it started when we were younger (you were mine)

A.N: And we've reached the finishing line! Thank you guys for reading and reviewing my first multi-chapter story (that actually took me time compared to what other girls? and you're worth being on time for) but yeah, thank you all!

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

He swore she looked more beautiful than ever, and even so her face was detached as she smiled at her customers, or maybe it was just him. His hands shook as he opened to door to Jitters, and he saw her move to another table, to pour out some coffee. He said nothing as he walked in, but simply waited until she looked up briefly - which became a double take as she realised who it was.

Her mouth opened in disbelief and Barry could've laughed at the shocked expression on her face, but his heart was hammering too hard in his chest to do anything but offer a hopeful smile at her, hoping that she would she the look of absolute adoration in his eyes and he drunk her in.

Her hands lifted to her mouth and Barry noticed that she had lost weight; her wrists were thinner yet she glowed all the same to him. She had gotten a haircut too, he could remember her complaints about being able to sit on her hair before he was struck…

Snapping back to the present, he was only just able to catch her and she flung herself in his arms. Her vanilla scent swirled around him and made his head spin and he relished the feel of her small body in his, the way her feet didn't touch the ground anymore in her haste to feel him. He could do it now, tell her he loved her right now -

But then she was pulling away to look at him and yet the smile still crinkled his eyes as they drunk each other in after nine months of loneliness on both sides. Although he was unconscious, there were times where he heard what she had to say to him, the way she had cried, the way she had hoped. It kept him going, forced him to wake up when in reality, he was feeling a lot more emotionally tired than he let on.

"Oh my God! You're awake!" Iris said, her face breaking into a smile that touched her eyes, which was in major contrast to the docile smiles she had sent to everyone she interacted with.

Barry nodded, his grin still reaching his eyes as he continued to stare fondly at her.

"Why didn't Star Labs call us?" Iris said, disapproval tinting her tone.

Barry reassured her, saying, "I just woke up," to which Iris' smile grew as she realised the she was the first person he came to see.

"Should you even be on your feet?" Iris asked, concern lacing her voice now, and she looked deep into his eyes and then his face, looking to see if he was trying to hide any pain.

"Iris, I'm ok," Barry said, smiling at her worry. Then her smile dropped and the pain was evident on her face for split second as she struggled to contain her emotions.

"I watched you die, Barry. You kept dying and your heart kept stopping." She said, unshed tears glistening in her eyes. To quell some of her anxiety, he took her hand and placed it, palm upwards, on his chest, right where his heart was. They locked eyes again.

"It's still beating." He said, smiling again as her brow smoothed. She let herself feel his heart like it was her own; her heart fluttered with his because he was okay, he was here, he was home.

"Feels really fast," she breathed, and Barry grinned at her relief. The words he had been wanting to say for fourteen years bubbled on his tongue but then the waitress behind them was losing her grip on the tray she held and time was stopping and Barry was too preoccupied, for once, to tell Iris how he felt.

Instead, he brushed off the feeling and wrongness and felt his heart heal as he listened to Iris talk about seeing Joe and realised that he was finally home again.

A.N: And that's that. Thank you so much for reading this story and maybe someday I'll post a sequel containing moments from the episodes… You'll see another Westallen story soon from me anyways!

-chann3l.0rang3