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“Barry, can you help Wally and I decorate?” Iris asked gently, breaking Barry from whatever daydream he was lost in.
Barry nodded, giving Iris a smile as he stood off the couch and started digging through one of the boxes on the floor. They worked in silence for a bit, Barry’s mind once again wandering as he hung ornaments on the tree. It would be the first Christmas since they met that Barry wouldn’t be spending it with his husband, Oliver. It bummed him out quite a bit, but Barry knew what they were signing up for when Oliver enlisted in the army.
Oliver loved his country almost as much as he loved Barry, and he was always willing to fight for what was right. When the opportunity to join came up, he had decided to take it. Him and Barry had talked about it for a while, and as much as Barry didn’t want to see him leave, he knew he couldn’t stop Oliver from wanting to do something. They were engaged at the time, and had to bump up the wedding date, but Barry didn’t mind at all. To him, it didn’t matter where and when he married Oliver, just that he would.
Oliver had missed his birthday, but he did send a letter so Barry would know he didn’t completely forget. He was home for their first anniversary, but he had said apologetically that he would be missing Christmas this year. Barry didn’t know where in the world Oliver was, but Oliver always seemed to remember his life at home. Between video calling Barry, Thea, and Moira, Barry was a little surprised he still found time to write a letter here and there with everything he was doing. Barry couldn’t have been prouder of his husband, but he still missed him all the same.
Iris, Cisco, and Caitlin had all been there the day after Barry learned the news Oliver wouldn’t be home for the holidays. Since then, they had been doing everything in their power to keep his mind off of it. And while he truly did appreciate it, the distractions only helped until he was crawling in his cold bed at night. He had gotten a cat not too long ago, but the small creature could only do so much until he had Oliver in his arms.
Decorating the house for Christmas didn’t take too long. There were a lot of decorations in the West house, but with three people, it didn’t take nearly as long to do it. Wally had wandered back up to his room to take a nap, and Iris was texting her own husband, Eddie. Barry was meeting up with Caitlin and Cisco at Caitlin’s later, but that still left about an hour for himself.
“Hey kids. Where’s Wally?” Joe asked, walking through the front door and seeing two out of three of his children sitting in the living room.
“He’s taking a nap. Apparently sleeping in and a cup of coffee did nothing to help him wake up,” Barry joked.
“He stayed up late last night working on a school project, so I'm not too surprised to hear that he’s tired,” Joe stated, walking further into the living room. “The house looks great. You three did a great job.”
“Thank you,” Iris said with a grin. “There's more decorations than I remember there being.”
“Because you kids would always just decorate the tree and leave everything else to me,” Joe said with a chuckle, sitting down in the recliner. “So, what your guys’ plans for Christmas this year?”
“Eddie and I will probably be over sometime around noon. We’re exchanging gifts and having a big breakfast,” Iris said with a grin.
“I will probably be here sometime in the morning,” Barry said, a somewhat sad smile on his face. “Unlike Iris, I have no Christmas morning plans.” He forced a chuckle out before running a hand down his face.
“Bear...” Iris said softly, gently squeezing his shoulder. “You know you’re always welcome to stay with us on Christmas.”
“Or you can stay here,” Joe offered. “You’ll be here in the morning anyway, might as well save yourself the trip. You can bring Scarlett, too. Cecile probably loves that cat just as much as you, anyway.”
Barry chuckled. “Yeah. I’m scared one of these days she’s going to kidnap my cat without me realising.” He gave them both a smile. “I appreciate the offers, but I don’t mind being in the apartment by myself. I’m used to it, anyway.”
Later that afternoon, Barry sat in front of his laptop nervously. Oliver would be calling him any minute, and he ached to hear Oliver’s voice. The minute the Skype call came up, Barry was instantly answering it.
“Hi, Ollie,” he greeted, smiling.
“Hi, baby,” Oliver replied, his voice sending goosebumps down Barry’s spine. Despite being together for five years, hearing Oliver’s low voice never failed to make him shiver. Barry guessed the reason why Oliver was trying to be quiet was because of the late hour where he was. “I’ve missed you. How are you?"
“I’ve missed you, too,” Barry replied, biting his bottom lip a little. “And I’m okay. Wish you were here for Christmas. It’s going to be weird not having your Christmas pancakes this year.”
“I know, Bear, I’m sorry. If there was a way I could come home for the holidays, I would.”
“I know that. I’m sorry for being such a downer right now, I just miss you. I haven’t gotten to see you since our anniversary in May.” Barry pouted a little. “I love you.”
Oliver grinned. “I love you, too. So, anything new at CCPD?”
They spent the next hour and a half chatting before Oliver had to dismiss himself for the night to get some sleep. Barry felt bad for keeping him, but talking to him never failed to make him feel infinitely better. Sleep that night was as rough as it usually was, but he still fell asleep with a smile on his face and their conversation still playing fresh in his mind.
~*~
On Christmas morning, Barry woke up as he expected to, and how he had been for months now. The bed was cold save for where he lay, and the wood floors were cold to the touch. After slipping on a pair of socks, Barry made his way into the kitchen where he stopped when he saw Caitlin and Iris cooking in his kitchen.
“Um. Good morning?” he said, confused as he walked further into the room. “Not that I don’t love seeing you two, but shouldn’t you both be home with your husbands?”
