#it's up to you whether that comforter is actually denim or if barry is just committing to the aesthetic | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

castcharmperson · 5 years

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I really love your Taako fic❤ Can you please write more

Look I’m not going to say I was waiting for an ask to post the next installment, but it sure did help light the fire under my ass to get it finished. This next section contains everyone’s favorite denim-lover!

“Hey, I’m not usually invited to twin time is everything okay?” It was 50% his bedroom, but that didn’t encourage Barry to do anything other than peak his head around the partly cracked door. What he saw, well, that was enough to carry him past the threshold to close the door behind him.

“She’s not responding.” Taako sounded hollow, he didn’t look much better. They’d all had several sleepless nights, both on their voyage and afterwards. Still, it was rare for Taako to show how exhausted he truly was. The bags under his eyes were quite a sight and Barry tried not to think too much about elf vascular systems. Lup’s never got that bad, even when they pulled three all-nighters in a row for cycle 91.

Barry came back to the present and nodded, not needing to say anything more as he walked towards the bed. They’d done this before. It had been a while, but they knew what they were doing. The burns on the comforter spoke for themselves though. “That bad, huh?”

“You have no idea,” Taako mumbled. He was holding Lup’s hands and that was the only point of contact. Barry sat opposite of him and took one of Lup’s hands from him.

“Party was fun.” Usually Taako made conversation. Tonight seemed like it would be Barry’s responsibility. “I had, uh, one or two Solstices when I had a body, never really understood it though. Guess it’s different when you’re drinking alone in a tavern than when you’re drinking Highchurch brewed mead.” He let himself laugh, stopping only when he heard Taako whine. “Taako?”

“It’s my fault this time.”

“Bud, you’re the one who told me–”

“I know what I said, Barold!” Taako snapped. Barry didn’t even flinch, just reaching out and taking Taako’s free hand in his own. He squeezed and Taako squeezed back, so that was a step in the right direction. “You know what happened in Wonderland.”

“A lot happened in Wonderland.”

Taako rolled his eyes. “No shit. I mean with me.”

“Some of it? Your face doesn’t look too bad, ya know.”

Taako gave a strangled laugh and Lup whined, catching both of their attention. “Wow, she really doesn’t think this is funny.”

“Well,” Barry started, sharing a smile with Taako. He looked the most relaxed Barry had seen him all night.

“This is why you’re my favorite,” Taako looked away as he spoke, smile falling away slowly. “You can keep a secret, right?”

He should probably be concerned. Taako was the one who made the No Secrets Rule, but Barry found himself saying “Of course, bud” without thinking twice about it.

“It’s more than my face.”

“I know.”

“More than the, the uh… modifier stuff.”

“You can fix that, you know.” All the sacrifices had been hard to watch, but there was something particularly painful about watching Taako, the elf who invented something so dexerious as surfing, stumble from room to room after that.“No, uh, actually I don’t think so.”

“I know they had the no healing, what’s given can’t be taken back, thing.” All of Edward and Lydia’s schtick seemed so cliche to Barry. Everyone thought necromancers were sadist, why did they have to live the stereotype? At least they’d stayed away from black robes and chanting, but glitz and glitter didn’t really feel like an improvement.

Lup whined at his words and Barry winced, rubbing his thumb along the back of her palm. At least she could still hear them. “Sorry babe.” He looked back to Taako. “But, uh, I’ve been looking into that. I think if I rewire some of the– Oh, don’t tell Kravitz about this.”

Another strained laugh, the sort of manic emptiness Barry hadn’t heard from his best friend since the later cycles. “That goes both ways, kemosabe.”

“I thought you showed Kravitz your face?”

Instead of explaining, Taako just nodded his head down. It was hard to see in the candle light, much dimmer after what he imagined was a pretty extensive flare up from Lup, but the shape of bruises were still there. “…what?”

“Yeah.”

“No, no, that doesn’t make sense. Why do you have bruises from over a year ago? Your blood doesn’t work like that.” Barry probably should have asked first, honestly should be focusing on bringing Lup back to them, but curiosity won out. His hand left Taako’s and he reached towards the bruises, inches away until Taako slapped his hand back.

“I’m not one of your experiments.”

“Shit, sorry, I didn’t–”

“Don’t apologize, it’s fine.”

Barry sighed, but held out his hand, palm up. Taako slapped his own back into it. They sat in silence for a moment, a small circle of connection in the candlelight, and it was almost peaceful. Barry hated that this still happened, of course he did, but he sometimes wondered if the twins appreciated these moments together. Then again, Barry didn’t really appreciate them like he should have until they were stolen for a decade.

