"You have got to be kidding me."
At the sound of Caitlin's voice near her right elbow, Iris looked up from the computer screen to learn just who or what Caitlin thought had to be kidding her. She realized Caitlin's tone of disbelief was completely justified once she saw Barry and Cisco stride into STAR Labs, hands in their pockets, which typically would have unfazed her.
Except for the fact that Cisco's characteristic shoulder-length locks were no longer at shoulder-length, and Barry, well….
Though the change in his appearance wasn't as drastic or immediately noticeable as Cisco's, he was sporting a new fade cut. If he turned his neck to the side (which he did, proudly she might add, evidently he was pleased with his image), she could see just a hint of the hair section adjacent to his ears cut closely to his head, shaved even, in a way he had never styled it before.
And she was trying to figure out why that was the case, why this was the first time he ever wore his hair like this, because the way it complemented the wiggle of his eyebrows and the smug smile he flashed her made her want to seize him and crash her lips against his just to run her fingers through the spiky buzz of his cut.
"I thought you two were on a lunch break," Caitlin accused, forehead raised. "What'd you order at Big Belly? Double bacon cheeseburger with a side of hairspray?"
"Relax," Cisco assured her. "Besides, that would be totally unsanitary. We passed this new barbershop near the corner of Fifth and Hillcrest. The barber shouted out to me that I needed a haircut, told me I looked so much like a scrub that he'd cut my hair for free. I asked if he was serious and apparently he was. What do you think?"
He lifted his shoulders expectantly. Caitlin was markedly silent while all Iris could do was stare blankly at Cisco before turning her eyes back to her boyfriend, still taken aback by how attractive he looked.
Cisco dropped his arms, clearly disgruntled by their lack of enthusiasm. "I knew it was a bad idea," he groaned, rubbing the back of his neck, apparently unused to having the skin there exposed. "That bastard's lucky my hair grows at exponential rates, otherwise I'd make Barry run back a few hours…"
Iris shook herself out of her trance upon realizing what Cisco was suggesting. "Not like I'd let you do that," she smirked, glancing at Barry with a bite to her lip, shamelessly admiring him from head-to-toe. "I am loving whatever this bastard did to Barry."
As much as Iris knew the extent Barry was attempting to maintain a cool and self-assured exterior, that guise dissolved entirely at her flattery, culminating in a sheepish grin across his blushing cheeks.
Cisco gaped back and forth between the two of them, indignant. "For the record, I was the one who pushed him into that chair andpicked out his haircut," he grumbled bitterly. "You're welcome."