Tiptoe { Allenski }

Deep

Barry

I'm furious with Joe. Ok, I get it, he doesn't trust Stiles, but to say something like that without even knowing anything about him? That was unacceptable. I guess something about Stiles' situation resonated me, because I knew how much I understood him.

I'd lost my mother too, and I wanted him to know how much I understood him.

When I had calmed myself down that night he had already come inside, and headed straight upstairs, which I don't blame him for. I was about to turn in when a call from Cisco told me I was needed elsewhere. With one longing look at my bed I sped off, ready to turn my anger into fighting some metas and saving some lives.

The next day Stiles wasn't at work. He'd taken a sick day. I can't say I can blame him though, I wouldn't want to be around Joe either.

But I managed to catch him, when I was done. I finished all my cases early, which wasn't hard, and took a half day, racing home because I wanted to find him.

"Stiles?" I say as I come in the door. "You here?"

"Barry?" Stiles comes down the stairs with his jacket on and shoes half done up. "Why aren't you at work?"

"I wanted to see you."

"Well you've seen me." He says, sitting on the stairs to tie up his laces.

"Where are you going?" I ask, perching on the side of the sofa. He doesn't say anything, and he doesn't look up at me. "Stiles are you leaving?"

He sighs, standing up. "I can't do this Barry..."

"Is it me?"

"What?" Stiles looks at me in shock, "Barry no! God no. If anything you're the only good thing in my life right now." He mumbles the last part and doesn't look me in the eye. My heart clenches at his words. "It's just..."

"Will you go for coffee with me?" I say, before he can say anything else "Right now? Talk things out?"

"Uh..." He seems hesitant, but my eyes are silently pleading with him. "Yeah ok."

"Let's go to jitters." I say smiling. I leave the house and then suddenly realise that I have no car.

"I'll drive." Stiles laughs at my awkwardness.

"Wait you have a car?"

"Not just any car." He grins and walks over to a rusty old jeep that looks like it should have died years ago. "Meet my baby, roscoe."

"Roscoe?" I laugh and Stiles pats the side, it sounds like it's broken but Stiles doesn't flinch. "You named it?"

"Of course! You'd name your children wouldn't you?"

I shake my head, and climbed into the passenger side next to him. "I've never really thought of children before."

"Dude." Stiles starts up the car and pulls a face. "Don't even go there, I'm 19, I'm not thinking about children yet."

I laugh at him. "Ok, sorry I forgot you were still a child yourself."

"Woah." Stiles places a hand over his heart. "That hurt Barry. A whole lot." He feigns sadness and I find myself grinning more than I ever thought I could.

"So do you want to tell me where we're going or should I just keep driving aimlessly?"

"There." I point out of his window and he swerves neatly into a parking space. "Man, you've got some serious road skills."

Stiles winks at me, twirling his keys in the air. He follows me into Jitters. "What do you want?" I ask, gesturing to the menu. "Ooh I guess I'll have the flash one, considering he saved me life and all."

I struggle not to choke on the air I was breathing. Instead I just coughed. "Yeah sure, one flash special." I grab our coffees, feeling awkward about ordering a drink named after me, and took them over to the table Stiles was sitting at. He was staring at the TV screen.

"Meta humans then huh?" I say, trying to get some more information on him.

"Pretty cool." He shrugs.

"Pretty cool?" I ask, surprised. "These things are so cool! What are you on about?"

"Eh." He shrugs. "Do you know who is cool though? The flash. Not just because I got saved by him or anything. But his speed, damn son." Stiles explodes his fingers by his head to show his mind blowing.

I laugh nervously. "Yeah, he's pretty cool."

Stiles sips his coffee and watches me carefully. "So tell me more about you Barry."

"What's there to know?"

"You said you and Iris were like siblings." He smiles as if knowing the feeling, but then a sadness passes his eyes. "Tell me about her."

"Iris is honestly my favourite person in the world." I gush, thinking about how much she means to me. "Ever since my..." I stop talking and realise this is my opportunity to tell Stiles how much I get him.

"When I was a kid my Mom was murdered." Stiles' face seems to drop the same way mine had last night. "They told me it was my Dad, and he was in prison for her murder, until very recently. But I saw something that night. There was someone else there, and it wasn't my Dad."

"Woah." Stiles reaches his hand across the table and took mine in his. "I'm sorry Barry."

"I'm sorry, that's a lot to take in. What I'm trying to say is I understand what you're going through." I smile sadly at him.

"A few years ago my mother was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia. At first she was fine, she'd only see things, but then gradually she got worse and worse. She kept saying things... She would run away from me or... Sometimes she would hit me and tell me that I was trying to kill her." My grip on his hand tightens as his face gets paler. "And then one day, it was one of her good days, and I was with her... She just left." He looks up at me with watery eyes. "Just been me and my pops ever since."

"I'm sorry Stiles. You've been through a lot."

Stiles laughs slightly, as if to say yeah, you haven't heard the whole story. "So have you."

"What there's more?" I question his laughter.

"Uh..." Stiles eyes search the table to try and find some excuse for his laughter. "They thought I had it."

"Had what?" It wasn't the whole story, but I could tell it was the truth.

"Frontotemporal dementia. It's the only form of dementia that can hit teenagers... And they thought I had it. I locked myself into Eichen house I was so scared."

"Wait actual Eichen house?" I'm shocked. Eichen house is a place for criminals and psychopaths, not scared teenage boys.

"Yeah." He chuckles dryly. "That was a year ago, wait until you hear what happened this year." He tries to joke but I can see the fear hidden behind his eyes. I squeeze his hand. "Another time."

"Please don't leave." I change the subject with something that had been eating away at me since we got here.

"Barry..."

"No, please don't. I'm only just getting to know you."

"You're never home, and when you are, Joe is there. And he doesn't seem to like me very much."

"Joe is just tense around new people after..." I stop before I accidentally spill my secret. "Another time." I smile lightly.

"Ok." Stiles lets go of my had to put out coffee cups in the bin. He sits back down and shrugs his jacket on before reconnecting our hands. "I'll stay."

I nearly jump in the air and fist bumb, but instead my grin just gets wider. "Thank you."

"Come on, you owe me a mets game. Good job I recorded it."

I smile at his enthusiasm and we walk out of Jitters, our hands still linked together between us.