In Which Bashir and O'Brien Discuss Bashir’s Pansexuality offscreen

[zforzelma]

Or, a headcanon to explain this really weird scene.

By this point Bashir’s open relationship with Garak is the worst kept secret on the station, and since Bashir and O’Brien are buddies, it’s come up in conversation. 

Bashir would be open about it but he knows O’Brien so he probably doesn’t talk too much about how he’s banging a lizard alien dude.  O’Brien is a little weirded out by the whole thing but doesn’t want to be a jerk to his friend, so the conversation probably went something like

"I have nothing against it.  I just can’t understand why you would want to be with a man. And that’s just me.  I can’t understand it.”

"No?"

"No.  It’s beyond my comprehension. But you - go for it if it makes you happy."

"huh"

And then we get to this:

In the video, Bashir is purposely recalling the earlier conversation (that I just made up but totally happened when no one was looking). And that last part is O’brien going “alright you little shit, shut up.” and we all laugh.  And that’s my explanation for this really weird conversation.

What’s funny about the Garak/Bashir ship, is that Bashir’s friendship with O’Brien  makes Garak/Bashir harder to ignore.  You could say that Garak and Bashir are just good buddies if you didn’t have this other friendship to compare it to.

 Bashir and O’Brien have a brotherly affection that’s developed organically over a long time.  Bashir and Garak have crazy chemistry that came out of nowhere.  The relationships are completely different, no matter what they discuss in their respective scenes.

The conversation in this video for example - they’re literally talking about sexuality and gender - and there is nothing shippy about it.  They’re friends, and Bashir’s taking the piss.

Almost any conversation with Garak, though - they could be talking about their food - and you’re just like, for the love of the prophets get a holosuite!