Summary: Barry runs into a somewhat eccentric grad student who is building a Cold Gun to demonstrate the 'practical' applications of his thesis. Barry is certain of three things: a Cold Gun (capital letters insisted upon) is never going to be practical in any sense of the word, this guy - Len - acts like he wants to be a comic book villain, and he is probably the hottest guy Barry's ever laid eyes on.
Notes: For my Coldflash Bingo Prompt G4 - College AU
Super Villain (Hero) Names
The first time Barry sees Leonard Snart, they're in the library.
Barry is studying with Iris, though they're each studying wildly different topics. Iris is writing a paper on the evolution of social media and its impact on public relations. Barry is writing a paper on the history of fingerprinting as forensic evidence. Len and Mick are a table over, not that Barry even knows their names at this point.
Len is pouring over some physics textbook while Mick has a stack of notebooks in front of him, an open copy of The Odyssey, and is staring avidly at Caitlin Snow and Ronnie Raymond, whom Barry knows tangentially through his new roommate, Cisco Ramon.
"Either go introduce yourself or give it up, Mick," Len says, not looking away from his physics book. It's his voice that catches Barry's attention, all smooth and flowing with a just ever so slightly unusual cadence to it.
"What are the odds they'd be interested?" Mick asked, still staring.
"I have no idea." Len sounded bored and still wasn't looking up.
"I mean, they're clearly a couple already."
"The kissing was a dead giveaway, yes."
"They're probably not interested in a non-romantic third."
"Yet you'll never know for sure unless you ask."
Mick picked up his book and buried his nose in just as Caitlin and Ronnie looked over at the duo's table. Barry thought that, maybe, their gazes lingered on Mick for a moment, but he wasn't really paying attention to them. He was paying attention to Mick's friend.
Iris swatted Barry on the top of his head with her notebook. "Stop staring," she told him. "That paper is due at midnight and you're barely halfway done. More typing less ogling."
Barry sighed and nodded and went back to typing, occasionally referencing facts from his note cards or the open books he had next to him. But, every so often, his eyes flicked to the hot guy with the physics book, and wondered what his name was.
A week or so later, Barry makes excuses to his roommate about needing to hit the library again. He doesn't, really, but as much as he likes hanging out with Cisco normally the guy gets kind annoying when he starts ranting about his arch nemesis, Hartley Rathaway. Cisco's in rare form tonight and Barry's attempts to change the subject have all failed.
If he didn't know better, Barry would say that Cisco and Hartley's real problem is belligerent UST. But he does know better, so he doesn't actually say it out loud, he just thinks it aggressively as he stalks out of the dorm and considers whether or not he should actually go to the library. The Student Union might be a better bet; Iris is probably there, flirting with Eddie Thawne, the cute guy in his final semester of criminology who is headed to the police academy upon graduation. Eddie's practically tripping over himself every time Iris showed up, so really it was just a matter of Iris taking pity on him and asking him out.
It's a little weird to sit in on their flirting/not-flirting, though. Barry, once upon a time, had a massive crush on Iris. While he's over it, watching her flirt with someone else still feels awkward sometimes. Like echoes from how he used to feel making him uncomfortable that she notices other guys but never once noticed Barry that way at all.
He rules out the Student Union after all and turns instead towards the student labs. There's supposed to be an open house this weekend; Barry had planned to go on Saturday, but its Friday night and he's got nowhere to go. If the open house is still open - he can't remember what time they're supposed to close, but he thinks it was pretty late - then maybe he'll get to see some interesting projects. And if its closed then he can head past that to the twenty-four-hour coffee bar. Or the art barn - a student art gallery named because the building looks like a barn - that's usually open for viewing until around ten in the evening.
The labs are still running the open house after all. Open until nine, so Barry's got an hour and a half to spare after all. He meanders through, checking out the forensics related projects first.
Everything on display comes from grad students working on their masters thesis. The project has to demonstrate a practical application of their thesis. Barry's hoping to have a project of his own featured here in a couple of years, but he needs to concentrate on finishing his bachelors degree first.
