Summary: Coming out isn't easy, no matter your identity. Three (or four) times someone in the West family came out to Joe.

Notes: For the DCTV Gen Pride Month Event - Prompt: Acceptance

Family Pride

One - Barry

Barry has a plethora of tells. Nervous tells, angry tells, excited... lets just say Joe doubts the boy will ever be a good poker player at this rate. Sweet kid, terrible liar. Invokes every single one of Joe's protective instincts the moment he looks upset about something.

Considering how his mother is dead and Barry's in denial about his father being the murderer, Barry is upset a lot. So Joe has to remind himself not to constantly badger the kid about why he's unhappy. A lot of the time it comes back to Henry and, well, Joe doesn't want to wind up in yet another argument with Barry over his dad.

So when Barry comes home from school one day and spent the minimum amount of time necessary to appear social before disappearing into his room - all while being extra shifty - Joe knew something was wrong. But it wasn't entirely uncommon for Barry to do that, so Joe let it go. He didn't push the next day when it happened again. Or the day after that. But... three days in a row was troubling.

Joe asked Iris about it and she was puzzled too.

"He's been weird ever since he got assigned a class project with Jack Spencer," Iris told him. "I thought maybe Jack was being a jerk to Barry, but when I asked him about it he got super defensive about Jack and I could swear he was flustered. But I can't get him to tell me what's going on. And I think Jack might be a little scared of me because I was scowling at him all during lunch today. But if he doesn't knock off whatever he's doing to make Barry uncomfortable..."

Barry... flustered? The only time Barry ever got flustered that Joe had seen was around Iris. (So many tells on that kid, it was a wonder that Iris hadn't noticed what was happening right under her nose.)

"I... don't think Jack's doing anything wrong. It sounds like maybe Barry's got a crush."

Iris opened her mouth to argue, but then shut it, eyes distant as she thought things over. "But... Barry would tell me if he's gay, right?"

"He may just be figuring that out for himself, Iris. And he might not be gay. Could be bi. Or something else; a lot of different options under the rainbow, right?" Joe was proud of the way Iris took that in and nodded seriously. "But I haven't actually seen what Barry's like around Jack, so I could be completely wrong."

"I wish he'd just talk to me," Iris grumbled, crossing her arms and pouting.

"Maybe you need to let him know you're willing to listen. I love you very much, baby girl, but you can talk over Barry sometimes; makes him clam right up and then you miss what he was trying to tell you." Joe patted Iris' shoulder lightly while Iris huffed.

"I guess you're right. I'm... I'm going to see what I've missed," Iris declared, taking off upstairs, presumably headed to Barry's room.

Maybe one day she'd stop missing out on Barry's attempts to tell her how he felt about her.

Whatever Iris said to Barry must've done the trick, however, because by the time they were back downstairs for dinner, Barry looked cautiously happy again. Then Barry joined Joe in the kitchen afterwards and dried dishes while Joe washed.

"Uh... Joe?"

"Yes, Barry."

"I... there's this guy at school... he, um..." Barry stalled out nervously and Joe reached over to ruffle the kid's hair.

"Take your time, okay?"

"You got my hair sudsy," Barry grumbled rubbing at his hair with the drying towel, making his hair stand up ridiculously. "I've had crushes on girls." Barry was staring down at the floor now. "But there's... this guy I think I like that way too."

"What's he like?" Joe grinned when Barry jerked his head up to stare at Joe. "I gotta be sure he's good enough for my kid, right?"

"I'm not going to ask him out!" Barry's eyes went wide and his voice all squeaky. "I mean, he probably doesn't even like other guys like that. And the other guys at school would... Tony would be so much worse if he knew I was queer..."

"But if you did ask him out," Joe said quietly, "I want you to know I'd support you. I want you to be happy, Barry, and to feel comfortable with yourself."

Barry smiled, all shy and pleased. "I think I might be bi. But I'm not sure yet. I'm still... figuring that out. You're really... you're really okay with that?"

"I'm really okay with that," Joe promised, sincerely. "Though I don't know the first thing about having crushes on boys, so if you need advice there I'm sending you to David."

"I'll be sure to ask him first if I have a crush on a guy that I actually want to act on," Barry promised dryly, looking wryly amused.

"Come on, kiddo, lets finish the dishes."

Two - Iris

"Dad, I've got something to tell you."

It was Iris' first semester of college and, unlike Barry, she was attending college here in Central City. So it was just the two of them living at home together and... it was a little weird not having Barry there. Joe was just glad he got to keep one of his kids at home, though. He wasn't ready to be an empty nester quite yet.

"Yeah, Iris?" Joe asked, settling down in his favorite chair with a mug of hot cocoa. "What's up?"

"I'm pan... as in, pansexual. There's this girl in my humanities 101 class that I want to ask out and I wanted to give you a heads up before I do." Iris gave him a steady look and Joe just nodded with acceptance.

"You know, I've never quite been sure what the difference between bi and pan are. Since you've settled on one and Bar the other, seems like now's the time to ask." Joe'd actually asked Barry but he'd shrugged. Said there was a nuance there, but he didn't quite know how to describe it. Iris was always better with her words, so hopefully Joe'd get an answer this time.

