Barry lapped around the city one final time, making sure no one was causing too much terror on the streets of Central City. Finding nothing the CCPD couldn't handle, Barry sped back to STAR Labs.

"Told you nothing was going on, dude," Cisco told Barry, leaning confidently back in his chair as he sipped on a Slurpee.

"I know, I know, but quiet nights leave me uneasy," the speedster said as he hung up his suit on the mannequin.

Cisco nodded understandably. With past foes like the Reverse Flash, Zoom, and Savitar, quiet days only felt like the calm before the storm. The waiting for Barry's potential next rival was almost worse than taking on the villains themselves.

"I think we should take advantage of this metahuman-inactive night," Cisco then proposed, hopping out of his seat with a wide grin.

Caitlin's heels clacked against the hard marble floors as she entered the cortex from her office. "Like curl up with a good book and turn in early?" she jokingly suggested, knowing the mechanical engineer probably wanted to do something more lively. She caught Barry's gaze and they shared an amused grin.

"Noooo," Cisco predictably exasperated, "like to a club, or a bar! Really, when was the last time we all went out for fun?"

Caitlin minutely pouted. "It has been awhile," she surmised, trying to think of the last time they had a night on the town that didn't involve chasing after a bad guy. "I guess I wouldn't mind getting a few drinks," she then said, shrugging.

"Yesss!" Cisco celebrated, pumping up his fist. "Tonight is going to be lit!"

Shaking his head humorously at his friend, Barry cleared his throat. "That sounds awesome, guys, but I actually already promised Joe I would have dinner at his place. It's like this family get-together thing he's been talking about for a while now. We're all going to be there - Me, Wally and...Iris…"

Caitlin's smile faltered for the briefest of moments before her lips curled back up, but Barry had noticed – of course he did. "Tell everyone we said hi then," she said as she affectionately squeezed his arm and flashed him a grin that didn't quite meet her eyes, before walking out of the cortex and towards the elevator.

Barry raised an inquisitive eyebrow over at his other friend, silently asking the vibing metahuman if he picked up on Caitlin's weird behavior too. The long-haired man merely shrugged, baffled by it as much as Barry.

"You coming, Cisco?" they heard Caitlin yell from the elevator.

"Be right there," Cisco shouted back. "If you change your mind, just let us know," he told Barry as he left the cortex to join Caitlin.

…

"So, Wally," Barry began, addressing the man next to him at the West family dinner table. "How are your classes this semester?"

Wally slurped the rest of his spaghetti. "Pretty good, pretty standard stuff. I'm getting more into the engineering classes now though. There's a lot of projects too, but it's nothing a speedster can't handle," he spoke, flippantly arrogant, laughing.

Barry shook his head amusingly. "Just watch out," Barry gently warned. "Some things you have to take slow. I learned that the hard way on a case at the precinct. I went a little too fast and ended up making a stupid mistake that almost jeopardized all the evidence…"

Wally nodded sagely. "I get it, but so far I've only used my powers to write papers and help with studying really," he admitted, shrugging.

"Urgh, now I wish I had super speed," Iris admitted. "Can you imagine how convenient it would be in my line of work to get a story out literally as soon as it breaks?" she said over a chuckle, and the rest of them followed in the laughter.

After their laughter settled, Joe looked at them all fondly, his eyes starry. "Really happy you were all able to come," Joe said, sipping at his wine as he took in the presence of all his children at the table. "It's been too long since we've all got together," he softly continued.

Although it wasn't intentional, an awkward silence fell amongst the group. They all knew exactly why this hadn't happened in a few months; Barry and Iris had broken up – not that it had ended sorely, but they had wanted to give the other space, making family get-togethers a little difficult.

"Of course, dad," Iris spoke up, taking a hold of her father's hand and smiling reassuringly at him.

Barry's phone then buzzed in his pocket. Curiously, in case there was a dangerous meta-human terrorizing Central City, Barry fished it out of his jean pockets. However, it was only a text from Caitlin.

Caitlin: save me fm evil dress agan ?

Barry immediately furrowed his brows. Save her? From a dress? Then the night of the karaoke appeared into the forefront of his mind. Barry immediately felt his face growing hot as he remembered "saving" Caitlin from that dress. His mouth went dry, so he reached for his drink, taking a sip.

However, as he was taking a much needed sip of his beverage, Caitlin sent another text, only this time it was a picture. The picture was probably supposed to innocently show Caitlin's dress hassle, but all Barry could see was a very explicit shot of Caitlin's cleavage, causing the speedster to immediately spew his drink across the table in shock.

"Are you okay, Barry?" Iris immediately asked him with concern, having watched the liquid narrowly miss her. The rest of the table was reasonably staring at him, wondering what could have caused such a reaction.

Barry coughed slightly, "Y-yeah," he responded, his voice still rough. He cleared his throat as he got up from his seat, knocking the chair over in his haste. "I – I just got to go. That was Caitlin, she needs help with something…"

"Anything I can help with?" Wally asked, starting to stand up, eager to put on his suit and fight crime.

