After the initial embarrassment passed and Magnus had calmed down enough to function like a person again, he showed Alex the texts and document his mother had sent. Alex marveled at the remedies — whoever had compiled this had clearly done so with the thoroughness of someone who believed period pain deserved proper documentation. Then her eyes drifted up to the texts above it.
"Huh," she said. "Your middle name is Nathan?"
"Yeah." Magnus rubbed the back of his neck. "Mom said it was someone important to her. She never really talked about him, though. So I don't know any more than that."
"That's my dad's name, too."
"Oh?"
"Yeah. It's his first name. Nathan Locke."
The name sounded oddly familiar, but Magnus could not place why. It tugged at the edge of his memory without actually connecting to anything.
Probably nothing. He let it go and turned back to his essay.
They got back to work for about half an hour before Alex checked the time and called Mia. The conversation was long enough that Magnus finished two more paragraphs, deleted and rewrote one, and organized two citations before she put her phone down. She updated him over lunch — instant noodles eaten at the desk, which was the finals week version of a meal — while he listened and ate.
"Naomi's a sophomore. Apparently she and Mia took a few classes together over the last trimester and became friends pretty fast." She paused. "Also, she's the vice president of my unofficial fan club." A beat. "Which I'm still not convinced consist of anyone besides the two of them."
Magnus stared at her.
"What?" she said. "I can't be that popular!"
"Says the girl with a 98% Popularity," he shot back. "I wouldn't be surprised if half the campus is in your fan club."
"You trust that stalker machine of yours too much," she muttered. "Anyway, Mia agreed to introduce us tonight after Naomi finishes her exams for the day."
"And?"
"And," Alex said carefully, "I think we should take this slow."
Magnus scratched the back of his head. "You only say that when you think something's wrong."
"Well, not wrong, exactly," she said slowly. "But her stats are… a little worrying. So I need to find out what she's like first before we can decide anything."
Magnus didn't disagree. Given what the System menu had shown them, that seemed wise.
With an actual plan established, they returned to their finals. By dinner, they'd both finished their Literature essays. Magnus proofread his three separate times before finally submitting it through the college portal, then sending a backup copy directly to Professor Schwartz's email like the old professor had instructed them at the beginning of the term.
"Technology fails," Schwartz had told them. "Don't let yourself fail because of technical issues."
Alex, meanwhile, had submitted hers after a single proofreading pass.
"You overthink your own writing too much," she informed Magnus confidently while clicking submit. "Meanwhile, I choose to trust in my natural greatness."
"You misspelled several words on the last exercise he had us do."
"Still got an A."
"Minus!"
"I got an A+ before that, so still straight As."
They split up after that: Magnus headed back to his room to revise for his Psych final tomorrow, while Alex headed out to meet Mia and Naomi. Or at least, that was the plan.
What actually happened was Magnus getting ambushed halfway across campus by Tony the raccoon because observation training was apparently still not optional, the sun technically hadn't fully set yet, and there were enough students moving around campus to qualify as "live environmental conditions."
So, while Magnus suffered through another round of trying to identify hidden details under Tony's deeply judgmental supervision, Alex prepared for a very different kind of battle.
***
Alex didn't know what to expect given the info Magnus had given her, but Naomi still somehow caught her off guard. Not in a bad way, though.
She'd come expecting a crazed fan — someone intense: maybe socially overwhelming, or emotionally unstable, or maybe the kind of fan who blurred boundaries without realizing it. Instead, the girl sitting across from her was quiet. A little nervous, but composed about it. The kind of shy that came from awareness rather than insecurity, the kind that knew exactly how to carry itself in a social situation even while being uncomfortable in one.
And while Alex knew that appearance could be deceiving, the read she got from Naomi suggested that she was someone who had grown up learning to present herself correctly. The Homura family, wherever they were from, probably came from money or influence. This was a girl who knew what family expectation felt like. Naomi reminded Alex, a little uncomfortably, of a younger version of herself. Specifically, the version raised under the expectations attached to the Locke family name — careful posture, controlled speech, social awareness polished into her from a young age.
Mia had done the introductions, and the three of them had talked easily enough about nothing consequential for a while: classes, the brutal timing of finals week, the specific injustice of professors who scheduled exams on Monday. Naomi laughed at the right moments and asked the right questions. She was good at conversation the way people were when they'd been taught to be, but there was something genuine underneath it that Alex appreciated.
Naomi didn't seem like someone dangerous. Or if she were, she'd have to be on a whole different league from Alex altogether to not trigger any of Alex's social alarms. So, after about half an hour of light conversation, Alex glanced over at Mia:
"Mind if I speak with Naomi alone for a bit?"
Mia looked at Naomi, who hesitated only for a brief moment before nodding.
"Okay," Mia said. "I'll be nearby if either of you need me for anything."
Once they were alone, Alex decided there wasn't much point dancing around the subject forever.
"So," she began carefully, "you know my boyfriend, Magnus?"
Naomi made a tiny choking sound.
"You could say that," she admitted nervously.
Alex watched her for another second. "You have a crush on him?"
Naomi froze. Then she looked down at her hands.
"…Was it really that obvious?" she asked quietly after several seconds.
"It's okay," Alex said immediately. "I'm not jealous, and you're not in trouble or anything." She exhaled slowly. "You probably heard some things from Mia already. Magnus and I… experiment sexually sometimes, and—"
"Oh wow," Naomi interrupted quickly. "If you're about to say what I think you're about to say, then I'm honestly really honored. Truly. But I should probably stop you right there."
Alex blinked. "What?"
"I love you guys," Naomi blurted out. "You and Magnus. As a couple."
Alex stared.
"You and Magnus are kind of like my sun and moon," Naomi continued nervously. "And you don't ask the sun to love you back. I'm perfectly happy loving you guys from a distance. I actually prefer it that way."
