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Barry was helping himself to some food from Oliver’s fridge after a particularly grueling sparring session with him when he heard the frantic patter of small feet in the hall. He smiled to himself, instantly knowing who it was.
Tatiana Queen, Oliver and Felicity’s five-year-old daughter, padded into the dining room, garbed in a glittery blue fairy gown, silver tiara, and blue ballet shoes. From the way she fidgeted with her worn plastic wand, it was obvious that she dying to tell him something.
She cleared her throat. “Hi Uncle Berry.”
Barry pretended to look around him. “Tanya?” he said, feigning confusion. “Hm, for a moment there, I thought I heard her…”
Tanya giggled and twirled around three times before raising her wand in the air.
“Oh, there you are!” Barry said, stooping to smile at her from the stool by Oliver’s bar. “I thought I heard you. Were you being invisible again?”
“Yeah! I forgot to stop being invisible.” She reached to clamber into the stool beside his, and Barry held onto the slice of salami he was eating with his teeth, so he could use his hands to hoist her up the stool. “Being invisible is the best superpower ever!” she continued. “I don’t wanna your speed anymore, Uncle Berry. Or Aunty Cait’s fost. Or Uncle Cisco’s wives.”
“Vibes,” Barry supplied.
“Wives,” she chirped, and Barry just smothered a laugh and let her be. When Cynthia hears this, though, she’d have Cisco’s balls. “Being invisible is better than e-ve-rything.”
Not for the first time, Barry couldn’t help but wonder at how loquacious Tanya was for a five-year-old. Her vocabulary was advanced by at least a year, and she talked more than even he did as a kid. Oliver was quick to attribute his daughter’s verbal prowess to Felicity’s constant chattering around her, and when Felicity protested, Oliver merely said, “Felicity, she knows the word algorithm. I’m pretty sure she didn’t learn that from those books on John and Jane.”
Felicity said that she pronounced it as algoreet, but needless to say, Oliver won that argument.
Still, her language development was a little uneven. For some reason—and he didn’t know if it was intentional or not—Tanya couldn’t pronounce his name properly, among other things. It was a good thing she didn’t have much trouble with her r’s or he’d end up being Uncle Bewy.
“I don’t know, princess,” he said, pretending to mull over what she said. “I still think speed’s the best.”
“Yeah, but being invisible is better,” she said. She crawled into his lap, and knowing that she had a weakness for bread and jam, he broke a piece of the bread he was eating and spread some jam on it for her. He moved her carefully so that she wouldn’t sit on the contents of his pocket. “Betcha speed don’t make people tell secrets.”
“Doesn’t,” he corrected gently. “You’re right. Speed can’t do that. Did someone tell you secrets today?”
She crossed her arms smugly. “‘Course I won’t tell you. It’s a secret.”
“So you are keeping a secret.”
“I know a lotta secrets now,” she said. “People talk really loud when I’m invisible.” She paused to finish off her small piece of bread, and she took out another slice and handed it to him. “More jam.”
“What do you say?”
“I like the stoberry jam.”
“The magic word first, princess.”
“Please, Uncle Berry?” She turned her round blue eyes on him and smiled the smile that brought out the dotted dimples on either side of her mouth.
“Hm, on second thought…” he moved the jam away from her grasping fingers and grinned. “I’ll give you the jam, but you have to tell me the secret you found out today.”
“No. I’m hungry, Uncle Berry.”
“Really? You won’t tell me even a little bit?”
“Aunty Cait said I have to be a good secret keeper, ‘cause if I tell people’s secrets, then everyone will know my superpower. Then no one will say their secrets anymore, ‘cause they’ll think I’m always there.”
“Aunty Cait has a point,” he said. He broke her slice of bread into four squares and spread jam on each. “So Aunty Cait asked you to keep her secret, huh?”
“No,” she said, nibbling on the first square. “Mommy was talking to her. I was invisible so I heard.”
Now Barry was intrigued. “You can tell me. I’m Aunty Cait’s friend, after all.”
“Can’t,” she said, looking sly. “‘Cause it’s about you, Uncle Berry.”
“If it’s a secret about me, princess, don’t you think I have to know?”
