Cissie's birthday

[notarrowette]

[Written with nokidflash; typical rules apply--nothing binding on other characters, who are used with looooove!]

Cissie might have been tempted to skip practice today, since it was her birthday, but she had skipped the entire week while Cassie was in the hospital, and there was a competition coming up. So she went in the morning, just for a few hours. Returning home, she let herself into the apartment and dropped her gear by the door. "Bart? Are you home?"

"No," Bart called out. Of course he was home. It was Cissie's birthday! She was lucky he let her out of the house. They had plans with their friends later, but Bart got Bart time first (and afterward), and practice cut into that. But he knew she had a competition coming up and he wanted her to feel ready for it. "And if I were home, I wouldn't be in the living room." The fact was that Bart had only just got home. He had some birthday errands to run. First to S.T.A.R. labs to pick up the suit and goggles that he'd asked them to make (and rush) and then to the bakery to pick up a special Wanda-made cake that was shaped like a bow and arrow. The former was wrapped in a box with orange wrapping paper and a yellow bow, and the latter was sitting in front of him on the coffee table. "So you probably shouldn't come in here."

Cissie laughed and stopped by the entrance to the living room. She didn't go in or even peek her head in, but instead said, "Are you sure? Because I think that's where you are. But if you're sure, maybe I should try another room instead."

"Uh," Bart wrinkled his nose. "You know, I don't think I'm so sure. You should check just in case."

She giggled and turned the corner into the room, planting her hands on her hips. "There you are. You goof. You--" She stopped, eyes widening as she spotted the incredibly amazing cake on the table. "Is that a cake?"

Bart flashed her a big grin and stood up from the couch. "You keep asking silly questions, dork. Yeah, it's a cake. It's your birthday, you know." He lit the candle that was at the tip of the arrow. "Make a wish, Mrs. Allen."

Cissie just sort of stood there for a second, looking at the cake and at Bart. She couldn't help grinning hugely and she crossed the space between them and threw her arms around Bart's neck. "Thank you. I love you." She kissed him quickly and then turned her attention to the cake and closed her eyes. She smiled, made her wish, and blew out the candle.

"I love you, too." He kissed her cheek and held out a cake knife. "What'd you wish for?"

She grinned mischievously at him. "I can't tell you that! It won't come true."

"I'm going to make all your wishes come true, Ciss." Bart's face was uncharacteristically serious. "Every single one. No matter what." He leaned in and kissed her again. "But fine, I'll guess that one."

Cissie smiled and leaned against him for a moment before she spoke again. "You'll guess it, huh?"

"Yeah." Bart wrapped his arms around her. "'Cause I know you. And I'm a good guesser. And I love you and want to make you happy." He kissed the top of her head. "Happy birthday, Cissie. You want your present or cake first?"

"You do make me happy. Every day," she whispered, hugging him back. She gave him a squeeze and then pulled back to beam up at him. "Present first."

Bart stuck his tongue out. "Okay, but you might not want cake after you see what the present is." He grabbed the box and held it out to her. The suit inside was designed to withstand high speeds, so it looked similar to the material of his. But hers was the opposite in color scheme. Where his was deep red, hers was white and where his was white, hers was deep red. With a bullseye on the back side of the right hand.

Cissie kissed his cheek and beamed at him. "I will want cake later, then," she said firmly, taking the box from him. She unwrapped it impatiently, and pulled the top off. When she saw what was inside, she just stared at it for a while. She finally touched it and pulled it out of the box. "Oh, Bart," she said softly. "It's like yours."

He watched her quietly, just barely bouncing back and forth on his feet. "But it's yours. My Beacon." He smiled down at her. "Now you can run with me."

Cissie looked at him and her smile slowly widened as what he was saying began to sink in. "Really? Like--run run?"

"Like run run." He grinned at her. "They've tested it at really high speeds. You'll have to wear the goggles. And if anything feels funny, just tell me and we'll stop. But... yeah. That's your birthday present. It's not the suit, it's the run."

Cissie's grin widened and she set the box to the side of the cake so she could properly jump into Bart's arms and kiss him silly. "Thank you," she whispered.

