"…historic landmarks, but that might not be the best place for a fundraiser, I suppose. Oh, and Barry! Maybe we could…."
God, Santana wanted to strangle Rachel right then and there. She hadn't stopped talking for five whole minutes. She was pretty sure the Good Twin wasn't paying attention to her anymore, as he was just nodding along with a friendly smile.
Santana spent the car ride analyzing the subtle difference between Barry and the Evil Twin. Barry held himself awkwardly, while Sebastian had an air of confidence around him. Barry ran his hand through his hair about 7 million times per conversation, but Sebastian's was too gelled back to do that.
Sebastian used to have a permanent smirk Barry was obviously incapable of making.
And Barry wasn't a bitch like his twin and herself.
He was cute and dorky. Quinn liked him. A lot. Maybe too much.
Santana didn't necessarily freak out as much as the others did when they found out Sebastian Smythe had a twin. Sure, she was a bitch to him, but how could she not have been? They had the same exact face.
She realized now that somehow they looked so different. It was the facial expressions, definitely. She knew that.
After she almost made the Good Twin piss his pants, she spent all that night digging through the Dalton Academy website, trying to find a good picture of the twink who she oh-so loved.
From what she had gathered, she figured Barry and Sebastian hadn't been together during their high school years. They would've known about Barry even if he went to another school nearby.
Also, their last names were different. She wondered about that and figured she would ask Barry at some point.
"Wow! What is that!" Finn suddenly said.
Santana snapped out of her thoughts and glanced at what he was looking at from the window.
It was a very advanced-looking building. It was huge, rich, technical, and pretty damn cool. Santana wondered how they all felt sane living in freaking Ohio* for all those years when places like this existed. That's probably why literally everyone had found their way to New York.
"That's one hell of a building." Kurt mumbled.
"Barry? Do you know what that is?" Quinn asked.
Santana glanced at him. He seemed a bit anxious to answer the question.
"Uh," he started, "Yeah… that's S.T.A.R Labs. It's a research facility."
Schue gaped, "That is one research facility. How many floors does it have?"
Barry said, "600 levels—" Holy shit "But, uh, S.T.A.R Labs isn't the best place to have your fundraiser, so— "
Rachel gasped. Oh no, Allen just gave her an idea, didn't he? "Barry! That's a great idea!" She exclaimed.
"It's really not— "
"No, imagine how many people it would attract! My god, and we could even fix those lights to shine in a certain way, and holy smokes this could be great!"
Rachel was practically vibrating when she clapped her hands excitedly. Santana had no clue as to why she was taking this fundraiser so personally.
Quinn frowned, "Rachel, wouldn't we need permission to do something like that? It's a big facility, and I doubt they would let us host a fundraiser inside of it?"
How Rachel didn't think of that was utterly lost on Santana.
"Well—" Rachel was cut off.
"Maybe we could go and ask?" Finn suggested.
Santana actually snorted, "Ah yes, I'm sure we could just waltz on in there and ask a bunch of working scientists if we could host a fundraiser for a school full of gay-lords that burned down almost seven years ago."
Finn turned red, "It was just an idea." He mumbled.
Barry kept quiet and was focusing his attention anywhere but them and S.T.A.R Labs. They were stopped at a red light, and S.T.A.R Labs was in perfect view, so she could tell he was struggling.
"Guys, I think it'll be a little hard to get permission from an obviously well-respected scientific research facility." Mr. Schue said flatly.
In those two seconds of absolute silence, everyone could perfectly hear Barry's small scoff. Interesting.
"Woah wait Barry, why'd you scoff? Are we all just overthinking this and its actually super simple? Please tell me it's super simple." Rachel said. A little too passionate.
God, Santana was craving a cronut. Maybe it would make her headache go away.
"Well, simple isn't the word I'd use," Barry said cautiously.
"What word would you use then?" Kurt asked.
"…Not-a-good-idea?" Barry said weakly.
Finn looked confused and let out a mumbled, "That's four words?"
"Guys, don't stress about it. It was a bit of a stretch, anyways." Schue said and gave Barry a reassuring smile.
Quinn sighed and said, "Yeah, and there was no way in hell they would let a couple of Millennials throw a fundraiser in a research facility."
Santana frowned and looked at the building. Wait a minute—how did nobody else notice?
"Uh, if this 'research facility' is so advanced, why is it quite literally falling apart?"
Everyone, including Barry, snapped their heads towards the building. Santana would have laughed if the situation had been different.
The building in question had broken bits, and part of the roof looked burned? Huh.
Quite odd.
They all turned to Barry, perplexed. He looked a bit uncomfortable ('Shocker') but said, "Uh, well, you all heard about the Particle Accelerator, right?"
Yes. She did, actually. It was sort of a big deal. Even across the country, people were intrigued by this scientific breakthrough. Mainly because most people didn't understand science, and the words the news outlets used seemed very impressive.
Look, most of the population got a D- in Chemistry and Physics; everything seemed impressive.
The more Santana thought about it, the more she realized why the facility was important. S.T.A.R Labs built the Particle Accelerator. And-
"—and when it had turned on," Barry was saying, "Things didn't go exactly as planned, uh well, actually—" He got himself off. **
They all looked confused. Santana and Kurt raised an eyebrow.
