Chapter Text
As far as Taako was concerned, this whole thing was a load of bullshit. Let him be the first to say it and thus grant him the almighty power to say ‘I fucking told you so’ when it all went to hell in a handbasket.
The one good thing here was that they weren’t staying with uncle Vividar anymore, the jackass. Taako sure as fuck wasn’t broken up over that loss. They barely ever interacted with the dude, and that was about the nicest thing they could say about him.
The thing was, Taako had figured that would be it. Sure, he and Lup were still seventeen. Had only turned seventeen last week, truly and finally becoming the dancing queens they’d always been in their hearts. Technically, not legal adults yet with the big one-eight.
It was close e- fuckin- nough though, in Taako’s humble opinion. And Uncle Vividar had been it! The last goddamn distant relative to put up with them for a couple months to a year before getting tired of it and throwing them out on their asses. When they’d seen the all too familiar CPS car in the driveway as they came back from their last day of finals, Taako thought they’d be free of all this. They’d cut through the paperwork a bit early, smudge some shit, and he and Lup would be out on their own.
They already were on their own, might as well and just go and make it official, right?
Except Sheryl had been all smiles as she sat them down at the kitchen table while Uncle Vividar did his best impression of an empty chair in the other room. Turns out they’d been able to get in contact with an aunt. She didn’t have much contact with the rest of the family but she would be oh so happy for them to come stay with her.
It was the same bullshit as always.
So here they fucking were, stuck in the back of a car again for the past three goddamn hours. Taako swore he hadn’t seen a building that didn’t look like it’d be right at home on the set of goddamn little house on the prairie in forty minutes.
A ranch, Sheryl had explained. Wasn’t that exciting? Such a wonderful change of pace, getting to go live out in the countryside. It was sure to do them both some good, and oh, their aunt kept horses! Wasn’t that wonderful?
Taako smacked his phone, trying and failing to get some sort of internet connection. Lup was apparently a doomsday prepper and a nerd and had an actual goddamn ipod and a book to occupy her time. Taako, like every other modern goddamn civilized person, had all his shit on his phone and relied on the internet to keep him entertained.
Which was to say he’d forgotten to grab a book when packing up all his junk. He’d been pretty distracted by the fact that they were actually going through this shit again when he thought they were done with it, so sue him.
Groaning loud enough for Sheryl to definitely hear it Taako threw his head back in defeat. Hopefully there would be some better connection once they actually got to the house, but he doubted it.
“Here,” Lup said, holding out an earbud in his direction.
“Your music taste sucks,” Taako said, taking the earbud without any actual hesitation. Lup didn’t comment on it, just rolling her eyes.
“Oh, we’re almost there now,” Sheryl said, for the third time in the past twenty minutes. Taako knew that because he had nothing else to do but stare at the clock while playing bejeweled and count the amount of times Sheryl insisted they were ‘almost there now.’
It seemed like this time might actually be the truth though, because they turned the corner and Taako felt an immediate difference. They were on a dirt road. A fucking dirt road. Even the goddamn farm they’d lived on with Grandpa Tostada for a while had pavement up to the driveway.
It was a long road, and apparently their aunt’s place wasn’t the only one on it. Normally that wouldn’t be a surprise, but considering everything else so far Taako wasn’t going to take ‘other people existing’ for granted. Still, there were a couple of other houses spread along, most of them seeming to have huge yards. One of the large farmhouses seemed to have been renovated into something else, but it was on Lup’s side of the car and Taako couldn’t see well enough to read what was written in the front window.
The house they pulled up to was technically next to that one. There was still the space for like, another whole ass house with a yard and everything in between them if they had been in a regular neighborhood.
When they stopped Lup pulled on the headphone wire, tugging it out of his ear with ease.
“Rude,” he said, and she just snorted as she wrapped the headphones around her ipod and shoved the whole think in her pocket.
Fucking hell. He didn’t want to get out of the car. Lup and Sheryl were getting out of the car and he was still sitting there. He checked his phone again. A little more connection now that they stopped, but still basically unusable.
“Come on Ko, I’m not carrying all your junk for you,” Lup said. It was a decent enough means of encouragement for him to get out of the car without actually saying that. He could take the bait and not cause a scene, and then complain to Lup about this whole mess later once they were alone.
He could have done that, and he probably should have. Instead he stayed right where he was, glaring down at his phone.
