Reciprocal Altruism || Snowbarry College AU

Therefore I Am Descartes III

While she walked home, Caitlin contemplated everything she said. Why did he get so offended when she assumed he had filthy rich parents? She was only joking... kind of. This university was very prestigious and only the best of the best were granted entry, or they just had super rich parents to bribe them in. The group of friends that Barry hung out with... yup, they were the filthy rich, elitist squad. It was only safe of Caitlin to assume that Barry was like them too, but from his reaction, Caitlin had to rethink all her assumptions about Barry.

When she finally got to her apartment, she went to her computer and searched "Barry Allen family."

And my, oh my, was there a whole lot of google searches and articles that popped up.

That night, she read up on all she could about Barry Allen and learned everything the internet could provide about him. On his mother and how she was murdered in her own home, and on his father and how he was in jail, accused of the actual murder. She read about how little Barry insisted that it wasn't his father who murdered Nora Allen and that there was someone else there in the house, but every single reporter, every single detective, officer, psychologist, neighbor— they all insisted that Barry was led by some sad delusion where his father wasn't a murderer. Nobody believed him.

No wonder Barry left after the insensitive comment she made about his parents. God, she was such an idiot.

Caitlin suddenly remembered hearing those rumors about Barry and his parents when they were both freshman and new to Central City University, but any negativity and bullying towards Barry about his "psycho family" subsided when Barry proved his speed as a track athlete and Iris and her elitist gang of friends took him under their wings. Caitlin never really believed the rumors or cared enough to look them up until now.

Pacing around her room, Caitlin dialed Barry's number on her phone and tried to call him. Straight to voicemail. Of course.

Then, she tried texting him, hey.

He didn't reply, and she didn't really expect him to, so she continued, I'm really sorry for what I said and I hope I can make it up to you. I promise I'll still be your fake gf, but you don't have to be my tutor. Again, I'm really, really sorry and I hope you can forgive me. Caitlin added a prayer hands emoji at the end of her apology text to show that she was begging for forgiveness and pressed send.

A few seconds after sending, Caitlin saw the bubbles on her phone indicating that Barry saw her text and was replying back. She waited with bated breath.

Lol, you ramble a lot, Barry finally replied, Even over text. Don't worry about it. It wasn't your fault. I overreacted. And you can't be my fake bae without me being your tutor. That's not how reciprocal altruism works! You have a lot to learn about biology, my fake girlfriend protégée. Barry added a laughing emoji at the end.

Caitlin leaned her head back against the pillow and smiled taking that text as a sign of forgiveness. She texted back, It's not like we got a lot of learning done today anyway. She sent a gif of person slamming their head against a book.

We'll work extra hard tomorrow, Barry sent back. He added a thumbs up emoji and a gif of a cat typing rapidly on a laptop.

lolol! Caitlin put in a laughing face emoji.

So if the theory of solipsism applies, am I really texting you? Or are you texting yourself? Hmmm...

My head is hurting from all this psychology, she typed back.

You were the one who came up with the theory! Barry protested over text.

Is my name Descartes?

Are you Descartes? Barry teased.

*gasp* Caitlin typed, You've discovered my secret identity.

Caitlin waited a few minutes, but Barry didn't reply back.

Slightly saddened by the lack of Barry and his wonderfully chosen gifs, Caitlin put her phone away, until it suddenly started ringing.

"Hello?" she answered.

"But if you are your own person and there's nothing outside the existence of you, aren't you technically Descartes?" a voice questioned on the other end of the line.

"Barry!" Caitlin beamed in bright happiness, but tried to make her voice sound exasperated.

"What? I need to know!"

They spent the whole night talking about crazy philosophical theories and how they would create their own TV shows.

Barry wanted his TV show to be about a superhero that could run really fast. Oh please, like people would actually watch that.

Somewhere in the middle of their conversation, things took a turn for the serious as Barry said darkly, "He didn't do it."

Caitlin didn't speak. She knew what he was talking about, but she didn't know what to say.

"My dad," he continued, "he didn't kill my mom. Someone else did. I know it."

Caitlin paused for a few moments and listened to Barry breathing on the other line until finally, "I believe you."

"You do?" Barry sounded surprised, as if no one had ever said that to him. They probably never had.

"Of course. And when you get your forensics major and graduate from here and get a job as a forensic scientist for the CCPD, I know you will be able to find the truth about your dad and prove them all wrong."

"You think so?"

"I know so," Caitlin stated firmly.

They talked and talked and before they knew it, they had both fallen asleep while still on the phone with each other. Her phone bill was going to kill her.

The next morning, Caitlin was determined to make up for whatever she had said to Barry that previous day that had hurt him.

She was going to be the best fake girlfriend in the history of fake girlfriends, but she hoped its history was short because she had no experience whatsoever in that field of expertise.