run barry run

Diana was a little relieved when Barry didn’t say anything to her before she walked away. She needed a moment to overcome her old, habitual worry about someone knowing her civilian identity. Having to field pleasant conversation while she did so would not have been ideal. While Barry ran off, she stayed by the meter for a few seconds more, adding coins while she told herself, sternly, that she trusted the League, and its members. So, she could trust Barry with this.

She bought coffee on autopilot, thankful that she was enough of a regular to at least be recognized and handed a cup of something drinkable. Not that she tasted any of it, as she sipped from the paper cup on her casual stroll towards the nearest alley. Only after several minutes of waiting to be absolutely certain that nobody was watching did she kick off the ground, ascending rapidly to the rooftop where she’d told Barry to wait.

Her landing was as graceful as usual, even though she was rattled. After this many years of knowing she could fly, pure muscle memory took over. Despite her apprehension, she couldn’t help smiling back at Barry, and the smile only grew when he immediately began to pelt her with questions about coffee. Evidently, some things didn’t change when he took off the costume. She couldn’t say she was surprised, but the familiarity was pleasant. “I’m usually here much earlier,” she told him, once she’d waited patiently for him to finish. “I’m having an…off…morning. Yes, I have those too,” she added quickly, anticipating the follow-up. “And the only effect of the coffee is that I appear more human. I drink it for the taste, not the chemistry. Perhaps there would be an effect if I drank a great deal of it, but I haven’t experimented.” That was about enough beating around the bush for her, so she cut to the point. “And when I’m not wearing armor, it’s Diana, please. Not Wonder Woman.”

The smile the young speedster received was a relief. For a moment, he was worried that she might be angry that he had discovered her as a civilian even if it had been purely by coincidence. When Barry had kept his own identity sacred, running into any of his teammates in broad daylight would have been terrifying. They all had terrifying deduction skills and the scarlet speedster had a few standout habits that any of them would have easily recognized after working together for so long. Lately, he only wore the mask out of habit but he still had automatic responses whenever someone tried to remove his cowl whether or not it was just to tease him because the league had a few pranksters in the group, including him.

Tilting his head, Barry listened with a curious gaze, nodding along with her words. On reflex, his mouth opened to inquire how Wonder Woman could ever have an off day but she predicted his question and his mouth snapped shut with a sheepish smile. Wond--- Diana had come to learn his talent for talking as fast as the rest of the team had. At first, he had been afraid of annoying them but once he was comfortable and they indulged some of his fawning, it was common knowledge the speedster could talk as fast as he could run. “That would be a fun experiment,” he commented with a small chuckle.

Pietro stooped over to grab the necklace from the ground, shoving it back into his pocket. It sat out strangely, and if he was still in the department store he would have tried to conceal it better, but his hands were red with guilt already. There was no going back, and seemingly, no way to talk himself out of it. He had raced Bart Allen once before, and found himself exhausted afterwards, so he was pretty sure that when it came down to it, Barry would be able to at least keep pace with him, probably more than that. Nevertheless, Pietro’s shoulders slumped in disappointment.

“Seriously, man?” he said, kicking a little at the curb like a kid in a tantrum. “Come on.” He drew out the last word, letting it go a pitch higher at the end. “It will be fun, no? If you don’t catch me, I keep the necklace, and if you do catch me, I still keep the necklace.” The jewellery weighed a ton in his pocket. Knowing his luck, it would rip through the stitching on his jeans. “Are you seriously telling me you never used your powers to steal something? Come on, dude! That’s like … the first thing I did!”

The boy looked disappointed that the race wasn’t going to happen. It would be amusing to find out who was the superior speedster but Barry wasn’t quite himself at the moment. Crossing his arms in a strong stance, he stared the childish speedster down as he humored the argument. “That’s clearly a no win situation on my end and I’m totally not betting a necklace like that on a race.”

Youthful features turned into an appalled look and his stance relaxed, letting his arms free as he used them to emphasize his point. “No! The first thing I wanted to do was use them to help people,” he exclaimed, tone shifting to something more empathetic. “Maybe the thrill is fun but you don’t have to steal. The thrill of the speeds we can run at --- isn’t that enough?” He questioned, Barry ever the optimist. The skrull doubted this little exchange would be enough to convince the boy from his thievery but searching through the memories of the scarlet speedster, he was surprised to see that boy’s genuine optimism has worked on more than one occasion where it should have been impossible.

