#fic: make you stay

[saiilorstars]

Ch. 9: Killer Frost

Pairing: Barry Allen x OFC  // Fandom: The Flash

Story Masterlist • Previous Stories: Rise Up • It Had To Be You

Belén’s Masterlist • Fanfic • Ao3

Taglist: @ocappreciationtag​ @arrthurpendragon​ @anotherunreadblog​ @maaaaarveeeeel​ @stareyedplanet​ @foxesandmagic​ @frostandflamesfanfic​

Belén and Joe desperately tried to see the force that held Barry against the wall but try as they might, they just couldn't. Anais, on the other hand, was terrified and awed. Her eyes glowed her golden hue and she directed heat beams at the metallic armor of the unknown enemy but it was like a minor cut. If anything, it just agitated the enemy even more. In a flash of a second, it was in front of Anais, grabbing her by the neck. She was thrown across the room, landing on a table which then turned and crashed on the ground.

The armored enemy returned for Barry in less than half a second. Barry could say he didn't even feel when he was briefly let go for Anais. "What the hell are you?" Despite his struggles, Barry couldn't free himself from the grasp around his neck.

"You may serve the speed force, Flash, but I rule it," the metallic armor responded. "You are only a man, but I am a god. Your god. I am Savitar."

Kill us! Get it! Or get out! Belén struggled to breathe in regularly. The voices - sentient as ever - were squirming with the fear of death and wanted to make it known.

"Alchemy!" Joe, at this point, didn't know where to aim his gun but Alchemy made it easier since he was making an escape with the stone that crystalized Wally.

"STOP!" Belén screamed, however for the others it was on behalf of Barry, but she really needed the voices to be quiet or she would lose her sanity there and then.

"Let's go for a run, and give her some space," Savitar said to Barry then zoomed out of the place with him.

Belén dropped to her knees and looked around at the mess they'd created. She screwed her eyes shut when the voices echoed for them to leave.

~ 0 ~

From the cortex, the others tried to get ahold of Barry but were stumped to find him virtually all over the city.

"The suit's tracker must be malfunctioning," Cisco tried to get in touch with Barry himself. "It says he's appearing and reappearing all over the city at once, and that's impossible. He can't be moving that fast."

"Well if he can't, maybe something else can…?" Iris nervously watched the blinking dot meant to be Barry go in and out of appearance in every corner of the street map.

"What about the others?" Caitlin murmured as she switched to the comms. They might not have visuals on the subway but their communications were still intact. "Belén? What's happened over there?"

"I-I messed up, Caitlin!" Belén was quick to respond and let her frantic state be felt from across the city. "S-something took Barry! And it hurt Anais! Wally too - I don't know! I just don't know!"

"I got it!" Cisco cheered with his arms in the air. "Whatever it is, it stopped at the waterfront!"

"We have to get to him," Iris looked between the two considerably.

"Anais is down and I...I don't think I can reach them," Belén sounded on the verge of tears. They had yet to know what happened to Wally because she messed up.

"Cisco, you can open a breach and get you both to the waterfront," Iris thought of instead since this was a clear emergency.

"Guys, I can't," Caitlin gulped just by looking at her hands. "It's too dangerous."

"I'm begging you. Please!"

~ 0 ~

"Still alive down there?" Savitar's taunt came through the raspy, drawling voice of his his armor. Even as Barry tried getting up, Savitar forced him to stay put with a foot on him. "You are only a shadow beneath my throne. You are the past, whereas I... I am the future, Flash."

A breach opened up across them and out jumped Cisco and Caitlin. Cisco lost his balance with the source of energy he just pulled for the breach.

Caitlin wiggled her fingers and looked up ahead but all she saw was Barry in midair. "I can't see it!"

"Just do it!" cried Killer Frost in Caitlin's mind. Even as she shivered from it, she fired a large quantity of ice, probably more than she ever created since she got the powers. It encapsulated Savitar's form and made it visible for her and was able to feel the deep cold through Savitar's grasp.

Barry heard the cracking of the ice and the next he knew, he dropped to the ground. Savitar had disappeared. Cracks of ice sprawled underneath Barry's form, but otherwise he felt he would manage to pull himself up with Caitlin's support.

"Oh, boy. I'm gonna feel that tomorrow. Ah," Cisco groaned as Caitlin helped him stand. "That was a new and painful use of my powers." Caitlin rubbed his arm and looked back to Barry. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay. I'm just cold," Barry nodded them. "Thanks for coming."

~ 0 ~

"Barry, you're already healing. You should be fine soon," Caitlin moved over to the x-rays she'd taken from Cisco, the man lying on a bed with a hand on his forehead. "Um, Cisco, the MRI I did of your brain shows changes in the capillary morphology similar to that of a mini-stroke. I wouldn't try an intra-dimensional breach like that anytime soon."

Cisco nearly went pale as he sat upright. "Okay, okay. Mini-stroke? You can't just gloss over that like that, okay? What does that... what does that mean? Am I gonna have this migraine for the rest of my life?"

"It means you should take a few aspirin and you'll be fine," Caitlin reassured him his health.

"Oh. Well, just lead with that next time!"

"Cait, I know what a risk you took using your powers," Barry stopped her just as she was leaving the side room. "Thank you."

"I didn't do anything..." Caitlin said sheepishly.

"Well, you saved my life."

"You've saved mine plenty of times. I'm gonna go check on Wally," Caitlin turned to finally leave. As she walked on, her eyes flickered silver to dark. Let me out, Caity…

~ 0 ~

Shortly later, Belén and Anais had joined the group in the cortex, each one looking worse for wear in their own way.

"Anais, you're okay?" Cisco asked, much kinder than before now that he knew where his dampeners had actually gotten to.

Anais knew this and scowled at him in return. "You care?"

Cisco figured he had that well earned. "I said I was sorry—"

"Keep saying it, then," she walked past him to her folded suit left on a chair.

"What are you doing?" Barry asked, curiously watching her get the suit.

"I'm leaving," she announced sharply.

"What - now? You're choosing to leave now?" Cisco blinked. Just when he was beginning to like her a bit more.

"Caitlin said I finished with my tests and Barry said I could leave whenever I wanted to after that. Well, I want to leave now," Anais informed them and walked up to them. She didn't quite care for the group's reaction. "No offence, but I didn't come here to sign up for another war."

"Uh, no, you just stole the passageway of another man," Cisco reminded him but it did no good for the case.

"Here," Anais handed Barry a card with a number on it. "I'm not disappearing, but I...I just don't want to be here anymore. I just got out of a war, I can't get into another one. You understand, right?"

Barry gave a nod without the intention of pleading her to stay. Unfortunately, he could understand what Anais was trying to say. In the end, this was their problem with Savitar and Alchemy, not hers.

"Iris got me the cellphone, I will answer if you call, I swear," Anais stepped around Barry and stopped by Belén. "Please take care of yourself, okay?" Belén meekly nodded and rubbed her arm. Anais was sure there was something Belén wasn't saying but who was she to start asking questions? All Anais wanted to do was get the hell out of there before something targeted her next.

"Well, there's your daughter!" Cisco gestured after Anais once she was gone, eyes set on Barry and Belén. "You're not going to stop her!?"

Belén shrugged at Cisco. "What do you want us to do? Call her to come back and fight a battle that's not hers?"

Barry tucked the card with the number inside his pocket. "Maybe she's making the right call, alright? Let's just give her some space."

Cisco wasn't even going to waste more breath on the matter. "Fine, whatever. So what was that thing in the waterfront, anyways? All frozen and whatnot."

"I don't know. But now we know Alchemy is just the lackey," Barry said. "Whatever that thing was, it's what we're really up against."

"So why couldn't any of us see it?" Belén asked. "Joe and I, we-we tried but...there was nothing." Of course maybe she would have seen more things if she wasn't dealing with the insanity going on in her head.

"Maybe it was a speedster thing?" Cisco offered, even though there was no clear explanation for it. "I mean, Anais saw it, right?"

"Maybe, but I think he's more than a speedster," Barry admitted. "I mean, when he had me, it wasn't like we were even moving; it was just like, 'bam!' we were instantly somewhere different, even from my perspective."

"Did he say anything else?"

"He said his name was Savitar."

"Nice name," Belén said distractedly. She felt the echo of pain on the side of her head.

"Bells…" Barry stepped towards her but she sniffed and nodded to the threshold.

Belén blinked at Barry, her face flushing when she realized she wasn't paying attention again. "Uh, Wally's still...I'm so sorry." She shook her head and rushed out of the cortex.

Barry was exhausted and yet this single moment felt even worse than him getting punched by Savitar. Whatever was going on with Belén was distancing them again and the last time that happened, Belén almost didn't come back from it.

~ 0 ~

A few hours had passed by since they brought Wally back and since then, Caitlin had performed a series of tests to see his condition. Her news wasn't relatively the best except that Wally wasn't entirely dead.

Belén heard the whole news and couldn't take the guilt. She cooped herself up in the greenhouse room and tried her damn best to meditate. It wasn't working. In fact, it was perhaps one of the worst meditation attempts of her life. Belén felt like sobbing at one point. That was when Barry found her.

"Bells, c'mon..." Barry had no sophisticated strategy to get her to open up. He was too tired for that stuff today. He sat down on the floor directly in front of her, crossing one leg over the other as if he was going to meditate with her. For the first couple of minutes, he didn't say anything to her. He just looked at her.

Belén did the same. Somehow, the silence between them was even more difficult to manage than when Barry actively tried to find out what was going on with her. In the end, she gave up. "It's my fault," her confession was a quiet whisper.

"Your fault?" Barry repeated. He hoped that it was glaringly obvious how eager he was that she had finally said something to him. Hopefully it would pave the way to her revealing what was really the problem.

Belén swallowed hard. "Yeah," she nodded. "I messed up. I messed up so badly. I let Wally walk right past me to that stupid stone! He was right in front of me and do didn't do anything!"

Barry was still, honestly, stumped about that moment. Even though there was still some fuzziness about what happened there, he knew something prevented Belén from stopping Wally. She was right. He had walked right past her and she didn't do anything. That wasn't like her. Lately, she wasn't acting like herself. "Bells, you have to help me out here, what's happening? I-I am being patient, but...look at yourself. It's like when Datura was getting to you and...and you shut yourself off from everyone, including me."

Belén bit on her bottom lip nervously. As hard as things were getting, she was scared to tell Barry what was happening. "It's scaring the living crap out of me right now," she admitted.

"What is?" Barry gently pushed for the answer. He reached for one of her hands on her lap, enveloping it between his hands. "You can tell me anything."

"I'm afraid how you'll take it," Belén said, watching him carefully. Already, she saw a spark of guilt in Barry's eyes. She couldn't imagine how he would take the news that his changing the timelines truly affected her and Caitlin in the worst ways. She couldn't do that to him. "But it's okay. It's okay. I have it under control."

"But, Bells—"

Belén leaned forwards and pressed a kiss on Barry's lips. She smiled softly at him, eyes looking at him fondly. "I really love you, do you know that?"

Barry recognized a tactic when he saw one and he was ashamed that it worked. Belén was purposely keeping something away from him and he couldn't force it out of her. The only thing left to do was wait and tell her that he loved her too.

~ 0 ~

"Alright then," Veronica settled a folder of evidence on the interrogation table and watched the lone acolyte of Alchemy's shift nervously in his chair. "Now that you lost the monk disguise, we can talk. Let's start with Alchemy."

The man gave her almost a sneer.

Veronica raised an eyebrow. "I wouldn't test these waters," she warned in a deadly tone. "Why don't—" the door of the room burst open with Joe.

He let the door slam behind him as he walked over to the table. "Tell me about Alchemy," he commanded. "What he does, how he does it. Say it now."

There, the man repeated his sneer. However, he spoke this time. "His powers are beyond human understanding."

"Try us," Veronica leaned back on her chair and motioned him to get a move on.

The man merely smirked. "Oh, you will be tried. All of you. When my master rises, the human race will be judged. From where I'm sitting, you will not fare very well."

Veronica was about to tell him how delirious he was when Joe reached out and grabbed the man by the nose, almost threatening to break it. Veronica, startled, straightened up on her chair.

"You think I'm playing with you? My son is in one of those cocoons, and you're gonna tell me how to get him out. Now talk!" Joe ignored Veronica's attempt to get him to stop. He was beyond words at this point. The only salvation was the relentless knock on the door.

"Please just stop," Veronica warned him when she went to go answer. "Caitlin?" she blinked then looked past her to see if she was alone.

"It's Wally," the brunette said, immediately catching Joe's attention. The man hurried over. "He's out of that thing. He's fine."

"And he's okay?"

"Yeah. He's fine. I promise."

"Oh, thank God. Thank you, Caitlin," Joe glanced back at the suspect.

"You should probably go see him, then," Veronica smiled at him. "I can take care of this joke in ten minutes."

Joe laughed and merrily went on his way.

"Actually, Belén is waiting for you in the reception," Caitlin informed Veronica. "She said it's something important."

"Oh, wonder what it is now," Veronica smiled again and walked out of the room, leaving the door to close on its own.