“I just don’t see what the fucking point is! Why are we even here?” he snapped. He knew the sad pitying look Sheryl was giving him just from hearing her sigh.
“Taako dear, you haven’t even given this place a chance yet,” she said, and he scoffed at that. Maybe he hadn’t, but it wasn’t like they hadn’t done this whole song and dance a million fucking times already.
They were so fucking ready to be done with it all. They both knew that uncle Vividar was about to kick them out, and they’d been prepared. Lup had a job lined up for as soon as summer started, and he had interviews for like six different places. Sure they were all retail and fast food hell, but it wasn’t like he gave a shit as long as it paid.
And just like that they had to ditch all their plans to come out here because some aunt they never met got guilted into taking them in. They couldn’t even start from scratch and try to get new jobs, because they were out in the middle of nowhere and neither of them even had their drivers license yet.
So yeah, he was pretty fucking pissed and didn’t want to get out of the car. Lup could put on a smile and play nice during all of this but he was tired of it.
Apparently his silent sulking wasn’t the answer she was hoping for, because Sheryl sighed again.
“I know it’s been rough dear but I promise, this is the last time,” she said. Taako wanted to brush it off as more empty promises from people who didn’t give a shit about them, but he couldn’t entirely. She’d been their case worker since they were nine. Even though they didn’t see her often and her upbeat attitude towards it all wasn’t fooling anybody, Taako couldn’t rightfully say she didn’t care about them at all.
“Give me one good reason to get out of this car,” he said, still wanting to be stubborn despite all that.
“Because I’m sure as fuck not getting back into it,” Lup supplied easily. It was straight to the point, and Taako only lasted a few seconds longer before letting out a sigh of frustration.
“Fucking, damn it,” he grumbled, opening his door and climbing out. “This is gonna suck. You know this is gonna suck, right?” he still complained, going and grabbing his bags out of the trunk despite that. If Lup was set on going along and staying here he didn’t have a choice, because like fuck would he ever leave her. That wasn’t how they worked.
“I know, just embrace it. I’m sure you’ll be able to rock the whole cowboy aesthetic,” Lup said and Taako scoffed at that.
“Of course I can, that was never a debate here,” he said. Sheryl seemed relieved at the two of them returning to their usual banter, going and gathering up some folders before starting towards the house. Taako reluctantly followed at Lup’s side, and at least Sheryl was telling the truth about this being the last time. Moving out was gonna be difficult from here, but once they turned eighteen they could with no questions asked. Unless shit went real wrong, it’d be too much of a hassle to find them a new place to stay before then.
There was a huge wooden porch out front, a long bench along one side and a rocking chair in the corner of another. They both looked in pretty good condition, almost new. The bench was close enough to the door that he went and sat on it immediately while Sheryl went and knocked. There was a bit of rustling around inside before the door finally opened, and Taako leaned forward just enough to look and see their aunt.
The first thing to come to Taako’s mind was ‘yep, that’s definitely a lady who owns her own ranch.' She was older and had dark curly hair pulled back with a bandanna, wearing denim overalls and looking like she knew how to do some fucking yard work. He actually wasn’t sure if she was really their aunt or some other distant relative and they were calling her that for simplicity’s sake.
“Oh, hello hello, please come in. I thought there was- oh, there’s the second one, I heard there were two of you,” she said, starting to usher them inside. Taako slowly got off the bench and followed along, since there was no point in throwing a fit right off the bat. Well, technically he’d already done that, but not in front of this lady.
“Thank you so much again for having them. It’s Tia, right?” Sheryl asked, and Taako knew he should at least try to give a good first impression. Despite that he ended up snorting.
“Wait, hold on. Let me get this straight, you’re aunt Tia?” he asked, and he guessed he should be thankful that she didn’t seem offended by that.
“A little redundant, I know,” she said, an amused smile on her face. “And no need to thank me, I’m delighted to have them,” she added, turning back to Sheryl. She led them into what Taako figured was the living room, and this place seemed to be a lot of wood paneling and knickknacks. Taako and Lup put their bags down and sat down on a couch while Sheryl went and sat in a chair closest to the coffee table.
“Would you all like something to drink? Eat? I know you just had such a long drive,” Tia said, moving towards what Taako assumed was the kitchen.