When the sound of feet walking down the sidewalk stopped, Diana breathed a sigh of relief. “You’re a lifesaver,” she said emphatically, pulling a couple of bills out of her wallet. She wasn’t about to let him give her money for nothing. “If you can make change for me, I would be-”

It dawned on her suddenly. She knew that voice. The man’s face wasn’t familiar, but she’d heard that voice before. It wasn’t until the mans’s slip-up that she made the connection, however. She knew full well what he’d stopped himself from saying. Wonder Woman. She groaned softly. Her morning had grown significantly more complicated, particularly since she’d seen the news that Barry Allen had registered, and come out in the open about being the Flash.

“Okay. New plan.” Clearly, her morning wasn’t going to go the way she’d intended. She dropped several of the coins he’d offered into the machine, without paying any attention to how much she’d put in. “I am going to go buy coffee. I’ll meet you on that roof in a few minutes,” she said softly. She hadn’t trusted any of the Justice League with her secret identity. Now that Barry had stumbled on her when she was pretending to be ordinary, she was absolutely confident that he was going to have questions.

The excitement Barry felt at meeting Wonder Woman outside of the Justice League was beyond embarrassing and he was almost proud of himself for not literally buzzing with excitement. He had learned his lesson with Batman when he got to enter the bat cave for the first time ever. The speedster was just as much a fan of his fellow leaguers as he was their teammate.

Wordlessly, he nodded, retracting his hand when he realized it was still outstretched to offer her coins she had already taken. Clearly she had never planned to run into him or any of the others outside of their superhero work but Barry hoped she knew that he would never intentionally reveal her identity. He was ready to pretend that he never saw her despite his boiling excitement but his smile couldn’t become brighter when she instructed him to meet on the roof.

Watching as his grin only widened, hers followed suit instinctively, feeling incredibly happy over the fact that she was able to get some time with him as herself, and not as Supergirl, as much as she adored her alter ego, it was nice getting to be just Kara Danvers every once in a while. She didn’t know if it was the perfect timing or what, but the fact that they had ended up in New York around the same time was amazing and though she had been close to Barry beforehand, only getting closer to him as they hung out more and more helped her really realize that she had lost that feeling of them just being friends, it grew into something more without her even knowing it and it may have taken some time, but Rao was she thankful for having waited.

Feeling him wrap an arm around her waist, a blush creeps up onto her cheeks as she grins and lets out a laugh. “Oh, always?” Kara teases, looking back up at him. “That definitely sounds incredibly to me, it’s always good to just take a breather from our alter ego’s.” She muses softly, walking towards the edge of the curb alongside him. “If I forget to say it, thank you in advance, babe.” She says, the nickname flowing quite easily off of her tongue.

“Weeell---” Barry drew out the word playfully, squeezing her hip lightly for a short moment in emphasis. “Always when it comes to you,” he finally explained. The speedster was nothing if not the cheesiest of romantics. He had told Kara of the time he had eaten one of the world’s hottest peppers to convince an ex to give him another chance to prove his feelings. Now that they were together he would do the same and more for her because she was his girlfriend and one of his dearest friends.

His smile brightens as they walk and he guides her to the surprise destination. At first, Barry had feared that they might not be able to transition so easily from friends to more than that but they fell into place so easily. If anything, the position of his uncertainty had been the only time their relationship ever became awkward. When he finally understood what he felt it seemed ridiculous that it took her confession to make him realize something that had been developing for awhile. “You’re welcome but this is for the both of us. I want to have a nice and as close to normal night as we can get with my girlfriend.”

Since The Panel had come under new management, Barry was excited to get to know the woman that had taken on the task of fixing up the mess that had been created. He admired them greatly for what they did and what they had done in their respective careers. It was only his luck that he had run into Jessica Drew, one of the three woman that were now his bosses, and he didn’t hesitate to approach her.

Smiling, he waved at the woman, hoping to catch her attention since it didn’t seem like she was in a rush. “Hi, I’m Barry Allen or Flash if you prefer,” he introduced himself, his cowl already pulled down to show his face. He had just come back from his daily patrol so the rush of lightning was still buzzing underneath his skin from the run. “Jessica Drew, right?”

