The Flash ⚡ One Shots

Season's Greetings

Happy holidays, everyone!! I was originally going to post this on Christmas Eve, but today also happens to be my birthday, so I figured, "Why not?"  And here it is! Tbh, I've wanted to post something like this for a few months. I have a headcanon that Barry is pretty awesome with a camera. I'm glad I was finally able to write with it. I hope y'all enjoy it! ^-^ Happy holidays!

Updated 29/12/2021: light editing

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It's the most wonderful time of the year...

The holiday song played while Barry worked on his laptop, starting on the final details of his project. Well, not completely his. The family's. Him, Iris, and Joe. It was the typical holiday greetings card they sent out every December, something they'd done as far back as Barry could remember. They used to hire a photographer to take the pictures and make the cards, but that had changed a few years ago, when Barry had gotten a camera.

He had to use one daily. It was part of his job as a forensic scientist, taking pictures at the crime scene. The hobby hadn't been born out of passion for photos, but rather curiosity. He'd gotten his own camera so he didn't have to keep borrowing the police station's and it was easier to keep track of. After a few weeks of having it, he'd thought, Why not play with it a little? So he'd walked around the city, taking random pictures and fiddling with the settings. He'd already known the basics, having used a camera for work, but it'd been nice to play with it more. It'd gone from there. Whenever he got bored, he picked up his camera and went for a walk, taking a picture of anything that'd caught his eye. It'd grown on him, being able to capture a single moment with the click of a button. Of course, Iris had found out and had been delighted as she went through the photos that weren't from work. Coincidentally, it'd been the time of year they made their holiday card.

So Barry had become their photographer.

It'd been like that every year since. Iris, Joe, and him would shoot ideas back and forth about what the card should look like. Iris tended to have the best ideas out of the three of them. They'd set everything up together and Barry took the pictures, using the timer to his advantage so he could be in the photo as well. With him now being graced with super speed, he didn't have to bother with that anymore. Once all the photos were taken, he'd move the pictures to his computer and get to work in PhotoShop, which he'd also become talented with over time. He let Iris choose which font to use, since she had a better eye than him and Joe when it came to that. She'd already picked one out this year and it was what the metahuman was currently adding.

There'll be parties for hosting, marshmallows for toasting, and caroling out in the snow... There'll be scary ghost stories and tales of the glories of the Christmases long, long ago...

As the song wound down and approached the end, Barry saved his work before he went to order the cards, pleased with how they'd turned out. Instead of the traditional red and green, Iris had suggested using white and gold as their main colors. As she'd promised, it looked amazing. The Santa hat Joe had been wearing in the picture made it even better.

The speedster sat on the couch in the West household for a few more minutes, quietly humming along to the music playing in the background. He enjoyed this. Sure, lighting the tree was great, as was having everyone over for the small party they threw annually, but the photo sessions he had with Joe and Iris were something he looked forward to every year, no matter what was going on. Even if they sometimes went a little off track and got a tad crazy. For example, when they'd started throwing the fake snow they'd gotten as prop around at each other and some had landed in the fireplace with hot embers.

Barry smiled at the recent memory. Done, he shut his laptop and sat there, not quite ready to go to bed yet. He looked at the camera resting on the coffee table next to where he had his feet propped up, gazing thoughtfully at it. After a moment, he lowered his feet to the floor and leaned forward, picking up the camera and running a finger fondly down the side of the device.

Photography wasn't a hobby many people thought of, but he enjoyed it. He enjoyed capturing a single moment in time, preserving it for people to see later on. And to think, all it took was the single press of a button to do it, to take a picture and save it for all to see... In just a flash.

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"In just a flash." Yeah, I know, but I couldn't resist.