#I once forgot my jacket and had to wear my lab coat in lecture like a fuckin nerd

[hermannsthumb]

What about college style newmann (roommates/pining penpalls/labpartners/whatever)

ok this one. got away from me a bit. uh. in my defense, writing college au newmann was VERY fun, as was imagining what they’d wear (and now i kinda......want to make this a fully fledged fic). anyway have some student union meet-cute AND implied eventual lab partners (pre-lab partners is the even more powerful form of pre-slash) also: it should be noted that newt’s guitar has a rainbow strap. tragically i couldn’t figure out how to work the description of it in but it does. picture it

There’s a super cute guy sitting off to the side in the Student Union that Newt’s never seen before and has spent the night eyeing up--dark undercut, cane, thick sweater with sleeves that are a bit too long, big round glasses on a chain, legitimate saddle shoes--and Newt’s determined to get his number by the time he leaves.

Guys like guys who play the guitar, right? The guys Newt usually picks up always think it’s cool. Saddle shoes-undercut guy didn’t seem super invested when Newt and his band were up on the little stage and he didn’t put down his book the entire time, but maybe he’s just trying to play it cool. Not let on how much Newt’s amazing guitar skills and even more amazing singing impressed him.

Newt swings his guitar over his shoulder, nods goodbye to the two other guys that constitute the band--a gig well done, congratulations all around, maybe they’ll actually get paid next time, probably not--and sidles up to the cute guy’s ratty old armchair. “Hey,” Newt says, trying his best to look cool and aloof and angling himself just enough so that his guitar is visible. The guy glances up at Newt, looking mildly annoyed.

“Hello,” he says. He has some sort of posh British accent. It’s also very cute. He hasn’t closed his book, which is a sign that Newt’s gotta make small talk fast before he gets bored and tells Newt to fuck off in nicer words. But the guy does have a little rainbow flag button pinned to the small tote bag he brought with him, so that’s at least a sign that Newt isn’t batting in the completely wrong proverbial ballpark. Or barking up the wrong proverbial tree.

Newt scuffs the toe of his boot against the ground. “I haven’t seen you around campus before,” he says. “Are you new?” The guy doesn’t look like a freshman--he looks Newt’s age. Maybe he’s an international student. The next semester doesn’t officially start for another two days, so it makes sense that Newt wouldn’t have had the chance to run into him yet if that’s the case.

“Yes, in a sense,” the guy says. “I’ll be here for the year.”

“You are international then!” Newt says. He pulls his guitar off and leans it up against the wall next to the guy’s cane, then steals the empty armchair next to him. The guy’s mild annoyance is replaced with mild alarm. “That’s so cool. I really wanted to go abroad but I didn’t have enough credit space. Sucks, but whatever. Not sure why you’d come to America of all places, but...” Hermann doesn’t say anything. Newt picks at some of the black nail polish that’s begun to chip off his fingernails. He should put a new coat on. “What’s your major?”

“Physics,” the guy says, “but I’ll be taking some engineering courses while I’m here, as well.” He looks Newt up and down--his jean jacket covered in patches, his Godzilla shirt, his bracelets, his pierced ears, his scuffed and unlaced floral docs, his tattoos. “I don’t imagine we’ll be having many classes together.”

Newt grins. “Imagine again,” he says, finally recognizing the book the guy’s reading--it’s a required text for one of the lectures Newt’s in this semester. “I do biochem and engineering.” He taps at the guy’s book. “So it looks like I’ll be seeing you every Tuesday-Thursday evening from four to six. With lab on Friday mornings.”

“Ah,” the guy says, and his cheeks go a little pink. His oversized glasses slip down his nose. It makes Newt’s chest twist in a funny way. “I see. Apologies. I didn’t mean...”

He trails off. There’s a bit of an awkward lull in the conversation; onstage, another band is readying themselves to play. “I’m Newt, by the way,” Newt says, realizing he hasn’t actually introduced himself yet.

“Hermann,” the guy says. He shuts his book carefully. Score one point Newt. “Gottlieb.”

“So, Hermann,” Newt says, his grin back, entirely prepared to enter full flirt mode, “what’d you think of my band?”

Hermann’s eyes go to the guitar propped up between them, and he looks amused. (Not overcome with lust, like Newt was hoping, but he can’t have everything.) “I’ve never heard that many Pixies covers back to back,” he says. “I’m rather impressed.”