Caitlin struck a boot just before it did close. She waited until Veronica was out of the way then walked in, backwards, and shut the door. Her eyes flickered to the security camera up on the ceiling and shot a hand up at it, freezing it completely.

"Where is Alchemy?" she revealed her silver eyes. The white streaks of hair were already making its presence on her head. "Tell me where Alchemy is."

The man eyed her with curiosity. He was not afraid, merely interested like he expected this to happen. "I sense great fear in you. You fear your power, your own greatness."

"I don't fear anything anymore," Caitlin's voice overlapped with Killer Frost. "Where is Alchemy?"

"The only one I fear is that whom Alchemy serves, the dark lord Savitar."

Caitlin regarded that with some amusement. Her eyes became a stronger silver as she rose her hand with threatening ice. "Maybe it's time you started fearing me."

GetHimGetHimGetHim, Killer Frost commanded and this time had the perfect control over Caitlin. Ice spread to the suspect's hands, causing terrible screams to erupt.

In less than a minute there was pounding on the doors. Caitlin's eyes briefly reverted to their normal chocolate brown. Caitlin herself whimpered as she felt the force that was Killer Frost trying to push her way out again. Her eyes flashed silver again and she filled the air with a cold fog then allowed the door to open. As the two officers hurried inside, she slipped out and shut the door, icing the doorknob as a measure of caution.

She was on her way out when someone called her back.

Julian Albert stood behind with an air of confusion as he heard his co-workers calling for help from the inside of the interrogation room. When he turned to Caitlin, he gasped at her very near proximity.

"I need you to come with me," she informed with her frost smoking up from her hands.

~ 0 ~

Joe came in a hurry into Wally's room and was stunned when he found his son was in the same condition as when he left. He met the others' confused looks and explained to them that Caitlin had assured him that Wally had woken up.

"What? I didn't even see her leave," Cisco realized that Caitlin had been out of sight for a while now.

"She said that?" Belén asked, focusing on the more important details of the story.

"Yes," Joe said, quite irritated to see that it was all lies.

"That's not like Caitlin..." Iris shook her head, thinking the same as the others.

Belén was the first to realize what was going on. Iris was right. Caitlin wasn't like that. Caitlin didn't lie to get officers out of interrogation rooms.

But she knew a certain metahuman who would do all those things.

~ 0 ~

The precinct was on red alert when Barry got there. Before he reached the offices, Veronica caught him on the side, startling him.

"You have got some explaining to do!" Her snap put him even worse for wear.

"What!? I—"

"Come here," Veronica grabbed Barry by the collar and dragged him into the bullpen, ignoring his 'what' again. She stopped by her desk and pulled up the security feed of the interrogation room where they'd kept Alchemy's acolyte. "Caitlin just attacked two officers, one suspect and kidnapped Julian."

"What?" Barry leaned closer to the screen just to make sure they hadn't made a mistake. He could only see Caitlin's side profile as she iced down the camera.

"No one's recognized her from the video but if Julian gets out first, he'll turn her in," Veronica warned him. "What the hell is going on?"

"I...I don't know," Barry rubbed his forehead. Killer Frost was making her appearance, that's what. Just like her earth 2 doppelganger, the ice made her bad.

"When did she get powers? And why would she take Julian?" Veronica's questions went unanswered.

Barry couldn't focus when the bigger issues were at hand. It would be a race to find Caitlin before the cops did.

~ 0 ~

As soon as she could, Belén fled to her greenhouse room to call a certain doppelganger to answers. She faced Datura on a video call while she paced back and forth. "What the hell is happening? Killer Frost is already taking Caitlin over! You said there was more time!"

Datura snickered on the other end. "I said there was only a question of who would end up taken first. Looks like I got the answer. Killer Frost was always a rowdy, annoying meta."

"Well now she's inside my friend and she's making Caitlin do things she would never do!"

"That's the point, stupid," Datura rolled her eyes. "Killer Frost wants access, and since Caitlin is probably getting more desperate, it's been easy for Killer Frost to take over."

"But she kidnapped a friend — Killer Frost kidnaps?"

"No," Datura said with some thought put into it. She looked to the side as she recollected patterns of the Earth 2 meta. "She kills. It's in her name. I think this little outburst might be Caitlin and Killer Frost together as a...mixture. One is just fighting the other."

"So, Caitlin is actively fighting back but losing?"

"Don't know. Look at her intentions and then let me know," Datura winked then shut off the call before Belén could say more.

Belén stuffed her phone in her back pocket then rubbed her face. "Caitlin, what are you doing?" She hated to think what Caitlin might be feeling - if Caitlin was feeling anything as herself at all. If what Datura said was true, then perhaps Caitlin was on her way to merging with Killer Frost to create a whole new person.

Who would that person end up, though?

~ 0 ~

"So, they don't know why she took Julian?" Cisco asked just to be sure. He was currently trying to locate Caitlin's location and a little stress might be making it more difficult.

"No, they don't. But more importantly, they don't even know that it's Caitlin yet, so we need to find her before they do," Barry couldn't hide the urgency in his words.

"Okay, let's say we do find her, then what are we going to do?" Iris made them stop for a moment. "It's obvious she's not thinking straight but have we thought about the reasons? Maybe something that could help us?"

"Killer Frost from Earth 2 is inhabiting Caitlin's mind," Belén walked in, her face expressing nothing but guilt. "Caitlin is literally having a battle with another person inside her own body."

"She's becoming Killer Frost. It's just like in the Vibe," Cisco shook his head.

"We don't know that yet," Barry reminded, but the doubt was still hanging over everyone's head.

"Her mother said the more that she uses her powers, the faster she's gonna go," Belén relayed what Caitlin once told her. "These powers aren't just powers, they're actual people that Datura siphoned. They're sentient and some of them are more forcible than others."

"How do you know that?" Iris now laid suspicious eyes on Belén.

"Because that's what Datura told me," Belén replied, hiding behind the technicality that she was not lying. "We just need to find Caitlin and make her see what's happening."

"I tried pinging her cell and Julian's, but she must have ditched them both," Cisco said with a groan of frustration.

"Stop thinking Caitlin is a regular person and start searching for another meta with cold powers," Belén moved over to him. "The answer here is not to ignore. Caitlin's powers, they're cold, so...could we use something we used for Captain Cold?"

"We tracked him using the satellite to scan for ultraviolet cold signatures," Cisco thought about it then snapped his fingers. "You're good!" he told Belén, making her smile, and got back to work. "Frozen food warehouse! That's where she is! Okay, I'm gonna isolate the feed so that no one else can see it!"

"Please do," Belén hurried after her suit.

"Figure out what she's making Julian do," Barry instructed as he went with Belén. The two would certainly need to know to help.

~ 0 ~

Julian worked incredibly fast despite the fear over his shoulders. Caitlin had him searching for acolytes of Alchemy and with a good motivation too. Find someone or be killed. She had already proven that she was willing to follow through by giving a deadly frostbite on his wrist, so...

"I found two individuals that have searched for the name Savitar. Here are both their addresses, both of them in Central City," he stopped working and looked at the woman. He still couldn't believe this was Caitlin Snow, a friend of Belén's who'd gone mad all in a week since the last time he saw her. "What exactly are you gonna do to them?"

"I don't know," Caitlin admitted as she walked a bit to the side. Killer Frost was screaming in her head to do something more fun, to use her powers. But all Caitlin wanted to do was silence her forever. "What am I doing?" She asked as herself. The noise of typing brought the more suspicious Killer Frost out. Julian had attempted - successfully - to send a message to the police. Angrily, she iced his laptop and destroyed it. "What part of "I'll freeze you to death" did you not understand?"

"Stop!" Barry sped in with Belén. Both were stunned to see Caitlin's appearance. It was half her, half Killer Frost.

Exactly what Datura said, Belén remembered.

"Get out of here," Caitlin warned them with one hand raised.

"You know we can't do that," Barry shook his head.

Belén swallowed hard and moved towards the woman but Caitlin brandished a frosty hand. "What are you doing?" Belén whispered in disbelief. "I know the powers are doing this but you have to fight it."

"Take her out. Take her out!" Julian frantically urged behind Barry.

"That's what I'm doing," Caitlin responded as herself, taking Belén by surprise. "I'm not trying to hurt someone—"

"You are wiring to hurt someone!" Julian was the first one to argue. "Knock her out!" he ordered the two known metas.

Barry didn't hesitate to knock him out instead. Belén threw Barry a look for that, eyes sharp with disapproval.

"Priorities," Barry reminded, though his lips did try to form a smile when Belén returned her attention to Caitlin.

"Cait, these powers, we can work with them—"

"I'm doing something about it!" Caitlin snapped at Belén. "I'm finding Alchemy!"

"We will find him. All right? Together," Barry misunderstood her intentions, as did Belén, and hoped to be reassuring.

"No. You don't understand. I don't want to lock him up. I need him to help me," Caitlin frantically argued.

"Help you what?"

"I need him to get rid of my powers!"

Both Belén and Barry paused in their tracks. Belén sighed at the brunette. "Caitlin... I'm not sure Alchemy can deal with...this sort of power," Belén felt sorry to say. She wished it would be that easy.

"You don't know that it doesn't," Caitlin very logically made her point. "I need her to stop talking to me! To stop controlling me!"

"Then let us help," Barry slowly reached out for her. "We all love you, and we will do everything that we can to help you. We've been through too much together to let each other down now."

Caitlin's eyes glimmered blue and silver. "Like you helped your mother?" Her voice vibrated with Killer Frost's. "Or Wally? Or me? You keep messing with everyone's lives, wrecking everything, and we're left behind to pick up the pieces from your mistakes. Some things you break can't be put back together!"

Barry, ashamed, took that with a hang of his head. "I can fix this."

Killer Frost had no mercy. "Oh, like you fixed Cisco's family? You didn't tell Cisco that you screwed him worst of all, did you?" she purposely spoke louder for the audience watching from STAR Labs. "You hear that, Cisco? Dante was alive, healthy and happy, until Barry created Flashpoint. When he reset things, that's what killed him. Barry is the reason your brother is dead."

"Caitlin, stop!" Belén ordered but Killer Frost was not done.

The best thing about accessing Caitlin's mind was getting a full view of her memories. "You're both—" she nodded to Belén and Barry, "—meant for each other, you know. Keeping secrets, it's what you do best. At least Datura was never a hypocrite about it."

Belén's anger was quick to form. "Be quiet!" she hissed, not entirely as herself, and nearly attacked if the police force hadn't arrived.

Before the bullets could reach them, Barry got them across the room towards another exit. "Bells?" he worriedly saw her holding her head again, reminding him of the last time they'd been like this.

Caitlin, on the other hand, saw a golden opportunity. She created an icicle and stabbed Barry on the lower part of his ankle, and smirked at Barry's cry of pain. "That severed your triceps surae. Even with your healing abilities, it'll take four hours to regenerate! Don't follow me!"

"Caitlin—" Belén didn't even move an inch before Caitlin threw another threat.

"Follow me and I'll say everything," Caitlin rushed out of there.

Belén pursed her lips together, guilt settling over her like layers of mountain.

~ 0 ~

Both Veronica and Joe walked into the cortex, Axel in tow behind his grandmother. The two detectives moved directly for the side room where they could see Barry. Axel, in the meantime, stayed behind with Cisco, chatting him up with questions over what was happening but Cisco barely regarded the boy.

"I'm not a good doctor so just...tell me if that hurt?" Belén slowly pulled her hands off the bandage she'd wrapped around Barry's ankle.

"It hurts as much as I deserve probably," Barry mumbled, feeling pain alright but it didn't exactly come from his injuries.

"They took Julian to County General," Veronica informed them both. "Mrs. Andrews is with him which is why I had to bring Axel around." Axel had given up on talking to Cisco and now directed all his questions to Iris.

"He's still out cold. How hard did you hit him?" Joe had to wonder.

"I don't know. I didn't mean to knock him out," Barry swallowed the pain he felt and he moved his legs to one side of the bed.

"Mhm," Belén's sharp eyes made him reevaluate his statement.

"Or maybe I did," he relented and got himself up. Belén rolled her eyes and let him move towards the cortex.

Barry saw Cisco crossing the cortex for the desks, and took his chance at a little explanation. "Cisco. Hey, man, um, what Caitlin said…"

Cisco stopped and sent him an scrutinizing glance. "Was she lying?"

"No. Um…"

Cisco almost rolled his eyes despite tears threatening to break free. "You're sorry? That you killed my brother? 'Cause he was here. He was alive—" he enunciated slowly, one hand jabbing at Barry's shoulder, "—until you created Flashpoint, until you did this!" he shoved the speedster backwards.

Axel scurried from Iris towards his aunt. "Why are they…" he stopped when Belén warned him to stay quiet with a finger over her lips.

"I don't even know how to feel right now. All I know is Caitlin is out there, and we need to find her. Can we do that?" Cisco backed to the desk, not giving much of an alternative. "I hacked Julian's computer. Caitlin had him look up two addresses: 16 Hawthorne Avenue and 1104 Truman Place. She's trying to find the acolytes, I was trying to say."

