A/N: I took a little liberty with Barry's Speed Force powers ad gave him the ability to manipulate electricity because why not? xD I'm usually not a big fan of narratives, but I put a lot of work into this one so I thought I would post it and see what people think. It is going to branch off into more in depth one-shots about the two scenes mentioned here - the hand job, and their first time. You'll see what I mean when you read it.
Warning for angst, PTSD, mention of past abuse, and erotic electrostimulation.
"Oh, Barry… yes, Barry … Barry ssssh-fuck …"
Barry curls his fingers into his palm, backing off as Len spits out his leather mouth-guard and drops, panting, to the mattress. The blue arcs dancing from Barry's fingertips stretch to reach Len's chest, grasping at hair and skin so as not to lose their ground. Some break in the process, but most manage to stay connected, and when Len's back hits the mattress, he relaxes underneath them.
"Did I hurt you?" Barry asks, minimizing the flow of energy and decreasing their strength, extinguishing a couple of the more powerful ones.
"N-no," Len moans. "It was just … a little too much."
"I never thought I'd see the day when Leonard Snart would cry uncle," Barry teases.
"Well, keep thinking cuz you still haven't." Len gulps air, laughing to cover for the difficulty he's having catching his breath.
Barry's grin dims at the corners when Len turns his face away and closes his eyes, choosing to recover in the dark. Barry worries that Len's putting on a brave face, that memories are cropping up that Len isn't telling him about. They need to communicate, especially doing this. Barry has to know that Len's okay.
He doesn't want history to repeat itself.
"Do you want me to stop?" he asks, calling the electricity back to simmer in his hands. "Or should I keep going?"
Len reacts quickly, flashing Barry an exhausted smirk. "Yes … keep it up. D-don't stop."
Barry picks up the leather guard from where it landed on Len's neck and puts it back in his boyfriend's mouth. Len fits it as far back as he can and bites down. Len nods when he's ready. Barry places his hand flat against Len's chest and increases the flow. Electricity flies from his skin and spreads out over Len's chest, traveling down his legs and through his arms. A nest of it coils in his stomach, sending out forks from its churning core. It fills him head to toe till his eyes glow. His heart races, his breath quickens, muscles twitch and digits go rigid. Barry vets the energy carefully until Len himself becomes a ball of blue electricity …
… and comes close to cumming without Barry touching a single other part of his body.
Electricity.
It's such a simple concept. In technical speak, electricity is a form of energy resulting from the existence of charged particles.
But it's also a feeling of thrilling excitement.
In those terms, electricity is the perfect analogy for sex. Sex is electric – it's fire and heat and energy … which is probably why Len hadn't had sex in so long.
Len never liked electricity. It brought back too many bad memories of his father and of juvie.
His father demanded focus, perfection on the job, and he got it from his son through fear and pain, with broken beer bottles, lit cigarettes … and live wires.
Theoretically, Len should have been safer in juvie than he was at home with his dad. Even in the presence of other thugs, he was under the care and supervision of armed police officers 24/7. But he wasn't safe. He'd never feared for his life more than when he was in juvie. Serving time as an adult in maximum security didn't compare.
The police on guard couldn't care less about the health and welfare of the future criminal contingent.
And kids are crueler than adults. They're also more inventive.
Even in his thirties and forties, he would avoid any public bathroom with a faulty overhead light.
His kneejerk reaction to meeting Barry was to hate him, especially when he saw what he could do with electricity. It helped fuel Barry's power, gave him an edge over Len. Barry's skill at manipulating electricity meant that Barry would forever have control over Len unless Len could figure out a way to fight him.
Luckily, Len didn't have to lift a finger in that regard. Barry Allen's own friends did the work for him.
After Len acquired his cold gun, saw what it could do as far as slowing Barry down, he fully embraced becoming Captain Cold. Being the opposite of electricity meant conquering it, and if there was one thing Len had been fighting to do his entire life, it was conquer his past.
But Len's life is nothing if not complicated, and as much as he lives by strict planning, he couldn't predict the unpredictable.
You can't choose who you love.
Hate turned into obsession – the constant challenge Barry presented, the need to up Len's game. It didn't help that Barry was relentless, obsessed himself with rehabilitating Len, seeing the good in him, trying to make Len see it for himself.
Then obsession turned into love for both of them.
Barry falling in love with Len meant coming to terms with dating a criminal … a killer.
Len falling in love with Barry meant having to put parts of his past to rest.
He had to face his fear.
Barry hadn't mean to shock Len that first time. It was a simple matter of physics. Friction. The first handie Barry gave Len, Barry got a little too excited. He became lost in Len's moans and Len throbbing in his grasp, the power behind it - stronger than the Speed Force and ten times as addictive. Barry felt himself moving faster and faster, tipping toward the super-real and unable to stop it.
Static crackled around Len's skin.
His reaction was instant.
He went feral. He shoved Barry off his body, got up off the bed and paced like a wild animal. Barry couldn't touch him. Len wouldn't let Barry near him. Then, without an explanation, Len grabbed his parka and left – Barry thought for good. He didn't understand what had happened, but he thought he had pushed Len to a point that he'd leave Central City and never come back.
But Len had no intention of leaving. He just needed distance. Some time to think. It wasn't too long before Len returned and told Barry everything because, in the end, he loved Barry more than he hated his past. He knew going in to this that being with Barry meant dealing with the Speed Force, with the spark it created. He'd seen that spark in Barry's eyes, knew that it existed inside him.
Len was willing to face it in order to be with Barry.
They started out slow, with tiny forks on the muscular parts of Len's body – the back of his legs, his calves, his ass, as far away from Len's heart as possible. And as they moved on, as Len began to trust Barry more, he learned that electricity didn't have to be a negative thing. It didn't have to hurt, didn't have to damage. It could be warm and relaxing. It could be calm and beautiful. It could make wonderful things happen, make him feel incredible.
Len no longer fears electricity, especially when it comes from Barry.
He craves it now.
Barry doesn't wield it with malice or anger.
He uses it to relax Len's mind and make him feel good.
And his entire body thrums with it.
Barry backs off again when he knows Len's close. He could make Len cum like this. Physiologically speaking alone, constant pulsations inside the prostate would have Len spurting like a fountain in no time.
But Barry wants his turn. He wants Len to make him feel electric, too.
"How're you doin'?" he asks, pulling the energy away. Len's body becomes dark and cool the moment it leaves his body, but he doesn't feel abandoned. He feels fulfilled. "You tired? Ready to call it quits yet?"
"Nu-uh," Len mumbles, shaking his head and yanking the guard out of his mouth. He inhales sharply, breathless for a second. He feels lightheaded, slightly numb in places, but the tingling that starts to replace that numbness jumpstarts an insatiable need. "Not even started. What about you?"
"I could do this all night. Where else do you want to feel it?"
"How about … inside of you, hmm?" Len grabs Barry around the waist and flips him onto the mattress, and little rougher than necessary, but Len's rarely gentle.
Just another way that they're opposites, and opposites attract.
Besides, Barry likes it rough.
Barry surrenders to his boyfriend's strength, to his sure hands, to his powerful body, and that latent bit of Speed Force that sparks deep inside, waiting to be returned to its owner.
"Leonard Snart, you read my mind."