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She saw beauty in his darkness.
When you had first met Julian Albert, you were instantly intrigued by him. The two of you had met about three months after he started working. You and Barry had spent most of last night watching movies at your place. Barry had ended up falling asleep on your couch and he was gone by the time you woke up the next morning. You really didn’t have a reason to visit his lab the next day besides the fact that you wanted to talk to him about the movies.
Barry had told you to meet him at 9:20, it was already 9:30 and Barry was nowhere to be found. You expected to see another desk sitting in the lab, but what you didn’t expect was the man sitting behind it. He instantly sent a glare in your direction, rolling his eyes before turning back to the file that he was working on. Barry had told you that he got a co-worker that he shared his lab with, you were just surprised at how attractive you thought he was.
“If you’re looking for Allen he isn’t here yet.” The man spoke, slightly startling you as you broke out of the trance you were in. As if his looks weren’t enough to have an effect on you, his accent definitely was. You sent a smile in his direction, which he just ignored.
“Uh, I guess I’ll be back later then. Thanks.” You mumble, turning on your heel to walk out the door. Just then, Barry walks in.
“I’m sorry I’m late! I hope you haven’t been waiting long.” Barry apologizes, sending a small smile in your direction as he rushes around you and towards his desk.
“I’ve only been here a few minutes, plus I had Julian to keep me company.” You explain, the blond man looks up upon hearing his name, although once he realizes that it honestly didn’t matter he just went back to whatever he was working on. You watch as Barry sends you a weird look before shaking his head. After putting a few things in his desk, Barry ushers you out the door and into the hallway.
“I don’t understand why you don’t like him, Barry. Julian is not nearly as bad as he seems.” You comment once you guys are out the door and walking down the street.
“You’ve never even spoken to the guy before, y/n, how would you know?” He mutters, rolling his eyes as he falls into step beside you.
“Hey, he spoke a sentence to me, and he only sounded slightly irritated at my presence.” You explain, a small laugh leaving Barry’s lips at your statement.
“Plus, you never told me how attractive he was.” Your words cause Barry to look over at you in confusion, before shaking his head and rolling his eyes. From that day on, you often found yourself at the lab. At first, Julian tried his hardest to just ignore you, but then one day you brought him a coffee, just the way he liked it. The only problem was that he didn’t recall ever telling you his order.
“Oh, sorry if I made you uncomfortable. You just said something about it a few weeks ago. I was picking up a coffee for Barry so I figured I’d get you one too.” You explained, a smile shining brightly on your face as you spoke. It was then that Julian realized that maybe you weren’t that bad. He had started to get to know you, and he was pleasantly surprised at the person you actually were.
Julian thought you were just like Barry. Someone who really didn’t care about their job, someone who bent the rules to their liking, but you weren’t. Even though your job at Star Labs wasn’t even all that real, Julian could tell that before the particle accelerator exploded you were very serious about your job. If you made a mistake, showed up late, you accepted the consequences and tried better next time.
Not to mention that you were just generally nicer to him than most people were, especially Barry’s friends. Barry’s friends had a tendency to just stick to whatever opinion Barry had. While that wasn’t a bad thing, you were one of those people who wanted to experience things for yourself. Be nice to people until they gave you a reason not to be.
You had started dating Julian not long after that. You really didn’t care about what Barry and Cisco had said about him. How you shouldn’t date him and that you should watch your back around him. Even H.R. had told you that he saw some kind of darkness in Julian. You saw it too, you just didn’t care. He didn’t treat you wrong, he didn’t hurt you, what did it matter what everyone else thought?
The day of Barry and Iris’ housewarming was great. They had finally let Julian become part of the team, and honestly you couldn’t have been happier. You noticed how uncomfortable he looked as he stood off to the side, away from the group. So you bid everyone farewell, dragging him out of the apartment. You had decided to get Big Belly Burger, which resulted in the two of you sitting beside each other in a booth, talking about anything and everything.
“You know, the day that I first met you I was honestly so glad to find out that you weren’t nearly as bad as Barry had described you.” You explained, a small laugh leaving you as he smiles at you from beside you.
“You were still a jerk though.” Your statement caused him to actually laugh this time around.
“Yeah, I’m sorry about that. I assumed that you were just as infuriating as Barry was. I’m glad I was wrong.” He explains, causing you to turn towards him to look at him. God, you were in love. You stared at his profile as he spoke. When he finally turned to look at you, your hand reached up at rest on his face, pulling him down into a kiss. Julian was a little shocked at first but once he realized what had happened, he happily returned the kiss.
“What was that for?” He muttered breathlessly, his face flushed.
“I am so glad that I didn’t listen to what everyone had said about you. Everyone kept telling me that you weren’t good enough for me, but you are. I am so in love with you Julian Albert Desmond.” You mumble, staring at him as his face drops. He stays silent, the shock of your confession overwhelming him. He keep repeating the words in his head, over and over, as if he’s trying to convince himself they’re true.
“I love you too.” He finally whispers after a moment. You were beginning to get a little scared, the fear of being rejected rushing through you. The moment he uttered those words, you pulled him into another kiss. He kisses you back with just as much passion, before you break apart with smiles on your faces. You were finally happy.