Chapter Text
Kravitz is nearly holding his hand by the end of dinner. Taako’s knees keep jostling under the table and though he’s trying to maintain his iconic suave air, he thinks that Angus, at least, is onto him. Taako’s nervous.
He tries to focus, instead, on other things. How fucking delicious the homemade ice cream he and Lup made is. How Barry seems to finally realize that Lup’s been making the same heart eyes at him as he has for years. At how happy and comfortable Angus seems. On how Magnus is calmer and more tolerable, now that his wife is sitting beside him, holding his hand. Carey is louder, though, laughing and poking fun at her wife, but Taako can’t bring himself to mind, not really.
After dinner, when everyone has cleared out of the dining room, Taako goes back in to do one more sweep for any leftover dishes. He’s roped Magnus into washing and Merle into drying, and doesn’t want to have any dishes left out of rotation.
“-Worried when I woke up that morning and you weren’t there,” Barry is saying, and Taako stops abruptly at the doorway. He peeks in just enough to glance inside, and lo and behold, Barry and Lup are standing, holding hands, and staring at eachother like there’s no one else on earth. It’d be gross if Taako hadn’t been waiting for it to happen for the last five years. “It made me realize how- how important you are to my life, and-”
“Bare,” Lup interjects, in a soft voice Taako’s only heard when they have their middle of the night twin heart to hearts. She smiles, kind of wonderstruck, and Taako’s surprised Barry doesn’t swoon right then and there. Taako’s seen him swoon over less. “For my whole life, it’s only ever been me and Taako. And then we moved here, and suddenly you were this immovable force in my life- in our life. Taako loves you, I know he does, like the brother he’s never had. Even if he won’t ever admit it. And I love you too.” She looks away, and Taako swears if one of them doesn’t just out and say what they’ve been dancing around for the last five years, he’s going to cast magic missile at them.
“Like a brother?”
Lup looks at him, steady and searching for a long moment, “No. Not like a brother.”
The grin that breaks out on Barry’s face is almost blinding, and when Lup leans in to kiss him, Taako realizes it’s his turn to take his leave. He walks back into the kitchen and merely shrugs when asked what he’s so smug about. They’ll find out in good time, he’s sure.
“So I spent like two weeks carving this duck,” Magnus says, waving his arms wildly. He, Taako, Angus, and Julia are all standing around the kitchen as Magnus tells the story of how he first asked out his wife. Well, Magnus is standing in the kitchen, Angus has pulled up a chair from the dining room- which Barry and Lup had mysteriously vacated not too long ago- and Taako and Julia are both perched on the kitchen counters, listening avidly. “And when I walk up to Jules to hand it to her, I have this whole speech planned out in my head about what I’m going to say, and when I get there I just start rambling.”
“He starts saying something about the kind of wood he used to carve it from and how I reminded him of a duck-” Julia continues, laughing.
“It was supposed to be a compliment!”
“You called me a duck, Mags.”
“A beautiful duck!” They're going back and forth now, laughing and jibing and talking more to each other than to Taako and Angus.
“He called her a duck?” A familiar voice asks from just behind Taako and he jumps a little bit in surprise. Kravitz is standing behind him, looking like he’s trying very hard not to smile.
“Yeah, it was supposed to be some grand gesture,” Taako says, trying to recover his cool.
Kravitz raises an eyebrow, “I can’t tell if it worked or not, to be honest.” Taako laughs, and out of the corner of his eye, he sees Angus quietly slip away into the other room. Not looking away from Kravitz, who’s now leaning against the counter Taako is sitting on, he sends up a silent thanks to that little genius, who always knows how to read a room. “Taako-”
“Mmhmm?” Taako hums, leaning back casually on his arm and moving his knee so it's just touching Kravitz’s side.
“As much as I’ve enjoyed this, I have an early morning tomorrow and I still have to make my way back to the Ethereal Plane tonight, so I’m going to have to head out.”
“Oh.” Taako glances over at Magnus and Julia, who have devolved into quiet giggles and poking each other in the side, which Taako is pretty sure is some kind of extended foreplay. He doesn’t want to stick around to figure out if he’s right. “Well I’ll, uh, walk you out, hot stuff.” He hops down- gracefully, of course- from the counter and stalks towards the front door, assuming that Kravitz is following dutifully behind.
He is.
The steps outside their apartment building are tall and stone, and Taako plops down on them without hesitation when they get outside. Kravitz sits down slowly next to him, and for a minute, they just sit on the steps in silence, looking up at the stars in the clear night sky above them.
“This was fun, my guy,” Taako says eventually, keeping his eyes on the stars. He feels more than sees Kravitz look down and at him, and for a long moment, Kravitz doesn’t say anything.
“Taako,” he says finally, “I have to ask, did you invite me here tonight because I helped you save your sister, or… or was there another reason?”
Taako looks down and meets Kravitz’s eyes, a little surprised to see how nervous he seems. “Honestly, it was a little of both.” Kravitz laughs a little, partially out of nerves, partially out of surprise. “Like, yeah, I think it’s tight you helped me save Lulu and everyone else, that was really sweet the way you helped me do that; but like, also yeah. I invited you to this little shindig because I wanted to hang out with you and shit. If that’s… you know… cool. With you.”
Kravitz is laughing again now, but it's a joyful happy thing, not the nervous laughter he had when Taako started. He smiles widely, “Yes, Taako, this is definitely cool with me.” He reaches out and places it gently on top of Taako’s.
Suddenly Taako’s very glad it’s dark outside so Kravitz can’t see the bright blush blooming on the tips of his ears right now. And even more suddenly, Kravitz leans in and kisses Taako; sweetly, gently, a question more than anything. Taako kisses him back, abruptly and without hesitation, a quick and comfortable answer.
