It started innocently enough.
Captain Norman Takamori's Red Hot didn't need two gunners. Sid is an android, which means she can work harder for less pay, and Barry can't do as much as Sid can, with her plethora of skills as the Swiss Army Wife. All Barry is good for is fighting, and Sid can do that too.
Barry and Sid had been traveling together for cycles by the time they stumble across Captain Takamori attempting to assemble a crew for his hot dog. He gets Sid to sign a contract right away; an android is a great addition to any crew, and it's rare to find one unaffiliated and willing to serve on a ship for so cheap. He gives her a look when he asks about her line, and she stumbles through an explanation about being a Sundry Sidney, but it's nothing compared to the side eye he gives Barry the whole time.
Sid is thrilled when he offers her a place on his crew, and the first thing she asks is about Barry.
"And Big Barry? You gotta have him on the crew too, Captain. He hits harder than anyone, and never misses his shots. Tell him, Bar!"
"Uh— yeah, Skip. I can shoot, if you have space for an extra gunner."
Captain Takamori narrows his eyes. "Don't call me Skip. That's Skipper to you. Or Captain Takamori."
"Sorry, Skipper." Barry smiles, trying his best to match Sid's hospitable grin next to him.
"I only need one gunner, and I see no good reason to go out of my way to take both of you—"
Sid throws out her arms to cut him off, grin straining. "Please, Captain Takamori! I wouldn't want to crew without my fiancé!"
It's not the first time Barry thanks mother void for Sid's quick thinking, but it certainly stands out.
He hesitates, and Barry can see in his eyes that he's considering it; Takamori is obviously a traditional Amercadian man, and in his experience, traditional people take the institution of marriage pretty seriously. In all his time traveling with Sid, it's become more and more obvious to him that when two people are traveling together, it's easier to get taken seriously if you're romantically involved. Barry loves Sid, deeply and unequivocally, more than he's loved anyone since he lost the Barry's, but he doesn't love her like that.
"You're engaged, then? An android and a clone?"
He looks at Barry who tries not to look too caught off guard. "Oh, uh— yeah, totally. We're, like, gonna be married, for real."
Sid grabs his hand and squeezes, but she doesn't stop watching Takamori, eyes wide and smile wider as she stares at him.
He narrows his eyes. "So you can't just crew on different vessels?"
Sid shakes her head, a little too quickly. "No, sir, no way, I wouldn't want to go anywhere with my Care-Bar. I wouldn't be able to even focus enough to be a good crew mate."
Barry jumps as she nudges him, but nods. "Yeah, Skip— uh, Skipper, sorry. We're, like, super monogamous. Can't go anywhere without each other."
"That sounds more like codependency to me."
Barry doesn't know what that means, but Sid just nods her head. "Please, Captain Takamori. We'll take a pay cut if you'll let us both on your crew. Please."
The silence stretches out for a few long moments, and Sid's plastic smile is starting to falter, when Takamori finally shakes his head.
"Fine."
And that was that.
It almost didn't even matter.
Barry didn't care about romance. All he needed was Sid; now that Barry Nyne was killing people, Sid was the only person he had left that he needed.
Until he met the crew of the Red Hot.
Captain Takamori still seemed to view him as more of a nuisance than a crew member, but apparently he saw most of his crew that way. Barry can smile and brush off every time he hears Skipper mumble something under his breath about "fuckin' clones", but the first time he hears the captain gripe about cyborg parts and sees the young mechanic's face fall, he sidles over and let's him know that the Skip is an asshole, and the crew gotta stick together. When Takamori whines about the cost of running the water system and yells about psychic communication, Barry lets Riva chatter away in his mind and talk about their home planet.
So they become more than a crew, and suddenly Barry has other people in his life to care about, so long as they try to generally avoid the wrath of Captain Takamori so he doesn't fire them.
He has other people to love, and he still has Sid, and that's great, even if the Skip is an asshole and a terrible boss. It's fine.
