Movie Magic

By: Rhuben

Summary-If there was one thing Cisco Ramon liked more than watching movies, it was watching people watch movies for the first time.

If Cisco Ramon hadn't already seen the movie hundreds of times and knew when the jump scares would occur, the small hand that suddenly grabbed his knee would have ripped a shriek from his throat. The warmth from said hand instantly calmed him, despite his quickly beating heart saying otherwise. But that was from the movie.

…Yeah, right. As if he could ever convince himself of that.

H his ears burned and he swallowed thickly—a task he found harder to do as his mouth suddenly had gone dry—and angled his head to steal a glance at the girl sitting beside him. As discreetly as he could in the dark room of STAR Labs of course. Don't screw this up, don't screw this up, dontscrewthisup.

"Did you see that?" Averey Moore asked, her gaze fixed onto the projector screen stretched out in front of them. "Did you see that?"

She sat up in her seat (her previous position being a combination of a slouch and kind of an upright fetal position), the grip of her hand on his knee tightening just slightly. If she realized what she was doing, she didn't give any indication. She used her free hand to push her glasses up her nose, the reflection of the movie shifting on the lenses just slightly.

At the screen she practically shouted, "Don't go out the door, you banana!" before covering her eyes with her hand, peeking between her fingers. Cisco felt himself smile as he watched her.

It wasn't that long ago that Cisco absolutely hated it when he would watch movies with other people. There were different categories of movie watchers he could put the general population in; the biggest category, which everyone could fit into, was the people he wanted to throttle.

First, there were people who would constantly talk through the movie. "What's happening?", "Why'd he do that?", "What does that mean?" one question after another, after another. This would lead to even more questions because talking over the characters on screen meant they were missing important information that would answer their questions in the first place.

Then there were the ones who couldn't keep their attention on the movie. At the start of the movie, things would be running smoothly and then out comes the cell phone or the laptop. It was hard to watch a movie when the constant pop, pop, pop from a cell phone, or clack, clack, clack from computer keys was hammered into your ear. This would lead into questions which could put people into the first group, too.

And then there was the one with too many snacks. Cisco was all for enjoying the movie with something to eat (preferably when that something can keep "the talker" quiet), but even that had a downside to it. Noisy bags, people who chew with their mouth open, those people who insisted on getting every single drop from their drinks, it was all sensory overload.

Finally, the category his family fell into: the passive aggressive type. "Why are you watching this?", "What movie is that?", "This is so boring, I can't believe you like it" were commonly uttered through wrinkled noses, head shakes of disdain, and eyes glazed over. It was no wonder after a while he almost got to the point that he watched movies in secret. It was almost like he was ashamed of something he enjoyed spending his time with. Or rather, escaping reality.

When the opportunity came to work at STAR Labs, he rejoined reality as quickly as he could. To work at STAR Labs alongside likeminded people (Hartley Rathaway was an exception) was something he never thought he would accomplish in his life. The best part of it was that the people there liked his vast knowledge of pop culture, and his ability to spout out a movie quote for any situation. On those days where things were too stressful (which occurred pretty much any time Hartley opened his mouth or even looked in his direction), he still had his love of movies to allow him to decompress.

His favorite thing about watching movies was getting the chance to introduce titles to his friends that they would otherwise never choose for themselves. This moment was no exception.

Shifting in his seat, partially to stretch out the butt muscles that were starting to go numb and partially to sneak a peek at his movie companion, Cisco smiled to himself as if he was a little kid who got away with sneaking an extra cookie. As if he ever needed an excuse to look at her.

Averey had captured his attention ever since he saw her standing in the Cortex talking with Dr. Wells. He was a scientist and she was interesting to him. That's how he tried to look at it, anyway. After a girl he liked ended up, somehow, dating his brother, he stopped himself from outwardly telling a girl that he was attracted to her. She was interesting though: somehow she had passed security without any notice, her metahuman abilities actually gave credence to the idea that someone could actually have a photographic memory, and her accent wasn't one anyone in Central City heard that often.

