#and snart is like ‘i can’t believe the flash would be friends w someone as rude as you. at least HE has the manners to make small talk’

[danothan]

thoughts on coldflash?? just curious

don’t have fully fledged thoughts on them yet, but smth is going for sure.

for silly purposes alone, i like them a lot ^__^

[smokedstorybara]

I’m compiling a list of all my wips w/ summaries here to remind myself what all I should be working on and keep myself accountable - and if y’all wanna yell at me about them please do

(Also be warned there will be some spoilers in here cause I suck at non spoiler-y summaries)

Fanfics:

Dear Evan Hansen:

(Apprentice) Park Ranger Handsome part 16 (doesn’t even have a name yet I’m so sorry)

Evan and Connor’s first date!! They go to the orchard of course, and have more relationship conversation... and a picnic.

Fae Court AU

Prince Connor of the Winter Court falls in love with a human boy and acts on it, despite his parents having Rules against relationships with humans. The consequences are big but Connor and Evan weather them well.

Flash:

Soulmate AU (I’m thinking ‘Dream A Little Dream Of Me’ for series title)

A series of one-shots following the Arrowverse characters - with a bit of a focus on Team Flash and the Legends - as they find love and happiness , with some bumps along the way, in a world where you share dreams with your soulmate. Timeline is spread out from Stein and Clarissa’s first meeting to some point around mid canon.

endgame ships include Barry/Len, Hartley/Cisco, Wally/Jax, Sara/Ava, Nate/Ollie/Felicity/Lisa(it’ll make sense I promise), Iris/Caitlin/Shawna, and more

Role-reversal AU

In a world where Barry was kept strictly away from the file on his mother’s murder after he becomes a CSI he grows resentful and distrusting of law-enforcement and a little quicker to recognize that he can’t entirely fix the issues with the police from the inside. So when he wakes from a nine month coma with super speed his first thought is how much he can shove the police’s faces in the fact that the system isn’t perfect and needs to change... he becomes the world’s fastest thief - unbeatable. At least until he goes after a certain diamond at the same time as one Leonard Snart, who walks away from the encounter looking to the world like a hero and gets a sweet taste of positive press that he’s not all that eager to give up.

Harry Potter crossover

Snart and Rory go “backpacking across Europe” on a ridiculous challenge to steal one thing in each country. Their last stop is in England and they’ve set their sights on a suburb in Surrey... which leads them to noticing the treatment of the young nephew of their potential target. Being survivors of abuse themselves they decide to remove him from that environment... along with all of Vernon Dursley’s valuables. Raising a kid is hard, raising a magical kid while maintaining positions as master thieves? ...piece of cake...

Check Please:

Moving On

When Jack and Bitty go through a messy breakup their friends are torn and Bitty is uncertain about what to do, especially when he has to go back to Georgia - where he’s firmly in the closet - for summer break. He can’t talk to his family or his friends about all his conflicting feelings about what happened, so he somehow finds himself corresponding with the one person who he knows would understand - Jack’s other ex, Kent Parson. He also finds himself growing closer to the previous year’s freshmen on his college hockey team and the team’s new manager - especially when summer ends and they’re all handling the situation better than the rest of his friends - ie: behaving like nothing happened except that they’re immediately down to fight Jack at a moment’s notice.

The Umbrella Academy:

Ghost Dave (that’s what it’s called in my google docs but it’s definitely not gonna be the title of the final product)

Dave Katz has been haunting the surviving members of his unit for a couple decades when the story about the 43 women comes on the news; a story Dave had heard plenty about before he died from his lover, Klaus Hargreeves. In whose tellings of it he was one of the children born that day. He also had claimed a few times to be from the future so Dave was fairly willing to take this as proof he was telling the truth. Immediately Dave seeks out Reginald Hargreeves and the 7 of the children he adopted. Over the next 29 years Dave follows the young Klaus around, giving him advice and unconditional friendship and protection from the other ghosts the poor kid could see.

Circle Of Magic crossover

When Tris finds herself dropping out of some kind of portal in a strange land it doesn’t take her long to figure out that some mage had decided to get rid of her - and possibly her siblings - by banishing her to another world, one with advanced technology but not much by way of magic - if one didn’t count the six super-powered siblings she appeared in the middle of. At the same time, but also not, Tris’s adopted sister Sandry wound up smack dab in the center of a group calling themself The Commission who’re very interested in adding her to their ranks, she joins up but maintains suspicion. Daja, the third sister, follows a pair of assassins. And their one brother, Briar, falls into the Vietnam War alongside one freshly tortured Klaus Hargreeves. They all find their way back together eventually - with much fewer casualties than if they hadn’t been there

Harry Potter crossover 1

When an eighteen-year-old Klaus Hargreeves gets bored of being lookout on a mission in London and wanders into the bar across the street he isn’t expecting to find a best friend, but that’s exactly what happens. Lily Evans is a couple months into a break-up and still tired of her ex and his idiocy, especially after his most recent letter - a pile of stupid big enough to send her straight to her local bar. The two hit it off instantly via complaining about anything and everything and egging each other into doing the most ridiculous but fun things. Their night of fun turns sour when Klaus finds out his brother Ben died during the mission and at least one of his siblings blame him. Lily takes the broken boy back to her flat and let’s him stay with her until his visa to stay in England runs out. Thirteen years later the apocalypse is interrupted by a tired ex-professor bringing life changing news - Lily was pregnant when Klaus left England(they’d slept together a handful of times but were never more than friends with benefits), also Lily and her husband(the idiot ex who apologized and changed his behavior, Klaus was at their wedding) are dead and Klaus and Lily’s son was placed with his aunt Petunia(who Klaus has met and knows the boy never should’ve been put with) because only five people besides Lily and James knew who Harry’s father really was and the only one capable of doing anything about it had to find the wandering junkie first. Klaus handles all this about as well as a powerful veteran with a traumatic childhood can - fighting tooth and nail for custody and then raising the boy the best he can with help from his siblings and robot mom and shoving his son’s happiness and safety in the faces of everyone who did the boy wrong

Harry Potter crossover 2

Not long after the war ends Harry finds that he can’t stand staying in magical Britain any longer, so he takes his godson and moves to America. Six years later one of the kids who live across the street sneaks out his window, wearing only pjs despite the heavy snow. Harry finds himself staying up waiting for the boy to return to their street and making some hot cocoa - which he offers to the boy as soon as he sees him. It quickly becomes a Thing(tm); Klaus will sneak out his window in the middle of the night, go for a walk, and eventually wind up having hot cocoa in Harry’s kitchen. They form a strange friendship, one where Klaus has someone he knows he can go to when everything becomes too much - even if that means crawling through Harry’s window, collapsing on his floor in tears, and falling asleep on his couch, waking up just in time to get home before his absence is noticed. Three more years have passed when Harry and Teddy are idly watching tv and Harry sees a very familiar face as Reginald Hargreeves introduces ‘the inaugural class of the Umbrella Academy.’ When Klaus comes over that night Harry asks how much choice Hargreeves gave him and his siblings in their ‘heroics’. After some thought Klaus remembers how his brother Ben hadn’t wanted anything to do with what happened at the bank but was made to participate anyway. He answers honestly: they weren’t really given any. Thus begins Harry’s campaign to get custody for the kids from Hargreeves.

Original Works:

Four Elements Universe(a collection of stories set along one timeline - very far apart and with no overarching plot, just a shared world):

Sisa:

A secluded young king sneaks out of his castle and gets a job under a false identity in hope for friendship, then gives everything up to help his new friends and the rest of his people when he realizes the extent of his adviser’s corruption. Around the same time, a teenage master thief is hired to steal a specific box from the castle - and then to help another thief break her friend out of the castle dungeon - and uncovers several major secrets that might just change the fate of the kingdom.

Kings:

Bandit King Vakhtang’s life is irrevocably changed when he agrees to lend his men to a rebellion for a hefty amount of gold. Over time he finds himself growing fond of the boy prophesied to be the next king and learning just as much from his new employer about letting himself care and open up as he’s teaching the boy how to protect himself. (His best friend and lover is very proud of this growth and kinda wants to adopt the kid)

The Completely Unrelated Adventures Of Four People Who Had Nothing To Do With Each Other Beforehand:

Four teenagers in rural Texas follow a cipher they found in an old tome and discover that all four of them have magical abilities, and that their town may not be as average as they’d believed. As they delve deeper in this new world they uncover two different secret organizations and find themselves caught in the middle of a dangerous conflict over a powerful artifact - that may or may not be the kid sister of one of them.

Mythicals:

Six kids around the world each find objects - artifacts - that grant them magical transformations and abilities. Seven years later all six of them end up at the same prestigious performing arts school in New York. When they discover that they all have these artifacts and powers - and that New York and possibly the world is in danger - they team up to protect everyone else, and quickly become close friends. Though one of them has a secret that could drastically change how the others view them... and possibly risk the fate of the human race.

Eternity And Forever(this one does have an overarching plot):

Eternity Of Forever:

Back in the early years of humanity a young man goes up a mountain for his Trials of Adulthood - a series of three trials set to test a person on the traits of whichever three gods they’ve been assigned to serve - unfortunately for this boy he’s been chosen for the gods of empathy, loyalty, and love... three traits that do not come easily to him. In his desperation to pass his trials he cheats the system and gets caught. As punishment he’s cursed to live forever just on the cusp of adulthood but never reaching it, the only way to break his curse is to prove - with no possibility of dishonesty - that he’s capable of the three traits. Over the next few millennia he gets caught up in a war for the fate of all life on earth, and also somewhat adopts a maybe-alien and falls in love with a time traveler.

Throughout Eternity:

At some unknown point in the future all that’s left of the human race is a refugee colony on an island floating above the desolate remains of our planet. It’s into this that Quinton is born. But when it’s discovered that he can travel through time with just a thought he’s trained for a very important mission: to go back in time and stop the apocalypse. Shortly into his mission he meets an immortal teenager who claims to have met Quinton’s future self and who offers to help, telling him that first thing he should do is gather a team to help him - he even provides names and years. This little team becomes like a second family to Quinton, especially the pretend-aloof immortal.

Forever And After:

After the death of the closest thing he ever had to a father, Slythus finds himself applying to the superhero school the immortal had founded - despite knowing that even if he were accepted into the student body he’d never be accepted by the student body. Somehow he manages to get in... and even more impossible; manages to make friends. But even as he learns how to be good, his past is lurking on the edges of his new life and quickly becoming impossible to ignore - figuratively and literally.

Shadow Warriors:

After the dragon Svartr gets cursed protecting a village from invaders they offer their children to be trained by him - to take care of him as his condition worsens. Those selected and taught by him become known as the Shadow Warriors. Alexir was born several generations after the tradition began of sending every twelve-year-old up Svartr’s mountain for the selection and she never expected to be chosen, being much more focused on intellectual growth than physical, so when it happens it comes as a bit of a shock. She struggles to keep up with her peers in most of the lessons but refuses to give in, pushing herself to reach their level while also learning the complexities of friendship from them all.

Consequences(originally titled ‘Consequences of War’ until I realized it’s more about just consequences for actions in general - like: don’t piss off the powerful magical Being hiding out in the abandoned building):

After deliberately pissing off what they believed to be a ghost - or a false rumor more likely - a college aged idiot ends up being banished into a strange world... with a distinct change in biology(mostly in the area of hormones and primary sex characteristics). As they travel this new world in search of a way home - and back into their original form - they learn new things about themself and make interesting new friends. They find themself questioning whether they actually want their ‘old body’ back and then, when they begin to fall in love, whether they really want to return to their old world.

[mosylufanfic]

Prompt: something involving Cisco and Caitlin vs. either Ammunet or Warden Wolfe? please?

I started this last weekend and hoped to have it done within a few days, but it just kept getting longer and longer and longer . . . until I looked up and it was 8k words and your very long week was almost at an end. Hope this helps anyway. 

Also, I wrote this entire thing before I went to check the Flash wiki for something and remembered that Warden Wolfe died at the end of "True Colors." Ooops. But let's all assume that this is the reality where he somehow escaped, and go on our merry way.

Cisco on the Inside

On the other side of the bulletproof glass, against the dour grey walls of the Iron Heights visiting room, Caitlin stood out like a sunbeam in her light summer dress and yellow blazer. She looked like she should be having brunch or something, not visiting a prison.

But damn, he was glad she was here.

Cisco picked up the handset and felt his whole body relax when her voice said, "Hey," in his ear.

"Hey," he said.

"How are you?" Her anxious eyes scanned his face and chest, presumably looking for gaping  wounds.

"It hasn't been my best couple of days ever," he admitted. "But would you believe it hasn't been my worst, either?"

She made a face. "Really, how is it?"

"Food's bad, wardrobe's pretty dismal." He plucked at his orange jumpsuit. "But other than that, it's actually sort of okay. I figure I can hang in here for awhile."

She bit her lip. "That's good. Because the preliminary hearing's not set yet."

"What's taking so long?"

"I don't know," she said. "I can't believe you're even in there. I can't believe you couldn't make bail."

"That'll teach me to blow my savings on a fixer-upper Corvette off Craigslist."

"Don't make jokes. This is awful."

