Hi! Thank you guys soo much for your lovely reviews! You are awesome! Thanks to your title suggestions (special thanks to Jero1331 whose suggestion had a big influence on the final title) I figured out a title for this story and started a new story where I'll post all chapters concerning this fic from now on! It's called "Loveable Nerds and Superheroes", so keep your eyes peeled for it! ;)

Also, beware! I kinda spoil "Bartholomew and the Oobleck" by Dr. Seuss here... And again, mentions of Harry Potter, I just can't help myself...

But, now unto the chapter! Enjoy!

The Date

This was it. Today was the day of Iris West's date with Barry Allen.

Iris had been extra nervous throughout the entire day, getting on Mason's nerves (though that didn't mean much – her mentor at the newspaper got unnerved easily). The worst thing was that beside the normal (maybe a little over the top) excitement that came along with a first date, Iris also had to do everything in her power not to sit down and research about Barry.

She was completely aware of how weird that urge was, but something about Barry's strange reactions yesterday had triggered something in her (Wally used to joke that her "journalism sense was tingling", whenever she went all-out with her investigations, trying to dig up as much information as she could). Despite the good time she and Wally had had during their lab tour, Iris couldn't help but feel that Barry was keeping something big from her – which was completely ridiculous of her, considering that they hadn't even been on a date that actually was supposed to serve the purpose of getting to know each other better, as her friend Tracy from Jitters had pointed out when Iris had talked to her in the morning while getting her coffee fix.


In the early evening, Iris's excitement hadn't lessened one bit. She was inspecting several potential date-dresses that she had spread on her bed, when a quick knock sounded on her bedroom door. Shortly after that it opened, her dad peeking into her room

"Hey Baby, Wally and I thought about ordering pizza – are you going somewhere?" The cop asked surprised, seeing the dresses.

"Yeah, I.. I have a date," Iris stated nervously," I guess I must've forgotten to tell you." Only that she hadn't – she rather had decided to omit this particular piece of information.

"Uh-huh," Joe hummed, obviously not believing her about the 'forgetting'-part.

Iris pretended not to notice, hanging two options back into her closet – two dresses were still lying on the bed. She also ignored the inquisitive glance her dad was bestowing on her and instead pondered whether she should choose the red backless dress or the short, light pink one with intricate embroidery on the bodice.

"You're not planning on telling me who your date is, are you?"

"Nope," Iris replied, finally deciding to go for the pink dress, putting the other one back into her wardrobe, "it's just a date, Dad. No need to make a big deal out of it." While saying these words out loud, Iris realized that actually she was the one to make a big deal out of her date, being unusal secretive about it. She could tell by the look on her father's face that he'd had the exact same thought.

"Uh-huh." Before Joe could say much more, Wally dashed into the room, phone in hands.

"I thought we wanted to order in," the boy pointed out, suspiciously eyeing the dress draped over Iris's arm.

"Seems like your aunt is going on a date tonight." Her dad might have said that sentence in the most casual voice, but Iris could tell by the mischievious glint in his eyes that he meant it anything but casual.

"With who?" Wally immediately responded to it, using that tone of voice that meant he wouldn't stop pestering Iris with questions until he knew.

"With whom," Iris corrected him, hoping to distract the boy long enough to scurry into the bathroom across the hallway to change.

It didn't work. Go figure. He was a West, after all; no matter how distractable the 8-year-old might be, whenever Iris tried to sidetrack him purposely, it didn't work.

"Yeah, with whom?" Wally repeated, eyes glued on her.

Iris shot her father a stern look, who just observed the spectacle in front of him amusedly.

"Do we know him? What does he do? Is he also working at CCPN? Why haven't you told us about -"

"It's Barry, okay?" Iris blurted out under the barrage of questions. "I'm meeting Barry," she murmured a bit more quietly, slightly blushing.

Wally stared at his aunt saucer-eyed. "Was yesterday a date, too?" he asked, befuddled.

"No, of course not," Iris appeased her nephew who just looked utterly confused, "yesterday was just a lab tour. Barry and I just decided that we'd like to go out for dinner today, that's it."

The 8-year-old shook his head in disbelief. "This is soo weird," he announced, then waddled out of the room. Joe let out a short chuckle, then left Iris's room to order the pizza.


Iris arrived at the restaurant right on time; while she was debating whether she should wait outside (because, clearly, Barry wouldn't be here just yet) or already ask for their table, a breathy "hey" startled Iris out of her thoughts. She turned around and was taken aback to see a panting Barry Allen right behind her.

