Alex spotted Lila in the engineering lounge — quiet corner, laptop open, headphones half-on. Exactly the kind of spot someone like Lila Voss gravitated toward: calm, structured, predictable. She approached with a warm, easy smile.
"Hey, Lila? Got a minute? Promise this isn't an ambush. Or a recruitment for some weird club."
Lila looked up, wary but not closed-off. "…Okay."
Alex sat, angled so Lila had an exit route. Girls like Lila — the self-contained type — hated feeling boxed in. Alex knew that because… well, people talked. People always talked to her.
"I know this is going to sound strange," Alex began, voice light but gentle. "Like 'you have permission to walk away whenever' strange. But I wanted to talk to you because you're grounded. And impossible to push around."
Lila's brows flicked up — not flattered, but acknowledged.
Good. Lila liked straightforward recognition, not flattery.
"And before anything," Alex added, "I'm not here because someone sent me. This is my idea."
That mattered too — Lila hated feeling manipulated or triangulated. Alex leaned in a tiny bit.
"I'm in a… consensual, complicated arrangement with someone. Someone you've met. Magnus Chane."
Lila didn't react much — she liked neutrality, observation. Alex adjusted accordingly, shifting calmer.
"We're not dating. No exclusivity. Just exploring together. Very structured, very clear boundaries."
That got the smallest shift in Lila's posture — interest, not in Magnus, but in the clarity. Lila liked rules. Comfort in frameworks.
"So here's the strange part," Alex said, but gently enough to keep the air soft. "We agreed that if we ever invited someone else in, it would only ever be someone we respect. Someone stable. Someone who doesn't do drama."
She watched Lila closely.
Lila's expression didn't change, but her breathing did — a little shallower, a little sharper. Not fear. Curiosity she was trying to suppress. Alex decided to lightly lean into the known preferences — not manipulative, just considerate.
"And… you have this aura," Alex said with a small smile. "People talk, you know? Engineering girls say you're chill. You respect boundaries. You like clear expectations. You're not into games."
Lila blinked — surprised, a little embarrassed, but in a human way. Alex softened even more.
"That's why I'm asking you instead of some party girl who would treat this like a dare." She raised both hands lightly — non-threatening. "If it's a no, it's a no. Hard stop. I won't be offended. No awkwardness."
Lila relaxed visibly. Consent and control — she needed those upfront. Then came the inevitable question, but quieter than before:
"…Why me?"
Alex allowed herself a small, warm smile — one that wasn't charisma or strategy, just honesty.
"Because you're safe," she said. "Because you're thoughtful. Because you don't let people push you. Because the way you move through this campus? It's like you filter out nonsense at the door."
She hesitated, then added one more layer — the one tailored subtly to what she'd heard:
"And because I don't want this with someone random. I want it with someone who knows how to say no. Someone who won't let things get messy. Someone who can talk boundaries and stick to them."
That one hit. Lila didn't flinch — she absorbed it.
Responsibility. Stability. Control. Her language.
Alex got up slowly, giving her even more space.
"So… that's the whole thing," she said lightly. "No pressure. If you're interested, we can talk details — expectations, comfort levels, what you absolutely don't want, what you'd maybe like."
A pause.
"I picked you because you're someone I'd trust in that space. And because I think… you'd feel safe, too."
She let that sit and stepped back. "No pressure. No weirdness. Just honesty."
Alex waited while Lila processed the pitch. The freshman was quiet for a moment, studying Alex like she was trying to measure the gravity of the situation.
"So…" Lila finally said, voice low but curious, "you're saying… You want a threesome, with me and uh… Magnus Chane — that… uh… Asian-looking guy?"
Alex smiled, warm but with an older-sister steadiness rather than peer-level teasing. "He's the one, yes. But only if it's something you'd be comfortable with."
Lila tilted her head, thinking out loud. "He… seems nice. Awkward, a little clueless, but genuinely nice."
"Exactly," Alex confirmed, nodding. "He's sweet, kind, all that… but there's another side you don't see at first. He's… more than he lets on."
Lila's eyebrows shot up slightly. "Another side?"
Alex lowered her voice — reassuringly — like an older sister sharing a secret rather than a sales pitch. "Yeah. He's… not what he looks like. He's awkward and sweet in the daylight, but when he's focused — really focused — he's intense. Not in a violent way. More like… someone who knows what he wants and isn't afraid to take it. It's surprising."
Alex watched Lila's face carefully. She'd heard campus whispers — nothing sordid, just that Lila had this ridiculous, complicated soft-spot for dangerous guys; she'd been burned before and was trying not to go back to that pattern. The hint should be enough to make her curious, though.
