Archive of Our Own

There’s a customer waiting for Kravitz, and he considers melting into the shadows never to be seen again about it, but he goes up to the counter with an LED smile and no vitriol in his cold, glassy eyes, he promises. 

“How can I help you?” he asks, in his Customer Voice ™. The woman looks incredibly impatient, like she’s trying to punish him with her mind for taking so long to come answer her question, even though she’s the one that approached the empty counter and not, you know, someone in the sleek and sexy black apron that distinguishes the Nevermore employees from the regular old book munchers. 

“ Good afternoon, ” she says, pointedly. “I’m looking for books on manifesting powers. My daughter’s turning ten, and we expect any day now that she’ll be showing the world her wonders.” 

“Oh, congratulations?” Kravitz says. “I’ll check with the system.” It’s a bit of a touchy subject, and that kind of thing is on the shelf right next to the puberty books, so, you know, not exactly his personal area of expertise. It’s not like he works here for the sick paycheck. He’d rather read, or you know, do plenty of other things, but the job market was rough and his mama was pleased to have someone to keep an eye on her place, especially when she’s gallivanting off in beautiful postcard places far away. He’s not jealous. Hush up about it, maybe.   

“Looks like,” he waits for the system to load the titles, which the woman looks pretty frustrated about. “We have, um. My Body, My Knack, and Me, we’ve got, uh. Essays on Discovering my Special Talents, we’ve got, The Realities of Super Powers: Another Skill to Learn, and a few more, do any of those…strike your fancy?” 

“Sure,” she says curtly. “Where are they?”

“Right this way, ma’am,” Kravitz says, not wishing any sort of anything on her at all, for sure, for sure, for sure, and he shows her where to find them. 

“We just know she’s going to be amazing,” the woman goes on, like Kravitz asked or something. “She could pick up charm, like me,” so true? “Or super strength, like her father, although between you and me, I hope she doesn’t, it’s such a masculine knack, and I don’t want her to get made fun of. It’s already such an issue that she’s a late bloomer. I know I started showing signs when I entered Kindergarten. We’ve been hoping and hoping- When did you present yours?” 

Wild assumption, incredibly forward question to ask a stranger, but cool! Very normal. Kravitz fucking loves retail. Taako’s going to hear about this, when he finally steals a break to go visit him in the cafe half of the building. You would not fucking believe, he’ll say, and then Taako will come back with That’s nothing, I had to put pickles in a smoothie today, and Kravitz will have to nod and laugh and not be obviously in love with him, you know, in the regularest way. 

“Uh,” he says, because as long as he paused there, he didn’t actually come up with any useful thoughts to show for it. Fucking Taako, distracting him again. “My mom is precognitive, and I started to have little visions when I was, uh…I guess four? But mostly they’d present as migraines and anxiety, and if I did get a vision, it was usually pretty inconsequential. We all kind of hoped I’d get shadow powers like my mama, but, you know, oh well?” 

“Oh,” the woman says, looking like she’s tried to juice a lemon with her teeth. “Well, my Darla isn’t going to be like that. She’s going to be perfect.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Kravitz says, trying not to laugh. “Anyway, here’s the shelf. One of our staff members can ring you up when you’ve made your decision.” 

“Mhm,” she says, completely ignoring him now. Which, you know what, he will fucking take. 

He goes back to the counter to wrap some things up, and then ducks into the maze of tall shelves for a bit, making sure everything is where it belongs. There aren’t a lot of people in today, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, because his eyes are starting to ache in a familiar way, and there’s rot in his head where thoughts ought to be. Man. Maybe he jinxed himself bringing it up. He should have just said sorry, I was born without a knack and it’s a super touchy subject, or like, well, see, I got a power that didn’t run in my genes at all and it tore my classic nuclear family apart when it turned out my real father was the mailman and that’s why I’d ‘spontaneously mutated’ telekinesis.

Now that he has time to think about it, there are all sorts of dumb things he could have said. Yeah, I can turn into a guinea pig, but only on Sundays. Or like, My power is amazing! I can lift anything that’s yellow, up to seven hundred pounds. Yellow paint doesn’t work though. Maybe something really stupid– I didn’t find out my power until last year, but when I play the trumpet, everybody gets really horny and wants to be my boyfriend. Super inconvenient, really. I prefer the cello.

But no, he had to tell the truth. Lame.

By the time he takes his break, he can feel his individual teeth, and his eyes are too big for his head, and there’s an incredible awareness of his pulse as every heartbeat makes his brain ache, but he powers through. He wants to see Taako, and he’s on the clock for another hour after this. 

He slides up to the counter and tries to look like a guy who doesn’t have an impending migraine. 

“Hey,” he says, in his smolderiest voice, and Taako looks up with his if-it’s-another-fucking-customer-I-swear-to-God face, but totally brightens when he sees Kravitz.

“Hey yourself,” Taako says, wiping down the counter. “First time I’ve seen you today. Busy?”

“Off and on,” Kravitz says with a shrug. Ow. Note to self, don’t? Don’t. Maybe Taako catches his wince, because he wasn’t exactly subtle about it, because he frowns pretty deeply. 

“You good, book jockey?” He puts the rag down and picks up the tip jar, eyeballing how much is in there. Not enough. Taako deserves the world. Man, Kravitz is getting lightheaded. And he wishes those lights were off. 

“So good cool and fine,” Kravitz says, all in one breath. “Can I- coffee? Cof-please?” Ough. He squinches his eyes closed. “Man. Hey, Taako, are jinxes real?” 

“Maybe?” Taako starts making him a drink, because he knows what Kravitz likes, which makes Kravitz’s heart flutter like a bird. A great big one that shouldn’t be squished up in there. “What did you do?”

“Freak customer was asking about powers, wanted to know mine.” 

“Oh,” Taako says. “And you told her your dick turns things to gold and it’s been a terrible tragedy all your life?” 

Kravitz laughs, which, ow. Fuck. 

