There’s been…a clerical error?? So this is the surprise part one of the fic I posted yesterday. I forgot I wrote this, to be honest, it was supposed to precede yesterday’s drabble. It sets up more of Taako and Lup’s mental states, shows them getting more accustomed to living with their family, passes time.
Anyway, some bonus content!
(Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4)
One week passes, then two, and nobody kicks them out.
They get their own room. It’s huge, and Merle tells them it was the guest bedroom, but there are stars plastered along the ceiling and detective novels on the shelves, so Taako guesses that Angus probably lived here a lot.
It’s weird. He’s mean to Magnus and Magnus laughs it off because he seems to know when Taako’s rudeness is really just him not knowing what to say. Lup sets Merle’s beard on fire and Merle pats it out, smiling kindly all the way. Taako stole from Kravitz and got caught and set up a deal and then Kravitz called in Merle to tell him that this isn’t a cook-for-lodging kind of deal, they just want the twins to be safe and happy. Really.
Taako and Lup have stayed in weird places before for longer than this. Once, they lived three months with an old lady and her weird two-headed goat, which Taako doesn’t think about much because he remembers the sky being purple but the sky is definitely not purple, but the point is he never felt comfortable here.
Something about this place makes him feel safe.
it creeps him out, so he talks to Lup about it.
To his surprise, Lup feels it too.
“I like it,” she says. “I like Merle ‘n Barry ‘n Magnus. They’re really nice.”
“Yeah,” Taako says. “And Kravitz. They haven’t tried to kick us out yet.”
“Maybe they really do want us to stay.”
Part of Taako scoffs instinctively at the optimism, because no one ever wants them to stay, but he can’t quite force himself to dismiss the thought. Maybe they’re not fakey-fake pretending. Maybe he and Lup can stay here for a real long time.
That thought makes him very happy. For some reason, instead of pushing it away, he holds it really close.
Slowly, he and Lup meet more people. They haven’t met Lucretia yet but they are introduced to Davenport, who jumps stiffly when he sees them and speaks far more formally than anyone else they’ve known.
They meet Carey and Killian and Lup spends most of their meeting making grossed-out faces behind their back because they hold hands the entire time. They’re so in love it’s disgusting. Taako muffles a laugh behind his hand when Lup stretches out her lips and sticks out her tongue, then blinks innocently when Carey whips around.
Taako and Lup wake up first in the house except for Magnus, scrambling around the kitchen in pursuit of bigger and better things to make. This kitchen has everything – eggs and bacon and flour and milk and sugar and those spices that seem to multiply every time Taako cracks the pantry open. He and Lup tear into the house’s supply with glee, whipping up huge breakfasts before everyone gets up.
His French toast made Magnus cry once because it was so good. Magnus had to excuse himself from the table, because he was crying like a little baby. And that first day, when Taako made blueberry cobbler, he even got Kravitz to tear up. “Tastes like home,” he’d said, which Taako had thought was weird because they were at home right then.
It’s a comfortable routine – wake up and cook, be showered with praise, scamper off to explore the yard until lunchtime. Some days when they’re too tired they make Magnus make sandwiches, which he does on the condition that they sit on his shoulders, so Lup takes the right shoulder and Taako takes the left shoulder and they giggle when he spreads the peanut butter unevenly.
Then Merle takes them for walks around the garden, which Taako pretends to hate but secretly enjoys. It smells so good out there, like lavender and fresh rain, even on days where it hadn’t rained before. When he asked Merle about that Merle had said, with a kind twinkle in his eye that Taako has started to love, that his garden was touched by the gods.
Taako doesn’t believe him, but this house is so nice and big and full and warm that it’s easy to believe some part of it, at least, is blessed.
For dinner, he and Lup go all out. They switch between themselves, who makes the entree and who makes the sides and who makes the dessert. Originally they fought over who would make the main dish, because that’s the centerpoint of glory, but then Merle showed them how to pull up fresh vegetables like potatoes and beans from his garden and after that they competed for the sides, eventually agreeing to get the food together.
It was hard work, but it was fun to roll around in the dirt with Lup and tromp on back to the house covered in muck. Bathing was less fun, but it was with Lup, and Barry was very gentle and awkward and they made lots of fun of him, so it was at least okay. Besides, Taako loves smelling fresh and clean and good. He steals four of the best-smelling oils before remembering he doesn’t have to do that any more and putting them back.
I wish you would write more about the twins as children with the BoB members.
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