Author's Note: Sorry for the cringy title- I'm on a SERIOUS time crunch here! I'm literally sitting here on Christmas even morning, listening to Christmas music in an attempt to get inspired and FREAKING OUT BECAUSE CHRISTMAS IS TOMORROW AND HOW DID I FORGET TO DO A FANFIC?!
Thanks for the prompts Chocolate (CHECK HIM OUT RIGHT NOW THAT'S AN ORDER)- I NEEDED THESEEEEE...
"I can't believe you're making me do this again," Barry grumbled as he slowly placed a third strip of pastry dough down on the pie in front of him.
"Not making," Caitlin corrected. "Teaching."
"Blackmailing," Barry huffed. "You said that you would tell Nora I had to ask you what to get her for Christmas!"
"Say that any louder and you'll tell her yourself," Caitlin cautioned, giggling.
Barry winced and glanced over his shoulder towards his living room. Nora had her legs curled under her and was sitting on the couch. She was on her phone, but Barry couldn't see what she was doing.
"Come on, speedster, refocus," Caitlin said, turning Barry's attention away from his daughter and back toward his new pastry child. "I don't understand why your hands are so shaky."
Barry sighed, lining up another piece of dough. "Yeah well, you try phasing a couple of times and see how steady your hands are."
Caitlin looked at him curiously. "Interesting! So phasing makes you permanently shaky. I wonder if that's something I could fix."
"I think I'm good," Barry told her, shaking his head with a slight smile. "My future is not in a bakery so I think I'll be okay with shaky hands."
"Yeah, not when Nora wants you to paint her nails," Caitlin smirked.
"If Nora ever wants her nails painted, I'll give you a call," he promised.
She shrugged. "Fine with me."
The two of them turned back to their pie, which was definitely an improvement from Thanksgiving's attempt. As Barry laid the last piece of slightly crooked pastry down, Caitlin glanced at her watch. "Okay, you, we need to start on the cookies if they're going to have time to cool before we take them to Joe's for the Christmas Eve Party."
Barry nodded, adjusted the temperature on the oven, and stuck the pie in. Caitlin began to pull out ingredients for cookies while he set a timer for their first dessert so that it wouldn't burn.
They had mixed about half the ingredients in, only getting sidetracked once when Barry dropped the flour bag and Caitlin was covered in a white puff, when Nora popped into the kitchen.
"Ooh, are those cookies?!" she asked eagerly, using her super speed to snag a chunk of the half-finished cookie dough. She pulled a face. "Guys, it's kind of grainy. I think you might be doing it wrong."
"That's because we haven't added flour yet," Caitlin replied, shaking her head. "Barry decided to throw it all over me instead."
"My bad," Barry agreed, chagrined. "That's on me."
"Oh stop being cute, you're too hard to stay mad at," Caitlin laughed, pecking his cheek.
He grinned, looking satisfied, and Nora crossed her arms. "You know we leave for Grandpa's in like, a half hour, right?"
"Yes, missy, I do," Caitlin said, giving her a look. "So do you want to go grab those raw vegetables we signed up to bring and give them a good chopping or are you just going to stand there and criticize Barry and I's methods?"
Nora stuck her tongue out playfully and Caitlin pulled an answering face before turning back to the mixing bowl and dumping a couple cups of flour in. This time, the white powder managed to stay mostly where it was supposed to.
The two of them were able to get their cookies into balls by the time the pie was done. They stuck the cookie dough in the oven and began gathering their things.
"Okay Nora, do you have the gift from Granda Joe?" Caitlin asked as she touched up her curls and grabbed her dark red, velvet sweater from the back of a chair.
Nora nodded. "You'll come over tomorrow, right?" she asked. "To open gifts with me and dad?"
Barry eyes suddenly went wide. "Oh shoot!" he squeaked. "Shoooooot shoot shoot shoot."
"What's wrong?" Caitlin asked, eyeing him with a mix of bemusement and concern.
"I forgot- I mean," Barry looked frantically between Caitlin and Nora. "How late is Central General open?"