"Oh wow, you are punctual!" Iris couldn't help but blurt out, eyeing the light gray suit he was wearing – and came to the conclusion that he wore it very well.

"What's with the surprise?" Barry replied, pouting, "I know when a woman is worth being on time for." Right after the words tumbled out of his mouth, his eyes widened comically, face turning beet-red.

Iris felt her heart flutter at his words. "I bet you say that to all the girls," she teased while motioning towards the entrance of the restaurant, trying to put Barry at ease.

Being a real gentleman, he held the door open for Iris, muttering something under his breath. It sounded suspiciously much like "what other girls?", but in consideration of his current complexion and her fear that his head might burst into flames if he got any redder, Iris pretended not to have heard Barry's mumbling. Speaking of flames, as the waiter led both young adults to their table, Iris noticed a faint smell of smoke coming off Barry. Since she didn't peg the young scientist as a smoker (and he wasn't smelling of tobacco, but the real fire kind of smoke), – and was that soot right below his left ear? – Iris just asked him forthrightly about it as soon as they were seated.

"Oh." Barry rubbed the spot Iris had pointed at furiously, not meeting her eyes. "Ehm... there was a little accident... on the job, yeah," he spluttered, again with that strange look on his face that he'd sported yesterday while talking about his doctor's appointment, "nothing too serious, though."

"You better not conduct any possible explosive and/or flammable experiments with Wally, then," Iris said, half-joking, half-serious.

"Nah, don't worry; a friend of mine actually gave me the idea to experiment with sound waves and stuff," Barry placated her, thinking of Cisco's overeagerness when he had asked the engineer for some ideas that would look cool to show an 8-year-old (and were, appearently, not limited to that age group). "More along the lines of making glass shatter by using resonance or showing the qualities of oobleck by putting it on a subwoofer - "

"Quality of what?" Iris interjected, eyebrows furrowed, a weird sense a familiarity flashing up upon hearing that strange word.

"Oobleck. A mixture of cornstarch and water that is a non-Newtonian fluid – a dilatant fluid, to be precise – whose viscosity increases with increased physical pressure and – and I'm going full nerd on you, aren't I?" Barry stopped his ramblings, blushing.

Iris just grinned, finding his passionate babbling endearing: "No worries; at least, you're the cutest nerd that I know."

The beaming smile she got in return made Iris's stomach flutter, but hers wasn't the only one to react; Barry's stomach suddenly growled not-so-silently, making them both realize that they hadn't even ordered yet.

They both let out a nervous laugh, then started to study the menus.

All of sudden, Iris remembered from where she knew that strange word, causing her to erupt into giggles, which in turn earned herself a bewildered glance from Barry.

"Sorry," she chuckled, eyes twinkling with mirth, "I just realized that Wally's next visit to your lab is going to be a very special rendition of 'Bartholomew and the Oobleck' – yes, I read Dr. Seuss as a child." Iris amusedly watched Barry bury his face into his hands – partly from exasperation, partly from embarrassment.

"Aww, chin up! Your namesake was really adorable running around the castle, trying to warn everyone about the oobleck and even standing up to the king himself and making him apologize for the predicament he'd gotten his kingdom in," Iris teased the CSI shamelessly until a waiter came to his rescue (and to take their orders).


Their date went incredibly well. Both Iris and Barry had a lot of fun, swapping stories like they'd known eachother forever, teasing one another playfully. After an insanely big amount of tiramisu – Iris had inisisted on and Barry had been all for it (he'd ended up eating most of it since Iris had completely overestimated her ability to eat much more after the biggest portion of Tagliatelle al Salmone she ever had been served at Tony's and she had the nagging feeling that it was due to Barry's presence that they got these unbelievable giant servings) – Barry inisisted on walking her home. They were comfortably walking alongside each other, enthusiastically chattering about the pro and cons of the Harry Potter movies vs. the books (and although both liked the movies quite a lot, the cinematic universe didn't fare too well in comparision to the books) when Iris became aware how ridiculously perfect the evening had been. She glanced at Barry babbling about what a pity it was that Molly, Arthur and Bill's appearance at Hogwarts as Harry's family instead of the Dursleys never made its way into the fourth movie, wearing Barry's suit jacket (he had offered her because it had become quite chilly this night) and thought that she could easily get used to this.

Ultimately, they arrived at the front door of the West residence, awkwardly standing on the porch, not really wanting to say good night just yet.