Barry snatches up copies of the research notes for a particularly interesting application for DNA analysis and then continues to meander around, talking with various grad students about their work and getting some pretty fascinating answers to his questions about their research.
Ronnie is there discussing his theories of molecular transmutation with Professor Stein, but he smiles and waves Barry over. Instead of a physical object, Ronnie has a computer simulation that demonstrates the theory. It's not Barry's area of expertise, but he picks up on the gist of the concept pretty quickly which seems to impress Professor Stein.
"He wants me to come work on his FIRESTORM project once I've finished presenting my thesis," Ronnie confided in Barry once the Professor left to check out some other projects. "I can't wait to tell Cait."
"That's awesome," Barry tells him with a grin, no idea whatsoever FIRESTORM could possibly be an acronym for. "Looks like that's her over there, with dinner for you too."
Ronnie turned to look and, sure enough, there was Caitlin, darting through the slight crowd with a bag from McDonald's clutched in one hand.
The couple greeted with a kiss on the cheek and then Ronnie was making excuses to disappear with the food while Caitlin temporarily manned the station to run the simulation and pass out copies of his research notes to any interested parties. By then Caitlin was glowing with pride over the FIRESTORM news, which apparently made far more sense to her than it did to Barry.
Barry chatted with her for a few minutes before moving on. The open house took up nearly all the first floor labs, which were usually open, communal rooms where students could do whatever but woe betide ye who forgets their equipment because finders keepers. Barry had lost a few beakers and pipettes that way.
In the final lab used for the open house, there was only one project. And a guy wearing a parka.
The cute guy from the library. Whose name Barry still didn't know.
"You going to just stand there or do you want to come in and find out what my project is?" asked cute guy in that glorious voice and... Barry blushed and walked in.
"Alright, what's the project?"
Smirking, cute guy put on a pair of highly reflective sunglasses and then tossed a second pair to Barry. "You're going to want to wear those."
Shrugging in confusion, Barry did exactly that. And then cute guy picked up what was either a high tech gun or a tricked out hair dryer, pointed it at a target, and... shot some kind of particle beam out that instantly froze the target.
"Holy shit," Barry breathed out in shock, pulling the glasses off his face and grinning as he came to stand beside Snart. "It's emitting sub-zero particles, isn't it? What are you using for the core?"
"Cute and smart. Must be my lucky day."
Barry blushed again, deep red he was sure because he could feel his cheeks burning. "I, uh..."
"Don't break the kid, Snart. He looks like jailbait." Barry whirled around to see Mick from the library standing in the doorway. "You're not jailbait, are you?"
"Twenty-one, actually," Barry wanted to be offended, but at this point being told he looked like he was still in high school was fairly normal. Annoying, but normal. "Though I'm pretty sure I'm going to be carded long past the point where its novel, so..." he shrugged.
Mick looked Barry up and down and then rolled his eyes. "Have fun you two," he drawled before sauntering off.
"So, you were wondering about my core?"
Barry swallowed hard because damn if this guy - Snart? - didn't have a voice just made for sex. "Yeah," Barry replied, desperately wishing his voice hadn't squeaked a little. He turned around to face Snart.
"It's a micro engine with a particle generator," Snart responded, grinning as he pointed to some schematics on the wall - not the complete schematics, Barry quickly realized - and ran through a brief explanation for how the gun worked. The guy was clearly a genius and Barry wanted him so fucking bad.
"So... how exactly is this a practical demonstration of your research?" Barry was pretty sure that this gun was not in any way 'practical'.
"The Cold Gun," the way Snart said it, Barry could practically hear the capitalization, "is a demonstration of my research into miniaturized particle generators, particularly sub-zero particles."
"So you built it because it would be cool?" Barry asked before he could self-sensor. Nobody liked his lame puns; especially not the obvious lame puns.
Snart, however, snickered. Then his phone started ringing. He groaned and answered with, "hey, I'm going to put you on hold for a minute." Then he turned to Barry. "Do you have a name?"
"Barry Allen."
Scribbling something on a copy of his research notes, Snart handed over the papers to Barry. "My name and number is on there. You should call me sometime."
