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arianalilyblack · 4 years ago

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Come home to me - Chapter 3

Title: Come home to me

Chapter no: Chapter 3

Author: @arianalilyblack

Pairing: Harry Wells x Reader x Eobard Thawne/Harrison Wells

Word count: 1430

Summary: The wedding of Barry Allen and Iris West is finally here. You and Harry are caught up with the wedding spirit and start to slowly realize that maybe you developed deeper feelings for each other. Everything is perfect until Nazis bust into the church ruining everything. And alongside Earth X villains guess who shows up? Your ex flame, Eobard Thawne aka the Reverse Flash, complicating everything in your lives.

You were left alone in the Time Vault, his words echoing inside your head. You were upset. Different emotions were swirling inside you, emotions that confused you. All the feelings you had bottled up until now started to slowly surface. You thought they were long gone from your system, but it seems that you were just lying to yourself. You had to pull yourself together after he left you, so you locked down the love that you felt for him and moved forward. Now that he was here, it all started to come back, but you knew that you didn’t have that kind of luxury to act on those. That ship had long sailed away.

You turned your head to the screen to see what’s going on. There were Nazi soldiers all over the med bay and Cortex, they were preparing for some surgery of sort. You noticed Kara, and for a moment you hoped that this entire nightmare will end, because Supergirl will save the day. The moment passed quickly, when you saw her wearing a hospital robe. Overgirl was already on a bed ready for the intervention. Eobard was supposed to be the surgeon; you saw that he was holding a scalpel in his hand, ready to cut into Kara at any moment.

You felt sick and tried to turn off the screen, but Eobard did something to the control panel so you couldn’t do anything. The sight of him made your heart ache. It was clear to you that he was the enemy, he will always be the team’s main enemy, but you knew him like no one else. You have seen parts of him, the gentle loving parts of him that were only shown to you. You couldn’t understand then and you sure couldn’t now, how can a man like him love someone that much and be a monster with others at the same time. With every moment passed watching him being Dr. Mengele 2.0 you felt more and more determined to end whatever was between the two of you.

You were just thinking about a strategy to get out of there when the door magically opened in front of you. The sight of Iris and Felicity rushing towards you calmed your racing heart.

„Y/N, are you okay? What happened?” Iris asked concerned when she saw in what shape you were.

„Long story short, Eobard is back to torture my heart yet again” you let out a small chuckle.

„That son of a…” mumbled Felicity, but she didn’t finish the sentence, because she began to hack the Time Vault’s system. „He’s good, but still no match for Felicity Smoak.”

„Where’s Harry? And the others?” you added quickly, not to make it too obvious for who were you worried most of all.

„They are still locked in the Pipeline. We tried to free them, but we couldn’t, so we sent out an S.O.S. message to the legends. We will win this, don’t worry.” Iris gave you a shoulder squeeze and helped you to your feet.

„I feel so useless right now” you shook you head in disappointment. „I’m weak and pathetic.”

„You are a strong woman, Y/N. You know better than to let a man take that from you.” Iris encouraged you. „We will kick some butts and we will save the day. No one is messing with team Flash.”

„Okay, I think I’m done. I encrypted the whole system and caused a power shortage” said Felicity turning around.

„Then we need to get out of here. Eobard can be here in any minute. He was the one who locked me in here” you said, heart aching every time you said his name.

The power went off just when he approached to cut open the girl laying on the bed. It didn’t take long for him to figure out that she had something to do with it. He ignored the Fuhrer’s offensive questions and hurried to the one place where someone could do such damage. The room was empty.

„You little minx…” he mumbled to himself.

By the time he returned to the Cortex all the soldiers were knocked out, Dark Arrow was nowhere to be seen. In the place of Kara now was Y/N sitting on the bed, the General still unconscious. He was pleased to see her there.

„So you changed your mind, sweetheart? Are you finally gonna accept that you belong to me?” he walked closer to her, one hand reaching out for her.

„How could I ever resist you?” she took his hands while standing up from the bed. Her words were like a melody for him.

„Good” he muttered before pulling her in for a kiss, but before their lips could touch, she punched him in the stomach releasing a yellow energy blast from her fist.

„Like my new power, honey? I figured why not try to combust my hydrogen and oxygen with my sparks, and voila. I think it was a brilliant idea.”

„That was quite… impressive” he said with a grin while rubbing his chin. „Shall we dance then?”

„We shall” she smirked back, eyes sparling in excitement.

God, he liked this side of her. The way she looked at him made him want to ravage her in an instant. He didn’t overuse his speed, it wouldn’t be fair, and besides he didn’t want to hurt her. He wanted to take his time, playing a game of cat and mouse. She tried to punch him multiple times, with and without the use of her metapowers. Some punches hit the target, others didn’t. For him this whole situation was very amusing. He could see frustration and anger building up inside her. Her efforts were all in vain, she couldn’t match his speed. Or so Eobard thought.

You were feeling exhausted. You knew that you were minutes, or maybe just seconds away from passing out. You hoped that this little diversion brought enough time for the girls to get out. Kara needed sunlight to regain her strength, something that wouldn’t hurt you either. You knew that the melanin inside your body needed light to recharge, like a battery. But right now you had to buy time; you had to make a sacrifice. You were their best chance by keeping Eobard busy.

You were so focused on the Reverse-Flash that you didn’t notice that the soldiers you and the girls knocked out were starting to wake up. And you sure missed to notice the enemy Oliver nocking an arrow on the bow targeting you. He loose the arrow and right before it could drill into your chest the speedster dragged you away.

„What did I tell you?” Eobard growled at Nazi Arrow. „What did I tell you?” he shouted.

You never saw him this angry before. He dashed and in a second Dark Arrow was pinned to a wall threatened by a vibrating hand. The rage you felt towards him eased a little. You could tell that he still cared about you in his own twisted way. The dispute was interrupted by soldiers who were bringing back Kara, Iris and Felicity. You let out a desperate sigh. You were about to launch your last, desperate attack, despite the fact that you were barely standing on your feet, but before you could do anything Eobard pushed you into a soldier’s firm grip.

„Don’t push yourself over your limits, love” he said and gave you a little kiss on your cheek. „Miss Smoak and Miss West, pleasure to meet you again.”

„Thawne, don’t waste our time” said firmly Dark Oliver. „Fix this!”

„Give us the code, Miss Smoak” said the speedster in a calm manner.

„No” was the short answer. Red lightning filled the room. In the next second Felicity was immobilized by Eobard.

„Turn the power back on.” You could sense the pure wrath in his voice. When he saw that his threatening voice didn’t do the trick, he started vibrating his hand.

„Eobard, please stop” you begged him. His hand stopped for a split second. „You are back home now, with me. You don’t have to help them anymore. Please!”

„Y/N…” he looked at you with hope in his eyes. For an odd minute you thought you had him, but then he turned away. „Don’t distract me.”

His voice was cold as ice and broke your already broken heart. Eventually Felicity gave them the new passcode and the power came back. You were escorted by the soldiers towards the Pipeline. He never even looked at you as you were taken away.

Part 4

#harrison wells #harrison wells x reader #harrison wells fanfiction #harrison wells imagine #harry wells x reader #harry wells x reader x eowells #eowells x reader #eowells #eobard thawne x reader #eobard thawne fanfiction #love triangle #the flash #the flash fanfiction

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raywritesthings · 5 years ago

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Night Tremors

My Writing Fandom: The Flash Characters: Patty Spivot, Barry Allen Pairing: Barry Allen/Patty Spivot Summary: Patty finally gets her answers as to why Barry's been having nightmares. / AU Pre-Episode s2310 “Potential Energy” *Can be read on my AO3 or FFN, links are in bio*

Patty had always been a deep sleeper. Her dad used to say that she was so full of life and energy during the day that she needed the extra deep sleep to recharge those batteries. That wasn’t any different now that she was grown up and he was gone.

So it took a lot to wake her, but one night, she did find herself shaken awake. Though not exactly in the usual sense.

Patty turned her head, frowning as she found her sleep slipping away while her whole body seemed to tremble. Then it occurred to her that was because the mattress was vibrating. Did Barry have some kind of fancy bed…?

But when Patty sat up, adjusted the straps on her tank top and looked over at her boyfriend, she realized he was shaking. And not just because the mattress was. He was the one making it shake.

The edges of him almost seemed to blur as he shook, mumbling something in his sleep. “Not her… please…”

His voice came out of his blurred mouth distorted in a way she had only seen and heard once before: whenever she came across the Flash.

Patty clapped a hand to her mouth to avoid shouting out loud. Barry was the Flash? It made a horrible amount of sense, horrible because the last time she had seen the Flash she had shot him with a B.O.O.T. Even if he’d talked her down from killing Mardon and seemingly forgiven her, she had used a weapon on her boyfriend! How could he even want to be with her?

Though, he was apparently with her even in his dreams. “Patty… please, not Patty!”

Definitely a nightmare. He’d been having those off and on, usually just the regular tossing and turning that sometimes half-woke her in the night. She had tried to ask Iris if there was some way they could help him but nothing much had resulted. Knowing he was a literal superhero was a fairly crucial piece of context she had been missing until now.

Barry was getting louder, and that threatened to wake his family in their own rooms down the hall. Patty couldn’t exactly let that happen. For one thing, assuming they all knew his identity could be dangerous on the slim chance she was wrong. For another, it was awkward enough sleeping with her boyfriend in her partner’s house; she didn’t love the idea of Joe walking in on them in bed together. They were so moving this to her place from now on, Joe and his family closeness be damned.

“Barry?” Patty reached a hand out and touched his shoulder, the vibration running from him to her now making her arm sort of tingle. “Wake up. It’s just a dream.”

Barry’s eyes flew open and locked on her with panic. “Patty?”

In an eyeblink and a whoosh of air, she found herself suddenly cradled in his arms in the far corner of the room. Barry was hunched over them both as if to shield her from an attack.

What had he been put through to produce that strong of a reaction to a nightmare? People always said the Flash was the fun, rescue-your-cat-from-a-tree hero, but this was trauma. She thought about the speedster in navy blue who had dragged the Flash — Barry’s — body through the whole city one night. What had he been suffering through that whole time she’d thought he was lying about being sick?

He wasn’t quite with her yet, even if he was awake. Patty framed his face with her hands and brushed the tears that were falling down his cheeks.

“It’s okay, it’s okay, I’m here. I’ve got you.”

Barry’s breathing calmed, and he blinked when her lips brushed his cheek. She wat he’s him look around the room, his grip slackening.

“What… when did we—?”

“You were having a nightmare and kind of ran us here,” she told him with a significant look.

Barry’s mouth dropped open. “Oh god.”

“Yeah.”

For a single moment, she thought he might just drop her and flee. But he seemed to realize she was still holding him as closely as he was holding her still. “Patty, I- I was thinking about telling you soon. I mean, I wanted to. It felt like we were really, really going somewhere… together.”

“I know why you wouldn’t want to tell me right away, and I’m glad you feel like you can trust me now.” Patty’s hand trailed down to rest on his chest over his heart. It was still beating fast, and faster than his usual rhythm which was already above average. She really should have seen this one, shouldn’t she have? Some detective she was.

Patty refocused as she looked up into his eyes. “But I’m worried about the secrets you’re keeping.”

Barry tried for a smile. “I’m not — I mean there’s stuff about the Flash you might not know yet, but I can tell you that. I’m not gonna keep hiding—”

“I don’t just mean from me. Have you opened up to anyone about your PTSD?”

Barry reeled back, and she really did slip towards the floor a couple inches. “What do you mean?”

It was better they probably have this conversation upright anyway. Patty untangled herself from him and stood, pulling him up with both hands. She got him moving so that they could sit on the side of the bed, and she tucked one leg underneath her to face him fully.

“I mean you’re having awful nightmares, you’re losing sleep, you’re dissociating from the looks of it. Is this because of what happened with that other speedster a couple of months ago?”

Barry’s eyes took on a haunted look when she said it. “Zoom. He’s… I’m handling it.”

“But are you okay after what happened?”

“Yeah, I healed.”

Patty shook her head. “Maybe physically, but we both know that officers don’t jump right back into the thick of things once they get their medical clearance. There’s a process.”

He shifted on the mattress. “I’m not going to another shrink. Even if there was one that knew my identity.”

Patty sat back a little. She hadn’t known Barry had such an aversion to mental health specialists. ��Did something happen?”

He wasn’t looking at her, but he blew out a breath and said, “Joe sent me to one when I was a kid, before anybody realized my dad was innocent.”

“Barry, I’m so sorry.” Patty took his hand. “I would never force you to talk to someone you don’t want to. But I need you to know that I’m here to talk to. Joe’s here, Iris is too. You have friends who care about you and wouldn’t want you to be hurting on your own.”

It was hard to know in the limited, dim light coming through the window, but she thought he was holding back from crying. “I thought I was okay,” he said in a thick voice, confirming her theory. “I have to be okay, otherwise Zoom will get to you, and I can’t—”

“Hey.” Patty squeezed his hand before it could start shaking too badly again. She scooted closer on the bed. “I am safe right now. You don’t have to be okay all the time.”

He buried his head in her shoulder and cried. Patty stroked his hair and rubbed his back, letting him let this out. He sagged against her, the tension that kept him so tightly-wound at times finally finding release.

“I just… I can’t lose you,” he said. “I love you, Patty.”

Patty froze, her hands stopping their soothing motions as his words hit her. “You love me?”

Barry looked up at her and nodded. “Yeah. I really do.”

She had hoped, without wanting to assume. They were intimate, after all, even if the words had not been exchanged. But looking at him now, this man she admired, who had saved her from metas and from her own demons, who she could see now was as vulnerable as he was strong, saddened as he was sweet, Patty knew without doubt that she felt exactly the same.

She couldn’t keep her eyes from tearing up as she whispered back, “I love you, too.”

For the first time tonight, a smile graced her boyfriend’s features. Barry leaned in, one hand cupping the back of her head, and their lips met in a slow, deep kiss. Patty’s eyes slipped shut as she wound her arms around Barry’s shoulders. Her leg hooked around Barry’s waist as she moved closer in, and that tingling feeling was back in her lips, her arms, everywhere. Barry was shaking again.

Patty broke off the kiss, lips parted in a half-formed question, but he shook his head and grinned.

“I’m okay. Just really happy that I don’t have to hide parts of me from you anymore.”

Warmth bloomed in her chest, and Patty played with some of the hairs at the nape of his neck. “Me too.” Then she picked right back up from where they had been, humming in the back of her throat as one of his hands snuck under her top. That slight vibration, now that she knew it meant he was happy, felt kind of good.

She didn’t think Barry’s troubles were over; far from it. But he was being open and honest about them with her, and that was all she’d really hoped for before he’d confessed just how deep his feelings ran for her. There was so much to talk about in the morning now that she knew the truth.

For the moment, though, she would help ease the worry and the pain his nightmares caused. And maybe, once Barry’s peace of mind was achieved even just for one night… they could both get some much needed sleep.

#spallen #patty spivot #barry allen #the flash #my writing

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robininthelabyrinth · 6 years ago

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Fic: An Internal Affair - Chapter 18 (Ao3 link)

Fandom: The Flash Pairing: Leonard Snart/Barry Allen

Summary: Leonard Snart, the CCPD Captain of Internal Affairs, is known as Captain Cold for a very good reason: He hates corrupt cops with a merciless vengeance, and once you’re on his list, you’re in serious trouble.

His next target?

A CCPD lab tech named Barry Allen who’s developed a suspicious habit of disappearing at random intervals.

—————————————————————————————————

Barry is watching TV.

Yes, damnit, his boyfriend who he's in love with just left him (rightfully) over crimes he didn't even realize he was committing, he's having to rethink his entire system of morality because clearly the current version isn't up to the task, his foster-dad just got arrested, his new friends aren't talking to him because they're too busy scrambling as the police raid their apartments, he hasn't heard anything from Iris, the man who killed his mom and is probably a Family hitman is still at large and he's way too depressed to do anything about it -

But at least Mel and Sue sure are enjoying stealing bites from those yummy-looking biscuits that are probably a bit under-proofed.

Barry's life might be falling apart, but The Great British Bake-Off will never hurt him.

...yeah, things are bad.

Barry concedes this, but he also has no idea what he can do about it, so he's just going to sit here and watch television at regular speed like a normal person and, he’s not sure, maybe hold out hope for a sign from above or something.

