The song for this chapter is Lauren Aquilina - Fools

IRIS' POV:

My first day of work was shaping up to be a disaster if there ever was one. So far I had spilled coffee on someone's dress, angered that Mason guy that mentored Daryl, and the Editor-In-Chief wanted me to write about The Flash. Double sigh.

I slunk into my swivel chair at my very own desk by the copier. My legs crossed in my green dress and brown boots. How very ironic was it that I was once great friends with The Flash and now I had to research him to write a stupid article? Barry was in town, I suppose I could just ask him some stuff. At least get a quote. My eyes rolled. I'd make something up, it wasn't like Barry was going to rat me out if I did.

Daryl came to sit on the edge of my desk, his hands in his lap. "How's it going so far, newbie?" His sandy blonde hair falling into his eyes.

Damn he was hot.

My eyes rolled. "Very spectacular."

He laughed. "So I lied about not throwing you into the lion's den. This is it." He leaned down a little. "Don't worry, I'll guide you in the right direction. It's all very easy once you get the hang of it."

I bit my bottom lip, his eyes fell on my mouth. Maybe not the best thing to be doing.

"So, tell me one thing." I rolled closer to him. "Was I hired because of my connection to The Flash?"

His forehead creased in concern. "No, why would you think that?"

"Maybe because I have no experience, no references, no faith that I can do this. And Larkin told me to write a piece on The Flash." I shrugged.

He shook his head. "No, that's not it. Larkin knows your fresh. He wanted you to start with something that you're familiar with, people would know your name. They would read your articles if they knew you were a reporter." His hand rested on my shoulder. "Go clear your head or do whatever you need to. Then the story will come to you." He left.

With an internal groan, I turned to the computer.

That afternoon I had a training session with Laurel. The last person Barry entered the gym dressed in black from head to toe.

My pulse raced as I stood from my stretch. "What are you doing here?"

"I asked Laurel if I could train you today. I hope that's alright."

Of course it wasn't.

"Why? You haven't changed your mind." I knew that for a fact

"No, but I thought it would be a good lesson." He circled me. "You have to be prepared to fight an opponent that you know," His eyes averted. "Someone that you love."

My hands propped on my hips. This was trouble waiting to happen.

"It can be hard to hurt someone you love, but when it's right you have to forget about those feelings in order to do good."

Was he speaking from experience?

"So you want me to hit you?"

He smirked. "I want you to try."

That wasn't going to be too hard. I could muster up some anger towards Barry.

My hand flashed out and hit him in the throat. He stumbled back, his brow arched as he looked at me with impressed eyes.

"Do you want to get your ass beat?" I smirked.

He stood in a self defense stance, his fists ready to protect him. "We'll see."

I knew he wasn't going to make the first move so I did it for him. My leg kicked out, hitting him in the sternum. He grabbed my foot and pulled me towards him as he swung around. My other foot pushed against his leg. He stumbled back once he lost his grip. I took advantage and and gave him an ascending elbow under his jaw. He was quick to capture both of my arms behind my back. His first mistake was thinking that I wasn't stronger than him because I was, and not realizing that Laurel and I were in this position multiple times so I knew how to maneuver out of it quite well. Sadly, I stayed there for longer than I should've. His breath on the back of my neck felt all kinds of delicious, his strong grip tight on my wrists.

To throw him off, I pretended that I was going to stomp on his foot. It was the only part of my body that was free from his grasp so he'd pay attention to it. When he moved his foot out of the way I headbutted him, with my hands mobile again I swung at his head, but he blocked it. He threw a lame punch at my stomach, but I easily pushed him away.

Was he not hitting trying because I was a girl? I mean, I could understand that, but I deserved for him to at least try. I wanted him to treat me equally.

So of course, Anger filled me.