Taako wouldn’t look at him so Barry’s attention drifted back to Lup. Her ears twitched but she stared ahead at the wall, unfocused. “We should probably keep talking if we want to bring her back,” he whispered.

“There’s nothing to talk about.” Both the twins ears flipped down and Barry tried not to laugh.

“Come on, Taako, I rolled an eleven, you have to tell me.”

“Bullshit you did!” Taako broke into a grin but it was chased away just as fast when he realized how loud he’d been. Lup didn’t seem to react to the noise. “Talking about it is what did this to her.”

“No, a bunch of bad luck–” Both twins winced and Barry bit back a curse. “Sorry. A lot of shitty coincidences did this to her. And other people, bad people, did this to her. Not you.”

Taako shook his head, but Barry was already saying the same thing each of them had all been tasked with saying before. “We didn’t cause this. We’re just trying to survive it.”

It was hard to watch Taako squeeze his eyes shut, easier to feel the pain of him squeezing Barry’s hand. It was like he was going to say something, but he couldn’t move his mouth past the first syllable.

“I mean, it’s not like she’s going to get worse,” Barry prompted, “You might as well talk about it now.”

“You might get worse,” Taako whispered and Barry squeezed his hand.

“Whether Lup believes it or not, she did everything she could to help you. So did I. I don’t regret that.”

Taako looked up at him, still so tired. “That’s not what I’m talking about.”

It took a second to figure out what he meant, and Barry almost felt bad when he smiled and Taako glowered at him. “I don’t regret that either.”

“Look, I don’t want to make you feel bad but how–”

“At the time, it was our best shot at survival.” Barry pressed on. “I don’t regret making the Animus Bell. I haven’t for years.” He’d said that before, to himself in the mirror of the cave he had to call home. It was hard to say then, but once he did it felt like a weight off his shoulders. It felt important. And it still felt so good to say it again now.

“Yeah, well, I guess you had time to for all that self growth,” Taako grumbled and Barry tried not to roll his eyes. He felt Lup’s fingers twitch in his and failed to hold down a smile. Maybe the two of them had been lucky, of everyone dealing with Lucretia’s choice. It felt easy to forgive her. And it was frustrating watching everyone else drag their feet about it.

“I’m not mad at her either,” Barry continued, despite Taako’s clear irritation. “I never really was. She was doing what she thought was the only option. Just like me and Lup had our hands tied in Wonderland. We were all trying our best.”

He watched Taako grind his teeth, backed into a corner where he couldn’t hurt Lucretia without hurting everyone else too. It probably shouldn’t be entertaining but, well, Taako usually had the upper hand in all their interactions, it was nice to finally mark a tally in the win column for Barry.

“You’re a dick.”

“Yeah.” Barry just shrugged, absolutely unrepentant. “So you want to list your symptoms for me or should I just ask Merle? He gave me a list of stuff to work on for Magnus. His is a lot more mental, but the base arcana is still the same.”

Taako’s ears twitched and he looked down at his bruised knees. “I figured that’s why they still look so bad. Merle tried to heal me but the…” He swallowed heavily, like the thought alone was bile in his mouth. “The un-healing I think left some necrotic scarring.”

“That would do it.” Barry gently loosened his grip from Taako’s hand and hovered over the knee. “May I?”

“Yeah just don’t… it’s acting up because of the holiday.”

“I’m amazed you were dancing on it,” Barry said as he checked the arcana. Taako’s proficiency in the category was high, of course, but Barry was a necromancy expert.

“It’s probably what made it hurt so much when Lup touched it. It’s never been this bad before.”

Barry frowned, staring at the runes he could see around the wound, running the numbers in his head. “It’ll get worse if you don’t take it easy.”

“What?”

“You’re right about the necrotic scarring. It’s completely preventing any healing, even the minor stuff our bodies do to recover from day to day wear. Your own system has… I guess the only word is absorbed the magic? The damage is really in there.”

Taako just shrugged. “Told ya you couldn’t fix it.”

Barry felt frustration prickle under his skin. With the blessing of his Queen, he wasn’t prone to fits of red crackling energy, but the wild magic the made his soul was still more volatile than most. “I can still help. But I might have had a better shot if you told someone about it sooner.”

Taako gestured to Lup, making a face like Barry was an idiot, and that only irritated him more. “She’s going to be fine, Taako. If anything, she’s mostly going to be pissed you lied to her.”

“I didn’t lie to anyone!”

“What are you other symptoms?” Barry challenged and Taako nearly snarled at him. “How can Merle and I start working on treatment if we don’t know what we’re treating?”

“You told me you weren’t going to tell anyone about this.”