"Barry!" Iris shouts, bursting in through his apartment door, closely followed by -

"Len?" Barry yelps, sitting straight up and disappearing into his room to put on something slightly sexier than his beloved oversized 'Runaway Dinosaur' shirt and shorts set that Iris got him years ago as a joke.

He reappears a second later in sweatpants and a button-down, which will just have to do because apparently that's all he has that's clean right now.

Len is here.

Len is -

Len is stealing a spoonful of Barry's Phish Food ice cream that he’s been eating instead of lunch.

"Hey!" Barry exclaims.

"Seriously?" Iris says, crossing her arms.

"I need sugar," Len says primly. "Hypoglycemia is a serious issue."

Iris rolls her eyes.

Len's smirk fades. "Barry, we need your help."

"What happened?" Barry asks at once. Len wouldn't be here for anything less than an absolute crisis - that much was painfully clear by the way things were left between them, with Len rushing out of STAR Labs, pale-faced, and the police showing up to talk to everyone the next day.

So whatever happened must have been serious.

"Wells took Eddie," Iris says. "And Mick."

"I - Wells?"

"You remember how Ramon theorized that Wells actually was the Man in Yellow rather than simply employing him?" Len asks, looking grim. "We've just confirmed that."

Crap. It’s not that Barry didn’t trust Cisco – even though it is sort of weird that he remembers the day-lost-to-time-travel when no one else does – but the idea of Wells being the Man in Yellow...

Barry’d always thought of Wells as being incredibly kind. A mentor. A trusted friend.

Turns out that was a lie from the very beginning.

"He was blurring his features at first, so we weren’t sure about it at first," Iris says, preempting the question Barry was about to ask. "But he stopped doing that after Len shot him in the face with the cold gun."

After Len –

What?!

"You shot Wells in the face with the cold gun?! Wells? Professor Harrison Wells?"

"In my defense, he was A, about to kill us all and B, not recognizable as Wells at the time," Len says dryly. "But yeah, I shot him, Iris and Thawne ran, and then he -"

Len's voice cuts off suddenly, and he closes his eyes briefly in undisguised pain.

Barry’s never seen him react to anything like that. Not anything except –

Except Mick.

His best friend. His Iris.

Barry's chest hurts, seeing Len suffer like this. Even after everything Len did, to him and to his friends, even after all the chaos and disaster that's happened...

He's still desperately in love with the man.

"He took Eddie and Mick and disappeared," Iris says, brutal in her practicality. There are tears shining in her eyes, tear-tracks still on her face, but she’s clearly moved beyond the point of crying. She’s on the warpath, and Barry knows exactly how dangerous an enraged Iris West can be. "We still don't know why he only took them -"

"I can only carry two people at top speed," Barry says. "I get stronger when I’m running, I can carry more weight than a normal person, but just as a practical matter I still only have two arms. If he's the same as me -"

"Why not just kill Snart, though?" Iris asks. "He was literally right there."

"Why run up and show me that he's still around, just to rub my face in the fact that he's faster?" Barry asks, feeling bitter. He knows why, now: because he tried to do something, anything, other than running faster and faster. He dared argue back, dared to stand up to Wells over wanting to focus on his work as a CSI, and he’d thought that Wells had accepted it. Sure, maybe not in good grace, but accepted it. Instead, Wells had just decided to dangle the Man in Yellow in front of him like a cat toy – here, have a prize, all you need to do is jump a little bit higher, run a little bit faster and you’ll get it. And it worked, too. "If we know anything about him, it's that he likes to play with people. Ruin their lives. You hurt him; he wants to hurt you. Just killing you wouldn’t be enough – he wants you to suffer."

"That'd explain why he'd take Mick," Len says quietly, his voice heavy. "But - why Thawne? Wouldn't Iris be a better target, if he's ultimately aiming at you?"

"Probably," Barry says, frowning. "I honestly have no clue why he'd take Eddie. Unless -"

"Unless what?" Iris asks.

Barry winces. "Hopefully nothing," he says. "But, it's just - okay, this is kind of weird, but, you see, if anything, trying to get me and Iris together was just about the only thing other than me getting faster that Wells cared about."

“Ugh, seriously?” Iris says. “Sorry, Bar, I love you, you know that, but I am just so sick and tired of people trying to make my romantic decisions for me.”

“No, I know, I got the message,” Barry says, smiling crookedly at her. He’s surprised – it doesn’t hurt as much as it used to, hearing Iris blithely dismiss the possibility of the two of them together.

He’s finally accepted it. He’s finally gotten over Iris.

And all it took to do it was to fall in love with a man who broke his heart, and Barry can't even blame him for it.

"First he targets your mom, then he targets you, and now your love life...sounds like you've got a stalker," Len says. "A creepy, obsessed stalker that moves at super-speed."

"Seems like it," Barry says, making a face.

"You have to help us figure out what happened, Bar," Iris says. "If the three of us work together, we can find Eddie and Mick, stop Wells, and make sure the Families don't get away with - with whatever it is they're up to!"

Barry looks at Len, who isn't looking at him. "I don't mind helping," he says. "If - Len..?"

"We're not okay," Len says abruptly. "We're not. You still...what you did...Listen, I know I might’ve - reacted in a rather extreme way, yes, but -"

"You were right," Barry says, interrupting. "You were totally right. What we were doing was wrong, and the fact that Wells was encouraging all of us not to think about it is no excuse at all. We're all adults. We should accept the consequences of our actions."

Len seems - surprised, almost. Like he thought Barry would try to defend himself, or deflect, or make excuses.

Barry won't.

For once in his life, he won't run.

It's the ethical thing to do. It's the sort of thing that someone - that someone Len could be proud of would do.

The sort of someone Barry wants to be.

Len nods, slowly. "Okay," he says. "Let's work together. Let's figure this out." Then he wrinkles his nose. "Fuck, I hate mysteries."

"You're a detective!" Iris exclaims.

Barry snickers. He can't help it: her face is just so hilariously offended.

"I became a cop because I like justice," Len tells her crossly. "Not because I like mysteries. Mysteries are pests; they get in the way of justice."

God, Len's so damn cute it hurts sometimes.

Mostly because Barry had that, and then lost it.

"Anyway, back to the main issue," Len says. "We don’t have much time –”

“We don’t? Wait, have we figured out what the Families are doing?”

“No, not quite,” Iris says. “But Eddie and I figured out that the Familes' ‘big day’ is going to go down on Election Day.”

“Wait, Election Day? That’s tomorrow!”

“We know,” Len says dryly. “Iris, go to the precinct and find Danvers. Get her up to date and keep going on that Zoom Contracting company, find out where that money is coming from, including whether its income is all Family money, and if so which Family. Check if some of it comes from somewhere else, too – and if it’s paid out any money recently. Bribes, specifically."

"Ask Terri to help you," Barry interjects. "They're a CSI, over at the lab; they're the best forensic accountant in the state."

"Do that," Len agrees. "Danvers also knows my passcode for the cardboard brigade, squeeze 'em for everything you can get. I want to know what’s going on, where, when, how, and right now Wells is our best lead on that. Throw away all discretion; go at it with both barrels. In the meantime, Barry and I'll follow up on the Dibny angle -"

"Wait, Dibny?" Iris asks. "That guy Barry hated so much?"

"Yeah, him," Barry says. "We think he might be acting - or being used, anyway - as a go-between to send messages from Family to corrupt cops. I'm sorry, I don't think I mentioned him to you before – it wasn’t on purpose, I wasn’t hiding it –"

"No, no, it's not that," she says, frowning in thought. "You definitely didn't mention it, but it’s weird. I swear I heard his name recently.”

“You heard his name?” Barry asks, surprised. “Where? Who in the world would be talking about him?”

“They were angry,” Iris says, her nose scrunched up in thought, trying to pull out the memory.

“Not at the CCPD, then,” Len says. “They tend to be angrier at the people doing the prosecuting than the cops doing the cheating. Think about the context of the memory – where have you been in the last few days?”

“God, I don’t know,” she says. “I haven’t been doing anything but police stuff the last few days – I’m staying with Eddie, Wally’s with us, but it wasn’t either of them. And other than the precinct, the only place I’ve been...wait, I know!”

“Well?”

“It was when Eddie and I were doing research in the mayor’s office,” Iris says. “Those dusty old archives – we’d gone to look for more on Zoom Contracting, complaints, records, anything. It was our first stop.”

“The fact that it’s a good place to make out had nothing to do with that being your first stop,” Len says, sounding amused.

“We just got engaged, we’re allowed to prioritize for things like that,” Iris says primly. “But seriously, I remember it now –someone mentioned his name in an angry voice as they walked by the archives room. I remember thinking about how hearing it would’ve made Barry start up his usual rant again if he’d been there.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“The weird thing is, though,” she continues, frowning , “that particular area’s restricted – Eddie only got us in by flashing his badge around. The only people around would’ve been the mayor and his staff. Barry, does this Dibny guy have any connection to the mayor?"

"The mayor? No, I don't -" Barry pauses.

That's not quite right, though, is it? When he'd gone over to see Dibny, asking about corruption cases, Dibny initially thought he was looking for stuff about blackmail, and then he’d hidden a folder -

And he'd asked about the mayor.

It clicks.

"Holy crap, guys," Barry says. "I think Dibny might be blackmailing the mayor."

"...well, then," Len says after a long moment, his expression rather perturbed. "Think we'd better go talk to him, then, don't you think?"

"Have fun with that, boys," Iris says, rolling her eyes and heading out the door.

Leaving them alone. Together.

It's suddenly awkward in a way it's never been for them before, the air in the room suddenly fraught with tension.

God, Len is so beautiful - beautiful and right and not Barry's.

And it’s all Barry’s fault.

"Okay," Barry says, breaking the silence. "Want me to run us to Dibny's office? Will you be okay?"

"Haven't torn anything recently," Len says with a shrug, because he’s an idiot who doesn’t take proper care of himself. Barry wants to chastise him, but he can’t; he knows he can’t. Len’s not his to worry about anymore. "So I'll manage. But –”

“But?”

“Maybe put on something slightly more formal first?"

A few super-speed seconds of digging uncover a better set of pants that are clean enough, and then they're off.

The hallway to Dibny's office is just as grubby as Barry remembers it, though luckily free of Family members.

Len seems unperturbed by their shabby surroundings, but then again his accent makes it clear that he grew up in slums far worse than this neighborhood.

God. Barry wants to ask him about it – about his past, about growing up in the slum, about everything. Was this like what you knew when you were a kid? Better? Worse? How have things changed? Does it hurt you to come here? Or does it feel like climbing back into your worst old rattiest set of pajamas, like coming home even though you know intellectually that it’s awful?

Barry thought he’d have all the time in the world to ask those questions.

Those questions, and more.

He’d dreamed, soft and secret and deep down where he wouldn’t tell anyone about it, that he’d have a whole lifetime to ask those questions.

But no.

Just because Barry’s in love with Len doesn’t mean – doesn’t mean Len feels the same way.

All hope of that’d been extinguished right alongside his trust in Barry.

At least Barry has this much: Len still trusts him enough to work with him. A colleague, an ally, maybe even – one day – a friend again.

It’s not what Barry wants, not at all; he wants so much more than that. But if this is all Barry can get, then he’ll take it and he’ll never let it go.

He’ll be the sort of man that Len deserves to have as a friend.

"Any thoughts before we go in?" Barry asks.

"You know Dibny better than me," Len says. "I don’t think I know him at all – he joined the force well after the point where I was officially not on talking terms with any cops except org crime’s undercover people, and he was gone before I got back. You take the lead to start; I’ll jump in if there’s anything I feel I need to add."

Barry nods.

Dibny doesn't do the pretentious chair-swirl when Barry walks in this time, just startles a bit from where he's standing by the window. He has a view of the street, so he's probably just surprised that he didn't see them coming into the building. That seems like the sort of paranoid thing that Dibny would do, watch the street like a creep for oncoming visitors.

Though in this neighborhood, maybe it’s less paranoia and more of a reasonable precaution…

"Allen," Dibny says blankly.

Then, a second later, his overly-facile face splits into a truly nasty smirk. "Well, well, well, look what the cat dragged in. Heard you got yourself suspended, Allen – suspended pending investigation – possibly going to get fired –"

"That isn't important," Barry says impatiently. Yes, there’s a better-than-decent chance he’ll lose his job, maybe even go to jail – unlikely, but only because the CCPD hates imprisoning its own people, and they definitely don’t want to re-open all the cases Barry’s worked on as a CSI. Yes, he knows that’s extremely unfair, but he also knows that’s probably how it’s going to turn out. Yes, Barry’s extremely upset about it, since being a CSI isn’t just a job he got to pay the bills, it’s a job he got because he loves the work, but it doesn’t matter. They have the Families to deal with – they have Wells to deal with. He doesn't have time for a stupid rivalry-driven ‘I told you so’ from Dibny of all people. "I need you to tell me everything you know about what the Families have planned."

Dibny's eyes flicker and he flinches, just the slightest bit.

He knows something!

"I don't know anything," he says.

Ugh.

Barry hates this guy.

"We know about what you're doing with the mayor, Dibny," Barry says, crossing his arms. "And we know that messages between the Families and the corrupt people on the police force are being passed through here."

"They are not," Dibny says, mirroring Barry. "And even if they were, or even if you did know anything about the mayor that might interest me, what's it to you? I don't have to tell you anything. You're not even a real cop – and anyway you're suspended!"

"Oddly enough," Len drawls from where he's hanging back by the door, "that's why I came along."

Dibny twists to look at Len for the first time, scowling. "Who the hell are you?"

"A cop," Len says dryly. "Who's not suspended."

"Yeah, right," Dibny says dismissively. "I know all the cops, every one of them, no matter where or who; it's practically my superpower. And I don't know you, which means you're not a cop."

Len's eyebrows go up as Dibny speaks, his expression incredulous.

Barry can’t blame him – all this time and fuss about people finding out that he’s a cop, and he finally tells someone who doesn’t know and they don’t believe him?

Weird.

Len balances his weight on his crutches and reaches into his pocket – actions slow and steady, the way you would around someone who might be afraid you’re pulling a gun – and he pulls out his ID. He's holding it awkwardly, suggesting that he's not yet accustomed to being called upon to show it to people.

Probably because he doesn't actually bother arresting non-police people for stuff, and all the police already know who he is.

It’s definitely a real ID, though, and Dibny’s an ex-cop; he’ll recognize that much.

"As you can see," Len says, waving the ID around a bit. "I am, in fact, a cop. Captain Leonard Snart, at your service."

Dibny goes dead white.

Barry wasn't expecting that. Judging by the surprised tilt of Len's head, neither was he, though he's probably hiding his reaction better than Barry is.

"And it's clear you've heard my name before," Len observes.

"I - er - that is - there isn't - aren't you dead?"

"Reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated," Len says, starting to frown. "Who told you about me, anyway? Your friends at the precinct wouldn't have any reason to mention me – and certainly not by name."

"Uh, no, that is – I mean – they don't – I didn't - "

"Oh, but you did, didn't you," Len says, his voice dropping into that calm, cool voice he gets when he's really pissed off. "That's why you were hoping I was dead, wasn't it?"

Barry looks between Len and Dibny, confused. Len was calm three seconds ago, and now he’s suddenly furious? Just because Dibny knew his name?

He knows that Len’s super upset about what happened with Mick, but this reaction seems outsized even for a particularly emotional Len.

So it has to be something Dibny said. But what?

"I don't get it," he says hesitantly. He doesn’t really want to get in between Len and Dibny right now; Len is really glaring death at the guy. Not that Barry objects, of course, if you’d asked him how he’d rank Len trying to murder Ralph Dibny with his eyes as a mental image, he’d probably have put it somewhere in his top twenty most wanted – but he doesn’t like being out of the loop. "What did he do?"

"'I know all the cops,'" Len mimics Dibny, his voice hard. "'It's practically my superpower.' Really is, isn't it? And it's one you've had for a while now, ain't it, Dibny? For quite a while now."

He takes a few steps forward, his crutch making an ominous thudding noise as he moves.

Dibny flinches away before him, scrabbling backwards towards his desk, then past it, to the window – backing up until he can’t back away any more.