My eyes on his, I glared at him. My foot shot out, hit him in the knee. I jab crossed his ass, but he ducked on the last jab. His leg kicked out and swept my feet from under me, but I saw that move come a mile away, so I moved my knee to his chest and flipped him over on the his back as we both landed on the floor. With one of his legs on one of mine I kicked the free one and hit him in the chest. His leg on mine pressed down into the floor while he tried to my hand shot out and knocked him in the head hard enough to make me worry. That moment of weakness was all he needed to switch things up.

His lips locked down onto mine with ease, the first time he used his speed in this fight. His hand closed around my throat as his other hand held my wrists above my head. My heart pounded out of my chest while he stared down at me, his eyes drifted to my mouth. My body felt aflame under his touch, even if he was threatening my life.

"This is how easy I could hurt you." He leaned closer as his grip tightened.

As his hips pressed into mine I gave an involuntary moan.

He got a dark glint to his eyes as realized what kind of position we were in. As if it brought back some horrible memory he flashed away, a scared look in his eyes.

LINDA'S POV:

"Cisco," I begged. "Could you just look at me for a second?"

He huffed, his arms crossed his chest as he turned to me. "I really don't want to."

I know I deserved this but it hurt to see him this upset with me.

"You wanted to know, remember."

He shrugged. "I didn't want to know that you have feelings for Wally. I wanted to know if you wanted a break, not for you to date someone else."

"It's not like I'm going to jump in a relationship with him..." My hand ran down my face in frustration. "I just need some time figure out what I want. Can't that be okay?"

He sat on the arm of the couch, his eyes tired. He reached his hand out for mine. "If we're both being honest neither of us have been in this relationship for months. I think we've both been a bit preoccupied. A break sounds nice."

I grinned a little happy that we weren't screaming at each other. "Maybe we could work on our friendship."

He gave a wry grin. "Sure." He pulled me in for a hug. "Do me a favor, don't shove it in my face with Wally. Okay?"

I squeezed him to me. "Promise."

I wasn't even sure if things would work out with Wally. He was a player after, but I think it went without saying that everyone knew there was something going on between us even if they didn't know what it was. It's not like I broke up with Cisco to be with Wally. I just knew that my mind was on other things besides Cisco. When you want things to be simple they tend to get complicated on multiple levels. My headspace was jumbled and I needed a little me time.

With a final hug we said goodbye.

I headed to Jitters hoping to get a distraction from my thoughts for hours over coffee and some homework.

Caitlin came up to me with a cronut and a scowl. "Hey," She sat down.

"Hey,"

"What's wrong with you?" she cut the cronut in half and passed me the other half while stuffing hers in her mouth.

"Nothing."

Her brow rose. "You've been here for an hour and You've been staring at the same page for at least half of that."

I shrugged. "A lot, I guess. What about you?"

"Ronnie won't answer my calls. He's being a jackass. An entitled jackass but still a jackass."

I picked at the cronut. "You should corner him. Tell him how you feel and go from there."

She huffed. "Why am I so afraid?"

"Because you actually love him and vice versa. You just need to be real with yourself about how you feel when you see him. How it feels when you're apart. That right there is how you feel about Ronnie. Stop fighting it, Cait."

She nodded. "I get what you're saying but what if it;s not enough? What if we ruin it all?"

"What if you love love like fools?"

She chuckled. "Are you quoting Lauren Aquilina?"

"Yes." I grinned. "You just need to give it a chance. What more could you lose?"

She pouted. "Ronnie."

I leaned forward. "He knows you feel something for him. You wouldn't have slept with him if you didn't."

She stilled. "How do you know about that? I only told Iris."

"Ronnie confided in me. He wanted some advice."

"What did you tell him?"

"That he needed to give you some space, let you come to him."

She balked at me. "Why?"

I gave her a look. "It worked didn't it. You have to show him how much he means to you. He's scared and heartbroken."

She gave a wry grin. "So am I, on top of the confusion."

I grabbed her hand and , you know I love you, but get your head out of your ass."

She paled, clearly offended. She pulled her head away.