"On Christmas Eve?" Caitlin looked at him dubiously. "They're either open all night or they're not open at all. Why?" Then she began to laugh. "You forgot to get me a gift, didn't you?"
Barry coughed. "I didn't- no- what? Why in the world would you think that...?"
Caitlin shook her head and glanced at Nora. She was snickering. "You didn't forget to get my gift, did you Dad?"
"No he did not," Caitlin assured her. "Thanks to me," she finished under her breath.
The timer went off and Barry hurried away from his girls to go take the cookies out. They were running a bit short on time, so he gave in and used his super speed to scrape them onto a cooling rack and fan them. Nora and Caitlin had their coats on by the time he arranged them on a plate and met them at the door.
"Okay team, let's go!" Caitlin cried, leading the way out the door with her short train of elves behind her.
linebreaker
Joe's party had been a success, which meant everyone was stretched out across couches and love seats and other miscellaneous cushions, sound asleep.
Well. Almost everyone.
"Nora!" Barry hissed, shaking his daughter's shoulder. "Nora, wake up!"
"Huh?" Nora mumbled, wiping her bands off her face and lifting her head off of Caitlin's shoulder. "Wus up? Was I snoring?"
"No, no," Barry told her quickly, voice still low. "We have to go shopping."
"Daaaaad..." Nora groaned. "It's like... 2 am."
"It's ten o'clock in the evening," Barry said flatly. "And I don't have a gift for Caitlin for tomorrow."
"Ohhh..." Nora, starting to wake up more, was finally understanding. "So you need help picking one out. I gotcha, I gotcha."
"Will you help me?" Barry pleaded desperately. "I have no idea what to get her."
Nora let out a yawn and stretched. "Well, how'd you figure out what to get me?" she asked, sitting up and running a hand through her short hair.
Barry looked embarrassed. "Well, I mean... I might have asked Caitlin for advice and general help and ideas?"
Nora facepalmed. "Caitlin picked out my gift, didn't she?"
Barry cringed. "That... might have happened, yeah. I picked out the color-"
"Hey!" Nora interrupted. "No spoilers!"
The two of them got up and stepped around the sleeping bodies, making for the door. "Central General?" Nora said as Barry handed her her coat. "Why there?"
"Because it's the only place that's gonna be open this late!" Barry cried, before he checked his volume. "And besides, they have some cool stuff there."
"Yeah, for single dudes," Nora groaned, opening up the door and stepping into the freezing air. She sighed as she looked around. "Still no snow. I think it's supposed to rain tonight, too."
"Ah well, so it's a green Christmas," Barry shrugged. "It's still Christmas."
"Yeah, but it doesn't feel like Christmas," Nora argued. "Anyway, why don't you head to a jewelry store or something? Get her a necklace."
"See, if I had been smart and planned ahead I would have!" Barry said, throwing his hands in the air. "I would have ordered a flash necklace or something like that. It just completely slipped my mind this year. What with the semi-annual hero team up and everything going on with Cicada... things have just been crazy."
Nora sighed. "Excuses, excuses," she scoffed. "Let's just head to Central General and get your woman a gift, shall we?"
They flashed off.
Central General was a family owned company on the corner of a slightly less busy section of downtown Central City. It was moderately sized, but managed to always be holding exactly what you were looking for.
Unfortunately, today that little bit of magic the store usually worked wasn't happening.
"What could I get her?" Barry asked desperately, Nora struggling to keep up with him as he power-walked down the frozen food aisle.
"Well, I honestly can't see Aunty Cait getting into a re-heatable pizza, so why don't we check in a different aisle?" Nora suggested dryly, taking the lead and pulling Barry over to the clothing section. "Do you think maybe she'd like a sweater or a skirt?"
"I don't know her size," Barry groaned, face falling. He looked so completely pathetic and sad-puppy in that moment that even Nora (who thought all of this was ridiculous and honestly completely his own fault) felt bad for him.
"Hello, can I help you with anything?"
