skinny love | barry allen

66

Silence has never been quite this loud.

Nothing but stillness filled the air in Barry and I's loft at 12:03 am that night. He and I laid on our backs in our king bed— wide awake. There was not an ounce of tiredness in our bodies, partially because we knew what was going to happen and partially because we had already over-caffeinated ourselves very late at night so we didn't waste a second of time.

If anything, the tables had flipped and I was the one worried about Barry dying of over caffeination.

But there wasn't much time left.

Twenty four hours.

I was meant to die in twenty four hours.

The clock was ticking, loud and clear, hanging over each and every single one of our heads and my time would be up soon.

"Zee." Barry's raspy voice teared me away from my thoughts and pushed me straight back into reality. I felt his gaze on the side of my face.

I turned my head to look at him. "Yes, Barry?"

"Don't stress." Barry's voice was quiet and his eyes bored into mine. "Please."

"I'm not." I blinked. "I'm okay."

Barry looked unconvinced. "Really?"

"Well— I'm okay for someone who's meant to die in twenty four hours." I shrugged lightly and exhaled. "Honestly, I'm not even thinking about it much."

"Oh yeah?" Amusement mixed into Barry's features. "What's on your mind then?"

"How I need to reread every single book scene that has ever made me feel anything by midnight tomorrow." I told him, looking back up at the ceiling. "And I have read a lot of books."

Barry reached over and put a strand of my hair behind my ear. "You— are something else."

"Really?" I thought out loud, my voice lowering. "I'm only thinking that because I thought about how you're always asked this question in English class in high school for an ice breaker or something before you dove into a lesson— what would you do if you only have twenty four hours left to live? I'd always say something reasonable but come to think of it, I'm completely unprepared."

"It's okay that you're unprepared." Barry wrapped his arms around me and tugged me into his hold. He nuzzled his face against the side of mine and kissed my cheek a few times, a mumble escaping his lips. "You'll have all the time in the world to do whatever you like with whomever."

"We have nothing." I whispered, keeping my stare on the ceiling. "Our lead has hit a dead-end and we haven't been able to find anything that'll fit that power source that the bazooka requires. And I don't want to wear the team out—"

"Zee, we accomplished things in under twenty four hours when it was just the four of us— we've got the whole team working on this, we can accomplish a lot in the time we have." Barry continued to trail kisses on any part of my skin that he could reach with the way we were tangled together, trying to ease my consciousness. "And we're going to utilize every second we have to protect you— so don't worry for another second. We'll figure something out in time— I know it."

I thought appreciatively when I recalled our past memories. "We're pretty smart, aren't we?"

"The smartest." Barry kisses my temple.

I stayed silent for a few moments and then turned in his hold, looking directly into his eyes. "You know what I'd love right now?"

Barry propped himself up onto his elbow and pulled me under him, hovering over me and kissing my nose. "Anything you want."