"Hey, if you didn't want to be with Ronnie you wouldn't be stressing over this so much. You'd tell him you didn't have feelings for him. You'd be looking at other girls."

She sighed. "You're right."

Well, that was easy.

"Damn straight." she gave me a look, I had to add, "No pun intended."

We laughed.

After a moment she said, "I'll talk to him tomorrow. Now onto your boy problems." A grin in place.

My eyes rolled. "How much time do we have?"

CAITLIN'S POV:

After talking to Linda for a while yesterday I figured why not take the leap. I knocked on the menacing door, my heart in my throat. What if he didn't answer? This was a last ditch effort, although he couldn't ignore me forever. Ever since I slipped up and kissed him on New Year's he's been avoiding me. I couldn't blame him with my mixed signals. Even I confused myself. So, here I was. Standing outside of his brother's apartment.

"Ronnie, I know you're in there." I knocked again. "I just want to talk."

After a few seconds the door opened and there stood Richard, his older brother. If the bags under his eyes were any indication, he looked tired. "Caitlin," He offered a half grin. "Ronnie isn't here."

My hands went to my hips, wondering if Ronnie told him to say that. "Well, where is he then?"

"At school." He gave me a knowing look as he leaned against the door frame. "Look, Caitlin, I know you care about my brother, but if you don't love him the way he loves you then I beg you to stay out of his life. He's had enough people walk out on him, so don't string him along if you're just going to let him down. He won't be able to recover from that."

His words hurt my heart, but they were true. I nodded.

"Can I wait here for him?"

He motioned for me to come inside. "I was just on my way to work. He'll probably be a while, I think he has his tutoring sessions today." He closed the door. "Annie's in her room if you want to say hi."

"Thanks." I half grinned then headed down the hall.

I knocked on the door with the an A on it.

"Come in." She announced.

I popped my head in the door. "Hey,"

She layed on her bed on her stomach, magazines around her as she kicked her feet in the air, a cellphone in her hand. "Cait!," She jumped up and hugged me. "What are you doing here?"

I grinned as I squeezed her tight, my hand went to her short dark boy cut. "I'm here to see you, Ms. Banana." I teased.

She gave a wry laugh. "Remind me to kill Ronnie for telling you that I liked to be called Ms. Banana when I was younger."

I laughed. "Will do."

She pulled away and we sat on her bed. "So, can I talk to you about something?"

Richard popped his head in the door. "I'm headed out, Annie. Tell Ronnie that dinner's in the fridge and I took care of his..." His eyes shifted to mine briefly before going back to hers. "His friend's problem."

Annie stiffened beside me and gave a swift nod.

"Love you, I'll call you tonight." He waved at me. "Nice seeing you again, Caitlin."

I waved. "You, too."

He left and I could tell that there was a dramatic shift in Annie's mood.

With a plan in mind, I stood. "Let's go get some ice cream."

She offered a weak half smile as she nodded.

I scooted into the booth of her favorite ice cream parlor, two chocolate brownie oreo cups in my hands.

She dug in without question.

My brow rose as I followed suit. "Back at your house, you sounded like you wanted to tell me something."

"I can't remember what it was, must haven't been that important." She looked around the parlor only to shrink in herself and avoid looking up. "Oh, no."

"What?" I looked around for what could've made her act that way. "What is it?"

A boy with longish dark hair came to stand in front of our table. "Annie, hey." He half grinned.

Annie glanced up at him, her nerves all over her face. "Jessie."

Oh. Jessie.

A grin came to my lips even though I tried to hid it. The Jessie that defended her when the little assholes at school picked on her for having a boy's hair cut. It's like they couldn't be more insensitive, the girl had to go through chemo for her breast cancer. At least, that's what Ronnie gossiped to me. Ronnie seemed very concerned, apparently this guy was thirteen, so it was a big deal for Ronnie.

He held out his hand to me and offered a polite grin. "Hi, I'm Jessie. I'm a friend of Annie's."

Impressed, I shook his hand. "I'm Caitlin, also a friend of Annie's."