"And you like to talk, don't you, Dibny?" Len continues, his expression more actively malevolent than Barry's ever seen it. "You like to talk about your little 'superpower' - maybe even show off a little -"

"I had to!" Dibny bursts out. "I had no choice! You don’t understand! I'd gotten fired from the force, thanks to Barry here, and after the first year or two, I realized that my private investigation business wasn't paying the bills - people didn't believe I had what it took to get them what they needed – I needed to show them –"

"Oh, and I bet you showed them all right," Len says. "Only way to build your new business, wasn’t it? Your new business selling information. But people don’t just agree to let people be information brokers – oh no – you have to give them a little taste of what you can offer – a freebie – something you know that no one else does, something valuable, something you don’t really care too much about – and that’s just what you did –"

"I didn't have a choice! They wouldn't have believed me about anything if I didn't know things! Secret things! Cop things!"

"Like the identity of one of Central's undercover cops," Len says, and suddenly Barry gets it.

"You did it?" he exclaims, horrified. He’s never liked Dibny at the best of times, but it’d never even occurred to him as a possibility. It should have, he realizes that now – Dibny’d all but told him when they talked, all his boasting about information and friends in the precinct and things that he knew because he cozied up to people while calling Barry an anti-social idiot. He’d learned things, all right; things like Len’s name, things like what Len did. An undercover cop. Yes, that was the perfect bit of information to sell out to show that you meant business – as long as you didn’t care what happened to the guy you spilled the beans on. "You're the one who leaked Len's identity to the Families? You got him tortured and shot and his best friend nearly murdered - to drum up more business?"

"Well, when you put it that way, it sounds kinda bad -"

Len takes another step forward. His face is very, very level, very calm. His eyes are not.

"Oh God please don't kill me!" Dibny yelps.

“I’ve been looking for you for a while now,” Len says conversationally. “I've had some things to say to you, you see. Now, while I wasn’t expecting you to just drop into my lap, I’m not one to say no when an opportunity presents itself...”

He takes another step, his hand dropping down to the cold gun by his side.

The one that’s fatal to normal people.

Barry takes a step forward, concerned. "Len, listen, I know you're angry, but you're an ethical guy, okay?" he says, holding out his hands. "You don't want to do this. You'd have to turn in your badge and arrest yourself. Let's just arrest him instead, okay? Nice and legal. Okay?"

Another step.

Len's not listening. Of course he's not; this is the man who destroyed his life, destroyed Mick's life, the man responsible for everything that’s gone wrong since the beginning.

The man Len's been hunting all this time.

The man Captain Cold has been hunting all this time.

"Listen to Allen, please, just arrest me, don’t let him kill me," Dibny babbles. "Listen, Snart, you - you don't want to do this, really! I know things, I know lots of things - I know what the Families are up to, I can tell you that, you want that, right, and in exchange you give me immunity for the leak -"

"No," Len says firmly, and that's about when Barry realizes that Len is totally playing Dibney right now. His voice is intimidating, yes, but he's not about to cross the lines he's set for himself. He's just dealing with the fact that they have an incipient crisis on their hands and Dibny is withholding information that could mean life or death for their city. "No deal. You talk, you talk now, and maybe, if your intel's good enough, I'll arrest you."

"What good's that do me?" Dibny protests. “You’re going to arrest me anyway!”

Len bares his teeth. "Well, alternatively, other option's that I don't listen to Barry here and I don’t arrest you. You don’t want that option. Trust me."

"Oh," Dibny squeaks, his voice suddenly gone higher-pitched. "Right. In that option I die, right?"

"No," Len says. "In that option I call up the CCPD, tell all your buddies that you're a would-be cop-killer, and have them arrest you."

"...shit."

"Limited time offer," Len says. "Talk. Now."

"Listen, as a preliminary thing, I want to be clear that I've got nothing to do with the Families," Dibny says. "I don't! I've never worked with them, I've never dealt with them; at most some of their thugs come by and do some stuff down the hall, that's it. I'm not involved!"

"Yeah, right," Barry says with a snort. "You're not blackmailing the mayor for them?"

"I wouldn't! Not for the Families!" Dibny exclaims. "I'm not a Family cop, you know; I never was. And it's not much blackmail, not really, just some pictures of him cheating that he doesn’t want to get out so close to Election Day - and I really only do it when my landlord suddenly demands I pay the back rent -"

"Of course," Barry says with a sigh, figuring it out. It makes sense. Why involve more people than you have to? "If you’re doing it that predictably enough, then they don't actually need you to be involved. If they know that you're blackmailing the mayor, then they can blackmail him with the fact that he's being blackmailed - and since they almost certainly either own the building or have something on your landlord, they can control when you press him. You're just an unwitting tool."

"Yes! Exactly! Unwitting! That means I'm not working for the Families!"

"I'll grant you that much, sure," Len says with a sneer. He looks at Dibny like he’s something he just stepped in. "But that doesn't change the fact that you fancy yourself some sorta information broker. Well, give us the information, now, or else you'll be the one who's broken."

Barry will not laugh. Barry will not laugh.

Barry cannot believe Len actually just made that pun.

More to the point, he can't believe it could possibly work as a threat, except apparently it does because Dibny starts talking.

"It's the fact that they're failing," Dibny says, voice hushed as if to convey the importance of the information he’s telling them – or possibly just afraid someone will overhear them. "The Families - between your undercover work and the Feds' inroads, their power is in serious decline. They're too risky. No one wants to work for them and get killed. And if they can't get people to work for them, fear them, things like that - well, with that gone, they don't have as much influence over anything. They want that influence back, and they have a plan to get it."

“Stop running out the time,” Len says, his eyes flickering very briefly to Barry, who wants to kick him and kiss him at the same time. Now is not the time for puns! “What’s the plan?”

“They’ve got a deal set up,” Dibny says. “A big one. The biggest deal. I don’t know how, but they’ve managed to get in contact with the military –”

“The military?” Barry exclaims, alarmed. Sure, he's had some brief encounters with them – after Bette Sans Souci died, her meta powers turning inwards to kill her – but he’d forgotten about them right afterwards.

It’d never seemed like a big deal, and Wells had dismissed all of their concerns.

Wells.

Of course.

If he’s in on this whole deal with the Families – and he has to be – then of course he’d make sure they didn’t think too much about the local military, the ones who thought it was a good idea to take someone with meta powers they barely understood and try to use her as a weapon.

Not unlike what Wells was trying to groom Barry into.

God, he was such an idiot.

“The local guy, Eiling; all reports say that he’s a nutcase,” Dibny says. “Military, yeah, but he’s involved in all sorts of weird science stuff, too. Normally the Families don’t go anywhere near military stuff in the best of times – they know when they’re outgunned – but somehow one of their people got in contact with the military and started brokering a deal –”

“Someone legit,” Len murmurs. “Trustworthy. A prominent scientist with military connections, maybe.”

Wells.

It has to be.

“So that’s the deal,” Dibny says. “The Families are going to supply the military with all the black market goods they want – including people to experiment on, especially people who’ve been affected by the Accelerator explosion – and the military’s going to feed them back enough military-grade guns and cash that they’re going to be able to run this city the way they used to.”

“Shit,” Barry says with feeling. There’s no other word for it. Especially if Wells planned the whole time to throw the metas he'd had Barry capture in as part of the deal...things are just getting worse and worse.

“The military money’s going to get laundered through city government, but it’s going to go to all the corrupt guys – there’ll be enough to go around,” Dibny continues. “That’s helping them get it through, but it’s not enough, they’re needing to pull out all the stops to make sure no one blows this deal up. They’ve got pressure on politicians no one even suspected they had pressure on, to get this whole deal moving – we’re not just talking the mayor; we’re talking the governor, we’re talking the cops –”

“The Commissioner?” Len asks.

“Probably, I don’t know,” Dibny says with a helpless shrug. “The thing is, they can’t just make this deal and be done with it – they know the military’ll just wash their hands of them the second any of it comes to light. So they came up with this plan to make sure that no one’ll be able to back out at the last second: an actual deal, signed on paper, with a videotape of the signing. All the big guys in the city with their names on one document –”

“Making sure they don’t back out – after all, if they don’t hang together, they’ll most definitely hang separately,” Len says.

“Seriously, Len?” Barry says.

“What?” Dibny asks. “Wait, was that a musical quote? 1776?”

“It’s a Benjamin Franklin quote,” Barry says. “Still sort of inappropriate.”

“To be fair, I was in fact quoting the musical, and anyway it’s entirely appropriate because after a certain point it’s gotta be either laughter or tears and I don’t got time for the latter,” Len says. “That’s why this is on Election Day, isn’t it? Because everyone in the state’s gonna be in Central and no one’s gonna question it – and all of that talk about logistics, that’s the Families working out how to escort all the relevant people to this big meet-up without anyone noticing that all the bigwigs in town are all gone at the same exact time.”

“Exactly,” Dibny says.

“If you knew all this, why didn’t you tell someone?” Barry demands.

“Tell who?” Dibny shoots back. “I know they’ve got people in the cops, they’ve got people in the government, they’ve got judges, DAs, everything, and to be perfectly honest I don’t exactly want to go up against the Families, okay?! People who do that get shot!”

“Not as much as they used to,” Len says. “A situation that they’re now trying to reverse. Barry, we’re leaving.”

“Wait, what?” Dibny exclaims. “You’re just – leaving?”

“Do you have any more information?” Len asks. “Like where they’re going to meet to do the signing?”

“Uh, no, that’s all I know.”

“That’s what I thought. Since unlike you we intend to actually do something about this, we’re leaving.”

“But what are you going to do about me?” Dibny protests.

“Of course,” Barry hisses. “Always thinking about yourself –”

“Yeah, well, ‘myself’ seems pretty damn important right about now! I just blabbed on the Families to the cops! I want protection! I want to be surrounded by cops! I want -”

“Fine,” Len says.

“– to be...wait, really?” Dibny looks incredulous at Len’s agreement.

Barry can’t blame him; he’s feeling pretty incredulous himself. Dibny gets police protection? For that?

“Oh, absolutely,” Len says. “You should go to the CCPD right now. Or better yet, get any trustworthy friends you can find and then go to the CCPD. They’re going to need all hands on deck pretty soon.”

Dibny blinks. Barry blinks.

Len shakes his head at both of them, his expression gone grim.

“This is Central City,” he says. “The Families walk the line, remember? Everyone knows they’re there, but everyone that our city thinks is important thinks they’re not going to be affected personally by it. Oh, sure, there’s some corrupt cops, some corrupt politicos, anyone elected out of a slum district, we all know that, but we shrug it off because it’s just how Central City works – and anyway, we know who they are, so we can just avoid them.”

“But that’s not what this is,” Barry says, a terrible sinking feeling in his stomach. “This is – this is corruption on an unimaginable scale. This is everybody finding out that everything is a lie: their democracy, their police, their laws...”

“People are going to riot,” Dibny says, his face pale. “The whole city's going to go totally fucking crazy.”

“Yeah,” Len says. “They are. And once I call the Feds to come in, the Families are going to lash out like the cornered rats they are.”

“You can’t do that,” Dibny hisses. “If you bring in the Feds, it’ll be absolute chaos –”

“There’s no choice,” Len says. “You want to be surrounded by police? Go to the CCPD and help out. You want to hide in your basement until it’s all over? Do that, if that’s what you want to. Barry?”

“Right. Leaving.”

Barry follows Len out the door, sliding it shut behind him so that Dibny, standing in his office and gaping at them, won’t see him run at superspeed once they get to the end of the hallway.

Once outside, though, he looks at Len. “He’s right, you know,” he says. “There’ll be riots, and it’ll only be worse if the Feds come in. If the Families think they’re dealing with some sort of existential crisis, they’ll pull out all the stops to protect themselves. Every person they have pressure on, every person who’s ever taken an unwise loan, every shopkeeper that ever paid them protection money...they’ll call them all in to fight for them.”

“I know,” Len says. “But we have to stop them from making this deal. And if the CCPD’s compromised, it has to be the Feds.”

“They’ll make a mess of things.”

“Probably,” Len agrees. “I know a bunch of them, though; worked closely with them. They trust me. If I say they have to work with the CCPD – the good, not-corrupt parts of the CCPD – they’ll bitch and whine but they’ll do it.”

Barry nods. “And it’s better than the Families,” he says, thinking back to his dad’s stories of the older days, when he was a kid, back when Central City had been a real Family haven. Murders on the train lines, police looking the other way except for when the ones on the take were assaulting people who tried to fight back against Family influence, drugs sold openly on street corners, violence and crime everywhere...

They can’t let that happen.

“I’ll call my guys,” Len says, pulling out his phone. “You call Iris. We need to make this public.”

“Public? The riots –”

“I know,” Len says grimly. “Publicizing it will only make the riots happen faster. I know. I’m planning for it.”

“Planning – but why?”

“Because we don’t have time to do otherwise. Even if I call the Feds, mobilization takes forever and Election Day’s tomorrow. As it is, the Feds won’t be able to pull in enough guys to properly fight the Families at full force. We need the citizens of Central City – even if the only thing they can do is create such a mess that no one in the Families will be able to escape.”

Barry swallows hard, imagining his beautiful city in flames, knowing that these types of riots can kill people, but he nods. There’s no other way of stopping the Families. The people have to know.

The people have a right to know.

“One last thing,” he says hesitantly.

Len raises his eyebrows. He’s already dialing.

“The Feds can do a lot,” Barry says, then swallows. “But they can’t defeat the Reverse Flash.”

No one can.

Not even Barry.

He’s not fast enough. But if the Reverse Flash is Wells, then maybe he was never going to be.

But Barry’s the only one who even stands a chance.

He has to try.

Len pauses, considering.

“You’re right,” he says after a long moment. “They can’t. They’re not equipped for something like that; he’ll plow right through them.”

Barry winces.

Another moment of silence.

“Okay,” Len finally says. “Okay. After we alert the Feds and Iris, you and I, we’ll go stop him ourselves.”

“Ourselves? But we don’t even know where he is!”

“Of course we do,” Len says. “Now that I’ve had a moment to think about it, it’s obvious. I know where he’s hiding, and I know where he’s keeping Thawne and Mick.”

“Where?”

“STAR Labs,” Len says. “Right in the part that was hand-made – literally – by Zoom Contracting.”

Hand-made by Wells.

By the Reverse Flash.

By the Man in Yellow.

Of course.

“I know just where to go,” Barry says.

#coldflash #barry allen #leonard snart #iris west #ralph dibney #my fic #an internal affair

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pinkletterday · 6 years ago

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In which Hussie says to hell with it and talks about all her slash WiPs even though she has no idea when they will be posted.

I love Olivarry and Coldflash. But my problem with reading those fics are that I miss Iris like a limb if she's not also part of Barry.

I felt the same way before I ever shipped Westallen, and I didn't even ship them for the longest time. Nor was I particularly interested in Iris as a character until sometime mid-way S3.

(It was when she burst into frightened tears in 3x9. Something in me immediately went PROTECC and it hasn't turned off since.)

I think it was more the sheer intensity of Barry's love for her that fascinated me. Not that a man fixating on a woman and obsessively pinning all his happiness on her is new or healthy phenomenon, but it was also deeper than that, character-wise. His love for her is so tied up in his self-definition, and the myriad ways their childhood bond helped mould their adult selves.

(And the fact that no matter how this love can change in nature, he will never be immune to appreciating her beauty and sexuality as a woman, which is so important to me as a slash fan and WoC. Seeing women be desexualized unless they're active romantic interests makes me want to scream. You can find people attractive af without wanting to bang them! It doesnt make you any less close! Not all close m/f relationships have to be sibling-like! Aargh!)

Regardless of how it came about, I need Iris to have that importance in Barry's life no matter who (else?) he's in love with. Which is why I started writing slash myself. It's a relief to me to know that she's there in every story I write, like a personal touchstone if nothing else. There you are my darling, you aren't forgotten.

Coldflash vs Olivarry polyam AU - Barry's love for Iris and the pain of her rejection is the springboard of the series. His struggle to reconcile with her over the years drives his character trajectory as much his love for Len and Oliver does. And there is so much she sees and evolves and goes through herself that the stupid boy cannot see until the very end, caught up in his own pain as he is.

The Assistant Verse - Barry and Iris are queerplatonic partners in a poly sexual relationship. Iris is the one who dolls up her boy in lipstick and booty shorts and sends him into Len's path in Paint It Red. Many years later, in Every Kind of Love, she descends wrathfully on Oliver from half a world away for doing her darling wrong, bringing her own broken heart for Barry to nurse.

