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

Chapter Thirty-Six: Guys Like Us

Prism yelled as we locked up him.

"Blah, blah, blah, no prison can hold me, we've heard it all before pal. Adios, Prism." Cisco said, him, Oliver, and Caitlin walking down the corridor.

"I liked Rainbow raider."

"Ok, you don't get to pick the names."

"I have a prison like this. Mine's on a nearly inhospitable island in the North China sea...but this works too." He left, leaving Barry and alone. I went to follow them, but he grabbed my arm, pulling me back. His eyes went to my lips, and he brought up a hand, touching the cut on my lip.

"I..." I shook my head.

"It wasn't your fault, Barry." I told him.

"I hurt you...in more ways than one. Even if I was whammied, I..." He sighed. "I'm never gonna let anyone hurt you again...especially not me."

"Barry-"

"Just...listen." He took my hands. "I care about you, so much that...I don't want you to ever get hurt, physically or emotionally. And...to see you in pain, and know that I caused it...it kills me, whether I could control it or not, because...well...I love you." I froze, registering the three little words we had yet to say to each other. He loved me. Barry Allen loves me. I smiled, quickly deciding that I liked the sound of that.

"I love you too...you idiot. But, can you promise me...one more thing?"

"What's that?"

"Don't go visit Iris again as the Flash." He furrowed his eyebrows. "I heard you talking to Eddie. And I know you were whammied but...I think Prism just amplifies bottled down feelings and...the way you were talking? Was like you still like Iris."

"What? I don't! Of course I don't."

"What other reason do you have for visiting her...and keeping it a secret?"

"I don't like her, thought! I mean..." He sighed. "I promise I won't go see her anymore."

"Thank you."

~~~

We sat in Jitters when Oliver and Felicity came in. Iris was hugging Eddie and made her way over to us.

"Hey!" Felicity greeted.

"Hey, you guys heading home?" Iris asked.

"Yeah. Can you do some javas for the road?"

"I will hook you up."

"Ok."

"Thank you." Oliver told her.

"You're welcome." Felicity followed her over, and I followed Felicity.

~~~Barry~~~

Oliver sat down across from me as the girls went to get coffee.

"Um, so listen, I'm really sorry for what I said in the field and last night in the street. I wish I could say it was all because of what Bivolo did to me like Karen said but I guess I had more feelings bottled up than I thought." I told him.

"You can always talk to me. "

"Yeah. Thank you. And you were right. I still have a lot to learn."

"There's one more thing, and you're not gonna like it." He said.

"Does it involve shooting me in the back?"

"No. No, the heart." He nodded over to the counter, where Felicity and Karen were talking to Iris. "That's not gonna work out for you, and you need to let her go...for both of your sakes. And that's not just me being the overprotective big brother." He looked back at them. "Guys like us don't get the girl."  Karen and Felicity came back over.

"You ready to go? This one's yours." She handed Oliver his coffee.

"Thank you." He stood up and Karen stood in front of him.

"It was really good to see you. Maybe I can come down for Christmas or something."

"Yeah, maybe." She hugged him.

"Bye, Oliver. I love you."

"I love you too." She sat back down beside me and I wrapped an arm around her.

"You ok?" She nodded.

"Yeah. He had to go back sometime. I'm just glad I got to see him."

~~~

"I got your message." Iris said, walking out of Jitters. I know Karen made me promise not to see her anymore, and I won't, but I have to clear up what happened.

"I wanted you to know...last night, that wasn't me." I told her.

"It sure looked like you."

"Yeah. I was affected by one of the metahumans. He messed with my head. But I'm ok now, I promise."

"I defended you. Everyone told me that you would bring me nothing but danger. My father, Karen, Barry, Eddie. I didn't listen to them. I never listened to them. But now it's time I did. Don't contact me anymore, ok?"

"He won't." I turned to see Karen, in costume, landing beside me. "I promise, he won't bother you anymore."

"Iris...I'm sorry."

"Me too." She walked back inside and I turned to Karen.

"Karen-"

"You promised. You promised me that you wouldn't see her again. That was an hour ago, and here you are!"

"I just needed to clear things up-"

"You cleared plenty up. You're still in love with Iris." What?

"What?" I asked. "How could you think-"

"I saw the way you looked at her when she was with Eddie earlier. What you said to Eddie. You, as much as you hate to admit it, are in love with her."

"No, I love you." She shook her head, tears in her eyes.

"No. Because if you loved me...you would've kept your promise. " She kicked off, flying away. I sighed. I've screwed up everything now. Fantastic. Maybe Oliver was right...

Guys like us don't get the girl.