The End

It had been two weeks.

No two days had been spent in the same place, and Iris hadn't acquired so much as a stitch. In a lot of ways, though, the journey could have been considered idyllic - Eva was in charge of this world, a Mirror Monarch of sorts, though rule wasn't really the word for what she did.

No real need for resource worry, and people that had the same kinship in terms of their origins, the mirror world had become populated by people who simply wanted to live well, born from that aspect of Eva.

And, equally, saw nothing wrong with Eva's chosen companion being nude. Which was the downside.

Unlike Singh, who'd at least turned his back and offered a jacket, this whole world saw nothing wrong with her baring all. Oh, some stared, some rolled their eyes, but no one helped. No one saw Iris have any more modesty than she could achieve with her own two hands - and trying to keep up that posture every hour of every day got exhausting enough that countless people had already seen everything she had to offer.

Which was where the 'No two places twice' came into play. In any other circumstances, Iris would have loved it: Eva had wanted to travel, and now had the power to walk into a mirror somewhere, and come out of a mirror anywhere else. With Iris by her side, they could travel the world.

Atop the Eiffel Tower, looking out onto Uluru, taking a turn in the London Eye, going to the top of the Statue of Liberty, or the Tokyo Skytree... a million tourist spots, or spots that weren't even open to tourists, all available to them. A world to see, and endlessly gracious people.

It would have been a dream. And Iris could hardly deny those up-sides.

But, again, still naked. Still very, very naked. Still going from tourist trap to tourist trap - and the duplicates that inhabited this world were as free with cameras as normal tourists would be, and everywhere seemed jam-packed with people.

Like, now. They were in Rome, looking at a few sights, old ruins, places perfect for postcards. Good views, and also wide-open fields filled with locals and echoes of tourists, some snapping photos of the Coliseum, and others turning around and take a photo of a certain bench.

And on that bench, Eva - for now she was in the suit she'd worn since returning from the real world. Apparently it wasn't perfect, though once it was done Iris wasn't sure if she'd resume her nudity and continue to use her purview as Mirror Monarch to do little beyond escape public decency laws, or if she'd pick up some casual-wear.

And next to her, Iris, who was very sure that even if Eva got dressed again, she wouldn't be. Iris, legs crossed, and bare, the act of crossing her legs simply making her thighs more prominent and displaying much of her butt and curves, dark skin ascending as far as her chest: crossed arms accentuated her cleavage, and her palms cupped each breast, continually wide-eyed. She wasn't sure her cheeks had stopped burning since her double had tricked her into this place.

Eva had an arm around her shoulders, taking a deep breath, and savoring the view.

Which only made Iris think of Eva. true, forbidding her from ever getting dressed - and having the power to make her go along with it, was... something she was mixed on. Though the trade off for the daily embarrassment was seeing the world in a whole new way, and seeing that genuine delight on Eva's face: even if this wasn't the freedom she'd craved, not exactly, it seemed to be enough for her.

And there was the fact Eva hadn't touched her. Okay, true, they'd made physical contact - like right now - but nothing like those nights in convenience stores as they'd wandered the world.

That... Iris wasn't sure how she felt about that. The physical sensations, certainly, they were pleasant, even if the way things were going, if that closeness began again it would be more likely to lead to making love in the middle of the ampitheater, given Eva's apparent lack of shame and love for showing her off.

But more than that, it was the idea that Eva was being somehow... faithful. That she wouldn't have a duplicate of Iris, like she would the original.

Proof positive it hadn't all been a lie, though Iris had long-since come to that conclusion anyway.

Eva was almost vibrating next to her, her mannerisms and quirks all so familiar. Iris squirmed on the bench, the coarse stone rough against her butt.

"This place is glorious, right?" Eva said. "I always wondered how it would look for real."

"Y-yeah," Iris said.

She tried to distract herself. Cameras clicked and flashed, the sun beat down on bare skin, and she stared intently at the ancient stone ahead of her. Focus on that.

She was getting worryingly good at tuning out her audience, though it wasn't as effective as she wanted it to be.

"Is there anywhere you want to see?" Eva said. "Old landmarks, favorite walks? Really, anywhere. Anything you were curious about? I don't want this all to be for me."

Her cheeks flamed all the more at the mere thought of visiting more familiar haunts, likely inhabited by the echoes of more familiar people, like this.

"Er. Somewhere with comfier seats," Iris said.

Eva glanced down. She bit her lip, and seemed surprised she'd done so, glancing down at Iris.

"How about somewhere we can swim?" Eva said. "Scuba dive the Great Barrier Reef. My powers can keep it replenished: wouldn't you like to see that?"

Iris faltered. She was mortified daily, she missed her friends, and paradoxically part of her was missing some of what she'd had with Eva.

