I'm so sorry guys, I will not stop writing this story. This is my favorite thing that I have ever written, but unfortunately life, mostly school, is dumping everything it can on me right now, so I'm going super slow. Barry would be ashamed. I will post whenever I get a chance to write.

Guest, I cannot get the video you left me to work, but I will be glad to do a songfic for you if you can send me the title or a few lines of the song. I can probably figure it out from there, but adding the partial link to the normal one didn't seem to work for me.

Prompt from Guest. Iris is pretending to be in danger. When the Flash comes, she is hiding from him and he is worried. He lets his guard down, and she sneaks up behind him and pulls his mask off.

This story takes place before Iris got her new reporting job. Without further ado . . .

Barry was at STAR Labs when he felt his heart stop. He had taken a millisecond to look at the most recent notification on his phone. It was an alert for Iris's blog. The second Barry read Iris's newest post he bolted. Although he was really running faster than he ever had, he felt as slow as when Farooq stole his powers.

Help.

It was amazing how one word that could send chills through his whole being. Barry had run to Cisco immediately and told him to track Iris's computer. He then sped out of STAR Labs and toward Jitters, assuming that she would be there because that was where she usually was at this time of night.

Cisco confirmed his assumption, and Barry accelerated even more. He found Iris on the corner of the roof curled into a little ball, looking over his shoulder as if something in behind him was frightening her.

He looked over his shoulder and saw no immediate danger. Unless there was an invisible evil metahuman, he could focus on taking care of Iris for a few minutes.

"Are you okay?" He asked through his vibrating vocal cords. He had found that he could alter it to any pitch he wanted, so he made his voice high and squeaky in an attempt to cheer her.

It worked well, Iris struggled to go through with her plan as she laughed too hard to breathe. Who in the world could keep a straight face when they had a super hero talking to them like a chipmunk? Then Barry switched from high pitch to low pitch until he sounded like Morgan Freeman. (This is definitely one of my weirder head cannons.) Her laughter increased. Barry drew just as much pleasure from making her laugh through her fear as she did from listening to his ridiculous voices. He had been looking over his shoulder periodically looking for whatever she had been afraid of but still saw nothing.

Maybe they left when she called for help? Barry thought hopefully.

Iris slowly began to calm down, but it took her side a little while to stop hurting. Iris realized she had only ever laughed that hard around Barry. She couldn't get herself to feel that comfortable around anyone else, not even Eddie.

That last thought gave her the final push to enact her plan. Iris needed to know. She needed to know who else could make her feel the way Barry could.

Iris reached up to his face and pulled off his mask. He was too shocked and didn't think to vibrate his face. Staring into the face of her best friend, Iris realized she wasn't really surprised to see that it was Barry Allen's face looking into hers.

"Iris," He began. "I'm s-"

"Don't apologize." Her eyes fell away from his. "I've heard you apologize so many times for so many things that you didn't need to be sorry for. Don't add this to the list. You have been saving lives and making this city safer. I don't have a place to be mad at you." Her own words surprised her, but they were true.

Shaking his head, he opened his mouth, but quickly shut it again. He just couldn't find the words he needed.

"I need you to be safe. Knowing who I am, that just puts you in even more danger. I just want to protect you in any way I can, even if that meant lying to you. Believe me when I say it was one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life."

Iris put her hand to his face and smiled with a playful glint shining in her eyes. "Well, my guardian angel's looking out for me."

Barry chuckled and leaned into her touch. Her hand was soft and warm against his face.

"I love you, Iris." He didn't mean to say the words out loud, and at first he wasn't sure that he had said them aloud.

"I love you too." The words were soft, but they meant everything to Barry.

Looking up, Barry met Iris's gaze. She tried to turn away, but Barry cupped his hand on her cheek and gently turned her head back to face him. He pulled her in for a kiss. Something he had been waiting to do for years.

"Why did that take us so long?" Iris asked, shaking her head as they finally pulled away for air.

"I was afraid of you not feeling the same way and losing you because of it. What's your excuse?" Barry said before pulling her in so he could kiss her again.

"Pretty much the same, but I have to say I'm a little offended that you thought you would lose me over something like you're feelings. Whether I returned them or not, there is nothing in or out of this world that would make you lose me. You better know that by now." Iris's lips were only inches away, and he couldn't help but pull her in for one last kiss.

Not my best and took way too long, but there it is.