he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
Cosmic Funnies
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TVSTRANGERTHINGS
@theartofmadeline
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ellievsbear
KIROKAZE
tannertan36
祝日 / Permanent Vacation
titsay
Origami Around
Peter Solarz
Game of Thrones Daily
d e v o n
oozey mess
PUT YOUR BEARD IN MY MOUTH
art blog(derogatory)
trying on a metaphor
Claire Keane
seen from United States
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@starletwriting
“Hey, it’s cold outside. At least wear a jacket.” With Jeremy and Nick from No Good Nick?
Thanks for the prompt! I had fun writing this, even if it is relatively short. It’s set post the end of the show, and it’s just pure Thompson siblings fluff.
Word count: 661
~~~
The door to Molly and Nick’s room opened to reveal Jeremy, who was looking at Nick with playful excitement sketched on his face.
“Nicole Franzelli Thompson, you did not tell me you have a date.”
He closed the door behind him and immediately joined Molly and Nick in sitting on Nick’s bed. Molly had an open magazine resting on her knees and was doing Nick’s nails according to the picture on the page, while Nick was playing music from her phone. She paused the song that was playing and looked at Jeremy.
“How’d you find out?”
“Dad told me.” Jeremy said. “He’s just about bursting with pride. Mom, on the other hand, is going through the many scenarios of how your date could go wrong. If you’re not back by 7pm, she might just call the cops on your new boyfriend.”
Nick laughed. “Tell her that everything’s fine. I’ll be home safely, I promise.”
“And,” Molly finished Nick’s pinky finger and closed the jar of nail polish. “Luckily for Nick, her trusted best friend slash sister is on nail polish and makeup duty.”
“So, tell me about him.” Jeremy said. “What’s his name? And his address, in case you come home crying.”
“His name is Will.” Nick said. “And I’m not giving you his address, for that exact reason.”
“Oh please, like you could beat him up with those noodles you call arms.” Molly teased.
Jeremy feigned an offended gasp. “Rude. I come to help my beloved adoptive sister get ready for her date, and this is the treatment I get. Unbelievable.”
Nick smiled at Jeremy’s playful tone. “Do you usually go all Older Brother on Molly’s boyfriends?”
“I don’t know.” Jeremy shrugged, looking at Molly. “Molly hasn’t had a boyfriend.”
“I’m way too busy with my Volunteer Squad to have time for a boyfriend.” Molly said. “When you strive for helping the world, you have to make sacrifices.”
“Y’know, Molly used to tease me all the time about not having a girlfriend before I came out.” Jeremy playfully elbowed Molly. “Now Nick and I both have boyfriends, and it’s your turn to step up, Mol.”
“Sure.” Molly rolled her eyes, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “I’ll get right on that.”
“So,” Jeremy turned back to Nick. “Where are you two going for your date?”
“The movie theater on Stokes. Then we’ll probably walk to the park from there, maybe get hot chocolate and just chat.”
“That’s so cute!” Molly grinned. “I hope to hear all the details the very second you get home.”
“Don’t worry,” Nick chuckled. “I promise I’ll tell you everything.”
“Tell Will that if he doesn’t treat you right, he’ll have to hear from me.” Jeremy said. “Me and my noodle arms.”
“Ah, at least you’re accepting it now.”
Nick playfully rolled her eyes at the both of them. “Relax. Will’s a sweet guy.”
The doorbell rang from downstairs, causing the three of them to share looks of excitement with one another.
“Speaking of Will,” Nick got up from the bed. “There he is.”
“Hold on, blow on your nails for me.” Molly said. Nick did so, and she took Nick’s hand in hers to inspect the nail polish and ensure that there weren’t any mistakes. “Perfect.”
“Alright, I gotta go. I don’t wanna keep him waiting.”
“Hey, it’s cold outside. At least wear a jacket.” Jeremy reached over and grabbed Nick’s signature bomber jacket to hand it to her. “We wouldn’t want you catching a cold on your first date, now would we?”
“Thanks.” Nick took the jacket from him and slipped it on. She hesitated for a moment, looking at the both of them with a warm, loving smile.
“What’s that smile for?”
“Oh, nothing.” She said. “It’s just… really nice to have siblings.”
Molly and Jeremy matched her warm smile. While they had been siblings their whole lives, they understood her sentiment.
“We’ve got your back.” Jeremy squeezed her shoulder affectionately. “Now, go. Will’s waiting.”
