Ever since that night a week ago when everyone figured out who Zoom really was has been weird. Everyone hasn't really been talking to one another, Harry hasn't even been around because he's been looking for Jesse, Iris and Joe haven't been around, and Barry can't seem to get his nose out of a book. I thought for a moment that was a good thing, but then I thought again.

Barry has been studying his brains out trying to figure out how to get faster. Granted, that is what Jay told me he wanted from the kid, but it terrified me. I hated the idea of Barry possibly growing faster than Jay and actually having a chance to defeat him, but I wouldn't let myself think that way.

No one was faster than Jay. Not even me.

"Barry," I say, narrowing my eyes as he writes yet another equation up on the board. He ignores me. "Barry!"

He doesn't even turn to look. "What, Raven? I'm kind of busy right now-"

"No you aren't," I sigh as I walk over to him, eyeing up and down at the random jumble of letters and numbers. "You need to take a break. You've been working on this for twenty six hours straight."

"Actually it's been twenty eight," Cisco says then as he walks into the room, a book in hand. Barry looks over at him finally, loosening the grip on the marker in his hand. "She's right, Barry. You need a break."

"And I agree," Caitlin joins in, making me feel better about myself. At least someone else agreed with me. Well, but for different reasons. I just wanted to make sure the kid didn't blow his brains out before Zoom could kill him first.

Barry growls from under his breath. "Guys, I need to figure out how to get faster if I'm going to..."

He fades off, but Caitlin finishes his sentence. "Kill Jay? Barry, trust me, I want to help you just as much as you want to get faster, but you can't work on a restless mind. It's not healthy."

I bite my tongue at Caitlin's words, getting stuck on the kill part. Just like I did to Killerfrost, I never wanted to smack Caitlin silly more than I did now. Just wait until I tell Jay...that'll make her regret her words.

Barry looks down at his watch. "I do have to go to a dinner at Joe's tonight..."

"There you go, now get out of here and go get your mind off of things," Caitlin says a little too enthusiastically for my taste. She reminded me of a cheerleader.

Cisco's eyes widen at the word dinner. "Aw man, I forgot about my dinner!"

"Where do you have to go?" Barry asks, raising his eyebrow. I could tell that he was thinking he meant date, just like the rest of us. A date was weird for Cisco though.

Cisco grabs his jacket, practically out the door before shouting back. "I have a dinner date with Dancing With the Stars tonight! I can't miss it, and it's on in five minutes!"

We all snicker at his words, even me. I wasn't sure why I found that funny. I roll my eyes. "It's not like he knows two speedsters who could run him home real fast."

"Leave him be," Caitlin stares off where Cisco ran. "He gave me the wrong coffee this morning; he deserves to miss his show."

Barry rolls his eyes as Caitlin walks out of the room after Cisco, presumably to go home or to research more for Barry. I sigh before grabbing my book I had in my hands earlier off the table, about to head back to my room, but before I could take barely three steps, Barry was stopping me in my tracks.

"What are your dinner plans?" he asks me, taking me off guard. He knew very well that I didn't have any dinner plans. I barely left this hell hole.

I turn and raise an eyebrow. "Dinner plans? My plans are ramen noodles and my already half eaten bag of cheetos in my room."

Barry laughs, one of the few rare ones he's had in the past few days. "How would you like to come over to Joe's with me? I'm sure there's plenty extra."

My heart skips a beat, but I wasn't sure why. That's never happened before. "W-What? No...No, I-"

"I heard he's making lasagna," Barry pushes more, a sly smirk spreading across his face as he stresses the a. "And trust me, that lasagna is the best damn thing you could ever eat."

At this point, I didn't even have a choice to tell him no, because following his sentence came a loud tummy rumble from me, causing him to laugh along with me. "Only if you have enough for another person."

"I'm positive he will," Barry grins. "When Iris and I were kids, he used to make extra on purpose and then give the rest to our neighbor who was a single mom with five kids."

I make a hissing sound. "Yeesh, I-"

I was about to comment on how I couldn't ever raise five kids, let alone being single with that many, but then my brain got stuck on the word mom. The more I thought about it, the more I remembered that night my parents were ripped away from me. Her voice replayed in my head, and it wouldn't stop.

Barry notices. "Raven, are you okay?"

His words get mixed in with my thoughts, completely ignoring him; at least, that was until his hand rests on my shoulder, snapping me out of it completely. My eyes are wide as I stare at him before backing away, causing his hand to lower. "Sorry, just thinking about things."

He gives me an odd look, thinking about talking more about it, but deciding not to. His eyes trail to the clock on the wall before looking back at me. "Well, we should get going before it gets cold."

A small weak smile forms on my lips as I hold my hand out, palm up. "Do you mind?"

Barry stares at my hand for a moment, knowing damn well that I was asking for his speed, but instead of offering me his hand to get it, he sweeps me off my feet and is racing me out of S.T.A.R. Labs. It takes me a moment to realize what was going on, but when I did, my heart did the skipping beat thing again.

I wish it would stop doing that.

Suddenly though, Barry skids to a halt, holding me tight in his arms. I bawl my fist into his shirt as I squeeze my eyes shut for some odd reason. I wasn't sure why I did that at all, but I did know that if I wouldn't have, I probably would have went flying out of Barry's arms from the abrupt stop.

Everything falls still for a good three seconds before I finally open my eyes, looking up at Barry to see him gasping from the run. For a split second...and I mean split, he looks down at me and something happens between the two of us. It was that same spark thing I had felt earlier with him...but I couldn't explain it.