“No, I should’ve. That’s way better than what I was thinking. Karen, you don’t understand the gilded guyrod grief I’ve- ” he laughs, interrupting himself, but that was too good, and now he might have used all his words up. But Taako laughs too, which warms him up toe to tip, and at least partially negates the sudden onset hell skull he’s trying to nest in. “You get it.”

“I get it,” Taako confirms, handing him a coffee. It’s warm. Kravitz can pick up objects, no biggie. Got this. Fuckin, got it. “Are you even having a vision, or is your brain just liquifying?” 

“Second one,” Kravitz mumbles. “I’mm- sit down.” 

“Definitely.” Taako comes round the counter, surely he teleported or something, so fast is he, and nudges Kravitz toward a seat. 

“Fuck me,” Kravitz mumbles. “I drove here. I’m, I guess I’m gonna go lie down in the book hole? For until close.” 

“Yeaaah,” Taako says, sounding concerned. Which is fresh and interesting. Taako cares about him? Aw. That’s almost worth it. “Are you- are you gonna be…good? My dude? Cause you look like microwaved snot. No offense.” 

“I can’t believe you aren’t horny for this,” Kravitz teases, and then he puts his face down on the cool metal table. “Ouuughhhhh.” 

“So true, gorgeous. Can you go home early? Who’s in charge tonight?”

“Mmeeeee,” Kravitz whines. 

‘So pardon yourself from your crimes, dog. Dip, ASAPity.“ 

“I drove here,” Kravitz repeats. He tries to close his eyes harder, which doesn’t work super great. “Maybe I’ll go sit in my…car. And wait for the car to take me home. Yep.”

“So stand up, darling.” 

“That’s what I’m doing,” Kravitz mumbles through the table. “Can’t you see me standing up? Oughta get- oughta get your eyes…checked.” A halo of rainbow light needles through his skull and straight through his eye holes, and a panic rushes through his chest like a rabbit-powered blender, but he can’t make out what fucking prophecy ass horseshit he’s seeing, on account of the migraine and all. 

There’s an incredible sense of impending something, of this being a step in the right direction on the yellow brick road of fate, but Kravitz couldn’t click his heels together right now if he had a map. 

“Are you gonna barf?” Kravitz opens his eyes and sees two of Taako, maybe four, hard to tell. He’s so handsome. Under his Nevermore Cafe apron, he’s wearing a purple shirt with long fancy fringe, and a skirt that, if Kravitz is not mistaken, is mostly made out of belts. God. This sure is where he’s laid his affections, huh.

“Don’t worry about me, Toto,” Kravitz says, and Taako wrinkles his nose at him. 

“I’m driving you home.”

“Right now? But- who will books?” 

“Someone else. Who cares. You’re going to bed.” 

“Aww.” Kravitz smiles. “You care about mee.” 

“I just don’t want you to barf in my cafe!” Taako is blushing, though, and Kravitz grins, which hurts, ouch. There should be less meat in the general face area. That’s his opinion, and he’s sticking to it.  

He’s not entirely sure how he ends up in Taako’s car, although he can guess, mostly. He alternates between squeezing his eyes shut to keep out the real light, and opening them as wide as he can, to let out the sun trapped in his cranium, neither of which seem to be particularly effective. Taako keeps looking at him as they drive away. 

“I wish I had less lame powers,” Kravitz moans. “You got that cool transmutation stuff. Sloane can teleport. Your sister can do-” 

“Arson?” Taako laughs. “I mean, Magnus doesn’t have any powers. You’d rather be like him?”

“Yeup,” Kravitz says, covering his eyes as they approach a stop light. “I can’t even get rid of this one. I saw a specialist and he was like, fuck, dude, I dunno.” 

“The potentologist said, fuck dude I dunno? ” Taako is laughing again. At him? Maybe. Kravitz should get a freebie here, he’s fighting for his life.  

“He said, uh. Basically. Yeah. He said, um. That I’ve got a vestigial something…Undeveloped…I dunno, he said sorry, asshole, you’re stuck this way, unless you want to get a special power treatment done for a billion dollars or whatever, and I was like, shitballs, doc, I guess you’re the expert? I was like fifteen.” Kravitz presses his forehead to the cool window, although he feels a little bad about leaving a mark on the glass. Not bad enough to stop, though.

“What, like you’ve got a secret, second knack?” There’s a weird note in Taako’s voice now, but Kravitz can’t quite pitch it. 

“S’rare, isn’t it? So, probably not.” 

“I mean rare doesn’t mean fake, dude, just rare.” Taako takes a breath. “I mean, I’ve got two.” 

“What?” Kravitz is loading like a dialup-ass grandma computer. Hold on, Taako, he’s still shaking his mouse to clear off that sick pipes screensaver. Give Windows 95 like, a minute here. “Cool.” 

“What, that’s all you have to say?” Taako laughs nervously. 

“‘M trying not to barf in your car,” Kravitz admits quietly. “I’ll be amazed later.” 

“Jesus,” Taako snickers, shaking his head. “Yeah, don’t. I’ll skin you and make a rug out of you.”

“I’d make a bad rug,” Kravitz muses, closing his eyes again. “There’s so much blood in me.”

 When they get to Kravitz’s place, Kravitz fully drops his keys, and Taako leaves him leaning on the wall to pick them up and actually use them right, and then from there, Taako helps him into the house. This is a bad one. Usually he can stumble his own ass home. Right now, though, right now he wants to lay on the floor so good he becomes part of it. Maybe he’d make a good rug after all. 

Man, fuck that lady who jinxed him. He can’t believe this. He was having an incredibly regular day and now light is streaming out of his eyeballs. And for what? All he feels is a vague sense of…fate. Which is fully nothing. Istus always did try to help him figure it out, but mostly they both ended up frustrated. His powers are nowhere near as strong as hers, which is strange, because he always rated pretty high at his check ups. Some of that shit is still pretty experimental, though, which is probably the only reason why that was an issue. He’s never thought too deeply on it, you know, besides some woeful teenage musing about how maybe His Real Power would come, and also maybe a prince on a unicorn, and five hundred thousand dollars, and maybe his prince would be Gerard Way.