"Well, I mean, I did build the cold gun for Snart. And he did do a lot of crime with it. And none of his gang are around anymore, so I guess someone had to be the fall guy."

"You weren't an accomplice, you were coerced!" she said fiercely.

"We'll get it all cleared up in front of the judge," he said.

She fiddled nervously with the silver crescent moon pendant she wore and glanced over her shoulder at the guard standing against the back wall. “Are they treating you okay?”

He shrugged. "Nobody’s beaten me up yet.”

She looked horrified.

“Kidding! It’s fine. I've been able to stay off the warden's radar, so that's a good thing. Right?"

She worried the crescent moon again. "Right. Yes. Just - just keep your head down, okay?" She lowered her voice. "Don't use your P-O-W-E-R-S - "

"Shhh," he hissed as one of the guards on her side looked over at her. "Christalive, Caitlin, they're not toddlers. They can spell!"

"I'm just saying," she mumbled, cupping her hand over her mouth as if she thought they might be able to read lips, too. It was about as subtle as a brick to the head. "Don't use them."

He scowled at her. "Fine," he said. "I won't. I'll keep my nose clean and my head down and I'm gonna have a totally uneventful stay in Iron Heights."

"You promise?"

"Cross my heart and hope to - "

"No," she cut him off. "Anything but that."

"I promise," he said instead. He ran his finger along the steel-wrapped cord that connected the handset to the wall. "So, uh. How's everybody? How are you?"

"Not great," she said. "But we're not the ones in prison. We - "

A hand landed on his shoulder, and he winced. "Time's up," said a guard's voice.

Cisco wanted to slap that hand off his shoulder, but he'd just promised that he'd behave himself. Instead, he twisted around. "I thought we got half an hour."

The guard shrugged. "Warden says your time is up."

He gritted his teeth, then turned back to Caitlin. "So, I gotta go," he said.

"Now," the guard said and took the handset out of his hand and hung it up.

"Jesus," he hissed between his teeth, but he got to his feet. Caitlin was watching through the glass, her eyes wide. Come back, he mouthed.

She nodded. He let the guard shove him toward the door to the rest of the prison, but as he went through it, he looked over his shoulder again.

She was still watching him, face pale, fingers wrapped around the crescent moon pendant.

The door shut between them.

One of the worst things about being in prison was the unbelievable boredom. The inmates were told when to sleep and when to wake up and when to shower and when to eat and when to go outside and when to come in and how long to do all of those things. But within that structure, there was very little to actually occupy his mind. No machines to fix, no music to listen to, a severely limited choice of TV.

In the yard, he saw one of the other D-Block guys sitting at the picnic table, reading a book. He tapped him on the shoulder, and a guard barked, "No touching!"

Cisco yanked his hands back, holding them up, until the guard looked away. He'd forgotten about that rule.

The reader hadn't looked up. But he said, "What."

"Just, uh, wanted to know if I could borrow that when you were done."

Without looking up, he asked, "What'll you give me for it?" in a way that didn't suggest please was what he was looking for.

Cisco recalculated very, very swiftly. "Actually, you know what, I think I've read it. So never mind."

The reader grunted and turned a page.

He fiddled with the cuffs of his jumpsuit and asked another D-Block inmate, "So, when is our library day again?" They got an hour in the prison library once a week.

"Friday, but you're not missing anything. They won't give us anything good. No Playboy, no Guns & Ammo. Not even nasty lady-porn books. Just fucking Martha Stewart and cat mysteries and shit."

"You dissin' on Martha?" a third guy growled, and Cisco pretended he wanted to go use the hand weights because even on his third day, he could tell when someone felt like fighting.

Barry had filled him in on a lot of how prison worked, from his dad's experiences and his own time in there, but Cisco was also a lifetime watcher-of-currents, and he knew how to avoid sharks.

Or if he couldn't avoid them, at least he knew how to swim alongside them so peacefully that they didn't think about eating him.

He nodded at the other guy doing curls. His name was Brixton and they'd sat at the same table for dinner the night before.

"Hey, man," Brixton said under the noise of the scuffle on the other side of the yard, and the guards rushing in to break it up. "How's the tat?"

Cisco rolled his shoulder a little and rubbed his chest through the jumpsuit. "Still sore. Little itchy." Two days before getting arrested and put in prison was probably about the worst time to get your very first tattoo, but he hadn't exactly had a choice in the matter.

"You wanna take care of those." Brixton pointed at a star inked just below his elbow. "When I got that one, it got infected."

"Eeesh," Cisco said. "Looks okay now, though."

"My lady put witch hazel on it until it healed up. Worked like a dream."

"You think they'll give me witch hazel in the infirmary?"

"That's a dream too," Brixton said, picking out his weights. He did a few curls with a weight the size of Cisco's head, as the yard went quiet again after the fighters had been taken away. "Saw you got a visitor today."

"Yep," Cisco said, picking up one of the available weights, testing it in his hand. He glanced around, set it down, and picked up the next largest size before settling in for his first set of bicep curls.

"She was fine. Was that your lady?"

“Don’t have a lady.” The pang he felt at saying it was starting to dull. It had been three months since he and Cynthia had called it quits, after he’d turned down Breacher’s job offer in the spring. "The woman who visited - she’s just a friend."

Brixton smirked. "Can't seal the deal?"

"Never tried. Like I said, friends." He started doing curls, counting out the Fibonacci sequence in his head.

He snorted. "Sure, whatever."

Cisco gritted his teeth, focusing on his counting. Was he on the five set, or the eight set?

"Those buttoned-up types always get me," Brixton said dreamily. "Makes you wonder what she'll do when you rip off those buttons. You think she's a screamer? Ahhhh, even if she's not, I could make it happen."

Cisco lost count and switched arms. "You remember the part where she's my friend?"

"Relax, man, I'm just speculating."

"You're talking about her like she's a piece of meat."

"You telling me how to talk now?"

He dropped the weight to the cement yard with a clang and stood. "I'm telling you to talk more respectfully about a human woman, is what I'm telling you."

Brixton dropped his weight too, with a much louder clang, and unfolded himself to a much greater height than Cisco. "Say that again."

Cisco stepped to him, clenching his jaw. "Shut your face. About my friend."

Brixton punched him. Or he tried, anyway. Cisco ducked and tackled him around the waist. it was like running into a slab of meat. And then it was like the slab of meat picked him up and flicked him four feet away.

He landed on his ass, skidding across the cement in a way that promised road rash later on, when his adrenaline had burned off. He looked up to see Brixton charging, and he instinctively flung out his arm and threw a blast.

As Brixton reeled backward and guards charged in, he said, "Oh, shit."

Warden Wolfe sat across the table, stone-faced and silent. Behind Cisco’s shoulders, the guards stood with the same expressions.

Cisco sat in the middle, sore from the fight, his head hanging. "Look," he said, picking at his thumbnail. "Uh, I'm sorry. And I won't do it again."

"Prison regulations state that metas cannot be held in the general population.” Warden Wolfe flipped through the file in front of him. “You didn't disclose your meta status upon arrest."

"I didn't think it was relevant!"

Wolfe gave him a hard look.

Cisco swallowed. "I mean, it didn't have anything to do with what I was arrested for. Sir."

"Failure to disclose meta status is a misdemeanor."

"Oh, that's not bad. That's, like, community service? I'll build houses or something."

If possible, the warden's face went harder.

"Come on, it doesn't have to be a thing. Sir. I swear I'll stay away from that guy, I won't use them again - "

"Them?"

"It," Cisco said hastily. "It, singular. I just have the one. Just one meta ability."

Wolfe eyed him coldly. "One or five or fifty, it doesn't matter. Prison regulations state that metas are to be held in the meta wing." He jerked his chin at the guards, who grabbed Cisco by each elbow and pulled him to his feet.

“Wait,” Cisco said. “What about - do I get visitors?”

“Warden’s discretion,” Wolfe said, making a note in his file.

Caitlin turned away from the prison door, pulling out her phone. “He’s been in the meta wing since last night,” she growled to the person on the other end of the line. “I hope you’re happy.” She listened for a moment, and said, “No, I wasn’t able to see him. They said maybe tomorrow. Give me a moment.”

She walked around the corner to where her car was parked, as close to the prison's north wall as permitted. She stood looking up at the high walls, the barbed wire, the merciless guard towers. “Please be okay,” she whispered, twisting her moon necklace in her fingers.

Cisco regretted ever complaining about boredom in gen-pop. Shit, gen-pop had been a never-ending pachanga compared to the meta wing. Their food got delivered to them on trays and they got half an hour of yard time a day, each of them with a guard looming over them and power-dampening cuffs on their wrists. Otherwise, they were confined to their cells. No library privileges or weight room time.

“Warden’s discretion,” was the only answer he ever got when he asked about visiting hours. But from the little sneers and snorts that he heard from the other cells, he gathered that hardly anybody got to see their visitors.

When he found himself doing push-ups in his cell to pass the time, he understood how dudes got so jacked in prison.

It was a different set of guards in the meta wing, too. The gen-pop guards were okay. Still prison guards, obviously, so it wasn't like they were anybody's best friend. But they could be friendly and they would call you by your last name, at least.

The meta-wing guards were harder-faced, and called everyone "inmate," and spoke mostly in orders. When Cisco asked a question or made some comment, all he got was a one-word answer or a flick of the eyes in response.

If they responded at all.

It was a full day before he saw Warden Wolfe again, and when he did, he jumped up from his cot so fast, he got dizzy. "Hey!" he yelled through the bars. "Hey, Warden! Did I get any visitors? Hey! It was visiting day, did I get a visitor?"

"Yes," Wolfe said.

"Why didn't I see her, then? I get a half an hour on visiting day, up to four hours a month."

"That's gen-pop," the warden said. "You're in meta wing. Visitors are at my discretion only."

"I want to see my visitor," Cisco said. "I want to see her next time she comes. And I want to get a library book or something, I'm bored as hell."

Wolfe turned his back and left the meta wing.

Nothing daunted, Cisco kept it up whenever he saw a guard, or the warden, asking to see his visitor, asking for something to read or write or do, asking for more time in the yard or a chance to go the weight room.

The way the cells were arranged, he couldn't really see and barely even talk to the other metas confined with him. He did see them in the yard, during their half hour. Mostly they all kept to themselves, but one day, one of them gestured at him. "Mijo, come here."

Her name was Fabiana Duarte. She was plump and middle-aged, with streaks of grey in her black hair and comfortably wrinkly skin a shade or two darker than his. She gave off the general air of a daycare teacher.

He was kind of sure she was the one who'd stolen thousands and thousands of dollars by lifting people's bank cards and reading their minds for the PINs.

But she looked like one of his aunties and her dampener cuffs were brightly lit, and their guards were sharing a cigarette in the shade, so he went.

She started to put her hand on his arm but a guard barked "No touching" and they stepped back from each other.

"Mira," she said. "I'm going to give you a hint for your own good. Knock it off with the asking for stuff."

It was pretty sweet of her to try and save him from himself, but he said, "No, no way. That's all, like, basic stuff. It's my right as a U.S. citizen to - "

She snorted. "You're not a U.S. citizen anymore. You're an inmate of the Iron Heights meta wing."

"Well, we should still have rights. Like, to more exercise than walking around this yard, or to get stuff from the library, or - "

Thoroughly exasperated now, she said, "Are you stupid or do you just like pain?"

He blinked at her. "What do you mean?"

A bell rang, and all the guards started gathering up their charges.

"Hey, hey," Cisco said in a low voice as their guards started toward them. "What do you mean, Fabiana?"

She let out a grunt of exasperation. "Just behave yourself. And shut up."

Yeah, just like his aunties.

He ignored Fabiana's warning, and kept asking for anything and everything he could think of, top of the list being his visiting hours.

"She's here, I know she came," he said."She promised she'd come every day. I want to see her, okay? I just want to see her."

He couldn't see the occupants of the other cells, but he could hear them, letting out groans as he wheedled and pestered. Even occasionally a bellow of "Shut the fuck up!"

It was hard to blame them. He was annoying himself, even. But he kept it up, stubbornly, using the time he lay staring at the ceiling to think up new and ever-more-obnoxious ways of pestering the prison hierarchy.

The third evening of his stay in meta wing, Wolfe came after dinner..

Cisco sat up on his cot. This was unusual. Wolfe had a schedule and he stuck to it. Instead of speaking to the guards or looking in on any of the other metas, Wolfe walked directly to his cell and stood there, just outside the bars. His arms were crossed and his face unreadable.

"Hey, Warden," Cisco chirped. "Any news on my asks there? How about visiting day? Tomorrow's visiting day. My friend'll be here. I wanna see her. Am I going to see her?"

"You're going to stop asking for things, inmate," Wolfe said.

"Uh, no, I'm not because these aren't that big of a deal, honestly. Seeing my friend and getting something to read and getting a little fresh air, why is that such a big deal? I think it's very reasonable, don't you?"

The warden nodded once, his face as blank and hard as ever.

Then the pain hit.

It was like all the muscles in his body had suddenly decided to play tug-of-war with all the other muscles. He felt like pork in the process of being pulled, like he was being put through a blender and then run through again.

Then it was over, and he collapsed, gasping, against the wall.

