neighbors | barry allen//the flash

twenty four | denature

Maybe Caitlin's accusation should have bothered Clara a lot more than it actually did. It probably should have bothered her, period. But she knew she was in the wrong, Caitlin just called her out, and Clara didn't dwell on it. Instead, Clara was weighing the new information about Star Labs in her mind. They had said they didn't work with the Flash, but she had seen him run into Star Labs. Did anyone else still work there? Did the Flash just break into the building to use it while catching other metas? That didn't seem like something he would do, but Clara supposed he could be desperate. 

Possibilities and explanations flew through Clara's mind as stepped into the shower, the Monopoly game already far in the past. Steam billowed around her as her mind freed itself to imagine how the Flash operates. Much to her disappointment, when she crawled into bed half an hour later, she hadn't come up with any solid ideas. If he worked alone, why did he go into Star Labs? Was someone dangerous in there that he needed to take out? Did he have some secret hideout there? If he did, why there? At some point, before Clara's thoughts lost all coherency, she fell asleep. 

After a restless sleep, Clara woke up miraculously early Saturday morning, to her surprise and luck. It wasn't even eight in the morning, and the science center opened at night. While reading the papers for stories on the Flash, she saw an ad for a new genetics exhibit opening that day. She had to wait a shift that day, but it wasn't until later in the evening, so she had plenty of time to thoroughly read every single display in that exhibit. Clara hadn't even had coffee yet but the anticipation of immersing herself in science felt like electricity running through her veins. However, that didn't stop her from still drinking her morning brew, and the combination of caffeine and excitement almost left her shaking. 

Since she was already up early, she wanted to try to get there as soon as it opened. But after getting ready she only had fifteen minutes to get there, and that was if she was able to catch a bus right away. Clara burst out of her apartment door and promptly hit a solid wall of flesh. She looked up, right into Barry's eyes. 

"Oh my gosh I am so so sorry," apologies began bubbling out of Clara's mouth. "I was just in such a hurry and I wasn't looking where I was going and-" 

"It's fine, I wasn't paying any attention either," Barry shrugged. She was suddenly away of his hands gently gripping her arms, no doubt in place to steady her after running into him, but once he realized she wasn't in any danger of falling, his hands dropped loosely to his sides. "Are you okay?" 

"Yeah, yeah," Clara waved his concern away. "I'm just going to see the genetics exhibit at the science center and I'm really excited." 

"No way!" Barry exclaimed, a smile breaking out on his face. 

"Yeah!" Clara beamed. "Did you know about it?"

"Yeah, actually, I meant 'no way' as in, like, 'you're going, no way, I'm headed there too!'"

"Are you serious?" Clara's eyes widened, which she wasn't sure was really possible because they were already very open due to the fact that she was super excited to use them to read about science. 

"Yeah! I saw something about it on Facebook or something and knew I just had to check it out, which is probably really nerdy," he laughed. 

"Are you kidding?" Clara giggled. "I am practically bouncing right now I am so excited to see this, I am the epitome of nerd." 

"Oh, I just assumed you had quite a bit of coffee." 

"Well, that too, I kinda made it really strong, which wasn't completely on accident, but also not really on purpose, it just kinda happened but I went with it, but also," Clara took a deep breath before saying, "genetics."