#caitlin on a video call with ronnie

[icedteaandoldlace]

So there’s this “101 Reasons to Ship Snowbarry” video that keeps coming up on my YouTube suggestions. Idgaf about Snowbarry, and I’ve already hit the “not interested” button on similar videos before, but since I can’t seem to get away from video suggestions like this, I’m just gonna watch it and liveblog it, and bet that for every entry on the list, I can come up with a corresponding rebuttal for why Barrisco would make an even better couple. (I’m not gonna comment this ON the video ofc, this is just for my own amusement.)

Click the link above if you want to see the stuff I’ll be responding to, but be forewarned, that video is like, way long, so naturally it follows that this post is gonna be, too.

Additional note: If you are a Snowbarry shipper who has stumbled across this post somehow, now would be the time to stop reading, and also to add the “anti Snowbarry” tag to your filters if you wish to avoid running into posts like this in the future, ‘cause I ain’t interested in engaging in shipping wars.

Anyways, let’s go:

1. "How they met." Cisco woke Barry out of a coma by playing/singing a song about bisexuality, 'nuff said. (Also, part of the purpose of that scene was to introduce Caitlin as the serious, “down to business” one, and Cisco as the warmer, more easygoing one who’s trying to make Barry feel more comfortable.)

2. "They're both scientists." What is Cisco, an Instagram influencer?

3. If Caitlin being Barry’s personal doctor gets her romantic points, then the same should go for Cisco being his personal tailor. Actually, he should get more points, because there’s no moratorium on romantic relationships between tailors and their clients.

4. The way Barry and Cisco gaze into each other's eyes for non-medical purposes. This is too easy.

5. Uh. Cisco being the voice in Barry's ear while he's running, and often the first person he calls out to for help solving a problem.

6. They frequently take hold of each other's hands and shoulders.

7. Cisco comforts Barry while Caitlin tends to his wounds.

8 through 12 is literally just stuff about Caitlin being a doctor, and I don't find this stuff relevant enough to rebut because there's nothing inherently romantic about any of it.

13. "They both have fun together." Yes, Cisco also, the fun having, it happens, lots. Even more, actually.

14. Not really sure what to say for this one. Barry and Cisco noticing when each other is sad and then checking on each other (at Cecile’s baby shower and Barry’s bachelor party, respectively, and also on other occasions), comes to mind. That doesn’t have to do with noticing each other’s lips, per se, but I’ve never thought of either of these SB scenes as moments where Barry was staring at Caitlin’s lips, just as moments where he’s noticing her expression/overall mood, which is something he does with Cisco (and vice versa), too.

15. They all have nerdy hobbies, dude, they're nerds.

16. This one for SB is "she makes Barry drunk on purpose", which, y'know, she did because he wanted to be able to get buzzed, which Cisco has succeeded in helping him do, too (and the drink he made was more effective and longer lasting), but the way this is phrased is kind of suggestive, like Caitlin was doing it to lower his inhibitions (which she totally wasn’t), and uuuuhhhh, don't romanticize that maybe???

17. Cisco put all that tech into Barry's suit, including delivery menus from his favorite restaurants + wrote him an instruction manual, and sped up all his favorite shows so he could catch up on what he missed while he was in the speed force.

18. Barry makes Cisco's (and everyone's) hair fly everywhere when he speeds out of a room, too. Like, this is just basic physics, fam, wyd?

19. Barry also uses his powers to help Cisco. And...literally everyone who needs his help, this is basic superhero stuff, wyd?

20. He is impressed with Cisco, frequently.

21. Just having nicknames? He calls him "bud", "dude", etc., and one time he called him "Cis". (Bonus: Iris and Cisco have called Caitlin "Cait", too, so it’s not just a Ronnie and Barry thing.)

22. Cisco can make anything to help Barry. They're literally top-notch genius scientists, I don't even

23. Obviously they think each other makes great company, they're best friends. All of them.

24. They comfort each other. Again, best friends + Team Flash pep talks are a major staple of the show.

25. He needs Cisco, too.

26. They...they care about...my god, it's like you people have never heard of FRIENDS.

27. Honestly, how many times have we heard Barry tell Cisco he believes in him, or heard Cisco gush about what a great hero Barry is?

28. Helping each other conquer their fears. Yep, that's another one that applies to like, everyone on this show.

29. "They both have experienced loss" IT'S A SUPERHERO SHOW! Also, that's just life. Name one main character on this show who hasn't experienced loss. Nash and Wally have both experienced loss, and I have yet to see anyone ship them.

30. "They both can sing really well." Okay now. This one is true for Barry and Cisco, but uh...Caitlin is literally tone deaf. I'm not being mean, Danielle Panabaker knows good and well that she can't sing, and she has talked about Carlos side-eyeing her when she gets going because she's not good at it. THAT'S OKAY! There's nothing wrong with not being able to sing, but--WHY would you claim that she's good at something that she clearly is not? She wasn't on pitch for a single line of Summer Nights, and she straight up changes keys mid-line in the mockingbird song in that other clip, and just...what even is this entry?!

31. Watching over each other, yeah, another basic staple of being friends and superheroes.

32. "He is always standing behind Caitlin" AND LOOK WHO'S STANDING BESIDE HIM!

33. Remember that time fake Jay "died" and Cisco stayed with Caitlin until she fell asleep? Remember when Dante died and Caitlin slept on Cisco's couch to keep him company? Remember all those times Barry or Cisco were rendered unconscious, and the other stayed by their bedside until they woke up?

34. Basically just a continuation of 33. See above.

35. "Maybe 'okay' will be our 'always'." Hmm, what WOULD Barry and Cisco's "always/okay" be? Probably just calling out each other's names tbh, they do that a lot. Or perhaps, "For real?"

36. Is2g. Being only one call or text away is, again, a staple of the show, considering everyone in it is a close-knit found family and knows there's a very good chance that that call or text might be saying, "I'm in mortal danger, please come save my life at once."

37. Funny, I already pointed out once before (in a different post) the fun parallel of how Caitlin will sometimes go running to whoever her love interest is at the moment, or she'll call out his name, while Cisco is at the same moment running to Barry/calling out for Barry.

Side note: did they really think including Barry's proposal song to Iris would give more weight to their why-to-ship-Snowbarry argument?

38. I mean...Barry kind of carries everyone everywhere. You don't really get to see it, but how the heck else do you explain all the times he whooshes people in and out of places? He can't just drag them, otherwise the soles of their shoes would either wear down fast or catch on fire.

39. Okay, no shade to Barry and Caitlin's friendship, and some of these moments are really great, but generally speaking, their hugs do not compare to the ones that either of them has with Cisco. Also, note the group hug scene, conveniently cut off before Cisco joins in, because unlike the Romione + Harry hug in the Prisoner of Azkaban movie, there's no way to interpret it as a third wheel/cockblocking moment, because the moment Cisco declares it a group hug moment, Barry and Caitlin both agree, and you can see it on their faces that they are delighted, and think that Cisco joining in their hug has just made it even BETTER.

40. Henry gladly accepts a hug from Caitlin, immediately after laughing at Cisco's awkward moment and giving him a fatherly reassuring pat on the shoulder. I think it's safe to say he approves of all of Team Flash.

41. Oh look, another thing Barry and Cisco and multiple other characters do.

Good god, I'm not even halfway through this yet. This is like that time I tried to climb Diamond Head.

42. Ah, superhero poses, yes. That thing that...superheroes...do. Like, all of the ones on this show. And in general.

43.  "They begin to resemble each other." They're just white, fam. OH MY GOD, I SOMETIMES TAKE MY SUNGLASSES OFF WITH ONE HAND, TOO! OT3 MUCH????? 😱 Lol what even??

44. How many times throughout this video am I gonna have to repeat that everyone on this show has these moments? Also, speaking in unison with someone because you had prior knowledge of what they were going to say due to yourself or someone else time traveling, is not the same as being in sync with them because you’re close. (He said “Weather Wizard” at the same time as Cisco, too.)

45. Idk what to even say to this one. Like, Iris is obviously the love of Barry's life, and Cisco is obviously his favorite best friend and the person he would be with if he didn’t have Iris.

46. *John Mulaney voice* AND THEN THEY DIDN'T! Seriously, though, both of the people they were trying to get over were perfect for them. I don't have a Barrisco specific rebuttal for this one though.

47. So by this video's logic, that one scene from 4x03 means that Barry, Harry, and Cisco should be a threesome, huh?

48. "I did it because it gave me an excuse to bring him back."

49. .................is this even an argument?

50. They're both good looking people, darling.

51. Wrong, sir. They fight like siblings. Trust me on this one, I have six of them.

52. Trauma response. I'm moving away from Barrisco arguments and just saying the first thing that pops into my head now. But seriously, this is a normal reaction to trauma/loss.

53. *Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh* I'm not even gonna say it this time, you already know.

54. Again, have you people ever had anyone in your life that you cared about, ever? I'm starting to get concerned, honestly. But for the sake of bringing Barrisco back into this, hey, remember that time Barry and Caitlin both got kidnapped on the same night and Cisco was completely beside himself?

55. This is getting out of hand.

56. Pretty sure dating Caitlin didn't even make the list for Barry's reasons to dislike Jay and Julian (also, he liked Ronnie, the guy she loved the most, so...)

57. Judging Barry for being a dumbass + helping an exposed girl out =/= jealousy. Granted, there was some jealousy in that last clip, but not because Iris got the man; it was because Barry was all set to live happily ever after while Caitlin was, y'know, struggling with powers she didn't want and another person living in her head that kept fighting her for control of her body.

58. Refer to season 1 episode 2, wherein Cisco is the person helping Barry from the beginning, and Caitlin asserts that she is on Joe's side when he tells Barry what a stupid and reckless idea trying to be a superhero is.

59 + 60. "Let's bring our boy home." / "Let's go get our girl." Do I need to cite either quote?

61. Again I ask, did a human make this list?

62. Don't make me tap the sign.

63. One word: Elseworlds.

64. If you'll scroll waaaaaaaaaaay up there, I already covered that Barry and Cisco hold hands A LOT.

65. Oooh, I made a meme about this one! Not after watching this video, I just see SBers say this all the time, and it drives me crazy.

I used this in my Snowbarry fandom drama presentation for my squad’s presentation party a while back.

Side note: ~INTERESTING~ how Caitlin being a doctor is ““romantic”” when she’s treating Barry but ““motherly”” when she’s treating Cisco. I can’t even.

66. ......I’m sorry, I’m just not seeing how the dramatic irony of them stating that Killer Frost will never be a problem on Earth-1 is pertinent to shipping them as a couple.

67. Hannibal Bates and Caitlin are perfect for each other? Weird take, but okay. Oh, and there Caitlin is trying to freeze Barry to death. Wasn’t there a point somewhere up there about her never wanting him to get hurt?

Side note: Hey, what’s the name of that guy who saved Barry in this scene?

68. Bruh, that’s just her dynamic with everyone that season.

69. Barry and Iris, Barry and Cisco, Cisco and Caitlin, Cisco and Harry, Caitlin and Killer Frost, Cisco and Killer Frost--just naming some duos that are more iconic than Barry and Caitlin. Again, no shade to their friendship--I really like them as friends!--but the shippers stay making it out to be more than it really is.

I also just have to point out that although Killer Frost was the one who willingly teamed up with Savitar/whom Savitar sought out first, when she comments on their team up and says it’s “Barry and Caitlin together again”, his response is to point out that she’s not Caitlin and he’s not Barry. In contrast, when he takes Cisco against his will and forces him to modify the speed force bazooka, he still refers to Cisco as his best friend.

70. Make up your mind, does Savitar count as Barry in this or not? Because he totally grabbed Caitlin by the throat once.

71. I don’t know how to break this to you, but not enjoying it when someone is in pain is just being normal. (Do I even need to point out Cisco’s empathetic cringing compared to Barry’s looks of mild discomfort, or...?)

At some point this went from being about Barrisco to being about Cisco being the favorite friend to both of them, idk.

72. He. Is. Literally. A. Superhero.

73. Man, what did I JUST say? Also, can we just acknowledge the build up to Crisis on Infinite Earths for a second, wherein Frost very quickly accepts that Barry is supposed to die in order to save everyone else, while Cisco has infinite crises of his own at the idea of having to accept Barry’s death--which, I might add, he never actually does? Neither does Iris, for that matter. They tried to accept it, and they thought they did, but they didn’t really.

74. Oh fuck it, just read 73 again.

75. Okay, what even is this one? Two scenes where they are not present for each other’s “deaths” and thus don’t react to them, meanwhile Cisco is devastated in both of them?

76. Same thing I’ve already said several times before.

77. How many times do I gotta point out that this is a superhero show?

78. Just really trying hard to find enough reasons to make this list 101, huh? (What is Firestorm, chopped liver?)

79. Because violence = chemistry apparently. Wasn’t there another entry about how they can never hurt each other or something?

80. I’m sorry, I can’t hear you over the vibrating hand that shredded Cisco’s heart before either of those scenes happened.

81. It’s like SBers think they’re the only two characters on the entire show.

82. I’m sorry, I can’t hear you over all the other vibrating hands triggering Cisco at least once per season. But sure, Barry and Caitlin are the only two who know suffering.

83. Two words: Flashpoint. Dante. Also, not seeing how this one is romantic.

84. That’s just a Caitlin/Frost thing, fam, it only happened to Barry because he got whammied by Prism, who caused the same effect in everyone else he whammied. (Cisco’s eyes turned purple once when he got hypnotized.)

85. Please. I beg of you. Get friends. Interact with a human person.

Side note: “I trust you” was almost what I put for Barrisco’s “always/okay”.

86. “Don’t call me that. I don’t know you, string bean.” / “I don’t know who you think you are, but around here, people call me Mr. Ramon.” / “The name is Vibe.” (Again, romance where?)

87. Kinda like how Mirror Iris and Mirror Kamilla have slightly dressier tastes than Real Iris and Real Kamilla.

88. ....Anyways, Vibe........

89. The first time because Cisco saved him, the second time because she froze him just enough to fool Grodd, not enough to actually kill him. (Again I say, what is Firestorm?)

90. So romance. Very love. Much relationship.

91. ANYWAYS, CISCO. (And uh, hello, IRIS???? Joe? Harry?)

92. See 88.

93. This one might be a fun ship parallel if Caitlin had actually been involved in Barry’s brain zapping, but instead it’s just like, “here’s two random scenes that are kinda similar in completely insignificant ways”, like the evil clothes thing a few entries back.

94. Another entry that just demonstrates that their one-on-one moments together, while good, just don’t compare to either of their one-on-one moments with Cisco. I can’t be the only person who sees this.