The two speedsters turned to find a tired-looking elderly woman standing behind them. She had on a name tag with Central General in boring font at the top, and below a name that read Eileen.
"Hi," Barry replied awkwardly. "Uh, Merry Christmas."
"Merry Christmas," Eileen responded with a sigh. "Can I help you?"
"Yeah, actually," Nora jumped in. "He's looking for a present for his girlfriend... totally spaced on the whole Christmas thing, the silly man."
Eileen just raised an eyebrow.
"Anyway," Nora said quickly. "He needs a gift for a young woman in her late twenties... any ideas?"
"Well, what does she like?" Eileen asked.
"She's a doctor," Barry supplied. "So... medical supplies. Healthy food. Clean things. The Flash."
Eileen snorted. "The Flash, huh? Must be hard for the boyfriend to know his girl would go running off with the cities most handsome hero if given the chance."
"Oh, well, I'm sure Caitlin wouldn't do that," Barry protested, exchanging grins with Nora. They both knew very well that Caitlin wouldn't go running off with the Flash... but she would be there for the man under the mask.
"You say she likes healthy food?" Eileen asked. "Well, follow me. I've got the perfect gift."
Shrugging, Barry followed the older woman to the snacks aisle. Eileen stooped slowly to take a box off the shelf, and then handed it back to Barry. "Limited edition Flash crackers," she said, chuckling quietly. "Wholegrain."
Barry looked at the box and laughed. "I didn't know I had a cracker," he said, before stopping short in alarm and glancing widely up at Eileen. "I mean- I mean- I didn't know he had a cracker."
Nora facepalmed. Eileen just raised her eyebrow again. "That going to do it for you?"
"Seems a bit... cheap," Barry admitted. "But I think we'll definitely be getting these when we check out. Thank you for your help."
"No problem, honey, it's what I'm here for," Eileen sighed, patting his shoulder before heading back to the counter to wait for them for when they were finally ready to check out.
Nora pulled a face. "So... Flash crackers? I mean, it's cute and all but it seems kinda lame for a Christmas gift for your girlfriend."
Barry grinned. "Oh, just you wait," he told Nora. "This is gonna be Caitlin's favorite Christmas ever."
linebreaker.
Nora rested her chin on top of her wrists, staring out the window. Caitlin stepped up behind her, looking out at the clear sky and the grey, snowless sidewalks outside of Barry's loft.
"What's with the holiday blues?" she asked playfully.
Nora sighed. "That's exactly the problem," she told her aunt. "I wish it was the holiday whites."
Caitlin frowned. "What?"
"I wish we had a white Christmas," Nora explained, sighing again. "But there's no snow in the forecast until, like, Friday, and that's so far away that it'll probably change again."
"It was snowing a little when we left Joe's this morning," Caitlin reminded her.
"Yeah, but that was like at 2 am, and it stopped a half hour later and wasn't enough to stick," Nora argued. "I dunno, Aunty Cait. I think we're gonna have a blue Christmas. I mean- a green Christmas. I'm gonna have a blue Christmas."
"Aw, honey," Caitlin said sympathetically. "You know what? I might have the perfect fix for this."
Nora turned around, looking excited. "Yeah?"
"Mhm," Caitlin agreed, smiling at the happy expression on her face. "It can be apart of your Christmas gift."
"Speaking of Christmas gifts, you need to open the one Barry got you," Nora said, leaping up from the window and making towards the small tree in the corner of the loft.
"I thought he forgot to get me a gift?" Caitlin said, smiling in anticipation. "Is that why you two were both gone when all of us were leaving Joe's last night?"
"Oh, yeah," Nora shrugged. "He needed my help. Typical."
Caitlin laughed, and Barry came out of the kitchen. "Hello, ladies," he said, kissing Caitlin's cheek and messing up Nora's hair. "You ready to open gifts?"
Nora nodded eagerly and the three of them sat down on the floor in front of the tree. "Wait!" Nora cried, leaping up. "We need cookies. Aunty Cait always let me have a cookie on Christmas morning when we opened up presents together."