"What exactly would she want with Alchemy's followers?" Iris wondered out loud.

"Caitlin doesn't want her powers so... she thinks these acolytes can take her to Alchemy who would then take away her powers," Belén explained. It was exactly what Caitlin, in such a state, would attempt to do.

"We heard," Cisco muttered from the computers.

"Well, two acolytes, two addresses. Which one's she gonna hit first?" Veronica inquired, but knew there was no certain answer.

"We got to watch both," Barry decided. He was shot down before he even took a step towards his suit.

"You're gonna stay here. You can barely walk," Joe pointed him to the chair.

"We can take care of Hawthorne," Belén moved over to Cisco.

"I'll take Truman," Veronica volunteered.

"I care about Caitlin, but I don't want to leave Wally," Joe admitted.

"Dad, Barry and I will stay with Wally," Iris offered instead. "You go with Detective Greene."

"Alright," Joe sighed and moved with Veronica.

Belén started for her suit in the meantime.

"Cisco, if you find her…" Barry trailed off when Cisco directed a cold glare on him.

"I won't call you. You've done enough," Cisco mumbled and went on his way.

Belén came back but before she even called for Cisco, Barry motioned her to stop. "Just be careful," he told her and limped his way to Wally's room.

"Look after him, please?" Belén asked Iris quietly. Iris assured she would, allowing Belén to go on in a relative peace.

~0~

"The acolyte's on the second floor," Veronica settled her eyes on the apartment across them. She picked up her coffee cup then offered the second one to Joe. He shook his head and simply stated ahead. "I understand how you feel about Wally but he's going to be okay."

Joe's face said something else. "How would you know?"

"I think logically," Veronica shrugged. "If they wanted him dead, then that would've happened yesterday."

The manner in which she said it was so...carefree. There really was no trace of concern in her. "How do you do that?" Joe asked incredulously.

Veronica gave a small smile. "You're forgetting my own children have been affected. My eldest is in prison for murder and theft, my son is dead and my youngest...just won't stop fighting. After a while, you catch on that no matter how many times you attempt to stop them... they won't."

"So, what? I'm just supposed to let them do what they want even when my gut tells me something's off?"

"No. You use that intuition to help them. At the end of the day they're young and don't have the same experience that we do. That's why they need us," Veronica said with the utmost certainty. She exchanged a smile with Joe after. "So next time, just follow your intuition."

~0~

The first acolyte had been signaled out as the one chosen by Caitlin. She was sneaky like Killer Frost, but cautious like Caitlin as she waited for the acolyte, named Craig apparently, to come out of his bedroom. Just as the he went for the temperature controller, she let the hiss of her ice scare him into turning around.

"Both of my parents are doctors. It's all I ever wanted to be. Growing up, I used to practice the Hippocratic Oath. I was obsessed with it," she started moving towards the nab who only plastered himself against the wall. "If anyone was even gonna step on a bug, I would say, 'Do no harm'. It's built into my DNA." She raised a finger at him, letting ice encapsulate around it to create a perfect icicle. "Unfortunately, my DNA isn't what it used to be. So, believe me when I say answer every one of my questions, or I will harm you and your family." This left the acolyte with no choice. "Who is Alchemy?"

"I don't know. I've never seen him without the mask!"

"I know he can give people powers. Can he take them away?"

"Yes. But you can't make Alchemy do anything. He's just an acolyte, like me," the man admitted, his eyes constantly flickering to the icicle threatening to claw his eyes out. "We both serve the speed god, Savitar. He's shown us the future. I saw you there." Caitlin's eyes turned back to their regular color, even the icicle disappearing from her finger. "You were glorious and powerful. My lord has special plans for you. He will come to you and speak to you. The honor of that is..." his laughter only brought out Caitlin's fear even more. "He will call you...the Bringer. After all, only you, Caitlin Snow, can bring Her."

Caitlin backtracked, her eyes going back and forth between blue and brown. She was terrified. She needed to leave - now! She hurried out of the house, but by the time she managed to get out, Killer Frost was surfacing again. The light rain made for an eventful night, at least that's what Killer Frost kept saying in the head.

"Caitlin!" Cisco's voice stopped her across the road.

She smirked at him. "Really? You brought your toys?" she nodded to his goggled which he had yet to put on.

Cisco's hand gripped around hid goggles. "I'm hoping it won't come to that."

Caitlin raised her icy hands. "It won't."

"Look, I'm not leaving you out here. I want to help you."

"There's only one person who can help me."

"Really? You really think seeking medical advice from someone named Dr. Alchemy is the way to go?"

"Why not? My name is Killer Frost," Caitlin threatened to shoot frost from her hands.

Cisco moved a step forwards. "Your name... is Caitlin Snow.

"Can Caitlin Snow do this?" Caitlin's eyes glowed stronger. Killer Frost commanded her to start firing, and so she did. Icicles stormed towards Cisco and since he couldn't bring himself to attack yet, he ran for cover behind a tree.

Caitlin pulled back a hand to fire stronger but a vine latched onto her wrist, preventing her from moving it. Belén stood behind her, very much in the same cautious state as Cisco. "Caitlin, please!"

"My name is Killer Frost!" Ice zoomed up Belén's wrapped vine, forcing her to let it go before it reached her. Caitlin then whirled around and blasted a powerful mass of frost at the other woman. "Why fight me? We could be a killer team, you know."

Belén motioned Caitlin to calm down. "Caitlin, I know it's hard. The voice is strong but you are stronger. Don't let her control you."

"I'm doing fine, thanks! Can't say the same for you!" Caitlin swung icicles like boomerangs at Belén, forcing the meta to fight back. She moved forwards as her poison swished forwards along with pieces of vines trying to trap Caitlin but it wasn't enough to keep her down. The frosty meta engaged Belén in hand combat.

"Belén! Move!" Cisco put on his goggles, figuring that the best thing would be to bring Caitlin back to STAR Labs...and for that she needed everyone to help.

"I can't!" Belén was in the middle of dodging Caitlin who was probably drawing on Killer Frost's combat skills.

"Unleash those powers," Killer Frost taunted in-between punches. "You know they're itching to play!"

She's right. Let us out! Belén heard the voices begin to scream. With that distraction, Killer Frost backhanded her to the ground.

"Come on out!" she practically demanded, going as far as putting a boot over Belén's back.

Belén screwed her eyes shut but this time the voices weren't going away. They were doing the same thing Killer Frost said to. They wanted to come out.

Caitlin was drawn back by the noises of a zip. She caught Barry's light as he charged towards them. She froze the roadside and watched as the speedster slipped over and rolled on the ground. She walked over to him, glaring down. "How's the leg?"

Barry hated her sense of humor at the moment. He saw her boots from the corner of his eyes and retaliated in the simplest way. He swiped his arm across her legs and knocked her down beside him.

"I'm sorry, Caitlin," he heard her groans beside him and truly felt bad for her. Everything she said was right. It was his fault.

"That was cold, Flash," she gave him his due. "But this is colder." She jumped to her next move and straddled him, planting her lips over his for a frosty kiss.

Cisco knew it was time to act no matter his feelings. He could practically see Barry's blue face thanks to Caitlin. Belén was still on the ground once again raging at herself to 'stop' ... again. Cisco put on his goggles and struck Caitlin with a vibe energy that knocked her over a car. Cisco then came running forwards.

"Start vibrating. It'll warm you up," he left that advice for Barry on the ground.

Caitlin was just attempting to get up when she felt a hand curl around her ankle. "Oh let go you pathetic plant girl," she hissed with a raging icy hand.

"You wanted me out? Now I'm out," Belén had an unusual glare on her face, her eyes glimmering colors.

"Bells, just hold her!" Cisco ran up to them with the intention of knocking Caitlin out.

"I've got a better idea," Belén smirked. Heat erupted from her free hand and sent Cisco back against the same car that Caitlin had rolled over.

Start killing! Get them all out! Let us be free! The voices chanted in unison. Belén felt herself slowly lose against them. She didn't want to be like Caitlin, she wanted to control them...but she was so tired. The stronger they got, the less pain Belén felt, the less stress and ache.

"Well, you came out to play," Caitlin as Killer Frost looked down at Belén with a smug face.

Belén held her head in pain. "Leave me alone, Frost!"

Caitlin circled the woman, taunting her to come out and match her powers. "We could have some fun, can't you see? I hadn't thought about it before but, after all you were the one who wanted me to come out with Caitlin."

"I SAID STOP!" Belén screamed and whirled around to deliver a punch across Caitlin's face. She raised her hands above her head and let white energy blink into existence around them.

"Belén?"

Belén lowered her arms but kept the moon energy stirring between her hands as she turned to face Barry. He was stunned to find Cisco outcold over a car, Caitlin pretty much under the same state on the ground and... Belén being the cause of it. Her white eyes made him fear that perhaps Killer Frost wasn't the only one who was affected by the siphoning device. Had he done that to her as well?

"Shoot," Belén commanded, but as herself trying to regain control. The power around her hands struggled to keep itself going. "I don't want…" her white eyes flickered to Caitlin, "...I don't want to be...like her...knock me out!"

Barry couldn't believe his ears. Belén stumbled towards him, begging him to do what she asked. "But Belén—"

"KNOCK ME OUT!" she screamed at Barry, eyes flickering to gold. The sight terrified him. "DO IT!"

Barry shut his eyes and absolutely hated himself. He streaked forwards and knocked Belén down as cautious as possible. A smack would be enough, he hoped.

~0~

The next time Caitlin awoke, she found herself inside the pipeline with the group, save Belén, staring at her from the other side with sympathy. "Phew, guess I just needed a little sleep. Thanks, guys. I'm feeling much better now. It's okay. You can let me out. I promise I'm not gonna hurt anybody." Her eyes blue eyes scanned the group to see if anyone faltered, but they knew better. "Hmm. Guess you're all smarter than I thought. You know, that was some blast there, Vibe boy. It kind of hurt."

Cisco's eyes were still glossy with tears. He couldn't believe this is what they were reduced to in the end. "I didn't want to hurt you."

Caitlin's face contorted to disgust. "You're pathetic."

"Alchemy can't help you. But we can. I promise," Barry couldn't stop staring at her, hoping that she would come out of her trance.

Caitlin scoffed. "Oh, like you promised Eddie? And like you promised Ronnie? You know, for a hero, Flash, you sure let a lot of people around you die."

"This isn't you talking. It's the powers. They're messing with your mind. You're sick—"

"Killer Frost might be in my head but Caitlin is broken, Barry. And that's all your fault," Caitlin tapped her finger against the wall. A smug smile spread across her face, almost threatening to laugh. "But this time around, justice came through. You're not getting away with a happy ending this time. You hurt the person you supposedly love most. Belén? She's going to become just like me and then we'll take this city together."

Barry swallowed hard, the guilt he felt once now too hard to push with words of comfort. "We're not letting this happen…" He reached for the controller's to close the pipeline up.

"You did this to me!" Caitlin raged from the inside just before she was lost behind the pipeline.

"Do you have any idea how we can reverse this?" Barry turned to Cisco, hoping for anything at this point. "How we can get her back?"

Cisco refused to look at him. "It's like Caitlin said: sometimes when things get broken, they can't be fixed."

~0~

Belén sat at the edge of the medical bed with her head held low in shame. She couldn't stop staring at the meta dampener cuffs adorning her wrists. Cisco must have put them on her after being taken back to STAR Labs. The voices were dead silent in her head. It was as if everything was normal again.

Except she wasn't. She was far from it.

The sound of footsteps rose her head. She was mortified to see her friends and mother staring at her with...pity. She pulled her legs up to her chest and rested her head over her knees.

"I'm sorry," she said, not that it mattered. She had punched her friend and thrown the other over a car. One apology made no difference.

Barry asked with a pleading look to let him talk to her first.

"Do not let her become like Caitlin," Veronica warned with the same hostility she once showed him when they first met. She was angry. Hell angry.

Barry cleared his throat and walked into the side room once the others had gone. "This was it, wasn't it? The thing that you were hiding? It was about this and Caitlin."

"I could never say anything about Caitlin. It wasn't my secret to tell," she rose her head once more. "And I just didn't want you to think it was your fault."

"But it is," Barry said grimly, "This is all my fault. In the other timeline, this didn't happen to you. It didn't happen to Caitlin either."

"It does no good to think about that anymore," Belén said, letting out a heavy sigh, "You can't change it anymore. If I could, I would have tried to fix this on my own."

"But you shouldn't have to," Barry said, coming over to sit down on the bed with her, "This is my fault so please let me help to fix this. We're a team, right? You and I, we're partners above everything and everyone else. Please, trust in me that I will fix this."

"There's not much to work with," Belén said, "The voices are just getting stronger now."

"These voices... there's more than one?"

Belén nodded. "There's three. One who controls earth, the other controls the moon elements and the other has heat abilities. They're some of the victims Datura siphoned and killed. They're mad and they want to be free. Datura said that it's only a matter of time until I lose it. She was right about Caitlin, so…"

"Datura?" Barry raised an eyebrow at her. "You've been speaking to that woman?"

