Chapter Text
Lup was loud.
That was the first impression Barry had of the elf as he sat in his position on stage at the IPRE conference. She wasn’t exactly noisy, he didn’t mean that. It was more like something about her screamed I’m here, notice me. He glanced down the line of crew members at her brother. Taako was inspecting his nails rather nonchalantly, seemingly not paying attention to his sister at the mic. He had a similar vibe to his sister, something that made you want to take notice.
Barry guessed it was because they were a pretty set of twins. He had seen them standing side by side the first time the IPRE members had all gathered together for their first meeting, and they were almost hard to stop looking at.
It was easier when Lup turned and caught him staring. She had raised an eyebrow quickly in a challenging sort of way, and Barry, embarrassed that this was the way his first interaction with someone he would be working with had gone, turned away quickly.
Don’t mess with me. Talk about loud, this was a deafening roar that Barry felt radiating from Lup’s entire being. It made him nervous, but so did a lot of other things. And besides, he had nothing to be concerned about, right? He definitely didn’t plan on messing with her or getting on her bad side (well, not more than he already had), so there was no need to worry.
He turned from the disinterested Taako and watched Lup walk from the mic back to her seat, high fiving Magnus’s raised hand as she sat down. Clearly, she wasn’t unfriendly, and this knowledge caused him to breathe out a little sigh of relief and calmed his nerves a little more. They picked back up again as Lup sprang out of her chair once more and walked back to the mic, clearly on a mission. What the hell was she doing?
Barry found himself looking back at Taako, trying to gauge his reaction, but there was none. Taako was now filing his nails.
“Greg Grimaldis,” Lup’s voice boomed over the mic, pulling Barry’s attention away from her brother. “You owe me $15 and I aim to collect! You better believe, Greg Grimaldis.”
She then dropped the mic, despite the protests of Captain Davenport sitting beside him, and Barry cringed at the sound.
As Lup sauntered back to her seat, Barry saw her look Taako’s way and wink exaggeratedly. Taako was still filing away, but a devilish smirk on his face made Barry think he had anticipated his sister’s antics. As he watched Lup sit down with a flourish, he was sure of only one thing:
He was very glad he was not Greg Grimaldis.
~
That night, Barry sat at a small table in the back of a wild biker bar that the seven of them had elected as their final hang out spot before setting off on their journey. Well, it hadn’t been a unanimous election really, but the more outspoken members among them overshadowed the quieter ones. The latter tried to be as inconspicuous as possible. Davenport stood awkwardly by the door, continuously looking at his watch, looking ready to head out as soon as someone else made the first move. Barry had seen Lucretia being corralled under the bar by Merle, and he could occasionally see her as she poked her head out every once in a while, observing the mayhem in the bar. Merle kept a careful watch of the area surrounding her, which Barry thought was fair of him, given that Merle had been one of the party members responsible for this outing in the first place. Quiet Lucretia didn’t belong in this scene, and he was glad someone was taking care of their chronicler.
As for himself, he stayed out of the way of the rough looking bar patrons, quietly nursing his one beer he had ordered for himself a while ago. He hadn’t been alone for too long; Magnus had been sitting at the table with him up until the moment he knocked back his third beer in the span of 20 minutes and then promptly stumbled off towards a group of leather-wearing ruffians, who seemed to be towering over a smaller individual. Clearly, Magnus wanted to be on the small stranger’s side. Barry was more than fine where he was.
On the other side of the bar was a pool table, and that’s where most of Barry’s attention had been drawn towards. Taako stood to the side of it with a handful of strangers, all of whom were watching as Lup lined up her cue with the plain white ball carefully. Clearly, Taako and Lup were winning, a fact that was given away by the distinct differences in the expressions of all parties involved. Their opponents looked dejected, and one looked a little sick. Taako looked completely delighted by whatever was happening, hands clasped together and a huge grin plastered on his face. And then there was Lup.
