My free hand was resting on his shoulder, my other hand intertwined in his, as I kissed back.

I was kissing back.

All thoughts of Peter had disappeared. All I could think about was Barry. My chest felt like it was on fire as we kissed. My feelings for him were clearly still there, and have been. I guess being with Peter was a distraction from the fact that I have always and still will always want Barry.

Before I let myself go further, I pull myself away from the kiss and slowly letting out a breath. I close my eyes, trying to process what had just happened and then it hit me like a rock. Peter.

"I have a boyfriend." I breathed out as I look at him; my eyes slightly wide.

"You have a boyfriend?" Barry says, slowly letting go of my hand, as I instantly move my hands away. "I have a boyfriend."

"Oh my god-" he runs a hand through his hair, "I didn't mean to- I'm sorry-"

"You didn't- you didn't. It was- in the moment. You love Iris and I- love my- boyfriend." I stumble to my feet, as he just looks at me. His eyes flashed with something else and he gave me a look that I couldn't read. Regardless, I shake my head lightly and clear my throat. "The parade-"

"I- right. The parade." He clears his throat.

"Gimme a lift?" I try to lighten the awkward mood, and grab my coat, slipping it on. He lets out a small laugh, as I heard the mayor loudly start to ask for the Flash through his mic outside. Barry picks me up and runs, setting me down next to Iris, then appears onto the stage in his suit, slowly glancing around at everyone, the entire crowd cheering once they saw him.

Iris claps her hands, looking at me, a smile touching her lips, "I see you changed his mind."

"I did." I say quietly, nodding slowly, before looking at the stage, watching Barry eye everyone in the crowd, nodding from time to time at their chants, causing me to chant and clap with them. A smile grows on my face as Barry's gaze lands on me, as I clap more, but my clapping was and cheering was halted when I saw someone dressed in all black shoving through the crowd.

"The doors to Central City will forever be open to you, Flash." The mayor says, causing my eyes to drift away from what was going on in the crowd and to the stage again. As the mayor starts to hand him the key, there were screams. My head snapped towards the scream and before I knew it, the mayor and Barry were off stage and on the side, the podium smashed on the stage, and the man who was pushing through everyone slowly walking towards Barry, letting his hood down.

"The man who saved Central City. Hate to rain on your parade." He exclaims, his voice deep, walking closer to Barry,

"This isn't good-" I say quietly to Iris as she nods in agreement, also watching. Then the fight broke out. Barry ran right towards him and ended up getting thrown back, Lansing on the windshield of a police car. As Joe and Cisco tried to take matters into their own hands, I pull Iris to the side to make sure neither of us got shot. Whatever Cisco put into whatever they just shot, it only made him grow.

In a matter of seconds, Barry was throwing, and Joe was shooting. When that didn't work, they were both on the ground from the mini explosion, and a face that we all thought was dead was shown after the mask of the meta was off. Al Rothstein.

Barry was injured, letting out a grunt, as Joe stared at Al in shock, while saying to Barry, Al staring at them, pure anger in his expression, "That's Al Rothstein. The body we found at the nuclear plant, he's alive." Al Rothstein gave them one last look before making his way, leaving them on the ground.

Before I knew what I was doing, I was up, and slowly following him. "Zee- what're you doing-" Iris says, as she tries to grab my arm but I dodge it, quickly jogging in the direction Al had went, in hopes of finding where he came from for a good article.

I hear a loud grunt come from Barry, and before I knew it I was back by Joe and Iris, Barry struggling to stand. He had stopped me and ran me back here, with the shard of metal in his leg.

"Zee- not today." Barry breathes heavily, holding onto my forearms to prevent me to pull away and go back to what I was doing before, "I know why you were going after him and I'm telling you- no article is worth risking your life- okay? Not today. Not when my legs messed up."

I redundantly nod, before letting out a huff. "It would've been a better article if I would've just followed."

"Zee."

-

"All right, guys, I don't want any of you here right now." Barry speaks, glancing at all of us in the room, while we stood there in the cortex, Cisco, Joe, Iris, Stein and I, discussing how we were going to take this meta down, ignoring what opinions Barry had. Joe was the first to speak, "Tough. You need your partners, you need your friends."

"Barry, everyone in this room cares about you. But we also care about this city, we all wanna make a difference, and that means fighting meta humans, and that means working with the Flash. You can't deny us that. Not anymore." Iris says.

All I do is look at Barry, knowing that Iris and Joe has already said what needed to be said. "Got him-" Cisco says, causing my stare to be ripped away from Barry and now resting onto Cisco and his computer screen. "There's a three block dead zone near a hazardous waste reclamation plant. It should be blooming with rads, but right now it's at zero."

"That's where you'll find your atom smasher." Stein says somewhat excitedly because of the name he had just come up with. Cisco stares at him, knowing we all knew he was the one who usually came up with the names, "Because he absorbs atomic powers and he well- smashes.

"Come here." Cisco hugs him. "Welcome to the team."

I laugh quietly, as does Iris. "Great- guys- thank you. You can all go now, alright?" Barry says, lightly clapping his hands together.

"No- Barry, you need our help." I say quietly, finally speaking up, looking at him, our gazes caught, "You don't want to admit it, and you don't need to. We're not leaving, we're here to help."

Barry sighs, then Joe speaks, "Barry, you need to let Cisco and Stein figure out a way to stop this guy."

Barry huffs, "No, I don't." With that he puts on his suit and leaves, leaving his comm system behind.

Shit.

Cisco was quick to pull up some visual for us through the surveillance, as we all watched. I lightly flinched when Barry got hurt. Albert seemed to be overpowering Barry, causing me to lightly hit the desk with my palm, "We have to do something-"

"Dad." Iris says.

Joe turns, "Maybe I can make it there."

"No, you won't. And what are you gonna do when you get there? The boot didn't work on him." Cisco exclaims.

"Alarm!" Stein blurts out. "Believe me, we're all alarmed." Cisco says.

"Cisco- he probably meant the alarm system." I state the obvious, running a hand through my hair, as Stein speaks. "Yes, the alarm system. You've tapped into the surveillance cameras, correct?"

"Correct-" Cisco starts typing away, "Come on, feel the noise."

I watched the screen, flinching again when Barry was slammed into the wall over and over, Al shouting, "He said you were some kind of big hero- but you don't seem worthy of him, or this city."

"Who is he talking about-" I start to ask but was cut off. The alarms blared in the room, letting Barry get away. "Professor Stein, you are a genius." Cisco says.

"I believe that has already been well established." Stein says, getting a chuckle from everyone.

I heard someone run in, knowing it was Barry and heard a thud on the ground. I quickly ran over to Barry, seeing that he was passed out. I fall to my knees and shake him lightly, shouting for everyone else.