It's all fine until Captain Takamori wakes up with a slug in his brain, and suddenly things become complicated.
They're in the middle of planning a mutiny when Skip wakes up, and it only gets weirder from there.
They figure out Skip's deal pretty quickly, and even if they didn't, nobody on the crew is going to be complaining about Skipper being gone.
It's just that Barry starts catching feelings for Skip.
He doesn't recognize it at first. It's not something he's ever felt before, the way he can feel his heartbeat speed up every time Skip leans over way too close and brushes against him. It's a foreign feeling, unusual and unexpected but warm, like he's just had a cup of steamy hot chocolate with the other Barry's.
So Barry watches Skip, watches him get smarter and faster and better with the ship controls, and every time Skip gives him one of his wide, lopsided smiles, Barry can feel it all the way down to his knees. He tells himself he can't risk anything; their situation is so precarious as it is, with Norman and UFTP and Barry Nyne and every other problem in the galaxy, but maybe if they can come out of the other side alive, he could say something. Maybe.
They survive.
Barry is just as surprised as everyone else.
They spend some time after the battle just licking their wounds; they have an onboard wedding, Riva goes home, and Skip starts adjusting to his new symbiosis with Norman. It's... weird, having the Captain back around, especially since Barry has such strong feelings for Skip. He's not sure what Norman being back means for them, but he told himself if they survived, he'd put himself out there, and now that he has Nyne back he feels invincible.
He finds Skip (Norman?) lurking around the pilot controls like he often is these days, itching to fly and nervous that they'll have to make a hot exit at a moment's notice. Barry smiles, lifting a hand to wave, and Skip smiles back at him, wide and happy and loud in a way only Skip can.
"Skip!" He claps him on the back and Skip just smiles wider, laughing.
"Barry, right on." Skip leans back against the wall, the stars and endless inky blackness of space sprawling behind him. He'd been staring out at it when Barry had come in; still just as enamored with the universe as he had been the first time he looked out with brand new eyes.
"How's it goin'?" He asks, gesturing vaguely at Skip.
"It's good." Skip grins again, eyes locked on Barry's, and it makes his heart flip over in his chest. "It's been— it's been a lot. We're adjusting."
We. It’s an adjustment for all of them, having Norman around again, especially after so long with just Skip. Barry had almost forgotten what it had been like before; the difference between the crew then and the crew now is night and day, and Barry knows they mostly owe it to Skip, and Margaret, and themselves for turning everything around.
Now that things are good, it’s hard for Barry to reconcile Norman rejoining their crew. Norman was nothing but cruel to them the whole time they worked under him, but they have the power on the ship now, and Barry wants to at least give him a chance. He didn’t give Barry Nyne the benefit of the doubt, and he’s trying to forgive himself for letting him get dragged across the galaxy with Skip’s evil dad living in his brain.
He shakes his head, pushing down the thoughts trying to bubble to the surface. He doesn’t need to think about any of that right now. "How is... how is Norman?"
Skip tilts his head, eyebrows furrowed. Barry can’t tell if they’re talking to each other or if Skip is just checking on him, but after a second he beams, nodding like they’re in agreement.
“He's good.” Skip keeps nodding. “He says he wants to make amends with everyone.”
“Oh, that’s— that’s great.” Barry smiles, awkward. It’s good that Norman wants to make amends, but Barry isn’t sure what to say about Norman that isn’t going to be discouraging. Sid is better at this, or even Raymond, but Barry doesn’t want to blow it by saying the wrong thing.
He also didn’t come here to talk about Norman. He came here to talk about Skip.
"Can, uh—" He turns to look around, even though the huge doors to the cockpit definitely couldn't have slid open without them noticing, and slips a little closer to Skip. "Can Norman hear us?"
"Yeah," Skip nods, "but I can ask him not to listen if you want."
Skip makes a face and Barry has a feeling Norman has said something, but doesn't dwell on it. "Yeah. That'd be good, Skip."