"Barry Allen," I start, trying to find the right emotions before I'm wiggling out of his arms. "I wasn't asking for you to give me a ride!"

He grins at me, brushing his jacket off. I realized then that we were still standing outside in the street; right outside of Joe's house. "I know."

I narrow my eyes at him before running my fingers through my hair, finding numerous tangles in it from the run over here. He just laughs at me before marching up the steps to the house, leaving me in the street, expecting me to follow. I debated just running away from here, back to my ramen noodles at my room, but watching Barry walk up those steps kept me here, and it made me feel vulnerable.

I hated it.

Despite how much I hated it though, I followed Barry up the steps and through the door of the house, light flooding my vision suddenly. The Wests' house was one of those homes that made you feel warm inside the moment you walked through the door; like they were the perfect family, even though they really weren't.

I missed my family.

"Barry!" I hear Joe call from around the corner until his eyes land on me as well. "Raven? You joining us for dinner tonight?"

Barry answers for me. "I invited her. I hope it's okay-"

"Of course," Iris smiles from the couch, a photo book in her hand. "We always have room at the table."

I smile at her, and that was the first time I couldn't tell if I meant for it to be fake or not. Before I could say anything, I hear another voice from around corner, but I wasn't sure who it was. "Are you Barry's girlfriend?"

I raise my eyebrow as I look around the corner and see a dark skinned boy standing there, staring at me as he placed a bowl of garlic bread onto the table. He looked a lot like Joe, but I had no idea who he was. Well, at least, I couldn't remember.

"No," Barry shakes his head, closing his eyes as his face turned bright red. "No, we aren't, Wally."

Joe takes control. "Raven, have you met Wally?"

I walk in front of Barry, walking over towards the table where Joe and Wally were. "No, I haven't. Who are you?"

"I'm the son no one knew about," Wally says as he sticks out his hand to me. I glance over at Barry as he shakes his head at Wally's statement, but I admired his bluntness. I could already tell I would like him.

I stick my hand out and shake his. "Well, I'm Raven; the girl that's just a friend."

Joe raises an eyebrow before laughing slightly. "Well, dinner is ready; come on Iris."

I stand there awkwardly for a moment as Barry walks around me, taking a seat across from Iris and beside Wally. I walk around and sit on the other side of Barry, not really sure where to sit exactly. Joe sits down next to Iris then, everyone now sitting at the table with really good looking food on the table.

Joe rubs his hands together. "Raven will get to try my amazing lasagna."

Barry winks at me. "Told ya."

I shake my head before reaching forwards, grabbing the spoon before getting a slice of lasagna to stick on my plate. I grab a slice of garlic bread and a handful of salad before setting my plate back down, staring down at it with utter happiness. It's been ages since I had a real meal.

"So where are you from, Raven?" Wally asks as he takes a sip of his tea, looking up at me through the top of his glass.

I stutter for a moment before catching myself. "Too far away."

Barry looks up. "Literally."

Wally doesn't dive deeper. "How long have you guys been friends? I'm surprised I've never heard about you."

I glance over at Barry, not sure what to say to this one, so Barry answers. "We were elementary buddies before she moved. She's in Central City visiting."

"Cool," Wally nods, out of questions I supposed. I smile before taking a bite of my lasagna, my taste buds igniting with flavor.

I hum with approval. "Holy crap Joe, this is fantastic."

He smiles. "It's not the best I've made; I had to make it a different way because I couldn't find the old video I used to watch of the guy that first taught me how. I think I cooked it too fast this time, but it's still okay."

Barry stops chewing then for a moment as he stares off into blank space. "First taught you how..."

"What?" Iris asks, raising her eyebrows at Barry. I wasn't sure what he was talking about either.

Barry is suddenly standing from the table. "I uh, gotta go. I just remembered something-"

"You barely touched your food!" Joe yells after him, knowing that he wasn't going to get him to come back either way.

Barry keeps walking. "I wasn't that hungry anyways; I'm really sorry, guys. I gotta go."

When we hear the door shut, I finally realized that I should go after him and see what was up. I had a feeling that this had something to do about Jay, but I wasn't sure what. Maybe it was something to do with his speed.

"I guess I better go see what's wrong with him," I say as I walk away from the table. "From what I got to taste, the meal was great guys."

Joe calls after me. "Just remember you're always invited for dinner!"

"Let me know when you have lasagna again," I call back, smiling slightly before walking out of the door, finding Barry standing in the street, pacing.

I narrow my eyes. "What's wrong?"

"I have an idea, but it's crazy," he breathes, stopping and looking up at me on top of the steps.

I point back at the door. "Nothing is more crazier than you getting up and making me walk away from that lasagna."

He has a hint of insanity in his eye, and it made me wonder what was really on his mind. "Raven, the only other person I know that is faster than me is Eobard Thawn. What if the reason I can't figure out how to solve this speed equation is because he holds the only answer?"

I remembered Eobard alright; Barry told me a little about him, but I also read some of his book. "Barry, he's dead, remember? What are you proposing here?"

I wasn't sure why I even asked, because I knew his answer before he even said it.

"I have to go back in time and ask him."

____

I like cute Raven...cute yet feisty and sassy of course.

Added a little more Baven in there for you guys..I hope it was acceptable! (is Baven their ship name, oml? Or should it be Rarry?)

Please please vote and comment guys! Comments always boost me to post faster, so if you want that, of course you should leave more comments

love you all!