Who: Barry and Evan (NPC) What: A Date—Dinner and Twister When: Mid-May (very backdated) Where: Starting at the Facility, then out and back again Warning: Low/Mildly Spicy at the End Status: Completed via Gdoc
This was the first date Evan had been on in—well, they didn't really want to admit how long. Definitely a lot longer than mere months. They were a little early in their haste to be on time, and pressed a fluttering hand down the side of their wide-legged pants. It wasn't nerves, it was anticipation.
Evan looked around the common area. It was strange to be there and not down in Medical. Every once in a while it really hit home how wild this operation really was. There were living, breathing people from entirely different universes living here. And now they were going on a date with one of them. A smile spread slowly, warmed and charmed, as they leaned back against one of the couches. Wonders never cease!
They were still smiling when someone approached, and they looked up. "Hi, there!"
Barry had no idea what he was doing. Back in his world, he’d been obsessed with Iris, but now that he was here? It didn’t make sense anymore. They didn’t make sense anymore. Barry and Iris were adopted siblings, and nothing else. She was great--a good friend, partner in crime--but Barry had to move on with his life. Being here and seeing all the potential that he had here was eye opening. And when his eyes were opened, he saw Evan.
He spent a little longer preparing for tonight than he’d care to admit, too. He ended up in slacks and a dress shirt, along with a sweater. He figured he didn’t need a jacket--it was springtime weather, not winter. When he arrived down on the first floor and wandered toward the common area, his heart was beating fast--in a way that had nothing to do with the Speed Force.
The smile on Evan’s face lit up the room. Barry couldn’t help but smile himself at the sight of it. “Hi. Are you… ready to go?”
"Born ready!" Evan grinned. Any doubts or misgivings evaporated seeing him standing there, looking cute and nervous. Funny, how those feelings had been dancing through Evan's stomach just moments before. Okay, so maybe it hadn't all been anticipation. A very small percentage had been nerves. They could admit that to themselves, at least, especially now. "Okay, that might be a slight exaggeration, but it doesn't downplay how excited I've been all day. Do you know how hard it is to do charting when all you can think about is dinner with a hot guy?"
Barry grinned at that. He might have flushed a little, too, at the compliment. “Dinner with a hot guy, eh? I bet that’s distracting. And here I thought you and I had plans tonight.” He joked, but lifted his arm and offered them his elbow. Once Evan stood and took it, Barry leaned over a little closer, and lowered his voice. “You look amazing tonight. But then again, you look amazing all the time.” It was true, too, not just lip service. Every time that Barry had seen Evan, he had been incredibly attracted. Not just because Evan was physically attractive, but because of their inner beauty as well. Evan was smart, kind and funny. Barry wanted to get to know them better. Hence… first date. “I hope you’re hungry.” He added, turning to lead the way out of the lobby.
"Ha-ha." They rolled their eyes, but didn't hesitate to take his elbow. "Hotness is subjective, and you're currently my favorite subject." Evan flushed, bright and pleased. "Even in scrubs? That only happens on TV or in movies. But I suppose I should just be gracious and take the compliment." They tossed a playful smile up at him, and squeezed his arm. "Maybe you should do the same, or we'll just be in a compliment dismissal loop. I don't know about you, but I'm sure we can find other things to talk about. Like the fact that I am hungry, and am completely in the dark, but intrigued by where we're going."
“Especially in scrubs,” Barry said, leaning in to grin at Evan. “Good.” He reached over and patted their fingers on his elbow. “Fine fine, I’ll take it, too. We’re both attractive people, are you happy?” He responded, playfully. While they flirted with one another, Barry led Evan out through the lobby and toward where he’d parked the borrowed car. He didn’t have one yet, and wasn’t sure if he was going to make the investment. Borrowing was easy enough, and when he was on his own, he was faster than a car, anyway. “It’s going to be disappointing, I assure you. Best keep your hopes down, so I don’t disappoint,” Barry said, grinning, as he opened the passenger side door for Evan to climb in.
Nose scrunching, Evan laughed. "Ecstatic. Now we've given ourselves permission to be full of ourselves." Pausing before getting in the car, Evan leaned over the top of it, fixing Barry with an amused look. He really did hold himself like he wasn't aware of how he looked. Oh, the confidence was there when it came to his abilities, which was attractive on its own, but there was something about the way he held himself most of the time. It made their expression soften, because it was a feeling they recognized all too well. Evan's teenaged years were the very definition of awkward. "If there aren't creepy animatronic performances and a germ-infested ball pit, well, it'll be a leg up from my senior prom."
