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The sun and the moon.
That's always what Taako and Lup have been like.
She was the sun. Brilliant and gorgeous and sometimes hard to look at because she out shined everyone. She lit up a room when she walked into it, she drew everyone to her, and she was prone to explosion. Lup at her angriest was terrifying, and Lup at her happiest was dazzling. The world seemed to orbit around her- What Lup wanted, she got, or she would find a way to get it.
So similar, but her mirror opposite, stood Taako. While she brought light, he swam in darkness. But he was gorgeous all the same. He was powerful, and he was almost otherworldly in some ways. His eyes were always colder than hers, his mind more distant, but when it mattered, he was there for you. When he loved you, nothing could stop him from bringing every world down in your name. He was cold, but he was bright. He was a constantly moving being, a person of energy and change.
He didn't want to come on this mission. It was dangerous, it was uncertain, and it seemed all around like not his style. But she did, desperately, and they were a package deal. He could suck up his misgivings about the mission- He would never leave her on her own.
For once, he was grateful he didn't listen to his 'hang back' instincts. Lup would've been devastated if she lost him- and he was quite happy to have his hide, thank you.
But on this new world, on the first day he told Lup he wanted to figure out what the fuck these animal creatures are saying to each other, two became three.
Lup and him sometimes debate on this metaphor what Barry represents in their trio. Lup argues the stars, and Taako says the sky.
The sky because Barry was where they both found comfort and steadiness. Barry was a constant, and he was beautiful- Lup's input, not Taako's- and he was so damn kind. He shared Lup's care, Lup's empathy. Taako was closed off, he cared about the ones he cared about, but Lup and Barry, they cared about everything. He was expansive, he was everywhere, and y'know. The sky is blue, and Barry's whole thing is blue jeans, so Taako says that makes his argument infallible.
Lup argues the stars, because again with the whole beautiful thing. (Taako doesn't see it, but hey, he's not the one all in love with the guy.) She says that he shines and he shimmers just like them, and in his own, quieter way, he's dazzling in his intelligence and wit. The stars may pale in comparison to the moon and sun, but their gorgeous and expansive and numerous and they shine in their own, stunning way.
Regardless of weather he's the sky or the stars, it was clear that their family had expanded by one, and Taako had someone else he could rely on completely. The others on the ship were family too; and he cared about them deeply, but Barry was his brother, and Lup his sister, and he doesn't think he could function without them. Losing any of the six chuckleheads he's come to love so dearly would be like losing a chunk of himself, but losing Barry or Lup would be like losing a limb. It would throw him out of orbit, send him falling from the sky. There was one cycle where both of them died a week in, and he couldn't take it. The rest of the year was fucking awful, and more than once Taako considered just ending it. He would come back. They would be pissed at him, but no harm, no foul, right?
But Magnus was so fucking concerned, and Merle was always hovering, and Lucrecia made a point to sit with him and tried to help him cook even though she was shit at it because no one should cook alone, even Davenport was more attentive to him. All were anxious about his mental state, all were fucked up after Lup and Barry's death, and dammit, he couldn't do that to them, so he stuck it out. And if he hugged Barry and Lup and collapsed on the floor with them in a puddle of tears, no one commented.
Probably because he'd magic missile their ass off the ship before they'd even have a chance to land on the next plane.
But then.
But then Lup disappeared.
And he still had Barry but then he started to forget and oh gods, he was forgetting Lup, how could he forget Lup?! His sun, his sister, his family, his other half.
And Barry begged him to kill him, and then...
And then he forgot it all. Forgot his family. Forgot his brother and his sister, forgot all they went through and all they learned and all they knew and all they grew.
He was alone. He felt wrong. Like nothing was right, like he wasn't supposed to be here, not like this, but he couldn't put a name to the feeling so he did his best to just ignore it. He was hollow without the people that lit up his world, the ones that taught him and reminded him how to feel. He was a shell of his former self, a blacked out moon, cold and dark and distant and unreachable.
One by one, the pieces of his family trickled back into his life. His best friend, Magnus. His father figure, Merle. Lucretia. Davenport.
But he didn't recognize them. Didn't even recognize Barry the brief time they had together. Didn't feel Lup's presence in the Umbrastaff, didn't care about Lucretia or Davenport. A part of him felt... something, but it was never really there.
Only after he remembered did he start to feel real again.
Nothing was the same, and maybe it wouldn't ever be again, but at least he had his family back. He had them back, he had his brother and his sister and now he had some new additions to the family. He had Angus McDonald, boy detective, and the only brat on the planet, in the whole planer system, that could win his heart. He had Kravitz, the love of his life, the man he never thought he could have, the whole sappy soulmates shit Barry and Lup had that he never thought he wanted but now that he has it he can't imagine life without it. He has Carey, and Killian, and Avi. His orbit was back, and he was surrounded by family.
And you know? That's all Taako really wants.