95 + 96 + 97. I can’t muster up enough interest in any of these shows to watch them all the way through. Is this supposed to impress me?

98 + 99 + 100. The only point this proves is that they have multiple ship names. (I thought their evil ship name was Savifrost?)

101. Mm, sorry, sweetheart, Westallen, Barrisco, and Snowstorm all have them beat in this category.

This post really got away from me, at this point idk what I’m even doing, but I went on too long to stop now.

Oh, shit, there’s a bonus round.

Honestly, I fail to see how a lot of these supposedly “match”? But as for the ones that do, that’s just your basic TV aesthetics, I forget the official name for it. They’re matchy-matchy with Cisco in some of those shots, too, because TV matchy color psychology whatever. It’s a whole thing, every TV show and movie does it.

If anyone actually followed along this far, congratulations on your attention span, my brain could never. Idk how to end this post because it strayed so far from my original intent and basically just turned into a Snowbarry Fandom Doesn’t Make Sense Presentation 2.0

You know, I like to try not to generalize and stuff, and I’d like to think that maybe not all SBers are racist and that some people genuinely just like the ship because they think that makes sense or something, but then I look at their reasons for shipping it, and it’s just the dang blandest thing I ever did see, and they have to reach so far when they try to explain why they think they’re the best “couple” on the show and just??? I am the queen of shipping friends who never get together romantically, but Barry and Caitlin just don’t got it, son. Tbh part of the show’s appeal to me is the fact that there’s no threat of Caitlin ever getting with either of her male bffs in that way, because Cisco is like her brother, and getting with Barry just wouldn’t make sense. It just befuddles me to no end that they are such a wildly popular ship and not a rare pair, because the way their relationship is in canon is just exactly the way it should be.

That’s it, I guess. I’ve already invested this much time in this, so I might as well post it.

Also, please don’t anybody try to start anything in the comments section of this video, this fandom has enough drama as it is.

#anti Snowbarry #s6 #(for spoilers) #I used to be indifferent about this ship I swear but the fandom is just so whack at all times that I don't know what to do with myself #mainly regarding their attitude toward Iris/Candice but in all the stuff talked about in this post too

[mosylufanfic]

On a Wednesday, in a Cafe

<sidles in> ahem so.

I meant to have this done for Valentine’s Day. I really, really did. But then I didn’t. I don’t know what to tell you. But hey, it’s still February, I haven’t finished eating my giant heart-shaped box of chocolates, and I ship these two dum-dums the whole year round so I’m going to slap it up here anyway.

Title from “Begin Again” by Taylor Swift

On a Wednesday, in a Cafe

"Hi, welcome to Jitters," the barista said when she walked up to the counter. "Decaf chai latte from the app, right?"

"Right. Thanks." Caitlin forced a pleasant smile onto her tired face and reached out for her drink.

But instead of handing it over, the girl said, "Look who's here!"

Caitlin blinked at her. It had been a long day and she really just wanted to sit quietly in a corner  and unwind before going home and to bed.

But the barista waved a hand. "Look!" she said insistently.

Caitlin turned her head and saw a man sitting at her usual table. She started to be annoyed, but something throttled the emotion before it could fully form. She knew those shoulders. She knew the sheen of that dark hair, even if it was caught back in a ponytail at the nape of his neck. She knew that broad-palmed hand that lifted to tuck a stray lock behind his ear. She even knew that huge hockey bag down by his feet.

"That's your friend, right? You guys always used to be in here together."

"Right," Caitlin said faintly. She took her drink and walked over to the table. "Cisco?"

His head whipped around, and she knew that smile too, even if it was buried in a thick, dark beard. "Caitlin! Hey!"

He leapt up and hugged her. She hugged him back, the solid feel of his body against hers feeding some hunger inside her.

He let her go first, and she made herself release him. "I literally just texted you," he said. 

She pulled her phone out and saw his message glowing on the screen. Just got into the CC, it said. Can I crash with you for the night?

She looked up. "Of course you can. You don't even need to ask."

He grinned. "Thought maybe I should check. Just in case you had a, uh, a guest already."

She felt her cheeks heat. "No guests," she said. "Not for awhile." Nobody but you, she almost said, and felt herself blush hotter. 

He looked at her for a moment, and then said, "Well. Good."

She popped the lid off her drink and stirred it absently. "So," she said. "How long are you in town this time?"

He'd been gone for months, on the road checking out what had changed after Crisis. He would upload his findings to the Star Labs database and stop into Central City for a day or two when his path took him there. The last time, he'd stayed with Caitlin.

"I think," he said slowly, "that I'm back for good."

She looked up. "For good? Really?"

"Yeah, I've hit all the major cities with a meta presence. Think I got a handle on what's changed now. We'll probably still get the occasional shock here and there, but the project's done as far as I'm concerned. And - " He met her eyes. "It's time, you know? I took my break."

She put her hand over his. "You know there's a high chance you'll run into Kamilla. She still works with Iris."

"Yeah. I know."

"How are you doing?" she asked.

The night it had happened, he'd texted her. It's over. We broke up. I can't stay here. Can I crash on your couch?

She'd texted back of course immediately. 

He'd come over with a bottle of vodka and no information other than that long distance had been too hard on their relationship. He'd asked to watch Star Wars ("original trilogy, obvs"), and had only cried a little, when Princess Leia told Han Solo she loved him and he'd said he knew. 

He'd been gone by the time she'd woken up the next morning, her sofa bed folded up and the blankets and pillows stacked neatly on the cushions. 

They usually texted when he was on the road, and when he video-called, it was to the cortex because he'd learned something everyone needed to know. So it had been hard to gauge how he was handling the breakup, and when she asked, he just texted back that he was handling it okay.

He did look okay. Not nearly as wrecked as he had been after Cynthia. Of course, it had been two months.

He met her eyes. "I'm doing okay," he said. "I won't lie, being out of Central City really helped."

"Your stuff is all in storage," she said. "Kamilla packed it all up for you."

"I know. She sent me the address of the storage place. And the bill, which is fair." He toyed with his phone. "I did a lot of thinking. A little drinking. And, uh, for future reference, 'I'm in town for a week and I'm newly single' is apparently, like, Tinder catnip."

It hit her like a thump in the chest, and she pretended to take a sip of her latte to cover her baffling reaction. 

They'd talked about their sex lives before. Not in graphic detail or anything, but she'd always known when he was dating or had an FWB or having a dry spell, just like he had with her.

Of course he would have had a few hookups. She should have known he would. That was one of his breakup go-tos, along with drinking more than he should and watching the angstiest, most dramatic telenovelas so he would have an excuse to cry. 

"Hey," he said, and she looked up. "I know what you're thinking."

She felt her cheeks heat. "What's that?"

"Yes, I was safe, and yes, they were nice."

That hadn't been even close to what she'd been thinking, but she went with it. "Well, good. That's all I ask."

His smile faded. "How's, uh, how's she doing?"

"I haven't seen her much," she said tactfully. "It would be awkward, you know."

"Right."

"But Iris says she's doing okay."

Iris had also added that if she never heard that one Lizzo song again, it would be too soon, but Caitlin didn't share that.

She bunched up her napkin and made herself drop it, smoothing it on the table. “Are you going to let her know you’re home?”

“I should,” he said, scratching at the edge of his beard. “Just as a heads up. Maybe we’ll get coffee or something, just for closure. But that’s her call.”

She was quiet a moment more, but he didn't seem to be up for talking about it. She thought closure and realized again that they really had broken up. Somehow it had been hard to believe it.

"So, how are things around here? You mentioned Frost and Sue were getting into it a little.”

“Oh, adjustment pains,” she assured him. “You know how Frost doesn't like new people in the group, and Sue is kind of like a cat, in that if someone doesn't like her, she makes it her mission in life to annoy them. It’s much better now. They've worked it out."

"Yeah? Really? What happened?"

"I don't have all the details, but judging by the hangover the next morning, tequila shots were involved."

"Just tequila shots?"

"Sue pleaded the Fifth and so far there's not a warrant out for Frost, so I thought it best to leave it there."

He laughed. "So otherwise, how is the famous Sue?"

She started filling him in on all the ways that Sue was tying Ralph in knots, and how much he was enjoying it, while acting like he wasn't. As usual with them, they found more and more things to talk about, until their drinks were stone-cold and they were the only people in the cafe.

She looked across the table at him as he was telling some story about his time in Gotham, and thought I missed you. 

They'd had long stretches of separation before, like after Ronnie had died the second time or after Savitar. But this was the first time it hadn't been due to some trauma, and the first time they'd kept in touch. She'd started to live for the buzz of her phone, and more than once Barry had called her out for sneaking a look at her texts when they were trying to brainstorm about the enemy-of-the-week.

The night he'd broken up with Kamilla, she'd stared at the ceiling for close to an hour before she was able to make herself go to sleep, wondering why she had butterflies in her stomach, and why she kept thinking about him asleep in the next room, and why the door between them seemed so thin and the distance between the sofabed and her own bed seemed so short.

It would have been a bad idea, she knew that. Bad timing. But somehow she couldn't come up with any reasons not to do it besides that.

The barista started wiping down the tables near them, and she checked her phone. “Oh, they closed half an hour ago.”

“It’s fine!” the girl chirped in the tones of someone who’d been instructed by corporate not to ever kick someone out. “You stay as long as you like."

"No, we should go." Caitlin got up and tossed her cup into the trash. Cisco followed suit and hoisted his bag over his shoulder. She tried not to stare too openly at the flex of muscle in his arm as he did so.

The night was warm. He'd left in early February, hat crammed firmly on his head and mittens enveloping his hands as they said goodbye at the train station. She'd looked away from him kissing Kamilla and wrapped her arms around herself against the snowy morning, wishing as she always did that Frost could share some of her temperature imperviousness. 

Now, they strolled down the street, just the two of them, in the balmy evening. The steam-heat of summer lurked on the horizon. 

After nixing the idea of a taxi - "I've been traveling all day. Be good to stretch my legs. Unless you want one?" - Cisco was quiet. They'd turned down her street when he said, "So there's something I didn't tell you earlier about my Tinder dates."

"They weren't nice?"

"They were. But I made it sound like I had a bunch and actually I only had one."

She looked at the sidewalk, pretending she had to pick her way across perfectly flat and clear concrete. "You can have as many or as few Tinder dates as you want," she said. "It's really none of my business."

"They were nice," he persisted. "And I had fun. But I also felt kind of . . . empty afterwards. I'd gotten used to sleeping with someone that I loved, and just sex was like whipped cream without the hot chocolate. Still a good time," he added. "But not really satisfying, you know?"

She took that in, staring at the sidewalk. "Are - are you thinking of getting back together with Kamilla?"

He shook his head at once. "No. We were good together for awhile, but we had good reasons to break up."

"But you thought she was the one."

He was quiet for so long that she looked up, half-dreading his expression. But he just looked sad and pensive.

"You know, I think I wanted her to be the one," he said. "I wanted it so hard that I stuck with us way past our natural expiration date. And it wasn't good for either of us." He looked away, brushing his hair back. "But about a month into my trip, I started to realize that I missed - " He shot her a look. " - other people more than I missed her. And after that it was like things just started unraveling."

She felt her face heat and her heart thump, but he was talking again. 

"So, no, I'm not getting back together with her, and I'm pretty sure she'd feel the same if I asked her."

"So you're going to start looking again?" she asked.

He was quiet for a moment. "Being on the road, you know, it gave me a lot of time to think. Time to look at my life from the outside. Figure out what was making me happy and what wasn't. I worked some things out."

"Good," she said. "I think you needed that." It was why she'd made the suggestion in the first place, no matter how much she'd missed him.

"And I got to see a lot of people who'd had different lives before Crisis."

Her mouth fell open. "Did you vibe?"

He shook his head. "Mostly my powers are still gone. But every so often something did happen where I'd look at someone, and I'd see their other lives, and I'd see where the path - " He waved his hands. "Where they sort of branched. Where one version made one choice and another version made a different one.”

"Wow," she said, because she couldn't think of any other response.

"Like, it was all chance which version won out, you know? Sometimes they were living their best life and sometimes their worst one and - god, this was a mindfuck - sometimes they were living one that was just as good. It wasn't the same, but it was just as good."

"That's pretty wild."

"And you know, a lot of times it was down to the stupidest little things like whether they braked for a yellow or not. But sometimes it was something big, like deciding to marry someone or move or take a job."

She frowned at him. He was rambling, and she couldn't completely follow his train of thought. "Well, yes."

"I know, I know, life's like that sometimes. We all know that. But seeing it like that really made me think, you know, about all the big and little choices I've ever made in my life and how just changing one of them could have changed everything and, you know?"

"Y . . . es," she said slowly. She wasn't sure she did, but it seemed important to him.

"And then I started thinking how I've still got time. We've all got time, right? We've got all the time in the world until we're dead."

"That's a little morbid."

"I know! I know. But, like, we have all this time, right? But we just spend it doing all the things we always do, in this rut, complaining about our lives and not actually doing anything that might change them. And then we keep saying, what if, what if."

If she hadn't been with him for the past two hours, she would have suspected him of being a little drunk. Instead, she cocked her head. "Cisco, how long have you been awake today?”

"I slept on the train," he said. "But do you get what I'm saying?"

"I don't think I do." Her heart was thumping heavily in her chest, dark and slow with dread.

What if he wanted to leave Central City? Or even just Star Labs? He’d said he was home for good, but what if he’d just meant he was done with his tour? What if he wanted to take off all over the world? 

He rubbed his hand over his hair and muttered, "Okay, I - okay. Look. I'm saying I missed you."

Well. That wasn't what she'd expected.

She tucked her hands in her pockets. "I missed you, too."

"You did?” 

“Of course I did. You’re one of my best friends.”

“Friend,” he echoed. “Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Long time now.”

“What’s it been, eight years?”

“Something like that.”

“So of course I missed you.” She unlocked the front door of her building and held it open for him. “I’m glad you’re back.”

He put his hand on her arm, stopping them in front of the mailboxes. "Do you ever think about that? About how our lives would change if something was different?"

"Who doesn't?" She searched his face. "Cisco, what are you getting at, exactly?"

His mouth opened and closed for a moment, and then he let out a soft groan. Before Caitlin could do anything else, he'd taken her face in his hands and kissed her.

For some reason, the only thought in her head was that kissing a man with a beard was surprisingly nice. Or maybe it was kissing Cisco that was nice. More than nice.

Oh. 

Oh.

Cisco was kissing her.

