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“Remind me how you managed to convince me to take you on a trip through the astral plane again? On the sea of souls no less?” Kravitz sighs and pushes the small boat off the shore.
“You can’t resist my good looks after all these years, babe.” Taako winks.
“Apparently not” The reaper chuckles.
The two are silent for a moment before he speaks up, “Okay, well, I have a confession to make.”
Kravitz stares at him, a look of confusion is on his face.
“I wanted this vacation so I could get away for a bit, yeah.” the elf takes a deep breath, “I also… wanted to see Maggie again.” he looks away, “don't give me that grief is a natural with death bullshit.” Taako lets a tear fall.
“I wasn’t going to say any of that, actually,” Kravitz whispers, wiping away the tears that were beginning to fall. “I had a surprise for you, maybe it has to do with him, maybe it doesn’t” he shrugs and places a quick kiss to his husband's forehead.
“Kravitz what the fuck.” the elf smiles slightly with a laugh.
“You said you wanted to take a vacation in the astral plane again, so I took that as ‘I want to see Magnus, I don’t give A shit about what you say.’ type of thing.”
Taako just stares at him, “what did I do to deserve you?” he whispers, more tears falling.
“Death crimes? Being the most beautiful person I’ve seen in my life and unlife? Threatening to tentacle my dick?” Kravitz smiles warmly and takes his husband of many years face into his hands and kisses his tears away. “I love you, and I love seeing you happy.”
“Did you fuckin plan this with them?” he sniffles and leans into his touch.
“Somewhat?” He shrugs, “I have other things planned as well.”
“I can’t fucking believe you, what the hell.” Taako smiles. “You know me too well.”
“We’ve been together and married for many years, Taako.” Kravitz kisses him on the lips softly
He smiles wider, his tears are no longer falling. “Lets fuckin go! We’ve been floating out here for like, forever.”
The reaper laughs at the sudden change of his husband's mood and starts up the motor of the boat.
It’s not long until the two of them reach the island that the burnsides reside, and taako is practically vibrating with a mix of anxiety and excitement.
Magnus is there to greet them and immediately, taako embraces him in a hug. Once again, tears are falling as he embraces his dead friend for the first time again in nearly a year.
“Well, hello again to you too.” Magnus grins, hugging him back. He’s crying too, equally happy to see his friend.
“Fuck you for being human and dying,” taako cries, pulling away from the hug.
“I can’t help being human,” he shrugs, “Kravitz said you miss me?” he adds.
“As if I would miss you, you fucking lug.” he laughs, wiping his eyes.
“Sure, sure.” he dismisses, “Oh! You need to meet Julia!” the former fighter grins widely and practically drags Taako up to the cabin in the middle of the island. He motions for Kravitz to follow.
Magnus opens the door the cabin and taako spots a woman with curly brown hair with a red bandana wrapped around her forehead, tan skin and enough muscle to even suplex Magnus. This woman is who he assumes is Julia is sitting on the couch, reading a book with Johann the dog by her side. She looks up with a smile when they enter.
“Hey, Kravitz! Oh you must be Taako, right?” she smiles, holding out her hand to shake.
“And I’m assuming you’re Julia?” he takes her hand and shakes it.
“That’s me! I thought you were Lup for a hot second, to be honest.” she chuckles.
Taako shrugs, “We don’t really look like each other as much as we used to.”
“Bullshit” Magnus says behind poorly disguised coughs.
The elf gives him a glare, “but anyways, it’s really cool to finally meet you.”
“Yeah, same here! Magnus told me quite a bit about you and the others. I also learned from the Story.” she shrugs, “I was like, what the hell, I married an alien.”
“You love me though!” Magnus says from the ground as he plays with Johann.
“I do, but wow, all of that stuff must've been hard.”
“The forgetting thing was incredibly shitty, that was the worst part about it all,” Taako says bitterly, he smiles slightly when Kravitz wraps an arm around his waist.
“You’ve forgiven Lucy though, and yeah, it still hurts sometimes. I get it.”
“It hurt not to forgive her, and I had to at some point. What she did was bad, but she didn’t want us to suffer, and I get that too.” He feels himself tearing up again.
“Yeah, how’s she doing by the way?”
“She’s been fine, still writes with two hands even with all that arthritis somehow,” he says and sits on the couch, the dog jumping up and gets a couple licks to his face, “Johann no!” He laughs and pushes him away.
“Arthritis is a bitch,” Magnus says with a nod.
“How long were you two planning on staying?” Julia asks.
Taako looks to Kravitz who shrugs, “just a little bit,” Kravitz says.
“How’s everyone else taking my death?” Magnus asks silently.
“They're taking it fine, it fuckin sucked the first month cuz we kept on getting messages about condolences on you dying and shit, like leave us alone for a while. Fucking paparazzi.”
“I thought you liked the paparazzi, dove?” Kravitz asks.
“Oh, I do, I just hate it when they're in my face asking how I'm feeling after one of my best friends died,” Taako says annoyed.
“That sounds shitty, I'm sorry.”
“Don't apologize for dying, Maggie,” Julia says from the kitchenette.
“Yeah, don’t. You lived so fuckin long, you deserve it. Wait no that came out wrong I think.” Taako frowns.
“Nah, that sounded oddly right.” Magnus laughs, “I was apologizing cause the paparazzi are annoying fucks.”
“They really are, just let me eat food with my hot husband in peace.” Taako flops over the rest of the couch dramatically.
Julia laughs, “being famous sounds fun, but it also sounds like hell because of stuff like that.”
“One time there was this tabloid that made false accusations of shit we didn’t do, so we made our own thing full of positive vibes it was fun.” the elf says and sits up so Kravitz can sit with him.
“That was really fun!” Magnus grins/
“Oh yeah, they're building a statue of you in Ravens Roost! It's pretty cool, actually!”
The former fighters smile widens at that, “Kravitz you’ll need to show me when it's finished.” he says seriously to the reaper.
“Uh, sure, will do.” he gives a thumbs up.
“If you two plan on staying any longer, I can make some tea for yall?” Julia offers and puts a kettle on the stove to heat up.
“Oh hell yeah, we got some time to hang a bit, right babe?”
“We can stay a bit longer, yes.” Kravitz smiles.
“Cool,” Julia smiles.
Taako was happy to see his friend again, it was great to finally meet his wife. He thought he would have had to convince Kravitz to take him to see Magnus, but of course, his sappy husband who knows him too well knew what he wanted when he said he wanted to go to the astral plane for vacation again.
Over tea, the four of them just talk about what’s been going on in the world of the living. How Angus now has his own detective agency, and how his children are still as smart as ever. How hammer and tails is holding up with the apprentice who Magnus took in years ago, is running it. How the Bureau of benevolence is still going strong. How Carey and Killian are doing in their old ages. How the world is doing without a certain fighter there.