'it echoes through a vacant room where a young soul still resides'

His world was spinning out of control too fast for him to grasp onto anything, his mind going a mile a minute about what he could do or say to make it slow down and go back to the way it was before. Things had been simple before. Hiding in a dark corner of his apartment made everything seem less loud except that he could hear the cars on the street, people shouting and his neighbour faintly shuffling around next door. It was calming though. He counted the orange slits on his floor that were coming in through the half-opened blinds. He counted one, two, three, four, five, and six… no he shook his head lightly as he restarted his count.

"I'm sorry Barry," Len murmured softly, voice just softly breaking the silence between them. He'd been watching Barry from his spot on the couch, both unmoving and silent for hours or maybe it hadn't been hours "I don't know what came over me to… to do that."

Barry wasn't mad at Len, he wasn't. He was mad at himself for many reasons. He'd simultaneously wanted to laugh hysterically and cry. "I'm not mad Len," he said voice scratchy "I'm just… processing. I don't know that the fall out is going to be tomorrow. I'm scared I guess." He admitted.

Len shifted on the couch slightly, space felt needed right now and they both understood that. "I don't know what came over me," Len said more to himself "I saw the meta-human and I saw you, you who are practically inexperienced in using your speed and fighting and I acted before thinking. The only reason we are where we are today is because of your amnesia, if you'd remembered how we'd been last time," he said as he shook his head with a scoff "you never would've given me a second chance. How could I let you walk straight into that? I've done enough damage to the both of us." He added softly, sounding preoccupied in his own mind.

His apartment felt strangely cold. "We'll get through it," Barry said hoping he sounded more certain that he felt "we've got each other this time right?" he asked.

Len was silent as he looked in the direction of the window that held the half open blinds while he looked deep in thought. Len looked troubled and exhausted in the faint light that was pouring in through the window. "I panicked," he said softly "it's been a long time since I've felt like that. In the eyes of the people I work with, I've helped The Flash. Do you know how damaging that single act is to my reputation?" he asked.

Barry fiddled with his sleeve as he let Len's words sink in. "Like you didn't single handily do that to me as well?" he asked without thinking.

"Touché," Len sighed as he let his head drop back slightly "I let my feelings for you dictate how I acted tonight, I've never felt this strongly for someone and I wanted to protect you."

Barry exhaled lightly "I know," he said "you're not the only one to blame here, I run off with the both of us because I didn't want them to take you away. We've both done our fair share of damaging acts tonight."

"We'll face the consequences together," Len said "I promise."

Barry smiled softly "I should thank you for tonight," he said "I got so wrapped up in being fast and being The Flash again that I wanted to live up to everyone else's memory and rush back into helping others."

"The crazy thing is that I'd do it again," Len said sincerely "I'd do it all again for you."

Barry slowly stood up from his position feeling a bit sore in his back from being hunched over in a corner but he felt slightly less apprehensive about what's to come, he's still worried sick but how can he avoid tomorrow when he knows Len will be there right beside him to face it head on too. He'd sped back to STAR labs to change his clothes and grab his phone in less than five seconds to ensure he didn't have to face Cisco and Caitlin immediately. He knew they'd have pressing questions that he wasn't ready to answer. He slowly moved over to the couch to sit beside Len.

"So would I," he said.

"I love you," Len said.

"I love you too," Barry said as he joined their hands.

The thing about night time is Barry could convince himself that he had more time to himself, more time to go through the events that had occurred and that the inevitable confrontation with Joe tomorrow was still hours away. He could close his eyes and push it to the back of his mind for all of five minutes before scenarios of Joe shouting at him resurfaced. He tossed and turned in bed, couldn't even be comforted by Len's presence beside him. Barry could tell Len had a restless night as well, the other not wanting to disturb the other in case they were on the cusp of sleep.

However as Barry slowly watched the sky lighten from the bedroom window, watching as the sky burst with reds, pinks and purples he knew he was quickly losing that precious time to himself. Barry couldn't avoid Joe forever and he knew the man wouldn't take kindly to Barry dodging his many phone calls.

"If you need me I'm only a phone call away today," Len said from his side of the bed.

Barry looked at the time on his phone before placing it back on the bedside table and letting his head fall back onto the soft pillow "Thanks," he said "if I'm not back this evening then Joe has officially killed me and hidden the body."

