9 false starts (and one where they get it right) A Lup/Barry Fanfiction
The first time it happened, they were in the lab and arguing about something. It was really early into their journey and Lup had stormed in to try and make sense of something she had found using the equipment. Having studied magic, she didn’t quite know what all of the scientific stuff was and, messing with something dangerous, Barry tried to grab it from her and their fingers touched, just for a second. She told him to never try to grab something away from her again if he liked all of his body parts attached, and he listened.
Once, trying to get better at different kinds of magic, a tricky spell went awry and Lup’s hand caught fire. She suffered burns, and Taako brought her to Barry to help. As Taako teased her about being a better wizard, Barry rubbed some ointment infused with healing potion in it silently. He was moving carefully over the burns, with his fingers running in circles over the spots. She smirked and said to him, “you know, most people would KILL just to touch my hand like you are now, nerd” and both her and Taako burst out laughing. Barry could hardly look at her for the rest of the year.
After they were back on the Starblaster, having somewhat compromised on saving the 100 souls inside the crystal from the robot planet, Lup meant everything she said. It was going to get harder, and she wasn’t going to stand for this crew to fuck it up worse. They had to be better than that. And later that night, looking for Barry in his room, she found him sitting on the edge of his bed, the only light from a hanging lamp above them. He was crying a bit with his head down. Lup went over and bent down in front of him. He sniffled and said sorry. She patted the back of his hand and said, “It’s okay. That was hard. I know, but you have to trust me and keep on believing because Barry, look at me Barry- I really am going to get that $15 back. I promise you.” He laughed and sniffled again and she kept patting the back of his hand. “Get some rest, we’ve got another chance to do right tomorrow.” He nodded and she left the room. He did feel better, even just from her touch.
There was a planet with really good booze and after a night of drinking, and celebrating getting the Light of Creation, Merle tried to get everyone to dance on the Starblaster. He grabbed Lucretia who awkwardly agreed and Magnus was twirling Taako. They all danced steps that had been popular on their planet. In a group, they spun and switched partners every few measures. It made everyone dizzy. At one point, Lup and Barry turned and swung their arms into each other, hands interlocking to step in and out. Barry blushed and Lup laughed, but not meanly. Then, the group moved again and Lup was locked in with Lucretia and Barry was being forcefully spun by Magnus. They all danced all night, and both Barry and Lup noted, later in their respective rooms when things were quiet, that it had felt different when their hands touched.
On the beach planet, Barry had fallen down in the sand after Magnus had surprised him particularly badly in the name of training, and had run away laughing down the shore. Lup, close by, offered her hand out to help him back up. She was chuckling as she pulled him up, their hands gripping each other, warm sand shifting under their feet. Barry blushed, and that night asked Taako to teach him how to swim. So he could stop looking so dumb.
Lup handed Barry some coffee and in the exchange in their hands, Barry had put his hand on top of hers and they both stayed like that, for a just second, holding onto the same cup of hot coffee. Everyone else was busy cooking and eating and arguing, so no one else noticed that time had stopped.
On Tesseralia, late one night, Lup and Barry snuck out to this little restaurant in the underbelly of the town and ate things they didn’t have a name for, each of it more delicious than the last. They were laughing hard about something, walking down the street back towards the place they were all staying, when it started to rain, only this planet didn’t have rain like they knew it, but instead orange drops that dried the skin like alcohol began to fall. They bought an umbrella made from a material that looked as flimsy as paper from someone with a stand, and it held. As the lights of the vendors shone, the rain coming down made the whole street glow orange through the rain. Lup grabbed the umbrella from Barry, complaining about it denting her hair, and their hands fought to hold onto the handle.
There was a planet where the ground beneath their feet looked like pods of lavender, shimmering and immoveable as pebbles. The color reminded them both of what the sky looked like on their planet, early in the morning before the two suns had fully risen. Both of them spent a lot of time that year working with Merle to understand the plant life and genus of this plane. One day, at the base of a mountain made of millions of lavender pods, their hands just slipped together for a second, neither of them breathing. Merle interrupted and Lup pulled her hand out quickly, without thinking. Barry felt embarrassed, thinking he must have been reading into it.
The next time around, in the kitchen, Lup was leaning on the counter looking over notebooks and Barry was leaning too, next to her. Their shoulders were touching all the way down to their forearms, with the backs of their hands against the other. When Davenport walked in to ask what was for dinner, Barry stood up quickly and pulled away from her. Lup felt embarrassed, thinking maybe she had just read into it.
And then, in the year at the conservatory, their hands were always busy with their instruments. As they trained and wrote sheet music and fiddled with strings and keys, they didn’t let themselves get close again all year. Until they finally did, raising their hands together, purposefully this time, and then they didn’t let go.
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