“Yeah, we’re pretty versatile,” Newt says, leaning back in his chair with exaggerated casualness. “Once we even covered a Mountain Goats song, too.”

“Even more impressive,” Hermann says. He’s smiling, leaning in. He’s totally interested. Maybe now’s the time that Newt can swoop in, get his number, take him out on a bunch of dates, then they fall in love and--the lead of the next band taps the microphone, and static from the speakers fills the union. Hermann winces. “Another one?” he says, and scowls at the stage.

“Yeah, man,” Newt laughs. “It’s open mic night. What did you expect?”

“I didn’t expect anything,” Hermann says. “My roommate has his girlfriend over and I was just trying to find somewhere quiet to--wait it out.”

Newt forgot that international students have to live in the underclassmen dorms, which means double rooms; Newt’s had his classy senior-privilege single for less than a week and he already can’t imagine how he ever used to live with anyone else. He’s about to suggest Hermann try the library, but remembers their hours run short this week. “We could go back to mine?” Newt suggests, heart thudding a bit.

Hermann rolls his eyes. “How charitable,” he says.

“I don’t mean like that,” Newt insists, holding up his hands in defense. Hermann arches an eyebrow. Newt lowers his hands. “Okay, I mean, I was going to ask you for your number, but--” Which is not to say Newt wasn’t intending on inviting Hermann back to his place and meaning it like that eventually, just that it was the last event on a long chain of properly wining and dining him. Or buying him a bunch of cheap beer and Chinese takeout, which is effectively the same thing. “I meant I don’t have a roommate,” Newt says, “so it’d be quiet. I could make us coffee, or something?” That’s desperate. “Watch a movie?” Even more desperate.

“Thank you for the offer,” Hermann says, nice and polite, and he sounds like he means it, “but it has gotten late. They’ve likely finished by now.” He slips his book back into his tote bag and grabs his cane, but he hesitates, not standing up yet. “May I have your phone?” he says.

“Uh. Okay.” Newt squeezes his hand into the pocket of his skinny jeans and pulls out his old, cracked iPhone. He unlocks it and hands it over to Hermann, and Hermann begins fiddling with it. “What are you--?” Hermann hands it back over to him, cheeks a deeper pink than before. The contacts app is open, and there’s a new number entered into it, and above it, Hermann Gottlieb. “Oh.”

“Don’t feel obliged, of course,” Hermann says quickly, “but--you did say--”

“Yeah,” Newt says, smiling goofily. “I did. Wow. Cool.”

Hermann nods, a little stiffly, and hoists himself to his feet. He’s smiling again too. “Goodnight, Newt. I’ll see you Tuesday.”

“Okay,” Newt says, heart thudding faster. “See you Tuesday! Cool!”

He waits until Hermann’s out of sight, and then adds a few heart emojis after Hermann’s name. He really hopes that they can pick their own lab partners.

(They don’t, but to Newt’s--and to a lesser extent, Hermann’s--delight, it’s done alphabetically, and Geiszler and Gottlieb happen to fall next to each other in the class roster.)

[onlyjihoons]

collegebf! daniel

a/n; happy birthday to kang choding hehe,, dedicated for my dearest mother @mongniel aurora until she disowned me so im trying to validate myself and also the loyal mom, ariane @deepdickdaniel

(repost bc the tags werent working)moodboard will be uploaded in a seperate post soon!

major: vetinary

minor: sports science

honestly took up vetinary bc of peter and rooney

so he could save on the fees to the vet

though he puts up a strong front he is often a kultz and actually really soft??

likes kids too and often swings by the early childhood department to visit minhyun

but let’s face it, animals like him better than the babies do

has a phobia of insects, especially flying ones

hence cant join practical lessons that involves specimen or live insects

his classmates would be kind enough to share with him the notes they took in class, but he would rather fail the topic than look at notes of insects

there was once his friend, ong threw a fake spider whilst daniel was studying and he screamed, pushing off the seemingly 1 ton table and chair away from him

ong was like,,, “are you sure he wants to be a vet next time”

despite his phobia of insects, he will actually grin and bear it when he needs to remove lice from animals

red bull and gummy addict, but more likely to die of shock from insects than diabetes

you will always spot a can of red bull on his lecture desk, and bet 10 bucks it has a love note attached to it from his admirers