"Want me to call it in to the station?" Len asked with a hint of amusement in his voice.

Barry turned his head to look at the man beside him and smiled "Is that your legal way of avenging me?" he asked laughing softly.

"Hm," Len said "I suppose so. I'm going ahead and assuming that if I used my cold gun then you'd somehow come back and haunt me for the rest of my life." He added.

Barry nodded his head "You'd be right there," he said before heaving out a big sigh and adding "I'm gonna go to work early, might through Joe off and let me see what I'm dealing with." He added, he could feel the anxiety in the pit of his stomach.

As Barry pulled on his clothes the thought of him overreacting had crossed his mind but he knew Joe and he knew how he felt about Captain Cold so he definitely was not overreacting. The walk to work wasn't long and Barry slightly regretted moving closer to the station but the thought of living somewhere else while Joe processed last night seemed to be a good stroke of luck. At least Joe had some time to calm down between then and now… well Barry had hoped he'd calmed down. It took Barry a good two minutes to build up the courage to walk into the station, many horrifying scenario's trying to play themselves out in his mind had Barry pausing before mentally shaking himself and pushing ahead into the station and… nothing happened. No outcry from the officers or anything… just a few surprised officers glancing at him and commenting "I've never seen you be early to work Allen,"

He felt on edge during the entire way to his lab and even as he entered the safety of his own work space there was still a niggling feeling of uneasiness. Barry regretted not checking to see if Joe was at work already, he felt jumpy. Almost like Joe was preparing to jump out of any corner. He'd made a point of avoiding looking at any of the newspaper stands he passed.

At first it wasn't easy to concentrate on anything in front of him but after being at work for a good hour or so and no one coming in to grill him about being The Flash or protecting Captain Cold. Joe didn't make an appearance either so Barry's nerves faded but only slightly so.

Barry's immersed in writing a report on the computer and turning to grab an important sticky note off his board that included an important point he needed to make, Joe standing in the doorway of his lab just watching him had him jolting slightly in surprise.

"I thought I'd let you stew for a bit," Joe said nonchalantly as he walked into the lab after closing the door behind him "because I'd better have a good explanation about what happened last night." He added.

Barry stood up from his chair feeling awkward as he scratched at the back of his neck briefly "About that Joe," he said chuckling nervously "I was going to tell you at dinner tonight remember?" he asked "I said I needed to tell you something about the person I was seeing…"

"You hinted at that," Joe said before falling silent and Barry could pinpoint the exact moment the pieces clicked in his mind "tell me this is a joke Barry, you cannot be dating Snart!" he said.

"I've wanted to tell you," Barry said "I didn't know how to and Len was anxious about how you'd react and Joe-"

"-Len!?" Joe demanded laughing humourlessly "You're lucky the officers of the taskforce last night were so busy focusing on the meta-human, stunned by Snart and confused by him freezing our meta-human that they didn't hear him. It was bloody well lucky Barry because you'd have a lot to be answering for today. I had to spin some story to them that you ran off with him because you probably thought we were the next target." He said in a whisper yell.

Barry couldn't believe his ears, he was in the clear? How… he was certain he'd be answering difficult questions from everyone today.

"Joe, Len was worried about me." Barry said "He didn't like me facing the meta-human after only just finding my speed again. He was looking out for me."

Joe's face seemed to be in a permanent scowl "It's Snart, Barry! Snart! How can you expect me to be okay with that!?" he asked.

Barry sighed as he looked down at the floor "Will you come to dinner tonight?" he asked "I'll answer all of your questions then okay? Just know Joe, Len makes me happy. I love him. You'll eventually come to see that he can be good." He added.

Joe shook his head in disbelief "I can't believe what I'm hearing right now," he muttered "Barry… you do remember the part about Snart being a criminal right?" he asked.

Barry nodded his head "He's been nothing but honest with me Joe," he said "he's not hidden anything from me."

Joe shook his head once more "Will he be there tonight?" he asked venomously.

Barry considered it briefly. "I'll let him know," he said "but I don't think so. He's not going to impose his presence on you if you're not comfortable."

Joe scoffed "How considerate," he said sarcastically before heading out of Barry's lab without giving a definitive answer about dinner tonight. Barry was going to assume it was a yes though, he knew Joe's curiosity would eventually win over.