Averey's hands were back in her lap (Cisco mentally kicked himself at the thought of his switching seated positions made her remove her hand from his knee), both knees pulled to her chest, her heels barely pressed to the edge of the seat. Her teeth were biting down on both thumb nails as she watched the characters on screen decide their next move. For the next few minutes, her thumbnails were only removed from her teeth when she would shout back at the screen.

That was a bit of a strange sight; a metahuman that would run off into battle alongside the Flash scared of a movie. He had seen different sides to the Australian girl since she had joined Team Flash. He had seen confidence (much like she was when she agreed to watch the movie), insecurity (she had once told that she felt she wasn't doing much to help Team Flash), and confusion (she was the only one in STAR Labs without a degree in a field of science).

He also had seen her disconnected and somewhat withdrawn. Maybe not scared, but…hesitant? No, there was definitely some cause of fear that was evident every once in a while. She did her best to project normalcy, though. As normal a metahuman that can remember everything and project blinding light from her eyes could be, anyway. Not that he could blame her with what she went through at Belle Reve. While Barry was in STAR Labs being looked after, she had spent her initial nine months with her abilities being treated worse than a lab rat.

How could any researcher, any scientist, any medical professional treat people like that? Cisco thought to himself, unknowingly starting to shake his head from side to side. There was a Hippocratic Oath for a reason and he did his best to stick by it no matter how tough the decision was. Tapping his feet on the floor, Cisco was all too aware that many floors under his feet housed the pipeline where all of the metahumans they had faced so far were kept.

Were they doing any better at STAR Labs keeping every metahuman they've encountered in the pipeline? They're not innocent people, he reminded himself. Even if they could be easy on the eyes from time to time. They've abused their powers to get what they want. Keeping them all in one place to understand how the dark matter altered their genetic makeup makes sense. Plus, they were working to fix the mistake that had altered their DNA in the first place. That had to count for something.

"Ok, I think I've got it this time!"

Cisco jumped at the sudden declaration as the movie scene froze, the pause icon appearing in the top right corner. Pushing her glasses up her nose with her index finger, which slipped back down seconds later, Averey gave him an excited smile.

"Your last guess was barely ten minutes into the movie," Cisco reminded her, stretching his legs out in front of him before crossing them at his ankles. "Let's hear it."

"It's carbon monoxide poisoning!" Averey proudly hit her knee with her fist and Cisco found himself smiling in amusement. She was like a little kid, proud of the conclusion she came to.

"What?!" Cisco asked, trying in vain to keep his eyebrows from lifting in a "You're kidding, right?" kind of way. Where to start with this one? "If it was carbon monoxide poisoning, they'd practically drop dead on sight. Especially the second they ran out of the store." He was silent for a moment, watching Averey's proud smile disappear into a twist of her mouth.

For a second time, he kicked himself for causing a retracting reaction from her. Who was he, really, to get realistic on her? Sci-fi movies could bend the realistic truth every now and then. Yet, he couldn't stop himself from adding, "Plus, you can't see carbon monoxide; it's invisible." Girls liked smart men, right?

"Oh, yeah." She seemed to sulk for a minute before brightening, clapping her hands together once before clasping them in her lap. "But, it's a movie! They could change it and add color to it so you'd know. This could all be a hallucination, yeah? You can hallucinate from carbon monoxide poisoning, right?"

"Well…yeahhh," Cisco replied, slowly nodding his head, "but, it's not carbon monoxide poisoning."

"Ok, ok." There was a second loud tap and the movie started up again.

Cisco could practically see the gears turning in her head as he watched her settle back in her chair, becoming reabsorbed in the movie. Gathering her dark, gently wavy, locks in her hands, she pulled her hair back into a ponytail before doing one of those twist and flick things all girls somehow learned, securing it with the hair band sitting on her wrist.

