#takeout wise I have been going through the menu of this korean place because there is nothing like it within walking distance

[explainslowly]

takeout is like, so expensive, so I only get it once a month

ngl, it's kind of a highlight of my month too U_U

[killervibe]

“You make me happy.” 💛😍

Where The Heart Is

Caitlin gathered her hair at the base of her neck up in a high ponytail, flexing her elastic over her wrist to tie it up as she watched her boyfriend talk with the guys. She bent down, taping up the last of the maze of brown cardboard boxes, and now that there were no more curtains to filter through, sunlight went streaming down in harsh streaks from the left corner of her large window. 

Caitlin squinted in spite of the glare, keeping her eyes on her work. They stripped the carpet yesterday so she was kneeling now on the horrifically dirty wooden flooring she was rather embarrassed to have been hiding for so many years. Her ripped jeans strained at her knees. Barry had stared at them in disbelief when she answered the door this morning when this all started. Iris smacked him in the chest, walking right past with her takeout breakfast containers and Jitters to go coffee trays, placing them on her lonely bare table in the middle of her otherwise empty kitchen.

“I’m allowed to wear holes in my pants,” Caitlin had said stiffly, though she was smiling because her best friends were right to be so surprised. The whole reason why she had them on was because she found them buried at the back of her closet when she finally got to the end of it with the price tag still attached. She’s half convinced it was a purchase made by Frost in her dark age. Top that with Caitlin dumbly realizing this morning that she left her suitcase with what she was planning to wear for the next week at Star Labs to avoid mix-ups, and this job was a lot more labour intensive than she thought. Her cute white chinos she had originally picked out weren’t going to cut it.  

Anyway, Caitlin grabbed the big black sharpie and wrote on the masking tape that this was her last box of photo albums and trinkets from her parents she had neatly tucked away in a drawer beside her living room couch. Cisco was with that couch now. They were throwing it away, deeming it unsalvageable. Barry bled on it too much to warrant keeping it, even with the plastic wrapping Caitlin had the wise urge to cover it with after 2016.

Wally zipped in twice, wiping his brow. “Cisco’s place is almost done, but the pool table, sheesh. What do you want me to do with that?”

Cisco waved him off. “Leave that for last.” Caitlin licked her lips, eyes falling to his arms in his rolled up sleeves, unable to help herself as his muscles strained, opening a breach in the wide empty space.

See, moving day was actually a lot less work when you had a breacher, two speedsters, and a friend with very flexible long arms.

“Babe,” Cisco said. “A hand please?”

Caitlin nodded, standing up, directing Ralph and Barry into the dimensional vortex that lead to the alleyway outside.

“So,” Iris smirked, sitting down on the floor against her wall, next to the plugged in fan blasting a barely there breeze into her apartment. She shook her iced tea. “You thirsty?”

Caitlin raised an eyebrow. “…For Jitters?”

Iris snorted. Cisco popped back out the breach, took two boxes in his arms, and blew the bangs out of his eyes. His hair was neatly tucked back in a low bun, but his front pieces stayed loose because he was stylish like that. Caitlin watched as he took her silverware and walked right back out of the dimension to their new home.

“Nuh uh, girl. For that.”

Caitlin blushed toying with her necklace.

“Somebody’s new bed is getting christened tonight, is all I’m saying.”

Okay so Cisco was being very attractive right now, Caitlin was not about to deny that. He always was and he was her boyfriend so it’s not like there was anything problematic with that.

Except maybe that Iris had a point. Caitlin and Cisco had a tremendous amount of work to do before sunset to get settled in their new home and Caitlin was spending more time staring at his sweaty tousled HGTV transformation than her own fragiles. He kept sending her excited smiles because today was finally the day they’d get to sleep under one roof and call it their own, both of their names on the lease, with amenities that promise a long future like the four bedrooms (a workspace for each of them and maybe that last one for a little kid to grow up in…) the remodelled kitchen and frost durable insolation.

And she could feel the excitement bubbling in his veins at that idea because she had it too. The thought that they’d get to have that together, so she was feeling all kinds of emotions, but the strongest one hit her whenever Cisco came back with a confident grin wearing less layers on than the trip before.

“Can you please not bring up Cisco and Caitlin in bed? I just had to move it.”

Caitlin turned around, sticking her hands on her hips at Wally. “After all those times I caught you with Jesse in my Med Bay? You realize I have to sterilize everything right? Including the sheets?”

Wally flushed, scratching his head. “—I think I’m gonna—That pool table sure is—Yeah.” He sped off.

Caitlin reached forward, rolling her eyes fondly, giving Iris a hand. She took it gratefully, and Caitlin asked how Iris was doing in her second trimester.

~.~

Late into the afternoon, Cisco took her hand, lacing their fingers. “You tired?”

Caitlin shrugged. Not really, but she wasn’t the one who opened a good 200 breaches today. “Are you?”

He nodded, but his eyes were aglow. “I’m thinking we should try the new place down the street?”

“Which one?” she asked, tracing patterns into his skin with her thumb. She just liked seeing him bounce around.

“The korean one next to the grocery store.”

“Oh! I saw that one with Iris!. It did look good.”

“I’ll order it then,” Cisco said, pulling up the menu on his phone.

