#we're goin to vegas baeby!

[barry-j-blupjeans]

13 with blupjeans. shatter my heart. please

13. “I thought you were dead.”

((50 dialogue prompts - still accepting!!))

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Barry's funeral took place on a cold, rainy Thursday in late spring. It's a closed casket and there were tulips everywhere, despite the fact that they were rarely associated with death. Kravitz had very carefully arranged the bouquets at his mother's shop and he gave her one personally, to take home afterward. Lup put it on the counter in their- in her apartment and watched as they slowly decayed over the course of a week.

Barry's death had Lup in an iron-tight grip for months and months, until Taako convinced her to move in with him and Kravitz, and forced her to, at the very least, sit outside sometimes. The horrible, terrible days lessen into just "terrible" and then into "uncomfortable" and then into "maybe slightly less than okay". She still reached for Barry's hand when driving, only to find Taako's, or Kravitz's, or Magnus's, or whoever's. A lot of his things sat in Lup's closet because she wasn't really ready to get rid of them yet, even as the "less than okay" days turn into "fine" days.

Barry had been dead for seven years when Lup got a call in the middle of the night from an unknown number at three AM. She had long since moved out of Taako's apartment, but he had roped her into planning his and Kravitz's wedding next fall. Instead, she had gotten distracted watching The Office on Netflix again with the wedding planner opened in the next tab over. She only really picked up the phone because she expected it to be Taako coming to snap at her for getting distracted again.

"Hello?" Lup said into the phone, pausing the video. She clicked back into the tab and propped her phone up on her shoulder, pressing it to her ear.

"Oh my god," a voice that is definitely not Taako said back. "Lup?"

"Who is this?" Lup asked, now a little weirded out. The voice tickled the back of her brain and Lup had to take a second to fully absorb the fact that the person who called her sounded like-

"It's Barry!" the voice said back. Lup stalled, her hands still on the trackpad of her laptop. "Lup, I- uhm, I, uh. How are you?"

Lup almost laughed. Almost. Not quite. Instead, she took the phone into her hand and turned it on speaker.

"Barry?" she repeated, not believing her ears.

"Y- yeah, Lup?"

She hung up. As soon as the call was over, she dropped the phone onto her bed and scooted away from it. In less than a minute, it was ringing again. Same caller ID. Lup let it ring. By the time he was making a third attempt, she had gotten her thoughts in order enough to talk.

"Lup," the voice said- not Barry, Barry was dead. "I'm-"

"Who the hell do you think you are?" Lup demanded into the phone. "Do you think this is funny?"

"It's really me!" the voice said desperately. "Lup, I- I swear to God, I know it's insane, but just listen to me, please- I can- What will make you believe me?" The phone line crackled a little bit. "Please. I've been trying to reach you for years, please just give me a chance."

Lup paused. The voice was taking heavy breaths over the line, as if trying to prevent himself from spiraling into a panic attack.

"What happened to the engagement ring you gave me?" Lup asked finally, squaring her shoulders as if that'd help her be more confident.

"You dropped it down the sink," the voice answered with no hesitation. "So we tried to get into the pipes but then I unscrewed the wrong thing and water started coming out. And then you cut your hand really bad on the exposed end of the pipe so we had to go to the ER to get you stitches."

Lup took a deep breath in. It shook slightly on the exhale. She looked at the scar on the palm of her hand.

"Six stiches," the voice contuined. "We told Taako that you cut yourself while cooking 'cus it'd be embarrassing if we said that we broke literally our entire sink and your hand while looking for a ring we never even found." The voice paused. As an afterthought, it added, "the second ring was from the thrift store and it had a tulip carved into it. I got one that had a way too big of a fake ruby on it because I wanted a new one, too, and it was the only one that'd fit my finger."

"Barry?" Lup asked.

"Yeah, babe," Barry said, tearfully. "I know."

"I thought you were dead," Lup said into the phone. "Who- how the hell-"

"It's a long story," Barry said, laughing slightly.

"Where are you?" Lup said. "I can- I'll meet you there, I need to get dressed-" She launched herself out of bed, going for her shoes.

"I'm in Nevada, babe," Barry said. "Though, uh, I probably need to get outta Nevada pretty- pretty fast, uhm- where- are you still in Illinois or?"

"Vermont," Lup said. "I'm in Vermont. I'm- I'll call off work and get Taako and Kravitz if I can, just-" She slipped her shoes on, grabbing a suitcase out of her closet. "I'll be there as soon as I can, I swear. I'm not gonna leave you there."

"I trust you," Barry said. Lup's heart clenched. "The town's called Alamo. It's kinda near Los Vegas, I guess? I can- if it'd be easier, I can meet you in Los Vegas-"

"Whatever works for you, babe," Lup said, shoving a pile of shirts into the suitcase. "I'll see you soon, I promise."

"I'll see you soon," Barry said. Lup could practically hear the smile in his voice.