Summary: It's Barry's first year of grad school and being separated from his friends from his previous university is hard. But moving their friendships online hasn't made any of them less close.

Notes: Lyrics and story title are from lovelytheband's song "These Are My Friends" which I may have been playing on repeat while I wrote this...

For Barry Allen Week prompt: online friends

These Are My Friends (I Love Them)

These are my friends
These are my friends
I love them
I love them

Barry settled at his laptop and opened the top, humming softly an upbeat tune that had been stuck in his head all day. Something that had been playing when his alarm went off that morning, but he couldn't remember the lyrics now.

As the laptop booted up from sleep, he pulled out his calculus book and laid it open on the desk beside the computer. He had several problems assigned in today's class, due Wednesday, and he wanted to go ahead and get them out of the way while the day's lesson was fresh in his mind. He grabbed his notebook next an flipped it open to a fresh page. He turned back to the laptop long enough to log in then copied the first of his five math problems onto the blank paper - his name written along the top margin on the right - and made himself solve the equation long form style before switching back to the computer.

He brought up his browser, picked the pinned tab with his email, and checked what was there, idly deleting spam and unneeded adds. Flagged his electricity bill to look at later. There were a couple of fanfic updates that made him very excited to see - including one from a story he adored but hadn't been updated in months.

And then a grin lit up Barry's face as a new email appeared at the top of the list. The sender? Julian Albert.

Barry clicked on the letter immediately.

"Greetings from across the pond," was the opening line and Barry shoved his homework aside in order to more comfortably read the email.

"I miss you guys. Uni isn't the same without you. I don't regret moving back home to help my parents out, but... I wish I could have brought all of you along with me."

I wish I was a little more loved
Tryna find a way to fix that
So many people inside my head
Momma taught me not to talk back

"How are you handling things without Frost?" Barry asked, laying out on his bed with his ankles hooked over the headboard. A surprisingly comfortable position.

Crystal "Frost" Snow was Caitlin Snow's identical twin sister. And they'd attended the same college together for undergrad, but with Caitlin going into biochem and Frost going into social work, they'd had to split up for the first time in their lives. Caitlin at one university with an excellent biology and medical program. Frost at another getting her psychology masters.

"She was messy and disorganized and I thought I was going to love having an apartment to myself, but I hate it," Caitlin confessed. "I actually left clothes on the floor this morning because the apartment was too neat."

Barry snickered. "She's probably missing you like crazy too, Caitlin."

"Hopefully she's not tormenting Iris too much in my absence," Caitlin responded, tone fond.

"Iris can fend for herself, don't worry," Barry responded airily. Unlike the rest of his friends, he'd known Iris since they were in kindergarten. The two of them hand ended up making friends with Caitlin, Frost, Cisco, Eddie Hartley, Julian, and Ralph on their first day of Freshman orientation at Central City U and the nine of them had been inseparable for four years. But now they were all mostly separated, getting masters degrees and contemplating the necessity of PhDs for their chosen professions.

It was hard to go from seeing each other every day to emails and phone calls and the occasional video chat. Or the occasional video game team up. But they all planned to return to Central City eventually. So their transition to online friends was, thankfully, temporary.

"Want to see if they're free to join our call? We can see if my phone's conference call feature will actually work this time." Caitlin's excitement was easy to hear and it made Barry grin.

"Go for it. If you accidentally drop my call again, I won't take it personally," Barry teased. Last time he'd texted her sad cat memes. He still had a few in reserve, just in case.

"Awesome. Putting you on hold, then," Caitlin enthused. And the call dropped.

Barry snickered and opened up his texting app in order to queue up his first sad cat meme.

But they're pretty good company
They cheer me up when I feel bad
Is it my insecurities
That keep me going?

"Patty dumped me," Barry blurted out when the video chat finally connected. Skype, not Zoom. Barry was insistent that Zoom was the devil and his friends just went along with it. Well, Cisco also hated Zoom but he had actual reasons - bad end to end security, insult to good coding practices everywhere - where as Barry just had an instinctual dislike of the name.

"Dude, aww man, I'm sorry." Cisco huffed a sigh. "Well, I'm unfriending her on Facebook."

Barry huffed a laugh. "That'll teach her." He tapped his fingers along the spine of his chemistry book. "I'm not closed off and secretive, am I?"

"No. What did Patty say to make you ask that?" Cisco sounded upset on Barry's behalf and he muttered something about 'should never tweet angry'.

"She found out about my dad. But not from me. We've been dating for over a month and she said she should have heard about him from me and she couldn't date someone who wouldn't trust her with that kind of information."