Without another word, Nick ran out of the room and met Will downstairs.
protective sentence starters
as requested. Feel free to change pronouns or anything else !
“Don’t you hurt a single hair on his/her/their head.”
“Hands off!”
“What do you think you’re doing to him/her/them?”
“I’ll never let you go.” / “Don’t ever let me go.”
“Don’t ever leave my sight again.”
“I got your back.”
“Where are you going? It’s not safe out there!”
“Do you trust me?”
“Be more careful next time. I don’t want to bandage you up again.”
“Hey, it’s cold outside. At least wear a jacket.”
“I’d die for you.”
“You’ll back off if you know what’s good for you.”
“Get behind me NOW.”
“Here, I have an extra weapon.”
“Duck, you idiot!”
“Go on without me.”
“Well what did you expect would happen while you’re walking alone at night? Come on, let’s get you away from that creep.”
“Hey. Pal. I’ve got a gun/knife/fist/weapon and I’m not afraid to use it.”
“You can stop hugging me now.”
“You scared the shit out of me. I’m never going to stop hugging you.”
“Quit babying me! I can protect myself.”
“I’ll always be there to save you.” / “I know you’ll always be there to save me.”
“If you even THINK about touching him/her/them, I’ll kill you.”
“[choked up] I thought I lost you.” / “[choked up] I never thought I’d see you again.”
I’m in the mood to write, give me a fandom & characters or an otp or something and a prompt from this list and I’ll write it!!!
Tell me the one fic you associate with my username. In exchange, I’ll tell you a secret about that story.
It can be a scene that was deleted or never written or character motivations or even a story from my shameful past.
Please? I’m really curious!
ooh, sounds interesting!
If you don’t mind, haha.
Doitdoitdoitdoitdoitdoitdoi-
Killervibe Fic Week Day Seven: Fairytale
Word Count: 7.3k
Notes: This is so late I’m not even sure if I can consider it a part of fic week anymore, but I worked way too hard on this to let it go to waste. It’s 21 pages on Google Docs. It’s my longest fic for fic week. I’ve been working on this one for a while, so I hope you guys enjoy!
Warnings: guns, bullets, description of a gunshot, bullet wound. Cisco says fuck. like. exactly one (1) time. It could be a PG-13 movie.
Tags: @thatkillervibe @shakesqueer-writes @narniasfinestavengingsociopath
~~~
They call her Killer Frost.
Cisco had heard the stories since he was a child. They told of a woman who was supposedly born from the ice, her body as old as the Earth itself, her immortal feet walking amongst the dirt and snow since the dawn of time. Her eyes have seen humanity rise and fall, her ears have heard the sobs of mankind, her fingers could either bless or curse with just one touch. She wasn’t a god, for people did not worship her. Rather, she was nature. She was the beauty of the snowy forests in which she lived. She was the harshness of blizzards and the delicacy of snowflakes. She was the calm before the storm, and the damage left behind once it’s gone.
Growing up, Cisco and his brother Dante would always ask to hear those stories again. Killer Frost fascinated them. Their mother would tell them the same story each night before bed, and each night they fell asleep in complete awe of the mysterious ice queen.
Both boys grew up wanting to be an adventurer. They played with sticks in their backyard and pretended to be fending off any danger that might arise. Dante got a children’s adventuring kit from his parents for his birthday one year, much to his younger brother’s dismay. Cisco stole that kit from him so many times that it became partly his, despite Dante complaining each time. The brothers once found a stray cat in the woods behind their house, and they imagined it as a magical creature they had stumbled upon in their travels. They ended up befriending and adopting the cat, and Dante later brought the cat along with him when he moved out.
When Dante started his first ever expedition, his parents were overwhelmed in their support for their son. They told everyone that would listen about what a great adventurer Dante would be, and how they simply couldn’t wait to hear about all the amazing things he’d find. And their pride wasn’t misplaced. Dante Ramon became a remarkable adventurer, admired by many, and the well-deserved winner of a few awards. He was the first person to get close to Bigfoot. He discovered a ring of faeries and brought back pictures to show it. He befriended some dwarves in Russia. He slayed a hostile vampire and saved a city in the process.
It seemed that Dante’s great achievements became the topic of all of Cisco’s conversations with his parents. His brother did this, his brother did that. Dante’s name was his mother’s favorite word. She and Cisco’s father were bursting with pride and affection for their older son, while their younger son was lost in his brother’s shadow. The longer it went on, the more Cisco became aware of the fundamental truth: Dante could do no wrong, whereas he could do no right.