This is one of the most wholesome Westallen relationships I have ever written, even though I'm pretty sure it will generate the least interest.

For The Good of the Realm - in the first draft Iris was Barry's first love and heartbreak pulled apart by politics, but in the second revision they're again queerplatonic partners and childhood best friends who call each other "soulmates". They had hoped to be married to each other and be kept safe from political matches. But then Barry becomes betrothed to High King Oliver and must be sent to Starling Court as the reluctant new Prince Consort, while Iris sets out on her mission to emancipate the tribes of the Middle Kingdom. They gift each other two halves of a magical "heartstone", a conduit of emotional resonance that connects two people across leagues of distance. In the fear, alienation and intrigue of the Starling Court, its Iris's love and safety that Barry holds onto, even while he falls in love with his husband.

Call Me By Your Name - Barry and Iris go to Greece in the summer before college, each hoping it will lead to a resolution to the magnetic push and pull they've been feeling for years. But when Barry meets and falls in love with Oliver and realizes he's gay, he is devastated at both breaking Iris's heart and not being in love with her. Because he really wants to be; she's always been his home and the future he's envisioned - to lose that terrifies him. It's a story about Barry and Oliver's sexual and romantic awakening, but also about how Barry and Iris manage to break down their own expectations of what it means to love one another forever and build something much truer and real.

A Stitch in Time is solidly Queenwestallen now. I was going to have Iris evolve into an undefined queerplatonic partner for Barry and Oliver but that ship is long gone.

For Love Or Money - Barry and Iris were childhood sweethearts and married young, Barry's tech startup and her career both took off. By their mid-twenties they should be the couple that has it all.

Except for Iris finally realizing she's ace and sex-repulsed. This is a terrible shock to both of them and not a small blow to Barry's self-esteem because she's the only woman he's ever been with. But they decide they're too in love to divorce and Iris tentatively suggests that Barry takes the opportunity to explore his interest in men, leading him to engage Oliver's services as an escort. Iris has to discover for herself what it means to be an asexual woman but Barry falling in love with Oliver is an issue they both have to deal with as a couple. Meanwhile Oliver has to reconcile the fact that not only is he falling for a client but one who is very much in love with his wife.

Mercury Rising - my Earth-13 Coldflash mob boss AU and oh is Iris ever there! This is my most delicious iteration of her - not as Barry's support but as his combatant, his antagonist and the eternal thorn in his side. Her unwitting role in Barry's betrayal that drives him to criminality, her bull-headed faith in the goodness of his character even in the face of his escalating violence, calling him to account every step of the way till he does the one thing she cannot forgive. The resulting single-minded determination to take her former best friend down without compromising her own moral code even as the undeniable magnetism between the two of them wreak havoc with their lives, and final realization that even after everything she can never give up on Barry Allen. Hate is truly just love with its back turned and what makes them tear each other to pieces even as it brings out their noblest and most human instincts.

Queen of Starling - On Earth 42, Beatrice Allen is adopted by Harrison Wells when her parents are murdered and taken away to Starling City - but even distance can't make her less in love with the best friend she left behind.

Here's the kicker of this story - Iris dies. Her death bisects Beatrice's story in two - the halycon days of her girlhood and the shattered trauma of the next fifteen years where she has to collect the pieces of herself out of her lover's grave to rebuild herself into the mother her children need, the superhero the world needs and to let herself love again.

The Awakening - Curse specialist Iris West and alchemist/ lore master Barry Allen are part of the Men of Letters team that go into a old cursed and haunted mansion to retrieve the Book Of The Dead, last known to have been in the hands of disgraced former Man of Letters and necromancer Eobard Thawne. The team is led by their chapter's chairman Harrison Wells, but the expedition is funded by eccentric millionaire and hunter Oliver Queen.

The blue-collar hunters and elitist Men of Letters don't trust Oliver, being seen as a mere hobbyist or thrill-seeker in the absence of any real tragedy or family legacy to put him on his path. But Iris distrusts him because she's the only one who can see his clear attraction to her best friend and childhood sweetheart Barry. Iris has spent her life as Barry's protector, himself being something of a pariah in the community due to his rumoured supernatural parentage and open empathy for the spirits and monsters they hunt. It's Iris that sees the way the house draws in both Barry and Oliver and the patterns of the hauntings that occur around them, she's the one who is as terrified for Barry's safety as Oliver as the house sucks them deeper into the tragedy of its past and she's the one that finally deduces how the malevolence of the house works and what it wants.

From Dusk Till Dawn - I think this is the story that has Iris in it the least. Eobard kidnaps Barry at age fifteen and subjects him to an experiment that backfires badly, leaving him dead and Barry with only a fraction of powers he was destined to have and no connection to the Speed Force. ARGUS immediately finds him and forces him to manufacture a rift with the Wests so they can claim him without suspicion, mould him into one of their operatives and train him to hunt the other metahumans Eobard created.

This is an Olivarry story where Barry rediscovers hope and love through his secret protection of Oliver. But its the memory of Iris's love and the happiness of their childhood that keeps him tethered to his humanity through the next eight years, it is her that he goes to the night before what he believes will be his final sacrifice ("You have always been the best part of me. Keep that part of me inside your heart and I can never die. Keep me and don't let me go, Iris"), it is her, after everything, that leads him home, and it is her that seeks out Oliver and asks him to help Barry heal.

This is not including my Coldwestallen fics The Scarlet Rose (Snow Queen/ Beauty and the Beast fusion) and The Adventures of Snart The Cat (Bastet turns Len into a cat and charges him with protecting Barry and Iris's unborn child).

So yes, I absolutely started writing slash because I missed Iris West. It's not just her though. None of the ladies are relegated to ship support. In the Polyam AU Lisa Snart specifically rips into Barry for ignoring her emotional needs as a friend while on the outs with Len, Oliver's fixation with Barry in Stitch in Time and resulting neglect of his friendship with Laurel has serious repercussions, Caitlin couldn't give less of a damn about Barry's romantic exploits in her incarnations as Killer Frost. Even in For The Good of the Realm where he's her foster brother and charge, Caitlin is more wrapped up in manoeuvring him away from court intrigue, legitimizing her own presence at his side and being a ball of identity issues. And I absolutely love my dark!Felicity AUs where she is outright antagonistic and disapproving of Barry's love interests and sometimes of Barry himself. In the Olivarry stories where she is supportive and sympathetic, Felicity and Oliver themselves still acknowledge their own romantic potential. Which means Barry and Oliver falling in love creates tension between the three of them, and the men have to learn how not to hurt her or take her support for granted while they figure themselves out.

The relationships between men and women in every flavour and intensity makes stories so much richer and deeper and three dimensional. I am done being conditioned as a woman to erase ourselves when we inhabit the bodies and stories of m|m men.

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ssimagines · 7 years ago

Text

Surprises || Barry Allen

Pairing: Barry Allen x reader

Word Count: 2422

Summary: You and Barry have been seeing each other for a year. Your anniversary is fast approaching and you aren’t sure if Barry even remembers.

Warnings: major fluff as requested, surprises

Request: Hi, Can I get an imagine with Barry Allen Earth 1, and he does a surprise for the reader on their anniversary? please

Note: I used a westallen gif, but it works for this imagine.

Masterlist

Almost two years ago, your younger brother was on a school field trip when a metahuman attacked the building the school group was in by causing an earthquake. The flash had intervened and saved your brother from being crushed. When he was returned to your arms, you cried more than you ever had.

That day you asked the flash if you could repay him somehow. Though he turned down your offer, he promised you that he would see you around. He was true to his word.

Every time you were in any semblance of trouble, the flash was there. eventually though it became more often than when you were in trouble. Sometimes, when it was late at night, he would show up on your balcony just to talk. Though he never told you his name, he became the most important person in your life aside from your family.

When he took off his mask in front of you one day, you were shocked that he trusted you so much. You learned even more about him that day. You learned that his name was Barry Allen and that he was a CSI at the CCPD. You learned all about his work with star labs and about the people he worked with an loved. He had told you stories before then, but he never told you names.

Shortly after you were dating Barry Allen. It was like a whirlwind romance that took you by surprise. You weren’t looking for someone when you started dating, but you were glad you had been open to it. You couldn’t be any happier.

Barry was living with you in your apartment. You guys had been talking about maybe even getting a fish together. The discussion had started with a dog, but with Barry being the flash and your work, you just wouldn’t have time to take on a dog. Then you discussed a cat, but you had decided against that one too. Fish was the only thing that you two could settle on, but you were happy with your life and where you were going.

When you woke up this morning, you weren’t surprised to see that the bed was empty. Barry was off as the flash saving somebody. Sometimes he would miss a date or forget an event, but you felt nothing pride when you thought of him. Sure, it hurt sometimes, but how could you stay mad at him when he’s out there saving people and stopping bad and reckless metas.

You got out from underneath your warm blankets to shuffle into the kitchen. Your fuzzy socks slide across the hard wood floors like it was ice. You had Barry’s star labs sweatshirt wrapped around you. Today was a lazy Saturday, and you planned to spend it snuggled up as warmly as possible. The autumn air had turned cold earlier this week, so you were glad you got this chance to stay warm.

You pulled open the fried to look for something to have for breakfast. Just as you reached for the carton of orange juice you felt a brief swirling wind that cause your hair to blow back.

“You aren’t supposed to up yet,” You heard the voice of your boyfriend say from behind you. Looking behind you, you saw that your boyfriend held a pink box. You knew that the box was full of doughnuts. A smile stretched across your face as you turned to him letting the fridge close behind you.

You were a sucker from doughnuts, but you were sure there was some their reason for the doughnuts beyond just he knew you like them. You brushed the thought away as you walked toward him. He opened his arms to wrap them around you, but you adjusted your path to grab the box of doughnuts from him.

You walked to the cupboard that housed plates and cups without bothering to even greet your boyfriend.

“Damn, if I would have known you were going to bypass me for the doughnuts, I would have hide them until I at least got a greeting,” Barry said. You could tell he was pouting by his clipped words and rude tone.

You felt that the attitude he gave you was no worth a response as you set the doughnuts on the counter. You were going over all the things that could be going on that would have earned you doughnuts. Opening the cupboard, you grabbed a small plate and a glass cup. You walked back to the fridge and grabbed milk (or a lactose free substitute) to fill you cup before you returned the carton back to the fridge. As you were opening the beautiful pink box you realized why he had brought you doughnuts.

It was your anniversary. How could you have forgotten. This day last year, you went on your first date with Barry Allen. This was a really big moment for the two of you. Barry had mentioned once that he hadn’t ever had a relationship last more than about 6 months, but here you were at 1 year, and you had forgotten.

You weren’t going to let Barry figure that out as you got another plate of the cupboard. You took out your favorite doughnut and set it on your plate and did the same for Barry. When you finally looked at the man you loved, you saw he was watching you with such admiration twinkling in his eyes.

“I love you,” He said with a dreamy smile in his face. It brought a smile to your face as well. You brought the plates toward where Barry was seated at the kitchen Island. You set his in front of him and took a seat next to him.

“I love you too, Bare,” you said kissing his check. His dreamy smiled turned into a full-fledged grin at that. You took a large bite of your doughnut making a mess of your face. Barry laughed at you taking a bite of his own doughnut.

After another bite, you realized that you left your cup on the counter. As if reading your mind, Barry ran to grab the drink before you could even get up. Because of his speed, there some of the milk had actually splashed out of the cup leaving the counter covered with milk splatters. You rolled your eyes as you got up to get a towel to clean the mess up.

“Barry, I thought we talked about running with liquids,” you said frustrated.

Barry had always been confused about what made you mad and what didn’t. Bothe Linda and Patty had always gotten mad about him missing dates, but you got mad at Barry for spilling liquids every time he ran with him. He couldn’t laugh as you left the room to grab a towel from your linen closet. When you got back Barry had called his laughter and was still sitting there watching you.

“How come you get my drink, but you can’t help to clean up the mess you made,” this time when you spoke you were less mad. It was really hard to stay mad it him when he was looking at you the way he was.

“I’m sorry, beautiful,” He said still not getting up. “I just find it really adorable how frustrated you get about this stuff.”

You rolled your eyes more jokingly with a smile budding on your lips. Barry continued to eat his doughnut while you cleaned the mess up. You threw the towel into the sink before returning to your seat.

“So, what’s the plan for the day?” You asked. You half expected him to have this elaborate day planned out. Barry really liked going all out. On your first date, he had this fancy dinner planned and got you a dozen roses. He also took you to stargaze just out of the city after dinner. It was just who Barry was.

“Well, I said I would come in and work on paper work today,” Berry said covering his mouth so you didn’t see his partially chewed bite of doughnut. Though it was gross you appreciated the man’s gesture. You could nothing to keep the grimace off your face. You hated when people talked with food in their mouth. The grimace didn’t last long as your face returned to its usual bright smile that Barry evoked.

“What about for tonight?” You asked eagerly. Surly he would have something for tonight, right? Barry nodded swallowing his bite this time before speaking.

“I told Caitlin and Cisco that we would go to the bar with them,” Barry said bring your cup up to his lips.

You couldn’t believe that Barry hadn’t planned anything for today. Yeah you had been razing about your lazy weekend all week, but that was because you hadn’t remembered what today was. Barry always remembered important dates like this. How had he not this time. This was the most important anniversary so far. As you took another bite, you realized if Barry hadn’t remembered your anniversary than what were the doughnuts for. You set the small bite that was left back down on your plate.

“Barry, why did you bring home doughnuts?” you turned to look at him. Your eyebrows were pulled together tightly as you tried to think of any other reason for them. Barry had stopped suddenly as his hand holding the chocolate pastry near his lips had stopped moving. You had seen the face he wore many times. He was trying to come up with a good excuse on the spot.

You suddenly became worried. Was Barry apologizing for something? Had he done something wrong like scratched your car or lost your new fuzzy socks you had lent him? Then your mind turned much darker. Had Barry cheated on you?

“I honestly promised Caitlyn that I would grab her something for tonight,” Barry said standing up suddenly. “I really should grab it before I forget again. I should be back around five or six to pick you up okay?”

Barry had avoided the question altogether. He hadn’t even said whatever excuse he was trying to come up with. You felt hurt. Your mind ran wild with possibilities as he shoved the last of his doughnut in his mouth and ran out. He left with a short good-bye and a kiss to your temple. You didn’t know what to think.

You grabbed your phone and did the only thing you could think of. You sent your best friend, Y/F/N, a text arranging to go to her house for the day.

It was now five o’clock and you had spent your whole day at Y/F/N’s house. The time was spent by her talking you down. You were sure that something was up and she couldn’t argue with that, but you didn’t know what was up. Y/F/N had told you to go home and get ready for whatever going out with Caitlin and Cisco tonight. Reluctantly you agreed and had headed home.

You had put on your favorite dress (or formal outfit) and done your hair and makeup. You hadn’t heard from Barry all day, so you assumed that the plans hadn’t changed. Just as you finished getting ready there was a knock on your door. There was no reason for someone to be at your place, but you still went to get it.

When you pulled open the door, you were surprised with the handsome face of your boyfriend in a gray two-piece suit with a burgundy tie. He held a bouquet of white roses and had a goofy smile on his face. It was nearly a mirror image of what he had done for your first date except he looked nicer and on your first date he had only brought one red rose. This was so much better.

“Happy Anniversary Y/N,” Barry said. He pulled his lips into his mouth slightly. You could see that he was shaking a little bit. It occurred to you that he was nervous. You had spent the day thinking something was wrong when in reality Barry had spent his day planning whatever you were going to do this evening.

A tear prickled at the corner of you right eye. This was better than anything you could have expected. You took the roses from him and pulled him into your apartment. Setting the roses on the table by the front door, you pulled Barry to your lips planting a sweet, yet passionate kiss on his lips. Your hands were on either side of his face as you kissed him. He graciously kissed back. His hands wrapped around your forearms holding you in that position.

When he released you to gather his breath, you smiled and released his face. He ran his hand the rest of the way down your arms to intertwine your hands with his. It was sweet and perfect.

“I’m sorry that I wasn’t here today, I just really wanted to surprise you with the perfect night,” Barry whispered. The two of you were still standing close together, so when he spoke his words fanned across your face like comforting blanket.

“It’s okay,” you said. “I wished you had gone about differently because I sent all day thinking you were cheating on me more something, but it’s okay now.”

