monstertea | [TAZ] i know i like to draw that line when it starts to get too real

[TAZ] i know i like to draw that line when it starts to get too real

The problem isn't that the kid is too young to walk himself home, it was the neighborhood. Taako doesn't live in the slums, but his neighborhood isn't really a place for kids to wander around alone, either. Especially a boy detective who does't know how to keep his nose out of other people's business. That's why he's stuck with the kid in the first place, or so he reminds himself when his brain starts to think too fondly of him.

He walks at a languid pace next to Angus, knowing but not acknowledging that he's in no hurry to go home. "You keep working on that mage hand," he says as they walk through a neighborhood much nicer than Taako's. "Just don't go trying anything fancy on your own, little dude." It's a historic area where buildings have been converted into homes and quickly filled by the hoity-toity type of people who like white picket fences and employ other people to take care of their homes. It's easily the nicest foster home Angus has been in yet. So Taako could have dropped him off at the corner, it isn't a neighborhood that sees trouble. He tries to avoid run-ins with Angus's family, but he always has an excuse to see him to his door. At least with this neighborhood he has the easy excuse that it's just interesting to look at the houses, to answer Angus about what each building used to be. Yeah, he knows shit, too. He's just trying to remind the kid that he isn't smarter than him, he's not trying to impress him.

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On Thursday, Kravitz had headed home around lunchtime, knowing himself well enough to realize that he wouldn't get much work done that day anyways. There wasn't much to do at the mortuary that day anyways, just a few services he'd already done the work for and was no longer needed to oversee, but that was about it. Kissing his mother on the cheek and promising her an update on what the landscaping people thought would look best, he headed home.

And proceeded to panic, which he'd done an admirable job of not doing up until that point. The house was already spotless, so it wasn't as if he could stress clean. But what was he supposed to even wear? Something comfy and casual like he usually wore at home, or should he stay in his suit? Would that just make him look stuffy?

I'm at home, feel free to stop by at your leisure.

He managed to stop panicking long enough to text Taako, and then went and stood in front of his closet for god only knows how long. In the end, he decided to shed his suit jacket and tie, leaving him in just the button-down and nice slacks. A little more casual, but not grungy jeans and a t-shirt casual. That should be good, right? Right?

With that crisis dealt with, he puttered around in the kitchen aimlessly before huffing his way to the office to try and do some bookwork from his laptop. At the very least if that didn't work, he could distract himself watching animal videos on YouTube until Taako arrived.

Taako had sent a short text to let Kravitz know when he was heading over. He dawdled before leaving, not wanting to be too early. Once there he rings the doorbell and steps back so he can see his reflection in a window, checking himself over. The trouble with taking the bus across town is he didn't have reflections to look at in store windows along the way and now he's wondering if he's not casual enough. True, he'd wear the outfit out and about normally, but Kravitz doesn't know that.

Kravitz can just take it however he wants. He spent way too much time into this look to question it now. Well, he does question that he didn't put enough jewelry on. He should have gone with more necklaces.

Setting his book aside when he hears the doorbell, Kravitz ends up doing the same thing as Taako, although he has no way of knowing. Before opening the door, he makes sure his clothing is settled properly, that not a strand of hair has escaped from his hair tie or is out of place. Well, this is about as good as it gets if you're him, so with a deep breath to steel himself, he opens the door.

And....apparently didn't steel himself enough, because wow does Taako look good. He's wearing these heels that do incredible things to his legs, and dear lord is his top sheer? It's a small miracle that he doesn't just pitch forward out the door and onto his face, but he's been walking upright for over thirty years now and isn't so easily felled by gravity and a beautiful elf on his doorstep.

"Good afternoon," he greets after what he hopes isn't nearly as long as it felt. "Thank you for stopping by. If I could bring my courtyards to you to make things a bit easier, I would, but I can't. Um, please, come in." He steps aside, making a gesturing motion for him to enter. "You look lovely, as usual." Which is probably a stupid thing to say, but all three times he's encountered the elf, he really has looked stunning, so it's a deserved compliment.

There's a definite pause when Kravitz opens the door and Taako tries not to preen too much at the gaze. Instead he takes the chance to check Kravitz out in turn, dressed down only barely from usual but he likes the look so no complaints from him.