Dante got married to a beautiful girl named Melinda Torres. His mother cried upon receiving the news of their engagement, his father patted him on the back in congratulations. Cisco was best man, and he gave a speech in front of everyone, looking back on past memories he shared with Dante and commemorating how far he’s come to become the man he is today. Cisco was happy to be by his brother’s side on his big day, but he couldn’t help but feel a lingering feeling of jealousy deep down. Not because of the marriage itself, but because it was just one more event with his brother’s name in lights. One more gathering in which everybody was looking at Dante Ramon, adventurer extraordinaire. It was just one more opportunity for Dante to outshine him.
But then, two years later, they received the news that changed everything.
Dante had been killed by a pack of werewolves while on an expedition. His family had been told first, but the press found out in a matter of days. He had a funeral immediately. His family members, no matter how distantly related, came to say goodbye to the boy they had known and whose blood they had shared.
While Dante’s family weren’t the only ones mourning his loss, Cisco mourned the most out of them all. He looked back on his childhood memories and remembered all the good times the two of them had shared. Every laugh, every playfight, every smile. The hours they spent playing together as kids. Cisco even looked back on their childish bickering fondly. He had lost his only brother, his childhood playmate, his partner in crime, his best friend.
Except… Cisco lost those things a long time ago. They were all victims of his jealousy. Cisco not only mourned the loss of his brother, but he also beared the weight of his regret. He regretted letting his spite get in the way of his relationship with his brother. It was never Dante’s fault. Dante didn’t ask to be the favorite. He rightfully earned his praise. Now Dante was gone and Cisco was out of opportunities to reconnect with his brother, all because Cisco refused to let go of his childish envy when he had the chance.
Two months after Dante’s death, Cisco got a call from his mother asking him to meet her at his childhood home. When he got there, he found her sitting in one of the wooden chairs surrounding the dining room table, with a cardboard packing box on the table in front of her.
“Come, sit.”
Cisco sat in the chair opposite her.
He had about a million questions. Why did she want to meet him here? Why did she want to meet at all? What was the purpose of talking to him now, after all those years of not caring?
Despite all his questions, he only voiced one. “What’s in the box?”
“Open it.” She said. “See for yourself.”
Cisco did so. Upon opening the box, Cisco gasped, and took out its contents to hold it in his hands ever-so-gently.
“Dante’s adventuring kit. I haven’t seen this since we were kids.” Cisco said. “Where’d you find it?”
“It was in his room.” Mrs. Ramon spoke delicately, as if she was trying her best to stay strong despite her mourning. “Your father and I were going through his stuff and we found it. I thought it would be best to give it to you.”
He went through its contents. A cheaply made pair of toy binoculars, a cheaply made flashlight that ran out of batteries years ago and never got a replacement, a handbook on the many different kinds of fantastical creatures out there.
“I want you to have it.”
Cisco met his mother’s eyes with an incredulous expression, as if asking if she was sure. “You do?”
She nodded. “You loved that kit as a kid. You and Dante, always playing in the backyard, always asking me for more stories about noble adventurers. You should have it.”
“I couldn’t. It’s Dante’s.”
“He isn’t here, mijo.” Her gentle voice reflected her own pain on the topic, but still she stayed strong. “Look, I know I haven’t been the best about encouraging your own aspirations like I did Dante’s. I’m sorry about that.”
The apology took Cisco off guard. He wasn’t sure how to respond at first. Does he tell her “It’s okay”, even when it’s not? Does he tell her about all the times in his youth he cried into his pillow because he knew he would always be second-best? Did it take Dante dying for his parents to remember they had a second son?
He decided against it, telling himself that his mother apologizing was a good thing, because it means that maybe the future will be different. So, instead he simply smiled.
“Thank you.” He said. “I appreciate the apology.”
“Are you still planning on becoming an adventurer?”
Cisco shook his head. “That was a long time ago.”
“You should.” She said. “It was your dream. You and Dante alike. Don’t give up on that now.”
“I dunno,” He sighed. “I don’t want to steal Dante’s spotlight.”
“You aren’t.” Mrs. Ramon met his eyes with a sincerity that he couldn’t explain. “Honor your brother by becoming an adventurer. Carry out his legacy. Finish what he started.”
Cisco furrowed his brow. “What do you mean?”
