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barry-j-blupjeans · 6 months

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TAZ NC Day 3: Three!

Magnus was never good at sleeping. He was too— too restless for that. His legs could never quite stay still, his mind would never shut up. And he got overwhelmingly hot far too quickly. And then overwhelmingly cold after he threw all the blankets off. His ma used to tell him that he slept like a puppy, thrashin' around and chasing things in his sleep. When he told Julia that, she had laughed and said that just about summed it up.

His sleep had gotten worse since he lost Julia. A lot of things had gotten worse since then.

Magnus sighed, turning over. The tarp he had laid over the ground didn't do much to soften the various rocks and sticks, and his sleeping bag wasn't any help either. Next to him, Merle snoozed away. He had lost his pants somewhere since he had laid down and Magnus didn't even want to think about that. On his other side, Taako was propped up near a tree, snug in his sleeping bag. Magnus knew he was fucked when Taako fell asleep before him. Taako wasn't even supposed to sleep, he was pretty sure.

He turned over onto his back this time, looking up at the starry sky. It had been… Gods, had it been six years already? Nearly six years, at least, since he lost Julia. Since he lost Steven and Raven's Roost and the little budding hope he had in his future. He felt like it had barely been half that time and, at the same time, it had been twice as much. Time didn't mean much to him after that. Nothing really did.

He had wandered aimlessly for a while, brushing off housing offers by those who survived the bombings. They still saw him as a hero back there. How could he be a hero if he hadn't even properly got rid of their villain? How could he be a hero at all? He supposed it was that kind of thinking that got him into the advertising business. At the very least, he was helping someone. And if he got Got while trying to fight some stupid thing? Well, that was no one's fault but his own.

In the adventuring business, there were very few places to mess up. And Magnus had made his fair share of mistakes, but he always got the job done. No one really cared until Merle.

Here's the thing about Merle: He just kept popping up every time Magnus thought he was gone. That man was a disaster in a way that even Magnus wasn't, but gods-damn, he had great timing. His shitty healing had gotten Magnus out of a few of his worse spots, even as Magnus had begged him to leave. After one particularly nasty wound (turns out taking on a pack of hellhounds— hellpuppies, really— wasn't the smartest thing to do alone), Merle had practically glued himself to his side.

"You don't get to die on my watch," he had said. As if saving people who would much rather just deal with the consequences of their actions was an everyday occurrence for him. When it became obvious that Merle wasn't leaving, Magnus stopped complaining.

And they roped Taako in eventually. Well, Magnus saved him from some kind of demon bear— it's— it's a whole story by itself, but the point remained: Taako got roped into sticking with them and suddenly Magnus was very aware of what his actions looked like from the outside.

They weren't— they weren't exactly your standard adventuring group. Hell, more often than not they got more injured on the way to the monster than they did actually fighting the thing. But for once, it was okay. For once, Magnus felt… a part of something. In a way that mattered. It wasn't just him anymore. He had two people on his side once more.

Three was a pretty good number.

Hammer and Tongs had three bedrooms attached to it. Two upstairs and one downstairs near the shop. Magnus used to have the downstairs room until it became obvious he and Julia weren't going to be spending the night in their own rooms anymore. Steven had not so much traded as he just decided to move all of Magnus's things into Julia's room and all of his own things downstairs. That left an empty bedroom of course, and they had plans to— for—

"Mags."

Merle's voice startled him. Magnus jumped, reaching for his ax, but Merle sat up very quickly, hushing him.

"You're gonna wake up Taako," he hissed.

"Taako isn't asleep, homie," Taako said from the depths of his sleeping bag.

Magnus exhaled, trying to get his heart rate back down. Merle reached over to take his hand, squeezing tightly.

"You okay?" he asked.

Magnus had to squint to see him in the dark— Merle was squinting too, but that was probably because his glasses were off. Taako's eyes just about poked out of his sleeping back, looking at them both with what could either be disdain or worry. It was hard to tell with Taako sometimes, but Magnus got the message anyway.

"I…" Magnus glanced between them. He swallowed back some tears. "I will be, I think."

#taz nc #taz november celebration #magnus burnsides #merle highchurch #taako #taz #taz balance #mine #ise cube writing #i could not resist doing Three on day three sldkfsdf #pls enjoy!#tw suicidal ideation #passively at least #ask to tag #<- fr if anyone needs anything else on this tag pls let me know

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