run_barry | Caffeine Fix

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Caffeine Fix

Things are finally starting to calm down in Central City. The epidemic is starting to let up, and those affected are on the road to wellness. The antibodies Caitlin developed (and farmed in Cisco) were shared with CCPD first and now the department is regaining its ranks from the previously bedridden.

Barry could probably do with a vacation sometime soon, but with Yamato's help, and short stints at the comm from Cisco and Caitlin, The Flash has seen Central City through the crisis.

With a break in the chaos achieved at last, there's only one way to celebrate. Coffee.

Holding the front door to CC Jitters open, Barry gestures Yamato inside with a flourish.

"And here we are, best cup of coffee in Central City."

It's the typical trendy sort of joint, high-tables with modern stools, couches and overstuffed chairs, and a hipster huddled with their laptop in every semi-dark corner.

The air is fragrant with the smells of fresh-ground roast, and behind the counter an espresso machine sputters under the deft control of a barista, while another woman loads fresh pastries into the bakery case.

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Noticing Yamato looking things over, Barry gives the area a cursory glance over, but doesn't find anything out of the ordinary so he pulls out a chair.

"Thanking me?" he asks, head tilted as he sits, fine to sit with his back to the rest of the tables around them. "For what?"

"Ah, you know," he says, a little awkwardly. "I've felt kind of useless ever since I lost my powers. It was nice to actually be able to help out, even just a little."

Beat.

"So, er. Thanks. For that. And for trusting me."

"It was more than a little, man," Barry assures Yamato. "Having you here definitely made a huge difference."

Glancing around for a moment and dropping his voice just a bit, Barry gives Yamato a sympathetic expression.

"I'm really sorry about your powers, I wish that we could help. I know that feeling of missing a part of yourself, for me it felt like the best part was gone. And that was just for a day. But still, you're a Chosen, that doesn't feel like something that can just go away. Not forever."

Deep down Barry feels like Yamato and his friends will get their powers back. The worlds they operate in really seem to need them.

"Fine, even just a huge bit," Yamato says, with a good-natured roll of his eyes.

He would affectionately shove Barry, but if he does that there's a good chance that the table will get jarred and then they'll have scalding coffee all over them and that's just more escalation than he'd planned on today.

"Thanks. I -- hope you're right. Maybe someday they'll come back," he says. After a moment's pause: "And hey, if I'm ever feeling bad about them being gone, I can just infect Cisco with Ebola and wait until you need my help again. Instant self-worth booster."

Barry gives a quick laugh to that and shakes his head.

"Yeah, no, I'm making it a rule right now that you can't infect Cisco with anything. But you don't have to. If you ever wanna hang out with Team Flash again you're totally welcome."

"Fine, fine, I won't infect Cisco with any diseases," Yamato says, shaking his head. "Since you insist."

So unfair.

"Thanks, though. And you know if you need me to help out with anything, you just have to ask."

"I appreciate that," he says, giving Yamato a nod.

"Barry? Who's your friend?" The question comes from the woman wearing an apron and approaching their table. She has a bright and sunny smile on which she aims at Barry first, before flashing it on Yamato.

Surprised, and then struck dumb for a moment by that smile, Barry tries to string a response together. "Iris, hey. Hi. You're feeling better. That's great."

Apparently used to Barry's awkwardness, Iris just smiles and nods, waiting a moment before finally taking the initiative and giving Yamato a wave.

"Hi, I'm Iris."

Snapping to, Barry makes introductions. "Oh, this... is my friend. His name is Yamato."

Yamato's gaze flicks over to Barry, just for a moment, and it takes actual work to stop himself from smiling at the poor guy.

"It's nice to meet you, Iris," he says, inclining his head a little. "I'm -- er, what he said. Yamato."

He's suddenly hyper-aware that he still has bruises on his arms and cheekbone, and stitches in his head, but luckily figuring out an excuse for those just in case isn't difficult.

"Barry was just showing me the best coffee place in the city. He was pretty insistent that I try this place's coffee while I'm here."

"It's nice to meet you," Iris returns, then gives a chuckle. "Barry is a little biased since he practically lives here, but I hope you're liking it."

"I don't... I mean, I'm here often, but that's not exactly living here," Barry says in his defense.

"Oh? Because I'm pretty sure you're the reason the manager got rid of those free pastry punch cards," Iris comes back, giving him a teasing smile.

Turning back to Yamato she asks, "So where are you from?"

"Yamato is from Odaiba," Barry blurts out.

"Odaiba? That's... Japan?" Iris guesses with the air of being mostly sure, but also hoping not to offend.

"Barry, were you taking advantage of free pastry punch cards? Shame on you."

Ten thousand years of shame, Barry, you pastry con-man.

"Yeah, Japan. Just off the coast of mainland Tokyo," he adds, giving Iris a quick smile. "I'm just visiting for a few days."

"What? No. It was a buy ten pastries get the eleventh free deal. I definitely paid for the ten," Barry says, shaking his head.

"It was ten boxes of pastries, which Barry was somehow managing to do in less than a week," Iris says, her expression to Yamato asking 'how crazy is that?'. "I swear you must've been feeding the entire precinct."

Barry just slouches down in his chair, features flush.

"It's not like the cards said there was a time-limit on it."

Bemusedly not commenting to Barry, Iris nods to Yamato.

"Wow, well that's cool. I hope it's been a good trip." Concern touching her features for a moment, she reaches up to tap her own temple in the spot where Yamato has stitches. "What happened there?"

"You're a menace," Yamato says to Barry, shaking his head. "Taking advantage of the manager's generosity to sate your addiction to pastry."

It's so sad when someone succumbs to Baked Goods Addiction. Barry should go to a group for that.