“What was the one legend that you and Dante always admired? The one that Dante dreamed of finding for himself, but never did?”
His eyes grew as the realization dawned on him.
“Killer Frost.” The words came out as a soft exhale.
Mrs. Ramon nodded. “Continue Dante’s life’s work. Find Killer Frost. Be an adventurer not in spite of Dante, but to remember him.”
“Are you sure I’ll have what it takes?”
“Of course you will. You’re my son.” She said. “The Ramon family needs an adventurer. I may not have supported you as much as I should’ve, but that changes now. I will encourage you every step of the way.”
A smile grew on Cisco’s face.
“Thank you.”
Mrs. Ramon walked around the table to brush Cisco’s hair behind his ear and place a soft, motherly kiss to his forehead.
“I believe in you, mijo. Go show the world what you’re made of.”
And so, with that, Cisco started his career as an adventurer. He started off small and built his way up. In the first year, he searched forests for elves and faeries, ventured out into the sea in hopes of finding mermaids, visited Nessie’s lake, and even found a wild griffin. Meanwhile, on the side he researched as much as he could about Killer Frost. He visited libraries and read ancient books about her. He discussed the myths with locals who live near places she’s supposedly been sighted. He’s looked up everything he can about every alleged sighting. The most recent alleged sighting happened about ten years ago and was told by a man named Bartholomew Henry Allen. Cisco grimaced. That’s an unfortunate name. He looked up Bartholomew in hopes of interviewing him for more information, only to discover that Bartholomew had died a few years back. He was killed by a man named Eobard Thawne. Cisco grimaced again. That’s an even more unfortunate name.
It wasn’t until the December of Cisco’s second year being an adventurer that he decided he was ready to start tracking down Killer Frost.
He gathered information from various alleged sightings in hopes of pinpointing possible places Frost could be. She stayed in snowy biomes, ones with thick forestation, natural wildlife, and high elevation. There was one place that had all of those things. Far up north were taigas covered in snow, with high steeps of rock in which many natural caves could be found. He figured that was his best bet.
So he camped. He packed his travel backpack with all the compact packing methods he had taught himself growing up, so that he could fit everything he needed into one large backpack. He bought a compact tent that folded itself into the size of a small purse, and he attached that to the bottom of his backpack. He knew a trick to fold entire outfits into compact rolls as to fit more into smaller spaces. He was sure to pack lots of winter clothes as well as miniature heaters and heating pads to prepare him for the biome. He brought food that wouldn’t go bad and that he could prepare easily without any extra equipment. He carried a knife for self-defense, and so that he could hunt animals in the case that he ran out of food. He made sure to wear silver jewelry to protect him from werewolves. After losing his brother to them, he wanted to be safe.
With that, Cisco embarked on the expedition that would change everything.
Days and nights blurred together. Cisco brought along a handheld notebook and a miniature pencil, and he logged each day he spent in the forest, or else he would’ve lost track. He adjusted to his camping life after his first week, and it got easier from there. When Dante was alive, he would tell Cisco stories of his expeditions, and he’d talk about how hard it was to live out in the wilderness for long periods of time. The past year had been consisted of a ton of time in the wilderness for Cisco, so now he finally understood what he meant.
One morning, Cisco was inside his tent when he heard foosteps outside. He reminded himself to stay calm, and assured himself that it was probably just a deer. He grabbed his knife and held it out defensively, and prepared to open the tent flap and run out. He purposefully kept his breathing calm and slow, so that the animal outside couldn’t hear it. He ensured that he was still wearing his rings of silver and a silver chain around his neck, and then he opened the flap.
The second he did, he screamed.
It wasn’t a deer. It wasn’t werewolves or a bear, either. It was a woman.
Her hair was white as snow. Her lips were frozen and pale. She had no blood running through her veins, no heartbeat to keep her alive. Her skin was a ghostly color with a light blue undertone, like ice personified. Her eyes were a piercing white, as intense as the eyes of hawks but with the harsh cold of the Antarctic Ocean. And yet, they were staring at Cisco with fear and surprise and intrigue, all at once.
There she was.
The lady from the myths, the woman Cisco had longed to see in the flesh, the reason for this entire expedition, standing right before him.
Killer Frost.
In Cisco’s head, the moment he saw Killer Frost, he’d be gasping in awe at her beauty, recording this incredible sighting down in his notebook, never to forget it. He definitely didn’t imagine himself holding the tent flap open with one hand, holding his knife in the other, staring her in the eyes, and screaming his head off.
