don't look back.

It felt strange. Being back in Central City. What was even stranger was just how much time had passed by since Clara McAllister had last been there. Ten years. An entire decade. It didn't feel like it had been that long, but she knew that it was. Time seemed to only make being back feel stranger though. The fact that it felt strange wasn't something that Clara liked either. This had been her home for fifteen years. She'd been gone less time than she'd lived there, surely it shouldn't feel this strange? But it did, and Clara really wasn't sure what would change that.

The brunette let out a soft sigh as she walked down the street towards her apartment. She didn't like being out this late by herself, but she was the newbie at the diner, so she didn't really have her pick of shifts, and she couldn't complain about that either. She knew better than to do that anyway. She was never one to complain. She hadn't even really complained when her parents told her that they were leaving Central City. Her dad had gotten a promotion, she couldn't ask him not to take it just for the sake of her and the friends that she would be leaving behind. Not that there had been many. It was really only two: Iris West and Barry Allen.

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There hadn't been much metahuman cases going on around town lately, so Barry had been doing a lot of small stuff to keep him occupied while he waited for one of them to surface. Which it was only a matter of time before one of them did. Right now there was a fire at a business building on main street, which would end up spreading to an apartment complex nearby if he didn't hurry up and help save the people and get the fire out. Barry ran through the streets, passing cars and people. There was a very particular person though that he couldn't help but notice on his way by, who looked very much like Clara McAllister, his long lost best friend from many years ago. Barry shook his head, there was no way that it was her. She moved away ten years ago and hadn't been back since. He sighed, running into the burning building and looking around. "They're all the way on the top floor," Cisco said through his earpiece, Barry nodding in response even though he couldn't see them. He made his way to the top floor, looking around at all the people. There were too many, there was no way he was going to be able to save them in time without getting the fire out first. Barry remembered what he had to do the very first time he ever had to put a fire out as The Flash, beginning to rotate his arms as fast as he possibly could, sucking all of the air out of the room. The fire instantly went out, and Barry helped all of the people to safety.

Clara was nearly at the halfway point between the diner and her apartment when there was a gush of wind, seemingly, as someone or something rushed passed her. It quite clearly peaked her curiosity, and served to catch her off guard and startle her a bit. It only took her a second to piece things together and realize what she had just witnessed. That was The Flash. Central City's masked hero who none other than one of her old best friends, Iris West, seemed completely enthralled and obsessed with. It might have been a decade since she had last been in Central City, though she had checked to see what her old friends were up to from time to time, not directly though. Unfortunately, she'd lost touch with both of them soon after moving away with her family when her dad received that promotion.

Not long after what she had a feeling wouldn't be her last The Flash sighting, she realized where he'd been headed. A burning apartment building. Not just any burning apartment building though, the very apartment building she'd been heading towards.

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Barry was pretty pleased with himself that he managed to get the fire out and get everyone to safety in record time. That had to've been the fastest he'd ever gone. Barry looked over the business and apartment building, glad that he managed to save them both. Just the top floor of the business building was damaged and not even a quarter of the apartment building was damaged. He wished none of it could have been damaged, but there wasn't much he could do this time around. Maybe next time he'd be faster. Barry bit down on his bottom lip, not being able to help it as his mind wandered to the woman he saw earlier. She looked so much like his old best friend, he couldn't help but wonder if that was really her. Was she finally back in Central City after all these years? But why? What did she come back for? Barry shook his head, making his way back to Star Labs to see what else was up and how things were going before he was done for the night. Though, being The Flash, his work was never done.

Out of all the apartment buildings in Central City, it had to be Clara's. It was just her luck, wasn't it? Thankfully, there was only a small percentage of the building that had been damaged along with the top floor of the business building just next-door, but it looked like she'd be hanging out outside of the building for a little while until all of the residents were given the okay by the fire department and everyone else. She'd only just arrived as The Flash rescued any people trapped inside, though she didn't get a glimpse at him this time around, she must've just missed him or something. Today was proving to be a bit more eventful than she'd expected.

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Since there wasn't anything else for Barry to do at Star Labs, he decided to take a walk back down the street where he thought he'd seen Clara. It was really messing with his head. He hadn't seen her in so long, he wanted to know why she was back, if it was really her after all. Barry made his way down the street, continuing on until he eventually got back to the building he saved earlier. He bit down on his bottom lip hard as she saw the woman from earlier making her way into the building, shoving his hands into his pockets. He wasn't sure if he should confront her now or not. What if it wasn't Clara? He would have gotten his hopes up for nothing. Barry decided that he should just call out her name, see what happens, hopefully she'd answer to it. "Clara?" he called out, furrowing his brow.

Thankfully, Clara wasn't waiting around for too long before she and the other residents of the building were allowed back in. She was just heading back towards the building when she heard someone call out her name. Eyebrows furrowing slightly in confusion, wondering who knew she was here, she glanced over her shoulder. The person she saw standing there, caused her eyes to widen slightly in surprise. "Barry?" She hadn't told anyone that she was moving back to Central City, and she hadn't reached out to either of her old friends. It had to be a coincidence that he was there, but wasn't that a pretty far-fetched coincidence?

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Barry smiled big, walking over to her. "Hey," he said, pretty excited that it was actually her. Honestly, he couldn't believe that it was her. "I was just on my way home and decided to see what all the commotion was about," he said, biting down on his lower lip. "Is this where you're living now? Are you back in Central City?" he asked, his eyes wide with wonder. He really hoped she was, though this might not be permanent. She could just be here for something temporary. But Barry really wanted to know why she was back and why she never kept in touch. They used to be so close, him, her and Iris. He could never figure out what happened.

"Hey." Clara said, a small smile gracing her lips. She was hoping to run into either him or Iris at some point, but she hadn't expected it to happen so soon. She was glad it had though, she needed a sense of familiarity after feeling like a complete stranger in a place she had once called home. "Yeah, I'm back. Been back for about a week now." She told him. She wasn't about to go into detail as of why. She wasn't about to push her own problems onto someone else, regardless of whether or not she had once been extremely close to them. This was a fresh start for her. She knew that running away from her problems wasn't the best tactic out there, but she hadn't really known what else to do.

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"That's great, I'm glad you're back. We have a lot of catching up to do, Clara. You, me, and Iris. I'm sure Iris would absolutely love to see you again. Have you paid her a visit yet? She works at Jitters part time right now," Barry told her. He knew that it was getting late though, so he couldn't keep her out here for long. She was probably tired and wanted to get to bed. But he wasn't leaving this spot until they exchanged numbers and made plans to do something. He really wanted to catch up with her, see how things were going and how her life had been since she moved. Barry just hoped that she wasn't back in Central City for any terrible reasons. He hoped she was just back because she missed it and wanted a change of scenery.

"I had no idea that she was working there. I'll have to stop by tomorrow or something." Clara told him. And that was definitely something that she was going to do. She didn't really know why she'd drifted apart from Barry and Iris. The three of them had been best friends when they were younger, practically inseparable. Distance shouldn't have caused them to drift apart, but it had. She could change that now though, and she planned on it. Despite the circumstances, she planned on making the best of returning to Central City, and that meant catching up with her old friends.