"Yeah, she called me one day because apparently she can now see the future sometimes. I visited her too," Belén said, deciding it was best to put it all out there now that the truth was out. "We, uh, we made a deal. She said she'll help and in return, she'll get Frost's power back. But being honest...I don't think she'll be able to reverse it. And I certainly don't want to wear these," she raised her cuffed hands. "If I have to live with these powers, then I want to control them. I don't want to hide them."

Barry ultimately knew she wanted the cuffs off. He could already hear Veronica shouting that it wasn't the safest thing but...he had already messed up by creating this situation. The least he could do was give Belén her choice. It was all he had. He reached over and unlocked the cuffs. Cisco had placed a password on it just in case Belén switched personalities again. Belén was a bit awed that he was listening so easily. Anyone else would've told her absolutely not.

"I'm sorry for doing this to you, but I swear I will do anything and everything I can to help you," Barry promised her. "Just please don't feel like you need to be sorry. This isn't on you."

"Yeah, well, it doesn't exactly help to hear you continually blame yourself. There's nothing you can do by that," she leaned her head against his arm.

"I should have just followed you inside the house," Barry deeply regretted that night he changed the timelines. He had everything and he didn't see it. It would probably be his biggest regret.

"But you didn't, and that's the fact. I'm sorry you feel this way but...there is nothing you can do to change it. There is no fixing. We are not projects," she shifted her head to look up at him. "We are your friends and we need you."

Barry wrapped an arm around her and pulled her closer. "I've been the villain of this story, Bells."

"Change the course," Belén said, resting her head on his shoulder.

Their moment was cut short when the lights mysteriously malfunctioned in the building. The only possible source of power had to be from Wally. The two metas hurriedly rushed towards Wally's room and found Joe in the middle of breaking Wally out of his cocoon.

"Joe! Hey! What are you doing?" Barry frantically urged him to stop but Joe had already made the decision long before. "You can't cut him!"

"I have to!" Joe argued back. He didn't want Joe to follow in Caitlin's footsteps, nor Belén's. With the help of a power saw, the cocoon was opened in half but along with it came an odd noise.

Barry figured what it was and sped the others away from the cocoon just as an energy exploded from it. Smoke filled the room over the tipped over furniture. There was only s familiar vibrating noise heard and it wasn't from Barry.

Wally stood in the middle of the room, his entire body vibrating. His gaze slowly went around the room but he never made a noise. Then, just like that, he zipped out of the room.

The group quickly intended on finding him, as well as seeing what exactly the cocoon made him.

"No sign of Wally. I've got the satellite scanning the entire city for rapid movement," Cisco called from the desk.

"If he's a speedster, he could be halfway across the country by now," Iris remarked, still unable to believe what they'd seen mere minutes ago.

"Barry, we have to find him," Joe felt the urgency of a parent but also knew it was his fault. He had only wanted to help his son before something bad happened.

"I'm more worried about what happens when we do find him," Barry admitted. "He didn't seem like he was all there."

"I shouldn't have cut him out of that thing," Joe put his hands over his head.

"If we have no way of knowing what effects Wally did under...should we really try to find him first?" Belén asked. "We need to be smart about this and the only one who could possibly know is…"

"Caitlin," Barry exhaled. "We need a biochemist."

"And how do we break her out of...whatever is in her?" Veronica inquired, accusing eyes landing on her daughter. She had spotted the clean wrists.

Belén sucked in a breath and walked to the desk. "Killer Frost from Earth 2 expects us to fix Caitlin by erasing the powers, her mind. If we want Caitlin back, then we need to remind her who she is."

"Remind her who she is? I think I can do that," Barry decided to play one last card and headed for the pipeline.

Veronica quickly took her daughter by the wrist to the side. "What the hell are you doing? Where are the cuffs?"

"I'm not wearing them," Belén pushed her mother's hands off and returned to the desk.

"I knew we shouldn't have given Barry the password," the woman came after her.

"Mom, you can't just lock them up! I mean, that's exactly what Caitlin tried to do and look where she is right now?" Belén turned to Cisco with the most sincere face possible. "Cisco, I swear I am so sorry that I threw you over a car! I'm sorry that I lied to everyone but you cannot force me to shut my powers away!" she shouted. "Like I said to Barry I am not a project to fix!"

Get them. Make them fear you, Belén closed her eyes and leaned on the desk. The others exchanged cautious glances.

~0~

Caitlin was smug when Barry reopened her prison. It was going to be difficult convincing her but Barry was not planning on stopping.

"We need your help, Caitlin. Wally... he's... he's out of the cocoon, but his biochemistry is all out of whack. He went AWOL."

Caitlin casually leaned against the back wall of the pod. Her lips formed a mock pout. "So?"

"So, when we find him, he's gonna need your help. He's gonna need your medical expertise, your experience with metas. What he needs is Caitlin Snow, MD."

Caitlin gave a mocking laugh. "So, you came to try and talk some sense into me."

"No. I came to let you go," Barry moved to the controls again and opened up the pod.

Caitlin waited a second fir any trick he might be holding back on. Barry just stood there waiting for her. She mocked him and walked out. "For a smart guy, that was an awfully dumb move."

"Like I said, you're free to go."

"What's the catch?"

"You have to kill me," Barry answered in a matter of fact tone.

From the cortex, Iris was deadlocked on the plan, thinking it stupid. "What is he doing!?"

"He's bringing Caitlin back," Belén shushed her, she and Cisco being the only ones not as worried. She had faith that their friend was still there, and if Barry really wanted to help them then he needed to be the one to take the leap. He was faster; he could move if he needed to.

Caitlin raised an eyebrow at Barry and moved up to him. He didn't move an inch. "You want to fight, Flash?"

"No. I'm not gonna fight you," Barry continued with his nonchalantness. "But if you want to leave this room, you're gonna have to kill me."

"Don't think I won't," Caitlin warned, Killer Frost lacing every word spoken.

"Then do it."

Caitlin turned her palm over and created one lone icicle.

Barry braced himself and didn't move an inch. Caitlin, for some reason, only raised the icicle to his chest. "What are you waiting for? What's the big deal? Come on! Live up to your name, Killer Frost. I want to see some killing!" he grabbed onto her wrist holding the icicle and yanked her forwards. "You want to be the villain? This is what they do. They kill their friends, because nothing matters to them anymore, right?"

Caitlin seemed to struggle to push the icicle. Killer Frost raged to do it already so they could go. I can't, Caitlin was the one to think. She's not in control.

"Kill me, Caitlin!" Barry practically ordered to the still woman. "You can't do it. You can't, because underneath all that cold, you're still you."

Caitlin released a shaky breath, Killer Frost's rage was being sealed away at least for the time being. She was not a killer. Killer Frost could not make her become that. Absolutely not.

The blue in her eyes faded away and were replaced by tears. She dropped the icicle in her hand and broke into sobs. "Barry!"

Barry hugged her with no hard feelings. "It's okay. I got you. It's okay." He held her tight and sighed of relief to have her back with them.

~ 0 ~

Caitlin felt a huge relief having the meta-dampeners back on her wrists. Her mind was clear again, there was just her and only her. It left her entirely focused on Wally's current state, the latter still unfound. She'd taken a couple of bits left over by the cocoon to see where exactly Wally's structure was at the moment. And because of it, she was able to form an injection that might help him.

"I think extracting Wally early from that cocoon left him in a fugue state. His synapses aren't used to functioning at super-speed, so his mind and muscles are misfiring," she stopped by Barry with the serum ready to go.

"I mean, will this stuff help?" Joe eyed the serum with weariness.

"I've synthesized a neural compound that I think will get his mind and body running at the same speed. We just have to find him first."

"Well, computers aren't doing a damn thing," Cisco muttered from his spot at the desk. He rubbed his face then dropped his hands and turned to the group. "I don't know what else to do."

"But maybe Joe does," Veronica gave the man a glance, knowingly smiling. "Father's know best. "What's your intuition saying?"

Joe had to smile, but didn't disregard her attempt that fast. He got to wondering if perhaps Wally wasn't lost. What if he had just...gotten nostalgic in that state he was in? When nothing made sense, what kept him together?

"The house that he grew up in," he said before he could even solidify the thought. "He used to go there when he missed his mother. In Keystone."

"Let's go," Barry got ahold of him and left together.

As soon as they were gone, Caitlin moved towards Cisco and Belén with that face that spelled utter guilt. "I, uh... I just wanted to…"

"It's okay," Cisco got up from his desk and hugged her tight. "You scared me for a second, getting all Mother of Dragons on me with that hair."

Caitlin managed to chuckle but she was still feeling pretty bad in regards to Belén. "I shouldn't have said anything, b-but I...I wasn't…"

"You don't need to explain anything to me, Cait, I know exactly what that feels like," Belén raised her hands. "I guess they had to know sometime…"

"Still freaked us out…" Iris was heard mumbling from her spot. "I nearly went reporter on you two earlier."

"I know," Belén mocked a putout face. "But it's a scary thing, and that's why we kept quiet. But rest assure—" she placed a hand on Caitlin's arm, "—that we will find a way to help you. Datura said she wanted her power back, so...she's on board."

"Woah, woah, we're letting psycho-Belén help us now?" Cisco went wide-eyed at the news, something that both Iris and Veronica shared.

"You can't be serious," Veronica shook her head. "Tell me you're not serious."

"Who's psycho-Belén?" Axel looked up from the tablet he'd gotten from home.

"No one, go back to your games," Veronica shushed him with a pointed finger.

"It's okay, we're on the same boat - believe it or not - so she's helping," Belén made it clear this was something that had already been decided.

"But did she ask for something in return besides her power?" Caitlin had to wonder. Datura, while Belén, was still dangerously ambitious.

Belén cleared her throat and shook her head. "Nope, just Frosty back." There was no point in telling Caitlin that she would also have to give up her powers to Datura as well. Caitlin felt terrible enough.

That would just remain her little secret till the end.

~ 0 ~

"Oh, so she got back to normal?" Belén rolled her eyes at her doppelganger's disappointment of Caitlin triumphing over Killer Frost.

"Please, don't try to hide your goodness…" Belén sat down on the edge of her bed and glared at Datura on her phone screen.

"Can't hide what I never had," Datura snorted and put a finger to her chin. "Though I do have to express my disappointment of getting this prediction wrong."

"What prediction?"

"I saw Killer Frost in all her frosty glory," Datura shared the vision she'd gotten that day, earlier, but nonetheless about Killer Frost.

"So your psychic abilities aren't always correct, then?"

"Well of course not, the future is never written in stone."

"So...right now, what do you see about...me?"

"Ooh, scared are we?" Datura was quick taunt before laughing. Belén hated her, she really did, because it was fear that was constantly coursing through her. Datura leaned closer to the screen. "I see nothing."

"I know you see something you—"

"Maybe I do, maybe I don't. Dream about that," the doppelganger spat and ended the video chat.

Belén growled and tossed her phone over her shoulder. She buried her face in her hands and thought about the possibilities if she did not learn to control these powers. She already made it clear to her friends that suppressing them was not an option for her - it never would be.

When she heard the front door unlocking, she quickly jumped up from the bed and ran up to the mirror. She didn't want to look so distressed when they had oh-so many problems as it was.

"Yikes," she whispered at her reflection. She combed through her hair with her fingers and walked out of the room to see how Barry did with...getting Julian not to say a word about Caitlin. She offered to go herself but Barry decided that he needed to, because it was part of him owning up to his mistakes. Barry had a somber face until he saw Belén coming out of the hallway. "So, how did it go?" she leaned against the hallway threshold. "Is he going to tell? Do you need me to try?"

How could Barry tell her that one of her closest friends had forced him to quit his job so that Caitlin could avoid jail? He couldn't. At least not tonight when Belén was already looking far too tired to deal with something else. "He's not going to say anything," he informed her with a the tiniest of smiles.

A big relief washed over Belén, even making her laugh towards the end. "Oh my God that is so good to hear!" she walked over and hugged him tight, swaying them a bit.

"Yeah," Barry rubbed her back and rested his chin over her head. Keeping his sudden departure from his job wasn't going to last a day, probably not even a week, but for tonight he would like to give Belén a moment of peace.

After everything, she deserved that much.

[dukeofthomas]

Here's my controversial opinion; if you're trying to write Bruce as a non-abusive, good parent, you should also write him respecting his kids' privacy, boundaries, and not stalking&surveying them.

[demaparbat-hp]

“Zuko?” Ming searched for the Prince in his silence. He was staring intently out of the window, mouth blown wide open, eyes distant and awed and sincere. Oh. His whisper was a fragile, breathless thing.

“We're here.”

Ming’s doubts and concerns are hers alone, but that doesn't mean the rest of the Crew doesn't share them. This sudden mission, Zuko's change in attitude, his obsession with the Water Tribes...

Ming tries to discover the root of it all in For the Spirits Chapter VIII: Make You Stay, but will Zuko let her in?

[technoschnauzer]

I agree people seem to be getting too unrealistic with their ideas of “Curly could’ve done more” But I hate seeing “what was he supposed to do?” cause like- Stay with Anya(physically and metaphorically). Don’t run away from her and leave her alone to ‘fix’ things(she’s pregnant, she’s been raped there is no changing that) by talking with Jimmy.

