plurk meme { 2018 } au august

[iluvroadrunner6]

Completed: 31/31
Running Word Count: 63,180

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august 16: neighbors | barry & daisy | 1,900

[iluvroadrunner6]

“Whoa, easy there.”

Two hands steady the sides of Daisy’s pile of boxes and she cringes, before poking her head around with a bit of an apologetic smile. “Sorry about that! I guess I bit off more than I could chew with these boxes.” With the recent explosion of the particle accelerator and the emergence of what the city is calling “metahumans,” SHIELD thought that ARGUS could use some help with picking up the slack. Daisy is mostly interested in trying to help the metahumans like she would most Inhumans, but right now, the struggle seems to be moving in to her new apartment without causing an avalanche on the stairs.

A mop of dark brown hair and a friendly smile glances around to meet her gaze and he shakes his head and reaches to take half her stack from her. “No worries. I’m light on my feet. Let me give you a hand with these.”

“That would be great actually.” She shifts the weight to keep her half steady as she does, and one she can see over what’s in her hand, she flashes him a smile. “Thanks. I’m Daisy, by the way.”

“I’m Barry. Allen.” He hesitates for a moment like he’s going to try and shake her hand, but realizes he doesn’t have the hands to do it and settles for just tapping their boxes together instead. “Welcome to the building. Where are we moving you in to?”

“Four-seventeen,” she says with a nod and a grimace. “And unfortunately it seems like the elevator is out.”

“Yeah, it’s been that way for a while. But hey, at least taking the stairs is really good for cardio, right?” He tips his head back with a smirk. “I’m in four-eighteen. Right across the hall.”

“Well, then, howdy neighbor,” she says with a bit of a laugh.

He grins. “So what brings you to Central City?”

“Work,” she says with a nod. “My team just got transferred. It’s the kind of job where you go where it goes, you know?”

“Yeah.” A beat. “Actually, not really, my job is pretty local, but I can imagine the feeling.”

Daisy laughs. “What do you do?”

“I’m a CSI with Central City PD. What about you?”

“IT.” It’s an easy lie, because it’s what she spends most of her time doing anyway.

“Cool.” It’s fairly easy chatter up the next two flights of stairs, and when they stop at Daisy’s door, Barry turns back with a grin. “So is this everything?”

“Yep. I travel pretty light.” She nods for him to place the box down in the hallway, and smiles. “Thanks again for the assist.”

“Anytime,” Barry nods. “And as I said, I’m across the hall, so if you happen to catch me when I’m home, feel free to knock on the door and say hey.”

“Will do,” Daisy says with a nod, as Barry retreats down the hall to resume is day. If she has to move to a new city, at least cute neighbors are a plus.

- - - - - - -

Three months in and SHIELD hasn’t really gotten anywhere on the metahuman problem. Mostly because the Flash, whoever they are, keeps getting there first. And Daisy would be lying if she couldn’t help but notice how much the city loves him. She wishes a lot more places were as open to people with abilities, but then again, she assumes that it helps when your local hero manages to save the city from a black hole.

That being said, Daisy is starting to get a little frustrated with not making any progress and it shows in the slump of her shoulders as she makes her way up the stairs to her walk up apartment reaching the door just in time to see Barry heading into his apartment with a stack of pizzas and a bag of some other food in hand.

“Having a party or something?”

“Uh –” He looks startled for a minute, before shaking his head and looking a bit sheepish. “ – No. My social life is not that active, I just have a really, really fast metabolism.” Daisy still doesn’t look that convinced, but Barry is quick to deflect. “I don’t mind sharing though, if you want to come in for a slice?”

Daisy falters for a moment, considering, but given the fact that she’s starving and she could do with some company that isn’t the silence of her own apartment, she nods with a smile. “Yeah, actually. I’d love that.”

Two hours later, they’re halfway through their third episode of Dragon Ball Z because Barry is determined to get her hooked, down a pizza and a half (mostly Barry’s doing, because who likes pepperoni, olives and jalapenos on the same pie?), and she’s working through a carton of noodles as cartoon battles come to life in front of them, and Daisy can feel herself starting to relax for the first time in weeks.

“Work been rough?” he asks during one of the slow scenes, because she’s learning that Barry actually cares about other people’s feelings, which is a nice change of pace.

“Yeah, a little. It just feels like we’re not really making as much headway as we should. There’s this competitor who’s making a habit of showing us up.”

“Benefit of working in the public sector. We don’t have competitors,” Barry teases, before reaching for his beer. “But I guess that’s not really lessening the pressure on you any.”

