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Taako woke up to the early December light pouring through the crack in his curtains and landing just so across his face rousing him from the meditation he was in.
Gross.
He stretched out under the covers, enjoying the sheets against his skin. He was a little hungover but that was alright, holidays parties were when you're supposed to get smashed. And he was still perfectly functional enough to get Angus up and ready for his Parent-Teacher conference later today.
He rose from the bed and got dressed, button-up, slacks, suspenders. He was full-on professional dad (™) today.
He went into the hall and gave Angus's door a gentle rap with his knuckles.
"Rise and shine short stack. I'm gonna make breakfast soon."
There were soft noises of complaint from the other side of the door but he knew Angus would get up without any trouble.
So he made for the kitchen, realizing with a start that he could smell... bread?
As he rounded the corner, he stopped dead seeing a man in his kitchen, puttering around making use of the toaster, his shirt hanging open showing off expanses of skin.
Absolutely delicious expanses of-
Oh, fuck last night. Right.
"Hello, beautiful, I hope you don’t mind me using the toaster, I ordered us some bagels, I got a variety as I didn’t know what you like."
"Kravitz, I am sorry, but you need to get out now."
Kravitz's smile fell, "Did I do something to offend?"
"No, you didn't, you were great, are great, and I'd love to see you again if you even want to hear from me after this but my kid is home and I didn’t think before bringing a guy back here and the last guy I brought around was a real dick and left us a lot worse for wear. I don’t want to get his hopes up before I know you."
"Oh!" Kravitz began buttoning his shirt rapidly, "you have a son?"
"Yes and he's eleven and he really can't know you’re here and I just told him to get up."
"Alright, that's fine, not what I expected this morning really," Kravitz said with a good-natured laugh as he hopped on one foot dragging his shoes on, "however I would love to see you again regardless, perhaps in a setting I can remember more of."
Taako melted a little at that, "you're a real sweetheart."
When the other man stood he dragged him in for a kiss on the cheek.
Kravitz smiled, "keep the bagels, and have a good breakfast, I believe got your number last night so-"
"Mr. Kravitz?"
They both froze, then turned in horror to the little boy behind them.
"Ah," Kravitz said weakly, having found his words first, his accent shifted abruptly, "Well if it isn't the young Mr. McDonald."
"You two know each other??" Taako said weakly.
"Mr. Kravitz is my orchestra teacher," Angus said, not taking his eyes off the man.
Fuck.
That's why the name had sounded familiar.
Angus spoke with suspicion in his voice, "I'd ask what you're doing here but based on the cheek kiss I think I can guess."
"I should go," Kravitz said, he turned and gave Taako a regretful look, "I um- apologize for the intrusion. Goodbye."
And with that, he marched out the front door and shut it with a click.
"... mornin’ kiddo," Taako tried, the tension felt palpable "I can explain I-
"We dont have to talk about it yet," Angus said, "you look like you need coffee first. But uh, one thing you should know?"
"What's up, little dude?"
"I also have Mr. Kravitz for homeroom."
Taako's stomach plummeted, "meaning…"
Angus nodded, "meaning he's the one who'll be conducting my conference today."
"Fun," Taako wheezed, "Any chance you wanna change our names and leave the country?"
"Dad, I think this is like what Grandpa Merle says, 'you opened this can of beans, now you have to lie in it.'"
"You mad at me?" Taako asked, pulling the bagel out of the toaster for Angus.
"Nope! This actually makes the matchmaking shenanigans I was going to pull later pointless. Now I get to just watch the two of you be deeply uncomfortable for half an hour!"
"You are an evil little boy," Taako said placing the plate in front of him, the bagel was blueberry, Taako slid him the container of cream cheese, "Drink some juice with that, you should get at least a vitamin."
He started the coffee maker.
*
"Hello sir!" Angus said cheerfully, strolling into the room.
"Hello Mr. McDonald, you're well I trust?" Kravitz said, face tense.
"Yep, thank you for the bagels by the way, how was the rest of your morning?"
Kravitz appeared to be in physical pain, "It was good, thank you."
"Angus that's enough bullying your teacher, come on let's just sit down and talk about how smart you are. Hello," Taako said, doing his best to act unbothered, and sitting down across the table from Kravitz.
"Hello. And yes. We do have some things to go over here. So I imagine it comes as no surprise to you that Mr. McDonald is certainly ahead of his peers in academic regards and has excellent grades in almost every class."
