This was not what he had expected. Not at all.
Then again, 16 year old Barry mused to himself, adjusting his glasses and curling more into his jumper as he walked by his boyfriend's side, an arm settling around his shoulders, he wouldn't expect anything remotely less than an illegal "racetrack" (if you could call this circle of heavily shifted dirt and bollards stolen from Central City Police) to be the destination of his latest date with resident hotheaded bad boy Leonard Snart.
The 18 year old had expressed to him in private moments that he liked to race his Chevy (the deathtrap it was) at meets that usually ended with someone losing their mode of transport for someone else to gain or more often, a fuckton of money (his words, not Barry's).
So when Leonard, with a fresh black eye he was sure wasn't from getting into a fight with Central City High's groundskeeper, texted him at dinner to see if he wanted to go out tonight, Barry hasn't exactly known this was happening.
Maybe he should have asked where they were going first.
"Hey." Barry was shaken out of his thoughts and looked up to where the voice was coming from, his boyfriend's brow creased and blue eyes narrow. "You okay, Red?"
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine." His voice shook a little as he spoke, years of being mute and then developing and having a stutter from when his mother disappeared. "I'm just a little nervous being here, I guess. I mean, I know I-I-Iris has been to some of these types of things, but-"
"You'll be fine, Red." Leonard's half smirk/half smile did little to ease his nerves. "All you have to do is sit in the stands. Promise. No way you are getting into a car."
"You make it sound so easy to watch you try and kill yourself…" Barry muttered under his breath as they neared the left side of the "racetrack", heading towards some dirt mounds in the shape of stairs with corrugated iron laid on top of them.
"Look, Len, it's not that I don't love spending time with you, I just wasn't expect you to race tonight, especially in that car accident waiting to happen is all."
"Hey!" Leonard looked rather affronted. "I'll have you know that Flash is a classic and she'll kick all their asses. If she can lug us to school and back from my place, your place and that institutionalized prison for our brains-"
Barry rolled his eyes at that.
"-on a quarter of a tank of fuel, it'll be fine. Plus, the tracks boys have already taken the serpentine belt out of it, so..." He shrugged.
Barry's eyebrows shot up, panic gripping his heart. He may not know much about cars, but he had learned a little from his father and if that red deathtrap hadn't been that already, it certainly was now. "Len, you took, they took the-are you insane!? That's super dangerous!"
"Look, I need that money, Red." He cupped his face, gentle eyes normally hidden away showing as he spoke. "I need as much as I can so I can take Lisa with me when I leave this asshole of a town. I know it's bad, but it'll give me the best chance of winning the money."
Barry sighed, eyes closed behind the thin leases of glass that framed his face. He had only met Lisa maybe one or twice and he knew how much Leonard loved her. He could see it in his face any time he talked about her. He was always saying he would leave this place, so Barry was used to the insecure feeling that wrapped around his heart and pulled, but he tried to ignore it as he reopened to see Leonard still standing there.
"I know Len, I just don't want you to hurt yourself or others doing it. You just barely avoided jail last Summer and god knows they won't send you back to the juvenile unit now your birthday has passed by. You're also still on probation."
"Yeah, I know." Leonard sighed, shaking his head. "But I'll be fine Red, it'll be no sweat. I'm on after the next two races go past and then after I win the money, we can go out to a place in town and have a proper date. Sound good?"
Barry knew he would regret this, but nodded with a sigh. "Go get em' Hot Head."
With a grin, Leonard kissed him roughly on the cheek before he leapt down and dashed off, most likely to check on and line his car up to race.
As the night air started to get a little frosty, Barry's foot was going a hundred miles an hour as he watched the raceway boom to life with lights and noise and an announcer that needed to work a lot harder on his method of delivery.
The first race ended quite quickly, a driver in a gold striped and maroon colored Bronco flying over the blue Ford it was racing by mounting a side of the racetrack to a loud crashing victory.
The second, while a tad slower, ended in a spectacularly loud crash that saw the black Tacoma that had been in front with a crushed front end and the tiny Prius almost cut in half.
Barry was quite clearly about to jump out of his skin by the time the announcer called out the third race commencement and dug his hands into his jumper sleeves so he wouldn't have leverage to take off and go home.
Of course, parading out to ACDC not two seconds later, Barry watched as the crowd screamed in his lover's direction, sunglasses obscuring his face as he pulled himself into Flash, revving the engine to the sound of loud cheers.
His opponent, a souped up looking yellow VW Bug with garish orange and green racing flames down the sides of it, was manned by an equally jacked up owner, his glare cold as he looked over at his competition unimpressed.
Barry wished he could set the guy as alight as his car seemed to be, but kept his feelings to himself as the cars started revving again. Before he could even blink, they were off.
The first two laps around the course had been clean, both cars edging out in front of the other at periods of time, but by third lap, Leonard's car had the lead.
Digging his nails into his thighs, Barry choked when he saw the Bug speed up and suddenly swerve into the Chevy's bonnet with a loud bang, the movement sending Leonard in a spin that he thankfully managed to correct.
This continued on through the next lap or so before the fifth and final lap was shown on a board being held by a girl. Finally, Barry couldn't wait to leave.
Along with the crowd, Barry watched as the cars, red and yellow, almost melded into one on the sharp turn of the second to last corner, both looking like bolts of lighting as they swerved.
However, the Bug wasn't finished with tormenting Leonard just yet. It seemed that the guy wanted to win and he was going to do whatever it took to get it.
Suddenly pulling into a side drift, he slammed into Leonard's side once again like earlier, but this time it produced a result. Fire. A sudden spark of fire erupted into a full on blaze coming from the Chevy's bonnet and undercarriage, the announcer and several bystanders, including Barry, suddenly panicking.
"Len!" Barry called out, but it didn't matter. The car screeched around the corner and over the finish line in seconds, crashing into a bunch of hay bales for drivers in case their brakes had stopped functioning, the hay catching alight.
Rushing over despite the number of people that also had the same idea as him, Barry pulled his way through to the front of the crowd as a soot and oil covered Leonard Snart was hauled from the wreckage, coughing and spluttering.
Not caring who saw them, Barry ran up and threw himself on him, thankfully Leonard caught him as he clutched onto him. "I hate you, I hate you so much, you don't ever do that to me again, you bas-"
He cut himself off in anger, just clutching him hard and burying his face away in his shirt.
Chuckling (well wheezing), Leonard held on tight to him as he nodded towards the money guy, who nodded back. He'd have the cash ready in 10, if he was competent enough.
For now, he just stood there, shrugging at people that walked past.
What could he say? The boy had been right. He was still on probation, so he would most likely be seeing the back end of a lonely cell tonight.
Then again, given everything, the doghouse didn't seem so bad right now.
He knew he'd wake up with Barry under his arm come morning anyways.