He let go before she could get her jumbled thoughts in order and retreated a step or two. "Shit," he said. "Shit, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to just - like that - I - "

She grabbed his jacket and hauled, and he stumbled back towards her until she could kiss him back. He was much faster on the uptake than she was, and it was only a moment before his arms wrapped around her. 

Sometime later, his forehead rested against hers. "So," he said, eyes closed, "that's okay then."

"Very much okay," she said.

His hands skimmed up her sides and then down. "Every time my phone buzzed I grabbed it. Hoping it was you.”

“So did I,” she whispered.

He smiled at her, eyes bright. “I know the timing is weird and bad. But it’s always been weird, bad timing with us. That’s why I never did this before.”

She found herself smiling goofily. “You wanted to do this before?”

“More than once. A lot of times.”

“So we have some catching up to do.” She kissed him again. 

Someone cleared their throat, and Caitlin pulled away from Cisco to see one of her neighbors looking judgemental at her for making out with a strange man in the middle of the lobby. "I need to get my mail," she said.

“Sorry,” she lied to Mrs. Trainor, not sorry at all, and scooted a few steps down.

“Hey Mrs. T,” Cisco said. 

She squinted at him. “Cisco? Is that you?" She'd seen him reasonably often, and Cisco was the kind of person who could chat amiably to neighbors that Caitlin had never said two words to. 

“Yep. The beard threw you off, right? I’ve been traveling and it was easier than shaving every day.”

She looked a little mollified. “Well, welcome back.” She looked between them. “Nice to see the two of you finally got it together. Only maybe not in front of the mailboxes.”

Cisco snickered, and Caitlin elbowed him. “Sorry about that. We’ll get out of your way. Have a good night.” She grabbed Cisco's hand and tugged him toward the elevators.

He gave her a delighted look. “I think your neighbor’s been shipping us!” he whispered. 

Caitlin hit the button. “And to think all this time I thought she just had the hots for you, asking about you so much.”

He snickered again. “No reason it can’t be both.” He turned serious. “So, I’m still staying?”

She blinked at him. “I said you could.”

“Yeah, but that was before,” he said. “I don’t want you to feel pressured or anything. I can crash at Barry and Iris's place. Or get a hotel.”

She took that in and smiled. He knew as well as she did that inviting a man you’d just kissed into your home was a different thing than letting your friend stay for the night. “It’s fine,” she said as the elevator doors slid open. “I don’t feel pressured at all.”

He took her hand, smiling back. “Good. We can talk this out. Figure out how this is going to work. And then kiss some more.”

“That sounds like a good plan,” she said, hitting the button for her floor and sending him a coy look. “And if we both feel like it, maybe we can have some hot chocolate.”

FINIS

#Caitlin Snow #Cisco Ramon #killervibe #fanfiction #mosylufanfic lives up to her damn name #apologies for any inaccuracies #I haven't seen the latest episodes #the flash

[snows-labcoat]

Love Like You -Ch. 2

Summary: The moments Caitlin/Killer Frost reflected on in the original, more in depth. (spin-off of part 1) Cisco’s phone call, retold as you two lay together in bed.

Pairing: Caitlin Snow/KF x f!reader (platonic Cisco x reader, platonic killervibe)

Read: chapter one

~~

My phone began to ring, about a month after I left. You know who it was? Yeah. It was Cisco. Do you... know what he called to tell me? When I heard that I was causing you that much pain, I almost immediately came back to Star Labs. No-- It wasn’t that I didn’t love you enough. Please, don’t think of it like that. I love you more than anything I ever have in my whole life. I just-- I’m not good at relationship stuff. Not since Ronnie, you know that. Please be patient with me.

“Cisco?”

“She’s crying.”

“What do you mean?”

“She’s crying, Cait. On the floor of the speed lab.”

“...I’m sorry--” 

“No, Caitlin. You shouldn’t be apologizing to me. Have you really not figured it out yet?”

I didn’t know how to respond. My heart physically ached at the idea that I hurt you. No no, you don’t have to apologize, I should’ve realized it sooner.

“I’m cryokinetic. Not a mind reader.”

“Caitlin-- she’s in love with you.”

When he told me that, there were so many things I wanted to say-- to do. Please believe me when I tell you that I wanted nothing more, than to hold you like you held me. I was terrified of hurting you. You have been my safe place ever since we met and I didn’t believe I could be the same. I had already hurt so many people, and the idea that I could hurt you— I was barely able to live with it.

...Knowing I did hurt you— I couldn’t live with it. Hey, please don’t cry. I’m okay now. Don’t blame yourself. The ordeal with Killer Frost brought me to a really dark place, and I pushed you away. I pushed the one person who accepted every aspect of me out of my life. That is my fault.

I never thought I’d end up with you by my side again. I was afraid that you’d hate me. ...I know, I know— dumb of me to think you could ever hate me, but I only had Cisco’s words to go by.

I guess you’re right. You showed me time and time again how altruistic and loving you are. Sometimes I get so focused on these little details that I forget to see what the big picture is and how they all fit together. Or if they even fit together at all.

“Wait— She...”

“Yes. She has been since the day she wound up in Star Labs. She believes in you so much. Have you ever noticed the way she talks to you? How she supports you? She loves you. We all believe you love her too— but are you gonna throw something good away?”

“Cisco— it’s not that easy. I need to put myself first sometimes.”

So yeah— I was a little upset at first. I knew it wasn’t you necessarily saying that I was being selfish. I know you understood that I needed this. You just— felt heartbroken. Our relationship was always more than just platonic. Even if we never acknowledged it back then. Cisco was just trying to be a good friend. I know he wanted me back too, and of course you were the way to bring me back. It just wasn’t time yet.

“This isn’t the first time, you know?” He spoke up after what felt like hours of silence.

“The first time...?”

“The first time she’s cried. She thinks we don’t hear her late at night. Since she’s had to stay in the lounge since she’s gotten here whenever she wasn’t sleeping at your place. I can access security feed from wherever.”

“So you spied on her?”

“No. I never actively chose to watch. But I got a security alert one night. She unlocked and went into your med lab. I was curious. But all she did was just cry. She cried and cried. I had to breach over there because her meta abilities were acting up. Her body was freezing. Then it was burning up. I lacked the abilities to control her thermal temperature. Barry had to come hold her while vibrating his body at the right speed to get her body back to normal.”

No, you were completely justified in your upset. It wasn’t just that I had taken a break from team flash. I shut you out. I had threatened your life, I know you say it wasn’t me. But it feels like nobody ever held me accountable. Even if I believed that, everyone forgot that Caitlin Snow could hurt people too.

I hurt you. And we have to acknowledge all of this if we ever hope to move forward. Because no matter how understanding and loving you are, whether or not you realize it— the emotional damage that I caused every time you confronted Killer Frost— that will always change our dynamic.

“She doesn’t want anybody else, Caitlin. After that night, I would check up on the monitors every once in a while. Most of the time, she was busy writing in a journal. After a particularly rough night for her, she called me. She begged me to vibe where you were but I couldn’t. The only thing I could do was listen to her”

“You know what she said to me while Killer Frost worked with Savitar, Cait?” He spoke after a lack of verbal response. All he heard was the intake of breath.

“Before you regained control, time and time again where some believed you were lost to us forever, she would fall to her knees and beg. She’d beg, Caitlin. I can’t remember a time when her eyes weren’t red and puffy from the countless times she spent crying over you, even before you went on this break.”

“What did she say?” Caitlin’s voice came out soft. It came out worried.

“She begged us to give you chance after chance. Because every time she confronted you, you let her go. Every time she spoke from her heart, she saw your eyes flash in and out. She was there to see that you were not lost to Killer Frost yet. She believes in you, Cait. Don’t lose the best person for you.”

Cisco continued to tell me about the things you’d do, he told me about the time you had such a bad episode of sleep paralysis that it gave you an anxiety attack. He told me how the only way to get you to calm down was trick you into thinking I was talking to you, because I was god knows where doing god knows what.

He told me how somebody asked you on a date, and you couldn’t bring yourself to go because she —and I quote “isn’t Caitlin.”

He said you shut the team out, that it all started when killer frost took over and started to work with Savitar. You stopped talking unless it was work related. You rarely smiled, even with Cisco trying to joke with you. You became me when Ronnie died.

I don’t want that for you. You deserve so much happiness. I find it hard to believe that I ever provided that much for you, but still. I never want to let you go, ever again. I know 6 months was a really long time, and I should’ve come back sooner. But I am back, a better person. In control. This chance to rediscover myself and figure things out is what I needed. I know you understand that. But I also know it’s not that easy to act like it didn’t still hurt. I don’t expect you to.

You know... I used to listen to your voice. Even when I left. Because you insisted on sending me voice messages instead of a normal text. I would lay in bed and I could hear you singing to me, with the song you played for me on piano for the very first time.

I think about the times you were my shoulder to cry on, how easy it was— how easy it still is; to be vulnerable with you. Nobody has ever made me feel more at home. You bring out the best in me,, and I don’t want you to ever feel like I’m taking advantage of your heart. I want to return just as much as you give, if you’ll let me.

Don’t be silly— I’m in love with you. Not just with what you do for me. Our lives right now— is like being in a constant hurricane in the middle of the ocean. Sometimes we get pushed under and are oblivious to what’s happening above. Everything feels peaceful. Eventually though, reality hits. We are not normal people, and I know that. But being with you— it’s fresh, undiluted, and pure. The kind of love where just brushing hands makes you blush. I’m not willing to lose that, and I can’t believe I almost did. You make me feel like we could just watch the waves, rather than be trapped in them. I know I’m not always good with words— but you are. I admire you for so much.

—I found myself dreaming of you. A lot.

Sometimes just a part of you. Your hands. How they’d play the piano for me, the way they’d play with my hair and rub my back while I cried. How they’d hold mine when I got too cold.

I missed that. I was always so concerned that if you got too close, I’d freeze you. You never seemed to care, though.

You seemed so content to freeze to death as long as I was next to you. Does that still ring true?

Of course it does— because you are extraordinary. You’ve always loved in such a way that’s ineffable. Insurmountable.

We just need a little patience. I’m sounding like I’m done growing, but that’s far from the truth. For now though, can we just hold each other like we used to? I would think about the nights you would sleep over. How you would sing me to sleep. The times you would help me organize and clean my lab. Love is a science. I should’ve realized that sooner. In science, we don’t keep secrets. I know you disagree with that statement but it’s the easiest way for me to understand feelings. I don’t want to treat us like a science fair project, that’s not what my goal is. I just— I can’t lose you again.

“Is she okay”

“How do you want me to answer that?”

“You’re calling again, the third time this week. None of the other two calls have been to just check up on how good ole’ Caitlin Snow is doing”

“The truth is, Caitlin— she’s hurting. She has been since Savitar. I don’t know how many times I can keep calling Barry to hold her so her thermal abilities don’t cause her to overheat or freeze herself.”

“Does she still have my sweater?”

“The star labs one? Yes. She never really wears it, you know?”

“What?”

“She just holds it close. When she’s sleeping, or just sitting in the cortex with us, her arms are always cradling it close. She seems to just, lean into it.”

He sent me a video clip from the security feed of you crying. It was 3 am, and your face was buried in that sweater. He said you stopped playing Pokémon with him. You threw yourself into work, just like I did. I’m glad Cisco was there for you, though.

You always put on this facade, during the day. Cisco says everyone could see right through it. That didn’t bother you, though. You kept on working, only letting it out when you thought everyone had gone home for the night.

Please, understand that I never meant to put you through so much.

“I’m coming back, Cisco”

You brought me back. You keep me grounded.

I’ll try my best to take away the pain, please just kiss me like we’ve always wanted. Make me forget. Rational decisions and science out the window, I just want to feel your hands holding me again. I want to love like you.

#caitlin snow #caitlin snow x reader #cisco ramon #the flash #my stuff #barry allen #killer frost #vibe #killervibe #cisco ramon x reader #killer frost x reader #caitlin snow/killer frost x reader #caitlin snow/killer frost

[talatomaz]

route 64 | caitlin snow x drake!reader

a/n: i really love caitlin and dinah so i figured why not combine the two?

hex = vigilante name

prompts: “nobody’s seen you in days”

warnings: mentions of death/loss

word count: 1.5k

masterlist | request list | request rules

reader has telekinesis and got her powers from the particle accelerator explosion. she’s dinah drake’s sister but works on team flash where she’s in a relationship with caitlin

i do not give you permission to repost or translate my fics on any platform - likes/reblogs are okay and are much appreciated

“I can’t believe I really just used my powers to get a cat out of a tree. Am I a firefighter or something?”

You shook your head laughing as you sat down in the cortex.

“Hey, at least she tipped you.”

“She gave me a butterscotch, Cisco. It doesn’t matter anyways, at least she got her cat back. How he got up there in the first place though, who knows?”

You were interrupted when the computer started beeping and Barry, Caitlin and Iris came running in.

“Someone’s just robbed a bank.” Iris said.

“Okay, Cisco, Caitlin and I can handle this.”

You said, as Cisco produced a breach which the three of you jumped through.

***

You had managed to stop the robbers in the bank but there was a fourth person you were all unaware of who was driving the getaway car.

As you went to stop him, the car swerved from a lorry and rammed into an incoming car causing the car to flip upside down.

Without a second thought, you ran towards the accident and used your powers to help the injured woman out of the car as Caitlin and Cisco helped the robber out of his car.

You dragged the woman far away from the car and as you looked at the wreckage of the two cars, your mind flashed back to the worst moment in your life, and to make matters worse, the car blew up in flames.

You watched as the flames surrounded the woman’s car and as smoke filled the air.

Hex. Y/N.

You shook your head and focused on Iris and Barry who were shouting through the comms and on Caitlin and Cisco who had now put out the fire and were looking at you in worry.

You looked down at your hands which were covered in soot and then back up at the burned cars.

Then you took out the extrapolator from your pocket and breached yourself away from the scene.

***

“So no one’s seen her?”

Dinah asked, standing in the cortex with the rest of Team Flash, excluding you.

“No. And it’s been almost three days.” Cisco said worryingly.

“She’s only messaged me saying that she was okay and when we traced that, it pinged back to her apartment but we’ve been there and she’s not there.”

Caitlin explained, pacing around the room.

“Yeah, and I’ve searched the whole of Central City. I have no clue where she is.” Barry said.

“So what even happened? Just run me through it.”

“Y/n had just finished helping some woman and when she got back, we got an alert that a robbery was in progress so she, Caitlin and Cisco went.” Iris began.

“Yeah, and we stopped the robbers but it turned out there was a fourth guy who was in charge of the getaway.” Cisco continued.

