The failed attempts at the shelter weren't the end of Operation: Normal People. Unfortunately, subsequent attempts in the next few days fared no better. Between that ongoing disaster and finals week itself, Magnus and Alex found themselves wrung out and desperate by Friday evening when they met over dinner.
Around them, campus existed in that strange transitional state unique to the end of finals week: some people were already celebrating and preparing to party hard, others were crashing from exhaustion, while a stubborn minority still lingered over essays and last-minute submissions with the haunted eyes of the academically doomed.
Magnus and Alex themselves had finally wrapped up finals week last night. Yesterday morning had been their shared presentation for Power, Media, and Society, where Magnus barely remembered what he said, their groupmates did their parts adequately well, and Alex had almost singlehandedly carried the entire thing through sheer force of charisma and competence. Then came Alex's upper-level Poli-Sci exam that afternoon, followed by Magnus frantically finishing an Audio Culture essay due later that night. Under normal circumstances, they would have been celebrating and discussing Spring Break plans right now as a couple in love. Instead, they were stress-eating cafeteria food while trying to figure out how to stop Magnus from dying because Naomi Homura thought he and Alex were her "sun and moon," and thus, too emotionally significant to sleep with.
"You know that saying about viewing things through tinted lenses?" Magnus complained while stabbing halfheartedly at his noodles. "Naomi's lenses about us are just way too tinted. There's literally nothing I can do to convince her that I'm normal."
Alex stared at him.
"Magnus," she said slowly, "during the fifteen-minute walk where you talked to her this morning, you helped three different people."
He blinked. "I did?"
"Yes."
"Well, I'm sure anyone would've done the same thing." He waved a hand dismissively. "Anyway, I'm pretty sure the problem is you. You look unfairly gorgeous no matter what you do. At this point I'm convinced you could wear a literal rag and still somehow end up on the cover of a fashion magazine."
"You're just biased."
"I'm no more biased than your fan club," Magnus argued. "Which Naomi is literally vice president of."
"Ugh," Alex groaned into her hands. "This is not getting us anywhere!"
They fell into silence for a while after that. Around them, the cafeteria buzzed with exhausted conversations and relieved laughter. Someone nearby was loudly discussing post-finals drinking plans while another table argued over whether one professor intentionally designed exams to psychologically destroy students. Eventually, Alex looked up again.
"Well," she said tiredly, "I'm officially stumped. You got any bright ideas?"
Magnus hesitated.
"…I have an idea," he admitted slowly. "But it sounds horrible even to me."
Alex narrowed her eyes immediately. "That bad?"
"Actually, never mind." He shook his head quickly. "Forget I said anything."
"Magnus."
"No, seriously, it's terrible."
"Just say it."
"Okay, but for the record, I already warned you twice!"
"Babe, just spit it out!"
He hesitated again, then lowered his voice instinctively despite nobody around them paying attention. "…Telling her the truth?"
Alex blinked. Twice.
"You're right," she said immediately. "That's a terrible idea."
Magnus started sighing in relief…
"So why am I seriously considering it?!" Alex groaned into her hands.
Magnus looked up in surprise. "What?!"
She peeked at him through her fingers.
"I don't know why, but I'm not hard set against it with Naomi." She frowned thoughtfully. "That said, do you have any particular reason for wanting to do that?"
Magnus rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.
"Nothing beyond a gut feeling," he admitted. "And I'm not even feeling strongly about it this time around, either. Every previous time when I considered this option, there had been a lot of trust involved, and it at least made sense to me in my head. But this time, it feels more like desperation than anything reasonable, honestly."
"Wait." Alex held up a hand. "I'm not dead set against it, but you're not strongly for it this time?"
"...Yeah?"
"Should we just do it then?"
"No!" Magnus practically yelped. "I was hoping you'd talk me out of it."
"And I'm hoping you'd somehow convince me this was secretly a genius plan."
They stared at each other for a second, then both burst out laughing. Mostly because neither of them could believe this was apparently where their lives had ended up. Eventually Alex leaned back in her chair.
"Well," she said, "it's a good thing we have a plan for this."
"We do?"
"Yeah. If we can't agree, we call in a third party for the deciding vote, remember?"
Magnus blinked. Then groaned. "Oh! That."
Alex was already pulling out her phone.
