"You sure you don't want something a little more grown up?" Caitlin asked, raising her drink slightly.
"Swedish Fish are a delicacy for all ages," Cisco said with his mouth full. "Besides, I had my mind controlled by a telepathic gorilla. I need comfort food."
He probably said it as an excuse to eat the snack, but Caitlin thought she heard something else in his tone. There was a bit of seriousness mixed in, as if it bothered him.
We were hijacked by that gorilla too, Frost said. We're fine. We still need to have a talk about how you got involved with said gorilla, by the way.
"The best comfort food is ice cream, and you know it," Caitlin said, in an attempt to get his mind off Grodd. "Ralph ate what was left in the freezer, so I turned to the next best thing: a drink."
Cisco wagged a fish at her. "That's Frost talking. You used to eat these with me." He bit the fish in half, staring past her.
Caitlin's light-heartedness faded as her eyes moved to the cup of fish in front of Cisco. He was the only person who could convince her to eat them. It had been a long time since she'd eaten Swedish Fish with him, mostly because it had been a long time – much longer than she'd care to admit – since they'd really done anything besides work together. In almost all of the recent recreational activities Team Flash had done, Cisco hadn't been there. He'd been talking about having a normal life, and working on the cure, and was really pursuing Camilla. And he wasn't around. It was almost like he was distancing himself from them, she thought with alarm.
"You'd tell me if something changed, right?"
Cisco spun around in his chair at her sudden question. "What?"
Caitlin opened her mouth, suddenly overcome with the need to know, but the question stayed trapped inside her: are you planning on leaving?
You're way over-analyzing the Swedish Fish, Frost said.
He was right, Caitlin thought to her. He didn't say it outright, but we used to hang out every day, and now we barely see each other.
That doesn't mean he's planning on going anywhere.
It also doesn't mean he's content with staying, Caitlin countered. Cisco was searching her face with growing concern, and she regretted that she'd blurted out her fear. She couldn't actually ask him this; not if he wasn't volunteering information. She forced a small smile – the smile she'd gotten so good at in her early adulthood and, surprisingly, wonderfully, hadn't needed nearly as often lately. "I just miss hanging out like we used to," she said.
He didn't question her, which meant he believed that was it. Her smile did the trick. He leaned back in his chair, his expression turning thoughtful. "I guess it has been a while."
Caitlin set down her drink. Barry and the others had all left for the day. That time she'd been reminiscing over – the days before Barry became the Flash, when she and Cisco would stay late at the lab and just do what best friends did – wasn't over. They had time now. She didn't want to waste it. "We should watch a movie. We can stream it in the cortex. I've got pizza pockets in the freezer…"
"You have some pizza pockets in the freezer," he corrected.
Caitlin's forced smile was replaced by a real one. Of course he'd gotten to her newest stash. It had been there for two days. "Well?"
He looked at her with a slight upturn of his lips. "As long as it's not Planet of the Apes."
She plucked a fish from Cisco's cup, and was happy at the approval in Cisco's expression. "Fine by me."
I know you're worried, Frost said to her, in an unusually gentle tone. You don't know that he's thinking of leaving, though.
Caitlin watched as Cisco stood and started listing off movie possibilities, worrying the fish between her fingers. She didn't know for sure that he was thinking of leaving, but she had her suspicions. She also knew Frost was right. Until he said otherwise, she would assume he was planning on staying, and things would stay the same. She just also knew that, until he said otherwise, a part of her would be waiting fearfully for him to say he was moving on. Either way she was waiting for him to give her an answer to the question she was too scared to ask.
That's all you can do, Frost said. But try not to think about it tonight. Let's just watch a movie with our friend.
Caitlin went to make the pizza pockets as Cisco grabbed the best pillows from the lounge.
"I got it!" Cisco cried dramatically, when she re-entered the cortex and saw what he'd selected.
Caitlin looked at the screen and chuckled. "I did say you get first pick."
They took their seats in the darkened cortex – watching the movie and eating pizza pockets and laughing without a care in the world – a dwindling cup of Swedish Fish between them.
A/N: I don't know if Cisco is leaving after this season, but I thought this would be Caitlin's reaction to even the thought of him leaving. The ending of the most recent episode, with the Swedish Fish, was too cute of an opportunity to pass up writing about. I love their friendship. The dynamic between Barry, Cisco, and Caitlin has changed slightly since the beginning of the show, but these two have stayed best friends, and it'll be sad if he does leave the show.
Also, I saw that other people commented on certain characters not being on the site. It's really simple to request a character to be added to a fandom (I requested Killer Frost and she was added within two days). All you have to do is email support at fanfiction dot com, and put [character] in the subject line. Specify the character name, the show, and the category, and they'll add the character pretty quickly. It seems like a lot of people don't know about this, so spread the word.
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