A/N: Just a short lil thing based off one of those AU prompts floating around tumblr. I tried to keep the mood lighter, but ehh. Takes place after the particle accelerator explosion, where we'll just assume it killed a lot of people instead of giving them powers, since this AU doesn't have them.
It was a warm, autumn day, and Cisco had nearly forgotten what sunlight looked like. He'd been cooped up at work for the past few days, constantly revising and improving his latest project, and the only illumination in his work space was provided by the bright fluorescent lights overhead that made everything seem sterile and dead. So, today, on his day off, he'd decided that a walk in real, warm, yellow sunlight would make him feel less like he ought to be starring in Twilight.
The nearest park he could get to was a good twenty minute walk from his place, and while wandering the city streets would be easier, he really didn't mind spending a few extra minutes outside in exchange for a more lush and green walk path.
Gravel crunched under his shoes as he stepped onto one of the park's paths. Trees planted at even intervals decorated the trail, and just beyond he could see a large, circular stretch of grass so green it belonged in a cartoon.
It seemed that many people shared his idea of going to the park today. Teenagers played frisbee and volleyball in the field, couples ranging from young to old walked past him deep in conversation, and of course there were tons of joggers, trainers, people exercising in general sprawled out all over. Cisco put his hands in his pockets and walked along aimlessly, watching the various people immersed in their own activities.
Cisco was glad he'd opted to leave his hoodie at home, as the sun was making it feel like summer rather than fall. With the lab always kept cold, he often forgot the rest of the world was not in a perpetual hazy shade of winter.
The path turned to a slight incline. At the top of the small hill, Cisco could see a young man presumably doing his workout routine, which looked very similar to punching the air repeatedly. In fact, Cisco thought, he just might actually be punching the air repeatedly.
Cisco watched him with some interest, he even slowed down a bit. The man was facing away from him, so Cisco could only catch a small glimpse of his profile. From what he could tell by his face, they seemed close to the same age. And from what Cisco could tell by his butt, it seemed like he'd have to slow his pace a little bit more to savor that eye-candy.
The man stepped back, accidentally knocking over the red water bottle near his feet, which he didn't seem to notice at all. It rolled down the hill towards Cisco.
Cisco trapped it with his foot, then picked it up. "Barry Allen" was scribbled on the side in black sharpie. Cisco assumed this was the man's name, unless of course "Barry" over there was a water bottle thief, and the real Barry Allen was just some poor water bottle-less victim, which wasn't very likely in his mind. Cisco took several steps towards Barry who was still punching air while facing the opposite way, stopping a couple paces away.
"Yo dude, you lost your water bottle." Cisco said, holding it up.
Barry didn't even acknowledge him. He just kept punching the air and staring straight ahead. Cisco noticed for the first time that Barry had headphones in.
He tried again, louder. "YO, DUDE," He stepped closer and tapped Barry's shoulder. "YOU L-"
Barry's elbow flew back at the unexpected touch and hit Cisco square in the face with enough force to send him stumbling backwards. Barry whipped his head around, looking like a deer in the headlights.
"Ow!" Cisco whispered, just as surprised as Barry. He brought his free hand to his nose as Barry pulled out his headphones and immediately reached for Cisco's face.
"Oh my god! Are you okay?" Barry touched Cisco's cheek, gentle as a breeze, and looked at his face.
"Uh, yeah." Cisco managed. In addition to the sudden pain, he was also thrown off by how attractive the stranger in front of him was. "Wow. I mean, ow! Am I bleeding?"
Cisco wiped his upper lip. Sure enough, there was blood.
"Just a little bit from your nose." Barry pulled his hand away and paused. "Okay, now it's a lot. Oh my god, I'm so sorry!"
Cisco leaned his head forward, over the grass, and tried to stop the bleeding. His hair fell in front of his face. He handed Barry's water bottle to him and used his fingers to pinch his nose shut, though it didn't actually help that much.
"You dropped that. That's why I apparently pressed your karate-skills action button."
"And I elbowed you in the face, oh god! I can't believe I just-" Barry looked horrified. "Are you sure you're okay? Is there anything I can do?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just gonna walk home and clean up and get some ice." Cisco wiped away more blood from his face in an unsuccessful attempt to clean up.
