The phone was ringing. Again. Right on time at 3 in the morning, when the bars were closing.

Barry Allen-Snart sighed and looked across the bed to his bedside table, debating whether or not to pick it up. He shouldn't, he really shouldn't and he knew that. Deep down.

However, before he could really think about it properly, his hand was already picking it up.

"Hello?" He yawned tiredly, sighing when he heard nothing on the other end. "Leonard?"

There were several beats of silence before a drunken slur of some affirmation was heard on the crackling end of his cellphone, followed by a clatter and a laugh.

"Helloooo Sc-ar-let..."

"Hello Len." He sternly said back before he yawned again. "Are you okay?"

"Yessssssss…" The elongated 's' sound his partner made caused him to roll his eyes. How many times had they had this conversation before? Of course he was fine, just like every other night he went out. He'd go out, get piss drunk, call him and then ask him for a ride.

It was like a washing machine on a spin cycle. It would just repeat and repeat and repeat.

He wasted no time of course, sliding himself out of bed as he cautiously asked "Do you need a ride again, Len?" as he stood in the middle of their bedroom, letting to the puffs of breath on the other end of the line, waiting for the answer.

"Yeaaaaaahhhhh." Leonard's slurred confirmation made him sigh and pinch the bridge of his nose before he swallowed, shaking his head disappointingly before talking again. "I'll be there in a minute, Len. Just stay where you are, okay? I don't want to end up pulling you out of another bar or worse, a fist fight again."

"K, lovvvvvee you Scar-let." A bunch of kissy noises followed before the hang up tone was beeping back at him as he stared at the phone, eyebrows drawn and a frown on his lips.

Thankfully, he knew that where he said he was going that night wasn't too far away from their house and as he raced off down the street in a blaze of red and yellow streaks, he hoped that Leonard was still there and not another drinking establishment further into Central or worse, somewhere like Keystone or Opal.

(That had happened once or twice before and it hadn't ended well for either.)

Still half deep in thought, it wasn't long before a flash of blue caught his eye and he skidded to a stop on the frost lined tar of the road in front of him. Bathed in the neon lights of the bars, Leonard looked almost like he was in a Troye Sivan music video, if it weren't for the weaving and swaying he happened to be doing on the edge of the gutter looking half asleep. Sighing, Barry slid his arms underneath Leonard's prone for now form and picked him up with as much grace as he could muster, flashing them back to the house as best he could.

It was a trick, holding up his partner with one arm and unlocking and relocking the front door with the other, but he managed.

The stairs up to their bedroom and consequently, their bathroom were slightly harder, but in the end, Leonard was upstairs, unclothed and in the shower like clockwork to sober him up a little before bed so he wouldn't wake so badly off in the morning and start an argument.

He was just tucking Leonard into his side of the bed when Barry heard a creak and turned to see two eyes of bright brown eyes staring back at him. Wearily, he smiled at him as best he could, despite it being crooked and beckoned them in, picking them up gently.

"Hey you guys, what are you doing up so late?" His voice was still rough from sleep and he wished he could get back to it before the rest of the morning rolled around, but it was important that he find out.

Kids that were Micheal and Mikayla's age shouldn't be up at 4 in the morning.

"We were worried about Papa!" Mikayla whisper shouted, the louder of the two, before quiet little Micheal piped up "We thought he might miss our birthday party later on today…"

Barry just looked at them, sadness etched on his face. His heart always broke when his kids spoke to him this way, but he really couldn't blame them. Leonard hadn't always been like this, not when they were alone before having the twins, but he guessed, given everything he had gone though, including dying only to be brought back, he couldn't blame him.

"Papa would never miss a birthday party, especially yours, sick or not." Barry tried to assure them as best he could at that moment, putting a note behind it of confidence, even if he knew that he didn't really have the answer.

It really depended on just how much alcohol Leonard had drunk to see when he would wake in the day. He hoped for the twins' sake that he would wake in the late morning to help him with planning the party for the afternoon, but more than likely, it wasn't meant to be.

"Come on, let's let Papa sleep and Daddy will put you back to bed, yeah?"

Barry asked them gently, settling them on the ground and reaching out to take a hand from each as he led them down the hallway.

"After all, some of us need their energy…" He didn't mean to, but he looked back at the bedroom door as he ushered them into their room "-to deal with the world outside."