The warden watched him with shark eyes. Flat and cold. "There won't be any more requests, Inmate."

"Wha - what was - what did - "

The hellish pain hit him again, like his skin being peeled away and his bones being hammered into dust from the inside.

Someone was screaming, very far away.

Then it was gone again, and the wall was there, hard and cold, but cold was good because he felt like he'd been lit on fire and holy Moses, what kind of hell-spawned meta power was that?

"I said, there won't be any more requests, inmate," Wolfe said again. "Will there?"

"Nnnnnooo," Cisco mumbled through trembling lips. His throat felt raw. He wondered why.

"I didn't hear you."

At the words, he tensed up, anticipating what came next. If anything that made it worse. He writhed helplessly on his cot, fingers digging into the blankets as his body tried to tear itself apart at the molecular level.

As it subsided, he figured out who'd been screaming.

It had been him.

"Will there be any more requests, inmate?"

"No!" he shrieked, a high thin noise. "No, no, no, no, no - "

"That's what I thought," Wolfe said, and left.

Cisco wheezed against the agonized twitching of his muscles, feeling cold sweat run down his face and spine and collect in the bend of his joints. Whimpers escaped his abused throat and he was helpless to stop them.

Every little pain and nagging stiffness he'd had before had been ratcheted up to eleven. The occasional soreness in his shoulder from breaching, the knee that he'd twisted last year and still sometimes got stiff, even his bruised tailbone from Brixton tossing him across the prison yard, were all magnified to horrific proportions.

His tattoo beat like a drum against his heart.

When he tried to lay down, his stomach revolted, and it was dumb luck that he managed to vomit up the bland prison fare over the side of his cot onto the floor. When there was nothing left but thin, acid bile, he collapsed, face buried in his pillow.

From a few cells over, Fabiana called out, "You alive in there, fool?"

He made some kind of high-pitched keening noise in response.

"I tried to tell you," she said. "He's been holding off on you - "

"And us," another voice grumbled.

" - because you're a short-termer and he didn't want you getting out and blabbing." She snorted. "But you just had to be that annoying, didn't you?"

With a herculean effort, he pushed himself up far enough to pull his face from the pillow. It was smudged with sweat and tears and snot and drool and bile and even a little blood. It took him two tries to flip it over, and then he collapsed again. He groaned as random muscles twitched in the memory of pain.

"Yeah," the second voice said. "He's probably learned his lesson."

With his face buried in the cool, coarse material of his pillowcase, Cisco mouthed, Gotcha, you rat bastard, just before he passed out.

One week ago

Silence fell in the cortex as Joe finished telling them about the meta who'd come to him, secretly, and told a story of torture and punishment in the meta wing of Iron Heights.

"What kind of horrible power is that?" Caitlin breathed.

"What kind of sick fuck uses it?" Cisco added.

"You guys, this is on us," Barry said.

"We didn't know this was going on," Caitlin objected.

"That doesn't matter. We arrested them, we put them in there, and now Wolfe is hurting them. Because he can."

"Why didn't he do anything when you were in there?" Iris asked.

"Didn't want to damage the merchandise, probably," Barry said. "But now he's not selling them to Amunet Black, so he can do whatever he wants."

"What do we do?" Cisco said. "Can we bust in there? Prison break?"

"We put them in there for a reason,"  Iris said. "They don't deserve what Wolfe is doing to them, but they can’t just be let go, either. Some of them are dangerous."

"We need to remove Wolfe," Joe said. "Legally. He needs to be convicted in a court of law and imprisoned."

"That'll be hard to prove," Caitlin said. "There's no injury site, their description is very nebulous, and we've never encountered him as a meta."

"He's smart," Joe said. “Only using it on people that most of society doesn’t care about, who aren’t going to tell and who might not be believed if they do.”

Iris frowned over the report. "What exactly is he doing to them?"

"It's hard to say from the testimony offered," Caitlin said. "They didn't report an entry or exit burn, so it's not electrical in nature. He could be stimulating the pain centers of their brain. It could even be a kind of bio-kinesis, where he can temporarily control their muscles."

Cisco shuddered. "Gross."

Barry's eyes narrowed. "Hard to prove what he's doing, hard to prove it's even him unless we can actually record the dark matter activity."

Cisco reached over for his tablet. "Well, I've got something that might help. You know that dark-matter scanner of yours, Caitlin? I've been tinkering with it so we can wear a small version out into the field and detect the kind of surges that accompany meta powers.."

Her eyes lit. "Pair that with a biometric scanner so you can cross-reference the pain reaction with the dark-matter surge, and that's proof he's causing it. Yes, that could work!"

"No," Barry said. "It won't."

Cisco scowled. "Hey, my tech always works."

"I know, but we can't get it to any of the metas on the inside. Everything that comes to any of the prisoners from the outside is thoroughly searched. Even if it did get past that, nothing would be safe from theft or guard searches unless it was implanted under the skin. And even if we could somehow manage that, who would agree to intentionally provoking Wolfe into using his powers on them, unless we gave them some kind of immunity or amnesty?"

"What are you saying?" Joe said, frowning.

"We need to send somebody in."

Now

Cisco spent most of the day after Wolfe's visit trying to find a comfortable position for his sore carcass. He was stiff all over, like someone had poured cement into his clothes. Sometimes he could doze, but mostly he stared at the wall or the ceiling.

He'd gotten the proof of Wolfe's torture. Now he just needed to make sure it got back to Star Labs, and then they could get him out before they arrested Wolfe.

Please get me out of here, he thought.

He tugged painfully at the buttons on his jumpsuit, and slid his fingers under the orange cloth. Pressing on his chest through his cheap prison undershirt, he could feel the three little hard spots under his skin. Biometric scanner, dark matter sensor, wireless transmitter. He chanted them like a prayer.

They'd painted that tattoo on him to explain any redness or swelling from insertion. It was henna, though, and it would start to fade soon. If anybody noticed, they'd know something was up.

After he got the proof, before he got out safely - this was the most dangerous part of the sting.

He heard his meal trays clang onto the floor and left them where they lay. His stomach hurt too much to get it to accept food. But when yard time came, he dragged himself to a sitting position, and then to his feet, and then forced himself to take slow, stumbling steps toward his cell door. With his guard at his back, he made his way to the yard. All the other meta inmates and their guards followed at his pace, complaining that they were losing out on yard time.

The sun blazed down, beating on his shoulders and the top of his head. He let it bake him as he took a slow, shambling lap around the yard, coaxing his body to move and wincing as it fought back. He'd become the opposite of Barry, he thought sardonically. Slowest Man Alive.

He made it halfway around, and then just leaned against the north wall. Caitlin had sworn to him she would be there every day, parked just on the other side of that specific wall. With the dampener cuffs on, there was no way to tell if she was there right now, but he pictured her there, waiting for the signal from the device in his chest.

Please let the transmitter work.

Please let the range perform like it did in tests.

Please just get me out of here.

Too soon, the bell rang and they led him back inside. When he got back to his cell, he dropped into his cot and was asleep almost before the lock on his cell door engaged.

He dreamed that Wolfe came back and hurt him until his heart shorted out like a bad connection.

He dreamed that Wolfe somehow knew about the sensors and had them cut out while he watched with that non-expression and Cisco screamed.

He dreamed that Wolfe didn't know about the sensors, but that they shorted out anyway from whatever Wolfe did to him.

He dreamed that he'd somehow been forgotten, and he spent the rest of his life in the meta wing of Iron Heights prison, alone and hurting and desperate for an escape that never came.

When he woke, sweating and shivering and hoarse from shouting, someone from one of the other cells said, "Bad dream?"

"Uh-huh," he mumbled. He couldn't tell who it was.

"Yeah, I got those too, after the first time." There was a creak as if his faceless, anonymous comfort had rolled over in his cot. "You get used to them."

When he woke again, it was morning. He didn't know that by the sunlight or the clock, neither of which were present in the meta wing. He knew because when he opened his eyes, the tray that had just clanged onto the floor had a blob of scrambled eggs and a triangle of toast on it.

He considered it. Although the soreness had eased up some, he felt wobbly and weak even though he was still lying down. Probably because he hadn't eaten a thing yesterday. He had to get some calories in him, even shitty prison calories.

He managed to choke down about half of the cardboard-tasting eggs before they came back for the tray, and that helped him get to the shower when that time came. The hot(ish) water helped more. He tugged his fingers through his wet hair, wincing. Crappy lowest-bidder shampoo - he didn't want to think about what it looked like.

Remembering his dream, he peered down at the tattoo high on his chest, cleaning it carefully and gently. The sun with its squiggly rays was only about three inches across and done in simple reddish-black lines. The swelling and redness had mostly gone down over the past few days. It hurt, but everything hurt.

He shifted a little so his arm blocked his motions from the rest of the shower room. He ran his fingers around the edge of the sun and felt three tiny, hard bumps under the skin, evenly spaced around the perimeter.

Biometric scanner. Dark matter sensor. Wireless transmitter.

Yep. Still there.

After showers came the long, dull stretch until lunch. He lay dozing on his cot, trying to escape his aches and pains. They weren't as bad as yesterday, but he also wasn't about to go out and run a marathon.

A shoe scuffed outside his cell. He rolled over to see who it was, then flinched backward. The warden stood on the other side of the bars.

His stomach churned. He hadn't seen Wolfe since two nights before, and the memory of pain jittered through his body.

"Inmate," Wolfe said. "On your feet."

So you can hit me with that power again? Watch me fall on the floor instead of writhing on this bed? It all ran through his mind, but his tongue wouldn't let it out.

"I said get up."

Cisco swung his legs over the edge of the cot and hauled himself to a standing position. He winced as he straightened up, and some flicker of expression crossed Wolfe's face for a split second.

Like satisfaction.

Or pleasure.

Distantly, he noted that there was a guard behind Wolfe. What kind of a sign was that? He hadn't noticed any guard the other night. Would Wolfe whammy him again if there was a witness?

Of course, he hadn't had any trouble doing it in front of the other metas.

Wolfe unlocked the cell door, and Cisco took a step back. But the warden didn't come in. Instead, he said, "Come out here, inmate."

It wasn't yard time. Visiting day had been yesterday. But Caitlin had promised to come every day whether it was visiting day or not. Maybe Wolfe had decided that he could see her today.

Maybe Santa Claus existed.

(His brain whispered, Maybe you're going home.)

"Come out here. I won't say it again."

Cisco stepped out of the cell. A pair of dampener cuffs wrapped around his wrists and clicked closed. A hard hand nudged his shoulder - not Wolfe's. The guard. Wolfe, as always, stood and watched.

Cisco crossed the meta wing. Possibilities waterfalled through his brain. Some horrifying, some wonderful. None of them felt entirely real.

The door to meta wing shut behind them, and Wolfe stopped. Turned.

Cisco had to tip his chin up to look Wolfe in the eye. There was a camera up in the corner. There were always cameras in the hallways, in the gen-pop halls, in the yard and the weight room and the dining hall and the commissary.

The only place without cameras in Iron Heights, besides the showers, was the meta wing.

The eye of the camera felt like the only thing between him and . . . something. He didn't know what.

"You're being released," Wolfe said.

It took the words a moment to sink in. He said, "I - what?"

"The charges have been dropped. There's no reason to hold you here anymore."

He blinked a few times. "Oh."

The warden stared at him with those flat shark eyes. Cisco stared back for a split second, and then looked down, hunching his shoulders.

When he looked up again, that flicker of satisfaction, or pleasure, was just leaving Wolfe's face.

He glanced at the guard over Cisco's shoulder. "Take him to discharge." He turned away, down another corridor, and the guard gave Cisco a nudge in the small of the back.  

He stumbled forward, caught himself, and started walking, the guard right on his heels. The corridor seemed to stretch out forever

Occasionally the guard said, "Right" or "Left" or made him stop while he badged through a door. The walking went on forever, and Cisco wondered how deep in the bowels of Iron Heights the meta wing actually was. How thick the walls were. How impossible it would be to get any kind of signal through it.

His stomach trembled.

Was he seriously leaving? Or was this something else Wolfe was doing to him? Or maybe the paperwork was through, the charges really were dropped, but all his cowering hadn't fooled Wolfe into thinking he didn't need to worry about Cisco. Maybe he was supposed to suffer a mysterious accident on his way through these endless corridors. Maybe they were going in circles.

He counted cameras, checked live lights, calculated blind spots, and held his breath until he was through each and every one of them.

They stopped in front of one last badge reader next to one last door. Unlike the others, this one actually had a window, a skinny pane of glass with wires cross-crossed through it. Through the glass, he could see the room where he'd gotten signed in to Iron Heights - what, a week ago? Was that it?

Amazing how long seven days could feel.

He thought, Maybe I really am leaving.

Behind him, the guard said in a low voice, "You're going to tell them something."

"Tell who? What?" Open the door already. Open it and let me out.

The guard's breath stirred the hair at Cisco's temple. "Warden never touched you," he said.

He stared at the window, focusing on the wires embedded in the glass. "What?"

"The warden," the guard repeated. "Never touched you, did he? Never laid a finger on you."

". . . no?"

"So that's what you're going to say," the guard said. "The warden never touched you."

