Work Text:
Iris smoothed the bandage out on Barry’s torso and tried very hard to remember to breathe.
It was hard being this close to him, and actually touching him like this too. Usually there was a couple feet of space between them, but with Caitlin gone she was there to play nurse. No one better really, she was his best friend. If he’d still been with Patty, it would be different. If Caitlin was still here, it would be different. If Caitlin hadn’t looked her in the eye and basically forced her to confess she was into Barry, things would be different.
But they weren’t.
She’d been trying to focus on the problems at hand – Caitlin kidnapped by Zoom, Zoom about to make his next strike on Central City at any time, and Barry powerless due to his giving up his powers to the speed-obsessed maniac in exchange for her brother’s life.
Those were all huge issues, and they were easy to focus on. Even more importantly was being there for Barry as a friend.
But at moments like these, it was just hard to focus on any of those things. Instead she focused on how close they were, what his abs felt like beneath that bandage, how deep of a green his eyes were when she had the chance to look, and how she’d never felt butterflies quite this intense since…well, she couldn’t even remember how long it had been. Maybe ever.
And Barry was watching her put the bandage on too. Talk about pressure. What if it came off and she was forced to look at his muscles again? The aggravation.
So when she finally finished securing that bandage, and there was no real reason to keep touching him, she released him, and he started pulling his shirts back down so his skin was out of sight.
That should’ve helped, but it didn’t.
Instead, when he got up off the bed and started to move faster, she collided with him as she stood up simultaneously, grabbed a fistful of his shirt, and pulled his face down to hers so she could kiss him.
He seemed startled at first, and she thought she heard him squeak, as well as heard the others gasp in the cortex just beyond the med bay. But that didn’t matter. All that mattered was that when the squeak subsided, Barry kissed her back.
And not just once, repeatedly. In fact, it took her sticking her tongue into his mouth for him to get a hold of reality and pull back, panting.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, Iris.” He swallowed hard, searching her eyes for an answer – anything.
“Yeah?” she asked, licking her lips, her eyes glued to his.
Look into his eyes, damn it. But that was dangerous too.
“What – what are you doing?” And that made her take a step back. “We, I mean,” he said, hurriedly.
“You’re making out…is what you’re doing,” Cisco said from the cortex.
They both froze and looked over at Cisco, Joe, and Jesse all watching them with various stages of amusement on their faces.
“Jesse, uh…why don’t you repeat what you were saying about our aging meta. I think Mr. Flash and his quick fix over here might’ve missed it.”
Barry wrapped his hand around the back of his head, and Iris cleared her throat. Not wanting the moment to be over, but not really having a choice, she powerwalked out of the med bay and into the cortex as Jesse re-explained what was going on with the meta and the potential plan there was in taking him down and rescuing Harry in the process.
They both listened as attentively as they could, but when the plan ended in Joe, Cisco, and Jesse all having to leave, they found themselves alone again. Only now, Barry had sunken back into his depression of how he was supposed to function as a hero without his powers, and Iris knew it was no longer the time to discuss how she’d suddenly kissed him out of nowhere and he’d kissed back.
“So…Barry.”
“What was that, Iris?”
Then again, maybe she was wrong.
“Wanna do it again?” she asked, hopefully, only half-jokingly.
Barry laughed, actually laughed. She couldn’t remember the last time that had happened, and she felt proud of herself for being the cause of it.
“Yeah, actually.” He turned to look at her. “But we should probably talk about it first.”
“Right.” She slipped her hands into her pockets and rocked on her heels.
“Do you…like me?”
She bit her bottom lip.
“More than like, actually.”
His eyes widened, and he exhaled.
“Wow. Really?” She nodded. “For how long.”
“A while. I just…with Eddie and everything, I felt guilty for having feelings.”
“And now you don’t?” he asked carefully.
She shrugged and sighed.
“They’re kind of overwhelming.”
He nodded. “I know the feeling.”
“Do you…still?” she asked.
“I mean, I kissed you back, didn’t I?”
“You also pulled away.”
“You stuck your tongue down my throat!”
“You don’t like that, I take it.”
“No! Yes! I mean… I do.” He took a breath. “I really do. I just…wasn’t expecting it. I needed a conversation. With everything that’s been going on recently, this was the last thing I expected to happen after getting beat up by a meta.”
She winced. “Sorry.”
“No! God, no, don’t apologize. I liked it. I liked it a lot. And I do want to do it again. Just…now is just a-”
“Bad time,” she finished.
“Yeah.”
“I understand. No more kissing, and especially no tongue action, until you have your powers back and Caitlin’s back and Zoom’s defeated and-”
“Seems like a lot to wait for, doesn’t it?” His brows fused together.
“Yeah.” She laughed. “And I mean I’ve been waiting to kiss you for so long, I-”
“Oh, screw it.”
He closed the distance between them, sunk his fingers into her hair, and kissed her hard on the mouth. This time he was the one to stick his tongue down her throat, and she eagerly reciprocated. It wasn’t long until they were pressed up against one of the computers, messing up each other’s hair, and feeling like they had way too many clothes on.
Iris was the one to break the kiss this time.
“W-wait.” She licked her lips. “This is fast, I think. I mean, right?”
Barry was silent.
“Right?” she asked again.
“Right. Right! Totally.” He took a step back from her. “I mean, what are we thinking? We just have sex while everyone is busy, and then-”
She pursed her lips, staring at his, and then he took her hand and pulled her down the hallway until they ran smack dab into Cisco and Jesse.
“Hello!”
“Wow, hi.”
“Hey.”
“Were you two…going somewhere?” Cisco looked between them.
“What? No, that’s…” Barry looked at Iris’ hungry eyes and immediately dropped his grasp on her hand. “That’s…silly.”
“They were gonna do it,” Jesse informed Cisco.
“Uh-huh.”
Iris sputtered a giant laugh.
“We were not gonna do it. That’s…that’s ridiculous. So soon? And here? Of all places? What?”
Barry shook his head at her to stop while she was ahead.
“Uh-huh. Right.”
“Well,” Cisco said, “You two will just have to go at it like rabbits when all this is over.”
Barry and Iris avoided eye contact.
“I have a plan.”