"Soo..." Barry stuttered, rubbing his neck nervously.

"I had a great time," Iris smiled, turning around so Barry could help her take off his jacket. "We should do it again sometime," she suggested, speaking over her shoulder, while the jacket was sliding off her shoulders.

"Definitely," Barry whispered, his breath on her neck sending shivers down Iris's spine. She spun around to face him, all of sudden becoming aware of their close proximity. Maybe it was just her overactive imagination, but Iris couldn't shake the feeling that the air around Barry and her was crackling with electricity, the static making the hair on her neck stand on end...

Their magical moment was broken however, when suddenly the door opened and Wally and Joe appeared in the doorway.

"Dad! Wally!" Iris cried out disgruntedly, blushing together with Barry who had darted away in a quick motion, face glowing in the darkness.

"Sorry, Baby. I was just reminding Wally of his curfew,-" the pajamas-clad boy sported an impish, gap-toothed grin, "but he heard something outside and was hoping to get some answers to his questions from yesterday." Joe (and Iris) gave Wally a stern look, the smile crumbling off the 8-year-old's face.

"Evening Wally... Detective West," Barry spluttered shyly, rubbing his neck anxiously.

"I'm not on duty right now... Joe works just fine," the cop offered, earning a nod of approval from his daughter.

"Joe." The young man repeated, now fumbling with something in his jacket pocket. He finally dug out a piece of paper, glancing uncertainly from Iris to Joe to Wally and back to Iris again. "I actually have most of the answers with me," Barry mumbled, gesturing with the sheet.

"Well, aren't you a boy scout," Iris mused, astonished, "always prepared."

"Cool!" Wally burst out excitedly, forgetting that he probably shouldn't attract any attention to himself right now.

"And you," Iris said warningly, glaring at her nephew, " should be in bed by now." The boy appeared to shrink under Iris's look, making her feel bad about the harsh tone in her voice. Iris sent a questioning glance to Barry, who seemed to understand what she meant to convey and nodded slightly as a response.

"Fine," Iris conceded, not wanting to be mean just because her overeager nephew had interrupted them," if Barry goes over the answers with you, do you promise to stay in bed and not complain?"

Wally looked as if Christmas had come early and nodded fervently.

"Okay," Iris turned to Barry, smiling, "I guess that means you're coming inside."


Half an hour later, Barry and Iris were standing on the porch again, this time Iris had thrown on one of her own jackets to brave the cold of the night.

"Sorry about that," Iris apologized, pulling a stubborn strand of hair behind her ear nervously.

"That's okay, really," Barry shrugged. "It's great that your nephew is so eager for science. It's a lot of fun to explain stuff to him, knowing that he really appreciates it. It's nice."

"I'm sure he's looking forward to his next meeting with you... just as I am," Iris beamed up at the forensic scientist, letting herself be guided by the strange magnetic pull that drew her closer to him.

"I'm definitely, absolutely looking forward to our next meeting as we-" Iris cut Barry's rambling off by pulling him in for a kiss. She hadn't expected a feeling like one of an electric shock coursing through her entire body – from her lips to the tips of her fingers further down to her toes – making every inch of her skin tingle pleasantly and making her feel alive, so very much alive – they finally broke apart, both panting for air.

"Gee, you're one heck of a kisser," Iris laughed breathlessly, while Barry was staring at her, completely flabbergasted.

Then, his cellphone started to ring.

"Sorry," the CSI mumbled, pulling out his phone to glance at the display. A frown made its way unto his face. "I'm really sorry Iris, but I've got to go," Barry spluttered hastily, squeezing Iris's hand apologetically, another electric shock flashing between their hands.

"I'll text – no, call – you later, I promise!" Barry shouted, stumbling down the stairs, nearly falling.

He left a completely dumbfounded Iris behind.

Something definitely fishy is going on here.


Tadaa, the plot thickens! ;) This chapter became so much longer than I intended it to be... oh well... I really tried to get the science stuff right (unfortunately, physics never was my strong suit so this might be a little ill explained). I was super surprised to find out about "Bartholomew and the Oobleck" and couldn't stop laughing about this coincidence; I didn't know about the book but really wanted to bring in non-Newtonian fluids - because they look awesome and Cisco. Cisco would soo suggest this as an experiment ^^ Anyway, I listened to an audio version of it and it's really cute!

Ah, and I just can't let go of Barry and Iris being potterheads, sorry xD