#(cough still bitter i didnt have enough time to play so i could get snow leopard solomon COUGH....😤😥)

[pinkletterday]

WiP Week Day 2

Fandom: The Flash

Pairing: Barry Allen/ Iris West

Rating: All Audiences

Characters: Barry Allen, Iris West, Joe West, Wally West, Francine West, Cecile Horton

Summary: A year after Barry had inexplicably run off to join the Starling City Police Department, he is finally home for Christmas with the Wests. And this time he seems ready to actually tell them who he's dating for a change.

Problem is, Iris is pretty sure she doesn't want to hear it.

A/N: Part of a Barry-and-Oliver-come-out-to-their-families prequel to my Coldflash vs Olivarry polyam AU. Despite the name, Westallen plays an important part in the story because it's polyam and therefore complicated.

I really want to finish writing this monster dear Lord but there is so MUCH and Im not sure if this little snippet, so near and dear to my heart, will make the cut.

A Christmas Revelation

On the face of it, this is the best Christmas they've had in years. Certainly since they had found out Wally existed six years ago. Actually, even before that, because the whole reason Iris had been in Keystone to run into her mother and Wally was because she and Barry had been spending the whole summer avoiding each other. On account of Barry having ruined everything the Christmas before, by declaring himself in love with her.

Obviously he was well over that now. There had been...a lot...that had happened afterward between them, and even more that had not. But now, seven years on, everything was back to normal.

Iris watched her so-called best friend sprawled on the floor, teaching her teenage brother the secrets of Jenga, while the rest of the family did actual work, like decorating the Christmas tree. This used to be hers and Barry's favourite Christmas ritual, after exchanging their gifts for each other on Christmas eve rather than Christmas day. But he hadn't been around last year, having inexplicably abandoned them all and run off to a job in Starling City of all places. And the year before that...

Iris viciously pokes the Christmas ornament from her eighth grade handcrafts project onto the tree. Why did Dad keep hoarding all this stuff? It's not like any of them actually gave a damn.

"Hey! Careful!" says Joe appearing at her elbow. "That's my favourite!" His hands are full of eggnog and his Santa hat lopsided.

"They're all your favourite, Dad," says Iris rolling her eyes.

"Damn right," says Joe, passing a glass to Cecile. "It took years to carefully collect that much junk I couldn't bear to part with."

"Junk is right," says Cecile sharing an exasperated look with Iris. "I don't know where on earth you even stored your LP collection before Barry moved out."

"Oh yeah, that's right," Barry looks up from his Jenga tower with a faux-injured expression. "I forgot I'm homeless now. I've been edged out by Joe's jazz memorabilia. I see how it is."

"And here you were worried about Wally," says Iris, serenely tying a bauble.

She revels in the slightly awkward pause that follows, even though she knows she's going to pay for it later. She can feel her Dad's "what-is-going-on-with-you" glare burning her ear.

"Nope, it's true. I love you kids, but Duke Ellington's never given me the grief you have, so he gets to stay with me and the rest of you can move your asses out." Joe stretches out on his arm chair with his eggnog and a sigh of satisfaction.

"And where does that leave me?" Cecile perches on the arm of Joe's chair to look saucily down at him.

"I'll have to ask Duke about that," deadpans Joe. The room cracks up as Cecile gasps in indignation and swats him.

"What are we laughing at now?"

Francine has finally come down to join them. She had been ill with a migraine all day, the only pall over an otherwise perfectly amiable family gathering. Her face still looks drawn and she's wearing her silk bed scarf over her hair.

"How are you feeling, Francine?" Cecile's slight shift from genuine warmth to a touch too polished concern is hardly noticeable, but Iris sees it in the minute way she straightens her back and evens her features.

"Oh, it was just a headache, Cecile, thanks for asking," her mother replies in the same cordial "company voice". Iris stares intently at the tree as the two exchange pleasantries. She quite likes Cecile and...doesn't hate Mom anymore but it's still new and weird, the two of them in the same house she grew up in and her Mom walked out of. They probably feel the same.

"So Joanie isn't coming," says Wally, oblivious to Cecile's slight flinch, "and Aunt Edna got snowed in, so is this everyone that's here for dinner?"

"Do you ever not think about your stomach?" Iris teases, throwing a bunch of tinsel at her little brother's head.

He kicks it defensively towards a laughing Barry. "I'm a growing boy!"

"You can stop any day now," says Iris, pouting. "You were so cute and cuddly when I met you! And now you look like a pool noodle with ridiculous ears."