That horse might have sailed. Although like, there’s room on a unicorn for two guys. Taako would probably share. Right? 

“Krav, I’ve been trying to talk to you,” Taako says, sounding like he’s underwater. Or Kravitz is underwater? Hard to tell. 

“Sorry,” Kravitz moans. He’s sitting at his dining room table. Well, his mothers’ dining room table, but technically he lives here too. Again. It’s a whole thing. He’s, you know, it’s fine. It’s so fine. Coming back to town was the right choice, and he doesn’t regret it, and Taako is here, so like, the future can wait, probably. Careers are always out there. Lurking. “What?” 

“I said I could make you something,” Taako says, fidgeting with one of the easily twenty belts that make up his skirt. His leggings are holographic and Kravitz adores him. 

“M’not hungry.” Kravitz is nauseous just considering the prospect. 

“Did you have lunch?”

“Well-” 

“Something. At least some protein. I’ll grill you a cheese.” 

“You’d grill me a cheese?” Kravitz tears up. “For me?”

“Your own cheese, for you,” Taako confirms. He starts futzing around, and Kravitz doesn’t even watch him, although he wishes he could. Maybe another day. Maybe later, when he’ll be able to appreciate that Taako is cooking in ‘his’ kitchen, and his parents aren’t home. And Taako drove him here, because he cares about him. Yeah…

“You’re…good.”

“Course I am,” Taako says, although he laughs awkwardly about it. “Haven’t cooked for someone else in a long time. But- I mean, s’just a grilled cheese, it’s- fine, probably? Probably fine.” 

“I know you’re better at it than I am,” Kravitz assures him. “That pasta you showed me the other day looked incredible.” 

“It’s not that I can’t cook, man,” Taako says, a little sharpish. “I’m a baller chef. I just- remember how I said- uh. Listen, cone of silence.”

“Consider me coned,” Kravitz promises. If he even remembers this later. It’s all gonna feel like a weird romantic dream when he finally sleeps this fucking prophecy off. 

“So like- I said I have two powers. The showy transmutation stuff, that’s, like, it’s good, I’ve put a lot of practice into it, impresses people, you get it.” 

“I get it,” Kravitz echoes. 

“But- and I mean, you know, it’s pretty rare-”

“Yeah,” Kravitz says. Something is dawning on him, but it might just be the solar flares in his facial nerves. “But not fake.” 

“Not fake,” Taako says quietly. There’s the distinct sizzle of butter in a pan, and something starts to smell good, somehow, despite Kravitz’s misery. “Have you ever heard of people that heal with their food?”

“I kind of thought that was a folktale sort of knack,” Kravitz admits, “but yeah?” 

“It’s not exactly healing,” Taako adds. “It’s- like- it- it gives you what you need. Or deserve? I’m not one hundred percent on it. There was kind of a whole thing- I’m not in the cooking industry anymore. Don’t usually cook for anyone but myself. Sometimes Lup, but she’s eaten lava before, so like,”

“Yeah.” 

There’s the distinct sound of a grilled cheese being artfully flipped, and even though Kravitz can’t see it, he’s impressed. He would use a spatula one billion times before he tried to fuck that up. 

“But like, I kind of figured, you’re- I mean, it’s just a little relief, yeah? Like, it’s just a grilled cheese, nothing complicated, and it’s just a migraine, it’s- you know, one and one, two?” Taako’s tripping over his own tongue trying to justify this to himself now. 

“Makes sense to me.” Kravitz is catching his drift, probably. Can you heal a prophecy migraine? Or- if it’s need, what could he possibly need right now more than his skull back in one piece? Taako’s math works out. Probably. 

“And if that doesn’t work, at least there will be something in your stomach for ibuprofen to sit on.” There’s the crunch of the sandwich being cut, and Taako slipping a plate from the dish drainer, and then the best smelling grilled cheese Kravitz has ever experienced is slid in front of him. 

“Right.” Kravitz doesn’t know how to consolidate his pain-nausea with how good it looks. He hesitates, and looks at Taako, who is chewing his lip anxiously. 

“You’re not like, secretly a serial killer, yeah?” 

“Nope,” Kravitz promises. “Not yet, anyway.” 

Taako laughs, but he’s still wringing his hands when Kravitz takes a buttery, crispy bite, and moans, shaking the half of the sandwich left with unbridled enthusiasm. 

“ God ,” he says, mouth still full. “That’s so good? Taako, that’s so good. ”

“Eat the whole thing,” Taako says, instead of like, thank you, or whatever, but it’s fine, because he certainly doesn’t have to ask Kravitz twice. It’s embarrassing how fast that fucker is gone, and Kravitz feels better by the time his plate is just crumbs, although maybe that’s partially just getting some actual ingredients into his body. 

He licks his fingers and sits back, already feeling like more of a real live person and not a sludge monster. They’re in the half-dark of the kitchen, the shade still drawn from this morning, and Taako only turned the shitty light on over the stove to cook by, to save Kravitz’s poor eyeballs, and Kravitz could kiss him. He’s so fucking good. Maybe Kravitz could finally nut up and ask him on a date, maybe-

A spectral horse kicks him in the back of the fucking head, and as Kravitz is convinced he’s dying or something, the prophecy blitzes through all of his cells– YOU WILL BECOME SOMETHING MORE. And he can’t even shake that sense to pieces–fucking what?? Excuse you?? What does that even mean?? Why???? Why now??--because his body melts into the fucking floor. 

“SHIT??” he hollers.

“SHIT!” Taako agrees, at full volume. “DOG, ARE YOU GOOD?” 

“I’m in the FLOOR???” Kravitz tries to reach up and grab onto Taako to pull himself out–not of the floor, but of the cool, dark shadows dappling it, and gasps for breath. It doesn’t feel like being underwater, but that’s the closest thing he can attribute it to. “HELP??”