"Say to who?"

"Say it. The warden never touched you. Did he?"

". . . no," Cisco said.

"No, what, inmate?"

"No, the warden never touched me."

"Good," the guard said. "You're going to say that whenever anybody asks. Or that ginger who visited you is going get a visit from us."

He went stiff. "No. Please."

"Skinny thing, isn't she? Breakable, those skinny chicks."

"Don't hurt her. I'll say anything you tell me to say. To anybody you tell me to say it to. Just don't hurt her."

"You don't have to lie, inmate. Nobody's asking you to lie. Just tell the truth. The warden never touched you."

Cisco shook his head hard. "No, he never did. Never laid a finger on me."

"That's right," the guard said, and opened the door.

Cisco walked through.

It seemed like being released from prison should be a triumphal thing. Trumpets, choruses of angels, et cetera. Instead, it turned out to be more paperwork, under the apathetic eye of one of the regular prison guards. The one who had threatened him had left - back to terrorize more metas, presumably.

He had to turn in his orange jumpsuit and everything issued to him by the prison. After a search of his naked body to ensure that he wasn't smuggling anything out - he stared at the wall and thought about sunlight and Big Belly Burger and his own bed -  he did get his own clothes back, the ones he'd been arrested in.

They smelled institutional, like they'd been run through the prison laundry along with a hundred other guys' clothes and cheap, harsh laundry detergent. He put them on anyway and decided that when he got home, they were going in the trash can.

He filled out forms that attested he'd gotten his clothes back, his wallet, his phone. The latter was dead, of course. It had been sitting in a box for a week, running the battery down.

He signed everything they told him to sign, his hand shaking a little.

The release officer shook his hand and said, "Someone's waiting for you. Lucky. Not everyone gets that." He badged Cisco through the last door.

Caitlin was in the waiting room, clutching her purse to her stomach. When she saw him, her face lit up, and then he was in her arms.

He shut his eyes and soaked in the feel of her. The familiar smell of her shampoo and the iron-band tightness of her hug, like always when she'd been distressed for a long time, and how soft she was against him.

Getting released was slowly starting to feel real.

But she was also here, in the prison. He couldn't stop thinking about the guard who'd mused about her breakability, just a few walls away.

"Get out," he muttered against her ear. "Out, out, out."

"Yes," she whispered, and pulled away. He grabbed her hand, unwilling to not be touching her.

"Is that everything?" she asked the release officer.

"Yes, ma'am, you're free to go."

"Good." She pushed open the last door and the sunlight hit Cisco like a hammer. He flinched away from it, and from the vastness outside the door. No walls. Outside felt way too big.

She squeezed his hand - he hadn't realized he'd tightened his grip - and said brightly, "I'm parked right over there. Close. Let's go. Everybody's waiting. They want to see you."

They crossed the parking lot. Still no walls, so big. Cisco felt like a bug on a tabletop, waiting for someone to smash him. Them.

"Faster," he said, trying to lengthen his stride, but he was still just a little too sore to go any faster than he was. She made soothing noises.

They got in the car - he had to let go of her hand - and the enclosure of the vehicle around him felt safe, even as she pulled out and drove through the gates.

She hit a button for speakerphone and when the call was answered, said. "We're out. We're driving away."

The reply sounded brisk and official. "Copy that, ma'am."

She ended the call. He reached out and took her hand again. She held it and drove one-handed, her face tense.

The road to the prison was long and empty, but a few minutes later, two cars roared by them, going the other way.

Caitlin turned a corner into a convenience store and parked next to a plain white panel van. They hopped out and immediately the back door of the van popped open to reveal one of CCPD's mobile command units inside, and Iris and Joe.

Joe helped him up into the van and Iris hugged him hard. "How are you?" she asked.

"Eh," Cisco said, hugging her back. "I'm out, so."

Joe looped his arm around Cisco's shoulders and pulled him in for his own hug. "It's almost over, son." He reached behind him for a pair of headphones. "You want to listen in on the big moment?"

Cisco had thought he would, picturing this in his cell all those dull hours. Warden Wolfe, you're under arrest for torture and abuse. You're going to jail forever, you sick fuck.

But he shook his head. Suddenly the idea of hearing Wolfe's voice again made him want to heave.

Joe nodded and put the headphones on his own head, turning to some screens.

"I'm sorry it took so long," Caitlin said.

He scootched over next to her, and as if she knew what he needed, she slipped her arm around his waist. He leaned into her body, ignoring the way Iris's brow quirked up.

He hadn't realized it until her first hug, but the week undercover in the prison had left him touch-starved. Having hands on him - kind hands, that didn't want him to move or stop or turn, that didn't shove or nudge like they were trying to get a farm animal to change direction - felt like a big bottle of cold water after crossing the desert.

"I was worried you didn't get the last data drop," he said, reaching out to touch her moon necklace. "I spent my entire yard time yesterday just hanging out on the north wall."

"Oh, I got it," she said grimly. "And it sealed the warrant on Wolfe."

"But regulations state that releases have to happen in the morning," Iris added, "and we couldn't push that without tipping him off. Otherwise we would have had you out last night."

"That's okay," he said. "I wasn't in great shape yesterday and besides, he left me alone."

She gave him a quick, concerned look, and he shook his head. "Just the aftereffects. Soreness."

Caitlin grabbed her purse, dug in it for a moment, and handed him two ibuprofen. "Enough for now?"

"Yeah," he said, swallowing them and drinking deeply from the bottle of water she gave him next.

She pulled a tablet over and tapped a few buttons, lips pursed. She reached up and took off the moon necklace, touching two stones. The tablet beeped and the screen filled with data from the biometric scanner, transmitted to the necklace and then uplinked to Star Labs servers.

He looked down at his own scanned body on the screen. "See?" he said to Caitlin. "All there."

"Full checkup later," she told him. "No arguments."

"Wasn't gonna," he said.

Joe let out a triumphant grunt, and they turned toward him. "They got him, Dad?" Iris asked.

"In custody," he reported. "Being transported to Central."  

The last knot of tension in Cisco's chest snapped, and he sagged where he stood, letting Caitlin's arm hold him up for a moment.

This was no guarantee of anything. He might escape; he might get off. They might be hearing a lot more of Gregory Wolfe. But for right now, he wasn't hurting or killing any more metas under his care at Iron Heights, and that was enough for Cisco.

A moment later, a knock sounded on the back panel, and Iris leaned over to open it. Barry climbed inside, flushed with victory. "Got 'im," he said. "It's over. We did it."

“Cisco did it,” Caitlin said.

“Yeah. Yeah, yeah. You did it, man.” He stretched out his long arms and pulled Cisco in for a hug.

Cisco hugged him back, but pushed away after a moment. "Hey, Bare?"

"Mmmm?" Barry was peeling his cowl up off his face. His hair stuck out all crazy.

Cisco steeled himself. "Don't ask me to do something like that ever again."

Barry's face scrunched up a little. "Hey, man, I'm sorry, I know it must have been rough. But it had to be you. Wolfe and the guards knew me and Iris, and Caitlin doesn't have any powers anymore, so she wouldn't have gotten put in the meta wing."

"I know," he said. "I know all that. I'm glad Wolfe is going down and I'm glad I did that. But I'm still saying, don't ever ask me to do that again."

Barry's mouth opened and closed a few times, and finally he nodded. "Okay," he said in a subdued voice. "Never again."

"Good." Cisco brushed his hair behind his ears, suddenly self-conscious. But that had been running through his mind in all those hours staring at the ceiling, too. "So, uh, what now?" He looked at Joe. "You need my statement or whatever?"

"Not right away," Joe said, looking at him keenly. "Lot of stuff for the cops to do first."

"Good," Caitlin said. "That means there's time for a full checkup back at Star Labs."

Barry offered to run them back, but Cisco wanted to test out his breaches, after a week of exposure to power dampeners. They felt a little sputtery at first, but Caitlin put her hand on his back and the breach spewed open, the same as it always had. They jumped through to the comfort and familiarity of Star Labs.

She checked everything she could think of, and he let her, smiling a little as she fussed. When she checked his back, she frowned. "There's some bruising."

"Yep," he said. "Not from the warden. From when I had to get caught using my powers so I'd get transferred into the meta wing."

She eyed him. "You don't bruise in response to your powers."

"I do in response to another prisoner trying to kick my ass."

"Cisco! You were in a prison fight?"

"It's fine!" he assured her. "Funny story, actually. First night at dinner, I run into this guy I went to high school with, Andy Brixton. We were in a bunch of AP classes and the GSA together. Anyway, he agreed to scuffle up with me in the yard so I had an excuse to use my powers out in the open."

"Cisco - "

"I know you had fun being extremely unsubtle and trying to tip the guard off during your visit, but the warden wasn't noticing me. It's okay. Andy didn't hurt me, not really. He's always been a good guy." He thought of what he'd vibed when he'd managed to touch Andy's shoulder. "One who made some bad choices in life, maybe. But a good guy."

She shook her head. "Prison fight," she muttered.

"It worked," Cisco said. "I saw what I needed to see in gen-pop and then got transferred into the meta wing and got right on Wolfe's shit list. Three birds, one stone."

"How was he in the general population?"

"All the guys I talked to said he was a stickler for rules but otherwise ignored them. I guess he just wanted to hurt metas."

"That says something about him, doesn't it?" she said.

"Nothing good."

She had to numb his skin with cream before she took out the sensors, but when she had, that was the work of a few moments with scalpel and forceps.

"Biometric scanner," she said, dropping the tiny device into a sterile dish with a clang. "Dark matter sensor - " clang "- and wireless transmitter." She smiled at him. "All out."

"Yay," he said. "Officially not a cyborg anymore."

She cleaned the small wounds, put a stitch in each of them, and taped sterile gauze over his chest. She stripped off her gloves, but instead of telling him he was clear, she pulled a chair over. “How are you really?" she asked.

"I'll be better after some Big Belly Burger," he said. "The food was seriously shitty. And such small portions!"

"You lost seven pounds in there," she said absently. "So yes, Big Belly Burger it is. But I mean you. No jokes, please. How are you doing?"

He met her eyes and found he had to look away. He picked at a fray in his cords and said slowly, "I keep waiting to wake up again."

"Again?"

"I had bad dreams last night. Being out - it feels like a good dream that's about to turn bad."

He reached out for his hand and she let him take it. He held it, feeling the softness and warmth of her skin, her thumb rubbing soothingly over his knuckles.

"It's not a dream," she said. "You're out, and you're staying out. And in case nobody else says it, going in was the bravest thing I've ever seen you do."

"I went to prison," he said. "People do it every day."

"You went to a place where someone was going to hurt you. Where you had to make someone hurt you. And then you had to wait on us, until we could retrieve you. And you had to do all of that without your powers. I can't imagine the number of times you daydreamed about breaching out."

"Like, thousands."

"But you went. And you let him hurt you. And you stayed." She squeezed his hand. "I've always known you were one of the bravest men I knew. This just confirms that."

He swallowed. "Thanks."

She smiled and squeezed his hand again before letting it go. "If you want to go home right now, there's a protective detail waiting for the word to go to your apartment."

His stomach sank. "Shit."

"What?"

"You'll need one too. A protective detail. One of Wolfe's pet meta-wing guards - he threatened you. Right before they released me."

She drew in her breath and let it out.

"Nothing concrete," he said quickly. "All very plausible-deniability. But he was talking about how if I blabbed, they'd have to pay you a visit and stuff. Their boss getting arrested had probably got them mad enough for . . . stuff."

She nodded. "Okay."

"Okay? Caitlin, I know it doesn't sound like much, but these were bad dudes, they - "

"I know," she said. "I'll ask Joe for protective detail. Or maybe I can stay over at your place tonight and share yours."

He squinted at her. "You're taking this well." Almost too well. "Caitlin, this is -"

"Scary," she said, and her voice shook. "Serious. I know. I get it. But I always knew it was a possibility I'd be targeted, being your contact on the outside. None of us thought Warden Wolfe would be happy about getting arrested. So, yes, I've been prepared for the idea pretty much since we came up with this sting." Her mouth worked. "Alongside being scared for you."

"But you agreed to be my contact anyway."

"Of course I did. We needed the data to take to the judge and get a warrant."

"Barry could have run by the prison every day," Cisco argued. "You didn't have to be my visitor."

"I wanted to. Even though we only got to see each other once. I wanted you to know I was coming, every day. I didn't want you to be all alone in there."

He studied her a moment, then smiled. "I wasn't."

This time, she took his hand. He held it and they leaned together.

It was good to be home.

FINIS

[robininthelabyrinth]

"New writer ask meme: based on my body of work, what’s something you’d like to see me try to write?" like. you wrote a story within a /menu/ so you can take this as a prompt or just respond but. if you can make a menu compelling, what about something else. like a professor binn's history lecture, swapping in for the teacher and subject of your choice, but something where the students have fallen asleep five minutes in but there's a compelling story under the surface. idk if it's possible, (cont)

re: the hist lecture thnx for letting me know tumblr didn’t send it! can’t remember xactly what was in each ½ of the ask but short version: if any1 can make a dry lecture (note: not just any lecture, but a boring one), abt history or other, compelling, it’d be u. just as people say that x celeb reading the phone book could be cool, I feel the same could be true for u, which brings me to thing I’d like to see u write 2: a phone book story. idk how the flip it would work but it’d be interesting

————————————————————————————————

I think that my Makers of History fic might fulfill your first craving - it’s not boring, but it’s written in the style of a history textbook :) 

That being said, your SECOND prompt irresistibly caught my eye.

