It Happened in a Flash

He suffers

The next morning Kara was the first to awaken. Shifting to look at how she was laying she noted that in their sleep she had gone from being to the side of Barry to now laying on top of him like a human blanket. Careful not to disturb him she decided to levitate her body to get off rather than attempt to climb off. Once she was up she went into the kitchen to look around. She figured after Barry had made such a production of breakfast for her the other day the least she could do was make him pancakes or something. It was on the early side so she tried her best to be quiet as she rushed around to get the fixings to make him food. About 45 minutes & 5 attempts later she threw in the towel. She used her super-speed to clean up the mess she had created and ran down to the coffee shop Barry had shown her. She returned to the apartment with an assortment of baked goods and coffee. As she set up two place settings she heard a stirring from the couch. A sleepy Barry made his way over to the kitchen.

"What smells so good?" he asked groggily.

"Ta-da!" Kara said cheerily as she gestured to the food she had set up on multiple plates.

"Wow, did you bake or something?"

Kara laughed "Well, um, I attempted to but, uh, it turns out it's not exactly my forte. So, instead, I went down to that Jitters place you showed me." 

Barry chuckled as he came over to her. "Well it looks great, thank you." He said as he kissed her cheek.

Kara smiled bashfully and sat down next to him. "On that note, you realize the new rules are in place starting today right?" She asked, notably avoiding eye contact. 

"Oh. Right." Barry replied as his face fell. 

"Look, neither one of us wants this but you know as well as I that it's the right thing to do," Kara said, finally turning to him, trying to get him to look up.

"Yeah I know it's just-" Barry exclaimed, turning quickly, grabbing her hand as he did. "It's just I want to start being with you... now." He said, lowering his voice as he went. He averted his eyes from hers, choosing instead to look down.

She squeezed his hand slightly "Yeah, I know, but not yet." With that, she got up to go get changed. She returned a few moments later in a red floral sundress, hair clipped back on one side with her usual glasses on. She watched Barry as he cleaned up the entire breakfast in a matter of seconds. "Well done scarlet speedster. You know, if the superhero thing ever goes out the window, you could have a real future in house cleaning." She joked, laughing at her own humour. 

"Yeah well- wow." Barry laughed, stopping short as he turned around. He didn't know if it was the whole ' you always want what you can't have' thing or what but for some reason, the beautiful blonde before him looked even more breathtaking today. 'Of course today of all days'  he thought to himself. Noticing that Kara had begun to look concerned at his staring he followed with "sorry, you just look really nice today." 'WOW, way to be smooth there Barry'  he thought as he mentally kicked himself. Kara just laughed softly as she murmured thanks.  "So, um, do you want to come with me to work or something? I mean, the precinct can be pretty dull in the forensics department when you're alone." Barry offered.

"Right because that's what I should be doing right now, spending the entire day with you alone in your office." Kara scoffed lightly. She regretted it when she noticed a hint of sadness in his eyes as she finished. "Look," she stared as she approached him, "We both would like to be with each other today, but right now that isn't going to help convince your family that we aren't doing anything. Today I think I'm going to go to the labs and hang around there." A look of worry crossed Barry's face as he opened his mouth to object. "Before you say anything, I know Joe or Wally or even Iris may be there but at least this way they can't accuse us of being together. Besides, Iris said she forgave the whole thing but needs time which means she'll probably avoid the labs anyhow and Joe is too nice to be aggressive with me, for now anyway. The only one who's still genuinely upset is Wally and hopefully, he won't be too angry with me, or at least, not to my face." 

"But Kara-"

"Bartholomew, I will be fine" Kara emphasized again. "Now I'm going to head out, I'll see you later though." She said. Barry nodded reluctantly and absentmindedly leaned in for a kiss. Kara ducked slightly so he would place one on her forehead rather than her lips. She smiled at him as she left the apartment. Barry watched her go, as the sun coming through the window bounced off her golden hair. He groaned as the door to the apartment closed. 

"What the hell am I going to do? How is she dealing with this so easily? I can't make it 3 weeks, I don't even know if I'm going to survive one day!" He stressed to himself. His phone chimed, grabbing his attention from his grievances. "Shit" he mumbled as he read the text from Joe questioning where he was. He sped into his room quickly getting ready for the day and sped off. He arrived a few minutes later seeing Joe waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs. He sighed heavily as he walked by. "Not now Joe, please, can't I just do my work." 

Joe followed Barry up the stairs "Maybe after I get some answers."

Barry walked into his office, exasperated with the conversation before it had even begun. "Fine." He huffed out. 

"What are you doing Barry?" Joe asked, seemingly also exasperated.  

"What do you mean?" Barry replied.

"Why? Why are you throwing away everything just to get with some blonde that isn't even from this earth?" Joe retorted.

Barry sighed, so tired of the same stupid conversation over and over. "I'm not. I didn't 'throw everything away'. Iris and I were over before Kara arrived, which I've told you before. I didn't tell Iris to leave my life, she still matters to me, just not in the way she used to. That isn't on Kara, that isn't on me, and it's not on Iris either. The relationship wasn't the same, our time as a couple ended because it wasn't meant to be. I hardly see how that's throwing away everything.  By ending things with Iris what, did that cost me you and Wally too? Or my friends? Or my job? No? Well, then I don't understand how you can argue I threw it all away. Would you have rather us stay together and be unhappy? Would that have been preferable Joe?" Barry said, getting more upset as he ranted. He paused, taking a breath to calm down. 

"No, of course not Barry and you know that. I just don't want you getting hooked on a blonde rebound and making things worse." Joe started. 

"Ok stop right there," Barry said, looking at Joe with more anger than he'd ever shown before "Her name is Kara. She is not some blonde like you keep saying. She isn't some 'one-night stand' or 'rebound'. She's not some slut or random girl from a bar. She's a hell of a lot more than that. You would know that too if you'd stop degrading her and writing her off like she doesn't matter. Look, I'm so sorry that things didn't really work out with your daughter but that doesn't mean you can treat Kara like crap. I get Iris is hurt and I never intended on that but even she has taken a step back, and her anger comes from pain. You and Wally, however, are just being spiteful now. So before you say another word about me or 'that blonde' maybe you should take some damn time to think about it. If you still got an issue with her later, honestly, keep it to yourself, Joe, because I really don't want to hear it. And that goes for Wally too." Barry finished with a huff and sat down at his desk. Beginning to go through the files on his desk he opted to ignore Joe's stunned silence. After a couple of seconds, the older man quietly left the room without another word. Barry watched him leave out of the corner of his eye. His phone chimed, snapping him out of his gaze. He looked to see a message from Kara "how's work going?" he sighed. He typed back "Man, I wish I could just be with you already" then erased, knowing that wouldn't help anything. "Pretty good. How are you doing?"  He replied with a sigh. "Pretty alright" came the response. He threw his phone to the side and groaned as he leaned back in his chair. 'This is going to be the death of me' he thought, envisioning the beautiful girl that he couldn't be with. He stared at the ceiling as his brain drifted to missing her. He grabbed his phone again and dialled, it rang twice before someone answered, "Hi, is this a bad time?" Barry began. 

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Hey guys, so suffice it to say I am more than a tad late updating this story. First off I want to say a huge thank you to everyone for reading. Especially those of you who have been pushing me to update. I never thought that this story would get many views but holy crap was I wrong. Thank everybody who read and voted on my story, it means a lot. As for my MIA period, I went through a rough period for a while there and just needed to take time away from everything. However, I'm doing a hell of a lot better. As long as school continues to chill out I really hope to continue this story! I hope everyone enjoys & has a great day!