“Uh, how???” Taako tries to grab at him, but his hands go right through. “JEsus, you aren’t solid??”

“WHY AM I NOT SOLID??” Kravitz is very close to panicking. “WHAT’S GOING ON??”

“Fuck-” Taako hisses tightly. “I fucked up, I- I fucked up again, I never should have-” 

Kravitz wraps himself around Taako’s legs and tries to think solid thoughts. He wants to comfort Taako, even as he’s panicking about his own shit, because that awful look on Taako’s face is hard to stomach, and he likes Taako, and the grilled cheese fucked, even if it did melt him like grueyere. Soome…how. 

Solid thoughts. Solid. He’s a whole ass guy, not, not a pudding, not a floor mess. He’s an adult, and he has a physical body, and he is clinging to his crush with his physical arms, and everything is fine.  

There’s a bizarre feeling as Kravitz rematerializes, and there he is, wrapped tightly around Taako’s ankles. 

“Fuck,” he whispers. 

“Agreed,” Taako manages. “Shit, are you like, good?” 

“I don’t know?” Kravitz takes a deep breath. “My migraine is gone, so that- that’s good? Good job on that one. I’m just-”

“You melted. ”

“I did, yep. I did do that. Yessir.” Kravitz peels himself off of Taako, although he’d be happy to white knuckle that one for a hot minute, and slowly stands up. “What the fuck. ” He shakes his head. Taako’s staring at him. It feels weird. All of Kravitz feels weird right now, though, flowing and free and hidden and secret and alive and bubbling–bizarre. Entirely bizarre. 

Taako squints at him. 

“What did it feel like?”

“Uh, freaky? Freaky, mostly.” But Kravitz actually thinks about it for a second. Man, the relief is palpable. He honestly feels incredible. If Taako could give him a miracle migraine cure every time, he’d marry that boy in a heartbeat, even if he did melt into the floor shadows. 

Shadows. 

“Oh my god,” he says. 

“Elaborate,” Taako threatens, gripping a kitchen chair far too tightly. 

“My- you were talking about secondary powers,” he says. 

“Uhuh.” 

“And-” Kravitz looks at his hands, which ache to slip into the darkness in the kitchen, so temptingly. “My mama has shadow powers. Like, really intense ones. Both my parents have really strong powers. It’s always been weird that I…didn’t?”

“Uhuh??” Taako’s wide eyes beg for him to get to the point. 

“Did you just- unlock- do I have two knacks? Is that-? You- made my other powers manifest?” 

“Holy shit,” Taako says. “That’s like, serious work. You’re telling me I did- like, that’s a whole procedure, and I did it to you with a grilled cheese?”

Kravitz looks at him, and back at his hands. He tries to remember how he felt earlier, wishing he could just disappear into the shadows, and-

Immediately, he’s melted back into the darkness. It’s a wild and wonderful chill, freeing and right, and Kravitz can’t help but laugh. It echoes around the shadows in the room, and Taako looks a little spooked. Kravitz tries to- move, to…swim? To another part of the darkness, and as soon as he thinks it, he’s there. He tries again, and pops right back to the other side of the room. 

“Oh my god,” he says, still echoing weirdly. “This rules?” 

“Uhuh,” Taako says, and he sits in that chair, hard. “At least you aren’t dead.”

“I don’t think I’m dead,” the shadows whisper. He tries to rematerialize, which is way harder than melting, and finds himself crawling with significant effort back out of the floor. His feet dangle into nothingness, like there’s no support beneath him at all, just endless inky blackness, and like, Kravitz isn’t proud of how little upper body strength he has at the mo’, but like, reality happens. 

“You need a hand?” Now Taako looks like the one who’s about to throw up. Like some kind of bizarrely gendered news story on A Mother’s Secret Strength, Kravitz hurls himself back onto the lit part of the tile. It doesn’t burn him, but it feels…less safe? This whole thing is like The Floor Is Lava Deluxe. 

“Maybe turn the lights on,” Kravitz pants. He sort of lays there on the floor, feeling incredibly embarrassed he just had to drop on the deck and flop like a fish in front of his unicorn dream boy, but also kind of brightly, potently pleased about the whole thing. Not least because he disappeared a prophecy migraine like it was nothing. Don’t let him make any big choices right now, he’s over the moon. Chemistry all whacked out. Maybe Taako wants to go to Vegas after this?

Taako flips ‘em, after a moment of scrounging for the elegantly painted switch (Istus customized the whole house as a love letter to Raven, because of course she did) and Kravitz feels more solid than he ever has in his entire life when the bright ass kitchen lights come on. He honestly didn’t realize solid was a thing he could feel, let alone the opposite. 

Taako comes and squats by him, concern and something deeper twinging on his face. Like maybe he’s convinced he’s going to get in trouble for this, somehow. 

“You good?” he says, after a long beat. 

“So good,” Kravitz manages. He rolls into a sitting position and sighs. “Guess I better go back to the gym.”

“Uhuh,” Taako says, eyes definitely flicking over Kravitz’s body. He’s sweaty already. “Keep me updated.” 

Kravitz looks at his hands, and then pushes himself to his feet. He walks over to the threshold to the living room, and swipes his hand through the darkness. It’s incredibly strange, but in the most familiar way–not quite like dipping his hand into the water on a hot summer’s day, but he can’t imagine how else to put it. 

It feels right , though. 

He turns and smiles at Taako. 

“Thank you,” he says softly. “I don’t know if I said it yet. Thank you for this.”

“Yeah, dog, I’m…glad? I mean, I about shit myself when you melted, gotta be honest, but you’re, not melted anymore, so that’s, fine?” Taako finally sits down in the kitchen chair he’s been holding onto for dear life. “Shit, dude. You have a new power.”

“God, yeah, as an adult?” Kravitz wrinkles his nose. “What do you even do about that? Like, if I needed to learn to drive today, I’d have to go to driver’s training, get one of those companies to teach me, probably?”

“Well, not today,” Taako says, tipping back in the chair, a weird look on his face. “You’d have to start tomorrow. S’late.” 

