Work Text:
Barry isn't comfortable around him.
He first notices it when they're talking after a mission. He seems flighty, twitching and looking every which way like he wants to speed off. The villain was a meta, subdued with only a small amount of difficulty and sent off to prison in record time.
He'd pulled Barry aside after they'd taken care of it all, fully intending to speak with him-but Barry just looks nervous, maybe even scared and he was fine just a second ago before he'd gone to speak to him.
Batman-(and whenever he dons the suit he is Batman, more than he is Bruce and anyways, nobody reading his mind is going to find out his identity if he's never Bruce in the suit.) Batman doesn't care what the team thinks about him, and fear-fear is good. He'd rather they fear him than want to insert themselves into his life.
The problem is, Barry likes everyone and when he isn't around he changes. (Batman has to keep tabs on the team of course, as the de-facto leader-even if nobody quite agrees on that point what matters is that he knows he's the leader in all the ways that matter. So he's-seen a few conversations he wasn't intended to see.)
Barry talks about his powers-cannot shut about his power to any available ear-to anyone except him. Barry's only really mentioned to him once that he needed more food than the average person. He knows the rest-of course-some of it because it's simply obvious and some it because he's Batman, but Barry has never mentioned these things.
Barry never talks about metas when Batman is around. He never brings up his villains, never talks about his sidekicks. He hears about these things of course, from the news or the rest of the team. (Clark, telling him about Barry's most recent borderline comical villain in anecdotes Batman hates and Clark finds hilarious. Diana telling him excitedly about the most recent shenanigans the two-and-sometimes-three have gotten up to. A video of Barry tripping at mach 3 sent anonymously his way.)
Barry however, avoids the subject as much as he can, giving only the barest of details possible. It is only when they have to face a meta together that Barry offers up what he knows.
So Barry isn't comfortable around Batman. He doesn't know why.
They're up on a roof, in the slums of Gotham, having just finished up business. It was just the two of them this time-nobody else had the time to spare and it wasn't so big the two of them couldn't handle it. Batman turns to face him and Barry holds his hands up.
"I'll leave."
"Barry-"
"No metas in Gotham, right?" Barry gives a weak smile that doesn't quite reach his eyes. He's gone in a flash.
No metas in Gotham Batman thinks. Maybe it doesn't quite mean what he'd thought.