"Right on. Give me a second," he says, and then goes quiet, and this time Barry can almost see the cogs turning in his head, the conversation so clear it's almost like they're having it out loud in a different room. It's extremely weird, and Barry tells himself this is just one of the things he's going to have to adjust to.
There's a long moment before Skip speaks again, but when he does it's with a grin so soft it makes Barry's heart leap into his chest. "Okay, it's just you and me. What do you want to talk about?"
Barry takes a deep breath, steeling himself. It's not like him to be nervous, but he can feel anxiety bubbling in his stomach. "We're going to a rec station tomorrow, right? Maybe me and you could get a drink."
Skip nods, enthusiastically, and Barry lets out a breath he didn't realize he was holding. "Right on! I would like that a lot."
"Great!" Barry smiles back, unable to hold back the way his face lights up. "Awesome. Right on. It'll be fun!"
"Yeah, right on. I was gonna ask you, actually."
Barry tilts his head, questioning. "Really?"
"Yeah," Skip nods, and a soft blush starts to spread in his cheeks, "I was hoping now that we'd fixed all the problems we'd been having, it would be pretty cool if we could hang out."
Barry smiles, the color in Skip's cheeks making him feel lighter. "Yeah?"
"Without the rest of the crew," Skip adds, looking awkward, "just you and me."
He swallows hard, taking a breath. Now or never. "Like a date?"
Skip gets a soft look in his eyes, and Barry feels his heart melt. "Yeah," he says, reaching out and bumping his first against Barry's bicep lightly, "like a date."
Barry grins. He feels lighter than he has since he first got Nyne back. "Great. Right on. Cool. I'm gonna go make sure Nyne is okay, but— I'll see you later?"
"Yeah, see you later," Skip says, still with the slight drawl he has even now when repeating a phrase back, "I'm looking forward to it, Barry."
He can't not look back as he walks away, so much that he almost walks headfirst into the heavy cockpit doors, but it's worth it to watch Skip's smile as he watches him leave.
Barry spends the whole night gushing to Sid and Nyne about his date with Skip, and after Nyne falls asleep and Sid powers down to recharge, he lays awake, staring at the roof of his bunk and thinking about it. He's never had something good happen so easily; he and Sid and the rest of the crew have had to do so much lying and fighting and mutiny to get them to where they are now, where there's nothing left for them to be scared of. They don't need to be ready for a hot exit at a moment's notice anymore. They don't need to be looking over their shoulder for the Amercadians or Gunnie's debt collectors or anyone else who's decided to pick a fight with them. Barry can finally just relax, and unwind, and get a drink with a sweet guy who makes his heart pound harder in his chest.
He barely sleeps, just spends the whole night waiting for it to be a reasonable time to get up, and once the morning comes and they dock at the rec station, he flies into action getting ready for his date. It isn't until he hears a bang at his door that he slows down enough to take a breath.
He swings open the door and Norman is waiting on the other side, eyebrows furrowed and looking angry.
"Hey, Captain. Can I help you?"
He shakes his head with a scoff. "You've got a lot of fucking nerve, Barry."
Barry doesn't have a clue what he’s talking about. “What?”
“Don’t play dumb with me.”
“I’m not playing, Skipper. What’s goin’ on?”
Norman shakes his head like Barry is being obtuse on purpose. He looks angrier than Barry has ever seen him, and he's usually pretty angry. “What's going on? Mother void, I thought you'd at least have the balls to admit it.”
There’s a beat of silence and Barry just shrugs, unsure what else to say. Norman is clearly pissed about something Barry has done, but he’s not sure what. He doesn’t think he’s done anything worthy of Skipper’s ire, at least not recently, and he knows Norman has been trying to play nice with them for Skip.
Skip. Fuck. Barry hadn't even considered that maybe Norman would have a problem with them going on a date.