And still Eva was offering her once-in-a-lifetime chances several times a day.

"S-sure," Iris stammered. "Let's look at it."

---

Weeks turned into months. The global trip saw a few repeats, and saw a few more obscure destinations - and sure enough, the most Iris wore was a scuba tank and goggles. Her legs, her breasts, never obscured. And then they took a journey back to Central City. They'd seen a few other places - duplicates of people Iris had seen from other cities, which had been both confusing and made her all the more flustered. (Always with trade-offs. Meeting duplicates of people she admired, who'd spend time with her simply at Eva's say-so, had been dizzying in all kinds of ways. Even if she'd really rather have met her idols while dressed).

"I never got to know her friends," Eva was saying. "I thought I should come back. Say hi. Trade stories."

Central City. Iris's favourite restaurant, and on the other side of the table, Joe and Caitlin. Or at least their mirror doubles. Iris fiddled awkwardly with the tablecloth, doing her best to keep it over her lap.

No one could see her core except for her and, well, Eva who was right next to her - and admittedly she did peek, but Iris had long since given up on covering up in front of Eva. That was what Iris kept telling herself.

But everyone at the table still knew she was stark naked, and there wasn't much she could do about her breasts when eating. Balancing a serviette over them had gone very poorly.

"I don't know that we technically are her friends," Caitlin said.

"You have their memories, right?" Eva said. "Up to the point of creation. Iris and her duplicate have the time in this dimension different, but you two, you know everything Iris did in the real world. I'd like to hear. If we can?"

That fervency in Eva's eyes again. Iris stared down, biting her lip. No one else could see what she could see: she kept telling herself that, face burning. She tugged at the tablecloth, fidgeting from nerves enough that she almost moved it.

Eva glanced sideways. Her expression softened.

"Sorry," Eva said. "Not trying to compare the two of you. You're, well, you know you're incredible, I just miss her as well."

"I'm still her," Iris murmured.

"That again?" Eva said.

"Eva, she changed our clothes over so she could stay," Iris said. "I haven't been lying any of the times I've told you. It's not to comfort you, it's because it happened."

"I'd like to believe that," Eva murmured.

Iris stared at her dinner, awkwardly taking a mouthful, and nervously dropping her cutlery when she saw her dinner guests looking at her. She crossed her arms, still self-conscious.

"Promise me," Eva said, suddenly.

"What?" Iris said.

"if you're telling the truth, promise me," Eva said. "Look me in the eye, that this isn't anything but what really happened. I- I know you want to comfort me, but I wouldn't want to hold Iris captive here. I wouldn't want to hold anyone captive here, not if they didn't want it, not if it wasn't their world. So please, look me in the eye and tell me."

"I'm not the duplicate," Iris said, not even blinking.

And for the first time, it seemed like Eva actually believed her.

---

Portals back to the real world were easy, now Eva had learned the trick, and become able to mimic it. Still, she insisted on practising. The West-Allen household was familiar. Eva had offered it as a home, on occasion - there was no Barry in this world, Eva neglecting to make him so that he wouldn't exist purely to pine over Iris, whom Eva spent most of her time with. She'd said it would be cruel.

So seeing Barry again made Iris falter. He, and her duplicate, on the sofa, side-by-side. That little piece of her, mirrored into someone who either loved Barry enough to not want to leave, or just was too embarrassed to face the prospect of a lifetime of nudity.

Iris took a step into the real world. The portal stayed open behind her; Eva had said goodbye, and gone halfway to kissing her before backing away and telling Iris to go.

That had... hurt a little. Even after everything, there was too much pain in Eva for Iris to see her with anything more than sympathy and care.

But this was her world. Her life.

Barry quickly stood up, as Iris came through the mirror. Her duplicate knelt up, looking over the back of the sofa. Quickly, Iris snatched a jacket off the hook, holding it over her front rather than putting it on, face warm.

"Iris!" Barry said.

"Get away from her, Barry," Iris said. "It's not me."

Barry frowned. Iris did her best to look as intimidating as she could with a jacket clutched to her breasts, hanging down just far enough to technically make her decent so long as she crouched a little, and didn't think about how much of her thigh was bared.

Every time she twitched, she accidentally bared her core, flashing it under the jacket.

"Iris," the double said.

Iris faltered. Wait, she was calling her by her name? Not lying, or accusing, or...

"It's okay," Barry said. "It's all okay."

"What?" Iris said.

"I told him," the duplicate said. "First day here. I... I wasn't going to lie to him, when I knew I had the choice. Too much of you in me."

Iris stared.

"What?" Iris said. "You knew?"

Barry frowned.

"Iris?" he said.

