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This is a response to a prompt left here on Milliways Back Room.
I.
Joe is beat. He crash-landed in bed an hour ago and just wants to sleep.
He's doing a pretty good job of it too, until something starts to feel off and that drags him out of the depths of slumber.
Cracking an eye open, Joe startles when he sees a young face staring at him.
Fully awake now, Joe snatches his bearings together and blinks at the boy standing at his bedside.
"Barry, wh--what's going on?" Joe asks.
Barry bites his lip and then answers, "I-- I was just seeing what you were doing."
Joe gives Barry a bewildered look then says, "Well, I'm sleeping, Bare. Is something wrong?"
Barry's eyes cut down to the floor for a moment, then lift again, hesitant.
"It's kinda dark. In my room."
"Oh," Joe replies, understanding showing in his expression. "Okay. How about I come sit with you for awhile? Think that might help?"
Barry gives a meek nod and Joe gets himself up out of bed.
On the way to Barry's room Joe throws a yawn and nearly has his life end on it with a heart attack when Iris steps out of the shadows and startles him out of his skin.
"Dad?"
Just catching himself from letting out a surprised curse, Joe lifts his hand to wave off Iris.
"It's okay, baby girl, I'm just gonna go sit with Barry for a bit."
Stepping forward, Iris holds up her stuffed turtle to Joe.
"McSnurtle wants to sit with Barry, too."
Joe takes the turtle, giving it a tired look and then nods.
"Okay, but you go on back to bed now."
Iris nods, pauses, then gives Barry a quick hug before retreating.
"Goodnight, Barry. Goodnight, dad," Iris says as she heads back to her room.
Joe and Barry continue their trek and Joe opens the bedroom door, following Barry inside.
Barry climbs into bed and Joe settles in a nearby chair, sagging with the exhaustion he feels.
Setting McSnurtle on the nightstand facing Barry, Joe gives the boy a nod.
"Alright Bare, you go ahead and get some sleep now. I'm right here."
Barry pulls the covers up, looking over at Joe.
"Promise you'll stay until I'm asleep?"
"I promise."
Barry nods, relaxing into the pillow.
"Thanks, Joe."
"Anytime, son."
II.
"Dad, dad, he's coming!" Iris says excitedly, running over to stand beside her father as they both watch Barry come clumping down the stairs.
Iris giggles seeing Barry yawn and rub his eyes; still in his pajamas with sleep tousled hair as he descends the staircase.
Dropping his arm, Barry turns his head towards them and that's when both Joe and Iris exclaim, "MERRY CHRISTMAS!"
Barry looks stunned and Iris races over to grab him by both hands and tug him forward, practically dragging him towards the Christmas tree.
"Look, look! That one's yours, and that one's yours, and that one's yours from me, " she tells him, pointing out presents marked for Barry.
Barry's lip begins to tremble, and Iris sees tears begin to well in his eyes. Turning her head, she throws an anxious look at her dad who simply gives her a nod that she should turn back around and look.
Iris looks back at Barry and he's crying, but he's smiling through it, beaming with gratitude.
"Thank you guys. M-- Merry Christmas," he says and when Iris hugs him he hugs her right back.
III.
The house seems very nice, but it's still unfamiliar and Barry is nervous so he hangs back, sticking close to Joe.
After hanging up all of their coats on the rack beside the front door, Joe puts his hand to Barry's back and ushers him forward.
"Grandma Esther?" Joe says to the woman who's been hugging Iris and has now turned her attention to them. "This is Barry."
Barry manages a step forward and starts to offer his hand, but the older woman comes in and kneels down, putting her arms out.
"Come here, sweetie."
Awkwardly at first, Barry steps in to receive the hug and once he's enveloped in her arms Barry is soon hugging her right back.
She's warm, and smells nice, and any fears Barry had about being an unwelcome tag along behind Joe and Iris vanish once he's wrapped up in Grandma Esther's warm embrace.
IV.
"And, we give it one-- last-- good-- turn-- and that's it. That's how you change a tire," Joe says, securing the last lug nut with his tire iron while kneeling beside their car parked on the side of the highway.
"We did it!" Barry cheers, having been right there beside the man watching raptly and helping out.
Joe smiles and holds his hand out to Barry, accepting five and giving five back.
"Good job," Joe says proudly.
"What about me?" Iris asks, sticking her head out from the driver's seat.
"You did a good job too, baby," Joe says, easing the car jack down and pulling it out from underneath the vehicle.
"Does that mean I can drive some more?" Iris asks, excited.
"Until you're sixteen, the only time you're driving this car is when I'm pushing it," Joe informs her, rounding to the trunk to put the jack and their flat tire into it.
"Can I drive?" Barry asks hopefully.
"Do you have a license?" Joe asks him seriously.
"No," Barry replies.
"Do you wanna get pulled over?" Joe asks.
"No," Barry says, shaking his head.
"Then I guess you're not driving either," Joe says, shutting the trunk and giving him a pointed look with a smile.
Barry smiles back and Joe raises his voice for the both of them to hear, "Back seat, both of you."
Inside, Iris clambers into the back and Joe holds a hand out to stop Barry from heading to the door that opens onto traffic and directs him to get in on the other side.
