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“So,” Lup asks, spinning around as Taako opens the bedroom door, “whatcha think?”
Lup stands in front of the full length mirror, radiantly happy and holding her arms out as she beams at him. Her eyelids are heavy with shimmery gold eyeshadow, her lips at their fullest, painted a deep blood red, and her dark hair falls in loose, glossy waves against her shoulders. She wears what had originally been a vintage mourning dress until she and Ren had gotten their hands on it, and made a few alterations. Now, it has a plunging neckline that’d make a corpse blush, a deep 'v' bodice covered in intricate black beading and embroidery. They’d removed a few layers of petticoat so she could fit through the door, making the skirt swish prettily when she walked, and added a long line of tiny buttons that trailed down her back. Ren had sewed a longer, lacy train from the extra petticoat, and used the last of the netting to make a veil that now hung from a pin on the wall. She strikes a pose with her fingers at her cheek, fluttering her hand, and the rough garnet in her gold ring flashes.
For the first time in their long lives, Taako will readily admit that today, Lup is certainly the prettier twin.
“I think it’s lucky Barold is already technically dead, cause you’re liable to give the guy a heart attack looking this good,” he tells her, and she beams.
"Hey, I got you something. An extra wedding gift, you know?" He tells her, and he pulls a cloth bundle from the inside of his jacket. "It's not exactly the same as Tía Lucía's, but I got it made to match the best I could," he tells her, unwrapping a mother of pearl comb, just like the one their aunt used to twist into Lup's hair when they played dress up as kids.
Her eyes go wide, and her hands go to her mouth. "Oh, Taako..."
"I mean, we're all something old at this point, right? Barry's your something blue," he teases, and she snorts a laugh, "something new," he nods at the comb, "andddddd," he pulls a charm off his hat, and fastens it to the bouquet sitting on the table. "Something borrowed."
"Taako! I love it, it's perfect, it's— " she starts, but Taako hold up his hands to stop her.
“I'm glad you like it", he grins, grabbing a box of hair pins off the nightstand and hopping up on the bed, "but we only got an hour, so we'd better get started on your hair.”
Lup sits on the low bench at the foot of the bed and Taako sits behind her, one knee on either side of her shoulders as he gently cards his fingers through her hair.
“So, you good?” He asks, sectioning out a lock and coiling it a curl. It’s not too late— heat,” he says, and Lup holds a hand to the curl, sending a puff of steam though her fingers— “not too late to duck out, you don’t have to marry a huge dork out of charity,” he teases, pinning the curl to let it set.
Lup grins and knocks her head against hand. “You’ve been calling Barry your brother in law since before we were even dating, you gotta find a new bit.”
“You’re right, I gotta go cut him that check for marrying my dork sister, actually,” he jokes, grinning at her reflection in the mirror. “I didn’t think he’d take the bet so far, really Lulu!” he says, trying to dodge the elbow she jabs at his knee. “Hey, you’ll fuck up your hair!”
“I’ll fuck you up, I don't care if it's my wedding day,” she grins, and he just laughs.
“But really, you’re good?” he asks again, gathering up another curl. “Heat. Like, no nerves?”
He watches her face go dreamy in the mirror as she steams her hair. “Tee, how could I be? It’s Barry, I just wanna be married to him already. I know it’s silly, we’ve been together forever, and technically married a few times, but like, you know, right?”
“Yeah, I think I might,” he says, trying to fight the blush off his cheeks as he starts twisting up a curl, but he should really know he can’t get anything past Lup. “Heat.”
“Do you? Really?”
“Yeah,” he admits. “I do.”
She gives his knee a soft squeeze, eyes shining. “I’m happy for you, babe, I really am, I—
The earpiece Taako wears crackles on, interrupting her, and Magnus’ voice, small and tinny, pipes into the room.
“Taako? Come in Taako? Rodger Rodger? Bearface to Mongoose Man, come in Mongoose, we have a situation. Over.”
“Magnus, you just press the button and talk, and let go when you’re done, it’s not a— What is it, Magnus?”
“Are you with Lup?”
“Yeah, fixing her hair just now, why?”
“Uh…. Can you come to you- know-who’s room?”
Lup grabs the mouthpiece, her eyes gone wide. “I’m right here, Magnus, what’s wrong with Barry? Bar, babe, you okay?”
Taako snatches it back. “It’s bad luck,” he tells her, and turns back to the earpiece. “Is it like, a real emergency?”
“…Yeah.”
“Fuck, fine, gimme a sec, I’ll be right there,” he says, switching the set off. “Okay,” he tells Lup, getting up and straightening his slacks. “I gotta go keep Barry from making a run for it or whatever, you're good to finish up your hair, right?”
“No? You’re the one who did all the first time, and it’s all in the back, and—” she starts, her voice getting higher, and Lup Taaco does not panic, as a rule, she has Barry to do that for her, but she sounds like she’s getting close.
“Okay, okay,” Taako says, holding out his hands and hoping he sounds large and in charge. “I’ll get… Carey. Carey can do your hair, no problem, I’m sure she’s great at braids.”
