A/N: Hey, this is my first attempt at the Flash stories. So, uh, yeah. Be kind? It probably won't be more than a few chapters, but we'll see how it goes. These things have a way of getting away from me, lol. Basically my favorite pairing is ColdFlash (Leonard Snart and Barry Allen) but I also love Cisco/Barry or Caitlin/Barry. To be honest I'm not a big Iris fan? I mean I like her okay but I don't like her with Barry? Meh, whatever. We'll see how it goes. Anyway, please let me know what you think! Reviews are love and make me update!
Chapter length: 2134
Begin!
I've Got Soul but I'm Not a Soldier
By Muffy the Dough Slayer
Barry is… important. Their fling isn't a fling, it's more than that and right now a part of Len is wondering if he will get the chance to tell that to Barry.
Or, there's a Singularity above Central City and the Flash has decided to run into it, meanwhile Captain Cold waits for his return... if he returns... and despite his cool exterior, Leonard Snart is not a very patient person
CHAPTER 1 - Sixty Seconds
The day starts out so well.
A heist is planned, they're getting ready to hit their mark, and then suddenly the sky decides to erupt in chaos. It's a normal, sunny Tuesday morning otherwise; traffic is bad as always, parents are taking their kids to the park, birds are chirping – all is normal.
Until there's this sound, something he can't quite explain. And then the sky is darkening in a whirlwind of black. Some kind of tear in the sky, a hole, a black hole, it seems. And for a long moment, they all stop what they're doing and stare up at it in utter confusion. Lisa is at his side and she breathes out a quick, "Jesus, fuck." Mick stops walking, too, but if he says something it's lost in the whirling noise which overcomes the city as buildings begin ripping upward, into the hole in the sky.
And then Leonard Snart gasps as a streak flits up the side of a building, jumping across floating rubble, toward the epicenter of the hole. The Flash.
"Oh, good," Lisa breathes. "He can fix it, yeah?"
Sure, Len wants to say. He's the Flash, that's his job – he fixes things.
But a much larger part of him is caught up in the whole-
That's Barry Allen, my boyfriend, jumping into a black hole.
Just a normal Tuesday.
Or not.
Len scrubs a hand over his face, which is very unlike him. Keeping his cool in the face of this is a little beyond him, though. Barry Allen. Barry Allen, his boyfriend of four months. Barry Allen, CSI for the CCPD. Who sucks at poker but trades sarcastic quips with Mick nevertheless. Who loves Lisa's pancakes. Who fits perfectly against Len when they are in bed after-
Barry Allen, who is the Flash.
The Flash, who is Barry Allen.
The Flash, who Lisa and Mick don't know is Barry Allen.
He's speechless for a long moment; he can feel Lisa's hand on his arm, hear her voice asking if he's okay. He should be okay, from her perspective; he's friendly with the Flash and admits to having fun during their battles, but there's a difference between sharing a few laughs with your enemy and worrying about said enemy. To Lisa, he's staring up at the Flash and has lost his voice because the Flash is trying to stop a black hole from eating Central City.
Right now said black hole seems to be stabilizing; it stops ripping up buildings as the Flash – as Barry – runs in a circle inside of it, just barely visible due to his yellow lightning tail. He's moving so quickly it's all a blur of yellow and black but Len knows it's him, and it's the only reassurance he has.
Explaining the whole 'Barry Allen, the CSI I've been dating, is the Flash' to Lisa and Mick isn't going to be easy, and it's a conversation he was hoping to put off for a little longer. But he will have to tell them after this. They are tossing him confused, worried looks.
"Look, I'm sure Barry's fine," Lisa says tentatively, tightening her grip on his arm. It's so tight he can feel her painted nails through the parka. "I mean – the station looks intact, and he's a lab rat, right?"
Len grits his teeth, shrugging her off. He'll explain later, but right now he needs to focus. He needs to watch. He needs to see…
A flying, burning man soars into the singularity. Len has heard about him from Barry but never actually met the guy, or fought him in a battle. But he looks like he knows what he's doing, and is heading up there to help, and he's grateful.
