#hmmm a man who seeks to control every aspect of your life and is obsessed with training you....

[magnaflourious-nerdity]

Eobarry Buffy AU

"This is exactly why, Barry, as your Watcher you need to trust me. Come to me for help. Just because you think you know the ins-and-outs of a situation already, doesn’t mean you do. And now look at you. Look at the mess you've made of tonight. Look at what happened to them, Barry. You know they were never supposed to be involved in something like this."

Barry doesn't speak. He is looking at his hands. they have blood on them, sticky and vivid against his increasingly pale skin. He had thought- He had been sure that it would be an easy take down. A few vamps haunting the sewer and grabbing people. He didn't need Eobard's help- didnt want it. Still hadn't been able to bring himself to trust him when Barry knows why Eobard was sent here for him. Who sent him. What this relationship is supposed to be.

He is a weapon, and Eobard's is the hunter, despite what either of their titles may have indicated. And tonight... tonight the weapon malfunctioned.

Just a few vamps. Nothing he and the rest of the scoobies couldn't handle, nothing they didn't handle already on a nightly basis, except... except it hadn't been. It had been so much more. There were demons there, some kind of portal. A nest.

He'd tried so hard. He'd fought SO, so hard, using every ounce of his unnatural skills that he could muster, trusting his friends to run far, far away until they could regroup. but it wasn't enough. He hadn't been enough, just like always. What good was this strength of his, this unnatural savagery inside him, if he had to watch as his friends... had to watch his family be....

It had been a feast. And he had served them right up.

"Oh, Barry." Eobard sighs, placing a gentle, consoling hand on the top of his head. He strokes his hair slightly in a comforting gesture that Barry knows he doesn’t deserve. Not after....

He screws his eyelids tighter against the images he knows he will never unsee. Eddie. Caitlin. Cisco. Joe. Iris.

There's no pretending they will wake up, no fooling himself into believing there's a fix for this when Eddie's wind pipe has been bitten through and he can see the sick glistening of Caitlins's innards through the gashes left on her abdomen. Cisco, head bent at an unnatural angle, lays nearest to Joe. Or the majority of him, and it is impossible to ignore the reality of the death that now hangs all around him like a fog.

He can't remember anything after he had seen Iris fall to them too, The only things he can conjure up are his own screams mingling with scattered images of viscera and the feel of her life draining out of her in his hands. He longs to hug her to him tightly, comfort himself with the proximity of her one last time, but his hands are still covered in blood and he does not deserve the comfort he seeks, so instead he merely cradles her in his lap and stares into the distance.

It had been quick enough after that, he supposed, the slaying. It was surprisingly easy to tear through the flesh of A demon's throat with your bare hands, if you were motivated enough. Apparently before he just hadn't been. Another failure of his own making.

It didn't matter though, any of it. Not any more. After the fight he had simply frozen there, staring at his friends and family, each one torn into and pried open. Gazing at him with empty, accusatory eyes still propped open in death. He had taken Iris back into his arms afterwards. Kneeling there, unsure what to do as it strikes him that he is once again been orphaned. He is alone again.

Alone. Except for his watcher.

Eobard's hand continues to stroke through his hair, murmuring soothing words, that slice Barry open with the truth of them.

"I know you didn't mean to Barry. I know they wanted to help. but this is no place for civilians already, and if you don't consult with me, don't trust me completely...

I knew they weren't vampires, Barry. I cpuld have told you what it was you were walking into."

Barry stiffens under his hand, and Eobard hides his smile under a grimace meant to imply his own feelings of guilt. A clean strike. Just a little more now, he thinks to himself.

"If you had just come to me, talked to me, I could have told you that this was demonic activity. That it was too dangerous for them. I don't know why you feel you can't trust me, but barry you have to. You have to or something even worse might happen next time."

There is nothing worse that could happen to him. No way for any situation to devastate him this deeply ever again.

Eobard comes to stand in front of barry. kneeling down in front of him, he gently removes iris from Barry's arms, and takes barry into his own.

"A slayer's life is a solitary one for a reason, Barry. And I'm so sorry you had to find out that truth this way. But, if you can learn to trust me, then I can be here for you, i can help you save people." he feels barry stiffen at those words and he lowers his voice to a whisper, injecting a tone of remorseful desperation into his next words "Please let me help you Barry, even setting aside that I'm your Watcher... I care too much about you to let you do this alone."

Eobard knows hes hit homw again when he feels Barry raise his hands to grip him back finally, in a hug so tight it might break a rib on a normal person. His fingers tangle into the silky fabric of Eo's shirt as he finally breaks and begins to sob in earnest.

The smile is back on his face, now that Barry can't see, too preoccupied with his grief. He looks around disdainfully at the sight. The demons had been a necessary step in assuring Barry's compliance and the removal of certain negative influences, but that didn't mean he approved of them. Messy, unpredictable things, but A means to an end. One he was an expert at manipulating.

He pats Barry's back in small strokes and tells him that he'll take care of everything. Thats what hes here for after all. To watch over him. To guide him. To make him the strongest version of himself.

It's when he mentions, ever so gently, that they'll need to make funeral arrangements for the others, that Barry finally raises his head again. He looks up at Eobard, eyes shining with so many tears still left unshed, and asks him hesitantly, if he could help him with those too.

"I don't think I can do it by myself, the planning involved- I know that's not part of your job, and it's so much to ask, but I'd have to keep seeing them, talking about it, knowing that I did this, and I can't Eobard I just Can't. Please I-"

Eobard gently shushes him, guiding his head into the crook of his neck as they both still kneel there, clinging together amidst the gore and horror of their surroundings. He did so love it when a plan came together.

"Of course Barry, whatever you need. Were in this together aren't we?" There's is a brief nod against his neck as the Slayer agrees. After all, who else does he have?

"Then I'll take care of everything. All I ask is that you listen to me, respect my abilities, trust me as your partner and Watcher"

Barry nods against his neck again and brings his arm around to hug eobards front, seeking the comfort of his embrace once more.

It feels like victory.