fairly popular in school, because a soft, tall and cute guy doing vetinary?? he just screams boyfriend material in that white lab coat

and glasses slipping down his nosebridge just makes him look even more cuter

loves dancing as a hobby so he took it up as his minor

does b-boying and modern dance, looks equally hot in both

when the school hall is filled with girls, it is either some kpop boy band is performing, or daniel and his dance group, wanna one are performing

has so much charisma in his dancing, the idea of “cute daniel” gets thrown away

but a cute bunny most of the time who is addicted to gummies

surprisingly, hasn’t dated a lot as contrast to rumours that he’s a fuckboy

he really hates fucking around with others’ feelings… despite being choding(childish) around his hyungs of wanna one

meanwhile you,, a medicine student trying to keep up with the expectations of society

to be honest, you’re doing well

but not well enough to enter the top hospitals of seoul

and you’re here on scholarship anyway, might as well make use of it to make your parents proud

you’re your parents’ only child too, the pressure to do well is also quite high

you barely dated, the only time was in high school where you were a foolish teenager dating your best friend

you did have classmates confessing to you though, but everything stayed platonic

they weren’t upset surprisingly, they were more than willing to be friends with you too

eventually they found their other halves, but are still good friends with you

you were glad guys in your faculty were understanding,, unlike some that disliked you after that

you were friends with jaehwan, your old friend since the both of you were in diapers

he took up music, and ended up having lots of college scholarship offers

he eventually went to your college, despite it not one of his first few choices

“my friend would die a lonely virgin if i didnt help her with her love life”

“shut up jaehwan, 80% of your girlfriends broke up with you because your laugh is annoying”

“i dId NOT aSk for this sLaNdEr”

anyway, you had no idea how jaehwan ended up in wanna one(and daniel’s roomate), depite his “boom boom-bastic” dance skills

winkwonk

but that boy’s vocals can reach to the gods in heaven and appease them

he tried to matchmake you with all of the members of wanna one(excluding the minors of course) but it all failed because your friend was the worst at being discreet

the lords of venus eventually shined upon you when daniel was sent to your faculty for “emergency” treatment

“y/n,,, we need you to fix daniel, quick.” jaehwan said breathlessly over the phone

“if he needs a one night stand, im not an option, you know that, kim jaehwan.”

“no, that stupid boy accidentally cut himself while trying to disect a frog… and he’s bleeding a lot.”

“oh the flower boy from vetinary?” you nodded as you took your first aid kit, “but you aren’t even majoring in vetinary, jaehwan, what are you doing with daniel?”

“he called me to call you– ok nevermind, i’ll explain to you later, we’re on our way to your faculty. wait for us outside the medicine labs.”

“uh okay.”

so there you were, waiting outside the medicine labs with your first aid kit

seconds later, you saw 3 boys running towards you, one visibly taller than the other 2

you could finally make out their faces, it was jaehwan, daniel and another boy, wonwoo whom you were friends with due to jaehwan’s failed matchmaking

“y/n,, i think daniel is gonna suffer from anaemia…”

you tried to stifle your laughter as you examined the cardigan wrapped around daniel’s hand

“he won’t. don’t worry.” you assured them as you unraveled the cardigan, “let’s just hope it’s nothing too deep…”

when you revealed the wound, it was just a minor cut, though not as minor as a paper cut but definitely bleeding

you glared at jaehwan, who smiled sheepishly and resigned to his death after you treated daniel

you dressed the wound quickly, lips pursed in concentration

what you didnt notice was daniel’s gaze, which was on you the whole time

he had a weird feeling in his stomach, he wanted to use his other hand to run it through your hair

he tried to shake it off, but he got more and more attracted to you when he saw your eyes meeting his to make sure he isnt uncomfortable

this wasnt the first time daniel saw you though, he often saw you on jaehwan’s lockscreen, as your friend had set the selca both of you took as his lockscreen

as much as daniel wanted to meet you, he didn’t want to give you the wrong impression because of his rumours

and now he finally did, but he was pretty sure you’re gonna hate him for being over-reacting

“done,” you patted his dressing and pushed his hand towards him, “it’s nothing too deep, don’t worry. but make sure to take it off when you’re showering, if you need any help just give me a call.”

daniel shot you one of his signature eyesmiles, “thank you so much, i’m sorry i had to make you rush down for me…”

