Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Magnus stepped out onto his porch. The sun had finally set, and it was a pleasant summer evening with a full moon to give it light. Not too hot, either, with the sea breeze blowing up the Sword Coast. The short path down to the road was still bare--he really had to work on that soon, maybe build a walkway. The pole at the end with the lamp and mailbox on it was the only light beyond his home. Past that and across the road was a bit of scrubland leading down to a sandy beach, and across the harbor were the distant lights of Port Llast.

Magnus had never considered himself an ocean sort of person, but the moon on the water, the lights in the distance, the sound of the waves gently crashing on the shore... it was surprisingly soothing. He was happy he settled here.

"No no no, not brown! Caramel! You know what caramel looks like, right?"

He found Taako sitting on the front stoop, farspeech stone in one hand, rubbing his forehead with the other.

"That's a sort of... brownish. Yes?"

Taako drew his hand down his face and shook his head. "It's caramel, Krav. You've had caramels."

"I've eaten caramels," Kravitz said, voice tinny and somewhat defensive on the other end of the line. "I haven't held them in my hand and considered their color for an extended period of time."

Taako looked over his shoulder and mouthed, kill me. Magnus snorted and sat down on the stairs beside him.

"Look, just keep whisking it and make sure it doesn't get too dark. You know what 'dark' means, or do I have to break that down too?"

"You don't have to be so condescending," Kravitz said, somewhat petulantly. "This is a complicated recipe."

"A child could do it. A child has done it!"

"Angus doesn't count and you know it." Kravitz sighed. "You really couldn't have prepared this ahead of time? I could have thrown it in the oven--"

Taako groaned. "Soufflé's gotta be fresh, Krav. Everyone knows that."

"Yes, of course. Everyone."

Magnus shook his head at Taako. He rolled his eyes. "Look, if you can't manage, chuck it and make a sandwich or something."

"I can manage! I'm not a complete incompetent in the kitchen, thank you."

"Debatable," Taako replied casually. "Listen, I'll be back tomorrow. Just follow the rest of the instructions I left and it'll turn out edible."

"Yes, dear," he said with a long-suffering sigh.

"I'll bring back pastries from town," Taako added quickly, almost apologetically. "Y'know, from the one bakery worth a damn. Some of those raspberry tartlets you like."

"That'd be nice. Thank you."

"Course." Taako drummed his fingers on his knee. "Don't burn the house down, yeah?"

"And ruin your precious soufflé?" Kravitz drawled. "I would never."

Taako snorted softly. "Yeah, yeah. Night, hon."

"Good night, dear," he said warmly. "Give Magnus my best."

Taako pressed a glowing rune on the face of the stone, which dimmed immediately. He tucked it into his pocket and leaned back on his elbows.

"Pastries, huh?"

Taako shrugged. "Bonehead's got a sweet tooth."

"Sap."

Taako sneered, but didn't argue. Magnus grinned and nudged his shoulder, then settled forward on his knees and stared out at the view.

"Peaceful," Taako said suddenly, plucking the word from his thoughts.

"Yeah," Magnus agreed.

"Kinda remote, though."

He looked over his shoulder and cocked an eyebrow. Taako's face was placid and neutral. Affected boredom.

"And yours isn't?" Magnus countered.

Taako shrugged. "I got everything I need."

"So do I." He gestured out toward the sea. "Hell, it's not like I'm a hermit."

"He said, alone in his house with nineteen dogs."

"Seven. And they have names, y'know."

Taako smiled ever so slightly. "I can barely be bothered to remember your name, Mags."

Magnus looked away and laughed quietly. In his periphery, he saw Taako cross one leg over the other, bouncing his foot. The pressure of the moment lingered, something unsaid that made Magnus vaguely uncomfortable.

Kinda remote, though?

"Taako," he said, looking over his shoulder again. "Are you... worried about me?"

With a scoff, Taako laid back on the floor of the porch and put his hands behind his head. "Please."

