Title: What Else is New?
Fandom: The Flash (TV 2014)
Rating: PG-13/Teen
Pairing: Barry Allen/Julian Albert
Length: 598 words
Content notes: Spoilers for the early part of S3
Summary: Barry finds that things may have changed a bit more than he thought.



Barry’s confusion lasted only a minute after Joe had to “remind” him that he had moved into his own a place two months earlier. Apparently Barry had “needed some space”. That was how Joe had put it. That was okay. It wasn’t a problem. It was fine. It’s not like he hadn’t had his own place before.

Joe and Iris fighting was more of an issue, but even that wasn’t a first for them. They’d make up eventually, they always did. It really was okay. Not too much had changed. He didn’t need to worry at all. That was what he kept telling himself.

Julian was a different sort of problem. Before Flashpoint, Barry had never even heard of Julian Albert. Now he was his workmate. Lab partner. Nemesis? No, Julian Albert wasn’t his nemesis. He was just a co-worker he didn’t get along with. They had obviously gotten off on the wrong foot. Barry would win him over eventually. It wasn’t the end of the world, Barry could fix this. He knew he could. He just needed to get home, take a shower and relax. Then he could figure out what his next step would be.

It barely took any time at all to get to his new place. Barry knew the streets of Central City well and he was The Flash. Travel time wasn’t exactly an issue for him. Time travel on the other hand-- it was probably best not to think about that right now.

His place wasn’t bad. Some of it didn’t really seem to be of his taste, but whatever. Barry jumped in the shower and let the hot water relax his muscles for a few minutes. He had been a little tense. The changes were getting to him more than he’d like to admit.

Barry thought he heard a noise when getting out of the shower. Without bothering to dry off, he wrapped a towel around his waist, and stepped out of the bathroom into the hall. The noise had come from the door near there. Someone seemed to be letting themselves in with a key. He was too stunned to bother with his clothes and just stood there watching while Julian walked into his kitchen as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

Barry just stood there, towel wrapped around his waist, water dripping onto the floor.

“Why, Mr. Allen I do believe you are dripping water all over our hardwood floors. Not that I don’t appreciate the view and all, but maybe we should move things over to someplace less vulnerable to water damage”

Barry opened his mouth to speak but found he was at a loss for words. He looked around the apartment a moment as if that would give him some clue to what was going on. He turned back to Julian who was looking at him with what appeared to be appreciation. Was this what he thought it was? Julian smiled at him and took a few steps forward while loosening his tie. He wrapped Barry into an embrace, his hand brushed Barry’s wet hair away from his face.

“Do you know how bloody difficult it is keeping my hands off of you at work?” Barry shook his head. “Well, then let me show you.” and then Julian was kissing him and Barry was kissing him back. In the brief moment when his towel was falling to the floor, he wondered what else was new in this timeline. Then they were moving toward the bed and the time for coherent thinking was over.