"I... I'd like that." Barry grinned, restraining the urge to hug the notes because Snart was flirting with him. Snart was definitely flirting with him.
Snart went back to the phone call and Barry reluctantly left the room. There was still time to stop by the library and peruse the small fiction section for something to read in case Cisco asked about the library when he got back.
"Hey, jailbait."
"My name's Barry and I'm twenty one. And unless you're a bartender, I'm not letting you card me," Barry told Mick as the guy joined him at his table in the Student Union for lunch.
"Whatever. You know Caitlin Snow and Ronnie Raymond, right?"
"Yes..." Barry drew out the word, tilting his head to the side. "Why?"
"They're hot. Really hot. Do you know if they're open to, like, a third person in their relationship? Nothing romantic, just..." Mick paused, then said. "Nevermind, this was a stupid idea, forget I asked."
"I don't know them very well, but my roommate does," Barry volunteered, vengeance for Cisco prattling on about Hartley being a dick all morning. "They're engaged, not just dating, but I've seen them dancing together with third partners at clubs. Doesn't necessarily mean they're open to whatever it is you're hoping they're open for but... I doubt they'd be insulted if you asked them."
"I'm Mick Rory," the guy said after a long moment where he gave Barry a suspicious look.
"Barry Allen."
"You gonna call Snart?"
"I was going to call him this evening, actually. He's been busy the last two nights with the open house, but its over now so I was hoping maybe he'd like to meet up for dinner sometime?"
Mick snorted in amusement. "Dinner and then pinning you to the nearest convenient surface to blow you, maybe."
Barry told himself he didn't squeak, but fuck if his mind didn't just go there and... yeah. With Snart wearing the parka.
His mind was a weird place.
"If that's what he wants, I would not be opposed."
"Then call him now; I don't want to deal with his pining any more than I gotta."
"Can't, I've gotta run to class. Literally, or I'll be late," Barry sighed, as his phone told him he had five minutes to reach a classroom that was a six minute walk from here.
Why was he so bad at time management?
Len did indeed want to meet Barry for dinner. They went to a low key bar just off campus that made the best burgers and Len walked Barry back to his dorm room afterwards. He did not blow Barry against the nearest convenient surface, but he did give Barry a good night kiss that took both their breaths away.
And they made plans for another date.
"So... you're dating Leonard Snart, right?" Caitlin asked, joining Barry and Iris at their study table.
"Yes..." Barry blinked uncertainly. They'd been on two dates so far and hadn't really discussed things like labels or exclusivity yet, but they did have another date set for the following evening so... he was definitely dating Leonard Snart.
"Do you know his friend, Mick Rory?" Caitlin pressed.
"We've met a couple of times. He's really interested in you and Ronnie," Barry added, figuring that must be what she was really wanting to know.
"Really?" Iris perked up, looking interested. "Are you and Ronnie considering a third person in your relationship?"
"Mick sort of... propositioned us," Caitlin admitted. "Normally I'd go to Cisco for advice but he's got some group project he's doing with Hartley Rathaway and he's being really... extra about it."
Considering the way Cisco had been muttering to himself and plotting in his notebooks the night before, Barry decided he didn't want to know.
"Anyway, Mick was talking about wanting a platonic relationship with us... but with sex thrown in and..."
"He's really hot and really built and you keep imagining him and Ronnie?" Iris asked, her eyes a tad glassy and clearly thinking about it herself.
"Yeah..." Caitlin groaned and let her forehead fall against the table. "Ronnie and I are thinking it over separately today and we're going to talk it over tonight."
"Sorry I don't know him well enough to give you any insight into him. Well... actually, I do know he was really nervous about even asking the two of you, so if that helps?" Barry offered.
Caitlin peeked up at him. "It... kind of does, actually. Thanks."
When Barry arrived at Len's lab that evening, there was a blast from the Cold Gun right behind some freshman running for his life.
"That could have done a lot of damage if it had actually hit him," Barry pointed out, walking inside and kissing Len on the cheek... and brushing his fingers through the soft faux fur of the parka Len was wearing again.
