Would You Love Me Less? > Arrow / Flash x Reader

Chapter 12

-Ukraine -7 years ago-

I was so cold.... but was if it was from the temperature of the basement or from lack of blood in my body?

I remember it clearly... I was barely over legal age. I didn't know where I was and, at the time, I had no idea I was in a different country.

There were these men there that hardly spoke English, which made it all the harder to figure out why they were torturing me or why they had captured me. From what I gathered, they were asking questions about my Father, who was supposedly a dangerous hacker who pissed them off in some way.

Even when I was being carved with a knife or being electrocuted by them, I never breathed a single word to them. Whatever they wanted with my family, I was determined not to give it to them.

One man I hadn't seen before then entered the room holding a small box in his hands. His Ukrainian accent mixed devilishly with his poor English grammar in a disturbing way, "I have Christmas present." 

He plopped the box in front of me, just out of reach from my feet if I even had energy to try messing with it. The box had a 10 minute timer on it, already starting to count down.

"Deal is simple- tell us what we want to know, and you can go. But tell us nothing, and you go boom."

"Ring when you decide to make the right choice. Oh, and Merry Christmas." With a chuckle, he attached small bell to your chain and then left the room.

I don't know how much time had passed, but I knew by the 5th minute I had accepted my fate. There was no guarantee they wouldn't kill me regardless, so be dammed if I would tell them any information.

This was the first time I met Vitka...

She had the longest black hair, pulled tightly into a ponytail to fit underneath of her leather hood. A scimitar was wielded in her possession with blood dripping off of the otherwise reflective metal.

I could see her through fuzzy vision, shivering as I hung half-alive from the chains. Her voice had an accent other than the Ukrainian ones who were torturing me... Something told me that she was not here to add my blood to her collection. "очень милая девушка" Those were the words she sighed before getting my down from the chains. "We are here to help you, Y/N."

I had no time and even less energy to wonder why this woman knew my name, or why she went through so much trouble to rescue me... or what she meant by 'we' when there was only her.

"You are a very sweet girl, let's go."

-End of Flashback-

-

The smell of coffee and breaded pastries filled the air and my senses. CC Jitters was slammed pack busy that morning. Regardless of how busy it was, everyone I saw had wide smiles on their faces.

Except for me.

'I'm so out of place in this city... What is wrong with me?' I silently asked myself.

The television in the corner of CC Jotters caught my attention with news coverage about Arrow in Starling City. I watched closely to get an update on how he was doing without having to ask myself. It was nice to see him doing well.

"Can I ask you something?" Barry's words snapped me back into my current reality. I looked back in front of me to see the scarlet speedster sitting across from me, "Hmm? Oh! Yeah, of course."

"Oliver...." He paused to take in the way I flinched uncomfortably at his words, "You don't talk about him much... At all, actually. You close up when anyone so much as breathes his name..."

I took a sip of my hot coffee to avoid eye contact while he rambled. I cleared my throat before I responded, "That wasn't a question..."

He sighed, "Look, I have a bunch of questions and I'm starting to think we've known each other long enough now that I should know more about the girl I'm secretly dating than her job occupation."

I swirled the spoon around in my latte, "I don't want to talk about Oliver right now..."

Barry shrugged as if he expected me to say that, "Then how about your scars?"

Wait, what?

My eyes snapped their attention quickly to Barry. How did he know about those?

"A few times before, when we were kissing, I could feel them under your shirt... Sometimes I can see a few when you train, depending on if your shirt slides up some... Oliver had scars just like them." His words were soft in an attempt to not scare me away.

"Um... I just realized that I have to go-"

Barry cut me off, "No... Y/N, you have to open up to me if you think there is any chance of me and you working out."

I sighed... I knew he was right. I had to at least try opening up to him; it isn't like he had to know the whole truth, right?

"Um... the reason that I have those scars is the reason I moved to Central City and got the job at S.T.A.R. Labs to begin with-"

Ugh.... This was really about to be a conversation?

"I wasn't in quite the situation as Oliver, but I was kidnapped and had to survive for 6 years finding a way back home... The men who took me tortured me for information about my father that I didn't even have." My words were pretty flat; it was hard to get emotional over a memory that wasn't even entirely true.

Yes, i was kidnapped and tortured. But no, I wasn't trying to get home for 6 years. I decide to share one truth, "The reason I moved to Central City is so no one back in Starling would ask me a thousand questions about where I've been or what happened... So I would appreciate it if you could stop asking me to tell you."

Barry stared at me in either shock or horror. Wait, no... it was both. "Y/N... I am so sorry."

I nodded slowly without eye contact, "Please, I don't want any sympathy. Did you have any more questions for me?"

Barry tried to shake off the awkwardness surrounding his last question since he knew this was a rare case where I would actually give him some answers. "Um, I wanted to ask about Oliver." I shifted uncomfortably in my seat, "What about him?"

"Well, the day we first met... The last person I saw you with was Oliver before I found you crying in that hall." He explained.

"Barry...-" I groaned.

I didn't want to talk about a situation I didn't even have a handle on in the first place. "Y/N, please... I have to know what happened between the two of you."

With a quick check of my surroundings, I tried finding a place to start, "I don't know exactly how to say this, so I'm just going to be as blunt as possible with it... Me and Oliver had sex one night, but then the next day he said it was a mistake and pretended it never happened.... It was the day before I came back here from being injected with Mirakuru. I told Oliver to admit his feelings for me or leave Central City, so he left; that's why I was crying when you found me."

Oof, saying it out loud sounded even worse than when I played it out in my head. "Honestly, that makes everything so much clearer now," Barry told me. I tilted my head curiously, "What?"

"Forgive me if I'm wrong... But you're scared to open up to me because of him, Y/N. You want to keep us at arms length to avoid either a rebound, or getting hurt again." He reached across the table and grabbed my hands in his gently, then looked me in the eyes. "You are the best decision I've ever made; I would never call you a mistake."

His words made me smile back at him, but he continued to talk, "Let's make this official..?" Barry spoke as if it were a statement, but his subtle inflection proved that it was a question.

'Official? Like everyone would know me and Barry Allen are exclusively dating? ....No more hiding and no more secrets? Well, at least about me and him?'

I took a moment to think, but then quickly threw it out the window, who needed overthinking anymore? In that moment, I was happy! I had to act on it.

"Let's do it."