Say What You Need To Say
By: Riley
Summary – Barry and Cadence open up to each other about their families. BarryCade version of Spallen 2x09 deleted scene.
Barry tightened the drawstring of his sweats, rolling his eyes at the laughter that filled his room.
Not just giggling. Not chuckling. But raucous laughter that could only accompany an embarrassing story he would tell. Thankfully it wasn't one of the ones that Joe and Iris spewed out as blackmail, but—Barry let out a relieved sigh when the laughter stopped. Then his shoulders tensed when he heard it start up all over again. Then again, he could only imagine how horrific it would've been if that were the case for her laughter. She probably would've passed out from lack of air.
As it was, it was getting harder to hear her laughter. Turning, Barry watched as Cadence stretched out across his bed in one of his flannel shirts, holding her stomach in laughter. The shirt dusted her tights, barely covering the underwear she wore beneath it. Her body continued to quiver as her laughter turned silent.
Finally, she sucked in a huge breath and wiped at her eyes.
"Alright." Barry walked to his bed and stretched out amongst his pillows. He rested his cheek in his palm, gazing at her, studying the planes of her face before resting on her eyes. "You know, it's actually…it's not that funny."
"I'm sorry," Cadence said.
"I really don't think you are."
"I'm sorry." She repeated. "But it really is that funny." She pushed herself up, digging her fingers into the blankets. A serene smile illuminated her face, her dark hair cascading over her shoulders like a mermaid.
Barry lifted an eyebrow. "Believe it or not, guys don't love it when you laugh at them after what we just did."
"I'm not laughing at that." Swinging her legs around, Cadence sat up straight then folded her hands in her lap. "I'm laughing at the looks on people's faces when the gym was set on fire. Or what I think they would've been. God, I wish I was there to see it." She clenched her hands into fists, shaking them to show her disdain.
"Well…" Barry bobbed his head back and forth. "Mixing Glycerol with an Oxidizing agent…I sincerely thought that if I stated a chemical fire, I would win." Then he started to laugh. In hindsight, it was funny. In the moment, it wasn't. He couldn't understand why everyone was getting so upset when rumors started going around. He wasn't bringing in a bomb he was going to make a controlled, chemical fire.
And even then, Joe had signed off on it. Not that he could say 'no', Barry's explanation of his science fair project had been so to the point that he could see Joe's eyes glazing over. Joe threw up his hands and said, 'do whatever'. If anything, that was a bad decision on his part. But, clearly anyone would know he would have as many precautions to make sure nothing actually caught on fire. That's what the fire extinguisher and the bucket of water was for.
It had been spectacular.
The colors were bright and vibrant and people crowded around to watch his demonstration after his explanation. "I got an A!" Then the other shoe dropped. "And I got suspended."
Suspended? Cadence's eyes widened in surprise. Barry nodded grimly and she rolled her eyes. "For making a controlled fire? That's what I can do when I sneeze."
"They called it 'pyrotactics'," Barry said. "And they thought I was still so distraught over my mom and dad that I was, I don't know, trying to get attention or lashing out or something. It was really stupid, but it was one of the best experiments I've ever done."
Cadence wrinkled her nose and leaned forward, pressing her forehead against Barry's. She stuck her tongue between her teeth in a mocking gesture. "Sounds like you won then."
"I think so." Barry reached up and tapped her on the tip of her nose, saying whispering 'boop' in a low tone.
Cadence smiled and turned her head away. Her eyes landed on the picture frame that sat on Barry's bedside table. It was a simple frame, an oak color. Inside the frame was a picture of him and his mother, arms grasped tightly around her neck as he leaned over her, standing on a concrete wall. Nora's hands were brought up to rest on Barry's arm, a smile as big as his.
"Your mom was so beautiful," she murmured, reaching over to pick up the photo. She held it close, examining everything inside the picture. The color of the foliage in the background, the way Barry's eyes shone, the way his mother's hair glinted in the sunlight, bringing a golden hue to her beautiful auburn hair.