It’s not a phone book, but I hope you still enjoy!

Fic:  Central City Classifieds: December 2017 Edition (direct link to Ao3)

Fandom: Flash, Arrow, Legends of TomorrowPairing: Leonard Snart/Mick Rory, suggestions of unfulfilled Mick Rory/Caitlin Snow

Summary: Central City Picture News is a respectable news organization, with serious journalism, editorials, opinion columns, sports coverage, arts review, and international news.

So why does everyone keep reading the classifieds?

(Answer: because they’re hilarious.)

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CENTRAL CITY CLASSIFIEDS - December 2017

New Business Opening:Super Tailoring: For All Your Superhero or Supervillain NeedsAsk for ~Leo~–New Business Opening:Supersuit Construction Corp.Super-suits for Superheroes, Supervillains, and More!Theme-appropriate nicknames included!Ask for C. RamonOur Motto: “We make proper supersuits here – our competitors should just go back to their stupid earth where the bad guys need suspenders to hold their outfits together.”–New Business Opening:Super-RepairsWe Fix Mistakes In Science Done By Supersuit Construction Corp.Ask for Harry W.–Announcement:All creditors to whom Harrison Wells owed money, please come to STAR Labs for a pleasant surprise. Ask for C. Ramon; he’ll direct you to the right place.–New Business Opening:TherapyVery Reasonable Prices – Sliding Scale AvailableFree to Superheroes and SupervillainsPLEASE YOU SHOULD ALL GO GET THERAPY RIGHT NOWAsk for ~Leo~

–Announcement:39 Surprisingly High-End Possibly-From-The-Future Toasters for Sale. No returns.Ask for B. Allen.–For sale, goods:One Cold Gun, barely used. Must go to good home. Must agree to take angst, hallucinations, budding drinking problem, and mourning of 30 years of partnership and marriage with you.–New Business Announcement:John Constantine – Exorcist, Demonologist and Master of the Dark ArtsIn Town for a Limited Time Only!–Wanted:Better security system capable of removing unwanted stowaways from advanced-future time ship. Call and ask for Sara.–Wanted:Any security system. At all. Please. Villains just walk in all the time.Call STAR Labs.–New Business Opening:Legendary Security ServicesBe Protected By the Legends of Tomorrow(no warranties apply, please ensure you have appropriate insurance before hiring)–Job Opening:Legendary Security ServicesSeeking Security Consultant – Superhero Experience WelcomeMust have Zambezi Totem To ApplyAsk for A. Jiwe and Z. Tomaz.All Time Periods Welcome.–Wanted:Any OTHER security system.Call STAR Labs.–New Business Opening:Colorful Light Show & Anger Management TherapyProcess Your Emotions, See Beautiful ColorsAsk for R. G. Biv.–Job Opening:Individual with meta powers wanted for long-term scheme against the Flash.Applications can be left by the statue of the Thinker in Central City Art Museum.–Announcement:Are you fucking kidding me?? Does that actually work?? – B. Allen.–Job Opening:New Mentor Figure. Must Not Be Evil.Harrison Wells doppleganger preferred.No individuals named Eobard need apply.Stringent interview process being implemented.Applications can be sent to STAR Labs. Honestly, just walk in, there’s no security system.–New Business Opening:Outdoor Wedding ServicesPlanning Your Outdoor Wedding? Worried About the Weather?Don’t Be!Call M. Mardon To Ensure Your Perfect Day!(Also available to ruin your exes’ wedding, but it costs extra.)–New Business Opening:Welcome to The FLASH Museum!Learn all about your favorite local Supehero in intimate, behind-the-scenes detail!Call: the H.R. Wells Estate.–Cease and Desist Order Lawsuit Filed Against the Flash Museum. C/O the Flash, STAR Labs.–While I’m at it, Cease and Desist Order Filed Against Local “Team Flashers” Club. It’s not funny! C/O the Flash, STAR Labs.–Wanted:Someone capable of making puppets in a wide variety of shapes and sizes.Preferably soft and capable of resisting impact; designed to be used in therapy sessions.Ask for ~Leo~–For sale, goods:Slutty clothing, barely used. Very reasonable price, just need to get rid of it.Ask for Snow at Star Labs.–For sale, goods:All clothing in my closet. Basically free. Need to get rid of it in revenge.Ask for Frost at Star Labs.–For sale, services:All the ice you could possibly want, no need for ice machine.Ask for Frost at Star Labs. Say that Snow sent you.–For sale, services:Under-the-table medical care. Reasonable prices.Feel free to report to the local medical licensing board afterwards if dissatisfied.Ask for Snow at Star Labs. Say that Frost sent you.–Announcement:Local man with flamethrower seeking attractive girl with ice powers for NSA good time while he is in the present location/time. Willing to annoy additional personality for free.–Announcement:Nice try. No.– Snow and Frost–Business Announcement:Therapy – now offering relationship and family counsellingAlso lessons in pre-planning, emotional openness, and honest communicationAsk for ~Leo~–New Business Opening:Ever wanted to swim with the sharks, but afraid or unwilling to pay for travel? Never fear!Swimming Lessons with King SharkReasonable prices.Call ARGUS for additional details.–Wanted:Secret room for plotting and/or emotional processing of grief. No spying devices allowed.If you have any locations, call John Constantine, Leo Snart, or Mick Rory.Payment available only in Earth-X cash, since the other two are broke.–Announcement:Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak are pleased to announce that they will be wed in a ceremony on the Star City Central Green at the end of this week.–Announcement:Another one?! Didn’t you two get married ALREADY?A Totally Not Bitter Central City Picture News Journalist–Announcement:Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak are pleased to announce that they will be renewing their vows at the end of this week, this time before a rabbi and their friends.–Announcement:You didn’t have a rabbi the FIRST time?Noah Kutler & Donna Smoak–Announcement:What the hell are you two doing filing a joint newspaper announcement???Felicity Smoak–Announcement:Answer us about the rabbi question.Noah Kutler & Donna Smoak–Announcement:They would’ve been able to use the rabbi we used at my wedding, but they got him killed.Frost–Announcement:That was MY wedding, not yours!Snow–Announcement:Best wishes to Felicity Smoak and Oliver Queen on their upcoming vow renewal.We’re sorry for accidentally setting your entire extended family on you.Team Flash–Announcement:Did you REALLY re-gift us the espresso machine we gave you??Oliver Queen–Announcement:It was on your registry in exactly the same way it was on ours.Iris West.–Wanted:Someone willing to obtain a list of ingredients, some very esoteric, without asking too many questions as to why. Speed of the essence – need to get all the ingredients before the next full moon.Call John Constantine, Leo Snart, or Mick Rory.–Wanted:An army willing to destroy the world and worship at the feet of GRODD.No need to apply. Just think the name of GRODD and we will come for you.–For Sale:Telepathy-Resistant Emergency Evacuation Devices, available to help you resist Grodd’s mind control long enough to escape. The newest fashion statement. Also, basically free.Available at STAR Labs.–Job Opening:Qualified therapists with an advanced understanding of ethics, client confidentiality, and self-defense. As many as possible. At once. This is so much worse than I could have possibly believed.Ask for ~Leo~–New Business Opening:Freaky Supervillain Carnival(Totally NOT a set up trap for the Flash)Come see the Dangerous MIRROR MAZE! The magnificent, nauseating WHIRLYGIG!Job opening available for a clown, preferably with teeth, to keep away certain unwanted old acquaintances.Call S. Scudder and R. Dillon.–Wanted:Surveillance method capable of keeping an eye on three grown men with the capabilities of John Constantine, Leo Snart, and Mick Rory (included for comparison).Something’s up, and Gideon’s not sharing.Must be compatible with 25th century technology.–For sale, goods:Exploding dreidels, for a ridiculously deadly Hannukah prank!Totally not the CCPD trying to trap the Trickster again.Entirely by coincidence, please call the CCPD if you’re interested.–Wanted:Young black men who for a variety of flimsy reasons are no longer currently engaged in active super-heroing except in awesome but sadly brief cameos.We’re making our own club over in Keystone.Call c/o W. West and J. Jackson.–Wanted:Bounty Hunter capable of tracking and eliminating that pesky C. Ramon for having made a crude comment at my precious and perfect daughter.Call Josh (Breacher) on Earth-19–Wanted:Bodyguard capable of protecting me from a crazy overprotective asshole dad who can’t accept the fact that we’re ALREADY SLEEPING TOGETHER.Female bodyguard capable of extreme badassery preferred.Call C. Ramon on Earth-1–Announcement:I, Josh, hereby apologize to my adult daughter for having sought to control her sexuality in such an inappropriate manner. She is free to date whomever she wishes and progress in her relationship at her own chosen speed.Please call off your Amazons.–Business Name Change:Legendary Security Services will now be known as Legendary Amazon Security.Because we’re just that awesome.A. Jiwe, Z. Tomaz, K. Saunders–Police Announcement:Will anyone with any knowledge of what caused that giant blue-green explosion in STAR Labs please call the CCPD immediately? Ask to speak with Detective West.–Retraction:Cold gun no longer available for sale following explosive retrieval process.Bill for all property damage may be directed c/o John Constantine.–Announcement:We are sad to announce that John Constantine has passed away.Please send any bills for property damage care of Zatana.–Announcement:John Constantine is not actually dead. He’s just hiding away on the Waverider again.Personal note: John, if I get one more bill, I’m coming for your balls.Zatanna–Retraction:The reports of John Constantine’s death are greatly exaggerated.We apologize for the inconvenience.He is, however, unavailable to accept any bills.–New Business Opening:Magic Tricks by Abra KadabraMention Harry Potter One More Time And I Will Break My Parole And Kill You All–Invitation:The Epic Len and Leo Welcome Back/Going Away PartyAll Welcome – Bring Presents(Puns preferred)–For sale, goods:One freaky supervillain carnival set up, barely used. Very reasonable price.Have to leave town ASAP because there are now TWO Snarts and that’s two too many.Call S. Scudder and R. Dillon.–Wanted:Seeds for Golden Delicious Apples, Golden Berries, and Golden Corn.Please send to Gotham City, c/o Lisa Snart.–Announcement:Lisa, why are you in Gotham? And what’s with all the plants???With love,Your Concerned Friends and Family

[coldtomyflash]

Have you ever done an analysis on how Barry feels about Snart, and the evolution of that from s1 to the s3 finale? Please ignore me if you have lol

Anon. Anon. Anon.

How have I never written an analysis on how Barry feels about Len? How did that get overlooked? *screams into the void* *puts down wine glass* *begins to think*

Okay I’m going to try to take my shipper goggles off for a hot sec and come to some reasoned understanding for how Barry’s feelings about Len are demonstrated and how they’ve evolved. Because honestly, even leaving those goggles off, the way Barry responds to Snart in canon is… unique, of all of his villains.

Let’s start with 1x04, Going Rogue.

There’s nothing special about their first meeting, at the armoured car, or their second, at the theatre, except that someone dies and Barry is pretty choked up about that, and also hurt by the cold gun. But so far that’s normal hero/villain interactions, insofar as things go.

Things change on the train. First off, this is Barry’s first time turning off the comms and going things solo (bad call, Barry). Second, we get this banter:

And Barry’s smirk in response? Just, he’s having fun. 

So at this point, the dynamic shifts a bit. So far Barry’s fought Clyde Mardon, Multiplex, and Nimbus, but this is the first time he’s faced off against someone where Barry feels like he’s ready to laugh and looks tempted to banter with them. Not to mention him making the joke about how they both have long/terrible names and learning other things about Len’s past that might give him a sense of mutual understanding. 

But of course, Len derails the train and Barry’s not laughing anymore. Especially when Len ices him and he almost dies. The fact that he doesn’t die, that Len doesn’t call Cisco’s bluff, might’ve helped Barry sleep at night. If, y’know, Len and Mick hadn’t turned around and kidnapped Caitlin shortly after.

Barry’s tempted that whole episode (1x10) to go after Len. He knows intrinsically that Snart is trying to draw him out. In that episode, Wellsobard tries to keep Barry focused on getting faster but Barry recognizes that Snart is trying to challenge him specifically and he can’t stand it, and eventually of course gives in to the challenge once Caitlin gets kidnapped.

So we see there that although Barry probably hates Snart, he also seems to understand him pretty easily. Knows what Snart is up to and wants from him, and doesn’t seem surprised that Len continues to escalate it until Barry rises to the occasion.

Of course at this point, there’s no love lost.

Dude is… hurting.

But. The whole precinct is abuzz with how the Flash is a hero and despite the hell that Barry went through to take Captain Cold and Heatwave down, he’s getting some of the recognition that we know (from his own lines in canon) that he’s been craving. So that’s nice. Inadvertently, Len gave Barry something he’s been craving. Barry’s going to have a positive emotional association with the outcome of this fight, probably. With beating them, with Eddie being there to help, with all the praise the Flash gets for it. 

