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Soulmate ( n): A person ideally suited to another as a close friend or romantic partner.
“ Some people don’t believe in the existence of Soulmates!” Barry bit out in frustration as he looked on his computer. “How can they not?”
“Barry.” Iris’ voice broke him out of his frustrated haze. She was currently studying to be a Journalist and had somehow managed to take over more space than necessary in his very important crime lab.
Barry turned to his sister, “Yes? What can I do for you Miss West?”
Iris rolled her eyes fondly at her brother’s typical antics. “Maybe these people just don’t like being… constricted.” Iris looked at the piles of paper she had scattered around his lab in frustration as she looked for something unidentified. “I mean,” She paused as she ducked under a desk, only to sigh when what she was looking for wasn’t there. “ Most of the people you’ve found that don’t believe in them seem like the frat boy type. A super hot billionaire playboy for instance.” Iris let out a little cheer as she finally found what she was looking for.
Barry turned towards her new position, pondering her thought. There was a time in his life where Barry had really hoped Iris was his Soulmate but sadly for him his mark hadn’t matched hers. Soulmate marks came in pairs, one on each soulmate and were meant to represent their unity. They were also supposedly meant to help soulmates find each other but this didn’t work when everyone covered them. “Don’t they realise a soulmate can be platonic?” He questioned.
Iris laughed lightly beside him, “You really do get worked up about this don’t you?”
“My soulmate is out there and suffering Iris, I can feel it.” Very few pairs of soulmates could actually feel what their other half was going through and Barry wasn’t sure that he and his soulmate were one of those but he wasn’t going to admit that now lest he ruins his claim.
“Can...” Barry heard Iris take a deep breath. “Can I see your mark?”
Barry paused for a moment, asking to see someone’s soulmate mark was a very intimate question. Eventually, he shrugged, not seeing a problem with it as he and Iris had lived together most of their lives, so he pulled his shirt over his head and turned so that his back was facing Iris. He felt Iris brush her thumb over his mark- an arrow crossed by a lightning bolt. It hadn’t made sense to either of them, but Barry supposed that was the point. Only you and your soulmate would understand.
“So where’s your next stop?”
Barry looked at her knowing that she knew the whole reason for his travels. Most others assumed that he was searching for the impossible but that was only a small part of it. Barry had yet to meet his soulmate. “Starling City. I have a really good feeling about this one.
Iris smiled, “Just be careful, okay?”
The first thing about Starling City was that it rained. A lot. The rain was so heavy that he was forced to take cover under his magazine, his kit swinging at his side. The second thing he noticed was that the drivers were all assholes, including taxi drivers. Soaked to the bone and shivering, Barry was forced to run to the crime scene he had planned to invade.
"Actually, it was only one guy!" He managed to shout, despite feeling slightly winded from the run.
Felicity, Barry decided near the end of the day, was great but she wasn't his soulmate. She was, however, another friend and Barry liked Friends.It wouldn't be until later when Barry discovered who his soulmate was.
Consciousness hit him slowly and Barry let out a groan, blinking quickly a few times in succession as a harsh light invaded his retinas. "What the hell?" He muttered, pushing himself up slowly.
When he was up he was met with the sight of a panic-stricken team Arrow. Felicity was stood directly opposite him, staring at him in a pleading way. "Please save my friend." She begged and Barry thought he could see tears beginning to form in her eyes.
His gaze swung from her, past Diggle and to a table which seemed to hold an unconscious body on it. Barry swore he felt his heart stop briefly when he saw Oliver Queen lying there, the tiniest hint of a very specific lightning bolt peeking from the neck of his jacket. He snapped to focus quickly after that. He had a soulmate to save.
Barry hesitated slightly, unsure of whether or not it was sensible to leave a gift here. Knowing that he would miss his train if he didn't leave soon and deciding that really, he had nothing to lose, he left the gift on a table. His soulmate was a superhero after all and all superheroes deserved a proper way to conceal their Civilian identity. Barry also knew that despite Oliver's protests, the greasepaint job would not have held up for much longer. Especially not seeing that Oliver was already on his second superhero name.
He whistled as he left the foundry.
