Title: The Favor

Rating: G

Pairing: Non/Gen (hinted GoldenVibe)

Characters: Cisco Ramon, Leonard Snart, Lisa Snart (mentioned), Ray Palmer (mentioned), The Flash (mentioned)

Warnings: None

Summary: Captain Cold needs a favor from a certain scientist. He asks in the only way he knows how.

Cisco stared at the man seated across from him. Leonard Snart just raised a brow at him, and nodded at the waitress who was passing by with a pot of coffee. She refilled both of their cups, and walked away.

"Aren't you the least bit curious about why I brought you here?" Snart asked, and motioned to the paper he'd placed on the table a few minutes before.

"Yeah, I'm wondering why Captain Cold would take me to breakfast," Cisco snapped.

"I like their waffles," Snart said with a shrug. Then he matched Cisco's stare with a hard one of his own. "Read it."

Reluctantly, Cisco picked up the scrap of paper and read it over. Then he read it again. And again. He looked up at his captor and scowled. "So you kidnap me -"

"Borrowed you," Len interjected, a small smile curling his lips.

"Then you hold me hostage -" Cisco continued, ignoring the interruption.

"I took you out to breakfast," Len said pointed out in such a reasonable way that Cisco wanted to throw something. "And I paid for it."

"You!" Cisco almost shouted. When an elderly woman in the next booth looked over at them, he lowered his voice to a hiss. "You threatened to shoot me if I didn't come with you!"

"I needed to ask you for a favor," Len responded, not in the least bothered by Cisco's outburst. He pointed to the paper. "So you gonna do it for me or what?"

"I...why do you need any of this? And don't you have...I don't know, minions to do this sort of thing?"

Cisco's companion snorted. "Minions are a little fancy for my outfit. And besides, I'm more of a hands-on guy. Some might say I'm a control freak. I prefer to think of myself as a deeply involved manager."

"Except for today," Cisco said, his voice sour. He glared at Cold. "Where am I supposed to take all this stuff? And how do you know I won't tell the Flash all about this...whatever this is?"

"You can tell the Flash," Len said dismissively. "The more the merrier. Sis likes all of you well enough. I think she'd enjoy the extra visitors to her birthday party."

Cisco felt the blood drain from his head. Only Captain Cold would kidnap someone to help him throw a party. Then he looked at the list again. "This is for Lisa's birthday?" he asked, suddenly suspicious. The items were festive, but kind of bland. What kind of game was this?

The other man frowned, and finally showed a little uncertainty. "Yes. Lisa said that since we weren't both on the run, or in jail, or kidnapped, that she wanted a party. She's never asked for one before, so I thought I'd give it a go."

If Snart was trying to manipulate him, he was doing a damn good job. It all made sense in a way. Except it made Cisco wonder just how often Snart and his sister were kidnapped, since that little detail had managed to make it on the list of reasons to actually have a party. He knew their lives were challenging because of the choices they'd made, but how long had it been since either of the siblings had had some actual fun that didn't involve crime?

And really, now all Cisco could think about was the time that Barry had talked about the Snarts' history, and how abusive their dad was. Had either Len or Lisa ever had a birthday party? He looked at the list, and the generic items listed, and decided that no, they probably hadn't.

Like really, Captain Cold had asked him to get a birthday banner. Really? The list was so pathetic, it couldn't possibly be part of some evil plot. This had to be real.

"And you really want me to get this stuff?" Cisco asked. "Just these things on the list?"

Len's frown deepened, and for once, Cisco could see that Captain Cold was well and truly perplexed. "Why? What's wrong?"

"Well, there's no theme. What do you want the focus of this birthday to be about? I mean, this is all pretty general stuff," Cisco was already planning things out in his head to give Lisa an awesome birthday.

He kind-of almost liked her, and Len had paid for breakfast, which was nice, even if he had felt the need to kidnap someone. Plus, the sudden alarm on Captain Cold's face was fun. It had obviously just occurred to the villain that maybe asking for Cisco's help wasn't such a good idea.

Too late now.

"Theme? Focus?" Len asked, sounding a little panicked. "Do we need that? What about just a cake and -"

"No way, man. You want Lisa to like her party, right? Yeah, give me your cell phone number. I'll call you when I have the stuff. Do you have a venue?"

"Uhhhh," Len seemed unable to form a proper sentence. Cisco was rather gleeful that he'd been the one to silence Snart, but he didn't have time to gloat. Not if he wanted to get this party right. But he needed Len's number, and he wasn't going to leave without getting it.

"So what exactly are you going to steal for Lisa's birthday?" he asked. Len narrowed his eyes at him. Cisco wasn't that worried, because he figured Len wouldn't ruin his sister's birthday by killing someone she apparently liked. "You don't have to tell me. I get it, you want it to be a surprise. But unless you want the Flash to be chasing you all over Central City, you'd better give me your number so you can answer any questions I have for you."

Snart glowered at him, then grudgingly wrote out a cell phone number on the napkin. "I have to go," he muttered, and shoved the napkin at Cisco before he dropped a nice tip on the table for their server. Snart regarded him with a mixture of amusement and apprehension. "Don't mess this up," he said, trying to make it sound like a warning, but it looked like he was trying not to smile.

"This is going to be epic," Cisco assured him, and started furiously texting his brother. If there was one thing the Ramons were known for, it was their party planning. Snart stared at him for a few extra seconds, almost as if he wanted to say something else, but then thought better of it. "Don't be late," he warned Cisco. Cisco snorted.

"You don't even know where the party is at this point," Cisco said impatiently. He spared Len another quick glance. "Stay or go, but leave the planning to the expert."

Snart hesitated a second later, then stalked off with a mutter that sounded suspiciously like, "What have I gotten myself into?"

Cisco waited for the other man to be gone before he dialed up his go-to partner in crime, Ray Palmer.

"Hey dude, listen. The coolest thing happened. Captain Cold stopped me this morning...no, he didn't kidnap me, he borrowed me…no, no. He bought me breakfast, it's fine. Listen, remember how you said that if you really wished you could do something nice thing for the Snarts, since their childhood was so shitty? Guess what…"