“Well, Lucretia told us he was evil!” Merle says.
“To be fair, Barry didn’t do a lot to dispel that notion,” Magnus says. “The first time we met him he did possess a guy and force him to drink poison.”
“He was trying to poison you!” Barry protests.
“Yes,” Taako says, pointing at Barry with his glass, “He was. But do you remember the first thing you said to us?”
“After rising spectrally from the dead body of Captain Captain Bain,” Magnus puts in helpfully.
Barry blushes.
The former crew of the Starblaster are sitting around the dining table at Taako’s house, the remains of a fabulous dinner in front of them. It’s been months since they were all together, all seven of them, but when Lup got her body back she insisted on inviting everyone over for dinner, because, she said, she hadn’t hugged her family for over ten years and that was not a record she was going to let stand.
They are still learning what it means, to be a family again after everything that’s happened. But century-long habits have carried them through dinner, and the conversation has turned to stories of their adventures in their time apart—and if they are careful to stick to the funny stories, the light-hearted ones, no one mentions it.
“Lup, has Barry ever told you about this?” Taako asks, leaning across the table to refill his drink.
Lup grins and leans on Barry’s shoulder. “No, he hasn’t.” Barry rolls his eyes and puts his face in his hands.
“He said—”
“Wait, wait, do the voice,” Merle says. “You have to make sure to do the voice.”
“You and character voices,” Taako mutters. But he does his best to imitate the echoing whisper of Barry’s lich voice. “He said, ‘are you afraid?’”
“Well, yeah,” Magnus says, in character as his past self. “Isn’t everyone afraid sometimes?”
Taako waggles his fingers at Magnus. “You don’t know how to be afraid.”
Lup laughs, her forehead against Barry’s shoulder. “Barold, you didn’t!”
“He did!” Merle says. “And then he told us all about the hunger that was the true nature of man.”
“Subtle.”
“And then—“ Taako takes a breath to hold back his own laughter. “And then he said, ’This is your first lesson.‘”
“And disappeared in a burst of flame!” Magnus finishes, throwing his arms in the air.
The table erupts in laughter – Davenport with his eyes squeezed shut over his glass, Lup leaning into Barry, wiping away tears of mirth—even Lucretia, seated at one end of the table, has a hand over her mouth to hide a smile. Barry’s whole face is red, but he’s smiling too.
“I knew you had a flair for the dramatic, babe,” Lup says, kissing him on the cheek.
“Well, I did live with you and Taako for a hundred years,” Barry replies. “Some of it had to rub off.”
“I resent that,” Taako says. Then he grins and throws a bread roll at Barry, but misses and hits Lup instead, and she instantly levitates a pitcher of lager to empty itself over Taako’s head. Across the table, through the growing food fight, Magnus sees Lucretia watching the familiar chaos, laughing. And then her smile fades, and Magnus watches her get up, quietly, and go into the kitchen.
Davenport sees it, too, from his seat at the other end of the table. He starts to get up—and then he hesitates. Magnus can see his instinct as captain warring with the lingering distance that has hovered between him and Lucretia since their memories returned.
Magnus stands. “Coffee, Captain?”
Davenport meets Magnus’s eyes, and Magnus can’t believe he ever forgot what it was like to know these people so well, to be able to communicate so much with just a look.
“Thanks, Magnus,” Davenport says. “Black?”
“You got it.”
kokorocala