Magnus raised his eyebrows and turned to face him. His surprise was plain on his face.

"You are, aren't you?" he said. "You're worried about me."

Taako regarded him coolly, saying nothing.

Magnus was halfway between genuinely touched and somewhat offended. He wasn't quite prepared for that mix of emotions.

"Is that why you came?" he asked. "To check in on me?"

Still, Taako said nothing. He looked away from Magnus and found something interesting on the ceiling.

"Taako, I'm fine. Really." Magnus leaned back, one hand on the floor. "Happy, even."

Now Taako gave him a look. Skeptical and a little insulted. Magnus frowned and turned back towards the sea, gesturing vaguely.

"Alright, so maybe I get a little... sad, sometimes. Think I've earned that."

"Mhm."

"And..." He sighed, exasperated, even a little angry. "Maybe I get lonely, some days. But it's not a big deal. Look, there's people right there! I could go across the bay and see 'em if I wanted."

Magnus turned and found Taako staring at him. His gaze had softened around the edges, approaching sympathy, even affection. Whatever irritation Magnus felt washed out of him.

"I'm alright, Taako," he said, gentler. "Promise."

Taako stared at him a moment longer. Then he nodded, and Magnus smiled reflexively.

"Appreciate you thinking about me," he said, reaching over and clapping Taako on the knee.

Taako scoffed. "Who, me? I wasn't worried," he said dismissively. He sat up and propped his elbows on his knees, lacing his fingers together. "Krav just gets these ideas sometimes. You know."

"Uh-huh," Magnus said skeptically.

Taako shot him a glare, then looked away. When he spoke again, it was plainly and without affectation.

"He said to tell you you're always welcome at our place. Anytime."

Magnus felt his chest warm. He scooted closer and wrapped an arm around Taako's shoulders. The elf grimaced briefly, but didn't complain. If anything, he leaned into the hug.

"No dogs, though," said Taako. "They slobber all over the couches."

Magnus smiled and squeezed his shoulder.

"Love you too, brother."

Chapter Text

Magnus handed Taako his glass, freshly refilled with wine that Taako referred to as "very nearly acceptable," before sitting back down in his chair. It creaked under his weight, but Magnus knew it would hold. He'd built it, after all.

It was raining, then. One of the first big rains of spring, not quite a storm, but a lingering shower that lasted the whole day. It poured gently from the sloped rooftop over his porch in a watery curtain, so thick and misty he could barely see the ocean across the road and down the hill. Magnus sipped at his brandy and made a mental note to put up some gutters that year, maybe even dig a little creek, funnel the runoff down to the pond out back.

Taako propped his feet up on the railing and settled back into his chair. "This all you do when it rains, Mags? Sit out on the porch and stare at it?"

"Mhm," Magnus hummed. "Pretty much."

Taako nodded slowly. "Nice. Boring, but nice."

Magnus smiled into his glass. "Mhm."

A long silence followed, broken only by the comforting white noise of the rain, and the very occasional wagon passing by on the road. Sometimes that was all it was, between them -- silent presence. Of course, you spend more than a hundred years with someone, and there wasn't so great a need for words. But it was also just how Taako was, sometimes; one minute, he was the life of the party, the center of attention, and the next, all he wanted was to be left alone.

(Magnus still vividly remembered going to look for Taako after he'd disappeared from his own wedding reception. He'd found him perched on an old wooden fence in the shade of a tall oak tree, atop a grassy hill overlooking the suburbs of Greenhold. Magnus had posted up beside him, and they'd spent nearly ten minutes of silence together before they'd headed back.)

Magnus closed his eyes and was strongly considering dozing off for a minute when Taako broke the silence.

"How do you make these so comfortable?"

He blinked his eyes open and looked at Taako oddly.

"The chairs," Taako clarified, tapping the armrest. "Always wondered."

"You have?"

"Well, no, actually. But I'm wondering now."