He nodded and placed a kiss on your lips. He separated himself to you and took the flowers he had gotten you into the kitchen. He returned to you as if he was never gone, but you now saw that the flowers were delicately placed in your great grandmother’s vase that she had left you when she had died. It as your favorite vase, and the flowers in it made it a million times better.

“Now my lady, I have an amazing night planned for us,” He said. “Are you ready to go?”

“Yes, I am,” you said. He had offered you his arm which you took and together you left your apartment. You were about to get on the elevator for your building when you realized that you had absentmindly forgot your shoes. You mentioned it to Barry and laughing he ran back to the apartment to grab them before the doors could even close.

You loved this man and you were glad that he was all yours.

“I love you Barry Allen,” You said smiling. Your hand was intertwined with his. He looked at your grinning face and returned

#barry allen imagine #barry allen x reader #barry allen #arrowverse #the cw flash #the flash imagine #the flash #anniversary #anniversary imagine #fluff #barry allen fluff #sebastian smythe #sebastian smythe x reader #sebastian smythe fluff #sebastian smythe imagines #grant gustin #grant gustin imagine #grant gustin x reader

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asexual-fandom-queen · 7 years ago

Note

ColdWestAllen, "Of course I'm freaking out you're my friend" or "I'm guessing this was a one time thing."

(sorry for the wait, hope you enjoy)

The idle background chatter of friends and colleagues talking, baristas taking orders, espresso beans grinding, milk steaming, swallows Barry’s words as he hunches over his coffee mug and turns the most adorable shade of bright pink Iris has ever seen.

“And then he, um, he left,” Barry stammers. He fidgets nervously with his mug, rubs his thumbs against the too-hot ceramic as he cradles it between his palms.

Iris chuckles despite herself, and Barry finally snaps his head up to meet her eyes. “Barry, you’re freaking out,” she says.

“Of course I’m freaking out,” Barry exclaims, a high, sharp whisper. “You’re my friend and I–” he takes a surreptitious glance around, checking for eavesdroppers, especially with the precinct right around the corner. “I slept with your husband!”

“With my permission,” Iris reminds him with a roll of her eyes.

“And now we’re talking about it over coffee like it’s this totally normal thing,” Barry continues, like she hadn’t spoken at all. “I feel like my entire life has become one of those this is the future liberals want memes.”

Iris shrugs and takes a sip of her latte. More open-mindedness about sexuality and relationships wouldn’t be the worst thing.

“You’re really okay with this?” Barry asks, quiet and unsure, after Iris sets her mug down. “I mean, it’s one thing to agree to something before it happens, but if, once it’s real, it’s too hard, I don’t want you to lie to me. I never want you to be hurt by something I did and then for me not to know about it.”

“Barry,” Iris says, reaching out across the table and placing her hand gently over his where it twitches with nerves. He looks up at her, skittish and unsure, and Iris sighs. “I am one hundred percent fine. Are you?”

Barry nods, sharp and curt, lips pursed, brow furrowed. “Yeah,” he says. “Yeah, I am. I just– I guess I just thought so much about how I would feel while it was happening that I didn’t think about what we’d do after. You know, how things would go back to being the same.”

Iris isn’t sure what Barry means, what exactly he’s struggling with, until he clears his throat and hesitantly says, “I’m guessing this was a one time thing.”

There’s so much hope and anxiety and dread in that one simple statement, Iris’ heart thuds in her chest. “Did you not want it to be?” she asks, her voice quiet and breathy.

Iris doesn’t move her hand, but Barry quickly pulls his from under her touch. “Iris, I would never try and steal Len from you,” he says, nearly pleads, for her to understand. “You have to know that. I couldn’t do that to you. I lo– I love you.”

Iris’ breath hitches in her throat. She and Barry have loved one another since their days in grade school. They tell each other all the time. But the way Barry stumbles over the words now, the pain in his eyes, speaks to the way this admission is different.

Without thinking, Iris rises from her chair. The legs scrape noisily against the floor and Barry flinches, knows he’s been caught out and won’t meet her eyes as he waits for her to walk away.

But Iris doesn’t. She rounds the table and slides into the booth at Barry’s side. He glances over at her and Iris doesn’t hesitate to cup her hand around his jaw and pull him in for a deep, toe-curling kiss. Barry’s hand falls to her waist and drags her in closer as years of repressed emotions pass between the press of their mouths.

“Iris?” Barry pants her name like a question as they pull apart, like she holds all the secrets of the universe in her beautiful, brilliant mind. Iris runs her fingers through the front of Barry’s hair and holds his wide, uncertain eyes with a warm, steadfast stare.

“It doesn’t have to be a one time thing,” Iris says. “I love you, Barry Allen.”

Barry lets out a shuddered breath and kisses her again. They both have tears in their eyes as they separate, in the middle of Jitters on a Tuesday morning, their lives tilting on their axes as the rest of the world continues to spin on like nothighing’s changed.

“You know that Len is always going to be a part of my life, too, right?” Iris checks, gentle but firm. Barry nods, but still, she adds, “I’m not leaving him for you. If you want this to work, it’s something we need to be in together.”

“I would never ask you to,” Barry assures her. Then, he pauses, furrows his brow and bites his lip, a hint of guilt colouring his expression. “Is Len gonna be okay with this? I mean, we didn’t talk about–”

“We did,” Iris interrupts with a sheepish smile. Barry’s eyes sparkle, like it’s the best news he’s heard all day.

“You already thought about this?” he asks, a hint of wonder in his voice.

Iris chuckles. “Why do you think we offered to see if you and Len were compatible?”

A brilliant smile takes over Barry’s face, lights up his eyes and crinkles his laugh lines. “Do you guys want to go to dinner with me on Friday?” he asks.

“Why, Barry.”

The new voice catches Barry off guard, and he jumps in his seat and pulls his hand by reflex from Iris’ waist, but Iris keeps her hand splayed against his chest.

Len watches them, a to-go cup of steaming coffee held in one hand, with a raised eyebrow and the smile of a cat who’s just gotten the cream. A pleased shiver runs up Barry’s spine, and Iris feels it in the tips of her fingers down to her toes.

“We thought you’d never ask.”

#coldwestallen #westallen #fanfiction #drabble #polyamory #trashywestallen #ask answered #my fiction #mine

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codenamewitcher · 8 years ago

Text

Mercy Pt 4 || Kol M.; D. Salvatore; Reader

I am editing the actual storyline so it'll fit mine, for example the night Kol was killed, the next day they headed to the island, but in here it took a couple of days. So this isn't going to be going 100% along with the actual TVD storyline.

Song: Wayfaring Stranger - Alextbh

"Here should be good." Katherine's witch said as we find a hiding spot to do the spell. I look around, taking in the scenery the island offered, and the longer I was on this island, I could feel the darkness and evil that lived on this island. I understood Kol's warnings of Silas, how he'd bring Hell on Earth, and the horrible feeling I was getting from the island, just made me sick to my stomach.

"Okay, I need yours and Katherine's blood so I can create a bond between the two of you so you'll look alike." The witch states, then turned to Katherine. "And I need a belonging that's close to you."

I watch as Katherine takes off her daylight pendent, and as she handing the necklace over, my understanding of why she wasn't burning became clear, she had a daylight bracelet.

I keep quiet as the witch starts the spell, trying not to pay any attention to the fact that I'm about to bond myself Katherine, I only stay silent because that way I'll get off the island faster.

After reciting some words in Latin, the witch opened her eyes, and head out a hand for Katherine. She cuts her palm and allows blood to soak the witches hand, it's then my turn. She hold out her opposite hand to me and Katherine hands me the blade. I do as Katherine did, once I'm done she holds the pendent in both hands, and starts the spell again.

The witch's nose started bleeding, I moved to stop her, but Katherine held me back, she shook her head. The Latin ceased, she then put the bloodied pendent in a small bowl of water, she hand the necklace tome, free of blood. "Put this on and it'll make you look with Katherine."

I clasped the necklace behind my neck, I pulled out my phone looking at the blank screen, I seen Katherine staring back at me. The spell worked.

"Are you ready?" She asked me, I nodded, she turned to the witch. "Get the boat set and be ready to leave when we get back." The witch nodded and started packing her things.

"So what exactly is your plan?" I asked as we walked through the forest.

"I really don't care what happens, who dies, just as long as I get the cure."

"Why do you want the cure so bad?" She ignores my question. We reach a clearing to a cave.

"Well go ahead, I'll be listening." She beckons and I hesitate. I was dealing with Katherine, there's no telling what type of trap she has set up. But we're bonded, so for all I know I'm in the clear, then again this is Katherine.

I shake my head and walked into the chamber. And that's where I find Damon, Elena, Stefen, and Rebekah. I felt betrayed, Rebekah was here with the people that killed her brother. And of course it didn't end well for her, she had several stakes poking through her back, along with Damon tied in verain ropes, that's exactly what happens when you're with them.

"Well look what the cat dragged out of the bag." I made myself known, already getting comfortable being Katherine. Elena then speeds over to me, but before she can lay a finger on me, I grabbed the hair at the back of her head and flipped her over, sending her into the rock wall besides me. "And the kitten gots claws."

"What do you want Katherine." Stefen said, diverting my attention away Elena, but I still kept ears on her.

"What everyone else here is for, the cure." I answered, smirking. "Although, I don't know why Damon's here, unless his love for Elena is so deep that he's willing to give up his vampirism."

"You wouldn't know what that's like would you Katherine. Have you ever truly loved someone?" Damon asked, I pretend to think.

"Nope, though the only person that came close was Stefen. Too bad you never got a taste of my love." I bite back.

"God, you're such a bitch." Elena said beside me.

"Oh honey, you haven't seen bitch, but you're about to. In fact you're about to experience bitch." I said, grabbing her cheeks and squeezing them, she pulls away.

"What do you mean?" She hisses.

"Little Jer's about to get it, that's what I mean." With that, Elena and Stefen are jumping down the hole, in search for Jeremy.

"What did you do to Jeremy?" Damon hissed.

"Oh I haven't done anything yet, it's what I'm about to do." I squat in front of him like he was my prey.

Damon finally gets out of the ropes and goes to grab at me, I get up and step back.

"You're so pathetic." Out of the corner of my eye I seen Katherine jump down the hole, there goes Jeremy.

"Like you're any better." He spits at me.

"I know I'm not." I crotch down again.

"What are you doing here, don't you have plans for Jeremy?" He asked.

"He being taken care of as we speak." I pause. "Why, are you in a hurry to get rid of him? I mean, I can always go down there and speed up the process." I taut.

"No, I just want to get rid of you." He said, the sunlight hitting his face perfectly, making his skin and eyes glow. I fall in love with him all over again, so much that I want to reach out and move his black strand of hair that fell on his forehead, and I do. And before any of it registers, one hand is grabbing my wrist pulling me closer and the other is wrapping around the pendent, and yanking it away from me so I'll burn.

I jump away from him, "You really tried to kill me? First Kol and now me, you guys are on a roll." I was hurt, I couldn't believe I actually fell for him.

He had a shocked look on his face, it was then I remembered he thought I was Katherine and now he know it was actually me. I regain composer, I wasn't going let him see me weak again.

"Y/N?"

"What Damon, why are you so surprised?" My voice dipping with venom.

"Why are you here and what did you do to Jeremy?"

"I'm here to avenge Kol and I didn't do anything to Jeremy, that doesn't mean Katherine isn't about to, that is if she doesn't get to him before I do." I turn around and as I'm about to jump down the hole, Damon pounced on me. We both fall down the hole, my hands and knees breaking my fall, but sharp rocks broke through my skin, causing my palms and knees to bleed.

Damon, who landed on his feet, threw me into the closest wall, wrapping his hand around my throat.

"I can't let you do that." He squeezed my throat a little more, in a threatening manner.

"What are you going to do then Damon, kill me? Because I'm not going to stop until your girlfriend or her brother pays." I looked in his ice blue eyes and I no longer had remorse for him.

"What is your deal?"

"My deal, is that your girlfriend plotted my best friend's murder. The best friend that was there for me when you weren't, while you were catering to poor Elena, as if she already doesn't have enough people that pity her. No, Kol kept me for kill hundreds of people, because despite what all of you believe, he's actually a good person, but not good enough for your standards." And with that I rip Damon's hand away from my throat and kick him into the opposite wall, I walk over to him. "That's exactly what got into me, I woke up, I realized that nobody will be good for any of you, unless Elena deems them good, then they're seen as the greatest person in the world. I don't understand how all of you are rapped around her finger so easily."

"Is that seriously what all this is about, you're jealous or Elena?"

"No, this is about Kol, and how she killed him in cold blood because she deemed him unworthy. Your sweet Elena, isn't as angelic as she seems." With that I head towards the Gilbert's, no longer caring if they seen who I really was or not.

"Y/N?" A voice I thought I would never hear again said behind me.

I turn around, hope flooding through me.

"Kol."

Tags:

@blue-berry-barry-allen

Mercy Masterlist

#kol mikaelson imagine #kol mikaelson #kol mikaelson x reader #kol mikaelson oneshot #damon salvatore #damon salvatore imagine #damon salvatore x reader #damon salvatore one shot #the vampire diaries #the vampire diaries imagines #the originals #the originals imagine #reader #imagine #oneshot #mercy mini series

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yikesforever · 8 years ago

Text

tag games you didn’t ask for

i had three tag games to do thanks to kate, cam and cameron so here they are, ill tag these people, but yall rlly don’t have to do any of them, i was jus bored

@bicevans @capswilson @dobrevninas @daisyridlay @napoleonsolos @soldatsass @beefybucky

fav hoe @daddybucks tagged me in this one

1. coke or pepsi: neither?? (coke i guess) 2. disney or dreamworks: disney !!! 3. coffee or tea: my main bitch coffee 4. books or movies: movies binch 5. windows or mac: windows 6. dc or marvel: marvel 7. x-box or playstation: i always liked playstation better but i dont have a reason?? 8. dragon age or mass effect: are these games that i dont get 9. night owl or early riser: night owl 10. cards or chess: cards 11. chocolate or vanilla: vanilla 12. vans or converse: vans (i have neither but i guess yeah) 13. Lavellan, Trevelyan, Cadash, or Adaar: ??? 14. fluff or angst: i can write angst but i’d rather read fluff 15. beach or forest: forest 16. dogs or cats: dogs 17. clear skies or rain: clear skies during the day, rain at night 18. cooking or eating out: cooking 19. spicy food or mild food: spicy 20. halloween/samhain or solstice/yule/christmas: …. thanksgiving 21. would you rather forever be a little too cold or a little too hot: too cold 22. if you could have a superpower, what would it be: superserum i think, or speed like barry 23. animation or live action: live action (i dont trust new animated movies) 24. paragon or renegade: ???? 25. baths or showers: showers 26. team cap or team ironman: team cap !!! 27. fantasy or sci-fi: im leaning towards sci fi but i feel like fantasy and sci fi are so fucking similar that sci fi could be a subcategory of fantasy 28. do you have three or four favourite quotes, if so what are they: okay well prolly anything about cevans has ever said is prolly my fav but um: “When people say life is short its not its not, its not. We make it short because we are very preoccupied, with ya know, we spend a lot of time worrying about the past and we spend a lot of time analyzing the future. Before you know it time goes by.” - cevans ”Had a fourth iced coffee today, I didn’t want to but I did” - sebstan ”With out art the earth is just eh” & “do not go gentle into that good night” i also love anything disney tbh 29. youtube or netflix: netflix 30. harry potter or percy jackson: harry potter (cause ive never seen percy jackson besides in 10th grade english) 31. when you feel accomplished: lmao when a gifset gets 1k+ 32. star wars or star trek: star wars !!!!!!! 33. paperback books or hardback books: paperback 34. horror or rom-com: rom-com 35. tv shows or movies: tv shows (even if all my favs are movie actors) 36. favorite animal: dogs or polar bears 37. favorite genre of music: bahaha i guess indie 38. least favorite book: the red badge of courage... i have extreme hate for that fucking book 39. favourite season: spring 40. sparkly or shiny: shiny 41. favorite character in a tv series: MY SAD GAY SON TJ HAMMOND 42. do you have/want any tattoos and if you do, what are they?: i dont have one but i want like 4... i want the tree of life from animal kingdom with the quote we are one underneath it, an aries constellation, a mountain range, and my dads signature from his drawings 43. If you could only eat one type of food for the rest of your life, what would it be?: if id never get sick of it... prolly mexican or thai food. 44. If you had to wake up one day, magically knowing how to do something you didn’t know how to the day before, what would it be? how to adult tbh, its too stressful

both of my loves @daddysteven & @daddybucks tagged me for this one (i cant believe how many of my friends have daddy urls but okay)