Caitlin looked out the window, unaccustomed to this new view. They were several stories high, like her old apartment, but they were facing a completely different part of Central City than she was used to. They were more closer to the edge of the city, which sounded like a nuisance but was actually a lot closer to Star Labs, and safer too. Metahumans loved to strike downtown, the insurance policies were getting ridiculous, so they decided to just ignore that hassle altogether. The area, too, was more residential. There was an urban park a few blocks down as well as public schools. She wondered if she’d be able to see yellow school buses making their way through traffic when making breakfast in the mornings.

Cisco listed off dishes from his phone. They both picked what they were in the mood for, and Cisco placed the order, fumbling for half a second when asked for the address. Caitlin laughed, shaking her head.

“I was thinking we’d start unpacking after dinner?”

“Can’t we ask Barry and Wally to do it for us?”

Cisco scoffed, using a pair of scissors to rip open a box labelled Dining. “And ruin all the fun? Think of all the bonding. The memories we’ll share tomorrow when we can’t find the spoons! The fights about our packing codes. Debating whose lamps get to go where? It’s iconic, Caitlin. These next three weeks of adjustment are pivotal.”

Caitlin leaned against the wall, feeling a little lovesick. “I never even owned any lamps to begin with. All my lamps were borrowed from you, weirdo.”

Cisco stuck out his tongue, digging into the box for the plastic plates. “If we can get the bedroom done by tonight, that’ll make me happy.”

“You make me happy.”

Cisco put down the plastic wrapper on their brand new island counter, giving her some side eye, amused. “You okay?”

Caitlin laughed and staked her claim, unable to keep her hands to herself anymore.

“Usually you’re the one to go all drill sergeant about organization. Especially—When—Mmph! Oh! Okay!”

Cisco kissed her back happily against the counter. She pulled away to tuck a flyaway hair from his nose, and he drew her back. Cisco kissed her slow and sensual, and she felt the sweat at the back of his neck, so she lowered the temperature of the palm of her hand to cool him down.

 He whimpered in her mouth when she did that, pulling her even closer and sighing until he stopped to ask, “Is the fact that I’m speaking your language turning you on or is it the heat?”

Caitlin opened her eyes, running her tongue over her wet bottom lip, and deliberately held onto his bare arms, tugging off his button down completely so he was left in his tank top.

“Neither. It’s our first day in our home together. I can’t stop thinking about us and you’re making it very hard for me to keep my hands off you,” she explained, scratching her frosty nails lightly against his overheated skin.

Cisco blew more hair out of his face, not buying her whole story. “Not that I’m complaining but why?”

“Because that!” she exclaimed, pointing at his entire look. The damn stubble, the sexy hair, his everything. “That’s why!”

Cisco looked down at himself, wrinkling his nose, probably thinking that he needed a shower. Caitlin would not protest to that. If she joined him. “Ooooh. I see. You like my Manual Labour & Sweat & Grind & Tears chic. Really?”

“It’s not just the look,” Caitlin corrected. “I am also very much in love with you.”

Cisco gave her a shy smile. “Sometimes hearing you say that is still like a dream to me.”

Caitlin laughed softly and Cisco took her hand and brought her close, then twirled her around in a dance between the cardboard boxes and unplugged kitchen appliances.

Iris walked into the kitchen, a hand over her stomach. “Did one of you two order Korean BBQ? If yes, can I have some?”

She was kind to ignore their dorkiness as Caitlin looked up at her friend upside down. Cisco brought her up from his dip. “I thought you guys already ordered pizza from Keystone?”

Iris shrugged. “The boys ate it all. But the delivery guy is still waiting so…”

“Right!” Caitlin straightened up, dusting imaginary dirt off on her ripped jeans. “That was fast.”

They went to get their food, and dished it out on the plastic plates, but couldn’t find any forks. Cisco laughed as he opened more boxes, and Iris ate some of Caitlin’s meal with her hands.

~.~

Afternoon turned into evening, and by night their friends were gone. Their home was furnished with all the big things like tables and chairs, couches, desks and Cisco’s computer monitors (“because it’s important Caitlin, no it can’t wait until tomorrow—What like you had to have your stethoscope out today too. Mhmm— Exaaaactlyyyyy”), big kitchen necessities and yes, the pool table. Cisco was happy, because they didn’t finish their bedroom, but there were only eight boxes remaining, so they called it a win.

Now Caitlin stared at their new bed, thinking about what Iris said earlier that day.

“What?” Cisco joked, with his toothbrush in his mouth in the en suite bathroom. He had already showered and finally shaved off his Moving Week Stress Scruff. Caitlin tried her best not to be too disappointed. “Monsters under there? Already?” He spat out his toothpaste and rinsed his mouth before coming up beside her.

“It’s a big bed,” Caitlin said.

“Very big,” Cisco agreed huskily. “Like you wanted.”

“Uh huh.”

He trailed his hand along her neck, travelling down her shoulder, flicking her hair over to the side. “You, uh, got any plans with it?”

“Uh huh,” Caitlin said again, breathily.

Cisco smiled into her hair then kissed her pulse point, slipping down the strap of her weightless silky nightgown. “Mmm. Like what?”

“Falling asleep next to you, and waking up next to you in it everyday?”

“Great plan,” he agreed.

Caitlin turned to him with a slow spreading sly smile, and put her hands on his chest. She changed the tone of her voice to match her come-hither look.  “But right now…how about breaking it in?”

Cisco pushed her garment down with his hands on her hips until it fell to the floor at her feet.