Barry gave a laugh at that. “I promise no animatronic performances or germ-infested ball pits. But now I have to change our final destination,” he teased. Truthfully, he hadn’t been thinking about a Chuck-E-Cheese at all. Just dinner and a walk in the park, under the stars. He could have taken Evan anywhere, but he figured that they didn’t want to be whisked away via Flash-magic. Besides, it hadn’t worked all that well when he’d taken Quentin away from the Portal. He was hesitant to take anyone else anywhere. “You like Italian?” He asked once they were both inside the car and buckled up.
"Oops." Except not oops, but it was nice to be joking around like this. It had been far too long since Evan had felt quite this free to be like this with someone. After securing the seatbelt, they smiled over Barry and nodded. "Yes, for sure. My great-granddad on my mom's side was Italian. He passed down some of the family recipes, but I'm kind of a disaster in the kitchen. Fortunately, my siblings and cousins picked up that slack. I'm the weird outlier, in more ways than one." An easy shrug, but their tiny smile probably spoke volumes. "I went more the science and spycraft way of life. What about you? Any baking or cooking skills I can abuse for my benefit?"
“Oh no,” Barry gave a little laugh. “Now I have to take you to a really good Italian restaurant, don’t I? Making me change my plans again.” He grinned over at them. “Ah, no, no baking or cooking skills… unless you count pancakes. I can do pancakes.” He started down the road. Driving was considerably slower than running for Barry, but he didn’t trust himself to bring anyone along for the run. So, car it was. He glanced over at them as he drove, but he was a very safe driver. “Where I come from, I worked as a Crime Scene Investigator for the Central City Police. I didn’t have a whole lot of free time to explore things like baking or cooking… my adoptive dad was really good at that sort of thing.”
"Look, if there are garlic breadsticks involved, you can take me to a run-of-the-mill chain restaurant, and I'd be happy. Granted, we both might want to invest in a metric ton of breath mints, if the evening goes the way I hope it does." Evan reached out and lightly touched the back of his hand where it rested on the steering wheel. A little zing of almost-electricity went up their arm. "I like pancakes, too. For the record."
Evan cast back to some of the earlier conversations. "Central City is… kind of like our Chicago, right? Except you also had a Chicago? And your dad is… Joe? Do I remember that right?" They laughed a bit self-consciously. "I'm not, like, keeping a notepad about these kinds of things or anything. It's just… if I like a person, I want to know more and retain it. I'm like the Trivial Pursuit of people."
Barry nodded. “Well, that’s good to know. An Italian connoisseur, except when it comes to garlic breadsticks?” He grinned over at Evan. “Oh? And how do you expect the evening is going to go?” The little jolt hit Barry at the same time as Evan touched his hand. He turned to look at them. “...I’ll keep that in mind.” Pancakes. Breakfast food.
“Yeah, that’s right,” he said, nodding. “It’s okay, I know you’re a stalker,” he teased, smirking softly. “Are you any good at the regular Trivial Pursuit?”
"Well," the word was drawn out as Evan returned his smile, "I personally would like it to end very nicely, I hope. Mint-worthy, one could say, even though you're teasing me about breadsticks. I can take it, because you're cute. I mean, I could take it if you weren't, so I guess that's really just a bonus." It was nice to flirt like this, easy in a way so few things in Evan's life had been to this point.
They snorted a laugh at the accusation, an ugly, inelegant thing. Evan clapped a hand over their mouth and laughed harder. The other side came soon enough, and they relaxed against the surprisingly comfortable seat back. "Well, obviously I kick ass at green"—Science and Nature—"but I can hold my own at yellow and purple." (History and Arts & Literature, respectively.) Were they showing off? A little. "Totally crap at orange though. I couldn't tell you the first thing about most sports, other than field hockey. What about you? Would you wipe the floor with me, Mr. I-Can-Read-a-1,000-Page-Book-in-Two-Seconds? Or would you be gentle?"
Barry laughed softly. “Mint-worthy. Yes.” He nodded enthusiastically. “I’d like for that, too.” Now all he could think about was kissing Evan. The end of the night. The goodnight-kiss. Hopefully he’d make it through dinner without saying something stupid accidentally.
And then Evan was snorting with laughter, and Barry was grinning so brightly he outshone an LED. He nodded again when they started describing the different subjects in Trivial Pursuit. “Well,” he admitted, considering. “Before I was Mr. I-Can-Read-a-1,000-Page-Book-in-Two-Seconds I was probably best at Yellow and Pink”-- (History and Entertainment) --”Though hanging out with my dad made me really good at Orange.” Watching sports with Joe was like watching sports with his own private tour guide.
