Soothsayer ⚡ Barry Allen

Time Flies

It had been a month and a half, the November cold was kicking in early this year, or maybe it was just the poor insulation that came with concrete walls surrounding you. Barry came to see me every Friday, with each visit I could feel myself growing more antsy to get out, though not nearly as antsy as Terra still was. We were no closer to breaking out, my whispers through the guard-vine were talking about increased security, some special dude who required extra vigilance. Terra had also been no further with maintaining a good control of her powers, every now and again there'd be another thing geographically off with our cell.

Currently, I was on another of the Joker's kill missions. It was the middle of the day and Barry usually visited me within this hour so a lot more risk of being caught was involved, giving me a bit of an adreniline rush that I craved. Despite all these factors, it was the only shot I had seen since getting the assignment almost two weeks ago, I was nearing a deadline.

After watching my target walk past my cell, I roped the nearest guard into letting me out and kept up with the guard escorting my man. Sometimes I get details that justified their death to the Joker, but this one got little, other than the title of a whistleblower. Noticing the gait of the guard, I couldn't help the grin as I silently ran to catch up to them. Curling my fingers over a sharpened ear piece for glasses, I pushed the piece between his vertabrae, his body collapsing and the guard turning to face me.

"He's only paralyzed, Terry," I warned in a quiet voice. "Chastise me and he dies, take him to the infirmary and he has a chance." Terry sighed and looked around the hall before back to me, running his thumb over my cheek where I had felt a small droplet hit my face.

"Get out of here before someone else shows up and I have to do my job," he grumbled, turning his focus to the gasping whistleblower as I made my exit. I was almost home free when I turned a corner and my body froze on instinct, my expression serious as I came face- to-chest with an embroidered 'Martinez'.

"Andy," he chuckled, grabbing my arms to pull me back for his view.

"Tony," I grumbled, not looking at his face. If I did, I'd lose my cool.

"Who let you out of your cell?" he inquired. When I didn't answer he put a finger under my chin, causing me to jerk back and a small glare to form on my face. I still didn't answer so he sighed. "No matter, you've got a special visitor." I tried not to cringe at the words as he turned me around, his hand sliding down my arm sickeningly before he cuffed me. He kept his hand on my left shoulder as he walked me through, hating how violated I felt, hating how Martinez was the reason I did.

We weren't going the normal route, this creeper taking me beyond the visiting area. I started weeding out possibilities; from what I knew, he wasn't on the Joker's roster, but there was the looming fact of my delay of his punishment. Martinez pushed open one of the double doors and after taking a few steps inside, my body froze without him needing to tell me. There were several tables around the place but my eyes were only on one.

My eyes had locked with Barry's the instant I froze and when I felt the cold metal leave my wrists I didn't hesitate walking over to him. He stood as I neared, almost a whole head taller than me, his lanky form somewhat visible past his hoodie. I didn't hesitate wrapping my arms around him, my body instantly relaxing into him, even more so when he returned my embrace. I held him there for a moment, soaking in the fact that I was actually touching him finally. "Happy birthday, Andy." I closed my eyes when he spoke in my ear, his voice unfiltered by the crappy phones.

It took a second for me to pull away with a confused expression. "How...?" I trailed off, still shocked by the fact that he was here, in my arms.

"I didn't know the day, but I could tell you were Scorpio." I watched him for a moment, my shock and confusion still growing. "What?" Barry asked with a touch of concern.

"It's just... No one's celebrated my birthday before; early or otherwise," I mumbled. If I had thought I felt shocked, it was nothing compared to the expression that came over Barry's face.

"You're going to sit down and eat this cake with me." It was clear in his face and voice that I had no choice in the matter, but I didn't mind. I finally released him and sat down, taking in the mini galaxy glazed cake, my heart warming at just the idea of him doing this for me. "So, I'm early?" he questioned as he gave me a plastic fork, his eyebrow quirked as he took the first bite.

I smiled and nodded, stabbing my fork through the frosting. "November fourteenth," I offered before taking a bite of my own. The glaze was done with cream cheese and the cake contained chunks of strawberry. God, this kid knew me down to my tastebuds.

"Next Tuesday," he nodded. "On time in my book." I chuckled as I continued to eat; this was better than any kind of prison food.

After taking a moment to simply admire the smiling boy beside me, I had to ask the question picking at me. "How did you set this up? I didn't even know we had this place." Barry laughed, a slight flush tinting his cheeks.

"Took a page from your book." I looked at him with a newfound 'wow' and he laughed again. "I just talked the warden into it, pointed out that your behavior has improved since I started seeing you." I bit back a laugh as a guilty smile pulled on my cheeks. No, I wouldn't ruin this week's visit by denying what he had used to set this up.

"Well done," I praised, bringing another bite of cake to my lips.

He gave a flamboyant bow, smirking all the while. "Thank you, thank you." I smiled as my stomach flipped, completely head over heels for him. I didn't know how he did it, how he got past all my safe guards and so close to me. A small part of me wanted to resent it, to deny whatever he was doing to me, but one look at that goofy, lopsided grin and I was locking up that piece of me like I did everything else. "Andy...is that blood on your cheek?" he asked in quiet caution.

I froze, my eyes widening like a deer in headlights as Barry slowly moved to wipe it from my face. "It's not mine," I mumbled, realizing too late that I probably shouldn't have chosen those words. Barry's confusion slowly turned to realization as Martinez walked over to our table.

"Party's over, kids. Let's go, Andy." I closed my eyes and fought a grimace, Barry's hand closing over mine.

"Don't miss me too much," he mumbled with a small smile when I opened my eyes, pulling a soft laugh from me.

"Impossible," I laughed as I stood, my mood changing the moment Martinez put his hands on me.

As he began guiding me away, Barry tacked on, "I'll just have to visit you more often." I couldn't respond, despite my mood being soured he was still able to make my heart flutter.