“I don’t know if it’s pressure, exactly.” Because SHIELD and the Flash are working towards the same thing – a safer Central City. But it’s hard to know how to report it when they don’t know who he – or she – may be and if they can trust them. “But it’s definitely making things complicated.”

“I’m sure you’ll figure it out,” he says with a small smile. “And hey, if you ever want to come over, eat pizza and vent, you are more than welcome on my couch any time.”

“I think I may take you up on that.” She reaches for her own beer as she turns her eyes back to the TV. “My work schedule is a little crazy, but maybe we can make a weekly thing of it?” One night off a week where she can just hang out and be a normal person for a little while – she hasn’t really had that since she joined SHIELD.

That moment actually seems like forever ago now – like she was a completely different person.

“Yeah, of course. My job is kind of the same way. If there’s a murder, I gotta run. Or any kind of case really.”

“Then deal. Tentative weekly … I mean, this is great, but I think I’ll pass on Dragon Ball Z. Maybe we can just watch Netflix?”

He laughs. “No worries.” He pauses to take a sip of his beer before glancing back to her. “How do you feel about movie musicals?”

This time, it’s Daisy’s turn to laugh. “You really are a specific kind of nerd, aren’t you?”

He grins and gives a small shrug. “What can I say? I know my brand.”

- - - - - -

SHIELD continues to not make progress with the identity of the Flash, but the Flash seems to be noticing them. Bad guys are getting dropped off all done up with a bow, while the person responsible moves too fast to be picked up on any of their hidden cameras. Barry and Daisy, however, seem to be making plenty of progress, especially considering how they’ve moved into ignoring the “Netflix” part of “Netflix and chill.” Part of her feels almost guilty, considering how much about her life Barry doesn’t know, but at the same time, it’s nice to have a normal guy she can talk about normal things with.

Also the making out part really doesn’t suck at all.

The moral qualms are something she plans to deal with later, when she’s decided if this is actually going anywhere, but on this particular evening it’s not. Mostly because just as things were starting to get good, both their phones go off.

Barry pulls back with a groan, before fumbling for the phone on the side table. Daisy does the same, reaching into her back pocket to see a text from Coulson: Metahuman shark on the loose in CC. Need back up.

Just when she thought this town couldn’t get any weirder. She sighs, running her hands through her hair a bit before getting ready to head out. “Sorry. That was work, I gotta go.”

“Yeah, me too.” Barry also looks regretful, and makes like he’s getting ready to put the leftovers away. “Same time next week.”

“Yeah,” Daisy says with a smirk. “I’ll make it up to you.”

She heads down to headquarters to suit up, before heading out the sight of the rampage. True enough, Coulson wasn’t wrong. A giant shark is rampaging his way through downtown Central City, and as of now, it’s mostly the SHIELD team on sight to stop him. They’re doing okay so far, up until a red and gold flash streaks in front of their vision.

“Daisy, it’s the Flash! He’s coming towards you.”

She probably should have thought this through before she reacted, but in the end, it is always going to be instinct first. Her hands stretch out in front of her, sending a quake out in a large radius around her, and watching as the Flash loses his footing and stumbles to the ground, rolling a bit away from her. As far as she can tell it’s a man, a tall, lanky man, in a pretty sick looking red suit, and he looks up at her, blearily for a moment.

“Daisy?”

The fact that he knows her name surprises her. The fact that she knows his voice surprises her more. She stares at him for a moment, trying to put the connections together, but she can see in the curve of his face that the Flash has been right in front of her all along. Before she can say anything though, his name dies on her lips as he jumps to his feet and cuts her off.

“I know this is a lot right now, but King Shark is the bigger problem.”

“But you’re –”

“Yeah, and you’re not exactly who you said you were either.”

He has a point. And it does seem like they’re both working for the greater good. “Yeah,” she swallows hard. “I think we both have some explaining to do.”

Barry nods slowly, before a small grin crosses his face. “So what kind of waves are those, exactly?”

“Seismic. Why?”

“Well, I was just thinking, if we could use your seismic waves to keep him unsteady, I might be able to superspeed punch him in the face enough to knock him out. That’ll at least make him easy to capture.”

“So basically you want to combine our powers and see what happens?”

Barry grins with a bit of a shrug. “Can’t hurt, right?”

She shakes her head before rolling her shoulders to get ready for this dramatic showdown. “You really are some kind of nerd,” she teases as the golden electricity starts to crackle around him and he beams at what he probably considers a compliment before he disappears.

“Oh, you have no idea.”