APPEARANCE:

I am 5′7″ or taller (??? i might be 5′6″)

I wear glasses

I have at least one tattoo

I have at least one piercing

I have blonde hair

I have brown eyes

I have short hair

My abs are at least somewhat defined

I have or have had braces

There is something I would change about the way I look

PERSONALITY:

My Hogwarts house is: Gryffindor Hufflepuff Ravenclaw Slytherin

I am an introvert

I like meeting new people

People tell me that I’m funny

Helping others with their problems is a big priority for me

I enjoy physical challenges

I enjoy mental challenges

I’m playfully rude with people I know well

I started saying something ironically and now I can’t stop saying it

There is something I would change about my personality

ABILITY:

I can sing well

I can play an instrument

I can do over 30 pushups without stopping

I’m a fast runner

I can draw well

I have a good memory

I’m good at doing math in my head

I can hold my breath underwater for over a minute

I have beaten at least 2 people in arm wrestling

I know how to cook at least 3 meals from scratch

I know how to throw a proper punch

HOBBIES:

I enjoy playing sports

I’m on a sports team at my school or somewhere else

I’m in an orchestra or choir at my school or somewhere else

I have learned a new song in the past week

I work out at least once a week

I’ve gone for runs at least once a week in the warmer months

I have drawn something in the past month

I enjoy writing

Fandoms are my #1 passion

I do or have done martial arts

EXPERIENCES:

I have had my first kiss

I have had alcohol

I have scored the winning goal in a sports game

I have watched an entire season of a TV show in one sitting

I have been at an overnight event

I have been in a taxi

I have been in the hospital or ER in the past year

I have beaten a video game in one day

I have visited another country

I have been to one of my favourite band’s concerts

RELATIONSHIP:

I’m in a relationship

I have a celebrity crush

I have a crush on someone I know

I have been in at least 3 relationships

I have never been in a relationship

I have asked someone out or admitted my feelings to them

I get crushes easily

I have had a crush on someone for over a year

I have been in a relationship for at least a year

I have had feelings for a friend

MY LIFE:

I have at least one person I consider a “best friend”

I live close to my school

My parents are still together

I have at least one sibling

I live in the United States

There is snow right now where I live

I have hung out with a friend outside of school in the past month

I have a smartphone

I have at least 15 CDs

I share my room with someone

RANDOM SHIT:

I have breakdanced

I know a person named Jamie

I have had a teacher with a last name that’s hard to pronounce

I have dyed my hair

I’m listening to one song on repeat right now

I have punched someone in the past week

I know someone who has gone to jail

I have broken a bone

I have eaten a waffle today (fuck i wish i did)

I know what I want to do with my life

I speak at least 2 languages fluently

I have made a new friend in the past year (ya im talking bout yall)

i was tagged by @officialhermionegranger

Name — natalie Nicknames — nat Zodiac Sign — aries Height — 5′6″ or 5′7″ not entirely sure Hogwarts House — slytherin Ethnicity — caucassian Favorite Fruit — blueberries Favorite Season — spring Favorite Book(s) — perks of being a wallflower & yes please Favorite Flower — does lavender count? Favorite Scent — waterfall or forest smells Favorite Color — green (but like an earthy/army green) Favorite Animal — dogs or polar bears Favorite Bands/Singers — probs hozier, ed sheeran, and ill always love 1d Average Sleep Hours — somewhere between 4 and 8.... so i guess 6 Favorite Fictional Character(s) — steve rogers, barry allen, lorelai gilmore, rey, nala Dream Trip — alaska to see the northern lights and go dog sleeding Blog Created — this one.... fuck march 2016 (guys ive had this blog for almost a year now wtf) Number of Followers — 2366 (i havent been making shit lately) What Made You Decide To Make a Tumblr — like in the beginning??? i have no fucking idea why 2010 nat made her first tumblr, but this one because i was spamming my aesthetic blog with star wars and x files so i made this blog and now a year later im chris evans trash ..

#these were so long #but im such a hoe for talking about myself i fucking had to #about me #nat does tag games

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newnormalhq-blog · 8 years ago

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RANDOM PAIRINGS UNDER THE CUT!

Hey there, everyone! As promised, under the cut are your random thread pairings, and prompts to go along with them! If you have any questions or anything needs to be changed, please, feel free to let the admin team know, and we’ll work things out.

For now, enjoy!

UPDATE: Wanda Maximoff is now paired with Laura Kinney, and America Chavez is now paired with Kitty Pryde!

DAMIAN WAYNE + KAREN PAGE

God, he seems so young to be out on his own, doesn’t he? And with all the people around him in that alleyway, moaning and groaning in and various states of disarray, what kind of person would Karen be if she didn’t stop and help?

TJ WAGNER + FELICIA HARDY

Turned around and totally lost in a new city—a new universe, even—TJ finds herself in a seedier part of town. In comes Felicia, the night’s bounty in hand, and immediately, TJ feels like there’s something off. Two of them, alone, on a darkened street, in a shady part of town? Nothing could go wrong.

SELINA KYLE + CLINT BARTON

After spending yet another night in Stark Tower, Selina runs into Clint. Immediately interested by his bow and arrows, she makes it her goal to get Clint to be her friend—if only to steal a few of those trick arrows for herself. Just for fun.

HARVEY DENT + JAMES RHODES

Harvey isn’t very good with machines, but seeing the man struggling, he’s going to do his best to help out—unfortunately for Rhodey, that might not end up going exactly as planned.

BARRY ALLEN + JUNE MOONE

June is sketching in the park when, before she could even realize what was happening, there’s a man standing in front of her with a coffee cup dangerously close to slipping out of his hand and onto her paper. It’s a close call, and she’s about to say excuse me, when, of course, someone bumps Barry’s arm, and suddenly, there’s coffee everywhere.

DICK GRAYSON + BOBBI MORSE

A joint investigation with the SCPD and SHIELD should be smooth sailing, but for the life of them, these two just can’t seem to get on the same page about the Genovese case. It’s not going to be long before they start exchanging blows in the conference room.

STEPHANIE BROWN + CASSIE LANG

Concerts are fun, they certainly aren’t as fun when you’re alone—needing a break from the constant shoving of the crowd, the girls bump into each other when they go outside for a break.

JASON TODD + KATE BISHOP

Pfft. He’s seen better. She’s not even as cute as Roy—and he’s going to be sure to let Kate know of that fact. Even if they are in the middle of fighting some baddies.

FRANK CASTLE + JAIME REYES

Frank is dealing with a broken down car, and he’s supposed to be getting somewhere in a hurry—thankfully, Jaime is around to help him out. The only problem is that if Frank isn’t exactly where he needs to be in 15 minutes, he’s missing out on his only shot to get....whatever it is he needs to do, done.

HOWARD REYES + (TIME-DISPLACED) WARREN WORTHINGTON

Picking pockets is easy, but when Howie slips slightly and brushes up against Warren’s back, things get a whole lot more interesting. Of course, he steals the wallet anyway—Warren, noticing it before it’s too late, takes off after him to get his wallet back.

PEPPER POTTS + SARA LANCE

Pepper is no stranger to danger, not when she’s spent so much time close to Tony Stark, but assassins are a little bit different. Sara, knowing that these people are after her, refuses to let anything happen to Pepper—but that easier said than done.

LAURA KINNEY + WANDA MAXIMOFF

It’s less than easy being a mutant in this city, that much is for sure. Anti-mutant protests have been springing up all over the city, and while the number of them have been declining lately, that doesn’t make them any less terrifying when they crop up. Wanda just wants to keep walking—Laura looks ready to get in a fight.

BARBARA GORDON + JONNY FROST

Jim told Jonny to leave his daughter out of it—but honestly, Jonny’s never been good at following the rules. Surprisingly, however, he’s helpful and kind to Barbara, if only to further his own agenda.

BILLY BATSON + IRIS WEST

Working on the easy stories has never been Iris’ forte, and the current story she’s working on is about the ban—and while searching for sources, she quite literally stumbles upon the best source possible. How could she write a story on heroes without input from a hero himself?

NYSSA AL GHUL + ERIK LEHNSHERR

Nyssa is finding more and more that coming here to get Sara might not have been the best plan—and she’s searching the city for something, anything, any source of inspiration to make things click together. Erik isn’t one to pry, but a woman dressed as an assassin certainly seems like someone worth investigating.

WINN SCHOTT + KAROLINA DEAN

Winn is used to being the one being saved (a side effect of being a civilian in this city) but when the girl who’s saving him looks like she’s made of literal rainbows, well—he can’t help but feel a little ridiculous.

KURT WAGNER + DIANA PRINCE

Kurt is blue, and that can get difficult to deal with—especially when he walks out of a building to see a group of anti-mutant protestors he has to push through. Diana, noticing his apprehension, decides to help as best she can, but the protestors aren’t so willing to just let them pass.

VIV VISION + DANIEL RAND-KAI

Viv isn’t particularly fazed by people being unkind to her but Daniel, upon witnessing the scene, is furious. He decides to step in.

BUCKY BARNES + TIM DRAKE

Bucky’s arm isn’t working, and he’s shit out of luck. Tim thinks he can fix it, but Bucky is wary to say the least—but the way his arm is glitching, well. Bucky can’t decide what he’s more nervous about.

ROY HARPER + TONY STARK

Tony gave his boyfriend a goddamn dog, and Roy still hasn’t met him. He decides that needs to change.

PIETRO MAXIMOFF + JAINA HUDSON

The White Rabbit is fast—but Quicksilver is faster. Whatever the hell got these two into a disagreement, everyone else better steer clear.

PETER PARKER + TOMMY SHEPHERD

It’s midterms season, which means cramming for these two—after chugging about four energy drinks each, however, they’re bouncing off the walls. Now, Tommy is trying to convince Peter that they should suit up—what’s the worst that could happen?

KITTY PRYDE + AMERICA CHAVEZ

Of course, the one day it rains in Star City, it pours. And of course, that’s the day America and Kitty forget their umbrellas, leaving them stuck inside a large store. They’re wandering the aisles when the power goes out—leaving them in the pitch black.

JESSE CHAMBERS + ROSEMARY ATKINSON

Studying for midterms is stressful—but at least it’s a little less stressful in a pastry shop. After noticing Jesse sitting in the corner poring over her textbook for hours on end, Rosemary decides to give the girl a reason to take a study break—a cupcake and a quick distraction.

JUBILATION LEE + SAM WILSON

After everything that happened with the man who tried to kill her, Jubilee is a little jumpy—which is more than fair. Sam, leaving his office, notices that the young woman seems a little agitated, and tries to help as best he can.

ADALINE LANGSTON + CASSANDRA CAIN

Cass accidentally let Alfred the cat out of the manor—it was definitely an accident, obviously, but she also obviously cannot let Damian find out. Adaline is looking for the owner of a cat she found, but Cass can’t quite tell if that cat is Damian’s cat—and she knows bringing home another cat would be even worse than just losing the cat.

KORIAND’R + DAISY JOHNSON

Daisy just needs a drink—and thankfully, the bar is empty. Kory is more than happy to just spend some time talking to the other woman, but when a group of rowdy drunkards walk in, their quiet time is heavily disrupted.

JOKER + JIM GORDON

My, my, Jimmy! You can’t drag in Jonny-Jonny and hold him for hours and hours and expect to get out of it without any commotion!

JAMIE-DEAN ATON + NATASHA ROMANOFF

Natasha has seen that look before. Something with JD feels off, but she can’t quite place what it is. However, Natasha isn’t one to leave a mystery unsolved—so, while she’s talking to him, she’s trying to do a little digging, too.

ROBBIE REYES + JESSICA JONES

Bar fights seem to be Jessica’s scene lately, and Robbie just knows that he wants no part of it—somehow, he gets dragged in, anyway. After everything is over, they have to deal with the carnage before the cops show up.

CHRIS KENT + MON-EL

It’s always strange to meet someone who’s like you, especially when you’re an alien in a sea of humans. It’s even stranger when Mon-El know who Chris is, but not the other way around.

ZATANNA ZATARA + DODGER

Dodger knows of someone who has an artifact that Zatanna is after—and while he’s willing to sell, he’s only willing to sell to Dodger. Now, Zatanna has to convince him to do this, but it doesn’t look like there’s anything in it for him. Zatanna has to convince him.

HARLEEN QUINZEL + KATIE POWER

Hunky-Dory is missing! Harley is sure he’ll come back, but still, enlisting some help on the way, she’s hunting through the streets to find him.

GABRIEL SUMMERS + WADE WILSON

Yikes, Gabriel has a kid? Oh boy, Wade knows that he should probably steer clear, but something about the guy looks familiar—he can’t help but get closer to get a better look at the father and son.

SHARON CARTER + ANNA MARIE

Sharon can take care of herself, she knows that, but Star City is far from safe at night. It’s definitely a relief to know that Anna Marie is in the same boat—and she won’t have to walk home alone.

HOWARD STARK + HOLLY ROBINSON

Holly isn’t known for being particularly patient with people who don’t seem to show her respect—and she’s fairly sure that Howard is just about the worst person she’s met in a long, long time in that regard.

STEVE ROGERS + SCOTT SUMMERS

Laser eyes—at least, what he assumes are laser eyes—are a new one, but Steve takes it in stride, using his shield to deflect the beams before any damage could be done. But why is this kid using his power on Steve—what could he have done to make it necessary?

#newnadmin #dc rp #comic rp #marvel rp #crossover rp #random pairing #admin spike

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aastralfox · 8 years ago

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seven

Allenbert Week Day 2: hogwarts au (two days late but eh >.>;;)

Now that Julian thought about it, Barry Allen was trying to woo him for seven years.

Well, maybe the word ‎'woo' was a bit strong. After all, they both met when they were only eleven. The first time Julian saw Barry was when he was sorted. The hat stayed on his head for less than a second before 'Hufflepuff' was bellowed out over the crowd.

The second time was a few days later. He bounced in, a swirl of yellow and black, sticking out in the sea of red and gold that was the Gryffindor table. He squeezed himself in next to the girl who was - as Julian would later learn - his adoptive sister, blatantly ignoring protocol.

"‎You're to sit with your house for meals," Julian intoned from across the table. Barry craned his neck over to where his house mates were, across the Great Hall. He smiled and gave a wave to the ones who looked back before he turned to Iris again.

"You're supposed to,” Barry admitted, thoughtfully. “But there's nothing wrong with making friends, is there?"

Iris leveled a flat stare across the table at Julian. Her expression shifted into a congenial one as she turned back to Barry and patted his arm. "You can sit with me, Bear. I don't mind. Does anyone else?"

The rest of the table was too busy stuffing their respective faces to answer. Julian only tightened his jaw and narrowed his eyes.

***

“Allen,” the Potion’s professor’s voice rang out, echoing off the damp stone walls.

Barry shrunk at the sound, trying to look small and failing. It was their second year and Barry was already into that awkward phase where he hadn’t quite yet figured out what to do with his longer limbs, save for knocking into things.

“Late again, I see. Ten points from Hufflepuff.”

“Okay but this time I have a reason,” Barry protested, over the disappointed noises of his fellow Hufflepuffs. “There was this cat in the hall tha--”

“I don’t care to hear your excuses, Allen. Kindly make your way to your seat and get to work.”

Julian directed his attention back down to his potions text, a smirk playing on his lips.

Barry shuffled into his assigned seat beside him. “You don’t have to look so happy about it,” he groused.

“Of course I’m happy. And with enough jeers from your house mates you’ll finally get your act together and be able to make it somewhere on time for once in your life.”

Barry sent another resentful look in Julian’s direction as he kicked his bag under the desk. He paused for a moment to wave at Cisco and Caitlin. The pair were seated in the desk beside them, both garbed in Ravenclaw blue.

"Yeah, about the whole ‘friends’ thing. I bet you'd be a nicer if you actually had a few," Barry retorted.

"I have friends and I don't need yours. Or your pity," Julian hissed.

Barry eyed the nearly-tied red and gold silk of Julian’s necktie. "You sure you were sorted into the right house? You definitely have that Slytherin attitude."

Julian bristled. "Says the person who was sorted into the house that stands for nothing."

