Chapter Text
Time goes by fast for the average person. So many times people say, "Time goes by so fast, where has the year gone?"
For Barry it goes by too slowly. A minute can seem like an hour, just talking to people say words so slowly. Barry decides to only talk to people when he has to. That isn't hard to do, he didn't have friends and small talk made him nervous. So he watches them, he sees them and says he doesn't want that. (He lies.)
He hides in plain sight. The warehouse is perfect for Barry it doesn't have many guests, the rent is affordable for him, and no one can see when he speeds into it. He tells himself that it could be worse, he could be homeless, or worse. (Because they are always worse things that could happen. The wrong person could have discovered him.)
Hiding seemed like the best option. No one knows about him and his abilities, he's lonely, but he wasn't used to people staying and getting to know him. He stays in his warehouse and when people his age are out partying he learns things. He taught himself gorilla sign language, he learned how to stitch himself up, he knew how to speak in a few languages, and read libraries of books. (Medical books were for things that could happen.)
He didn't talk to people, and time went by slowly for him. Barry didn't want to get used to slow people so his company was all he had, besides prison visits with his Dad. His Dad was depressing to be around Barry loved the man to death, but it made him remember everything that could have been with his family. His Dad wasn't going to get out of prison anytime soon so they were pointless dreams.
Books and fast music became his friends. He didn't mind. Not really, he knew he was an accident. It's hard to fit in when your so clearly different than everyone else.
Barry finds that saving people is awesome. He pushes them out of the way and runs far away. (He never claimed to be courageous.)
Running is what he's good at. Central City is a large city, but he can run across it in just seconds. He makes sure he runs so fast that no one can see him.
Then at a convenience store he runs and saves the store employee. He runs away to avoid questions. People don't like what they don't understand, and he is no hero.
Then he comes back from visiting his dad, and Bruce Wayne, The Batman asks him to join him to stop a danger threatening the world.
He says, "yes", before Batman's done speaking. Barry was always was a reluctant loner.
He needed to see and be with people like he needed food. He didn't have to lie and say he didn't need people or friends. Bruce was nice and Diana was...Wow. He had friends all of a sudden, Victor and Arthur joined and even if they all seemed scary and more experienced than him, but he didn't care. He was part of something else, bigger than any one of them.
Friends he didn't have to hide such a large part of his life from. Clark could keep up with him when running, Bruce and he looked over his Dad's case, Victor could talk science with him, Arthur was scary so he kept the scarier people away, and Diana listened to him in a way that no other person had.
Life for Barry seemed to go faster, he spent time with his teammates and it was amazing. He was surprised at how much he had missed talking to people how warm they were. People were warm, it was the small touches on the shoulder harder or pats on the back, he was reminded of how much he forgot about being with people. She was like an older sister that looked out for him. Victor encouraged him and helped him with his CSI work when he was stuck on having every database ever in him was helpful for any topic ever. Bruce was different, he was harder to get to know, and when Barry finally worked through all the walls Bruce put up Barry saw that he was dark and lonely on the inside Barry wanted to know what caused it. Arthur kept him on his toes, the older man always was intense when Barry got to know him he was nice and broken at the same time.
Time isn't so slow anymore for him.