What Brings Us Together (A Ralph Dibny/ The Flash Fan-Fiction)

Chapter Thirty-Three: What Changed? (EXTENDED)

Ralph and I kept watch for about another three hours before Wally came out to relieve us.

"Ok, so what are the sleeping arrangements?" I asked.

"Dad and Cecile took your parents' room, and I'm crashing on the couch. I figured that you guys would be sharing, so I took it." Ralph and I shared a look. "I mean, I guess one of you can take the couch while I'm on watch-"

"No, it's fine. We'll be ok. Thanks Wally."

"Yup."

"Go ahead and wake me up in four hours, ok? That sounds like a good rotation to me." He nodded.

"Yes ma'am." I smiled at him, grabbing Ralph's hand and leading him to my bedroom.

"You're sure this is ok?" Ralph whispered, trying not to wake anyone up. I nodded.

"Yeah, it's fine. We're adults, I think we can handle it. It's not like we're going to be doing anything other than sleeping." I opened the door once again to reveal the light blue bedroom that very obviously belonged to a teenager.  The bed wasn't as big as I remember, looking to be only a twin XL, but it looked like it would fit the both of us. 

"That is not a large bed." I shook my head.

"No, it's not. But we'll be fine." I looked over to the dresser to see the Cecile had also laid out some of my Dad's pajamas. "Oh, here." I picked them up, handing them to him. "Go ahead and get changed in the bathroom, down at the end of the hall. He took them, leaving the room and I shut the lights off and  climbed into bed, trying to figure out how I was going to sleep in such a small bed with another person and fractured ribs. I laid down with my ribs facing the ceiling, which meant that I was facing the door. I saw Ralph's shadow pass through the door and watched as he closed it, making it so I couldn't see anything. I felt the bed dip down and I winced slightly.

"Is this going to be ok? On your ribs?" He whispered.

"I guess we'll find out." I replied. He laid down, and I could tell he was facing me because I could feel his breath on my face. "Goodnight."

"Night." I closed my eyes and tried to focus on going to sleep, but it was like my heart was burning in my chest because he was so close. His foot brushed against mine and I gasped. "What?"

"I...I'm too distracted to sleep at the moment."

"What do you mean?" He questioned. I slowly reached up until my fingertips came into contact with his face. "Oh...I see."

"Is that normal?" I whispered. "To feel like this just because you're close by?"

"It is for me," He replied. "However, now I'm able to do something about it." His nose brushed against mine and I gasped again, surprised in the dark by the sudden contact. "Just try to imagine what it's like to feel like this and not be able to act on it."

"To be fair," I said, lightly brushing my lips against his. I wasn't kissing him, just touching, "That was your own fault."

"That almost makes it worse." I chuckled quietly, finally pressing my mouth against his in the proper way. He made me jump as I felt his hand on my hip. He lightly squeezed it before running his hand down my leg to my knee, and pulling me so that my leg was on top of his legs and there was no space between us. "Did that hurt?"

"Do you really think I care at this point in time?" I pressed my mouth to his again and his hand lightly trailed the curve of my waist to avoid hurting me. It stung a little, but I honestly didn't care, because the feeling of his fingers touch me seemed to have more of an impact than the pain in my ribs. He moved his hand from my waist to my spine, moving his fingertips up and down it. It took me a moment to realize that his arm was stretched out to avoid touching my ribs. I pulled away from him, trying to catch my breath. "Ok...I think we need to chill out a little bit."