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Barry doesn’t remember the exact moment he knew he was in love with Iris, but he knows that whatever he felt when he got to hold her hand is what love is to him.
He remembers first grade, and all the times he got bullied, but he never fought back. He never wanted to hurt anyone. He just let it happen because he wanted to be the bigger person, and he didn’t have to impress his best friend. She would always pick him up and tell them to ignore them. She never once made him feel any less then he already did. When she took his hand sometimes Barry felt like he could do anything. He had his Iris nothing else mattered.
He remembers high school and how a lot had changed. It was hard for him to cope with losing his mother and his father in jail and living with Iris made things harder for him. He was still not sure what this feeling was, but whenever she took his hand in anything they did together he wondered if she felt those butterflies too. Iris had a boyfriend in high school, and then one day she didn’t and she came home crying. Barry was there for her, taking her hand and holding it as tightly as he could being the good friend that he was and let her vent and let it all out. He never over stepped. He just wanted to hold her hand. His heart beat out of his chest and he said one day...
He remembers a day in the past, and it’s just the two of them at McDonalds sharing nuggets and fries and she reaches to take his hands from across the table and they just look at each other. Barry doesn’t know what it is, or why she’s doing it but he never questions it. He doesn’t have to. He knows she doesn’t feel that way about him yet, but she’s there for him just like she always his.
It’s their wedding day and they get to hold hands for that brief moment and every single moment they Barry got to hold her hand is a reminder that because of he is alive, he is Barry Allen, and he needs nothing else but his Iris, forever.