“Yeah,” Kravitz says, snorting. “Okay, fine. I mean I guess my mama can teach me– oh, Taako, she’s going to be insufferable,” he says, with deep affection. 

“There you go. Ask her. She’s probably an expert anyway.” 

“But,” Kravitz frowns. He finally goes and sits across from Taako, kicking his feet into the shadows below the table and feeling the soft breath of exhilaration, like going too high on the swing set. “She won’t be back for at least a week, maybe longer if she and my mom visit their–I guess you’d call her their ex? Galicaea- she lives in Florida, it’s a whole thing.”

“I’m sure,” Taako says smoothly. “So like, at least a minute.”

“At least a minute,” Kravitz confirms. “Man, I guess I could- but I don’t want them to come home early, they saved for a long time. They deserve their trip. I don’t want to interrupt it.”

“Bud, you developed a new power, that’s kind of-” Taako shakes his head. “It would kind of be a thing, even if you weren’t falling through the floor. Like- that’s a thing families celebrate, yeah?”

“I don’t really remember.” Kravitz shrugs. “But they would, probably. You’re right.”

“Mhm.” Taako fidgets with his fringe. 

“Still though, I don’t know- I don’t…I can’t call them home early, and I can’t just…keep all the lights on forever. Not least because-” He looks right at Taako. “Taako, it feels so nice.”

“What, falling? Taako’s gonna fuckin’ pass on that one.” 

“No no- no, the- being part of the darkness? The-” Kravitz clenches his hands. “I don’t know how to describe it. But I wish you could experience it.” 

“I mean, using your powers is supposed to feel good,” Taako mumbles, toying with the tablecloth now. Istus crocheted the delicate thing, and it took ages. Total bitch to wash. “When I-” he takes a breath. “Sorry you got saddled with an ouchie one.”

“Yeah…” Kravitz watches him, suddenly very aware that Taako is in his house. “Does it feel good when you- for both of yours?”

“I mean,” Taako chews his lip. “Transmutation rules, and it’s fun to make a scene, but like, it’s got nothing on cooking. At least, when I’m really feeling it. People say dumb shit about putting, I dunno, love, into their cooking or whatever, but really- intentionally making for someone? It’s- there’s nothing like it.”

“But you don’t do it anymore.” 

“Nope!” Taako stands up all in a rush. “Anyway, I gotta go, be somewhere else, and not here? Bye!” 

“Wait-” Kravitz stands too. “I’m sorry- I wasn’t trying to get too personal- I-”

“It’s cool-fine-whatever, no biggie,” Taako blathers, looking wild-eyed. “Hope you figure out your powers.” But before he can get to the door, Taako looks at him again, guilt all over his face. “Are you…going to be able to figure out your powers?”

“I mean,” Kravitz goes for honesty, for some reason. “I don’t know if I can do it all by myself. I might- I don’t even know what to do. I think I’m going to have to sleep with the lights on tonight?” 

“Yeah,” Taako says, and if Kravitz isn’t mistaken, literally bites his tongue. “And prophecy is way different, than,”

“Yeah…” Kravitz frowns. “Taako, what am I going to do?”

Taako looks at the door. He looks at his feet. He looks at the pan left on the stove.

“God, fucking damn it,” he sighs. “Don’t say I never do anything for you.”

“Huh?”

“I’m going to help you, dipshit, obviously!” Taako folds his arms, looking anywhere but at Kravitz. “But only because you don’t have anybody else!” 

“Um,” Kravitz is swimming in weird emotions, and his body threatens to melt again. If the kitchen lights weren’t so bright, he sure would. He’s honestly very grateful that he didn’t, in fact, develop these powers before/during puberty. “Thanks, Taako. I really appreciate it.”

“Don’t mention it,” Taako snaps, cheeks turning pink. “I’m gonna go call Lup. Don’t fall into the dark and disappear forever.” 

“Yeah,” Kravitz says, now very worried about falling into the dark and disappearing forever. 

Taako goes outside to make his phone call while Kravitz washes the pan, and he finds himself lost in thought as he stares at the bubbles in the water. He feels like a live wire, dangerous and full of potential, and even though this won’t exactly solve, you know, his job problem, or his living at home problem, it’s certainly going to unlock some things. 

Already he feels incredible. Not just wired from the adrenaline, although that’s a healthy dollop of it–he feels…more open, free, unblocked? 

Maybe he shouldn’t go blue, but it’s kind of making him feel like he’s been constipated his whole life and he’s finally…solved that particular issue, and now he could attack and dethrone god, or something. Like a cat that took a big shit and has the zoomies now. 

What do shadow zoomies look like? He wants to know. He really, really wants to know. 

God, this is way better than prophecy. No offense, Istus. At least you didn’t get the poop metaphor. 

Taako comes back in when Kravitz is drying his hands off, and he looks…set on something, at least. 

“What’d you decide?” Kravitz can’t help but ask. “If you’ve gotta go home, I get it-”

“Nah, stupid, I’m staying here. You can get rid of me tomorrow. I don’t want you to wake up dead, or uh, spirited away or somethin’.” 

Aww. Taako likes him. 

“Okay.” Kravitz is still drying his hands. Bud, they are already dry. The feeling of the towel is grounding, though, and he feels like a balloon animal about to become a UFO. Why, oh why did that clown fill him with helium? Goodbye, cruel world, etc. “I- my room is the guest bedroom, so, I mean, I could put you up on the couch, or- I- I could take the couch, it would be fine, or-”

“Ehh, is it like a twin bed?”

“No,” Kravitz shakes his head. “Queen.” 

“Perfect,” Taako says. “Unless you’re squirmy.”

“Admittedly I have cold feet?” Is this real? This can’t be real. Can it? 

“Keep ‘em to yourself and we’re golden.” Taako rummages through the fridge and Kravitz watches him stand there and eat five slices of lunch meat, one by one, and then a cheese stick as they continue to talk. What can you even say to that? Nothing, probably, which is hopefully the right answer, because that’s the one Kravitz chooses. 