“Just some water if you don’t mind. Taako? Lup?” Sheryl said, turning to the two of them. Taako was pretty sure the only reason she always said yes whenever people offered them junk was so that they felt more comfortable asking for shit. It would be nice if either of them actually cared about stuff like that.
“Whatcha got?” Lup asked, and they could hear their aunt rummaging around in the kitchen now.
“Water, fruit juice, grape juice, orange juice, I wasn’t sure if you kids liked soda but I ran down and got some cans of Pepsi if you’d like. I could also put on some tea,” she said.
“Grape juice,” Lup said, and Taako felt her elbow him in the side when he didn’t answer after a moment.
“Pepsi I guess,” he said. A minute later she came back with three glasses, putting their respective drinks down in front of each of them. They were actual glasses too, and Taako guessed he was at least thankful for the caffeine. With that Aunt Tia pulled up a wooden chair that looked more comfortable than wood honestly had any right to be.
“So, we already got most of the work done when I spoke to you over the phone. There’s just a few papers I’ll need you to sign,” Sheryl said, starting to pull papers out of her folder and getting a pen out of her purse.
“Of course, not a problem at all. I am sorry I never got a chance to meet the two of you till now. I’m afraid I haven’t had much contact with the rest of our family for quite some time,” she said. And honestly, that was one thing Taako couldn’t blame her for.
“Can’t image why, they’re all such wonderful people,” Lup muttered into her glass, sarcasm clear in her voice. Taako snorted and their aunt didn’t look up from the paperwork Sheryl had handed her.
“That’s certainly one way of putting it,” she said a bit absently, signing her name here and there on the papers. It wasn’t long before she’d gone through them all and was handing the packet back to Sheryl who smiled brightly as she put the papers away.
“Well, that’s everything. I hate to run so soon but it’s quite a long drive back,” she said. Standing up she turned towards Taako and Lup. “Did you two get everything out of the trunk?” she asked. They did a quick look over their bags before nodding.
“Yeah, we good,” Lup said, also standing up when their aunt did. Taako figured they were going to walk Sheryl to the door and stayed where he was. It was a surprisingly comfy couch, he was good right here.
“Alright then, well thank you once again for taking them in,” she said to their aunt. Then she turned to the two of them, and Taako didn’t miss the way she focused mainly on him as she spoke. “And do please just try and give this place a chance,” she said. Taako grunted a noncommittal noise while Lup gave a shrug.
With that their aunt walked Sheryl back to the door, and Taako was kind of relieved when Lup stayed standing next to him in the living room instead of following along.
“You good?” she asked quietly. They could hear Tia and Sheryl speaking out on the porch, but it was a little too far away to make out specific words.
“Just peachy,” he grumbled. Taako knew she was just as unhappy with all of this as he was, but that didn’t make it any less frustrating.
“She doesn’t seem terrible so far,” Lup said, and Taako shrugged. It was true, there wasn’t anything immediately awful that stuck out so far, but that didn’t mean there wouldn’t be later. They’d had nice starts before, it never lasted.
They didn’t have a chance to talk about it anymore though, because they both heard their aunt coming back.
“So, I’m sure you two aren’t thrilled about being out here in the sticks, and you must be exhausted from the long drive. How about I show you two your rooms and you can get yourself set up while I make lunch, and then once we’re done eating I’ll give you the tour?” she said. Reluctantly Taako nodded and stood up off the couch finally.
“Sounds like a plan,” Lup said, picking her bag back up. With that Tia started leading them up the stairs, and Taako tried to take in as much of their surroundings as possible. There wasn’t anything really jumping out at him though, a lot of wood and pictures of horses. Soon enough they were in an upstairs hallway and their aunt stopped between two doors opposite each other.
“They’re a little small, but I figure it best that you each at least get your own room,” Tia said. There didn’t seem to be much of a difference between the two rooms, so Taako went to the one on the right, since that was closer, and Lup headed into the one on the left. They were small, and more fucking wood paneling. There was a pretty large circular window along one wall though, facing out towards the front yard. Other than that it was pretty bare, a bed pushed up against one wall, a dresser against the other. He dropped his bag down on the bed.
“Feel free to do whatever you like to make it feel more like home. I’m going to go get started on lunch. Do you two like butternut squash?” their aunt asked from the hallway.