A few strands of her hair gently touched the rounds of her cheeks. He could see every freckle dotted across her face, and over the slope of her nose, her skin tanned from her lengthy exposure outside. . Lips twitching upwards, Cisco bit down on the insides of his lips (his best attempt to stop himself from laughing out loud) when he spotted the band of somewhat pale skin that stretched over her face from her hero costume slightly hidden under her glasses. A scar peeked out just slightly from her hairline, right above her right ear.

Her torso was covered with a fitted, yet baggy, (how that was possible he didn't know; his fashion sense didn't stray that far outside of comfortable) graphic t-shirt with a design he couldn't make out in the dark. A pair of dark jeans covered her legs, looking like they were a step away from wearing a hole through at the knees, and stretched down to a pair of red converses. This was a more casual look compared to the all black she mostly stuck to when working at CC Jitters.

If he wasn't already impressed by her, she not only quickly memorized his usual drink order (which was a cake walk due to her abilities), but could make it perfectly every morning. Not that a French Roast with a pump of vanilla and a splash of creamer was that hard to figure out. He didn't know what was better; how she seemed to brighten whenever he set foot in the coffee shop (She's a barista, he would often remind himself, she has to be nice to everybody), or that she always smelled like cinnamon rolls after a shift at work. The very same scent that was tantalizing his nose at this very moment.

He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath of the sweet smell. It reminded him of home. At least the good parts of home; the times he could look back on fondly like birthdays, and Christmases, big Halloween candy hauls. Every big event his mom would make cakes, pastries, pies, everything that practically made his teeth fall out of his mouth just by looking at them.

Then there were the special treats his mom would have waiting for him after a long day of school. Somehow she would know whenever he had a hard day at school whether it was a hard day studying or a hard day trying to ignore all the teasing and mean comments. Coming home to the smell of vanilla, or frosting, or freshly made food always made the house feel warm and inviting.

And then he grew up and had to start making decisions on where his life would lead him. Anything that couldn't lead him into a career was out of the question. It took a while for his parents to come around to the idea of him wanting to pursue a career in science, but the kibosh was put on that after the accident and following his decision to keep working at a now defunct lab.

"Right." Averey clicked her tongue. "I guess this all is really happening, isn't it?" Her eyes darted back and forth from each character on screen, face filled with curiosity of what was going to happen next. She was talking quieter than she had previously, her lips barely moving. "I just realized; there's barely any music in this movie. It's so quiet." Her body tilted forward just slightly, as if trying to get closer to the movements projected onto the screen in front of her.

"Mmmhmm."

As she continued to watch the movie, he continued to watch her. He watched her demeanor change with every shift in tone of the movie. She would curl in on herself whenever the minimal music would come back in or it got eerily quiet, just waiting for something to happen. Her hands flew towards her face to cover her eyes whenever a creature appeared on screen, yet she always peeked through her fingers to keep up with the movie. One minute she would cheer for the characters ("You're almost there. Hurry up, hurry up!"), and the next practically sulk in her seat when things went wrong ("Oh, damn. He was my favorite").

It was the end of the movie that got the biggest reaction from her. Sitting cross legged in her seat, she had been silent for the last ten minutes, staring at the movie barely blinking. Her hands were held over her dropped jaw and she slowly shook her head back and forth. She was silent even when the credits started to roll.

Cisco got to his feet and started to take down the equipment before she noticed, or just acknowledge, that he had been watching her. Of course she had to have known, people could sense when someone was watching them. Maybe she's not saying anything because she thinks it's creepy. Oh, crap. He dropped the power chord he was trying to wrap up once, twice, three times. His hands were suddenly clammy. Peeking over the top of the projector as he pulled himself from a crouch, he realized that she didn't seem to notice his clumsiness. Think of something just in case she asks. Like…'You're more mesmerizing than a movie'. No, that's stupid.

"But…he…that was all for nothing?" Averey asked, removing her hands from her mouth. Her voice was in a higher pitch than Cisco had ever heard her talk in.

