“I’m the lowest rank in our class and you’re the highest and now I’m literally on my knees begging you to help tutor me!!” For the prompt thingy?🥺 i’d love a blupjeans but Ik Taaitz is yr specialty😌👉👉
“I’m gonna do it, Barry.” Lup shoots him a double-barreled direct eye contact special, and Barry melts under the laser heat of her attention. He covers his eyes, but ends up peeking through his fingers.
“I’m doing it. I’m already doing it,” she declares, and sinks to her knees, raising her hands dramatically clasped together, as if pleading for her life from an ancient, cruel king. “I need your help. You’re the highest and I’m the lowest in this fucking class and I’m dying over it and I need- stop laughing- I need you to help me!”
“Lup-” Barry is delighted and embarrassed and exasperated and blushing hard, because Lup is on her knees in front of him and he cannot turn his brain off about it. “Lup, you are whip-smart. You are so smart it’s literally dangerous. You don’t need me- you don’t need my help to pass organic chemistry.”
“You would THINK that, WOULDN’T YOU!” Lup puts her hands on her hips, which looks absolutely ridiculous while she’s still on her knees. She wobbles indignantly, but keeps her balance. “You would fucking think I could ROCK O-chem and trample it into the ground with my glorious hooves, but I’m fucking floundering here!! You’ve got to help me ace this test tomorrow or I’m fucked, and I am not repeating this. Do you know how much these classes fucking cost-”
“Lup, you’re on a scholarship.”
“And?? I’m about to climb you like a tree and wring a yes-Lup-I-will-help-you-Lup out of you, so help me-”
“Please don’t climb me like a tree,” Barry pleads, desperately trying not to think about Lup climbing him like a tree. He fails. Badly. “Of course I’ll help you. I- I don’t know why you didn’t come to me earlier. I mean, we’ve been studying together, for fuck’s sake.”
Lup gets very quiet, and Barry can almost swear she’s the one blushing now. He can’t understand why. Embarrassment over failing, he supposes. But even that doesn’t make sense--she’s absolutely incredible. She could wipe the floor with everyone in their cohort, including him like ten times over.
“I’ve, uh,” she starts to push herself up, and Barry offers her a hand. She hesitates, and takes it, and he tugs her up. Her hand is so warm, so soft, so perfect, and he can feel himself disintegrating on a molecular level. “I’ve been distracted.”
“Yeah?” He hasn’t let go of her hand. She’s so close, so fucking close, and she even leans a bit closer, and she smells so sweet and lovely and familiar, and if he weren’t such a fucking coward, he’d kiss her right now, forget all of the pining he’s been doing for literal years now, and maybe, just maybe, Lup wouldn’t hit him, and they could be together, and his heart wouldn’t ache every time he looked at her.
“Yeah,” she says, and drops his hand. “I, um. I. I’ve just been worried about Taako, is all.”
“Right,” Barry says, and his whole body feels like lead with a head cold. “Yeah, definitely, for sure. Well, um. I- of course I’ll help you, Lup. We could even go get started right now, if you want?”
“You’d do that for me?” Even looking a little despondent after bringing up Taako, Lup lights up like a glow-in-the-dark lizard.
“Of course.” Barry smiles, and he hurts, and he wants, and he settles. “What are friends for?”
