A/N: This one takes place about a month after Barry comes to live with the Wests.
Sing-Along
"Hey Barry, what're you watching?"
The young boy in question nearly jumped out of his skin at the sound of his foster sister's voice. As soon as he realized what she had said, he hurriedly clicked off the portable TV that Joe had let him put in his room. Barry had long since finished his homework and had been sitting on his bed, wrapped up to the chin in the thickest blanket he could find as he watched what was (for him at least) the best show on cable television. Or at least, he was, until Iris had materialized at his doorway, pushing the mostly closed door to his room open so she could peer inside. "What? I wasn't watching anything," he said quickly.
Iris gave him a suspicious look, but didn't push the issue. "Oh. Well, I just thought I heard singing coming from in here."
"Really? That's weird."
Iris barely managed to contain her snort at that response. "Yeah... Anyway, I just thought maybe if you were watching something with singing that maybe you'd like to come watch TV with me instead?" she asked. "I mean, you don't have to if you were in the middle of something else, but I finished my homework and was gonna go watch Victorious on the big TV. Have you ever heard of it?"
Barry was still reeling from her first question by then. He had to remind himself that obviously the request wasn't that big of a deal; he'd been living with Joe and Iris for almost a month now. On the other hand, he had only been living with the Wests for a month. Pushing all non-platonic thoughts aside for now-watching TV was a thing families do, duh-he actually set about trying to answer her rather than staring at her stupidly. "No... I mean, no, I haven't heard of it! Of course I'd like to watch TV with you, that's not what I was saying no to."
Iris snickered and gestured for him to follow her downstairs. "It's this show about this high school girl who gets to go to this special school of performing arts," She said as she skipped down the steps two at a time, Barry trailing awkwardly behind. "There's a lot of singing and dancing and it's really funny. You'll probably like it a whole lot."
Barry smiled, using his chin to push down a part of the blanket that was in his face so he could talk. "Yeah, sounds like something I'd like." He thought back to the show he had been watching. It wasn't usually very funny, but there was a lot of singing and dancing, so maybe this new show wouldn't be too bad. He could at least try it out.
MAKEITSHINELITTLELIGHTNINGMAN
Barry hadn't been sure of what to expect from the show at first, but it wasn't long before he found himself laughing at the frequent jokes and keeping time with the songs by bobbing his head to the beat.
Iris kept glancing over at Barry, watching his reactions. The boy was too intent on the show to notice.
Towards the end of the episode, Joe walked in the door. He'd gone out to run a few quick errands about half an hour ago. "Hey, I'm home," he called.
"Hi dad," came Iris's reply. Barry's only response was another laugh at the TV.
Joe glanced at the TV as he passed through the room. "Oh, I see. Which episode you guys watching?"
"Freak the Freak Out."
Joe nodded. He was about to ask Barry if he was a fan of the show as well, but Iris jumped up eagerly at that moment. "Yes! Finally! Barry, listen to this song, it's awesome!"
Joe snickered as Iris began singing and dancing along with the song the episode was named after. Barry was half watching the TV and half watching Iris, the biggest smile Joe had ever seen on the kid lighting up his face. The detective would've loved to have stayed and watched, but the two bags of groceries he had just bought weren't going to put themselves away...
...He set them on the kitchen counter, then stood next to the doorway and watched his kids.
He couldn't help but smile wider when he saw something he hadn't expected at all. Iris was still singing her little heart out and dancing like the little girl she was, but in the mere twenty seconds Joe had been away, she had gotten Barry to get up and dance with her, and just as energetically, too! The boy wasn't able to sing along because he didn't know the words, but that didn't matter to either of them; they were having a blast regardless. So, naturally, Joe simply couldn't resist the urge to record the pair with his camera phone.
They didn't even notice Joe's presence until the end of the song. Iris just rolled her eyes when she saw the phone trained on them, obviously not bothered at all. Barry was still smiling, but was also blushing horribly at the attention. Joe couldn't help but laugh good-humoredly. "Alright, I get it, going away now." He retreated back into the kitchen with his hands raised in surrender to finally put the groceries away, the pair's laughter following him and only making him smile even wider.
After he had left, Iris turned back to Barry. "So? Is this show awesome or what?"
Barry couldn't stop smiling. "Alright, you were right. This show is totally awesome."
"Just wait until you see the ending..." Iris had a gleam in her eye as she sat back down, and Barry wasn't sure if he should be scared or excited.
"No spoilers," he said, bouncing back onto the couch and eagerly turning his attention back to the TV.
"Barry Allen, I would never!"
Turns out he should've been excited; the ending had Barry laughing so hard his eyes watered.
MAKEITSHINELITTLELIGHTNINGMAN
Joe couldn't help but notice Barry's distant expression as he tucked the boy into bed later that night.
"What're you thinking about?" He figured that his foster son was simply imagining future experiments, but he saw no harm in asking anyway. Barry came back down to earth, offering Joe a small but genuine smile.
"Stuff..." He hesitated, and Joe didn't expect him to continue. However, this time was different than the others... "Mom and I used to watch Glee together. I like those kinds of shows sometimes."
Joe nodded once slowly, carefully concealing any of his less favorable thoughts behind a practiced poker face. "Ah."
"It was fun singing with Iris instead, though," Barry continued, his genuine smile growing at the thought. "I like Victorious."
"Well as long as you've both finished your homework, I'll let you two watch it together," Joe assured him with a smile of his own. He ruffled Barry's hair affectionately before walking over to the light switch next to the door. Barry reached over and flipped on his night-light, the soft light tinted green by the breaker-shaped cover over the bulb.
"Good night Barr'."
"G'Night Joe."
Joe flicked the overhead light off, and gently pulled the door to his son's room until it was almost closed. As he walked down the hall to put Iris to bed, he fell into deep thought, pondering what he had been told and what that really meant.
...Just one month, and Barry somehow still managed to be the brightest kid in Central City, in every sense of the word...
~MPF
A/N:
Too feelsy? I've had this headcannon lurking around in my mind since Crazy for You happened. :3 I actually have another headcannon closely related to this as well, but I don't know if I should post it here because it would be depressing... Very depressing. AND FANFIC WON'T LET ME USE MY COOL MUSIC NOTE PAGE BREAKS, I feel cheated. ;-; Oh well... Wait, now it's not letting me use tildes either! What?! Or dashes. When did this happen?! I guess you guys get weird somewhat-relevant page breaks made of words, 'cause I'm not gonna write "PAGEBREAK" or some A-B pattern for them, and the horizontal rules are already being used to separate the author's notes from the story.
I actually want to see that other headcanon...the depressing one. I still haven't seen Victorious...and I regret the one time a friend had me watch an episode of Glee.
I still have mental scars. You know, scars on the part of my brain that isn't already scarred from fan fiction.
*Buries self in grammar book trying to figure out how apostrophes work in nicknames
~2whitie
Yeah, I expect controversy over how to spell Barry's nickname... Hence the apostrophe.
I should write the depressing one. It'd probably be a three chapter mini-story... And just for the record, I used to watch Victorious, but I've only seen a few of the songs from Glee and have read a summary of some of it, and I don't think it's really my thing... :/ NO MATTER, THE HEADCANNON LIVES ON.