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Barry and Iris lay, disheveled and flushed on the West’s old picnic blanket, basking in the warmth of that particular February 14th.
Iris giggled out loud, and reached down and found Barry’s hand and squeezed it.
‘Bear?’
‘Yeees, Iris?’
‘This was a good idea, right?’
‘Of course! Who would I want to spend a meaningless, but pleasant excuse for a holiday with but you?’
For a second Iris was downhearted. Barry was the person she wanted to spend this holiday with too, so much. But in a completely different way to the way he seemed to say it.
‘Can you pass me the bottle?’ she said, and he turned towards her and slid the bottle of hay coloured liquid towards her, ‘As you wish, Miss West’. Iris collapsed into giggles again.
She took a swig of the champagne straight from the bottle and wiggled at the pleasant feeling of the champagne popping against her cheeks. She knew that being drunk made her increasingly honest, and she’d had a fair few swigs of that bottle in the time she’d been here for a reason.
Iris had jokingly suggested to Barry that they might (both single) spend their Valentines together, in the field where they used to play when they were young, having a picnic. She was incredibly surprised when Barry had agreed, and even more-so when Barry had come down from his room, dressed in a white shirt and suit pants to take her out. They looked quite the part actually, with her in red lipstick and a bowler hat with her frilliest skirt and a vest on and him looking like a character from a movie. Nevertheless, seeing her Dad wiping away tears and snapping pictures of them on the porch with their arms around each other had made her think.
This was normal for her and Barry. Making fun of couple traditions and it never, ever being weird, but for a long time, Iris had wanted it to be weird. She’d had a crush on Barry ever since he was the boy with more Pokemon cards than her in their class. When they became best friends she felt like she had another part, a partner in life and in crime. She made sure to not say anything when Barry moved in, in case she creeped him out, but in all honesty it was getting to be too much.
Iris was seventeen and Barry was a year older, and moving away in September, and Iris needed to know whether her feelings would ever be returned. So, when Barry had produced a bottle of champagne ‘For traditions sake’, from his black backpack with a flourish, Iris decided today was going to be the day she confessed to Barry.
She sat up, realising if she got any more drunk she was probably going to end up falling asleep before she told Barry and put on her class president voice and spoke.
—————————————
‘Barry Allen’
Yes, Iris West?’
‘Bartholemew Henry Allen’ shouted Iris loudly over his reply, forcing Barry to burst into laughter,
‘Oh my god what? There is absolutely no need to use my first name today’. All Iris can think of is how blissfully happy he looks, and how handsome and broad he’s become, though he’s always been her dream guy.
‘You’ve been the best friend ever hanging out with me on Valentine’s Day’ she starts quietly, kneeling up, ‘And this day has been fantastically amazing for me… It really has, it’s been everything I wanted it to be, I love spending time with you so, so much Barry’, and Barry is kneeling up to match her posture and lifting her chin with his finger clumsily, ‘I am so, so happy you suggested this Iris’, he says in one stream, excitedly. ‘This has probably been the best Valentine’s day of my whole life, it’s been.. so, so carefree, and you’ve been so amazing, you’re… you’re my best friend Iris’.
Iris swats at him, ‘Barry stop being so cheesy! I’m trying to confess my love for you here’ she says laughing, and tickling him, and he laughs too. Then they simultaneously realise Iris’ admission and Iris claps her hands over her mouth. ‘Forget I said that! Where was I?’ and Barry looks as though he can’t believe anything is happening, his mouth hangs in a slightly gormless smile, and his eyes flick from Iris’ eyes to her lips as he mouths, ‘What? You.. you’re trying to…?’ and Iris says,
‘Shut up, Barry! Just let me finish’
‘Iris, I don’t think you realise, I think you may have, I don’t know if you meant it’
‘Shut up, Barry!’ she says, glaring hard at him, and he retreats into his head, his eyes whizzing about and the smile on his face growing with the second. ‘Barry, even though we’re here on Valentines day, and it’s been one of the best days of this year for me. I..I’ve always wanted a slightly different Valentines day for us.’
‘Because you love me’, Barry cuts in, smiling and nodding and sounding happy and choked up, ‘You love me, Iris’, he nods frantically, and picks up her hands and squeezes them hard. ‘Iris, I’ve loved you ever since I saw you in the playground and you were on the swings, and you had this red coat on and some people were being rude to me and you came over and told them exactly why they shouldn’t be, I’ve loved you for so long, and I’ve been so scared of telling you because I was so scared you wouldn’t feel the same way, but.. but you do’, he says.
—————-
‘Barry. You’re messing up my confession’,
‘I’m sorry, I’ll be quiet, tell me all about how much you love me, and want to grow up and get married and have seven kids’
‘Seven!?’
‘So you do want to grow up and get married and have kids!’
‘Barry Allen, you’re the biggest dork I’ve ever met in my life’
‘Is that why you love me so much?’
‘Maybe, I don’t know. But I do know that from the moment I met you, I knew that I had to keep you safe. I knew that keeping you safe was a part of me being safe, and that if you were in my life I didn’t have to worry about being defended, and neither should you.’
Barry leaned over and kissed her softly, prodding her with his tongue. He tasted sticky, and sweet, like the champagne they had been drinking and Iris eagerly let herself be laid out on the blanket, wrapping her legs around him, and melting into Barry.