Cisco’s scream startled Frost, who was already greatly on edge. She started screaming as well, and she held her hands up defensively, her palms facing Cisco, conveying that she was ready to shoot ice blasts at Cisco at any given moment.
Cisco never thought his greatest achievement would be standing in front of one of Earth’s most majestic myths while they were both screaming at the top of their lungs.
Once Cisco registered that it was Killer Frost and not some scary werewolf, he shut his mouth and cut off his scream, but his mouth was only shut for a second before he opened it again, this time gaping at her in surprise. It was Killer Frost. The Killer Frost. The very being he had hoped to see.
He dropped his knife and it clattered to the ground. He didn’t mean her any harm. His mind was still processing. The wheels in his head turned as he stared at her, half-expecting it to all be a dream.
For an ice queen, she was gorgeous.
“What’re you doing here?!” She snapped. Her voice didn’t sound human. It sounded like ice and wind and harsh blizzards and deadly winters.
“I, uh-” Great. Cisco’s first words to the great legend Killer Frost and he stammers. “I came here to see you. I had heard the stories about Killer Frost and I wanted to see you for myself.”
“I see.” She glared at him, as if she hadn’t just been screaming with him a moment earlier. “Leave now, and I will spare you.”
“I don’t mean you any harm.” Cisco raised his hands in surrender. “I promise.”
She scoffed. “You humans are so alike. You all say the same things, and they’re all lies.”
“I’m not lying.” Cisco assured her. “Here, I’ll show you.”
He gently kicked his knife out of the tent and it landed softly on the snow next to her feet.
“That’s my only weapon.” He said. “Now it’s over by you. If I were to reach for it, you could stop me.”
Frost slid the knife behind her using her foot. “That was reckless. What’s to stop me from killing you?”
There was a certain smug twinkle in his eyes. “Trust.”
She raised an eyebrow at him.
“You’re a very strange human.”
Cisco laughed. “Believe it or not, I get that a lot.”
~~~
The sun was beginning to set along the west horizon. A fire crackled and danced before them, putting on a show of red and orange, burning the wood underneath it and forming a thin stream of smoke above it. They heard calls from a distant owl, but they couldn’t see where it was hiding. At one point, Cisco saw a white hare jump into a bush, and he smiled and commented on how adorable it was.
Cisco had invited Frost to stay at his campsite. She didn’t respond, but the fact that she still remained even hours later gave Cisco his answer. After Cisco had gone through so much to find her, the last thing he wanted was for her to leave. Plus, she made surprisingly good company.
“You hurt yourself.”
“What?” Cisco furrowed his brow.
Frost pointed to a spot on his ankle, just above his shoe, where he had a few scrapes. They were enough to draw blood, but still, hardly an injury. They were already starting to heal.
“Oh, that.” Cisco waved his hand dismissively. “I walked too close to a thorn bush this morning and it scraped my ankle.”
She laughed. Her laugh was icy and inhuman, and yet at the same time, surprisingly warm and genuine. “Humans are so fragile.”
“I guess we are.” He shrugged. “I never really thought about it. What about you, then? Do you not get injured?”
Frost shook her head.
“Huh.” He said. “That must be nice.”
Cisco reached over and grabbed his backpack, and started rummaging through it. He pulled out a whole bag of granola, and started eating fistfuls of it straight out of the bag. Frost watched him with a raised eyebrow, her piercing eyes studying him up and down with an inquisitive look.
“What’s that?”
“Granola.” Cisco tilted the bag in her direction. “Want some?”
She shook her head. “I don’t eat.”
“Can you?”
Frost furrowed her brow. “What do you mean?”
“If you chose to eat, would you be able to?”
“I… guess so.” She said. “Why?”
“Do you want to try?”
Still a bit startled from the offer, she hesitantly took a handful of granola and placed it in her mouth and began to chew. She made a face of disgust a few moments later, and spit it out onto the snow.
Cisco couldn’t help but laugh. “Not a fan, huh?”
“It tastes bad.”
“Well, not all foods taste the same. If it’s the taste you don’t like, then you can try something else.” Cisco reached into his bag and pulled out some beef jerky he brought. “Here, try this.”
She took the piece that he offered her and bit into it. She chewed it hesitantly at first, then slowly warmed up to chewing it at a faster pace, then swallowed. She ate the rest of the strip in a matter of seconds.