“Taako, she doesn’t have hair!”
“Okay, fair, good point. Uh… Killian, then. She’s very capable. I’ll see if anyone with a set is standing near Killian,” he says, going to flick on his headset.
“Taako, I don’t want my hair shaved! Taako, come on.”
“Lup.”
“Taako. It’s my wedding day. Please?”
Taako gives her a look, takes deep breath, and switches on the headset. “Hey, Krav, you there? Put Lucretia on.”
There’s a rustling, and a few moments later, he hears Lucretia.“Taako?”
“Can you come finish Lup’s hair? It’s that braid thing we did for the concert, you remember, right?”
She sounds… light. “Um, yeah, yes. I can delegate the set up… I’ll be up in a few minutes,” she promises, and Taako switches off the set and nods at Lup, giving her a look that clearly says “are you happy now?”
Lup gives him a look, a clear " no I am not and you know exactly why", so Taako begrudgingly switches the set back on.
“Thank you, Lucretia,” he says quickly, and then cuts the set off and unplugs the earpiece, stuffing both pieces in his pocket before she can respond.
He feels a little lighter himself, but he’s sure it’s just from the way it all made Lup smile, not the way Lucretia had sounded when he asked her for help.
“I’m going off the grid,” he says, pulling out his stone to text Kravitz to meet him in Barry’s room. “Text me if you need me, I’ll be back soon as I can. Hey, hey, Lup?” He crosses her room and wraps her in a huge hug, pressing a quick kiss to her forehead. “I love you, and I promise I’ll talk Barry into marrying you,” he tells her, and she pinches his side, shoving him off.
“Go see what’s up, he’s had one foot out the door for the past few decades,” she laughs, and Taako shoots her a wink as he leaves.
Taako gets gone before Lucretia can get up there, jogging across the venue to Barry’s room. He swings the door open to see Barry sitting on the edge of the bed in his button down and boxers, head in hands, the sheets a tangle and a chair overturned in the corner. Magnus wears a suit the same as Taakos, a deep red floral brocade with gold accents, and paces around the pillows thrown to the floor, running his hands up and down the sleeves of his suit like he’s thinking about making a last minute alteration.
“Barry, my man, what’s up? Lup’s still down to get hitched, if that’s what you’re worried about,” he jokes, but then Barry looks up with deeply panicked eyes.
“I— I lost the rings.”
“Huh. Kinda need those.”
“Look, so I was supposed to pick them up this morning, and I did, but I had ‘em in my pocket, and we already turned this room upside down, and, oh my gods, Lup—” Barry’s voice is starting to waver, and Taako cuts in before he can get there.
“We’ll go get more rings! Theres a jewelry store nearby, probably, cant take more than twenty minutes, find the real rings after.”
Magnus is already kneeling, lacing up his boots. “I can run out, no problem—”
“Guys, no, I can’t fuck this one up, we had the rings made special, got ‘em engraved and everything. Gods, Taako, she’s so excited about them. You know how she gets where she won’t admit it, but she kept getting them down from the closet and looking at them and—”
“Okay, okay. Deep breath, Barry. You know Lup would marry you no matter what, right? Like, cycle eighty, you weren’t even technically alive for the ceremony? Remember, you died pretty early on and she just kinda chucked the ring through you?”
“Yeah, and she was still really into it,” Magnus adds helpfully.
“Yeah, but it’s not just that. She wants a wedding, Taako, I want a wedding, with the rings and music and everyone . And she deserves it, she deserves everything! I want to- I want to give her this, after everything, I mean—”
Taako holds up his hands, palms out, and aims for soothing. “Listen, okay, new plan. Better plan. We got an hour. We got an hour! We’ll go find the rings.”
Barry looks down at his bare knees. “I mean, I guess I could get dressed real fast, I was supposed to go over the ceremony with Dav, but—”
“Ango could boy- detective ‘em, maybe?” Magnus adds.
“No, Ango’s playing for once, and with actual kids too,” he tells Magnus, tilting his head to the window overlooking the yard where Angus and Mavis were being chased through the bushes by Mookie. Well, they were probably playing. “And you gotta get fancy and keep everything nailed down here,” he says to Barry. “Mags, we’re gonna grab Merle- no, Merle has to get ready to officiate,” he realizes. “Okay, third plan best plan, you and I are gonna take care of this. We recovered the grand relics, we can go find a couple rings no problem, right?”
“For sure!” Magnus says, sounding not quite sure. “Are we, uh, gonna do the no killing thing today?”
“Magnus, who would we even need to—”
“Please do the no killing thing today,” Kravitz says, coming in the room, wrapping an arm around Taako and pressing a kiss to the crown of his head. “Who aren’t you killing, love?”
Taako feels the tension in his shoulders drain away as he leans into his touch. “Barry misplaced the rings, we gotta go get the rings, you gotta not tell Lup and also make sure Barry’s in his not-bluejeans in an hour,” he tells an increasingly bewildered Kravitz.
