Archive of Our Own ^beta

Sometimes, it was hard for Taranza to believe that he and Magolor were still together.

It’s been a few years since they started dating, and ever since the whole incident with… her had happened, Taranza had been terrified of losing those he loved, anyone would fear that.

He would never forget the genuine horror he had felt upon realizing he’d fallen for Magolor, what if he made the same mistakes? What if, if not Taranza himself, some outside force drove them apart? He couldn’t risk it, he had to shut his feelings away. And he somehow managed to - or at least he fooled himself into thinking such.

But then, Magolor confessed first.

And then, all those feelings had come back to the forefront.

Not just the terror, regret, and paranoia, but also the warmth, the sweetness, and most importantly, reception.

They were together.

And they’ve been that way for a good few years.

Yet, despite the mutual love and lasting connection, neither of them seemed willing to open up about one another’s pasts. They both knew some vague details - namely Magolor’s betrayal incident and… The source of Taranza’s fears, we’ll say. They knew that, but not much else.

Taranza sighed as he stepped out of the shower. Magolor was staying at Taranza’s place of residence - separate from Royal Road’s palace, Taranza hadn’t had the courage to stay there for very long these days. Magolor was there due to an “incident with the Lor,” as the Halcandran put it, but something in his tone gave the impression that he just wanted an excuse to stay the night. Regardless, Magolor was allowed to stay.

Taranza obtained a towel to dry himself off with after a quick shower, notably dashing past his bathroom’s mirror whenever he had to go near it. He gained a bit of an aversion to mirrors after the previously brought up incident, and well he was more than capable of willing himself to look at his reflection with little issue, he wasn’t exactly thrilled to do so while nude. Not because he was uncomfortable with his own nudity, he just- it was for the same reason he kept his eyes off his abdomen as much as possible.

Unfortunately, they were quite hard, and basically impossible, to ignore. With every turn of his body, with every childish dash past his reflection, he saw it - a pair of fairly large scars, one for each side, running down his body from where his arms start, to where his hips end. A pit in his stomach ran deeper with every glimpse of them he got, and eventually, as what usually happened, he couldn’t stand avoiding them any longer.

All four of his frontal eyes stared blankly at his reflection in the mirror. His right arm ran down the length of his left scar, his heart following his hand as if it were being led down a pathway. The scars had long since healed years ago, yet whenever Taranza ended up confronting them, they felt raw , feeling a pain that would never leave his memories, imagined or not he didn’t know.

And then his mind inevitably began to wander. It wandered back to her , how she snapped after a series of Taranza’s own failings. How her dwindling number of arms latched onto his, how he was apprehended in magical webbing, how his heart began pounding once he realized what was about to happen. His own agonized screams rang through his head, the awful sounds of bones cracking and flesh tearing and the lightheadedness that came with blood that should be in his body spilling across the flooring and the sight of his old friend appearing more like a ravenous beast than any sort of royalty and the feeling of dread that came with expecting death and everything going cold and-

“Hey Ranza, you done yet?” Magolor had opened the bathroom door. Taranza shrieked as he crashed headfirst back into reality by way of sudden invasion of privacy. The two of them stared into each other’s wide eyes for a moment. Magolor was the first to find his voice.

“…I’ll, uh, take that as a no, I guess! Sorry about that, ahahah-“ He sheepishly shut the door.

Taranza blinked, before scrambling to his feet and wrapping his towel around his waist. Grabbing his night robe, he quickly reopened the door in a fluster. “I’m so terribly sorry Magolor! I- I didn’t mean to waste my time! Ah, this is embarrassing- the bathroom is open now, sincerest apologies!”

“But uh,” Magolor sputtered, somewhat flushed from embarrassment, “you- you’re still-“

“Undressed, I am perfectly aware! I would hate to waste any more of your time so I’ll simply get dressed out here while you bathe!” Taranza gave his lover a strained smile.

Magolor just sat there, blankly staring at the barely clothed Floralian. “…You’re pretty,” he said with a small grin, “are those scars?” Taranza looked at his body unthinkingly. “Ah… These…?” He pointed to his chest, noting his top scars and their deliberate half-web designs. “Oh, those are neat! But I’m talking about the ones on your sides.”

Taranza made a sort of sharp inhale through his nose. As one could imagine, he wasn’t particularly looking forward to having to explain those, even to Magolor. “I… Hm. Magolor?”

“Yeah?”

“Please go and bathe.”

“Keeping the tragic backstory a secret for now, huh?”

No response other than a guilty glance off to the side.

“Alright, I get it. Guess we’re not quite there yet.” Magolor shrugged as he got off the bed and walked off to shower.

“What about your clothes?” Taranza inquired.

“Oh, I’ll get ‘em later, hehe!”