He's not sure when he became so worried about the kid. It was just supposed to be a casual fling, which kept happening. Then it was sort of an 'enemies with benefits' sort of arrangement, and then Barry was his friend. He joined them for their weekly card games even though he wasn't the best at it. He sat through Mick's tirades with a smile on his face, and gossiped with Lisa about boys.
Barry was… important. Their fling isn't a fling, it's more than that and right now a part of Len is wondering if he will get the chance to tell that to Barry.
There's an explosion in the sky, again. Inside the singularity.
The light is blinding. By the time his blinks are allowing him to see, all he can see is the hole closing.
The yellow lighting is gone.
He counts, his heart racing too quickly to count the beats, but nevertheless he counts the seconds until he sees the Flash again. Sees the yellow lightning, the golden trail, the Scarlet Speedster, Barry Allen.
One…
Barry's more than a little nervous when he agrees to come to poker night with the Rogues. He's never played poker before; Len hides a smirk at this as he pushes his hands down on the kid's shoulders, forcing him into a chair sandwiched between himself and Mick, with Lisa across from them. He sits close to the kid so he can show him the ropes; and if the kid sees his cards, well, that's okay too, because there's no way he's going to lose this game.
Unless Mick cheats again.
"So," Mick starts as Lisa begins dealing, all the while keeping her gaze on Barry with this smirk on her face, "you're a cop?"
"CSI," Barry says.
"You got a badge?"
"… I have a laminate," Barry mumbles, and Len snickers behind his hand, stifling the sound when Barry shoots him a quick glare.
"No gun?" Lisa asks with a pout. "Handcuffs?"
"I have a lab coat," Barry offers with a small, apologetic smile.
"Boring," Mick says with a scoff as he picks up his cards.
Len laughs because if only his Rogues knew.
Five…
"Is this…?" Barry looks around slowly. "Is this a date?"
Len smiles at the disbelief evident in the kid's voice. His fingers push against Barry's shoulder until the speedster sits in the chair offered to him. Candles flicker briefly on the table, two plates of food waiting for them.
"You're the one who said I'm not romantic," Len says as he sits across from Barry.
Barry narrows his eyes at him, gaze calculating in that adorable way of his. The kid's eyes are too wide and Bambi-like to be threatening. "Well, you're not."
"Then what's this?"
"Did you take that as a challenge?" Barry asks incredulously.
Len smirks. "What if I did? What are you going to do about it, Scarlet?"
Barry throws his head back and laughs. "Captain Cold, captain of romantic gestures. Who knew?" He looks down at the food then, smirking. "You do realize this isn't going to fill me up, right?"
"Oh, I know all about your appetite," Len says, and the look Barry gives him is seductive as his tongue flicks out to wet his lips.
"I'm hard to sate, what can I say."
"You're hard, all right."
Barry laughs like he always does when he's trying to play it cool, no pun intended. He tries to be seductive and make the jokes but in the end he's too innocent for that, and truthfully Len wouldn't have it any other way.
Twelve…
"What are we doing?"
The words come suddenly as they are falling asleep. Len's fingers twitch against Barry's bare thigh as his eyes open to peer at the speedster through the darkness.
"Care to elaborate, Scarlet?"
Barry draws in a slow breath. Uh oh. Trouble. There's never anything slow about the Flash, especially when they're alone. It's not like he needs to hide from Len.
"What are we doing?" Barry repeats. "I mean – sex, right, I understand that part just fine, but I mean – why me?"
"What do you mean?"
It's late, and Len's too tired for this. They just had sex thirty minutes ago; he thought they were both well on their way to sleep, but apparently not. The exhaustion in his bones will have to wait a few minutes more. He drags a hand free of the covers to run across his eyes, attempting to wipe the sleep away.
"Why me?" Barry repeats. "If you're just blowing off steam or whatever, why me? You could find literally anyone."
"No one wears red as good as you," Len mumbles around a yawn. He's really too tired for this crap right now.