“Ok then, hot stuff,” Taako says, a little breathless, when they break apart either seconds or minutes later- neither of them are sure how long they spend kissing on the apartment building’s front steps.
“I do have to go,” Kravitz says, rubbing the back of his neck and grinning down at Taako. He’s a little sheepish, but mostly just giddy. “I have work in the morning and-”
“An angry bird goddess to serve, yada yada, I get it Krav.” And maybe if Taako wasn’t so nonchalant about it, or if he wasn’t grinning nearly literally ear to ear, it might have sounded sarcastic or bitter. But somehow, Taako just managed to sound understanding and sweet. Which wasn’t usually his forte. “You’ll call me, yeah?”
“Definitely.” Kravitz says, dropping one last kiss quickly on Taako’s forehead before standing and opening a rift to the Astral Plane behind him. “Bye, Taako.”
“Later, ghost rider.”
Kravitz’s laughter echoes across the quiet street even after the rift closes and Taako is alone.
It’s been two years since a pair of liches started stealing residents of Neverwinter away from their homes in the middle of the night. It’s been two years since Killian Fangbattle, Julia Burnsides, Lup Taaco, and about two dozen other people disappeared. It’s also been two years since a band of concerned friends and family members gathered together to find their missing loved ones. It’s been two years since they all were found again.
It’s been two years, and somehow Taako’s comfortable little pseudo family unit of him, his sister, the nerd they found, and a boy detective they adopted almost tripled in size. And frankly, he’s not sure he minds.
He fixes a strand of hair that had fallen out of his updo.
Lup is lounging in a chair, wrinkling her dress terribly, and Taako has to physically force himself not to make her stand up while he steams it- again. She and Julia are laughing at some story Killian is telling. Carey and Lucretia, a friend from Lup’s work, are standing a few feet away, talking about something else. There’s something almost domestic about the whole thing, how everyone fits together so comfortably, like they were meant to go together. It helps to soothe Taako’s nerves. A little.
There’s a knock at the door, and as he opens it, Taako’s already saying, “Barold I don’t care what it is, you can wait a half an hour to tell Lup, I’m not-” Merle is grinning at him. “Shit, is it time already? Lulu! Let’s go, bitches! It’s go time!” Merle chuckles and walks back down the hallway, and Taako hears conversation halt abruptly as they all realize what this means.
“Shit!” Lup says as she stands up, “Taako, grab the steamer- my dress!”
“You should have thought about that before lounging like a caveman in a silk dress,” he teases as he absently casts a spell to help shake out some of the wrinkles. “Barry’s not going to care, anyway, obviously.”
Lup glares at him, but it falls a little short as a helpless kind of grin worms its way onto her face. “Shut up.” She punches him in the arm, and then hooks it in her own, walking them together out of the room and into the hall.
“Careful! Some of us took the care not to get covered in wrinkles moments before a major event, thank you!”
“Let’s go you two,” Julia says, stepping in on the other side of Lup and walking alongside them. “We don’t want to be late.” She winks, and Taako’s reminded yet again why Magnus must’ve married her. Not that he can fault his taste.
They all gather in the entryway. Merle is already there, and so are Magnus, Angus, and Davenport- another one of Lup and Barry’s other friends from their nerdy-ass job. And, of course, Kravitz is there, looking both dashing and nervous, and chatting with Magnus. Barry, Taako assumes, is already at the altar; which is probably for the best because Taako knows that he’s going to break into tears when he sees Lup for the first time.
Merle covers for like the fifth time who’s walking with who, before heading up the aisle himself.
Julia and Magnus go first, walking arm and arm. Taako thinks Magnus looks a little weepy-eyed as they walk through the door, which honestly doesn’t surprise him- he’s seen the man cry at dog homecoming videos on fantasy YouTube. Carey and Angus follow them, the younger boy grinning ear to ear as he whispers something avidly to Carey, who looks like she’s trying very hard not to laugh. Lucretia and Davenport follow them, which is more than a little amusing, because Davenport is a good three to four feet shorter than Lucretia, a white-haired woman who towers over the older gnome. Somehow, they make it work. Killian and Kravitz go last, and Kravitz gives Taako one last smile over his shoulder as they walk through the door, leaving him and Lup alone in the entryway.
Lup is staring at the door, and has been since Merle walked through it, almost like if she looks hard enough she’ll be able to see Barry through the wood of the door and the small crowd of people in between them.
Taako takes her hand, gently, and she starts a little before meeting his eye, like she almost forgot he was there. “You ready, Lulu?”
She smiles, the same bright and joyous smile Taako’s seen a million times. The same smile she had for years, whenever she talked about Barry, even when she didn’t realize she was doing it. The same smile she has almost every time she and Barry are in a room together. And she nods, “Abso-fucking-lutely, Koko.”
And they walk out of the entryway and down the aisle, arm in arm. Hurley and Sloane are in the audience, and Merle’s kids Mavis and Mookie, and Ren from Taako’s restaurant, and so many other people that have managed to bury themselves into Lup and Barry’s life; into Taako’s life.
They reach the end of the aisle and Lup hands her bouquet to Taako, kisses his cheek, and moves to stand across from Barry. Taako stands to one side of the pair, and Merle starts to say something about Pan, or about love, Taako’s not really sure. But Lup and Barry are holding hands like they never plan on letting go, and Angus is beaming, and Magnus and Killian both are crying a little bit. And from across the altar, Kravitz is smiling at him.
And Taako’s never been more happy.