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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"Nah, learned quick not to give him magic lessons with other people around," Taako snickers. It's an odd feeling to see Kravitz by surprise like this, when all their last meetings had been planned. Even odder still is the fact that Angus is there, so he doesn't feel comfortable being as forthright with his flirting–well, he feels fine with it, but he's pretty sure Kravitz would crumple up in a ball. He's still easily flustered, which Taako adores.

"Apparently what we're up to is me enjoying a fab-u-lous pastry while the nerdling works on homework to have it done early." He rolls his eyes, flopping a hand dismissively at the book Angus has closed. "Like that's a totally exciting thing to do, right?"

"You make him sound like quite the menace," Kravitz chuckles, letting his arms rest on the table, his latte cupped in his hands. "I'm sure magic lessons with me would be equally disastrous. My private tutor growing up said my parents would save a lot of money if they just wrote my abilities off as innate and didn't bother with formal training."

"Innate magic is cool too," Angus says, picking off bits of his muffin and popping them into his mouth. "What does yours have to do with?"

Looking a little chagrined, Kravitz gives Taako would could be translated as a "I know you're going to find this hilarious but please contain yourself" look. "Death, of course. Spirits of the deceased, I can occasionally sense when someone is about to die, that sort of thing." He doesn't mention that he can somehow stave off rotting when he's around dead bodies, because that's a little graphic for a child.

Angus is looking at him with huge eyes, which makes Kravitz cough and change the subject. "That sounds like exactly the sort of thing I would have done when I was younger. I was very bookish, although in this environment, I'd be more likely to have brought my guitar or something."

Taako grins when Kravitz admits to what his magic is, face scrunched up like he's about to burst, but he manages to contain himself. That's fuel for later. Besides, there's not a great joke in laughing about knowing when someone is about to die; that doesn't sound like a great time at all.

Instead, he takes the chance to bring up Kravitz's outfit. "Speaking of your guitar," he drawls. "Is this how young musician stud Krav dressed?" Glancing at Angus to make sure he's looking at Kravitz and not watching him, Taako looks Kravitz over with a slow smirk.

"I don't know if I'd say stud," Kravitz says, hiding his flushed cheeks behind his latte for a moment as he drinks. It definitely doesn't help his flustered situation to have Taako smirking at him like that when Angus is focused on his muffin. "But I didn't really change the way I dress much from when I was still a music student."

"That's cool," Angus says, eating the last of his muffin and wiping his fingers on his napkin. "I'm not very good at music stuff. I did choir for a little bit but I stopped so I could join the math team." Pausing, he squints a little at Kravitz. "So you're not a lich, but your magic has to do with death, and you're a musician? You're an interesting man."

"I own a mortuary, which is my job. Music is more of a hobby now," he says, not seeming bothered by Angus. "So yes, the death thing goes hand in hand with that?"

"Do you like, do the stuff with the dead bodies?" he asks, leaning forward across the table. "Like, preserve them and get them ready for the viewings? We watched a video about it in class one time, about how it's so much harder to get bodies ready for funerals than just putting the corpse in a box. Is that really what it's like?"

"Warned you about this," Taako says, nibbling at his pastry. He rolls his eyes at Angus's questions, only bored because he knows this stuff already. The kid could at least detective well enough to get Taako some info he doesn't already have. "Get him started and you've opened Pandora's box or whatever, he won't stop."

He drops his pastry back on the plate with a laugh as something occurs to him. "Maybe you're not a lich," he snickers, grabbing at the table as he bites back his laughter, trying to get his words out. "You're a reaper man. Ol' death himself, the grim reaper, a uh, what do you call them, psychic... psychomp... kid, help me here."

"Psychopomp," Angus and Kravitz answer in unison.

"Hmm, maybe in another life," Kravitz says, looking more than a little amused by how tickled Taako is by his own ideas. "I think I'd know if I was a reaper or something like that, like how I'd know if I was a lich. I'll admit, though, being a reaper sounds like a much cooler job than working at a mortuary. Probably a lot less paperwork to do."

"In general, though, reapers are agents of their governing deity," Angus chimes in. "So while there might be less paperwork, you wouldn't be the boss anymore, there'd be someone else to boss you around and tell you what to do. Not very nicely, if I'm remembering my mythology correctly. Plus people are always trying to break out of the afterlife."