“Is this about me and Skip?” He asks, as gently as he can even though he’s not exactly built to handle situations gently.
Norman scoffs, eyes going wide. “Yeah, Barry. It's about that. Obviously.”
“I’m sorry, man. I didn’t think you’d be this torn up about it.”
“You didn't think—” Norman is looking at him like he’s being ridiculous, but Barry just shrugs. “You don’t deserve him, Barry. He’s— he doesn't deserve to be hurt by you.”
He frowns. He wasn’t expecting Norman to be so... protective. This is a level of aggression that was typical of old Norman, but seeing it now, on a face he’s so used to seeing adorned with Skip’s easy smile, makes something cold and unpleasant settle in his chest, branching through him with icy fingers. Something feels wrong. Norman probably wouldn't just up and decide to come to his room and threaten him, right? Which means—
“Did Skip—” He swallows hard, pushing down the feeling bubbling in his chest and up into his throat. “Did Skip say something to you? Is he... upset?”
“Skip doesn't want to talk to you, and frankly, I don't blame him.” Norman shakes his head, and turns to leave. “Fuck you, Barry.”
And then he's gone.
Barry wakes Sid up from her charging station immediately.
Nyne is already up; he’d headed out to hit the punchbag they have hanging in the gunner room before Norman had turned up at his door. Sid wakes up with a jolt like she always does when Barry shakes her awake a little too early, desperate to talk things out with her. No one really gets him like Sid. If anyone is going to know what to do, it’s Sid.
The first thing she does when she sees him is roll her eyes. “Jeez, Bar, lemme guess, you wanna talk about your date some more.”
“No— well, I mean, yeah, but it’s— Sid, you’re not gonna fuckin’ believe this.”
“What?” She asks, finally noticing how crestfallen he looks. “Barry, what's wrong?”
He shakes his head, hair falling in his face, moving to sit down on the edge of the bed. “I don’t know what happened, Sid.”
“Well, what did happen?” She prompts, moving over to sit next to him.
He runs a hand through his hair, tugging, trying to make sense of what happened, and Sid tugs him into her arms, leaning against him. “Norman came to see me. Basically told me to stay away from Skip, and I think Skip told him to say that. I don’t know what I’ve done, but I’ve hurt him or something, and I don’t even know how.”
“Norman didn’t say?” Sid frowns when Barry shakes his head, and huffs. “Of course he didn’t. That man is allergic to being helpful. I’m just glad he hasn’t started demanding complicated lattes again.”
Barry laughs, but it doesn’t catch, tugging at his lips but not forming a smile on his face. “I don’t know what I did. I just wanna talk to Skip so I can find out why he’s upset.”
Sid strokes his back, hand still warm from being docked on her charging station, and the contact makes him feel better, even if the worry doesn’t truly leave him. Talking things through with Sid just generally makes them less scary— and the way she’s smoothing back his hair while he leans against her makes him feel like he could solve any problem, and his breathing evens back out from the stressed place he was before.
“Hows about we go get some breakfast, huh, Bar? Lucienne is whipping up the eggs right now. You’ll feel better once you have a little somethin’ in your stomach.”
He nods, finally moving to stand up, stretching out his back as he climbs to his feet. Sid watches him with a smile, and he offers a hand to pull her up, her skates skidding against the rough floor of their room.
“Maybe you can talk to Skip at breakfast,” she says, pushing off of Barry and letting the momentum carry her towards the door, “he’d never miss his eggs.”
He hums in agreement, grabbing the bag of snapping turtles they keep near the door and handing one to Sid, who takes it with glee. She throws open the door and shouts into the hallway, voice booming.
“Aurora, baby! Come get your breakfast!”
He’s laughing by the time they reach the cafeteria.
