So last night in the TAZ Fic Writer's Discord @acecreates was talking about their idea for Taakitz's adopted daughter Izzy. Now if y'all know me you know I'm always 110% down to talk Taakitz kiddos, and one idea in particular stood out to me and I decided "I need to write that." So, here's the result of that.
Isabel slowly turned the knob to her parents' bedroom, trying to open the door as quietly as possible. She cringed when it creaked slightly as it opened, but a quick glance towards the bed told her that the noise hadn't disturbed her daddy. Good. She let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding, and silently padded into the room, the cold wooden floor chilling her bare feet. She stopped short at the end of the bed, rocking on her heels a bit as she weighed her options.
Isabel wasn't sure if she should wake her daddy up or not. The nightmare she’s just woken up from had scared her pretty badly, and she wanted some comfort. She didn't think he'd be mad at her for waking him up, but she also knew that he'd been really, really tired when he'd gotten home from work that day, and she didn't want to disturb him. Sometimes when Poppa and Daddy were both home she'd just curl up into bed between them, the closeness of her fathers comforting enough that she didn't need to wake them, but tonight Poppa was gone, out on a tour that would keep him away for a few days.
While she stood there deciding she heard a quiet yawn and covers shifting, as her daddy started to stir. She held still, thinking that maybe if she didn't move he wouldn't see her and go back to sleep.
Instead he looked over at her and immediately started screaming.
Here's the thing about elf eyes - in order to be able to see in the dark they are hella reflective; think like a cat's eyes when you shine a light at them at night. Also, when it's dark you tend to only be able to see the vague outline of things. Lastly, a tired, sleep-addled mind tends to not be the most logical mind, so it's easy for the instinct of fear to take over completely before you're able to properly process the context of a situation.
That being said, it was perfectly understandable for Kravitz to freak the fuck out upon waking up to see a small, seemingly shapeless form with glowing eyes peering at him from the foot of his bed.
Fear and a hunter's instinct taking over, Kravitz screamed and proceeded to jump up, scrambling to his feet and quickly shifting into his reaper form in an attempt to scare whatever had managed to scare him first. It was only after he had shifted that his soulfire eyes saw what his human eyes could not in the dark, and that was his daughter Isabel standing where the perceived "threat" had been, now backing away in fear, tears in her eyes as she looked upon what must be a truly horrifying thing for a five year old elf to see.
"I- Izzy wait-" Kravitz tried to say, but already she was gone, taking off running out the door and screaming as she went. Kravitz's heart immediately sank. He felt just absolutely horrible for scaring his little girl like that. He didn’t want her to be afraid of him, that’s why he specifically never went skeletal when he was around her. He quickly shifted back to his flesh form and went out to try to find the scared little elf.
After a few minutes of searching he finally located her under the kitchen table, sniffling and hugging her knees close to her, her big, floppy baby elf ears covering her eyes. “Izzy?” he asked quietly, kneeling down to her level.
She started at his voice and her ears flew away from her eyes, before she whimpered and scooted back a little further from him. That action made it feel like someone had shoved an icy knife into Kravitz’s gut.
“Izzy I won’t hurt you, I promise. It’s just me, it’s just Daddy,” he tried to soothe.
“No, you’re not!” she shouted. “You’re a monster that just looks like my daddy because you’re tryin’ to trick me!” The knife in Kravitz’s gut twisted. “But my dads fight monsters, and they’re gonna come whoop your butt!”
“Sweetheart, no, it’s really me, I promise! That scary skeleton you saw in my room, that was just Daddy’s work-face,” he tried to explain. “That’s what I look like when I’m out fighting the bad guys.” He paused for a moment, struggling to find the right words to say. “I’m really sorry I scared you, you startled me by showing up in my room in the middle of the night.” Kravitz waited for a response from Isabel, but all he heard was more sniffles. He sighed, then asked, “What if I got Poppa to tell you that you had nothing to be afraid of? Would that help?”
He waited for a response again, this time hearing her mumble a quiet “Maybe,” after a beat.
“Okay,” he said, rising from his crouched position on the floor. “I’ll go get my stone of farspeech and call him for you.” He retreated back to the bedroom and retrieved his stone from the end table next to the bed. He then went back to Isabel’s hiding place under the table, waiting until he got settled back down before tuning his stone to Taako’s frequency.
“Taako, dear, are you there?” he asked into the stone.
It took for a moment for Taako to respond, groaning distantly before he picked up his own stone and brought it closer to speak. “Krav, do you have any idea how fuckin’ late it is? Cha’boy needs his beauty sleep!”
“Sorry love,” Kravitz apologized. “We had a bit of an incident at home, though.”
There was a rustling noise from the other end of the stone, most likely blankets as Taako suddenly sat up in alarm. “Is everyone alright? Where’s Izzy?” he asked, panic ringing clear in his voice.
“We’re fine, Izzy’s right here,” Kravitz said, quick to quell the fear rising in his husband. “But she startled me awake a few minutes ago, and had a bit of a scare because she saw me in my 'work face,’” he explained. “I was hoping that you could tell her that she had nothing to be scared of.”
“Oooohhh…” Taako said after a pause as he understood the situation. “Give her the stone, I’ll talk to her.”
“Alright,” Kravitz said, nodding and slowly reaching under the table to put the stone on the floor. He then put his hands up and scooted away from it, to show Isabel that it was safe for her to take it. She eyed him suspiciously for a moment before quickly darting forward to snatch it up and then retreat back to the center of the table.
“Poppa?” she asked the stone, holding it close to her face.
“Hey pumpkin, what’s going on?” Taako asked, and Isabel seemed to visibly relax at the sound of her father’s voice.
“There’s a monster in the house!” she replied. “I had a nightmare, and I went to go wake up Daddy, but when I went into your room there was a scary skeleton in the bed, and then it made itself look like Daddy to try an’ chase me!”
“Izzy, kiddo, that wasn’t a monster, that was Daddy,” Taako said, repeating what Kravitz had previously stated. “That was just the face he uses to scare the real monsters. He can’t see in the dark as well as we can - he’s not a super cool elf like us - so when you went to wake him up you scared him and he went all boney on ya.”
Isabel looked cautiously over at Kravitz, who was still backed up from the table a little ways. “You’re sure that it’s really Daddy?” she asked.
“Swear on my life, pumpkin. You know I’d be over there in an instant if I thought you were in danger.”
Isabel nodded, then slowly started to crawl out from under the table. She paused as she got to her feet, and then launched herself at Kravitz in a big bear hug. Kravitz was caught a little off guard by the hug, but quickly recovered to return the embrace, hugging his daughter close.
“I’m sorry Daddy!” Isabel sniffled into Kravitz’s shoulder. He simply shushed her, rubbing comforting circled into her back.
“It’s okay Izzy, I know you were scared. I’m sorry for scaring you in the first place,” he said.
“Well it sounds like everything’s resolved, so if y’all don’t mind, Taako’s gonna get some shut-eye now!” declared the stone that lay momentarily forgotten on the ground where Isabel dropped it. “Good night!”
Kravitz laughed and said “Goodnight love!” at the same time Isabel yelled “G’night, Poppa!” They heard the stone click off, and Kravitz turned back to Isabel. “Well, I think it’s time for us both to go back to bed. Do you want to sleep in your room, or my room?”
“Your room,” Isabel responded instantly. “I’m still scared from my nightmare.”
“Okay sweetheart,” Kravitz said, lifting himself to his feet and keeping a firm hold on Isabel. “Let’s hit the hay.”