“That’s— okay. I can do that,” he decides, and Taako's chest warms and swells at just how nicely Kravitz fits into his weird little family.
“Hell yeah you can. Okay, Barry, help me out, where we goin’? Like, last place you had the rings?”
“I got them from the jewelers, and uh, I know I had them when I got back to the house,” he says, looking nervously at Kravitz, “and I did some work in the lab, and…”
“What, so they’re probably by your computer then?”
“Well, I—“
“Barry,” Kravitz starts, stern, “Do you mean the second, secret lab, the one where you and Lup do vaguely necromantic things that I absolutely don’t know about?”
Barry goes paler, somehow, achieving a shade of white scientists previously thought impossible. “How’d you know?”
“I don’t, is the thing,” Kravitz grins. “But if I did, it’d be because I was born six hundred years ago, not yesterday, and you and Lup aren’t half as sneaky as you think you are.”
“Wait, wait, Barold dearest, you were doing spooky scary necromancy on your wedding day? Like, oh, gotta profane the laws of death at three, get hitched at six, Barry, what?”
“I was,” Barry starts, pausing as Kravitz makes a big show of covering his ears, “I was finishing up a present for Lup!”
“You were—” Taako wrinkles his nose. “Barry, what are you giving my sister for your wedding?”
“Well, if you’re gonna be like that, I don’t want to tell you. ”
Taako chuckles and shakes his head. “Yanno, I’ve just decided that I love having secrets between us after a century of being friends. Look, just, where are looking for these rings?”
“I—okay,” Barry says, “So there’s”— Kravitz starts humming loudly— “it’s a panel with the keypad near the fire extinguisher, there’s a code—“
“Which one,” Taako asks, “y’all have like, a dozen down there.”
“The one mounted by the fire blanket, next to the safety shower, and you'll need the code” he continues, grabbing a pad of paper off the nightstand and sketching out a quick map, and scribbling out a string of numbers, tearing the sheet off and handing it to Taako.
Taako looks down at the note. “Really, Barold? You’re about to be a married man.”
“Taako, you know I let Lup pick the code.”
Magnus leans over and tilts his head to the side, frowning down at the note. “I don’t— ohhh, like the sex-weed number!”
“Yeah, bud, like the sex weed number.”
“So, punch that in, door pops open, and the rings are… somewhere on one of the tables? Or my workbench? They could’ve fallen out when I sat down?”
“Table or floor, or anywhere else, very vague, got it. Good luck, babe,” he tells Kravitz, planting a kiss on his cheek, “and you don’t worry about the rings, just focus on what you’re gonna say later, and maybe on some pants” he tells Barry. “Maggie, lets get.”
They make it Lup and Barry’s place in record time, and thanks to Garryl, all it costs them is some kind words and a handful of spectral oats. Taako casts Knock on the front door, and he and Magnus easily slip inside, and make it down to their basement lab which is, unfortunately, locked. He supposes that in all the stress, Barry forgot about the second keypad.
“Sixty-nine four-twenty?” Magnus asks, looking at the keypad outside the lab, but Taako shakes his head.
“Nah, they wouldn’t use the same code twice.” He fishes his wand back out of his pocket and tries to cast Knock again, but he should have known Lup and Barry were too careful with their work for that.
They stand there, looking at the keypad.
“Barry’s birthday? Lup’s birthday?” Taako thinks out loud, but Magnus hums like he’s not so sure.
“Try eight- zero- zero- eight- five,’ he suggests, and Taako rolls his eyes, but types the code in.
The door to the lab springs open.
“Well, fuck me I guess.”
There are a lot of fire extinguishers, though Taako can’t help but think it’s exactly the right amount for any lab with both Lup and Barry working. You’d think it’d be Lup, but he’d ran the numbers back in cycle sixty, and most of the lab fires on board were actually Barry’s fault. They locate the keypad after quickly consulting the diagram Barry drew, and after they type in the code, the wall folds in on itself, opening into Lup and Barry’s secret lab.
Magnus steps in first, and shrieks, jumping back into Taako.
“Fuck! I hate that they’re like this!” He says, shuddering, pointing at one of Barry’s bodies laid out on a slab, tools laid out around him.
Taako wrinkles his nose. “It’s ethical, or whatever,” he says, making air quotes around the argument he’s heard from Lup and Barry over dinner countless times. He puts his hands on his hips, and surveys the lab.
Whereas the first lab had been organized clutter, this one was pure chaos. The body tank (which he’s pretty sure they aren’t supposed to still have) stands in the corner, and papers and tools are piled on the stainless steel tables in the center of the room. Bookshelves line every available inch of wall, crammed full of books and manuscripts, and their desks— close enough they can hold hands while they work, gross, Taako notes— are piled high with all manner of equipment, books and notepads and candles and chalk and jars with fleshy bits in them that he doesn't really want to think about. Magnus sags as he realizes how difficult it’ll be to find two rings in all this mess.
“You take the right side of the room,” he says, shuffling through the mess of papers and tools on the floor, gesturing to the side with Barry’s body, “and I’ll take the left?”