So that’s churning away in his unconscious. Still, things don’t actually change on Barry’s side until 1x16. Not in any major way. Up until then, Len is a villain that Barry seems to have a pretty natural understanding of, but not someone he ‘cares’ about or would ever trust. 

So he readily heads to the casino to stop Cold and grabs Lisa without a second thought, pointing her own gun to her head (and why not grab Len? could it be to extend their game of cat and mouse? or is he more intimidated by Len?). But it’s when Barry learns her name and sees her face that things start to click: that she’s the woman he met with Cisco the prior evening.

(You can see the moment of realization on his face! #acting)

Anyway that conversation shifts things. Cisco’s life is in Snart’s hands and Barry happily encouraged Cisco to go with Lisa and he’s still reeling from the fact that he time travelled the night before and Iris has just rejected him so he’s just… all sorts of vulnerable right here. 

And what’s he got except hope that Snart won’t hurt or kill Cisco? He’s got… nothing. Except some manner of detente, maybe, because he knows that Snart must know that if Cisco dies, the Flash won’t stop until Snart’s behind bars. (So he’s relying on the fact that Snart will understand him as well as he understands Snart?)

But honestly, after the bomb incident with Caitlin, Barry is taking a bit of a leap of faith with Snart, here. I’m sure he’s terrified for Cisco, and feeling powerless. But then Cisco comes back safe (yay!) if somewhat traumatized and with his brother in need of serious medical care. 

And on some deep and instinctual level, there’s the instinct toward reciprocity that I think kicks in. I know it’s fucked up in this case, but it’s one of humankind’s more ingrained instincts. Len returned Cisco alive. He held up his end of that casino-conversation, so to speak. In doing so, he built some manner of trust between them, though I’m 100% sure Len wouldn’t have been aiming at building it. 

But now he knows Barry’s name. #yikes. So Barry chases him down. Again.

(I love Len what an asshole).

And then we have an impasse. And the nebulous things that have been building between them start to come to a head. Because Barry’s desire to banter with Len on the train got him burned because he took his time, and Barry’s attempt to ignore Len’s grabs for his attention got him burned again with Caitlin getting kidnapped. There’s no winning no matter what he does, but still, Barry came out intact from both of those situations, and so did everyone he cares about. Same deal with Snart having Cisco.

And that means that they’ve been matched fairly evenly. Len won one, Barry won one, they both made mistakes. Len developed a bit of an obsession with Barry that he can’t have missed, and Barry has an understanding of what makes Len tick and knowledge of that understanding isn’t lost on himself (it can’t be - he understood Len by 1x10 and it’s what allowed him, however fearfully, to place some trust for Cisco’s life in Len). 

So now, finally (already), here they are: an impasse. 

And the crazy thing is? They agree on terms. Just like that. Little to no debate. “Leave town” “no” “then stop stealing” “double no” “then stop killing (because it’s the only part of this i really care about and i’ll even appeal to your vanity because i understand you and how to butter you up)” “…okay sure fine whatever i’ll do it”.

And Barry doesn’t “Trust” Len yet. Don’t let me oversell that. 

He threatens him directly. But Len is smirking and saying like,

And Barry obviously doesn’t give him a ride but he is a little amused. He’s got Snart’s number, so to speak. The man is an asshole. A devious bastard. But not outright evil. Willing to wheel and deal and make some rules that mean he won’t hurt the people Barry cares about.

So despite not “Trusting” Len, whether he wants it or not, Barry does trust him with this. To keep his identity secret. To not kill people. He believes Len’ll do it. He has to, to make that deal. And every day that Barry’s identity isn’t threatened and people aren’t being killed by Captain Cold is another day that cements that trust.

Which leads him to this moment.

(excuse the crappy timing, it’s an old gif).

Barry gets this idea, in this conversation, to get Snart’s help with transporting the metas. And what’s fascinating about that is that Barry gets the idea right after saying that it’s okay to break the rules to help others. Why that makes him think of Snart is honestly a bit of a mystery but it’s important because of that. Somewhere in Barry’s mind is this idea that he’s different from the “Bad” guys, and what makes him different is his motives, and thinking of being “Not Bad” and having better motives makes him think of… Snart?

Honestly, Barr, honey, no. But at the same time, yes? 

And maybe it’s because of having to trust Snart with his identity in the way he has, or maybe it’s whatever he saw exchanging banter on the train, or the fact that Caitlin and Cisco both made it out (relatively) unscathed, or that Len readily agreed to stop killing – or maybe it’s even because Barry gets Len on some implicit level he hasn’t fully examined but empathizes with, even now – but whatever it is, it leads him to actually understand Len on a level deeper than most people who’ve ever encountered him. To understand this about Len, about his core self.

Because he trusted Len to help him when he asked, to set a fair price that Barry could pay, to keep him and his friends safe. And Len actually did all of that. Yes, Barry got a rude fucking awakening from Len’s betrayal. Like ouch. But Len saved Barry’s life, literally killed a man to do it, and sent the other metas on their way so they couldn’t cost the lives of any of Barry’s friends and family. 

Barry wasn’t right to trust Len with everything, but he wasn’t wrong in that Len would protect him and hold up that end of the deal. And he wasn’t wrong in knowing Len would agree when he appealed to his love of the city and the people there, either.

(mutual understanding intensifies)

And I mean, I have to point it out: I know it was down for visual effect but it was clearly a conscious decision to have Barry standing on the Rogues’ side in this scene:

Barry literally chooses to ally himself with Leonard Snart. That denotes trust and understanding and I think, honestly, somewhere under the “he’s such an asshole”, some level of mutual liking. He chose to go to Len, chose to try this out, agreed without blinking to destroy his records, fought Joe for Snart’s inclusion on the mission, and doesn’t even bother to suppress his amusement when Len’s all “after you” and he runs out of the lab? Despite himself, he’s got a soft spot for the guy, like I’m pretty sure.

But okay.

After all that. What’ve we got? 

A betrayed Barry Allen who tells Joe that he thought he could ‘use’ Len but he was wrong. A Barry who, despite being betrayed, still seems to agree that he owes Len his life? Like he acknowledges that Snart actually had his and the team’s backs when shit hit the fan, regardless of whose fault it was. A Barry who probably now believes he can’t trust his own feelings and sentiments about Snart because look where his sense of trust got him.

Basically, he’s a conflicted mess.

Flash forward a bit through his post-singularity survivor’s guilt and avoidance tactics to 2x03, Family of Rogues.

Lisa comes to the team and they hardly believe it. Barry’s like “yeah sure whatever” and agrees to check in on Len because Lisa brings up the life debt. And then we get this exchange.

Back to banter. Back to an impasse. “You don’t mess with me and I don’t mess with you”. Back to their Not-Trust pseudo status-quo.

Barry pushes a bit and Len keeps assuring him that he’s fine, then Lewis shows and and Len ices Barry and it’s like, Betrayal 2.0 written on Barry’s face.

(that’s gotta smart)

Anyway so Barry trusted Len again, sort of, or at least was Mildly Concerned about his wellbeing, and got iced for his trouble. And he’s kinda pissed and really about to tell Lisa where to shove it, but then she shows them her scar and tells them about her father and everything tilts on its axis. 

And Joe told Barry that Lewis would take out his anger on his kids. Barry knows that Len and Lisa didn’t have the best life. But either he forgot or didn’t realize how truly terrible their childhood was.

Because after that, he has zero complaints about helping. And he shows his understanding of Len’s psyche again when they find the headless Rutenberg. Barry knows that Len would rather dig out a bomb in his own neck than comply with Lewis’s demands, and is the one to figure out the bomb is in Lisa. Just like that. Because despite the betrayals and the (not entirely) misplaced trust, Barry still gets Snart, gets how he ticks.

So he pushes. And pushes. Because he understands now that Snart’s in trouble and that Barry has the means to help him and dammit, he’s going to help him. And I literally cannot help but believe that Barry wouldn’t push so hard except that he cares. He cares what happens here. He cares if Snart’s dad hurts him. He knows they’re going to save Lisa, that Cisco is working on it, so it’s not her he’s worried about. It’s Len. 

Well, Len and the innocent people Lewis is going to potentially kill. But Barry could stop Lewis as the Flash. Would it piss Lewis off? Abso-fucking-lutely. But would he kill Lisa over it? Not likely. 

No, Barry gets dressed up as Sam and pretends to be a criminal to keep an eye on things and literally the only way that makes sense is if he does it for Len. To keep him safe. To keep this whole thing smooth. To insert himself right into the middle of the mess so that he can be the one to ‘save’ Len, basically.

And just look at how he takes a step back when he sees Lewis. He’s heard what Lisa has to say about the man and he gets it now - this is who Leonard Snart fears. That’s just so not lost on Barry. He’s intimidated by Lewis and the violence he knows the man possesses. He’s literally never taken a step back like that from Len or many of his other villains. Lewis is special in Barry’s instinctual desire to get the hell away from him.

But okay. Barry gets “shot” and Len whispers that he’s sorry and Barry’s dressed as the Flash like 2.0 seconds later and up in that hall and he – he trusts Len so much by this point. It’s undeniable. He trusts Len not to shoot. He tells Len that Lisa is safe as soon as she is and stands there facing down the barrel of the cold gun until that moment, knowing that Len will (has to) pick Lisa over him, but still believing that Len will hold out as long as he’s able and won’t shoot him.

Look how far they’ve come. And Barry asks him why he killed Lewis but he’s the one there to witness Len’s vulnerable moment, and Len is just honest with him about why, and there’s just gotta be some measure of Care on Barry’s end, some intense pull at his heartstrings at witnessing all that and being involved in it and in taking the cold gun and seeing his ‘enemy’ (ally) so defenseless?

But... he puts Len in prison anyway. Or, I personally suspect, the cops arrived and Barry scampered and the cops hauled Len off to prison. But Barry visits him. Visits him expressly to say:

Like, Barry is just cutting open Len’s heart and looking into the deepest parts of him and putting Len on the defensive because he’s so not ready for that conversation and Barry’s saying it with complete conviction?

We’ve moved past trust and surface or even deep understanding. Barry is invested. This episode he came to see behind the veil Len holds around him and he cares about what happens to Len (and Lisa, to a lesser extent) now. He’s saved Len. Gone out of his way to do it. And come to understand his deeper motives and parts of himself that he hides away from the world???

And it’s in part because of the parallels that Barry explicitly draws between himself and Len by this point. Like that’s where some of this is coming from. In 2x03, Barry tells Joe that if it weren’t for him (Joe), he might’ve ended up not unlike Len. He doesn’t just understand Len, he empathizes. With his anger, his violence, his need to protect his sister (the one person he loves) at the expense of all else. How he did what he could with the situation he had and then just… never looked back.

(Because Barry’s just like that, okay. Exactly like that).

So I’d say at this point we have Barry genuinely caring about Len as a person, about who he is, what’s happening to him. If Len came to Barry for help with something, anything, at this point I think Barry would say “what do you need?”. And he’s ready for Len to betray him or pull some bullshit because he’s learned, and he knows that Leonard Snart is a very dangerous man. 

But he’s also eager to work with him again, the next time he gets a hint of a chance.

He wants to give Len opportunities to do good. Calls him out on being a lousy villain. Lets Len strike up a conversation with Iris after the initial shock wears off and he verifies Len’s not there to hurt them.

(Trust, but verify, amirite?)

Anyway, that’s… the last time Barry sees Len. Ouch. But it really cements some things. Like that Barry wants to work with Len, that he sees the hero Len could be if he lets himself. 

And as for how he feels about Len? I take it to mean that by this point, he’s gone from apathy to amusement to hate and ire to frustration and (mis)trust to mutual understanding to hurt and betrayal to deeper understanding and care to genuine… hope, inspiration, liking. Camaraderie might be too strong of a word, but I think he wants it. He wants more from and with Len than he has. He wants to develop their friendship. 

And I think he really is starting to think of it as a rather strange friendship (he does call Len an “old friend” in 3x04…). I mean, friendship is a weird thing for Barry anyway - he’s said he didn’t really have friends (aside from Iris) before he became The Flash. His view of it might be skewed a little. A mutual trust and understanding and liking with Snart? Might be close to qualifying…

And he asks after Len when he notices he’s not with the Legends and he cares about the answer.

He’s hurt that Len died. And there’s no time to get into it when there’s a literal alien invasion, but the Speed Force doesn’t let him forget it.

Of all the people he could’ve seen in the Speedforce, he sees the ones whose deaths he blames himself for most, and Len is on that list. Ronnie and Eddie were friends, and this tells us that Len was too. That Barry cared about him and cares about his death and blames himself, on some level, for it. (Thanks Speedforce for rubbing salt in that wound).

And when he needs a thief? Doesn’t even hesitate to fuck up the timeline a bit to grab Len from the past for some help. And that could have had disastrous consequences to the timeline if Len found out about his imminent death. Consequences Barry waved off easily. Why?