"For sure, I wouldn't want to be answering to some deity, especially not one in charge of death and shit." Taako goes back to picking at his danish, careful of getting the sticky fruit filling on his fingers. He's loving this idea even more than Kravitz being a lich. On top of that, he's distracted for a moment with the idea of getting a cloak and scythe for Jenkins, how perfect would that be? Now he's thinking of it, he could have a great time playing dress up with that skeleton if Kravitz gave him the go-ahead. He pipes back up after a moment. "Love that idea, but babe, I can't see you being a great grim reaper with the chasing after rogue souls thing."

Kravitz cheeks flush ever so slightly (as they're wont to do every time Taako calls him any kind of pet name), but he looks softly, privately pleased, like "yes, that's me, I'm his babe". The reaction makes Angus giggle, attempting to hide the sound by coughing and reaching up to pluck his glasses from his face, polishing the lenses on his shirt.

"Why not?" Kravitz asks, his bottom lip poking out in that tiny but apparently highly effective (not that he knows that) pout of his. "You don't think I could bring order to the afterlife and guide the dead and hunt down errant souls?"

Taako catches Angus's giggle and is glad in spite of himself that neither of them seem bothered by the other. It's not like it matters to him if they like each other, except that it kind of does. Angus is basically his barometer on whether someone is worth bothering with at this point. If they like Angus, that's a point in their favor; if Angus like them, that's a bigger point in their favor.

He bites his lip against the fond smile trying to form when Kravitz pouts. Neither one of them needs to know the power that expression already has over him. "You would be great at the whole bringing order and guiding the dead thing, obviously," he huffs, like that goes without saying. "I am doubting the whole errant soul hunting thing, though, like, if they put up a fight? Maybe in another lifetime, but you." He picks up his pastry, raising an eyebrow. "Have you ever fought anything?" he asks before finishing the danish off.

Edited 2017-03-27 18:30 (UTC)

For his part, Angus is enjoying the added company; Kravitz seems like a nice guy, with a really cool (if not creepy) profession. Of course, he's not okay with just anyone dating Taako, but none of his alarm bells are going off, and if his rather extensive Google searching tonight goes well, they can have his blessing.

"I broke someone's nose once," Kravitz says after a long pause, sipping his latte and looking chagrined. "And I think I dislocated the other guy's jaw."

"Oh my god," Angus says, getting that deer in the headlights thing again.

"They pulled my sister's headscarf off," he says simply, but with ice in his tone that says that this transgression hasn't been forgiven, regardless of how long ago it was. "I never enjoy resorting to violence, but that doesn't mean I'm incapable of it." Looking at Angus, he can't help but laugh. "Do as I say, not as I do. It's never a good idea."

"I don't think I have it in me to hit anyone, sir," Angus says honestly, looking between his own scrawny arms and Kravitz's definitely more toned ones. "I also don't think it would hurt very much if I did."

"Hope you fucked them up," Taako says, nodding his approval at Kravitz's past actions. He's not surprised Kravitz would do that for his sister, but it doesn't make the action any less meaningful. And imagining him really fucking the offenders up is kind of hot.

"Well, perhaps you could pull it off. You'd probably have some rad powers, too." He raises his brow at Angus's comment, smirking. "That's what we've got magic for, Ango. I'm not gonna lie and say I could win in a fist fight, but you'd have to rip my wand from my cold, dead hands to get me into a fist fight in the first place. And even if you got my wand, I'd use every ounce of magic left at my disposal before I'd bother trying to punch someone."

Edited 2017-03-27 21:50 (UTC)

Almost without thought, Angus holds out his hand, expression expectant. "Swear jar." Magnus said it was a bad habit to get into, swearing around children, and both Mookie and Angus were supposed to hold their respective father and guardian responsible for keeping their language clean.

"Now I'm grateful I haven't slipped up," Kravitz chuckled. "And Taako, please don't encourage him to use magic to browbeat people into submission. Just....try not to get into fights period." A fond smile crosses his face. "I can't see you ever punching someone, to be frank. Not because I think you're incapable of it, but it doesn't seem like you'd enjoy literally getting your hands dirty." Of course, that's the exact opposite of a dig; if anything, he sounds adoring.

