When Barry had walked through the door of the home he shared with his long-time girlfriend and saw candles lit all around the room, creating a dim romantic atmosphere, he knew that love of his life was definitely up to something. He had even prepared himself for a surprise when he saw said love seated on their sofa with a bright smile on her lips. Such preparation was little help, however, when he had seated himself beside her and she had dropped her particular bombshell on his lap because he still found himself feeling completely caught off guard by the words that left her lips.
"You've got to be kidding me! No! There's no freaking way that I'm going to allow that to happen!" His response came out in a booming voice that was meant to be authoritative and firm, but that, of course did little to stop Iris from countering.
"Barry, just listen-"
"Absolutely not, Iris. My answer is no, and that's final!"
To her credit, Iris had known that she would get some resistance from Barry when it came to the proposal she had for him, but she had not expected him to be so quick to refuse her request outright, let alone be so vehement in that refusal. He never really refused her anything before, and he most definitely never tried to enforce his authority upon her, except upon the rare occasion when her life was in danger. It was almost kind of attractive, but that particular vein of thought was drowned out by the disdain she felt at the fact that he actually thought he had the right to tell her what she could and could not do.
"It's not like I'm going to be thousands of miles away. You'll still see me every day, and we'll still hang out. We just won't-"
"Sleep together," he finished for her shortly, his nostrils flared and his eyes narrowed at her. "You don't want us to have sex from now until our wedding day. Yeah, I got that the first time, Iris, and my answer, like then, is still-"
"Barry, a lot of people do this," Iris cried out imploringly. "It's not a punishment; it's just something that's meant to make us even closer than we already are. It's something that I think will make our first night together as husband and wife really special."
Barry opened his mouth, most likely to say "no" again, but Iris held her hand up to stop him as she gave him her best puppy-dog eyes.
"I know that it's going to be hard, especially since we've been together for two years, now, but I know that you and I are a lot stronger than our physical urges," she said softly as she reached out her left hand with the shiny new diamond on her ring finger and grasped his hand with it. "I've read a lot of great articles by people who have all said how awesome abstaining from sex before the wedding made their wedding night, and I just want that with you, Barry."
"But I already have that with you," he argued. "Every time that I get to hold you and make love to you, I find that pretty freaking awesome, Iris. Yes, we've been together for two years, but considering how long I pined for you, our time together hasn't even come remotely close to matching that. There's no way in hell am I going to give you up again."
"You're not listening to me," Iris remarked in exasperation, though she was unable to hide the impact his words had had on her. Even though it had not been her fault, entirely, that she had never known that Barry was in love with her, it did make her sad to reflect on their past and see how much more time they could have had together if both of them had just taken their heads out of their asses and really opened up to one another. "You're not giving me up. I am yours, and I'm always going to be yours. I just... won't be yours... physically for the next six weeks, which isn't even that long of a time."
"It's a long time for me!" he exclaimed irritably. "I could barely stand being away from you that week that I had to help Oliver in Star City when you couldn't come because you were sick. Six weeks is a long time!"
Realizing that she was hitting a brick wall with him that would most likely not yield, Iris folded her arms across her chest stubbornly and looked up at him with the sternest expression she could muster on her face. It was time to bring out the big guns, apparently.
"Well, you may not like it, but I have already made up my mind, and basically, this is happening. I've already made plans and they've been executed already, so this was just a formality."
Barry's anger and frustration with his fiancee grew exponentially. "What do you mean, 'you've made plans'? What did you do, Iris!?"
"I had my things moved into my old bedroom at my dad's place, Bartholomew!" Iris shot back, feeling her own defenses beginning to rise up, especially with the fact that she had already acted on her plan without his total consent. In the back of her head, she knew it was wrong to go through withouth im agreeing, but she really had no idea that he would fight her so hard on it. "I knew that you were going to have misgivings, so I made a foolproof plan that would basically ensure that my will was carried out. While you stay here, getting ready for the move, I'm going to be staying with my dad in the one place that you and I are absolutely forbidden from having sex – his house. You can't move back in because you have the apartment for the last month since we paid for it already; Wally has already taken your old room so you couldn't stay there anyway; and Dad would never allow you to stay in the same room as me under his roof. I already packed up all of my essentials this morning and Wally helped me move it all out earlier today, just before you came home."
Curiosity won out over the outrage that was threatening to burst from Barry's chest as he raised his brow at Iris with confusion etched on his face. "Wait… you told Wally to come here and help you take your things?" he asked quietly, his words spoken slowly and carefully despite the jumble of worries that had begun to flood his head. "Do you realize how bad that looks, Iris? He probably thought that you were leaving me, or something!"