"Oh, er," he says, reaching up to rub his forehead with a wry smile. "Sparring match. I figured if I was in town, it was worth hitting up some of the boxing gyms and getting some training in."

Fighting a man with a baseball bat is sort of sparring! And it was good training! And is a drone factory really so different from a boxing gym? This is barely a lie.

The face Barry gives Yamato rather eloquently says, 'You're so funny, oh wait, you're not.'

"Yeah well, Central City Donut is still happy to give me their deal."

"Oh please," Iris scoffs, helping herself to a piece off of of one of Barry's scones. "That's one doughnut in twelve, you'll hardly eat them out of business that way."

"Hey!" Barry says, shielding his plate from her stealing anymore.

Throwing him a cheeky smile, she then widens her eyes at Yamato. "Sparring huh? Are you a fighter then, or just serious about fitness?"

Yamato responds with a face that equally eloquently says 'I'm hilarious.'

"If you're going through ten boxes of pastry in a week, how long does it take you to eat twelve doughnuts? An hour? Twenty minutes if you're feeling really hungry?"

He shakes his head, then throws Iris another wry, slightly embarrassed smile. "I'm a fighter, but mostly just an amateur one. It was fun to have a match with someone new, though."

Yamato's just going to try to steal one of Barry's scones as well, as quick as he can.

"He's like a bottomless pit, right?" Iris says, grinning at Yamato.

"I am not-- I don't-- " Barry flounders, flustered to be ganged up on by the other two.

Then Barry loses a scone to Yamato and he throws each of them a wounded look. "I have the worst friends," Barry says.

"Best friends," Iris corrects, hugging Barry across the shoulders, which rapidly erases his pouting.

Mussing Barry's hair to bring back just a little of that puppy pout, Iris gives Yamato an impressed look. "I wish I'd known. My boyfriend Eddie spars, he probably could've recommended places for you to check out. He's a detective with CCPD so, he stays in pretty good shape."

By her smile and tone, and the false modesty on the 'pretty good' in that last sentence, Iris is pretty enamored with Eddie.

"Too slow, Barry," Yamato says once he has the scone, waving it admonishingly before taking a bite out of it.

Not immediately scowling at the mention of Eddie's name requires even more effort on Yamato's part, but he manages to keep his expression fairly cheerful and friendly.

"Huh, cool. Maybe I should challenge him to a few rounds next time I'm in town," he says, cheerily. Just a few shades too cheerily, by Yamato's usual gruff standards.

Barry gives a short snort that sounds like a stifled laugh (because it is) on Yamato's comment, wearing a private smirk for a moment.

Busily trying to get his hair sorted, Barry pauses to cast an uncertain look Yamato's way after hearing Yamato's cheer.

"Yeah, sure," Iris says cheerily, missing anything that might be off. "I'm sorry I missed your visit this time. Barry's probably told you, I've been sick. But, Eddie and I always have fun hanging out with Barry and his friends."

Yamato throws a momentary smirk of his own at Barry when he hears that stifled laugh, taking another bite of the scone.

(He doesn't react at all to that uncertain look Barry gives him. After all, what could possibly go wrong with him and Eddie in a ring? It's the best idea.)

"Barry did mention that you and a whole bunch of other people were sick. Bad luck on my part, I guess I managed to arrive in the middle of a bug," he says. "But I'm glad to see you're doing better. And the city seems over the worst of it, at least."

"Well that's because of The Flash," Iris says of the worst being over, with enough matter-of-fact attitude and pride to make that statement absolute fact.

"Iris... " Barry starts to admonish, because he has to, but she's quick to turn that aside.

"My blog site has been blowing up all week with sightings of the Flash all over the city," she informs Yamato earnestly, perhaps hoping to convert another believer in The Flash. "He basically single-handedly took care of Central City while the police department was down."

"Sounds like a pretty cool guy. Seems like the whole place would've descended into chaos if he hadn't been around," Yamato says, with a quick grin. "The city's very lucky to have him."

"See? He gets it," Iris declares. "I like you, Yamato. I sure hope you got to see some of the sites while you were here."

Barry just gives a helpless and awkward shrug, to Iris it probably looks like he's giving up arguing with her about The Flash. Really, he's just trying not to look as embarrassed and pleased as he feels.

Victory over this round in hand, Iris pats Barry's shoulder.

"I better get back to work. I've gotta wrap up here and then get going. It was really nice to meet you, Yamato. I hope you have a safe trip home."

Yamato doesn't quite manage to stifle a smile at Barry's reaction. It's gone fast, though, and Yamato's pretty sure it can pass as just a sympathetic smile for Barry not having the will to argue anymore.

"Thank you, it was really nice to meet you too," he says to Iris. "And I'm sure if there's any major landmarks I didn't get to see, Barry will drag me to them next time I'm here."

She nods, then gives Barry's shoulder a squeeze.

"We'll catch up later? You should get some rest when you get a chance, you look tired."

That said she gives Yamato a parting wave then heads off, picking up a few empty mugs on her way before trekking back down the stairs.

Barry turns his head to watch her go, then turns back around to take a drink from his mug and face Yamato.

"She's right, you look like you've been running all over the city or something," Yamato says, once Iris is gone.

He pauses for a moment, contemplating exactly how much he's supposed to be dancing around the elephant in the room, then remarks, very innocently: "She seems nice."

There are a few notes of 'I approve of your not-girlfriend, Barry!' in his tone.

Barry huffs a short laugh and rolls his eyes. "I'm fine."

Sipping on his drink again, Barry glances in the direction Iris went, then gives a quick nod to Yamato.

"She is. I'm glad you two got the chance to meet," he replies, either purposefully missing any undertones in Yamato's comment, or just tragically oblivious.

For his part, Barry plays it completely casual, either by practice or plain denial.

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