Bart laughed and caught her. Cissie kisses were the best way he could think of to get thanked. "You're welcome, Ciss. I love you."

"I love you too." She beamed at him. "Okay, you were right. Can we save the cake for when we get back?"

"Awww, but cake." He sighed dramatically. "Yeah. You change, I'll put it in the fridge. And think about where you want to go."

"Okay!" Cissie kissed him once more and grinned, scooping up the box and practically running to go change. She paused in the doorway to their bedroom. "Wait, I have to pick where we're going? Baaaaart!"

Bart laughed. "I can pick if you want, but it's your birthday. I have a few places in mind."

She grinned at him and ducked into the room to change. "What places were you thinking?" she called out to him.

"Well, it's nighttime in Paris. We can go for a walk on the Seine. It's supposed to be the most romantic place in the world." Bart shoved the cake carefully into the fridge as he spoke, then changed into his own uniform as he walked back into the living room. "It's morning in China. We can walk along the Great Wall. Or go see some penguins in Antarctica. Or go to the Galapagos. Or for a swim in Fiji."

"Hmm. Bart! I don't know how to pick one of those! They all sound wonderful!" Cissie hummed thoughtfully as she changed, then returned to the living room. She gave a little spin to show off the suit and grinned sheepishly at him. "Well?"

"Wow, you look..." Bart has seen the suit on the test dummy, so he'd had an idea of what it would look like. But on Cissie it was something else. He hadn't seen her in a uniform in so long, and now seeing her in one that was like his, but... not. He took a few steps towards to her. "I miss the mini-skirt, but you look amazing."

She blushed a little at the expression on his face as he looked at her. "Thank you." She closed the distance between them and hooked her arms around his neck, giving him a light kiss. "I like that it matches yours," she whispered.

"You don't think it's cheesy?" He'd been a little worried when he'd asked the lab people to color it like his. After all, he knew she wanted to be her own person. "I know you said you'd never put on a mask again, but... it's not exactly the same, right?"

She shook her head, smiling. "It's not. It's not--for me. I mean, it is, but I'm not going to be using it like you use yours. I'll be using it to be with you. Off-duty." Cissie kissed his nose. "And I love it."

"Okay." Bart smiled and slid his goggles down. "You ready to really run, Ciss?"

She giggled and felt only a little silly while she put on her own goggles. "I'm ready."

"Good." He turned so his back was to her and knelt down a little. "Climb onto my back and hold on tight. If you feel funny at all, squeeze my neck. I'm not going to run at top speed, maybe just start at the speed of sound or something, okay? You'll feel really heavy. Just don't let go, no matter what. Okay?"

Cissie hopped onto his back, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck and her legs around his waist. She tucked her chin in against his neck and nodded. "No letting go, I promise. I love you."

Bart stood up and walked towards the back window and the fire escape. "When we cross the sound barrier you'll hear a boom. It'll be loud, but the suit's designed to muffle it a little. If it hurts too much tell me and I'll stop us. But you'll have to squeeze my neck, we'll be traveling faster than words do." It was sort of weird sometimes. He and Max used to run at top speed and talk to each other to practice with the delay. But Cissie didn't have that kind of practice yet. Tonight was just a gift, they could do boring stuff like that later. He slid the window open and climbed down the fire escape. "I love you. Happy birthday, Ciss." And Bart took off. He gradually went faster and faster, until they were at the ocean. He was running fast enough to make it across the surface, and about three hundred miles off shore they broke the sound barrier.

Cissie held on as tightly as she could, keeping her head tucked in against his neck. Bart had taken her running before, but never anything like this. And she had seen him run over water before, but she'd never been with him when he did. If she hadn't been warned about the noise when they broke the sound barrier, she might have jumped, but as it was, she did her best not to hold Bart too tightly--she didn't want him to think 'clinging for dear life' was the same as squeezing his neck and asking him to stop. Because she didn't want that. If she didn't necessarily keep her eyes open for the entire trip, she figured she'd have a chance to do more looking later. For now she just held on and enjoyed being able to share this with Bart.

