AN thanks for reading. No extra chapter this week or update next week sorry. I'm doing a sponcered 21 mile walk instead. send good vibes please i'm gonna need it!

After that however, Angus had a fortnight from hell.

Taako and Lup show up at the shop for one. The very next day even. Because of course they do. Angus knew they would. He's even ready for them. He refuses to acknowledge them, other than to take their order; despite the stir in the tea room of having two of the seven birds in the building, the twins no less. Takko even comes back just an hour after he first leaves, this time with Kravitz in tow. Then later the twins are there again, this time with ren. Again angus does not treat them, any of them, any different to then he would any other visitor in the tea room.

Angus doesn't rise to any of Taako's bait or bartering. Doesn't bat an eyelid at any of lup's gentler but still very much antics. Doesn't banter with Ren more than necessary and doesn't comment on the several accents Kravitz adopts and drops. It's the very very rare occasion that Mrs Cosie is out of the cafe. Unable to question her or her baking skills bar the lemon drizzle cake he orders, Taako quizzes Dale instead about ingredients and allergies.

The twins Ren and Kravitz don't thankfully call angus by name. Or treat him with any familiarity that would have outed him as 'their' angus. He is no longer the little boy that everyone came to know as Taako's apprentice when the birds found fame for saving the worlds. So it doesn't click for the punters or other staff that he, angus is the reason why two of the birds would show up midweek in a mostly halfling venue. Dale does question Angus as to why he was so quiet during the twins visit(s). But thankfully just mistakes it for him being shy. And when Mrs Cosie returns, she is flattered they came to her shop and sorry she missed them. But not like, distressed so. Ruby, one of the younger team members, it turns out is a Sizzle It Up super-fan, and is exceedingly distraught to have missed them.

Angus isn't in work the next day. But he hears that 'some wizard dude was looking for him.' odd. He hadn't expected that. Why would Taako go to the tea rooms two days in a row? or when angus isn't there? Taako doesn't say anything when Angus visits the house later that evening. But the next time he is at work, Taako is there again. And he's there almost every day that angus has a shift. Sometimes more than once a day. That, again, Angus had not expected. Maybe when the novelty wore off…

It wouldn't be so bad if Taako was himself, and wasn't showing up in disguise. When questioned it's something Taako hotly denies. But like his disguises, is also very bad at doing so. Taako can't lie for shit.

After the first day, Taako technically never returns to the shop… several other people, who happen to be wearing Taako's clothes and speaking with Taako's voice however do. One occasion there was one customer who looked and sounded exactly like Taako, but with an enormous moustache. Considering he can change his entire appearance on a whim, Taako doesn't make much of an effort to hide his real identity. He doesn't even use mockingbird gum. Unfortunately Angus is trapped by the protocols of the service industry and his own excellent manners. So is left unable to call Taako out on his horse shit. Plus Taako does very well on charisma and with a string of very good rolls has everyone convinced somehow that he Taako, is not Taako. To the point angus starts to wonder if he was just being paranoid.

He isn't. Because on days Angus does go home, Taako carries on integrating him about the tea shop. Even on Angus's days off. Asking about things that he would have only known if he'd been in the teashop that day when Angus suspected him. Sadly even asking the wizard about the dreadful Susan or a new recipe wasn't enough to dissuade Taako from the topic.

And then over the next few days things continue to spiral further for Angus.