#Magnus and Merle keep trying to fight him but he's speedy and they are decidedly not

[noodyl-blasstal]

Prompts from @juicywritinghoard​ are always my favourite.

“may or may not be burning my exes things in the park and sobbing be cool maybe” is from a list you can click here for. 

This was inspired by my realisation that park rangers get to ride snowmobiles sometimes and I think that’s neat.

Black smoke billowed up ahead and Kravitz pushed his snowmobile harder across the open ground and towards the treeline. He’d half assumed the call had been a hoax when it came in, few people used the national park at this time of year, and this copse was well out of the way. The snow was thick along most of the trails no matter what they did to clear them (idiots would get stuck no matter what, but they tried), and it would have taken hours to walk out here on a good day, let alone in these conditions.

Kravitz mentally checked his pack, he had a foil blanket and heat packs if the person was ill equipped and freezing. Thankfully Carey, Killian, and Magnus were working tonight - between them he was confident that they could get someone back to base and patch them up until Merle arrived to treat them.

Abandoning the mobile as close as he could get it, Kravitz ran the rest of the way. Skidding unceremoniously to a halt when he stepped into the clearing and saw Taako Tacco bane of his fucking existence, stood by a roaring fire, bottle of whisky in hand.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Kravitz yelled over the crackling.

Taako whipped round, and glared at him. 

“Oh, for fuck’s sake” he groaned, grimacing at the sight of Kravitz. “Can you just fuck off, Krav? I’m absolutely not in the mood.”

Kravitz was usually rational, he was the one they sent out when they knew people would be difficult. Magnus and Killian had a tendency to rush in hot headed and get angry, and Carey didn’t yell but did enact crime-justice (she argued that they owed her their wallets if they were going to yell at her, he didn’t necessarily disagree). Kravitz, however, kept his head. Or he always had before this beautiful ridiculous man came into his life. Something about Taako worked every last nerve he had and he hated it. Most of all he hated how much time he spent thinking about it and about Taako’s stupid idiot boyfriend who didn’t treat him right. Taako deserved better than him, and it was normal to think like that about someone you hated… because he’d be slightly less annoying dating someone better. Literally only for that reason. Kravitz didn’t care about him, he hated him. Particularly when he was doing nature crimes. Especially when he was doing nature crimes. It shouldn’t come up that much, but somehow it did.

“You’re not in the mood? You’re not in the fucking mood? You absolute dickhead. I just drove up here and put myself at risk because I thought someone might be hurt and need help.” Where did this absolute prick get off acting like Kravitz was the one doing something wrong? He was breaking at least two laws right now - Kravitz would happily bet it was probably more. Arson and drinking in a restricted area didn’t seem like enough for Taako.

Taako didn’t reply, just stared Kravitz dead in the eye before chugging long and hard from the bottle.

Kravitz didn’t look at the line of his throat, or think about the way it bobbed as he swallowed.

Taako turned back towards the fire, and flopped down onto a nearby log. Kravitz obviously didn’t know much about Taako or anything, why would he? He hated him. But he did know that the slumped posture didn’t seem normal. Taako was usually full of energy - irritatingly so. He was effervescent, and even when he was rude it was done with such infectious charm that most people didn’t notice. Kravitz noticed, he’d noticed when Taako teased him about his ‘goth’ clothes, and when he called Kravitz handsome to mock him, he’d noticed all the times he’d broken the rules and stared at Kravitz as he did it - challenging him to do something about it. The charm didn’t work on Kravitz.

Right now though, Taako was deflated, and the slight shake to his shoulders made Kravitz think he might actually be crying? Fuck. He was not in any way equipped to deal with this. Kravitz fleetingly thought this would have been easier if he’d found Taako hypothermic…

“Does Lup know you’re up here?” Kravitz didn’t know how to deal with a crying Taako, but he could ring his sister. Shouldn’t she just inherently know something was up? They were always talking about their twin powers, it seemed unfair they only extended to teasing him and not to saving him from awkward situations.

“Just fuck off” Taako repeated, voice wobbling just enough to make it unconvincing.

Kravitz sighed internally, he absolutely couldn’t leave him like this. Taako might drive him up the wall, and spend far more time in his head than Kravitz is really comfortable admitting, but despite being the most infuriating man alive, he was a person who was sad and needed help. And also needed to stop burning shit.

Stamping over to the log, Kravitz plonked himself down roughly next to Taako. He tried not to examine the warm feeling in his chest as the other man was jostled and let out a shocked little meep. Kravitz definitely didn’t think it was adorable. Not even a little. He hated his traitor brain.

“Taako, this is illegal. Why are you out here burning things?” Kravitz was surprised by how authoritative he sounded, he was aiming for empathetic, but he always struggled with getting emotions to come out right.

Taako groaned loudly. “Look, Stud, I may or may not be burning my ex's things and trying to have a cry about it. Could you be cool for once maybe?”

“You broke up?” Kravitz’s voice was softer than he meant this time. He was shocked. He’d hated Sazed for a long time, Taako was annoying as all hell, but no one deserved Sazed’s bullshit. He knew that everyone else felt the same, and was well aware that Lup had staged a few interventions along the way. Magnus often mentioned his frustrations with Sazed and had definitely tried to beat him up on a few occasions, Carey and Killian had encouraged him to try again. Merle had helped when their encouragement was successful. From what he’d heard, Kravitz wasn’t inclined to think any of it was unjustified.

“Yeah” Taako said in a small voice. “I’m not sad about him. He was a dick. I was with him because it seemed easier than being on my own.” Taako stared straight into the fire as he spoke. “I’m just sad about all the time I wasted. The more everyone told me to end it, the more I wanted to stay. It was stupid.”

