accelerate | ( ENTRANCEWAY INBOX )

[ barry nods his head, determined to win this game once more. though he's a rambler and likes to go on tangents to see what makes her laugh and what makes her frown (and then what makes that frown disappear completely), the first and only game they've had thus far had been fun. ]

[ there's something about it that makes him feel closer to iris, and it's not because she's leaning toward him while he's remaining as straight as a beanpole. ]

[ he smiles, and almost rocks excitedly, but stops himself the moment he begins to. he has to stay focused and still. ]

Date.

[ or "it's a —" but not really. barry tries to brush it off by pulling one of his shoes off (the pair she's wished for him) and throwing it over his shoulder. ]

[ he's so confusing, this one.

(she and patty had joked about it lightly, once. patty had wanted to figure barry out, like he was a code she could crack.)

iris straightens in place as he takes his shoe off, recognizing the pair at once.

she'd warred with herself, but only briefly, on whether she should write something on them or not. in the end, she chose to scribble on a small corner, so no one but barry would notice. a reminder people still believe in the flash, and so does she. no matter the walls he places. ]

Yeah? [ he's not serious. she knows that. she does. ]

[ he's letting his foot hover over so many land mines as of late. with thawne, with iris — he's not so sure if he's stepped on one yet, but he has a feeling he's about to. ]

[ despite wanting to be fast, to live off the adrenaline rush of being here free from his grief and most of the reminders of his own failure to protect his dad, he can't. when iris is concerned, he moves as slow as a sloth, dragging himself comically across the road and hoping no car hits him during his journey. ]

[ he looks up at her, and thinks to repeat it back to her. yeah, a date, but barry doesn't allow himself to. what he wants more than anything is to have iris in the way she wants to give herself to him, but barry knows he's not ready. he's not that person she needs him to be — and he's not the person he wants to be for her. ]

[ he nods his head once, a small tilt of it, and thinks to repeat her word back to her. but that's slightly cheating, and barry, though he wants to catch himself in a snare right now, leaps over it. ]

[ he should say yes, he should say yes, he should say — ]

Soon?

[ a gentle shake of her head. ]

Slow.

[ poor timing aside, iris suggested they take a chance on each other for several reasons. one, she was (finally!) ready to see if there was really something between them, independent of the future and the markings of destiny. two, she wanted to remind him new beginnings were possible, when everything else has fallen apart; ended. but barry hadn't needed hope. he'd needed his mother. if iris knew what he'd planned on doing, what he plans on doing still, soon or slow would become irrelevant.

but she doesn't, and she would never rush or force his hand.

there is no rush, barry-the-flash.

not with her. ]

[ only where iris counts is he so painfully slow. barry lost his chance to possibly turn things toward him, to open her eyes to him standing nose to nose with her. but he wants to believe fate hadn't wanted it to happen yet. maybe they weren't ready for each other then. maybe he wasn't the person he needed to be — for her and for himself — and maybe she wasn't the person she needed to be for him or for herself. ]

[ ever since learning of his fate of becoming the flash, it perhaps a fixed point on this earth, barry's been thinking more and more about what's been laid out for him and what's his to create for his own. and he thinks that he's always been destined to be in iris west's life — and hopefully with a hyphen. ]

[ he glances down for a moment, and when he picks his head up, he looks slightly apologetic, but tries not to let the mood shift too much. ]

[ he thinks to say sorry, but he doesn't want her to feel bad. ]

Poke.

Tickle?

[ it's the first word that comes to mind.

iris doesn't want to make things too heavy for him. barry has enough reasons to be upset lately. she doesn't want to add another reason to the stacked plate. besides, this is the perfect opportunity to remind him that she knows all his ticklish spots.

and she's not afraid to use that weakness when necessary. ]

[ he shoots straight up from his slouched posture, almost rocking back to fall against the floor. his arms are straight and almost stiff, hands curled around his ankles as he tries to lean innocently away from her. ]

No!

