Barry Allen

At times, Barry wishes he could speed through his food at Semele's. It doesn't diminish any of the taste, and his metabolism is more than up to ten hamburgers hitting his system at once, but the sight of his vibrating mouth and throat is too obvious.

Which is a shame, because if there's any place to be openly unusual in Darrow, it's at its resident supernatural bar.

Barry picks up the third hamburger before him and sighs, forcing himself to take slow, large bites. For more than a year he's been known here as the owner's human boyfriend and not a supernatural himself. There's surely one or two clairvoyants in the room who know the truth, but either they respect the bylaws of the place or they just don't care, because no one's ever outed him.

In a town he can't escape, Barry knows it's only a matter of time before his identity as the Flash is common knowledge, but after both his mother and father died for no better reason than being loved by the Flash, Barry's not willing to risk anyone else. So he eats normally, he drinks normally, and if he can manage to leave at the end with one of Bitty's pies, he'll reward himself by eating it in seconds flat.

He's just picking up his fourth burger when he notices someone new standing near his table, a menu in their hand. "Burger's always a safe option," he calls, gesturing to his small stack of them as if to say obviously.

It's his day off, but Barry can't seem to concentrate on the Psych marathon on TV. He's buried under blankets on the couch, and though he's comfortable with Jinx in his lap and Derek stretched out next to him, Barry can't stop looking at the empty space by the window.

"I can't do it!" he exclaims, only just avoiding disembowelment from the cat at he hisses and slinks away. Barry winces in apology, but turns to Derek undeterred. "It's not Christmas without a tree. We're probably the only house that doesn't have one. We don't even have to buy it. We can just - "

Barry gestures towards the snowy woods outside the window. "Bang one down and take it."

It’s a sunny day. The breeze that carries the fall leaves is cool, but the sunshine is warm, and the sky that stretches out before them is blue. It’s a nice day, one that doesn’t deserve to see the world end.

They stand at the last border of earth before the breach swallows it up, the ground before them quivering and cracking in equal measure. Only a speedster could find footholds here, and Barry straightens his shoulders.

Conscious of Derek on his other side, holding in his hands the device Newt and Kirk had made for them to close the breach, Barry looks at Kara first and draws a deep breath. “So I run,” he says, as if they haven’t discussed the plan a dozen times already. “First I establish a vortex, containing as much of the unstable energy as I can. According to the Captain’s calculations, the breach should stabilize fully once I reach Mach 4.” It’s nearly as fast as he’s ever gone, something Barry won’t be able to sustain for long, which brings him to the next part of the plan.

“Once it’s stable,” he says to Kara, “You throw the device into its center. My speed should be enough to get me out of the resulting pull of the breach closing, but if I can’t - “

“If you can’t, I’ll pull you out,” Kara assures him confidently, as if there is no other possible outcome. To her, there isn’t one. They are closing this breach today, and Barry will be standing beside them once it’s done. She can feel Derek’s gaze on her, and she turns his head to look at him. He nods at her once, jaw clenched and eyes full of worry, and she nods back at him. It’ll be okay.

The device in question is in Derek’s hands, being held so carefully until it’s time for Kara to throw it in. Kara seems so confident in a way that doesn’t even seem forced. She just carries so much hope despite everything that’s happened to her. Derek envies her that sometimes.

She takes the device from him and it leaves him standing empty-handed in front of Barry, who has donned his suit and is staring at the breach like he’s preparing for war. Derek knows that there isn’t really anything he could do here. He wasn’t smart enough to figure out a plan to close the breach, and isn’t fast or strong enough to help see that plan through. He couldn’t even find Barry once he disappeared through it that first time, and the helplessness sits heavy on his chest like a weight that he can’t shake off. All he can do is stand here, and watch while the people around him save the day.

“You’ve got this,” Derek tells Barry, echoing some of Kara’s easy confidence because while Derek is scared out of his mind, he believes in Barry. He believes in them both. Too aware of Kara’s presence and the precious seconds ticking away, Derek settles for leaning in and pressing a soft kiss to Barry’s brow before reaching up to pull his cowl in place, smoothing the mask over his cheeks. “Run, Barry. Run and then come back to me.”

There’s a wobble in Barry’s smile when he pulls away, but he’s not afraid. A little nervous, yes, but eager, too. This is their best hope for closing the breach, and they’re moments away from seeing the mess that Barry has made fixed forever. There’s no one that Barry would rather be standing here with by his side.

“If I get stuck on the other side,” he says, that small smile becoming a playful smirk, “I’m looking up that other Derek for sure.” Still grinning, Barry turns, and his body disappears into a streak of lightning as he begins to run.

He pushes through Machs 1 and 2 quickly, but 3 and 4 come harder, sweat on his brow despite the maelstrom of breeze that surrounds him. He runs and he runs, spurred on by the twin blurs of color that are Kara and Derek holding vigil, and he feels it as it begins to happen. The earth stops moving beneath his feet, the static in the air decreases until it’s only the crackle of Barry’s energy that feeds it. The breach is stabilizing. It’s time, and Kara must know it.

Barry’s terrible joke coupled with that grin loosen some of the tension in Derek’s chest, but the respite is brief. He and Kara watch as Barry turns into a crackling streak of lightning, and they share a look before turning their gazes back on Barry. Kara’s hair trembles in the ensuing rush of air, and Derek focuses on the electric scent of Barry, growing warm and dangerous.

Derek can see it when the breach starts to change, and Kara sucks in a sharp breath before rising into the air with the device held in her hands. “Do it,” Derek says, and Kara nods before flying away from the breach to give herself room to create speed. She flies towards the breach and Derek watches as she throws out her arm and lets go of the device, sending it spiraling directly into the center of the angry blue chasm.