Lila chewed on it, quiet, weighing. Alex could tell she was intrigued. Her usual cautiousness was battling curiosity — and curiosity was winning.
After a long pause, Lila exhaled. "Okay… I'll think about it."
Alex grinned, giving her space. "Totally fair. Take your time. Really. Just let me know tomorrow? Sunday works best for us."
She slid her number over. Lila took it, cheeks faintly pink but eyes bright.
***
By the time Alex returned to her dorm, her face was a perfect mask of "I'm still mad at you so you'd better behave."
But when she reached the lounge where she'd left him, Magnus was gone.
She checked her phone.
Magnus: I'm heading back to my room so you can have some space. I understand you probably don't ever want to see me again. Sorry for everything.
Alex stared at the text. Blinked twice. Reread it three times.
Then she turned around, marched to her room, slammed the door harder than necessary, and went to bed in the grumpiest posture humanly possible.
She had the worst sleep she'd had in months. Woke up far too early. Then found out her Saturday yoga class was canceled. Which left her with an entire empty day and a brain determined to torture her.
She tried to study. Tried to read. Tried to pretend she wasn't checking her phone every ten minutes. And every time her eyes drifted back to Magnus's text, her irritation spiked again.
Not at him.
At the situation he'd put her in.
"Ugh! Why couldn't he just stay put like a normal person!?"
Every guy Alex Reyes had ever known would have been shameless enough to stay right where she left him and beg for forgiveness.
Including her exes — especially her exes.
And the way Magnus behaved differently from everyone else was probably why she'd fallen for him so fast, so hard. But right now, it just made her want to strangle him.
She'd had this whole plan.
She was going to make him squirm a bit longer before grudgingly letting him stay.
But no!
Magnus just had to be considerate.
Had to assume she needed space.
Had to be self-sacrificing.
Who asked him to be selfless at a time like this?!
Because she definitely didn't.
And now she couldn't call him, couldn't text him, couldn't tell him to "come back" without looking like she'd already forgiven him.
She had, of course — but he didn't need to know that.
Not yet.
By the afternoon, she'd gone half-feral, pacing her room like a caged animal. Finally, she snatched her phone, scrolled through her contacts, and tapped on a name she almost never dialed.
Vanessa.
The call picked up on the second ring.
No greeting. Just breathing.
Good. Perfect.
That was their ritual — the caller had to speak first, set the tone, choose the battlefield.
So Alex steadied herself and said:
"Vanessa."
A scoff crackled through the line, followed by a voice already annoyed — excellent.
"What do you want, Locke?"
Alex stiffened.
She had expected it. Still hated it nonetheless.
"Oh, nothing," she said, tone far too casual. "Just wanted to see if you're up for a rematch."
Silence. Weighing. Calculating.
Then:
"…Alright. Who pissed you off this time?"
"No one!" Alex snapped immediately — too quickly, too defensively.
"Mm-hm." Vanessa didn't even try to hide the smugness. "Right. When you say 'no one' that fast, it's always someone. But anyway, I'm busy today, so you'll have to sort out whatever meltdown you're having on your own."
And she hung up.
Just like that.
Alex stared at the phone in disbelief before throwing it onto her bed and resuming her furious pacing, now even more irritated than before.
The nerve!
Lila's call came late that evening, curiosity winning, as Alex had hoped. They hashed out a rough plan for the next day. After hanging up, Alex stared at her phone. She could call Magnus immediately — or keep him sweating.
Thirty seconds later, she sighed.
Punishing him meant punishing herself.
She unlocked her phone.
***
Magnus had been lying on his bed, staring at the ceiling like it might spell out the meaning of life if he just suffered hard enough.
By the time he got back to his room the previous night, he'd almost convinced himself that everything he heard Alex say about "taking care of it" had been… a stress-induced auditory hallucination. There was no universe — not even the glitchy System one he was stuck in — where Alejandra Reyes would want anything to do with him after learning the truth.
He'd already resigned himself to his fate. He even considered skipping the daily quest and letting the System take him out a day early.
But an entire day with nothing to do and no one to see?
Terrifying.
So, somehow, by afternoon he'd finished the quest out of sheer boredom and crushing existential dread.
When his phone rang, he nearly fell off the bed.
He didn't get calls. His mom texted. His classmates ignored him. He didn't have close friends.
The only person who called him these days was Alex — and she had absolutely zero reason to call him now.
Unless it was something serious?
He jolted upright and answered instantly.
Alex didn't wait for him to speak.
"My room. Now."
Then she hung up.
Magnus didn't think. He launched himself out the door like someone had set him on fire.
There was no one downstairs to let him into her dorm today, so he stood outside awkwardly and tried calling her back.
She didn't answer. But the dorm door clicked open, and Alex appeared, expression sharp enough to cut steel. She waved him in without a word.