"It stands for loyalty!" Barry responded, a bit too loudly. He dipped his head as the professor's eyes landed on him yet again. "Sorry, sorry." He snatched the wormroot they were supposed to be working with, cutting into it sullenly.

The rest of the class went by smoothly enough. Julian ignored the nasty looks each time he picked through Barry’s work, tossing out the ingredients that Barry had worked in which weren’t quite up to his standard, replacing it with his own meticulous preparations. Soon enough, the potion glowed a pale pink. It smelled of roses, cake and cherries.

Barry dipped his finger into it idly. "The offer still stands," he murmured, softly. Julian looked over in bafflement and Barry clarified, "If you wanted to join us tomorrow."

"I've more productive things to do than join you and your friends on your little picnic excursion by the lake. Thanks."

Barry rolled his eyes, no doubt wondering why he bothered. "Fine. Your loss, Julian."

***

By their third year, Barry had made Hufflepuff’s Quidditch team. Caitlin had made it her personal mission to drag Julian out to every event. Iris helped, of course. Julian wasn’t quite sure when Barry’s friends had become his friends, but they had, and so here he was, flanked by Iris on one side and her first-year brother Wally on the other. Julian wasn’t escaping.

It was Hufflepuff versus Slytherin on the pitch. While the Ravenclaw loyalties were split between the two teams, depending on who had friends where, the rivalry between the Gryffindors and Slytherins were too strong for the Gryffindors to not universally band against the Slytherins.

Honestly, it was just loud and headache-inducing.

And what was Barry Allen doing flying upside-down?

Across the pitch Julian could see Caitlin and Cisco rising in the stands to cheer each time Barry scored a goal. Julian might not have particularly liked Allen, even now, but even he could admit that the boy had talent as a chaser. Every flip and twirl was carefully executed. Barry rolled away from bludgers flying at his head and wove through the enemy defenses, little more than a flash of colour.

The game was close. The Slytherin team was aggressive, upping their defense and quickly closing the gap as their chasers scored goal after goal. The Hufflepuff keeper suffered a blow to the head and the shaky goaltending allowed a few extra Quaffles to sneak past.

Near game’s end, the Slytherin team was ahead by ten points. It ended gloriously for the Hufflepuff team when the the Hufflepuff chaser - one Eddie Thawne - secured the snitch.

Julian stumbled from the stands after Iris, nearly half-deaf. She abandoned him in favour of crushing Barry into a hug when she finally reached him. “You were amazing out there!”

“Hah. Thanks,” Barry returned the gesture with a breathless laugh.

“Well, don’t think I’m going to take it easy on you when Hufflepuff plays against Gryffindor. You’re going to have to work for every goal.” Iris, like Joe before her, was a keeper, and perhaps one of the best Gryffindor had ever seen.

“I look forward to it,” Barry said, with a grin.

Eddie took the chance to squeeze in by them, presenting the Snitch to Iris with a sweeping bow. “Milady.” Iris snorted but accepted it anyway, with a small smile.

“Damn, Barr. You’ve been holding out on me,” Wally commented. “When you gonna teach me to fly like that?”

Barry laughed. “Later, I promise.” Barry looked past Wally, directing the full force of his smile at Julian. “What did you think?’

“Of you?”

“Of the game, actually, but why not both?”

Julian struggled not to smile. Barry Allen’s sunshine attitude was as infectious as it was irritating. Apparently three years weren’t enough to make himself immune. “You weren’t...terrible.”

The smile brightened impossibly further. “I got mad skills.”

“Please don’t ever say that again,” Julian, Iris and Eddie chimed, at once.

***

By the time Julian reached his fourth year, it was starting to become a struggle, avoiding Barry. He was just everywhere with his annoyingly cheerful smiles and bright attitude. Barry was still, always, consistently and without fail, late. He had no regard for authority and why people just let him get away with everything they did was beyond him.

It would be easy to hate him, so easy were it not for the simple fact that Barry also happened to be the single nicest person that Julian had ever met. While he wanted to label Barry as little more than an air-headed imbecile, he couldn’t do that either because, beneath the awkwardness and short attention span, he was also brilliant.

Julian was jealous, plain and simple. Jealous, and something else that he wasn’t quite ready to put a name to.

And, like the Hufflepuff that he was, Barry seemed to be a particularly good finder.

Julian huffed an irritated sigh and scowled at his unwelcome companion. Barry had found him in the library, in a small corner that Julian had thought to be a secret, until now.

“Hey.”

“Allen.”

Barry ignored the clear distaste radiating from the other boy, opting to sit down beside him nonetheless. “It’s nice here. Cozy.” It was a small alcove mostly hidden by shelves. Julian had turned it into something of a fort. Stacks of books made for makeshift walls, and a few pillows cushioned the ground.

“And too small for two people.”

“Funny, I seem to fit just fine,” Barry noted, dryly.

“Allen…”

“What happens to you?” Barry blurted out. Julian gaped.

“What?”

“Every year, it feels like I make some progress with you. That we’re starting to become friends. And then it’s summer, and when we come back you’re back to...well, you. This,” Barry gestured at him.

Julian ground his teeth, tightening his jaw as he tried to figure out which part of that statement was worth addressing. “Why?” he asked, finally. “Why are you so determined to be my friend?”

Barry shrugged a shoulder and looked away, not meeting his gaze. “I don’t know,” he murmured. “Maybe I’m just being stupid and stubborn. I just...want to get to know you. I want to help. That’s all.”

Julian took a calming breath. “What makes you so sure I need help?”

“I don’t. I’m not. Sure, that is.”Barry took a breath and looked back over at Julian. “I can just...sense it? Does that make sense? No it doesn’t,” Barry muttered to himself and rested his head against the wall, gazing blankly ahead. “Listen, I don’t know what goes on with you, and I shouldn’t have asked. Sorry. Just...remember that you don’t have to be alone here. You have friends. You might not like me but you seem to get along with Cisco and Caitlin just fine.”

Silence reigned for a moment before Barry shifted, breaking it. “I’ll, uh, leave you to it.”

“Go get your notes.”

“What was that?”

Julian looked down at the tome in his lap, running a hand over the page. “If you’re determined to bother me then at least I can make use of you. Go get your Arithmancy notes and come back.”

Barry beamed that sunshine-smile at him again, the one that did things to his stomach and his heart both. “Gotcha. Be back in a flash.”

***

He was like some character out of a fairy tale, some prince from those Muggle fantasy movies about magic. The Care of Magical Creatures class in their fifth year had quickly turned into ‘watch Barry Allen tame everything with sharp teeth and sharper claws that normally don’t like anyone or anything’.

Julian swore it was a Hufflepuff thing. They were more earth-aligned than the other houses. Herbology and the like. That was their thing. Eddie also had a way with them. But the three winged horses which surrounded Eddie were nothing compared to the rest of the herd, all of whom had flocked to Barry upon laying eyes on him.

The rest of the students carefully made their way to the remaining stragglers. Slow and steady, they were told. Approach carefully and cautiously. Respect them. Let them have their space. Let them come to you.

Well, apparently that only worked with Barry. Whenever Julian came near one, it would bolt, trotting over to join the crowd around Barry. Finally, he gave up, crossing his arms and staying near the edge of the pen, watching the rest and cataloguing behaviour for their upcoming essay.

Barry caught his gaze and grinned. Julian merely stared back, offering a small quirk of the brow.

Barry peeled away from his herd of smitten followers, bringing a Granian mare with him. “No luck?” he asked. He kept a hand on her chin, guiding her forward.

“Seems like their attention is diverted elsewhere,” Julian noted. The rest of the herd had begun to follow as well, trailing after Barry and the one mare that he had chosen to lead.

Barry laughed softly. “Here, give me your hand,” he said. He was nearly by Julian now, the winged mare dutifully in tow.

“What?”

“Did you want to pet one or not?”

“I think watching would’ve sufficed for the assignment,” Julian said. He cautiously extended his arm. Barry took his hand (and Julian studiously ignored the thump-thud of his heart) and pulled him closer to the mare. She wuffled softly, dark eyes flicking to Julian and back to Barry. “Hey. S’ok. He’s okay. Cranky sometimes, but he’s a good guy under it all,” Barry soothed.

Julian snorted, but his eyes were fixed on their joined hands. Barry stepped behind Julian, (Close! Too close!) and led him closer to the mare, setting his hand gently on her muzzle. The Granian’s muzzle felt like soft velvet under his hand, but it was the back of his hand that tingled, where Barry’s still lay against him. He could feel his warmth, seeping into his hand, and into his back from where Barry still stood, too-close behind him.

Julian coughed, shifting backward to try and break the contact and succeeded only in closing the distance between them, his back pressing against Barry’s front. For a brief moment Barry’s other hand came to rest on his hip - presumably to steady him - and Julian twitched again, stepping to the side this time, and putting some distance between himself and Barry.

“Thank you. That was. Informative,” Julian stated, shakily, before he scarpered.

“Julian?”

“Thank you!”

***

The spectacular disaster that was the Triwizard Tournament of 1994 put another halt on subsequent tournaments, calling into question the ethicality of the event as a whole. However, with the defeat of Lord Voldemort, and the general control over the matter of Dark Wizards as a whole, there were murmurs of it again returning.

In 2017, it did.

The announcement brought much excitement and fanfare. It was again being hosted at Hogwarts and while there was much debate over the validity of hosting the event at the school where it had gone so horribly wrong before, it was universally agreed upon that it would act as a collective middle finger to fate.

They were beyond those dark times. They’d risen above it, progressed past it, and they were more than able to remember the tragedies which occurred, celebrating the memory of those who were lost, while also ringing in a glorious tomorrow.

The group was now in their seventh and last year at Hogwarts, and more than eligible to participate.

Well, all but Wally, of course.

“So what? Even if I put my name in the Goblet of Fire it’s just gonna spit it back out,” Wally said.

“You’re still not putting your name in,” Iris warned, firmly.

“What? Worried I’m gonna get picked?”

“That’s exactly what I’m worried about. That and you getting blasted back a hundred feet when the goblet rejects you,” Iris chided. “Barry? A little help here?”

“Uh, yeah. I mean, it probably won’t even mat--” Iris’ glare was like pure ice and Barry quickly corrected himself. “Buuut it’s probably better if you don’t. Yknow. Do it.”

“But you’re entering,” Wally pointed out.

“Yeah! Well, I’m also of-age and allowed.”

“Sounds like fun,” Cisco said. “I’m in.”

“Cisco. People die in these things,” Caitlin pointed out, softly.

“Yeah but there’s supposed to be all these new precautions in place. Hey, Julian? You entering?”

“Already have,” Julian said, with a grin.

“Oh c’mon, we were supposed to drop out names in together.”

“I wasn’t told that,” Julian responded.

“He wasn’t. Cisco just came up with that,” Barry said, smiling at Julian and then looking back at Cisco.

The chatter went on. Cisco, Iris, Barry and Eddie all dropped their names into the Goblet. Caitlin refrained, vowing instead to make sure to ‘patch them all up’ if any of them were picked (and subsequently injured).

They huddled together in the Great Hall on the night of the Champion Selection. Julian felt something twist in his gut as he looked over at Barry. Not the usual flutter-twist sensation that he got whenever he looked at him - which was getting really irritating by the way - but a different twist. A nauseated one.

The hall was a crowded mess as students from all three schools trooped in. They jostled around, squeezing together, making room for everyone on the bench. Julian’s shoulder was pressed up against Barry’s. Caitlin was at his other side.

The headmistress drew the first name. “The Durmstrang Champion...Oliver Queen!”

Julian didn’t listen to the name. He was more fixed on that feeling in his gut.

The second name was spat out from the Goblet. “The Beauxbatons Champion is… Kara Danvers!”

Everyone held their breath for the third. “And! The Hogwarts Champion is….Barry Allen!”

Oh. Of course it was him.

So that’s what the feeling was about.

Of course Barry participated - with zeal, happy to carry both school and house pride - and of course he got hurt. It was a Beauxbatons win during the first Trial, but just barely. All three Champions trooped out of the Forbidden Forest, sporting varying degrees of injuries. Sure, there were precautions in place to prevent deaths. But as is the case even with basic wizarding classes, there wasn’t any amount of anything that could prevent a person from getting hurt.

Julian visited, while Barry was healing up in the infirmary. They all visited, but by some, unspoken agreement between the group, Julian was often left to sit vigil at Barry’s bedside on his own.

“You don’t have to look so worried,” Barry said, gently. “I heal fast.”

Julian started. “I didn’t realize you were awake.”

“Just woke up.” Barry shifted and winced.

“Don’t move. Did you need water?”

“I’m good.” Barry settled back down and turned his head, watching Julian for a long moment. “Didn’t expect you to be here.”

“Where did you expect me to be?”

“Dunno,” Barry said. “Not here?”

“Funny.”

“I know,” Barry said, with a dopey, lopsided smile. “I’m glad you are though. Here, that is.” he added.

Julian’s heart did a jump and he scowled internally. This crush was getting out of hand and while, yes, he was ready - after literal years - to acknowledge that this was a crush, it was no less bothersome to deal with.

The younger him might’ve been onto something with the whole idea of applying distance. It didn’t work, and wouldn’t in the future - not with Barry being Barry all the time - but he was onto something.

“You are?” Julian asked.

“Yeah.” Barry closed his eyes, smiling. “It’s nice, having you around. Well...when you’re not being a butt,” he added, carefully.

“Sorry. That’s more or less my default personality. You’re going to have to get used to it.”

“Mm...s’not though,” Barry murmured. He blinked at him before clarifying. “You care. A lot. And that scares you. Because you’ll do anything for the people who you care about, right? Your sister? Emma’s starting Hogwarts next year isn't she?”

Julian frowned. Barry’s thoughts were coming out in a disjointed fashion, which added to the confusion. Though, the real question here was how. “How did you-?”

“Know?” Barry finished. “Sorry. Wasn’t looking into you or anything but. I heard. Things. Your family’s crazy rich, right? Must be hard, living up to that reputation. That’s part of your deal, isn’t it?”

“Barry…”

“It’s okay. You’re brave. You’re a Gryff, after all.” Barry laughed and winced when a spasm pulled at still-sore limbs.

"Easy," Julian murmured, setting a hand on Barry's uninjured shoulder to still him. "Just res--"

Barry took his hand in one of his own. ‎"You were worried about me," he observed.

As was the case with the pegasi of last year, Julian was reduced to staring at their hands. "‎I was," he admitted, because he was a Gryffindor and he was supposed to be brave.

"You were sorted right," Barry murmured. "I didn't see it right away. Guess that's why they let the hat do the sorting, huh?"

Julian shook his head. He needed to get this conversation back on track. "You need to be careful. You still have two Trials left. You can't bring the Cup to Hogwarts of you exhaust yourself."

"Yeah. Next one's supposed to be in the air. Somehow. I got a weird clue from the box we were supposed to find," he said. Barry shook his head. "Good thing I'm a fast flyer, huh? Have to plan for that...but, I gotta say, I'm also planning for other things as well."

"Such as?"

"Such as the Yule Ball and who I'm going to take. Champions have to bring a partner," Barry informed.

Julian's chest supplied him with that helpful gut-punch feeling. Thanks. "Yes, well, I'm sure the ladies and gentlemen of Hogwarts are all lining up for you."

Barry had the decency to blush. "Well..."

"Anyone would be lucky to go with you," Julian said. And if he sounded a fraction bitter, it was because he was.

"Anyone?"

There was something in Barry's tone that made Julian think that he'd just walked into a trap. "Er. Yes?"

The smile confirmed it. Definitely a trap.

"Okay. Be my date then."

Julian stared for a moment before he pinched the bridge of his nose with his free hand. “That isn’t funny.” He sounded annoyed enough, despite the fact that his heartbeat had sped up to something alarming.

“Did you think I was joking?” Barry’s tone changed, dipping lower, more somber. “Hey, remember when you asked me why I wanted to be your friend so badly?”

“That was almost four years ago!”

“Yeah, and I have an answer for you now. I like you, Julian. I wanted to get to know you, to get close to you.”

“And you realized this just now?”

Barry shook his head. “No, I knew I liked you liked you for a couple years now. I didn’t say anything until now because...well, I didn’t know how.” He laughed once. “It still didn’t come out quite right, did it? But...I needed to say something. I guess nearly getting crushed by a troll changes your perspective on things.” Barry said. Julian remembered the winged horse and the soft touch on his waist. Barry squeezed his hand and Julian realized that he was still holding it.