Barry had meant to tell Iris about finding his soulmate, he really had but as usual, crime had struck and by the time Barry had finished processing the evidence from the last crime, it had been time to head to STAR Labs in order to see the particle accelerator turn on so he never got the chance. Iris, as it turns out had met her own soulmate that night after her laptop had been stolen. It had turned out to be a new employee of the CCPD. Barry thought she was happy about it.
As Iris introduced herself to her soulmate, Barry found himself in his lab. Tidying up some of his old work, he turned on the TV turning it to the news station. He figured he could keep track of what was going on at STAR Labs whilst tidying this way. His night had certainly turned out differently than he expected it to and Iris wasn't even there to talk to that evening.
From his desk, his phone began to ring and he stumbled over to it clumsily, the name read Felicity and Barry smiled at the thought of his new friend. "Felicity. Hey." He sighed slightly as she asked him if he had seen the particle accelerator turn on, him giving her a lie about being late, as usual, and hung up after promising to talk to her again soon.
The news broadcast caught his attention even as he noticed the storm building in the sky. He could see the lightning making its path directly towards him but for some unknown reason, he wasn't scared. In fact, he felt a certain affinity for it. As lightning struck his last coherent thought was 'at least that Mark finally makes sense.'
After finding out about his powers, Barry's first instinct was to run straight to Starling City, the prospect of having this power to cut down the commute between Starling and Central City was exciting. Of course though, despite his wishes, he had a job to do and a civic duty to perform.
Watching Clyde Mardon cause a car crash by enveloping the street he was on in a fog, coupled with a very familiar argument with Joe about what really happened the night his mother was murdered proved to be his limit. He had forgotten just how emotionally draining those arguments could be and despite Iris' attempts at comforting him, he didn't really feel much better and he began to realise why Iris wasn't meant to be his soulmate.
He reached for his phone, he needed to talk to Oliver.
"I don't think that lightning struck you, Barry, I think it chose you." This one small sentence had meant more to Barry than Oliver could ever know, just knowing that someone he felt connected to has confidence in him stirred emotions within himself that Barry honestly hadn't taken the time to think about.
Perhaps this is what prompted Barry to just blurt it out. "You're my soulmate, Oliver." Oliver shot Barry a look so Barry, despite his better instincts and the cold weather stripped himself of his shirt, turning so that his back now faced Oliver. "Look familiar?" He called over his shoulder.
Barry could see Oliver's eyes widen slightly from under the hood. "I never believed..."
"You never believed in soulmates, right?" Barry scoffed, yanking his shirt back on more roughly than intended in his frustration."Typical frat boy, billionaire playboy type. You must have gone through a lot of girls before the island, you didn't want to feel restricted, right?" Barry huffed, shaking is head slightly.
However, what Barry certainly hadn't anticipated was Oliver's reaction. He felt, rather than saw the moment when Oliver's gloved hand took hold of his arm and allowed himself to be pulled closer to the older male, letting out a quiet sigh of contentment. "That's not what I meant at all Barry." Oliver's voice breathed in his ear, sending shivers down Barry's spine. Barry chose this moment to look back to Oliver and to his shock, Oliver looked saddened and was trying to compose himself before continuing. "My mum and dad were not soulmates... growing up I kept hearing stories about these mythical things that just sounded wonderful. So I began reading into them."
"You willing read a book outside of College?" Barry asked, slightly surprised.
Oliver shot him a glare. "Barry..." his voice sounded like a growl.
Barry coughed, "Sorry. Right. Yes, continue."
"Anyway..." Oliver rolled his eyes, "in my reading I came across the notion of soul marks." Barry's eyebrows furrowed as he wondered where Oliver was going with this. "I didn't have one so I didn't think I had a soulmate. Years later, that mark appeared but I couldn't decipher it, I guess we know what it means now though." Oliver paused, a small smile growing on his face, Barry thought it made him look even more handsome. "I just never believed I would have a soulmate as good and as light as you, especially not with how dark I've become."
A thoughtful look crossed Barry's face. "Maybe being soulmates isn't about being identical in personality, Oliver. " Barry decided, "Maybe it's about being opposites. Think about it." Barry smiled slightly, "Now thank you for the advice, and for not calling me crazy of course but you have a city to protect. We'll see each other again." Oliver nodded, pulling up his mask.
Barry watched Oliver swing to another building muttering "cool" just before flashing away, orange lightning trailing behind him. He was unknowingly echoed by Oliver only seconds later.