[ he shakes his head, and throws his hands up, palms up and facing her as though that'll be enough to stop her train of thought. but barry knows iris better than he understands himself, and if he tells her no, she's going to disregard it. ]

[ it's been one of the many things he's admired about her. it's also the one thing that scares him most. ]

Edited 2016-07-02 02:41 (UTC)

Easy.

[ easy there, barry.

she's not tickling him ~~— yet?????~~

it's hardly as much fun when he's expecting it, but his reaction is enough to make her snort. the fastest man in the world, the hero who can stop bullets and evil meta-humans, is scared of the tickle monster. now there's a piece she wishes she could write for the ccpn. ]

[ he narrows his eyes in suspicion toward her. eyeing her hand, barry doesn't even think to tap into his abilities and streak across the room. ]

[ he loves being the flash. the adrenaline rush is addictive, and the way the world blurs around him is mesmerising in itself. but sometimes barry likes being barry. ]

[ but he settles at her snort, and smiles. ]

Cute.

[ she catches that suspicion.

it's iris' turn to throw her hands up, letting him know that she means no harm. ~~for now!!!~~ her hands only lower until he settles once more, a smirk twitching at her lips. (also no, iris, you can't say puppies again. that's cheating).

so: ]

Plushies!

[ what? they're adorable. ]

[ slouching again, he rests his pointy elbows on his thighs and leans toward her. glancing up at her, he rests his chin on the back of his hands and studies her for a moment. ]

[ if he thinks too hard about this, he'd realise this is, perhaps, the first time in a long time he's had a moment to spend with iris that hasn't been tainted by a meta-human or his need to run away. if anything, he's relaxed enough to literally lean in toward her and dig his feet into the ground. ]

[ he shakes his head with a smile. ]

Bear.

[ omg bear plushies.

but also, iris and joe call him 'bar' a lot, which sounds a lot like bear. it makes her smile wide, her own elbows digging into her knees as she leans forward. iris steeples her fingers and presses them to her bottom lip in thought. she has think quick here. she's the writer!

she can't lose again. ]

Hug.

[ she's the creative writer and he's the one who either thinks quick or acts impulsively. they're quite the pair, given she slows him down and he either inspires or breaks her pencils. ]

[ he simply watches her, and doesn't rush to think up a response. she looks more serious than she had over the video when they'd done this days ago, and he can't quite say he doesn't like it. ]

Want?

[ la la la neatly avoiding those landmines.

but also, she is thinking hard. she is determined to beat him this time around, even if she has to stay up all night to do it. ]

Wish?

[ when you wish upon a star~ ]

[ the thing about barry is that he can step on a landmine and there's a very high chance he will be able to outrun the explosion. ]

[ iris dodges, but barry thinks to press his foot firmly against that little ditch in the ground. it'd been her who had opened the gates to where they could be, and he'd been the one to loop his arm through hers to pull her along before he'd dropped her off and taken another road entirely. ]

[ he doesn't even know what he's doing, but barry knows it's bound to be stupid. he simply looks at her and doesn't change his expression, even though his heart's pounding in his chest and his instincts are telling him to bolt. ]

Yes.

[ pause.

iris isn't a speedster. she doesn't have any of barry's meta-human abilities. but if she had his ability, she'd understand the urge to bolt.

she has that urge now caught between flight and stillness.

she wonders if this is how he felt for fifteen years. she wonders if he walked around with this impossible ache swarming his chest. at least, she thinks it's an ache. maybe the better word is longing? if it's true, if this is how he felt, then iris isn't sure how he still talks to her after everything she put him through without knowing.

he loved her every day, and she didn't know it. and now his heart is somewhere else, and neither of them can find it. ]

Barry. [ he needs to stop being confusing. ]

Iris.

