Sweep Me Off My Feet(A Barry Allen/The Flash Fan-fiction)

Chapter Twenty-One: Rules

Barry and I headed back to my apartment, considering we weren't due at the crime scene until morning.

"Do you want something?" I asked, walking into the kitchen, going immediately to the fridge.

"No thanks." I surveyed the contents, found nothing that interested me, and walked back into the living room. Barry sat on the couch, his arms spread over the back of it. I sat down beside him, my back pressed up against the arm. "Can I just, say something?"

"Yes..." I said warily.

"These past two months have been great...amazing actually-"

"Why do I sense I 'but' coming on?" I asked.

"What? Oh, no! No, no, no, nothing like that, it's just..." he sighed, turning towards me, his leg folded in front of him. "I had been in love with the same girl since I was a kid...and when she got a boyfriend...It sucked. I mean it really, really sucked."

"Is there a point to this, or..."

"Just, hear me out. I was so bummed out, that I just figured I'd wait for her and hope for the best, you know? But then...their relationship starting getting stronger and...it made me wonder if it was time to move on. There was this, smart, sarcastic, funny, and absolutely gorgeous blonde girl that I had been hanging out with, and...My vision was so clouded by the girl I couldn't have, that I didn't see the amazing one right in front of me. And now that I have...I think I'm happier than I have been in a long time. And, that's really saying something. Is that crazy to say after two months?" I shook my head, taking his hand.

"No...that's not crazy. I understand completely.  And, I want pizza. And to watch a movie. Do you mind-" A pizza box sat open on the table, and Barry sat beside me, munching away. "I hate you."

"You love me." He asked, his mouth full. I rolled my eyes, making myself comfortable and stretching my legs over his lap. he put a hand on my knee and I turned on a movie. This felt right. This was the thing I'd been waiting for for eight years, and now that I had it, it couldn't be more worth it. He ran his thumb back and forth on my leg.

"Hey Barry?" I asked.

"Hmm?"

"I have a rule...if we're gonna do this for the long run." He looked at me, his fingers lightly tracing my legs and causing me to shiver. "Just one simple rule...I know this is going to be hard for you, but don't try to protect me, Allen." He shook his head. "Barry...if we're gonna do this? Date and be...superheroes or whatever we are, then we're both going to have to accept that what we do is dangerous, and there will always be risks, but we have to let the other do what is necessary." He sighed.

"I promise."

"Dang straight." He smiled.

"You are something else, Karen Queen."

"That's what they tell me!"

~~~

When I woke up the next morning, my head was on someone's chest. I opened my eyes to see that we were still on the couch. Barry was lying on his back, his arm slung lazily around my waist, and I was on top of him. His other hand held mine against his chest. I smiled, slowly slipping off of him and running upstairs, quickly showering and changing clothes. I was brushing my teeth when a pair of arms wrapped around my waist, a chest was pressed against my back, and a chin rested on my shoulder.

"Morning." He greeted, his voice deep with sleep.

"Good morning." He pressed his lips to my jaw and I smiled. I spit into the sink, wiping the remaining  toothpaste from my mouth with the back of my hand. "That was attractive." I said sarcastically.

"You know it was." I laughed.

"You're such a dork."

"And you're not?" He countered, looking at me in the mirror.

"Touché, Allen. Touché. Ugh..." I leaned back against him, the back of my head against his chest. "I don't want to go to work."

"That makes two of us. Unfortunately, however, we have those little things called bills, and taxes that we have to take care off."

"Don't use that language with me, Barry Allen." He laughed, his chest vibrating against my back. "Go put a dollar in the swear jar."

"Oh, sorry. I'll go do that."

~~~

"This is not a normal case, that's for sure." I told Barry, who looked up at me from the ground.

"Barry, Karen, what have you got?" Joe asked, approaching us.

"Well, Bombers normally have their own signatures, you know crimped wires, fragmentation...but now..."

"The level of sophistication is telling once we've analyzed it. You show us a bomb, we can usually find a clue in it."

"Sounds like there's a 'but' coming."

"Yeah, he does that." I added.

"Yeah, we haven't found any sign of an oxidizing agent. It's as if the floor just blew itself up."

"Things don't just blow up." Joe said. I nodded.

"Security guard said our bomber was a woman, red hair." Eddie asked, stepping up beside us. "Also cut the security camera's feed. There's no footage, but there might be something else. Some kind of small charge blasted the doorknob off." He led us to a room full of file cabinets.

'Any idea what's missing?"

"My guess is one of these files."

"Holy freaking crap." I said. "It's gonna take days to find which one."

"Let's let Barry and Karen do they're thing." Joe said, hinting to us. I shut the door, closed the blinds, and opened the file cabinet with my discs that I now wore pretty much all of the time. Cisco was working on creating implants. Moments later, Barry had the file in hand and we were headed back to the precinct.