A/N: Inspired by the s6 deleted scene where Iris references to Joe about Barry slipping her a love letter at work every day. Enjoy!

*Many thanks to sendtherain for beta'ing.

*I own nothing. No copyright infringement intended.

Barry writes her love letters.

It starts early. Right after their first successful date, actually.

Iris is swamped, madly typing away to get a story completed after spending the entire morning reminiscing over her first real date with Barry, her best friend who she's finally letting herself fall for. She's gotten so distracted - the beautiful, faded orange rose in a vase on the corner of her desk reminding her of the little kisses that got them started - that she hadn't gotten any work done at all.

She's concentrating now, flipping through her notes, circling things and typing and double-checking sources and references. So much so that she doesn't realize until a huge gust of wind passes through and tangles the strands of hair framing her face that there is something laying on one foot beneath her desk.

She pushes her chair back and finds it is a piece of folded paper. Curious, she leans down to pick it up and opens it.

Iris,

You look so beautiful today, my heart nearly stopped.

Barry

Iris bites her bottom lip and kisses his name on the paper before folding it back up again and tucking it into the drawer to her right. She's falling for him already. Hard.

.

After they get engaged – for real this time – Barry's letters get longer. He concocts poetry that drags on more like narrative but is still adoringly sweet. He talks about her like she's a goddess or an angel.

Your dark tendrils wrap around my fingers.
I pull you tight with a tender caress.
Your legs like silk against my whispers.
Your voice the sweetest melody in my ears.

Iris knows that she's hardly either, but with her impending death on the line and then six months later with Barry freshly returned, she lets herself believe it. She loves him so much she can hardly stand it sometimes. It's breathtaking and emotional, and she's consumed by it. She can't remember what not loving Barry feels like, and she never wants to know it again.

.

It's become habit now, an expectation after they get married. Iris looks forward to those love letters, especially so when they come in two pages or three. He's started drawing hearts at the bottom. He always ends in his letters in 'I love you'. He talks about how proud he is of her and her accomplishments, how he can't wait till he sees her again, and sometimes he even gets dirty, talking about their sex life and how great it is he can't imagine it possibly getting any better until she occasionally surprises him, and it does.

Those letters make heat rise into her cheeks, and she's sure to put them in a separate location than the other letters. An inconspicuous place that one else would ever look but she would always find. A box with a lock on it, because the only person that should be seeing these letters is her.

This morning I had to take a cold shower, because all I should think about was your mouth on my… and your legs wrapped around my… and the sounds you make when I…

And Iris has to fold up the letter or she'll be finding herself in the women's bathroom doing pretty much exactly what Barry himself had to do early that morning, and she's already too behind in work to delay herself with that.

.

The last letter she receives from Barry before Crisis has her tear stains on it. It was the last letter she thought she'd ever receive from him. It's filled with emotion. Love, lust, an eternity of intoxication, and a replica of his wedding ring, since he fully intends on wearing the real thing when he…

But then there's his first love letter after he survives Crisis, and Iris clutches it tightly. It's more beautiful and more real than she could have ever imagined, and she cries on that one too, but those tears are happy, and so this letter is her favorite.

.

Years later, she's passing Nora's room and hears her and her best friend, Lia, giggling like the schoolgirls they are. Then the most precious words pass her daughter's lips.

"Okay, roses are nice on an anniversary, I'll admit, but does your dad write your mom love letters?"

Lia contemplates. "When they were dating, maybe. I'd have to ask."

"Well, my dad does. Since their first date until now every day, and he's still doing that!"

Iris smiles to herself, but the smile drops as soon as the next words spill out.

"I've even found some kind of…naughty ones where my mom thinks no one knows where-"

Iris barges into her bedroom.

"Nora West-Allen!"

"Mom!" she proclaims, scandalized.

Lia's jaw drops, and Nora is blushing fiercely.

"Hand over those letters right now."

"But-"

"Now, Nora."

She sighs dramatically, gets up and pulls them out of the drawer in her nightstand, then grumpily hands them over. Scandalized, Iris tucks them under her arms and heads out the door. Nora's closing the door when Iris shouts back.

"Keep it open!"

"Why? So you can eavesdrop better?" Nora sasses, and it both scandalizes and impresses Iris because she's got the same feisty spirit she herself had as a teenager.

"Nora Dawn!" she warns, about to say she'll have her father punish her when he gets home, but she's too mortified to bring up the subject of the letters with Barry, and plus, Nora's a daddy's girl, and she'll win him over to her side in a heartbeat.

So, she satisfies herself with Nora's, "Yeah, yeah, I'm keeping it open."

She mutters something else, but Iris pretends not to hear it. It's easier that way.

.

Late into their sixties, Barry is still writing Iris love letters, though he can't speed in and out of her office as fast as he used to, so he hands them to her instead, and she loves it just as much. He leans down to press his lips to hers in a quick peck, but he lingers, and she loves that too.

When they're home one evening, Barry looks at Iris where they sit on the couch and asks her what she thought he'd never ask, since he hadn't in all the years he'd been doing this.

"Do you like my letters to you, Iris? The ones I give you during your workday?"

"You mean your loooove letters?" she teases, which makes him blush, but he nods, "Yeah."

"I love them, honey," she says and pulls him in for a kiss. "They're perfect, just like you."

"Iris, I'm not-"

"Just like you," she repeats, and he doesn't argue.