WESTALLEN: one shots

1. sleepover

in which barry and iris build a wall of pillows between them before the sleep but wake up in each other's arms anyway the next morning.

[ insp. by a prompt on Tumblr ]

~ ☼ ~

"Iris, you are not taking the couch."

The tired girl in front of him sighed. "Barry, it's just one night. I think I'll live," she chuckled.

"On that couch? I respectfully disagree."

"What is so wrong with your couch?"

Barry shrugged. "I mean, if you want to sleep on chip crumbs, pizza sauce, Cisco farts, and that one time a drunk Wells threw up on one of the cushions, then please - be my guest."

"Disgusting," Iris muttered, walking away from the couch and into Barry's room.

Iris was organizing some of her things in the bathroom as a gust of wind blew her hair in her face - walking out, she saw the familiar streak of red enter the room. She stood at her end of the bed, watching Barry strip down into just his underwear and crawl under the covers, sighing happily to himself.

Iris folded her arms. "What are you doing?"

"Well, I'm not taking that couch either."

She sighed, shaking her head to herself and suppressing a smile. "Of course not."

Barry propped himself up on his elbows and watched as Iris walked to his dresser and picked out a loose t-shirt. She went into the bathroom and came out in his shirt which went down to her mid-thigh. Barry's breath got caught in his throat. She had no idea how many times he had imagined this scenario happening in his head.

He cleared his throat quickly and went back under the covers, turning on his back. Iris turned off the lamp on the table next to her and slipped into the bed, and the two were finally at rest.

"Night, Barry," she sighed quietly as she felt sleep overcome her.

"Goodnight, Iris," he responded.

Only a few minutes had passed before Iris felt a light brush of skin against her hand. Barry felt it, too, but neither of them said anything as they both closed their eyes again. It wasn't long before Iris then felt a tingly feeling on the back of her neck. She turned around, only to be face-to-face with Barry, their faces a mere centimetre apart. He eventually opened his eyes, and as soon as he did, he immediately tried to scramble away from that position. Unfortunately, though, Barry was Barry, and he ended up using too much force and falling off the bed.

He got up, running a hand through his hair. "You know what, I'm just gonna say it. Um, Iris, this is... kind of awkward."

She sat up, turning on the light. "You're right. I'm sorry. I can seriously just go on the couch."

Barry shook his head. "No, it's fine! It's fine. We're overthinking it. We had sleepovers all the time, don't you remember? I used to sneak into your bed in the middle of the night, or we would hide under the covers every time Joe came to check on us and we were supposed to be sleeping..."

"That's cause you were afraid of the dark," Iris pointed out.

"My point is," he said, ignoring her comment, "we're just friends, right? So let's just have... you know, a sleepover. As friends."

"Fine," Iris said, after some moments of contemplating. "But we're building a wall of pillows in between us. I need my space."

Barry, who could not show how he was slightly disappointed that they were now going to have ten pillows separating them, used his speed and helped put the last pillow he could find in the middle of the bed.

"There," he said, putting his arms on his hips. "Now, we sleep."

Iris turned off the light again and they both got in bed. Neither of them admitted that they secretly had liked it better before the pillows were between them. But slowly, the two drifted away into a deep sleep, exhausted from the day they had both had.

~ ☼ ~

Barry woke up as the morning light leaked through his bedroom window, the soft glow of the sun warming his skin. His eyes slowly opened - revealing Iris, sound asleep.

Sound asleep in his arms, to be more specific.

Barry didn't know what to do. He knew she was a heavy sleeper, though, which bought him more time to think of how he was going to handle this. He looked around as much as he could without moving the rest of his body, and saw that they had both kicked off all the pillows that were in the middle of them.

He smiled, focusing on the girl in front of him. The sight of the person he loved the most in all of the earths, worlds and universes lying there - in front of him, right in his arms - was all he could ever ask for. She was the first face he wanted to see every single morning. Her head was snuggled into his chest, her arm resting on his torso, her leg draped over him. Barry couldn't seem to tear his eyes away from her. He couldn't help but think he was dreaming; that any moment he'll wake up to an empty bed. But it was real. She was real.

But Barry didn't want to make things complicated. With Eddie's death and Patty who had recently just left, Barry knew it wasn't good for either of them to rush into things. He also didn't know how Iris would react. So without waking her, he lightly lifted her arm and leg and got up, using his speed to gently place Iris on her side of the bed and put back all of the pillows in between them. A few minutes later, Iris woke up, rubbing her eyes and yawning.

"Morning," she mumbled, still half asleep. Barry couldn't help but smile. Her morning voice was the cutest.

"How did you sleep?" he asked.

"Amazing, actually," Iris answered, as she sat up and ran a hand through her hair. She checked her watch and sighed. "I gotta get to work."

The two of them got ready quickly and headed downstairs. Barry offered Iris breakfast but she refused and said she'd just pick up coffee from Jitters.

"Thanks again, for letting me stay here," Iris said as they got the door.

"You're always welcome," Barry said with a warm smile.

Iris returned the gesture. "And we managed to keep it completely not-awkward," she said. "Good thing we had the pillows, right?" She chuckled a bit and headed out the door, waving back to Barry once she got in her car.

Barry couldn't help but smile and look down.

"Yeah. Good thing."