“If that was what it took then I would’ve dropped one on your years ago,” Julian mused. He shifted his grip, threading their fingers together in wonderment.

“So that’s a yes?”

“Hm?”

“Yule Ball. With me.”

Julian laughed, rising from his chair to press a kiss to Barry’s cheek. “Yeah. It’s a yes.”

Barry’s shoulders sagged in relief. “Good. Not sure what I’d have done if you’d said ‘no’.”

Julian chuckled softly. “Knowing you? You’d have annoyed me and pestered me until I agreed to go out with you.”

“Well, to be fair, it’s how I got you to be my friend the first time.”

“Yeah, it was.” Because, now that Julian thought about it, Barry Allen was trying to woo him for seven years.

#allenbert #allenbertweek2017 #day two: hogwarts au #fox's writings #days late but I had enough written that I wanted to post anyway #Barry as a Hufflepuff is a headcanon you'll have to pry out of my cold dead hands

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starcityhq · 8 years ago

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RANDOM PAIRINGS UNDER THE CUT!

For now, enjoy!

UPDATE: Wanda Maximoff is now paired with Laura Kinney, and America Chavez is now paired with Kitty Pryde!

DAMIAN WAYNE + KAREN PAGE

TJ WAGNER + FELICIA HARDY

SELINA KYLE + CLINT BARTON

HARVEY DENT + JAMES RHODES

Harvey isn’t very good with machines, but seeing the man struggling, he’s going to do his best to help out—unfortunately for Rhodey, that might not end up going exactly as planned.

BARRY ALLEN + JUNE MOONE

DICK GRAYSON + BOBBI MORSE

STEPHANIE BROWN + CASSIE LANG

Concerts are fun, they certainly aren’t as fun when you’re alone—needing a break from the constant shoving of the crowd, the girls bump into each other when they go outside for a break.

JASON TODD + KATE BISHOP

Pfft. He’s seen better. She’s not even as cute as Roy—and he’s going to be sure to let Kate know of that fact. Even if they are in the middle of fighting some baddies.

FRANK CASTLE + JAIME REYES

HOWARD REYES + (TIME-DISPLACED) WARREN WORTHINGTON

PEPPER POTTS + SARA LANCE

LAURA KINNEY + WANDA MAXIMOFF

BARBARA GORDON + JONNY FROST

BILLY BATSON + IRIS WEST

NYSSA AL GHUL + ERIK LEHNSHERR

WINN SCHOTT + KAROLINA DEAN

KURT WAGNER + DIANA PRINCE

VIV VISION + DANIEL RAND-KAI

Viv isn’t particularly fazed by people being unkind to her but Daniel, upon witnessing the scene, is furious. He decides to step in.

BUCKY BARNES + TIM DRAKE

ROY HARPER + TONY STARK

Tony gave his boyfriend a goddamn dog, and Roy still hasn’t met him. He decides that needs to change.

PIETRO MAXIMOFF + JAINA HUDSON

The White Rabbit is fast—but Quicksilver is faster. Whatever the hell got these two into a disagreement, everyone else better steer clear.

PETER PARKER + TOMMY SHEPHERD

KITTY PRYDE + AMERICA CHAVEZ

JESSE CHAMBERS + ROSEMARY ATKINSON

JUBILATION LEE + SAM WILSON

ADALINE LANGSTON + CASSANDRA CAIN

KORIAND’R + DAISY JOHNSON

JOKER + JIM GORDON

My, my, Jimmy! You can’t drag in Jonny-Jonny and hold him for hours and hours and expect to get out of it without any commotion!

JAMIE-DEAN ATON + NATASHA ROMANOFF

ROBBIE REYES + JESSICA JONES

CHRIS KENT + MON-EL

It’s always strange to meet someone who’s like you, especially when you’re an alien in a sea of humans. It’s even stranger when Mon-El know who Chris is, but not the other way around.

ZATANNA ZATARA + DODGER

HARLEEN QUINZEL + KATIE POWER

Hunky-Dory is missing! Harley is sure he’ll come back, but still, enlisting some help on the way, she’s hunting through the streets to find him.

GABRIEL SUMMERS + WADE WILSON

SHARON CARTER + ANNA MARIE

HOWARD STARK + HOLLY ROBINSON

STEVE ROGERS + SCOTT SUMMERS

#starctask #admin spike #starcadmin

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robininthelabyrinth · 7 years ago

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Unexpected Development - Chapter 8

Fic: Unexpected Development - Chapter 8 (AO3 Link)

Fandom: Flash Pairing: Mick/Len/Barry, Mick/Len (associated Mick/Barry, Barry/Len) Chapter 8 for Unexpected Development (Len)

Summary: “Sorry, kid,” Len says, sounding – and likely even being, knowing Len – sincere. “We gotta run, and it looks like you’re coming with us for a bit.”

“Oh crap,” the kid (Barry Allen, he said his name was) says.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Can you disarm the bombs in this area?” Len asks Charlie, nimbly evading the way Charlie keeps reaching out for his arm like he wants to link hands together. Like they’re on some sort of date.

Which – maybe in Charlie’s dreams. No way.

“I can do that for you, Len,” Charlie says, eyes shining.

“Good,” Len says. “I’ll go disarm the rest of ‘em in this area, tell the boys I’m double-checking them or something, and then I’ll –” ditch the hell out of you “– see what to do next.”

Charlie pouts. “I worry about you sometimes, Len,” he says. “You work too hard. Too much stress.”

“I thought you were supposed to stress meat,” Len says, because he can’t help himself sometimes.

“Only after it’s been prepared,” Charlie says indulgently. “See, this is why I like you so much – maybe we can discuss it at length later –”

Yeah, no.

Len makes his excuses to Charlie and then double-times it through his set of bombs – it takes barely any time at all, the bombs being almost pathetically easy to defuse – then head westward. He’s certain that Mick can keep an eye on Allen and Allen had definitely seemed smart enough to handle a few bombs; between the two of them, he can trust that that section will be handled, and Charlie – well, he doesn’t have to like Charlie to admit that, cannibalistic instincts aside, Charlie’s not totally incompetent. He’s certainly capable of handling the bombs, and he has no reason to double-cross Len.

Besides, Charlie knows how Len deals with people who double-cross him. He wouldn’t dare.

At any rate, the bombs are even more stupidly made than he’d hoped they might be. It has to be a Flash trap: even if the Flash wasn’t particularly expert with bomb defusing techniques, a voice in his ear could walk him through the basics - sure, there's a whole lot of them, but he could disable them all if he ran at top speed, or maybe a little faster, which fits in with Len's theory about it being about getting the Flash to go faster.

Len wonders for a moment how Mr. Banana knows that the Flash would have access to someone with the right expertise. Well, they probably went up against each other and Flash talked to his earpiece the way he had the first time Len had fought him, but bomb-defusing experience seems like a specialization that you wouldn’t think a hero would necessarily think to have on his team. As quick as the Flash is, Mr. Banana’s left him a hell of a short time frame to find an expert if he didn’t already have one.

Something to think about.

Now, however, is not the time to consider such questions. Len’s got a city to keep intact.

After all, this is his city.

The good part about the tunnels on the west side of the highway is that they extend out from where the raised central portion of the highway, under the mostly deserted slum buildings just adjacent to it. The tunnels go up until they’re basically nearly at surface level, under the highway and next to the buildings, so a bombing here would be bad but not catastrophic – far fewer structural supports to knock down.

Still, he’ll be damned if a single squatter loses his life to some stupid hero-obsessed villain. Not while Len’s around, no sir.

He makes it to the tunnels, which are already deserted – the people assigned to come here have already planted their bombs and gotten the hell out of dodge, which is fair – and he’s listening to the countdown clock in his head that tells him he has plenty of time, but he barely takes two steps into the main space when there’s a gigantic boom like thunder and he’s suddenly thrown back against the wall.

Ouch.

Okay, when did he end up lying on the floor? He doesn’t even remember that happening.

Len’s head hurts, and there’s dust everywhere. He’s a bit dazed, but not nauseous, which at least means he’s not concussed.

What just happened?

That couldn’t have been a bomb going off already: there was no heat. He's been Mick's partner long enough to know that much about explosions.

And also…

“I tawt I saw a puddy cat,” he says, blinking concrete dust out of his eyes and absolutely mangling the impression. “Or at least I think I saw Tweety Bird.”

He pushes himself up on his elbows painfully and sits up.

Len’s not in the tunnels anymore; or rather, one of the tunnels is now open to the sky, but not because of the dead bombs that lie scattered on the ground. And they are quite certainly dead, he can see that; these bombs have been ripped apart and their pieces scattered everywhere. They’re never going to grow up to be nice big explosions, and won’t Mick be sad about that? But they definitely aren’t the reason that there was now a big hole in the wall under the highway, letting the evening light – half fading sunlight, half glowing streetlights – shine in.

There’s another cause for that.

Len’s never actually seen Mr. Banana before, but there’s no doubt that the man standing before him, vibrating so fast that the air around him shivers like an optical illusion, is the one.

“Holy crap –” Len says.

Mr. Banana raises his head proudly and smirks.

“– that is the ugliest shade of yellow I’ve ever seen,” Len concludes.

Mr. Banana looks taken aback.

But seriously, damn. Tweety Bird would be ashamed to be associated with that color. Big Bird would teach the audience a very special lesson about embarrassment just to cover it. The Teletubbies would think it a step too far.

Len’s still a bit iffy on the whole ‘Mr. Banana’ name, but he’s got to admit that he can see the basis. He’d shoot him with the cold gun just on principle, except that it’s lying halfway across the street.

Len twitches a foot.

Looks like he's somehow got no other guns, either: not the spare he’d tucked in the small of his back or the secondary one strapped onto his ankle. Mr. Banana must have grabbed them when he’d rammed himself thought the tunnel wall like a human-sized super-fast sledgehammer and then threw Len across the room.

Probably doesn’t want Len interrupting him in the middle of his carefully planned out solo number. Len gets that.

Doesn’t mean he has to like it when it’s being done to him, but, well, he gets it.

Evil Overlord rules, you know.

(If Mick didn't want him to quote them, he shouldn't have given Len a copy for his birthday this year.)

“Well, well, Mr. Snart,” Mr. Banana says. His voice reverberates strangely. Vibrating his vocal cords, the way the Flash tried to do early on and then just sort of gave up on. Kind of adorable, actually. This guy clearly has more practice. “You have been an admirable enemy –”

“Have we even met?” Len asks, reaching for his pocket.

Mr. Banana smirks. “You don’t know me,” he says. “But I know you. I’ve seen the work you’ve been doing so far, and you've become quite an impressive adversary for the Flash despite not having any powers of your own."

Gee, thanks. Always nice to meet a fan.

"Unfortunately," Mr. Banana continues, lengthening his syllables into a disdainful drawl which is clearly ripped off from Len, "there’s a risk that you’ll interfere with my plans with the Flash, and that’s – what are you doing?”

“Texting,” Len says, typing on the phone he’s just pulled out. “Obviously.”

“What?!”

“I know, I know, I’m a bit old to be a millennial, right?”

“Put that away and listen to me!”

“Sure, mom,” Len says, clicking send.

There’s a burst of lightning.

Len blinks at the space where his phone was. His poor phone is currently being crushed to death in Mr. Banana’s hands. Mr. Banana’s mask is doing a poor job of hiding his irritation.

Len shrugs and pulls out another one.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Mr. Banana says with disgust.

Len holds up the phone and sets it to record. “Wait, lemme get a pic before you destroy this one,” he says. “Don’t worry, feel free to monologue; I swear I’m listening.”

Mr. Banana seems to be contemplating destroying Len's phone again, and possibly adding some pain for Len into the mix in the process; he crosses his arms and glares death at Len as he considers how bad the pain's going to be.

“Lemme guess,” Len drawls, intimately familiar with how to distract people in that sort of mood. “‘Put that phone away this instant, young man, or I’ll kill you even more dead than I was already planning to?’”

Mr. Banana struggles with rage for a moment – his eyes do this thing where they glow even more red and start crackling with sparks of lightning a bit, very Sith-lord – before he manages to rein it and smirk.

“I suppose you have a point,” he says agreeably, in the way rich people do when they think they have the upper hand and decide that they’re going to be all generous about it, just to rub it in.

If he survives, Len is going to find this asshole’s house and rob it, just out of spite.

It can’t be that hard to find. Look at this guy’s preferred color scheme! Definitely one in a million – his house has got to be the most garish collection of no-taste rich-guy stuff imaginable.

Len bets he has a chandelier.

Len's totally going to Phantom of the Opera the shit out of it.

“So, what’ve I been doing that’s been pissing you off so much?” Len asks. “Sorry, I wasn’t actually listening earlier.”

That gets an actual eye-twitch.

He didn’t even know that was a thing real people did.

“Captain Cold,” Mr. Banana says. “Your exploits against the Flash are impressive –”

“What time?” Len inquires, quite seriously. “The time I let his friends scare me off with a vacuum cleaner or the time he kicked my ass up and down the street? Really, I want to know; I’m keeping a ranking list on my wall and I can’t seem to decide which one should be number one.”

Mr. Banana probably thinks he’s joking, but Len really does have a list.

“They will be,” Mr. Banana says impatiently. “But I have decided that your interference in the Flash’s timeline is an unacceptable risk to my plans. As is such, regardless of my respect for you, I’ve decided to end your life. Are you listening now?”

Len’s brain processes the words that just got spoken, but he ends up with nothing but question marks and blue screens of death and gibberish. Nothing that just came out of Mr. Banana’s mouth makes any sense, but it also doesn’t seem particularly useful for the time being either, and therefore he’s going to put his questions aside for contemplation at a time when his life isn’t imminently in danger.

“You do realize I’m stalling for time, right?” Len asks instead.

He’s not too sure. Maybe Mr. Banana is like Charlie and thinks they’re having an actual conversation or something.

Mr. Banana smirks. “Your little friend won’t be able to help you –” he starts.

Len’s jaw drops.

Mr. Banana checks behind him. It’s a barely noticeable motion, but it’s there.

Ah, glorious paranoia.

Very useful – to the person trying to fuck with you.

“No, no,” Len says soothingly. “No ambush yet, relax. I’m just – that’s the first time anyone’s called Mick my ‘little’ friend. Have you met him?”

He gestures a bit with his free hand, a vague outline of ‘very large and intimidating man who is hardly little in any respect’. He adds in a 'if you know what I mean' gesture because really, Mick deserves it, and also it makes Mr. Banana look vaguely like he's bitten into a lemon.

Mr. Banana looks like he's going to say something - Len's really hoping for it to be a lecture on having some more class as a supervillain, he's always wanted to hear one of those - but speak of the devil and he appears.

Mick bursts through the tunnel entrance, heat gun at ready, but he’s still too far away to help if Mr. Banana decides to skewer Len. Allen’s at his heels, eyes wide in horror.

“No!” Allen shouts, even as Mick’s eyes narrow and take in the scene.

Len feels vaguely bad about that, actually. Poor, pretty little hostage – bad enough that the mission went south, but he shouldn’t have to see people who flirted with him die.

Assuming Len does die, of course. Len’s not quite willing to concede on that yet.

Mr. Banana’s face stretches into a smirk, like he was waiting for the audience to arrive for the grand finale.

There’s something’s ticking in Len’s brain.

Something he’s missed, though he’s not sure what.

Mick’d probably know in a minute; he’s always been better with people than Len, even if Len is better at plans and strategies and such.

Hell, Mick probably does already know – he’s been smirking it up like crazy the last few hours.

What is it?

“I do apologize, Mr. Snart –” Mr. Banana says, and Len’s been in enough fights – and watched enough bad movies – to know that Mr. Banana is gearing up for the final murder sequence, and all Len’s got is a bunch of bruises and no guns.

Oh, and his camera phone, still recording.

“–but I’m afraid our time – that is, your time – is up at last,” Mr. Banana says, eyes bright and his tone gloating. He holds up his hand and starts vibrating it as fast as a circular saw, which is a hell of a murder method if Len’s ever seen one, and he steps forward and –

His face when a lacey red bra smacks him right in the face is priceless.

And that would be the other ambush Len had planned via a little community chatting.

Len grins at his phone.

God bless the Internet.

#coldflashwave #dccoldwave #flashwave #mick rory #leonard snart #barry allen #unexpected development #my fic

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