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“ Magnus, your nails.” Taako is inspecting Magnus’s hand, looking over his chewed nails and chipped black polish with a critical squint.
Magnus retracted his hand, blushing. “What? I just bite them when I get distracted.”
Taako pursed his lips, humming. “Okay. I see.”
Magnus was rocking in his seat, legs bouncing up and down. He quickly stopped when he saw Taako come into the kitchen. “Oh, uh, hey.”
“Don’t stop on my account, my man.” Taako waved a hand at him, pulling things down to start cooking dinner. Magnus just shrugged and fiddled with the straw in his cup instead.
Taako was good, though, and had Magnus laughing and rocking again as he cooked, bantering with Magnus.
“Are you okay, Magnus?” Barry was looking weirdly at Magnus across the living area.
“Huh? Me? Yeah, I’m good.” Magnus did a quick self assessment. His hand was thrumming nervously against his chest. “Just thinking about stuff.”
Barry frowned, nodding. “You should go and talk to Taako.”
“Taako, why?” Magnus frowned, but stood up anyways.
“He can definitely help you. You’ve been doing a lot of nervous fidgeting lately.”
Oh, no. Magnus tried not to show his upset on his face. He was annoying everyone again. He wasn’t sure what Taako was supposed to do about it, but he was sure he was in trouble now.
He knocked on the door of Taako and Lup’s bedroom, chewing his lip and bouncing on the balls of his feet. Taako opened the door, pushing his bangs out of his eyes. “Maggie?”
“Hi, Taako.” Magnus waved nervously. “Um, hi. Barry told me I should come talk to you? I think I was annoying him because I was fidgeting.”
“You weren’t annoying him, dumbass.” Taako walked into his bedroom, waving Magnus inside. “Come here.” He leaned over his bed, grabbing a small velvety bag. “Sit down.”
Magnus perched on the edge of Taako’s bed, toying with his jacket zipper. Taako opened the bag, dumping the contents out on the bedspread. Magnus recognized them - he saw Taako carrying them around all the time. He was pretty sure they were some kind of magical artefacts or something. Magnus poked at one curiously.
Taako picked up the one Magnus had poked at - some kind of plastic coil - and put it in his hands. “Try it out, my man.”
“Um… I don’t know how to use magic, Taako.” Magnus felt stupid again, as always. Everyone on the ship could use magic but him.
Taako laughed. Magnus cringed, dropping the coil quickly. Taako quickly caught himself, grabbing Magnus’s wrist. “No, no, Magnus, I’m sorry. I’m not laughing at you, I just - these aren’t magic, dude.”
“They aren’t?” Magnus picked the coil back up gingerly.
“No, they’re stim toys. This one is called a tangle, here, you use it like this.” Taako unwrapped the coil, laying it in Magnus’s hands.
Magnus wrapped the tangle around his fingers curiously. It was nice. Magnus laughed. “Woah, cool!”
“Right?” Taako grinned. “You can keep that one, I have, like, 3.” He patted Magnus’s shoulder. “We should get you a chew too. You can’t use mine because ew, but you can borrow whatever else.”
Magnus leaned back against the wall, fidgeting with the tangle. “So I’m not bothering everyone?”
“No.” Taako snorted. “You’re so not, we love you, dweeb.”
Magnus grinned, putting an arm around him happily. “I love you too. Taako.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Taako snorted, leaning against him. “Don’t go around telling everyone.”
“I won’t.” Magnus smiled. “You’re a good friend, Taako.”
Taako showed Magnus the rest of his stim toys and let Magnus borrow a few. The rest of the crew had never seen Magnus as relaxed as he was that night, joining in the conversation happily with a tangle wrapped around his fingers.