"How long will getting home take? Because your nose is really swollen and you should probably get some ice on it ASAP." Barry brushed Cisco's hair behind his ears, looking at his bloody nose with extreme worry.
Cisco averted his gaze. "About twenty minutes, give or take. I'll be fine."
"No way, dude, I live, like, two minutes from here, you can just come to my place and clean up." Barry moved his arm to Cisco's back and pushed him along. They started walking, Barry shutting down any of Cisco's protests.
Just as Barry had promised, it was a short walk. Barry apologized continuously on the way over, and each time Cisco told him it was fine.
Cisco tried not to think about what he must have looked like to Barry, all hunched over and covered in blood while his hair kept falling in his face despite many efforts to tuck it back, which made him feel a bit like cousin It. Barry led him along with one hand on the small of his back. Cisco was painfully aware of it.
Once they reached the apartment complex, Barry let them in. It was a modest building, neither fancy nor shabby, though it had obviously seen better days. They took the stairs to the second floor.
"The elevator's really slow, and it's not really worth the wait since I'm only up one floor," Barry explained as they climbed.
They arrived in front of Barry's door. Cisco cupped his hand under his chin to catch the slowly thinning flow of blood. Barry fumbled with his keys for a few seconds, then unlocked the door and ushered Cisco inside.
Cisco awkwardly walked inside, unsure of where to go until Barry led him on. It was always weird being in someone else's house, especially when you didn't even know the person.
Barry flicked on the lights and gestured to a room around the corner. "The bathroom is just over there. There should be some clean washcloths under the sink."
Cisco went in and used the back of his hand to turn on the light switch, seeing as it was less bloody than the rest of his hand. He walked to the sink and began to rinse off the blood.
He peered into the cabinet under the sink. A small stack of white washcloths stood next to several various bottles of hair spray, gel, and other products. It didn't really surprise Cisco. He grabbed a washcloth and cleaned his face and neck.
He felt a little bit bad about ruining one of the nice white cloths, but all he could really do was rinse it as best he could and leave it hanging on the towel rack to dry. He wadded up some toilet paper and stuck it up his nose. Cisco really hated how ridiculous it made him look, especially when Barry was already super hot in comparison. Cisco walked down the short hallway into the living room.
"Barry?" Cisco called. He glanced down at an end-table. There was a photo of Barry and some beautiful brown-skinned woman, who was smiling and had her arms wrapped around Barry's shoulders. His girlfriend, maybe?
"I'll be there in a second," Barry shouted. "Go ahead and make yourself at home."
Cisco sat down on the couch. Barry appeared a moment later, in fresh clothes, holding a bag of ice. He plopped down next to Cisco and handed him the bag.
"Thanks." Cisco held it on his nose.
"So," Barry looked at him. "How exactly did you know my name?"
"It's on your water bottle."
"Oh, right, right." Barry paused. "What's your name? I don't think you told me yet."
Cisco held out his hand and smiled. "Cisco Ramon. Nice to meet you, dude." Barry took his hand and shook it.
"Same to you. You know, your name sounds really familiar, I feel like I just heard it somewhere."
Cisco shrugged. "Maybe you were looking at the 'coolest people currently alive' list, because I'm, like, at the top of that." He brushed some invisible dust off his shoulders.
"Oh, really?" Barry grinned.
"Yep. I'm so cool I've gotta keep ice on my face or I'll melt." He pointed to the baggie of ice he was holding on his nose and waggled his eyebrows.
Barry laughed like audible sunshine. "No, dude, really though, I know I've heard your name before." They settled into silence as Barry thought.
"So..." Cisco tried to break the silence. "Is that girl in the picture your girlfriend?" He pointed to the photograph on the end table.
"Iris? No, we're just good friends. We pretty much grew up together like siblings since her dad took me in after my dad went to..." he trailed off and looked away. His gaze seemed distant. Cisco got the feeling he shouldn't pry into this. "Um. He... was sent to Iron Heights after being accused of murdering my mom. But I know he didn't do it."
"Wow." Cisco didn't know what else to say. "That's rough dude."
"Uh, sorry. I didn't mean to lay all that on you after we just met." He looked at Cisco and half-smiled. "I guess I just feel comfortable around you."