"Yeah," Barry agreed. He watched as Cadence looked over the picture. "She was."
The smile lowered from Cadence's face. She replaced the picture on the nightstand and dropped her hands to her lap once more. Her chin tilted, lowering her face from Barry's. A shaky sigh was the only sound she made, reaching up to tuck a curtain of hair behind her ear. Barry reached out and placed his hand to her thigh, rubbing his thumb across the skin in a soothing motion.
"It's hard to believe my dad's gone," she murmured. "It feels like every time I turn the corner I'll see him there." She then gestured towards her jeans that rested on his bedroom floor. "Or that when my phone rings or I get a text it's him waiting to tell me one of his famous dad jokes." She chuckled. "Which were always so lame but he loved them. He used to send me emails every day of some joke, he knew just to make me smile. That's what the message always said."
"Cade, I'm really sorry."
"It's alright." Her shoulders shrugged. Finally, she lifted her head, but her gaze avoided his. Her mouth twisted to the side. She was trying to convince herself. "I've gotten used to people leaving. It's just the few moments where you mind tricks you, you know?"
"It always feels like just yesterday," Barry agreed.
"Yeah…" She peered closely at him. "How do you deal with it?"
"I don't know," Barry said honestly. He scratched his forehead, ran his hand through his hair, dropped his hand back to his lap. "I try not to focus on what I don't have. How much I miss her. How much I want to hear her voice again. I focus on the good things I do have. Joe and iris." He tilted his head one way. "My friends, my job." He tilted it the other way. "New people coming into my life. People who make me happy. You."
"Oh, so I don't make you happy?" Cadence teased.
Barry lifted a finger. "I didn't say that. He stretched his hand to hers, drawing circles on her palm, tapped her fingertips, laced their fingers together. "You make me very happy."
"You know what's make me, very happy?"
"What?"
"Some ice-cream." Cadence leaned back away from him, her eyes shining with mirth when Barry laughed. "I'm starving. I mean, I know I don't eat as much as you do—thank God, I'd probably get fat—but I've been ignoring my growling stomach for the last half hour. I don't know how you're not, you need to shove a burger down your throat every five minutes!"
"Okay, calm down. You may be in luck." Barry pressed his finger to his temple, racking his brain. "I think there's some downstairs. If Joe didn't get to it, anyway. He thinks we don't know he likes to have it as a midnight snack, but we know." He started to get out of bed. "I'll get it— "
"No, I can. I need the exercise anyway." Cadence rolled off the bed and left the room with a flirtatious smile tossed over her shoulder. She walked down to the kitchen, bare feet slapping over the floor as she went. She hummed a song under her breath, navigating her way through the kitchen to find the ice cream carton in the freezer and a couple of spoons. No need for bowls. Then she returned to Barry's room, finding him on his phone.
He looked up when she held the carton and spoons above her head. "Success!" She declared. Cadence stepped up onto the bed and started to bounce up and down. "The balance of the house has been restored. I found the ice cream!" On an exceptionally high jump, she moved her feet from below her and bounced to the mattress, jostling Barry around.
"I knew we had some," he said. He reached for a spoon when Cadence pulled off the carton top but only found the one in her mouth, already taking a scoop of the creamy dessert. Cadence looked at him in surprise, eyebrows rising.
"Sorry, I didn't know you wanted any." Then her eyes squinted and she tilted her head to the side. Barry felt his face flush when she leaned close to him, putting the tip of his nose right against his. "Wait…what's that in your ear?" She reached over and pulled the other spoon out from behind his ear and tapped the end of his nose with the bulbous end before handing it over. "That's the extent to my magic skills."
"Throwing in the top hat already?" Barry spun the spoon between his fingers before taking a scoop. He closed his eyes once the cold dessert hit his tongue. He hadn't realized how hungry he was either. There may have been some truth in her statement of eating so much.