Well, Iris was in danger. That’s the biggest one, for sure. But Barry’s not willing to run back in time to change things to save her, we know he’s not (because it’s not a plan b that they discuss and his future self from 2024 hasn’t done it) but he is willing to grab Len from the past and risk a timeline change anyway. It’s for Iris, but I think, personally, that part of Barry misses Len, and wants to see him again before his death. Especially when he’s on the verge of losing a person he loves, seeing another person he cares about who already died might be… comforting? Affirming? Like… he can visit the dead, in a way?

But yeah he just hops through time to pick up Len and asks him for help and puts it all the table, is just casually honest with him about his reasons and motives and just trusts that Len will help. And that trust isn’t in vain. They’re so far past the give and take. They just… trust, and care. They really are friends.

(And lmao, Barry made sure no one could try to talk him out of it…)

So Len helps. And gets trapped with King Shark. And Barry can’t leave him behind. And Lyla hits the nail on the freaking head when she points that out, basically pointing out that Len is important to Barry, that Barry won’t sacrifice him even for the woman he loves.

They actually end up working really well together, too? And Len proves he gets Barry as deep as Barry gets him. Hands over the freaking cold gun (we have never seen him do that wtf) and then lectures Barry on his willingness to kill. He hammers that lesson home when Barry drops him back off, too, and they have a heart to heart.

Ultimately, they acknowledge that they get along. That’s mutual. Acknowledge what they see in each other, what they understand about themselves and each other, and implicitly, the ways that they inspire and help each other.

So, literally 3 hours later, my conclusions are:

Barry cares about Len. Truly, genuinely. As a person, as a friend. As someone he understands and wanted better for. He’s gone from genuine enmity to genuine friendship, I think. In their own, rather weird, sort of way.

[parzivalleknight]

Make a Rogue Out Of You (LoT OC Story)

A/N: ITS A VERY LONG STORY IM SO SORRY!!! Mariam has been working at S.T.A.R. labs for the past few months in 2016 due to curiosity about the random portal that appeared in her basement one day.Her room-mate, Robin Schyler, was able to hold in the basement. After having it open randomly she decided just to jump through.

When she did so she was brought to 2016, near the end of October. She was greeted by running into a guy, who she now knows as Cisco Ramos, and from that point she was made part of the team. Cisco would let her contact Robin every so often just to check up and let him know she’s alright. 

And after training for a few weeks she quickly became a useful friend and teammate to the STAR labs crew, her shield only being broken by extreme cold or an insane amount of pressure that even the cold dead of space couldn’t break.

Currently she is known as Cherry Blossom, as named by Cisco due to her shield.

When it is produced it blossoms like, as you can imagine, a flower, not to mention a Cherry Blossom pattern is seen frequently in the light purple transparent shield.

Currently it was just another day, another fight, in Star City, another day for Mariam to help protect Barry Allen, or also known as, The Flash.

She was quick to learn Barry was The Flash. How? She knew him by his eyes, and voice to be completely honest.

Currently they were having a bit of a run in with someone Mariam has never seen before.

She just knew were VERY dangerous. Another blast of fire almost landed on her as Mick Rory, or better known as Heatwave, shot at her with his Heat Gun.

She threw a shield up before herself, easily making her way over to him, but as she was about to reach him a heavy and painful force knocked her down and away from Mick, the pain of a boot kick in the side causing her to curl in pain on the concrete floor.

She glared up to meet the glare of the well-known companion and partner of HeatWave and Captain Cold. NightStrike.

The older female grinned down at Mariam, “Not today.” NightStrike went to strike at Mariam but before she could, a blur of movement followed by some lightning punched NightStrike into Mick.

“Stand down!” Barry shouted at them.

Mariam noticed a glow of blue from Captain Colds gun. Mariam leaped up and threw herself in front of Barry, shield raised.

“Dashey, move!” Mariam flinched as the absolute zero flame began freezing her shield. Mariam felt arms latch around her and suddenly, she was moved feet away from the blast of the cold guns blast.

Mariam locked eyes with Barry who moved from behind her, he must have moved her over here with his speedster ability.

She brought her attention back to the trio in front of her and partner in..Heroics? Soft brown eyes locking with the goggles of Captain Cold. “Who’s the new girl Barry?” Leonard smirked and tilted his head at Barry. “Not important Snart, stand down and you can go home free.” Barry shifted his weight towards Mariam, causing her to shift back a bit awkwardly.

“Awe she’s shy. Cute.” Leonard drawled out, Mariams eyes widened, sadly her mask only covered a little bit above her nose. A very obvious blush spread across her cheeks. “Awe Lenny, she’s blushing! How cute she has a little crush.” Nightstrike laughed out. Mariam stomped her foot a little be, “FIGHT ME!” She screeched.

Cold snorted at his partner's comment then looked back to the speedster “Alright fine then Barry, on one account. You let us take SOME of the fortune here in this…” “No way.” Mariam stepped up a bit, “People worked hard to produce this stuff. All you guys did was sneak in and waltz around!” Her watch buzzed to life, shield forming around one hand. They all stared at her, “Kittens has claws… What is you’re name shortstack?” Mick chuckled out. “You can call me Cherry Blossom, now stand down!” Mariam’s shield formed around her other hand too as she took a step toward the bunch. Alex looked at mariam amused, “Cherry blossom? What kind of name is that?” She snorted, but Mar sighed. “I was going to do Rose Quartz but copywrite stuff and...Yeah” Alex looked to the short woman shocked, “You watch Steven Universe to- I mean….. What.” Cold looked to her then at Mariam’s hands, thinking for a moment before sighing.

He shrugged. “Alright fine, we’ll falter.” Heatwave and Nightstrike turned to him, confused. “Well, come on then.” “What why-” HeatWave grumbled as he and NightStrike had to chase after Snart.

After a bit of cleaning up the warehouse Mariam finally agreed it was clean enough for them to go back to the lab. Barry picked Mariam up and in a blink of an eye, Mariam was sitting in one of the chairs in the lab. A wide grin painted Mariam’s face as she swung her legs a little bit. “What’s gotten you so happy?” Barry chuckled as he dashed away for a moment, only appearing again in his normal clothes. Mar looked up at Barry for a moment, thinking of a way to lie. “I did just intimidate a bad guy, let alone Leonard Snart, so much so, he actually faltered. But I suppose he probably has a secondary plan..Actually, I kinda wanna learn more about them. Would that be okay Bar-bar?” Mariam rested her chin on her hand. Barry sighed “We don’t have anything now on Snart but, I can get you some information on the others.” He stood up, walking over to the main computer.

Mar squealed “Alright! Can’t wait… It’s like reading a story about a hero who turns out to be the villain!” She pranced over to Barry’s side, watching the screen carefully as he pulled up a few files.

“Alright here, you can go through these. It’s as much info we have on them.” Barry scooted over so Mariam could sit down in front of the screen to read. “Bar-bar, what do you know about Leonard and his sister?” Mariam turned her chair a bit to look at the young man. “Well..” Barry took a breath. “He was always sorta in the life of crime, he met Alex West- thats NightStrike by the way, when she was a bit younger, late teenage years I think… Len got his gun from Cisco, forced him to make the team’s guns. Past stuff.. Uh, Lisa and Leonard’s dad wasn’t the best,used beat them up really bad…”

This caused mariam to flinch, tears daring to escape.

“You alright Mar?” Barry spoke up, turning to the pink haired girl.

Mariam wiped a few tears away before sniffling a bit more. Barry walked over to her, “Hey it’s alright.. He’s dead now, Leonard did kill him…”

Mariam looked up, “That’s… That’s actually nice to know, one less…” Mar sniffled and wiped more tears away from her cheeks. “N-never mind um… I’ll get back to reading..S-sorry to bother you about that just wanted to know” Barry nodded and patted down some of her hair. “If you ever need to talk, I’m always here Mariam..” The short girl nodded at him. After finishing Mariam got up and began pacing. By this time, Cisco and Caitlin had come back from getting some coffee.

“Alright what’s on your mind Byers, you're pacing, that means you have an idea stuck in that brain of yours.” Cisco leaned back in his chair. Mariam paused for a second, thinking of what to say. “What if I joined the Rogues.” She spoke out into the now dead silent room. The awkwardness in here went from 0 to 100 real quick... Everyone froze, Caitlin choked on her drink, Cisco jumped up and screeched, and Barry looked to her confused as all hell. “WOW DID NOT EXPECT THAT.” Cisco screeched, “UM THAT’S UH.. THAT’S AN IDEA ALRIGHT, NOT A GOOD ONE, BUT-” “Just hear me out okay!?” Mar raised her voice a bit, Cisco became quiet again. “I could get in there, I could help get information. Who knows maybe even...Help them go to the good guys side!” Mariam flailed her hands a bit in frustration.

“You...Have a point..” Barry shrugged a bit, “But still that’s really dumb and dangerous how on earth would you even get in you can’t just walk up to their door and say ‘I wanna join! Let me join!’ you know.” Mariam looked Barry dead in the eyes. Determination written all over her face. “Oh my god no you-”

-Next day- “You’re actually doing this. This is so dumb and dangerous I can NOT believe you’re actually doing this” Barry groaned as he rubbed his face. “Barry I’ll be fine! I have Quartz and my baggy of batteries, anything goes south and I’ll call you with her” “Quartz? Her?” Barry raised an eyebrow at Mariam, she shrugged. “Well saying ‘my watch’ isn’t as cool as saying something has a name.” She tucked a bit of her hair behind her ear. Barry chuckled, “Alright, well.. Just be careful and don’t… Don’t become a bad guy, alright?” Barry rubbed his neck nervously. Mariam nodded, “But remember, if we do get into fight we can’t let on I’m giving you guys info, beat me up too. I’m fine normally anyway.” Mariam opened the car door and began walking towards the large building. It looked nice, not many houses around, lots of trees though. It was nice. Though it was a warehouse it still seemed a bit homely.

Mariam quietly waddled up to the ‘front’ door, flattening her pastel blue tank top down a bit, checked to make sure her jeans and flats weren’t dirty, then tied her pink flannel around her waist, she paused for a second, almost not wanting to knock but. She wanted to keep these people safe too, not just get info to foil their plans! Her soft knock was probably almost impossible to hear, but still there was a soft shuffling from inside. The door swung open, the sounds of some form of work happening in the background.

“Yes? What do you want-...Um, hello...” Alex West, or NightStrike, raised an eyebrow as she leaned on the door frame. Her knives on her belt clattering together a bit. “I..I wanted to join you guys!” Mariam rocked on her heels a bit, twirling her hair nervously.

Alex stared at her, confused as all hell. “You...You want to- Are you sure you got the right place girly?” Alex shifted her weight onto one foot, pointing a little bit at Mariam who only nodded. “The Rogues, right? Well… Part of the Rogues… You guys have offence but no defence. I wanted to offer some help with the defence!” Mariam chirped out, smiling warmly at the dark haired girl.

Alex looked Mariam up and down, “...Are you..Are you joking? You’ve got to be I mean like..” Alex looked too her own clothes then back at the bright coloured mess in front of her. “I am absolutely sure, I just wanna help you guys.” Mariam stood straighter, trying to seem tough. Alex sighed and stepped aside, “Alright I’ll see what I can do.. Come on in, Leonard will probably wanna see you.” Alex grumbled as Mariam happily walked beside her. “Len, Pink Piper over here wants to join us.” Alex sighed and motioned her thumb towards Mariam, Mick turned his head to see who this 'Pink Piper’ was. He let out a surprised grunt as he looked at her. “Well this is a plot twist I did not see coming. Why is she so colourful? It's hurting my eyes…” Mick grumbled out, returning his focus back to cleaning his gun. Leonard looked up from his own gun, which was carefully being put back together currently, only to hum and stand. “So you want to join the Rogues.” He strode over to Mariam, and squinted. “Do I know you?” Mariam jumped a bit. “Oh right! Um, I’m Cherry Blossom! I just don’t have the mask on today-” “Why on earth do you want to join us then?” Mick growled out, sipping on the beer next to him.

“Oh well I uh, you guys have guns but no shields. You do have eachothers back but you still have limbs sticking out for people to hit. I have a shield, I am offering protection and help.”

Mariam beamed out a smile, Alex looked at Leonard, who was giving her a quizzical look.

“I mean she has a point, I guess…” Alex shrugged, Leonard sighed then looked back to the short girl. “Maybe, you'll have to prove yourself as actually useful to us first though.” Mariam nodded with a smile, perfect! She's gonna get in!!!

“In the meantime you and Alex can get to know each other.” Alex glared at him and he smirked back. “You suck. Come on Pinky, let's go train then.” Alex turned back and began walking to a different part of the warehouse.

Mar smiled at Leonard and Mick, “Thank you, sirs!” She nodded at them before going after Alex. “Pink Piper let's go!” Alex shouted from down the hall causing Mick to chuckle. “We're not actually letting her in, right?” The pyromaniac looked up to his friend.

Leonard shrugged, “We'll see.”

[nightwingswing]

Sibling War!

Thanks everyone for the 45+ little wings.

Thanks to @talesfromthecreed for your request and I hope you like it! I put a lot on effort in this one as it is my first Dc legends of tomorrow imagine.

