DC x Reader One-shots

Good Old Days - Bart Allen [Impulse]

Summary: When you wake up in the early morning - too tired but knowing your partner is missing from the bed beside you, it is time to set out to find where he has hidden in the house. Finding him lost in thought, he admits what is keeping him awake. Luckily, you know what to say to help him feel at ease again.

Notes: Inspired by the current Dark Crisis run with Bart being done with all of it and everyone treating him differently. However, this work is not set in any specific universe.

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The bed is cold when you wake up – half asleep and eyesight too bleary to make out the world around you. You may not know much, not until you can talk yourself up and into moving. But you know Bart is missing from beside you. With no indent in the mattress, you suspect he must have been gone for a while now. The thought alone is enough to cox you out from under the sheets, blanket pulled tight around your shoulders as you pad from the bed to the doorway, taking note of the house around you and how quiet everything is during the early morning hours.

You find yourself in the living room next, scanning for the outline of a note in the dark. If it was a mission that he had left for then there should be a note. But there is no paper waiting for you. The thought that something is wrong, mixed with the chilled touch of 4am air, is enough to finally wake you up properly. Immediately you are scouring through hallways and empty rooms – covering the house in record time, but still no sign of your speedster.

Instead, somewhere to the right you see the flicker of a light outside, one you were sure had been off when you turned in for the night. With nowhere else to look you poke your head outside, the door creaking as you push it open. There, on the top step, is Bart, with his back turned to you and his head in his hands. "Couldn't sleep?"

Your voice seems to snap him out of his thoughts because he turns up to look at you in an instant, the surprise written clear as day on his face. He seems to hesitate for a second before attempting to deflect your question.

"What are you doing up?"

You know him well enough to know what he is trying to do – and you can see the pull of a frown just past his faked smile. "Well, I was asleep and then I found out my heater had left, so I came looking to see what was wrong." You keep an eye on him as you sit, blanket extended out in an invitation to cuddle. One you hope he takes.

To his credit, he does, sliding an arm around your waist and pulling you to sit between his legs, shuffling the blanket around to cover his body – effectively cocooning you along with him. With his head tucked into the crook of your neck you can feel him now, tense, and certainly tired.

"What's on your mind?"

"It was just something someone said earlier today."

The night is quiet for a moment before you crane your neck to look at him, waiting for an explanation.

"It's just – we were all joking about the 'good ole days' and at first it was kind of funny but then they started talking and bringing stuff up that I had forgotten about and just." He stops, hand in his hair and the other arm still tight around your waist as he looks for his words. "When I started thinking about it, really thinking about it, I don't remember it being as great as they do, I guess. I mean, was I really that bad?"

There is another groan that follows his rant before he reburies his face into your shoulder, a huff leaving him. "Bart, I have, like, little to no context for some of that," you remind. You can feel the chuckle when it happens, and consider it a win that you got a smile then. "But, from what I do understand, do you want to know what I think?"

You can hear the hum in response and take it as your sign to keep going. "I think you had a rough time when you were younger, of course, but I don't think you were as bad as you remember."

"Still, I was pretty rough around the edges."

"What teenager isn't?" you shoot back. "You were raised in VR, you came back to the past, stayed here, kind of just dropped in and then had to figure out how to navigate a new world. VR can help with a lot, but there was so much you still had to learn."

"I got on Wally's nerves," he points out, as though some sort of 'gotcha' in the moment and you refrain from rolling your eyes.

"You guys had disagreements, you both had different ways of handling things and you still do. But look at you now– would you trade any of this away?"

His answer comes less than a heartbeat later, "never."

"My point is, you had to go through the past to get to where we are now. Besides, I think you remember yourself as a lot more cringy then everyone else does. I think a lot of people do. They just remember the more embarrassing things about themselves that everyone else forgets."

There is a laugh wreaking havoc on his system with whatever you have reminded him of, but he manages to speak all the same. "Who says I have ever done something embarrassing," he teases.

The amusement in his voice is enough to get you laughing alongside him, but you feel the need to poke at him. Just a bit. "Literally our first date, Bart." Your reminder is enough to send him rolling into a new fit of laughter and you enjoy the sound.

"Will you ever let me live that down?" His brow is raised as he looks at you, cheeks red from the night air and the humored high he is coming down from.

"Not in a hundred years, love," you assure. "But really, isn't it a good thing you're embarrassed by your younger self? It means that you've grown."

Bart seems to think on your words for a moment. "You're right."

"Of course I am," you huff, though your smile betrays you.

Bart only rolls his eyes – not that you need to see him to know that much – before shuffling to his feet and dragging you up with him. "Come on, let's see if we can get anymore sleep before the alarm goes off," he prompts, ushering you inside. If the two of you stayed up much longer it was more likely you would be calling out and faking some sort of sickness for the day.

"As long as you stay next to me this time," you hum.

"I promise."