"You knew she tricked me to make me stay?" Iris said. "And you didn't..."

"I asked you," the duplicate said. "Before the switch, I asked how it was in there. You sang her praises, I didn't think it would be that bad."

Iris blinked.

"We looked," Barry said. "Almost immediately. I wasn't just going to leave you, but Cisco opened up a window to, it looked like some kind of luxury suite. You and her - you looked like you were happy. I didn't want to get in the way of that."

Iris stared.

Not what she'd expected. never what she'd expected. A duplicate who, whatever her motives had started out as, had tried to avoid hurting her and who'd been honest, to Barry at least. And who'd looked in and seen...

Well, it wasn't like she'd say her life in the mirror was bad. And the room, she could guess that one - if they'd peered in in the early days, it would probably have been the New York penthouse, a look around the Empire State and all the similar tourist traps, skipping queues and warping right to the top, before Eva had duplicated everyone.

Of the people she was making, she saved a few for last, to spend a night in their penthouse apartment without needing to kick them out.

After an incredibly embarrassing day, long before she was even remotely prepared for dealing with how it felt to have whole crowds staring at her, the privacy had been nice to relax. And the room itself, well, it had been comfy - it was well-furnished, and she'd seen Eva so light and cheerful and so unlike the almost-broken woman she'd known before.

Eva running around the apartment, jumping on the bed of all things, looking out on the balcony - it had been the closest Eva had come to slipping up and forgetting that, at least in her mind, Iris was the duplicate.

Watching the sunset over a noisy city, and seeing Eva take in the sound and sight for the first time in technically her whole life.

Yeah, she'd been happy then, for reasons from the deeper to the shallow enjoyment of the room's pleasures.

There was, of course, the one rather pertinent detail that all of that ignored, though. Iris clutched the jacket tighter.

"Wait," Iris said. "You two, are you..."

"We're... I don't know," Barry admitted. "We're trying to take it slow. I don't know exactly how to say it."

"I'm you," Iris's double said. "Exact copy, up to the moment you went in the mirror. A few different experiences and memories, but I feel what you do for this world, while you feel what you feel in the other dimension. Don't blame him."

"I blame you," Iris said. "You tricked me."

"And what you have done, if you were about to be made to leave the love of your life?" the double said.

Iris faltered. She'd spent so long seeing the duplicate as some intruder, and not as, well, her: someone with the same motivations and who, dynamic with Eva aside, would have made almost all the same decisions if given the chance.

This was more complicated than she wanted it to be.

Barry's expression softened.

"Are you unhappy?" he said. "Say the word, and I'll speed into the mirror dimension - Cisco and I have been working, my connection to the speed **** is better than ever. What do you want?"

The duplicate was still perched on the sofa, looking over at her.

"Of course I care for you," Barry said. "But I can't give you that kind of life, if it's the one you want, going around the world with no consequences like that. I care enough for you to want you to have what you want, and it sounded like things... changed, in the mirror. And I understand."

And there was the choice. Barry was happy, albeit in different ways. The duplicate was conflicted. Eva was Eva. And she could have her life back - or spend the rest of her life seeing the sights of the world, at the cost of perpetual embarrassment.

Iris opened her mouth to answer.

---

One Iris in the mirror, and one out. Simple. Easy.

"Do you think she'll be happy in there?" Barry said.

To his side, curled up on the couch, was Iris West-Allen: to look at her, it was impossible to tell the real deal from the mirror duplicate. There might as well have been no difference.

"I have a feeling," Iris said.

---

Another crossed into the mirror. She'd left anything she'd had on, whether jacket or actual clothing, in another world. Now, nude, she walked slowly through STAR Labs. Eva had chosen that place - she'd left behind the basement of McCulloch tech, too many bad memories.

Iris found her sat by herself, skimming a travel brochure. A little uncertainly, a little self-consciously, Iris waved.

"Are you her?" Eva said. There was a crack in her eyes. "Which are you?"

"Does it matter?" Iris said.

She took a step closer.

"Yes," Eva said. "Yes, it matters. You're both beautiful, and I'll go anywhere with either of you, but one... only one is the one I... knew. And if you're not her, I'll understand, it just... might take longer."

Iris bit her lip. She took a step nearer, aware that just by being here she'd tacitly signed off on years, decades even spent wearing nothing at all. Feeling the air on her skin, and being displayed for all the world to see - for all she knew, Eva was flashing her body to be visible in the reflections in the real world too. Thousands, millions, billions of people getting a chance to see every inch of her.

She didn't know if she'd ever grow used to it, or if she'd ever not feel mortified. Still, she couldn't help but nervously cross an arm over her breasts.

But she knew that, in return, there was Eva, and there was a good life.

Iris opened her mouth to anwer.