Chapter Text
Magnus doesn't actually plan on it; it just sort of happens.
All he's doing is lounging around one of the common areas of the moon base and carving a little wooden totem, when Angus walks in.
And Angus is a pretty easy kid to read, despite the fact that he tries hard not to be. Magnus doesn't have to look too hard to see that something is obviously wrong. Angus is pacing through the chairs, eyes wide and straining with his hands fluttering in agitation at his sides. Something's up, and Magnus doesn't have to be a detective to notice that.
Magnus would usually be comfortable leaving the kid to sort it out on his own, because there are times when rushing in to help has the opposite effect. But right now, Angus walks straight into a couch and his hands are starting to tug angrily at his hair, and Magnus decides that right now probably isn't one of those times.
"Hey Ango, come here." Angus goes rigid when Magnus calls out, but when his gaze finally finds the man, he hurries over.
"Ye-ess, sir?" Angus rasps, then clears his throat. His feet shuffle uncertainly where he stands.
Magnus pretends not to notice the difficulty speaking. "I've been wondering," he says instead, "would you want me to teach you wood-carving?" Magnus holds up the small wooden statue that he'd been working on, to let Angus get a better idea of what he's talking about.
The boy's eyes go wide, "R-really?" he stammers incredulously, fingers tapping together excitedly.
"Yeah sure, have a seat; I'll show you the ropes."
Angus sits and Magnus passes along a small knife and scrap block of wood, and sets to work explaining.
It's pretty slow going, and the kid nicks himself more times than Magnus can count -he probably should have thought twice before handing an agitated kid a blade- but when they get through the hard part and the sandpaper comes out, Angus does a lot better.
It takes a little more than a couple of hours for Angus to complete a kind of pathetic looking animal carving (Magnus thinks it was supposed to be a cat? But looking at it now, he can't rule out some kind of bird). Angus is a lot calmer by the end, but Magnus is expecting him to be disappointed since the kid is a massive perfectionist. But, when he watches the way the boy runs his fingers over the rounded edges of the wood as he sways serenely in his chair, he thinks that Angus is probably even happier with the little creation than he's letting on.
"If you want another lesson, just drop on by." Magnus tells him, ruffling his hair a little when the detective finally excuses himself.
Angus beams at him enthusiastically, and Magnus watches him leave. He thinks vaguely about how he'd used to want to pass the trade down, before everything that had happened. He'd never gotten the chance to properly contemplate the possibility, before it was too late.
He shakes himself out of the thoughts before he can make himself too sad, and goes back to rounding out the rough edges of the carving of a woman that he's been making all morning.
He thinks that Julia would have approved of a protege like Angus, if she were still here.
The two of them would have gotten along perfectly.