He kept running, increasing their speed past mach 2, to mach 3, then mach 4... fast enough that the trip wouldn't take too long. Bart was hyperaware of every molecule in his body, and he extended that awareness to Cissie, too, to make sure that she was okay. He felt her heartbeat and knew it was fast, but she hadn't squeezed his neck or cried out, so he just kept going... and ten minutes later they were in Paris. He slowed them down gradually until they were on the outskirts of the city.

Traveling that fast was intense, but Cissie trusted Bart. He did this--and faster--all the time, and more than that, she knew he would never do anything that would hurt her. So she hung on and maybe kept her eyes closed more than open, but she thought maybe she could be forgiven, considering it was the first time she'd done this. When he slowed down, she didn't loosen her grip, but stayed pressed close to his back while they approached the city.

"Hey," he whispered. "We're here." Bart tapped her arm gently. "Bienvenue a Paris, mon amore."

Cissie relaxed her hold on him and slid off his back. She wrapped her arms around him and hugged him. "That was... amazing."

"You think so? It was slow, but..." He smiled as he hugged her back. "It was better because you were there."

She laughed incredulously. "That was slow?"

"Uh, yeah. I can go almost as fast light, Ciss." He leaned down and kissed her. "That's like, um. A little bit under a million times faster than we were going. I don't always go that fast, but yeah... for me that was slow."

She kissed him back and giggled. "Okay. For you. I'm stuck on wow right now, Bart. That was faster than I've ever gone."

"Good. Stay on wow. You should be on wow all night. It's your birthday." Bart smiled. "We should change, you know. For dinner."

"I love you so much." Cissie beamed at him. "You're probably right. We might get some funny looks eating in these."

"I dunno. It is France." Bart smiled and did his spinny-changey-thing, his uniform shrinking down into his ring. "Uh, I got you something else." He reached into his jeans pocket and pulled out a smaller lightning bolt ring. "It's like mine. With the chemicals to shrink your clothes and your uniform. There's a pair of clothes in there now. I know you can't change as fast as I can, but at least you can have the spare clothes. If you don't want a ring, if you want a necklace or something, just tell me and I'll have them make you one."

Cissie took the ring from him and shook her head, just holding it and looking at it before throwing her arms around Bart's neck and hugging him tightly. "I--thank you. I love it. I don't want anything else," she whispered. "It's perfect."

"You're part of my family now," Bart whispered back. "The Flash family. None of the other speedsters has married a superhero before. Well, my parents were both... but they were both speedsters. I guess I mean a non-speedster... whatever, the point is I want you to be involved in my life. I don't want to make the same mistakes Barry and Wally made."

Cissie shook her head against his shoulder and whispered back, "No mistakes. I love you, Bart. So very, very much. I don't know what I did to deserve you."

"Besides being awesome and hot and smart and hot?" Bart smiled. "Nothing. Happy birthday, Cissie Almost-King-Jones-Allen. I love you more than anything ever."

She pulled back and smiled at him. "I love you more than anything too, Bart. Thank you so much." She leaned in and kissed him.

Bart smiled into the kiss, happily just holding onto her for a few minutes. "Okay, let's walk down the river to a cafe and be a dorky romantic couple."

"Okay," she said with a huge grin. "I like being dorky and romantic with you."

"Good thing, 'cause you're a huge dork." He grinned right back at her. "Now change, slow poke. We don't have all night. I promised Cassie I'd get you back in time to hang out with everyone."

Cissie giggled and gave him one last quick kiss before pulling away to go change. "Okay, okay, I'm going!"

Bart smiled and waited while she changed, calling out the occasional "hurry up" or "you're so slow," just to be silly. The truth was he was having a great time with her, and he wanted it to last forever. Even her changing.

Cissie rolled her eyes while she changed. When she finished, she put the ring on her right hand and went back to Bart, jumping at him. "You're so impatient, Mr. Allen!"

Laughing, Bart caught her in his arms. "Didn't you know that about me already, Mrs. Allen? Come on," he spun her around and then set her down in the direction of the center part of the city. "It's a good thing I love you so much, or I'd hate waiting. But you're worth waiting for."

