#Taako is absolutely that brazen and Kravitz found it charming and couldn't resist finding out more

[noodyl-blasstal]

@blupjeansweek day 2: Clowns

Read on A03 or below:

Barry wasn’t entirely sure why he’d gotten himself into this situation, and he wasn’t entirely sure how to get himself out either. He usually loved problem solving, absolutely loved it, but not today, not when it involved eldritch horror masquerading as children’s entertainment. Why the fuck had he come to the fucking circus?

Okay, so maybe he knew why he’d come to the circus.

Maybe it had something to do with his absolute inability to stop thinking about Lup

Maybe it was because she asked if he was going, and he said yes before he could even process the question

And maybe he didn’t back out because she’d grinned at him with such pure joy, and then suggested they may as well go together then.

There was literally no way he could say no. No jury could possibly convict.

All of that seemed like it might have been slightly daft now, though. He didn’t consider exactly how much clowns creeped him out, and that there’d be so many of them… or the fact they’d be patrolling outside. Who forgets that clowns are linked with the circus? Apparently Barry as soon as the most perfect woman ever to exist his lab partner mentions it.

Barry shuddered as he saw one out of the corner of his eye. It wasn’t logical, it wasn’t evidence based, but the discomfort working through his body was very very real. He briefly debated running, surely Lup wouldn’t actually mind? She invited him out of kindness, nothing more. Lup was unfailingly kind, she would have invited anyone, that was it.

But could he pass up a chance to spend extra time with her? Could he fuck. He’d treasured every lunchtime coffee, the post-work drinks to talk through problems. The times drinks became dinners were his favourite. They started with take away, grabbed over desks; progressed to restaurants, new ones which needed testing and established favourites; and finally to him being invited to the Tacco's cosy flat to watch her do incomprehensible magic in the kitchen while he (after the first disastrous attempt at helping) was relegated to watching from the other side of the kitchen island and definitely not staring adoringly at her. In those moments, he could almost pretend he'd been brave enough to ask her on a date, even though he knew it was just business and felt bloody awful for how much it meant to him. But, he couldn’t avoid thinking back over those meetings fondly. She was just so clever, so witty, confident in her abilities with the skill to back it up. Lup was beautiful too, he’d be hard pushed to miss it, no one should look that good in a lab coat.

He checked his watch and hoped she’d be here soon, it was already 15 minutes after they were supposed to meet, but he knew there was no chance of her being on time when Taako was joining them. He squeezed his eyes shut as another clown passed by his field of vision, there was definitely at least three of them and he wished they’d all just sod off.

“Barry?” Came a familiar voice “I know we’re late, but you didn’t need to nap about it” Lup chuckled “you know ‘Ko can’t go anywhere without looking beautiful, and boy does that take a while” she looks away from Barry to stick her tongue out at her brother, who wrinkles his nose in return.

“Of course, it was all me and definitely didn’t have anything to do with someone hoping to finally get that special someone to notice her outside of wo…” Taako’s sentence was cut off by Lup slamming her hand over his mouth with what looked like a fair bit of force. Taako’s eyes widened innocently and he fluttered his eyelashes at Lup. He must have followed the puppy dog eyes up with a lick as she ripped her hand away in disgust and wiped it on his hair as he attempted to duck out of the way. Barry was absolutely baffled, these two were like a tornado when they were together and he had long ago given up on trying to keep up. He doubted he’d ever be able to figure out what Taako meant, had Lup invited someone else from the department? She hadn't mentioned it...

Finding their seats wasn’t too difficult, although Taako had pretty much immediately vacated his, claiming to have seen ‘the most beautiful man in the world’ and aggressively sashayed towards him yelling “Don’t touch my umbrella, Barold!” over his shoulder, stopping Barry in his tracks mid way through his move to the outer seat to give Lup some space.

Lup cackled, slinging her arm over Barry’s to tug him back down, “Come back, Bear." Then shaking her head she added:

"That poor bloke doesn’t stand a chance. I’m looking forward to getting to know my new brother in law.”

Barry was a big fan of rational thought, and rationally, he thought it was quite likely he was going to drop dead. Between the clowns prowling the audience for victims and Lup mashed into his side he genuinely thought the end could be nigh, his heart shouldn’t be going this fast. She hadn’t moved her arm from his and he could smell her shampoo, it was sweet and slightly spiced and perfectly her. Her arm - pressed against his - was so soft and warm and oh god, was his arm sweating? Can arms sweat? Could she tell that his arm was sweating even though it wasn't supposed to? Okay, so he was panicking slightly, but it wasn't a bad place to be. He wished he could reciprocate her casual touches. Barry wanted to put her hand in his, their fingers were so close to each other on the arm rest. He could just move his pinkie very slightly, press it against hers. Link it to hers, make a promise to love her forever. Okay… maybe not the second one, but the first one? That wasn't weird was it? It was. It was weird. Coworkers didn't touch fingers... did they? Fuck.

