Reciprocal Altruism || Snowbarry College AU

Practice Makes Bestest V

She still had her fingers in his hair, as the two of them leaned their upper torsos closer and closer towards each other.

"What..." Caitlin hesitated. "What should we do now?"

Now that their faces were mere inches away from each other, it seemed that they were quite stuck. Place any other two people in that situation and the next activity would have been quite obvious.

Person 1 (Barry) would lean in and look at Person 2 (Caitlin) with those entrancing green eyes; Person 1 would then run his tongue nervously on his bottom lip, before gathering up the nerve to ask... "So, you have any pets?"

Huh?

Well, that was not what she was expecting.

In her bewildered state, Caitlin took her hands out of Barry's hair and withdrew back to her side of the couch. "What?"

"No, I mean, it was just the way you were playing with my hair. It felt nice. Like—"

"Like I was petting a kitten." Caitlin couldn't help if her voice sounded monotone and... disappointed?

"Kitten?" Barry asked. "So you're a cat person, I see."

"I take it you're a dog person?"

"How'd you know?"

"Your whole personality screams 'Dog Person'," Caitlin stated as if it was obvious.

"How so?" Barry asked.

"Energetic, friendly," Caitlin described.

Barry nodded in agreement.

"Loud," she continued.

He considered it for a second and reluctantly agreed.

"Obnoxious, in-your-face, an—"

"Hey!" Barry protested. "Now, I may be all those things, but dogs are definitely not obnoxious!"

While Caitlin laughed at his defense of dogs, Barry took the opportunity to throw one of his pillows at her face. Catching it, Caitlin threw it right back. "Fetch, Barry! Who's a good boy?" she crooned.

Barry caught the pillow with one hand and held it up in victory. "I'm a good boy!" he announced, unabashedly proud, and tossed the pillow right back to her.

"Aw, does wittle Bawwy want to be pet like a wittle puppy?" Caitlin teased, holding the pillow up like a toy. "Does Bawwy want the pillow?"

"Yeah!" And like the energetic puppy he was inside, Barry gave her a look, letting her prepare herself for what was coming, and pounced forward to reach the pillow, essentially body slamming both her and the pillow, but making sure that his full weight was not squashing her completely.

"Ah!" Both she and Barry rolled over and fell on the carpeted ground in front of the couch.

"Barry, why do you do this to me?" Caitlin laughed and hit him with the fluffy pillow once more, urging him to get off of her, not that she really minded him being on top of her.

He quickly did, dusting himself off before reaching out a hand to help his fake girlfriend up. As soon as she grabbed it to pull herself up, he let go, causing her to fall back down with an "Oof!"

"Why are your hands so cold?" Barry exclaimed while shaking his own to get them to warm up.

Caitlin fixed him a heated glare from the ground. "I run cold," she answered.

Barry looked at her sheepishly, realizing he just let her drop, and offered his hand once more for her to take. Caitlin batted those hands away and stood up on her own.