After getting a load of opinions from her sister and Maggie over in National City, Kara made sure to get her outfit from her old home and grabbed the teleporting device since she didn’t want to accidentally end up stuck on a whole other Earth when her and Barry were going to have their first proper date tonight. The other ones usually were when they were fighting other people and that just wasn’t as fun as talking to one another and spending some alone time together, and before that, when they did hang out together, they weren’t even together yet, but now things have changed since the new management in the Panel, heroes that she knew of were going to take over and things could actually get better. 

Fixing her blonde hair and dress a bit, she takes in a deep breath and moves away from the mirror, looking down at the time when she hears the doorbell ring. With a grin, she makes her way over to the door and bites her lip when she sees Barry standing there with flowers in his hand. “Hey.” Kara muses and takes the flowers from him carefully. “You look very handsome, and these look gorgeous.” She states, leaning forward and pressing a gentle kiss to his lips. Without taking long, the Kryptonian put the flowers in a vase and quickly walked back, closing th door so that they could head out. “Ready?”

His features became impossibly brighter, taking in the sight of his gorgeous girlfriend, he had seen her dressed up before but knowing that it was just for him was an entirely different feeling. As friends they had hung out often and Barry always recognized Kara as a beautiful woman and if he hadn’t been so focused on Iris for so long he may have noticed that what he felt for her was becoming more than friendship. It was just his luck that she had the courage to tell him about her own feelings before it was too late. The speedster knew he would regret it for the rest of his life he had let Kara slip by him.

Accepting the kiss, he lets her take the flowers, sliding an arm around her waist when she returns. “Always,” he jokes because they both know that’s far from the truth but he is more than ready now. “As much as I like running, I chose a nice place close by so we can walk if that’s okay?” Hailing a cab in New York was a nightmare and although they both had super means of transportation, he wanted to give her a night away from their superhero personas.

SUMMARY: Barry investigates the report of a meta but finds out it’s actually a trap.

It took several hours and a hundred of opinions from Cisco later before Barry was finally dressed and ready for his first official date with Kara. They liked to call their superhero teamups super dates but they weren’t as romantic as they sounded. He wanted to treat Kara to something special and they finally had the time and Barry the freedom. The relief that the Panel was now under new management took a heavy weight off Barry’s shoulders and it showed everyday as his smile became brighter and the bags under his eyes were much less noticeable.

Taking in a deep breath, he gave himself one more check over before he deemed himself presentable and sent one last text to Cisco to thank him for the help. Flashing off, he made a quick stop at a flower shop on the way to Kara’s apartment. When he arrived, he glanced down at his watch, checking that he had a minute to spare before he finally knocked on the door. It was one of the rare times that he was actually on time but the extra effort was more than worth it for her. “Hey,” he greeted warmly when the door opened, presenting his bouquet of lilies and a few chocolate roses thrown into the mix.

hey everyone! i’m finally back and i’ve missed you all so much. it feels like i’ve been gone for ages and as amazing as college is it’s exhausting too. i didn’t have too many going on before but since they’re all a little outdated i’m going to be dropping all threads on barry && joker unless anyone wants to continue them. it’s going to take me a bit to get back into the swing of things but i’m super excited to write w everyone again!

All Bart could do was smile. “No worries.” Bart answered as he wasn’t really concerned with his lateness and watched him move around the room as fast as a regular human could to organize the mess of the place. He had fun looking around the new space he’d be calling his work place half the time. And yes there was a lot of work to be done, but he was excited. So long as he could keep his mind focused they’d be done with this in no time. He was actually sure this wouldn’t be too hard seeing as this was his grandfather; he was going to be paying attention and focusing very closely. He might have to keep some habits of his more normal like but he could manage.

Bart took his hand giving it a couple friendly, possibly over excited shakes. “Bart,” He offered as his name no need for the second one right now. He could find that on his form if he wanted to. He wondered if that would raise questions as he didn’t take his adoptive parents last names. Oh well, what’s done is done he thought. “I’m sure I can keep up, photographic memory helps with learning things on the fly. “ He teased back. Or was that him showing off? One or the other, Bart was just making sure he knew he could keep up.