Barry forgot that racing thoughts usually translated a wide eyed stare into the ether, remembering only as Lup leaned in to talk over the noise of the crowds around them “penny for ‘em?”

Barry stared back, eyes still not quite focused as he yelled at himself internally to just be normal.

"Bear, what's going on in there?" Lup knocked gently on his head.

Fuck. She could read him like a book and she knew his brain was racing and now she was right there, and looking straight into his eyes. Oh gods, he wanted to kiss her, and he felt awful for it. Why couldn’t he just appreciate that the most wonderful person he knew was part of his life instead of thinking about lunging at her when she was just showing a perfectly friendly level of care? Was he a complete creep? He was a complete creep, oh gods. He was going to have to quit his job and go to some kind of rehabilitation centre and learn how to interact with women properly.

Barry realised two things at once. He was starting to hyperventilate, and Lup was still waiting for an answer. It had definitely been longer than a reasonable amount of time to answer that question, and he absolutely didn’t know what to say. Lup was starting to look far more concerned than she had before.

“Bear, are you okay? You look like you’re going to have a panic attack, what do you need me to do?” Lup was still talking close to his ear, and still being wonderful, and smelling wonderful, and it felt so right and he needed to say something before he accidentally blurted any of this out.

“I’m-scared-of-clowns” he breathed in a rush. Yes, excellent work, it’s the truth, it’s not a lie, it’s not exactly what the problem was, but it’s a real thing that could plausibly cause him to be panicking and it wasn't about her and definitely not being in love with her, it was just a perfectly reasonable… balls. He, a 40 year old man, had just told the woman he was definitely absolutely not in love with that he was scared of clowns, like he was a child. It probably would have been less weird to just tell her he was worried that he liked the smell of her hair too much and run for it. Barry groaned.

Lup didn’t laugh. He appreciated her even more for it, she just looked worried again

“Barry, I have to ask. Why did you come to the circus? Is this like some immersion therapy thing? You really should have let me know, I could have helped, or at least done some research in advance. Are you okay?” Lup grabbed his hand and squeezed because she was wonderful and perfect and supportive and Barry thought this might be how he died. If he simply just expired now he wouldn’t have to deal with any of the consequences of the decisions that brought him here tonight.

He was opening his mouth to reply as Taako’s voice drifted past him “Finally! You two sorted it out! Now you can stop mooning and meet Kravitz. He’s handsome and perfect and chaboy is keeping him”

Lup’s mouth fell open in amazement, eyes fixed on a point behind Barry’s shoulder. He threw up a quick thanks for Taako’s ability to claim the spotlight (not even registering the mention of mooning or sorting), and turned his head to see what had caught Lup's attention. Taako was held in a bridal style carry by a ridiculously handsome black guy who was inexplicably wearing a three piece suit. Taako kicked his heels and giggled, fluttering his eyelashes up at Kravitz, whose cheeks darkened slightly under Lup and Barry’s stares. Kravitz folded himself into the seat next to Barry, Taako rescued his umbrella at the last second, but refused to unwind himself from Kravitz’s neck.

Barry saw his chance, there was never going to be a better way to get out of his head than this. He glanced at Lup, eyes wide in confusion, and then turned to hold his hand out to Kravitz.

“Hi Kravitz, I’m Barry, it’s nice to meet you” he smiled, hopefully it didn’t look as desperate as it felt. If there was ever a distraction, this was it and it was going so so well, until Lup slung herself over Barry's back to get a better line of sight.

“Goofus, what the fuck? No offence Krav, you seem delightful, it’s nice to meet you, but Taako, why on earth is this poor bloke carrying you?”

“He said his feet hurt” said Kravitz fondly to the floor.

“...And that if he picked me up and took me back to you I’d let him carry me to bed too” finished Taako, cackling as Kravitz’s head dropped.

Kravitz groaned.

“Taako! I… your sister and her boyfriend are here! You can’t say things like that! Oh gods, Lup, I’m so sorry, I wanted you to like me… he said you had to like me.” Kravitz looked up, absolute panic in his eyes.

Barry short circuited, he couldn't even feel bad for poor Kravitz in this moment, because he, a random stranger thought Barry and Lup were dating? That’s a thing people could think? He supposed she was currently draped over his back, resting her chin on his shoulder with her other arm slung round him. Gods, she was currently draped over his back resting her chin on his shoulder! She hadn’t corrected Kravitz either… Hadn’t been offended or laughed.

Was this worth the clowns?

This was worth the clowns.