“Fine.”
Taako starts over by Barry’s desk, and he can’t help stealing a peek at the notebook that lays open on his desk, and the glowing vial set next to it. It’s a necromantic spell, he realizes, Barry’s been retro-engineering Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting, and judging from the wilted petals and drawings of flowers on the page, he’s come up with a way to preserve bits of Lup’s bouquet. It’s, honestly, a deeply sweet gift. He shuffles the papers around on Barry’s desk- no rings.
“Any luck yet?”
“Nope.”
“Maybe we should’ve brought Merle,” Taako huffs as he squats, trying to peer under Barry’s desk. “Doesn’t he claim he’s a cleric or something? If I were in good with the lord, I’d be all, are you there, god? It’s me, Taako! Beam me up, we gotta chat !”
It’s no sooner than the words leave his mouth that Taako finds himself enveloped in a brilliant lavender light, and then his feet aren’t on the ground, he’s not in the gross lab anymore, he’s not anywhere actually. He floats in an endless expanse of light and energy, and he should be terrified, yes, but he feels so warm and safe, like he’s wrapped in a blanket after coming in from the snow, that he can't find it to really mind.
“MY DEAR, WHAT IS…UP?”
Taako squints into the nothingness. “…Lady Istus?”
“ YES ,” the voice booms, “YOU REQUESTED AN AUDIENCE?”
“I… guess I did? I, uh, didn’t know we were that tight?”
“WE ARE INDEED, AS YOU SAY, THAT TIGHT. TAAKO, MY DEAR, YOU ARE OF ME.”
Taako closes his eyes, but it doesn’t matter, the light permeates his every sense. “I’m what now?”
“DID YOU NOT REALIZE? IF YOU WERE TO DESIRE IT, AFTER YOU’VE EXHAUSTED YOUR TIME ON THIS PLANE, I WOULD GLADLY WELCOME YOU TO MY SERVICE.”
“Oh, dunk? I kinda thought I was gonna end up hanging out with RQ? You know, slicin’ up necromancers and that sort of thing?”
He feels Istus hesitate. “THE RAVEN QUEEN IS… OTHERWISE OCCUPIED WITH HER NEW RECRUITS,” and Taako snorts a laugh.
“Man, Lup and Barry are really that much of a handful?” He asks, and he can’t see Istus, but he senses that she nods, an exasperated fondness rolling off of her.
“MORE TO THE POINT, TAAKO, I CALLED DIBS.” She booms, and he can’t see her, and she is a goddess, but Taako gets the sense that she’s almost… nervous?
“Don’t get me wrong, this is chill as hell for me, Taako,” he says, gesturing at himself. “Gotta be honest, the ravens kinda freak me out? And really, I go for pastels more than the whole black and red lace look, but I gotta ask… why me?”
He feels her hum, thinking, and then the nothingness starts to shift and swirl around him. Where he was wrapped up, cradled before, he finds himself floating now, and when he blinks, he opens his eyes to an endless expanse of networks of red thread. He squints, trying to make sense of it all, and he feels his vision go blurry and his eyes burn as the threads shimmer like gasoline in a puddle.
“ DO NOT… FOCUS TOO HARD,” Istus warns, and Taako feels something cool and soothing wash over his face. “ THESE STRANDS OF FATE ARE NOT TECHNICALLY MEANT TO BE SEEN BY ANYONE BUT ME,” she tells him, “BUT I DO WANT TO MAKE MYSELF CLEAR”
“ THE SEVEN OF YOU,” she continues, gesturing to a tangle of threads, and Taako is able to quickly count seven strands, “ARE MAYBE THE MOST IMPORTANT PEOPLE IN THE MULTIVERSE.”
“I—”
“YES, YES,” she says quickly, and Taako gets the impression that she’s waving a hand at him. “ALL OF MY CHARGES, I LOVE THEM ALL EQUALLY, ALL VERY SPECIAL, YOU KNOW, BUT TAAKO, LOOK.”
He does look, or rather, he’s shown, how the one tangle of seven threads smooths into an intricate knotted pattern. They follow it along, and occasionally there’s a dropped stitch, a thread that loops away for a row, but the braid glistens and flows as he looks at it, the knots holding strong and fast.
As he looks, he feels Istus pass a hand over his eyes, and he’s bombarded by memories from early on in their voyage.
Taako kicks Lup in the shin while Davenport addresses them all at one of their first meetings, the one right after they’d just watched their home be destroyed, the one where Lup was cracking nervous jokes. He watches himself take her hand, and Davenport shoots him a grateful look as Lup quiets and snaps to attention as he speaks.
The scene shifts, and Taako see’s himself lolling against the door of the lab, letting Barry know what time he and Lup are headed out to study the animals, informing him that he’s gotta come with to write shit down, and telling him to lose the lab coat for once. From this new perspective, he can see the tiny smile start on Barry’s face as he nods and turns away to gather up supplies.
