DAY TWO: I love these two okay, sorry I didn't get the other characters much or any screen time. Please review with your thoughts.

fyi: this is supposed to be a modern magic/fantasy au but I think that was accidentally left out.

(MCGA)

In which Magnus and Alex are roommates and there are cupcakes.

Magnus glanced at his phone, double checking to see if he had the address right. Sure enough, 19 - D is etched into the small brass plate hanging on the door. He hefted his backpack further up on his shoulder and was readying himself to knock when his phone rang.

He fumbled for a minute, searching his pockets for his phone, before picking up, not bothering to check the caller ID.

"What is it? I'm kinda in the middle of something right now, can I call you back?"

"Magnus!" His mom's voice echoed from the phone and he gave a jolt, not expecting to have heard from her.

"Mom!" Magnus couldn't help but smile, "I thought you were still getting all checked out of the hospital today?"

"We're all done! Fredrick and Annabeth have gotten me mostly settled into the new appartement, but they'll be by the next few days to help unpack."

"Alright, but be careful on your back and don't do too much." Over winter break, Magnus had been staying with his mom when a fire broke out. He'd managed to get out the fire escape when a beam fell and trapped his mom inside. Luckily the fire department had shown up on the scene moments later and rescued his mom, but the falling beam had broken of her back.

"I'm not doing anything! Fredrick and Annabeth aren't letting me do any of it, the most I did was carry some blankets."

"Good, it should stay that way."

His mom laughed. "I know, honey, I just feel useless. Aren't you moving today too?"

"Yeah, with Sam's half-brother. Sister. Something like that. I've never met them, but Sam says we'll get on like a house on fire." He winced, "That probably wasn't the best analogy."

"It's alright. Listen, I'll let you go for now, but call me when you get settled?"

"Will do, love you Mom,"

"Love you too Magnus, bye."

"Bye."

He was starting to knock on the door when he was interrupted for the second time by quick, heavy, footsteps coming up the stairs, and had to do a double take when a cheetah burst out of the stairwell and skidded to a stop in front of him, shifting into a short, green haired person wearing a hot pink sweater vest with a shirt the same.

Being a being of supreme intelligence that he was, Magnus opened his mouth and went, "Uhhh,"

"What," the cheetah-person snapped, "Are you doing in front of my door?"

"Your front door!?"

"Yes, now move or explain yourself or I will move you."

"You're Alex, right?" Magnus scrambled for words while his brain still went ohmygodthatdudesacheetahohmygod. "Alex Fierro? Sam's half-brother?" The-person-who-was-probably-Alex's frown deepened, "I'm Magnus Chase, nice to meet you. Apparently I'm supposed to move in with you today?"

Probably-Alex rolled his eyes. "The things I do for my sister. You're the guy who had the fire and all your stuff is in that backpack?"

Magnus nodded.

"Cool." Alex slipped around him and opened the door. "Welcome to my humble abode. You can have the room that's down the hall, second door to the right. There's not a bed in there, but I'm a college student and basically broke. Don't go in the first door on the right unless you want to get beaned with some clay, and I don't like wasting it. It's expensive."

"Got it." Magnus followed Alex inside, looking around at the new place he would live in. That would be a huge adjustment, since he'd lived with his mom since forever and they'd decided that he should probably find a place with a friend for at least the rest of the year, or until his mom had healed. He would rather stay and take care of his mom, but she'd kicked him out to "go have fun with your friends without your mom around and be an irresponsible young person."

The appartement was small, but mostly organized. There was a small kitchen and a table strewn with papers that looked like homework. Down the hall there were four doors, the mysterious clay involved room on the right and the place where he would stay, and on the left was what was presumably Alex's room (he didn't go in) and a storage closet. Bathrooms were connected to the bedrooms.

Magnus turned toward Alex. "I really can't thank you enough for letting me stay with you."

Alex made a noncommittal noise. "Mhmmm, Yeah, well I owed Sam a favor. You can drop your stuff in there," he gestured to the empty bedroom, "but other than that, I don't care what you do, just preferably stay out of my way."

"I can pay rent, if you'd like," Magnus offered, "That way I'm not just living here on your dime."

"We can figure that out, tomorrow, maybe, I have stuff I need to finish today. One last thing," Alex stared at him, and Magnus felt like his soul was being examined, "I don't know what sort of memo you got, probably not much because Sam lets me explain my own things, but as of now unless I saw otherwise, I'm female. That is subject to change, and if you get it wrong I will have to correct you. If you ignore this on purpose because you're an asshole, I will kick you out."

Magnus stared at her for a few seconds, completely mortified. Alex said nothing and merely raised an eyebrow, as if asking Well? Are you going to be a decent person?

Instead of a thoughtful apology for jumping to conclusions, what next came out of Magnus's mouth is, "Oh my god, I thought Sam had two half siblings named Alex. Wow, I'm an idiot."

Alex made a sound that might in some universe count as a small laugh. "That remains to be seen." She said, sounding smug, "Hopefully you're not too much of an idiot. I'll see you around."

She leaves him standing in the hall in favor of disappearing into the mysterious clay room.

Magnus immediately drops his backpack in his new room and heads to the grocery store.

When Alex emerged from her studio a few hours later, she was greeted with the sight of her new roommate in the kitchen, baking of all things.

"What in the world are you doing?"

Magnus jumped and whirled around, holding a spatula of something green, and Alex stared. Was that frosting?

He flushed and awkwardly rubbed his neck. "I'm making cupcakes, as an apology for jumping to conclusions earlier."

She blinked, taken off guard. That certainly had never happened before, but apology cupcakes were a better start than most in the terms of meeting new people. "Oh."

Magnus shrugged, looking more comfortable as he saw that she was just as at odds with the situation as he was. "Yeah. Anyways… uh… Hey, you want to help me frost?"

"Wait...frosting the cupcakes?"

"Your mission, should you choose to accept it…" Magnus silently extended a spoon, a look of extreme seriousness on his face.

Alex met his eyes and accepted the spoon, equally serious. "I shall not fail. Also, your hair is glowing."

The cupcakes were some of the best desserts she'd ever eaten.

Later…..

"Mom, this is my boyfriend, Alex."

"Oh! It is so nice to finally meet you! I wasn't sure what to do, so I just made some cupcakes, according to all of Magnus's other friends, they're really good, so I'm curious about what you think of them."

"...Maggie please tell me your mom taught you how to bake."

"...I can neither confirm nor deny anything."

"I'm pretty sure you have watched too many spy movies."