Kara lands next to Derek, wide-eyed, and there’s a moment of complete stillness in which Derek can’t even find it in himself to take a breath. The breach quivers and then seems to begin to fold in on itself. Derek feels himself being wrenched forward enough to stumble, and looks up just in time to see Barry being pulled towards the bright center of it. Derek thinks wildly that if Barry is pulled through, he’ll run for the breach after him. Whatever side of the breach Barry ends up on, Derek will be with him. He’s nearly ready to break into a run, but thankfully Kara is there.

She acts quickly, throwing out an arm as hard as steel against Derek’s chest and sending him tumbling backwards, out of the breach’s grasp. And then she flies forward with a loud cry, cape billowing out behind her as she reaches for Barry’s hand. “I’ve got you!”

Derek sits sprawled in the grass, chest heaving as Kara’s hand finds its target and wraps securely around Barry’s wrist. The breach is closing around Barry with so much of him still on the other side, and Derek’s heart leaps into his throat as Kara takes hold of Barry and pulls with all of her might. Kara, who is strong enough to lift entire spacecrafts or send buildings crumbling to dust, puts all of her strength now into pulling Barry free of the breach and keeping him here, with them.

Kara’s grip is like iron around his wrist, the strain of holding him plain on her face, and Barry’s feet work, running and running against the pull and still they lose ground. It’s getting harder to move forward, harder to think as Barry’s energy begins to wane, but Derek is waiting. Derek is on this side, and Barry can’t leave him again.

With a muffled scream, Barry summons all that he has, and as the speed force races through him he finds a last push. Barry runs forward and into Kara’s arms, propelling them both away from the vortex just as it collapses in on itself, a bright ring of blue that disappears into nothing. The air around the breach is still, and the cracks in the earth are the only sign that it was ever there at all.

Struggling to right himself, Barry stares at the place where it was and smiles, even as the ground rushes suddenly up to meet him.

Derek doesn’t breathe through the entire struggle, heart lodged in his throat as he digs his fingers into the grass. The breach is narrowing, and Derek finally lets out a shuddering gasp as Kara and Barry tumble forward in a mess of red, blue, and gold. The breach is gone, and both Barry and Kara are still here. It’s over.

He pushes himself to his feet and jogs over, first meeting Kara once she stands up and dusts off her skirt. The gratitude is plain in Derek’s eyes but he still pulls her in for a hug, grateful for her help and her safety. Kara laughs and claps him on the back. “Aw, you big lug.”

Derek’s attention is taken by Barry and the accomplished smile on his face, and he pulls away from Kara at the moment Barry’s knees start to buckle. He may not be as fast as either of them, but he still makes it over in time to catch Barry before he hits the ground.

“Swooning for me, huh? Forget about that other Derek so soon?” His voice trembles even as he teases, and he gently works Barry’s cowl back off of his face before cupping his cheek. “You guys did it, Barry. It’s done.”

“Yay, we did it!” Kara crows, skipping a happy circle around where Derek and Barry are curled together on the ground. She stops and twists on her toes to point at the place the breach had been, throwing finger guns at it. “Suck it, evil breach!”

Barry lies nearly boneless in Derek’s arms, his limbs leaden but his heart so light. It’s over, it’s done. He opens his eyes to find Derek looking down at him, as happy and relieved as Barry feels. He smiles up at him, soft and fond, then wider when the sounds of Kara’s celebration filters through the dull ringing in his ears.

“Suck it,” he echoes, his voice a rasp where hers is clear and bright, but he’ll recover. They all will.

“Let’s go home,” he whispers. “I hear it’s one of a kind again.”

Barry yawns as he clocks out at the end of another long shift. Even with his metabolism and regeneration, the long hours are beginning to wear on him, but it isn't his home and his bed that Barry heads for as he leaves the station. It feels like ages since he's been able to spend more than a few minutes with Derek, and even if all he has the energy for tonight is to curl up on top of him and sleep, Barry will take it.

But Derek isn't at Semele's, and he isn't at his apartment when Barry speeds there next. That must mean he's at the cabin, and Barry runs nearly all the way there, stopping when he's about a half mile out. The moon is huge and full and the forest all but glowing with it, and the view is nice enough that Barry decides to take the rest of the journey at normal speed so he can enjoy it.

He buries a yawn behind his forearm and tucks his hands into his pockets, feeling a little restored by the clear, night air.

They take the long way.

Perhaps it's a little strange when Barry could run there in seconds, and Derek in the quick lopes of a wolf, but in the end they just walk. Barry adjusts his backpack on his shoulders, follows the path beneath their feet, but mostly he's unaware of their surroundings as they drift by.

Even now, having searched the city and the facility where he'd been held to the best of his ability, he can't find any evidence that KIRIN somehow had anything to do with it. Oliver and Felicity are simply gone, just as every disappearance weary person has told him, and Barry's finally begun to believe it.

But he doesn't know what he's meant to do about it. His friends are gone, and he can't help them return, nor can he even be certain what universe they've gone to. And beneath the ache of missing them, there's a bone deep fear that his only real ties to home are gone, too. Barry has been lonely in this city, but he's never been alone.

Now, with Derek beside him, Barry certainly can't say he's alone, but he feels the whisper of it. Suppose Derek had gone, too? Suppose any of the other tenuous connections he's formed here were to disappear as easy as Oliver and Felicity had? Why are any of them here in the first place?

Barry huffs out a breath, a little surprised when he looks up to see the park giving way to thicker trees.