know," she said dryly as she rolled down the window, "most couples survive one argument without acting like they've reunited after a war."
"We basically did survive a war," Alex argued.
"Of your own making, against communication."
Alex looked offended. Magnus looked embarrassed.
Harper made a sound somewhere between a sigh and a laugh, then drove away.
Eventually, after several more entirely unnecessary seconds of hugging and kissing each other on the sidewalk, Alex finally headed back toward her dorm. Magnus watched her go for a moment before turning and starting toward the campus running trail himself. Because unfortunately, the System still expected him to complete the 2km running portion of his daily quest before he could spend the rest of the day panicking over deadlines and final exam revisions.
Unbeknownst to either of them, however, their extremely emotional goodbye had not gone unnoticed. Somewhere nearby, a student lowered her phone with the satisfied expression of someone who had just captured definitive proof of a major historical event.
Ten minutes later, the ever-growing "Alejandra Reyes Is Insufferably in Love" thread updated once again. The attached photo showed Magnus and Alex hugging and kissing outside her dorm building like they hadn't seen each other in years.
The caption read:
"THEY'RE BACK TOGETHER! PAY UP!!!"
And just like that, several dozen students across campus collectively lost betting money.
(End of Book 2.)