“no its fine! just call me whenever. i hope you get well soon.” you smiled, then tiptoed to daniel’s ear, “just don’t tell jaehwan though, he can be a little, nosey.”

you were lying if you said daniel wasn’t attractive and totally did not win you over with his eyesmile in the span of 3 seconds

“and kim jaehwan, you owe me a meal. for helping your friend and putting up with your drama.”

at this point, daniel was totally smitten

everyone could see it, even the members of wanna one started teasing him about it

“i can set you up with a date with y/n if you want–”

“no i dont like her peter and rooney are my girlfriends”

daniel totally did not ask almost everyone in his faculty for your number

when he finally had the guts to text you, he was all giddy when you replied, jumping up whenever he heard the personalized notification just for your contact

meanwhile, while you were talking to daniel, you really loved it when he talks about animals, it seemed like all time has stopped in the world and his passion for taking care of animals is just so attractive

and he didnt seem like the usual fuckboy everyone perceived him to be

one day, daniel asked you out for a pizza date, and you immediately agreed

because free pizza and a cute date, why not

the both of you ended up going to laundry pizza, just bc daniel said ioi went there to take their album jacket photos there LOL

but the pizza there was good so you weren’t complaining

daniel ended up paying for the both of you, after 15 minutes of rentless argument over who should pay

the both of you also went to the arcade, wasting your money on those claw machines

you didn’t get anything, but you had fun throwing airballs at the basketball machine thingy

daniel walked you back pretty early, because he knew you had a morning lecture the next morning

not gonna lie, you wanted to stay longer but daniel was not gonna have any of it

daniel walked you till your doorstep, and your hands were fumbling through your purse for your keys

looks like someone forgot their keys,,,

you laughed humourlessly as you tried to open the locked door, but only for daniel to giggle along with you

your roomate was out too, and she wouldn’t be back till the next morning

“i dont think its safe for you to be sleeping outside, why dont you stay over at my place?”

“im–”

“ok let’s go”

you didnt even say anything and here you are, at daniel’s dorm, unsure of what to do

just watching daniel hastily clean up his dorm is quite amusing

“jaehwan wont be back till really late, he has an event to attend to.” daniel smiled as he proceeeds to kick the sweet wrappers under the sofa, “i’m sorry you have to put up with this, y/n.”

“no, no, thank you for letting me stay here, or i’ll be freezing in the cold right now.” you shook your head, yawning

“do you want a change of clothes? i have a hoodie you can wear…hopefully”

you never knew you would be staying in daniel’s dorm, on his bed, in his hoodie

until today

you slept fairly well, with daniel’s scent invading all your senses

until you felt something on your foot

you woke up, scared

the thing kept probing at your feet, and soon it was licking it

you screamed, and soon enough daniel ran into his room to see what happned

“y-y/n?” he rubbed his eyes as he turned on the lights, “what happened?”

“s-something was at my foot”

daniel moved the sheets, and he found rooney peacefully sleeping on the foot of the bed

“i’m sorry, rooney always likes to invade the bed in the middle of the night,,, i should’ve told you earlier”

“it’s fine, i was just too shocked hahaha”

silence

“maybe i’ll sleep with you, so peter and rooney wont disturb us”

you stared at daniel, as he quickly waved his hands, “no, no, i wont do anything, i swear, you can end me if i do.”

neither of you could sleep, so daniel nudged you

“y/n… i know its weird to say this but,, i like you”

well that was really weird

“i don’t expect you to accept me and all but i just wanna let you know that i–”

you cut daniel off with a kiss, as he sneakily snaked his arms around your waist to bring you closer

after a good like, 20 seconds, you pulled away, “me, rejecting kang daniel?? no way.”

ever since the both of you started dating, jaehwan started to brag about himself, saying that the both of you were a couple thanks to him,,,

but would shut up immediately after he sees you in the vicinity because he would be running away from you

a very cute relationship, daniel would always wrap his arms around your shoulders and snuggle you close to him

instant ramen dates are a big thing and you always have to clean up after daniel

but he helps of course, after hearing you nag at him for the nth time

he would always make you a bento before your papers, with a note that says, “with this bento, you will do well! fighting! love, daniel”

and vice versa, you would bake him muffins too

sweetest boyfriend, but the type to say pick up lines to annoy the heck out of you

they arent even smooth, theyre hella bad

and yes, kang choding still exists

you have to physically stop him from buying/eating more gummies or his teeth would rot

since daniel is relatively bigger in size, you would always steal his clothes and he would always wonder how his clothes would mysteriously go missing

he would know the answer when he sees you the next morning

the whole campus ships the both of you sm

please love kang daniel

[mc-dude]

Central’s Finest 1/??