“And when he tried to escape, he ended up swerving into this woman’s car, y/n got her out and then completely froze when the car went up in flames. And then she disapp-”

“Wait, it was a car crash?”

Dinah interrupted Caitlin, her demeanour completely changing.

“Shit,” she said when they all nodded in confirmation, “I need to find her.”

She went to walk off before being stopped by Caitlin.

“Dinah, what’s going on?”

Dinah looked at the group and sighed,

“A few years ago, before the particle accelerator exploded, y/n was in a car accident with our Mom. Y/n made it. Mom didn’t.”

Dinah cleared her throat when it broke slightly and then walked out of the cortex.

“Dinah, wait,”

Caitlin came running after the vigilante,

“I’m coming with you.”

“Are you sure? Y/n’s been through a lot and I know she’s not gonna be okay when we find her.”

“Dinah, she’s my girlfriend and I love her, I’m here for her always.”

Dinah lightly smiled in response, knowing that Caitlin meant every word.

It calmed Dinah to know that you had found someone who really loved you because you had dated a lot of idiots in the past, many of whom Dinah hated.

Who was she kidding?

She hated them all.

***

As Dinah and Caitlin drove through Central City, they fell deep into a conversation about the loss they had experienced when it came to relationships.

Dinah had lost Vinnie and Caitlin had lost Ronnie.

“You get through it in the end, y/n’s really helped me. Sometimes I just have really bad days and she just takes care of me.”

“I get it, she was the same with me when I was with Vinnie. But not a day goes by when I don’t think about him.”

It was weird for Dinah to be opening up to someone like this; it was only ever you she revealed her true self too. Hardly anyone on Team Arrow knew the real her.

Well, maybe Laurel and Felicity.

“I know I’m with your sister but if you ever need to talk, I’m here for you too. It does get better with time though. After a certain point, I realised that I stopped thinking about Ronnie, not in a bad way, but there came a time where I wasn’t upset all the time and I know that everything will be okay for you too.”

Caitlin said, stepping out of the car, and Dinah responded by placing a warm hand on her shoulder and smiling, “Thank you.”

“So where are we exactly?” Caitlin asked Dinah.

The two women looked up at the house where you were currently hiding.

“Our home. It looks exactly the same. Even down to the roses that Mom used to plant.” Dinah said in shock.

“It’s beautiful.” Caitlin said.

She had no other words to describe your home.

She noticed how the bright red roses towered above the lilies and how the difference in colours made the red stand out even more. She loved how the modern house was painted a light blue which contrasted beautifully with the dark grey of the roof.

It really gave the impression that the house was truly a home.

***

Dinah and Caitlin walked through the house and the former couldn’t believe the fact that nothing had changed.

“Y/n must have been coming here continuously. Nothing has chan-”

Dinah stopped talking when she heard a familiar voice coming from the room on the far end of the hallway.

When they reached the door, Dinah listened for a moment and then tears filled her eyes as her suspicions were confirmed.

She took a hold of the handle and gently opened the door to reveal you crying on the floor, wrapped up in your mom’s favourite blanket, watching a video of you, Dinah and your mom having a water fight in the front yard when you were kids - your dad was behind the camera.

You turned to look at the two figures at the door, your eyes were red and dripped with tears.

“Oh, baby girl.”

Dinah murmured as she went to sit next to you where she enclosed her arms around you.

You were still for a second, and then another, before you wrapped your arms around your sister and cried into her shoulder.

“I miss her so much.” You sobbed.

“I know, baby girl. I do too.” Dinah said, her tears now falling shamelessly from her eyes.

When you stopped crying, you pulled away from Dinah, stood up and looked up at Caitlin who was standing at the door, watching the embrace, her own eyes filled with tears.

“Nobody’s seen you in days.” Caitlin whispered.

“I’m so sorry.”

Caitlin’s heart practically broke when she saw how upset you were.

She walked up to you, placed a warm hand on your wet cheek and said,

“I’m here for you, no matter what.”

And just like that, the dam broke again and you began crying in Caitlin’s arms.

After a moment, Dinah moved to hug you too and you guys stayed like that for a few moments before you pulled away and wiped your tears.

“How’d you even find me?”

“I know you, y/n. This room was always your safe place. I still can’t believe it looks exactly like it did when we lived here.”

“I come here sometimes. Whenever I miss Mom a lot.”

You looked over at Caitlin, “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. Sometimes I just need to be alone to work through it.”

“Hey, don’t apologise. You do whatever is best for you. And if being alone is what works for you, then I don’t mind, so long as you know, that if you need me, I’m here.”

“And I’m here for you too. If you ever need me, I’m only one phone call away and with the help of Barry, I can be here in a few seconds flat.”

“What about Oliver?”

“Baby, he knew what he was dealing with when he asked me to join. Besides, you come first. You’re my life, y/n.”

You took a hold of both Dinah and Caitlin’s hands,

“I love you both with all of my heart.”

#caitlin snow #dinah drake #caitlin snow x reader #dinah drake x reader #caitlin snow imagine #dinah drake imagine #caitlin snow x dinah drake #black canary x reader #the flash #cisco ramon #barry allen #cisco ramon x reader #iris west x reader #barry allen x reader #arrow #felicity smoak #laurel lance #blacksiren #smoaksiren #oliver queen #olicity #arrow x reader #the flash x reader #arrow x the flash #legends of tomorrow #c: dinah drake #c: caitlin snow #c: route 64 #s: mine #c: drake!reader

[smkkbert]

Time for a story - Display of Love

If Oliver had to describe the perfect moment, this would probably come to his mind third, so he leaned into the frame of the door and took in the sight in front of him.

No matter how crowded the room, Oliver always found Felicity first and today was no different. She was standing at the fireplace with a glass of white wine in her hand and an arm loosely wrapped around Emmy, who was standing in front of her and leaning back against her. From the soft smile on Felicity’s lips as well as the deep frown on Emmy’s face, Felicity was certainly discussing the kind of science that only she, Cisco and Caitlin could understand. Nerds among themselves.

Oliver’s gaze lingered on Felicity a little longer. She was wearing a steel-blue off-shoulder dress that played around her curves loosely. Like always when they were at home, she was walking around barefoot. Her hair was falling down on her shoulders in it natural waves, framing her face like a halo.

She was an image of beauty like she always was. Just looking at her made his heartbeat quicken and calm down at the same time. He knew it seemed impossible, but it was exactly what he was feeling in his chest right now. It was the kind of reaction only she could prompt inside of him.

When he could see her muscles tensing slightly, telling him that she was probably feeling his gaze on her skin, he looked away quickly. He didn’t want to interrupt her conversation since he could see clearly how much she enjoyed it. She didn’t get the chance to talk to smart heads like she was often, so Oliver was glad that she got the chance now. There was no way he’d disturb her in it.

His eyes found Quentin next. He was chatting with Laurel and Lyla, who was swaying from side to side slowly to make sure Connor wouldn’t wake up in her arms. From the snippets of their conversation that Oliver could hear, he took that they were talking about the corruption in the SCPD. The corruption there was no secret yet. As much as Oliver had tried to do something against it, it was hard to get to the roots of it.

Barry was showing around photos of his wedding with Iris. He was sitting on the couch, Thea to his right and Donna to his left. Tommy, who was sitting on his grandmother’s lap and eating a muffin, was taking a look at some photos too. The two women seemed to be delighted about the photos.

Oliver felt a sad smile tugging at the corner of his lip. He made a mental note to remember asking Barry about the wedding. The Starling City Crew had to reject the invitation as they had thought that Oliver was dead at that time. Barry and Iris had offered to delay their wedding as it had felt insensitive to them, but Felicity had told them that time was precious.

Ronnie, Roy and John, who were all gathered together in the back of the living room where discussing their family planning too. While John’s had already been finished, neither Roy nor Ronnie were sure where their family planning would lead eventually.

Meanwhile, Tommy and Raisa were recalling old memories of Oliver’s childhood to tell William and Audrey. Oliver was sure that there were a lot of exciting and embarrassing stories to tell. Raisa and Tommy were the two people who had known him best when he had been a child or a teenager.

Oliver knew that whatever they would tell them, he wouldn’t mind though. He wasn’t proud of a lot of things he had done in his youth, but he wasn’t keeping them secret. His kids should know the boy he had been as well as the man he was now. People could make mistakes and people could change. He of all people knew.

Biting down on his tongue to hide a grin, Oliver watched Tommy casting brief glances towards Laurel. She had turned her back towards him and didn’t notice it, but it didn’t go past Oliver. He had been too involved in Tommy’s considerations of getting proposing to Laurel not to notice.

If two people in this room deserved some happiness right now, it was Tommy and Laurel. They had been through so much, and their happy end was so close now. All they had to do was go for it, so he hoped they would.

When Robbie started giggling, Oliver turned his head to the youngest Team Arrow Family member and smiled. Robbie was sitting on the floor between Sara’s spread legs. Whenever Robbie rolled a ball to Hawk, who was lying a couple of feet away from them, he rolled the ball back into their direction with his nose. It was what caused Robbie to giggle so much.

Not far from them, Millie was playing at her toy kitchen. From the way she was playing with the pan, Oliver assumed that she was making pancakes. When she pushed the invisible pancake to the plate, she turned around and walked right towards Iris. She hesitated for only a moment before she tugged at the hem of her cardigan, effectively interrupting the conversation she had had with Bruce.

With a smile on his lips, Oliver watched Iris turning around to Millie and going down on her knees to level her eyes with the toddler’s. Millie was smiling almost a little shyly as she offered the plate to Iris. Luckily, despite not having any kids herself, Iris got exactly what Millie wanted. She pretended to eat the pancake and rubbed her stomach as a sign of how delicious it was. Millie’s cheek reddened and she looked away with an almost shy smile.

Oliver remembered that smile from the many times he had felt like he was looking at Felicity like a love-sick teenager. He had looked away with a smile like that a lot of times too, not wanting her to see how enamored he really was with her. Those times were long over of course.

The thought made him frown slightly, and he continued to watch Millie and Iris a little longer. Millie had always been a little sweetheart, but it seemed like she had some particular interest in Iris today even though she was a little bit shy about it.

Addie, on the other hand, didn’t seem to know what shyness could possibly mean as she was making sure to get all of Bruce’s attention now. She reached out her hands for him until he finally picked her up in his arms. He looked uncomfortable about it like he had no idea what to do with her, but Addie made it easy for him. She snuggled up to his side and started babbling.

Just like two days ago, when Millie had turned three years old, everyone had gathered together once more to celebrate Addie’s second birthday today. It was so amazingly normal, unlike so many other things in his life, and that made his life perfect.

A few months ago, when Merlyn had drugged him and dragged him across the globe to torture him, there had been moments that Oliver had thought he would never get something like this again. Just the hope of getting something like this again had kept him alive.

Oliver pushed those dark memories away from him quickly. Today was not the day to think back about all the terrible things he had been through. Today was a day to celebrate love, his family and mostly Addie.

Addie was still busy with Bruce though. Oliver considered saving him from the situation. Since he had only agreed to come to the party after Addie herself had talked to him via video call and asked him to come, Oliver decided to let Addie continue to work her magic on him though. Bruce was a good friend of Felicity’s, so he was part of the family now. Addie would make sure he’d feel exactly like that.

Turning his gaze, Oliver’s eyes found Tommy’s. He decided to use the opportunity and nodded towards the kitchen. He didn’t wait to see if Tommy followed him and just went ahead into the kitchen. It was surprisingly quiet there considering the business in the living room and Oliver enjoyed it.

“If you want to ask me on my plans of proposing,” Tommy said as he followed him into the kitchen, “I still haven’t done anything about it which you certainly can’t blame me for after you didn’t even manage to propose to your own wife.”

Oliver grinned and pulled his phone from the back pocket of his jeans. He called up the latest video he had saved and held his phone out for Tommy.

“Well, I already fixed that.”

Tommy shot Oliver a brief glance before he took his friend’s phone and watched the video. Oliver leaned his forearms onto the kitchen counter and took in the reaction on Tommy’s face. As much as his friend was trying to keep a poker face, there was a little bit of surprise and disbelief shining through his eyes.

As he listened to his voice on the video, Oliver recalled the moment of proposing to Felicity last night. She had been honestly surprised about his proposal. She hadn’t known or even suggested that she would do something like this which had made it only more perfect. He loved to surprise her because it showed how honest even an umpteenth proposal was to them. It wasn’t something ridiculous to do just because it was corny. It wasn’t a tradition to follow blindly either.

Last night, once the kids had been in bed, they had celebrated their newly engagement. Thrice.

When the video ended, Tommy perfect up his eyebrows. Taking in a deep breath, he put Oliver’s phone onto the kitchen table and pushed it towards him. Oliver grinned and lifted it in front Tommy.

“And that, my friend,” he said with triumph in his voice, “is how you propose.”

Tommy blew out a long breath but it ended in a chuckle. “You planned all of that in twenty-four hours?”

“More like ten,” Oliver said. “A man needs his sleep after all.”

Still chuckling, Tommy shook his head. “You are crazy, you know that?”

“I am only crazy for my wife.”

“What about me?”

Oliver lifted his gaze to find Felicity stepping into the kitchen. She was looking at him with perked up eyebrows and soft smile on her lips.

“Oh, I was just telling Tommy about yesterday,” Oliver replied and put his arm around Felicity’s shoulder. He kissed the top of her head. “And he just realized once more how crazy I am about you.”

Felicity chuckled. “You really are.”

Oliver just grinned. He wasn’t ashamed for people to know how crazy he was about his wife. He had found the perfect fit in her, and he couldn’t be happier about it. There was nothing to be embarrassed about and nothing to hide.

“Now, it’s your turn,” Oliver told Tommy. “Just pop the question.”

“With the big thing around.”

Oliver shrugged his shoulders. “It’s not that hard.”

Felicity chuckled and slapped his chest lightly, making Oliver lower his gaze to her eyes. His heart stumbled a little in his chest at the expression of love in her eyes.

“It wasn’t hard for you because you knew your proposal wouldn’t change anything for us,” she told him. “We are already married.”

Oliver grinned slightly. “True.”

Felicity turned to Tommy. “Take your time and don’t let Oliver push you.”

“Hey, I am not pushing you to do anything.”

“Oh, of course you aren’t,” Felicity said, sarcasm sounding through her voice. “Mr.-just-pop-the-question.”

Oliver rolled his eyes slightly since it had been Felicity who had pushed for Laurel and Tommy to get together in the first place. When he realized that Felicity had noticed the roll of his eyes, Oliver grinned innocently, but Felicity only slapped his chest playfully once more. Oliver chuckled, caught her hand and kissed his knuckles.

