Work Text:
Tell me do you think it'd be all right
If I could just crash here tonight
Barry awakes to a knock at the door. The TV has turned itself off, and he realizes that he must’ve fallen asleep while watching Iron Man with Joe. There is a red blanket around him, and as he sits up to answer the door, he realizes it is from his old bed set. The house is dark and he almost trips over the rug in front of the door, but he makes it there nevertheless.
He doesn’t know who he’s expecting on the other side of the door, and frankly he’s a little too tired to think about it that much. He knows he does not expect to see Felicity Smoak on the other side of the door.
Her blonde hair is down and slightly messed up, and she’s soaked from the rain that’s been pouring all night. Felicity’s usual dresses and skirts have been traded for a pair of jeans and a soft green sweater that looks like it might be suffering from permanent water damage.
“Felicity…” he starts, not quite believing his eyes. “Wh- what are you doing here? Did something happen?”
“Sorry to bother you this late, but I had to. Well I didn’t really have to - sorry, that sounded like something life-or-death was happening, which is usually the case when we see each other, but it’s not - at least not that I know of - but you never really know with the kind of life I lead and… Well, I’m here for work… with Palmer Technologies, which used to be Queen Consolidated but… isn’t anymore because Ray Palmer took it over, and he’s why I’m here, because we were supposed to share a hotel suite. Not like share share it; he was supposed to be on the couch and I was supposed to be on the bed, and the room was fairly large so it wasn’t like anything… anyway, he’s kind of being an ass and I am not in the mood to talk to him, especially after I kind of stormed out of a meeting with him and the executives from Gotham… Can I stay here?”
Barry is still half asleep, and Felicity’s blabbering isn’t doing anything to help that, but he’s gotten the general gist of what she’s asking, and frankly, he’s too tired to offer to run her to Starling City, so he says the first thing that comes to mind; “I’ll have to ask Joe, but I’m sure he’ll be fine with it. I slept on the couch tonight, so you can have my room.”
“Thanks, Barry.”
He may be too tired to run her to Starling City, but he does have enough energy to walk her up the stairs to his room and point out a bathroom.
You can see I'm in no shape for driving
And anyway I've got no place to go
He’s gathering some sheets from the bathroom closet, because he’s pretty sure Felicity doesn’t want to sleep on his old rocket sheets from his teenage years, when he hears her voice come from the other room. She’s being quiet, so as not to wake Joe, but he hears her anyway.
“There aren’t any trains leaving this time of night.” Her voice sounds more broken and fragile than it did when she was explaining herself at the front door, and Barry wonders what exactly happened.
When he comes back into the room, however, she does not look like she especially wants to talk about it, so he pretends that he doesn’t notice her shaky tone of voice and the tears clouding the corners of her eyes behind her glasses.
“Seems to be a common problem. Happened to me the first time I was in Starling.” He takes a deep breath, realizing she might not want to talk about Starling, since the people who she left behind there might be the very reason she is so close to crying. “But you already knew that, because thats why you could shoot me with a knock-out dart.”
She smiles. “Actually, it was Dig who shot you, not me. I can’t shoot anything for the life of me. Except a gun, but I’m pretty sure everyone can shoot a gun.”
“And I really wasn’t in the mood to take a cab all the way to Starling.”
“You know you don’t need to justify your reasoning for me, Felicity. You’re a friend and I’m helping you. Its as simple as that.”
“Thanks, Barry. And not just for the sheets,” she whispers, pointing at the soft grey comforter that he has just placed down on the bed.”
“You’re welcome.” He smiles genuinely for the first time since he told Iris he was in love with her. “Oh, and I think Iris left some of her clothes in her old room when she moved out, so if you want to change out of that drowned sweater…”
“Right… thanks.”
“I’ll be downstairs if you need anything.”
He pads quietly down the old oak steps, and wonders when his life got so complicated.