AKA that one au where they’re both just cops.

note: okay since I don’t have that much time to write i figured i might as well just plop out this chapter here and see if I can make it past chapter 2.. HERE YOU GO.. enjoy this if u wanna..

Chapter 1

It’s the smell that hits him first.

He tugs his jacket tighter around his body. Six in the morning at the Missouri River in the middle of October is never a pleasant experience, even less so when there’s a dead body that’s been sitting in said river for the past two weeks washed up on shore.

It’s not a nice part of town– the railing is covered in rust and pigeon shit, he sees no less than five empty beer bottles scattered on the weed-covered bank, and the smell of garbage permeates the air. Delightful.

A gust of wind rushes over the edge of the railing and slides down the collar of his shirt. He subtly ducks his head further into his standard-issue CCPD coat. God, why did he come to a place where winter is an actual thing again?

John walks into his line of sight, mouth fixed in a grim line and looking way too awake for only getting 5 hours of sleep. Hal narrows his eyes. John’s the reason he’s in this frozen hellscape, not lounging on a sun-warmed beach in California. His partner catches his eye and walks over with– oh god, is that–

“Coffee! Give.”

Hal snatches it out of John’s hand and moans as the smell pushes some of the garbage-particles out of his nostrils. The cheap taste of Folgers instant coffee hits his tongue and he takes back every bad thought he’s ever had about John in his life. John is the best.

“Eloquent.”

“Shut up. It’s, like, four hours before I’m legally allowed to be awake.” He takes a sip of his coffee and shivers as the steam washes over his frozen nose. He bumps his shoulder against John’s with a smile. “I’m a cop, so you can take my word for it.”

John rolls his eyes, but Hal can see the corner of his mouth lift up at the edges as he takes a sip of his own drink. Success.

“Sooo–” he presses the hot cup against his cheek in an attempt to suck some of the warmth into his frozen skin “– all I remember about the text about,” he waves his arm in a vague motion, “all of this was ‘murder’ and ‘be there in 30 minutes or I’ll make sure you never see the sun again’.” He takes another sip of his coffee. “That about sum it up?”

John’s eyebrow quirks up. “Man, you have got to stop hitting on the captain. When you get on her shit list, I get on her shit list. You do remember we’re partners, right?” John downs the rest of his cup and crumples the styrofoam in one hand. “Where you go, or more importantly, when you go– I go.”

Hal purses his lips. “I can’t help it! You know how I get about a nice pair of–” Carol steps out of her vehicle in his peripheral vision “–um, of– hands.” He blinks. “Sorry, what were we talking about?”

John snorts. He can tell because the air from his nose honest-to-god freezes in front of him. Hal shudders. Hellscape.

“You’re just going to have to accept that she’s just not into you.”

Hal finishes the rest of his coffee and crumples up his cup. One of his hands finds John’s shoulder and he adopts his most serious expression.

“John. Those words have literally never been true. About anyone. Ever.”

John shakes his head, opens his mouth to spout more utter nonsense–

“Alright everyone, listen up!”

Carol’s tone is all business. John nudges his shoulder as if to say don’t say a goddamn word. Hal puts on his best offended expression. He takes his sun-time seriously, okay. If he gets another round of night-shifts forced on him he might actually start to lose his tan, which is, frankly, unacceptable. He had to spend six hours on his day off on top of his apartment complex in a speedo to get this tan. Six hours. He follows John to where the other officers are congregating around Carol.

“This is the third body this month. Forensics is looking over it right now, but so far it looks like the same M.O.” Hal perks up.

“So we got a serial killer, Cap?”

Carol looks at him like he’s one of those empty beer bottles on the side of the river. Hal shifts against the pavement. The air suddenly feels ten degrees colder.

“Yes, Detective Jordan. Congratulations on finally learning how to count past two.” Hal narrows his eyes. He sees John smile in his peripheral vision. Traitor. “The investigation has been elevated. Catching this guy is now our number one priority.” Carol gives everyone a once-over. “Spread out, see if there’s any additional evidence. It’s probably clean like the other murders, but we need to be thorough. Meet back at the precinct by nine. Dismissed.”

