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

[monstertea]

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.

Comments

[monstertea]

Taako slides his arms away, dragging his hands over his shoulders and back down to his chest. "In the interest of full disclosure, my dude, it's been a bit for me, too," he says, smoothing Kravitz's shirt before slowly pulling away. After a moment's thought, he leads the way back to the stairs; he hasn't really given Kravitz a chance to admire the flattering view of him from behind, after all. The extra sway of his hips isn't just to tease, either. He's having a damn good day.

[solarisirius]

Honestly, Kravitz is going to need to start wearing foundation or something to hide how much Taako makes him blush. It's like he's constantly finding ways to fluster him (not that it's particularly hard). His heart skips another few beats when his clever hands slide over his shoulders and down his chest in what may or may not be intended to be a very seductive caress before adjusting his shirt. And then he's swinging his hips as they go up the stairs and hnngh if he was Catholic he'd be at confession for a month. "Um, did you need to get pictures or anything of the spaces outside before we made our way out?" he asks.

[monstertea]

He pauses once he's upstairs, taking in the look on Kravitz's face. His reactions are nothing short of flattering and Taako is eating it all up like he's starved for the attention. He loves being the center of attention, especially from someone equally attractive. "Nah," he says with a shrug. "The pictures you took were good enough, I just wanted a better sense of the area and what we were gonna be starting out with. We don't turn much down but it's always a good idea to have a proper look-see first."

[solarisirius]

"What kind of stuff makes you turn people down?" Kravitz asks, genuinely curious. He was at least partially concerned that the plethora of dead plants in the smaller of the two courtyards would be enough extra work that they'd fuss at him, charge him extra, or straight up turn him down until he cleared it out himself.

[monstertea]

Taako falters, not quite sure himself. When it comes to the attitude of customers, it's pretty clear why they refuse to work with certain people, but he never questions Merle if he decides to turn something down otherwise. "Hmmm, things like having to deal with like, a bunch of concrete," he says, sounding disinterested to hide that he's talking out his ass. "Or like, when it's clear the whole problem with the yard is just that the people never bothered to take care of it in the first place. Repeat customers are great and all, but not when they're just too dumb to take care of some grass."

[solarisirius]

Kravitz can't tell that Taako is bullshitting, but even if he could, he'd probably still believe him. Those sound like more than acceptable reasons to turn down someone's job. "Well, hopefully I won't turn out to be one of the latter. I haven't tried my hand at this before, so I may end up being a menace to these poor plants," he sighs. Once they're back upstairs, he turns off the lights leading down in to the basement and shuts the door firmly behind him. "It's still a little too early to eat dinner, but I think I have a nice bottle of wine around here if we wanted to pregame."

[monstertea]

"You're fine so long as you don't start thinking you know everything," Taako assures him. "That and people who insist on things their lawn just won't do are the worst. Well, I think the worst are the ones who wanna micromanage, but I just leave those people to Merle and Mags." At the mention of wine he perks up, clasping his hands together in front of his chest. "Now we're talking. I bet you got some good wine, too, nothing like the cheap shit I usually drink."

[solarisirius]

"Who's Mags?" Kravitz asks, leading the way back to the kitchen, whereupon he motions to the bar stools that set up against the far side of the island. "Please, have a seat." There's a little wine cooler under the counter, for all that he doesn't drink too much, and there's a nice, light red in there that was a birthday gift not too terribly long ago that he thinks should be fine. Pulling the bottle out, he keeps it in hand before finding a wine opener in one of the drawers, removing the cork with casual aplomb and no real apparent effort. From there, it's just a manner of grabbing a couple of glasses and filling them, handing one to Taako and keeping one for himself.

[monstertea]

Taako scoots the stool closer to the island so he can lean on it while he sits, legs crossed. "Magnus," he says with a sigh. "Don't you dare let anyone know I called him that, I'll never hear the end of it." He accepts the glass of wine with a murmur of thanks, taking a hearty sip. He usually goes for darker reds himself, but it's good. Clearly a matter of difference between what the grocery store stocks and whatever snobby winery this comes from.

[solarisirius]

"My lips are sealed," Kravitz says, miming zipping his mouth and throwing away the key. Of course, he immediately takes a sip of his wine, which kind of ruins the illusion of having his mouth zipped shut, but whatever. "I'm assuming he works for Dirty Plants also?" The flavor of the wine is sweet on his tongue, nice and smooth, and he's glad that it's not something stronger; he's not really in the mood to get tipsy.

[monstertea]

"Yeah, he's kind of the gopher with regards to manual labor, plus he's got that whole wood working thing which people just go gaga for," Taako says, waving his hand as if to say it's not that big a deal despite having previously praised his work. He takes a proper sip this time, savoring the sweet taste, the hint of fruit. "You'll meet and he's gonna offer you a carved duck, but don't encourage him, my man. I don't know what it is, he has some kind of weird fetish or something, I'm not one to stick my nose into someone else's business to begin with, and I really don't want to know what the duck thing is about."

