A mouse finds it way into the apartment.
Featuring special guests: A mouse and Barry Allen

This is my first time writing Barry. It's hard to tell how to write him because so much of his dialogue in Justice League was by Whedon. When Zack's JL comes out next year, I'll have a better idea of how to do it right. Until then, bear with me!

Intruder

Mouse.

That was all Lois's brain could process before the little brown ball darted into the shadowy gap between the cabinet and the wall. Her hand was still on the light switch. Garbed in her pajamas, she had rolled out of bed for a midnight snack only to be startled by the sight of the intruder on the floor of the kitchen.

"Claaark?" she called.

Whether he had been asleep or not, he answered within a few seconds.

"Yeahhh?" he said coarsely.

"There's a mouse in here."

"What?"

"Mouse."

She kept her eyes trained on the hole it had disappeared into. She heard Clark's feet padding over.

"Where?" he grumbled.

She pointed.

"Well," he began, "D'you have any traps?"

She shook her head. "I'll buy some tomorrow."

"Ok," he said and went right back to bed.

The following day, Lois had to do interviews, but she planned to buy traps on the way back home. Clark promised to keep an eye out. Her phone rang in the afternoon while she was riding the train.

"Hello?"

"I caught it," Clark said, sounding quite pleased with himself.

"Great! How?"

"I lured it with peanut butter and caught it in a take-out container."

"Are there any others? In the walls?"

"I don't see any. They might be somewhere else in the building, though. We should tell the landlord."

"That's what I was thinking. I'll get the traps anyway. You can throw it out."

There was a wistful hum on the other end.

"What?" she asked.

"It's kind of cute. Reminds me of home."

Lois laughed wryly. "You are not keeping that thing. Don't get sentimental now that you're in the city. We're lucky it wasn't a rat. I gotta go. My stop's coming up."

"Alright. See ya."

"Bye."

Lois returned to the apartment later to find Clark and Barry Allen sitting on the floor of the living room with a rodent cage between them. It was complete with wood shavings, tunnels, a wheel, the whole works. The mouse was crawling through the tunnels. Clark and Barry stopped their conversation, and Barry waved and grinned.

"Hi, Ms. Lois!"

"Uh, hey, Barry. What's up?"

"Clark mentioned that you guys had a mouse, and I asked if I could see it," Barry rambled, "It's pretty cute, so I asked if I take it off your hands, and he said yeah. I brought a cage."

He gestured proudly to the set-up as though she hadn't noticed it.

"You gonna take the rest of them, too?"

His eyes widened. "There's more?"

"Not that we know," Clark said, "The landlord said he'd look into it."

"What if it has rabies?" Lois asked.

"I'm not gonna let it bite me," Barry said, shrugging confidently, "Besides, it's probably not hard to get shots for that."

"Are you staying for dinner?"

Barry's eyes lit up eagerly, then he seemed to remember something.

"I would love to, but I can't. I have, uhhh, a prior engagement."

Clark smirked knowingly.

"I should go get ready, actually," Barry said as he picked the cage up by the handle and stood. Clark got up, as well. "I'll see you guys later. At some point. You, probably sooner," he said to Clark.

He gave Clark a quick hug, then shook Lois's hand.

"Bye, thanks for the mouse!" he said as he darted out the door.

Lois glanced over to where he and Clark had been sitting. A take-out container was standing there.

"Throw that out."

Clark rolled his eyes as he bent to pick it up. "I know, Lois."

If ya care: Barry was going to meet Iris.