Magnus grinned and shook his head. "Trade secret."

"Oh, fuck you," said Taako, somewhat affectionately.

"That's not a joke. Literally, that's what you're asking for."

"Yeah, I'm gonna turn right around and sell it to the highest bidder." Taako lounged further into his chair and pointed at him lazily. "Again, fuck you."

Magnus chuckled, looking out at the rain again. "I'm not even sure I could explain it. Not in words, anyway. It's an art. Sort of."

Taako snorted quietly. "Way to dodge the hell out of the question, Neo."

Another silence. Taako took another sip of his wine. Magnus scratched at his chin pensively.

"I can tell you one thing," he said finally.

Taako's expression remained placid, but his ears visibly perked up. "Yeah?"

"Good chairs, they're comfy for most everyone," Magnus explained. "But the best chairs? Those are made with specific people in mind. You build it for them, and while it might not work for everyone else, to them it'll be the most comfortable damn chair they've ever sat in."

He gestured with his glass, pointing at Taako's chair with his pinky.

"That chair's yours."

Taako blinked, narrowing his eyes skeptically.

"No bullshit," Magnus said. "I promise."

After a moment, Taako lifted his arm from the armrest and looked beneath it, around it, like he'd see something there he hadn't seen before.

"Do you make a lot of chairs for people who don't live with you?" he asked idly, lowering his feet and bending over to look at the chair's legs.

"Only the ones who stop by and drink all my wine," Magnus replied easily.

He took another sip of his brandy, sighing contentedly. When he looked over at Taako again, he found him staring with his elbow on the armrest. There was a smile playing at his face.

"You can take it with you, if you wanna," Magnus said, a little softer. "It's always been yours."

Taako full-on grinned and looked away, settling back into the chair and propping his feet up on the railing again.

"Nah," he said, leaning his head back and closing his eyes. "I do that and I've got no reason to visit anymore."

"Ha ha," Magnus deadpanned. He looked down and considered his glass -- less than half-full -- then looked at Taako's. "Another drink?"

Taako didn't look at him, didn't even open his eyes. He raised a hand and flapped it weakly. "In a minute."

Magnus smiled. He settled back in his own chair and stretched out his legs, staring out across the yard, through the mist, past the trees and across the road and down the hill to the sea.

For a minute, they both sat in silence and listened to the rain.

Chapter Text

"Can I ask you a question?"

They were sitting on a couch in Magnus' living room. It was fall, not exactly cold outside, but he had built a fire anyway. It crackled and popped as it burned, white birch turning black.

Taako was, by this point, well past pleasantly drunk. They'd been at more than a few ragers together (and a couple very depressing parties) such that Magnus had enough experience to tell. Magnus was well on his way, too; he'd gotten another case of his favorite mead last week, and he'd torn through most of it that night.

"Sure, my man." Taako put his socked feet up on Magnus' coffee table and nearly knocked over a potted plant. "What's on your mind?"

"I mean, it's kind of a weird one," Magnus admitted, looking down at the mug of mead in his hands. "But I'm genuinely curious."

"Spit it out, Burn Notice, before I die of old age."

Magnus steeled himself, nodded slowly, and set down his mug. He waited until Taako raised his glass to his lips, then put one arm over the back of the couch and leaned a little toward him and asked, somewhat plaintively:

"Were you ever attracted to me?"

Taako's eyes widened as he inhaled his wine and shot forward in his seat, coughing and hacking into his hand. He managed to regain his composure shockingly quickly, and there was a moment where he turned to look at Magnus, hand over his mouth, with absolute horror in his eyes.

Sadly, Magnus could only maintain his composure for so long.

"Oh, fuck you," Taako said, defeated, as Magnus broke down in big, bellowing laughter that carried throughout the whole house. "Fuck you and die, you piece of shit. Go straight to hell."

"No, for real though!" Magnus said in between gasping for breath. "For real! I wanna know!"

