Refuge

By: Riley

Summary – After a tough battle against Central City's finest, all Barry wants to do is get some sleep. Barry/Cadence. One-Shot.

Rain pattered along the windows of the metro as it sped along the tracks of Central City. Not quite 'The Flash' fast, but fast. Fast enough. The city flew past, wheels of speeding cars throwing up curtains of water onto the empty sidewalks. Umbrellas rendered useless by the wind that sporadically blew, rain slanting enough to cause a reprieve against the window. Then the wind lessened and it was back, drumming against the window panes, the only sound filling the empty car; creating constellations that changed every second as the beads ran in jagged streams down the glass and melted together. Lightning and Fire.

And it was on that metro that Barry heaved a sigh of relief. His shoulders slumped forward. He reached up, pressing the pads of his gloved fingers into the tight muscles of his neck. Worked, to rub them loose. He yanked at the cowl that rested around his neck, finding it a bit too tight.

Barry glanced to his right to see how Cadence was doing. She sat in her seat in an oh-so casual way, and not as ladylike as her mother would've reprimanded her for. Her legs splayed open, like a man, hands clasping the sliver of the seat between them. Her head lolled forward, goggles of her suit forever resting around her neck when relaxing. Her chest rose and fell so softly Barry wasn't sure if she'd gone to sleep. She, otherwise, showed no signs of fatigue from their day filled with battles against Central City's finest. The Rogues Gallery as Central City Picture News called them. Iris, beaming with pride, had come up with that one.

They were risking things, Barry knew, of being dressed in their suits, identity defying measures relaxed, taking the train into the city instead of going back. But it wasn't like, in a few seconds, they wouldn't be able to conceal themselves once more. The chances of anyone stepping onto the metro were slim to none. On a gray, rainy day, if they were smart, people stayed inside and waited for better weather. The Rogues weren't as patient. It was Cadence who had suggested they take the train back to STAR Labs rather than their usual route of running and teleporting.

"To cool down," She said.

Barry immediately saw through her. Saw through the confidence she always exuded to keep others from worrying about her. From getting too far into her head to see the truth. Could tell from their signature hug at the end of a fight, how hard she'd held onto him. Nevertheless, he agreed with her. For once, the last thing he wanted to do was run. So they waited around the corner, out of view of the cameras around the station, teleporting and super speeding on the nearly empty train—into an empty compartment—the last second before the doors closed and it pulled from the station.

The intensity of the rain increased prompting Cadence's eyes to blink open. Her gaze shifted, head turned to watch the show. Barry let out a low sigh, a smile coming to his face. He watched the line of her eyes as they flickered back and forth, watching each individual rain drop.

Finally, she turned to him and said, "That was a tough one."

"Understatement of the year," Barry agreed. The Top and Mirror Master had really thrown them for a loop. Bar having had been trapped in another mirror, what he'd been through was much worse.

"I thought I lost you today," Cadence said softly. Softer than Barry'd ever heard her. The fire metahuman and his partner of the last three years lived up to her power. She brought a fire and energy to her life—and his—that was hard to ignore. She almost always smiled, laughed, teased, enjoyed everything life had to offer. The most serious she'd become was when fighting their enemies and coming to terms with their morality.

"You didn't," Barry reminded her.

"'Yeah," her voice was even softer now.

It was close, Barry had to admit. A close call. Being entrapped in a glass box that slowly grew smaller and smaller while the other couldn't move due to extreme cases of vertigo…he wouldn't wish it on Eobard Thawne, even though he wanted nothing more than to see the demise of the man that'd torn his life apart.

Barry reached out, flattened his hand against Cadence's leg, moving it soothing circles. A grin came to his lips. "I'm still here, aren't I?" He asked.

A smirk came to her lips. "Because of me."

He pretended to be offended. "How do you figure?"

"If I wasn't around, you'd've been dead a long time ago, Barry" She finally looked at him, her eyes betraying how she really felt. She truly had been scared to lose him, the love of her life that day. It had to be torture, to watch him struggle to phase through a box that continued to painfully grow smaller while she was prone on the ground, unable to stand or even teleport in a straight line had she wanted. Her eyes flickered over Barry's face, finally settling into an expression of soft amusement. "You look tired."

Aka, he looked like crap.

A resigned chuckle escaped Barry's lips. He could feel his shoulders drooping even further, his eyelids, that he worked hard to keep up in case someone else entered the train, fell as well. "I'm exhausted," he admitted.

He could heal fast, but those were superficial wounds. Pure exhaustion took a bit longer, something the two of them had experimented with before. The fight had taken a lot out of him—and wasn't nearly as fun as the alternative. Not that using his superspeed and fighting bad guys wasn't as fun as it'd always been, but still…

Cadence reached out and grabbed his hand, her warmth spreading to him already making his eyelids threaten to close completely. He could already feel his body starting to come alive, a sure sign that her powers were working with his, giving him an extra charge. "Go to sleep." She said it so simply, almost as if she were giving him an order that she would her son when he begged to stay up 'just a few more minutes'.

Barry shook his head. "Someone could see us, Cade."

"I don't think seeing us sleeping is going to be newsworthy," Cadence snorted.

"Cade…" He gave her a look. Almost a stern combination of 'that's not funny' and 'you know what I meant'.

"I'll keep an eye out. Anyone who comes onto his train won't see anything but a smoke bomb going off."

"That's what I'm afraid of."

Cadence looked at him tenderly, reached up and ran her gloved fingers over his hair and to his neck, pressing her fingers into the knots in his neck and shoulders. A low moan escaped Barry's lips. That fight took more out of him than he thought. "If anyone deserves a break, it's you. You've carried the weight of the world on your shoulders long enough. Let me do it for a few minutes. If we get caught, then you can yell at me."

"I wouldn't yell," Barry murmured, his words falling to his lap.

"Trust me. You yell."

Barry didn't have the energy to become simultaneously annoyed, amused, frustrated, and embarrassed as the way she always managed to make some of the most innocent things sounds much more loaded than they should be. Instead he smiled, as he always did, and lowered his head to her shoulder. "I love you."

"I love you," Cadence easily returned, voice light and airy, slowly succumbing to sleep.

She was warm, as she always was. But the warmth grew and spread to envelop over the two heroes, like a blanket, when she tilted her head and laid it against his. And for the rest of the ride to STAR Labs, Barry took comfort in the refuge he'd found during some of the darkest times of his life and was constantly by his side.

They slept peacefully.

THE END

A/N: Can be considered a deleted scene from Friction from The Flash and The Flame series. If you want more of their domestic moments, check out my one-shot collection that's specifically for it, Naturally.

Cheers,

-Riles