"So," Magnus asked cautiously, "Sofia?"
"I'll text her right now."
***
Later that evening…
As soon as Sofia entered the room, the System chimed in Magnus's head:
[Monthly Quest Initiated:
Objective: Raise Trust Value of designated targets: Sofia Ramirez to at least 90%.
Time Limit: 30 days.
Reward: Epic Crate.
Penalty for Failure: Heart failure. And possibly excruciating pain. Good luck!]
Magnus flinched. Both girls noticed.
"What?" they asked.
"Second Monthly Quest just triggered. It's a new type of quest…" he said slowly while rubbing a hand down his face. Then he gestured at Sofia. "I have to raise Sofia's Trust to 90% apparently."
They both stared at him. Then Alex exhaled. "We'll deal with that later. Probably won't be that hard. Let's focus on the more immediate threat first."
"I didn't understand a single word you two said just now," Sofia said with a shrug. "But future problems for future Sofia, I guess."
Ten minutes later, Sofia sat cross-legged on her own bed while the couple sat on Alex's. After explaining the entire Naomi situation from start to finish, Alex finally sighed.
"So," she concluded, "that's the sitch. Thoughts?"
Sofia looked between the two of them. "I don't know, guys. This feels like a lot of responsibility."
"We're not asking you to decide our lives forever," Alex said. "We just need a second—well, third opinion."
"No pressure," she added after a moment.
Sofia snorted.
"I mean, my immediate opinion is that this sounds like a terrible idea," she admitted. "You'd be revealing an insane supernatural secret for no guaranteed benefit. You don't even know if she'll cooperate afterward. Or how she'll react. Or whether she'll tell someone—"
Then her phone buzzed loudly. She glanced down.
"Hang on," she muttered. "I gotta deal with something first."
She started rapidly typing on her phone while Magnus and Alex exchanged looks. By now they had both learned that Sofia texting someone at high speed usually meant it was something they probably didn't want to know about.
While Sofia continued typing, the couple quietly started discussing alternative approaches they could still try with Naomi despite their rapidly shrinking timeframe.
Then, suddenly, Sofia looked up.
"Wait," she said. "What was the target's name again?"
Both of them paused.
"Naomi Homura," Magnus answered carefully. "Why?"
Sofia's gaze flicked down to her phone for a second then back to them.
"Okay," she announced, "I'm changing my answer. You should just tell her the truth."
Alex straightened immediately.
"Okay, you do not change your mind that fast over nothing," she said. "What happened?"
"Well," Sofia began casually, "ever wonder how I have about a dozen clone accounts on the college forums and social media?"
"Yeah," both of them answered warily.
"I have a tech friend who helps keep them safe from scrutiny."
Magnus blinked.
"You have a tech guy?" he asked. "That sounds like a line from one of those old movies."
"You're such a nerd," Sofia informed him while waving dismissively. "Anyway, they work cybersecurity for my parents."
Then she looked directly at Alex.
"Anyway, after learning about this whole System and superpowers thing, and especially after the sudden rise to infamy of Raccoon Boy over here—"
"I still hate that nickname," Magnus muttered.
"—I enlisted my friend's help in keeping all of that under wraps. Since your boyfriend has this recurring habit of using superpowers before thinking things through." She paused. "You two didn't really think he's avoided getting caught through good luck alone, did you?"
Magnus looked somewhere between offended and embarrassed. Alex rolled her eyes because obviously they had not thought this through anywhere near enough.
"We didn't really do much," Sofia admitted. "Mostly questioning evidence, starting alternative rumors, redirecting attention, or, in emergencies, burying discussions under memes. You know, the usual."
"The usual?" Magnus repeated weakly.
"But recently," she continued, ignoring him, "my friend informed me that someone from our college has been doing the exact same thing we've been doing."
Silence.
"And," she added, "they'd started doing it much earlier."
Their heads snapped toward her simultaneously.
Sofia nodded. "I'll give you three guesses as to how early and one guess as to who's behind it."
"Naomi?" they both said at the same time. Then Alex immediately followed with: "Since when?"
"And here I thought I was building suspense," Sofia complained. "You two are no fun."
Sofia lowered her phone onto the bed dramatically. "But to answer your question: According to what my tech friend managed to trace? Basically almost immediately after Magnus got the System. And she's pretty good at it, too. Could give my parents' PR squad a run for their money."