“Which looks like it’s a lucky thing cause this place is swamped.” He said gesturing the stack of papers he assumed needed to be looked at today as well as possible evidence they would have to look over probably stacked somewhere nearby. “Where do we start? How much is even here? Where do we put everything when we’re done with it? Oh—I should mention I ask questions on one setting. Rapid fire, just let me know when to stop I kind of forget to sometimes.” Not that Barry couldn’t possibly keep up with his questions he was sure (He is the Flash), but he was still slightly embarrassed by it. He was trying to reign in his excitement. He wasn’t very good at doing that on a regular basis so why would not be any different? He was basically fidgeting again cause of his need to move and be doing something. Best to let it go and show after all he was eager to learn. Always, this was usually a good quality right?

Technically, Barry no longer had to hide his speed but he enjoyed slowing down to a human pace sometimes. At work especially since his coworkers often dissociated Barry Allen the notoriously late CSI from The Flash the fastest man alive. Also, he had no idea if the kid was aware that he was The Flash since the precinct didn’t like to advertise it and the government’s list of superheroes hadn’t been listed in the papers for awhile. It was easy to look up but only if someone had any interest in knowing the identities of all the local vigilantes. Either way, Barry figured it was best to take things slow today without making more work for himself.

Barry appreciated the excitement, finding it difficult to interest most younger people in anything related to science. “Nice to meet you, Bart.” Immediately, he felt a strange fondness for the name but the speedster chose to see it as a sign that this internship would go well. Things in his personal life, at least, seemed to be going well so he was hopeful for keeping up the streak. “Photographic memory? Cool.” He chuckled, turning back to sort through his files and figured out how to start the process of training Bart.

The onslaught of questions was easy to keep up with as a speedster but this science couldn’t be rushed. “Well, curiosity is never a bad thing but some things around here can’t be rushed. You just have to let them go at their own pace.” He picked up the first file from the stack. “So, first rule is obvious. You can’t discuss any of the evidence we handle with anyone outside of the precinct. Second rule, always follow lab safety procedures which I’m assuming your familiar with since you’ve chosen this field to study.” He smiled, feeding off the younger’s excited energy. “So, let’s get started. We review the case, including all theories and evidence they’ve given us, then we use scientific fact to back it up and make theories of our own in an organized report.”

Turning her head to look up at him, she nodded and made a face. “I hated the fact that we were forced to go against one another because of the people you worked for, but we don’t have to worry about that anymore.” Kara muses with a grin, glaring over at the hooded people opposite the two heroes.

Smirking as she watched one of them slide across the ground, she laughed at her boyfriend’s words and stepped aside to let him take the next person. “Always!” Kara states and goes back over to a couple of them, but now stopping once she gets closer as she feels something different, a sudden familiarity to it, she was feeling very weak which usually meant one thing: Kryptonite. Turning around, Kara looked over to Barry to say something but the only sound that came out was two gunshots filling the air as Kryptonite was shot into her back and arm. Falling down, she groaned, hands shaking too much to get the Kryptonite from her skin.

As soon as he saw her fall, Barry stopped, heart freezing within his chest. The was not supposed to have kryptonite. Kara was not supposed to get hurt. The one relief he had was that Kara would never have to face something she couldn’t handle but that relief hadn’t accounted for kryptonite.

In a flash, he was by her side, searching for the entry wounds so that he could remove the alien poison. How they had gotten their hands on it would have to be learned later, Kara was his priority now. “Supergirl.” His voice was low but thick with worry as he pulled her limp form into his arms. They were vulnerable like this and Barry hated to do it but he was terrified. He wanted to run even if it meant running from the fight. The speedster had to choose his battles and right now, his priority was the battle of removing the kryptonite and making sure that Kara was okay.

“We need to go. I’m going to speed us out of here.” He stated, leaving little room for argument but he knew that Kara would. He knew she would rather put herself at risk than let these guys go. Barry was the same way, he would play the martyr act any day so he knew exactly why he couldn’t let Kara do that.

Letting out a laugh, she beams and nods her head. “Good. Yeah? You think you can?” She jokes and only gets closer to him when he wraps his arms around her, taking in his scent, Kara only instinctively relaxes, everything outside that was happening, wasn’t in her mind at this time, she was happy. “I don’t know about you, but I definitely do not mind being stuck with you.” She muses and looks back up at him with a grin.

“I know I’ll have fun trying,” he responded with an easy smile. It had been a long while since his cheeks had hurt from smiling. Lately, he had to force a happy expression but Barry couldn’t be happier than in this moment. It was easy to forget every reason that this might be a dangerous idea and the fact they were both people with superpowers helped. “I totally don’t mind.” He chuckled, already thinking of the million date ideas he had for Kara.