"Yyyep."

"Noooo." Her shoulders slumped and her bottom lip protruded out a little more than it usually sat. "Aw." Cisco laughed quietly to himself at her reaction. Then just like before, she sat up straight in her seat, a smile on her face. "You're right, though. That was a good movie."

"See?" he said as she moved to eject the movie disc from the computer that sat on the small table beside her. "I told you, you'd like it."

"What would you have done if I didn't?"

"Stop being your friend."

"Harsh, mate."

"I take movies very seriously."

"That's a laugh. I can tell."

Cisco caught her eye as he rolled the cart holding the projector into the corner of the room and the two of them started to laugh. See, it's easy to talk to her. No problem. He flipped on the lights and turned around to face the metahuman, realizing very quickly that he had made a mistake.

"Sorry!" he said, hurrying to her side. Averey held her glasses in one hand, the other pressed tightly over her face. He could see lines of pain between her eyebrows, her lips pulled down into a frown. "Sorry, I forgot. I should have warned you."

"No problems," Averey replied in a strained voice. "I'm ok."

"Does it hurt?" he asked, wringing his hands together.

"Just a little, but that's ok."

Cisco bit down on his bottom lip just slightly as he waited for her to give him the all clear. How could he have forgotten that her eyes were really sensitive to light? So sensitive in fact that if the light was bright enough she'd be knocked unconscious in an instant. She practically had a pair of sunglasses glued to her hand and he had created her veyesor to help block out any artificial or natural light. They still hadn't figured out just how bright of a light she could tolerate.

"Ok, I think we're good." Averey slowly opened one eye, blinking repeatedly before doing the same for the other. A peaceful smile appeared on her face as she set her glasses back onto her face.

"Good." Cisco wiped his palms on his pants legs. "So, um, thanks for agreeing to see the movie with me."

"Sure!" Averey chirped with a shrug. "Thanks for asking." She uncrossed her legs and set her feet on the floor. "I can't wait to see what you have in store for the next 'Cisco Cinema'." She used air quotes around the words. "Preferably not a scary movie."

"It wasn't that scary," Cisco replied with a teasing smile.

Averey lifted an eyebrow. "You're not the one who'll have it imprinted in his long term memory for the rest of his life," she reminded him.

"Good point."

"Guess I better get going. It's late." Cisco reached into his pocket for his cell phone to check the time as Averey got to her feet and he knees buckled underneath her. "Whoa!" She instantly dropped to the floor of STAR Labs. "How did I not see that coming?"

"You ok?"

"My legs fell asleep."

"I can see that." After quickly checking the time and storing his phone back into his pocket, Cisco crouched down next to her. Averey propped herself up enough to give him an annoyed look for borrowing her previous words, and Cisco grinned. It wasn't that often he saw it, but she was one of the clumsiest people he had ever met. That made him even more interesting. "Would you like a lift home?"

"Thanks, heaps." Averey used a breath of air to remove the strands of hair that fell into her face. "I appreciate it."

"Sure thing." He offered Averey his hand, practically shivering when the pads of her fingers grazed over his wrist, tickling him. "I just have to go close up STAR Labs and then we can go."

"I'll help," Averey offered as soon as she was standing, brushing the dirt off her knees. "We can think of different movies to watch the next time I come back."

"Hold up," Cisco said, crossing his arms over his chest. "Are you saying my movie choices are bad?"

Averey looked him up and down. "Not to your face," she replied with a teasing smile. "I know how seriously you take movies."

"Ha, ha, ha." Turning on his heels, he started making his way through STAR Labs to start his closing routine with a little spring in his step.

Man, did he love watching movies. They were even better with company.

A/N: I've also put up a new Barry/Averey and Eddie/Averey one shot recently. The Barry/Averey one called M.A.S.H you can find under the "Like Brother, Like Sister" title. The Eddie/Averey one is called I'll Be There.