"Good afternoon," he answers brightly. He laughs at the comment about bringing the courtyards to them. It's hilarious coming from someone who looks so stoic. Is he babbling or just a dork? Both are endearing.

"Well, thank you!" He smoothes the back of his skirt when he's stepped in past the doorway. "You would not even believe how few compliments I get despite deserving them. Not a problem you probably have, looking at you." Morgue or no morgue, he's surprised Kravitz doesn't have people lining up to date him.

Wow, if Kravitz thought he was blushing before, he's putting himself to shame now. How has he literally not spontaneously combusted at this point? "Um, t-thank you," he manages to stammer out, because really, there are far too many people who know he literally owns a mortuary to be paying him compliments like crazy. Besides, he's also kind of a shut-in, which means most of the people he interacts with are families who have recently lost someone; not exactly very interested in flirting with him.

Once Taako is inside, he shuts the door behind him. "Here, I'll show you the main courtyard first," he says, leading the way through the immaculate living room to a small sliding glass door, which opens up to the courtyard in question. It's the bigger of the two, and decently sized for being boxed in by the glass and the walls of his home on three sides.

Taako is loving this. He's never gotten such reactions to complimenting anyone before–usually the guys he goes for take compliments the same way he does or aren't easily flustered. This, though? This is fun.

"Are you sure you're a living being, my man?" Taako asks as they walk through the living room. It's well-decorated but so clean even Angus wouldn't complain about eating something dropped on the floor. He's not hard pressed to believe it always look like this, which means it doesn't look lived in, and that's just strange. He doesn't expect everyone to live like he does, but he figures they should live.

He leaves the question hanging as the door to the courtyard is opened. He doesn't hesitate in brushing past Kravitz to step outside, looking over the space. He's still gotta do work, all things aside. And it's a nice space, a little bigger than it looked in the pictures. Classy, he thinks, is exactly the way to go, but it should be a cozy kind of classy.

"I promise you, I am a living being, not a lich, a zombie, or any other form of undead," Kravitz says, relatively unphased by the question at this point. His state of being is just always going to be brought into question, isn't it? Oh well.

It's hard to classify the expression on Taako's face as they walk through the living room, so despite his nerves, Kravitz tells himself not to give it any thought. No sense in stressing over something so silly, even though that's exactly what he's doing. At least he seems pleased by the courtyard, brushing past him to walk around in to the space and taking it in. "This is the larger of the two," he says, probably unnecessarily, but it feels odd to stand there watching Taako in silence. "When we were discussing things at the shop, this was the one I was imagining having some seating in."

Taako laughs a little, smirking at Kravitz. "Obviously you aren't a zombie or you'd be after this sweet meat," he says, tapping at his head after giving the innuendo a moment to sink.

"But yeah man, that bench I mentioned will be real nice out here." He nods, pulling out his phone to take a few photos. The space will definitely need some color. He doesn't know his plants as well as Merle, but he can imagine what shapes and colors will look good. "Get some real colorful plants, make it cozy as fuck. Get your own private little garden to sit and read shit in, chilling with some bugs."

Edited 2017-03-16 20:10 (UTC)

"I think sweet meat is a kind of food actually, although I'm pretty sure it's an animal organ of some kind," Kravitz manages to say, which he honestly regrets as soon as it's out of his mouth, but apparently Kravitz Fun Facts are the way he deals with being flustered, which he very much is by the way Taako is smirking at him and talking like he's flirting.

"I'd definitely like to add some color to the space, I have a lot of white in my living room and it can kind of make the space feel washed out," Kravitz agrees, his smile widening at the mention of reading. "Very little would make me happier than sitting in my garden, reading, in the company of some very happy butterflies and bees, maybe a spider or two."

"You're thinking of sweetbreads, bubbale," Taako says absently. He doesn't even think about correcting him, it's just automatic.

Which is a good enough reason to talk more enthusiastically about the courtyard, voice rising a touch. "Warm colors would be really nice," he says, planting his hands on his hips. "Get some real bright shit out here, you obviously need the color." And if he's thinking about what a nice scene Kravitz sitting out in a garden reading, enjoying some bugs hanging out, then well... it's a nice thought. A real pretty picture.

