Within Seconds // Barry Allen

Extra: 1

These extra chapters are moments that I couldn't place correctly in the line of events. This particular one is in which Parker and Barry explain to one another when they fell in love with the other.

In the darkness of Parker's bedroom, she had her head on Barry's bare chest, the sound of his heart helping her to sleep.

Barry didn't have the same luxury of a help to sleep. With no other options, he tried to use the ceiling fan as a melody.

He hadn't known how long passed, but he continued to feel sleepless, unlike Parker, who was on the edge of dreaming.

"Park?" Barry whispered.

"What, Barry?"

"I can't sleep."

"What do you want me to do about it?"

"Can you do anything about it?" he asked hopefully.

Parker snuggled more into his side. "I don't know. I read once if you don't move for twenty minutes you'll fall asleep."

"I feel like twenty minutes has passed."

"Do you want me to talk you to sleep?" Parker asked, in a tone that sounded like she wanted the opposite of that.

"If you would, you'd be my favorite person on this planet."

"I already am, Barry."

"Yeah. Yeah, you're right, actually."

"Close your eyes," Parker muttered, "Shut your mouth. Dream a dream and get us out.."

"Are you reciting lines from Sharkboy and Lavagirl right now?"

"Barry, what else do you want me to do?" Parker asked, "Stop asking questions and just let me talk."

"One last question," Barry begged.

"Tread lightly, my friend."

"When did you fall in love with me?"

After a second of thought, Parker answered, "I think it was the night I got kidnapped by Snart. You swept me off my feet from the warehouse, took me home, and I admitted to having that mental list of your cute moments."

"That's sweet," Barry said, "Mine is better."

"Wait, wait," Parker said, lifting her head to look at him, "If I was being really cheesy, I'd say I fell in love with you the moment I saw you passed out on the floor after you got struck."

"Why?"

"Because it was when I realized I could never leave you. Or, rather, when I decided you were stuck with me."

"You say that like it's a bad thing," Barry teased, kissing her lips, "I know I fell in love with you that one night after went to the bar together."

"When I sang a very buzzed version of Whip It?" Parker asked.

"No," Barry laughed, "The night Bette blew up that floor? I had to save that man from falling, so I ran up the side of the building--"

"And you made the dumb ass mattress comment, right," Parker remembered.

Ignoring her giggling, Barry said, "I came home to you, fell asleep.. The next morning, we showed up to work together, and everyone thought we had sex."

"That's when you fell in love with me?"

"It's just when it all clicked. I finally found my definition of a perfect relationship."

Parker's brow raised in amusement. "You're such a loser."

Letting a moment of silence pass, Barry stared at Parker with admiration. "On a scale of one to ten, how okay would it be if we just had a killer make out session right now?"

"Ten."