“If you excuse us now,” Felicity said to Tommy and laced her fingers through Oliver’s, “I gotta abduct my husband from you now.”

“He’s all yours.”

Felicity smiled. “Yes, he is.”

Oliver grinned, letting her tug him out of the room. On the way back to the living room, he caught up to Felicity and put his arms around her waist to pull her against him until her back was pressed against his chest. Smiling, he lowered his face to the crook of her neck and brushed his lips against her pulse point.

“What are you doing?” Felicity asked with a chuckle. “We have guests.”

“So?” Oliver asked, his lips still against her skin. “I don’t mind.”

Sucking at her pulse point lightly, Oliver figured he couldn’t agree more with what Tommy had said before. He really was hers with all of his heart.

@fannaz @promiseyoullbepatientwithme @bytemegeekette @felicity-said-just-in-case @phanseptiic @orangeisorange @mspotatohead14 @whentheheavenfades @emmaamelia95 @smoakingskye @seaolicity @ourwritinginvein @1022bridgetp @felicityqueenforever @leagueofolicity17 @yryssss @myhauntedblacksoul @muslimsmoak @sherlock44 @sinceriouslybea @arrowsalways @olivyflavescentdeer @olicitys-castle @ofnothingcharming @vaelisamaza @smoakedandcharmed @alexisa1206 @mysaudadespt2 @florence-bubbles @addictiontelly @queens-of-arrows @memcjo @hysterical-for-joshifer @oswinelevenforever @olicitylovemaking @bandanab310 @mymusiclove101 @lynslogic @scarletqueen23 @olicityshipper19 @alex-wesley @arrows-4ever @unabashedlynerdypatrol @louehmysoul @ligiapimenta @chattyyana @charlie-leau @coal000 @samcrowleys @ishippolivia @julianegomesqueen @malafle @miriam1779 @charlinert @melaux @ontheolicityship @myshipperlife @wrightainsley @lexi9515 @ladygreenwood @multi-fandom-crazy-fangirl @morinamel @mje-thomas @kebarry @canadianheartgirl @nannett2307 @almondblossomme @paarti12 @kathrynelizabeth89 @imdfabulous @cutearrowgirl @mrt2501 @mecha1330 @arsipaci14 @mzminx @salasvia @brandis91 @cainc3 @morganmiguess @pr0fessi0nal-fangurl @iamisalima @nessafra @jonhdiggle @niki-is-amazing @universed-posts @hopeful-warrior @senoritaswiftie @bellemmie @green-arrows-of-karamel @iheartarrow @olicityovereverything @oliverfel4 @navyaarsha @fandoms-breathe-life @simone4mcswarek @olicity-in-the-heart @fullychippedcreation @geemarie @everything-but-normal-cat @myarroworld @tjmartinez @pleasantfanandstudent @itsmagnoliagirl @j69confessional2 @scentedcolorpirate @icanica74 @javinancupil @tjmartinez98 @certainmentalityface @tatianadamaceno @ryelew @wildwillowzepplin @missafairy @letsplaymurde-r @lipizette @positivepiper @nuttymilkshakehologram @laksagirl @turnupthemusicandscream @pumpernickle93 @onceuponanolicity @1106angel @jaspertown @fadinglands @morganashimi83 @mochababychristy @omglovechrissie @mariejr88-blog @thetaufactor @onceuponanolicity @speakandseethetruth @bri206 @aglasgo @thats0klaroline @geemarie @pineprincess @nerdgirljen @peterpanslostgirl666 @eternal-olicity14 @allyouhadtodowas-stay-stay-stay @lovelycssefan @tsseract @flowerandsunshine @dcnmarvelgamergeek @blondeeoneexox @monetsmark @soaring-cities @bb-olicity @mashamarty @rulerofsilence @erika-amber @felicity087 @i-claim-only-emily @pattid1 @westallenandolicityshipper @babyolicityandwestallen @nothingmorethanmyotps @kayleenyc @tonto16 @olicityfluv @olicitea1990 @olicity5ever @haahaaa2408 @pattid1 @faegal04 @24karatgem

(If you want to be tagged or untagged, just let me know. :))

#arrow #olicity #olicity fic #olicity fanfic #time for a story

[killervibeflash]

5x06 “The Icicle Cometh” Review

Okayyyy sooooo my life is a hot mess. I really do apologize for not posting reviews like I said I would. Im in my senior year of college and I'm just tryna graduate, ya know? So, please forgive me. 

I am not gonna lie, I thought the last few episodes weren't horrible! I just wasn't feeling passionate feelings after each episode. I know one doesn't need passionate feelings to write a review, but I do. I really love Nora and the West-Allen storyline! I really do, but the whole Iris and Nora thing was getting a bit exhausting and this Caitlin storyline kept building up and basically I was really looking forward to this episode. 

I love the OG trio. I love them so much and I love seeing them work together without (no offense) Iris, Ralph and even Sherloque. So, this episode just felt special. 

Here is the thing, Im wicked drunk right now so I might get just slightly personal in this post. I am an only child and my worst fear is dying/being alone after my parents are gone. Caitlin is also an only child who is estranged from her parents (believing one to be dead most of her life) and she represents something I am scared of being, but also am desperately searching for. I am always looking for a family, like don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to replace my parents, but I am looking for a support system outside of my parents. (Yes, I have Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins but they aren't like my “Family-family”, they’re just family.) 

What I have always liked about Caitlin (and don’t hate me Caitlin fans) but, Caitlin has always seemed to be alone in a way. Cisco and Caitlin were “work friends”, but they quickly developed a strong friendship. Like, here is how I noticed it. It was when everyone was outraged that Caitlin called Iris a work friend. I get it! Caitlin probably should have thought of Iris as more than a work friend after everything they’ve been through, but Caitlin is CAUTIOUS. Caitlin has always been cautious or “cold” to people. Caitlin and Cisco worked as a friendship, but it took Barry and Caitlin a little white to start hanging out outside the lab. Dr. Wells was her mentor and someone she looked up too, but her and Iris don't have the history she has with everyone else. I just get that about her character. 

I honestly feel like when both Barry and Cisco called her a family, Caitlin was almost shocked in a way. I think she hid it well when Barry said it, but I think I saw a little trace of awe or shock in Caitlin’s face when Cisco said it to her. Caitlin genuinly didn’t think she would find that familial support base. She didn't know that Cisco and Barry are her brothers (Sorry, Snowbarry shippers, but Ive said it before I ship Snowbarry, but I am also down for this Team Flash family shit too). Again, I relate to that, because when I look for family in friends it’s really hard. I need them for more than just a lunch date every few weeks, They need to be there and they need to be there permanently. I don’t think Caitlin has had that in anyone else. Her mother and her grew estranged, she fell in love with Ronnie and he died, he fellow in love with Zoom who was a villain who treated her like shit, and then Julien who was no more than a short fling. She hasn't had permanency in a family way. 

Cisco and Barry proved to her over and over in this episode that she was their family. They called her family. The couldn't be more clear about their feelings. Also, I hella loved Cisco’s big bro protective vibe (huh pun). Like Cisco was suspicious from like the first 2 minutes. Barry was the supportive brother who stuck up for Caitlin until Cisco shook him.  

So, essentially this episode was hella cute and hella important for me to see. 

Ummm, Ralph and Cecile were pretty funny this episode! Im so glad Ralph was not nearly as gross in this episode as he would have been at the beginning of last season. Speaking of Ralph, I think I have to be honest and address that the vibes Ralph gives off to Caitlin is confusing me. I hated the guy so much last season and this season he seems so much better and he’s helping Caitlin and he cares about and Caitlin. I don’t ship it, but I am paying attention. Like, I am so glad that the writers didn't shove the Ralph/Caitlin friendship in this episode. However, that friendship is there and I don’t know how I am feeling about. I, though am much happier that she is single and focusing on finding herself(Literally Killer Frost), but I also want to see her find someone and be happy by the end of the series. Doesn't have to be this season or next season, but I just wanna know she is gonna be happy and loved. 

Also, I heard about Jessie and Papa Joe! So sad, but I hope he can return to the show soon and I am sending him prayers. 

The Nora and Iris bits were interesting.I am glad they are getting along. Like genuinely, but it was still awkward. Like not to judge Iris, but her daughter wanted to do something with her. FINALLY. and Iris is like...but I usually do that alone. Like I guess a n explanation is that it makes the press look less intimidating. I guess. I don’t know, I would have said yes and then made up an excuse for her being there, but its not everyday your 25 year old daughter from the future asks to go to work with you. 

ALSO, can we talk about Barry character growth from season 1 to now! Like, he seems so wise and old now! Like, he grew up and its almost sad. I don't know, its the way Grant talks and how he carries himself with confidence. I mean he is playing a dad and last season he was a mentor and he has just changed and learned so much and it shows in Grant’s acting. 

Okay, So now to the exciting part! KILLER FROST IS BACK! 

I am so happy that she is back, I was watching this video from a guy named Pagey (he’s on youtube) and he put it perfectly when he said that he was glad KF was back because he felt like Caitlin’s character was missing something. I love Caitlin Snow, but I have loved her so much more with Killer Frost. It really adds to her performance and character. 

Icicle when Killer Frost showed up was just like a strange moment. He calls her his daughter and exclaims “You have returned”. So, I believe that Caitlin’s dad’s alter ego was created before her dad gave her the ALS treatment. I mean ethically it would be so messed up to perform a risky medical trial on your kid. It would make more plausible and ethical sense if this alter ego was created and was the one who injected Caitlin with the treatment. He wanted to create a daughter. He even asked her to join him and I just want more. The pieces are adding up for Killer Frost’s story, but I wanna know why these alter egos are created evil. I wanna know why he wanted to create his daughter, or if her dad is ethically abhorrent and risked his daughters life! 

I don’t know, but this was a good episode! I am super excited for the crossover and I am glad that this story isn't finished yet. 

#Killer Frost #Vibe #The Flash #icicle #Caitlin Snow #ralph dibny #the flash cw #snowbarry #nora west allen #cecile west

[backtothestart02]

The First Day of Forever - 2/? | westallen fanfiction

*Written for westallen wedding week. Hoping to finish this multi-chap between today and tomorrow. First chapter is here.

It should be noted that I started this fic last summer, so it’s in a post-s2 setting where post-FP consequences weren’t as severe as what s3 gave us. So, Dante didn’t die, Cait didn’t get cold powers, Wally (prob) didn’t get super speed, WA’s first kiss (2.23) didn’t get erased, etc.

Enjoy!

(Also, this is unbeta’d. I won’t be posting it elsewhere until it is. :P)

Chapter 2 -

Caitlin popped into the private hotel dining room about twenty minutes after the rest of the girls had gotten there. Iris was idly picking at the fruit on her plate, almost missing her mouth a couple times as she stared out the window wistfully.

“Hey, guys,” the brunette said, setting down the bag of supplies she’d brought with her.

Linda, Stacy, and Felicity looked up to see the new arrival. The latter jumping to her feet to welcome her friend with a hug.

“Hey, Caitlin,” Linda said deliberately, elbowing Iris who sat beside her.

Iris blinked at looked at the new arrival.

“Oh. Hey, Caitlin.”

“Iris.” Caitlin grinned, amused. She rounded the table and presented her with the tiara she’d pulled out of the bag she brought with her. “I know you probably won’t need this until we get to the church, but the shop called me early this morning, and I thought I’d surprise you.”

Iris nearly dropped her fork as she took the headpiece gingerly from her.

“Oh my god, Caitlin, it’s beautiful.” She looked up at her, mouth hanging open.

Caitlin shrugged modestly.

Iris reached out and squeezed her hand gently.

“I’m so, so glad you’re my wedding planner.” Caitlin attempted to protest, but Iris kept going. “And not just for this…gorgeous piece, but everything. The location, the professional hairstylist, the custom-made dresses that – because of your connection – were half the price they would’ve been in a normal store.”

“I knew some girls from college who abandoned their science majors halfway through their sophomore year to opt for beauty school. One of them even decided their calling was to become a wedding planner. What are the odds?” She paused. “Plus, you know, I had all those ideas I never got to incorporate…you know…with Ronnie.

A sweet sympathy colored Iris’s face.

“Well, it means a lot to me,” she said sincerely. “You’ve done more than your share, keeping us all on track with everything and making sure everything goes according to plan.”

“Not to mention keeping the guys in check,” Linda muttered under her breath.

Iris’s hand dropped from Caitlin’s as her eyes narrowed in on her best friend’s.

“The guys? The guys?” Eager eyes fixed on Caitlin. “You’ve seen Barry today?”

“No, she hasn’t,” Linda insisted, but her poker face was terrible.

Especially when Caitlin said at the same time, “Well, technically—”

“I saw them,” Felicity burst out, holding up her phone with an image clear as day. “Oliver sent me a—”

Linda nearly lunged to the other side of the table to take the phone from her and tuck it into her small handbag, sitting instead now farther away from Iris.

Iris’s brows narrowed. “Was that really necessary, Lin?”

“I don’t know, Iris, what time is it?”

“9:05,” Felicity chirped, looking at the clock over Iris’s head on the wall. She then glanced back and forth between the slightly miffed Linda and the innocently shrugging Iris. “I-I wasn’t supposed to answer that, was I?”

Stacy looked down at her plate, stabbing her fruit with some success as she shook her head.

“Right…”

“And what time did you talk to Barry this morning?” Linda pressed, ignoring the interruption.

“I hardly think that matters. We still have time—”

“Two hours ago.”

Iris’s mouth snapped shut.

“So, no, we’re not wasting another hour waiting for you to get past how gorgeous you think your husband-to-be is.” She relaxed into her chair, shifting in an instant from scolding to cheerful. “We have a church get to.”

Iris bit her bottom lip and nodded. Linda gestured to her plate.

“Eat.”

…

 Oliver stared Barry down from the other end of the table. Wally’s hand paused mid-bite, pancakes stuffed onto his fork. Cisco ate at his own usual pace. Joe hesitantly set another plate of pancakes and other breakfast dishes on the table with the container of orange juice he’d pulled from the refrigerator. After a beat, he pushed them farther down the table towards the other men seated there. Away from Barry, who was stuffing his face at a speed impossible to most.

Oliver set down his glass of orange juice deliberately as he reached for the carton.

Barry paused and looked up at him, and everyone else staring at him. Even Cisco had set down his utensils, mildly concerned.

“Whaght?” Barry asked with a full mouth. He reached for the glass of orange juice Joe had set in front of him.

“Son, slow down,” Joe said, sitting beside him.