Barry's eyes widened. "No!" he hollered, wincing immediately at the abrasiveness behind it. "No," he repeated softer, calmer. "It's – it's nothing you can help with, Wally. It's just some boring, you know, scientific-y stuff…yeah…" he lamely added, rubbing the back of his neck.

Everyone continued to stare at his as if he grew another head.

"I'm – I'm gonna go then," Barry said, fast-walking towards the front door. "Thanks for dinner, Joe!"

…

Under a minute's time, Barry was in front of Caitlin's apartment door, knocking. He nervously fidgeted from foot to foot as he waited for her to answer, trying not to think about the picture, or worse, imagine inane scenarios of how she could open that door.

"Barry!" Caitlin greeted loudly, opening her door and immediately throwing her arms around his shoulders in an enthusiastic hug. "My hero is here to save the day!"

"Shhh," Barry hushed as he tried to maneuver the two of them inside her apartment with her still firmly attached to him like velcro. "Cait, how did you get so drunk already? It's not even 9 o'clock yet."

"I ordered the hard stuff," she explained, giggling into his neck, causing Barry to shiver from the sensation.

"A lot of it, I take," he commented, forcibly extracting her from him and taking in her appearance. He gulped as he noticed the dress; he couldn't say if he thought it was better or worse compared to the first dress he "saved" her from.

"Mmmhmm," she hummed blissfully. "But then Cisco said I had too much and brought me home," she said, enticing a frown from herself.

"Come on," he said, grabbing a hold of her shoulders and walking her to her bedroom. He really was getting a sense of deja vu all over again. "So why didn't you have Cisco help you?" he curiously asked, trying to make light conversation as they made their way down the hallway to her room.

Caitlin's face scrunched up in displeasure. "Cisco is like my bro," she stated, which elicited a chuckle from Barry at her use of "bro," which he knew she would never say if she wasn't horribly inebriated. "That's like...no…"

"I see," Barry said through another chuckle, though he did get the semantics of her rather uninquisitive reply. She saw Cisco as only a brother figure, which would mean it would be weird for him to see her in such a state of undress. However, what did that mean for him? Did she not see him as a brother then? Or did she, but since he already saw her relatively naked before, it was better this way?

As he debated with his thoughts, Barry guided the lethargic Caitlin through the threshold of her bedroom. It had been awhile since Barry had been to Caitlin's apartment let alone her bedroom. In fact, he hadn't been in her bedroom since the original dress-saving night. Looking around quickly, Barry noticed not much had changed, except that she now had a picture of her, him, and Cisco on her nightstand. He smiled at that.

"Barryyyy," Caitlin then whined, breaking his attention from the photograph.

He faced her, still in his grasp, to find her pouting so cutely he had to laugh. "What do you need Caitlin?" he gently asked her.

"You," she said drowsily, and Barry's heart rate might have spiked. "You-you need to save me...from dress," she continued, and Barry couldn't help but frown minutely before shaking his head for even thinking anything otherwise.

Barry took a deep breath before performing the similar routine he did the last time. He quickly undressed and redressed her with only minimum looks and touching that couldn't be avoided. He even put on the same pajamas from last time too.

As he finished with a self-satisfied smile and a pat on the back for a job well done, Caitlin looked down at her apparel with a frown. "It's not winter," she commented, furrowing her brows as she picked at her long sleeves. "I need other…" she said, trailing off and not making much sense.

"Caitlin, what are you-" Barry went to ask, but was interrupted by Caitlin stripping off her PJs and stumbling to her closet.

Barry gulped as he watched her walk away. She was luckily still in her bra and panties, but the image was revealing enough to still fluster the speedster. He turned away, feeling ashamed for looking as long as he did. Oh, why did Caitlin have to turn into such an exhibitionist when she was drunk? And why him?

Eventually she stumbled back into his vision, but this time she was sporting a pair of black shorts and a grey STAR labs tee. He sighed in relief, and smiled at her when she turned to him. She looked so comfy and relaxed. He could easily picture her wearing that during a night in, curled up on the couch, getting ready to watch something on Netlfix.

"What?" she wondered after she noticed he was staring.

"Huh?" Barry let out, caught off guard. "Oh, nothing," he said, shaking his head. "Better?"

Caitlin yawned. "Much…" she said, her eyes starting to droop.

Barry shook his head good-naturedly as he guided her to her bed, helping her get under the covers. He watched as she snuggled herself comfortably against the pillows. "Thanks for saving me again," she murmured. "My hero," she tiredly enthused.

He shot her a lopsided smile. "Well the Flash is always here to save the day," he lightly joked with a wink.

"No, Barry is my hero," she confessed through a yawn, but her sleepy confession warmed him from the inside out. He was use to being seen as a hero when he was dressed as a masked, red-leathered speedster, but he can't recall a time when someone saw him as such as regular ol' Barry Allen.

"Has anyone ever told you that you're pretty?" she whispered to him, breaking him out of this thoughts.

Barry let out a boisterous laugh at the pure innocence of the question. "No, not quite," he answered through his laughter. "Maybe handsome, sometimes adorable. Never had someone call me pretty though."

"Well you are," she said determinedly as a sleepy, drunk person could muster.