Literally in my opinion all Curly really had to do to show he cared was stay there with her. Comfort her. Don’t say you can fix it, don’t say you can Fix Jimmy. Don’t say you can fix this situation and imply it can be made right, don’t imply you can make Jimmy better.

Of course there were other things he could do. He could apologize for not noticing sooner. He could give her something else to use as a weapon(hell a fucking PEN can be used as a weapon).

People saying there’s not much he could do are right, but Curly didn’t believe that. Even though he seemed to believe Anya he still tried to reconcile it with his view of Jimmy and believed he could do something.

If he’d stayed he could’ve calmed and comforted Anya, then talked with her. They could’ve made a plan together to try to avoid Jimmy finding out. Alllll he had to do was stay instead of running off to find his best friend.

[girlsdads]

#ok it’s giving girl dad wearing his daughter’s handmade necklace special for him into work 🥺🥺😩😩

couldn’t stop thinking about this tag of mine, wrote a little smth about it 🥰

The stomping footfalls racing down the hall behind him could only be those of a toddler. Daniel turns and squats just in time for his tiny blonde projectile of a child to come barreling into his chest. The force sends Daniel falling back onto his butt with a surprised oof, his daughter giggling delightedly in his lap.

“Hey, Ellie-bug,” Daniel smiles. “Daddy’s gotta go to work, remember how we talked about it and you promised to be a big girl?” He brushes a strand of hair away from her mouth where it’s gotten stuck in a little smear of jam leftover from her breakfast. Daniel had shown Max how to make it just the way she likes—the pancake batter shaped in the silicone star mold, the silly faces drawn in jelly and jam.

Ellie’s head bobs up and down dutifully, but she makes no move to get up.

Max appears from the kitchen then, looking like a man who’s been fighting a losing battle with the second pancake. There’s a splatter of thick batter on his white t-shirt. He’s holding the spatula like it’s offended him somehow. Daniel looks at him over their daughter’s head, and loves him fiercely.

“She is of course the biggest girl,” Max says. Ellie grins proudly. “Why don’t you give Daddy your present now, then we will finish your pancakes.”

Daniel watches her grey-blue eyes light up like she’s just now remembering why she came running at him in the first place. She reaches a chubby hand into the bib pocket on her overalls, embroidered Enchanté script stretching as she roots around and produces a string of brightly-colored plastic beads. She holds it out to him expectantly.

Daniel takes the strand delicately in hand, wraps it around the backs of his fingers and rotates his wrist to get a good look. It’s a necklace, probably more of a choker given its relatively small circumference, the fat pony beads the only real indication it was made by a child. The powder pink and fuchsia beads are separated by interspersed pearlescent white orbs and clear sparkly stars. Smack in the center is a single number bead, a glittery pink three.

“Jeepers, did you make this for me? It’s beautiful!” Daniel says, and means it. He’s already been wanting to talk to his team about adding a jewelry collection to a future drop, and what better inspiration?

Ellie nods excitedly. “Papa helped me do a…,” she pauses, squints and tilts her little head, searching for the word, “…a pattern!”

“We made it the other day, while you were out with Blake,” Max chimes in. “For good luck.” He sounds almost bashful, like maybe it wasn’t their daughter’s idea in the first place. Daniel’s heart is so swollen it’s threatening to leak out through the gaps in his ribcage.

“How’d I get so lucky, huh?” Daniel muses, softly, mostly to himself. He stretches the elastic over his head, feels the smooth plastic three settle in the hollow of his throat. His pulse thrums evenly against it, grounding.

He flashes his biggest smile at his family. “How do I look?”

“Pretty, Daddy!” Ellie throws herself forward again, wrapping her arms around Daniel’s neck. It leaves him locking eyes with Max, who’s gazing down at the two of them like nothing else in the universe exists. Daniel can never quite get used to that look—still feels butterflies dancing up the back of his throat, his stomach dropped into a glorious freefall.

“Beautiful, Daniel,” Max says, reverent. “Always.”

[elsecrytt]

masochist gojo. gojo who's in love with pain, so much that it feels like pleasure, he can barely distinguish between the two anymore.

gojo who's so starved for touch. who's had an infinite space between himself and the whole world for so long, for so many years, every day in and day out.

gojo who's survived off glancing presses when a barista hands him a coffee, the rare hug from his students (who are mostly orphans) that he can't bring himself to decline.

gojo who craves more but can't bring himself to accept it except in fleeting moments with strangers or students.

his hands that long to be held. he wants it so bad that he teases a cursed spirit, laces his fingers with its own, right before he utterly crushes the being in battle, untouchable all over again.

gojo whose skin is hungry for someone else's. he hasn't felt the warmth of a hand in his own in so long. not since - since his youth.

gojo who sometimes wishes he could get hit. who sees the impact of curse techniques on his infinity and feels a wild, strange desire for them to go straight through and strike him.

he imagines it, vividly, being impaled by a long spear (inverted spear) that goes straight through him. how it would lance his flesh so cleanly.

being struck so hard, across the face, in the stomach, enough to knock the wind out of him.

enough to feel it with his whole body.

gojo who wants to be touched so bad he doesn't even care if it hurts anymore. infinity couldn't protect him from geto's betrayal.

gojo who keeps infinity up not because he doesn't want to get hit, but because he's terrified of what he might do when it happens.

gojo who got hard whenever geto sparred with him. he still doesn't know if it was because of geto, or because he had no infinity back then, no way to block the strikes.

he dreams of his youth. bruises littering his pale, pretty form like kisses, proof that he was human, there, that there was someone who could reach him.

dark purple things that turned pretty colors as they healed. he remembers pressing into them, relishing the hurt, feeling like he was getting hit (touched, reached, connected) all over again.

nothing ever touches him again. not like that. not like anything.

he never feels it. he never feels anything.

satoru gojo who wants, so very very badly, to feel something.

pain is a choice for him, always a choice. he alone has the privilege of deciding whether or not anything can touch him.

he could try to let more strangers touch him. one night stands, discreet arrangements. he had a pretty face and a body to match. there was no shortage of willing partners.

he lets them touch him, lets them hurt him. lets them drool over his body and use it at their leisure. they tell him he's beautiful, and he believes them.

white hair, blue eyes, sprawled out with a lean, unmarred body full of bare flesh for them to bite and scratch and bruise. he finds people who will do it, do it hard, fuck him up until he's lost entirely in the feeling of being touched, having someone against him, with him, above him.

it makes him feel like a piece of meat. it makes him feel good.

or he thinks it does, anyways.

sometimes, when he's gone particularly long without sleep, when his partner has gone particularly hard, he gets a real rush.

heart racing out of his chest. a cold sweat that overwhelms him. breaths coming in labored gasps. he can heal himself, he's physically fine, so this must all be in his head.

he acknowledges that information, distantly, like it's not happening to him. it doesn't help.

it feels like part of his body has been ripped away from him, something vital and important, and it's about to get up and run away.

always, always, it happens when his partner is no longer touching him. when he lays alone in the sheets, by his own volition, because of course these partners are not meant to be attachments.

love is not a privilege, though, not for the strongest sorcerer. it's a curse.

it's the only curse which infinity cannot protect him from.

so gojo stays untouchable. distant.

but the hunger doesn't go away. never.

he likes to imagine that suguru swallowed this one last curse before he died. something sweet and bitter, like losses at the arcade, sunny days at the beach, walking together with shoko, nanami, haibara.

but even suguru couldn't have absorbed this curse. it's in his bones, deep, longing and wanting even after he's dead and gone.

gojo is hungry. he is so, so hungry. and he has nothing to eat that will not leave him just as empty as before.

touch-starved. love-starved. pain-craving.

if someone could hurt him then it wouldn't matter that he was terrified of attachment. they could latch onto him, into his heart, under his skin. bury themselves in his chest like they belonged.

they could kill a hundred and twelve people and it wouldn't matter, because he wouldn't be able to kill them.

gojo is hungry, so hungry.

please feed him.

[rad-batson]

Multiverse AU where different variants of Damian Wayne Al Ghul are accidentally hailed to one universe and Damian is in the middle, trying to get all of them back home, but it only gets worse and NOT for the reasons you would think.

So picture this: there’s a sea of Damian variants crowded into the Batcave. One’s a leader of the LOA. Another became the next Harley Quinn? One is a mute assassin. Another is Red Hood’s apprentice. One’s Batman. One’s a meta for some reason. Another is the leader of a revolution. One’s a monk. And another is a clone. They’re all somehow involved in vigilantism or the LOA.

And then there’s a completely normal one. He goes by Dami. He’s in college :) He works at an art studio. He’s got a heart condition. He has a boyfriend, and he has never been Robin before. In fact, he doesn’t even know his dad is Batman. So in a room full of wildly different versions, this Damian sticks out like a sore thumb. He’s like an NPC just standing in the middle of a final battle.

What he does know is that his mother, Talia, left the LOA with him when he was two because she fell in love with Bruce. Since then, the three have lived a Perfectly Normal Life as Perfectly Normal People in a moderately nice house in the suburbs of Gotham.

And you know what? No one questions it. Out of all the problems the Damians are having right now, Normal Damian is the least of them. So he just sits to the side, completely chill, and doesn’t interfere.

But then some chaos happens, the Damians are all sucked into a battle at some secondary location, Normal Dami is kidnapped, gets killed, and everyone’s super depressed about it. (Gosh, he was so nice. Why did it have to be him? Boo hoo. We didn’t even have time to recover the body.)

Until they head back to the cave…and there he is. Respawned. Alive. Confused.

He was literally dead on the floor two hours ago. They checked for a pulse! He bled out. Normal NPC Dami is supposed to be dead. But nope. He’s right there. “Hey, what happened? The last thing I remember is being tied up. Did I faint again?”

Everyone else, the whole batfamily and the mini Damian army, is like “wtf how’d you get here, buddy?” While he’s just like :) so Bruce, who put a bug on the security cameras or whatever, checks the footage and what he finds is absolutely horrifying.

Just after he died, Normal Dami’s eyes snapped open. Glowing a deep Lazarus Green. He stood up, walked out, and immediately fucking decimated the remaining group of kidnappers like a rabid animal. Literally anyone who got near him were goners, and Thank Sweet Jesus he didn’t run into anyone on the walk back because he didn’t care to clean off all that blood. Nope, he just walked right through the front doors of the manor, found a clean set of clothes, completely on autopilot, then all of the adrenaline wore off, and he collapsed from exhaustion.

So everyone watches the footage. NPC Damian is horrified. He insists that’s not him because he doesn’t kill people! How could they ever accuse him of killing people?! He has never done something like that. He can’t even walk up a flight of stairs without getting winded for Christ’s sake!

Nonetheless, he agrees to sit in their itty bitty holding cell as they do some fun little tests, and lo and behold: he is so genetically fucked up. Why? Because his DNA isn’t like the other Damians. It’s completely mutated by this green glowing substance that they know all too well.

The verdict? Normal Dami has been permanently mutated by the Lazarus Pit. The Lazarus Pit is inside of him. It IS him. Or maybe Normal NPC Damian is the Lazarus Pit.

When Normal Dami was two and he and Talia still lived with the LOA, there was an incident involving Damian drowning in the Lazarus Pit (à la Ra’s Al Ghul's Stellar Grand-Parenting Skills.) However, since he wasn’t dead, the Lazarus Pit devoured him, consumed him with violent pit madness, spat him back out, and Damian became this completely, unstoppably rage-filled toddler that can throw you over his shoulder and snap your neck. So Talia, terrified of what Ra’s would do with him, escaped to Gotham, found Bruce, begged for help, and they devised a plan.

Step 1: Raise Lazarus Damian as a completely normal kid.

Step 2: Take him to therapy. Maybe give him anger management classes. (Monitor his sugar intake. That couldn’t hurt.)

That was literally their whole plan. They had no other ideas ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Occasionally, he’d snap and kill someone in cold blood (whoopsie daisy) but his parents were an assassin and the world's greatest detective. No one’s gonna know.

Through some trial and error, they found out that abrupt adrenaline spikes were what triggered the madness. So they worked around it. They gave him calm, relaxing hobbies. They spoiled him with emotional support animals. They Never Raised Their Voices. He was homeschooled for a bit then introduced to university, but only AFTER they made sure Jon (the Indestructable Superboy) was his roommmate. (Yes, they told him. Yes, he is now part of the convoluted Keep Deadly Damian Relaxed Task Force. They’re also dating.) They got Damian a FitBit that tracked his heart rate so they could predict when his adrenaline spiked. They Life360’d his ass so fucking hard. Meanwhile, Damian just thought he had some kind of medical thing, none the wiser the entire time.

Long story short? “Chill Normal NPC Damian” Cannot Die. But he can Kill.

If he does “die” (the Lazarus Pit cannot die) then he goes into a murderous rage, kills everyone in sight, it wears off with the adrenaline, and he can’t remember what happened. This Damian is the Most Dangerous of the variants, and he doesn’t even know it because his parents decided that would be best.