She reached for her second square. “Won’t tell.”
Barry tried to hide his smile. It was obvious that she was dying to tell him, because otherwise she wouldn’t be here. But, he had to hand it to her, she was doing a great job of pretending like she really didn’t want to tell him.
He decided to change tactics. “Alright,” he said. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”
Her blue eyes widened in a comical fashion. “You don’t wanna know anymore?”
Some adults were already immune to reverse psychology, but Tanya, being only five years old, fell for it hook, line, and sinker. He felt a little bad for one-upping a five-year-old, but then she started it, dangling the secret in front of him…
…So he was secretly a five-year-old. So what?
He gave a casual shrug. “No, not really. I’ll just wait for Aunty Cait to tell me.” He sighed dramatically. “But if she doesn’t tell me, and I can’t be invisible… Maybe I’ll never know.”
Tanya fidgeted with her wand and squirmed in his lap, food forgotten, and then finally gave in. “Okay. Maybe I’ll tell you a li’l bit of the secret.”
“Are you sure, princess?” he said.
She nodded. “‘Cause you can’t be invisible and all.”
“That’s right.”
She looked around to check if the coast was clear, and then said in a whisper, “Come closer. Closer.”
“Alright, alright.”
She cupped her hand around his ear, and he held her steady in his lap with an arm. “Aunty Cait likes you.”
Barry resisted a smile and feigned surprise. “Really? I like Aunty Cait, too.”
“No, no,” Tanya said, and she cupped her hand again and whispered, “Aunty Cait likes you like my mommy likes my daddy.”
He gasped. “Really? No way.”
Tanya nodded. Encouraged by his reaction, she looked around again to check if the coast was clear, and then continued, in a whisper made louder by her barely concealed excitement, “Aunty Cait told Mommy that she wants to marry you.”
The amusement abruptly faded, and Barry’s throat tightened with emotion. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. She loves you lots. You’re lucky, Uncle Berry, ‘cause Aunty Cait is pretty.”
“Oh, so I’m not handsome enough for her?”
She wrinkled her nose. “You’re a li’l handsome, but Aunty Cait is really really pretty.” She paused suddenly in her seat and turned to him, looking solemn. “You like Aunty Cait too, right? You love her lots too?”
“More than anything.”
“Is that more than lots?”
“Ten times more.” He would say infinity times more, but he wasn’t sure what the extent of Tanya’s knowledge of numbers was.
“Okay.” She nodded. “If you love her ten times lots, maybe it’s okay if you’re just a li’l handsome.”
“Why, you…” Barry flashed to the nearby sofa and tackled her there, while tickling her sides. She squealed. “No! Stop!”
“Not until you tell me I’m handsome. Say it, Tanya. Say Uncle Berry is the handsomest man in the universe…”
“Hey, what’s going on?”
“Tanya, sweetie? What’s wrong?”
The two voices in the doorway made Barry pause. Felicity and Caitlin appeared, probably after hearing Tanya squeal. Despite the wrinkle on her brow, his face unconsciously lifted into a smile when he saw Caitlin. Lord, but she was beautiful today, wearing that sunny floral dress that made her skin glow.
Distracted as he was, Tanya was able to squirm out of his grip and hurtle towards Felicity. “Mommy! Uncle Berry attacked me!”
“I tickle-attacked her,” he clarified.
Felicity and Caitlin exchanged amused looks, and Felicity gathered her daughter into her arms. “Protect me, Mommy,” she said, burrowing her golden head of curls in her mother’s neck. “Or else I gotta say that Uncle Berry is the handsomest man in the universe.”
“I won’t let you get away until you say it, Tanya,” Barry said good-naturedly.
“But Uncle Berry isn’t the handsomest, Mommy,” she said. “Daddy is. Right? Daddy’s the handsomest.”
Felicity was trying to hide her grin. “Yeah, I think Daddy’s the handsomest, too,” she said. “No offense, Barry. As his wife I’m obligated to side with him.”
“None taken,” Barry said. “Ah, poor me,” he continued loudly. “Is no one going to think that I’m the handsomest man in the universe?”
He gave Caitlin a pointed look, and, instead of promptly declaring him the handsomest man in the universe, she merely raised an eyebrow at him.
