The One with The Killer Cold Kiss

"Barry."

He looks up at her as if he knew the exact words that would stumble out of her mouth. It wouldn't surprise her if he did, mainly because this – her giving him a well-rehearsed chastisement after he gets badly injured from taking down a metahuman – has already been transformed into a routine in which both of them has already perfected portraying the role of the apologetic hero and his concerned doctor (or sometimes of an old married couple, mainly in Cisco's terms).

But this time, something was off.

Caitlin wouldn't hesitate to reprimand him for his carelessness and maybe even for his lack of judgment for what happened earlier but there's something different with the way he acts around her that stops her from doing so. Instead, she changes her course of action to somehow understand the message behind his clouded eyes.

She thinks of what could have happened in their encounter earlier that made him look like this. She knew he wasn't very much pleased with her going out there with him but it wasn't the first time she used her powers to help him catch a meta and she's sure it wasn't going to be the last also.

She watches the way he would avoid her gaze whenever she tries to make eye contact and it bothers her all the more because he was never the one to give the cold shoulder, especially to her, and certainly not in a situation where he was the one sitting on the bed getting his wounds stitched up.

"Barry."

She tries again. This time, she made sure to tend to the cuts on his face so she can decide whether he was really ignoring her because there is no way he would-

"Mind if I go ahead? I'm really tired."

Without having the chance to even open her mouth, he was gone, leaving her upset and confused.

She drove herself home as slowly as possible, trying to buy some time for the upcoming confrontation with Barry.

She starts to wonder whether he already made it home or if the home he referred to is the same as what she assumed it to be.

She opened the door to the two-storey house settled in a quaint neighborhood. A front porch and a spacy backyard intact, just the way she likes it.

"Oh good, you're here."

She found him sitting on the sofa, eating ice cream straight from the tub with a large spoon. She squints her eyes at the label on the side of the container: mint chip. Her ice cream.

This is war.

He knew she likes keeping a fresh tub of her comfort food in their freezer just in case their day at the lab didn't go so well, much like this one. But now that he had unapologetically decided to munch on the one thing she holds on to during her emotional breakdowns, well, that's just way beyond crossing the line. And to think that he probably knew he's the reason why she-

Calm down. Deep breaths.

She automatically shakes her hands to ease the tension, counting one to three as she tried to regulate her breathing. She has so much on her plate right now and the last thing she wants to deal with is a frozen house.

"I live here too." Was his short reply, clearly caught up in binge eating and probably continuing his quest of ignoring her.

"Really? Because for a minute there I thought you've forgotten that you live here with your fiancée, whom you tried your best to ignore earlier by the way."

By this time, she made her way in between him and the tv, blocking his view of the basketball game which she remembered to be the one he's been dying to watch since Monday. As the saying goes, "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." Her ice cream for his basketball game. Very clever.

Knowing Caitlin, Barry expected this confrontation to happen sooner or later but it doesn't mean he has already readied himself to what's coming his way. So instead of diving into the war head on, he decided to stall a bit more.

He adjusts himself on the couch, trying to have a better view of the tv screen but Caitlin seems to move as did his eyes and he knows better than to ask her to step aside for that could be the last thing he'll do before he dies at a very young age.

Caitlin snatches the remote control from the coffee table, turning off the tv much to his dismay. Their eyes lock for the first time that night and he finds hers softening at the miserable sight of his.

She drew a deep breath before saying, "Barry, I didn't know what happened earlier that made you like this but can you please tell me why you've been ignoring me?"

"I'm not."

He expects her to lash out at him for blatantly lying but instead, she composed herself and made her way beside him, placing a delicate hand on his knee and said, "We promised we'll never sleep with an unsettled issue between us ever again, right?"

He knew she had all the right to be mad at him but she can't help herself from being Caitlin Snow, the woman who would selfishly put others before her in any way she could. And she even dared to call her self cold, such a lie.

He put his hand on top of hers, entwining their fingers together as he turned to catch her gaze.

"Cait, I don't want you to be out there with me again."

"Why?"

He opened his mouth to speak but she beat him to it by saying, "And don't tell me it's to keep me safe because we've already had that conversation before and we both know how it ends."

He was silent for awhile and that's when she knew there's really more to it than what he lets on. She knew the familiar glint of worry in his eyes but this time, it's mixed with something she couldn't quite put her finger on.

"I don't want to lose you."

His words were laced with honesty but she's still not convinced with his answer so she said, "You're not gonna lose me. But maybe you would if you keep on hiding things from me."

"Cait, I'm not-"

"You better think twice before finishing that sentence because I think you already know how much I know you, Barry."

He inwardly groaned, knowing she was right. She always is. And the look in her eyes is tearing him up inside because the more he thinks of it, the more he finds his predicament irrational, childish even and he was sure it's not worth giving her stress for.

His silence was deafening and the more it stretches, the more her patience wears out, not to mention the pain she had to endure throughout this whole ordeal.

She withdraws her hand from his, avoiding his pleading gaze then said, "I don't know what hurts more, Barry. The fact that you're consciously hiding things from me or that you don't trust me enough to do such thing."

Her words were daggers to his heart and he knew he had taken this far more than he would allow and there's nothing he can do but hate himself for being so unreasonable, so emotionally driven that he made her think he doesn't trust her when that's the opposite of how he should make her feel. This has to stop and it has to stop now.

"Cait-"

"Stop! Just-stop messing with my head Barry. I-"

"I'm losing my mind too, Caitlin!"

Her head snapped back at him, his hands on either side of his face as he had his eyes tightly shut. She's bewildered by his actions but she listened intently as he rambled his frustrations out.

"I can't get rid of that image inside my head. And every time I look at you, it just comes back more vividly. I know I'm being unreasonable but I can't help it, Cait."

He's looking at her now, eyes darker and possessive, warming up her insides in the most tantalizing of ways. She knew it was inappropriate to feel this way but the intensity of his gaze bore through her very soul.

He traps her with his hands on either of side of her, moving until she feels her back touching the arm of the couch. He leans in to whisper hotly on her ear, "It keeps replaying on my mind, Cait. How you pushed him up the wall, your hands snaking up his body to cup his face. That gesture alone drives me crazy. But you know what pushed me over the edge?"

She swallows hard at his pause, waiting for him to finish his words.

"The moment you put your lips on his, that's when I lost it."

She had a stupid question forming in her mind but she asks it nonetheless, "All this because you were jealous of me giving the metahuman a killer cold kiss?"

"Let's just say that I don't like it when my girl kisses another man."

"That's not even meant to be romantic, Barry!"

"So are you saying that our first kiss wasn't romantic?"

She opened her mouth to form some words but her mind were jumbled up with a lot of thoughts that she couldn't think of how to properly respond to him. How did they even got there in the first place?

"Well-I, that's... I wasn't your Cait back then so I it doesn't count as our first kiss."

"Alright, fine." He tried to look unaffected by that. "But it still doesn't change my decision of you not going out there with me again."

"Aha! So the main reason why you don't want me out there is because you don't want to risk me kissing someone else again and not really to keep me safe. Isn't that right, Mr. Allen?"

His eyes widened at that but he tried to save himself some dignity so he quickly defends with, "That's not what I meant-"

In one swift motion, he was on his back and she was on top of him, straddling his waist as she hovers her face inches from his.

"I think that's hot."