And now the other Damians are scared of him, and he’s scared of himself, and no one knows why he's made of the Lazarus Pit, and they don’t know what to do with him, and they still don’t know how to get back, and some of them want to kill him, and some don't, but no one trusts him, including himself, and it becomes an all-out war over the fate of Damian.

Anyway, Normal Damian who's actually a Murderous Lazarus Spirit without even knowing it. Thank you :)

[buck2eddie]

quote from “for everything we are (everything we’ve been)” fic // written by @lover-of-mine

[merakiui]

we know and love our breeding obsessed tweels .. but there’s an obvious candidate whom I haven’t seen given much attention.. and it’s our favourite apple <3

back in harveston, it’s been mentioned how there isn’t much youngins around .. apart from epel and his cousin .. but in terms of ppl his age??? 0 … so it’d be easy for his family to talk him into stuffing you full and getting you pregnant when you come visit one day… you don’t know that epel secretly introduced you to his family as his wife .. and that the analytical eyes they give you and your body was bcs they wanted to see just how many kids you could handle birthing naturally at a time… truly terrifying how they put this much thought into the time you need to rest before being full with his baby again .. bcs they don’t do hospitals but instead the women in the family use their knowledge (midwivery) to advise you </3

aa just the thought of epel and his family peer pressuring you into giving them kids and continuing the family line has you feeling all guilty </3 like it doesn’t matter what u want bcs you’d be doing it for the betterment of the village! how they convince u that eventually, when u become a mother, you’d find happiness that comes w it .. (silly reader … your choice and wants never even mattered in the first place! bcs if you showed resistance they’d just drug u and put u to sleep w epel’s unique magic and get u pregnant anyways </3)

truullyyy terrifying! beware of dear grandma’s sad puppy dog eyes knowing u refuse to give her great-grandkids! (lies … she knows what she’d doing </3)

also! can I be epel felmier anon? 🍎��

OMG THE SOMNO POTENTIAL WITH EPEL'S UM........ how could I have missed it,,, it's literally called Sleep Kiss. T_T uuuwaaaa Epel wanting to practice his UM and you agree to let him practice it on you because surely it won't have any negative impacts, right? But he puts you to sleep and somno ensues...... or he puts you to sleep and the other first years are around as well. >_< you're like a practice pussy for them......

If anyone's going to gaslight and manipulate you into having children, it's all of Harveston. ;;;;; and most of them do it unintentionally. They just think it's so darling Epel has a best friend (read: wifey) like you who is the sweetest thing they've ever met. You and Epel make such a cute couple (of hopefully expecting parents). All of Harveston dotes on you, showering you with affection every time you visit. You're practically part of the village by now. Whenever you come to visit, whether for a holiday or a break, Marja always welcomes you with open arms, as does the rest of Epel's family. But it's Marja who is especially pleased to see you. She checks you over, asks if you've been eating well at NRC, asks if Epel's been looking out for and taking care of you, and so on.

I feel like the entire village would throw such a huge celebration when you finally become pregnant. They make such an event out of it; it startles you at first, but Epel explains this is just because there are so few children around and everyone, especially the elders, are so very excited to finally see the village grow and become more lively with young folks! You'll have everyone's full support before, during, and after your pregnancy! They are just so fond of you and are always encouraging you to eat lots (of foods that improve fertility, but you don't need to know that...).

[newoozi]

your new friend vernon is walking you home one night, telling you all about the date his mom is setting him up on in an attempt to “get out there more”. he admits it’s been a while since he’s taken somebody on a date, and he’s sort of nervous and half dreading it. he doesn’t even have any idea what he’s going to wear.

the two of you reach the front of your apartment building, and you face to look at him. placing your hands on his shoulders you teasingly say, “wear that navy blue polo shirt of yours. it almost makes you look nice.”

he huffs out a small laugh in response, but the truth is he’s sort of spiraling. you notice what he’s wearing beyond an aesthetic sense? do you pay attention to how the shirt fits him perfectly, how it hugs at his chest and shows off his arms? of course, vernon knows he’s attractive — people swoon over him on the daily, and many times he can get away with not paying for ramen at the convenience store if the girl at the counter is young. but, it never crossed his mind that you thought about him in that way. it was different with you, wasn’t it?

he thinks about that, and you, on the way back to his dorm.

you text him to ask about his date the next night, the curiosity getting the better of you.

how was ur date? did she appreciate the polo?

he admits he didn’t wear the polo, but doesn’t offer any explanation as to why. he adds that the date was going fine until they were saying goodbye and she went in for a kiss on the cheek and he held out his hand. he probably won’t see her again.

you laugh out loud at his message.

when it’s your birthday a week later, he wears the polo to the casual dinner you host at your place with your closest friends. he notices when your eyes linger on his lean figure, and the way you blush when you know you’ve been caught. you’re almost sure he’s worn it on purpose.

[saiilorstars]

Ch. 4: The Wrong Ending

Pairing: Barry Allen x OFC  // Fandom: The Flash

Story Masterlist ● Previous Stories: Rise Up • It Had To Be You ●Belén’s Masterlist

• Can also be found on Fanfic and Ao3 •

Taglist: @ocappreciationtag​​​ @arrthurpendragon​​​ @anotherunreadblog​​​ @maaaaarveeeeel​​ @stareyedplanet​​ @foxesandmagic​ @frostandflamesfanfic​

"Where the hell are you!?" Belén raged on the phone while Datura mirthlessly laughed. "This isn't funny! If you think for one moment that I'm going to stop looking for you, you're sadly mistaken! I will find you, Datura."

"Oh, you will," Datura said. "I see it. I'm checking in, dear, that's all. I was fair and warned you what Barry would do, didn't I?"

"You knew he was going to change the timelines," Belén shook her head. "How do you even remember it? None of us could."

"I'm guessing the multitude of my psychological powers helped shield me."

"So you knew this was going to happen and you did nothing to stop it?"

"Why would I? It was going to thoroughly screw you over. How could I ever let the chance pass by? Me being able to escape was a pleasurable surprise."

"You are—"

"Enjoying this," laughed Datura. "And before you even get the idea to, I'm on a burner phone. I just wanted to check in on you. He told you, right? He told you in our original timeline you managed to put me away. You won. But he took that away from you."

"It's not his fault," Belén mumbled. "And I did win, by the way. You're cured and you're alone. No way home, no Poison Ivy." She took her confirmation in Datura's pause. "And absolutely no husband." She was ware of the heavy pause that followed after that last mention. In retrospect, maybe it was a remark too fast but after the hell that Datura put her through, she deserved it.

"You don't know to what extent Barry's decision will affect you and your stupid team," Datura came back strong.

"Do you?"

"You've talked to Caity, right?"

Belén froze again. "How do you—"

"I do. I don't get to see everything but I know that you're all upset with each other too. Your team will never be the same."

"I'm not listening to this. The only thing you need to know is that I'm coming for you. This time, I'm hunting you."

Even though they weren't face to face, Belén knew her doppelganger was smirking at the challenge. "Bring it on, Bells." She hung up.

It took everything Belén had not to throw her phone across the room. But she did grab one of the cushions from her couch chairs to scream into. This was beyond frustrating. The other timeline had her imprisoning Datura but now she was free as a bird.

"Belén?" Caitlin's voice startled her. She spun around, her fingers gripping the cushion in her hands. "Are you alright?"

Belén didn't have the words to begin to describe what she was feeling right now but if anyone could feel slightly anything similar to her, it would be Caitlin. "She knows, Caitlin." Caitlin turned her head slowly. "Datura called. She...she knows."

"A-about..." Caitlin began to gesture to herself.

"She wasn't explicit about everything but I know she knows. She's just that cynical!" Belén smashed the cushion to her face and screamed again. Caitlin made a face as the scream went on. "I hate her so much, Caitlin!" she exclaimed into the cushion.

"I know," Caitlin whispered. "But we can stop her, we can bring her in."

"Can we, though?" Belén lowered the cushion from her face. "Cos I'm not exactly at my best and you know that. Shivhan is gone too."

"But we're still a team, I'm sure the others will help us—"

"No," Belén said quickly. "I...I can't risk Datura telling them what's happened. It'll have to be you and I."

"Me?" Caitlin's eyes went wide at idea. "But...Belén, you know that I can't go out there."

"I don't mean that, just...I just need someone to help me. You and I...we make a good team. In the last timeline, Barry said we imprisoned Datura. We can do it again." She had to believe that they could.

~ 0 ~

Barry's sneakers squeaked as he cautiously made his way into his lab — their lab. Julian worked at his desk on something Barry would deem as...dolls? Who knew.

"Hey, um, I need your help…"

Julian barely regarded him. "It's the four words I seem to hear you most often say, Barry. That and, 'I hate that guy.'" This time he met Barry's look. "Which, the feeling's mutual, so…"

Barry rubbed his hands together and kept himself on business. "Mm-hmm. Okay, um, this is gonna be hard for you, but I just, for a second, need you to imagine that we're actually friends—"

"Can't do it," Julian shot him down.

"Friendly—"

"Equally as challenging, Barry."

"Okay fine then do it for our mutual - and possibly only - person we care about?" Barry knew he'd gotten Julian with Belén.

The blonde stopped his work and leaned back on his chair. "You can't keep using her. It's fairly offensive, actually."

"Spare me that, please," Barry barely held the urge to snap. "I would have believed you if you hadn't said, just this morning, how fun it was to see our argument unfold."

Julian made a gesture that Barry had a point. "Alright, what are you after?"

"I need to read your report on one of the husks."

"Which one?"

"The one from this morning. Edward Clariss."

Julian raised an eyebrow. "Edward Clariss?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"May help me figure out a case I'm working on…"

"Well," Julian tended to the case beside him, "The nutshell is, uh, the hyaluronic acids were found to be above normal. Uh, androgen degradation atypically low. Cellular regeneration seemed to occur at a staggering rate. It's quite a bit different from the previous husks that we found. That's about it."

Barry tentatively reached for the file on the desk but drew his hand back when Julian gave him a hard look. "Could I... could I maybe just take a peek at it? I'm sorry, it's just something I need to see to know what I'm looking for."

Julian scoffed and handed him the report. "Sure."

Barry eagerly took the report and started skimming through it. "Wait, why does this say the body's place of discovery was Williamson when it was found on the waterfront in Leawood?"

"The body ended up in Leawood. There was a strong current this morning, so chances are that it originated from Williamson. Somewhere near the old Prescott sawmill." Julian watched Barry apparently think like he'd been wrong. His impatience got to him and so he held his hand out for the report. "You done?"

"Yeah, uh, yes. Thank you," Barry quickly gave him the report back and started out, missing Julian's highly suspicious eyes follow him.

~ 0 ~

"Eugh, it is getting way too hard to walk around like this," Nina said as she entered the cortex. She battled a brown coat around her that no longer wanted to close over her stomach. "Elliot's going to pick me up in an hour so why am I here?"

Everyone had regathered in the cortex but there wasn't much discussion going on. Iris spoke up since no one else seemed to want to. "We have something to tell you." Nina nodded and waited for this 'news'. "Barry, uh...changed the timelines and...we don't know how that changed us completely—"

"Oh yeah, I knew that," Nina said and subjected herself to various degrees of stares. "What? I'm the only one he didn't screw up. Well, me and Shivhan. Actually, if we're being technical, Shivhan is the only one whose life didn't change because mine—" she waved a hand over her stomach, "—certainly did."

"He told you first?" Belén asked, unable to not feel offended by that.

"Oh please, don't put so much thought into it," Nina motioned Cisco to get out of his chair so she could take it. "He was scared, and rightly so - he royally screwed up. He wanted to tell you but you weren't speaking to him and...he was afraid cos he changed lives..."

"Except for you," Joe pointed, "Because…?"

"Because I wasn't married nor about to pop," Nina shrugged. "I asked him what the differences were about me and he told me."

"Well, we don't know what to do," Iris gestured to their side of the group.

"Nothing," Nina said like it should have been obvious. "That's the thing that's driving Barry crazy. He can't actually do anything about it anymore except apologize and tell us what our lives were like before he changed the timelines."

"He changed our lives," Cisco snapped. "And he kept it a secret. Kind of a hypocrite too…"

"I am not saying you should all be up and ready to forget but we have to be realistic," Nina shrugged.

"She's right," Belén leaned on the desk and massaged her temples. There was an aching on both sides that just wouldn't go away. "I let my brother go when he was a clear menace to the city - and twice. Cisco, you told Captain Cold that Barry was the Flash and you gave him my name all to protect your brother."

"Okay, not my finest moments…" Cisco admitted in a low mutter.

"We've all been rather...wrong with our decisions…" Belén admitted herself.

"You know, I was always hesitant to join this team for real," Nina leaned her head back in thought. "I didn't see it until I finally committed. You guys are like a family. And like a family, you screw up. I just think that as a family we should also...forgive."

"Nina is right," Caitlin nodded. "We all have secrets. We've all screwed up, but this is Barry we're talking about." At the same time, the computer in front of her came to light with an alarm. "Who...apparently is in trouble."

The others quickly gathered behind to see what she meant.

