okay hear me out –
lup got a day from barry, because she loved him, and of course she either gave him a day as well, or that day was theirs to share. and then she goes to taako, and she says she needed a day from him, too, because he’s her heart and this is all very, very beautiful and painful and poignant – but i’d like to postulate that barry needed another day as well, something i keep him anchored, because even though he loves lup with his whole being, he knows this is dangerous –
so barry goes to team human for another day. he goes to magnus and lucretia and explains the process to them. magnus is confused – he’s not dumb, but magic is just an entire realm of stuff that he doesn’t always have the patience for, but if barry, who is much older than him and very smart, says it’ll be okay, then magnus trusts him. lucretia, meanwhile, is terrified much the way taako was, because she knows what this means and she’ll explain it to magnus later, but maybe not because the moment barry says, “I need you to give me the most fun day ever” he’s out of his chair and just says, “I need forty-eight hours to prepare” and he grabs lucretia’s hand and pulled her to his room and they start planning.
(and he’s so excited, he’s so completely stoked to do all this stuff for barry that she just keeps her fears to herself and rolls up her sleeves and gets into the thick of planning barry’s big day – and after a certain point, she’s so excited about what it’ll be like she’s not even worried. not as much.
well, maybe a little.)
so they wake barry up with breakfast in bed, similar to taako – except it’s like cheeseburgers and french fries and the lumpiest, shittiest looking, most delicious chocolate cake barry’s ever had in his life, and this big ass glass of lemonade with four umbrellas sticking out and a bright pink curly straw – and he’s already laughing, he’s already having the best day ever.
and after that it’s this beautiful hike where they map the ridges of a canyon, and they find this village dug into the side that magnus found weeks ago, but he was using it as a place to get some peace and quiet, saving it for barry’s birthday, but today is basically barry’s birthday, so they hike down and barry goes nuts over all this really cool artwork and pottery and inventions he’s never seen before. they go fishing along the river and make s’mores by a campfire. they get out of the canyon and they go to a clearing where magnus and lucretia have made these really shoddy, homemade fireworks and barry gets to let them all off and they lay in the grass and stare up at the sky as these perpetually moving showers of sparks and lights fall down around them – and they have one last slice of cake before bed, and barry hugs them each, holds them both so tight –
his weird, weird little brother and sister.
and he knows that memory of his day with lup is strong, but that moment when he and lup start the spell, he can taste chocolate cake and marshmallows, and he can hear magnus laughing and see lucretia smiling and it’s not the same feeling, but gods, it’s something. it’s really something.
YES GOOD HEADCANON ACCEPTED
