Pacing back and forth across his room wasn't doing Bart Allen any good.

It was 3 in the morning, and Bart knew he wasn't getting any sleep tonight. Worry showed on his face as he walked to the window and abruptly turned around to walk to his bed, running his fingers through his fiery red hair occasionally. After 36 "laps", he finally sat down on his bed, thumping his heel on the ground at super speed.

Bart was frustrated, anxious, and lonely. He wanted to see him, and was considering going to his house in the dead of the night; he knew where he lived, so what was stopping him?

Bart was known for his airhead personality, great sense of humor, and the huge grin that never slipped his face. But that was in front of his "friends", his team. When Bart was alone, he stripped off the mask, and morphed into his true self: the depressed boy that never smiled; the grim personality, and the one with no sense of humor. He was here for one purpose, or to be more accurate, one person: Jaime Reyes.

That's who he desperately wanted to see, to be with. He was here to stop Jaime from becoming the evil ruler he becomes in the future, the one villain that truly terrified Bart Allen. The one who bullied Bart and forced him to live in the poorest conditions, the one who ruined his entire life and always despised with a burning passion; the who took away everything from him.

However, as he started to spend more time with the good Jaime, he's grown to cherish him as friend; he maybe even smiled for real here and there with him. The pit of hate in Bart's stomach was slowly disintegrating, and maybe, just maybe, Bart could learn to love.

But he wasn't there yet, he wasn't prepared for a feeling he never experienced before: happiness. Seeing Jaime still meant putting on an act he hated, placing the suffocating mask over his true face.

He was going to do it, anyway.

Thanks to his super speed, Bart raced to Jaime's house. At this time, he knew the window that led to Jaime's room: the only window on the second floor on the left side of the house. Near the window was a branch that was strong enough to hold all of Bart's weight (he tested it before). So there he was now, sitting on the branch and staring into Jaime's room. Luckily, tonight it was open, and Bart could clearly see the entire small, bare room. There was enough to space to hold a closet brimmed with disorganized clothes, a night stand with an alarm clock and couple of books, and a single bed, with Jaime Reyes currently residing in it. His blanket was halfway on the floor, along with his foot, and he looked like he tossed and turned for an hour before finally his brain paralyzed him in the position he is now.

Bart stared, that was the only thing he could do. It was a little stalker-ish on his part, but he declared to himself that he was "watching over Jaime so he doesn't become evil in the middle of the night, because it could happen, right?"

But Bart realized he didn't just want to stare, he wanted a touch.

Slowly but surely, Bart jumped off the branch and crept into Jaime's room, careful to make the least amount of noise. He cringed when he heard the floorboards creak, and waited silently for Jaime to wake up and yell at him in Spanish for barging in the middle of the night. But it never happened, Jaime didn't even flinch.

Now, Bart was looming over the sleeping figure, like a guardian angel watching their beloved. He stared at Jaime for a long time, contemplating how such an innocent, vulnerable boy could turn into a pure evil man.

Bart touched Jaime's cheek, and startled by how warm and soft it was. "Maybe he doesn't have a cold heart, after all," he thought as he caressed his cheek. He leaned down and planted a kiss on Jaime's forehead. The kiss must have stirred Jaime awake, because he started tossing and turning and mumbled a few incoherent words that may have sounded like, "hermano, stay."

But Bart was long gone by then, halfway to his own home. As he was speeding through the familiar streets, he thought about his decision of coming to the past, and his plan that was well in motion. He never expected these consequences, because Bart never thought of himself, only of others so that they never experience what he did.

Yet, Bart enjoyed this. He took pleasure in spending time with Jaime and actually envisioning a new future, a one with him and good Jaime, a one where he is happily in love. Underneath the mask, Bart smiled.

Because maybe, just maybe, Bart Allen will finally get the happiness he deserves.