"Oh, that's right. Sweetmeats is an old English word for pastries and candies and the like," Kravitz says in answer, his words trailing off as he starts to smile. "Did you call me bubbale?"

"Like reds and pinks and oranges? I think that would work. Maybe I could get some pillows or something in matching shades for the couch to bring some of the color inside," he murmurs, mostly to himself, but he's not going out of his way to keep quiet. "Would you like to see the other one now?"

Taako whirls around, glad to be off the topic of food. "Bringing some color inside sounds great. You got a real sterile environment going on in here," he says as he steps back inside. He steps out of the way to let Kravitz ahead of him to lead the way to the other courtyard. "There a problem with being called bubbale?"

"I'm not the most gifted in interior design, I'll admit," Kravitz says a bit sheepishly as he leads the way to his office. "I haven't done much to change what the designers did, so it still feels a little spartan. The renovations just finished last month." Opening the door to his office, he heads over to the large floor to ceiling windows that dominate the back of the room. With a press of his fingers, there's a clicking noise, and one of the panes of glass slides slightly forward, and from where, he can push it aside to let them out into the smaller courtyard.

His office seems much more lived in than his living room, with bookshelves stuffed with all sorts of different literature and a large, solid, cherry wood desk and a warm looking leather chair behind it. His laptop is open on the desk, and there's an articulated skeleton wearing a top hat in the corner.

"Should we do a consultation for interior design too?" Taako jokes as he follows Kravitz. "Though you can't really just design a place to look lived in..." He trails off as they enter the office and it's easy to guess Kravitz spends more time here than his living room. What a sad state of affairs.

Then he sees the skeleton.

"Woah boy! My buddy! My guy!" He goes straight for the skeleton, looking it over. It looks real and that should be weird but he's just too tickled. "Is this fella real?" His eyes are bright when he glances back at Kravitz, smile all mischief. "You got yourself a fancy bag of bones hanging out in your office? You gonna explain this one away real easy, too? Did the house come with a pre-fab skelefamily?"

Edited 2017-03-17 00:06 (UTC)

"Maybe we could at least get it to look a little less sterile, which would be appreciated," Kravitz chuckles. "My sister says it looks too much like a sample home on FHGTV." It's embarrassing to know that Taako thinks the space doesn't look lived in, but that's because it really isn't. He doesn't have much of a life outside his job.

The elf's reaction to his skeleton tickles him pink, though, and he's not even trying how pleased he is. Although....maybe he should lie and say it's from a party store or something. In for a penny in for a pound and all that. "Yes, he's real, and actually, yes, he did come with the house," he answers honestly. "He was in one of the body drawers downstairs, and since he's part of the history of this morgue, I didn't feel right sending him anywhere else. So I articulated and gave him a place of honor in my office. What kind of man would I be if I kicked a fellow out of his own home?"

"Of course that's the thing to do!" Taako howls with laughter, patting the skeleton's upper arm bone. He's thrilled that the skeleton is real and was in the house. It's gross and the fact that Kravitz articulated and kept the skeleton is even creepier and he's loving it. "That's just what you do, you find a skeleton in your new house, you just fix it right up and keep it around like some kinda Addams family roommate. That's like, house buying one-oh-one or whatever, right?"

He's reached up to take the top hat off the skeleton and put it on himself when something Kravitz says clicks in his mind. I articulated he had said, not that he had it articulated. "I don't think I ever asked what you do for a living."

"I cleaned it first," Kravitz says, his cheeks burning as he smiles nervously. Taako's laughter sounds delighted, not necessarily mean, but it's still not the reaction he was expecting. "That's the part they teach you in orientation, before you actually start house buying one-oh-one. If you find any skeletons in your house, absolutely clean and bleach the bones before you articulate them and display them in your office."

Fondly watching as Taako picks up the top hat from the skeleton (it had been part of a Halloween costume one year), it takes him a moment for the question to register. "I, ah. I own and run my family's mortuary."