Watching Sid’s unbridled joy whenever Aurora listens to a command, doing tricks he knows Sid has spent hours teaching her, makes him feel much lighter than he did earlier, staring down Norman in the dusting of morning light. The cafeteria is busier than it usually is; bustling with jibjobbers and casino goers, the ship full of curious patrons who wandered on from the rec station they've docked on. Even so, he spots Skip easily; he’s sitting opposite Gunnie, who’s talking away animatedly while Skip stares into his eggs, unblinking.
Barry takes a deep breath. “I’m goin’ over there. I gotta know.”
There’s a noise from Aurora as she bites into a turtle, and Sid places a hand on his shoulder, nodding. “Good luck, Bar. I’m sure it’s just a misunderstandin’.”
He sighs, pulling Sid into a hug. “Thanks Sid. Nuts and bolts—”
“Androids and steroids!” They finish in union, both grinning. Sid gives him one final encouraging squeeze where her hand rests on his bicep, and he reaches up to touch her wrist, giving her a final smile as he turns to head towards Skip, unsure what he’s going to say but knowing that he has to say it.
When he turns around Skip is already watching him, and when they lock he’s he looks away back towards his eggs, expression unreadable.
“Hey, Skip. What's up, man?” He shrugs, trying to keep his voice as casual as possible even through the anxiety pounding in his chest.
Skip just shrugs, making eye contact for half a second before looking back down. “Eggs.”
“Cool, cool,” Barry nods, “can we talk? Maybe somewhere more private than here?”
Skip looks at him, skeptical, and it makes Barry’s heart hurt. “I don’t know, Barry.”
Gunnie looks between them, eyes narrowed, clearly trying to figure out their deal, but Barry needs to talk to Skip more than he needs to get Gunnie off their backs.
“Please, Skip.”
Skip looks at him, long and hard like he’s considering (or maybe just talking to Norman inside his head— Barry can’t always tell), but he eventually nods, pushing his eggs away.
“Okay,” he mumbles, and Barry breathes a sigh of relief that, at the very least, Skip is willing to talk to him.
“Right on,” Barry says, and smiles, leading them towards the cockpit.
Skip echoes the words back. “Right on.”
The second the cockpit door closes behind him, Barry turns to Skip, trying not to look as desperate as he feels.
“Skip, man, I don’t know what I did to make you so mad at me, but whatever it is, I’m sorry.”
Skip’s eyebrows furrow, confused. “You don’t know?”
He shakes his head, eyes pleading. “No, man, and I’m sorry if I should, but I don't.”
“Didn’t Norman talk to you?”
Barry hesitates, but nods. “Yeah, but he wasn’t exactly clear about what the problem is. He was just, like, super mad.”
“Yeah,” Skip mumbles, and this time Barry can tell Norman has something to say by the way Skips facial muscles clench, “I, uh— I like you, and I just thought you wanted to date me—”
“I do!” Barry says, cutting him off, and screwing his eyes shut when he hears how desperate he sounds. “Skip, I do want to date you. I really like you.”
Skip looks more confused than he did before. “What about Sid?"
All of the anxiety leaves Barry at once, and is replaced with confusion. "What about Sid? She's, like, not gonna have a problem with us dating."
Skip tilts his head, questioning. Barry finds the movement extremely adorable. "She's not?"
"No, Skip, why would she? She'd be happy for us. It's not like we'd never hang out with Sid anymore. She knows what it's like to have other things going on." Barry watches Skip as he speaks, the way his eyebrows furrow and eyes flicker when Barry talks about Sid. He can't tell what part of this Skip is upset about, but all he can do is try.
Skip clears his throat in the way he does when words are being difficult for him, and avoids Barry's eyes. "Wouldn't she be... jealous?"
Barry shakes his head. "Why would she be jealous?"
He watches Skip sit down in the pilot's seat, dropping his head into his hands, and he wants so badly to try and take some of Skip's stress away but he can't figure out what his deal is.
"Norman told me." He mumbles, and Barry shakes his head because he still doesn't know what Skip is talking about. "About you and Sid."
"What did we do, man?" Barry asks, searching his brain for anything him and Sid could have done to upset Skip.