“Yeah, that’s fine,” Lup told her. Taako waited until he could hear their aunt was at least halfway down the stairs before leaving his room and going into Lup’s. It was pretty much the same as his, although she has two smaller round windows instead of one large one. She’d also put her bag on the bed, but Taako ignored it and flopped down on as much of it as he could.
“Shouldn’t you be unpacking?” Lup asked, not actually sounding bothered. She’d already started pulling clothes out of her bag and putting them in the dresser.
“It’ll happen,” he assured her. It wasn’t like it would take long, neither of them had a lot.
“Mhmm,” Lup hummed, not sounding very convinced. Which was fair, Taako could live out of a suitcase for a good long while if he wanted to.
“I just don’t get why they wouldn’t let us fucking do our own thing already. Who the fuck cares if we aren’t eighteen yet? It’s not like we haven’t been raising ourselves the whole goddamn time anyway,” he complained.
“It’s bullshit, but it’s bullshit we only have to deal with for another year,” Lup said. He knew that was true but he was still frustrated as fuck.
“But you had a job! And I at least could have landed a place in retail hell. How the hell are we supposed to get out when there’s nothing but horses in a twenty mile radius,” he said, rolling over and pressing his face into the bed. The blankets smelled new, and when Taako looked he could still see creases in them from the packaging. Their aunt must’ve just brought them before they got there.
“I mean, horses are a form of transportation, don’t even need a drivers license for that,” Lup joked.
“God, Lulu people probably actually do that out here though. Fucking ride their horse into work. You think there’s a stable at the local Walmart I can park my fucking horse at,” he said, causing Lup to snort.
“I don’t see why you can’t bring your horse with you into the Walmart. Don’t make him stand outside like a second class citizen,” Lup said. Taako barked out a laugh at that, pushing himself up on his elbows.
“Excuse me sir, this horse is a loyal customer and I am insulted that you would suggest he wait outside. He is going to pay for those apples,” he said, putting on some random voice.
“This horse is rich as fuck!” Lup shouted at the top of her lungs. Taako had been trying to keep up his bitter mood, but he couldn’t help but dissolve into giggles at that.
“Fuck you,” he managed to wheeze out after a moment, wiping tears away from his eyes.
He wasn’t any happier about this whole deal, but at least he still had Lup with him. As terrible and as boring and as full of both figurative and literal bullshit this next year was going to be, Lup would be there. That was all he really needed.
“Kids, lunch is ready!” their aunt’s voice called up after a minute. Taako probably would have insisted on staying up to finish unpacking (and then not actually do shit) if it wasn’t for the fact that he was fucking starving.
Heading downstairs an to the kitchen, Taako was surprised that something actually smelled pretty good. Most of the family they’d stayed with weren’t exactly world class chiefs. It was pretty rare for them to get a good meal without being the ones to cook it themselves.
“There’s bowls on the counter and some bread if you’d like it,” Tia said, heading over to the table with her own bowl. Taako grabbed himself a bowl and ladled up some soup, probably butternut squash, considering what their aunt had asked. He also cut himself some bread, Lup following his lead as he sat down. Now that they were with their aunt it was all awkward and quiet again, and Taako was starkly reminded of how much this was gonna suck.
Then he took a bite of the soup and he paused, quickly trying it with some of the bread next. He could see Lup having a similar reaction as she tried some of the soup as well.
“You uh, you make this yourself?” he asked after a moment, once it became apparent that Lup wasn’t going to say anything. He really wasn’t in the mood to be the one starting a conversation, but it was real fucking good soup.
“Sure did, how do you like it?” she asked.
“Not bad,” Taako said, eating another spoonful.
“Taako’s a cook,” Lup supplied, and Taako tried and failed to kick at her legs from under the table. She didn’t even show that she’d noticed, and now their aunt was looking at him with interest.
“Are you now?” Tia asked, and Taako shot a glare at Lup.
“We both cook,” he said. It felt like they were both expecting him to continue, so he sighed. “But yeah, I’m a pretty stellar cook. This soup is good,” he said.
“Well, feel free to use the kitchen as much as you’d like. I’d love to try your cooking, both of yours,” Tia said and Taako just nodded, continuing to eat. He guessed that was nice, he certainly wasn’t going to complain about free range over a kitchen.
The rest of the meal passed pretty quietly, and Taako was relieved that their aunt wasn’t trying to press for awkward conversation yet. As soon as they finished eating their aunt took their bowls and put them into the sink.