"And you were a lot nicer when I met you," complains Wally. "But I still have to put up with these insults and serious damage to my adolescent self-esteem!"

"She's just bitter, Wall," says Barry sagely. "She used to be the tallest kid in class in elementary school and lorded it over everyone. And then I got taller than her when we were twelve and she couldn't win playing keep-away anymore. Been a bitter Oompa Loompa ever since."

"I am not an Oompa Loompa," cries Iris, throwing more tinsel at the idiots now snickering and fistbumping on the floor. "You two are just...freakish. Abnormally tall. And slow and lumbering. Like the giant tree people in Lord of the Rings."

"Ents," Barry and Wally chorus.

"Also nerds," says Iris agreeably.

Cecile, Joe and Francine are laughing at them and Iris feels a smile pulling at her own mouth until she realizes that none of them know...anything. And that this probably looks to them like an amusing picture of sibling rivalry. With Barry. Iris fights down a stab of nausea and looks away lest she catch his eye.

"To answer your question, we're waiting on two more people," says Joe.

"Chyre's coming, right?" says Barry, with vague interest. "Haven't seen Frank in a year. How is he?"

Well, he'd know if he had actually gone anywhere and looked anyone up during the two weeks in fall that he had spent holed up in her Dad's house, using up nearly all his vacation days and not even telling her he had come home. Iris glares at the last bronze bell in the box. It's just like Barry - a useless tool.

"Dad invited Officer Pretty Boy as well," she interjects brightly as Joe brings Barry upto speed on the CCPD goings-on.

Her father rolls his eyes and Barry's eyebrows rise. "Officer Pretty Boy?"

"Really, Iris?"

"Well, you called him that, Dad!"

"I may have been a bit unfair," admits Joe. "He's just young and eager to prove himself."

"And he can't help being pretty," she nods, earning a stern pointed finger from Joe.

"Who are we talking about?" asks Barry, lost.

"Eddie Thawne. New transfer from Keystone. Turns out Francine knows him."

"Nice kid," her Mom volunteers. "Son of a very unpopular mayor, but he's nothing like. Took one of my first aid courses at the hospital and volunteered at the youth center. I asked Joe if we could have him for Christmas."

"I'd rather have the goose," Wally moans into the floor, now lying dramatically spread-eagled on his stomach. "I'm going to die of hunger before these people ever get here."

"If you did, I'm sure you'll rescurrect in time for dessert," retorts Iris.

Wally sticks his tongue out at her. Then makes a face that his embarrassing seventeen-year-old self probably thinks is sly. "Hey, Dad? Are any of these guys single?"

"Well, Chyre's been divorced for fifteen years and he isn't seeing anyone," says Joe idly. "I can ask, if you swing that way, Wally."

Everyone bursts into laughter at the boy's spluttering discomfiture. Iris turns to exchange grins with Barry in triumph and notices that he isnt laughing. He just looks...squirrelly. Again.

"There's nothing wrong with liking boys, Joe," admonishes Cecile and Barry's shoulders relax incrementally.

"I never said there was. Wally's the one who wanted to know."

"For Iris!" the boy pouts, his ears still glowing red. "Cause life is bad enough as a bitter Oompa Loompa without spending it alone."

"Thank you for your concern," says Iris acidly. "But I can find my own boyfriends."

Barry coughs something into his eggnog that sounds a lot like "Brad."

She smiles at him, sweet as a knife. "Did you have something to say, Barr?"

"Nope." Wide-eyed and innocent.

"I liked your last boy actually," says Francine, arranging herself on the sofa with a plate of cookies. "Will something. He seemed decent."

"Dry white toast," snorts Wally and Barry smirks at the floor.

"He was not!" He totally was. "Will was perfectly nice. You liked him, didnt you, Barry?"

"He was a nice guy," he shrugs and Iris feels again that stab of irritation. "Just..."

"Just what?"

He finally looks at her, face unreadable. "Just didnt seem like your type, that's all."

Oh he thinks so, does he. "And what is my type, Bartholomew?"

Barry looks clearly discomfited and the others are looking at her in slight surprise. Iris realizes she is coming across rather confrontational and forces herself to relax.

"Bitter Oompa Loompas," warbles Wally through a mouthful of cookie.

Iris looks incredulously at him amid everyone's laughter. "It's like being related to a parrot."

***

#westallen #christmas fic #wip week #alternate universe #polyamory #coming out fic #wip #coldflash vs olivarry polyam au #myfic #the flash #fanfic