They fall, gently, and Taako's in the kitchen, where he stands at the counter conjuring up chocolate and baking a pan of brownies. He remembers this, their second year, he’s made brownies to celebrate Magnus’ return and new birthday once he regenerated. Now, he see’s Magnus sitting alone in his bunk, smiling down at the half-melted candle shaped like a ‘2’ that Taako had fashioned earlier.
Magnus fades out, and Taako see’s himself knelt in the plot of dirt in Merle’s green house. They don’t speak, but Merle digs a spade into the soil, and Taako follows behind, pouring handfuls of seeds, basil and sage and rosemary into the holes, heaping the soil into tiny mounds with their hands.
The scene snaps away as he see’s Merle turn to him and smile, and he’s replaced by Lucretia, sitting at the kitchen table, hunched over her journals writing as the rest of the crew dances in the common room. Taako watches as he walks up to her and holds out his hand. She shakes her head, but Taako says something and she laughs and takes his hand, grinning wide as she lets him spin her into the fray.
A wave of warmth washes over him, and Taako finds himself looking down at the threads again. The seven strands scatter and fray at the end, and three converge, one strand just a little more vibrant, and little shinier, wrapping around the other two. One of the other strings, pulled tight and tense, dances near the three, until all seven strands pull back close in a tangle, joined by new threads, with that one frayed string just on the periphery of the knot.
Taako studies the strands and something in his heart clenches, and then the vision cuts off, and Taako’s back in that light lavender space again.
“ TO SAY THAT THE LOVE BETWEEN YOU AND YOUR FAMILY, THAT YOUR HAPPINESS IS CRUCIAL TO THE UNIVERSE SEEMS… CONTRIVED, BUT IT’S NOT EXACTLY UNTRUE,” she tells him, and Taako feels a shiver run down his spine.
“AND TO THAT EFFECT, I BELIEVE YOU HAD A REQUEST? YOU WERE… WELL, I SUPPOSE, PRAYING, FOR LACK OF A BETTER TERM?”
Taako grins. “Yeah, I’m looking for Lup and Barry’s wedding rings? He lost ‘em, and the wedding’s in an hour. Well, I guess closer to twenty minutes, now.”
Taako feels Istus smile. “OF COURSE HE DID,” and with a wave of energy, Taako feels a slender box appear in his hands, dark stained wood with inlaid ivory patterns. He flips open the box, and two golden bands are nestled in the red velvet interior. He peers down at them, and realizes that they have dots and dashes etched into the inside, symbols he recognizes as the shorthand that they made up when they composed their duet at Legato. Nerds.
“These look about right,” he smiles. “Thank you. Where were they, though, anyway?”
He feels Istus huff a laugh and shrug. “UNDER THE GURNEY. IT APPEARS MAGNUS ACCIDENTALLY KICKED THEM WHEN YOU WALKED IN. YOU MOST LIKELY COULD HAVE FOUND THEM WITHOUT DIVINE INTERVENTION, BUT I ENJOYED THE VISIT NONETHELESS. ”
Taako snorts, and goes to put the box back in his pocket, but hesitates.
“YOU WOULD LIKE TO ASK ME FOR SOMETHING ELSE,” she says, and it’s not a question.
“Yeah, I- uh, I think I would,” Taako tells her, feeling a nervous heat work though his chest. “I mean, if it’s not too much trouble, as long as you’re like, granting wishes?”
“YOU ONLY HAVE TO ASK, TO THINK IT, ” she tells him, and Taako does, and he feels a light, cool energy pressing at his temples, swirling behind his eyes. The sensation fades, and Taako feels a pouch drop into his hands.
He opens his eyes and pulls at the pink velvet ribbon, shaking two rings out of the pouch into his palm. One is a thick gold band, a tiny polished sapphire set in it, and Taako smiles when he twists the ring around and see’s the etching on the inside of the ring, the outline a tiny, perfect vase. The other ring is more delicate, a thin gold band set with a perfectly round circle of sapphire, and he knows just by looking that it’ll fit perfectly on his finger.
Taako takes a deep, grateful breath and looks up into the light abyss, throat tight. “Thank you. for the rings, for the… thank you,” he repeats, and as he watches the light starts to pulse and swirl into the vague outline of a woman.
Lady Istus appears before him, her long braids floating around her shining face, her form wrapped in layers and layers of glorious shawls. She smiles at him, and Taako’s hit with a wave of warmth and love and care so powerful that if he had been standing, it would have knocked him over.
“OF COURSE, THIS HAPPINESS IS FATED. AND TAAKO, DON’T TELL ANYONE, BUT YOU ARE, IN FACT, MY FAVORITE,” she says, and with that, she and the light start to fade, and Taako can see the lab and Magnus start to come into focus all around him.
“Wait, wait!” He shouts, and everything around him freezes.
“…YES?”
“Speaking of fate, can we also be fated to make this wedding on time? Think you could like, zap us back to the venue?”
He feels her warm smile all around him.
“I THINK THAT CAN BE ARRANGED,” she says, and Taako feels every molecule of his body vibrate and shift in place.
Taako stands up in the side yard outside the house, brushing off his jacket as Magnus climbs to his feet next to him.