Barry sat back down in his chair, the report completely forgotten as he exhaled. The talk with Joe could've gone a lot worse he supposed. If he was completely honest then he didn't exactly know what the best case scenario could've been for Joe taking this well. At least no gun threats had been made yet, that could be considered the best possible scenario so far right?

Leonard had decided it would be best to lay low in Barry's apartment while Barry was at work and then he'd leave before Joe came round, it was the best possible plan he had come up with in such short notice. Lisa hadn't tried to contact him yet so he assumed news hadn't reached her whereas Mick had been calling nonstop.

"What is it Mick?" Leonard asked through a sigh as he answered his phone on the fifth phone call.

"Firstly I appreciate last night must've been hard on you but I had to put up with a cranky pregnant girlfriend because she didn't get that Big Belly Burger she'd asked Barry for," Mick said "and secondly thank you for what you did." He added.

Leonard is starting to lose count of the amount of times Mick had caught him guard "What?" he choked out incredulously. Why would Mick be thanking him?

Mick cleared his throat "Caitlin obviously found out about you and Barry last night and grilled me about what I knew," he said "I didn't give too much away because y'know, it's not my place to tell her but what you did last night showed courage and I think she was inspired by that. I think she wants to finally tell her friends and family about us."

"I wouldn't have exactly put it like that," Leonard muttered "but that's great, I'm happy for you."

Mick exhaled softly down the line "Len I never could have imagined feeling this happy," he admitted "it's weird right, how completely opposite we are and how it just works."

"She's clearly a calming influence over you," Leonard commented idly "it's good you've found that… Hey Mick, can you do me a favour tonight?" he added.

"Anything," Mick said.

Leonard paced back and forth in Barry's apartment "Can you pick me up from Barry's later?" he asked "it's just West is coming round to discuss Barry and I and I don't know how the other guys are going to take to me pulling what I did last night so I'm trying to lay low-"

"-Sure Len," Mick said sincerely "you don't need to explain anything to me. What time?" he asked.

"How's seven?" he asked.

"Seven it is then," Mick said.

Barry cautiously entered STAR labs; he'd managed to survive talking with Joe so he could definitely survive Caitlin and Cisco (he hoped). The lab was unusually quiet and Barry didn't know whether to take that as a bad sign. He fully entered the main room (as he liked to call it) to see Caitlin sat in a chair staring at a computer screen. "Where's Cisco?" Barry asked slowly.

Caitlin looked up from the screen with a slightly dazed look on her face "Barry!" she exclaimed "I didn't know when we'd see you again after last night…" she added "Cisco's just finalising some results before preparing a report."

Barry nodded his head "I'm really sorry about running off like that last night," he said "I should've explained but I wasn't ready to face the entirety of the situation we'd created."

Caitlin got up from the chair with her hands up slightly as if to stop him "It's okay Barry," she said "Cisco's a bit confused as am I about the whole ordeal but I'm not exactly in a position to judge. Let's go to the break room and we can talk there." She added as she guided him out the main room and down the hallway.

They passed a couple of rooms before they walked into what Barry assumed had been made into a makeshift break room, there was a table with a coffee machine on the side beside that was a fridge and the see-through cupboards held cups and plates. Barry assumed it was pretty much a small kitchen. "Sometimes it's nice to just take a break from all the screens," Caitlin said. She motioned for Barry to sit so he did as he was told and watched as Caitlin prepared them two teas in silence. Her words were playing on his mind a bit.

"What did you mean by not being in a place to judge?" he asked once Caitlin had placed the two steaming cups on the table and had seated herself opposite him.

"Mick Rory," Caitlin said simply "does that name ring a bell to you?" she asked.

Barry knew of Mick as Len's closest friend and work colleague, he knew him by the name of 'Heat Wave' too. "He's a friend of Len's," Barry said "plus the criminal activity they take part in as the duo Captain Cold and Heat Wave. Why?" he asked.

Caitlin looked down at the table "A while back I bumped into him at a bar on a night out and I was pretty drunk, didn't fully realise who he was. Then he checked up on me the day after when I had the hangover from hell, I was pretty emotional and ended up spilling everything about Ronnie. Everything happened so fast but we started seeing each other so what I'm saying is you're not alone in this, I knew how you must've been feeling when we overheard what we did." She explained.