Once they're all settled Joe starts the car and uses the rearview mirror to look at the two in the backseat.
"Okay, we've got a hundred and twenty miles left on this road trip and I think, given how good everyone was in an emergency, that everybody here has earned some ice cream when we get there. How 'bout you guys?"
Barry and Iris cheer and Joe grins as he carefully steers them back out onto the road.
"Well alright then."
V.
Her and Barry have made a blanket fort in the living room, and while her dad makes popcorn in the kitchen, Iris and Barry sit inside the fort on the floor with a pair of flashlights. Barry is fiddling with something he made while Iris looks through one of Barry's science books.
"What's that?" Iris asks him, pointing at a picture covered in stars and swirling purple clouds.
Barry glances over and answers, "That's the Andromeda Galaxy."
Iris flips the page and points at the next picture, "What's that?"
"That's a supernova," Barry replies, shining his flashlight on the photo.
Iris turns another page and gasps at the image, "It looks like a horse!"
Grinning at her, Barry nods, "That's the Horsehead Nebula."
"It's so pretty," Iris says, tracing the picture with her fingertip.
Barry smiles more and looking at him, Iris forgets about the pictures for a moment and focuses on Barry.
"Barry, I like having you live here with us," she informs him.
Barry looks surprised.
"You do?"
Iris nods, tilting her head and giving him a warm smile.
"Uh huh. You make it happier here."
Barry ducks his head and Iris can tell that she's embarrassed him, but she decides not to tease.
Instead, she aims her flashlight up at the figure ducking into their fort, three bowls of popcorn in tow.
"Alright, I brought the snacks," her dad says, joining them on the floor. "Barry, you got the light show?"
"Yeah, I do!" Barry says excitedly.
Iris grabs her bowl of popcorn and settles against her dad while Barry takes the foil covered box he's been so meticulously punching holes into and shines his flashlight through it.
Both Iris and her dad gasp as pinpricks of light paint the roof and inside walls of the fort, lighting it up just like a starry sky.
"Wow, Barry," Iris says with wonder.
Beside her, her dad chuckles, handing over Barry's bowl of popcorn to him and giving him a nod.
"Pretty good son," he says, tilting his head back and looking around. "Pretty good."
1.
"Joe? Can we go soon?"
Seated at the kitchen table with a mess of bills and bank statements in front of him and a notepad under his pencil, Joe sighs when he hears Barry asking the same question the boy's posed three times now in the last hour.
"We'll go soon," Joe says, "when I get done with this."
Barry persists.
"Yeah, but-- it's already three o'clock and you said-- "
"Barry!" Joe snaps, patience wearing thin.
Barry backs away from the table and Joe stops himself. Taking a deep breath, Joe lets it out then comes back calmer.
"We will go when I am done, okay? I've just got a lot to get through here," Joe says, gesturing at the mess before him. "If we don't make it today I'll take you tomorrow, alright?"
The look Barry gives him strains the hold Joe has on his calm. Rather than bark at the kid again, Joe points towards the living room and very firmly tells Barry, "Go watch TV with Iris."
Joe watches Barry slouch off and then gets back to work.
***
"Hey, Iris? Iris… Iris."
"Whaaat, Barry?" Iris sighs, eyes fixed on the television screen while Barry pesters her from behind the couch.
"Can you ask your dad to take me t-- "
"No," Iris says, shutting him down quick. "I'm watching this."
"But-- "
Iris sighs. "Leave him alone, Barry. You know if you keep bugging him he's just gonna get mad."
Barry keeps trying to talk and so Iris grabs the remote and turns up the volume on the TV.
Giving a frustrated and angry sound, Barry walks away, stomping up the stairs and leaving her alone in the living room.
***
Barry makes it as far as the crosstown bus.
Sitting alone, he wills the vehicle to go faster, well aware of the time.
A 'WHOOP, WHOOP' sounds from outside and Barry sighs, sliding down low in his seat as the bus pulls over.
All eyes are on the front door, but Barry's are on the floor as a uniformed officer steps onboard, apologizing to the driver.
"Sorry, this'll just take a second."
Heavy footsteps come closer and Barry doesn't look up when Joe stops in front of him and says, "You. Off."
Back at the house, Barry sits on the couch with Iris who's sitting on the very far end, giving him a wide berth.
"Told you he'd get mad," she whispers to Barry.
Arms crossed in front of himself, Barry doesn't say anything and Iris goes quiet when her dad steps over, ready to speak.
"Did you know Barry was going?" Joe asks Iris sharply, to which she shakes her head quickly.
Focusing in on Barry, Joe says, "I thought we were past this, Barry."
Angry himself, Barry doesn't reply. He gives a noncommittal shrug, looking at the far wall beyond Joe.
"Didn't I say I would take you?" Joe goes on. "Didn't I say if we don't make it today I would take you to see your dad tomorrow?"
That point finally breaks him and Barry feels the tears start to fall as he blurts out, "Tomorrow isn't his birthday!"
Barry throws the stunned Joe and Iris a wounded look, hurt that they didn't know, then leaps off of the couch and runs upstairs, slamming his room door behind himself.