I discreetly kicked Annie's foot under the table.

She looked up at me with daggers in her eyes before turning to look at Jessie, her cheeks all pink. "What are you doing here?" She realized how lame that sounded and gave a nervous chuckle.

He smiled at her adorably as he gestured behind him to a group of people. "I'm with some friends. If I had known you were coming here I would've come alone."

She blushed even harder. "Gee."

I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep the grin off of my face.

He chuckled. "Maybe another time we can get ice cream, just the two of us?"

She nodded. "That would be okay with me, you know, if you wanted ice cream and me in the same room."

Foot all the way down her throat.

He full on grinned at her quirkiness. "I would definitely be okay with having you and ice cream in the same room."

She bit her lip nervously.

He looked back at his friends. "Well, I should get back to my friends." He held out his hand again. "Nice to meet you, Caitlin."

I shook his hand. "You, too, Jessie."

He waved to Annie as he turned away.

She shot up. "Wait,"

He turned back around with wide eyes filled with hope.

She looked like a deer caught in headlights, her hands fidgeting. "Uh, I just wanted to thank you for sticking up for me."

His forehead creased, confusion in his eyes. "What are you talking about?"

A small grin found her lips. "Jessie, I know you straighten out the kids at school for me. Thank you."

He gave a nod. "I didn't think you noticed."

"I noticed." She smiled.

I'll just slide out and they won't even notice.

"Cait, where are you going?" Annie asked.

I gave her a look, wanting her to do her thing. "The bathroom."

I waited in the bathroom for about five minutes to give them enough time to chat. If I couldn't have a love life at least one person should be. When I walked out the last person I expected to see was Ronnie walking into the parlor, worry in his face.

Once he found Annie with Jessie he relaxed, then his eyes found me. We hadn't seen each other in two weeks. Two weeks, one day, and six hours to be precise. That felt like an eternity. Naturally, my heart lurched in my chest.

He seemed to piece together the puzzle as he hesitantly walked over. "You brought her here?"

I nodded, my throat had closed momentarily.

"I was worried sick about her." He watched his baby sister with concerned eyes. "She wasn't answering her phone."

"Richard said you had tutoring, I didn't think you'd be done so quickly. We wanted ice cream." My eyes hadn't left him since he opened his mouth. I had to take him in, remember all the details of him in case he didn't want to see me after today. He had a little stubble going and it was working for him.

He sighed, his masculine hand rubbed his eyes. "What are you doing, Cait?"

"There was a time when you would've asked me if I was with Annie. You didn't even text me to see if I knew where she was. That's what I'm doing." My arms folded across my chest in case my heart decided to leap out and run away.

His jaw hardened as he turned his body to look at Annie. "This was what you wanted remember. I gave you the space to think, the space you asked for."

My hand reached out for his shoulder, hoping he'd look at me. "I wanted you to understand that I was confused not that I wanted you to stop talking to me. I thought we were friends."

His eyes shot to mine like I slapped him. "That was the problem, Cait. We weren't just friends, not to me."

My hand slipped away. "I can't give you an honest answer, so you're just going to kick me out of your life?"

"Being around you hurts, Cait." His blue eyes slid to mine. "You confuse the hell out of me and I want to give you time to straighten out your mind, but I can't be around you while you do it." He sighed. "I'm sorry."

He couldn't do that. Could he?

He walked over to Annie who was having a nice and awkward conversation with Jessie. By the looks of it Ronnie wanted her to leave with him. Annie looked absolutely mortified to see her brother. She didn't look like she wanted to leave, but she respected Ronnie enough to do what he said. Still, she didn't look happy about it. When she wrapped her arms around me she whispered, "Please, just kiss my brother already so he can stop being an ass."

I was now in her position and a blush came to my face, only Ronnie was smiling at me. I wanted to tell her that I wished I could, but I was a bundle of nerves, concerns, and irrational fears. I didn't tell her that. So, instead, I squeezed her back.