Barry swallowed his food, that a large gulp of orange juice, wiped his mouth off with the back of his hand – to which Joe tossed a napkin at him and thanked his lucky stars the boy hadn’t come in his wedding attire.

“I don’t want to be late,” Barry said by way of apology.

“It’s 10:30, Barry,” Oliver said from across the table.

Barry waited.

“The ceremony doesn’t start till two, Bear,” Joe filled in, selecting food to put on his own plate. “It’ll take you an hour for all of us to get ready – max. Then maybe an hour to get ready once we get to the church. That gets us to 12:30. Still an hour and half to go.”

Barry slouched in on himself for barely a second before he sat up straight, grinning proudly. Oliver’s eyebrows narrowed subtly.

“Maybe I can see Ir—”

The glare from Joe beside him made him stop mid-sentence.

“You are not seeing my baby girl before I do.”

He swallowed hard. “Okay, but maybe after you—”

“And once I see her, no one will be seeing her until the ceremony, because I will be walking her down the aisle.” His eyes squinted. “You didn’t forget about the crucial importance of not seeing the bride before the wedding, did you?”

Barry sighed. “No,” he grumbled.

“Good.”

“Not that that should keep you from being excited,” Cisco assured him, slapping his arm with enthusiasm.

Barry flinched slightly, frowning at the brief sting his best friend’s hand brought. Then he turned back to Joe.

“Since you’ll be the only one of us seeing her…”

Wally raised his hand. “I’ll be seeing her.”

“I probably will too,” Oliver volunteered. Joe glanced over at him. “Felicity will likely be with her, and I don’t have to wait until the ceremony to see the woman I love.” He offered no sympathetic look to Barry.

“You know I got your back,” Cisco said when Barry turned to him. The latter smiled, appreciating the gesture, but he started to frown when his best friend appeared to waver. “But things happen… What if Caitlin—”

“Oh, God.” He put his face in his hands.

Cisco looked to Joe nervously. The older man didn’t meet his eyes at first, determined to hold his ground, but eventually he caved. Barry was like a son to him, and there was no one in the world he felt was more deserving of marrying his daughter.

He dug out his phone, flipped through his photos until he found the one he wanted, and then nudged Barry’s elbow.

“What?” Barry said into the table.

“Look.”

Barry lifted his head, saw a glimpse of Iris on the phone, and immediately took the device from his future father-in-law.

It wasn’t Iris in her wedding dress. It wasn’t even Iris from earlier that morning. But it was Iris from the night before. She’d come to visit her dad on the eve of her wedding, her last night as a single woman, and Wally had hidden in the kitchen, recording the whole scene on his dad’s phone.

“I get to marry Barry tomorrow, Dad. Can you believe it?” Her eyes sparkled, and Barry’s breath caught in his throat.

“Baby girl,” Joe said in the video, wiping away the happy tears streaming down her face and pulling her into a hug. “I’m so happy for both of you.”

The video ended. Barry looked up at Joe with tears in his eyes, and despite himself, Joe had some of them too.

“It’s not even the ceremony yet. How are these guys going to last?” Oliver muttered beneath his breath.

Wally grinned, overhearing. “They’re not.”

Everyone at the table resumed eating. Barry didn’t speed-eat this time, and Joe smiled, a warmth spreading through him that he knew would carry him far beyond the events of the day.

His daughter was going to be Iris West-Allen.

It was more than he could have ever dreamed.

#westallen #westallen wedding week #westallenweddingweek #backtothestart02 fanfiction #fanfiction #the first day of forever #chapter 2

[bettername2come]

The Nights You’ll Never Remember with the Friends You’ll Never Forget 2/?

http://archiveofourown.org/works/12299736/chapters/27986097

Waking up cold was never a good thing for Oliver. In the past it had meant no shelter on the island at best and a kidnapping at worst, but, god, he was freezing right now. And was he on the floor? It had been ten years since he’d had a headache like this and it occurred to him that he really didn’t miss his playboy days. He tried to stand only to have his feet fly out from under him and land flat on his back.

Because the floor was ice.

“Yeah, sorry about that,” a familiar voice called. “Apparently I had a little too much fun last night.”

Oliver opened his eyes to find Caitlin standing over him in full Killer Frost attire, complete with blonde hair. And above her, a breathtakingly beautiful ice ceiling that made Oliver think of cathedrals, not that he’d seen that many of them. “Where are we?” he asked.

“My apartment,” Caitlin said, pointing towards the kitchen, which looked completely normal. “And I think it’s safe to say I will not be getting my security deposit back.”

“How long have I been out?” Oliver asked, sitting up slowly rather than risk falling again.

“No idea,” Caitlin replied, making her way into the kitchen effortlessly over the ice despite the high-heeled boots she wore. “Woke up myself about five minutes ago, saw all this and you. Figured it probably wouldn’t be good for my recovering supervillain progress if I let the Green Arrow die of hypothermia in my living room, so I put on a pot of coffee.” She held up the pot. “Want some?”

“Sure,” Oliver said. He reached his hand out to steady himself as he rose to his feet and that was when he realized he was wearing the Green Arrow suit, right down to the gloves. “I’m wearing the suit.”

“Yes, I can see that,” Caitlin said with just a hint of mocking in her voice. “Probably a good thing, too. I’m guessing it’s better at maintaining core temperature than the suit you were wearing last night.”

“No, I mean I didn’t bring the suit to Central City,” he said as he moved slowly to the kitchen counter.

Caitlin passed him a steaming STAR Labs mug. “World’s fastest delivery boy, maybe?” she offered. “Add it to the list of questions.”

Oliver took a sip of the coffee. “Where’s your phone? We should probably call Barry.”

Caitlin pointed to a small, rectangular chunk of ice on the counter. “My guess is it rang and I froze it to shut it up.”

“Of course you did,” Oliver said.

“Hey, you’re lucky I didn’t freeze you.”

Oliver rolled his eyes and pulled up the hood, searching for his earpiece. To his relief, he found it. He pushed a pushed a button the side. “Overwatch, do you copy?”

It was Diggle’s voice that came on the line instead. “Man, what the hell is going on there? Lyla’s been working with ARGUS all night trying to keep a lid on this thing, especially since Supergirl’s involved, but every five minutes she has to pull some new video off of YouTube.”

“YouTube? I have no idea what happened last night. Last thing I remember was giving a toast, next thing I know I’m waking up in Killer Frost’s homemade ice castle.”

“See this is why I turned down the invite. Weird shit always happens when we visit them,” Diggle said. “You’re lucky you didn’t wake up next to a man-shark.”

“Vibe picked it up for you last night. Wild Dog said he popped into the bunker last night after he came back from patrol, called him ‘Casey Jones’ and took off with the suit.”

“He say when that was?”

“Around one a.m.”

“You know anything else that happened last night?” Oliver asked.

“Green Arrow stopped an ATM robbery last night with the help of an unknown woman I’m assuming was Supergirl. Breaches were opening up like crazy and there was a wave of superspeed-induced destruction last night. Lyla says there’s more to it, but she’s trying to compile all her information before she gives me the details. The phrase ‘national security’ was used a lot.”

“Let me know when you have more. Can you patch me through to Felicity? I don’t have my phone.”

A moment later, Felicity’s voice was sounding in his ear. “Oh, thank God, you’re alive. Have you heard from The Flash?”

“No, I’m with Killer Frost.”

Felicity sounded worried. “Killer Frost? And exactly how Killer is she right now?”

Oliver looked back at his companion, who was eyeing him now that she’d heard her nickname. “More frosty than killer. It’s fine. She’s in control. Where are you?”

“Stuck on a roof waiting for the slowest meta on earth.”

“Where?”

“Jitters.”

“Okay, I’ll come get you.”

“As sweet as that is Oliver, it’s nine o’clock in the morning and the Green Arrow parkouring his way through the wrong city might just turn some heads.”

Oliver turned back to Caitlin and gestured down at the Green Arrow suit. “You don’t happen to have anything else I could wear, do you?”

Oliver could have sworn Caitlin’s already pale skin went even whiter when she responded. “Yeah, I just, um. I need them back, okay?”

Oliver suddenly remembered just why Caitlin might have men’s clothing in his size and nodded. “Right. Of course.” He spoke to Felicity once more while Caitlin disappeared into her bedroom. “Just sit tight. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

Caitlin came back carrying a sweater, jeans and sneakers. “These should work. Ronnie was about your size.”

“Thanks.” Oliver ducked into the bathroom to change and popped back out a moment later. “Are you gonna come with me?”

Caitlin gestured towards her hair with an icy hand. “No, I can’t seem to make this go away. It’s probably best if I stay in hiding until I have this all under control better. And I should probably grab a hair dryer and start doing something about all of this,” she said, waving her hand at her ice-encrusted living room.

Oliver nodded. “All right. I’ll call you as soon as I know something about the rest of Team Flash.” He hurried out the door, leaving Caitlin to clean up her mess.

Caitlin sighed. “Come hang out with the team, they said. It’ll be fun, they said. Liars.”

*

Oliver reached the door of CC Jitters at the same time Cisco and Iris did.

“Oh, man, is it good to see you,” Cisco said, clutching at Oliver’s arm. He turned back to Iris. “Okay, two down, four more to go. It’s a good start.”

“Three more to go, actually,” Oliver said. “I was at Caitlin’s. She’s fine, she’s just having some trouble with her powers.”

“Yeah, she’s not the only one. I can’t

“Yeah, a real great time for your powers to go down.”

“Iris, we will find the ring, but first we should probably find the groom,” Cisco said. “Don’t you think he might be a little more important in the grand scheme of things?”

“You lost the ring?” Oliver asked.

“You see?” Iris said. “He didn’t say ‘You lost Barry?’ He said ‘You lost the ring?’ Barry can find us himself. He knows where to look. The ring doesn’t have legs. It can’t just track us down. It might just be gone forever and it’s not like Barry has so many Allen family heirlooms to pass on.”

“Okay, Iris, breathe,” Oliver said. “We can find the ring we just have to retrace our steps from last night. And once we get Felicity, I’m sure she can hack into some security footage and give us a clue as to where we all went last night.”

“Hey, she is not the only one who can hack into things around here,” Cisco said.

Iris turned toward him, eyebrows raised. “Really? Because five minutes ago you were rambling about how you weren’t sure you could help the team anymore without your ‘semi-phenomenal, nearly cosmic powers’ at your disposal.”

“I had a moment of panic,” Cisco said, pulling open the door to Jitters. “You got the key to the roof?”

“Oh, you mean the key to the coffee shop I haven’t worked at in almost three years? Yeah, it’s right here in my jacket pocket. The symbol of Barry Allen’s undying love for me, however…”

“Okay, let’s just go get Felicity,” Oliver said, following his friends into Jitters. If anyone noticed the three of them making a beeline for the stairs to the roof they didn’t say anything. Then again, the civilians who ignored the odd behavior here and there tended to fare better in Central City.

Felicity latched onto Oliver as soon as the door opened. “Oh, boy am I glad to see you guys. Well, mostly see you. My vision’s a little on the blurry side this morning actually.”

“I think I know why,” Oliver said, reaching for her glasses. Gently, he tugged them off her face and studied them closer. “These are window glass. Kara’s.”

“God, did that woman keep any of her clothes on last night?” Iris asked, earning her puzzled looks from Felicity and Oliver. “I woke up in the Supergirl suit.”

“Ooh, how were the boots?” Felicity asked.

“Surprisingly comfortable. I think I have to have this Winn guy make me a pair. You think he does commissions?”

“Can we focus on the main plot here, people?” Cisco said. “We’ve got three superheroes still unaccounted for and only one clue as to why.” He handed the card they’d received with the champagne to Oliver.

“Music Meister?” Oliver read. “Cisco, you have got to stop coming up with these names.”

“Sure, I’ll just call everyone whose name I don’t know the unsub of the week. That won’t be confusing,” Cisco said. “Anyway, he’s not a totally bad guy. He actually did help Wally and got Barry and Iris back together last time, but that doesn’t mean he’s not a total dick!” Cisco yelled the last two words, earning him a strange look from his friends. “Oh, like he’s not listening now? If you were an insane magician wouldn’t you be?”

“Okay,” Felicity said. “Let’s get back to STAR Labs so we can find out just what happened last night.”

*

“All right, so let’s get bank statements to see where we were last night,” Felicity said as they walked into the Cortex. “Then I can use that to see which cameras we need to hack into.”

They all stopped short when they saw Joe West sitting in chair behind the main computers. “I could probably help you out with that. I’ve got a few dozen witness statements that could give you a place to start, but first, where the hell are Barry and Wally?”

#i wrote a thing #arrow #the flash #the flash fanfiction #westallen

[kenna-girl]

Stop the World

for @backonsixthstreet, for her birthday, the Flash/Sky High crossover that probably only we want (~1.5k, also on AO3 and FFN)

She was just as surprised as everyone else to find out that they all lived in a pocket dimension. When Principal Powers sat them all down at the end of junior year, they thought it was just going to be a talk about applying to colleges, not the news that the rest of the world knew nothing about superheroes and battling giant robots in the streets every other Tuesday.

Granted, that did impact what they could write about in their admissions essays, but it still wasn’t the talk she thought they’d be getting.

She decided she didn’t want to stay in Maxville. As much as she hated fighting, it would be nice to go somewhere that she wouldn’t be expected to take up a mantle. She liked the sciences, but going into botany would probably result in an Incident. Thinking that an entirely clean slate might be good, she changed her name and Caitlin Layla Snow became a biology major at Keystone University.

Her relationship with Warren lasted until she came home for Christmas during her freshman year. The couple went out to eat for their third anniversary and came home single. The distance was just too hard, with Caitlin in Keystone and Warren in Maxville, but they had been friends before they got together and they would be friends again.

She got into bioengineering and focused on her studies, then on her job at STAR Labs. She met Ronnie and fell in love, not the puppy love she felt for Will or even the comfortable love she felt for Warren, but big, terrifying, forever love. She met Cisco and found another brother, the kind she hadn’t had since high school. When Ronnie asked her to marry him, she said yes.

She didn’t tell them about Maxville or Layla Williams. She didn’t know how.

The particle accelerator exploded and everything changed, even if she didn’t know it yet.

A little over a year later and Caitlin was once again living in a world of superheroes and battling in the streets. They hadn’t reached giant robots every other Tuesday yet, but it was only a matter of time. She felt better about helping from the labs than she ever would have out in the field. It helped that it was Barry she was helping, a good person who wanted to contain the threats more than eliminate them. Nothing against the heroes she grew up with, but there is a certain level of desensitizing that happens in that kind of world. She hoped it wouldn’t arrive too soon in this one.