And you know it might not be that bad
You were the best I'd ever had
When telling Felicity she could stay the night, he had completely spaced on how awkward the next morning would be.
Especially when it came down to explaining everything to Joe.
He wakes up when the older man nudges him awake. “Um, Barry,” he whispers. “Am I hallucinating or is there a girl in our kitchen foraging through our cabinets?”
“Oh yeah.” He grumbles, waving his hand in the area he thinks Joe’s face is, since his eyes are still closed and he plans to sleep until Star Labs calls him to ask where he is. “Thats Felicity.”
“I may be getting old, Barry, but I definitely don’t recall there being a girl over here last night.”
Apparently, Felicity hears that comment. “Oh, no, Mr. West. I was not over here last night. Well, I mean I was, but not in the way you are thinking. Not that I wouldn’t, because Barry here really is quite attractive. I mean I wouldn’t. But it’s not like he can’t have girls over. Unless you’ve said he can’t, in which case… I should stop talking.”
That causes Barry to open his eyes and sit up. Felicity is not really doing a good job at explaining the situation. “What Felicity is trying to say,” he starts, “is that she needed a place to stay because she’s in town for work and was too late to get a train back to Starling City.”
“Yep.” She pops the p when she says it. She then sticks her face out of the cupboard she’s been hiding her head in. “Do you guys have a waffle-maker?”
Joe just shakes his head at the whole situation. “I’m going to work. You kids have fun.” He says fun like he means something else. Like he didn’t get the whole speech Felicity had just given on that subject. To be fair, Barry had barely gotten that speech.
Felicity goes bright red. “He did hear what I said, right?”
Barry just shrugs.
“Not that I wouldn’t sleep with you, obviously. No, I don’t mean it like that, but, if I’m being honest, you’re up there on the list of guys I would sleep with. And my foot is going in my mouth now.”
Surprisingly, the comment doesn’t really shock him. They’ve both reached an understanding in the past few times that she’s visited Central City that they both are attracted to each other, and up there on their respective lists, as Felicity had put it, they just don’t love each other the way they love other people.
“Its okay, Felicity, I get it.”
And he does, really, but she’s wearing a pair of Iris’ pajama pants from highschool and the grey camisole he had seen peeking out under her green sweater last night, and seeing something of Iris’ on her makes him want to rethink the whole debacle.
Because its been his dream for a while to wake up with a girl wearing Iris’ clothes in his kitchen after the night had taken an unexpected turn. Of course, in those dreams, he had imagined the girl being Iris. He had also imagine the unexpected turn being something other than Felicity Smoak showing up at his door at 2 in the morning.
He sees the coffee pot, and it is brewing a cup, even though Felicity already has one in her hand, and he thinks that might be why her babbling is even more excessive than usual.
“I think the reason you’re probably still on it is that you were, by far, the best guy I’ve ever had. And by had I mean kissed. And not had had. Not that I’ve really had had a guy since college…”
“You were definitely the girl I’ve had the most success with in a while.” Barry chimes in so Felicity doesn’t stick her foot in her mouth for the third time since she arrived less than 6 hours ago. “No unrequited pining… no keeping giant secrets…”
“No brooding its too dangerous for me to be with you talks,” Felicity counters back, “No dying and coming back to life…”
“No watching them fawn over other people.”
“Well we had that, but I think there was an understanding on that.”
There is a pause in their conversation as the coffee-maker beeps and Felicity brings her second cup of hot caffeine to her lips. Barry uses this pause to bring some frozen waffles out of the freezer. Five boxes of frozen waffles, actually. Felicity doesn’t even question it.
He likes this. He likes not having to hide that he runs super fast or that he needs to eat all the time. He likes that he doesn’t really have to hide anything from Felicity.
Then he notices her playing with a silver necklace around her neck. It looks slightly like an arrowhead, and he wonders if its a present from Oliver.
“So how is Oliver Queen now that he’s not dead?”
