Ok, so this is a birthday fic nearly two whole weeks late for my dear friend Steff aka the awesome @empty-puppet! Happy birthday, and sorry for the lateness!
“Hey Joe?” Barry pokes his head into the living room late one evening after Iris has retired to her room for the night and he’s taken up his customary chair with a beer and the television playing softly in the background.
“Yeah, Bear?” He responds without really looking up.
“Do we…own a football?”
That gets him to raise his head, fixing the kid with a bemused stare. “Why? You need it for a project or something?”
“No,” Barry says, pulling a face as he shakes his head. He comes down off the steps to stand in the main room. “I wanted to practice. You know, for tryouts.”
He thinks his eyebrows might just disappear into his receding hairline. “You wanna try out. For football?” A laugh - just a giggle, really - slips out of him and soon he’s shaking in the chair trying to contain his laughter.
“I’m serious!” Barry says with all the righteous indignation of a sixteen year-old.
“Ok, ok,” Joe says, calming himself down. He knows it’s not right to laugh at his kid over this. Still, he has to ask, “Why do you want to try out for football Barry? You like science more than you like sports.”
“I still like sports,” Barry defends. “I watch games with you.” Those games are usually baseball, his personal favorite, but Joe still nods giving him the point. “And you always say we should get involved in as many different activities as we can so we have a lot of interests,” the teenager continues. “Iris likes football.”
“Yeah, well Iris only likes football so much cause that Dylan Johnson kid’s center-fielder,” he remarks, and watches how Barry’s face falls. He sighs heavily. “You really serious about trying out, Bear?”
Barry nods, determined.
“Alright. Think I’ve got a ball in the garage,” he says, then pushes himself up from the chair. “Let’s go.”
“You’re gonna help me practice?” Barry looks surprised, and a little pleased, by the idea, some pink rising to his cheeks. He’s like this most every time he feels that Joe is going out of his way for him - and he wishes the kid would understand nothing is ever going to be out of Joe’s way for him, not for his son.
Still now, he looks Barry up and down. Growth spurts have put Barry close to his height, but he’s no where near as broad. A good gust of wind could blow him away, Grandma Esther’s taken to saying each time she visits.
“Trust me, you’re gonna need my help.” And a good miracle, he can’t stop himself from thinking.
—
(I will probably expand on this for you later, but I wanted to get this out to you now since it’s nearly two weeks late. Apologies and lots of love!)
Day 1 (Friday 18th Dec):
Snowed in
Day 2 (Saturday 19th Dec): Free Day Day 3 (Sunday 20th Dec):
First Christmas as a couple
We can’t wait to see what you guys come up with! A more detailed reminder post will be made closer to the time, but the rules can be viewedhere if you need a reminder andour ask box is always open for questions.
As always, a signal boost would be appreciated, so that this can get around to as many people as possible.
The poll for the Olivarry Holiday Weekend prompts are up! You can select two options, and remember, there will be a free day in-between. Votes close Monday 7th December so cast your votes ASAP!!