His planned "What's wrong?" died on his tongue. He followed her in, stiff and unsure, and hovered by her bedroom doorway as she sat on her bed, face unreadable. She looked him up and down with surgical precision. He shrank two inches on instinct. Finally, she spoke — calm, clipped, decisive:
"Lila has agreed to a threesome with us."
Magnus's brain blue-screened.
He replayed the words.
Once.
Twice.
Three full cycles through the loading screen.
Nope!
No way Alex had just said that. This was a hallucination.
It had to be!
Maybe the System was malfunctioning. Maybe he'd died mid-nap.
Alex watched him glitch in real time, sighed like a tired ancient deity, and repeated:
"Magnus. Did you not hear me? I said Lila Voss has agreed to a threesome with us."
He made a noise that might have been English in some timeline but not this one.
Maybe he should have expected this — she'd said she would "take care of it." But even if he hadn't convinced himself that didn't actually happened, expecting it in theory was one thing, hearing Alex Reyes calmly announce she had successfully arranged sex with Lila Voss was something else entirely.
There was no universe where he'd ever imagined Alex not only staying — but also doing… this.
Alex pinched the bridge of her nose. "Sit. Before you fall over."
He sat immediately, spine straight, hands on knees like he was awaiting judgment.
Alex dragged in a breath. The irritation in her voice didn't hide the exhaustion beneath it — or the too-bright edge of something he didn't dare interpret. "Okay. We need to talk logistics."
Magnus nodded quickly. "Y-yeah. Yes. Of course."
"And before you start panicking," Alex said sharply, "I know you're doing this because you have to. I'm not stupid."
He blinked. "I… yeah, I mean, obviously I'm not going to choose 'death' over sex with two gorgeous women. I'm anxious, not suicidal."
Alex snorted. "Good. That's the one sensible thing you've said all week."
She folded her arms.
"But you are…" she waved a vague hand at his face, "…weirdly shocked. Why?"
He swallowed.
Because the whole time, he'd thought…
"I didn't think you'd still want…" he gestured between them, "…this. With me. After everything."
Alex's jaw flexed. "I'm still mad at you. That hasn't changed."
"Right. Yes. I can tell."
"But," she continued, looking everywhere except his eyes, "being mad at you doesn't erase the rest."
Magnus's heart tried very hard to escape his chest.
Alex clapped her hands once, sharply. "Anyway! Moving on. Tomorrow is the tentative day. Lila's free in the afternoon or evening. She suggested we meet here. My room is bigger."
"That… yeah. Makes sense," Magnus said automatically, even though he'd never once evaluated room size in relation to threesomes.
"Next," Alex said, switching fully into planning mode, "Lila wants us to talk tonight. A quick three-way call. Just to make sure everyone's on the same page."
Magnus nodded. "Okay. Uh… how did you even convince her?"
Alex rolled her eyes. "It wasn't that hard, actually. Lila's… practical. And curious. And you're decent enough company that she didn't need bribing."
"Decent… company," Magnus repeated weakly, unable to believe any part of that sentence.
Alex flicked her gaze at him, annoyed. "Magnus. She doesn't dislike you. She just doesn't think about you unless you're in front of her."
He felt weirdly relieved. "Right. That sounds accurate."
"Yeah," Alex said, tone wry. "I figured."
She shifted, crossing one leg over the other. "Okay. Ground rules. They're simple."
Magnus braced himself.
"One: No freaking out. Lila hates awkwardness. If she senses you spiraling, she's going to lose interest. Fast."
"I'm not spiraling."
"You were spiraling two minutes ago."
"…Fair."
"Two: She's not looking for romance, so don't read into anything. At all. Please. For the love of God."
"Got it. Platonic survival sex only."
Alex groaned into her hands. "Please don't call it that."
"Sorry."
She sighed and dropped her hands. "Three: I'm there. I'm involved. If something feels weird, I'll tell you. If something feels off for you, you tell me. Got it?"
Magnus nodded. "Yeah. Super got it. Crystal."
Alex studied him closely for a moment. He tried not to squirm. Then she asked, quieter:
"And you're… okay? With all this?"
He looked straight at her. "I mean, I'd rather not die."
"Magnus."
"…And I want… I want to be there. With you. That part wasn't ever in question."
Alex froze, eyes flicking away instantly.
"Okay," she said quickly, voice suddenly too flat. "Good. Great. Whatever."
She cleared her throat and stood. "I'll text Lila. The call will probably be in an hour. Until then, just… don't implode."
"I'll do my best," Magnus said.
"No promises?"
"Absolutely none."
Alex groaned again. Yet despite her irritation, despite everything, she looked almost — almost — relieved.