If I hadn't blown the whole thing years ago
I might not be alone
The thing is, they never intended to give everybody the wrong impression.
Felicity is talking animatedly about how frustrating Oliver is being, and how incredibly aggravating Ray is being after she’s cleared her third cup of coffee and he’s wolfed down his eighth mega-sized waffle when Iris walks through the door.
And stops dead in her tracks.
They both know what this looks like. And maybe Barry is only being hopeful, but something flashes in Iris’ eyes, something that looks slightly like irritation.
And maybe he’s being vindictive and bitter and jealous, but he decides to play it up a bit. By playing it down and acting like this is not an incredibly big deal, because its not every day that girls stay the night with Barry Allen.
“You remember Felicity, right?”
Iris smiles at the blonde, and Felicity smiles her you-cut-off-my-angry-rant-and-I-am-slightly-angry-with-you-for-that smile. “Hi, Iris.” She salutations in a voice that indicates that Iris has just interrupted something. She probably has no idea how Iris is taking this whole situation. For once, Barry is incredibly glad for Felicity’s tendency to throw in Freudian slips.
“Hi Felicity. Are those my old pajama pants?”
“Oh sorry,” she responds, “my clothes were kind of ruined and Barry said I could wear some of yours since I didn’t really have anything else. If you couldn’t tell, this,” she gestures to him then, “wasn’t really planned.”
“Oh?” Iris asks, her voice an octave higher than usual.
“You don’t mind, do you?” Barry queries.
“No, not at all. I was… just stopping by to see if you wanted to… nevermind. You’re obviously busy.”
“A bit.” Felicity counters, obviously still slightly upset that she was interrupted mid-rant
“Well, I’ll be going then.” Iris responds, her voice slightly tighter than usual. “See you later, Barry.”
She gives another smile that doesn’t quite reach her eyes and then turns around and walks out the door.
Tomorrow we can drive around this town
And let the cops chase us around
The past is gone but something might be found
To take its place...hey jealousy
As soon as Iris shuts the door, Felicity turns to him. “For someone who is living with her boyfriend, she seemed pretty upset about you having a girl over.”
“Yeah… about that…”
“And I didn’t see you correcting her either.”
“Um…”
“Its okay, Barry. It’s refreshing for people to think I’m sleeping with someone other than Oliver Queen.”
He laughs at that.
“I guess I’m heading back to Starling City tonight instead of this morning, just in case she stops by again.”
“I guess you are.”
She heads upstairs to change and shower, while Barry cleans up the kitchen quickly.
And then, of course, Caitlin calls him and tells him they need him because there’s a car chase happening seventeen blocks away and the police cars are fast, but he’s faster.
An hour later they are racing down the streets of Central City, because Felicity just had to convince Dr. Wells it was a good idea for her to try and hack the super-tech weapon that the criminal they are chasing is using, but she can only hack it from a certain distance, and the car is moving pretty fast. Not as fast as Barry, but pretty fast.
Also there’s the matter that there are police cars also chasing this car, and who are shooting their guns not exactly caring whether or not they hit the Flash as long as they hit the windshield of the camaro that the super-weapon wielder is driving.
Also there are news helicopters circling. And Felicity’s phone is ringing.
She tells him she’s pretty sure that it’s Oliver because she is currently being carried around bridal style by the Flash on live television.
Also, they’re both honestly having a blast.
She’s almost in. And then she is. And then she tells Barry to run and run far because she may have caused the gun to shoot the camaro, which is in turn going to explode very soon. So he drops her off in a field, and then, because he’s selfless and stupid, goes back to rescue the very cops who were just shooting at him.
He kind of wishes they would do this together more often. Not the lets-not-tell-Iris-that-we’re-not-sleeping-with-each-other stuff, but the working together on cases stuff.
He always likes that when they do that together.