The next time Barry saw Oliver, the meeting occurred somewhere the former wasn't expecting. Central City. Oliver had just helped Barry out in a warehouse when they met the rest of Team Arrow near a barn.
"So um..." Barry started unsurely. "What are you guys doing in Central City?"
Barry was slightly unhappy when it was Felicity who answered his question.
Later on, Barry met Oliver in a field, he was late. Oliver's question of "How can you have super speed and still not be on time?" was one that Barry wished he actually had the answer to.
Instead, he gives Oliver a smartass answer that he later regrets.
Painfully.
When Oliver met Barry again he could almost instantly tell that something was wrong. Barry's posture was tense and the other man's eyes were much duller than usual. The spark that identifies Barry Allen from other people is still there but it's dimmer, it caused Barry's face to just look wrong and caused Oliver to feel something that he couldn't be completely bothered to identify it. Not when Barry was acting strangely.
Only then does he notice the anger seeping into the younger man's normally jovial tone. "I told Felicity you didn't want my help!" He called to Barry's retreating form.
"Yeah?" Barry replies, half snapping and half whining. "You're finally right about something!"
Oliver frowned as Barry sped away, pulling out his phone to call Felicity and the rest of the people at STAR Labs.
Subduing Barry in the middle of Central City was one of the hardest things Oliver had to do. Despite everything though, Oliver still knew exactly what Barry needed to hear. "I still believe in you, Barry." He grabbed the younger male in a headlock, pulling him so that he could see the lights and let out a sigh of relief as he felt Barry's body relaxed as he was finally drained of the effects of what happened.
Working as a team became easier the next time and they blended better while taking down Bivilio, Oliver would admit that Barry's genuine apology had helped immensely with that.
Oliver was, to say the least, very surprised to see Barry in ARGUS as a red gloved hand caught a boomerang inches from his own face. with the immediate danger removed, his thoughts turned to the Scarlet Speedster and suddenly he felt panicked for some reason.
It finally occurred to him later as he watched Barry flash into the foundry unmasked and eating sushi right in front of Lyla. He didn't want the younger man to be corrupted or worse, experimented on
Later that year, Barry asked Oliver for help and the older male agreed. The Arrow worked alongside both Firestorm and The Flash and successful helped his younger friend defeat his mother's killer. Oliver asked Barry for a favour in return.
Barry's boyish grin and reply of "Whenever, wherever." Made Oliver much happier than he would admit.
As did seeing a red streak leaving Nanda Parbat.
When the two had taken down Savage together as a team, it had made Oliver feel incredibly proud. Out of all of his friends, Barry had also been the most supportive about his son, something he'll freely admit he thought would be taken by Felicity. Barry had also gotten a hug out of him, something nobody had really accomplished outside of family since Tommy had died. His son's action figure sent his thoughts straight to his lanky friend and he knew without a doubt that the next words out of his mouth were absolutely true.
"He's one of the best guys I know."
Barry felt guilty about running to Starling... well now Star City for help yet again, even more so when he caused Diggle to throw up again. But what they were facing in Central City was an absolutely global catastrophe and Barry was smart enough to know that they needed to put what forces they could afford to on the problem, which included Teams Arrow and Flash.
Oliver's question of "Aliens?" and Digg's subsequent statement after Barry had finished explaining exactly just what was going on in Central City along with the bombshell of Lyla knowing about it certainly didn't help matters.
Oliver's support of him even after finding out about Flashpoint however, did.
"To things not being normal."
"To life being full." Oliver looked at Barry, seeing the darkness begining to settle within him. He thought back to that night on a Starling City rooftop, Barry's voice coming to him almost instantly "Maybe it's about being opposites." To Barry, he said "I think you were right that night."
Barry wasn't certain about what night Oliver meant and frowned in concentration. "About what?"
"About Soulmates being some kind of Opposites. It's about... Balance."
Barry chuckled lightly, "Good to know." A nervous look overtook his face. "Ollie, can I try something?" He asked, setting his halfway empty beer bottle on the bar in front of him and steeling himself. He didn't want to have any regrets. Oliver wasn't sure just what was going on but he trusted Barry, so he nodded his head. Upon Oliver's nod, Barry gently cupped Oliver's face in his hands and slowly kissed him.
If either man had any doubts previously, they were erased in that moment.