“But we have some time, you know,”

“To work on your powers.”

“Yeah?” Kravitz bounces a little. He’s not usually a bouncy guy, but forgive him a little bop. “What’s your plan? Do- do you have a plan?”

“I dunno, dude, I’m not exactly in the business of training adult onset super powers, my guy, but I figured we could, uh, do a little research and get you to practice some stuff? In a controlled env- it’s, whatever.”

“No, no, you’re brilliant, that’s an incredible idea.” Kravitz blinks back the stars in his eyes. “I’m honored you want to try with me.” 

“Yeah, well,” Taako mumbles, filching an apple now. “‘F you disappeared into the dark never to be seen again, work would be pretty boring, so.” 

Kravitz is glowing. This rules. 

Three hours later, he’s struggling to hold onto that sentiment. Power practice is grueling, and he’s exhausted and sweaty, to the point he took off his nice long-sleeved button up in front of Taako, and then even excused himself to go put on shorts, because he is in fact in his own house. Taako keeps looking at him. Even if Kravitz wasn’t working his ass off, he’d be warm all over about it. 

“Okay, so, I’m gonna turn the lights off, and you try to hold your shape,” Taako says, hands on his hips, and nervously, Kravitz nods. He watches Taako walk over to the switch, and the second they’re off, he loses consistency.

“Fuck!” echoes through the shadows. 

“Chill,” Taako says, flipping the lights back on. “You’ve come a long way.” Kravitz, laying facedown on the floor where he reappeared, appreciates the sentiment but is having a hard time finding room in his heart to agree. 

He’s tired, and he’s sweaty, and he wants to be fully constituted, like a grown man. 

He groans. Taako comes and sits by him. Double fuck. Surely he smells like a gym towel. Quick, how does he get less sweaty right now immediately? He can’t even sit up, because his whole body aches from crawling back into solidity. 

“I wonder if this is the only thing,” Taako muses, kindly not acknowledging the boysmell. “Like, lots of powers like this are more complex than, you know, what they immediately appear to be, yeah? Like, maybe they won’t be super incredible cause you already have the prophecy thing-”

“Right,” Kravitz grumbles. 

“But like, I dunno, try moving the shadows, or like, controlling them?” Taako puts his hand up to make a shadow puppet dog on the wall, which is cheesy, but Kravitz can’t help but smile about. He’s such a dork. And he’s secretly so…good. He cares, even, although he’d pick Kravitz up and shake him apart if he ever tried to accuse him of such a thing. 

Kravitz focuses on the shadow on the wall, focuses hard. What can he make a shadow dog do? It’s just light. It’s not like a 3 dimensional…thing. But the more he reaches out, the more he can almost…feel it, like something he can touch, but with his…brain? He doesn’t know how to conceptualize it. He’s making sandcastles with gatorade here, but he somehow…extends his focus…and commands the ‘dog’ to bark. You know, with his brain. 

Nothing happens. He sighs. This is stupid. 

“Stop thinking it’s stupid.” Taako says. Damn, maybe he has three powers. Incredible. What does he work as a barista for? “Just- if- if it was possible, and you could do it, what would it look like?”

“I dunno, like, I mean like a shadow puppet, just, without you controlling it?” It’s nonsensical. Maybe his imagination sucks. Maybe that’s another reason kids get powers. They still believe it’s possible. 

“Yeah. So try that. I’m gonna put my hand down, and I’m not gonna tell you when. Try and keep him there.”

“Yeah?” Kravitz is incredulous, but obedient, so he focuses on the dog with all his might, like pinning a butterfly to a sick ass arthropod assassin arrangement. The more this goes on, the more strained he feels, which is stupid, because he’s just looking at a dumb shadow dog. It gets old quickly, and his brain starts to hurt. “When are you going to do it? This is-”

“Already did,” Taako says, waggling his hands in front of Kravitz’s face. “You’re doin’ it.” 

Kravitz is stunned, and before he can keep it down, he finds himself giggling like an absolute idiot. And soon, Taako is joining him, and then they’re rolling around laughing on the actual floor, and they bump into each other and then they’re so fucking close, and Kravitz could kiss him–

But he smells sweaty, and that’s not going to line up with his fantasies, and he panics. 

“Maybe I should go shower?” 

“Uh, yeah, sure,” Taako says, still very close and looking almost…disappointed? “Then you can find me some pajizzies-”

“Don’t call them pajizzies?”

“Gonna find me some sick Kravvy duds for me to sleep in, uh, while I’m showering.” 

“Right,” Kravitz says, absolutely dying. “Yeah. Of course.”

Kravitz doesn’t even worry about Taako being loose and roaming in his house until he’s halfway through his shower, because he’s absolutely worn out, and he keeps stopping and smiling to himself about things–his new powers, how excited his moms will be, the potential of it all, maybe even a chance to ask out Taako– and then the worry sets in, and he’s through that shower like lightning before he even has the time to practice what he’d say to Taako to convince him on a date. What would that even look like? It’s Taako. 

Taako, who is so…he doesn’t want to say out of his league, because Kravitz is aware he’s a hot piece of ass himself, and also only mildly neurotic. But Taako just seems to be a full other Kind of dude. Do they even match? It’s hard to tell. Sometimes it feels like they do. Like that moment on the floor…or all the breaks they’ve used talking and talking and talking…

Maybe it’s not out of the realm of possibility. Just…tricky. He needs to do it right. And he’s only got one shot. Better make it count. 

Seeing Taako in his pjs is another breed of strange, but crawling into bed with him is insane. Kravitz wonders if Taako can hear his heart pounding. It’s hard for Kravitz to hear anything else. 

“Are you sure you don’t mind the light on?” Kravitz feels awful. Totally steal his evening, and ruin his sleep, and he didn’t even grill himself a cheese, he just…grazed throughout the evening…Is he a bad host? Maybe he’s a bad host. Not that he anticipated sharing his anything this evening. 

