Chemistry
By: Rhuben
Summary – While taking part in Cisco Cinema, Cisco Ramon and Averey Moore enjoy each other's company. [Deleted scene set between chapters 19 and 20 of "In a Flash"]
Movies were a way for Cisco Ramon to escape reality. As if his life didn't seem like a sci-fi movie already. With all the Metahumans running around Central City, the technology he surrounded himself with every day, and the discoveries he had personally witnessed while working in STAR Labs, the idea of a movie based on his life had popped up in his mind from time to time. Who hadn't spent some time thinking about who would play them in their life story? Maybe a younger Dante Basco…
The light from the movie in front of him, flickering from scene to scene, illuminating the otherwise dark room in STAR Labs. As the story unfold in front of his eyes, his stomach let out a loud growl and he gazed upon his empty bag of popcorn. He hadn't met anyone that could finish a bowl faster than him when a movie was involved.
"I could really go for some sushi right now," he mused aloud, stretching his arms over his head.
"Ssssh!" His lips lifted in the corner into a small smile. "If you're going to ask me to this Cisco Cinema thing, mate, don't talk during the movie."
Cisco chuckled through his nose as he turned his head away from the movie to face the Averey Moore who sat cross legged in the rolling chair next to him. Her gaze was fixed on the movie playing on the large roll away tv screen, but her hand moved mechanically from the bowl of popcorn in her lap to her mouth to eat a kernel.
He had seen the movie hundreds of times-enough to quote and occasionally he found himself mouthing along to the funny parts, but was surprised to hear that she hadn't seen a lot of the classics. E.T., Ghostbusters, and Back to the Future were staples in the movie world; it was hard to find anyone who had never even seen a single scene from them. "Said no one ever" was his shocked answer when Averey had explained to him that she had never seen any of the movies Cisco advertised as on the playlist for that night. After a long day working in STAR Labs, it was a great way to unwind. Even better when he had company.
"You sound just like Caitlin," he said, referring to his friend and co-worker, Dr. Caitlin Snow, a biomedical engineer for STAR Labs. "Only you're not pointing out how the movies are scientifically inaccurate. Except Ghostbusters." He watched the left side of Averey's face scrunch into a look of annoyance. He reached out a finger and poked her in the cheek. "She looked like that, too."
"Sssh!" Averey slapped his hand away. "I haven't seen this before and I'm not going to bloody remember it, if you keep distracting me."
For the longest time, Cisco thought there was no such thing as having a photographic memory, but here the Australian woman was living proof that it was possible. Not without the help of some dark energy, but that was beside the point. She meant what she said; she could remember everything she saw as a result of the ocular powers she received when the wave of dark energy from the particle accelerator coursed through her camera and into her body the night of the accident.
Ever since, Dr. Wells, Caitlin, and himself had their work cut out for them to understand to what extent the accident had changed not only Averey's makeup, but Barry Allen's as well. With the two of them working as Central City's heroes The Flash and Visionary—both names Cisco approved; it was his "thing" as part of "Team Flash" to name all the Metahumans—outside of STAR Labs with the three scientists working inside to help them advance their powers, there was never a dull day in his life.
And to think his family thought he was chasing a pipe dream! Well, the science field was hard to get into, and his work did blow up in his face…but he was actually working at the STAR Labs with the Dr. Harrison Wells. He was following his dream, and then some, and was enjoying every minute of it. So, ha! Take that doomsayers!
"How does this light not even bother your eyes?" he asked. He had seen the movie plenty of times and they had the whole night. It was in his nature to be curious, to learn as much as he could about a certain topic.
Poking her tongue into her cheek, Averey reached out a hand, grasping the counter next to her and pulled herself over to the computer monitor that was also playing the movie. Cisco heard a loud clack and the movie paused, everything on the screen instantly freezing in place. He laughed at the odd facial expression the main character froze in.
"Get the feeling you're going to do my head in, if I don't answer your questions," she commented. A small crease appeared between her eyebrows as she thought. "It's not as bright as the sun, so I don't need to use my sunglasses, but the longer I sit in front of a screen the more it distorts my vision so I always keep my glasses on hand. Those almost blue headlights the cars have hurts my eyes, and sometimes new light bulbs can cause some discomfort."
She put a hand to her wrist, playing with the bandage over her skin before reaching into her bowl of popcorn, shoving a handful in her mouth. Averey had been working at Jitters for a while and had recently suffered a bad coffee burn. And here Cisco thought the coffee chains were out to get them solely with high priced coffees.
As Averey chewed, she snapped her fingers, and moved the snack corn to the side of her mouth. Her cheek poked out from the movement. "But nothing's that bright, except for maybe lightning and whatever Blackout could do." Her eyes widened just slightly. "I can't deal with strobe lights, either."
"Hmm," Cisco tapped at his chin with his index finger. His mind was already working on a new series of tests. Maybe we could test a scale of bright lights on her.
So far they had done fairly normal eye examinations with her: they measured her pupils, checked to make sure her eyes moved with each other, and had her read off of reading charts standing as far away from them as she felt comfortable.
Then there were more fun exercises, kind of like how they had Barry play Operation against Caitlin, ping-pong against Cisco, and chess against Dr. Wells all at one time to test his speed. For Averey, they had her take part in card matching games, showing her a chess board with pieces randomly adorned for her to look at and reassemble after the board was wiped clean, and upon stepping into the Cortex each day to pinpoint what was different.
"You're coming up with new test ideas for me."
Cisco blinked, snapping out of his thoughts. He looked over at Averey who was silently watching him. He still wasn't used to how blunt she could be about some things; as soon as she pinpointed something with her impeccable vision, she would comment on it. Sometimes he really felt like she could see through people.
"How do you always know what others are thinking?" he asked. He reached his hand into the popcorn bowl in her lap and popped a piece into his mouth.
