#Because I think thermal equilibrium in relationships is cute

[gender-ihardlyknower]

SunFlower napping

[dork-empress]

A Nightmare’s Nightmare

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply

Category: M/M

Fandom: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)

Relationship: Kravitz/Taako (The Adventure Zone)

Characters: Kravitz (The Adventure Zone), Taako (The Adventure Zone)

Additional Tags: Nightmares, simulation of dying

Kravitz hasn't seen the need to sleep in centuries. When Taako convinces him to, it isn't as relaxing as Taako makes it seem.

Kravitz wasn’t just sitting around doing nothing but work before he met Taako, despite what Taako seemed to think.

The Raven Queen wasn’t a hard boss. He had earned time off occasionally. He went into some new town and enjoyed some of the culture, to see how time had changed things. Obviously he was most interested in any music and how it had developed. He loved going to concerts, and had strong opinions on how music had changed (In the Raven Queen’s name, he was so glad they moved past Baroque. All that extra flourishes for absolutely no reason just to prove they could. Where was the heart to it? The emotion? He...may have annoyed some of his fellow reapers with this line of thinking.)

The point was, while he wasn’t as in touch with the living world as he was recently, he wasn’t exactly living under a rock either.

The one thing he hadn’t done in a long, long while was sleep. There didn’t seem much point to it. It didn’t change or develop with culture, like music or the arts. He didn’t really need it. It just seemed like a waste to spend 8 or so of his precious free hours doing….nothing.

Taako didn’t need sleep either, but he loved it. Kravitz initially mocked him for being too lazy to meditate, but he did seem genuinely more refreshed after a long sleep session. And a refreshed Taako was a happy Taako, so Kravitz was happy too.

It wasn’t an ISSUE really. Kravitz loved cuddling with Taako, and Taako apparently loved balancing the cold from Kravitz skin with the warmth of his overly fluffy blanket, “Thermal equilibrium, babee,” Taako yawned at him one day, moving his head around Kravitz chest to find the optimal pillow placement.

Kravitz was happy to have Taako curled up beside him, but it left him with very little to do. He didn’t want to move, and disrupt Taako’s sleep. Looking and admiring Taako’s sleepy face was nice…..for a couple minutes, and then he was bored out of his skull. Which was impressive as he WAS a skull.

It couldn’t hurt, he thought, to doze a bit. Maybe Taako was onto something, maybe the best thing to refresh was nothing at all. He closed his eyes and took deep breaths. How was he supposed to do this again? Was there a switch in his brain he could flip to just….send him off? Could he even sleep? What if he was incapable of it? What was he supposed to do with all this time and--

Taako was snoring. Very, very lightly. It was so damn cute, the little rumble in his throat vibrating against his chest.

Kravitz calmed down, breathing in sync with Taako, and letting himself just listen to those snores like he was a concert of one.

Kravitz had his violin clutched in his hands as he ran through the halls. Where was the damn orchestra hall? He was late, he was running SO late, and he couldn’t remember where he was going.

He tried to follow the signs, but he couldn’t read them. Who put signs up in infernal? He was really going to get it now. “Hey babe,” Taako said, walking down the other way with him, “Where’s the fire?”

“Not now,” Kravitz said, “I’m late for rehearsal, and I can’t find the practice hall.”

“It’s right behind you, dingus,” Taako said, “Have fun!”

Kravitz turned around. He hadn’t even seen the door before. He opened it, facing a million eyes.

The Raven Queen towered over the room, “Late again, Kravitz,” she said, “You’ll get a failing grade if this keeps up.”

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” he said, going for an empty seat. As soon as he sat, he realized he didn’t have his violin, “I...I think I left my instrument in the hallway,” he said, “I need to...to go and…”

“No,” the Raven Queen said, “You must conduct the orchestra.”

Kravitz nodded. He always wanted to do this, but he thought he’d have more time to prepare. He stepped up, taking the conductor’s baton. As he stood, facing the awaiting crowd, he realized he didn’t know what song they were playing. 4/4 seemed like a safe bet...but what tempo…

He raised his arms and the band took a breath. As he started the beat, a horrendous noise shuddered around him, a roar of a thousand beasts. He covered his ears. The roar faded, into pleas, a hundred, maybe a thousand people, begging for their lives, for the lives of their loved ones. Begging for peace. It echoed, turning his brain to sludge. He knew these voices, every one of them, melded together. He’d killed them.

“You took my child from me,” a woman’s voice broke through, “I had her in my arms again and you took her!”

“I would have given you anything,” a man, this time, “It was just a little necromancy, I wasn’t hurting anybody.”

