neighbors | barry allen//the flash

three | trouble

Barry Allen was in trouble. Not like the normal, oh a metahuman has him by the throat trouble. It was the girl that just moved in is adorable and its distracting him trouble. He kept thinking about the way she laughed; she threw her head back at first, and her ink black hair shifted back, revealing her glowing amber  face, but then as she continued, she leaned her face forward, covering her mouth with her hand and making her hair fall in front of her eyes. The sound of it was so enchanting. He needed to hear it again. Which meant he was currently trying to make a list of things he could say that might elicit the same reaction. And apparently, those around him were starting to notice, especially Caitlyn.

"Barry?" Caitlyn prodded. "Why are you staring off into space?" 

"What?" Barry shook his head. 

"What's wrong?" Caitlyn sounded really concerned. How long had he been daydreaming? Was Clara into science? Would a physics pun make her laugh?

"Nothing," Barry shrugged, "Just didn't get much sleep last night. What were you saying?" 

"Just that there isn't much going on right now. Maybe you should go back to the station, see if Joe has anything going on." 

"Oh. Thanks." Barry nodded slightly. Should he ask her over for dinner? Would that be casual? Do people randomly ask their new neighbors over for dinner? Barry wandered over to Cisco's work station. "Whatcha working on?" 

"Just doing a routine check on the suit, making sure everything still works," Cisco mumbled. His eyes were covered by protective glasses, and he was hunched over a table with the Flash suit spread out over it. Sparks started flying from the lightning symbol in the middle. "And that is what I was worried about." 

"What?" 

"You know how I installed that heating system, in case you ever get shot by the cold gun? Well, I'm trying to make it automatic, so if you every drop below a certain temperature, it turns on without me having to press a button here." 

"Nice," Barry pursed his lips in thought, then added, "Should I invite the girl that just moved next door over for dinner?" 

"What?" Cisco suddenly looked up, pushing his glasses up off his eyes and onto the stop of his head to look at Barry. 

"A girl just moved into the apartment next to me," Barry smiled shyly. "I helped carry some of her boxes up. She seems really nice." 

"I guess that's okay," Cisco answered uncertainly. "Did she seem to like you?"

"I don't know, Cisco," Barry sighed. "I mean, we didn't talk for that long. But, like, I just want to get to know her, for now, before I like, jump in or anything." 

"Totally, I get it. Well, good luck, my man." 

"Thanks. I'm headed out. I'll see you if anything comes up." Barry waved goodbye to everyone and walked out. He zipped to the police station, hoping he could stay a little more on top of things so Joe wouldn't notice anything was off. 

Apparently, all the criminals decided to take a day off. There was nothing new at the station, metahuman or otherwise. Barry decided to take this chance to hopefully shrink the pile of paperwork that was gathering on his desk. Fighting crime and solving mysteries was the fun part of his job, filling out all the paperwork for it was not. While he didn't mind being meticulous in all his lab work, report after report after report got tedious, by like, the first report. Unfortunately, Clara was still on his mind. Working on a new case would have done a much better job of distracting him than typing away on his computer. 

Barry finally finished a large enough stack that he considered a day's worth of work. However, he had yet to come up with something charming to say to Clara. As he went home, he pondered just working up the nerve to talk to her spontaneously, and hoping he wouldn't be too awkward to bear. He should probably have a plan, though, just in case. It would really just make him feel a little calmer about the situation. But if he actually made a plan, nothing would actually go according to that plan and he would be screwed. He should just wing it. 

He opened his apartment door and saw the mess inside, probably from him rushing out this morning. He should definitely wait until tomorrow when his place looked at least halfway put together to attempt winging it. He didn't want to look like a complete slob in front of her. He put a frozen pizza in the oven and chugged some special protein shake Caitlyn had conjured up for him to keep up his speed. 

He started picking up the various papers scattered on the floor in his living room when he heard a knock at the door. That's odd, he wasn't expecting any visitors. He walked to the front door and looked through the eye hole. Clara stood in the hallway expectantly, biting her lips. Barry grinned, she was probably so unaware of how cute that made her look. But then, shit. Clara was standing at his door, and he was totally unprepared. 

"Hey, what's up?" Barry tried to say as cooly as possible as he opened the door. 

"Well," Clara let out a small laugh and bit her lip again. Did she have any idea what she was doing to him? She continued, "You see, I am trying to rearrange my living room, because I just had this epiphany of how it should be, but the couch is a lot heavier than I was expecting it to be, and I can't really move it on my own, so-" 

"You need me to help?" Barry grinned. Her rambling was so adorable. 

"That would be fantastic," she blushed, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. 

"I'll be out in just a sec, let me grab my keys." Clara smiled, and Barry thought the dreary hallway somehow lit up. He plucked his keys off their hanger and followed Clara into her apartment. 

"Okay, so I was thinking," Clara began, "I want to move the couch out from the window, and instead against this wall," she was pointing to explain her thoughts, and when she paused to figure out what she wanted to explain next, she pursed her lips, and Barry was watching every movement she seemed to be so unaware of. "And then my desk could go in this corner." 

"Alright, so what's first?" Barry asked.

"The couch," Clara stated confidently. "You can push from that side, and I'll try to pull and like, direct it." They got to work, slowly moving the couch up against the wall, moving the coffee table out of the way, placing a chair on the other side of the room, putting the desk in the corner by the window, and pushing the giant bookshelf to another wall. Barry inspected the bookcase. It had a variety of books, from the entire Harry Potter series, to a handful of comics, an assortment of what looked like paranormal books, and a large collection of what looked like science textbooks. So she did like science, Barry mused. Nice. 

"I honestly can't thank you enough," Clara gushed when they were finally through. "I feel like I said that last time, too, but it's true. I owe you two now." 

"You can make it up to me by-" Barry started to respond with some clever line about her going on a date with him, but the shrill sound of smoke alarms pierced the air, cutting him off. 

"Are those coming from your apartment?" Clara questioned, her eyebrows bunched together. 

"Shit, I left the pizza in the oven."

Clara burst into laughter, and Barry could almost feel himself falling. If catching his apartment on fire made her laugh, he might have to leave things in the oven more often. 

AN: Soooo the first three chapters are up. If you've made it this far, thanks for reading! Let me know what you think! I'm excited to share more (: