#sdlkfsd anon i want to let u know that this ask has been Haunting me the whole work day

[barry-j-blupjeans]

Ise can you write an ise cube about Barry and Lup participating in No Necromancy November

Lup had been going to the kitchen. Honestly! She hadn't been able to sleep- something she was blaming on the giant, ever-screaming squirrels outside her window this cycle- and wanted to make some pancakes. Pancakes made everything better, she was pretty sure. Maybe she could have made a big one and thrown it out at them to get them to shut up for just like, just a second! But instead, she had snuck down the hallway and, accidentally, not on purpose, ended up in the lab.

Was there a big sign on the door telling her not to go in? Yes. Davenport had put it up yesterday after she and Barry had, uh... redecorated the lab with their necromancy experiment. That was barely even necromancy anyway if you went with the textbook definition. Had he asked explicitly that she stay away from the lab for at least a month, or until they found the Light? Yes.

But. But! Lup left... coffee. In there. She left coffee in there. Yes, that's what she was going with.

The lab was dark and Lup didn't bother turning on the light because she had dark vision, anyway. It was only going to be a few seconds. Minutes, maybe, if she struggled to remember where the cup was. But then she came face to face with the whiteboard of the theories she and Barry had drafted out and she couldn't just leave it up there. She had to erase that or Davenport would be upset.

But it'd be a shame to erase it before they were finished. And honestly, it wouldn't take that long. A few minutes, at most! Maybe half an hour, in total.

It must have only been twenty minutes before the door of the lab opened again. Lup immediately stretched across the counter towards her coffee cup- which she was getting to!- covering the project she had been finishing up. It was meant to look like she was just reaching over for the cup, but her arms weren't that long, she was half on the counter with her legs dangling off the side when the light flicked on.

"Just getting my coffee, Dav!" Lup said. But it wasn't Davenport at all.

It was Barry.

He stared at her for a moment. His hair was mussed like he had been tossing and turning in bed. Lup sagged against the counter and started to pull back. Barry seemed to snap out of whatever trance he was in and came further in, carefully shutting the door behind him. Lup, who was now completely off the counter, raised her hand in greeting.

"I, uh," Barry said. "Came to get your coffee. To wash the cup."

"Right," Lup said. "Get a labcoat on, Barold."

"Yeah, okay," Barry said, grabbing one from the hanger near the door. He grabbed a pair of goggles, too. "What'cha working on?"

"Barney," Lup said, showing Barry the dead frog they had collected from outside. One of the giant squirrels had gotten to it and the insides were all ripped up. Two nights ago, Barry had made it a top hat, which it was still wearing.

"Ah," Barry said, getting some gloves too. "Is he tap-dancing yet?"

"Not quite," Lup said. "More of a slow dance. And by slow dance I mean he's literally not moved. I don't know what I'm doing wrong."

"Lemme take a crack at it," Barry said. Lup slid the dish over to him and he squinted at it. Lup leaned back on the counter to watch him.

A bad thing about being secretly in love with someone is that Lup did just tune out everything else around her when she was watching him. One time, Taako had just kept handing her things to see how long it would take her to notice and it had taken her a, frankly, embarrassing long time to realize. This time, she forgot to process the words Barry was saying as he said them. It was only when he turned to her that she realized those words were directed at her.

"Lup?" he said.

"Oh," Lup said. "Uh, yeah? What's crackin', babe?"

She had it so, so bad.

"I-" Barry did a little laugh, sort of breathless. At least she had charm. "I was trying to ask if you, uh, wanted to come back tomorrow night as well? Obviously, if someone asks, we weren't here-"

"Dav's really put us in a fuckin' No Necromancy November challenge, huh?" Lup said. Barry wheezed and then immediately slapped his hand over his mouth to cover the noise. Lup grinned. "But yeah, I mean, I'd be down to come back tomorrow. And totally not do any necromancy. Whatsoever."

"Y- yeah," Barry said, with barely constrained laughter. "None- none at all. I don't even know what necromancy is."

"I think it's a spice," Lup said. "Y'know like, put a little necromancy in this pumpkin pie-"

Barry had to hide his face in his hands for that one. His laugh, even though he was trying very hard to conceal it, was adorable. He was adorable. That's what Davenport didn't understand about banning them from the lab. Like, they were gonna do this anyway, because otherwise, Lup wouldn't know what the fuck to say to get Barry to hang out with her. Phrasing it as "let's go make a dead frog tapdance" was a lot easier than saying "hey, can you hang out with me because you're super hot and I love you?"

A lab ban was like a Lup and Barry ban. And, as she watched Barry struggle to stay quiet in the bright fluorescent lights, Lup decided that that simply wouldn't do.