#so of course lup hugged lucretia when they reunited! how could she not. she probably wanted to break out and rush to her this whole time..

[juha-art]

Lucretia, dear, I’ve already forgotten about the whole thing. Oh, uh! Sorry, bad choice of words.

[wolf-thecontradictorysentence]

Home is a Family chapter 3

Nobody Forgets, and the IPRE makes a new plan together as a family.

Read on Ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/12880710/chapters/30341823

Where Everyone Gets a New Home and Taako is Alone(TM)

Magnus was dropped off at a small rustic town known as Raven’s Roost. It was well known for its Craftsman's corridor, and Magnus would fit in well with his carpentry abilities. Merle was brought do a community of beach dwarves. Among them were the Rockseekers, distant cousins of Merle’s who miraculously lived in this reality. Lup and Barry got a nice house in a small town called Glamorsprings. It was safe and quiet and the perfect place to raise two children. Lucretia and Davenport would be staying on the Starblaster for the time being.

And Taako? Taako got a stagecoach, and a sign advertising “Sizzlin’ it up with Taako,” his very own cooking show. Somehow he couldn’t bring himself to be too excited about it with his family split up like this. He had always expected Lup to be there with him when he finally got famous, and after she had kids well... He had given up that dream for the chance to be there for his nieces, unlike his own family.

But now that plan was also shot to shit because of another stupid plan. He’ll get to see them of course. In between shows, on his way from one town to another, acting as a messenger for his extended family. Not to mention Lucretia had promised that it would only last for a few years. The girls would still be little kids when they all were reunited again. Still though, it hurt, not being with them. Not being with his sister, or even any of the men he had come to call brother, or Lucretia everyone’s pseudo baby sister, or Davenport and Merle, the crew’s collective father figures. For the first time ever he was completely alone.

Which meant he was going to milk it for everything it was worth and make his show the most successful thing this reality had ever seen. He stayed the first night with Lup and Barry, making sure they settled in okay, and after that he traveled to the nearest town that was of any note. It took him three days of travel to get there. All three days were spent planning his show, what he would make, what he would wear, the best way to perform, everything he could think of.

It didn’t go well.

Nobody knew what it was and the few people who did come didn’t seem all that impressed. Just his cooking wasn’t enough, he had to add in something more, and he was pissed. He was Taako from TV! The best transmutation wizard in all of existence, and probably also the best damn cook. And they just ignored him!

Well he wasn’t going to let that stand. He was going to figured out how to make people watch his show and become a godsdamned celebrity. People were going to know who he was if it was the last thing he’d do. But it wouldn’t be the last thing he did because after they knew who he was he’d have to capitalize on that shit with tee-shirts or something.

Six months and several more towns later and he finally got the hang of attracting a crowd. His personality is perfect for this show biz, but plan old cooking isn’t exciting enough for them. So he’s added in some of his transmutation to make it more interesting. And what’d ya know? It actually works.

He would be doing another show right now, somewhere high and fancy, like Goldcliff, but it’s almost his niece’s first birthday and like hell he’s gonna miss that. Not to mention the rest of the crew will probably be meeting on the day of their actual birthday to celebrate. But it’s his duty as their favorite (if he isn’t their favorite when they grow up he’s gonna throw a fit) uncle to be there a few weeks early and spoil them as much as possible in the meantime.

As his wagon pulled up the road to his sisters house he saw her and Barold out on their front lawn, each of them holding one of their daughters’ hands as they waddled barefoot on the grass. “Teaching them to walk without me?! Their favorite uncle Taako!” he called as he stopped the wagon.

“Unk” “Akko!” the two little girls called out, Churrita saying the first word and Tarch followed with the second.

“And they started talking!” he exclaimed getting off of his cart.

“Yeah well you’ve been gone for six months. Kids start doing that stuff around this age,” Lup said, smiling widely at her brother, despite the harsh words.

“At least we taught them your name,” Barry pointed out, as Taako got closer to them, “We haven’t taught them the other’s names yet.”

Taako quickly gave them both a side arm hug,“I-I wanted to, listen that’s not the point uh, I wanted to be there for that. But I wasn’t cause of this stupid plan. I fucking hate it.” With that statement made he scooped one of his nieces up into each of his arms.

“Feck!” Churrita exclaimed happily.

“And yet here you are, already teaching my daughters to swear before they’re even a year old,” Lup mock scolded him.

“Yup! They grow up fast sis, gotta be ready for it,” he said, carrying the girls towards the house. “Lets go inside so I can spoil these guys with all of the presents I got them.”

“You got them presents?” Barry asked, as they followed him inside.

“Yes, I got souvenirs from every town I visited,” he explained, pushing the door open with his hip.

“Taako, my dearest brother, my heart, best uncle to my children, I’m not putting away your wagon for you.” He grumbled and handed the girls to his sister and went to put away the cart.

