in this crumbling
notes | Just kind of a silly little scene, warm friendship and hints of maybe more? Title from How Does a Moment Last Forever Montmartre from Beauty and the Beast, which, though short, is what I decided Caitlin was singing in the start of this scene, because I just saw Beauty & the Beast and it was amazing.
title | in this crumbling
Caitlin's singing when Barry walks into Star Labs one afternoon, his feet all but silent as they tread the familiar path through the winding hallways to their main work area. Because she's settled at her computer, working on cataloging something, she doesn't even realize he's in the room until it's too late, completely caught up in her song and the rhythmic tap of the keys beneath her fingers as she navigates through the database she's created on all the metahumans they've encountered. Despite her time on Team Flash, despite the too many instances of someone taking advantage of them (of her), she's totally unaware of Barry right up until the moment that he's leaning over her shoulder, opening his mouth to ask her a question and the resulting surprise leaves her jumping wildly in her chair, hands flying off the keyboard and backward.
One of said hands runs smack into his nose with no small amount of force (he sometimes thinks, as he's watching her work or stand up to some villain or sew him back together, of that Shakespeare line 'though she be but little, she is fierce'). It leaves his nose erupting into a fountain of blood that has her startling again, this time to her feet as she tosses out wild, exasperated apologies, clicking rapidly over to the med table where she begins to dig for cotton and cloth. "I'm so sorry Barry," she breathes, a little ragged, meeting him in the middle of the room with a clean white cloth, which he takes, and then moving away again to tug out a bag of ice from the freezer.
It's not a minute later that he's settled onto a chair, head tipped back with the cloth pressed below his nose and a bag of peas (they are, once again, out of ice) sprawled across the bridge of his nose. "It's okay," he mutters, thick around the injury and additional obstructions, "My fault: shouldn't have snuck up on you."
She tuts out a sound that he knows very well is her firmly agreeing, but despite that, she still looks so apologetic and miserable that what might normally be a sharp reprimand holds no heat at all. It may be his fault, but she feels badly about it anyway.
"It's just that you don't usually let anyone hear you sing and I didn't want to interrupt you in the middle of the song."
The comment leaves her brows shooting toward her hairline, having obviously not thought about the fact that he was listening. A burst of annoyance surges, only to be stifled by the earnest (and, covered in cloth and frozen vegetables, pathetic) cant to his expression. He means well, he always does. Instead of a reprimand, she huffs, "there's a good reason for that."
Laughing doesn't feel particularly wonderful for Barry at the moment, but he can't help the fond sound that bursts from his chest at her comment.
At the very least, it distracts Caitlin because she winces sympathetically and shifts a little to peer at him, trying to assess how he's doing and whether or not the bleeding has stopped. "I really am sorry," she manages after a moment, "even if you did scare me, I didn't mean to give you a bloody nose."
Barry shrugs as best he can. "You know, I don't think I've had one of the whole time we've been doing this." He gives a small jerk of his head, indicating the whole of the surroundings, as if there could be any way to misinterpret what 'this' could be. "Kind of surprising, though this definitely isn't how I would have expected it to happen."
It's Caitlin's turn to laugh, easy and unfettered, as careful fingers lift to brush his to the side so that she can nudge away the cloth and then the peas and check his progress. Thankfully he's not still bleeding, so she guides his left hand away from his face, frowning slightly at the dried blood along his nostrils and collected on the cloth. Said frown only deepens when she carefully lifts away the bag of thawing peas, taking a look at the damage from another angle.
It's not broken, certainly, which is somewhat of a relief, but his nose is definitely a bit swollen and discolored from the impact.
He must read the situation by the cast of her expression, because he grimaces slowly and asks, "that bad?" with a kind of wry, pained sort of humor that indicates he already knows it is.
"Well," Caitlin starts, slow and thoughtful, voice warming as she offers her commentary, "you're certainly not quite a pretty a face as usual, but the damage isn't permanent."
Barry grins a little, gingerly, and shakes his head, adjusting to catch her gaze. "As long as I'm still pretty enough for you," he jokes,eyes bright despite the entire situation.
"Aww, Allen," she quips back, warm and easy and fond, "You're always pretty enough for me."