Taako smiled, "Almost every class? I like the sound of that, did you finally get an F so I have proof you’re a real child and not a robot?"
Kravitz looked a bit befuddled but amused.
"I assure you I am a flesh boy, I just enjoy my work."
"I believe it, munchkin, now tell me about this ‘almost’."
Kravitz looked at the boy and asked, "Would you like to explain?"
"So I have a C…" Angus said, seeming a touch nervous.
"It's not his fault," Kravitz said, "I spoke with the teacher and he claimed that Angus here has been 'disrespectful and obstinate' he also claims he called the teacher stupid but seriously I doubt all of that."
"I would never call someone stupid!" Angus complained, "I told him he was underinformed on the topic at hand, and he might want to brush up on his understanding of the topic before he continued teaching it wrong."
"What topic?" Taako said, with an arched eyebrow.
"Planetary orbits, he thinks the solar system is all orbiting the same direction like a disk! He told me to shut up and I told him not to speak to me that way because I am a person who deserves basic respect and I offered to take it up with the principal. And he gave me an F on the solar system model because I used a spell to make mine rotate accurately and he said magic was cheating."
Taako hissed through his teeth, "oof okay that's shitty. Do you want to transfer classes?"
"No, If it's alright by both of you I’ll take the bad grades and start slowly breaking his spirit by being loudly more scientifically accurate than him."
"Fine by me little dude, I'm not worried about your grade in an astronomy elective, you helped design a space shuttle, I think your good."
"Did you really?" Kravitz said with surprise on his face.
"Yep! I have done four summer internships for the IPRE."
"Oh! Congratulations I suppose. And yes there really isn't anything else academic," He addressed Taako, "he's an excellent student and he also is fairly popular among his peers."
"Could have fooled me, I am yet to meet any of your friends except Mavis."
"Really? Not even the other thundermen?" Kravitz asked. Angus hushed him quickly.
"’Thundermen’?"
"It's nothing, if that's all we should go!" He said quickly, grabbing Taako's hand and dragging him towards the door. Taako laughed following until Kravitz's voice stopped him.
"Taako, if I may be so bold," he lowered his voice, so only Taako could hear, "I hope this isn’t overstepping, but this was my last meeting today, and if you two aren't busy I was wondering if you'd like to join me at the ice rink. I heard many students were going today and Angus could skate and we could talk perhaps?"
Taako smiled, and turned to his son, "What do you think kiddo, wanna go skating?"
"Yes! That’d be so cool!"
*
Taako sipped at a latte he'd stopped to grab on the drive here watching as Angus shakily slide out onto the ice before getting his bearings and taking off in the direction of a group of kids, calling after them.
"Glad to see those lessons Maggie gave him last winter stuck," Taako hummed, "So Mr. Conductor Man, let's get the big question out of the way. Are you about to get fired?"
"No, its frowned upon but it's fine. The rules said that all grades of the affected student have to be passed under inspection by another teacher or administrator for final approval to ensure no favoritism or overly harsh scrutiny is taking place but otherwise parent-teacher relations are completely okay."
"Date alot of parents?" Taako raised an eyebrow.
"What?"
"You just knew those rules pretty well."
"Oh! No. No, I ah- I was reading the handbook earlier today between conferences to double check."
"Well I'm glad to hear it, because frankly if I got you fired Ango would never forgive me. So I guess the other thing here is, now that you know who the kid is, have I scared you off?"
"What? Of course not I-"
"Don’t bullshit me here, half the reason I kicked my ex out was that he started talking about how someone needed to and I quote 'put that little smartass in his place' and if that's the direction this train is headed I'd rather just dump my coffee on you and tell you to hit the road now."
Kravitz's gaze became subtly sharper
"What's his name?"
"Why?"
"I'd like to find some coffee to pour on him myself."
"Pffft well don’t worry, he's doing time now, killed like a dozen people and tried to frame me," Taako told him.
"Oh Sweet Goddess, really?" Kravitz looked startled and Taako kicked himself.
Nice going, dump all the crazy on the cute guy who doesnt mind you having a kid. Great work, Taako.
"Ready to run for the hills yet?" He asked with half a smile.
Kravitz shook his head a small smile creeping onto his face, "Previously a murder suspect, raising a sweet kid who apparently build spaceships as a summer gig, anything else interesting you neglected to mention last night?"