She let that sink in before continuing, "So your girl has apparently been helping suppress weird rumors about Magnus for months without even knowing the actual truth. Which means she's probably not going to expose him after learning it."
Magnus still looked stunned.
"The equation changed," Sofia continued. "Before, it was huge risk with unclear reward. Now? There's barely any risk and there's a decent chance she actually helps afterward."
Alex exchanged a long look with Magnus. Then both of them groaned simultaneously, because somehow the terrible idea was starting to sound reasonable. Which was becoming a pattern with their lives lately.
***
After deciding on the truth, Alex invited Naomi to her room the next morning because discussing a supernatural System that handed out lethal booty quests in public seemed ill-advised no matter how you looked at it. Sofia had already disappeared sometime after midnight to attend a frat party and still had not returned by morning, which probably meant she was currently involved in at least one questionable adventure again.
Unlike Mia, who had jumped at the chance to see Alex's room and could barely contain herself once actually inside it, Naomi had almost declined. She would have, if Alex hadn't insisted they had something very important to discuss, and even then she'd nearly refused again until Alex mentioned that Magnus's life depended on it. Which had alarmed the sophomore enough to agree immediately.
"Feels like we're tricking her somehow," Magnus admitted quietly while waiting beside Alex on her bed.
"We're not," Alex assured him. "But I get why it feels that way."
Magnus exhaled slowly.
"We don't really have a lot of options," Alex continued. "Time's running out, and this is probably the best way to make sure everyone involved can actually make informed decisions. There's no other way she can properly consent."
Magnus nodded slowly.
"There's still a chance she'd agree just because of how she views us, though." He frowned. "And that feels wrong somehow."
"Yeah," Alex admitted. "You're not entirely wrong there."
She reached over and intertwined their fingers. "But it's not like we're lying to manipulate her or anything. This is the truth. We're giving her all the information so she can make her own decision." She sighed. "Our situation isn't exactly normal."
Magnus laughed weakly. "Understatement of the century."
Then he sighed himself. "I know we're already doing everything we can. And I know this is the best option for everyone." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm not actually questioning it or thinking this is wrong. Just… nerves."
"I know." Alex squeezed his hand gently before leaning over and pressing a kiss against his cheek. "I'm right here with you."
***
When Naomi finally arrived, she looked both nervously excited and strangely wary, like someone willingly walking into a trap on the off chance it somehow wasn't one. That only made Magnus feel even more guilty than he already did.
He sat beside Alex on her bed while she gestured for Naomi to sit down on one of the chairs. The sophomore sat down carefully, with perfect posture at first, hands folded neatly in her lap, before immediately realizing how formal that looked and awkwardly relaxing half an inch.
Alex decided to take control of the conversation before the silence could become weird.
"So," she began, "full disclosure first: we know about you helping manage Magnus's image online."
Naomi stiffened in alarm.
"I didn't mean to keep that from you!" she blurted out instantly. "I was afraid I'd look like a stalker… well, like more of a stalker, since you probably already think I am—"
Alex quickly raised both hands in a calming gesture.
"It's okay," she assured her. "We're not bringing it up to accuse you of anything or make you uncomfortable. Honestly, we mostly wanted to thank you."
Naomi blinked several times.
"Wait," she said cautiously. "You're… not mad?"
Then, almost immediately afterward, she looked sheepish.
"Oh wow. I didn't really do it for gratitude or anything," she admitted quickly. "I just figured you two already had enough to deal with without adding bad press and malicious rumors on top of everything else—"
"Which," Alex gently cut in before Naomi could spiral further, "is actually part of why we decided to share a secret with you."
Naomi straightened slightly.
"Well," Alex corrected herself, glancing quickly toward Magnus, "more like the truth."
"It's okay." Naomi immediately shook her head. "You don't owe me anything. You don't have to tell me a single thing. Really! I'm perfectly happy admiring you two from afar."
Alex's mouth curved slightly.
"You sure?" she asked innocently. "Because it's about how Magnus and I ended up together."
Naomi visibly perked up so fast it was almost impressive. The refusal died in her throat, thoroughly drowned out by curiosity.
Alex looked toward Magnus encouragingly. He took several deep breaths, then finally began:
"This may sound completely insane," he warned carefully, "but I swear to you, it's the truth."