He’s liked that since he went to Starling City for the first time and they flirted with each other despite still being obviously and totally in love with other people. He likes flirting with her despite being in love with Iris, and she’s told him multiple times that she enjoys it too. Maybe they enjoy it because its nice to think that they have other options than the paths of the heart that they’re currently going down.
Then his phone is the one pinging because Iris has posted something on her Facebook page. He checks as soon as he races over to where he’d left Felicity. Its a picture of her kissing Eddy, and it bothers him.
“What are you looking at?” Felicity asks. She peeks over his red-leathered shoulder. “Hey jealousy, calm down.” She teases, “Remember who was practically choking this morning.”
He smiles at her then.
And you can trust me not to think
And not to sleep around
If you don't expect too much from me
You might not be let down
Before Felicity goes to catch her train, they stop at Jitters. Mostly because he’s pretty sure she’s a coffee addict. Partly because he wants to see Iris again just to make sure he wasn’t imagining things earlier that morning.
Iris is acting more normal, which makes him think he may have imagined earlier, but it could have something to do with the fact that 1.) Felicity is wearing her own clothes again, 2.) she is talking to Oliver on the phone as they walk in, or 3.) Iris was reminded that she has a boyfriend and shouldn’t feel jealous if her best guy friend is moving on from her.
“I’m fine Oliver, I swear. If you want you can ask Barry. Yes, I know I was supposed to be back today but I missed my train. No, I haven’t seen Ray since I stormed out of that press conference. Okay. I’ll be back soon. Promise. Bye.”
She’s blushing when she hangs up the phone. And her hands have drifted back to the arrowhead necklace she’s wearing. Still, she notices Iris and immediately links hands with Barry. He’s glad for that. They both know the gesture is totally platonic, but Iris doesn’t need to know that.
“Did you kids have fun?” She asks as they come up to the counter.
“I’ve had a lot of fun.” Felicity answers, “how about you Barry?”
“Yeah.” He smirks. “I would say I had my fair share of fun.”
“How long are you staying in town, Felicity?”
“Actually, I’m leaving tonight. Got to get back to work and everything. It was nice to see you though. I don’t get down here enough.”
“Maybe next time you can bring Oliver again…” Iris hints…
“Maybe I will.” Felicity smiles, and her hands are around the arrowhead again.
“Anyway, what can I get the two of you?”
They sit across from each other at Jitters, and Iris comes over to sit with them too, since she’s on break. Felicity is telling the story of how she walked out on the business meeting, and Barry knows she’s about to spill the beans that she didn’t really sleep over sleep over last night, but he’s surprisingly okay with it, because this charade has gone on too long.
He watches Iris and Felicity talk, and think about how right this part of his life feels. It gets even more so as he gets a call from Caitlin about Dr. Wells wanting to test his speed for the day. He wishes he could tell Iris. Then everything would work out just the way it should.
You might even call it perfectly perfect.
And all without him and Felicity needing to date each other.
That doesn’t mean she won’t always be there for him though. And he’s, in return, always there for her. Like he was last night. Neither of them is expecting a relationship, or anything except for friendship and trust, and he likes that. He likes that a lot. He likes having a female friend who isn’t the girl he’s in love with or his… whatever Caitlin is to him.
“So wait…?” Iris asks. “You guys aren’t hooking up?”
“Sorry for the let down.” Barry smiles. “I know how much you wanted us to get together.”
“But I kind of have a thing I’m dealing with in Starling.”
Iris raises her eyebrows at that, and he knows she’s remembering Oliver Queen sitting across from Felicity at this exact table.
“Yeah,” Barry interjects, “and, if you couldn’t tell, she’s not really the type to sleep around.”
“I didn’t think she was.”
Cause all I really want is to be with you
Feeling like I matter too
If I hadn't blown the whole thing years ago
I might be here with you
He visits her again on the train ride home.
They don’t kiss this time, they just talk, and its nice.
“You know, I’d forgotten how much fun it is to go to Central City and talk to people who actually speak my language.”