"Thank you," he amusingly accepted, though a bit reluctantly as he took a seat on her bed like all those nights ago.

"Do you think I'm pretty?" she then asked, her heavy eyes finally closing.

The sudden question caused him to take a quick intake of breath, before his features softened and a smile broke out of his face as he watched her tenderly. He took one of her hands into his gently. "I think you're beautiful, Caitlin Snow."

Her eyes still closed, Barry watched Caitlin's lips lift into a peaceful smile. And he stayed, stayed until she fell asleep.

…

"Good morning!" he hollered at his friend as she stepped off the elevator.

She winced, something Barry noticed despite the big, huge sunglasses she was sporting. And upon turning to him, she groaned. "Don't tell me I sang another Grease song…"

Barry chuckled as he shook his head. "No, nothing like that," he assured her, before pausing and taking a moment to think, "that I know of, at least. Cisco was with you at the bar, so you might have to check in with him…"

Her face cutely scrunched up as she looked at him confusingly. "If you didn't come to the bar, then how did you know I would have a hangover this morning?"

"Oh...you, you don't remember? Like anything?" Barry questioned. At the shake of Caitlin's head, he tried not to show his disappointment. "Oh, well, you asked me to come over…"

Caitlin closed her eyes, no doubt willing herself to calm down. "Please tell me I didn't embarrass myself."

Barry laughed again. "Depends on what you define as embarrassing yourself."

She hung her head in shame. "What did I do?" she reluctantly asked.

"Nothing too bad, honestly," he told her with a shrug.

"Really?" she wondered skeptically, watching his face closely for deceit.

"You were pretty out of it, and I just helped you out like last time," he said, omitting the minor detail that she stripped out of her pajamas. "Though you did call me your hero and told me I was pretty," he finished with a smirk, puffing his chest out confidently.

Caitlin's cheeks reddened as she swatted him lightly on the chest. "You're making that up!"

Barry just shrugged, smiling cheekily at her. "Hey, believe what you want," he said. "Oh, and word of advice, if I were you, I would look at your texts," he said, veering off with a mischievous grin.

Caitlin immediately fumbled through her purse, whipping out her phone in record time and opening her messages. "I only texted you," she said, letting out a sigh of relief. However, her eyes grew comically wide and her throat constricted as she clicked onto their conversation. "Oh, god," she groaned, nearly dropping her phone, but Barry was there to catch it.

"Does the alcohol make you an exhibitionist, or do I just evoke something within?" he teased.

The doctor's face quickly turned as red as his suit. "I can't even look at you right now," she said shamefully, throwing both her hands up to cover her face.

"Hey, hey," Barry cooed, dragging her hands off her face so she could look at him. He tried not to laugh at her, knowing it would only embarrass her more "It's fine, honestly. I just wanted to pull your leg a little. It's all good."

Caitlin let out a shuttered laugh. "I'm so sorry, Barry. I probably scarred you."

Now it was Barry's turn to laugh, he couldn't suppress it any longer. "That's definitely not the choice of words I would've used," he admitted, causing the geneticist to look at him thoughtfully.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, it didn't scar me. If anything, it did the...opposite?" he tried.

Caitlin raised a brow, obviously amused. "And what's that?" she wondered aloud.

"Because, you know, I'm a guy and you're a...very good looking woman…" he continued. Oh he was digging himself into a hole. "Listen, I just don't want you to feel embarrassed by this anymore," he said. "So if you think it could help, I could send a picture to you..."

Her mouth fell open. "Barry Allen!" she shouted fauxily scandalized, her eyes wide with both amusement and curiosity. "Are you suggesting-"

Suddenly Barry realized the implications of what he said and his own eyes grew double their size. "No!" he let out rushedly, "I mean, if you wanted to….ahhhhh," he let out, frustrated with himself and flustered. "I was just trying to make things fair," he explained, making a beeline to the elevator. "I'm going to go now. I - I have that job thing."

Caitlin bit down on her lip to stop herself from laughing. "Wait, Barry."

"Have a good day, Caitlin," he said as the elevator doors opened.

However, before he could step onto the elevator, Caitlin pulled him back, forcing him to face her. And when he did, she leaned up on her tippy toes to whisper into his ear. "Show me your pics and I'll show you more of mine…"

Barry's heart definitely stuttered. He could already feel his ears burning hot, not to mention feel the reaction her words caused elsewhere. "For real?" he squeaked out, moving his head back to look at his personal physician, but she only coyly smirked.

"Have a good day at work, Barry," was the only thing she uttered as she walked away from him and into the cortex, her hips swaying maybe just a little bit more than usual.

Barry stood by the elevator stupefied for a few moments before his brain caught up and he jumped into motion. "Cait! Caitlin! Were you serious about that? Or were you pulling my leg? Caitlin?!"

A/N: A bit AU, but not completely. I hope you all enjoyed it though regardless. This was a oneshot idea I wrote for a friend of mine, but I had a lot of fun coming up with it, though the title of this took me forever to think of and I'm still not happy with it. *sigh* Anyway, please review with your thoughts! :)