"You asshole," Taako said, taking one of Magnus' pillows and dabbing at his wine-stained shirt with it. "I'd sooner fuck a... a cold fish, or a--"

"You married a dead guy!" Magnus clutched at his ribs, trying to stifle it. "You literally--"

"Yeah, so, what does that say? Huh?" Taako threw the damp pillow in his face. It bounced off and nearly knocked over the mead. "You fuck. Sick, twisted, mother--"

"Oh, come on!" he gasped, patting the air. "Come on, for real."

"Why the fuck would you--"

"Because you flirted with Klarg!" Magnus said, grabbing his mead before it became a tragic casualty. "You flirted with Kravitz, you flirted with -- well, a lot of folks, now that I think about it."

"Oh, so now it's slut-shaming," Taako barked, snatching the wine bottle off the table. "I see, I see how it is--"

"Duuuuude," Magnus whined, leaning back in the sofa. "Come onnnnn."

Taako looked around for his wine glass, discarded in the wake of his coughing fit, and then gave up and took a pull directly from the bottle.

"Fine," he said, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "You really wanna know, you fuckin' weirdbeard? Fine."

"I did tell you it was a weird question--"

Taako's hand cut sharply through the air, demanding silence. Magnus went quiet, doing his best to look innocent as he took another swallow of mead. Taako's mouth twisted into a frown, then a scowl, and he looked away, jerking the bottle for emphasis.

"Yes!" Taako barked loudly. "Okay? Yes, for like, five goddamn minutes after I met you the first time."

Magnus turned to Taako with a look of absolutely radiant glee on his face. "Really? Wait, which first time? The first first time, or the second first time?"

Taako glared at him, visibly confused for a moment through the alcoholic haze, before he realized what Magnus was talking about. "Both, I guess," he said, looking away again and taking another pull from the bottle. "Like, whatever. I didn't remember the second time I... first met you... fuckin' amnesia sucks, wow this is some good shit," he said, appraising the label on the bottle.

"So you were into this?" Magnus snickered as he waved from head to toe.

"Again, for like, fuckin' five minutes!" Taako said, pointing at him and drawling out the last two words. "Any time spent around you was enough to kill that shit dead. Every time!"

"But you were into this," Magnus repeated, waving from head to toe again.

Taako groaned and propped his head back on the cushions. "Fuck off."

"I mean, I know, I've got the goods. Like, I ain't blind, I'm workin' with some--"

"You chew with your mouth open, you stink like a bear, and I've never once seen you comb those fucking sideburns," Taako said, counting off fingers. "Prob'ly like, whole fuckin' colonies of lice in there, a whole civilization of silverfish--"

Magnus laughed so hard he started wheezing, nearly falling sideways onto the couch. Taako kicked at him, vainly and without much success; he was quite drunk.

"I do not chew with my mouth open," Magnus sighed, once he'd gotten his breath back. "I one hundred percent do not."

"You did on the road, dickhead, and that's a fact."

"The second time, maybe. Wouldn't have done that on the ship."

"Fuckin' -- you wanna know why Lucretia took 'til now to get with your sorry ass?" Taako said, pointing accusingly. "That shit is why! You were a shithead, shitty, fuckin' -- garbage boy!"

"I know you are, but what am I?"

"That doesn't -- even--" Taako sputtered and pushed himself to his feet. "I'm going home!"

Magnus sat up, startled, spilling some of his mead. "Taako, you live like, days away."

"I'm leaving!" he declared, walking away.

Magnus followed, somewhat haltingly, as his balance was out of whack. "You can't drive."

"I'll fuckin' walk!"

"You don't even want the other bottle?"

Taako stopped, in the doorway between the living room and the foyer.

"Th--do you actually have another bottle or are you, fuckin'..." He spun on his heel and nearly toppled to the ground, recovering and placing his hands on his hips. "Is this a trick?!"