“You’re unbelievable.” The words were out of his mouth before Kravitz could stop them. He was probably supposed to have said something more comforting? But hey, everyone else had tried with kid gloves, Taako was ridiculous.

Taako let out an indignant laugh. “You’re supposed to be nice to me, you bastard.”

“Well tough. You’re ridiculous. I can’t believe you’ve just been dating that complete tosser for a year for literally no reason. He was awful to you! You deserve so much better” Kravitz couldn’t help raising his voice, Taako was infuriating.

“And how exactly do you know so much about my relationship, Kravitz?” Taako spat, adding unnecessary stresses to his name. Kravitz hadn’t banked on this. He knew through osmosis, and of course he regularly asked the others about how Taako was. Taako was important to his friends and it was only polite. They ran into each other at parties and group events too. It was hard not to notice the most beautiful man at the party Taako. Especially when the arsehole he came with was flirting with other men behind his back… and sometimes in front of his face.

“I’m friends with your friends. I hear things.” Kravitz was defensive now. He knew a normal amount about Taako’s relationship. He was a completely ordinary amount of invested. His face wasn’t getting hot, and if it was it was only because of the illegal fire Taako had made. 

“Oh, you hear things do you?” Taako took another long swig from his bottle. Then paused, and held it out towards Kravitz. 

“Taako, I’m working!” Kravitz couldn’t believe the audacity of this man. Or how much he wanted to take a swig right now.

“Look, you really have to put this out. You can’t be up here, you’re not safe. You’re not wearing anything remotely appropriate for this trip. In fact, how the fuck did you get up here in heels?” Now that he’d adjusted to the light of the fire Kravitz took a moment to look Taako up and down. The high waisted jeans, silky cowl neck top, heeled star patterned boots, and what looked like a hastily grabbed cardigan (which Kravitz could swear belonged to Lup) were not park appropriate at any time - especially not the dead of winter.

“Magic” Taako slurred slightly, giggling. “Look, can you just let me put…” He rifled briefly through the box at his feet “...Two more bad poems and an ugly stuffed bear on the fire?” He turned to Kravitz, eyes large and pleading. Kravitz resisted the ridiculous traitorous impulse to reach out and cup his face - Taako was doing crimes right now. Kravitz made a mental note to redownload Grinder, or Scruff, or both? Anything to stop this level of ridiculousness. He just needed this to be over before he said or did something stupid.

“Fine.”

“Wait, what? You’re actually going to let me, Handsome?” Taako was wide eyed and incredulous. 

“I can” Kravitz raised his fingers to make air quotes “Be cool” 

Taako smirked. “Prove it” He said, holding out an insipid looking teddy bear. Kravitz felt a bit sorry for it. It was ugly as sin, but maybe with a bit of reworking he could fix it.

“I knew you couldn’t” Taako cackled, spotting his hesitation.

Kravitz threw the bear into the fire with unnecessary force, sending a silent apology into the universe as he did it. There was no way he was going to prove Taako right. Kravitz turned and raised an eyebrow in defiance. Taako looked shocked, so Kravitz grinned smugly. “Keep up then, KoKo” Kravitz smirked at Taako, knowing how much he hated anyone but Lup calling him that. The scowl which crossed his face was immediate.

“Fuck off.” He muttered as he threw the last two letters unceremoniously into the fire. “There, I’m done. You can put out the fire, and fuck off and leave me to it.”

“I’m not leaving you, Taako. You’re pissed, dressed terribly, and Lup would kill me if anything happened to you.” Kravitz shook his head in exasperation. As if he’d leave him here.

Taako didn’t seem to register anything other than the second comment. “What do you mean, dressed terribly? Chaboy looks fantastic, just admit it. I know you think so. “Dressed terribly” As if you haven’t been checking me out every time you’ve seen me for the last 6 months.” Taako rolled his eyes dramatically and leaned into Kravitz’s chest. Kravitz had no idea what to do. Taako did look fantastic, he always looked fantastic. Everyone checked Taako out, it was completely normal to do. Kravitz wasn’t special. He was, however, incapable of telling if Taako was angry or not, but was scared to move in case that made it worse.

“Terribly for the weather, Taako” Kravitz decided the best option was to avoid the question.

“Avoiding the question, interesting.” Taako shifted himself closer, snuggling tight into Kravitz’s body, draping an arm round his waist.

“Taako, you need to get home, you’re going to freeze to death.” Kravitz didn’t pull back. He didn’t want to. Apart from bone-crushing Magnus hugs, this was probably the most human contact he’d had in months

“You wouldn’t care if I did.” Taako said quietly, still unmoving.

“You know that’s not true. Now come on, I’m taking you back to base.” Kravitz grabbed Taako’s wrist to pull him to his feet.

“Why are you doing this?” Taako stayed put.

“It’s literally my job, Taako” Kravitz couldn’t help the frustration that crept into his voice.

“So you don’t care about me at all?” Taako seemed to be on the verge of tears again. 

“Of course I care” Kravitz grunted, as he dragged Taako to his feet. “Now, let’s work on you not dying. We’ll talk about how much I don’t care another day.”

“Fine.” Taako huffed, letting himself be pulled up, promptly overbalancing and smacking into Kravitz’s chest. Taako looked up at him, palm splayed where it landed against Kravitz’s sternum, his weight pressing into Kravitz. There was a long moment of silence, neither of them made any move to retreat back to their own personal space. “It’s a date.”