“You killed us,” “You MURDERED us,” “We were innocent” “You’re a monster” “You’re not even alive either,”

“You’re not even human.”

Kravitz fell to his knees, clutching at his ears, but it did nothing to counteract the voices. He tried closing his eyes too, but he could still somehow see their gaunt faces.

His legs felt wet and he looked down. The bandroom was gone, everything was gone. He was sitting on top of an endless plane of black sludge.

And he was sinking.

“No, no!” He shouted, trying to stand up and crawl out of it. But there was no solid surface on which to stand. There was nowhere to go and get out of it.

The sludge rose like sickly hands, grabbing at him, pulling him under. He tried to fight it, but they just held on. It was inevitable.

And he was alone.

He raised his head to the surface, trying to savor air while he had it. It was hard, the sludge crushing in on his chest, and his throat.

The sludge wasn’t sludge anymore, but simple water, frozen and still clutching at him like the hands had.

He reached up, trying to grab hold of the icy surface he’d fallen through, but he couldn’t get a grip. The icy water shot through him like a thousand swords.

He saw something just before his face went under the surface. A figure standing above him. It was Taako. He tried to yell for help, but the water filled his mouth, silencing him.

Taako looked down at him and smiled. The last thought Kravitz had was that he was going to die.

“Kravitz?”

Kravitz jumped to standing. All he knew for a moment was that he was in darkness, and standing on something soft.

Another second and he realized he was in a bedroom. After another, he knew it was Taako’s. He was standing on the bed, Taako still laying below him, looking up at him shocked.

“Y’all right there, buddy?” Taako asked, tone more relaxed than he was, “‘Cause you know I love the bones but they ain’t exactly cuddle material.”

Only then did Kravitz realize he was in his skeletal form, holding his scythe. He switched back to his body and sat back down, trying to piece together his memories and get his thoughts back in order. “It was just a dream,” he said, to himself and Taako.”

“Some damn dream,” Taako said, leaning on his elbow. His hair was untied as he leaned into Kravitz. “You wanna talk about it?”

Kravitz clenched his teeth, “It didn’t make a lot of sense,” he said instead of answering.

“Because dreams usually have great literary arcs.” Taako chuckled, resting his head on Kravitz’ thigh. “What’s goin on, what freaked you out?”

Kravitz shrugged, “I mean it, it didn’t.” he said, “I just….I think I was dreaming about how I died.”

Taako blinked, his elven eyes reflective in the dark. “Well shit. As someone with some expertise in that field, dying is definitely nightmare fuel.”

Kravitz took a deep breath. He didn’t really have lungs, it was just sort of...moving air around, but it felt better to do so. “How do you handle it?”

Taako stretched, sitting up to better hug Kravitz. “Cry a lot, ain’t gonna lie. Taako ain’t got time for that toxic masculinity shit.” He won a smile from Kravitz as he reached up, covering Taako’s hand in his own, “Eventually you remember it’s just a dream and can’t really hurt you. Even if it happened, it’s in the past. It’s just a dream.”

Kravitz rocked a little in Taako’s arms. “I haven’t had any dreams in a long time,” he said, “I don’t remember them being this unpleasant.”

“Eh, mostly they’re just fucking weird,” Taako said, pulling Kravitz closer. Kravitz lay his head on Taako’s chest now, listening to his strange elven heart beat. There were three pumps to it. Weird. “I was dreaming about these like, giraffe things? But they had teacups for heads and I was trying to see if they had any tea inside.” Kravitz chuckled, “And then, the bitch looked down at me, and spilled the goddamn tea all over me! My clothes were RUINED!”

Kravitz finally managed a laugh, clutching Taako all the closer. “Why do you like sleeping, then?”

Taako rested his head on Kravitz’ locks. “I dunno. Sometimes its nice to have something that doesn’t make sense. To not have stuff to do or logic to follow. Just….exist in this weird new world.” Kravitz could feel him smirking, “Plus going back to sleep in the morning is dope.”

Kravitz smiled. “You want to go back to sleep now, don’t you?”

Taako yawned, “Kinda,” he said, “But I can stay up. I think I got enough in to cover meditation.”

His ears were twitching, and Kravitz couldn’t help it. “Go back to sleep,” he told him, pressing a kiss to his cheek. “Maybe I’ll get a better luck of the draw with dreams this time.”

“Are you sure?” Taako asked, but he was already falling back into his bed. “Alright, come here, then. I’m gonna snuggle those nightmares out so hard, they won’t know what hit ‘em.”

Kravitz chuckled again, letting Taako wrap him up. He fought back the fear of what his unconscious mind would bring him this time….