"No, I didn't let him think that at all," she replied quickly. "I told my dad and Wally, from the start, what was happening, and despite their initial resistance, they came around to my way of thinking."
"'Initial resistance'? What… did they tell you how crazy this whole thing is, too?"
"Well, Wally laughed for five minutes straight before telling me that you were never going to let this fly and that I was being cruel," Iris recanted with a roll of her eyes, like his words were complete nonsense. "He almost didn't want to help, but I got around to him, eventually, and my dad just knew that I wanted this, so it was going to happen whether he agreed to it or not."
With his brow still arched up, Barry shot Iris a suspicious look. "How, exactly, did you get Wally to agree?"
"I just told him that if he didn't help, I would tell Linda, at work, that he still peed the bed," she replied nonchalantly as she studied her cuticles. "He was pretty willing after that. Even got all the moving finished in less than five minutes with his speed."
Barry stared at Iris for a long moment, silently contemplating how he went so wrong as to have completely fallen in love with a woman who had the makings of becoming quite the supervillain. Not only had she rocked his entire world in the span of fifteen minutes, but she had no regrets about it whatsoever, based on the complete lack of remorse in her words or her actions. He felt alarmed at the fact that the woman he loved more than anything else in all the universes was capable of putting him through hell without so much as a bat of her long, flawless eyelashes.
"Wow... I-I really don't know what to say," he said after a few minutes had passed with him just staring at his fiancee with complete and utter disbelief etched on his face. "I see, now, that you asking me was really you telling me that you were going to torture me for the remainder of our engagement."
The stern resolve in Iris' eyes softened as she took in the defeated look that had fallen over the love of her life. It was clear that she had been less than graceful with the delivery of the proposal as well as the execution, but she was certain, without a single shred of doubt, that what she was doing was going to make things better for both of them in the long run. Yes, she knew that Barry was going to be furious, but she had hoped that he would come to agree with her eventually. Seeing the sadness and defeat on his face, however, was definitely not something she had planned.
Scooting over to him, Iris picked up his hands from his lap and sat down in the place where they once rested. Wrapping her arms loosely around his shoulders, she leaned in and pressed a soothing kiss to his cheek before pressing her brow to his temple.
"I'm not doing this to purposely torture you, Bar'," she remarked gently. "I love you more than life itself, and believe it or not, it's because I love you that I want to do this. From what I've read, a lot of couples really enjoyed being with their significant other after a little time apart, and our time apart is only going to be in that one particular aspect of things. You'll still see me every day, and we'll still get to hold and kiss one another all we want. We just will have to wait a little bit before things can go further than that."
Shutting his own eyes, Barry found calmness beginning to flood him at her closeness and the warmth of her skin pressed to his. He wanted to be angry, to be furious even, but his heart belonged to the woman sitting on his lap, and he would do anything for her. If she thought that this would benefit them in the long run, then despite his contempt of the whole situation, he would concede for the time being.
"I know there's no point in fighting this, so I'll go along with it… for now," he conceded coolly.
Iris squealed in delight as she pulled back from him and clapped her hands excitedly. "A reluctant acceptance is still an acceptance. I'll take it!"
Barry rolled his eyes before wrapping his arms tightly around her waist. "I have one stipulation, though, Iris," he stated sternly, hoping he could still come out of this with a bit of his own dignity intact.
Iris, still grinning, kissed his cheek and nose before placing her lips to his. "Anything," she murmured with her lips grazing his.
The forensic scientist gave her his best stern look as he uttered his condition. "This little plan of yours doesn't start until after the weekend. You can move to your Dad's on Monday."
A devious smirk spread across Iris's beautiful face as she pulled back enough to stare up into his eyes. "What, exactly, did you have in mind?" she questioned teasingly as she bit at her bottom lip enticingly while her fingers played in his hair.
"I think you know what I have in mind," Barry remarked back, his eyebrows raising suggestively. He placed his arm underneath her knees and kept the other wrapped tightly around her body. Rising from the couch, he cradled her small form in his arms.
"But, Bar', I seriously don't have any of my things or my clothes here. All of it is at my Dad's already," Iris voiced, her brow furrowed as she silently kicked herself for not thinking of keeping a few things just in case her departure was delayed.
Smirking deviously, the speedster sped them to their bedroom and stopped as soon as he walked through the door. The smirk on his lips as his eyes bore into her was almost enough to make Iris want to second guess everything she had fought for in the past fifteen minutes.
"Believe me, Iris, you're not going to be needing them," he said, his tone making it sound like a guarantee, and he kicked the door closed behind them loudly for emphasis. Needless to say that there were no complaints from his fiancèe who merely giggled in delight. Barry considered that a victory and silently calculated, in his mind, just what he was going to do to make her change her mind.