Barry couldn’t look away as Lup lined up her shot. There was something graceful about it, something elegant in the way that she bent towards the table to stare down the few remaining billiard balls lying on the felt. She looked like a pro. Maybe she was, maybe she wasn’t, but either way, it seemed to Barry that she definitely had control of the game. Suddenly, Lup raised her head slightly, and then beamed in the direction of her opponents and her brother, and the confidence in her expression communicated one thing: I win.
And then she quickly lowered her head again and hit the ball in front of her. Barry was too far away to see, but she clearly succeeded, as Taako let out a victorious shout and the others hung their heads. One kicked the table. Lup continued to grin widely at all of them, planting her cue on the ground and leaning against it slightly, pleased with herself. Barry gave a small chuckle, entertained at the display. He then watched as one of the players, a burly looking man, walked up to Lup, hand out for a handshake. She took it, and then said something Barry couldn’t hear from his place at his table. The man looked confused. Taako came and stood next to his sister. He spoke to the man as well, who looked behind him at his comrades. They all looked just as confused as Barry felt.
When the leader of the group turned back around, both of the elves in front of him smiled. Then they spoke in unison, and pointed down towards the ground, next to the man’s feet.
~
Barry realized only a few minutes later, as the IPRE headed out of the bar and down the road, leaving all the mayhem they had collectively gotten involved in, and in some cases started, behind, that the twins had been pointing at, not next to, the man’s feet. Specifically, his shoes.
“So, explain it again,” Magnus, now sporting a black eye, requested of the pair. “Why did you take the shoes from those guys?”
“They were the ones who wanted to play for keeps,” responded Taako nonchalantly, tossing one shoe into the air and holding a few more under his other arm. “We had no need for money. We leave tomorrow.”
“So you took their shoes? You don’t need those either.”
“But they do,” Lup piped up in a sing-song tone, holding a couple of pairs under her arm as well. “And now they have to walk around all night in that dingy bar without them!”
Barry cringed, trying not to imagine what sort of filth awaited the losers’ feet in that seedy place.
Lup gasped and stopped walking, causing the rest of them to stop and stare at her. She looked around for a moment, clearly delighted, and then turned to her brother as she began to laugh.
“Oh my god, Taako,” she managed through her laughter. “Everything is wet. It rained the entire time we were in there. They have to walk home barefoot in the mud!”
Taako barreled over in laughter, the shoe he tossed up falling to the wet ground with a splat. Lup dropped a few of her prizes as well as she continued to laugh at the misfortune of the group she and her brother had left behind. It didn’t seem to phase either of them that no one else found it all that funny.
After a moment, Davenport cleared his throat. “Let’s get going, shall we? We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow.”
The twins obliged and gathered their shoes, still giggling quietly to themselves, and the group continued on their way. Conversation began to flow freely among the group members after a few minutes, awkwardness forgotten and the subject of shoes dropped. But there was one thing Barry still wanted to know.
Nervously, he fell in step beside Lup. “So uh,” he began awkwardly, pushing up his glasses. “What are you going to do with all of them? The shoes, I mean.”
Lup seemed to consider the question for a moment. Then she smiled at him.
“I’m not sure,” she said. “Could pawn them off, or I could keep them in my room on the Starblaster and store trinkets in them. Or I could set them on fire.”
Barry really hoped that last one was a joke. His face must have given that away, because she gave a small laugh. “Or maybe not. Doesn’t really matter what I do with them. I have four new pairs of shoes.”
“Ahem!” Taako exclaimed dramatically. “I’m here too, you know.”
Lup stared at her brother. “I know. But like I said.” She turned to face Barry once more. “I have four new pairs of shoes.”
Despite himself, Barry chuckled, and Lup looked pleased at that reaction. The conversation ended there as Taako protested and Lup goaded him on, but that was just as well. Barry was just glad that he could start out the mission on good terms with Lup. They could at least be cordial and friendly as team members. He couldn’t really imagine being friends with her. He didn’t think his nerves could keep up. He was quiet, more reserved. Lup was loud. Lup was confident.
Lup was cool.