Carol doesn’t even glance his way as she walks down the steps towards the river bank. Hal watches her navigate the cobblestone in four inch heels without even the slightest wobble.

Sometimes he thinks the Captain might be superhuman.

He turns to John who’s looking at him like he’s one of the guys they regularly arrest for public intoxication; sad and pathetic. Hal doesn’t want another lecture so he decides to change the subject.

“Who’s on forensics?”

John grabs his empty cup and turns towards the overflowing trash can at the edge of the walkway. “Who do you think?”

Hal swivels his head towards the river edge. The lightning is dim, but he’d know that blond head of hair anywhere. Suddenly, his morning seems almost bearable.

The rocks are slippery under his feet as he clamors over the guardrail and onto the algae-covered river bank. He makes no effort to conceal his approach, but still revels in the little jump Barry does when he drops down next to him with a quiet “– so, what brings you here on this fine October morning?”

He looks tired. Barry’s big blue eyes– seriously, so blue– are slightly bloodshot, surprised expression that normally Hal would enjoy marred by dark purple circles under his eyes. He watches as Barry blinks once– slowly, like he forgot how and is trying to remember how his eye muscles work.

“Hm?” He blinks again. “Sorry, what?”

Hal would feel offended by Barry’s blatant disregard for his six A.M. humor, but he knows that Barry was at the precinct even later than he was, running tests or mixing chemicals.. or whatever it was that lab nerds did in their spare time.. and thus got even less sleep than he did.

Also, it’s physically impossible to be offended by anything Barry does or says, because Barry is a saint. And the best guy he knows. Actually, now that he thinks about it.. there might be a correlation there. He nudges Barry’s shoulder and has to physically reach out to stop him from toppling over.

“Nevermind.” He pulls his hand back reluctantly, not missing the way Barry leans into the motion like it was the only thing holding him up. Hal frowns. Why didn’t someone bring him a coffee? He makes a mental note to himself: get Barry caffeine when back at the precinct to stop him from looking so tired and cold. He doesn’t know why, but it’s physically painful to see Barry looking anything other than at, bare-minimum, content. Maybe it’s because he’s the nicest guy in existence and therefore nothing bad should ever happen to him ever.

He reaches for the corner of the tarp covering the body, only to have Barry swat at his hand with a huff.

“Don’t touch that. You’re not wearing gloves.”

Hal scoffs and crosses his arms over his chest. He makes sure to flex a little, for good measure. “What? I just want to look.”

Barry raises an eyebrow. “It’s a bloated body that’s been both a, drained of all its blood, and b, left sitting in the river for the last, at minimum, week.” Hal watches as Barry moves to scratch at the back of his neck only to realise that he has gloves on and awkwardly sort of shuffle his arm back to the tarp. He has to admit, it’s a little unnerving how Barry Allen, patron saint of Central City, possibly the universe, can talk about disgusting corpses like it’s the weather. Hal runs a hand through his hair and puts on his best charming smile.

“Well, I haven’t eaten yet this morning, so.”

Barry grins. “That didn’t stop you on the Channing case.”

“That was that one time.” Hal whines. “I had the flu, okay? I was sick, Barry.” It definitely wasn’t the way Mr. Channing’s body was splattered all over the alleyway like the can of Chef Boyardee sitting at the back of his pantry that he still can’t quite bring himself to eat.

Barry reaches for a sample kit from his case. “Uh huh.” He hesitates before reaching for the tarp corner. “Um, you might want to–” he sounds almost reluctant as he makes a shooing motion with his hands. Hal chooses to believe that it’s from his physical proximity rather than the disgusting body Barry has to chip away at. The tiny blush he spots on Barry’s cheeks while Hal shuffles backwards lends credit to his theory.

“Hold the recorder?”

He’s technically supposed to be searching for more evidence, but he also never acquired the ability to say no to Barry Allen, so he obediently grabs the device and hits the big red button in the middle.

“Alright, let’s see what we have here.” He watches as Barry grabs the corner of the tarp and– hesitates, a whole five seconds of staring at something far away, takes a deep breath in and out– and then flips it backward all at once.

Hal really tries not to react, but he’s only human. A dead body is never a pleasant sight. Or smell, christ. He shifts so that his jacket collar is firmly situated in front of his nose. Even Barry seems a little shaken, and Barry has seen some shit.