"That's bullshit," Cisco insisted. "I don't care if you guys had been dating for, like, a year. She wasn't entitled to know about your dad until you felt comfortable talking to her about it and not a single second sooner. Screw her, you deserve better."

"Thanks." Barry smiled hesitantly, feeling a little better already.

"Wanna turn on The Original Series and Netflix Party?"

Barry nodded emphatically. "Will you set it up? I'm gonna make some popcorn."

These are my friends
These are my friends
I love them
And they don't care who you are
They don't care what you do, no

"Is it really blackmail if you don't ask for money?" Ralph asked.

"Yes."

"That's a boring answer."

Barry rolled his eyes. "It's an ethical answer."

"Okay, but what if, like, you took pictures of someone doing something unethical themselves and then they found out about it and offer you money for the pics. Is that blackmail?" Ralph is trying too hard now; it makes Barry suspicious.

"That is a very specific scenario," Barry said, kicking his shoes off and laying back on the couch. "Did you take the money, Ralph?"

"I, um, said I'd think about it?" Ralph squeaked. "I mean... hypothetically..."

"Hypotheticals are over. What were the pictures of?" Ralph, and Eddie, were running their own private investigative firm while they were both working towards criminology masters. They wanted to be police detectives at some point, but PI was a good starting point, in their opinion. Hopefully it'd work out.

"Um... political official might possibly be taking bribes."

"Go to Captain Singh and Joe, tell them about the pictures and the circumstances under which you took them and how the political official attempted to buy them off you. Go now before you get shot and Eddie has to live out your noir themed dreams by solving your murder."

"Right, okay, I'm just gonna grab my trench coat and head out then. Call you later, Barry." The phone clicked off and Barry rolled his eyes.

His friends were so weird. But he loved them anyway.

My heart and I don't get along
It's something that I'm sad about
Everybody needs a pick me up
But I should probably slow it down

"So, Eddie and I have started dating," Iris tells Barry and he's really glad that video isn't working right now because his feelings on that subject would be written all over his face.

Barry's been in love with Iris since they were little kids. He's been in love with Eddie for the last two years. And maybe one day he'll be brave enough to tell them both how he feels.

But that day is not today. So he takes a deep breath and keeps his voice steady as he tells her "congratulations."

But they're pretty good company
They cheer me up when I feel bad
Is it my insecurities
That keep me going?

"Hah! Take that fucker!" Frost crows as she guns down some of the opposing team in Team Fortress 2. She likes to play as Heavy and currently Barry's playing as the Engineer, though he switches that one off with the demo man sometimes.

It's always so much fun playing with Frost. She's got such a foul mouth, but she's also dedicated to making sure everyone has fun. After all, if even just one person isn't enjoying themselves at a party then it's not a good party is it?

"Who'd you kill? I'm this close to stealing their intelligence again but I need to swap impersonations - nearly got caught by their medic while impersonating said medic," Hartley chimed in.

"Pyro," Frost answered.

"Fun times, I do like setting stuff on fire," Hartley laughed, presumably switching his Spy's disguise out. "My friends, we're totally about to win this one."

"Awesome. I just finished setting up a diversion to the east, so you'll want to head out west once you've stolen the info," Barry chimed in.

"Got it."

These are my friends
These are my friends
I love them
I love them

"Hey, just wanted to thank you again for sending Ralph to the precinct," Eddie said with a grin that lit up his face beautifully.

Made Barry a little weak kneed to see it, actually. Good thing he was already sitting down for this video chat.

"He can be a bit of an idiot sometimes," Eddie continued. "His common sense goes straight out the window when real life starts even slightly mimicking a noir plot, I swear."

"Yeah, and you chose to make him your business partner," Barry teased.

"I know. It's fun," Eddie laughed. "Hey, so you're still coming back to Central this weekend, right?"

"Actually I was thinking... you and Iris probably want some time just the two of you now that you're dating long distance and I don't want to be a third wheel getting in your way... so I was just gonna..." Barry felt his words fail him. "Not. You know?"

"Nah, we want you there this weekend," Eddie insisted. "We've been doing the online thing for way too long. I need to see your face without a screen in the way."

Barry couldn't help himself. He blushed.

"Besides, Iris and I have something to talk to you about. In person. So you'd better be on that Friday night train, okay?" Eddie gave Barry a pointed look.

"Yeah. Okay, I promise." Barry was probably getting his hopes up... but that had sounded a little flirty, right? High hopes could totally be excused.