“Yeah, I usually have somethin’ on anyway,” Taako says, “For the night terrors.” He laughs like it’s a joke, and Kravitz belatedly laughs too, but oh god, should he be worried? 

“Anything I can…do?”

“Stay solid and keep your cold tootsies to yourself, kemosabe.”

“I’ll…do my best.” And he watches as Taako snuggles down in his covers, on his pillows, and just lays there, inches away from him. Kravitz rolls over so he doesn’t stare like a freak, but. Holy shit, right? His heart is still pounding. “Can I convince you to make breakfast in the morning? Or shit, is that- maybe you don’t want to, sorry, I-”

“I mean, you don’t probably have a secret third power, right?” Taako mumbles. “It- maybe it’ll be fine.”

“You don’t have to.”

“Maybe I want to. Shut up and snore or something.” 

And despite both his anxiety and the light’s best efforts, Kravitz does end up falling asleep, although he’s desperately keeping his whole body to himself the entire time.

Turns out it’s futile, because they wake up tangled and warm, and Kravitz has never felt more…alive. 

Drowsy, but alive. 

He doesn't move at all, at first, which might be more conspicuous, but Taako is so… real. Here. In his actual bed. And he smells like Kravitz’s soap, and he looks so…relaxed, in such a different way than usual. Taako almost always looks chill, but on purpose. This vulnerable calm is a wondrous treasure Kravitz is going to savor. 

But he doesn't want to stare, because that is Edward Cullen Behavior, and if Kravitz was a vampire, it certainly wouldn't be that one, Yes He Has Thought About It, Obviously. So he stares at the wall, watching the shadows on the window from the great big fucking tree he used to climb to get in and out his window as a rowdy teen, you know, immediately after texting his mommies that he was home safe. Sloane always thought it was so funny. And then he broke his arm real good one night, and he hasn’t tried tree wrasslin’ since.

The dappled leaves wave gently, and Kravitz focuses on pinning them, like last night, and when he manages that, he tries to morph them all into one big shadow. That's a little more difficult, considering the fact that his bedroom light is still one hundred percent on. 

"Any luck?" Taako murmurs, still half in his arms, and Kravitz absolutely jumps.

"Jesus-!"

"Taako," Taako corrects blithely. "Guess you can't keep your hands to yourself." 

"I'm- so sorry-" Kravitz could die, right here, be preserved forever as an idiot skeleton that perished from stupidity poisoning, and the generations and generations of the future's progeny will laugh and laugh and laugh. Look here , the educator will say. Admire the foolishness you can still see in each of his two hundred something bones. We kind of lost the teensy ones. "I'll move, I-" 

"Nah, Taako forgives you." And Taako snuggles in closer. "How's the shadows, though?" He asks Kravitz’s sternum. 

"Good? Good I think?" Kravitz doesn't know how to navigate this, and no map on planet earth is going to even set his cardinals. "I hope?"

"Neat, keep it up." Taako yawns, and Kravitzis bursting with affection, even though he's aware of their mutual morning breath. How do couples do it? Do they just get used to it? Is it a romantic faux pas if he insists on brushing his teef first?

"I wish I could take the day off," Kravitz sighs. Not just to be with Taako. That would just be fantasy bonus. "The bookstore is so dark." 

"Sick day?" 

"Maybe? I'd feel weird just…sitting around at home, though. Maybe- I don't want to assume, but…would you be interested in practicing some more after work?" 

Taako moves to look at him properly, mystery flashing in his pretty, pretty eyes.

"Course," he says. 

And that's how they start the Kravitz K-nack Koaching Klub. Taako insists on pronouncing the hard k every time, which is stupid, completely stupid, and makes Kravitz smile like he swallowed a bunch of sunshine seeds and a freakish alien plant is about to burst him open to reverse photosynthesize. They work together before work and after, in Kravitz’s living room, until he can keep himself together when the lights are completely off, and he can move the shadows to make new pictures, and he can sort of teleport from one dark spot to another less than ten feet away, which is the most fun part. 

Well, actually, the most fun part is having something to do with Taako, and laughing with him, and feeling like Taako cares about him, and having inside jokes at work, and- the list could go on, because Kravitz is falling hard, but he doesn't have to list everything. It’s already in his journal. 

He even used his gayest stickers. 

A week later, after the montage, Kravitz has control. Expert? No, clunky. The frustration is a lot like trying to learn a new language and feeling like he can't express himself better than a fucking preschooler, but Taako only teases him as much as he can handle, and it feels good to have some control at all. 

"Good," Taako says, turning the lights back on for the nillionth time. "You're getting it. We should do something crazy." 

"Like what?" Going out to dinner together? Something more romantic? He can't imagine Taako sitting through a movie. Kravitz can feel hearts popping around his head. 

"Like going outside," Taako says, and there's a resounding THUNK-k-kunk of all of those hearts hardening into dead dead concrete and shattering on the hardwood floor. 

"Right," Kravitz says, swallowing the woe and rising panic. "Are you sure? What if I disappear forever, into space or something?"

"Huh, I didn't think of that." Taako rubs at his nose, and sniffs. "Don't."

"Right." Cool cool cool cool cool cool. Kravitz can handle this. He's got this. He's going to impress Taako and not become the night forever and ever, dark amen. "It probably couldn't happen, right? We would hear about it on the news or something?" 

"I mean a lot of folks super died back when people started getting powers," Taako says with a shrug, and then belatedly clocks Kravitz’s barely restrained panic. "But you'll do fine?"

Kravitz bends down and puts his head between his knees. 

"Ouuugh," he says. "I can do this. I won't fly away and suffocate when I leave the atmosphere and join the black void of space where no one will mourn me but my mothers. I won't-"

"Aw, chin up, bud," Taako says, actually nudging Kravitz’s chin up, which would be wicked romantic if he didn't then say, "I'll mourn the hole where your corpse oughta be, too."

"Thanks," Kravitz deadpans, but he laughs enough to reset a little. "God. I just- how do I hold on? There's so much dark out there. Infinity dark, practically."