~ 0 ~

Barry was having a hard time getting up from the ground after being blasted by God knew what that hooded-cloak man had used on him. "And who are you?" Barry languidly gestured to the cloaked man behind the golden metal mask. He could hear Clariss' laughter from the rail above him.

"I am Alchemy," the cloaked man responded with a slow, raspy voice.

"Okay, well, what do you want?" Barry pushed himself up despite his balance being off.

"To help people achieve their true potential... such as he has," Alchemy gestured up to Clariss who gave a little smug wave at Barry.

"And why are you doing this?"

"Because I'm preparing this world," Alchemy was left behind as Clariss sped down and pinned Barry against a wal..

"Remember what happened here last time, Flash? It's where I died," Clariss yanked off the comms right from Barry's ear and punctured them - rather strongly - against Barry. "And I'm not gonna waste this second chance I've been given. This time, I'm gonna show you who's the fastest man alive!" He took off with Barry to fulfill his promise.

~ 0 ~

"Where is he, Caitlin?" Belén was already in her suit and was just waiting for Caitlin to give them the location.

"His comms aren't working," Caitlin murmured with knitted eyebrows after trying to get in contact with Barry. "He's at the Prescott Mill, though."

"Great, that's right around the corner," Belén took in a deep breath and let her Azaleas and vines form her usual mask over her eyes.

"Wait…" Cisco stopped her though still seemed unsure as he spoke next.

~ 0 ~

Both Belén and Cisco arrived at the prescott mill with Cisco's help. It was rather quiet, eerily quiet.

"We need to split up," Belén indicated Cisco to the building just up ahead.

"Careful, okay?" Cisco asked, making Belén smile.

"Of course. But you, you're the rookie here, so be careful," she pointed and chuckled when Cisco pretended to fix his goggles for the show. It did feel good to get somewhat back to normal.

Cisco went after the building while Belén went around the mill searching for any lurking speedsters with a trick up his sleeve. "Caitlin—" she tapped her comm. "—can you get in touch with Barry yet?"

"No, I'm trying, but it's not working," Caitlin did sound frustrated she was unable to help. "But you be careful…"

"Mhm," Belén continued walking but stopped when she heard metal clanging behind her. She whipped her head back and scanned the area. Since it was dark all she saw a wavy cape through barrels and structure. "Come out," she ordered and prepared herself for a fight if need be. Vines entangled her fists and continued to swirl as a figure in a hood and golden metal mask emerged from the darkness. "You're not Clariss."

"I am Alchemy," he re-introduced himself. "I am preparing this world…"

"Oh great, a whackadoo," Belén mumbled and pulled her arms back to attack.

"The Azalea will fall so that Amalgam can rise."

Belén involuntarily dropped her arms to regard his words. "What—?"

Alchemy raised his weapon which turned out to be a stone of some sort and emitted the same blast of energy he'd used on Barry. However, it turned out to go directly beside Belén who only had time to shield herself from the blinding light.

"Belén?" Caitlin's voice rang in Belén's ears afterwards. "What happened!?"

Belén lowered her arms from her face and saw that she was completely alone again. "I have...no idea."

~ 0 ~

Cisco had found Barry and Clariss inside the building and did what he could to help bring Clariss down. With his gauntlets he emitted his vortex energy that threw Clariss away. Barry took the opportunity to speed around Clariss who was on his way of getting back on his feet. Punches were delivered from every possible angle to keep Clariss down. The force of his speed chucked Clariss back towards Cisco but Cisco himself was prepared and gave the final blow of a smack.

"Thank you," Barry released a breath and leaned back on a crate. His body was aching but at least their battle was over.

"Sorry it took so long," Cisco gave a weak smile.

"You were just in time," Barry returned the smile.

"Guys?" they heard Belén coming in to look for them. She rushed in and saw Clariss on the ground, out cold, and smiled at the two. She gave Cisco a quick high-five then rushed to hug Barry.

"Ow…" the speedster groaned as she squished his injured body with her force. "Maybe...no hugs…"

"You change the time line, you get a bone crushing hug," she refused to let go of him.

~ 0 ~

"There is no mention of Alchemy anywhere," Caitlin pushed herself away from her computer after a long, exhaustive search for the mysterious man.

"Definitely no mask-wearing monk metas," Cisco agreed beside her. He got up from his chair and walked around to stretch his legs. Belén dropped into the seat instead.

"We didn't find any known aliases in any of the records at CCPD," Joe also said.

"And Clariss is suddenly Mr. Silence," Veronica crossed her arms, rather upset their interrogations weren't working.

"All right, well, keep at him. Alchemy is the one that gave Clariss back his speed," Barry said, still misunderstanding how that was even possible.

"He's kinda like a doctor, that way, don't you think?" Cisco suddenly asked. "Come on, don't pretend like 'Doctor Alchemy' doesn't have a nice ring to it," he gave a warm smile that hadn't made an appearance in months.

"Okay, well, that explains why he didn't have any traces of dark matter in his cells. He didn't get his powers from the particle accelerator, he got them from Alchemy," Caitlin leaned back on her chair.

"What was that?" Cisco gave her a look until she revised her sentence.

"Doctor Alchemy," Caitlin playfully rolled her eyes.

"But how could he do that?" Belén asked, still thinking about the man behind the mask. "Is he a meta that can restore powers or...just plain give powers to people?"

"I don't know, but we need to figure it out. There's gonna be more," Barry sighed. "Alchemy...Doctor Alchemy said that he is preparing this world."

"Preparing the world?" Belén immediately remembered Alchemy's words.

"I am preparing this world…"

"The Azalea will fall so that Amalgam can rise."

"Is that supposed to be like some rapture or something?" Nina made a face from her chair.

"He's just...crazy, that's all," Belén gave a wave of her hand at the group. "Every bad meta we meet has some crazy agenda. We can't expect his words to make any sense nor for them to have any truth in them."

"It's still an agenda we need to keep a look out for," Veronica pointed at her daughter. SHe was not going to take any chances dismissing even the smallest of details a crazy meta threw at them. She didn't want a repeat of Datura.

"An agenda we'll be happy to report on," Iris gave a smile to Belén. They were sure to get some deets about those husks now.

"I think that everyone that had powers in Flashpoint is gonna get them back," Barry meant that as a preparation for what they were about to face.

"Well, we already found four other husks, which means there's at least that many running around Central City right now," Joe reminded.

"We need to find him before he changes more people's lives."

"Speaking of changing lives, we all talked about it, Barry, and most of us decided we don't want to know what our lives were like in Flashpoint," Belén spoke up about that delicate matter.

"Most?" Barry began looking at one person to the next trying to see which one had chosen the opposite.

"I want to know," Belén's voice went soft, but it still caused Barry to freeze with fear.

"Um...Dad, you want to stop by Jitters?" Iris asked her father in an attempt to get people out of there for privacy.

"Yeah, it's on me," Joe smiled, more than happy about it.

"Oh good, then I'm coming too," Wally was all for it and trailed after his family.

"Cisco…" Nina grunted in her chair. She couldn't get up and so she held her hands out.

"When is that kid going to pop?" Cisco mumbled as he went over to help her. He'd been on chair duty ever since she stopped being able to get up on her own.

"I'll let you know," Nina rolled her eyes.

"Men are so inconsiderate," Veronica waved goodbye at her daughter and helped Nina walk out.

"For real?" Cisco called after them and marched after them intending on explaining why he was most certainly not inconsiderate.

Caitlin chuckled. "Glad to see everything's starting to get back to the way it was."

"Almost," Belén was the one to mumble, reminding Barry of their pending conversation.

"Bells, whatever you want to know, I will say it," Barry promised her and briefly glanced at Caitlin.

"We made the decision Barry," Caitlin revealed with an apologetic smile. "Belén was just brave enough to say it for the both of us."

"Oh…" Barry blinked, taken aback of course but got himself prepared for any questions thrown at him. "Okay, well...what do you want to know?"

The two women shared glances before Belén spoke up. "My fight...with Datura? Do you know...how that ended? In the other world? Like, I know we imprisoned her but do you know how I took her down."

"Uh...well I wasn't there - was I there in this time line?"

"No," Caitlin shook her head. "I went with Belén with a meta-dampener and the siphoning device."

"Yeah, that's what happened in the other timeline. You, Caitlin and Shivhan went to the community theater to bring Datura in."

"How did the fight end?" Belén asked.

"Oh, um, well you were the one who told me the story," Barry reminded only to realize that it was the other version of herself who told him the story. "It went like this..."

"There we go," Datura bent down in front of Belén. "The start of the end."

Belén stopped struggling with the embedded piece and focused on ending that smug face once and for all. "You're...actually right." Belén revealed Caitlin's device and stabbed one end on her palm then smacked it over Datura's shoulder to embed the other end.

The device whirred to life instantaneously. A golden stream of colors was extracted from Datura while a green glow came from Belén. The two doppelgangers felt the immediate pain followed through. Datura, however, seemed to be taken a worse hit. Her eyes began to flash from gold to scarlet red to frosty blue and so on. Electricity began to spark from her body and into the device. Belén felt the wasps of electricity and hissed louder and louder until it became a true scream, coupled with the pain she already had from her wound.

Caitlin rushed towards them but there was an explosion that made her fall back. A bit of smoke emerged from the doppelgangers as far as Caitlin could see. She waved her hand in the air and coughed as the smoke drifted towards her.

"Belén? Belén! Are you okay?" she called out and used the chairs beside her to get up. Without thinking, she shot the meta dampener neckbrace at Datura who was out cold.

Datura was outcold but Belén was coughing from her spot. "Someone...get this off me." She waved her burned palm over the wooden piece in her chest.

"Oh, oh, right," Belén smiled awkwardly. Caitlin flipped her head in Belén's direction, her eyes asking the ombre-blonde what she was doing. "Yeah, okay. Same thing happened then. The flow of my DNA fused with hers and stabilized her. We were just curious if anything about us really changed."

"Did it?" Barry nervously asked. "Besides the obvious of course."

Belén shook her head. "Nope." She saw the relief flood his face and couldn't help herself but to bring him in for a tight hug. "You're good, Barry." Caitlin, however, stepped away from them. She couldn't be sure her face wasn't outing them both.

Barry nuzzled his head in Belén's neck. He missed her so much. "I'm sorry," he murmured. "I'm so sorry."

"I know," she patted his back. "I know you are. You always have the best intentions."

"I have to get back to the precinct...I can still come home, right?"

Belén chuckled. "Yes you idiot. And who knows, maybe when you come back you'll find some nice chocolate amaretti cookies you like so much."

Barry couldn't believe the rush of relief he felt upon hearing those words. Something as minuscule as cookies staying the same helped so much. Even though Belén thought she wasn't baking them right, he thought they were delicious. They were hers. "I would want nothing more than that," he pulled away from her to meet her happy gaze. He cupped the side of her face and gave her a short kiss. "I'll see you then, okay?"

"Mhm," Belén nodded, still wearing her smile.

"I'll see you then. Bye Cait," he waved at the brunette and left them on their own.

Belén's smile fell from her face once he was gone.

Caitlin bit on her lower lip. "You didn't say anything..."

"Yeah," Belén whispered. "I couldn't do that to him. He already feels so terrible. Imagine what would happen if he found out that he drastically changed the ending of that fight."

Caitlin lowered her gaze. She knew Barry enough to know the answer. She raised her hands and watched as icy smoke billowed from them both. Belén was already used to that. Her mind had wandered back to her fight with Datura. The way Barry had explained it, described it...it wasn't the real ending, at least not in this timeline.

"Belén? Belén! Are you okay?" Caitlin called out after both Belén and her Datura were thrown in opposite directions by the siphoning device. Caitlin rushed down the aisle of theater chairs and looked at the two women. Her siphoning device was still whirring and, concerned for the effectiveness of it, she dashed for it first. She grabbed it, but the moment she did she felt an icy current prick her fingers. She whirled around in Belén's direction, the ombre-blonde still unconscious, and though Caitlin was still under pain, she saw an colorful hue around Belén's hands.

Had the siphoning device transferred more than just from Belén to Datura?

~ 0 ~

Julian purposely dropped his finished report right on top of Barry's current work. Barry, startled, closed the lid of his pen and looked up at the blonde. "What's that?"

"That's the finished Edward Clariss report. Or should I say The Rival?" Julian rolled his eyes at the ridiculous name. "At least, that's what the Flash called him last night when he took him into Iron Heights. I thought you might want to see it," he tapped a finger on the file. "You know, to do with your other case."

"Actually…" Barry leaned back on his chair, "...it turns out there was no connection."

"Hm," Julian gave a small nod. "You know, I have to ask you how did you know his name?"

"What?"

"Yesterday, you came in and you asked for Edward Clariss' report, but I didn't tell you who that husk belonged to, so that means you stole a sample when you showed up to my crime scene. How did you do that?"

Oh my God he was stupid, yes he was. Barry mentally smacked himself for being so...stupid. "I…" It was even worse when he realized he had no excuse to give out.

"Oh, wow. You've really got this good guy routine thing down, haven't you? And everyone just buys it," Julian spat, and Barry was sure there was a little name - a mutual person - Julian was just on the verge of saying. "There is something not right about you, Allen. They don't see it...but I do."