“Thanks for the moral support, Cait,” he said dryly.
Tanya tapped Caitlin’s shoulder. “Pass,” she said. “Now you gotta say it, Aunty Cait.”
“Me? Can you really just pass that, Tanya?”
“Yeah,” she said resolutely. “You gotta say it or Uncle Berry’s gonna be really sad. And if you love someone lots you don’t want them to be sad, right?”
“Can’t argue with that,” Felicity said, grinning and pressing a kiss to her daughter’s temple. “Go on, Cait.”
“Yeah, go on, Cait,” Barry said. “A five-year-old thinks I’m ugly. I’m dying of a broken heart here. Save me.”
“Is he always this dramatic?” Felicity said.
“He is,” Caitlin said.
“While you’re talking about me, my self-esteem is being blown to smithereens,” Barry said. “Can no one grasp the urgency of the situation?”
Tanya couldn’t follow the exchange, but she must have understood the general concept, because she said, “Say it, Aunty Cait. I think Uncle Berry is sad now. I won’t tell your secrets ever again if you say it.”
“Ever again?” Caitlin gave her goddaughter a stern look. “Have you been spreading my secrets, young lady?”
Tanya’s eyes widened and she burrowed herself further into Felicity. “Only a li’l bit.” And then, when they all heard footsteps down the hall—a light, long step that could only be Oliver’s—Tanya squirmed in Felicity’s arms and said, “Daddy! Daddy! Help! Aunty Cait is gonna feez me!”
“Only a li’l bit, darling,” Caitlin drawled, towering over her goddaughter, “for the little bit of secret you told.”
Once Tanya’s feet were on the ground she shrieked in terror and delight and ran to Oliver.
“Tanya, no running in the—”
They heard a loud scrape of plastic on ceramic.
“Oh, bummer,” Felicity mumbled. “She just scratched an antique vase with her wand. I have to check it out before Moira has my head…”
Barry and Caitlin watched the antics of the Queen family with amusement for a few more moments before they both realized that Tanya wasn’t coming back, distracted as she was by an impromptu piggyback ride on Oliver’s shoulders. Inwardly, Barry thought that no one truly understood the meaning of whipped until they saw Oliver with his daughter.
He turned to Caitlin, who was watching them wistfully, and he moved behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist.
“So?” Barry said. “Do you have anything to say for yourself, Dr. Snow?”
“Do I?” she said, leaning into his touch.
“You let your boyfriend be bullied by a five-year-old,” he said. “You have some explaining to do.”
“Not my fault if my boyfriend lets himself get bullied,” she teased. “He should be perfectly capable of taking care of himself.”
“I am, but I need someone to defend my honor.”
“Your honor of being the handsomest man in the universe?”
“Everyone prefers Oliver to me,” he said. “Someone has to prefer me, right?”
“The Flash has an adoring fan club back in Central City,” she said. “I’m sure you can find someone there.”
“I don’t want the vote of my adoring fans,” he said, placing a kiss on her neck. “There’s only one vote that matters.”
She turned around to kiss him on the lips, and then pulled away, smiling. “Voting is a very serious process. I’ll have to think about it first.”
“Mmm,” he said. “Maybe I can facilitate that process with a few bribes.”
“Are you suggesting that I can be bribed?”
“Anyone can be bribed for the right price,” he said languidly. “And I also happen to know what your greatest weakness is, Dr. Snow.”
“Oh? Do enlighten me, Mr. Allen.”
“Your greatest weakness,” he said, against her lips, “is a kiss. And,” he said, pulling back abruptly and looking please when she blinked at the loss of him, “not knowing something. Come on, I’m sure you’re dying to know what Tanya told me.”
“Oh,” Caitlin said. “Not particularly.”
“Not even a little bit?”
She smiled. “No.”
Barry blinked. Was she doing reverse psychology on him now? Darn it. “It’s a very important secret of yours.”
“It doesn’t matter,” she said. “You know all my secrets anyway.”
“Except this one.”
“Is that so?” she said, still smiling. She pulled back a little and ran her hands down his chest. “That makes us even, then.”
“Even?”
