Chapter Text
Cisco, you’re conflicted, I get that. But I have to work right now. We’ll talk about this tomorrow.
“You ready?”
Iris sent her text and turned her attention back to Barry. “Absolutely.”
“Thank you again for letting me come.”
“It only required minimal beg-“ someone suddenly crashed into her from behind.
Iris turned around, a man was on knees, collecting dropped notecards. “I’m sorry, miss, I don’t see you.”
“It’s alright. Iris West, Central City Picture News.”
He stood up. “Dr. Ray Palmer, Physics Professor at Ivy Town University.”
“I read your publication-” Barry blurted out, looking slightly starstruck. “on your microverse theory. Huge fan. Barry Allen, we’ve never met, you were a few years ahead me in school.”
Ray looked taken aback by the praise. “Nice to meet a fan. I didn’t know I had fans.”
“Dr. Palmer, are you coming?”
“Ryan, come here!” Ray called out.
They were soon approached by a young man carrying a clucky trifold, Ray set his hand on his shoulder. “This is Ryan Choi, sort of a protégée, if you will. Brightest of the bright. Mark my words, five years from now, he’ll be a household name.”
Iris turned on the voice recorder on her phone. “And what will you be presenting on?”
Ray took a breath. “Atomic despaciation and-“
“Shrinking.” Ryan interrupted. “Still largely theoretical but we are on the brink of something huge.”
“Could you even imagine the applications?”
“Espionage, nanotechnology, specialized medical procedures...” Iris rattled off.
Ray smiled. “I like you.” Iris was acutely aware of Barry edging a little bit closer to her. “We need to set up actually, pleasure meeting you Miss West. Hope to see you later tonight.
Iris turned to Barry shaking her head at him. “What?” He asked.
“I read your publication!” Iris mimicked. Barry rolled his eyes. “You were adorable, Barry.”
“If you’re going to tease me like that, at least buy me a drink first.” He joked.
Iris paused. “Okay, after we’re out of here? Does that sound good?”
“God, not Pride and Prejudice, come on.”
“Persuasion, actually. One of Austen’s lesser known works and criminally underrated.” Caitlin corrected, grabbing a disc out of the CD case she brought with her. “Now, technically, it’s a miniseries and not a movie but it is 15 minutes shorter than The Fast and the Furious so I don’t really see a problem there.”
“Wally,” Cisco place a hand on the other’s shoulder, “Iris clearly bequeathed her movie night privilages to Caitlin in her absence. We must respect the movie night bylaws-”
“We don’t have bylaws.”
“Which define the transfer of movie night selection.”
Wally held his hands up in surrender before taking the bowl of popcorn into his lap. One of many snack that available including one that wasn’t there on Tuesday which appear to be a combination of popcorn pretzels, m&ms and gummy worms.
The grumble quickly subsided and while Caitlin occasionally had to clarify some small cutural things ("She's an old maid at 30?""Please Wally that's not so different from now.") they seemed to actually get a little into it. She, at least, heard a small breath of finally when Captain Wentworth gave the icon ‘half-hope, half-agony’ line to Anne.
The credits started to scroll on the screen and Caitlin turned to them. "well, boys, overall thoughts?'
"Not as bad as as I had anticipated."Wally said, arms crossed defiantly.
"Good pick, Cait." Cisco nodded. "Maybe-"
"What?" She asked as she got off the couch.
"Maybe you can be a more permanent addition?" He asked, looking at her appraisingly. "Once you get settled and all. It'd probably be nice to have friends in the city and all, easier transition and all-"
"Cisco," she interrupted. "I would love to."