“We good?” He asks, and when Taako nods, he gives him a thumbs up and rushes around to the garden to take his place at the alter.
Taako jogs up to the guest house, taking a moment to adjust to adjust his hat before he swans in. Lup spins at the sound of the door, stress melting into relief. Her hair does look amazing, he has to admit, Lucretia outdid herself. Lup's curls are all gathered in loose braids that convene in a complex bun, and the veil is pinned in her hair with the comb.
“Thank fuck, Taako. Barry really is gonna think I ran out on him," she says, anxiously spinning her engagement ring on her finger. “You find ‘em?”
“What? We, we were… doin’ guy stuff, you know?” He stutters, hoping he’s at least halfway convincing. “Tres, or I guess, dos, horny boys stuff?”
She gives him a look, and he cracks. “Kravitz told?”
“Tee, I’ve known Barry for more than a century, the man loses his glasses while he’s wearing them, I know he lost the rings. But also, Kravitz isn’t half as smooth as he thinks.”
Taako sags a little, and laughs. “Yeah, I got ‘em,” he tells her, patting the pocket on his hip and holding out his arm. “You ready?” he asks, and Lup nods, folding her hand around the bend in his elbow and allowing him to lead her to door, pausing before they step out into the garden.
“Tee?”
“What’s up?”
“Thank you. For the rings, for the days you gave us both, for that thing about having all the time,” she pauses, and takes a deep breath. “Thank you, for everything.”
Taako swallows the lump in his throat. “It’s what you deserve,” he tells her. “What you both deserve.”
She smiles, and tilts her head back, blinking rapidly. “Fuck my mascara’s gonna go all streaky,” she laughs, swatting at his arm, and he knocks his hip into hers.
“I love you,” he tells her, and she grins at him as she dabs her eyes.
“Stop!” She says, laughing as she sniffles and blinks.“I love you, too.”
“C’mon, lets go make an honest man out of Barold,” he says, and they walk out of the house, into the soft evening light of the garden.
Candles line the aisle and bob in the air, casting a warm, flickering glow over all the guests. Everyone stands up from their ornately carved wooden chairs (Magnus had insisted, and no one had the heart to tell him no) as the music swells and Lup and Taako step up to the end of the aisle. Barry stands at the other end of the walkway under a wooden archway dripping with blood red flowers and deep green vines, dressed in a black suit that shines blue when it catches the light. He’s running his hands nervously through his hair, but then he catches sight of Lup, and Taako watches him fall apart and reassemble in real time.
His eyes go wide and he’s frozen for a moment, and then he snaps into a wide grin, a century of friendship and love and trust rolling across his face, mapping into every crease of his smile, every wrinkle at the corner of his eyes. His hands drop to his side and he visibly relaxes, posture going soft and easy. He swallows, hard, and his eyes shine as he stares, transfixed, at Lup as she walks towards him.
When they’d practiced, Taako and Lup had stepped slowly in time with the music, and Taako had walked her to the alter, gently taking her hand and clasping Barry’s. Now, Lup all but drags him to the front. Taako laces his fingers with Lup’s, and takes Barry’s hand, giving it a gentle squeeze, and places his hands in hers. They stand like that a moment, holding hands and grinning wildly as Taako lets go and takes his place at the alter next to Lucretia, and then Lup pitches forward, wrapping her arms around Barry and planting a red kiss on his cheek.
Barry laughs, everyone laughs, and Barry halfheartedly swipes at the lip print.
“’S bad luck,” he tells her, but Lup grins and shakes her head, arms still around him.
“Babe, we’re way past bad luck at this point,” she giggles, taking his hands again and walking the last few steps up to the alter, where Merle stands at a podium festooned with flowers.
Taako lets his eyes wander as Merle recites the standard lines about love and commitment, the pouch in his pocket burning his thigh as he catches sight of Kravitz in the second row of the audience. He sits next to Angus, and as he watches, Angus shuffles just a little closer, his shoulder just touching Kravitz’s. Kravitz turns to Angus and picks a leaf off his collar, a remnant of his earlier game of tag with Mavis and Mookie, and Taako thinks he might burst.
He snaps his eyes back to his sister as she begins her vows.
She stands, clasping Barry’s hands, and though he cant see her face, Barry’s wearing the goofiest love struck grin he’s seen on him yet, and Taako’s willing to bet that Lup’s wearing her half of the matching set. She takes a deep breath, and begins to speak.
“Barry, meeting at the end of the world is just about the fuckin’ weirdest way to get a date I can imagine. Knowing you has been marked by running, and hiding, and losing so, so, much, and thinking that all our efforts were, at the end, just insignificant. It should be sad, and it should be awful, and it should be terrifying, but since I’ve realized I love you, I haven’t been afraid, not even for a second.” She stops, and Taako hears her swallow, hard. “You make me stronger, you make me braver, Barry, you make me better. I spent ten years without you, I didn’t know where I was, what I was, if I even was, but I knew you were somewhere, that you'd never stop looking for me, and being scared was impossible. It’s not that everything’s been wonderful since we’ve met, actually, it’s been a lot of the exact opposite,” she chuckles, “but with you, it’s always at least a little better. Barry, you are my friend, my partner, my love, and I never want to be without you again.”
