#almost embarrassingly id

"Hey, you know me. I love art!" 

Iris snorted, so the joke didn't fall entirely flat, and Barry grinned as they walked forward into the student art gallery. He'd never particularly been an art person, but he'd never say no to Iris when she needed him.

"Okay, I need to find Dr. Wilson and check in so I get credit." Iris released Barry's arm and smiled, and he tucked a stray strand of hair back into her updo. "I'll come find you when I'm done."

"I'll be here. Looking at...art." Barry smiled at her and watched for a second as she made her way through the crowd. Once he lost sight of her, he turned to the nearest piece of art and sighed. It was… abstract? A collage? He was so bad at the art thing. Science had rules. Art was--a wind chime made of stained glass or something?

Completely lost, he wandered through the gallery. It was mostly art students and their families, or people like Iris who needed to be here for extra points for class. She was going to make him look at everything too, he just knew it.

Barry turned the corner, his gaze idly scanning past a mixed media piece, when he discovered a man who… wow. A guy like him didn't belong at a student art gallery. Barry couldn't see much of the guy's suit under his black trench coat, but everything looked tailored and trendy and much too put together for a place like this.

He didn't let himself think about what he was doing as he sidled up alongside, stealing a better look from the corners of his eyes as he pretended to look at the art in front of him. God, he even smelled good. The bottom of Barry's stomach swooped in a way that was all nerves, and he cleared his throat.

"So, um… I've never seen someone like you around here. You know." He cringed a little inside, heat rising into his cheeks, and he looked fixedly at the art in front of him. A self-portrait in charcoal. Okay. Cool.

"Sometimes it pays to keep an eye on the up and coming."

Ugh. His voice was smooth and snide, a little vocal fry at the edges that made Barry warm for entirely different reasons. "Hi," Barry blurted, turning to face the guy and offering his hand to shake. "Barry Allen. Nice to meet you."

"Leonard Wynters." Leonard smiled and took Barry's hand in his. His eyes were so, so blue. Barry was going to melt in a puddle and that would be it for his short life. Leonard tilted his head and released Barry's hand, turning his attention back to the drawing. "Are you one of the students?"

Barry laughed at that, a short sound that he stifled behind his hand, and he shook his head. "I'm here with a friend. I'm a science nerd. I don't really get this stuff."

"Hmm. They do say beauty is in the eye of the beholder." Leonard moved to the next piece and then glanced at Barry expectantly. Barry offered a smile and shuffled closer again. "What do you think of this?"

"It… looks like a hallway?"

"It's a perspective piece," Leonard said, the corner of his mouth curling into a smirk. "It's how the artist sees the world. One might say a science nerd sees the world as it is, and an artist sees the world as it could be."

Barry rolled his eyes. "Should I guess which one you are?"

"Oh, I'm an artist," Leonard said, without a pause for thought. "I see this, and think of how much money I'll be making off of them in the future."

"So you're a curator?" Barry looked at the picture with a little more focus, as if by concentrating, he'd be able to see what Leonard was seeing.

Leonard laughed. "Something like that." He glanced past Barry and took a step back. "Looks like your friend is coming back."

Barry frowned and turned to look--sure enough, Iris was making her way to him, eye catching as always. "How did you know she's with me?"

"Like I said, kid. I always appreciate new things."

"Barr, I've got some good news for you," Iris said as she reached them. "They've got an open bar, so you don't have to suffer sober. I'll be DD." She smiled and curled her hand in the crook of his arm. "Have you seen anything interesting yet?"

Barry blushed and turned to look at Leonard--only to find him gone in the crowd. His shoulders slumped as he struggled to find any hint of Leonard's trench coat, and he swallowed past the lump of his disappointment. "I haven't really gotten very far. I was talking with someone, but I guess they saw you and ditched me."

Iris raised her hand to her mouth in distress. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize it was a bad time."

"It's not.. I'm just disappointed, I guess? I thought we had a bit of a connection, but they were out of my league anyway."

"Don't talk about my best friend like that. You're a cute nerd, and you know what? Their loss. Let's get you a glass of champagne." Iris beelined for the bar, dragging Barry along with her. There was a line, so they spent the wait talking about how Iris was going to formulate her Art History paper about the exhibit.

The server at the table smiled. "May I see your ID?"

Iris pulled her identification out of her clutch, and Barry patted his pocket for his wallet, flipping it open. His license wasn't at its usual spot, and he frowned, flipping through the folds and pulling out his one credit card and a loyalty card for Jitters. "Shit."

Iris tilted her head in Barry's direction. "You lost your ID somewhere?"

"I had it when I left the house, I--"

The server winced apologetically. "I'm sorry, but I can't offer you anything without verification. I can get you a coke or a bottle of water?"

Barry sighed again. He hated everything. Cute guy left without a word, and his license was who knew where. Something really had it out for him tonight. "Water. Thanks."

She wordlessly passed over the bottle of water, and Barry followed Iris back into the fray. The only thing left to do was survive the night. He could do that. Probably.

~*~