"Nope." Magnus thumbed over his shoulder. "S'in the liquor cabinet."

"Are you tryin' to..." Taako leaned in, eyes narrowed. "I'll have you know, fuckface, I'm a married man--"

Magnus laughed and waved his arms, and either Taako was doing a bit or he was very drunk or both, because he laughed too. "No no no! Promise! Just, like, I'll get the bottle if you don't, uh, leave."

"Then point the way, Maglev!" Taako said, gesturing over his shoulder. "To the... liquor d'partment."

Magnus led Taako back into the living room, to the far end past the couches and the tall cabinet he'd built this summer.

"Fucker's got a cabinet for everything," Taako mumbled, and Magnus snickered as he fumbled with the thoroughly uncomplicated latch on the door. He pulled out the bottle and handed it to Taako, who accepted it graciously before giving him the "OK" sign and shouting in his face, "Thanks, pervert!"

Magnus broke down laughing yet again, and felt like he'd never stop as Taako stumbled away, carefully tucked the bottle under his arm, and collapsed face down onto the couch.

Magnus wasn't precisely sure of the timeline after Taako passed out. Seeing Taako asleep, he was pretty sure he went looking for a blanket to cover him with, but couldn't find one, and ended up taking some throw pillows and placing them on his back and legs. Then he realized he was hungry, so he might have attempted to cook something before he took some peanuts out of a kitchen cabinet and threw them in his mouth. Then he slowly made his way upstairs, to his bedroom, and passed out before he could get his shirt off.

The next day, Magnus' whole head hurt. His eyes, his face, his skin, his hair. All of it. He groaned and pushed himself out of bed, keeping his eyes mostly shut until he managed to close the shutters on his bedroom window. Magnus slowly changed into clean clothes, during which he nearly threw up twice, and then shuffled downstairs.

Taako was sitting in the breakfast nook with the blinds drawn, hunched over a steaming white mug. He looked like absolute dogshit; his hair was a mess, there were bags under his eyes, and he hadn't even bothered putting up his arcane glamour, which meant he looked just slightly off-center to Magnus' memory.

"S'coffee in the thing," Taako said, pointing weakly as Magnus stepped into the kitchen.

"Thanks," he said.

Taako grunted. They exchanged no more words until Magnus got his coffee -- black and bitter, to try and forcefully kick his hangover's ass -- and sat himself across the table.

"So did you ask me if I thought you were hot last night, or was that a nightmare I had?" Taako asked, rubbing his forehead.

Magnus huffed. It made his head hurt. "Pretty sure that happened."

Taako screwed his eyes shut and frowned. "Why."

Magnus shrugged. It made his head hurt more. "I was drunk and wanted to mess with you."

Taako's eyes shot open, then promptly shut again reflexively. "Oh. Cool."

Magnus nearly spit up a sip of his coffee.

"Wait, you didn't think I--?"

The expression on Taako's face was so done that Magnus laughed. Briefly; it made his head hurt a lot. He scrubbed a hand through his hair.

"I was just messing with you, brother. That," he said emphatically, "is a promise."

"I know," Taako said defensively. "Don't think I can't take a joke, dullard."

They sat in silence for a minute, slowly recuperating from the evening prior.

"Wait." Taako frowned. "What did you mean by that?"

Magnus groaned. It made his head hurt. "Taako--"

"What, like I'm not good enough for you? I'm the fuckin' hottest piece of ass you know."

Magnus stared at him flatly. This time, it was Taako who cracked first; he started snickering, and Magnus grinned and rested his head on the cool, cool wooden table.

"We should do this more often," said Taako, smiling into his mug.

"No," moaned Magnus, turning his head. "Never again."

Taako brought the bottle of wine Magnus gave him back for Candlenights. Diluted amongst eight people (and one child, who was allowed a single swallow) it had little deleterious effect.

He did tell the story of their drunken hysterics over dinner, though.

Kravitz laughed so hard his skin fell off.