Work Text:
Magnus has been training with the Bear of Power for days and days now, getting up at the crack of dawn, coming back exhausted. He doesn’t talk much about it, but the slow achy way he moves says a lot.
What Lucretia finds curious is that Taako has also been getting up at the crack of dawn and has been slipping out very stealthily. They haven’t known each other long, but both of these things seem unlike him.
So she finally makes up her mind to follow Taako, see where he’s going, see if it has something to do with Magnus’s training. At least satisfy her curiosity, though she phrases it to herself as “recording the mission.” She hears first Magnus’s door open, then he stumbles into the kitchen, noisily makes and slurps down a cup of tea followed by one of his dreadful protein shakes.
And as soon as Magnus is gone, the much quieter sound of Taako sliding open his door, padding lightly down the hall, stopping for just a second in the kitchen. While he’s paused, she steps into the hall, listening for the sound of him leaving the ship. She follows, trying to be quick and silent, to keep close enough to see where he’s going without him realizing that she’s following.
It’s pretty clear, though, that he’s on the path through the Royal City to the training ground, and equally clear that he’s more concerned with not being noticed himself than with spotting her.
The training ground is surrounded by trees and hedges, and as they arrive, Magnus is just coming to the center of the clearing. He grunts a greeting at the two animals there: the Bear of Power and a chimpanzee. The bear sits at attention, looking down at Magnus from his great height, while the chimp lounges against a fallen log.
“Good morning,” grunts Magnus in the animal language, giving the bear a deep bow. In the shrubbery near her, Taako drops to sit cross-legged, leaning forward slightly. Then Magnus peels off his jacket, tossing it to the edge of the clearing, slips out of his shoes, and finally pulls off his pants, hopping awkwardly as he does. Neither Magnus nor the bear seem to take it as anything other than preparation for training, as they square off in the center of the clearing. But she hears a sharp intake of breath, and to be honest— She’s spent close to a year now, including training, trying not to stare at Magnus Burnsides. The guy who goes without a shirt most of the time. The guy who strips without thinking to jump in a lake. She acts like she’s looking elsewhere, because she’s polite.
Now, she leans against a tree and hums appreciatively. Because that’s something to appreciate.
The three in the clearing still seem to have no idea, but she hears a soft chuckle, and when she glances in his direction, Taako is looking up at her with a bemused and knowing smile. He pats a spot on the ground next to him, and she moves through the brush to sit.
“So you found my secret,” he says. “Best view on this whole dumb plane, couldn’t keep it to myself forever, I guess.”
She looks back onto the clearing. Magnus is trying in vain to use his legs to stop the bear from pinning him.
“That is his entire ass,” she says, one part startled, one part aroused.
“Yuuuuuuup,” Taako replies. “They go like that for hours.”
“Well.” She doesn’t know what else to say. “Why exactly is he naked?”
Taako shakes his head without looking away from the spectacle in front of them.
“Not a clue. Not gonna ask.”
“I feel like I need to know,” she says. “For...posterity?”
Magnus has worked his way out of the bear’s hold and is now crouched on all fours, looking about to leap.
“Gonna put it in that diary of yours?” Taako asks.
“Mission journal,” she says automatically.
“Chronicler’s log, stardate…. Huh, no idea what we’re doing with that, but anyway — today I found out why the hottest boy any of us know likes to get down to his skivvies to wrestle, and the answer will shock you.”
She laughs, as much at the imitation of her expression as his actual words; unfortunately, loud enough for at least the chimpanzee to hear. It turns away from the ongoing fight and discussion to look directly at them.
“Dammit girl, don’t ruin my thing,” says Taako, although without any heat in it. She covers her mouth, her face hot with embarrassment.
“Sorry,” she mumbles.
“Okay, just, shush,” he says, going back to leaning his chin in his hand. “Watch and, uh, learn, I guess.”
She stifles another laugh, and then a gasp as they watch Magnus play at flexing while he talks boastfully to the bear.
“I know, right?” whispers Taako.
Now she shushes him, and they both bite back giggles as Magnus does an actual handstand. Then she sighs. It’s fun, to watch like this, but she’s aware that it’s just watching, that it’s just the seven of them stuck here forever, that Magnus and Taako…. Another sigh, even more melancholy.
Taako leans sideways and shoves her shoulder.
“Don’t be such a sad sack, bubeleh. I hear you thinking over there. Don’t worry.” She glances over to see him smirking at her.
“What?”
He shakes his head, then makes a point of looking back at Magnus training, doing pushups with the chimpanzee sitting on his shoulders.
“Oh, nothin’.”
“What?! Please, Taako.”
He elaborately mimics zipping his lips shut, but she can see a smile dancing at the corners of his mouth. She sighs, equally dramatically, and leans against him. For a second, he stiffens: he’s not physically affectionate with anyone but Lup, at least not in public. But he lets her stay there as they both return their attention to the clearing.
“No reason he has to get all….” says Taako. “But—”
“Certainly is nice that he does,” replies Lucretia.