Soothsayer ⚡ Barry Allen

Pillow Talk

I sat calmly on a park bench and warmed my fingers around my coffee, feeling the smallest lift to my smile when the bench dipped beside me. "It's good to see you again, Mr. Merlyn," I hummed, turning the slightest to face him.

"Will your muscle be joining us again?" he inquired, folding his hands in his lap.

"Not this time," I chuckled. "He enjoys his nine-to-five too much." I took a drink of my coffee and got comfortable, not knowing just how long I'd be here.

"Ever been to Asia?"

⚡

I took an extremely hot shower, hoping to clense myself of the weight of Merlyn's warnings. My skin was red and steam easily radiated off it when I finally stepped out. I smiled when I saw that Barry had left one of his sweaters in here for me, drying my hair in the towel after sliding the jacket on. Breathing was harder since my meeting with Merlyn, the looming weight of my departure becoming physical.

Leaving the steamy bathroom, I shuffled my way to the bedroom, gaining a bit of a sad smile when I saw Barry passed out face down in his spot with his limbs randomly spread around him. He only asked me to keep him in the loop and not to leave him, both of which I was struggling with. From the get go I was bad about keying him in, and I was still adament that I didn't want to leave, but I knew at some point I'd have to. I took a deep breath and ran my hands over my face, surprised when one came back a little wet. I used my sleeve to dry the rogue tear before crawling over the matress beside him, easily sliding my legs under the blanket.

Barry was shirtless so I was able to see each pull on his skin as he breathed, each shift of the muscles underneath. I rested my hand on his back and gently smoothed my fingers over it, not having any particular pattern to it. Other than shifting his shoulders a bit, he laid still for a long time, so my fingers started making their own trail. I knew the words, how each of them was said, even knew it in several other languages, but I couldn't put them in a sentence and speak them. So, I took to tracing it into his skin.

'I love you,' over and over again, sometimes big, sometimes small, sometimes spanning across his whole back, written at odd angles that only became more cattywampus the longer I drug it out. And I did it for hours, just writing it into his flesh like a mantra, never faultering or hesitating. Just a constant 'I love you.'

I only slowed when I started dozing off, relaxing my hand against his back as my eyes failed to stay open. However, they didn't need to be for me to realize that Barry hadn't been sleeping. Turning so he now faced me, he slid an arm around my back and pulled me close, gently pressing his lips to my nonresponsive ones for a second. "I love you, too," he whispered, encouraging me to stay up just enough longer to know he was actually asleep.

⚡

It surprised me that I was up before Barry was. Usually, I was walking up as he was getting ready or just before he walked out of the door, but this morning I woke up with his arms wrapped securely around me. With a soft sigh, I leaned back into him, smiling when he tightened his grip around my stomach. "Your hair smells good," he mumbled sleepily, causing a small laugh to bubble up my throat.

"I used your shampoo," I softly laughed, turning to face him with a smile. His eyes were closed and his face was relaxed, if he wasn't so good at pretending to sleep I'd be able to tell if he was or not.

"Why'd you get it from there?" he asked quietly, his eyebrows pulling together. "Did the dragons give it to you?" My eyebrows came together as well, not understanding how we got from my hair to dragons. If I hadn't seen people in drug induced states uttering nonsense like this before, I don't know if I'd have the sense to deal with it.

"What if they did?" I tried. Sleep talkers were my favorite sorts of talkers to talk to. They were selective and vague in responses more often than not, but it was still fun to prod at their subconcious a bit. "Who're the dragons, Barry?"

"There's a yellow one..." he frowned, his fingers tightening around a portion of my ribs. "Where the hell are these things coming from?" I laughed a bit to myself as I wiggled my fingers under his, able to transfer his grip onto my hand.

"You're an amazing investigator," I laughed, brushing away the hair on his forehead and stilling when his face twitched before relaxing. "I know you'll figure it out."

I brushed a few more dark hairs out of his face before he grogily asked, "Figure what out?" His eyes slowly opened and he looked over my face, his eyes unable to stay in one spot.

"Where the dragons were coming from," I supplied with a small smile. "You were talking in your sleep, mátia mou. About a yellow dragon." A half frown tried pulling down one side of his lips as I brushed some hair out of his face, gently kissing the frown out of place. "Don't worry, you don't have to tell me unless you want to," I assured.

Barry squeezed my hand before returning it around my back, pulling me closer as he rested his forehead on mine. "I want to explain, but I don't even know how to explain it to myself," he tried, making me gently shush him.

"Not knowing how means you're not ready. I understand." I ran my thumb over his cheek, smiling at the way he lightly leaned into it.

"How did you become you, Dromi?" he softly questioned, eyes closed. I took a deep breath and watched my thumb smooth over his cheekbone for a moment, lost in his body's unique curvature.

"Once upon a time, there was a very scared little girl," I slowly started, feeling the muscles in my chest tense. "But she met some friends who helped her grow up and she realized..." I bit the inside of my lip, watching Barry's eyes open so he could get a proper read on me. "She realized the way to stop being scared, was to become scary." If one thing was true about my life, it was this little story. Every time I got scared, I ran off to build myself up, so I wasn't scared anymore. Hell, it was even true now.

"You don't have to be scared anymore, Andromeda. I'll protect you." He pressed his lips to mine and a tear fell from my eye, so when he tried to pull away at the wetness meeting his skin I held his face still and kissed him for a moment longer. Because if Barry's protecting me, who is there to protect Barry from the Joker's wrath?