Contrasting

Chapter 15

"Rachel, how are you doing?" Aunt Azar asked while stepping inside the eighteen year old girls' room. "It's Raven Aunt Azar, Rachel died two years ago." Raven or Rachel retorted without looking into the aging woman's eyes. 

"Well, how are you doing Raven?" Azar said softly taking a seat on the chair next to her bed. Raven replied a simple yeah and continued typing on her laptop. 

"You remember my friend Jessica? She has a son and he said he would be delighted to m-"

"Rachel remembers someone. I didn't see the face, but I saw blonde hair with green tips. I've been doing some research and I think this person meant a ton to Rachel." Raven turned her laptop to Azar who abandoned her sentence to read the line in bold. 

"Alright, but as I was saying; her son is the owner of the coffee shop down the street and he would be delighted to give you a job if you would accept the offer." Azar said while walking outside of the room, shutting the door quietly. 

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Rose bit her lower lip and exhaled sharply. Wally noticed this and spoke up, "Are you scared?" His cyan blue eyes met her large brown eyes. She took this time to study Wally's face, the face she saw each and every morning and night. His face still held the same sharp jawline, and big blue puppy eyes. The fiery red wind swept hair never went out of style. 

Rose averted her orbs to eye her shoes whimpering as she shook her head up and down moving her long black hair. 

"Let's do this." Both Wally and Rose opened the car doors and stepped out into the nice spring air. It was one of those April days with light showers in the morning and beautiful pink, blue, and purple skies the remaining hours of the day.

Wally took her small hand in his and went up the steps together.  They stopped at the maroon door and Wally slowly raised his shaking finger to the doorbell. What seemed like forever, Rose finally rang the doorbell. 

"For someone so fast, that was so slow," Rose whispered jokingly. The two waited for a few more seconds before Wally got impatient and began repeatedly tapping the button.

Rose grabbed Wally's other hand and at that moment, Barry Allen stood at the door way holding both crying twins. 

"Hey Uncle Barry!" Wally greeted cheesing. The babies cries ceased as they looked up to their older cousin and adoptive brother. Barry sighed but greeted both of them back, "Oh great, just what I wanted. Another little baby I need to take care of. Hey guys, what brings you here?" 

"Aunt Iris invited us over for dinner," Wally replied as he took Dawn and Rose took Don from the exhausted father. Barry took a seat on his couch resting his head with his eyes closed and the couple followed suit. 

Iris emerged from the kitchen smiling, "Wally, Rose! I'm so glad you guys could come, I hope it wasn't a long drive from Keystone." The red headed reporter hugged both of them and sat next to her sleeping husband. 

"It wasn't that long of a drive Auntie, Keystone isn't that far from Central City." Wally said continuing to play with Dawn.(Wally attended school in Jump City because the education was better.) 

Rose rolled her eyes, "What Wally means to say is, we're glad you invited us tonight. We should visit more often, maybe take care of the twins for you." Iris smiled at the thought. 

"That's a wonderful offer that we should accept, don't you think so Barry?" Iris elbowed her snoring husband in the stomach. "Why yes of course." The blonde man said obviously startled. 

"What did I agree to dear?" Barry curiously asked. Wally snickered at this which earned him a pillow in the face, "If my dear uncle was paying attention, he would know that Aunt Iris would like me to have the 2013 maserati red turismo." Wally winked at Rose and Iris who lightly smacked their own faces and exhaled hard. 

"Hey, a guys got to try!" Wally said jokingly as the oven signaled the end of the baking session. Both Iris and rose got up and prepared the gigantic feast. 

"Alright kid, time for me and you to have the talk." Wally stopped and slowly turned his head to his uncle with a face of terror. "I already k-know about the birds and bees uncl-"

"Not that talk you big dummy," Barry laughed at his niece's red face. "I'm talking about you and Rose. I can tell something is going on, you know I'm here for you if something is up my boy." 

The young track star scoffed and got up with his uncle following, "Says the man who knocked out fifteen seconds after he sat down." 

The toddlers were put in their high chairs that were connected and the couples took their seats next to each other. Wally was about to use his giant spoon to take a scoop out of the mashed potatoes, but stopped when he heard his aunt clear his voice.

"I thought you already knew the rules, you let the normal people get their normal sized food proportions first." She said lightly scolding him. 

Rose made a sound that approved Iris's statement. The two women took their time taking tiny scoops with their tiny spoon's compared to both runner's gigantic spoons. 

"Can't us champion runner's get their food share first?" Wally whined. "I'd rather you both not quaff down the whole house, thank you very much." Aunt Iris joked. 

After the two speedsters received their giant sized proportioned meals, they were all conversing with each other in a casual and good hearted family matter. 

This surprised Rose the most, for the closest thing to family she ever experienced was her former gang. They were never really there for each other either, so this concept of having family support through thick or thin really bewildered her. Whenever a person was caught in the middle of a heist, the rest would flee and just hope that the prisoner would not rat the others out. Gizmo always did, and was rewarded with juvie where he would just break out after a month or so. Seymour was never one to count on in accusatory situations, so no one would bet their money on him. The kid who never talked didn't really care about anything enough to make a sound and just hid in the shadows when he wanted to leave. 

Milo (Mammoth) would crack if you just offered him any type of pie. 

"Isn't that right, sweetheart?" Wally said taking her hand under the table, pulling her out of her thoughts. "What again? I'm sorry I spaced out for a little," she bashfully said lowering her head slightly. 

"I just wanted to tell my dearest Aunt and Uncle the thing we've uh- been talking about for a while." The young couple looked up to see the adult's reaction and saw confusion with a twinge of fear. 

Everything became silent all of a sudden, even the twins who usually banged their spoons on their high chairs and baby talking. The utter stillness of the quarter made Rose feel like dashing out the house then country faster than Wally could turn his red little head. 

Iris muttered something along the lines of 'I'll put the twins to bed' seeing as they knocked out. As Iris's steps became silent, Wally nervously picked up his giant spoon and began stuffing himself with mashed potatoes. 

Barry Allen looked at a potato stuffed Wally in the eyes and said with a low voice that was unidentified to the emotion spectrum.

"Is it a boy or girl?" 

The young speedster became red with eyes open, his mouth threatening to blow. Rose noticed this and quickly made the mashed potatoes that was once in Wally's mouth best friends with a paper napkin. 

"Wallace Rudolph West!" Both an incoming Iris and Rose said in unison. Poor Uncle Barry became starstruck and stared at his struggling-to-breath nephew. 

"So it's true? Rose is pregnant?!" Barry managed to say. 

"What? No! We were planning to tell you about how I was a gang leader!" Rose accidentally slipped out. 

Wally stopped coughing his lungs out, Rose stopped patting his back, and Aunt Iris dropped the glass of water she was holding. 

"Shit," Rose whispered under her breath (which was obviously audible to the other individuals, seeing as the awkward silence found itself back in the Allen dinning room.)

"Oh no."