Prompt form Fantasy Lover 4evr. Songfic. Tell Her by Jim Bakkum. I do not own. I'm not allowed to put song lyrics in here so the full lyrics will be in my profile. This is before Barry's confession. No Flash confession in this one.
I know a girl who's brokenhearted
to
She really loved him
It started when they were just kids. Iris could never stop thinking about the boy who lived down the street. All of her other friends just passed by him thinking he was just a weird kid, but she thought he was more. When she said as much they laughed at her and said 'You haven't even met him Iris' 'He has the worst case of the cooties ever seen' or 'He doesn't have any friends, he must be weird.' The others just laughed.
"Fine, I'll go talk to him." Iris lifted her head and walked away from her friends. She didn't look at them again until she had sat down next to Barry on the playground.
"She's actually talking to him." One of her louder friends said.
"Hi. I'm Iris. What's your name?" Iris got her first look at him close up.
He lifted his head and realized she was talking to him. A look of confusion crossed his face then he settled on the biggest, sweetest smile Iris had ever seen. Every time Iris looked back on her life to try to figure out when she fell in love with Barry, she became more and more sure that it was his smile.
"I'm Barry."
"Well, Barry, you're going to be my best friend." She stood up and held out her hands. "C'mon. Come meet my other friends." Barry grabbed her hands hesitantly. He wasn't used to talking to anyone his age, a whole group was a big change, and he wasn't sure he was ready for that. Barry realized he didn't really have a choice as she yanked him up and pulled him toward her friends. Barry felt something for Iris. He didn't have the right word to describe it yet, but he knew he would hold Iris's hand as long as she would let him.
And I know a boy who could not say just
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It hurt her, though he really loved her
One of Iris's friends was getting married today. Barry didn't really have friends other than Iris, her other friends weren't as open to him as she was. But there he was at the wedding of two kids he didn't really know because she wanted him to come. They were four years old.
Iris kept looking over at him. He wasn't sure why she kept glancing at him, but he definitely knew why he was noticing. In the few months that they had been friends, he had named the feeling he had for her. Love.
I love you. Three little words that he thought about every time he saw her, but he was too afraid that he would lose his only friend.
If there's a lesson to be learned
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So don't you ever make that mistake
Words can be said but can never be erased. What if he scared away his best and only friend? He wasn't sure he could go back to being all alone again. The wrong words could hurt. His mommy had taught him that. Barry was ready to be a grown up, love must be easier for them. Look at mommy and daddy. They were perfectly happy, and they loved each other.
Tell how you love her
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Just tell her you love her
I love you, Iris. I love you, Iris. I love you, Iris. The words ran through his head constantly as they went back and forth on the swings. Everyone in school thought they were dating anyway because they held hands on the swings and on the sidewalk.
Iris kept hold of Barry. She really, really liked him, but the guy always had to be the one to ask the girl to be their girlfriend and he still hadn't. She had thought they would get married that summer, not too long after Marlie and Timmy's wedding, but he hadn't asked her.
Time marches on
to
Something would it be different
He loved her. She loved him. His parents had adored her when they were still around, and her single Dad already considered Barry his son. It would have been perfect if they would only just realize the other's feelings, but they had the flaws of being human. They could never see the good things in front of them.
Iris had survived on Barry's every word, even when she couldn't understand what he was saying. A lot of the time she would listen to his scientific ramblings and then ask him to explain it in English, just so she could hear his voice some more. The worst time in her life was the nine month period where the only way she could hear his voice was from calling his answering machine.
Even when she was staying over at her boyfriend's house she was dreaming that when she woke up, it would be Barry's sleeping form lying next to her.
If there's a lesson to be learned
to
So don't you ever make that mistake
Barry had tried so many times to tell her how he feels, how she makes him feel, but it didn't matter. Every time he tried something big would come up and ruin the moment, or she would say something that made him question whether or not it was a good idea to tell her at all, or, more often than not, he would be too afraid to force the words out of his mouth. He would tell himself that it was more important to keep being her best friend, and that telling her he loved would put that friendship at risk. Even he knew what a load of crap that was. Barry had known Iris their whole lives, he knew she would not end their friendship if she didn't love him back, sure it would be awkward for a while, but it wouldn't be over.
Tell how you love her
to
Just tell her you love her
Barry had tried so many times to tell her how he feels, how she makes him feel, but it didn't matter. Every time he tried something big would come up and ruin the moment, or she would say something that made him question whether or not it was a good idea to tell her at all, or, more often than not, he would be too afraid to force the words out of his mouth. He would tell himself that it was more important to keep being her best friend, and that telling her he loved would put that friendship at risk. Even he knew what a load of crap that was. Barry had known Iris their whole lives, he knew she would not end their friendship if she didn't love him back, sure it would be awkward for a while, but it wouldn't be over. The truth was, he wasn't sure if his heart would be able to take it if she didn't feel the same way. What would he do if the one girl he had ever had feelings for only saw him as a friend or a brother? Could he survive that pain? Could he move on?
As the Flash he had set people up just by making them bump into each other, but Barry couldn't say three little words. A chance he'd be hurt, or a chance he could be happier than ever before.
Iris meant more than anything to him. But did a chance to be with Iris mean more than being with her every day? That wasn't the choice though. The choice was temporary awkwardness or cowardice or the potential for happiness he couldn't imagine.
He had to tell her.
"Iris." His voice was serious, so Iris immediately dropped what she was doing thinking she was going to need to offer comfort.
"What's wrong, Bear?" She saw pain in his eyes. Iris's heart broke, she never could handle seeing the man she loved hurt.
"Nothing's necessarily wrong, just confuse-"
"You're stalling, Barry." Barry noticed, not for the first time, that she said his name more when she was worried about him. "Spit it out."
"I love you." He tentatively looked up at her face.
"I love you too, Bear." Those were not the words he was expecting to hear her say.
She smiled at him, and he smiled at her with the smile she had first fallen in love with.