"Hey, I already made my mark. During Brady's second grade parents day when I 'magically' made fire appear." She used air quotes around the word, making Barry chuckle. "Literally, I scorched the wall on accident. But I was a hit with the kids." Her nose wrinkled. "The parents didn't like it so much. Either they were mad I showed them up or they thought their special snowflake children should be the best at everything." A roll of the eyes punctuated her remark.
"Well, they all would've lost anyway," Barry reminded her. "No one's a better parent then you are to Brady." Cadence smiled her thanks, blushing at the complement. "Oh, hey, I don't know if you have any plans but we're having Cisco Cinema later. Christmas classics and all that."
Cadence's lips curled into a smile. "Well, all I want for Christmas is—"
"—Me?" Barry broke in, impish smile and all.
"Actually, I was going to say a working collarbone." Cadence made a show of swinging her arm in a circle. "In battle, I don't notice it but geez, you'd think I'd have friends who wouldn't drop me on my face when doing a kick out from a scorpion."
Barry lifted his eyebrows.
"Basically, I'm lifted into the air, right?" Cadence started to do the play-by-play, using her hands to describe it. "Balancing on one foot while I pull the other one behind my head. Then I kick out—or lower my foot back down to stabilize myself while spinning in a corkscrew—and they're supposed to catch me." Her eyes raised toward the ceiling. "We've done it a million times and the day we have our qualifiers for the national competition, they drop me on my face!" Barry burst out laughing. "Thankfully, another team screwed up so royally that we made it through."
Still laughing, Barry nodded. "But you meant me," he said, returning to the conversation before.
"Eh." Cadence's nose wrinkled again. "I guess you'll do." She leaned in and gave Barry a quick kiss. Once, twice, three times. Then she sat back on her heels and the two resumed in their consumption of ice cream, conversing of other science fairs they'd participated in. Once they had their fill, Cadence took the ice cream carton and spoons and brought them back down to the kitchen.
She was just closing the freezer door after having put away the spoons when Joe walked into the doorway. He let out a cry and pressed his hand to his chest. "Oh, you scared me, Cadence."
"Sorry, Joe," she quickly apologized. "I get told that a lot. I guess I'm lighter on my feet than I thought. Comes in handy when tumbling, though."
"I didn't think anyone was here." Joe looked at his watch. "It's so early! What are you doing here so—" Then he stopped and he got a good look at her attire. Cadence lifted her eyebrow. "Oh. Oh!" If possible, his skin darkened even further. "I—uh, I'm sorry, I didn't…um…I'll just…yeah…" Joe hastily backed out of the kitchen. "I'll just go. You…have a good time."
The moment Cadence head the door to Joe's room close, Cadence started laughing. This time, instead of walking up, she teleported back to Barry's room. He needed to hear this.
Barry was already moving towards the door when she arrived. He grasped her arms, looking out into the hallway before closing the door behind her. Cadence continued to giggle. "What? What's so funny? I thought I heard a door slam, is everything okay?"
"Nothing more than the fact that Joe just busted me," Cadence replied. She finally stopped laughing, using both hands to smooth her hair back from her face. "Oh God, you should've seen the look on his face. You're probably going to get an earful the next time he sees you."
Barry's face came close to the same shade of a tomato.
"Yeah, he kind of looked like that," Cadence said, pointing at his face.
Reaching up a hand, Barry rubbed it over his mouth. "You have no shame," was all he could say.
"I didn't know he was home," Cadence defended herself. "If I had, I would've been a lot more tactful. But you're 26, I don't think it's anything so surprising." She wrapped he arms around his neck. Barry looked at her and she smiled sheepishly. "I'm not making anything better am I?"
He shook his head but accepted her kiss.
He could only imagine the conversation that was waiting for him.
Suddenly, he felt like he was ten years old again. That would've been better. His parents didn't have licenses to own guns.
A/N: Sweet, fluffly, and cute, right? Okay, we know Joe wouldn't do that to Barry. But it's a funny thought for me. Hope you guys liked this one, I still have some other one-shots coming today. Two that I can think of off the top of my head.
Cheers,
-Riles
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