Chapter Text
Taako sat on his bed, nervously picking at his chipping nail polish while he chatted with Lup over his stone of farspeech.
“Have you done it yet?” Lup’s voice echoed slightly in the small bedroom.
“No, I’m still waiting for him to get home... I’m scared, Lulu.”
“I know, babe, but Barold and I are gonna be there tomorrow afternoon to help you get through this, and you can call me back and we’ll talk all night if we need to. Okay?”
“Okay…….” Taako realized that his hands were shaking too hard for him to even pick his nails, so he sat on them instead.
“And Koko? I’m really proud of you. You’re the strongest baby brother that a girl could ask for.”
“I’m only a few minutes younger, goofus!” Taako nearly jumped out of his skin as he heard the front door open, and he whispered frantically, “He’s home, I gotta go!”
Taako tucked his stone of farspeech back under his shirt, and stood up to wait for Sazed to enter the room.
Sazed barely offered Taako a glance as he stepped through the threshold and made his way over to the closet. Taako cleared his throat, but Sazed still wouldn’t look at him.
“Sazed. We need to talk.” That got Sazed to turn around and look at him with a frown. Taako swallowed down his fear and pushed onwards. “I’ve been thinking a lot about things these past few weeks… How you’ve been pushing so hard about wanting me to make you a full partner with the restaurant…”
Sazed smiled now, rushing over and grabbing Taako’s hands in his. “You’ve finally come to your senses!!!” He leaned down for a kiss, and Taako shook his head and shoved the man away.
“Fuck no!” Sazed looked at him in complete shock. “I’m breaking up with you! And firing you, shithead!”
Sazed turned red with anger and started towards Taako with a hand raised to hit him. Taako backed away, drawing his wand from where he had it hidden in his clothes. “You stay away from me. You’re never going to lay a hand on me again, or I’m going to kill you. Then my brother-in-law will resurrect you so that my sister can kill you again.”
Sazed clenched and unclenched his fists, roiling with fury. “You dumb bitch! You’ll never survive without me! You think anyone else will ever put up with you?” He scoffed and made a move towards Taako anyway.
Taako lit Sazed’s sleeve on fire with a pointed glare. “I’m leaving for the night. You have 24 hours to get your things and get out. Don’t be here when I come back, and don’t ever show your face at my restaurant again.” With that, he turned on his heel and left, slamming the door with a sense of finality.
Taako felt lighter than he could remember feeling in years as he walked in Sizzle It Up! the next morning, and he greeted Ren at the hostess stand.
“Wow, Taako, you sure seem chipper this morning! What’s got you in such a good mood?” Ren asked, accent thicker in the early morning.
“Oh, nothing big… Except I finally ended things with Sazed last night!” Taako expected her to be excited for him, since she was one of the most vocal about her detest for the other man. He was disappointed to only find confusion on her face. “Geez, I thought you’d be a little happier for old Taako.”
“Oh, heck, you know I’m happy for you. It’s just… Sazed showed up this morning and headed to the kitchen to check some of the dishes before we open.”
Taako swore colorfully, making Ren laugh. “I’ll go back there and handle him. You just finish prepping for opening time.”
Taako stomped back to the kitchen and made a show of throwing the doors open dramatically, hoping to startle his ex.
And oh boy, did he startle. Sazed jumped several inches in the air and dropped a bottle that he’d been pouring the contents of into a large vat of sauce. The bottle landed on the floor and rolled across the floor to stop ominously at Taako’s feet with the label facing upwards, bolding displaying the word “Arsenic.”
The doors had already slammed shut behind Taako, and both men just stared blankly at each other for several agonizing seconds. All hell broke loose.
Taako fumbled for his wand, but Sazed was quicker, launching himself across the kitchen to punch Taako solidly in the face. Taako stumbled back in a daze, which gave Sazed enough time to throw him to the ground and wrap two beefy hands around his throat. Taako’s hands flew up to try and pry the ones off his throat, but he wasn’t nearly strong enough. Instead, Taako blindly scratched at Sazed’s face until he felt something give, and Sazed jumped off of him with a yelp.
Taako heaved in air as he scrambled back to his feet, and looked up to see Sazed clutching a hand to his left eye, blood dripping down his face. As Taako sidled back towards the doors, Sazed refocused on him with a livid growl “You cunt!”
He dove at Taako again, while Taako turned and made a run for the door. Sazed caught Taako by the braid, yanking hard enough that Taako let out a yelp.
Voice seeming to have reawakened, and he started screaming louder than he thought possible. “HELP! REN! HELP!” He was dragged deeper into the kitchen by the iron grasp on his hair, kicking uselessly against the floor to try and slow them down.
Suddenly a hand grabbed his face and yanked him upwards to look Sazed in the eyes. “You think I’m going to let some pathetic slut ruin my life and get away with it? If you love this restaurant so much, why don’t you go ahead and die here?”
Taako struggled helplessly against the hand, and he watched Sazed open and oven door and shove his head down. Rather than pushing him into the oven like Taako thought he would, Sazed placed his head between the frame of the oven and the edge of the door. Dread flooded Taako’s body as Sazed finally released him, and slammed the door shut, crushing the sides of his skull. Ringing exploded in Taako’s brain before fading out into silence and numbness, and he went limp as a commotion started by the door and Sazed released the oven door and darted away.
Ren rushed to his side, cradling his body gently as she moved him away from the oven to rest on the ground. Faintly, Taako could see that she was speaking into a stone of farspeech, but he couldn’t hear any sound coming from her mouth. Not that it mattered much, as he only managed to stay conscious for a few more seconds.