Tiptoe { Allenski }

Fundamental

Barry

Iris gives me lift from Star labs so we can chat for a while. When we get home, Stiles and Joe are gone and there is a note on the counter.

Gone out. S went for a walk, he will be back soon.

-Joe

I smile and throw the note into the bin. Iris watches me carefully.

"Go on then." She says, pouring herself and I some coffee.

"What?"

"Tell me about it."

"It?"

"Stiles." She says like it what obvious. I immediately bite my lip and turn red.

"I think I like him."

"Barry that's so obvious!" She says, throwing her hands up. "I finally get it in words, yay me!"

"Am I really obvious?"

She raised her eyebrows at me. "Barry you told Cisco your lunch with him was an actual date."

"Okay... That's fair enough. Do you think he knows? Do you think he feels the same?"

"I think, you should just ask him out." Iris smirks over the rim of the coffee mug as she takes a sip.

"... But, I'm worried. Look what happened last time I tried to date."

"But clearly you didn't like Patty that much." Iris shrugs and I have to agree.

"I guess yeah..." I swallow. "But what about the whole flash thing? How can I do that as well as have a relationship?"

"You'll figure it out. Try not to worry about that yet, just start by worrying about how you're going to ask him out. No Zoom right now."

"I think the opposite." Zoom is suddenly standing behind us. I spin round, ready for a fight, until I see Stiles' being held up by the collar of his shirt. He winks at me weakly.

"Let him go."

"I want you to tell the flash something from me. If he keeps doing what he is doing, people are going to get hurt." Zoom grins and throws Stiles into my arms. I don't see him leave, I'm too busy with the injured boy in my arms.

"Stiles?" I say, my hands on his blood covered cheeks.

"Hey Bear, how's things?" He grins, his teeth covered in his own blood. "I think I got beaten up, by bad flash."

"Bad flash?" I ask, wiping his forehead with my sleeve.

"Yeah. Bad flash." He frowns. "He's speedy like the flash but he beats people up."

"Ok, come on let's get you cleaned up." I help Stiles to his feet and sit him down on the couch. Iris already hands me a wet cloth and some painkillers. I dab Stiles' face whilst he swallows some painkillers.

"I'm alright Barry, it's ok." Stiles takes the cloth and wipes his own nose. "Who the hell was that?"

I look at Iris, panicked. "We don't know." She says smoothly. If he saw through her lie (which he probably did) he is obviously too tired to protest. Instead he shrugged and tries to stand. I automatically jump to help him up.

"Thanks." He mumbles, laughing slightly. "I think I'm just gonna hit the hay." He smiles at me, letting go of my arm, and staggers up the stairs. As soon as he is gone I turn to Iris, my hands weaving up to my head. Her expression matches mine: despair.

"How the hell am I supposed to do this Iris?" I flop down onto the sofa and put my head in my hands. She sits beside me and winds her arms around my shoulders.

"You have to decide wether it's worth the risk." She smiles lightly, and I'm somewhat calmed by her friendship.

"What's worth the risk?" Joe comes through the door with bags of shopping in his arms. I quickly take them from him and put them away. "Thanks Bear."

"Zoom got to Stiles." I say and his mouth drops open.

"Oh my god, is he ok? What happened?"

"He's fine, he's upstairs." Iris stands up and frowns at her Dad. "Why are you so worried?"

"We had a chat. Smoothed things over." Joe sighs. "But I've been meaning to talk to you both about him." Joe lowers his voice. I notice this and turn the TV on so Stiles wouldn't hear.

"He told me something, which he asked me not to tell you until he was ready, which I am going to respect." Joe raises his eyebrows to see if I would protest and I nod, signalling for him to continue. "He showed me a scar he has on his back, I won't say what from, but he made out like he didn't know what it was from. Obviously I could tell he was lying. But the scar didn't look like anything normal, if you get me."

"So, like a meta?" Iris asks, and I'm suddenly frowning.

"You think Stiles knows about metas? Other than the fact he was attacked by one?"

"That's another thing. I think the reason that meta seemed to go after him has something to do with his knowledge of them."

"Ok, this all makes perfect sense." I bite my lip. "But why would he not say anything?"

"Same reason you don't want to tell him about the Flash."

"To protect me. But he doesn't know... Do you think I should tell him?"

"Hold your horses Barry, I think you should try and figure out what's going on with him for yourself before revealing your secret to a stranger."

"Ok. Well it helps that we have police jobs, huh Joe?" I laugh slightly and bring out my laptop, logging into the CCPD file base. I search for Stiles' file. "Ok so his only family is his Dad, but he is close to this kid who's his age, sort of like his brother. He's been involved with pretty much all of the crimes over the past year in Beacon Hills."

"Well that's weird. Like what?"

"People going missing, His school has been trashed multiple times, he's friends with Derek Hale."

"The kid who's family all died in a fire?"

"Yeah that's him... It seems like a lot of stuff goes down in Beacon Hills."

What is Stiles hiding?