Magolor shut the door behind him, and the sound of running water followed shortly after. Taranza got clothed and then opened up a book to read in the meantime.

…

After a while, Magolor had walked out clad in a towel, the entire thing wrapped around his body rather than just his waist. Taranza had assumed it was merely for privacy reasons, so he didn’t bother with questioning it. Magolor had begun undoing his towel, very unceremoniously throwing it onto Taranza’s face.

“Ack- Magolor!” Taranza began attempting to thrash his way out of the wet towel, and Magolor could be heard snickering at the conundrum he had put his partner in. Once Taranza had finally made his way out of the slightly-soggy cloth maze, he was met with Magolor putting his face in his hands, squeaking with laughter. Taranza attempted to look unamused, but the only effect that had on Magolor once he attempted to calm himself was to be thrown into another fit of giggles. Taranza relented his judgment snickering along, it was pretty funny…

It didn’t take long at all for Taranza to notice that Magolor was still, well, naked. Taranza’s face instantly flushed blue upon realizing it, so he tried his best to keep his eyes on Magolor’s face, as if that was any less awkward. That didn’t fool Magolor at all, however. “Enjoying the view?”

“I- uh- clothes? Where? On? When?”

“Oh Nova. Ranza…”

“I’m sorry- just-” Taranza began doing something that could only be described as ‘panicked jazz hands,’ “I’ve never seen you um- Like this before, and-”

Magolor shuffled onto the bed and placed a hand onto Taranza’s shoulder, it was warm, much like the rest of his body. His face had formed into a soft smile, his yellow eyes glowing gently in the dim lighting. “Ranza, I just… Wanted to show you something.”

“Wha…?”
“If you, uh, don’t mind, look down a little.”

Taranza did as he was asked, and on Magolor’s torso there were several scars. Two of them were from top surgery much like Taranza’s own, except Magolor’s had two yellow gear patterned tattoos over them. Right in between those though, was the remains of quite a large gash going down his abdomen.

Taranza had immediately been overcome with concern over said gash. “What in the world…? What happened for you to earn an injury like that?”

“Oh, a lot,” Magolor laughed. “I got this a while ago, from Kirby.”

“Kirby…?”
“Yeah. You’ve definitely heard about the uh, ‘Crown incident’ before right?”

“...Yes.”
“Yep, Kirby ended up having to slash me right across the chest during that. Actually, he slashed me a lot more than that but due to…” Magolor cringed at having to recall this, “ stuff , that happened right after, I ended up getting this big ol’ scar.”

“I see… You aren’t telling me this because-”
“Hey, I wasn’t done!”

At that, Magolor brushed a bit of his hair back. Normally he had a small tuft of his curls covering his forehead, but as he pulled it back he revealed that it had been covering something, or rather, three things. Those things being more scars. Three, nearly identical ones, almost claw like, compared to the violent looking sword scar on his torso. “These babies were from the crown itself. The thing just… Gripped onto my head. It… Only dug in more as things got worse.” Magolor shuddered upon remembering the cold metal suddenly becoming warm, almost flesh-like. How it wrapped around him, constricting him like a serpent, controlling him…

Magolor was suddenly pulled from his thoughts at the feeling of Taranza sitting up to cup his face in his hands, stroking his whiskers. Magolor instantly began to purr after the surprise subsided a bit, gleefully leaning into the touch. “Such a gorgeous face…” Taranza mused, “it hasn’t been ruined by those scars at all…”

“Ruined?” Magolor parroted, “where’d you get that idea from?” Taranza rescinded his hands from the Halcandran’s face. “...Apologies, I didn’t mean to assume anything… I suppose I’m just a bit too used to people worrying about their beauty.”

“You don’t need to worry about calling me pretty, Ranz. I already know I'm hot!” Taranza paused to process, and then stifled a small laugh. “You know it's true!” Magolor gave a playful wink. Taranza smiled. “I suppose so, yes.”

“Anyways,” Magolor continued, “yeah, you’re right. I was kinda sorta showing you my own scars in hopes you’d spill about your own. What of it?”

Taranza sighed, tension began to return to him. “For what reason are you so curious?”

Magolor shrugged, “I just wanna know, man! They look pretty gnarly, and I mean, I know your species usually has multiple arms… And there’s that whole thing with your prosthetic…”

“Mhm…” Taranza shifted his eyes towards no particular direction.

“You don’t have to tell me if you’re not comfy y’know.”

Taranza leaned back, sinking into his pillow. He thought back to earlier, how his mind had been racing through those awful, awful memories. He looked back towards Magolor, who’s smile had since faded into a sort of concerned frown. “Well… Do you remember how you found me standing in the bathroom earlier?”
“Yeah, kinda hard to forget something that happened literally like ten minutes ago.”
“Right. Well…” Taranza took a deep breath, and exhaled to prepare himself at least somewhat.