Skip finally meets his eyes, and even through the confusion and worry, Barry’s heart flips over in his chest. “That you’re married.”
Everything Barry was thinking suddenly grinds to a halt. “What? Skip, what are you talking about?”
“Skipper told me you and Sid were getting married.” He says, simply, and suddenly the memory of him and Sid lying to the Skipper in a darkened corner of a rec station hits Barry like a freight train.
“Uh, Skip, I’m, uh—” he starts, wincing, “can Norman hear me?”
Skip hesitates, but shakes his head, frowning. “I asked him to leave us alone. I wanted to talk to you without him making it harder for you.”
Barry nods. “Okay, so, it’s kind of a long story.”
“Okay,” Skip nods, though he looks uncertain.
“Uh, basically, me and Sid lied to the old Skip, about being engaged.”
It’s not really that long of a story now that he's told it, but Skip just looks confused.
“Why?”
Barry leans against the edge of the pilot's seat, looking down into Skip’s eyes. “He didn’t want us both on the crew, so Sid told him we were... engaged, so he’d take us both.”
“Oh.” Skip furrows his eyebrows, and turns his head to lean up closer towards Barry. “So you and Sid aren’t married?”
Barry laughs. “Skip, you saw Sid make out with a Vercadian.”
“I thought you were just chill about that.” Skip mutters, but there's an edge of a smile tugging at his lips, not quite his full, loud smile, but something closer that the look he’d had before.
“I’m sorry, Skip. I totally spaced. After everything, I forgot about Skipper and... our, uh, lie.”
Skip shrugs, smiling. “It’s okay. We all lied to Norman at some point.”
Barry chuckles, and now that Skip looks happy he feels like he can breathe again. “Man, do you think he’s gonna be pissed at us?”
Skip shakes his head, but Barry doesn't believe him. "Not as pissed as he was before."
"He was super pissed before." Barry thinks back to that morning with Norman outside his door, eyes angrier than he thought they could get. "It's kinda sweet, I guess."
"We're working on it. Sharing." Skip says. "He's looking out for me, and I'm helping him. It's a work in progress."
Barry nods, even if he's not a hundred percent sure how the whole "sharing a body and living in the same brain" thing works. It seems to be going okay for Skip and Norman, even if they are still working on it.
He smiles down at Skip, dropping his head a little. "So, that stuff you said about liking and dating. Does that— is that still true?"
Skip grins, and this time Barry hears it, and it makes his own smile wider. Skip is a good half a foot shorter than him, but he tugs Barry down to his level, forcing him to shift his weight so that he's bracketing Skip’s body over the pilot's chair. Skip tilts his head, grinning at him so close that Barry can feel his breath.
“Yeah. I like you, Barry.”
Barry can’t help it; his eyes move down to where Skip’s mouth is hanging open in a smile, and then back up to his eyes, watching color spread across his cheeks.
Barry falters for a second. “Is this, uh, cool with the old Skip?”
He nods, which shifts his face even closer to Barry’s. “He’s good. I asked him while you were talking.”
“You asked him while I was talking?”
Skip just shrugs, grinning wider, blush growing deeper. “I was feeling optimistic.”
“Right on,” Barry mumbles, and Skip finally tugs him into a kiss.
The way Skip tilts his head up to meet Barry’s lips isn't unexpected, but it is a surprise when he feels hands tugging him all the way forward until he’s sitting in Skip’s lap on the pilots chair. There’s enough height difference between them that Barry has to lean down, cricking his neck at a harsh angle, but Skip’s arms move to cradle him against his body, smiling against his lips.
“Right on,” Skip mumbles, eyes sparkling with a smile as he touches his forehead to Barry’s.
“Awesome.” Barry grins back, watching Skip’s smile, heart pounding in his chest and warmth spreading through his veins.
“So,” Skip nods, kissing him again, and Barry thinks he could do this forever, “how about that date?”