[solarisirius]

"That's neat," Kravitz says genuinely, because as a musician, he appreciates wood working very much; most of his instruments are carved from wood, at least partially if not entirely. (That's probably not the kind of wood working that Magnus does but it still stands on principle.) "Am I not allowed to accept the duck?" he asks, his bottom lip poking out in a barely-there kind of pout. "Maybe I like ducks. Not as like, a fetish, because good lord I have seen what their genitals look like and no thank you, but just as animals."

[monstertea]

Taako sputters when he pouts. That is not fair in the slightest. He's the one who's supposed to do the pouting–his is perfect, he's practiced it in the damn mirror–but damn. A face like that pouting just isn't fair. "Only time I like ducks is when they're cooked right," he says, carefully twirling his in his glass. "For sure though, if you want the duck, I'm not gonna deny you."

[solarisirius]

"My mom makes a nice duck curry," Kravitz muses, sighing a little wistfully. The worst part about not living with his mother any longer is not being able to eat her cooking all the time. "I mean, I wouldn't refuse the duck, but I'm not sure if I want to take it if it's some weird fetish thing for him. I am not encouraging that."

[monstertea]

Taako snickers, waving his hand. "No, I'm sure it's really fine," he laughs. He does think the duck thing is weird, but a large part of it is just giving Magnus a hard time. He shouldn't give Kravitz too strange an impression of him. "Duck curry sounds good. Do you not cook?" he asks, leaning on the counter and resting his chin in his hand. "Or is this just a case of nothing as good as a mother's cooking?"

[solarisirius]

"No, not really," Kravitz admits sheepishly. "I get by well enough on my own, but most of that is because my sister steals away over here a couple three times a week to cook for me. This kitchen is for her, more or less," he says, looking around the immaculate space. "She and my mother still live in the house we grew up in, and it's a nice house, but the kitchen is a little old fashioned for her. My mother is a very traditional cook, but Istus likes to have the shiny new gadgets."

[monstertea]

Taako lets his gaze wander over the kitchen again. It's easily the nicest kitchen he's seen in a home, which almost grates on his nerves since Kravitz doesn't cook. The gears in his mind are already turning, pulling up all the things he could make here that his own pathetic excuse for a kitchen would never allow him to make.

He covers up his pause by taking a long sip of his wine. Even if he did cook, it's not like he could just commandeer the kitchen of someone he barely knows. "Glad someone is using it," he says. "Criminal to have a kitchen like this and not put it to use. Your sister needs to teach you a thing or two."

[solarisirius]

"I think I'd rather have you teach me," Kravitz says, as casually as he can, taking a sip of his wine after he's finished speaking. Of course he wants to see Taako more often, and while he knows that it's quite a sensitive subject still, he can't help but extend the invitation. "If you ever want to, that is. I'd much rather spend my time learning to cook from you than my sister."

[monstertea]

Taako hums thoughtfully, tapping his fingers against his chin. "I've never taught anyone to cook before," he says slowly, like he's considering it. He is considering it. He never thought he'd be teaching some kid magic, why not cooking too? Why not add an extra chance for things catching on fire to his life?

Managing not to laugh at his own thoughts, Taako looks up at Kravitz with a small smile. "You're gonna have to sweeten the pot for ol' Taako, though. I don't do anything for free, my man. As much as I am dying to work my magic in here, I'm not working with a novice for nothing."

[solarisirius]

"I'll pay for the ingredients, as well as provide wine suited to match," Kravitz says, a little too eagerly, when Taako asks him what he can do to make it worth his while to teach him. "And there will be my wonderful company, as well."

[monstertea]

Taako hides a smile with another sip of wine. How's he supposed to say no to that eagerness? Kravitz seems so thrilled at the idea, he can't just shoot him down. "I'll think about it." He sets his glass down with a smirk. "Though I take charge in the kitchen, don't expect me to go easy on you just because we've been getting our mack on."

[solarisirius]

Kravitz has the decency to blush at that. "I would expect nothing less. I'm a competent sous chef, it's the actual putting-everything-together bit that I don't particularly excel at," he admits, giving the wine in his glass a little swirl. "Thinking about it is all I can ask of you, so thank you."

[monstertea]

"If I don't have to worry about you cutting a finger off, that's a great start." He sits up a little, giving a little huff. "Started teaching Ango and he's all, 'well, sir, I understand the theoreticals of everything'," he says, mocking Angus's voice. "As if that's what really matters if you can't do even the most basic cantrips."

[solarisirius]

"Well, I can say with absolute certainty that I know more about cooking than I do about cantrips," Kravitz says, making a face. "While we have about a teaspoon of magic apiece, neither Istus nor I particularly excelled in our studies in that area. She did better than I, but not by very much."

[monstertea]

"So that's magic and cooking you're not great at," Taako says, holding up one then another finger like he's counting. "You're already know my digs pretty much, but what do you got going on besides probably bring some kind of musical Einstein and hanging out with the dead?"