She pulled away with sad eyes. "Don't give up on him." She whispered.

Ronnie held the door opened for her, clearly wanting to get out of here and away from me as soon as possible. I didn't much blame him.

"I won't." I promised both of them.

IRIS' POV:

After Barry excused himself to go outside for a bit I ran a few laps around the gym, needing a break from my thoughts. This was not on my to do list for the day. Nope, nowhere on it does it say that Barry confuses me and I backstep with my feelings. So I just needed a few minutes to get my headspace together.

"Are you and Laurel lesbians together?" He blurted out

I stopped running. My eyes widened as I stared at him. "What? I...Laurel and I aren't together." I remembered that voices echoed in here, but there was no one at the top of the steps. I looked at him. "Why would you say that?"

He shrugged, his arms folded across his broad chest. "I see the way her touch affects you, it's different."

I so could not talk about this with him. My hands propped on my hips. "You can't just blow into town and expect me to talk about my love life with you."

He narrowed his eyes. "So you admit there's love there?"

My eyes rolled. "Oh, please. Besides it was just a kiss." I stilled at my verbal slip.

Barry gaped at me, I couldn't tell if he was angry or turned on. "You kissed Laurel?"

My hand swatted at his chest. "Shhh."

He laughed. "I can't get that image out of my head, you break my heart."

Why were we talking about this again?

I put some distance between us, I didn't want to think about how he just straddled me and I cried out in pleasure and he ran away. Was I that off-putting to him?

"Back to training," I grabbed my escrima sticks from my bag and handed him one. "Oliver didn't train you with these did he?"

He took one and flipped it in his hand. "No, but how hard could it be to learn?"

I whipped mine out and hit him in the throat.

He flashed away, too late. "Ow. You didn't give me a warning."

A grin found my lips. "You should be able to pick it up easily like you just said." I teased. "Come back here so I can hit you some more."

He shook his head. "I don't know about all of that."

"Stop being a baby, it doesn't hurt that much."

He gave a wry chuckle as he cautiously neared me. "Okay, then let me hit you with one in the neck."

My brow rose. If earlier proved anything, he wouldn't hurt me. Maybe it was guilt, or maybe he held onto the remnants of our friendship, but he so obviously didn't want to hurt me.

"You could try." I stepped forward.

I pulled my left arm to my chest and lashed out the tip of my stick and it was about to hit his neck when he blocked my stick with the tip of his. I went for the other side and he blocked it again. With a new target in mind, I aimed lower and hit his knee.

He groaned and glared at me.

I grinned. "You said you learned fast."

He got a mischievous gleam in his eyes as he nodded.

Knowing he still wouldn't get it down this time, I aimed for his neck. He watched me carefully, blocking all of my attacks until I hit him I swung the stick down, raised it to his groin and lowered it onto his head. Finally, I jammed it into his center.

He fell to his knees, clutching his private parts. "Oh my God, Iris." He groaned.

A part of me should be satisfied with hurting him, but I really wasn't. It did nothing for me, it helped me move on in no way. All I wanted to do this very second was comfort him, but I stayed away. It was because of him that I was here. I didn't blame him, I wanted to blame him for helping me jumpstart my life.

"You ready to go again?"

His eyes shot to mine, as if recognizing the distance between us for the first time since he stepped inside the gym. He stood. "I knew you were always strong, but never this strong." His gaze went straight through me. "You shouldn't have to be this strong."

We were back to that? I suppose we never left.

I nodded, a scowl on my face. "So you want me to go back to being weak? You want me to stop my life here and go back to writing my little blog about The Flash? You want me to be in constant danger of getting stabbed or kidnapped by a Metahuman?" I took a step closer to him. "Because that girl that you gave a ride home to all those months ago was weak, Barry. I was in the way. I can help people now, I feel like I have a purpose." My eyes searched his. "Is that so wrong?"

