#eyesprawl

Call her sentimental, but this was an important year – even moreso than all those other important years – and surprise was the spice of life. Also, it was a way to make things feel normal, and she thought that they could both use a little normal.

This was their first anniversary in over a decade that she’d actually had her body back and been with Barry, and, as much as she tried to act like it didn’t get to her, there was still a certain tension in her limbs that made her feel like she had to get it right.

Last week, what getting it right had meant was a new journal bound in denim from a destroyed pair of Barry’s favorite jeans, as well as the wand that he had made of his own femur before losing in the voidfishing, but as she pulled it down to settle on the table, there was a faint worry that it wasn’t enough. It was sentimental, it was fun, it was useful, and she couldn’t shake the feeling that it wasn’t right. 

“Ugh.” She let out a drawn-out groan into her hands when she realized that she had been staring at the gift for at least thirty seconds, freezing when she heard movement from their room. 

It passed, and she dragged her hands up through her messy hair. “This is ridiculous,” she whispered, moving the wand to sit next to the book, and then on top of it, and then she crossed her arms just so she would stop overthinking it. “He’s going to love it, and even if he doesn’t he loves me, so it’s going to be fine.” 

With that, words hissed under her breath so that they wouldn’t wake Barry up, Lup set to making them both some coffee. Despite the sunlight the morning was cold, and some small part of her wanted to put off the gift-giving for a little while longer.

After Lup shut the door behind her in her quiet escape, Barry opened his eyes and grabbed his glasses off the bedside table. Operation: Anniversary was a go, and even though his knees, spine, and neck complained at him getting down to open the bottom drawer, he was determined to have it be a success. 

Lup had seemed a little agitated lately, and that was fair, after all the shit that they’d been through. Both of them looking for each other in their own ways, impossible as it sometimes was, but they were back together again. 

They were here to stay, this time around, and he wanted to make sure that Lup knew that. 

Barry stood with a jewelry box clutched in one hand, spine creaking in a way that probably wasn’t a good sign, and he poked through his jeans drawer until he pulled out a shining metal disk, dangling from a keychain. He’d borrowed the key to the Starblaster from Davenport a couple days before, and it had been a little bit awkward. The gnome had been his boss, and then something – weirdly – like a dad, and then was gone from his life for twelve years, both of them still reeling from having their memories brushed under the rug, but they’d known each other for a hundred years. If they couldn’t deal with a little awkward, their century-long journey would’ve been much shorter. 

Sitting down on the bed, the key and the box small beside him, Barry felt a strange sense of lightness wash over him. 

Things were...things were okay. 

Sitting there, weak light dancing across his chest and light noises coming from the other room, he might not have been where he was born but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t home.

Grabbing a tie from the closet and putting it on loosely over his sleep shirt, Barry grabbed the gifts from the bed and headed towards the door. 

Just before he could open it, though, the door creaked open and he had to pull his foot back so it didn’t get run over. Lup’s eyes widened when she saw Barry standing there, and then her eyes dropped to his poorly tied tie, flannel pants, and oversized tee, and a laugh bubbled up. 

“That’s- babe, that’s a look you’ve got there.” There was a snort in her laugh, uncontained and pulling at Barry to laugh as well. 

He shrugged. “What can I say, presentation is, uh, everything.” Lup leaned forward to kiss him and he met her halfway, and then there was a blur of motion as she pulled him out into the living room.

Barry had to blink, adjusting to the brighter light, and the touch on his shoulder slid off. By the time his vision cleared Lup was handing him a coffee mug, and as he took it with a smile and another kiss, she was drumming her fingers lightly against the outside of her own. Her energy was practically tangible, and when he raised his eyebrows she grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the table. 

“So, first off, happy anniversary, it’s been sixty-one years since we got married on that world that was basically all plants and abandoned cities, and-” She let out a small laugh, undercut by nerves but her smile must have hurt her cheeks with how big it was – at least, Barry knew that his own was beginning to pull at his face muscles. “Well, we made it here.”

Barry put the gifts on the table and took Lup’s hand with his, squeezing it gently as he kept his gaze kept studiously on her face instead of the – also unwrapped – packages he saw in the corner of his blurry vision. “That we did. I- cheers.” 