That threw Barry for a loop and he felt the tremor in his fingertips ease up. “Merle doesn’t know?”

They had all been close on the Starblaster. In different small groups, shuffled in different combinations, each with their own jokes and special moments, though most stories connected everyone together. After the Bureau of Balance, Barry had assumed ‘Tres Horny Boys’ still shared that unique connection.

“Barry,” Taako took his hand back and squeezed lightly. “You can’t tell them.”

“You made the secret keeping rule,” he tried but it sounded weak even to his own ears.

“I know what I said.” Taako broke their gaze and took a deep breath. “It’s mostly just my legs. They took the weight of the washing machine and I think the brunt of the Dex loss. Everything else isn’t really important. My face sucks but it’s– I mean Lup’s right. We still look related. I mostly just keep it up because I don’t want people poking around asking questions like you idiots.” Barry smiled and Taako managed to look up at him, relaxing again. His smile faded away but he kept looking at Barry “When you said it’ll get worse…” he trailed off, fingers twitching in Barry’s grip.

“Taako, I’m not a healer–”

“Necromancy is just late healing,” Lup’s voice was gravel, but sounded like a siren’s call to Barry. He squeezed her hand and she squeezed back, but her eyes stayed foggy. He watched Taako’s leg started bouncing, fighting down the urge both of them struggled with to tackle Lup in a hug when she came back. These quiet moments of comfort used to be just messy piles of cuddling back on the Starblaster. They were still like that when Barry was the one having a bad day. But after the umbrella, after a hundred things Taako still wont talk about, too much touch could be overwhelming. So they squeezed Lup’s hands and she squeezed back. That was enough for now.

“Welcome back,” Barry whispered and she smiled.

“Thanks. I think we’re getting better at this.”

Taako barked a laugh and Lup broke her hand from his to punch his shoulder. She didn’t need to look at him for her aim to be true. “Ow! I was only gonna say that we might be better if Barry and I didn’t spend the whole time fighting.”

“We weren’t fighting, we were discussing.”

Taako just rolled his eyes, taking his hand away from Barry to rub at his shoulder.

“Barry’s right though,” Lup continued, still staring ahead. “The three of us are the best arcanist in the multiverse, but our biological knowledge is pretty limited.”

“I don’t know if I’d trust Merle’s biological knowledge,” Taako grumbled.

“Even if you did, you’re worried about telling him.”

“Oh, now you get an insight modifier, huh Barold? Fuck off.”

Barry just sighed and reached for Taako’s hands. He put one back in Lup’s and took the other in his own. “I’m not trying to put you on blast. You’ve got a good point. Merle’s losses were mostly physical, like yours. I don’t know what he’s deal with. But I think I know who does.”

“Nooo.” Taako whined in a way that meant he knew exactly who Barry was talking about. He tilted his head back, then his whole body, leaning his weight to pull at everyone’s arms. Lup started leaning with him, but pulled herself back up. She blinked once, twice, and finally shifted her gaze to Barry. She pushed forward, letting Taako bobble behind her, as she kissed Barry on the cheek.

“See, Lup agrees with me. You gotta tell Cap’nport.”

“Why?”

“Because he’s the captain. He’ll know what to do.”

He watched the emotions play out over Taako’s face and mentally took a second tally in the Barry win column. “Fine,” Taako admitted. “But not today.”

“I’m pretty sure it’s tomorrow,” Barry shrugged and Lup laughed, kissing him again.

“I hate both of you. I’m not doing this until after Candlenights.”

Lup started stretching out her stiff limbs, squeaking as blood rushed back into her legs, numb from sitting crossed for so long. Taako did the same, moving to stand. Barry watched Lup almost reach for him, but she let him go. It hurt to hear his joints crack, now that Barry knew how damaged they were, but Taako seemed at ease. Lighter, maybe, finally getting the weight of the words off his chest. Barry still couldn’t believe he went that long without telling Lup. She seemed to realize that too, curling up against him as the door closed behind Taako and muttering something about hypocrites and grudges. There wasn’t much point to getting under the covers– Lup was still running hot from her flare up. Barry was just happy to hold her, to be grateful she was still here and whole. All of them were a little different than before, but they weren’t broken, weren’t missing pieces like he heard terrified whispers of during late nights on the porch. They were different, but they were still together. Still whole. Still surviving.

#the adventure zone #taz #taz taako #taz lup #barry bluejeans #charmedanswers #charmedwords #DMI #wow this was way longer than i expected #i wanted to explore how barry's coped and i think he's probably doing really good #comparatively speaking #dude still freaks out if he loses contact with his wife for too long #also I GUESS im just making taako talk to his family? like i guess that's the plot of this??#danish-fandomer

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