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Lup knows he’s following her. She’s known since he started following her this morning. Of course she knows she recognises the sound of his breathing, his heartbeat and his muttering as if they were her own. Barry Bluejeans is the least subtle person that she has ever met (besides Taako but he’d be insulted by this thought) he’s clumsy, loud yet he’s also quiet and he’s so nervous it’s borderline concerning.
Barry being all of these things are why she’s confused. He would never be so openly bold to follow spider-woman around and yet here he is. He’s intelligent and even just saying that is an understatement of the century, Lup fully believes that he could take over the world if he wanted to, but why is he following her? He doesn’t know she’s spider-woman he can’t know she’s been so careful. Taako is the only person she’s ever told and what teen wouldn’t want to show her brother cool spider powers?
She’s had people follow her before to try and take photos but this feels different so she’s been letting him keep up with her as she does the morning patrol. She thought he would say something after a while but he’s kept silent he must be up to something, maybe Taako has given him a clue to her identity? Taako has been desperate for her to tell him about her feelings but no Taako wouldn;t do it this way.
She must have been distracted because she suddenly notices he’s not there anymore and all of a sudden she hears a shout. Lup sighs, she is going to murder Barry Bluejeans and then herself for falling in love with such an idiot. Someone in a mask is holding Barry by gunpoint. Barry has his back pressed into the wall his hands in the air. He makes eye contact with Lup and quickly looks down.
“Hey, bud? So uh what led you down this path? I’m curious and I have no where else to be so maybe-”
Lup lands in between them as Barry rambles, she uses a web to pull his gun away from him and throw as far from him as possible.
He glares at her, “Spiderwoman”
Lup sighs crossing her arms. “It’s spider-woman, actually.”
He looks confused at this. “What? That’s what I just said.”
“No!” Lup says pointing her finger into his face. “No you did not! You said spiderwoman, not Spider-woman. You forgot the hyphen, babes. There should be a little pause between the words.”
He stares at her blankly, “That makes no sense..”
Lup glances over at Barry who was already staring at her, she can almost see the hearts swimming around in his eyes, “Hey babe you know what I mean right.”
Barry nods his head quick, “Yeah! Yeah, of course. There’s a clear difference.”
“Thank you.” she smiles under the mask before turning away from him, “Alright I’m gonna beat you up now. Can you tell me your name? I like to know bullies names before i humiliate them.”
He shakes his head fast, g,ripping at his shirt, and then he pulls a knife out of his pocket and points it at Lup. Lup kinda wants to scream why is he so stupid, why are like half of the people she fights this stupid. The gun doesn’t work so he thinks wow a knife will definitely do the trick!
He steps closer with the knife and Lup drops to her knees raising her hands in the air. “Oh god please no! Not small knifes my biggest weakness. How did you figure it out? You’re so smart to know that I don’t give a shit about guns but small knifes have me shitting my spider suit!”
“Wha-”
Lup doesn’t let him finish the sentence before she uses the webs to pull the pitiful knife from his hands. She then picks him up and pins him against the wall, “You know bullies are bad enough but people that pick on cute nerds are even worse.”
“I’m not-”
Lup holds a hand up “Not now babe.” before he say that he’s either not cute or not a nerd which would both be incorrect. “Ugh he’s boring me.”
Before he can something that will no doubt annoy Lup even more she hits his head against the wall and leaving a note for police as Barry calls in a anonymous tip.
There was a couple of seconds of silence before she sighed and looked over at Barry, “I think we should probably talk?”
She ended up taking him to a rooftop not that far, it’s somewhere she goes to think a lot, no one will be able to hear them talk.
Lup waits for him to say something but then he doesn’t maybe he doesn’t realize how observant she is. “My dude I know you were following, which is kinda creepy if i’m gonna be honest but I mean I juts saved your life babe, so i’m willing to give you the benefit of the doubt.”
Barry faces flushes red as he gasps taking a step back and then taking two steps back, he reaches a hand out before putting the into his jean pocket. “Oh, shit. I can admit that must look bad but there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for this.”
“Okay?”
“And I will definitely be able to give you that explanation right now…”
“Then do that.”