Taako groans, loud and long, as he digs in his pocket to find change. Like a bratty child, he managed to hold the dull note until he's dug out a quarter and tossed it to Angus. "Still gotta get Magnus back for this crap," he mutters, settling back into his seat. "Never had a swear jar when I was a kid." Nope, it was old school with his aunt; if she caught him cussing–and she had to catch him at it, first–he got a good swat wherever she could first get him.

It's hard to stay irritated with Kravitz like that, though. That fond smile, that adoring tone of voice. His annoyance is easily wiped away by it and he's just able to keep from smiling in return. Kravitz is too good at unraveling the threads of his facade. "Got me dead to rights on that one, though I've used magic for a fight or two before." He says it like the punchline of a joke, but the one fight he's been in wasn't funny at all and he hates to even think of it. So of course it's a joke. "Not that I'm trained for that, so you can just imagine what a show that was."

"I'm sure you'll think of something to do to get back at him," Angus hums, not looking bothered as he pulls a small plastic pig from his backpack and drops the quarter into it. The swear jar is actually a pretty ingenuous idea, according to Magnus (if anyone bothered to ask him). It's a way for money to travel from the tsundere elf to his not kid, without the elf getting al weird about it (which he would) or Angus feeling like he should refuse (which he also would). Plus, any amount is suitable to the swear jar, from pennies to quarters to dollar bills. So Angus can get snacks with his friends after school when he's in a less than ideal home situation and Taako swears around the kid .01 percent less. Win-win, says Magnus.

"Have you now?" Kravitz asks, raising his eyebrows. "Did someone not agree on the flowers you recommended for their space or a paint color?" Of course, considering Taako presented the information like a joke, he's playing along, none the wiser. "And even if you aren't trained in battle magic, your school adapts to it very well. I can't imagine you'd be too terribly outmatched if it really came down to it."

"Ugh, this guy was a real piece of sh–" He stops himself barely, glancing at Angus like he's the one who almost cussed, before continuing. "A real piece of work. Goes along with everything, never says a word against it, until suddenly, one day, everything is wrong!" Taako gestures widely with one arm when he says "everything", grimacing. "You don't tell an expert how to do their job, ch'yeah? But no, he figures he's seen enough, he's basically the same level as me."

Taako lets out an indignant snort, leaning on the table. "Well, we had it out," he goes on, sipping his drink. He doesn't remember the fight clearly; he had been drinking and hadn't expected to see the man. Yelling led to punching led to him casting a spell or two and then everything had been chaos as their brawl was broken up. "I walked away a little worse for the wear, but I got my point across to him."

He looks at Angus, pointing at finger at him. "Tip one if you're gonna fight, make sure you're of a higher level of magic so you've got the immediate advantage."

"I can't imagine anyone telling you what to do, expert or not, so I can't imagine that went well," Kravitz says, looking sympathetic. Fighting, violence and the like....it's never really been his cup of tea, and for all that Taako was just giving him a hard time for not appearing tough enough to be a soul bounty hunter, he doesn't exactly peg the elf as being exactly eager to start throwing punches. "I'm glad you were okay."

"Me too," Angus says sincerely, only to look exasperated. "How am I supposed to figure that out, sir? It's not like a video game where I can just check someone's stats and find out if they're higher than a level 2 or whatever."

Taako laughs, waving away their concern. He was more than a little worse for the wear, but he thinks he at least got away without any scars. He's pretty sure he remembers using scorching ray and that had to leave a nasty burn wound. His own wounds healed just fine with time, so far as he's been able to tell, and he's vain enough to check himself over for blemishes on the regular.

"You're supposed to be the smart one," he says with just as much exasperation. "Can't you like, Sherlock style analyze people or something?"

"I mean, I can, but it's not perfect," Angus says, looking a bit flustered. "And I definitely don't know if I have the sense to guess someone's magic level. I usually just notice small stuff."

"What kind of stuff?" Kravitz asks, genuinely curious, which is enough to make the boy perk up like some kind of puppy.