"Because I watch you," she replied with a shrug. Cisco lifted an eyebrow and could barely make out a flush on her cheeks. "Not in a scary way; I don't Facebook stalk you or anything."
Not that he'd really complain about it. He had no foothold to stand on, anyway, he had pretty much done the same to find out more about Barry when he was in his coma, and about her after Farooq's lightning blitz was so bright it caused her to pass out from the pain.
"You do microexpressions," she continued her explanation. She tapped her finger nails on the side of the bowl. "Not all the time. I barely noticed it at first because it was so quick, but when you're thinking up a new invention you do this." Averey relaxed her face, one side of her mouth turning up into a smile juuuust slightly. "When you're annoyed your right eyelid lowers or you stick out your jaw." She brushed her hands together before sliding them over her jeans. "You hide emotions pretty well when you want to, yeah? You know how people say 'the eyes are the window to your soul'?"
"Mhmm." Cisco nodded.
"Yeah, well, their bodies give away more then they realize," Averey replied. She tilted her head back, throwing a piece of popcorn into the air. It shifted to the right as it dropped and she leaned to the corresponding side to catch it in her mouth. She gave a wry smile. "That's partially why I'm so blunt."
"And here I thought you had a cheery disposition," Cisco said with a pointed look.
"It'd be a bit of a surprise for you to know I was a cheerleader, yeah?" she asked with an amused grin.
"You were a cheerleader?" he asked, his eyebrows shooting up.
Averey waved a hand in the air before throwing another piece of popcorn into the air. She loudly chewed on the kernel, shrugging. "Not for a long time."
"Fall off the pyramid?" he asked.
"No…I caused the pyramid to fall," Averey replied, her facial features contorting into a cringe. She lifted two fingers. "Twice."
"Oooh, plot twist," Cisco said with a grin. He then peered closely at her. "Seriously?"
"No," Avery said with a loud laugh. She reached her hands up to her head and quickly twisted her dark hair into a messy bun. "I played football and basketball. As if I was coordinated enough for those sharp movements." He wasn't going to say anything about her lack of height and the sport of basketball despite the question being on the tip of his tongue. She tilted her head to the side. "Did you play any sports?"
Cisco let out a slightly high-pitched, "Haaa" in reply. "No," he replied. "Well, none that I really stuck with." He twisted his mouth to the side. Not that he really had a choice.
His grades were more important to his parents. Not that he could really blame them; he knew how important an education was and how important it was to them. Both Cisco and his older brother, Dante, knew that their parents grew up in a different time and didn't have the same opportunities. You'd think getting a job in science would help settle their nerves. But, nooooo.
"Ever since the time I took apart the vacuum cleaner to see how it worked," Cisco explained, tucking his hair out of his ears, "science was all I wanted to do. Pluuus, I had just seen Back to the Future and I was trying to make a hover board with my brother's skateboard." He still had the scar on his right pinky from where he fell in the rose bush.
"Oh no," Averey laughed, putting a hand over her mouth.
"Yeah, my parents weren't too happy about that," Cisco said with a sigh and a half smile. He could practically hear the Spanglish lecture all over again. "They aren't too happy about this, either." He looked around STAR Labs, wondering when exactly it was that the laboratory stared to feel more like his real home than where he grew up. "Sometimes I wonder why I'm not enough for them."
"Hmm." Averey gave a fleeting smile. "If it helps you feel any better, I know how you feel, mate."
Cisco put a smile to his face. "Whatever," he declared, "I'm happy here; that's all that matters."
"Yeah, I can tell, mate," Averey replied. She set the bowl of popcorn down onto the floor and reached for her bag. Cisco watched as she grasped the strap to her camera, lifting it into the air. She popped off the lens over and pointed the camera at him. Cisco gave a bright, toothy smile, giving a double thumbs up as the shutter clicked and the light flashed. She turned her camera around to show him the display screen on the back. "Profile picture material for sure."
"Yeah, right," Cisco replied. He took the camera from her and pointed it in her direction. "Smile!"
"Oh. No." Averey threw her hands up to block her face.
"You're a photographer and you don't like getting your pictures taken?" he asked, giving her a look of disbelief. "Seriously? Just one." She let out a huff before dropping her hands into her lap. As Cisco lifted the camera and snapped a picture, she crossed her eyes and sucked in her cheeks to make a fish face. "Now that is profile picture material."
"Yeah, right." Averey stuck her tongue out at him as she took her camera back.
"Have I missed the movie?" Caitlin asked as she stepped into the Cortex, unfastening the buttons on her coat. Her cheeks were rosy from the cold winter air.
"Hey! Caitlin!" Cisco greeted his friend with a bright smile. "You haven't missed it. I thought you went home." He got out of his seat, offering it to her, before looking for another one for himself.
"Yeah, well," Caitlin said with a sigh as she perched on the edge of her chair, sliding her arms out of her coat sleeves, giving Averey a nod in response to her greeting. "I got all the way home and realized I didn't really feel like being alone." She draped her coat over the back of her chair. "So, what movie are we watching?"
"The Princess Bride," Cisco said, as he wheeled his chair over to sit next to Caitlin. "And I also have Clue."
"Oh, I've never seen this movie," Caitlin said as she settled back in her chair.
"What?" Cisco all but yelped. "How have you not seen this movie before? It's a classic!"
Caitlin shrugged. "I think at this point, Cisco, we're all aware you're more film-savvy than most of us are," she said, giving him a pointed look.
"All the more reason to start the movie over," he said with a grin.
A/N: This is a deleted scene in which I wondered how Averey and Cisco would be at a "Cisco Cinema" and here we are. I have another idea for a Cisco and Averey one shot and I also want to do a one shot centered around Barry and Averey too.