“Its pretty fun to talk to someone other than my team who thinks what I’m doing matters. There hasn’t really been much of that since the Flash hurt Eddie.”
“Iris still mad at him?”
“Yeah, but its okay, that guy’s kind of a jerk.”
She laughs at that one.
“Remember last time we said goodbye.”
“How could I forget? I got a kiss from the one superhero the best friend of said superhero is in love with.”
“She’s not in love with me. And she’s not in love with the Flash either.”
“Look, keeping secrets isn’t good for relationships. If I were you, I’d tell her. And not casually either, give her a big dramatic reveal.” She starts fidgeting with her ashen bag then, and she purses her peach lips looking guilty about something. “Or, I mean, you could just make a lot of puns relating to speed and lightning and stuff, and then after about a week of super obvious puns just give the dramatic reveal.”
“Okay, now you’re just joking.”
“Pretty quick to catch on there, mister. Brain as fast as lightning right there. Its like it just came to you in a flash.”
“Do you do this with Oliver too?”
“Goodness no; Oliver would not appreciate that. You, on the other hand, you will not pierce me with arrows when I make bad puns relating to your not-so-secret identity.”
“I really doubt he would ever pierce you with an arrow, Felicity.” And now he’s no longer joking.
“No, but he might shoot you in the back with a few if he finds out about the little ruse we pulled on Iris.”
“Are you implying that that was payback for me kissing you that one time?”
“I am implying that sometimes my babbling gets a little out of hand when I’ve had two glasses of white wine.”
Barry looks at her with mock betrayal. “Now thats just not fair. If I’m remembering correctly, you kissed me back.”
Her face gets dangerously close to his, and, if she were anyone else, he might think she was trying to kiss him again, but he knows that this gesture is plainly platonic. “He’s just jealous because we’re so perfectly perfect for each other.”
“Hey jealousy jealous?”
“You do know I got that from a song by the Gin Blossoms, right?”
Tomorrow we can drive around this town
And let the cops chase us around
The past is gone but something might be found
To take its place...hey jealousy
And they both really should know better than to try and incur Oliver Queen’s wrath upon Barry Allen again, especially since he’s already pissed enough that Felicity left him in Starling City to go to Central City with Ray Palmer of all people. Although, in the guy’s defense, Barry doesn’t fully understand Oliver’s intense dislike of this man. He’ll just blame jealousy for now.
So, to commemorate the past day of debauchery and tricking other people into thinking they’re a couple, and because Oliver is trying to call Felicity as they speak and Barry knows he’s already in hot water so he might as well make it even hotter (he has super healing; he’ll be fine), so they decide to take a picture and send it to Oliver.
Felicity first sends a text saying “its just one kiss don’t hurt him too much.”
They don’t even give Oliver time to process or respond before Felicity leans over with her phone and gives Barry a big kiss on the cheek and takes a picture.
She posts it on Instagram and doesn’t give a caption, and only tags the location as “hey jealousy.”
Then they take one of him kissing her on the cheek and he posts a matching one with a matching tag.
Oliver calls as soon as its posted.
Hey jealousy indeed.
Star Labs calls soon thereafter.
And they both have to go their separate ways.
But not before they sit across from each other with their faces really close and both smiling really big because, despite the fact that at first they flirted and kissed and tried so hard to be each other’s romantic options, they have found a friendship with each other, and a pretty amazing one at that.
“I’m going to have to answer Oliver eventually.”
“And I really should go to Star Labs because I think that robbery downtown is getting kind of out of hand.”
“You should do that.” they both answer at the same time.
And there they go again. Perfectly perfect.
So they speed off in different directions, and he thinks about telling Iris who he is, and she thinks about telling Oliver how she feels about him like really truly telling him.
And yeah, next time he sees Oliver, he gets three arrows in his back instead of two. But really, it was worth it based on what Felicity describes his reaction as.
Hey Jealousy indeed.