"Um, Sara...what is that for?" Barry's brown eyes were questioning, voice tinged with suspicious laughter, not really intimidated so much as perceiving something to be afoot. His eyes were very intently shifting from her face to the two bundles of cotton rope in her hands- colored scarlet and gold at the insistence of Len as he'd leaned over her, palm rested on her shoulder to set his chin on while he inspected her shopping choices. She originally had a set of black and white in the cart, but she could hear his 'suggestion' before it was even spoken as she felt him shift against her. So Barry's colors it was then.
"These?" The gold bundle flipped in her hand before she used it to playfully tap him on the shoulder with it, circling where he stood slowly, as though inspecting him as she looked him up and down. As though she were unfamiliar with any inch of his lanky person at this point. She was clearly just making a show of it for his benefit.
"Oh, nothing. Just a little something I thought would be...fun." She added the last word with that little tilt of her head and a smirk that indicated her intentions were certainly not innocent. Now facing him again, she eased back to lean against the couch, arms crossed against her chest, rope still in hand.
Barry chuckled, nodded, and gestured with his clasped hands, pointer fingers extended and pressed together. "Yes. Those. Come on, Sara. You have something up your sleeve. Same for you!" he turned about to throw a suspicious look at the presence he had felt slip up behind him.
"Me? Something up my sleeve?" The question, drawn out in a near purr, was accentuated by Len dropping the right hand that had been grasping his chin to expose the bottom of his wrist as if showing the lack of any surprises waiting, glancing briefly there before meeting the speedster's eyes. "No, you're mistaken. There's definitely nothing up my sleeve. Can't speak for Sara," he added, steely blue eyes cutting to the side with that feral smirk, teasing clearly...or was he?
"Hey!" she protested, but it was full of laughter, pouting at Len as he strode over to the armchair and proceeded to sit, fingers steepling while he regarded her with an unapologetic look. "You've taken to wearing your Hibbens under your sleeves since it got colder, or did you take me for a blind man?" he queried, but there was no question in his voice as to whether or not he was right, nor did the look he gave her waver as Barry moved to settle his hip against the couch next to her.
Her mouth opened slightly to protest, then narrowed her eyes in play annoyance. "I don't like you right now," she said with a laugh, shaking her head. "You know what you see." That was, as far as Sara was concerned, an outright admission. Not that she was actually hiding the fact from either of them, it had simply not been brought up. And, thankfully, there had not been an incident that required her drawing them yet, at least not since switching them from her thighs to her forearms.
The speedster's hand had settled on her hip, thumb stroking the slight bit of skin exposed from where her sweater had hitched up, and elicited a pleased smile thrown over her shoulder. "Get it while you can, because as long as you're down,
sir, are about to be very stuck...not touching either of us."
Barry's hum of curious amusement and the vibration of his fingers lightly against her hip drew a snort from her, as if that were answer enough.
"Well that's why there would be a no Speed Force rule, you little shit," she responded unimpressed. "You would have to just take it...otherwise we would...not give you what you wanted later," she explained, but her eyes were on Len, sensing Barry's looking from the top of her head to Len, then back to her. It was obvious it was finally dawning on him that this was something that had been in the works for a while.
"What? You can't handle the idea of not being able to move?" The words held that smug amusement characteristic of Len, every inch a challenge of the young man's ability to slow down and do things one speed.
Barry directed his attention to Len and tilted his head, brows furrowed but a smirk in the corner of his mouth and he gave a light snort of amusement. "You think, what, that I can't take being tied up for a little while?" The words had a cocky, playful air that likely would not have been there had it been a few years before. Barry had since learned how to actually give some manner of retort without blustering and stumbling over his words...most of the time. Now there was a new ease of exchange, and less shakeable confidence both Len and Sara had noted.
Len leaned further back into his seat, fingers meeting his lips before he decided to respond. "Oh, I don't know, Scarlet. Sara here thought the basics would be fun. Merely tie you to a chair, or the bed, watch you squirm a little…" He then stood; a fluid, graceful movement, before crossing the room in a few measured strides. Taking the red bundle from Sara lightly, chilly fingers brushing along the back of hers as he did so, eyes softening slightly before moving up to Barry and regaining the sharp glint they normally held when he was up to no good. "But that's...too easy. No, you-" the bundle was slowly being undone, deft fingers easily un-tucking the starter end without so much as taking his eyes off Barry's face. "You wouldn't find that challenging. Not...tedious. Not drawn out enough." He emphasized the words by limiting the rope and extending a length of it as he spoke. "No. It would be far better to truly test just...how badly you want it."