"You know what, never mind," He continued, "Things didn't go according to plan and it exploded—"cue another round of raised eyebrows and surprised expressions "— and released chemicals and shockwaves that were all believed to be theoretical, but obviously aren't, and I can go into depth about what they were and what consequences they had—you know what? I'll just explain this scientifically, that'll be easier for me. So, in a synchrotron, particles such as electron and protons…."
Blah, blah, blah Santana understood none of it. Allen went on for about 15 minutes explaining nerdy science stuff, not one of them understood.
Santana knew he was nerdy but damn. He was super smart too. Annoyingly so, especially since Quinn went as wide-eyed as one can get, and Santana was pretty positive this was turning her on.
Gross.
Kurt murmured, "Sebastian was smart, but he was not this smart. Also, the more time we spend with Barry, the more I want to see him and Sebastian in the same room."
Santana could not agree more. They are polar opposites.
And they don't even seem close?
Santana had no clue how those boys could ever get along.
Sebastian had no clue how he and Barry had ever gotten along.
They were so different. When they were younger, that didn't really matter since they had been with each other since birth.
After their Mother…no.
No.
Sebastian was not going to reminisce on his relationship with his brother or their dead Mother. Or his father, for that matter. The father he had hated for 15 long years.
Sebastian shook his head to clear his thoughts and gripped the wheel tighter.
He was already in Central City and still hadn't told Barry he was planning on coming. He didn't anyone for that matter.
Well, he told his friends in Seattle, but that's it.
Sebastian sighed. His head was pounding because he was thinking too hard. He didn't even know where he was going! He was just driving to clear his mind.
That obviously didn't work.
He bit his lip and looked outside, debating whether or not he should call. He decided to pull over into a parking lot of some bar and take out his phone. He scrolled until he saw Barry's contact.
Sebastian knows he should, but was he going to….
No. He was not.
He aggressively pocketed his phone and got out of his car. He might as well get a drink; maybe it would help. Probably not, but it was worth a shot. Sebastian just wanted an excuse to drink.
He walked inside and immediately noticed how freezing it was. Who the hell ran this place? Obviously, someone who hadn't heard of a goddamn heating system.
It was winter and 31˚ outside, but somehow it felt colder inside a building!
He shivered and rubbed his hands together while walking to a stool. He sat down and instantly laid his head in his arms.
God, he was exhausted.
Everything about the fundraiser, Dalton, McKinley, Barry—all of it: it was getting to him, and he was surprised he hadn't broken down and malfunctioned. He had suppressed everything for ages.
But he still wasn't ready to deal with his emotions.
"I meant it when I said these visits were getting old, Scarlet."
Sebastian looked up, slightly startled, and was pleasantly surprised as he was greeted with the most beautiful blue eyes he had ever seen.
He was so distracted by the man's eyes and realized he had been openly gaping.
'Play it cool, Smythe!'
Wait—did the man just call him Scarlet? He wasn't wearing a red shirt?
"Uh—"
The man's eyes were so piercing, Sebastian thought he might just self-destruct on the spot.
The man sat right next to him and motioned for the bartender to get them both drinks. What drinks? Sebastian didn't know and didn't care to know because he was too busy thinking about how the man had addressed him.
Fucking Central City. Everyone was weird as hell.
This was going to be interesting.
Cisco Ramon was very screwed.
It was 4:57 PM, and Harry had told him to meet him at S.T.A.R Labs an hour and a half ago! It was freaking Sunday, by the way, but Harry was even more bitchy than usual, so Cisco feared for his life.
The weight of Zoom having Jesse was most likely gnawing at him even more, especially with the Christmas season.
Harry had a fit yesterday and yelled at everyone, even Caitlin. Jay got the short end of the stick and decided to take a week to himself, away from all the craziness.
Cisco wished he could've gone with him.
"Dammit!" He muttered under his breath as he was stuck at yet another red light.
He sighed, glancing towards his right, and immediately paused.
Was that….?
No…
Oh my god, it was!
Cisco was not expecting Barry Allen, the fastest man alive, to be driving a car!
He didn't care that he was openly gaping because what the hell!?
He just then realized he was driving Caitlin's new car. Cisco was wondering why Caitlin was driving her old one yesterday. But that doesn't explain why Barry was driving a car as if he didn't have superhuman speed—!
Wait a minute…
"Who the hell are they?"
Cisco just realized the car was full of people he had never even seen before. What was Barry doing? Was he going to S.T.A.R Labs? It certainly looked like he was heading that way!
Barry chose then to glance at Cisco's direction and immediately went wide-eyed.
Cisco made an incredulous gesture to the car and mouthed, "What are you doing?"
He saw Barry sigh, and the man in the passenger's seat glance in his direction, frowning.
A couple of others in the car followed in suit, and Barry gave a sheepish expression and gestured towards S.T.A.R Labs.
Was he insane!?
They couldn't just let random people into the lab! They would see the Flash suit!
Cisco gave Barry the most "bruh" stare he could manage, but Barry just returned it with a pleading look.
Cisco sighed loudly and dramatically and nodded begrudgingly.
The light turned green, and Cisco immediately pressed the gas, trying to beat Barry there so he could hide any Flash-related stuff.
And hide Harry.
This was going to be interesting.
*No offense to anyone who lives in Ohio!
**Hopefully everyone understand why Barry cut himself off