Cissie gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and grabbed his hand, squeezing it. "I love that you wait for me," she said, leaning her head against his shoulder.

"Always." Bart squeezed her hand as they walked along the riverbank. As they got closer to the heart of the city, they passed more people. It was only mid-evening in Paris, and the weather was perfect. Bart was glad he'd chosen Paris. "Not waiting for you would be stupid. You're the other half of who I am. I need you to be whole."

Cissie hugged his arm, tilting her head to look up at him. "I need you, too. Thank you, Bart. This is the most amazing day."

"So far." He turned and smiled down at her. "I mean, who knows what Cassie has planned. She probably spent all last week asleep just so she could think about it." Bart shrugged. Joking about it made it seem less serious, and that's what they needed now, now that Cassie was back with them. "Plus, you know, our wedding. And honeymoon. And when our kids are born. We're going to have a lot of amazing days."

Cissie squeezed his hand. She couldn't stop smiling, and she didn't want to. "We are. I can't wait." She stood up on her toes to lean in and kiss his cheek, leaning her head against his for a moment. "Everything with you is perfect."

"If I can wait, you can wait." Bart smiled when she kissed him. He felt so lucky to have her that sometimes it felt like he could just... explode. Or something. "Cassie says we're allowed to have a light meal, but not to ruin dinner. So whatever you want, if you see something that looks appetizing we can do that. Or just walk until it's time to go home and talk. And maybe make out under one of the bridges. It's tradition."

"I like traditions," she whispered, and kissed his cheek again. "Maybe we can get some bread or croissants or something else French and pastry-like, if Cassie's got dinner planned for later. And we have a cake at home. But I like the walking and talking and kissing under bridges idea, too."

"Chocolate on a baguette. That's the thing to do." Bart couldn't help but keep smiling. This really was a perfect night. "And a glass of wine. You know, the last time I was here, Tim, Kon, and I jumped off the Eiffel Tower."

Cissie wrapped an arm around his waist to lean against him while they walked. "That sounds perfect," she said. "You really jumped off the Eiffel Tower?"

"Yep," he put his arm around her shoulder. "Technically it's BASE jumping. We had to talk Tim into it. That was before Kon died, you know. But it was awesome. Kon jumped too, and he was like our safety net. I'm sure the rush was better for Tim and me, but still. And then the cops came, so Kon grabbed Tim and we booked it."

She laughed, keeping her head on his shoulder. "Well, I'm glad you didn't get yourselves arrested. It was fun?"

"It was awesome. We should do it sometime if you want." He kissed the top of her head. "Though probably not off the Eiffel Tower."

She laughed. "Maybe we stick with the running for now. I wouldn't mind seeing the Eiffel Tower, but jumping off might be a bit much."

"We'll walk by before we go." Bart got an image in his head of taking Cissie everywhere. Of just running with her forever and seeing the world, until the Speed Force absorbed the both of them. But... then no kids. Unless the kids could go running to. It was something he thought about, and he knew knew that he would be with Cissie forever, somehow, even if it meant figuring out a way to bring her into the Speed Force with him after he died. He wouldn't live without her. Or... not live. He shook himself out of thoughts like that and pulled her close to him. "I think we should get married."

Cissie laughed and tightened her arm around him. "Silly Bart. I thought that was a given."

"Let's go to Notre Dame and have a priest do it tonight. It won't really count anyway." He shrugged. "I'm afraid if we wait that..." Bart sighed. "I just don't want to wait."

Cissie stopped walking and pulled away to look at him, catching his hand in hers. "What?"

"Nothing," Bart looked down. "It's your birthday."

"Bart." She pulled on his hand and tried to make him look at her. "Come on. What're you--where did this come from?"

"I was just thinking about our future, and our kids, and... what happened to Cassie. And me. And Kon. And if I go out on a mission... I'll always come back to you, Ciss. Always. But if something happens... I want you to be my wife." He looked up at her and bit his lip.