Cisco returned the smile and said nothing. For the next few minutes they slipped into a comfortable silence. Cisco pulled out the wadded up tissues from his nose, hoping that he'd look like less of a dork now.
Barry scrunched up his face in thought. After a moment, his face lit up as he snapped his fingers. "I've got it! You worked on the particle accelerator! That's why your name sounded so familiar. I remember reading it in some article."
"Yeah, I was the head engineer until it... y'know." The unsaid words hung heavy in the air between them. "But, uh, that's all over for me now. I'm just a regular engineer at S.T.A.R. labs, doing regular engineer things."
"That's so cool." He leaned closer to Cisco. "Do you know Dr. Wells? I'm such a huge fan of his. Everything he's theorized and proved with his work in quantum physics is absolutely amazing."
"Dude, I know! He's literally the smartest guy I've ever met. And to answer your question: yes, he's my boss and I see him everyday."
Barry grinned like a kid in a candy shop. "Wow, that's so cool!"
"Maybe..." Cisco paused. "Maybe I could take you on a tour of the lab sometime, and possibly arrange something so you could meet him."
"Really?" Barry's eyes widened and his face split into a smile. "That would be... amazing! Really?"
"Sure, man. It'd totally be cool." Cisco didn't really know why he was offering this to a total stranger. Maybe he was just looking for an excuse to see Barry again once their meeting ended. Cisco put down the ice he'd been pressing on his nose. "Hey, how's my nose look? Still swollen?"
"Uhh," Barry lightly touched his face, feeling the skin. "It looks like it's pretty much back to normal."
"Wait," Cisco rolled his eyes, "You don't even know what my nose looks like normally. Sorry, that was a stupid question."
"I'm a forensic scientist, I think I can tell when someone's nose is swollen whether I've seen them before or not."
Cisco raised his eyebrows. "Super attractive and smart, nice." He noticed Barry's cheeks take on a slightly pinker hue as he mentally backtracked on what he'd just said and wished that he could just sew his mouth shut. "Uh, I mean... umm. Well! That's my cue to leave, I'll just..."
Cisco stood up, Barry following his lead. "Thank you for the hospitality, it was great to meet you, even though the initial meeting was not so great."
"You're really leaving already?" Barry asked. Cisco nodded as they walked to the door.
"I don't want to impose any more than I already have."
"No, man, you weren't imposing at all! I liked talking with you, we should definitely do it again sometime."
"Really?" To Cisco it seemed unlikely someone would want that from him. "Okay, well, why don't I give you my number. We can do that tour thing I mentioned next time you're free."
Barry smiled. "Sounds great!" He grabbed a pen and a sticky note pad. Cisco wrote down his number and handed it to Barry.
"Call me sometime." Cisco smiled and waved as he walked out the door. Barry waved back, closing the door.
Cisco had barely reached the bottom of the staircase when he felt his phone vibrating in his back pocket. He pulled it out. An unknown number was calling.
"Hello?" Cisco answered it.
"Hello? Cisco?" Barry's voice responded.
"Uh, yeah. Why are you calling?"
"Well, I don't really know how long you're supposed to wait with these types of things, but I was thinking that maybe after the tour we could go out for dinner? My treat, of course, since I elbowed you in the face."
"Dinner?" Cisco asked, his brain jumping to all sorts of ideas. "Like-"
"Like a date." Barry said quickly. "I mean if you're cool with that. Cool with me. Oh geez I don't even know if you're into guys I justthoughtmaybeyoumightbebutIwasprobablywrongandyouprobalydon'tevenlikemeorguysand-"
"Dude! Calm down," Cisco interrupted. "A date sounds awesome, I'm totally down for it."
"Really?" Barry sounded surprised. "Great! Awesome! Okay, we'll just coordinate the times and dates later. Okay?"
"Sure, man." Cisco felt himself smile. "I'll call you, bye!"
"Bye!" Cisco hung up. He walked down the stairs, a new spring in his step.
Cisco was glad he'd gone for a walk. As he left the apartment complex, the sun now shone even brighter, mirroring his elation. Sometimes, he thought, getting elbowed in the face could be pretty great.