“I was… Reminiscing of… The origins of those scars.”

“Ah, I mean… Yeah, I do that with mine sometimes.”
“I feel like it should be obvious said origins were not exactly… Pleasant.”

“Are you sure you wanna tell me this?”
“You inquired about them.”
“Taranza. Don’t think I can’t tell you’re getting kinda shaky.”

“I am…?”

Taranza took a moment to hold his right hand - his only remaining natural one - in front of his face. Sure enough, it was trembling. Magolor wasted no time in holding onto it with both of his, gently squeezing. Taranza’s breathing had slightly picked up in its pace, now that he was aware of his anxiety. “I shouldn't’ve asked…” Magolor started, “I’m sorry-”

“R-ripped off. She… She ripped them off!” Taranza suddenly choked out.

Magolor’s ears went flat against his head, eyes the size of plates. “H… huh!?”

“She ripped them off… And… And she…” Taranza had suddenly shot upright, grasping onto his head with both hands. “She devoured them… Right in front of me… I… I couldn’t do anything about it…”

“Taranza, who’s this ‘she’?”
“The queen…” He spoke between gasps. “S…Sectonia.”

“Ah… Yeah, I figured…”

Magolor wrapped Taranza into a hug, figuring it’d be best to not say anything about Sectonia out of caution. Whether he did or not didn’t matter though, as the hug alone was enough to get Taranza to just… Break.

“It’s my fault!” He cried, “I ruined her! If it weren’t for me she would still be here!” Tears were streaming down his face, down onto Magolor’s shoulder which Taranza’s face was buried into. “If only I had known better… Oh, I’m terrible…” His voice was muffled, but still audible. “I deserved everything she ever did to me…!” Magolor had only tightened his hug, emitting a sweet purr in an attempt to calm his love down. Magolor wasn’t exactly confident in the field of reassuring words. He wasn’t bad at them, but he’d always been afraid they won’t be seen genuinely. Yet still, he gave sweet whispers of reassurance.

“You didn’t know any better…” Gently rocking back and forth…

“She was mistreating you, you didn’t deserve any of that, hon…” Continuing to purr after every murmur…

“You’re not a bad person for making mistakes… You’ve learned…” Running his fingers through silver hair…

“I love you so, so, SO much, Ranza…”

Eventually Taranza’s sobs and cries of self hatred had calmed, and his breakdown had reduced to breathy hiccups. He had shifted a bit, half his face now against Magolor’s chest. He was listening to his purrs, his heartbeat…

Taranza withdrew himself away from Magolor’s body, now sitting glassy-eyed and hollow. “I… I’m so sorry…” He breathed. “I know I’ve apologized a lot, but…”
“Dude, it’s more than okay.” Magolor grinned. “This night’s been kind of a mess, I get it!”

Taranza had lied back down onto the bed now, and Magolor snuggled up next to him, causing Taranza’s eyes to widen a bit.

“Magolor…?”
“Yeees?”
“Could you please at least put on some pants…?”

Magolor released a melodramatic sigh. “ Fiiiine , if I am demanded to clothe myself!” He slid off the bed and put on some boxers, afterwards returning to his previous state of snuggling.

“I… I do want to thank you,” Taranza began, “for letting me cry a bit.”

“Of course! There was definitely something on your mind that wanted out.”

Then there was some peace and quiet between the two, at least for a bit.

“Also, question…” Magolor began to ask.

“Mhm?”
“Can I… See your scars? Just a little closer?”
Taranza thought for a moment.

“I suppose… You may as well.” With that, Taranza began slightly unbuttoning the lower half of his nightshirt, allowing Magolor some access for viewing. Magolor shifted to get a better look at them, seeing how they trailed down the sides of Taranza’s midriff and hips, how they had a slightly blue-ish purple color to them… Without thinking Magolor ran a hand down the one on Taranza’s left. “Ah!” Cried the spider-like in surprise. Magolor’s head immediately shot up to look Taranza in the face. “Sorry- wasn’t thinking!”

“It’s… It’s alright, I think… You can continue if you wish…”

Magolor nodded, and resumed his tender tracing of that one scar. Taranza was a bit surprised - normally whenever he himself touches one of those scars, he can feel the pain he felt so long ago flare up again. But when Magolor was touching them? All he felt were Magolor’s warm hands gently running across his skin. It felt nice…

Before long, Taranza himself started purring, much to Magolor’s amusement. He often forgot that Taranza could purr, but he was more than happy that it was happening now, of all times.

Magolor had begun resting his head on Taranza’s chest at some point, being gradually lulled to sleep by the sound of his heart, and now his purrs. Taranza himself was drifting off as he relaxed into Magolor’s gentle touches, gently rubbing his ears all the while.

The two had then fallen asleep in one another’s embrace.