Taako is still laughing a little, delighted giggles escaping as he manages to balance the hat on his head without messing up his hair. "You're a mortician," he says, and he's trying for a deadpan voice but his laughter is ruining that. "I am so not even slightly surprised. Like, everything is coming together now. The morgue house, the skeleton." He's careful as he takes the skeleton's arm, draping it over his shoulder after turning to face Kravitz. "So I guess you could say all this," he says, motioning to the skeleton and the room, "runs in the family?"

"I suppose you could say that," Kravitz chuckles, starting to get tickled now the longer Taako laughs. "My family's mortuary has been here as long as the city has. It wasn't my intent to take over, but life happens. I also didn't intend to buy and live in a morgue, but it was the only building I was really interested in when I was looking at the market, so of course it would turn out to be a morgue and of course it would have a rather charming skeleton inside."

Seeing Taako with the skeleton's arm over his shoulder makes him smile even wider. "You can take a selfie with Jenkins, if you want, since you both look so dapper."

Taako makes a noise of sheer delight when Kravitz says he can take a selfie with the skeleton. "Here you go, babe, you gotta have your hat back for this," Taako says as he leans up to perch the hat back on the skeleton's head. Even with his heels on, it's just tall enough for him to have to reach and it's only with years of practice that he doesn't stumble in his heels.

"So," he goes on while pulling his phone out of a skirt pocket that it only barely fits it, "do you at least like your job? I mean, I'd assume as much since you kind of totally have the whole mortician vibe going for you, but you know they say about assuming."

"A deadly pair," Kravitz compliments once the hat has been returned to Jenkins's head, extremely pleased that being allowed to take a selfie with the skeleton is taken to be the honor that it is. No one outside his family has actually even seen the thing, so to have Taako so pleased with it kind of makes him want to show him the unfinished basement in all it's creepy glory.

"It's a living, no joke intended," he says with a little shrug, taking a half step forward like he's concerned that Taako might fall going up on his tip-toes in his heels like that, but it appears like the elf has complete mastery over the deadly footwear. "I was actually going to be a musician, but my father passed, and I came back home to run the family business. I enjoy it well enough, there are certainly worse things I could have ended up doing."

Taako steps just in front of the skeleton, holding both it's arms around his shoulders with one hand while he holds his phone up with the other, trying to find the right angle. He has to get a good photo because this one's going on all the social media. There's the tell-tale sound of the camera snap when he finally gets the angle he wants, and then he's letting go of the skeleton, still careful in his handling of it.

"That seriously fucking sucks," he says when he turns back around, his smile replaced with a somber expression. "Like, sure, it isn't the worst, but to lose someone and have to give up what you want to do at the same time is the pits."

As Kravitz watches the scene playing out in front of him, he wonders if it would be too forward to ask Taako to text him a copy of that picture. It probably says something slightly disturbing about him, but he finds it incredibly cute how the elf ends up posing, almost like he's standing with a high school boyfriend for a prom photo or something like that. Maybe he'll ask later, if he can gather the courage, because the last thing he wants is to make the other uncomfortable by giving him the impression that he might want the picture for anything other than fondness.

"Someone had to do it," he says, as if that's all the answer that the statement needs given. "I appreciate that, though. It wasn't an easy decision to make." And sometimes, it still isn't.

Before the mood can completely sour, he steps out into the smaller courtyard, motioning for Taako to follow him out.

Taako is happy to let that topic fall, because hoo boy he does not do feelings. It sucks, and he sympathizes with Kravitz, but that is not a thing he talks about or thinks about any more than he can. Nope, he is ready to be all business again if that means avoiding that serious conversation.

"You sure there's no ghosts out here?" he asks once they're both outside. Much like the first, it's clear no one has done anything with the courtyards since the place was last used. He doesn't even care about nature like Merle does and he thinks it's a sorry sight. "Cause I am feeling all kinds of dead energy out here. I'm expecting your boy Jenkins to have a buddy start climbing out of the ground."

"Maybe the ghosts of the poor plants that were once out here," Kravitz says, looking a bit forlorn at the sorry state of his own courtyard. "They were in this state when I purchased this place, and my first priority was to make the main two floors livable before anything else, so unfortunately this had to take a back seat for the time being. If any of the neighborhood kids have seen these things, I'd understand why they think I'm a lich." Dead flowers, rotting plants, all that jazz, does not exactly make for an encouraging atmosphere.

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