"Good thing I wasn't aiming at him, then," Len said, putting the Cold Gun down on the work bench. "Some pledge sent by one of the fraternity's to steal my latest prototype."
"Another Cold Gun?" Barry asked, interested despite himself.
"Nothing as cool as that," Len responded with a smirk. He gestured to a similar looking gun beside the Cold Gun. "A Heat Gun, actually. Looks like a flamethrower in action, but it really works on the same principles as my Cold Gun. Micro engine particle generator, but this time to create super heated particles. Birthday gift for Mick."
"That is a very odd, but very awesome, birthday gift." Barry paused a beat, then said, "I have no idea what you could actually use them for, but at this point I'm pretty sure you need comic book style aliases to go with them."
"So, Barry, what would my super villain name be?" Len purred, leaning in to crowd Barry's space just a little.
Just enough that Barry's whole body went hot with anticipation. Swallowing hard and feeling the flush crawl across his cheeks, Barry responded, "Captain Cold, maybe? Alliterative, connotes leadership, and ties in to the name of your Cold Gun."
"Captain Cold..." Len grinned and took off his parka. "I've even got the right outfit to go with the name already."
"But... super villain?" Barry questioned. "Not a super hero?"
"Super villains have more fun. They get to take what they want." He captured Barry's lips in a kiss for demonstration. "Heroes," Len continued, "are always left hiding who they are from the ones they care about most."
"Seem more like an anti-villain to me. Bet you'd have a hero after you insisting there was good in you," Barry joked, inhaling a little sharply when Len's hands settled on his hips.
Rather than dignify that with a response, Len dragged Barry into another kiss and then told him, "I want to take you home tonight and suck you off. Does that sound good to you?"
Barry felt the hot rush of arousal thrum through him at those words. He whined, a needy sound that made Len chuckle with amusement. "Yes, Len, that... yes, that sounds good. Fuck..."
"Dinner first, Barry," Len teased.
The evening before Cisco's group project with Rathaway was due, Barry came home to the dorms late and opened the door to find Cisco shirtless and in the process of trying to divest Hartley of his shirt while they were practically devouring each other.
Barry shut the door - not that the two ever noticed it was open - and retreated back downstairs to the dorm lobby.
It was difficult to be pleased about being right when it mean he was being sexiled from the dorm. Sighing, Barry called Len. Maybe he could sleep at Len's place tonight?
"Mmm, yes, Barry, I'd love to have you over tonight." Barry shivered at the sound of Len's silky voice. That was a voice that promised there would be things happening other than sleep.
Thank goodness his first class of the day wasn't until eleven.
"So," Barry began, sliding into the booth across from Mick. "Caitlin and Ronnie?"
"The sex is amazing," Mick confirmed, not even looking up from the copy of the Iliad he was reading. "I hear that you and Snart can boast some amazing sex of your own."
Barry just smirked.
Len kissed along Barry's shoulder as they both relaxed, sated, in bed. "If I'm Captain Cold, then I think you need a comic book name too. What was the power that always fascinated you the most in the comics?"
"Hmmm... speed. I love running. I was on the track team in High School and if we had one here, I'd be on it too. Instead I have to make do with running laps around the soccer fields, which is not nearly as good as an actual track."
"Alright, so you'd be a speed powered hero. We'd have a sexy, flirty rivalry going on."
"Lots of speed and cold puns," Barry agreed. "Why am I the hero? Thought they didn't get to have fun."
"You're the exception," Len insisted. "Besides, its our fantasy, right?"
Barry hummed a pleased little noise. "So, what's my comic book name? Not the Streak or something awful like that."
"After you gave me such a good name? I'd never do that you. How about..." Len pressed a kiss just behind Barry's ear that elicited a shiver of pleasure. "How about the Flash? There one second, gone in a flash, static electricity from running so fast licking at your heels."
"I love it," Barry admitted, twisting around to pull Len into a heated kiss. "So, going to try and corrupt your hero?" Barry teased.
"Maybe I want you to be the good in me."
Barry cracked up, giggling helplessly.