“Lup, I know this looks bad-” Barry covers his mouth, “Shit.”
What the actual shit? He knows? Lup shakes her head of course he knows, he’s always been far too smart for his own good.
She debates just turning around and just leaving but it must show on her face or her mask, because Barry grabs her wrist, it’s not too rough she could break away so easily but the way he’s looking at her, he looks so heartbroken she can’t leave, she never has been able to.
So Lup nods her head once and then she nods again, and then she laughs and she keeps laughing because this all feels so funny. She tugs her hand of his grip and pulls the mask off and lets it hit the ground. Barry stares at her, even though he already knows which makes the corner of her lip tug into a smile.
“Barold.” she says slowly, “You know I kinda want to ask how you know my deepest darkest secret which i’ve only shared with my brother but I think I would rather know why the fuck you were following me?”
Barry nods and rubs the back of neck, Lup can’t help but think that this man nods so much. “Yeah that’s fair I can explain both, but Taako is the only one that-”
Lup crosses her arms, “Barry.”
“Right, Sorry. None of my business.” Barry says quickly. “So about figuring it out I just started noticing that you disappeared so often, the thing that made like 90% positive was that time the green goblin attacked campus you just like vanished and two seconds later boom Spider-woman was there.”
That’s actually fair Taako has given her such a lecture that day about how she needs to at least wait a couple minutes before reappearing as Spider-woman but hadn’t thought anyone would notice Lup being gone, but Barry did. She gestures for him to continue.
“So like I said I was 90% sure you were Spider-Woman but I’m a scientist I knew I needed some form of evidence to back this theory up. So and god thinking about it I know this is so weird I decided to follow you. I waited until I had a day where I could see you and I started to follow you, and when you called me babe and just the way you said it I knew it had to be you.”
“Oh my god.” Lup covers her face with her hands, “I can’t believe my love for the word babe betrayed me.”
Barry smiles, “I’m really sorry.”
Lup shakes her head, “It’s fine. I knew you were following me. Just next time promise me that when you think one of your friends is a superhero to just ask them instead of following them?”
“I promise.”
“Cool.”
“Cool.”
Lup suddenly remembers something and a bitter laugh comes out. Barry raises an eyebrow, “Uh, Lup?”
“Sorry, sorry.” she stops laughing, “It’s just I remember that time you told Magnus that you had a massive crush on Spider-woman so that must feel really awkward now, huh?”
Barry steps closer. “No.”
Lup takes a deep breath, “No?”
Barry takes another step so the’s barley any space between them, he seems to want to grab his hand but he restrains himself. “Lup.” his voice cracks, “I really didn’t plan on telling you this today, but you’re Spider-Woman but even cooler than that you’re Lup, and you’re so beautiful. I am hopelessly in love with you. I’ve loved you for so long I can’t even remember when it started but I carry it so deeply I would be a different person entirely if I did not love you”
Oh. Oh.
Lup feels her breath catch in her throat, “You love me?”
“How could I not?”
Lup closes the gap as she grabs his hand and uses the other to cup his face, his cheek feels warm. Telling Barry that she loves him doesn’t feel enough her feelings feel so much stronger than that, so she doesn’t but instead she squeezes his hand and she kisses him.
Barry’s lips are soft. He kisses her as if she’s a piece of glass and he terrified that if he holds on too tightly he’s break her. His free hand rests on her waist and he’s using his hand to rub patterns into it. His lips taste like coffee and there’s a hint of strawberry lip balm. Kissing Barry is like kissing a star you never want to stop because you’re terrified you’ll never get him this close again.
When she pulls away from the kiss she doesn’t let go of his hand and his hand still lingers on her waist. “Just in case that wasn't enough i love you too. I love you so much, Barry Bluejeans. If someone was to break into my mind all they would see is you.”
Barry grins, “The kiss was enough but that made it even better.” and he kisses her again and this one is somehow even better.
Lup giggles, “How about you take me on a date stalker?”
“Absolutely.”
Lup kisses him for the third time and when people say third times the charm they were right, or at least when it comes to kissing Barry Bluejeans.