Chapter Text
It was early Christmas morning and Barry couldn't even begin to imagine a better way to wake up, couldn't remember a Christmas morning that had started out so beautifully. He wasn't quite sure how long he had been awake, all he knew was that he had spent his time since waking up by watching his girlfriend sleep in his arms. His girlfriend, Iris Anne West—the most beautiful girl in the world, who he still could not believe wanted to be with him.
They had just spent their first night together in their new apartment. The living space was currently unfurnished, which meant that the couple had slept in a makeshift bed the two had put together the previous night using a blowup air mattress, pillows, and what Barry deemed to be a mountain of blankets. But Iris got cold easily, and so for her sake, he had brought several extra blankets. Even with all of the extra blankets covering them, Iris was still curled up against him for warmth, her nose nuzzled into the crook of his neck with both of his long arms wrapped tightly around her small frame holding her close to him.
Barry guessed that it was around nine in the morning when Iris began to wake up. He felt her breath tickle the skin on his neck as she sighed in contentment before, somehow, managing to press herself even closer to him—not that he was complaining of course. He placed a gentle kiss on the top of her head, and she returned it by placing a kiss of her own just above his collar bone.
"Morning, Bear." His girlfriend said sleepily into his neck, and he could feel her smile softly against him.
"Hey." He laughed softly. "Merry Christmas Iris."
"Hmm." She hummed. "It is Christmas isn't it?"
"It is. That's kind of why we're sleeping on an air mattress in an empty new apartment. Remember?" Barry reminded her.
"Oh yea." Iris smiled. "And I still have to give you your Christmas present. Which, you know, what's a wallet in comparison? But still."
"Hey, I already love that wallet, Iris." The speedster reassured her. "And I will put your picture in it and show both you and the wallet off with pride."
She giggled and looked up, moving to press her lips to his in a gentle kiss. "You're a dork Barry Allen. You know that, right?"
"I'm pretty sure we already established that when we were twelve." He teased with a laugh. “So um, about this amazing wallet. When do I get to actually see it?”
Iris smiled at him playfully. “I don’t know. Maybe tonight at my dad’s before dinner. It is, technically, still under his tree.”
“That’s your fault for not bringing it with you last night.”
“How was I suppose to know you were going to speed me off to our new apartment?” She laughed. “Or that you bought us a new apartment, for that matter. And here all I got you was a stupid wallet.”
“Ah, a stupid, amazing wallet.” He reminded her helpfully.
“Dork.” She laughed, pressing another kiss to his lips—a gesture which he happily returned.
“Again, we established this years ago.” Barry said against her lips.
“Shut up, dork.” She replied before silencing him with another kiss.
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The couple soon found themselves curled up in bed once again, now empty plates set aside on the floor, as they watched the snow fall outside their bedroom window. Barry had had to run to grab them a change of clothes and their toiletries like toothpaste, tooth brushes, hair brushes, and other similar items—since all either of them had to wear was last night’s dinner attire. Once dressed, Barry had slipped away long enough to swipe the necessary cooking utensils from Iris’ old apartment, before disappearing again to grab the ingredients to make the pancakes. It was tradition, after all. Every Christmas morning since Barry had moved in with the West, and longer than that for her, their little family would get up early to open Christmas presents and make breakfast together—and it was always mint chocolate pancakes. Joe and Barry had always deemed the “Christmas pancakes” because of the mint pieces reminding them of candy canes, and Iris deemed them her favorite pancakes simply because they were “deliciously yummy” as she use to say when they were kids.
And, as per tradition, Barry ended up burning the first batch and Iris kicked him out of the kitchen saying, “I have to save the innocent fluffy goodness that is our pancakes before you maliciously burn every last one of them.”
So, Barry used that time out of the kitchen to run to Jitters and pick up some coffee for the both of them—two large Americanos, double shot of espresso and light on the cream and sugar for his caffeine addict of a girlfriend. The speedster got a simple mocha late, he never could handle his coffee as strong as Iris, let alone drink as much of it as she could. Once he arrived at Jitters he stopped using his speed, choosing to wait in line in order to give his girlfriend time to finish breakfast. By the time he returned to their new home, Iris was just finishing the last of their breakfast, and the two of them settled in to enjoy their morning together.