"Well, someone who is bi - like Barry - they get crushes on multiple genders, but maybe the way they experience those feelings differs depending on the other person's gender. Or they're more likely to experience those feelings for a particular gender. Or maybe they just like the bi pride flag better than the pan flag. Whereas someone who is pan doesn't really feel like the other person's gender impacts their feelings. There's a lot of overlap between bisexuality, pansexuality, omnisexuality, and polysexuality."

"I thought poly was open relationships or multi-partner relationships," Joe mused thoughtfully.

"That's polyamory, not polysexual."

"Right." Joe filed away the information for later. "So, tell me about this girl you like. Am I likely to meet her if she agrees to date you?"

"Are you gonna treat her like you treated the guy I dated in high school?" Iris asked dryly.

"I wasn't half as bad as the way you were when Barry was dating Becky." Joe had teased Iris, gently, at the time that she was jealous of Barry dating someone else. And she had been, but that girl couldn't be more oblivious where Barry was concerned if she tried.

"Ugh, she was awful, though. I was entitled." She huffed while Joe gave her an amused look. "Her name's Karen Cho and she's absolutely wonderful. You'll like her, dad. Promise."

Three - Wally

It's pride month and Central City's annual pride events have begun. Joe meets up with his kids for lunch, proud to see the bi flag painted on Barry's cheek and the pan flag on Iris' shoulder. Wally hasn't arrived yet, but he should be there any minute.

"There he is," Iris exclaimed with a grin, pointing towards the left.

Joe turned to face his third kid and sees what looks like a flag tied around Wally's neck like a cape while he dodges around event goers to reach the cafe.

The flag colors, when Wally gets closer, are black, gray, white, and purple; Joe can't say he's familiar with it. So he reaches out to hug Wally and is relieved at the way his kid hugs him back, hard. Just a few months ago trying something like this would've made Wally shy away and vanish. Joe's so very glad Wally feels more comfortable with him now.

Perhaps even comfortable enough to explain what the flag represents. So Joe asks as the four of them settle down at the table to check out their menus.

"It's the asexual flag. It, um... it means that I don't experience sexual attraction." He plucked nervously at the edge of the flag.

"I thought you had a crush on Jesse, though," Joe mused, uncertain.

"Oh, I did. It was just... romantic only. Not... someone who doesn't experience romantic attraction is aromantic. But I still get crushes, I'm just not... lusting after the target of my crush, that's all."

"Makes sense," Joe agreed mildly. Because it did, and he was so proud of Wally for being willing to take the chance to explain it to him. "I'm proud of you," Joe added, just because he could.

"Mom... never really understood. She kept telling me I was just a late bloomer." Wally still looked uncertain.

"Well, I suppose that's possible. But you say you're asexual and I trust your judgement where your own feelings are concerned."

Wally beamed at him. "Thanks, Dad."

Four - Nora

"Ugh, and then mom just burst in there and interrupted our conversation and... and... and just what is so funny?!" Nora demanded.

"Nora, Spencer Young was flirting with you. Your mother hates that woman and having to hear her flirting with you over the comms? Of course she burst in there to make Young leaver her baby girl alone." Joe snickered.

"She was flirting with me," Nora agreed, her voice going small in a way she'd clearly inherited from Barry. "And I liked it. And then she tried to make me kill dad."

"Oh, Nora sweetie," Joe pulled his granddaughter into a hug. "Get Barry to tell you about Leonard Snart some time. Make sure he does it in front of Iris, because he'll never mention the part where he had a crush on that man if Iris isn't there to remind him of every time he got caught staring at Snart's ass. Subtlety is not something your dad is good at."

Nora giggled a little and snuffled and rubbed at her eyes as she backed out of the hug. "Leonard Snart as in Captain Cold?"

"Yeah. As in the guy who threatened Barry's life a few times, threatened Cisco and his brother, threatened Caitlin... you can't help who you're attracted to. Sometimes you find yourself with feelings for people who do awful things. And that's okay, Nora. You don't choose your feelings, but you do choose how you act on those feelings."

"I didn't know dad liked guys too," Nora flopped onto the couch. "Maybe that's where I get being queer from. I'm a lesbian," she added, clarifying.

"Eh, you get it from your mom too. She's pan, Barry's bi. Your uncle's ace. There's plenty of family precedent at this point." Joe settled down beside her and slung and arm around Nora's shoulders, which she leaned into for comfort. "I guess Iris never told you any of that in the future? Not even when you came out to her?"

"Ah, well... I didn't realize until college and I just... didn't tell her in person." Nora cringed slightly, looking faintly guilty. "I mentioned in an email I was dating a girl but I broke up with her before coming home and when mom tried to talk to me about her, well... I didn't want to talk about the girl who'd just broke my heart. So I shut down the conversation. I guess neither of us ever really came back around to it."

Joe wishes Nora and Iris had a better relationship than they did, but he had to keep hoping that Nora's time in the present would go a ways towards mending those bridges. "Well, you could have that conversation with Iris and Barry now, if you wanted."

"Yeah... I guess I can," Nora murmured, more to herself than to Joe.