"Um..." Sitting back in his chair, he looks at Kravitz, studying the man up and down. "I could tell from when you were standing up at the counter that your main form of exercise is jogging. It's in your leg muscles and definition." Slowly, he cocks his head to the side. "And you're left handed. There's ink smudges on the side of your left hand and not your right." A shrug. "Just little things like that."

"Little?" Kravitz repeats, looking thoroughly impressed. "Taako, you didn't tell me he was so talented."

"I told you he was stupidly smart," Taako says, almost a hiss like they're not supposed to be talking about it. He looks a touch proud, though. The only thing that comes close to being as great as him being complimented is hearing Angus get complimented. As much as he huffs and puffs over it, he thinks Angus deserves every last bit of it.

"See, eventually you'll be able to size people up magically like that." He tosses his hair back, continuing loftily. "It'll take a while of course, but if you follow my tutelage then, well, as long as you can learn everything as well as I know it, you should be able to do it."

"I don't think "smart" does him justice," Kravitz says, amusement twinkling in his eyes and the expression on his face soft when Angus ducks his head a little, smiling so big and wide at being complimented by the elf. He's heard Taako talk about the boy before, but he hasn't seen them interacting since they accosted him at his house what seems like forever ago. "I'm smart. He's brilliant."

"You're much too nice to me, sir," Angus sputters, his cheeks red, but just like when Taako called him "stupidly smart", he looks so pleased, it kind of makes Kravitz want to compliment him more. "Of course I'll follow your lessons, sir! You know I'm a good study! And with a wizard as talented as you, I know I still have a lot to learn, but who better to teach me?"

"Hoo boy, don't compliment him too much!" Taako reaches across the table, ruffling Angus's hair until it's good and messy. There's a fond smile on his face for a moment, just a blink and you missed it beat of a second. "He might not be now, but his head's gonna get huge if people keep on about what a genius he is."

When he sits back, he looks pleased with himself. He knows he's a shit wizard, but he's happy to enjoy being "talented" in Angus's eyes until he's old enough to know better. "Heck yeah, and I'm a great teacher, too. Most people would get charged top dollar for this shit. Real lucky kid."

Angus looks a little put out when his hair is ruffled like that, but he manages to finger comb the curls back into some semblance of order without a terrible amount of effort. "I'm very humble," he huffs. "Unlike you."

It makes Kravitz smile himself to see that soft, fond look on Taako's face, even though it's only there for a second. The elf acts so aloof, like he's just doing things for Angus to be nice and like the boy doesn't matter that much to him, but those little looks and the pride in his voice speak volumes. "Does this mean I'm going to have to pay for lessons if you decide to give them to me?" he asks teasingly. "And I happen to find Taako's self-confidence refreshing, and endearing."

"Self confidence," Angus repeats, snorting. The elf is downright conceited sometimes.

There's a second where Taako looks surprised at Kravitz's words, but the expression quickly melts into a smile. It's silly how happy it makes him to hear that Kravitz doesn't find his conceit off-putting. At best, people tend to find it funny, never refreshing or, and this is what really gets Taako, endearing.

"Self-confidence is important," he tells Angus airily before addressing Kravitz's question. "I'm sure we can work out some kind of payment plan, my man." His smile teeters into a grin and, oh, to hell with Angus's presence–he adds a wink for good measure.

Kravitz blushes, although it's only mild- or at least, it was mild, before Angus makes a noise at the way Taako winks at him. "Ohhhh, are you suggesting he pay you in kisses?" he asks with a syrupy sweet voice. "Or something more grown-up I'm not supposed to know about, which I really don't, because ew."

"That's quite enough out of you," Kravitz scolds, his cheeks scarlet, and if the boy wasn't already done with his muffin, he would have taken it as punishment. "What did you gentlemen have planned for the rest of the day?" he asks, wanting to steer the subject somewhere else.

Taako wheezes with laughter at Angus's reaction and Kravitz scolding him. Having to make a deal to get Angus to keep his mouth shut about Kravitz is worth it if only for this moment. He'd give him a high-five if he thought Kravitz wouldn't fuss at him not to encourage the behavior.

"Gentlemen," Taako snorts, still tickled. "I didn't plan anything really, figured we'd go with the flow or whatever Agnes wants. What about you?"

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