Plus, he's not sure he knows the answer himself, and this is a conversation he'd rather not have ever, let alone right now when he's half asleep with the feeling of Barry's sweaty, vibrating skin still implanted in his mind.
The kid vibrates. It's kind of hard to forget.
"Seriously," Barry says, scowl evident in his voice. He pushes an elbow under him and sits up slightly. Len's arm falls away. He sighs. "I mean – why? We're enemies."
"Didn't hear you complaining earlier."
"I'm being serious here."
"I know you are," Len sighs. "But I'm tired and you're warm and we can talk about it later."
"But-"
"Sleep, Barry. Tomorrow. I promise."
Barry sighs heavily, but lays back down.
A moment later, Len's arm is draped across his body again, his own personal heater.
Twenty-five…
Where are you, Scarlet…
Thirty…
A hand on his shoulder.
Thirty-two…
He shakes it off.
Thirty-five…
The singularity is gone.
"Whoa, Scarlet, what's wrong?"
Barry looks – wild. Big eyes, pupils darting around, rigid shoulders… he's on edge, and Len has never seen him like this, not even after their fights as the Flash and Captain Cold.
"It's Wells," Barry breathes shakily. "It's Wells. It was him all alone and I… I can't…" His body is shaking, close to vibrating, but not the good kind. The kid runs his hands up and down his arms as though attempting to stop the unwanted shakiness. Len grabs hold of his arms, tracing his movements with his own hands.
"What's Wells? You're not making any sense," Len tells him.
Barry looks up and meets his eyes. There's a look in the green orbs Len hasn't ever seen there before, and he doesn't like it. "He killed her," Barry says. "Wells killed her. And he's the Reverse-Flash."
It's a lot to swallow in just a few sentences, and Barry talks fast. Len stares at him for a long time, before he nods, because there's no way Barry isn't sure about this. The Flash is many things, but he never jumps to conclusions like this without hard proof – he's a CSI, after all.
"Okay," Len says softly. "Okay, yeah, he's the Reverse-Flash. What do we do about it?"
He doesn't know much about the Reverse-Flash. They try to keep their work lives and personal lives separate, for all the good it does. Barry's just Barry here, and Len's just Len. There is no Captain Cold or the Flash here. It's just them.
Now he wishes he goaded Barry into admitting more about the Reverse-Flash than he did.
"Tell me everything," Len says.
And Barry does.
Forty-one…
The sky is blue.
"Stop it."
"I'm not doing anything, Scarlet."
"Yes, you are, with your eyes."
"My eyes, hmm?"
"Yes – they're very, uh – distracting. And blue. And stop it."
"Well, maybe you should make me."
Fifty…
There's no yellow, or red.
"Why do you keep calling me Scarlet?"
"Why do you keep wearing a red suit?"
"But… Scarlet?"
"Are you saying you hate my name for you? It's only fair, since your friend named me."
"Well… yeah, but, I mean… Ugh, whatever. Call me whatever you want. Oh. Oh, crap. No. I didn't give you permission to-"
"Whatever I want, Scarlet?"
"Oh, God. I'm going to regret this, aren't I?"
Fifty-seven…
No Bambi-eyes. No Flash.
"You know they're gonna find out you're dating the Flash, right? And then they'll know my identity as boring Barry Allen?"
"Barry Allen isn't boring. In fact I happen to have it on good authority he can vibrate in bed. That's not boring, at all."
"Ugh, you know what I mean, Len."
"They'll be cool with it, if they find out."
"This isn't really an 'if' kind of thing, you know? I think we should tell them. Iris was pissed when she realized I had been lying and-"
"I thought we agreed not to mention your long-time-crush when we're in bed together? It's bad manners, Red."
"Right, right, sorry. I'm just saying. Are you going to tell them?"
"Eventually."
"Why not right now?"
"Because I'm here with you right now, and I think I'm forgetting that whole 'vibrating' thing. Care to remind me?"
"Ugh. You're not very smooth, are you?"
"Got you in bed with me, didn't I?"
"… Touché."
Sixty…
No Barry Allen.
A/N: And there's that.