Chapter Text
Barry dreaded Starling City’s train station on Sundays. It meant dropping Iris off and watching her onto the train and the feeling she was taking half of him with her. He hated arriving there too, the sun already down and the prospect of a whole week ahead of him, which, if he were being honest, was worse than the week itself, but on Sundays, that weighed on his chest and stole his appetite away. So on Sundays, as he stood in the station alone, whether it was after Iris’s visit or arriving back from home, the place felt somehow responsible for all his gloom.
But today was Friday and on Fridays, he loved that train station, and the busy noise, and all the people around, coming and going, and hugging their loved ones.
Iris was arriving at any minute and Barry would have her for two whole days, which didn’t really sound like much but, after two weeks without seeing her, was actually a great deal, especially considering how it was happening a week earlier than normal schedule.
During the first two years of college, Barry lived in the school dorms; freshman year, he had a roommate so it meant no visits from Iris, and sophomore year, he had a room for himself, but it was a little room and they had to share a single bed (which, despite how inviting it sounded, was not actually comfortable especially because Iris, however tiny, enjoyed her space), and Iris would always have to go to another floor to use the bathroom, so she hardly ever came to visit.
But now, now he had his own flat, and bigger bed, and now they could split the visits, which meant Barry would see more of her, which compensated a little bit for the fact that they were so busy with school, and Iris had her job at Jitters, and Barry had his internship, that they barely had time to actually Skype each other.
Some days would go by and they had barely even texted.
Still, once every three weeks, however an improvement for his monthly visits during the first two years, still wasn’t enough, not for Barry anyway.
But Iris seemed to think it was, so Barry never suggested extra visits, and he tried not to bother her too much, filtering the content of what he allowed himself to actually text her, because she definitely didn’t need to know how many times throughout the day he felt sleepy.
But today, she had texted him to inform him she was on the train, a week earlier, because she missed him, and Barry was suddenly jittery, waiting for 7:45 to arrive so he could leave to the station to pick her up, and not even tidying around the house seemed to make time pass by.
He got to the station 20 minutes earlier so he had time to get her some mini brownies from the bakery close by that Iris really liked, and then he sat on the bench where they always met, waiting and trying to control his jumpy knees.
And Barry actually thought the distance would make things easier. When he was deciding where to apply to college, Iris wanted to stay in Central City, stay with Joe, despite their fights, despite the fact that he didn’t approve of what she had decided for her life, so she changed that and she stayed, and Barry needed desperately to escape; escape from the town where his mom died and where his dad was locked, escape from the girl he loved so desperately, escape from her smiles and her eyes.
He thought the distance would help, that he would meet someone else, and fall in love, and not think about Iris all the time, and not compare whoever that was to Iris all the time.
But then he saw her smiling, big and bright, walking towards him and she gave him one of her jump-hugs and, once again, he was reminded of how mistaken he was.
And Barry had found he liked his place better when Iris was around; he enjoyed the way she spread her stuff everywhere and complained about the fact that the two drawers he had given her were not enough. When she wasn’t around everything that actually belonged to her and stayed, like the toothbrush besides his and her shampoo besides his, would seem too bittersweet, like something forgotten, carbon proof she had been there, would be there, but then she arrived and they would go back to being her stuff, and the bathroom would smell like her shampoo again.
He also liked watching her being, and the way she moved, bare feet and comfortable clothes, the way she opened the fridge and complained about him moving stuff from their original place, like she was at home.
Now she dropped herself on the sofa, swinging her feet over his lap, her cup of tea completely forgotten on the coffee table; Iris was never much of a tea person anyway, but it was too late to drink coffee, so he managed to convince her otherwise.
Barry spent the evening avoiding asking her why. He was afraid that if he pointed out that she came a week earlier, Iris would never be a week earlier again. He was afraid of pushing her to the point where she would notice it, would find it too weird, to the point where it would ruin things.
It being the fact he was in love with her.
Barry noticed when he was 13. He knew that not everybody could see how pretty Iris was way before that, he also knew she was the most beautiful person he would ever see. He even knew he wanted to kiss her since he was about 10, that was when he figured out he wanted to kiss at all, they were at the playground two blocks away from his old house and Iris was in the swing by his. She swung higher and higher and Barry stopped to watch it, then she jumped, landing gracefully, in a way Barry himself would never be able to accomplish, and the rays of sun glowed on her cheeks and her lips and Barry grew warm thinking how he would like to press his lips on her cheeks and her lips, and since then, he never really wanted to kiss anyone else like he wanted to kiss her. He knew he loved her, that after his mom died she became the most important person in his life, but he only realised that that was him, being in love with her, later on.
But then she had her legs on his lap and sleep filled her eyes, closing her lids, and then his curiosity surpassed his fear and he asked;
“So, did you have a fight with Joe or you were just tired of Central City?”
“Neither,” she told him opening her eyes; “I just missed you,” she said, like it was the easiest thing.