"Is that right?" Barry calmly put down his pen on the desk and leaned forwards, feigning interest in the conversation.

"You know, I learned from Detective Green that she didn't trust you either in the beginning—"

"But now she does," Barry reminded, and maybe that smirk just came out on its own…

"Yes, well, unlike her I am not going down that road. You know why I don't actually like you, don't you?"

"Hm, I've got some ideas…" Barry frowned, "Want to see if they corroborate?"

"I don't trust you," Julian enunciated slowly for Barry to understand. "Ever since I got here there are things about you that do not add up."

"Look Julian, why not, for Belén's sake, we just keep it civilized? You don't like me, that's fine—"

"Whatever you propose, it's not happening," Julian took his leave. "I can't ever like things I don't trust!" He called on his way out.

Barry scowled and found it incredibly difficult to get back to work when all he could think of was…

~ 0 ~

"I hate that guy," Barry plopped down on the couch next to Iris.

Iris snorted and popped in a piece of popcorn. "Yeah, you say that a lot."

"I now know why," he muttered and crossed his arms. "You know, I'm sure he's just looking for some excuse to badmouth me to Belén. I can almost swear it."

"Yeah, you say that too," Iris gave him a brief look which resulted in a small laughter.

"I'm being serious!"

"You're both ridiculous," Iris rolled her eyes and got more comfortable on the couch. "Take your win for today - which is being back in your girlfriend's place and, oh yeah, getting your friends back," she nudged him on the side.

Barry playfully rolled his eyes. "What are you still doing here anyways?"

"Belén said I could stay until I'm ready to go back to my Dad's," Iris smirked at him. "Did I put a damper on your romantic attempts?"

"Shut up," Barry reached for her bowl of popcorn but Iris smacked his hand away. He did wonder where Belén was. She was supposed to be baking cookies.

"Don't worry, I'm leaving tomorrow morning. I just got lazy," Iris admitted and picked up the television control to turn the volume up.

At the same time, the apartment door unlocked and in came Belén with a rather hasty movement.

"Bells?" Barry sat up straight on the couch. "Hey, what happened to the cookies—"

"Gotta shower, be back in a couple minutes," Belén gripped her purse's strap and made a beeline for the hallway.

"What just happened?" Barry got up from the couch and peered into the hallway in time to see Belén practically slam the door to their bedroom.

"She went to meet up with Caitlin," Iris said. Her sour tone did not go unmissed by Barry. "They're up to something," she elaborated.

"Like what?" Barry slowly sat back down and waited for Iris to swallow her popcorn to explain.

"I have no idea, but I'm a reporter...so I'll find out," Iris pointed at him.

"She's a reporter too, Iris."

"You know what I meant," Iris playfully hit him on the arm. While she managed to smile it off, Barry did not.

He wondered if there were, perhaps, things about the timeline he still had yet to know about.

[muffinlance]

Next Dark Night in Ba Sing Se part! Is! Fully outlined!

...And so is the majority of series in lesser detail because oops my hand slipped.

[aroaceleovaldez]

im really not a fan of Rick's recent trend of recycling bits of his writing that got a good reaction the first time and acting as if that's a valid substitute for. actually bothering to write something original a second time around. It's clearly just there as a callback and nothing more.

It's "Nico's rage exploded" and "Percy's rage exploded" with the exact same paragraph formatting. It's CoTG having titles like "My Singing Makes Things Worse, and Everyone Is Totally Shocked" (reference to TLO, when Percy says he thinks his singing would cause an avalanche) or "Pretty Much the Best Good-Night Kiss Ever" (reference to TLO "Pretty much the best underwater kiss of all time") or any other number of near word-for-word references to the first series. It's Nico calling Percy "seaweed brain" in Un Natale Mezzosangue (when Percy says in TTC that anybody but Annabeth calling him that is a major offense). It's Nico and Will falling into Tartarus in TSATS word-for-word referencing Percy and Annabeth in House of Hades, despite it not making any sense for their characters (and otherwise being written as Percabeth 2™). It's the show making huge changes but keeping random "fan-favorite references" (mostly overusing "seaweed brain" and "wise girl" and emphasizing percabeth) only because they're popular in-jokes and considering that a faithful enough adaptation to market it heavily as such. It's lazy writing.

And it's a disservice to the series and to the audience, because it clearly shows Rick doesn't have original ideas anymore (though given all his writing is heavily derivative to begin with, it begs the question how much was original in the first place and how much he has difficulty when he doesn't have a structured mythological plot to work from) and that there is an expectation that the audience will just sit down and accept that behavior hook-line-and-sinker. Everything recently is clearly such lip-service to the audience, either in retcons that are overt speaking-to-camera acknowledgements of things he's been criticized on or wink-wink-nudge-nudges of community in-jokes that have no business in the actual text (see: over-use of ship names in canon). Especially since Rick tends to be about 5 years behind on the fandom uptake. It's just so disappointing to see.

[summercourtship]

stay to burn (only to drown instead) moodboard no. 2: Edward + Reader (I tend to picture ed looking a bit younger than he does in the batman just because i.... want to idk. also I know that he gives her a flip phone but it was surprsingly hard to find a picture of one that fit the aesthetic i was going for. perhaps we can consider this a clue for the sequel.) other moodboards: jonathan | bruce

[extravagav]

Yk I never did truly recover from the sick fic chapter

[voidcat]

characters: you/imaushi wakasa, sano shinichiro...

a/n: angst lol. strangers to friends. themes of fwb but nothing explicit. switch of perspective. mcd obviously,,

as i said in this post the loose explanatio/beginning of an idea i had that i liked ALOT but couldnt write due to various reasons (esp lck of time) (open post for a lil further stuff for reader x wakasa ig,,,)

attending the same classes as shinichiro sano... you've heard of him alright but that's about it. a nice face to look at perhaps but a little odd. not someone you'd interact with occasionally, nor someone you'd remember in particular-

until you're paired with him for an assignment. it'll help build bonds between the lot of you! the teacher announces and everyone groans in unision

you shoot your new partner to be a look from where you stand and turn back to your notebook. the ring bells but by the time you can get up adn gather your stuff, sano is nowhere to be seen

it takes you hours to find him. and at possibily one of the worst times too.

you heard of the rumors about fights and deliquents but you didn't expect yourself to run into one. youre careful, you live a peaceful life, you avoid trouble, always keep a clean name and all-

the people around all battered and beaten up, covered in bruises, cuts and maybe blood, looking hungry, unsatisfied, maddened– and you're in the center of it all.

footsteps approach you, strong, stern, taking their time and all- you hold it in you to not turn for a look. wait for them to show their face at your feet, dont give them the satisfaction nor even the slightest sign of weakness.

a man with blond hair and a pretty face, long lashes and all, stands before you, looking almost a little amused. "what's a pretty little thing doin' here all by themselv-" "where's sano" you cut him midsentence.

the man looks baffled, a little offensed even. soon joined by a second figure a lot taller than him, they both look at you with hostility and a hint of curiosity.

who cares, you scoff internally, whatever intimidation they're going for, you won't fall for it.

the other man raises a brow at the way you've mentioned sano. shit, you do hope this was not the wrong place, or whatever fight went down there, they must've won... right?

"and who is asking?" the blond speaks up again, sounding a little annoyed now. "you know, we don't allow passes to every pretty thi-" "eeeew" you drag the word and scretch like a gum, making sure to put on a face. "none of your business actually." you add on, placing your hand against a hip.

"why, you-" before he can follow up with whatever's on his tongue, a jolly greeting from behind interrupts him, cutting through the air. you can notice how the idle folks around suddenly tense up, and for the two man before you, shoulders dropped, bodies relaxing...

soon sano emerges, with his hair put up and stylized, nothing like the man in your class, a deliquent out of a shitty teen's magazine you'd say so.

exhanging greets with the two men and doing a special handshake for only them to know, he looks in the mood, just his face a little bruised up and some blood on his clothes.

so that's probably why he skips school some days, you muse.

he notices you a little later.

"oh!" mouth formed into an 'o' shape, you can see his surprise written all over but he is quick to disperse all that." greeting you with your surname formally, he reaches out a hand, then brings it up upon noticing the splatters of blood and takes it back with a sheepish smile.

"what brings you there?" he asks, never losing a bit of his joy that contradicts the entire atmosphere.

"our assignment." you say curtly and receive another sound of surprise from him. he looks apolegitic at the very least, you think.

"well.. uh-" he scratches the back of his head, casting a glance around, you wait to see where the stammering will go.

"how would you wanna do it then?" he asks more for you than himself, to ease you probably, you can only assume.

another joins their little group, keeping silent and watching what's going on. you relly, really should get going, you decide after giving a quick look around. "we can go over the details at an appropirate time later."

"alright then!" he says, never missing a beat from his energy. it's unbelievable, you think. "should we... ah-" he pauses, "exchange numbers to keep in touch then?" he asks, and he means well, you can tell just from the way he looks and talks, but the rest? you're not exactly dying to say out loud your contact information. especially not with that blond anywhere within a 20 meter radius.

"here." you say, reaching out your hand to reveal your phone. "i'm not announcing my number for a bunch of weirdo, self proclaimed deliquents to hear."

your words take him by shock but he breaks into a snort right after. the two men exchange a glance and a thug at their lips as well. the blond however does not look once pleased with your words.

or you at all.

you begin to come and go to their place often, the assignment builds up slow but steady and the guys seem reasonable enough after actually sitting down and hearing each other out. shin looks happy with the development too, says you have brought a change but you'd disagree. he is the light and sun and the beating heart of this place and wherever he goes, they follow, absolute devotion and belief in him, as a person, for his mind and for his heart.

you can see why, you can feel it too. once you begin to spend your time with shinichiro sano, all the rumors and speculations you've heard up until then are gone. assignment be damned, you can tell when a friendship begins to bloom and with shin- it happens at such a pace, you find yourself a little afraid.

the assignment ends, presentation and all, with flying colors you pass and decide to celebrate it out, with the rest joining as well.

a karaoke bar is all fun and games until night rolls out. it has gotten late but shin offers to walk you home; keizo and takeumi dragging a very drunk and messed up wakasa. everyone bids one another goodbye- save for wakasa... and you almost believe youhave seen a hint of sadness in their eyes as they bump their fists against yours. if you didn't know any better, you'd ever go as far as to say they'll miss you around.

a day passes, another and another... much to their relief and encouragement, you stick around.

not within the vicinity on the days big fights go around but definitely dropping by to hang out, fool around and whatnot. it's now your laughter mixed with shin's that fills the air, and everyone seems joyful and happy most of the time- save for imaushi wakasa.

for reasons unbeknowst to you, he remains hostile, rude, and on and up about sending your way stupid lines like he did the first time. most of the time you ignore him, which annoys him further– the scene alone brings a smile to your lips, the smirk of a vixen, you even overhear him once, yelling to keizo about you are, sounding very much frustrated.

despite this is how the things begin and roll out, neither of you expect to grow close- closer than you'd have imagined.

yes, you and shin might be the sunshines, but you and wakasa? the two of you become inseperable. you even hear some people mumble how they fear the two of you looking down at them, gazes that burn holes through their skulls, see into their souls... the two of you could make a power couple- if you were one at all.

there is the heat, there is the tension. you comb through his hair with a gentle touch that has wakasa melting in your hold, yet the second someone dares to imply anything more, you shoot them a glance so heavy, it'd crash their lungs.

wakasa hopes, in the end, that perhaps there is an end to it that is happy, that is hopeful. he knows there is no making up for the way he treated you but you were not the kindest toward him either, so it makes you equals, no?

so he sings sappy songs at karaoke whilst tipsy, so any accusation he can brush off as the effect of the booze, but hopes you caught how he looked at you. so he touches you as soft as you do him, trying to mimic your kindness, an attempt at how love, in the physical, in action should be.

he doesn't know any better, why should he? why should anyone to begin with?

it scares him how natural it is for shin and you. some days he finds himself envying the two of you even, would things be any different were you to attend the same school as the two of you? oh what wouldn't he do to be graced with your smiles and giggles all day every day, having you look at him as you rest your cheek against your palm–

he aches for something a tad normal sometimes, at the very least with you. would the two of you ever cross paths were it not for shin? the thought scares him and he feels like an asshole for envying his friend like this, desperate for anything that would come from your hands.

but at the end of the day, it is himself you seek out. his arms that you allow around your person, his lips on you, devoring you, it's wakasa that consumes you wholly and the thought brings a wave of comfort at the very least.

then the entire world collapses down in the span of 24 hours.

shinichiro dies.

almost 24 hours have passed since his death and wakasa still cannot find it in him to return to reality yet.

then like an angel amidst the chaos, you reemerge from the fog, from smoke. it doesn't take a genius to figure out something is wrong.

"waka," you call out to him, sound laced with something he cannot quite pinpoint. shutting his eyes completely, he sits in the same spot for a moment, all the doubts, every single negative, twisted and fucked up thng he has been holding at bay til now so close to breaking out.

you speak, but he does not hear the words.

not pass the 'i am leaving'