“Mmm. I know that you’ve been keeping a secret from me, too.”
“I don’t have secrets,” he said. “I’m the least secretive person in the world.”
“Then allow me direct your attention to your secret,” she said.
“Mmm,” he said dully, distracted by the touch of her hands on his body. “By all means, Dr. Snow.”
She gave him a sly look, her hands trailing down, down, to the waistband of his jeans, and then—
To the pocket of his pants, to the same place where he’d made sure Tanya didn’t sit on earlier. Through the baggy fabric, she traced the outline of a small box, which she might have guessed—and rightly, at that—contained a wedding ring.
He stiffened, his heart caught in his throat, and then he groaned, burying his face in her neck. “It’s impossible to hide anything from you.”
She laughed and kissed his forehead. Her eyes were bright. “You’re just bad at hiding secrets.”
“I was going to ask you tonight,” he mumbled. “After we have dinner on Oliver’s island. It’d be overlooking the beach, and there’ll be lanterns in the sky, and there’s supposed to be music and—”
“Like I said,” she said, “you’re bad at hiding secrets.”
He laughed. “I ruined the surprise, didn’t I? And I spent three months planning thi—wait a minute.” He gave her a suspicious look. “Just how long have you known my secret?”
She gave him a gentle look. “Within the first week of your planning.”
He groaned again. “Am I that bad?”
“A little, yes.” And then, “Do you want to know a secret, Mr. Allen? Since I know yours, I think it’s fair that you should know mine.”
“I like the sound of that.”
She raised herself on her tiptoes and pressed her lips to his ear, her breath tickling the sensitive skin. “Ready?”
He wrapped his arms around her waist, and was inwardly thankful that no one was passing through the dining room just now. “Out with it, Dr. Snow. I’m not a patient man.”
“My answer,” she said, each movement of her lips brushing his skin, “is yes.”
It took a few moments for what she said to sink in, and when it did, his face split into a grin. “Yes?”
“Yes.”
He pulled her close for a long, heated kiss, his hands roaming down her curves through the flimsy fabric of her dress and her hands gripping his shoulders in response, and when she pulled away, to catch her breath, he peppered kisses on her forehead, her eyes, her nose.
“Actually, I don’t think it’s a fair trade,” he said, even as his heart was pounding in his chest. “I already knew that since little fairy told me.”
She laughed. “All right. What do you want to know, Mr. Allen?”
“How long have you known?” he said, grinning. “That you want to marry me.”
“I’ve known for… awhile,” she said.
“How long?” he pressed. “Three months ago?”
“Longer,” she said.
“Six months?” he said playfully, thinking that he himself came to the conclusion that he wanted to marry her at around that time.
“Don’t push your luck, Barry,” she teased, but there was a look on her face that stilled him.
He cupped her face in his hands and looked her in the eye. “Cait? Was it longer than six months ago?”
She smiled, ducked from his gaze, and kissed his jaw. “It was a year and a half ago.”
His breath hitched. “But that was only—”
“Two months after we started dating, I know,” she said softly. “I was already sure then.” And then, with a shrug that conveyed careful nonchalance, she added, “You know me. I’ve always been sure of what I wanted.”
He crushed her into a hug. “God,” he breathed. “I don’t know what I ever did to deserve you.”
“Don’t say that,” she said gently. “I would think the handsomest man in the universe deserves only the best.”
“He doesn’t deserve something that’s worth more than the universe,” he said cheekily, kissing her again. “Nay, not only the universe, but all the universes ever.”
“Multiverse, you mean.”
“Right, that’s what I was trying to say.”
“One would think that you’re not a time- and space-traveling speedster.”
“I don’t care, because haven’t you heard? I’m getting married to the love of my life.”
She laughed. “Sounds like old news, Barry.”
He nuzzled her neck. “You’ll really marry me?”
“Yes.”
“If I ask you again later, will your answer be the same?”
“It’s been the same for a year and a half.”
“If I ask you tomorrow, will your answer be the same?”
Her smile softened. “Barry, my answer will be the same every day for the rest of our lives. I’ll always say yes to you.”
He sighed in contentment, so happy that he could dissolve into a puddle right then and there. “I’d marry you right now if I could. I don’t know why I waited three months to ask.”
