Work Text:
”Sit on him, Taako,” Merle said, one finger pointing from Magnus to Taako and back. The big guy had touched something and was in the throes of a contact high before Merle had cast Sleep on him. Magnus had toppled like a particularly big tree, and even with clever application of magic, they hadn’t had an easy time of getting him into his tent and bedroll.
“But he’s knocked out!” Taako whined back, even while in the process of sitting down by Magnus’s bedroll. Never contradict Merle when he uses that tone, that was something both Taako and Magnus had learnt early on in their adventuring days.
“We both know he doesn’t respond… properly to spells, Taako,” Merle scoffed, not waiting for a rebuttal before leaving Magnus’s tent. Two seconds later he stuck his head back through the flap. “We don’t know what that thing he touched will do to it either, so you sit on him.”
Taako narrowed his eyes at the closed tent flap. He had not signed up for this adventuring gig to babysit his companions – he carefully disregarded the fact that he hadn’t really… signed up for the adventuring gig at all.
He kept muttering, only interrupted ever so often by Magnus’s deep, reverberating snores. The human usually didn’t snore, so it was a bit of a novelty to hear it. It was a very big sound coming from an equally big man, and Taako had a feeling it could be heard for miles around.
Deciding to make the best of the situation, which was the closest thing Taako had ever gotten to being grounded, he thought he might as well do some meditating. He’d notice if Magnus woke up, and this was as good a time as any really. After another glance around the tent, Taako took a deep breath and then sank into himself.
“Are you an angel?” Taako startled himself out of his meditation at the words, Magnus having woken up so quietly Taako hadn’t noticed it until he spoke. Considering how loudly he had been snoring, the lack of noise really should have alerted Taako to something.
“Wha-? Mags, what are you talking about?” Taako sputtered, still a bit off-kilter from the abrupt ending of his meditation.
“Are you an angel?” Magnus asked again, voice and expression just as earnest the second time. Taako kept sputtering, not able to do much more than stare at Magnus in abject confusion.
“Wha- I- why are you – what do you mean, am I an angel?” Taako finally managed to sputter out, proud of the approximations of words he managed to form at least.
“You’re the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen.” Had it been physically possible, Magnus sounded like his eyes would have been heart-shaped. “What’s your name?”
Taako just looked at him in terrified confusion. This was pretty much everything he’d ever dreamt of, but Magnus’s eyes were just – empty. Taako had never seen him as emotionless as he was then, which was saying something. It was an absolutely terrifying sight.
Of course, Magnus managed to convey adoration and some kind of devotion? Worship? But it was all just a veneer, pasted over where Magnus should have been.
Magnus sat up from his prone position in his bedroll, reaching his hands in supplication towards Taako, and Taako reacted the only way he knew how. He knocked Magnus out and tied him up.
When Magnus next came to, it was with his hands tied behind his back – not much slack in the rope, but probably enough that given a short time he could break them – and an embarrassing clarity of thought. It was the work of seconds to wiggle around until he was upright, kneeling on his bedroll.
Taako was still in the tent with him, meditating – but this time he had his Umbrastaff in a tight grasp, almost but not quite pointed at Magnus. He cleared his throat, and this time Taako didn’t startle out of his meditation in quite the same way he’d done the first time.
“Hi,” Magnus said, wanly. He quirked a tiny smile Taako’s way, which Taako met with narrowed eyes and a suspicious look. “I think I’m not weird anymore.”
“What’s my name?” Taako asked, as brusquely as he could ever sound. Considering what Magnus had said to him earlier, he wasn’t surprised he was a bit brusque.
“I know you, Taako, I was just a bit – out of it, before.” Magnus winced, looking away from Taako. It wasn’t his proudest moment.
“…d’you remember everything?” Magnus whipped his head back around to look at Taako, who was studiously not looking at him. Had the elf not been as fair as he was, Magnus never would have noticed the blush – but he did, and it gave him hope.
“I remember…” Magnus answered, words drawn out. Taako’s ears twitched, but he still wouldn’t look at Magnus, fiddling with his clothing and with the Umbrastaff instead. “Everything I said was true, you know.”
Taako’s ears stopped twitching, remaining upright and as tense as Magnus had ever seen them. Very, very slowly he turned his head to look at Magnus, violet eyes wide open as he stared. Magnus tried to look as earnest as he possibly could, which probably would have been easier if he hadn’t been tied up.
“You are the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen, I’m just sorry I had to be drugged to say it,” Magnus said staunchly, not looking away from Taako, no matter how uncomfortable he was with feelings. “In fact, I think I love you, and I’m very sorry if that makes you uncomfortable, but I don’t know how to stop.”
Had Magnus not been tied up with his hands behind his back, he probably wouldn’t have toppled when Taako threw himself in his lap, but considering Taako landed curled up on Magnus’s chest, he wasn’t complaining.
It took a few moments of tensing his muscles, shoulders swelling beneath the leather mail he wore before the rope around his wrists snapped and he could wrap his arms around the elf in his lap.