Lup finishes and dabs at the tears in her eyes with her pinky, and Taako realizes he has no idea what Barry’s about to say. He had spent the past few months writing and rewriting his vows, calling Taako nearly nightly, cutting a portal directly into their living room a few times and absolutely ruining date night. He’d borrowed Taako’s books on Elvish customs, used the planar belts to travel home and find copies of the romantic poetry their aunt had read them when they were kids, he’d even pulled out their old lab reports to scour for ideas. Barry wouldn’t admit it to Taako, but he knew he’d been seeing Lucretia just as much, he’d recognized her spindly handwriting on some on his drafts. He’d called in Krav’s expertise, and even invited Magnus and Davenport over for dinner and made everyone listen to the top contenders. In typical Barry fashion, he’d ended up with half a dozen vows, each pages and pages long, with no idea which one to pick.
Barry exhales a long, breathy sigh.
“Lup, I spent so, so long trying to find the perfect words for you,” he says, voice rough and eyes shining. A ripple of laughter goes through the crowd, and Taako can’t help but smile. “I wasn’t even sure this morning what I was going to say, I’ve got, like, half a dozen essays upstairs,” he admits, "if you wanna read 'em later. I kept trying to figure out how to express just how much I love you, Lup, because I’ve wanted to marry you for so long, and I’ve loved you for even longer. Well, I realized that that’s just it. I’ve spent so long not being married to you, and anything I say now just makes that wait a little longer. So, Lup Taaco, I love you more than anything, and Merle, will you just fucking marry us already?”
Lup laughs, wheezing through a tiny sob, and squeezes his hands, bringing them to her lips for a soft kiss.
Merle grins, and nods to Taako. “The rings?”
Taako steps forwards and flips open the box. He passes one ring to Lup, closing her hand around the ring as he plants a gentle kiss on the high of her cheek. He turns to Barry and hands him the second one, patting his hand and giving him a wink before he steps back into his place.
“Barry Sildar Hallwinter Bluejeans,” Merle says, desperately trying to keep a straight face through Barry’s name, “Do you—”
“I do, ’till the end of time, and honestly, they way things typically go for us, probably longer after that,” he interrupts, holding out his hand and beaming as Lup slides the ring on his finger.
“And Lup Taaco, do you—”
“I abso-fucking-lutely do,” she says, grinning at Barry as he puts the ring on her hand. “C’mon, Merle, marry us up.”
Merle looks at them so, so fondly, with an almost palpable warmth. “I always was rooting for you two,” he tells them.
Lup laughs wetly and her hands go to Barry’s cheeks, and Merle barely finishes the phrase “husband and wife” before Lup’s in Barry’s arms, and he's wrapping her in a massive hug, lifting her off the ground as she kisses him soundly. They break apart, and Lup turns to the audience, their hands laced together as she throws her arms up in the air, laughing. “Alright team, lets go get after that cake!”
The reception goes off a lot smoother than the ceremony. Everyone files into the hall, and the food is brought out quickly, overseen by Ren and Taako. Taako stands at the door to the kitchen with a handful of forks, spot tasting as the dishes are rolled out, but he really doesn’t know why he bothers. Ren was in charge, of course it’s all perfect. The hall goes quiet as everyone starts to eat, and then another round of drinks gets passed around, and everyone’s laughing and cheering.
Lup and Barry sit at a table at the front of the hall, barely eating, but clutching each others hands, foreheads together as they smile and whisper to each other. Then, Killian gets up and taps her silverware against her glass, calling for a kiss, and it’s not long before Barry has one hand on Lup’s jaw, and the other wrapped around his fork and clinking his own glass, until they break apart a moment later, red faced and giggling and calling for speeches. It's customary for the best man to give a speech, he knows, but so much of the world knows their story that Taako decided to save his words for after the reception, once everyone else has left, something for just them and their family.
Magnus kicks off the festivities instead, he gets up and gives a speech that quickly dissolves into tears, but he does manage to promise Lup and Barry the dog of their choice, and a new dining set before he loses it. He gives up midway though, electing to wrap Lup and Barry up in a massive hug instead, kissing them each on the cheek.
Davenport, not as much for public speaking as he once was, recites a measured speech about how he came to know both Lup and Barry, and what a privilege it was to watch them grow as people separately, and then together. It’s short, but Barry’s eyes are shining when Davenport shakes his hand, and tears are streaming down Lup’s cheeks as she bends and throws her arms around him. Taako’s eyes might be a little moist too, but that’s besides the point.
Lucretia’s speech is nice, probably, it’s just that it’s probably time to go get the cake from the kitchen when she has to start up. Nothing personal, of course, but while he’s in there, he might as well pour himself another glass of wine, and spend a few minutes making sure all the flowers on the cake look perfect.