"Hmmm I have a catering company that I co-own with my twin sister, I surf alot, and I'm a retired astronaut."
Kravitz looked at his silently a long moment before starting to chuckle, "Oh okay, okay you had me for a second there I-"
Taako stopped him, "No, I’ve literally been to space. You remember that expedition like four years ago? I was part of that. I lived in space for a year."
"Holy shit."
"I also used to have a TV show. You ever watch Sizzle It Up?"
"Holy Shit. How- how have you even had time for all these things?? Who took care of Angus while you were in space??"
"Oh he wasn't my son then, I only adopted him like six months after I got back."
Kravitz made an 'oh!' Face and mouthed the word ‘adopted’ but nodded, "Yes that makes sense."
Taako cackled, "Were you sitting here trying to figure out the punnet square that led to me having a human kid?"
"Full disclosure, I absolutely was, you two look nothing alike even outside of species."
A laugh left Taako without his permission.
"I like you, you're fun," Taako said, "No see, we met soon after I arrived home, he got taken on for an outreach program where kids interested in science, tech, engineering, or magics can come do this summer camp type program at the IPRE for like a week and he was a super cool little dude so the captain invited him on as sort of an intern. Ango actually ended up being genuinely helpful when our science officer miscalculated on some pressure differentials for a new ship we were designing. Angus caught it. I offered to take him and his family out to dinner and that's when I found out he was an orphan. I guess the captain knew and that’s part of why he offered the internship."
"Wow so he saved your lives," Kravitz said.
"We probably would have caught it before it got to that point but he did save us thousands of gold in not having to replace half the plating of the ship."
"Huh."
"And what about you? The man I met at the Candlenights party was goth if I recall, and I get having to dress professional for work but a tweed jacket?"
Kravitz didn’t meet his eyes, speaking into the rim of his coffee cup, "Bold words from a man I've seen check me out three times since we got here."
Taako flushed, he was not as subtle as he thought apparently, "I never said I didn’t like it, the elbow patches are definitely part of the appeal. How'd you get into teaching anyway?"
"Always wanted to, I was raised Very strictly religious, and technically I started out as a paladin before I took off into bard. But that was never really my thing and I accidentally ended up in a high school jazz band class because of a scheduling mix-up and… I don’t know it changed everything. And now I'm here. And my students mean the world to me."
"Speaking of which it seems some are heading this way," Taako pointed out Angus coming their direction with three other kids in tow behind him.
"Well if it isn't the Thundermen," Kravitz said with that british accent again and an indulgent smile, "Sir Fitzroy, Captain Argo, Master Firbolg.”
"Hello Mr. Kravitz," Said the shortest of the three, clearly the leader of this little group as evidenced by the little nudge he gave Angus.
"Can my friends come have a sleepover tonight?" Angus asked, seeming a little embarrassed.
"So these are the mysterious Thundermen you were being so secret about huh?"
Angus blushed, "Perhaps…"
"You kids go ask your responsible adults, if they’re alright with it your perfectly welcome over for the night."
"Thank you!" Angus said.
The half-elf and genesi boys shot out across the ice in the directions of two women standing near the edges of the rink too. The Firbolg pulled out a small gargoyle statue from his pocket and cradled it in his hands.
"Gary…. May I... stay at my friend's house tonight?"
"Uhhh lemme check with the others…. Uh yeah, it's cool but your gonna have to clean up your section of the cave when you get home tomorrow."
"I will… I have been very diligent with… the chore chart."
"That's true, you have. Have a good time with the Thundermen!"
"Thank you, Gary," He said slowly and then placed the statue back in his hoodie pocket and looked at Taako, "The Garys say it is alright."
Huh. Well who was Taako to question someone's living situation, "cool."
Soon all the parents' permission had been acquired and the boys were all eager to leave the ice rink. All of them over returning their skates to the rental booth.
Taako turned to the man who had made this day interesting and said, "Listen I'm being summoned away by the knights of the cafeteria table here but you should text me. I'd love to hear more about you and an explanation on that fucking accent you did a minute ago."
Kravitz smiled glancing at his shoes, "oh that, you ready to run for the hills yet?"
"Nah I think I'm just more interested now, my guy," Taako said.
"Then I'll text you later. Goodbye Taako."
"TTYL," Taako said strolling away.