They tapped their mugs together and took a sip of coffee, and it wasn’t long before Lup put her’s down on the table and steepled her fingers with a definitive “So.”

Barry copied the gestures. “So.”

“Well, I looked it up, and for some reason there aren’t exacly traditional gifts for sixty-first anniversaries? Which is, you know, rather rude of the people in charge-”

“The people in charge of the anniversary laws?”

“Exactly. So. I got you these.” Lup pulled a book from the table, and as Barry took a closer look at it he squinted at the material it was bound in.

“Is this- is this where those jeans went?” The material was soft and worn but still sturdy, a worn blue with bronze corner bindings, and Lup let out a laugh that wasn’t as sheepish as she might have intended.

“They did have holes in the ass, and despite the undeniable sexiness of that, you said you couldn’t wear them anymore. Some might say that you were denying Faerun of one of it’s wonders, but potato tomato.”

A corner of Barry’s lip curled up in a grin, and as he thumbed through the pages he said “I did say that, didn’t I?” He could feel ideas beginning to spring to his mind as he paged through the journal, but before he could get too engrossed in the different designs of pages, and the folder in the front, and the small jar of glue to paste additions in to make the whole thing that much more wild because Lup knew him so well, he closed it and pushed up his glasses with the back of one hand. “This is perfect, Lup. The predrawn circles so that I can draw out necromantic rituals without having to get a compass are genius, and the binding is excellent. It’s- thank you.” 

Lup sat up a little straighter, smile confident with just a tinge of relief, and when she glanced back over at the table her head cocked. “Is that the Starblaster fob?”

“It is,” Barry said, brushing his fingertips along his new journal as he spoke. “I was thinking that we could take it out for a joyride today? Like old times.”

Grabbing it and spinning the keychain around her finger, Lup sat back with a smile. “Faerun isn’t gonna know what hit ‘em. Oh! And, that’s not all.” Catching the disk in her palm, she grabbed a piece of bone from the table, and as Barry took it in his hand he felt the familiar positive feedback loop kick up between his now-magic and his then-magic. 

“Oh shit, nice!” He gave it a small flick and a prestidigitation of fireworks sprung from the tip, darting through the air until they faded. “Where’d you find this? I thought it was lost.”

Lup shrugged a shoulder. “I have my ways. Also, Lucretia kept basically everything after the wipe. I get it, like, can you imagine that garage sale? But yeah, if you’re looking for lost shit she might be a good place to check.”

Barry nodded, scratching at the back of his neck with his regained wand. “That tracks, yeah.” There was quiet for a few moments as he put the journal and wand back on the table, drinking a sip of coffee as the elephant in the room shifted from foot to foot. “I do have something else.”

Lup, who had been trying to act like she wasn’t glancing at the jewelry box over her coffee mug, raised her eyebrows while holding back a smile. “You do, do you?”

“I do.” He blew out a breath, grabbing the small velvet box and dropping to a knee next to Lup as he opened it. “So, I know that we’re already married, have been for sixty-one incredible years- even if I couldn’t remember some of ‘em for a while, and I know that you lost your ring when it all...when it all happened.” His hands were shaking, but when he made eye contact with Lup he felt a puzzle piece in his chest fit into place. 

“My mom’s wedding ring is gone, but this one is...it’s not the same, but it’s still close. The ring you’ve got on now was kind a spur of the moment thing, a oh fuck Lup’s back, she’s got her body back and she’s alive kind of thing, but-” Barry paused, pulling the ring out of the box. “If you wanted to think about it, I wouldn’t be opposed to making our marriage legal on this planet.”

There was a shine to Lup’s eyes, but she blinked it away with a grin so big it looked like her cheeks were going to crack. “Are you asking if you want to get married again?”

Barry shrugged, still holding the ring that was almost like his mother’s, blue stone in the center with silver swirls holding it in place, smaller green gems dotted next to the larger one. “You know, for tax reasons.”

She laughed, and then he laughed, and she was pulling him up and sliding the new ring on next to the other one with a mumbled of course I do and you nerd and I love you, words pressed between kisses as she put her hands along his neck and he put his on her waist and they held tight, giggles and quiet words sharing the air between them, and they didn’t let go.