Cissie bit her lip in return and blinked so that she wouldn't start crying. She'd only been thinking along those lines since Cassie was injured, but she had been doing her best to stop thinking like that. She tightened her grip on his hand and tried to find her voice. "Cassie will kill us if we get married without her," she managed finally, trying to tease and probably failing.

"It won't count, Ciss. It won't be legal. It'll be just for you and me, and then we'll get married married with all our friends in May. But the next time I put on my uniform and go out and fight bad guys, I'll know my wife is waiting for me at home." He leaned in and pressed his forehead against hers. "We don't have to. But that's what I was thinking. I'm sorry if I ruined your birthday."

She shook her head, closing her eyes. "You didn't ruin anything, Bart. You couldn't. I'll always wait for you," she whispered. She was quiet, thinking about what he was suggesting and said the first thing that came to mind. "You said you didn't want to get married in a church."

Bart laughed. "Notre Dame isn't a church. It's a cathedral."

She smiled and giggled a little. "And here I thought cathedrals were just really big, fancy churches."

"Well. Yeah." Bart rubbed his nose against hers. "But it's Notre Dame. I mean. It's the biggest, fanciest church there is. So it gets a special category."

Cissie kissed him. "...Okay."

"Okay?" Bart blinked. "Okay what?"

She took a deep breath. "Okay, let's go to Notre Dame."

"Okay, let's - " Bart blinked again. And then one more time. "Really?"

She laughed and kissed him again. "I--yes. I want you to know I'm always waiting for you."

"Oh. Cissie, I know you are, I just..." He smiled. "Really? You want to marry me right now?"

"I want you to be happy," she said softly. "I want you to know--how much I love you. Need you. I don't want you to go out and not--not know that you're the most important thing in my life and I want you to know that I want us to spend the rest of our lives together."

Bart was quiet for a long time. Well, a long Bart-time. It was really just a minute or two. "Okay. Then let's wait until May and you can tell me that in front of our friends and family." He leaned in and kissed her. "You're my wife, Cissie. My partner. We'll just make it official in May."

She blinked in surprise and pulled back to look at him. "Wait. What?"

"Sorry." Bart knew he'd sort of hopped a few steps in his head. "I mean. The whole marriage thing, the reason I wanted to do it... what you just said was enough. I should have already known all of that, and I did, but I don't know. I guess I needed to hear it like this. It was a vow, you know? And I promise that you're the most important thing in my life, and I love you and need you and want to spend forever with you. You should know, too." He smiled a little. "So there we go, we exchanged vows. Hang on." He reached down and took the Flash ring off his finger and then slid the one he'd just gotten her off hers, before handing her his. "Let's exchange rings."

"Okay." She giggled and squeezed her hand around his ring, then pulled him close for another kiss. "Oh, Bart. I'm going to marry you and you're going to be stuck with me for the rest of your life. And you're stuck with me until we get married, too."

Bart smiled as she kissed him. "I'm okay with that. You're the only person I could ever be stuck with, Cissie." He kissed her again. "I love you, Mrs. Allen."

"I love you too." She grinned at him. "Now give me back my ring, Mr. Allen."

Laughing, Bart took her right hand and slid the lightning bolt ring back onto her finger. "With this ring... I promise to be stuck with you forever."

"Dork," Cissie giggled, darting in to kiss him. She pulled his hand toward her and kissed his ring before putting it back on his finger. "With this ring, I promise to spend the rest of my life with you."

Bart leaned in and pressed his forehead against hers. He was trying not to cry, remembering the time all those years ago when he'd lost his ring, the day he brought Cissie to his school. That was the last time it had been off his finger, so it seemed perfect that she was the one putting it back on for him. "I now pronounce us married. By, uh, the power of... Whatever, who cares. I love you."

She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him soundly. "I love you, my husband." She beamed at him. "How much time do we have before Cassie's thing? Can we still see the Eiffel Tower? Maybe we can get our picture taken." She winked. "It can be our honeymoon souvenir."

"We've got time," he whispered, kissing her again. Bart didn't want to go hang out with their friends. He wanted to spend all night kissing Cissie and holding her in his arms. But he could share. For her birthday. For their family. "We got married on your birthday. In Paris. We're sort of awesome."