“Ronnie and Eddie are both wrapping some last-minute gifts,” Iris said with a wave of her hand. “I remember you saying once that Oliver always made this big pancake breakfast every Christmas morning, so I volunteered Caitlin to help me make something since pancakes are one of the few things I burn every time I try to make it.”
“We even made you some coffee,” Caitlin said, handing him a mug. “And because we’ve all known you for years, it’s even made the way you like.”
“Oh. Thank you,” Barry said, a grin on his face. “You know you two didn’t have to go through all this trouble just because Oliver is elsewhere this Christmas.”
“We know.” Iris was smiling, and Barry couldn’t help but smile back. Her smile was infectious. “We also know how hard it is being away from Oliver, and how hard today will be for you, so we wanted to try and make things better for you today as much as possible.”
“Thank you,” Barry said once more. He stood up and hugged Iris before hugging Caitlin. “It means a lot to me.”
“Of course,” Caitlin said. Her phone chimed with a couple messages, resulting in her pulling her phone out to read them. “Hey, is it alright if Cisco joins us for breakfast? I mentioned something about doing this to him earlier, and he doesn’t have anything else going on until the party tonight.”
“Yeah, of course,” Barry replied. He took a sip of his coffee and hummed softly. “How do you make my coffee better than I do?”
Laughing, Iris just gently pinched Barry’s cheek before heading back to the stove to finish making the bacon.
The rest of the day passed smoothly for Barry. Barry and Iris went over to the West house where they met Eddie and they exchanged gifts as a family. There was a pang when Barry saw gifts underneath the tree with Oliver’s name on them. He would be home just shortly after the new year and they would give him the gifts then. But seeing them there now made Barry realise just how much he wished Oliver was with them. Iris caught on rather quickly and easily distracted Barry with something else, and they all enjoyed their Christmas day before the others would be arriving that night.
When the others did get there, Barry wasn’t sitting anywhere near the Christmas tree. There were a few more gifts for Oliver sitting under there, and Barry liked pretending that Oliver wasn’t missing from the scene. After all the gifts were open and they were all messing with their new items, Joe went into the kitchen to make hot chocolate for them all.
Ronnie suddenly walked through the front door, making Barry wonder when he left. He had a grin on his face and was looking right at Barry. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see other people struggling to contain their own grins.
“So, Barry,” Ronnie announced, standing by the couch. “We all know how difficult it’s been for you since Oliver’s been out, so we thought we would surprise you this Christmas. It took a lot of effort and bribing to keep quiet, but it was worth all of the effort it took.”
Suddenly Oliver was walking through the front door, shaking off snow. Barry was frozen in his spot, his eyes filling with tears when he saw his husband standing there. Quickly, he stood up and was enveloping Oliver in a hug, crying into the man’s winter jacket.
“Shh, I’m right here,” Oliver said, pressing a kiss to the side of Barry’s head.
“I thought you weren’t supposed to come home until later,” Barry said, pulling back to look at Oliver.
“I was able to get an earlier trip back,” he said, rubbing Barry’s back. “Are you surprised to see me?”
“Yes,” Barry said, crying again as he pulled Oliver in for a kiss. “I love you.”
“I love you, too, baby,” Oliver murmured against his lips. “I told you I wouldn’t miss any holidays with you.”
“You made that promise when we were dating,” Barry said with a laugh, pulling away so Oliver could take his coat off, but still staying near him.
“I still kept it, didn’t I?” Oliver asked, smirking. They made their way to the couch where Barry easily curled into him.
“Whose idea was this?” Barry asked, furrowing his eyebrows.
“Mainly mine,” Iris spoke up, smirking a little. “When I heard about Oliver not being able to make it home for the holidays, I contacted him to see if there was any way he could move it. It actually wasn’t until a few weeks ago when he was given the okay to come home. His flight was this morning. Eddie and Ronnie were picking him up when we were eating.”
“Then why wait until now to show up?” Barry asked.
“I wasn’t lying about the boys needing to do some last-minute wrapping,” Iris said with a laugh.
Oliver grabbed one of the presents that was under the tree, the familiar wrapping paper telling Barry that Oliver was hiding at Ronnie and Caitlin’s for the day. “I had to make a quick trip home for some parts of this, but.”
Barry opened the gift and he felt tears come back when he saw what it was. “How did you have the time to make a photo album?”
“I’ve been at Caitlin’s since this morning putting it together,” Oliver said, wrapping an arm around Barry as the latter flipped through it.
It was mostly the two of them, but there were also some with friends and family. Barry found himself laughing when he saw old photos during the time the two had only just got together. “Oh my god, I forgot how long your hair was before you enlisted,” he said with a chuckle, looking at one of the photos from their college days.
“You used to tease me for it,” Oliver said, laughing. “Said I looked like a frat boy.”
“Because you did! And you were a frat boy, if you remember. I remember being so surprised that a frat boy wanted to go out with me.” Barry laughed, eyes scanning over the photos. “Hard to believe we’ve been together for six years.”
“And married for one,” Oliver added, kissing his cheek.
Barry smiled, looking up and kissing Oliver. “Thank you. And yes, thank you, Iris.” Barry kissed Oliver again. “I love you.”
“I love you, too, Bear. Now and for forever.”