Old Habits Die Hard

2

No amount of "It'll be better this time"s and "It'll be good for you, Barry"s he was told, it did not make him want to be here any more than he had before. Not that he didn't like his aunt or his cousin, they were amazing and he was looking forward to that part, but he didn't trust that the universe would leave him be, just because he left Central City, because it sure as hell didn't last time.

Barry grabbed his bag from the luggage claim and walked into the lobby area of Allen County Airport (Iris had found that to be a little bit funny when they were booking his ticket). He scanned the area searching for someone he recognized. Preferably his aunt or cousin. His eyes landed on his cousin once he spotted her. He looked to her left and saw his aunt.

With a smile on his face, he began walking over to them. "Oh! Barry! Look how big you got!" His aunt said with a bright smile, chuckling lightly as she pulled him into a hug. For a moment, Barry tensed up. His shoulder still hurt from what happened with Tony Woodward a couple days prior. Although his aunt didn't seem to notice. His cousin, Marley Rose, indeed did.

Marley narrowed her eyes at her cousin. 'What's that about..?' she asked herself, tilting her head to the side. Barry didn't notice Marley's reaction and chuckled a little. "It's only been a couple years, Aunt Millie." He said to the woman.

"I know. You've definitely gotten more handsome as time went on." She commented with a laugh. 

"Aunt Millie" he whined jokingly. 

"Hey, mom, shouldn't we start heading out?" Marley asked her mother wanting to watch Barry more, suspicious of him. She heard about the incident that made him move and wasn't too sure he was completely healed from the situation.

"Of course, you're right," Millie said. "Barry, are you hungry, we can stop and grab something to eat on the way home."

Barry shook his head. "I ate before I got on the plane, and it was a short flight." 

Millie nodded, "Alright then." Marley kinda pushed her mom and cousin so they'd start walking. Both of them laughed lightly at Marley's determination to leave.

"I don't get a hug from you?" Barry asked, faking a slight pout at his cousin.

"You can have a hug when your bag is in the car," she told him, giving him another small push.

"Fine."

~~~~

Barry's suitcase was unzipped on his bed as he tried to somewhat organize his stuff before he tried to decide where to put it all.

Ever since they got back, Marley had been thinking about Barry. How he was doing and things like that. But the main thing that concerned her was how he tensed up earlier. Deciding to speak to him she made her way over to his room and knocked. "Barry?" She called out to him.

"Yeah, come in." He answered without turning his back. She walked in, almost impressed by how much of his stuff was already all over the place. "Um, I'm just trying to organize it all. What's up?"

"I just wanted to see how you're doing, your arm and all that?" Marley said.

"My arm's fine, it's all healed up," Barry said, but she knew it was a lie.

"That's why you tensed up earlier," she said. Barry did it again, but this time not in pain, but because he hadn't thought she noticed.

"Uh..." he stopped playing with his things to sheepishly scratch the back of his neck. "It's not as bad as it was before? Like, it's tolerable and I barely notice it?"

He was sure his unsure tone was doing a horrible job of convincing her.

"Did the guys who did it get in trouble?" Marley asked.

"No," Barry sighed. "Otherwise Joe probably wouldn't have sent me away to a whole other state."

"It won't be all bad," Marley said. "I mean, at least you'll have me. We get to be new kids at the school together."

Barry raised an eyebrow. "Being a new kid is never fun, no matter how many people you know." 

Marley let out a sigh, "But it also means that you won't come with the same reputation. Barry, you went into high school as the kid whose father is in prison. You don't need to be known as that kid anymore. You can start anew." She said.

"But I'm not ash-" 

He got cut off by Marley, "I know you're not ashamed, Barry, but sometimes it's better to keep stuff like that on the downlow." She said to her cousin, a small smile forming on her face.

"I guess you're right..." Barry sighed.

"I'm always right." Marley joked. Barry grinned and elbowed her lightly.

"What about that time-"

"I thought we agreed not to talk about that."

"Yeah, but I don't think you were right then."

"Yeah, but we agreed to never bring it up again, so it's irrelevant."

"I think it is rele-"

Barry was cut off by Marley grabbing a pillow from the bed and throwing it at Barry. It hit him in the face and then fell to the floor.

"Okay, now it's on!" he exclaimed, picking the pillow up and used it to whack his cousin. She screamed and used one arm to block her face while reaching for the other pillow to fight back. A few seconds later Millie appeared in the doorway, looking very concerned. As soon as they realized she was there, the cousins quit their pillows fight, looked at each other, then her, and exclaimed,

"She started it!"

"He started it!"