"No, it's not wrong, but you shouldn't have to do this. You could go to college or travel the world. Do whatever you want. You don't have this burden on your shoulders, you could've lived your life normal and happy." He insisted, his eyes begging mine. "You still can."

How many times were we going to run in the same circle? It was exhausting and I honestly just wanted to move forward with my life.

I took a step back. "Either you accept that I'm apart of this lifestyle now or you don't and we don't have any sort of relationship." I stared at him, waiting for him to tell me whether or not he was going to be in my life.

He stood there for several moments until he shook his head. His jaw clenched.

I nodded once. With a final breath I said, "Goodbye, Barry."

This had to happen. I couldn't keep singing the same song with him. This was my life now. If he couldn't accept it, accept me, what kind of life could we have together? What kind of friendship could we have?

"Iris," He called.

I didn't turn around.

I almost made it to the door when he said, "You died, alright."

That stopped me in my tracks. I turned around to face him. "What?"

He was in front of me in a flash. His green eyes held heartache. "You died. I saw it happen."

My head shook. "What are you talking about, Barry? I'm right here. I didn't die." He really needed some sleep. I turned to leave.

He grabbed my shoulders and held me into place. "No, listen to me." He swallowed the lump in his throat, his eyes frantic while begging me to understand. "You died. Ronnie was in trouble and Caitlin called you and we rushed over. I told you to stay out of it, but you didn't listen. You helped fight off some guys that were trying to hurt Ronnie. And you ended up dead, Iris."

I still didn't know what he was talking about. "How could I don't remember any of this?"

"Because," He sighed, looking defeated. "I went back in time and changed the past or I guess the present."

"Really? You expect me to believe that?"

"Iris, why would I lie about this? You died to protect your friends."

To entertain him I played along. "So how did I die?"

He rubbed his forehead. "You don't want to know."

I shrugged my shoulders. "If I died, I want to know how it happened."

He stared intensly at my forehead before he pressed a finger to it. "You were shot right here." His eyes drifted down to mine. "You died before I could say goodbye. There was nothing I could do." His eyes glossed over and I knew he was about to cry. "I held you in my arms, your eyes were lifeless. The blood kept pouring from your head." He shook his head as he walked away from me.

"Bear, I want to believe you, but that's not possible. How do you know it wasn't a dream?"

"Because I keep reliving it in my head!" He all but yelled at me. He faced me with tears running down his face. "You were dead." He stressed. "Caitlin lost it, she killed the guys."

Now I knew he was crazy.

"Why would she do that? How would she do that? She can't kill a fly for pete's sake!"

"You want to know how? Because she's a metahuman, like you." His tone beyond accusatory.

How did he know? I hadn't told anyone.

"You showed me before we left because you trusted me."

I didn't trust him now so I couldn't see myself trusting him in another timeline. Then again, was that the point of another timeline, that things were different?

"And why exactly did I trust you enough to tell you? We had a lot of problems before I left, Barry. So what happened? What was different there than here?"

He looked hesitant to answer, he turned away from me.

"No, you don't get to be shy now." I turned him to look at me. "What happened?" I dried his tears away.

The way he looked at me now, I hadn't seen that for a long time. His eyes searched mine, as if hoping I'd remember.

"We were together."

I didn't understand. I pulled away from him. "How were we together if you were with Thea?" I really hoped that he hadn't cheated on Thea with me.

He held my gaze. "Because I didn't lie to you there. And we were happy for a few hours." A small smile found his lips.

My head hurt.

"Define together."

He gave a wry grin. "We were together in that way." He eyed me carefully, gauging my reaction.

I couldn't breathe. "What?" I fanned myself. Was it hot in here or was it just me? My back found the wall as I slid to the floor, air became non existent in my lungs.

He squatted in front of me, worry in his eyes. "Not the reaction I hoped for." He fanned me, his hand moving extremely fast in front of my face, my hair blew back. He stopped when I could make my body work again. "Are you okay?" His hands rested on my knee and shoulder.