Barry exhaled "Why do I feel it's somehow worse that I'm seeing Leonard Snart?" he asked softly "Joe doesn't understand that Len is a completely different man compared to Captain Cold."

"I don't know why you feel like that," Caitlin said "Mick's known to be a bit out of his mind but he is a genuinely sweet and caring man."

Barry wrapped his hands around the warm cup feeling slightly better "I wish Joe hadn't found out the way he did," he admitted "I had planned on telling him tonight over dinner. I guess I have this silly idea that Joe seeing Len doing something good like he did last night would have maybe swayed him a bit but I think Joe thinks that Len has a hidden agenda or something."

Caitlin smiled at him sympathetically "It'll take time," she said "Joe's a stubborn man but when he sees that you and Leonard are happy together then he might start to see things differently."

"You don't know Joe like I do," Barry sighed "he hates Len and he's going to hate the idea of us together for the rest of his life."

Barry felt like a weight had been partially lifted off his shoulders after facing today but knowing he wasn't going to be able to spend the whole evening with Len had him feeling slightly down and the fact that he had been held behind at work because of an urgently needed report had soured his mood as it was cutting into his little time he had with Len. As he opened his door he found Len standing at the cooker, peering into a pan.

"What you got cooking?" Barry asked sniffing the delicious smell of food that was lingering in his apartment.

Len turned to look at him and smiled "I thought bolognaise wouldn't be too difficult for you to finish cooking," he said "I've got to go; Mick will be outside any minute waiting to pick me up."

Barry resisted the urge to pout slightly at his words "Okay," he sighed "I'm sorry about work being so demanding."

"It's okay," Len assured him "I'll swing by later tonight when the coast is clear okay?"

Barry smiled "Okay," he said "did you know about Caitlin and Mick?" he asked, the words falling from his lips without thinking.

Len looked at him surprised as he said "Got to go," and placed a quick kiss to his lips "love you, bye!" and proceeded to hurry out of his door as fast as possible. Barry shook his head amused, so Len had knowledge of Mick and Caitlin.

Barry moved over to the cooker and frowned, Len didn't tell him how much longer the food needed. How was he going to know when to dish it up? Would Joe even show up? Shit, is it possible to even burn pasta?

Barry worried his bottom lip between his teeth as he stirred the sauce and the spaghetti and decided he'd give the food five more minutes, why didn't Len give him a time? He prepared the table quickly and got the plates out the cupboard and quickly dished up the dinner. It wouldn't be too hot for when Joe got here then, it would be the perfect temperature to eat without burning his tongue.

He sat in his chair watching as the steam from the food clouded the containers placed over the plates to contain the heat as a sinking feeling settled inside of him, Joe had meant to be here ten minutes ago and there was no text or call for him to suggest if he was even coming. Barry knew he shouldn't get his hopes up when it came to Joe wanting to know Len but it would have been nice for Joe to make an effort. It was a lot to ask, he knew.

A knock at his door had Barry rushing out of his seat and composing himself briefly as to not seem too eager before pulling it open to reveal a sour looking Joe "Didn't think you were going to come," Barry admitted as he allowed Joe to come in.

Joe cast a glance around the apartment as if to seek out whether Len was there or not "I didn't know myself," he said "but I guess I just had to hear this fascinating tale about how Snart got you wrapped around his little finger."

Barry sighed "It's not like that at all Joe," he said "Len risked everything last night because he was worried about me, does that not show you how much he is willing to risk?" he asked.

"He's lucky to have not blown your cover Barry," Joe pointed out as he sat at the table cautiously "how was he going to have explained and helped you out of that difficult predicament?" he questioned.

Barry removed the containers covering their food before he sat down himself "Joe, I'm not going to argue with you about this. I was going to tell you tonight so you heard it from me first. I'm happy, he makes me happy and I'm not going to give in to your cold shoulder like Iris has done in the past. I'm old enough to make my own decisions." He said.

"Excuse me for having your best interests at heart," Joe said "Snart is not a best interest for you, believe me I know. Barry all he's going to do is hurt you in the long run."

"That's your view," Barry said simply "I know right now I'm happy and he cares about me and that's all I need to know right now."

Joe's jaw tensed slightly before he asked "So how did this come about?"

"From the beginning?" Barry asked.

Joe nodded his head "From the beginning," he confirmed.

A/N: :) XOX