Later that day the twins were napping on his lap as the grown-ups sat down and talked. He had gotten them mini battlewagons from Goldcliff, and dragon stuffed animals from Neverwinter, and little matching wizard hats that matched his, and a jumble of different stuffed animals from small towns that had nothing unique to offer, but it seemed like they enjoyed them all. Currently though they were only holding the mongoose stuffed animals he had made for them when he found out he was going to be an uncle.

“So Taako how’s your cooking show been?” Lup asked with a slight smirk on her face, “terrible since you don’t have my help with the taste-testing?”

“No, it’s been amazing, especially since I started using transmutation to make it showier,” he boasted.

Barry put an arm around his wife’s shoulders, “Sounds interesting to watch, you gonna do a show here?”

“A show here? In Glamorsprings? I mean I could try out my new thirty-two garlic clove recipe,” Taako said. “Sure, why the hell not?”

They talked for longer about his show, and how it was to travel alone. He brought up the idea of him hiring an assistant. And then the talk turned to the kids.

“So how about you guys? How’s it been being domestic?” Taako asked.

“It’s nice living in one place permanently, you should try it sometime,” Lup answered.

“Yeah sure, just as soon as this stupid plan is done,” Taako huffed, his ears flattening to his head.

“The girls haven’t been taking well to this plan either,” Barry sighed, looking down at them.

“What? Why not? What’s making them uncomfortable?” Taako demanded.

“Their used to having a lot more people around. They are lonely. Just the two of us taking care of them is a lot harder than all seven of us,” Lup told them.

“They missed you,” Barry added, “they were so happy to see you today, the happiest they’ve been in a while.” Taako sighed and kissed each of the girls on their foreheads. The sooner Lucretia finished making her organization the better. Then they could all be a family again, and they could reclaim their relics.

“Alright girls? You ready to learn how to make sugar cookies?” Taako asked, as the twins started up at him from the floor, teething toys in their mouths. He nodded, should’ve expected as much from toddlers. He was babysitting them for a few hours, while Lup and Barry went on a date for the first time in six months.

“Okay well first off you need baking soda and baking powder, which are different mind you,” he said in his showman's voice, “But we only have the one so I’ll be transmuting it into the other.” He grabbed the pre-portioned baking powder he set aside earlier and transmuted it to baking soda with a flourish and a few prestidigitated sparks. “Then we mix in the flour and in the second bowl the cream, butter, and sugar.”  

Churrita picked up one of the battlewagon toys and started playing with it, while Tarch crawled closer to him and started up at him with big baby brown eyes. “Well at least one of you is enjoying this,” he said, continuing on with his act. Once he had a completely made batter Churrita crawled over to him too, and both of them reached for the batter. “No no no, this has raw egg in it, and your mom would kill me if I got you sick. And then your dad would bring me back as his undead servant. You can taste the icing.”

“Up, unk aako,” Churrita demanded.

“Up! Up!” Tarch added, clapping happily. He sighed and picked them up baking was going to be very difficult while also taking care of them. Cooking with both hands occupied was impossible.

He set them down carefully on the table and continued his work on the counter. After the cookies were placed on the pan and in the oven he started to make the icing. A strawberry buttercream icing made with fresh strawberries would be tasty for kids. The twins babbling to each other in the background while he mixed the ingredients, no longer bothering to narrate his process, they didn’t appreciate it so what was the point.

By the time he had finished that the cookies had to be pulled out of the oven. “Ookie!” They spoke in unison, reminding Taako of himself and Lup when they were little, even though these two weren’t identical.

“They need to cool. But you two can try this,” he said, holding out two small spoons, filled with icing, in front of them. They took the spoons eagerly, putting them in their mouths. So they ate in sync too, interesting.  

He smiled at them and started to put the icing into a piping bag. There was something he wanted to try. Taako took the cookies off of the tray, and onto the biggest plate he could find. Turning back to the twins he noticed that Churrita still had her spoon in her mouth, despite the fact that it was clean, and Tarch had put hers down in order to inspect one of the measuring cups he had left out.

First he put the cookies down and then he shifted the twins so they were on chairs instead of the table. “Alright last thing you wanna do is to ice the cookies,” he said, showman’s voice back on. Making a smiley face on one of the cookies he continued, “now you just want to pipe them like this. Now you guys try.”

When Lup and Barry got home the kitchen was a mess. As were the cookies. Each cookie had an abundance of icing on them, but it sure didn’t look pretty. However, Lup took one look at it and started cooing about how artistically inclined her daughters were, kissing their cheeks despite the icing all over their faces.

As he watched his sister and brother-in-law struggle to give their daughters a bath, laughing at their pain, he thought about how he couldn’t wait till he got to be around this permanently again.