#skip aso

And while their story and the bullshit plan of the “giant slug to eat the universe” was very much played so silly, there was always this depth in the little things about how Skip was treated that reveal a lot of things about him.

“Skip, there’s something I gotta tell you.” Skip stares placidly at Barry, awaiting his words with no impatience or judgment. “So…y’know how we’ve been doing it?”

“Right on,” Skip replies, with a wink that makes Barry’s big heart skip a beat.

“Right on,” he echoes, running a hand through his hair. “So, I dunno, I was thinking—“

The intercom crackles, Riva’s accented voice beaming directly into both their ears. “Gunner Channel, we’ve got trouble. Watch out!”

“Later?” Skip asks, tilting his head as his hand goes to his pistol.

Barry sighs. “Yeah. Later, Skip. C’mon, let’s go.”

———————

Barry drags himself back onto the ship, grateful for the rigid body of his armor holding his ribs (relatively) in place. “Gunner Channel, we good to go? Everyone back on the ship?” he hollers, making sure anyone with a broken or missing comm still hears.

"Aurora 'n' I are almost there!"

"--can you grab my psychodrone?--"

"Working on getting us to FTL--"

"I've got Zortch down here with me--"

"Skip?"

No response.

Barry thinks he might've cracked the code to micro-FTL jumps, because one second, he's on the bridge, and the next, he's in the cockpit, grabbing the back of the captain's chair to see--

"Skip, Mother Void, scared the shit out of me, dude!" he sighs in relief.

"How many times, Syx? It's Captain, to you," the man barks, wincing at the way it makes his wounded abdomen distend into his hand. "And I'm not your...dude. Go get me a med kit, stat!"

Barry just stares at him.

At his brown eyes.

"Cap--Captain?" he chokes out, his own injuries long forgotten. "Where's Skip?"

"Do I look like I have time for stupid questions?" Norman spits. "When I give you an order, I expect you to follow it, Syx. Med kit, now!"

Barrys are always allowed to healthily express their emotions, but somehow, he doesn't think Sk--Takamori will appreciate if he cries in front of him, so he holds it in til he's out of the captain's bay.

We can't make a hot exit.