Once it became clear that she was officially going to be hero support, she pulled out some formulas from her almost-forgotten Super Statistics course to figure out how long it would take her to get kidnapped. Unfortunately, Caitlin didn’t account for Leonard Snart’s obsessive tendencies, and she was grabbed two weeks before the earliest point of the likely timeframe she had calculated. She knew better than to attempt escape during transport, since that would probably end in road rash and the two villains putting her back in the van. Instead, she played along through that ridiculous video (because dramatic monologues were not restricted to Maxville apparently) and let herself be led to the chair to be tied down, brain racing through all the escape techniques she had learned as she kept Rory talking.

“You and this Flash must be really close if you’re willing to die for him, hmm?”

It was that face, the one he made on “close” that brought her back to the moment. He didn’t see the Flash’s doctor, or even a member of the team. He saw the Girl, the Love Interest.

The Damsel in Distress.

She may have been a sidekick but she was not a fucking damsel.

“You want me to show you who you really are? That’d be fun.”

He traced the charged gun up the line of her body.

“Show you who you… really are.”

The gun drew level with her head and she glared along the barrel to his face.

“You think I’ve never played with fire before?”

He raised an eyebrow at her, smirking, like she was a kitten trying to show she had claws.

“Freshman year, a guy tried to light someone on fire in the middle of the cafeteria. I got him to take me to homecoming.” She smiled, all teeth. “He looked real good in a tux. Apparently his dad didn’t have much use for it in solitary.”

Rory scoffed. “So you nabbed a guy who acted out because of daddy issues with his pops in the can. Plenty of kids of incompetent crooks out there.”

“I’ll be sure to let Barron Battle know you think so highly of him.”

It was a bit of a gamble, but according to Warren, his dad had left Maxville at one point and spent some time in Iron Heights, raising more than his share of hell before he was “transferred.” If prison storytelling worked like Warren and Barry told her it did, there was a good chance Rory had heard the rumors at some point.

The way his eyes widened suggested he had, but Snart called him away and she was left bound and gagged sitting on a bomb. Not for the first time since she had been kidnapped, she regretted leaving the living terrarium necklace she had received from Etsy the day before on her kitchen table. There wasn’t a single scrap of plant life in the building for her to ask for help, which is the exact situation she had bought the trinket for in the first place.

The good news was that it wasn’t long before Cisco and Joe came to her rescue. The bad news was that they almost blew her up in the process. She was laying on the concrete floor, feeling like a Save the Citizen doll, when she told Cisco, “I thought I was gonna die.”

“Not while I’m around.” He nodded at Joe. “Or him.” He tilted his head. “Or the not-Ronnie with fireball powers who showed up at the labs to help. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”

Caitlin laughed, because of course he did. He told her he’d be keeping an ear out for Central City news in case they needed a hand. “I’ll explain later.”

Since she had been seen on television as a hostage, Joe had to bring her in to give a statement. On the way, they listened to the radio play-by-play of Barry’s fight against the villainous duo. When she didn’t hear any mention of another fire handler, she asked Cisco about it. “He said something about trying to stay off the radar and that he would be back up if things got out of hand. If all goes well, he’ll meet us back at the labs.”

Even with the heads up from Cisco, she was somehow surprised to see him standing in the cortex, chatting with Dr. Wells. “Warren.”

He turned and grinned when he saw her. “Layla.”

She hadn’t spoken to Warren since just before Christmas. She’d called him to let him know that her fiancé was alive and could light himself on fire. Warren had laughed at her and the irony, until he heard the tears in her voice and switched to comforting her.

It was that comfort that she got now, running into the arms of the second most important man in her life (sorry, Cisco) and jumping onto her toes for a hug, one that he easily returned.

“I thought you said you ran the numbers,” he muttered into her hair.

“Snart went from a Class IV working alone to a Class II with a partner,” she responded. “I was supposed to have at least two more weeks.”

“Well I'll be sure to tell Mrs. Gebra to take a few points off your transcript,” he laughed, letting her go. “You know, for someone who wanted to get away from all this, you've got a set up that would make Medulla cry. Either from pride or jealousy.”

She smiled at him. “And I'm sure you'll tell him all about it at the next staff meeting, won't you Mr. Guidance Counselor?”

“Uh, Caitlin?”

Looking back towards the door, she realized Cisco, Joe, and Barry were all watching her curiously. Even Dr. Wells looked somewhere between interested and frustrated, probably because she'd been keeping secrets. She'd been keeping secrets for a long time, trying to keep her two worlds separate, but she could feel the inevitable coming.

“You wanna tell us what's going on?”

Her worlds were colliding, and she was going to let it happen, ready or not.

So she opened her mouth and told them.

#kennagirl fics #The Flash #Sky High #Caitlin Snow #Layla Williams #Warren Peace #Mick Rory #Cisco Ramon

[crimsondomingo]

New writer ask meme... how about You've got mail Coldflash AU with tons of angst and tons of smut and fluff towards the end??

(WHAT are you doing to me!)

Barry Allen owns and runs his mother’s bookshop, which he practicallygrew up in and has worked at all his life. His mother died from a B&E whenhe was 10, but that just makes the shop more special to him. His father passedaway last year after a heart-attack, and ever since, Barry has been even moreobsessed with staying in the shop rather than going out with friends or datingor anything outside of work.

Iris, his best friend since school days, keeps trying to gethim to just DATE and live his life, but Barry never confessed that his firstlove was HER, and now she’s married and pregnant with her first child, and thatjust makes it harder even though Barry knows he needs to move on.

His employees are great friends too, though they’re a littlesubtler about how they try to get him out of the shop. Cisco will ask Barryover for video game nights, and Caitlin will invite Barry along to theaterexcursions, but Barry hates being a third wheel with her husband, as nice asRonnie is. HR is great too, he’s just a little…difficult to handle in largedoses. Plus, the guy seems far too obsessed with this popular romance author,E.B. Thawne, which Barry accused Iris’s husband of being once, but Eddie swearsit’s just a coincidence that their names are so similar.

“Besides, my middle name is Richard, Barr.”

(The romance novelist is HR, using the pseudonym of EobardThawne but changing it to EB to be more like HR. He totally got the idea ofusing Thawne after meeting Eddie and Iris. He works at Barry’s shop for fun,since he makes A LOT of money from his writing.)

Cisco and Caitlin have started reading those romance novelstoo, which is highly inappropriate to be pouring over during shop hours. Barry’sbookstore is for CHILDREN.

Or at least it should be, if they can survive the corporategiant moving in around the corner, Rogue Books. Lisa Snart is the face of thecompany, “A really nice face too,” Cisco has said on more than one occasion,but her partner and brother Leonard Snart is known as the real shark behind thebusiness. He’s so ruthless, they call him Captain Cold. It’s terrible the waythis powerhouse is ruining family owned businesses like Barry’s. The ScarletReader is everything a little book store should be.

At least Barry has his secret pen pal, who he met one nighton a message board support group for people who’ve lost their parents. No realnames or details are given, it’s just the chance for people with similarexperiences to connect and vent – like group therapy for busy people (or inBarry’s case, people who don’t get out much.)

WynterNights72 is just so easy to talk to. He lost hismother when he was young too, and his father passed away a few years ago, justlike Barry’s passed away last year. Of course Wynter didn’t have a goodrelationship with his father like Barry did, but it’s still a similar tale ofwoe.

They don’t even chat about their folks much anymore, justrandom things. They created their own private board so they can leave eachother messages whenever they want and keep it between them. It’s nice to havesomeone to talk to who doesn’t know Barry’s real name, someone whose face Barryhas never seen.

Of course he likes to imagine the guy is attractive andsuccessful and totally smitten with Barry like Barry is with him, but he couldnever actually do anything about it. They’re just pen pals. The only thingBarry knows is that the man also lives in Central City. It would be insane toever be more than friends.

Meanwhile, Leonard Snart runs Rogue Books as joint CEO withhis sister and their childhood friend, Mick Rory, who handles the logisticswhen it comes to demolition and construction of new stores. Len has a greatteam who handles financials, staffing, marketing, allowing Lisa to be thespokesperson and Len to stick to the shadows.

Len has learned to be cold because he has to be, that’s whathas made Rogue Books so successful. It certainly wasn’t his father’s effortswhen he was still alive running the company. The only thing Lewis was ever goodfor was giving Len the best sister he could ask for…and the best littlebrother.

Michael is only seven. He was two when Lewis died, so hebarely remembers him, and thinks more of Len as his father figure. Michael’smother has full custody but she lets Len and Lisa take Michael and spend timewith him whenever they want.

Outside of Lisa, Mick, and a few close coworkers, Len doesn’treally have friends. He’s odd friends with a few of his exes, but he figureswhat’s the point in dating when he always loses in love? Lisa tried to convincehim to go to counseling, that maybe if he had someone else to talk to it’d beeasier to open up to a potential partner someday.

So Len found his way to that message board, because he doesn’tDO therapy, and met Runner_in_Red. He can tell by the occasional reference thatthis guy is a few years younger than he is, but he’s just so easy to talk to.Len’s never had a friend quite like Red, and he likes having him all to himself,like a secret. Sometimes, he wishes he had the courage to ask for them to meet,but he doesn’t want to ruin what they have. So he pines in private, wonderingwhat Red might look like on the other side of that screen.

It’s one day when Len is spending the afternoon with Michaelthat his little brother insists on going into the bookshop they pass along thestreet. Len feels a little awkward about the whole thing, because this place isthe competition he’s currently running into the ground with his new megastorearound the block, but he wants to encourage Michael’s love of reading.

They stumble upon a children’s circle, where a young man isdoing an impressive and adorably engaging reading from The Runaway Dinosaur,which was always one of Len’s favorite children’s books too. Len is instantlycharmed—until he realizes that the young man is Barry Allen, the shop’s owner. Shit. Len cannot let this kid know thatthe enemy walked through his door, so he introduces himself as Len.

“Just Len.”

Of course, Michael thinks that Len’s nickname as CaptainCold is awesome, “Like a superhero!” So when Len and Barry are talking, andBarry mentions that they’re trying to stay afloat against the evil Captain Coldaround the corner, Michael spouts off his newest spelling word.

“C-O-L-D. Just like—”

“Well, we need to be going,” Len says and quickly makes scarce,pushing Michael out the door.

His getaway doesn’t save him for long though as he runs intoBarry at a party later that week and the cat is out of the bag about who Lenreally is.

This devolves into their very intense rivalry as bookstoreowner nemeses, while privately at home Len and Barry are each asking Wynter andRed for advice…as they slowly fall more and more in love with the pen pal they’venever met.

#coldflash #you've got mail au

[mosylufanfic]

Killervibe and room mates for the AU August thing!!!

Oh nonny, you are so patient. Here you go. They were roommates.

You Can’t Keep Secrets From Your Roommate

Texting about his plans for the evening, Cisco unlocked his front door and twisted the knob. It stuck under his hand, and he looked up from the phone. "What the - "

He rattled the knob, which steadfastly refused to turn. Then he realized that it had been unlocked to begin with, and he'd locked it again.

He also realized there was a little blue car in his driveway.

He grinned.

He unlocked the door and went into the house. A purse sat on the hall table, a coat heaped on the floor under it. In the living room, a woman in dark blue scrubs sprawled facedown on the couch, dead to the world.

"Dear god," he said loudly. "There's a strange woman in my house."

She didn't stir.

"What? Can it be? My long-lost roommate? She does look a little like Caitlin . . . "

She let out a snore.

He shook his head fondly. "Dork." He reached over her and pulled the deeply ugly crocheted blanket off the back of the couch, spreading it over her.

She stirred, snuffling like an adorable little piglet, and blinked her eyes open. "Cisco?"

"For that you wake up?"

She yawned. "What are you doing home so early?"

"Check the time, Sleeping Beauty." He held his phone out.

Her eyes widened. "Oh, I fell asleep."

"Sure as hell did. So they let you out of the salt mines?"

She yawned again and pushed herself to a sitting position, rubbing her neck. "Ow. Yes, I'm off until tomorrow evening."

She was doing her residency at a local hospital. Cisco had been gobsmacked when she'd told him that eighty-plus hour weeks were commonplace, even expected. But he'd gotten used to barely seeing her except on her way out the door or on her way to bed.

Not that he liked it. But he’d gotten used to it.

"Whoa, seriously?” he said. “Twenty-four whole hours of freedom? What are you going to do with that?"

"Laundry and cleaning tomorrow," she said. "But tonight, Netflix. Lots of Netflix."

"Sweet." He dropped onto the couch next to her. "Want company?"

"Oh, Cisco, it's Friday night." She paused. "It is Friday night, right?"

"Yep."

"So, I'm sure you have plans to go out. You always do."

He pushed his phone into his pocket as it buzzed with a text from Barry about which bars they were going to hit. "Actually, this week has thrashed me too."

She looked skeptical. "Really?"

"Yeah. I mean, I didn't save anybody's life or get drenched head to toe in bodily fluids like some people on this couch, but there was this big project due and my boss was riding us hard. I'm in serious need of unwinding."

That was all true, although up until five minutes ago, his plan for unwinding had included shots, dancing, and maybe making out with someone cute in a darkened club. But he tossed that plan without a second thought

"Besides, when was the last time we had a roomie TV night?"

"Months," she said.

And that was why.

When he'd first met Caitlin, as one-half of the couple who'd wanted to move into the spare room he'd advertised on Craigslist, he'd thought she was sweet but shy and not really his type of friend. He'd clicked much more quickly with Ronnie, her boyfriend, and been more than happy to sign on the dotted line with him. Caitlin had come as part of the package. He'd been okay with that because just looking at her, he knew she was the type to pay rent scrupulously on time and never leave her dishes in the sink.

But within a few months, he'd figured out that she was sharp and funny and smart as hell, and she'd become his friend in her own right, not just as Ronnie's girlfriend.

After Ronnie had been killed by a drunk driver, their senior year of college, it had never crossed his mind to have her move out, and as far as he knew, she'd never thought of it either. This was her home.

People thought it was weird sometimes - mostly women he dated, or biphobic guys. They just couldn't understand how you could share a house for this long with someone you weren't banging.

"She's like my sister," he told them, which wasn't exactly true, but it got them off his back. Anyway, he knew that was what she told the guys she'd sporadically dated after Ronnie died, that he was like her brother. As far as he could tell, it was true for her.

He didn't really need a roommate anymore. His job at Mercury Labs more than covered the expenses of the house he'd inherited from his grandma, not like when he'd been in school and only able to work part-time at a garage.

