Snow Globes and Mistletoe

By: Riley

Summary – It's time for the annual Ramon Christmas party and Cisco needs a date. They know Caitlin's just his friend and he needs to convince them she's not. Too bad they soon can't tell the difference themselves.

1

Cisco whistled to himself as he walked into the Cortex. With a Christmas song in his head, joy in his heart, and pep in his step, nothing could bring down his mood. The holidays were his favorite time of year. But most importantly, Christmas. Forget all the food that could be eaten during Thanksgiving. Forget watching his uncles shout and scream at the football game on TV when they weren't falling asleep after the food coma.

Forget his mother, aunts, and grandmother rattling off in rapid-fire Spanish as they gossiped over making dinner and complaining how the younger ones never want to help. (Save for them shooing away everyone who actually tried to help them). Forget them getting even more irritated when no one helped to wash the dishes. Forget Dante using the time to use the time to brag about all of the accomplishments he made that year.

Nothing compared to the joy that was Christmas. With all of the lights, and presents, and happiness that seemed to cover Central City, along with the snow. Nothing was a better time of year for him. And Cisco was nothing short of an elf when that fateful day in December came around. Especially with all of his new friends to spend it with.

He smiled, eyes moving around the Cortex to look at said friends.

Barry Allen, his best friend was using his super speed to take care of untangling all of the Christmas lights that needed to be hung. Cadence Nash and her son, Brady, were walking back and forth the floor of the Cortex as they put up ribbons, bulbs, candy canes, and pieces of garland. Harry Wells, the man who….wasn't as much of a pain in the ass as he had been before, stood by barking orders to everyone. Of course, Cisco thought with a smirk.

And Caitlin…

Cisco felt his eyes drawing towards her as she stood to the side, putting ornaments up on the Christmas tree that had been put in place of Barry's suit, which Cisco had temporarily replaced. ("But where's my suit going to go?" Barry asked when he saw Cisco moving the mannequin. "It's not like there's not a million places in this building I can't put it," Cisco shot back. "And besides, it's my suit."). Caitlin Snow was as perfect as ever, placing each piece of decoration on the tree equi-distant from the last. All that was needed was the lights to go in the spaces around them and things would be finished.

Funny how Caitlin was a big part of him managing to find his love for the holiday again. He hated it as much as scrooge, knowing he'd have to suffer with his family. But being able to spend that time with Caitlin, and Ronnie once upon a time, had given him the sense that things would be okay. Since then, they always spent the holidays together. It was an unspoken rule. And it had nothing to do with the fact that Caitlin was alone and Cisco would do anything to make her smile during the holidays.

Nope.

Nothing at all.

Caitlin turned his way and flashed a smile, folding her arms. "What's gotten you in such a good mood today?" She asked. "It certainly can't be the fact that you're late. You're never late."

"Not all of us have superspeed you know," Cisco replied, shooting own the sudden need to make sure his hands weren't sweating. "Super awesome Vibe powers, maybe, but not superpseed. And besides, I had to get provisions,"—he lifted a bag filled with candy. "And make a killer mixtape,"—he held up his iPhone with the other. "You're welcome."

Caitlin's smile widened and she held out her hands towards Cisco. He stretched his hand to her…and was intercepted by Brady as he grabbed onto the bag filled with candy. Cisco loved the kid, but he hadn't truly understood what the term 'cockblock' meant until then. Not including the times Dante seemed to make it his personal mission to mess things up whenever he was interested in a girl or brought a girl around the house…

There had been many times he'd even tried hitting on Caitlin and Cisco felt nothing short of glee when Caitlin swiftly turned him down each and every time. Of course, Ronnie was that reason, but it was sweet, sweet justice on a level he never knew existed.

"What kind of candy did you get?" Brady asked, sticking his head inside the bag. "Hey!" His mother reached around him and grabbed it back.

"Did I not teach you manners?" She asked, holding it out to Cisco.

"Not when it came to food," Brady replied. "You said to eat fast and make sure you're full—"

"—That was at a buffet. And we had already eaten all of the shrimp."

Barry laughed, folding his arms. "Yeah, why are you late? Normally you're bouncing at the walls to get into STAR Labs every day. Sometimes, I think you live here."