By this point, Sara had turned her back to the couch so she could watch the both of them from the middle of this exchange, the little smirk and wrinkle on her nose never really leaving as blue eyes regarded Len approvingly, the rope being toyed with in his hands- artful, even though it was an action as simple as occupying his hands while he spoke. Any time she turned her head to better look at Barry she saw an intrigued, almost amused look, as though he wasn't sure he could find sitting still for so long something that could pass for hot, or enjoyable. "Yeah, no, Len said Shibari only. No...barebones, basic bitch tying," she said with a brief poke of her tongue at him, as if she were truly insulted, when really she was anything but.
It was...more than enjoyable, having flipped through the shibari book together when they could, discussing the pros and cons of each tie, how much tension it would create, how this one would better show off musculature versus the other, how that one would make for easier teasing, where the other was just purely aesthetic. So settling on a tie they both liked, that they both could have a hand in, was an experience in itself.
"That one." Len's words were stated with a quiet decisiveness. Sara peered at the indicated double spiral futomomo with an approving nod. Both legs folded together at the knee, soles of the feet touching.
"Hmm, this wouldn't have anything to do with being salty he ran circles around you when you first met, would it?" she teased, tongue poking the corner of her mouth with an undisguised look of amusement on her face.
"Not in the slightest," Len said, his scowl denoting the sarcasm and begrudging amusement for being called out in a way only someone familiar with his facial expressions would pick up on.
She nudged him with her shoulder, re-indicating the book with a nod as she flipped further to the back. "Well, we can't be anything if not thorough, right?" She had turned the pages to the gote shibari flower weave, the chest harness on the androgynous model, rope tied nice and snugly with their arms folded behind their back.
Len nudged her shoulder right back, but remained leaned against her. "Exactly."
The look Barry had on his face was a mixture of amusement that they'd had to find something they both liked, and at the fact he was expected to be incapable of sitting still for that long. "You know," he pointed out as he moved to hop over the couch and land on the cushion, "I could just zip in and out of the restraints and you wouldn't know it."
The bark of laughter from Len made Sara cover her mouth in amusement to hide the ever-growing smirk at the idea. "Shibari is an art...while you could certainly get out of the ropes, there would be no retying yourself up convincingly. Not without playing with time itself," he said, hands resting on Barry's shoulders pointedly at the mention of time.
"Come on, now that's just not fair, you guys both know I'm not- not gonna turn back time just to play Houdini!" The air of indignation at the suggestion pitched his voice up, the lazy cockiness now replaced with protest. He looked to Sara for aid to reaffirm what should already be known at this point he was beyond altering timelines for selfish reasons, especially for some simple bedroom trickery. Sara had already circled the couch, dropping the rope still in her hand on the coffee table before sitting on the couch next to him. "Sara, come on, back me up here" he pleaded, hands spread wide as though Len had absolutely no reason to still be a little...icy over the matter.
She shrugged, shaking her head with amusement. "Oh no, that's not my job to do. Just know if I see so much as a glint of gold in your eyes...it's game over," she said with a nudge of his knee with her sock-covered foot.
Len finally released his grasp on Barry's shoulders, trailing his hand along them as he circled back around to his preferred seat in the armchair. He looked over to the two of them with amusement. "You still haven't given a true answer, Scarlet," he pointed out as he lifted his glass of gin to his lips with a mild quirk of an eyebrow at the younger man. "So, are you going to be our...present, all
up in a neat little bow?"
The emphasis on the word 'tied', the smug expression as he watched Sara snuggling up to Barry with an ease that spoke of complete trust from the woman. As much as she would accept hugs, she was typically not the initiator of physical affection until it was someone that had earned her implicit trust. Obviously, they were numbered among the few.
"Yeah," Barry returned, arm having wrapped around Sara to pull her closer. "I mean...sounds like a fun time, right? Why not?" The shoulder Sara wasn't leaned against shrugged, and he looked from Len, down to Sara, then back to Len. "So when did you plan on torturing me with this? You do know that's what it'll be, right? Staying still like that?"
The nearly-perfectly in sync, and clearly pleased, "We know" that met his question elicited a laugh and shake of his head; of course they would find delight in slowing it down, dragging it out for him to the point he was thoroughly fed up with it.
"Soon enough. Not right now, if that's what you're asking," Len purred from behind his glass, the pleased look on his face undisguised as he clearly was beginning to plan out the details of how exactly to put them into said scene.