“Um, okay.” Another breath. “Subject is Caucasian female, between the ages of–” Barry leans forward, blue eyes flicking all around the bloated features lightning quick “– 20 and 35. Brunette. Small scar above left eyebrow..”

Hal tunes him out to engage in some quality Barry observation time. He always likes watching him do this. Barry is smart. Like, scary smart. He wouldn’t be surprised if over 80% of the cases they solve end up that way because Barry found some vital piece of evidence that no one else could have. He’s like some sort of super genius.

Barry’s tongue pokes out as he swabs the inside of the victim’s mouth for a DNA sample. Hal smiles against the fist propping his head up. A cute super genius.

Barry reaches to set the sample in his case before hesitating. “Huh. That’s interesting.”

Hal leans forward. “What?”

“See that?” Barry points to two identical cuts on the victim’s arm, about half-way between the shoulder and the elbow. “The incisions are consistent with some kind of needle.” Hal nods.

“Yeah, well we know the guy’s some kinda vampire.”

Barry throws him a look. Hal grins and wiggles his fingers as if to say spooky. Barry shakes his head, but Hal can see the corner of his mouth lift up.

“Yeah, he’s draining the victims, but the only incisions are on this arm–” he leans forward and flips the tarp the rest of the way off the victim’s upper body “– and another pair, on this side.” Hal nods, slower this time.

“And..?”

Barry reaches and gently turns the body’s arm over. “If he wanted to drain the victims, there’s about a thousand better ways to get the blood out. Like use an artery–” Barry points to the pale skin under the victim’s wrist “– or, I don’t know, slash their throats or something.” Hal watches as Barry winces as if imagining it. He leans over to bump against his shoulder with an encouraging smile.

“So he’s.. what? An idiot?” Barry shakes his head.

“No, these incisions are deliberate. He knew what he was doing.” Barry looks at him. The sun’s just coming up over the horizon and it makes the hue of his eyes a particularly dark shade of blue. “He didn’t want them to drain quickly. Where he poked holes in them, I mean it would take–” Barry pauses. Hal can practically see him doing the mental calculations in his head. “Maybe two days. Three, if the punctures weren’t made all at once.”

Hal blinks. “So after he captures them, he keeps them alive. For a while, at least.”

Barry nods. He looks how Hal feels– disgusted with an edge of completely horrified. Something dark is creeping up over Barry’s expression. Uh uh. Nope. that simply will not do.

“Hey–” Hal reaches with his free hand to squeeze Barry’s arm. He waits until Barry catches his gaze and plants what he hopes is an encouraging smile on his face. “We’ll get him.”

Barry’s eyes flick between his own. The pink-tinged sky reflects off his pale skin in a way that’s very distracting. Whatever dark thought Barry had gets smoothed away by upturned lips. Barry leans ever-so-slightly into Hal’s grip. His eyes close for a moment as he makes a quiet humming noise.

“Yeah, I know.”

A feeling settles in his chest that he can’t quite put into words– something heavy and warm– as he watches Barry go back to collecting samples with renewed determination. His hand drops back to his thigh from Barry’s arm. He flexes his fingers against the sudden cold feeling and clears his throat.

“Yep, all it’s gonna take is a few late-night stake-outs.”

Barry glances at him. Hal raises his eyebrows up and down. He’s rewarded with one of Barry’s exasperated snorts.

“I’ll be sure to mention ‘severe aversion to garlic’ when I profile him for everyone.”

Hal slaps a hand on his back with a grin. This is why Barry is his favorite.

“Please. Can you imagine the look on Carol’s face? It would be worth every nightshift she gives me for the next month.”

Barry snaps his sample case closed with a quiet laugh. Blue gloves get peeled back from steady fingers and Hal jumps to his feet, eager to head back to civilization, a.k.a. places with coffee. He offers Barry a hand, his smile only growing wider as Barry immediately loops his fingers around his wrist and tugs himself up.

“I’m pretty sure you’re already on the nightshift for the next month.” Barry swats at a fleck of dirt on his coat and makes for the stairs on the edge of the riverbank. Hal falls into step beside him, hands shoved deep in his pockets. He bumps against Barry’s shoulder.

“All part of my master plan to catch the vampire.”

That warm feeling settles back in his chest as Barry muffles his laugh behind the lapel of his coat.

Okay, maybe Missouri isn’t all that bad.