"I did?" Caitlin asked, pleased. "Well wasn't that nice of me."
Barry laughed and gave her another kiss on the cheek, making her blush.
Once Nora was back with three cookies (one for each of them, not all for her), they started passing out gifts.
Barry saved his gift to Caitlin for last. She held the surprisingly large box suspiciously on her lab, looking it over. "Should I be scared to open this?" she asked finally.
"Why would you be scared?" Barry asked with a laugh.
"Well, you basically implied you didn't have a gift for me," Caitlin explained. "And then you disappeared last night and Nora said you were getting the gift that is now in front of me. I'm really just wondering how many places could have been open... and what you could have gotten that was this big. So I was just wondering-"
"Just open the gift, Aunty Cait!" Nora interrupted, bouncing on the floor.
Caitlin relented and took the lid off the box. She pulled out the first item, which were the multigrain Flash crackers. "Uh... thanks?"
"Ah ah ah," Barry scolded teasingly. "There's a card."
"My bad," Caitlin allowed, and dug further inside the box for the card. It had a big Flash symbol on the front wearing a Christmas hat. Caitlin laughed. "Where in the world did you find this?
"I know a girl," Barry said, exchanging a grin with Nora. She laughed.
Caitlin opened up the card.
Merry Christmas! It read. I heard you're a fan of the Flash, so I figured I'd pick you up some merch. Hope you like it!
"Oh my gosh," Caitlin laughed, shaking her head and eagerly reaching in for another item from the box. This one was a box of bandaids, Flash themed.
"I figured you could use them on me when I get injured," Barry said, fighting to a keep a serious face on. Nora was in stitches.
"Yeah, like a bandaid is gonna do anything for you," Caitlin shot back, snickering and pulling out another item from the box.
The next item she took out was a Flash headband, followed by a box of tissues with a Flash symbol on the front. The last object was a container of flash cleaning wipes.
"I don't think these are actually because of me," Barry admitted as Caitlin began to laugh uncontrollably. "I'm pretty sure that these came before I did."
Caitlin leaned over and gave him a hug. "Thank you, honey, I love it," she told him, still laughing. "This is a truly terrific Christmas gift."
She glanced over at Nora, who had picked up her new headband and was trying it on. "Alright, Nora, I promised you something," she said, standing up. "And I think another someone needs to stop in and say Merry Christmas. This is her favorite season, after all."
"Frost!" Nora squealed excitedly as Caitlin transformed into her other self. A wide smile spread across Barry's face as the white haired superhero smirked down at them.
"Hey, Snowflake," he said.
Frost glanced over and grinned. "Hey yourself, cutie," she greeted, before heading towards the window. "Merry Christmas, you two. Now let's make it a white one."
Nora squealed excitedly again as Frost strode towards the window and opened it. "Now, there's no rain," she said thoughtfully, looking up at the sky. "But there are a couple of clouds up there so this shouldn't be too hard."
In just a couple of minutes, white, fluffy flakes were floating down from the sky, quickly beginning to cover the sidewalk and street. Nora clapped her hands happily, sticking her head out the window and trying to catch some snow on her tongue.
Barry came up behind Frost, wrapping his arms around her waist and resting his chin on her shoulder. She smiled. "Hello, handsome. Having a good Christmas?"
"I didn't get you anything," he admitted. "I guess I just supposed you'd share with Caitlin."
Frost glanced over to the tree, where the just-opened gifts were still strewn across the floor. "Yeah, looks like you found enough for the both of us," she agreed with a laugh. "And besides, I'm here, with you. I don't need any other gifts then that."
"Yeah?" Barry asked, smiling widely.
"Yeah," Frost agreed. "And Caitlin thinks that, too."
Author's Note: It is literally 10:00 at night and I GOT THIS DONE SO YOU'RE WELCOME! Man, I really need to stop it with these late nights and scrambles for fanfiction. I am SO TIRED. I need sleeeeeeeeeppppp...
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE HAVE A GREAT HOLIDAYS LOVE YOU ALL!