"You have to get out of this lab sometime, Barry!" Iris protested to the CSI as he analyzed some fibers from a crime scene, spinning in a chair behind him after coming in to see her dad. "I will not allow you to rot in here for the rest of the year!"

Barry rolled his eyes, turning to Iris with test tubes in hand. "Iris, I need to be here. Besides, you were the one who wanted to go out with that guy you were seeing. What was it...Edward?"

"Okay, true. But Eddie can't go everywhere, Barry. He's busy doing important things." Iris draped herself over him. "I don't want to go alone. Please?" She gave him a doe eyed look that their dad Joe swore up and down that she'd learned from dogsitting puppies in high school for extra cash.

Barry took one look at her and glared hard at her for a full 2 minutes before he groaned, flattering and putting down the test tubes, grabbing his coat off it's hook next to the door. "Give me half an hour and no dancing."

"Yes!" Iris cheered in victory. "Thankyou, thankyou!"

"Yeah, yeah…" Barry grumbled, rather not happy about leaving work. "I still don't understand why I have to come with you to my literal hell. You could have easily taken someone else."

"Yes, I could have taken someone else to the nightclub…" Iris smirked. "But I wanted to ask you instead as Eddie couldn't."

Barry scoffed. "Iris, all you want to see is me, making an embarrassment of myself."

"Maybe...but you didn't say no." Iris shot back, to which Barry groaned again, flipping her off as he walked out of his precious lab.


He already hated it the moment he walked in the door.

The music was too loud, the whole place was filled with at least 5 variations of smoke and he felt like he was rather underdressed for this particular night scene. Especially when he saw half clad men and women around him moving to the dance floor as he searched for Iris.

Deciding to go for hip, not nerdy and werid, Barry was pretty sure he had failed when he caught a glimpse of himself in an bathroom mirror nearby. Being he still wanted to be at work and knew he couldn't show up in a lab coat, he'd forced himself into a tight pair of blue jeans, a gray undershirt, a plaid shirt thrown over it and a backwards baseball cap with his rarely used glasses on his face as the hazre he expected blinded him. He singlehandedly both embarrassed himself and most likely Iris, when she saw him, as well by just walking out the door. Great

Pushing through the crowd, he saw Iris across the way and tried to wave, bumping into a couple of people as he tried to make it to her and failed as he was dragged like a riptide into the dancing crowd, trying to see amongst the sweaty bodies around him as Iris unfortunately had disappeared from where he'd spotted her earlier. God, why did he agree to this again?


Little did he know as he was trying to swim though the bodies on the dancefloor, someone was watching him. Way up in the VIP section of the club, peering over the balcony at the slightly red faced and embarrassed speedster, was his nemesis Leonard Snart, aka Captain Cold.

Leonard had been coming to this club for years and had stolen something back for the owner who had ties to a few gangs in the area, hence why he was being waited on by scantily clad girls with the really good alcohol, to keep him quiet. He was going to milk it for all it was worth.

Wanting some fresh air and a break from all the perfume that was gagging him, he had taken off to the adjacent platform off the side from the VIP area for the smokers, breathing in stale air as he looked around for Mick to see if he was around.

Seeing him chatting up Iris West, however, surprised him. Iris West? Isn't that Barry's like, adopted owner? Because usually where Iris West was, he thought as he scanned the dance floor before finding the uncomfortable mess of flailing limbs trying to make it's way back to the front of the club, Barry was around. Tonight was obviously no exception.

Soon enough by happenstance, Barry looked up and their eyes met. He looked at him in confusion, so Leonard pulled down his sunglasses with a smirk, Barry's face looking both surprised and like a deer in the headlights when he recognised the face in front of him.

Inclining his head, Snart gestured towards the cordoned off stairs nearby the bar and turned his back to Barry, holding up two fingers to a girl who nodded and went off to get his order from behind the private bar. By the time he'd turned around, Barry was right next to him.

"What are you doing here?" Barry whispered harshly before the girl wobbled over and interrupted their conversation by handing Leonard two beers, one of them he passed to Barry before clinking it to his and taking a swig of his own as he chuckled.

"Did a favor for the owner of the place, this is my payment." Leonard swallowed the liquid as he talked, smirking at him. "Why? Jealous?"

Barry snorted, sipping his own alcohol, and wincing at the taste before glaring at him. "You escaped from jail, again. I should be handing your ass back in personally -" "- And yet, you can't touch me here." Leonard said smugly, earning an even more intense, but adorable look from Barry before he grumbled and took another swing of his own beer, leaning over the balcony.

Leonard sighed, pulling an arm around Barry and holding him close as he snuggled into his chest. "I just...I don't know how much longer I can do this for, Len…' Barry spoke after a while as the music died down a fair bit. "Everytime you slip up, I'm always putting you back in jail and then as so as I leave, you escape again. The more you escape, the more sentences and warrants you're going to get till they find out again."

"I know, I know…" Leonard grumbled himself, carting his fingers through the back of Barry's hair on his neck. "I'm trying, Red, believe me. It's hard. I've been stealing things to get by my entire life, you can't expect me to go cold turkey."

"Yeah, I guess I can't." Barry shook his head as Leonard finished talking, eyes wandering. "I mean, that's what makes you, well, you. But please, just try not to get into big enough heists that require my attention, okay?"

"Done." Leonard nodded, feeling Barry chuckle against his chest as he spoke. "Good, cause for a second there -" Barry suddenly stilled and Snart's hairs stood on end. "Barry, are you alright?" Leonard asked cautiously as Barry rose from his position. Leonard could also swear Barry's eyes flashed with lighting as a thunderous murderous expression clouded his face before he sped off.

Leaping over to the balcony, Leonard watched wide eyed as a red and yellow blur sped down the stairs, though the bar and snatched Mick up from where he was about to actually kiss Iris West at one of the louges decorating the bar, disappeared outside a moment later before coming back in and dumping Mick at Leonard's feet, kissing Leonard on the cheek as he passed to go back to Iris.

Chuckling, Leonard laughed loudly at MIck as he got up and limped away after his ass-whooping to go chat up another girl at the private bar, shaking his head as he saw Barry leading an obviously rather intoxicated Iris towards the entrance, one arm holding her up while the other assisted her walking with a smile on his face.

Oh yeah, the kid was totally a keeper.