"Ehhh, what if, uh," Taako runs a hand over his braid, which is no longer as neat as it was before he pulled Kravitz out of the floor a few times today. "What if you had something to hold onto?" 

"What?" 

And that's how Kravitz ends up holding Taako’s hand on a walk through the darkness of his childhood neighborhood. It's weirdly nostalgic, spliced with near-romance, slathered with a thick, chunky layer of all-out fear. 

"Sorry for being a baby," Kravitz half laughs, once he's concentrated through a whole block and is brave enough to also talk real words now. "I just-" 

"I get it," Taako says with a shrug. "Powers are freaky. You'd think like, human beings are dangerous enough, what kinda horror terror allowed us to be capable of even more whimsy and war crimes? But here we are, truckin' through the daily." 

"Yeah," Kravitz sighs. "I just- what if I fuck up really bad? It would be so easy." 

"It is easy," Taako says quietly. "One day you're getting famous, healing people like some kinda prophet, hold the migraines, and the next you're in handcuffs, cause the guy you made the perfect croque monsieur for got what he fuckin' deserved and had to croak about it." 

"Oh," Kravitz says softly. What else is there to say? 

"People still don't know how to litigate that kind of thing, you know? Cut and dry powers, yeah, if I super-squeezed him til his bones were mustard, like, that's murder, straight up, but like, it isn't like I poisoned the sandwich-" He glances at Kravitz too quick, and Kravitz tries to look encouraging without being forceful? "But cause I didn't mean for it to happen, it was just- anyway, what matters is," he clears his throat. "Accidents happen, and you gotta just, do what you do." He says it like he doesn’t quite believe it, but knows it is important. 

"Thanks, Taako," Kravitz says softly, not because that made a whole lot of sense as advice, but because he recognizes just how vulnerable Taako has just been with him. 

"Whatever. Do you hear that?" 

Kravitz is ready for 'that' to be any bullshit that could possibly change the subject, source real or imaginary, but when he cocks his head, he hears it too: meow? 

"Huh." 

The noise is so little, so worried and questioning. Meow??

"Where-" 

"There!" Taako points at a big, thicksome oak tree just under a streetlight, and a tiny, tiny glint of a golden pair of eyes. Taako and Kravitz hustle over there, never dropping each other's hand. That's a lifeline now. Sweaty or otherwise.

"How the hell are we gonna do anything about this?" Taako wonders out loud. "I'm not gonna fry her up a burger of ‘get down from tree’?"

"Maybe make a flashing light, like a laser pointer?"

"Dog, that's illusion, not transmutation?" 

"Fuck, you're right." Kravitz squeezes Taako’s hand, thinking. "Could you-" 

"I mean I could transmute it into a different thing, but it would still be fuckin' tall as hell." Taako frowns. "And I'm not climbing this shit, no way." 

"I'd probably fall on my ass too," Kravitz admits. He doesn’t need to break his arm again. He’s kind of lost all of the confidence he used to have on that front. 

Meow?

"Do we…call the fire department?"

"Aren't they sleeping?" 

"I'm sure they leave one guy awake for emergencies," Taako mumbles. 

"Is this an emergency?" 

Meeeeow?

"Yeah," they both agree, nodding in tandem. 

"I guess, rock paper scissors who climbs the tree?" Taako looks at him, uneasy. Kravitz chews on his thought until he can blow an idea bubble about it.

"Listen," he says. "I'm gonna, I'm gonna try something stupid, and either you stop me right now, or rescue me if I fuck up."

"Third option… being success, mayhaps?" Taako tilts his head.

"Oh yeah," Kravitz says. "I kind of forgot that was a possibility."

Taako snickers. 

"What's your plan, shadow prince?" 

Ooh, that feels good, and not just in the vestiges of his goth teens. Wild. Anyway, tabling that for later…

"I'm gonna try to teleport up there and grab her, and not fall down, hitting every branch on the way." 

"Great job," Taako says with a grin. "Keep manifesting that." 

"I- I think I can do it, anyway?" Kravitz looks nervously at their clasped hands. "It would just be- fast. Grab and go. Like takeout."

"Yeah, but it's an animal," Taako adds, amused. “And not a sweaty burger.”

Meow, she agrees from far above. 

Kravitz gives himself the opportunity to weenie out, but Taako is looking at him. 

"You had that horrible experience with your powers," he says quietly, "But you helped me find mine. And I'm going to use them. Because- You've gotta do what you've gotta do." 

Taako nods.

"If you're sure. No offense, lots of love? Not gonna catch your ass falling out of a tree. Or climb up there and get your ass."

"You don't want to be in a tree with me?" Kravitz teases, and Taako laughs embarrassedly and socks him on the arm. It hurts, but it was worth it. "No, I'm gonna-" Meow… "I'll go. I've got this?"

"More confidence!"

"I've got this!" And Kravitz lets go of Taako’s hand–- god, he hopes it wasn't as clammy as he fears--and launches himself upwards through the shadows. It’s a blur of leaves and branches and darkness and the streetlight, and his aim could use some work, but he's gotten pretty fucking good at crawling, and despite the fear and the challenge and the fucking tree, he gets that cat in his arms and laughs in triumph. 

And from there, down is easy. 

When he's back on the ground, and solid again, the cat jumps out of his embrace and lays on the ground, looking completely disoriented, but Kravitz is too excited to care. He grabs Taako and spins him around and kisses him hard, and Taako, surprised but amenable, kisses back to match. 

When he pulls away, the exhilaration doesn't even bend to anxiety. It could, and easily–there goes his training excuse to see Taako every day outside of work--but adrenaline makes him brave. Maybe stupid also.

"Taako," he says, breathless. 

"Yeah?" 

"Can we just date? I'm out of excuses." 

"Oh my god," Taako says, grabbing him tight and pulling him into another hard kiss. "I was starting to think you'd never ask!"

Huh. Kravitz finally had a useful prophecy!