Alex genuinely had no idea how she was supposed to respond to that.
"You two are really inspiring," Naomi said earnestly. "And honestly kind of perfect together. I've shipped you both for like a year now."
Alex's brain stalled briefly. "But Magnus and I have only been dating for like… a month and a half."
"I know! It took you guys so long to get together. Mostly because you didn't even notice he existed until like two months ago." Naomi paused. "Which… okay, to be fair, most people didn't. Magnus kind of... disappears into the background? Like he's allergic to attention."
She laughed nervously.
"I actually tried to get you to notice him before. Not in a weird way! I mean… okay, maybe a little weird. But mostly harmless weird?" She covered her face briefly. "God, this sounds so bad out loud."
Alex remained silent, mostly because she genuinely didn't know what response fit this situation.
"I just thought you two would work really well together," Naomi admitted. "So sometimes I tried engineering situations where you'd cross paths. Like meet-cutes from romance stories." She looked increasingly embarrassed the longer she talked. "But Magnus would help you with something and then immediately disappear before you even properly looked at him. It was honestly incredible."
She paused. "Like, do you remember that purse snatcher last year right before Summer Break?"
Alex frowned slightly. "The one near the student center?"
Naomi nodded enthusiastically.
"Yeah! Magnus tripped the guy. That's why campus security caught him so fast." She sounded personally offended by the memory. "Then he handed your purse back to one of your cheer squad members and disappeared before anyone even saw his face."
She looked at Alex with genuine frustration. "I nearly popped a vein from stress. Do you know how close that was?!"
Alex stared at her for several long seconds. Naomi shrank slightly under the look.
"In my defense," she said weakly, "I already shipped you two by then."
Alex blinked slowly.
"After a while, I gave up," Naomi admitted. "I figured maybe I was projecting or something."
A small smile appeared on her face afterward. "Then somehow you two got together anyway and I nearly cried in the middle of campus."
Alex swallowed. For possibly the first time in years, she genuinely did not know how she was supposed to respond to another person. Because Naomi Homura was unlike anyone she'd ever met before.
The sophomore was not possessive, manipulative, or delusional. Despite having a crush on Magnus, she didn't jump at the chance of having sex with him. Quite the opposite, Alex had the distinct impression Naomi seemed to think she didn't deserve to be in the same room as she and Magnus. Which was a problem, but not one she had any experience solving.
So, after a while, Alex carefully asked the question that had been bugging her all day:
"So… how did you even notice Magnus in the first place?"
Then, after a second:
"You don't have to answer if it makes you uncomfortable. I'm just curious since, well… like you said, he kinda has a habit of disappearing into the background."
Naomi grew quieter at that.
"It was last year," she said softly. "My freshman year."
Her fingers tightened slightly together in her lap.
"I had to fight my parents really hard just for the chance to study here in the first place. And then once I actually arrived…" She laughed weakly. "I got overwhelmed pretty quickly."
Alex stayed quiet.
"There was culture shock. Pressure. Homesickness. Finals stress. And after a really bad argument with my parents during first-term finals week…" Naomi looked down. "…I broke down crying in the middle of campus."
Alex's chest tightened slightly.
"Everyone around me was already stressed and exhausted themselves. And honestly, it probably wasn't even the first time they'd seen someone crying during finals." Naomi smiled faintly. "Which is fair. I wasn't crying for attention or anything. I just… couldn't hold everything in anymore."
Then her expression softened. "But someone did stop."
Alex already knew where this story was going. Because she'd seen it happening all the time, ever since she finally noticed his existence.
"He crouched down in front of me and offered me tissues," Naomi said quietly. "And he was rambling. Like… genuinely rambling."
That sounded exactly like Magnus.
"But somehow it helped." Naomi smiled to herself slightly at the memory. "He stayed with me until I calmed down."
Alex could already picture it perfectly. Magnus awkwardly panic-comforting a crying stranger because leaving someone alone upset probably never even occurred to him as an option.
"Then he stood up and said goodbye." Naomi's voice softened further. "I still remember what he told me before he left."
She hesitated briefly. "'My mom always says, as long as you don't give up, tomorrow will be a better day,' he said" Naomi laughed softly. "I thought it sounded kind of corny at the time. But the more I think about it, the more I think maybe he's right. Or maybe his mom was right, since she was the one who said it."
Alex smiled faintly before she could stop herself.
"But about a week later," Naomi continued, "I ran into him again."
Something in her tone shifted slightly. "It took me forever to work up the courage to approach him and thank him properly for helping me before."
Alex's stomach dropped preemptively. Because she already knew exactly what came next.
"But…" Naomi laughed softly, though there was something quietly sad underneath it. "…he didn't recognize me."
Alex closed her eyes briefly. Of course he hadn't.
"At first, I was devastated," Naomi admitted honestly. "But then later, I kept seeing him around campus."
Her smile became softer. "He'd help someone carry boxes. Or give directions to lost freshmen. Or stop to help somebody having a panic attack before class."
Naomi looked down at her hands. "And eventually I realized…" she laughed quietly, "…Of course he didn't remember me. He helps everyone."
Alex went very still.
"I was just another stranger having a bad day to him. Another face in the crowd." There was something strangely melancholic beneath the warmth in her voice. "You can't really expect someone like that to remember every single person they save."
Alex looked at her and didn't say anything for a moment.
She was thinking about a guy who helped people so automatically he didn't even register doing it. Who had apparently come close to crossing her path, repeatedly, for a year before she ever properly noticed he was there. Who had tripped a purse snatcher and then evaporated before anyone could thank him.
Who still, to this day, would tell you with complete sincerity that he was utterly average and entirely unremarkable.
"No," Alex said finally. "I suppose you can't."