[ it's almost immediate. where she says his name, he says hers. the longer he lets any silence sit between them, the worse this will become — and he's always let them wander into territory that's almost too dangerous. ]

[ but he plays it off like he's joking, or she's joking, or all of this is something to laugh at instead of to be embarrassed or feel cornered by. he rolls where he sits before he settles again, having pulled himself from his slouched and studious position, to only glance around her room, and over his shoulder, as though he's only just realised he's wearing one shoe. ]

[ iris scrunches up her face.

it's easier to come up with a word when the name isn't her own. and she can't say flower again, this is not a rehash! it's not that she doesn't know what to say about herself, but it does make her think a bit harder. ]

Reporter.

[ it may be obvious, but it works ok. ]

[ barry has a plethora of words for her to use to respond with, but they're his, not hers. just as her own responses to his name belong to her. he knows he doesn't agree with half of them, and he has a feeling she'll feel the same with a good chunk of the ones he has selected out and prepared for her in response to her name. ]

[ the only trouble with him is he can't use all those words at once if she's to say her name back to him. ]

[ he smiles, and without missing much of a beat: ] Pulitzer.

[ barry isn't the only one who can smile like the sun.

iris grins, bright and sudden, at how quickly he answers. she doesn't miss much of a beat, either: ]

Belief.

[ barry believes in her. it's not just that iris believes in him/ the flash unwaveringly, and she does. but he believes in her, too. when mason bridge was calling her a talentless millennial, it was barry who lifted her spirits up again. it's largely because of barry she is a reporter at all. ]

Definite.

[ he looks at her pointedly, as though he knows. barry doesn't know what the future holds for iris west, other than a hyphenated surname if she chooses it. that news article projected in gideon's room hadn't told him much, save for her writing of his disappearance, the reverse-flash becoming more well-known within central city, and perhaps iris may or may not have known where he'd gone. ]

[ sometimes he thinks back on that article and wonders if she'd written anything between the lines to help him find a way back home. ]

[ but what he does know, without needing someone from the year 2024 to tell him: iris west can achieve anything she wants. she just has to believe in herself. ]

[ her eyes narrow once more.

it's hard to remain serious when barry's bony knee is pressing lightly against hers, and he only wears one shoe. she is asking herself why he would take off one shoe and not the other, but asking him outright would break the spell of their game, and iris is many things, but not a quitter.

neither is barry.

it is, perhaps, the most inspiring thing about him. how many times he'll get back up after something knocks him down. ]

Irrefutable.

[ the shoe he wears says go win. maybe iris should look at what she had written and do just that: go win. but he knows she moves at her own pace. no one can ever move as quickly as him, nor as slowly. he's dug his heels effectively into her floor and he refuses to budge. ]

[ he smiles at the sight of her eyes narrowing. maybe that'll make them narrow even more. ]

Irreplaceable.

[ and he folds his hands into fists, save for his thumbs, and gestures to the left, to the left. and shrugs his shoulders — he doesn't know why his brain associates certain things together. but he thinks that one word to be true of her. ]

[ it's more than a little wondrous to her, how seamlessly they navigate some of these twists and turns. iris has almost forgotten there was ever a landmine she nearly stepped on. her grin widens once more at his answer. there he goes again, making her feel special and warm.

it's a problem. ]

Bey.

[ yes, she means his beyonce. 🐝 🍋 🐝 🍋 ]

[ barry holds his hand up and looks at her pointedly. wait, he wants to say, but instead of doing so, he hopes to convey it. is mouthing the word cheating? would that be forfeiting his turn? ]

[ he's gone within a gust of wind and yellow electricity, the door connecting their rooms opening and closing with a slam. just as it connects with the doorframe, barry's back inside, and now there's his red flash suit laid out on her bed, the runaway dinosaur sitting on top of it, and he sits before her, cross-legged. ]

[ sitting before her, he looks at her with faux innocence. and he smiles once hold up begins to play, pointing his finger up with excitement. his smile only widens. ]

Lemonade.

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