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

Chapter Forty-Nine: I Love Ralph

Rundine, unfortunatley, refused to confess to the Mercury Labs heist. That kind of sucked, by it was still a good day for Team Flash, in the sense that Harry had at least some of his confidence restored, and Cisco, Ralph, and I were successfully returned to a normal size.

Ralph came back to my place afterwards, and I changed into my Star Labs sweatshirt and a pair of flannel pajama pants. I tied my hair up into a ponytail and sat down on the couch beside Ralph. He lightly grabbed my chin, turning my face to look at the bruise that had formed from Rundine punching me. I moved his hand, looking at his now bruised knuckles and running my fingers over them.

"What happened in there?" I asked. "You've seen me get into fights before. Why did this one make you so angry?"

"I'm always angry," He replied, placing his other hand over mine. "It's just, this time, I wasn't seeing Skyrocket in a fight with a Meta, I was seeing some buff scary dude punch my roommate." I sat up straight and he smiled.

"So you're moving in?"

"I gave my landlord my two-weeks this afternoon." I smiled, biting my lip. "I know I shouldn't have let that get to me, you being a superhero and all but...I've grown to be kind of protective over you, and...I don't know, I don't like seeing you hurt." I looked down at his bruised knuckles again, and noticed they were swelling a little bit.

"Let me get you some ice." I stood up, walking to the kitchen, grabbing a dish rag and opening the freezer. I reached into the ice box when I felt Ralph's hands on my sides. Electricity shot up and down my sides and into my stomach and I froze, no pun intended. My eyes widened as I felt his mouth come into contact with my neck. "What are...what are you doing?"

"You can't tell what I'm doing?" He questioned, moving one of his hands so it came to rest on my stomach.

"I mean, yeah, it's just I'm not...I've never..." He kissed up the side of my neck to my jaw. "You really don't need ice that badly." I closed the freezer, turning around and pressing my mouth against his. He pushed my back up against the refrigerator, his hands on my waist. I wrapped my arms around his neck, weaving one of my hands into his hair. In this moment, I realized something. I love Ralph.

I think I'd known for a little while, but it just hit me how much I love him. I pulled away, leaning my forehead against his.

"What's wrong?" He asked, pulling back to look at me. I shook my head.

"I..."The words stopped in my throat. My heart was pounding, and a feeling bubbled up in my stomach that I could only describe as fear. I was terrified to tell Ralph that I loved him? Why. He furrowed his eyebrows, pulling away from me.

"Is everything ok?" He asked, tucking my hair behind my ear. I nodded.

"Yeah...yeah, everything is absolutely fine." I said, chuckling. I turned around, opening the freezer and continuing what I was doing. I turned around, grabbing his hand and pressing the rag to his knuckles.

"Are you sure?" I looked up at him.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm sure. Why do you ask?" He held up his other hand, exposing the bruises.

"I'm right-handed. Therefore, I punched Rundine with my right hand." I laughed, leaning my forehead on his shoulder. He laughed too and I sat up, switching hands. "You are something else, Laura. You sure you don't have brain damage or something?"

"Shut up." I said, smacking his chest.

"Ow, you hit hard for a girl." I raised my eyebrows.

"Ok buddy, need I remind you that I was out excercizing and fighting bad guys while you were still snapping sneaky pictures of cheating spouses? I'm ripped." He nodded.

"Fair enough."

"Speaking of which, we should get you on a work out plan. You might have abs, but the rest of you needs to be in shape too." 

"Is that your subtle way of asking me to train with you?" He asked.

"We should've been doing so a long time ago. But, since you live here now, it gives you no excuse to not go running with me in the morning."

"You're one of those weirdos that run for fun? I don't think this relationship is gonna work out." I went to shove him, but he grabbed my wrists, pinning them up against the freezer. I raised my eyebrows, surprised. "You may have more experience in the fighting department, but I've picked up a think or two." I smiled, biting my lip. His eyes went down to my mouth. "I love it when you do that." I rolled my eyes at him.

"Can you let me go now?"

"Only if we can agree to get Chinese take out for dinner tonight." I sighed.

"Fine. Deal." He smiled his adorable, Ralph Dibny smile, letting go of me. "I love it when you do that."

~~~

"According to my scans, Cisco, Ralph and Laura's cells have reformed and re-stabilized." Caitlin said, coming into the Cortex. I was sitting on Ralph's lap while he was in one of the rolling chairs.

"I can attest my bladder is completely back to normal," Ralph said, "Fourth Big Gulp today." I took the soda out of his hand. "Hey!'

"This is mine now." I said, taking a sip of it.

"I miss when you could just pick him up and carry him out of the room." Caitlin muttered, Iris agreed.

"You just passed up a dig at Dibny." Cisco pointed out, talking to Harry. "You sure you're alright?"

"You know, we open up a case against an innocent man, somehow stumble upon the culprit who, by the way, has meta-human powers that we are partially responsible for, it's..."

"it's like you said." Iris told him. I nodded.

"There are no coincidences when it comes to DeVoe." I added. "And the bus metas."

"What's DeVoe doing? What's his...motive? Does he want Sylbert Rundine incarcerated?"

"Or to have Big Sir set free?"

"Or for Cisco, Laura, and I to become itty bitty meta-humans."

"Or...maybe it doesn't matter either way." I realized. "It's starting to feel to me like DeVoe is trying to distract us from what's really going on."

"Whatever his plan is," Harry replied, "We'll figure it out. And we're gonna stop him."

"And bring Barry home." Iris added.

"And bring Barry home."