"Ooooh, a challenge. I like that." Evan's nose wrinkled in amusement, and it was only the fact that Barry was driving that kept them from taking his hand. Safety first! "And I love that you got to spend time with your dad. He seems like a really nice guy. I'm sure you miss him a lot. I can barely imagine how hard it's probably been to wind up in a new universe where you only know a handful of people. All the new history and entertainment and possibly even science—on secondhand, maybe we should just play Chutes and Ladders, instead. Or maybe Twister?"
Barry grinned at that suggestion. “You want to go back to the Facility and play Twister instead of dinner? Because I can make that happen,” he teased. “Though… I’m pretty hungry. I thought we were going to have some garlic breadsticks and later breath mints.” they were almost there, actually, so Barry pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant.
"Oh, we're definitely having garlic breadsticks now and breath mints later." Evan got unbuckled and turned so they could tap Barry on the chest before exiting the car. But I need you to understand that this is just a delay in the inevitable Twister butt-kicking you're going to get afterward."
~*~
"Admit defeat!"
Socks, shoes, and light jackets were gone. The game room was empty, and music was playing from Evan's phone, one of their chill, but happy playlists. Evan had pulled their head back just a bit so they could grin up at Barry. They were both well and truly twisted.
One wrong spin, and they'd collapse against one another.
“Never!” Barry responded in his best Pirate-impersonation. Of course, the pirate impersonation came out of nowhere, and made him start to laugh. This made the whole twist of arms and legs vibrate. “But if you want to give up, I won’t blame you. Right hand red! Right hand red! Don’t move that hand!” He grinned at Evan.
The laughter was bad enough—Evan had responded with a precarious-making giggle of their own—but the circle in question was behind where their arm currently was. They shot a baleful look at the spinner before beginning the somewhat slow and very careful process of inching their hand in that direction. It put the side of Evan's chest right up against his, and his face practically in their throat, where Evan's heart was suddenly thundering. "Never is a very long time, Barry. Think you can be that patient?"
“I’m that stubborn,” Barry responded with a grin. Evan was pressed up so close against him, he was feeling suddenly nervous. He very much enjoyed their company, and couldn’t deny how attractive they were. “And I have a feeling this game’s going to be a draw,” he added, turning just a little to try and look at the spinner. It put his face right up against Evan’s, only inches between them. “...don’t you think?”
"I guess it depends" Evan grinned, eyes undeniably snagging on Barry's lips while their tongue flicked out to wet their own. "My pride can take it, but how about yours?"
The urge to kiss him took a temporary backseat to a cramp shooting up Evan's arm where it was twisted behind them. Evan grimaced and let out a small noise of pain before quickly yanking their arm back to a more natural position, and subsequently wound up on their back with a small "oof!" and a chuckled, "Looks like it doesn't depend after all. Well played, Mr. Allen."
Barry chuckled. “I think my pride can take it--” he started, but then Evan grunted, and then fell to the ground. Barry gave a little grunt, too, and had to shift his weight between his arms so he didn’t land on top of them. “While I’m sure I could handle it, I am glad I won.” He grinned, playfully.
A glimmer of mischievous amusement flashed through Evan's gaze. Reaching out, they trailed their fingers along the sides of Barry's wrists. "So what spoils would the victor like, hm? Maybe a second date? Or something a little more immediate?"
“Is there any reason we can’t have both?” Barry grinned down at Evan, shifting his weight so he wasn’t going to crush them. (Not that he could… Barry was far from a heavy dude.) “Something a little more intimate now… a second date later?” He leaned down, ever closer, only a couple of inches from Evan’s lips.
"No reason I can think of." Evan returned that grin, gaze trapped by dark green of Barry's eyes. "Intimate, huh?" A small shiver went up their spine, as their hands trailed up his arms and over his shoulders, up to his neck.
Just the tiniest tug and the slightest tilt of chin brought their lips together in the softest kiss imaginable.
This was absolutely not what Barry imagined would ever happen. First, arriving in this strange place--an alternate universe?--and then meeting someone he could flirt with, have fun with, play Twister with… kiss. He met Evan’s gentle kiss and returned it with gentle pressure. Warm lips against his own, his nose brushing against theirs. “It doesn’t have to be intimate,” he said, once their lips parted. It was more tease than anything else. “I just figured that’s what you wanted when you said something a bit more immediate. But I can stop if you want.” A smirk tugged on his lips.
"I would really rather you didn't." Evan's whole face glowed with a fierce blush, and their lips buzzed with sensation and the desire to feel it again. They smiled up at Barry and pulled him down to whisper against his mouth, "This is the perfect amount of intimate—for a first date, that is."