He wheels the cake back out to applause, to Lucretia hugging Lup, and Barry giving her a solemn nod, and the night unspools from there. Lup and Barry cut the cake, and Barry doesn’t even try to dodge the handful of cake Lup smashes into his face. He just stands there, shaking with laughter as she smears the frosting around his closed mouth, before grabbing her around the waist and dipping her into a deep, sugary kiss. They dance, Barry almost keeping up as Lup spins him around the floor, blushing deep to a recorded version of them playing their duet. They make it a solid forty five seconds into the song before Barry looks at the crowd and gestures, desperately, for them all to join in, looking relieved when Killian and Carrey twirl onto the dance floor. The music switches to something fast and joyous, and the hall shakes as everyone stomps and twists and jumps. Mavis and Mookie and Angus weave through the crown, hands sticky with cake and grinning as they chase each other, and Merle performs a slightly sanitized version of his interpretive dance from Legato, to Lup’s delight and everyone else’s dismay.
Taako dances with Lup first, something quick and flashy, twisting and spinning her around as she laughs. He shakes his hips out of time like he used to when they were kids, goofing off in their aunt’s living room, dancing just to make each other laugh, and Lup shimmies her shoulders, and breaks into a terrible robot, just for fun.
He turns to Barry, and dancing is just about the only thing Barry didn’t manage to get any better at after some hundred odd years, but Taako spins him around just the same, catching his arm when he trips over his own feet.
Then he finds himself wrapped up in Kravitz’s arms as the music switches into something romantic, and they’re twirling slowly, drifting across the dance floor. His shoulder is just the right height for Taako to lay his cheek on, and his hand fits into his perfectly, long fingers rubbing circles into his palm as they spin. Kravitz gives his hand a gentle squeeze, and Taako straightens, pulling back just enough to look at him. He’s smiling soft and sweet, and Taako feels gooey with love.
“I love you,” Kravitz tells him, pressing a gentle kiss to his temple, “and I love being here with you. Taako, I… I love being anywhere with you. You’re,” he stops, blinking as he takes a deep breath, “you’re more than I could have ever hoped for,” he tells him, and Taako drops his hand, wrapping both arms around him.
They’re not dancing anymore, just swaying in place as they hold each other. He’s warm in Taako’s arms, and he can feel just the faintest heartbeat in Kravitz’s chest, sounding in time with his own.
“I love you too,” he tells him, the words catching on the way out of his throat. “And wherever I am… I’d like it if you wanted to be there too,” he says. Kravitz nods, his chin sharp against the soft of Taako’s shoulder, and Taako melts into him.
They sway thorough the rest of the song, and then the music changes, and Kravitz is all gleaming smiles as Taako takes his hands and leans back on his heels, spinning them in a tight, fast circle. Kravitz laughs as Taako gets real low, all knees and elbows as he does a terrible approximation of the chicken dance, and copies him the best he can.
Eventually, he’s gasping and out of breath, and with a quick kiss to Kravitz’s cheek, he makes his way over to the bar, helping himself to one of the bottles of champagne. He scans the ballroom as he refills his glass, and spots Lucretia alone at a table on the other side of the ballroom, small smile playing on her face as she watches everyone dance. Taako takes a gulp of champagne, tops up his glass, and pours a second flute before making his way over to her table.
“Lup’s hair looks good,” he tells her, handing her the glass as he plops into the chair next to her, watching the crowd.
“The food was perfect,” she says, and he doesn’t hate the smile he hears in her voice.
“What’s the timeline look like, with all the bee- oh- bee stuff?”
Lucretia takes a sip of champagne and hums a question.
“I mean, Lup and Barry said it look some doing for you and everyone to be able to take the weekend off to come,” he says. “What’s the next year look like, would you be able to…?”
“Well, I— I suppose another weekend would be possible, if there were to be an event you wanted me to attend.”
Taako looks into his glass and nods, hand in his pocket as he toys with the ribbon on the small pouch.
“Of course, the more notice the better, if you had a rough idea of when you’d want everyone free,” she trails off carefully, and Taako scans the dancing crowd.
“Maybe a year,” he says, watching Kravitz is dance near Barry and Lup, head thrown back, laughing. As he watches, Kravitz bends to scoop up a giggling Angus, putting him on his shoulders and holding his hands as they bop around. “Mmmm, no, six months,” he decides.
Lucretia smiles, following his gaze. “Just say the day, I’ll make sure we can all be there.”
Taako heart swells and presses at the edges of his chest as Magus lifts Angus off Kravitz’s shoulders, and Lup takes his hands, spinning him in a twisty, elaborate pattern. Kravitz picks her up and they laugh as he twirls her around, laughing even harder when Barry has to dodge her flailing limbs.
“I think I’ll know a date by tomorrow,” he tells her, “and then I’ll call you the day after,” he says. They sit in silence, and as he watches his family laugh together, he thinks about Istus, thinks about the memories he ran through earlier, thinks about those seven red strings. Taako drains his glass and gets to his feet, and he turns, holding out a hand. “C’mon Creesh, you wanna dance?”