“You were under the delusion that you could keep a secret,” she said, patting his cheek. “You’ve only just recovered, so cut yourself some slack.”
He laughed. “Fine, no more secrets from now on.” He held her close. “I love you, Cait. Across the multiverse and back. In all timelines and in all my lifetimes.”
“You are such a sap,” she teased.
“And you’ll have to get used to it,” he said. “You’re stuck with me forever. Imagine the torture, waking up to this gorgeous face every day and being skewered with ‘I love yous’ every ten minutes.”
“Mmm. Guess I’ll have to make do.”
“We’re going to have an absolutely boring existence,” he continued. “You’ll get sick of me one day.”
“I don’t think you can be boring if you tried,” she said dryly. And, with a warm twinkle in her eyes, she whispered, “Besides, I’d be okay with any sort of existence, as long as it’s with you.”
He grinned. “Now who’s the sap?”
“Still you. You’re a bad influence on me.”
“You’re right, I am. In that case, I look forward to thoroughly debauching you.” He left a wet kiss on her throat before blowing on the sensitive skin with his hot breath, and Caitlin let out a small gasp.
“Barry…” she said in warning, “this isn’t our house, and we can’t…”
“Babe, you’re forgetting that I’m a time- and space-traveling speedster,” he purred in her ear before sweeping her into his arms. “I’ll take you back home to debauch you, and we’ll be back before anyone can miss us.”
At the sound of Caitlin’s pleased laughter, Barry thought that despite what Tanya Queen said, speed was definitely the best superpower.
. . .
Felicity and Tanya were making their way back to the dining room when Felicity overheard snatches of her friends’ conversation. All she had to hear was “marry” and “yes” and she knew that it was best to give them some privacy.
Smiling to herself and thinking that it was about time, she took her daughter’s hand and led her to her playroom instead.
“Uncle Berry is gonna marry Aunty Cait, right?” Tanya said conversationally.
Felicity blinked. She didn’t think that Tanya was listening. “Yes, sweetie,” she said. “They love each other very much, so they’re getting married.”
“No, they’re gonna marry ‘cause of me,” she said smugly. “I told Uncle Berry that Aunty Cait wanted to marry him.”
Felicity smiled and crouched to her daughter’s level. “That’s nice, sweetie, but you shouldn’t go around spilling other people’s secrets. Sometimes you have to wait until people are ready to tell them. How would you feel if you told me a secret and I told everyone else?”
“But I don’t have secrets, Mommy. I just have other people’s.”
“Still. Be more careful with other people’s secrets, okay, sweetie?”
Tanya managed to look properly chastised. “Okay.”
“Tell you what,” Felicity said. “If you can be the very best secret keeper in the world, I’m going to ask Uncle Barry and Aunty Cait if you can be the flower girl at their wedding.”
“Flower girl?”
“Yes, sweetie. It’s an honor to be a flower girl. You have to protect Uncle Barry and Aunty Cait from the Trojans, and since you’re the only one who can be invisible, you’re the only one who can do it.”
In Tanya’s mind, Trojans weren’t the malwares from Felicity’s programming language, but rather invisible black entities that sucked all happiness away. Whenever Tanya was feeling down, she blamed it on a Trojan. In a way, that was how her invisibility had started—she’d wanted to battle the invisible enemies that were making her sad or upsetting her. And with her child’s logic, she deduced that if she was invisible she could see the invisible, too, and if she could see them she could defeat them.
She straightened her back and gave a solemn nod. “Okay, Mommy. I’ll be their flower girl.”
“So you’ll keep secrets from now on?”
“Yeah. Or else no one’s gonna protect Uncle Berry and Aunty Cait from the Trojans.”
Felicity smiled and hugged her daughter tight. “That’s my brave girl.”
Tanya was true to her word. From then on, she became a rather accomplished secret-keeper, and at Barry and Caitlin’s wedding day eight months later, she arrived armed with her battered tiara and plastic wand to hold the Trojans at bay. At the end of it she was pleased to announce that she’d defeated them all, and that Barry and Caitlin were free to live their happily-ever-after.
And sure enough, they did.