PROPT: IMAGINE BEING THE YOUNGEST MEMBER OF RIP HUNTER’S TEAM AND EVERYONE IS PROTECTIVE OF YOU, EVEN LEONARD COLD HEART SNART AND EVEN STERN RIP HUNTER WHO TREATS YOU LIKE A DAUGHTER.

Serie: Part1(you are here1) Part2  Part3   Part4

Being the youngest member of the Waverider sure has advantages and disadvantages.

They treat you like their little sister.

But they’re all overprotective assholes.

Okay, let’s go to the beginning.

Your adventure began when in a robbery in the National bank of Central City, you meet Captain Cold and Heatwave. You had just escaped your abusive family and were looking for someone to lift their wallets, that person just happened to be MR. Leonard Snart. They took pity on you and gave you the option of joining them ( more like Len saw himself in you and wanted to help you). And so, you joined them and helped in their robberies. You asked Len if you could have a weapon like Lisa, he wanted to say no but really, who could resist your puppy dog eyes?

That’s right

No one.

You ended with a (y/w). And with that weapon, you joined their little group of criminals. You helped once or twice, they didn’t let you help in the most dangerous ones, said you were too young. But you did meet the famous Flash, once.

One night, you were waiting for them in Len’s minivan while they robbed the bank. When you were escaping from the police the three of you were in the car with them when a blinding light surprised you.

/////*\\\\\

When you wake up, you were in a rooftop between Len and Mick and with a bunch of people you didn’t even know.

“Stein, the hell are you doing here”

“I am as ignorant as you for once”

“Where are we?”

“(y/n), are you ok?” Mick asked you. You nodded at him as a guy with a colorful fashion started talking with his heavy English accent.

“The names Rip Hunter, I’m from East London…”

“Oh. And the future.”

You raised an eyebrow at him at the same time Len glared and Mick said:

“Nice to meet you, Rip”

“And while you were incapacitated I may have tampered with your weapons. I’ve assembled you all because I need your help. The future of the world is in peril because a man by the name of Vandal Savage.”

“That can’t be, we destroyed him” Said the guy dressed in leather.

“Yeah, The Green arrow and the Flash helped us doing it.” Said his partner.

After that, Rip Hunter explained his reason of assembling this little group, Len and Mick didn’t seem to agree with his explanation of saving the world via time traveling to defeat this Randall guy. Len grabbed your arm and passed Rip saying.

“You got the wrong guy. Hero ain’t on my resume.” He said.

“Or mine” Mick followed the two of you.

“I know it’s difficult to fathom, but where I am from, the 2116, you and everyone on this roof aren’t just considered heroes, your legends.

You looked at him, eyes widening. You weren’t a petty thief in the future? You were considered a hero?

“Legends?” You said at the same time as the guy who you recognized as the Atom.

“I hate to nitpick, but, doesn’t a legend have to be dead?” Stein said.

“Yeah, yeah, that’s a deal breaker for me, so I’m gonna pass.” The guy beside you said.

“It’s dangerous for you knowing to much about your future but I’m here because each of you as individuals, are destined for greatness.”

“I can get behind that” The Atom said.

“AND, because if you don’t follow me, this is what’s in store for your world 150 years from now” He pressed a button on his remote control and projected a destroyed city engulfed in flames with what seemed like planes shooting at them.

Your grip on Len’s arm tightens as your faced what your city would become, the horror and the desolation the future would become, even if you won’t be alive when this happened...

You didn’t want this.

“I could have chosen any place and any place, of all the people who ever lived I chose you nine, I certainly hope that you won’t let me and the world down.”

Rip saw everyone’s astonished expressions; he walked toward Professor Stein and gave him a paper, where the meeting place was written.

“If your answer is Yes, met me at this address in 36 hours.” After that we walked away.

You felt Len and Mick started walking away and you followed them, after looking at the address and waving at the others one last time.

//////*\\\\\

You were sitting in the couch with Len’s legs on your lap, you were looking at Mick messing with his whatever he was doing. You were mostly thinking of what Hunter showed you all as Len read a magazine.

“I can’t believe the two of you are thinking of hooking up with the Englishman. We’re thieves, crooks, criminals, with no desire to save the world, especially under years from dead.”

Snart answered him without raising his eyes from the magazine.

“He said across time, Mick. What about the years before the fingerprints and surveillance cameras and DNA analysis.”

He looked at Mick, who just grabbed a beer and was drinking it.

“Why did we become criminals?”

“Because we hate working and we love money.”

Len got up from the couch as you looked at them, waiting to see what they chose to do.

“We steal the Mona Lisa straight off of Da Vinci’s easel, snach the Hope diamond before it was discovered. This is everything we got into thieving for in the first place… more than everything.”

Mick looked at Len “If you want me in, I’m in, but I’m not gonna be no one’s hero.”

Len smirked.

“I’m in too!” You said as the two criminals looked at you.

“You won’t be coming with us” Len said.

“But-“

“It’s to dangerous for you (n/n)” Mick said.” You better stay here with Lisa for the time being”

“But you will be having all the fun! And I be staying here with Lisa flirting with the Flash friend!”

“I promised myself-“

“We”

Len rolled his eyes.

“We promised ourselves we won’t let anything bad happen to you, and time travel with a bunch of weirdos is too dangerous for you. You’re only (y/a).”

See?

Overprotective assholes.

Let’s try something else.

…

Flattery can take you far.

(¬ v ¬)

“But it’s more dangerous for me staying here! Lisa and I are no rival for the Flash, not alone. With you, the flash doesn’t stand a chance! Alone… well he could take me away from you…  Also, Lisa won’t pick a fight with no one, so if you take me with you, you will be able to protect me, you’re my big brothers Lenny and Micky, don’t let the Flash take me away…”

Len and Mick’s face was like an open book, the big brother part worked like a charm.

Guess who’s going to time travel?

That’s right.

//////*\\\\\

And that’s how you ended here, along the crew of the Waverider. With time, you ended winning everyone’s hearts over, even stern Rip.

Great

What you needed

More overprotective assholes.

The first to fall was Ray.

He saw how young you really were, and who you were living with.

One day, Ray came to you.

“(y/n), right?”

“Yeah, Raymond was it?

“Yeah” He said sheepishly

“It’s there something you wanted to say?”

“…Why are you with those two criminals?”

You glared at him. Without you knowing, Len and Mick were overhearing your conversation.

“They may be criminals, but they are the best persons I know. They are my family, they are my heroes, I love them with their faults. They are my home, but I don’t hope you will understand.”

Len smiled softly, you could see itty bity tears in his eyes.

Mick was smiling openly.

“You’re so young…”

“But I’ve see things a rich boy like you never has.”

Ray hugged you hard

“You precious cinnamon roll, too precious for this world.”

“HEY BOYSCOUT! Hands off!”

Nope

Ray was still hugging you while Len and Mick tried ( but failed) to tear him off of you.

“When we finish saving the world, you can come with me. I got a pretty big house! And I’m rich, I can give you whatever you want! You can be my little (sister/brother)!”

“No way, Raymond. Get off of my sister or I will freeze your dick off.”

/////*\\\\

Sara and Kendra were the next.

They liked to baby you.

A lot

“(y/n), sit with us today! It’s been a long time since you sat with us!”

Kendra had that motherly feeling for you and Sara was the same, they saw how young you were, and all you had to live and they swear to protect you.

Sara remembered of her past, and how you had a rough childhood like hers, she had to face the bullies until her father teach her how to defend herself, she sweared to protect you and teach you how to fight.

And so, they began training you, hand to hand combat.

Much to your delight.

Kendra and Carter liked to treat you like a child they didn’t have, and after losing their son and won’t be able to do a thing, their actitude towards you became more overprotective.

And, you liked  being babied a little, you didn’t have to ask for something, Kendra, Sara or Ray would compete for your attention, for the horror of Len and Mick, who regretted to bring you along, feeling their little sibling was being taken away from them.

/////*\\\\

Then it was Jax and Stein.

You liked seeing Jax work on the Waverider’s mechanics, and sometimes you asked him questions about how was the high school he went to.

He gladly answered all your questions and even teach you something about mechanics.

He liked the attention.

He liked being part of a team and the feeling of having a younger person aboard the Waverider made him feel like he should protect you.

Stein liked that you asked him questions about science and he gladly explained it to you, saying that if he didn’t do it Snart’s and Rory’s idiocy would affect you.

Cue, Len and Mick glaring at him.

Stein took upon himself to teach you the basics, seeing as your life as a criminal didn’t let much space for school.

You liked learning, made you feel more powerful.

And sometimes you liked to show off what you learned to Len and Mick.

They were proud of you. But felt like they were being robbed of your loving attention.

/////*\\\\\

The last to fall was Rip.

Rip’s heart was hardened by the death of his family by the hands of Vandal Savage.  So melting the ice in his heart was hard,

Little by little you started to make your way to his heart without him noticing how he started to pay more attention to you, asking how you were and saving you when it was unnecessary.

And, he would oblige you to go to weekly cheek outs with Gideon, much to your displeasure.

So imagine what happened once you got the cold.

Yep

Utter and complete madness

A riot.

People running around the ship, yelling that you were sick, Rip dragging you to the infirmary for a cheek out. Len and Mick stick to you like glue and Sara and Kendra took upon themselves to make you feel as comfy as possible. Stein and Jax would come often to entertain. Much to Len and Mick displeasure.

“Go away, you’re annoying. (Y/N) needs peace and sleep and you’re just filling (her/his) head with sciency things.”

“We’re not the annoying ones, you don’t let her  brethe without one of you stalking her.

“Everyone out! (y/n) needs to rest.” Rip said

“No” Len answered.

“Don’t forget I am the captain of this ship”

“I remember, I just don’t care.”

Glare

You sighed and looked at Len.

“Can you bring me a glass of water?? Please big brother??”

(Y/N) ATTACKED WITH PUPPY DOG EYES!

…

IT WAS SUPER EFFECTIVE!

“Okay, (n/n).”

Jealous looks towards Len

They wanted to be called big brother/sister too.

Wow, you had the crew wrapped around your pinky.

You little manipulative you…

The beginning of the sibling war.

They would compete for your undivided attention.

Sara would bring you food.

Kendra and Carter would stay with you and tell you how they teamed up with the Flash and The arrow.

Stein would come to answer your scientific questions and tell how he turned to Firestorm for the first time.

Jax would tell you what happened in their last mission and would more than often show off. Saying that when you were better he and Stein would show Firestorm and how they fight.

Len and Mick would bring you food of the time where they were because as Mick said “The food of the future is crap”.  And they would stay with you until you fell asleep, then they kissed your forehead lovingly and retire to their quarters.

In the middle of the night, Rip would come to your room and would stay for an hour, brushing your hair and telling about his family and how you made him feel like he belonged again. Everything while you were asleep, but sometimes, you would wake up to his fingers lovingly stroking your hair and his British accent telling you about that heartbreaking future.

This went for a long time, even after you got well .They wouldn’t let you go with them until you got away one while they were on a mission.

Craziness and desperation ensued.

They divided in two groups to search for you. Desperate and afraid some creep would have kidnapped you. After a few hours of distress and yelling ( and , even though they won’t admit it, Sara, Rip and Kendra hit a few shady guys who didn’t want to cooperate, even though they didn’t even see you. And Len and Mick… well let’s say those who didn’t want to cooperate meet Hot and Cold.)

The truth is that you meet a hot (boy/girl) who asked you out to get a drink. You in all you rebellious teenager hormones said yes without thinking what your overprotective teammates would do.

The two of you went out to a coffee shop and talked a bit about yourselves, more like you made up your whole background. You can’t go to someone you just met and say

“HEY, I’M A TIMETRAVELING (Y/A) GIRL FROM 2017 WITH AN OVERPROTECTIVE TEAM STALKING MY LIFE. AH, AND I AM TRIYING TO SAVE THE FUTURE OF A DICTATORSHIP.”

They would think you’re crazy

Obviously.

After a few hours your team found the two of you…

Let’s say things got ugly pretty quickly.

(Y/n) (Y/L) WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THING YOU ARE DOING?! AND WHO THE BLOODY HELL IS (HE/SHE)?!”

“Guys, let me explain-“

“NO. YOU ARE GROUNDED!” Sara said.

“But-“

“Hey Len, I think that (guy/girl) tried to take advantage of her, can I burn (his/her) house down?” Mick said hopefully as Len looked at him saying No with his eyes.

“You know the scare you gave us, young lady? “ Stein said.

·Yeah, I almost had a heart attack! I’m too young to have a heart attack!” Jax said.

Kendra and Carter grabbed the (boy/girl) you were going out with and tock (him/her) away from here, after saying something that made (his/her) face blanch with horror and run away like (his/her) life was at risk…

Yeah

It probably was.

Kendra and Carter came to you smiling innocently, you asked :

“What did you say to (him/her)?”

“Oh nothing, just that what would happen to his (dick/ ovaries) if (he/she) as much as looked your way.” Kendra said.

“Yes. And that we would probably make his life hell, if (he /she) was every born” Carter said.

See?

Terrifying overprotective assholes who you loved with all your heart.

Len grabbed your hand and dragged you to the ship without saying any of his snarky comments.

Uh oh

He was mad with you and not even the eyes of the puppy dog could save you now.

The end? 

(promps still open)