#v:01

[ txt ➜ dad ] hey, i know you’re busy and all, but i saved you and monica a good seat at my next fight. the one in savannah, it’s not that far.

[ txt ➜ dad ] you don’t have to, i know you’ve got other shit going on.

[ txt ➜ dad ] but, you know. the offer is there. just tell the guy up front who you are and he’ll take you.

          thumbs danced over the sides of his phone as he stared at the messages he’d sent hours ago, the ones that still just read as ‘delivered’; it felt better that he hadn’t seen them yet. he was just busy, that was all. he was always busy.

          normally, today of all days, he could expect a phone call. it was his birthday, and jason normally called for a least a couple of minutes to catch up and wish his youngest well. a glance at the clock: 10:07. he still had time. he could already hear his mother’s shrill voice in his head, calling him out for expecting anything of his deadbeat father. that bastard, that son of a bitch, he never gave a shit about you. roman had heard it all his life from them both, bickering back and forth until jason finally bailed on them. but, he couldn’t blame him -- the way he went around things was wrong, for sure, but he couldn’t imagine being married to someone like his mother. and monica was nice enough.

           a small inhale and his phone was pocketed, volume up, just in case. he had to stop watching the clock, find something else to do to occupy his time. maybe a run would help.

The night sky hung over the city like a blanket. It was late, so there weren’t many people out tonight. Barry even made sure to check on some of them in the windows of their homes. They were safe. For now.  He never knew when another attack on Central City was going to happen, always having the weight of the mutliverse on his shoulders - or at least that’s what it felt like.

‘The world has come and gone so many times before, but now that it’s taken over by an evil villain, I’m not sure I can stand to sit still anymore. Cisco and Joe tell me that I have to wait, but what am I waiting for? The people I love are in danger, and I feel so helpless. Me, the fastest man alive and I feel like I can’t do anything to save my friends….’

Barry needed to get out of his head. It always caused him trouble when he was in there for too long. He sped through the streets of Starling City, even a far as Gotham, just looking for anyone who needed help. Barry was urgent to take his mask off, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t take that chance in case someone like Savitar or someone else found him.

With the night being so uneventful, Barry made his way back to Central City, tired and achy.  Or at least what he thought was Central City.  He didn't’ even notice that he had been running for so far, so fast that he opened up the breech to another Earth.  Coming to a screeching halt, Barry chuckled to himself.  National City.  Well, at least he was in the home of a friend.  Dashing through the streets of the rather foreign city, because yes, Barry was a foreigner here; he made his way as fast as he could to Kara’s apartment building, zipping up to her door.