Chapter Text
After returning home from S.T.A.R. Labs, Barry sat on the couch in the West house tapping his feet on the floor out of the nerves he was feeling.
He didn't remember the last time he felt this nervous about something, and if he were honest with himself, he didn't even know why he was so nervous right now.
This is Iris. He thought. You can tell her.
Especially if she feels the same way.
Which…
I am pretty sure she does.
Thinking those thoughts did calm Barry down a little bit.
But, confessing one's true feelings towards someone else, especially feelings like this that have been kept under the surface for some time now, is a big moment.
And in big moments, especially in ones like this...everyone gets nervous. Barry thought.
I'm not the first one to ever experience this, and definitely not the last one either.
But for some reason, this one felt unique.
And Barry knew exactly why.
Iris.
• • •
Iris was driving home from CCPN, too focused on the task at hand to even be shocked that Mason Bridge, Mason Bridge of all people... just let her leave her brand new job...before she had even started doing anything! To deal with her feelings!
And part of being focused on this specific task for Iris was letting herself feel the nerves of it all.
The last time Iris was nervous about this was just last night, though she didn't deal with those nerves properly then...she just pushed them away.
But now was the time to let herself feel because now she was going to confess her feelings to Barry, whether he felt the same way about her or not.
Though Iris did have a feeling that it was the former rather than the latter.
As she parked her car in the driveway of the West house, Iris just sat there for a moment before going in, taking in the fact that she was actually about to do this.
She took a deep breath, realizing that she really had no reason to be nervous.
This is Barry. She thought. You can tell him.
Especially if he feels the same way.
Which…
I am pretty sure he does.
Thinking those thoughts did calm Iris down a little bit.
But...it's okay to be nervous. Iris thought. Everyone gets nervous in situations like this.
I'm not the first one to ever experience this, and definitely not the last one either.
But for some reason, this one felt unique.
And Iris knew exactly why.
Barry.
• • •
Barry was hunched over, rocking himself back and forth on the couch trying to calm himself down when he heard the door open.
He didn't think Iris would be home for a while, so this couldn't be her...not yet, anyway…it was too early yet. He just wanted to be there when she did come home.
But he turned his head to see, and sure enough, Iris was there, hanging up her coat and purse.
"Iris, hey," Barry said softly, not even really knowing that he said it, it just kinda escaped his lips.
"Bear, hey," Iris said back as she was finishing, in the same soft tone of voice.
They both smiled at each other, like they just couldn't help it because the very presence of each other made each so happy.
"What are you doing home so early?" Barry asked as Iris came and practically fell into the couch beside him.
Iris sighed a deep sigh before responding to Barry with words, which kinda surprised Barry. He didn't really think it was that deep of a question.
She sat up, and looked at Barry straight in the eyes, with a serious look.
"Barry, we need to talk about something."
• • •
Always concerning himself with what Iris had to say, Barry looked at her with deep care in his eyes.
"Of course, Iris," Barry said, "what is it? You know you can open up to me about anything."
Anything.
Anything.
That brought Iris a lot of peace, knowing Barry was listening.
"Barry, I didn't tell you this yesterday, but two nights ago, when we got home from bowling, Eddie broke up with me."
Iris paused after saying that because she thought that Barry would be surprised about that, but Barry just sat there, intently focused, paying deep attention to each and every word that Iris spoke.
Iris continued, "And he told me it was because of the way me and you were acting with each other, and that it seemed obvious to him that...," she took a moment to collect herself here before going on, "...that I have feelings for you."
There was a brief moment of silence that followed, which made Iris nervous.
What is he thinking? Was the first thing that crossed her mind.
Does he have feelings for me too? Is that why he is taking his time to respond to me?
Then, after he had been looking away during the silence, Barry looked back up at Iris and asked, "Do you? Do you have feelings for me?"
Much to Iris' own surprise, it took her not long at all to answer this question.
And she just spilled it all out.
"Yes, yes I do, Barry. I do have feelings for you. I love you so much, and have loved you ever since the moment I first looked at you."
• • •
"I love you so much…" Those words echoed in Barry's head for so long as if it were a deep and wide ravine, wanting to keep it going as long as possible.
Ever the emotional type, the longer he sat there in the silence of letting it echo and echo and echo in his head, the more his eyes started to wet.
From happy tears, of course.
Not sad tears.
Because for as long as he could remember loving Iris, he had always wanted to hear her say those words.
And now she was saying them.
In the flesh.
It felt like a dream, but Barry knew with every fiber of his being that this was reality.
She said what I've always wanted to hear her say.
She said it.
She really just said it.
It took Iris speaking again to take Barry out of his dreamlike daze.
“Barry? Did you hear what I said?”
Barry immediately snapped out of it, to see Iris looking concerned.
“Oh, yes, sorry Iris, it’s just that…,”
“It’s just that what?” Iris asked.
Barry took a deep breath, then said, “I’ve always wanted to hear you say what you just said. And I feel the exact same way. The love I have for you, Iris…”
Then, he became absolutely lost in her eyes, staring at them like they were having some sort of staring contest he didn’t want to lose.
“Barry…?” Iris said, giving Barry a confused smile as he continued staring.
Barry now snapped out of his second trance in, like, two minutes.
“I’m sorry Iris, but you are just so beautiful, inside and out, and I honestly can’t imagine my life without you in it.”
• • •
Now that their true feelings had been voiced, the two just kinda sat there for a second, pondering what they had just done.
Iris felt like a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders, and she was shocked that it went as easy as it did, but then again, it was Barry.
“Barry?” Iris asked, quietly, now asking the question she was pretty sure both of them had on their minds, “What now?”
Barry didn’t answer, but Iris didn’t blame him. It was a hard question to answer.
“I’m not sure, to be honest,” he finally answered, and Iris could tell from his voice that that was not the conclusion he had wanted to come to.
“Well, okay…,” Iris said, “We’ve both expressed our feelings to each other, which is a good first step, so we’ll decide on the next step some other time…”
“No,” Barry said suddenly, “no, Iris. I want to figure out something now about how we are going to go forward with this, because if we don’t do it now, we are just going to keep putting it off, and…”
He was right about that.
Considering how long they had been just putting sharing their feelings off, if they waited even longer to figure out what to do next in their relationship, they may never go anywhere, and Iris definitely did not want that to happen.
“You’re right,” Iris said, “let’s figure something out now.”
• • •
Barry definitely had his thoughts about what he wanted the next step in his and Iris’ relationship to be.
He wanted to ask her out, but he didn’t really know how, and maybe...maybe she wasn’t ready for that yet?
But no.
He had brought it up how he wanted to figure out something now, and she had agreed, so as ridiculous as it sounded, yes, yes he was going to ask Iris out, and hopefully not in an awkward way.
“Do you want to maybe go out for some coffee sometime?” Barry offered, “Or, no, no, sorry, I meant, do you want to go out for dinner? Or to a movie? Or for a walk? Or…”
Barry started trailing off, trying to think of the first things that popped into his head, not really thinking of the fact that Iris was smiling at him as he was.
“Barry?” Iris asked him, and then he noticed.
“Yea...yeah?” He asked.
“Are you trying to ask me out on a date?”
Ah, so she had noticed.
“Yes...yes I am...but if you’re not ready for that yet…”
“Why wouldn’t I be ready for that, Barry? We clearly love each other, don’t we?”
And then, it was clear to Barry that yes, she was indeed ready.