author's notes: Written for Snowbarry Week 2016, Day 3: apocalypse. Based on a scene from the titular movie.

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Seeking A Friend for the End of the World

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"I don't want to fall asleep," she whispers, a glint in her eyes of the same fearful thing that'd haunted him for the past three weeks- but now, nearing the end, his heart has found calm.

In no small part because of Caitlin.

The countdown had driven most of those around them insane.

An Earth-killer, the news had called the asteroid. Judgment Day. The Rapture.

For some reason, it'd stopped both of them stock-still.

He'd found her crying on the fire escape that connected their apartments- or rather she'd come to him on the verge of his own insanity. There wasn't a person in the world that he could turn to; his parents both passed away, he had no siblings, and he'd worked his dead-end job long enough to meet with exactly that- a dead end, burnt to the ground.

"Promise me you won't let me fall asleep."

His head shifts against the pillow, though he doesn't quite nod, instead promises in those exact few words that he will- he'll make sure she's awake, like he's awake, so that they won't spend another second of this life alone again.

Neither of them hears the sirens, or the screaming, or the ticking of the doomsday clock.

"I just want to be with you," Caitlin says softly, and inches a little closer, their legs entwining, but neither of them could bare to come any closer if that meant losing sight of each other. He wants to see the end of the world through her hazel eyes.

"I just want to be with you," he agrees.

She'd been his whole entire world for the past three weeks- they'd tried to drive cross-country to find her mom but found no safe route to travel, stopped at every turn, turned down, discouraged, but through all that he'd been by her side, held her until she fell asleep, watched her dream and startle out of nightmares.

And it'd felt like everything he'd spent his life searching for.

The sky cracks outside, above them, around them, lightning and thunder, the smaller rocks broken off in the atmosphere destroying everything in their wake.

Caitlin's hand tightens around his.

"Oh God," she chokes out, a tear finding shelter against the bridge of her nose.

He pinches at that tear near her nose, caressing the back of his fingers over her cheeks, and he watches her draw in a deep breath, draw the fear deep down where it won't reach the surface.

Caitlin sniffles, whimpering, "I wish we had more time."

"It wouldn't have been enough," he says, knowing as well as her they've lived a lifetime together already- karaokeing in Star City, racing well above the speed limit outside of National City, celebrating a fake birthday in that dinosaur themed restaurant. Days spent talking only, about their family and childhood, about the things that took their breath away, and days spent in complete silence, mourning the hopes and dreams that would never be.

But life didn't get better than what it'd been with her.

"I'm scared," she hushes, her eyes growing wide in fear as the Earth comes apart below them.

And he's never felt braver- time isn't running out, it has finally come. Something soft and sweet sneaks into a corner of his mouth, curling there like a familiar friend.

His whole life he's been afraid; his voice too weak, his courage too small, his heart too big to find any decent expression- the world too cold to understand.

But now, he's not afraid. Not anymore.

He only needs to be heard by one person, one tragically beautiful girl, he needs courage for but a minute, his heart finally, inexplicably, large enough for both of them.

"I am madly in love with you, Caitlin," he confesses at the end of world- a truth so complete it could've stopped it turning in itself. "You're my favorite favorite thing."

It feels like he never had anything or anyone in this world but her.

And then, at the precipice of his surrender and his calm, he's granted a smile so luminous it could blot out the sun, coursing along her lips and mouth and then her entire face.

Time stops, frozen around a moment they've made for themselves.

"Barry"—Caitlin's hand lands on his cheek—"I'm really glad I got to know you."

He doesn't kiss her. He won't take his eyes off her.

Not ever again.

He still doesn't understands a thing in this world beyond the here and now, beyond the confines of this small bed, but it's all the world he needs- this small cocoon in the center of the universe he created with her.

It's not enough time by far, not by a long shot, not by any astronomically large measures- but he does understand the universe granted him his soulmate when he needed her the most.

So he's consoled, that even though their time is up there are layers upon layers of other worlds out there- that even if they can't have more than the next few quiet moments, then—

A bright flash lights up the room, drawing a white halo around Caitlin's face. So beautiful.

(—maybe in another universe.)

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fin

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