"That would cut down on the commute," Cisco mused. "And I'm sure the landlord wouldn't mind waving me rent." He gave a pointed looked to Barry, who smirked back at him. "But I already told you, I was getting provisions and music. There's nothing more to it than that. And do you know how hard it is to make the perfect Christmas mix? Do you go with the Christmas Carols of old or the new and hip covers of the songs you all know and love? And even then, do you play all of the same songs—originals and covers—in a row, or do you mix them up? And how do you mix them? By artist, year release, genre? It's a very delicate process."

Caitlin laughed, covering her mouth with her hand. "Well, I'm sure we'll all appreciate what you came up with for—"

"—For another lie," Harry broke in. All eyes turned his way and Harry looked Cisco up and down. "Bets are you had that playlist made for month and have had that candy stashed for even longer. I wouldn't eat any of that in case of food poisoning." He juggled a silver balled ornament in his hands the pointed at Cisco. "Not to mention he's much too happy to be Cisco."

"You're right," Cisco said sarcastically. "Your mere presence generally tends to ruin any good mood I have."

"And you're still happy…?"

Barry and Caitlin exchanged a glance before turning to Cadence, who held her hand over her mouth to hide her smile. Cisco's heart sank. Cadence was cool—no pun intended to her fire powers—but the thing he hated most about her abilities was how easily she could read people. She'd proven it many times, being able to sense the temperature change in people to know when they were nervous or lying…he should've known he'd get away with things a little bit longer.

"Harry's right," Cadence finally said. "He's lying. So what is it, Cisco? You have a hot date you haven't told us about?" She chuckled at her own joke.

Cisco snuck a glance towards Caitlin, finding her looking back at him curiously. Well, that lasted long enough. "I was visiting my parents and told them that I'm not going to their Christmas party this year," he said quickly. "Who wants candy?"

"You're not going to your family's Christmas party?" Cadence asked. Cisco nodded. "And that make you happy?"

"You don't know my family."

"A Christmas party?" Brady's eyes lit up at the same time that Barry's face did. "Are we invited?"

"Yeah, I haven't been to a Christmas party in a long time," Barry added. "And I haven't met your family yet, other than Dante and…we know how that turned out."

Cisco nodded. Barry hadn't truly met Dante as Barry, but as The Flash. And that had only been when Cisco had no choice but to reveal Barry's identity to Captain Cold and Heat Wave when the two had kidnapped his brother and tortured him. Barry had gone to Dante shortly afterwards to explain why it was important that Dante never tell anyone about his secret identity. So far Dante had kept it a secret but there was still the chance he could let things slip at the worst time.

"Wait," Caitlin said, holding up her hand. "The Annual Ramon Christmas Party?" She asked. "That party? You don't want to go?"

Cisco grimaced, hating the way Caitlin was looking at him. With a tilted head and a 'we need to talk about this' look that she somehow managed to perfect in the years they'd known each other. It worked the day he'd been down about making a mistake during his first year at STAR Labs and she'd had it in her arsenal ever since.

"Nah, it's just…not something I want to do this year," Cisco said slowly, racking his brain for an excuse. "I…uh…have a lot of work to do around here." He gestured around the Cortex. "You know, watching over the city…going to fight metas…stopping crime."

A snort escaped Barry's lips. "You know I have superspeed right?"

"And that I can teleport," Cadence added.

"Not to mention the CCPD-"

"—Alright, I get it!" Cisco snapped. He folded his arms and looked away. "I just don't want to go?"

"Why?"

"Because the idea of having to be tortured by the constant questions of what I'm doing with my life isn't something that's very appealing to me." Cisco sniffed and started to count on his fingers. "'Are you still doing that science thing?' 'What's your plan in the next five years?' 'Did you know Dante did this?' 'Did you know Dante did that?' 'Do you have a girlfriend?' 'Dante's been dating his girl…' blah blah blah." He shook his head. "It doesn't help that I'm at the age where everyone in my family have started to get engaged and married so the questions of bringing a date or having a girlfriend has started to get worse and worse."

