wow well... i guess i'm a niall/barry shipper now. i have no idea how it happened. do i regret it? i don't know yet? but how about: a niall/barry au where they’re rentboys with superpowers.
HEAR ME OUT!!!!
it would be loosely misfits-inspired, or set in a verse similar to that. in the first episode of misfits there’s a weird electrical storm. a bunch of people across the city are struck by lightning and develop superpowers as a result, including a group of juvenile delinquents who are doing court-mandated service work at the local community center. the show is SO GOOD, but mostly I just love the concept of kids who have zero interest in Defending the Community getting superpowers and… not being emotionally transformed by them, lol. they just keep being disaffected misfit teenagers with bad attitudes who mostly want to use their powers to get out of having to do any work. except that it turns out that other people have also been affected by the storm, and some of those people are trying to kill them, or kill everybody, or turn the whole city into zombies, or whatever, and the teenagers are like “ughhh are you KIDDING?? fine. FINE!!!!!” and reluctantly use their powers to save the city, but usually in like, very self-centered ways that are still not about the Good of the City but are more in the vein of “this is going to become super fucking annoying if we don’t do something about it, isn’t it.”
(it’s also suuuuch a hilarious take on the “found family” trope, because they do become a little misfit oddball family, obviously, and they care about each other, but they’re also soooo annoyed by each other most of the time, and they form these little shifting sibling alliances against whoever’s being most annoying that week. (like, imagine a found family whose dynamics are less ot5 and more like, harry, zayn, fionn, louis, and liam getting repeatedly thrown into life-or-death situations and having to decide if working together is preferable to dying a gruesome death. and at times everyone (esp fionn and zayn lol) are like “…but is it? IS it preferable?” because everyone is so fucking obnoxious. BUT ALSO THEY LOVE EACH OTHER. IT’S JUST SUCH A GOOD SHOW OK!!!!!!!)
ok but forget all that for now haha, the dunkirk boys/ot5 come in MUCH later. the story starts with barry, who ran away from a shitty foster home situation when he was fifteen, had a very rough go of it at first, but has carved out a little space for himself in the past few years and is doing all right for himself. he’s had a couple jobs here and there, mostly washing dishes in restaurants, but he kept getting let go and left shorthanded, and sex work pays better, especially now that he’s got a handful of regulars. sometimes it’s shit—he’s had his share of bad clients and close calls with the police—but he thinks of it as a job, and he’s never been the type to complain, especially when all he has to do is look to see a dozen people whose luck has been way shittier than his. he’s a bit of a loner—he’s a friendly guy, says hello to people in his building, never has any trouble making friends down at the pub, but he doesn’t let people get too close. his life’s just fine as is, thanks very much, and he’s not looking to be responsible for anyone else. (there’s some more Backstory there, but that's FOR LATER.)
I can’t decide if barry and niall meet before or after the storm. I think the storm happens first, about a week before they meet. barry’s one of the people who gets struck by lightning, but he doesn’t realize that he’s got a power. he doesn’t even fully understand what happened—it felt like he got struck by lightning, but that’s impossible, because he’s pretty sure if he had he’d be dead, all his circuits fried. and he’s not dead, or even hurt, though he skinned his elbow when he fell, and he’s pretty sure his eyebrows got singed a little by—by whatever the hell that was. anyway, he’s not about to go to the a&e and sit around all day waiting for some doctor to tell him there’s nothing the matter with him, so he patches himself up and goes about his day. if he drops dead of a heart attack or something later, well, at least it’s end of the month and he won’t have to pay the landlord next week.
maybe he’s out working one night about a week after the storm. he's got his first job of the night, nothing big, just a quick handjob in the back of some guy’s car. when he gets out of the car, though, he sees this kid hanging around by the corner. the kid’s young—not, like, jailbait young, but eighteen or nineteen, maybe, with a baby face and a jacket that’s way too big with him, makes him look even skinnier. he’s sort of slouched against the streetlight, surveying the street, and he looks unsure of himself but he’s obviously on the pull.
barry’s not gonna be an asshole about it or anything—kid looks scared of his own shadow—but he’s also not gonna let some new guy who doesn’t know the rules take business from him, so. he saunters over and is like [insert casual friendly irish small talk] and the kid’s wary but talks to him, starts to relax just a fraction when he realizes barry’s irish too. they chat for a bit—the kid’s new to the city, like he thought, and he’s cagey enough about where he’d come from and what brought him here that barry thinks there’s probably a story there. he doesn’t ask, though, just keeps it light and friendly, and then after a couple minutes he’s like, all right, well, nice talking to you, if you’re working you’d better try a couple blocks down. And he he watches niall kinda realize that oh, barry’s also working, and this is his block or whatever, he’s not just being friendly, he’s warning niall off. and niall immediately tenses back up, withdraws again. maybe there’s a momentary flash of disappointment in his eyes, but he’s immediately like, right, yeah. okay. sorry, and barry’s like, no worries, guess I’ll see you around. and that’s that. maybe he will see niall around, maybe he won’t. his money’s on won’t, because niall seems like a nice kid and scared shitless, too, and there’s plenty of people out here who’ll smell that on him a mile away. but that’s niall’s lookout, not his.
anyway, niall wanders off and some guy comes by, starts talking to barry, and barry’s talking back, negotiating a price or whatever, when he sees over the guy’s shoulder that some super fancy car has pulled up alongside niall and someone’s talking to him from the driver’s seat. at first barry’s pissed off, because didn’t he just tell niall to keep moving. but then he sees that niall hasn’t stopped walking. he's ignoring whoever’s in the car, but the car’s still following him, just crawling along the curb.
something about it doesn’t sit right with barry. niall's whole posture is defensive: his shoulders hunched, his hands jammed in his pockets. when whoever’s driving reaches out and tries to snag his arm, he jerks away so hard he almost stumbles, catching himself at the last minute. he doesn’t look around him, doesn’t look at whoever’s in the car, just keeps his eyes fixed on the sidewalk. he doesn’t look back at barry, either. like he already knows that nobody’s going to help him.
the guy barry’s been talking to is like, ‘so what, do we have a deal?’
niall’s reached the end of the block and rounded the corner, the car turning smoothly after him. that’s a blind alley down there, no windows onto the street. which niall doesn’t know, obviously, because he’s new.
‘oh, for feck’s sake,’ barry says under his breath.
‘what'd you say to me?’ the guy says, lurching closer like he’s trying to be threatening, breath stinking of whiskey, and barry’s like, ‘oh, piss off,’ and shoves him out of the way, taking off down the street after niall.
OKAY AND THEN STUFF HAPPENS!!!!!! WHO IS THE GUY IN THE CAR????? WHAT'S NIALL'S DEAL???? WHAT KIND OF SUPERPOWER IS BARRY ABOUT TO MANIFEST???? HOW DO THEY MEET UP WITH THE OTHER DUNKIRK BOYS AND WHEN DOES THE REST OF OT5 SHOW UP AND WHAT ARE THEIR POWERS????? THESE ARE QUESTIONS I HAVEN'T ANSWERED YET SO IF YOU HAVE ANY IDEAS LEMME KNOW. but i am pretty sure I know what niall's superpower is and it's GONNA BE ANGSTY!!! (in misfits the deal is that people's superpowers amplify some aspects of their personalities and are usually tied to like, some deep-rooted insecurity or past regret sooooo that's something to chew on. lol what do you think harry's is gonna be. is there narry in this backstory? time will tell.)
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