“Now, who’s ready for the tour?” she asked, and Taako shrugged.
“Sure thing,” Lup said. There wasn’t a lot to do, and Taako figured there wasn’t much harm in knowing which places not to walk for risk of the most cow shit in the path or whatever.
First Tia showed them around the house, which they’d already seen a decent chunk of. There was a huge cellar they hadn’t seen yet though, and a rack of wine in the back that gave him major cask of amontillado vibes.
Then they headed out back, and yep, it sure was a ranch. There was a huge field, sectioned off by a few fences, one long one running all around the property. Just past the back fence Taako could see the tree line of some small shitty woods. Taako guessed in the grand scheme it probably wasn’t a super huge ranch. He could see a couple cows in one area, and some goats, and finally some horses. There were also chickens, but those guys didn’t seem to be quarantined to any specific area, those fuckers were just going wherever their hearts led them. Their aunt did walk them past a chicken coop so at least they seemed to have some sort of base of operation.
There were two other buildings on the property, one sort of barn place where the cows went. They walked through that one first, and fucking hell cows were big. Taako did not know how big cows were up close.
“So uh, are these milky boys or should we not get attached?” Lup asked as they looked at some of the cows.
“They’re for milk dear,” Tia answered, sounding amused by the question. Taako wasn’t sure what to do, but he almost wanted to pet one just to be able to say he touched a cow. He didn’t though, they’d be here for a while so he could always do it later.
The other building was a stable for the horses, and as they walked in there Taako saw something he wasn’t expecting to. Another fucking person.
“No fingers, no fingers, no- shit! Okay, just… eat that,” a guy who looked around their age said, having quickly jerked back from a horse after giving it something. Dude had looked mildly terrified and nowhere near comfortable with the animal in front of him. Despite that he looked like the kind of guy who’d be working on a ranch, flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up, denim pants and fucking honest to god cowboy boots.
“Good afternoon Barry,” their aunt said, leading them into the stable. There weren’t a lot of horses currently in here, and the one this ‘Barry’ had been feeding seemed preoccupied at the moment.
“Oh, hello Ms. Tia. Uh, your um, your niece and nephew are here already?” he asked, having clearly just noticed them.
“They just got here about an hour ago. Taako, Lup, this is Barry. He lives nearby and is helping me on the ranch for the summer,” Aunt Tia explained.
“Yep that’s m- that’s basically my whole deal. That’s Barry. So uh, if you need any help with, um, farm… stuff… feel free to ask,” Barry stumbled out. Dude was almost painfully awkward and flustered.
“We’ll be sure to consult your infinite farm wisdom my dear Barold,” Taako said, rolling his eyes.
“Oh I wouldn’t say- it’s definitely not infinite. I’m actually pretty new at uh, a lot of this,” he said. Considering how terrified the dude seemed of feeding a pretty lax looking horse, Taako wasn’t shocked to find out he was new.
“Well you’re probably better at it than you think, you certainly got looking the part down,” Lup said.
“Thanks? You also look- you don’t look like you work on a farm, I don’t know what I was gonna say that, it doesn’t- shit. You look nice?” Barry managed to stutter out. Taako couldn’t help snickering at Barry’s expense when his face got progressively redder as Lup winked at him.
“Lup, Taako, would you two like to see the rest of the ranch?” their aunt asked, probably feeling bad for Barry at this point.
“Yeah, for sure,” Taako said, still laughing slightly. As they started walking away Lup shot double finger guns back at Barry, and Taako snorted at his fumbled attempt to finger gun back. Their aunt was leading them out towards the fields, and him and Lup were walking a little ways behind her now. Just enough to be out of earshot.
“You know, I think Sheryl might be right about giving this place a chance,” Lup said under her breath. It was quiet enough that Taako almost didn’t hear it. Lup didn’t even look like she was talking to him, a weird smile on her face.
Taako snapped his head back around, and he could still see Barry inside of the stable. Then he went into one of the empty horse stalls and he couldn’t anymore, and Taako turned to look back at his sister.
“Seriously?” he asked, and Lup shrugged, not even seeming to register the disbelief in his voice.
“Yeah, it’s actually kinda nice,” she said. Taako threw his head back, groaning loudly and scaring a chicken and causing their aunt to look back at them in confusion.
This place was going to be fucking hell.