I swallowed the lump in my throat. "We had sex?" I felt uncomfortable saying it.

"Yes," His eyes were all vulnerable. "And I know it's not fair to tell you all this, but I couldn't keep lying to you anymore, Iris." He seemed to think that I was still skeptical, so he added, "Ask Caitlin about her powers. Ask Ronnie. They haven't told any of us."

My head shook. "No, I believe you." I hadn't told anyone about me having healing abilities, there was no way that he could know that. And there was no way he'd lie about something like us being together I took him in, feeling a confusing array of emotions. "So you made up having feelings for Thea to push me away? You told my dad about me to make me hate you?"

He nodded, his eyes not meeting mine. "I didn't know any other way, you have to believe me." His eyes slowly slid to mine. "I'm so sorry."

Hours ago him telling me that he was sorry probably wouldn't have meant much, but now it meant a whole lot. And that was scary. Everything that I thought I knew about Barry and I was wrong. In my mind, he fell out of love with me and into it with Thea. He wanted me out of his life. I accepted that. I made peace with the fact that our friendship was forever changed and that whether I wanted it to be true or not, there would always be apart of me that would have feelings for him. Now he was telling me that the past two months were a lie and he what? He wanted to be with me? Too much information.

"Barry," I sighed, my hand found his. "Why didn't you just tell me the truth? You didn't have to make up this whole scheme."

His eyes bore into mine. "You know what it was like. We were intimate for the first time in a long time and for a few hours we were actually happy. Then you died and everyone lost their minds. I've never seen so many people I care about heartbroken. Everyone was there, everyone lost it. I didn't want that to happen, I didn't want Caitlin to have that much blood on her hands. So I changed everything." His hand reached up to cup my face. "I didn't think Joe would kick you out of the house like that or that you would leave Central City. I just wanted you to be safe, even if that meant you came to hate me."

My heart softened. "I really wish you had told me. Do you realize how awful it's been not being friend's with you the last two months?"

Of course I didn't regret being here, growing a little more, getting stronger, and finding a job. But having a wedge between the two of us was a huge weight on my shoulders.

He nodded. "Trust me, I know." His thumb caressed my cheek, a slight grin on his lips. "I've missed you, Flower."

Before I had time to process, he leaned down and pressed his lips onto mine. My hand grabbed the back of his neck to deepen the kiss, only to realize what a mistake I was making, but then his hands grabbed my waist and pulled me on top of his lap. I moaned into his mouth. His hands on my back pressed me closer to him as if he couldn't get enough of me. His mouth went to my neck, giving me a moment to breathe. In that moment, I remembered my realization from earlier.

I jumped back, scooting out of his lap.

He looked at me with confused eyes. "What's wrong?"

I couldn't believe I was about to say this but it had to be said. "You lied to me again. I kept my ability from you, but this was totally different. The fact that we slept together is huge, Barry."

He sighed, his hand ran over his mouth. "We have a fucked up friendship, what else is new? It's been that way for years."

Very true.

"Not even that, you made me believe you were over me for two months and now you expect me to be okay with whatever it is you want from me? What if I've moved on? I have my own life here."

He nodded. "I understand that. I didn't tell you in hopes you'd change your mind or feel sorry for me. I just wanted you to know. This was the last thing I expected to happen when I came here."

Speaking of his arrival.

"You're leaving, going back home."

His eyes searched mine. "Do I have a reason to stay longer?"

Even though I wanted to get back on his lap there were still issues between us. No amount of making out would change that. He just flipped my world upside down again. I needed time to get used to that.

My eyes went to the floor as my head shook. "I'm sorry, but I can't. You were too late."

He stayed quiet for a few moments until I looked up. "One of these days we'll get it right." He said with so much certainty that I believed him.

I gave a tiny grin. "Maybe."

A/N: Okay, don't be mad at me yall, but I actually ship Barry with Parry Spivot after Tuesday's episode. Obviously, it's going to be a while before Iris and Barry get together