But Caitlin had four months of residency still to go, and besides her massive school loans, the hospital where she worked was only a few miles away, close enough to drive in five minutes. Or for Cisco to go pick her up when she was so tired she couldn't move.

Anyway, he liked having her there. He'd never lived anywhere alone and he didn't want to start now.

He didn't like to think about what would happen when she was done with her residency and got a job somewhere else.

She smiled at him. “Okay. Let’s do a roomie TV night.””

He smiled back, bumping her with his shoulder. "Excellent. Chinese or pizza?"

"Chinese," she said.

"Great, that means the show is my pick." He grabbed the remote and turned the TV on.

She gasped. "Dirty pool, Cisco. I'm not watching Game of Thrones."

"Please," he said, flicking through Netflix. "You'll fall asleep again." It still offended him to his mortal soul.

She rolled her eyes and peeled herself off the couch. "Did I leave my purse in the kitchen?"

"Front hall," he called out.

His phone buzzed again, and he pulled it out. A string of texts from Barry stacked up on the screen, his friend baffled that he'd ghosted in the middle of their conversation.

He tapped out, Actually, do you mind if I cancel on you guys?

Caitlin's got the night off for once and we need roomie time

Holy shit they let her out?

IKR It's been forever

Yeah it's okay

Have fun w o me

So, are you going to talk to her?

No I'm going to ignore her all night as we hang out watching TV and eating chow mein

Duh I'm going to talk to her

You know what I mean

TALK to her

He stared at the phone. Thought about pretending he didn't know what Barry meant.

He tapped back, No

!!!!!!

Wrong time

I told you

If you're not careful she's going to move out or get with someone else and you'll have lost your chance

He put the phone away without answering and kept browsing Netflix.

She wasn't done with residency. She'd had a breakup not even a month ago. Not to mention, she was living in his house. If he confessed that he'd been having not-brotherly feelings for her for awhile now and she didn't feel the same way, it had the potential to make things really weird and awful. And what if she felt like she had to date him to keep living there?

He'd rather keep pretending to be just her good buddy Cisco forever then make her feel like that.

"Orange chicken or sweet and sour?" she asked him, scowling at her phone as she came back in.

"Sweet and sour," he decided. "And crab puffs."

She held her phone out to show him that crab puffs were the first thing on the order. "I know what you like," she said.

"Yeah, you do," he grinned at her. "And I do too. Which is why we're watching Parks and Rec."

She smiled at him. She looked tired and frazzled but her smile lit up her face. "I need a shower first, though. I smell like the hospital."

"Yeah, I didn't want to mention it . . . "

She pretended to swat him, then checked her phone again. "As soon as this order goes through." She sighed. "It's so slow lately."

"Get a new phone."

"I'm waiting to upgrade until after - "

"Residency," he said along with her. "It doesn't help that you have, like, half a kilobyte of spare storage on there."

"I need all those things. Finally!" she said as the confirmation popped up. "Okay, about forty-five minutes."

"Great. Gimme that, I'll clean it out."

She clutched it to her heart. "You'll delete everything."

"Your pictures are backed up," he said patiently. She hoarded pictures and videos like a very specific kind of dragon. "I set up your cloud storage myself. And how the hell many apps do you have?"

"I use them!"

"Okay fine, if you've used them in the past month, I won't delete them. But you don't need six months' worth of podcasts."

She pouted a little. "I'll listen to them all."

"When? After residency? You can download them again." He wiggled his fingers. "Give."

She handed it over. "But don't touch Sawbones," she ordered, already on her way to her room and the attached bathroom.

"Got it," he called out, already busy deleting. "Sawbones is sacrosanct."

It took him about five minutes to free up several gigs of space. Since he was in there, he decided to clean up her pictures. Old screenshots, discarded selfies, random stuff he was pretty sure she'd texted him. It was all backed up anyway.

He found several selfies they'd taken together and sat smiling at them for a little while. He had most of the same ones saved, downloaded from wherever she'd posted them.

He scrolled through the set again and realized there were some of his, taken with his phone and posted online, which meant that she'd downloaded them.

Hmmm.

Well.

They were pretty good pictures.

A text popped up, with her ex-boyfriend's name at the top. I had a lovely time the other night

His eyebrows shot up.

As far as he knew, Julian was still in England and would be for at least another six months. So what was this "other night" he spoke of? Had they sexted? A little post-breakup virtual hanky-panky?

"I don't want to know," he muttered, which was a lie. He kind of wanted to know.

Okay, he really wanted to know.

Sorry! That was meant for someone else

But now I've bothered you, how are you doing?

"Oho," Cisco said as all came clear. He calculated the time difference between Central City and London and felt justified in calling bullshit. Unless Julian was booty-calling someone at about four in the morning, this was the kind of idea that sounded really, really good when you were very tired and more than slightly drunk.

Impulsively, he swiped to open the conversation and smirked at the keyboard, fingers ready to call the other man on his nonsense.

Then he thought - no, that's a terrible idea and Caitlin will be furious. If she wanted to call him out, she should get the pleasure of it herself. Reluctantly, he swiped down to close the keyboard.

That brought more of the text conversation down to fill the screen. It was pretty dull stuff - have a nice trip, take care of yourself. He scrolled a little and found stilted queries about whether he'd found a hoodie of hers, about whether she still had his charger. Very, very polite and a little bit pained. Breakup stuff.

It had been an amicable breakup as far as he knew. "Long-distance is too hard," Caitlin had said, packing a half-empty box of tea, a T-shirt, and the debated phone charger into a paper grocery sack. "Especially with my residency and his fellowship taking up so much energy. We decided it was better to end on good terms."

But even the nicest breakup was still a breakup, an ending, an us falling apart into a you and a me. So he wasn't surprised at the stiff tone.

He scrolled up and found the next one back, not polite, not businesslike at all.

I'm not doing this over text.

It was from Caitlin. He checked the timestamp - two weeks before Julian had left. Right around the time they'd broken up.

If that didn't sound like an about-to-break-up text . . .

His fingers hovered over the screen, and then he gave in to insatiable curiosity and swiped down to see what kind of dealbreaker thing Julian had said to her.

No matter what I do, you're never going to feel half as much for me as you do for him

What the fuck.

He sat staring at the text, especially the last word.

Him.

Who was him?

His first thought was Ronnie. But Julian had said do, not did. Cisco had talked with Caitlin about Ronnie enough over the years for him to know that while she'd always love him and treasure his memory, that memory was folded away in her past. This sounded like current feelings, for a living man.

He tried to remember if she'd talked about any of their guy friends more often than any other. Or someone at the hospital? She didn't mention her co-workers at the hospital much.

So who the hell was him?

And why hadn't she mentioned him to Cisco?

He debated with himself, then turned off the phone to clear out the deleted things, and not incidentally, keep himself from reading more of the conversation. He was already feeling guilty for having read as much as he had.

Should he ask?

Caitlin came out of her room in pajamas, her hair damp. "How's the patient?" she asked him, folding herself into the couch next to him.

She smelled like flowery shampoo and apple-flavored lotion. It was warm and familiar, one of his favorite smells.

He turned the phone back on and handed it back. "Think he's gonna make it."

She tapped in her code and opened a few things to test, then smiled at him when everything was speeded up. "Thanks. So, which season are we watching?"

He realized the Netflix screen was still up, waiting for a choice. "You pick," he said.

"Me? Okay." She reached for the remote next to his leg.

"So, uh," he said as she flicked through seasons, weighing their merits. "Julian texted while I was working on your phone."

"Julian?" she said, surprised. "What did he want?" She opened her texts and looked. "That's weird. Did you read this?"

"Well, it popped up, so."

She shook her head, baffled. "Do you think he's trying to make me jealous?"

"Seems like. Are you going to answer him?"

She laughed. "No. I think he's going to wake up in the morning and be very embarrassed."

"How's he doing, anyway?"

"I don't really know. Okay, I guess. We haven't talked much. We're both - "

"So busy," he finished. "Yeah." He fiddled with his own phone, watching as she finally chose season three. He should ask.

He shouldn't ask.

But he had to know.

But if she'd wanted him to know, she would have damn well told him.

He found himself saying, "I have to confess something."

She widened her eyes at him as Ron and Leslie bickered on-screen. "You deleted Sawbones?"

"No, I told you I'd leave it alone. You've still got like twenty episodes. No, uh - " He dug his fingers into the upholstery. "I kind of read more of your texts with Julian."

She frowned at him. "Why?"

"I - you're right. I shouldn't have. But I was in there anyway and - I'm sorry."

She shrugged, tucking her legs up under herself. "I'm sure they were very exciting."

"A little," he said. "Caitlin, why didn't you tell me?"

A little silence, and then she said, "Tell you what?"

"Why you really broke up with him."

Color seeped away from her cheeks. She turned her head to stare fixedly at the TV. "I told you. The distance and we were busy and - "

"And you're in love with someone else."

"Oh god," she whispered. "You read that far?"

"Yeah," he said. "Why is this the first I'm hearing about it?"

"I - I couldn't," she said. "Not to you. I couldn’t." She covered her face with her hands. "Do you want me to move out?"

"Move out?" he almost shouted. "What the hell? Why would I ever want you to move out?"

She dropped her hands to stare at him. Her eyes were wet and red. "It would be so awkward if I stayed."

"Why?"

The chirpy, peppy theme music started, jarring in the taut silence. He grabbed the remote from her lap and hit pause.

"Caitlin," he sad. "Why would it be awkward? Who are you in love with?"

Her eyes went very wide. "You - you didn't see the whole conversation."

"No," he said.

She bit her lip. "Someone. From the hospital. You don't know him."

He looked at her hard. "Caitlin Snow, you are the worst liar I've ever met."

Her pale face flushed with color. "I'm not lying."

"That's exactly what you say every time you bluff at poker.” He nodded at her phone, now clutched tightly in her hand. “If I’d read farther back, what would I have seen? Who was Julian talking about?”

“Someone from the hospital,” she said stubbornly, getting to her feet. “You know what, I think I should get a head start on my laundry.”

“But,” he said. “Wait. What? You're just going to run away?”

She stopped in the hall, not looking back at him. “I need you to not push me on this, Cisco,” she said evenly.

A moment later, the door to her room shut with a snap.

He stared blankly at the TV screen for a moment. Then he got up and went to her door.

It looked blank and stolid, about as informative as Caitlin’s stiff back when she’d told him not to push her.

He scowled and raised his hand to knock.

His hand froze, and then he pulled it back and laced his fingers together on the top of his head, letting out a long whoosh of a breath.

Was he crazy?

Had Julian meant him in that text thread?

Or did he just want Caitlin’s mystery guy to be himself so bad that he was talking himself into believing it was?

He had been pushing, like she’d said. What was going through her mind? What could he say to get her to let down those walls of hers? Because he’d seen what happened when people tried to just bash through. It didn’t end well.

The doorbell rang, and he jolted. The food. Shit. Had it been forty-five minutes already?

After he’d taken the food and paid the kid, he took everything to the kitchen and unpacked the bag, setting out square boxes, opening one after another to figure out which was his and which was hers.

His brain churned around and around, but no matter what clever things he came up with, he kept returning to the one thing that felt like it would work. Only one thing that would get her to open up.

But it was one hell of a risk.

Far away, Caitlin’s door clicked open. He forced himself to stay where he was, snapping a pair of chopsticks apart and poking at his sweet and sour chicken.

Caitlin walked through the kitchen with a laundry basket on her hip.

“Food’s here,” he said.

Her eyes flickered toward him, then the boxes lined up on the counter. “Okay,” she said. “I’ll just get the first load in.” She ducked her head and continued on to the laundry room. The washer door clanged, and cloth rustled as she started loading it.

He fished a piece of bell pepper out of the box and lifted it to his mouth, but his stomach felt like a whirlpool. He dropped it back in the box, his heart slamming against his ribs. He opened his mouth a couple of times, just to close it again.

There was a click, and then water started whooshing into the washing machine. In a moment, she was going to come out here again and he was going to have to say this to her face. And he didn’t know if he had the guts for that.

“You know,” he called out, “I didn't tell you, but I was pretty happy when you broke up with Julian.”

Silence.

“Not because I don't like him, or because he was bad for you, or anything. He was an okay guy, Julian, and he treated you mostly pretty good. It’s just that every time I saw you holding his hand, or kissing him, or - “ He swallowed. “Or going to your room together, it reminded me that, uh. That you were with him. And more importantly, you weren't with me.”

He looked up. Caitlin stood in the door between the laundry room and the kitchen, looking at him. Her eyes were huge and her face was pale.

“And I wanted to be with you,” he finished.

She swallowed hard. “But I’m like your sister. You say that all the time.”

“And I’m like your brother,” he said. “Which you say all the time. But who are we saying it to, Caitlin? Because I’m mostly saying it to people I’m dating, to keep them from being weirded out that we live together and you’re basically my favorite person.”

She nodded. “Me too.”

“Julian didn’t believe you, did he?” He had a balloon in his stomach now, instead of a whirlpool, blowing up wide, pushing his heart up into his throat.

She shook her head, very slowly. “No. And he - he wasn’t wrong.”

He licked his desert-dry lips. “So it was me you were fighting about?"

"I have so little free time," she said. "And he always thought that he should come first in my priorities when I did get a night off. He hated it that you did."

He remembered how she'd always waited to hear what he was doing before telling him that she was going to Julian's place, and how their more scheduled dates were always on his D&D night, or when he was going to a party. He'd always thought that was to take advantage of the empty house.

"Hard to blame him, really."

"I didn't realize how I felt when I started dating Julian," she said. "I really did like him. Just - like he said. Not enough."

Poor Julian. He'd come in second all the time; no wonder he'd snapped at her over text.

Cisco was finding it hard to feel too much pity for the other guy. After all, if he hadn't snapped, Caitlin wouldn't have broken up with him, and she wouldn't be here in this kitchen, drifting closer in soft little kitten steps.

"You said you wanted to be with me," she said. "Is that past tense?"

He set the box of sweet and sour chicken down on the counter, gripping the edge of it so he wouldn't just reach out and grab her.

"Present tense," he said. "I want to be with you. But I told myself I couldn't make it weird, what with you paying me rent and all."

She put her hand on his chest. His heart thudded so hard he wondered if it would just burst out and land in her palm. "I can move out," she said, mouth quirking. "I made the offer."

"The hell you will," he said, and pulled her close to press his lips to hers.

They did end up eating all the food. Eventually.

They didn't watch any TV, though.

FINIS

#Cisco Ramon #Caitlin Snow #killervibe #fanfiction #mosylufanfic lives up to her damn name #AUgust prompts #and they were roommates!! #roommate AU #the flash #Anonymous