"Wow, that young?" Cadence asked, raising her eyebrows. Cisco could've easily said something about how Cadence had had Brady when she was so young, but wasn't dumb enough to inflict the wrath of a fire metahuman on him. Instead he shrugged, making Cadence's nose wrinkle. She thought for a moment and motioned to Caitlin. "Why doesn't Caitlin just go as your date?"

"I don't have any plans," Caitlin said. "I'd love to go."

Cisco's heart soared and he did his best to keep a goofy smile from coming to his face. He cleared his throat and steeled himself to say, "You've been to enough of our parties, they know you're not my girlfriend or anything." As much as I want you to be, he thought. "It's not going to help much."

"Easy fix," Cadence insisted. "Just tell them she's your girlfriend. I'm sure Caitlin can fake it for a day."

Barry's eyes widened. "Uh, Cade, I don't think that's a good idea."

"As much as I don't care about Cisco and his romantic habits, I have to agree with Barry," Harry remarked. "Fake dating never turns out well. On my Earth we even have Public Service Announcements about them. You'd be surprised how often people end up dead after one of those schemes." Barry, Cisco, Caitlin, Cadence, and Brady all stared at him with wide eyes. "You don't mess with matters of the heart," he said grimly. "That's why we have breakup cubes."

"Breakup cubes?" Barry repeated. "What?"

Cadence held up her hand, interrupting Barry. "Your family already knows that you guys are close friends. It's not hard to think you'd eventually start dating."

"Easy for you to say," Cisco said. "You're dating The Fastest Man Alive. On paper that's more amazing than anything I could bring to the table. That's more than what any man can bring to the table."

"But no one knows Barry's The Flash, remember?" Brady reminded him.

"Dante does," Cisco said. He ran a hand through his hair. "And, chances are, he'll just continue to compare Barry to me and how he'd rather have him as a brother." He started to rub his chin. "I wonder if I can come up with a pair of earplugs that can just drown out his voice. It'd make a killing for family gatherings."

"Cisco." Barry placed his hand on his best friend's shoulder. "Nothing and one compares to you."

"Okay, Sinead O'Conner. You're not going to start singing to me are you?" Cisco asked, brushing his hand away. Barry laughed, making Cisco smile a little. "Can we just drop this? We're having our own Christmas party, right? And it's going to be 100x better than anything the one my parents will have."

"Right," Caitlin agreed. She started to stroke her finger along the computer desk in small circles. "The party with the festive music, the sing-alongs, the café de leche, the biggest buffet of food you could ever have, all of your little cousins, your aunts and uncles…"

Damn it. Cisco was starting to feel wistful. And just when he thought he was going to get out of it.

Caitlin gave him a meaningful look and said, "I don't have a problem pretending to be your girlfriend for the party, Cisco."

"You don't?" Cisco, Barry, and Harry all chorused with varying degrees of surprise. Cadence smirked and Brady was too busy eating his fill of chocolate from the bag that Cisco seemed to have forgotten about.

"It's just for one day," Caitlin said. "And you know I always have a good time at your family's parties when we're hanging out." She grinned. "Remember last year when we brought the piñata?"

Cisco grinned. As a joke, they had manufactured a piñata at STAR Labs for the occasion. It was filled with candy and everything you'd ever want out of the game, but, like the crane games at the arcade, they rigged it to only open after a certain amount of hits. Watching Dante turn red in the face at his desperation to knock it open was the highlight of the day.

"So? What do you say?" Caitlin asked. She walked up to his side and rested her hand on his shoulder. "I won't tell if you won't."

"Okay," Cisco finally agreed. "You guys can come, you're all invited." He pointed at Harry. "Except for you. I don't want you anywhere near my family."

"The feeling's mutual," Harry said.

Cisco smiled, even Harry's dickish attitude wasn't going to get him down.

He had a date to the Christmas party. His best friend was going with him. His girl friend. Not girlfriend. Unfortunately, there was a difference between the two.

A/N; Hey guys, I hope you enjoyed this. It's going to be a short story, about five chapters or so. I really like KillerVibe with their friendship and as a possible romantic pairing and I figured this was the perfect time of year to try and write one. This does fall into the universe of my main flash series, The Flash and The Flame, so there are OCs in it.

Let me know what you think.

Cheers,

-Riley