“Yeah, that’s way better.” She said. “What’s it called?”
“Beef jerky.”
“Huh.” She blinked. “Eating is kinda fun. What else do you have?”
“I have lots.” Cisco zipped his bag open completely and started rummaging through the contents. “I have apples, raisins, dried peaches, cereal, energy bars, instant noodles, instant rice-” He cut himself off when he accidentally knocked his wallet out of his backpack. “Oops.”
Frost picked his wallet up off of the snow and brushed it off. “What’s this?”
“My wallet.” He zipped up his backpack. “It holds money and other important stuff.”
She opened it out of sheer curiosity, and pointed to the picture on the inner flap. “Who’s that?”
“My brother, Dante.” Cisco said. “He died about two years ago. I’ve kept his picture in my wallet ever since. It’s my way of remembering him. Well, that, and becoming an adventurer.”
“You became an adventurer to remember your brother?”
He nodded. “Dante was an adventurer. I’m continuing his legacy.”
“Legacies.” Killer Frost scoffed. “I never understood that about you humans. Live your own life, not your brother’s.”
Cisco faltered, unable to think of a reply. She hadn’t said much, and yet her words carried meaning. Cisco recalled a saying he heard once, “a life lived for someone else is a life wasted”. Frost’s words reminded him of that saying.
“Has anyone ever told you you’re very wise?”
“I don’t exactly socialize with humans much.”
“Right, of course.” Cisco said. “Have you ever had conversations, like this, with a human before?”
She didn’t respond. It wasn’t the first time Frost had stayed quiet when Cisco asked her a question she didn’t want to answer. She was selective, one moment she’d answer any question Cisco asked, and then, radio silence. He didn’t necessarily blame her, but it was a bit frustrating with how unpredictable it was.
“It’s getting late.” She said. “Doesn’t your body require sleep to function?”
Cisco nodded. “It’s the curse of being mortal.”
“Get some rest, then.” Frost stood up. “It’s time I left anyways.”
“Hey, Frost?”
She turned to face him.
“I’m glad you spent the day with me.”
Frost met his eyes with a certain… regret. Worry. She hesitated for a moment before simply nodding and walking off without saying anything.
~~~
The next day, the sun shined bright as Cisco walked across the padded snow, calling Frost’s name at the top of his lungs. He had ventured into the woods trying to find her, to no avail.
A white weasel heard Cisco’s voice and dashed into a bush.
“Hm.” Cisco stopped walking and turned to stare at the trail of footprints he had left behind him. “If I were a beautiful immortal ice queen, where would I hide out?”
He decided to search for caves. He walked along large rock precipices, searching for any openings he could find.
Eventually, he found one. It was a smaller cave, maybe about seven feet in height and eight in width. It was dark, and the pathway stretched around the corner, so if Frost was there, he couldn’t see her.
“Frooooost?”
The word echoed.
He walked further into the cave, and turned around the bend. He didn’t have to walk far. Right past the bend was a smaller round portion of the cave, about the size of a small hut. There she was, sitting with her back to the rock. She saw Cisco and her eyes widened to twice their size.
“Hey, Frost.” He held up his bag of beef jerky. “I brought some beef jerky.”
“What’re you doing here?” Her voice rebounded against the cave walls. Cisco could’ve sworn he felt the cave shake. “Go away!”
The harshness in her tone took Cisco off-guard. All he could do for a second was stand and blink. “Oh, I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to intrude-”
She flicked her hand and a wall of ice grew in between her and Cisco.
“Leave.” Her words were muffled from the ice, and yet still powerful. “Now.”
He did so.
~~~
Cisco stared at the roof of his tent. He had put up a small camping lantern the night before, and although he had turned it off, he hadn’t bothered it to take it down, even though it was morning and the tent’s walls were thin enough to let the natural sunlight through. He had wrapped himself up in a thick heat blanket and zipped up his sleeping bag so that it completely covered him, and yet he was still cold. He was eating from a bag of almonds, and was simply dropping them into his mouth from above. He missed a few times, and they fell onto his pillow instead.
He had been awake for over an hour. He had moved around and gotten dressed and started his day, but he came back to his sleeping bag when he got cold.
Although he tried not to, he couldn’t stop thinking about his last interaction with Killer Frost. The fear in her eyes, the anger in her tone. The wall of ice between them.
Did he just blow his chances of ever seeing her again? Does she hate him now?
Cisco shivered, despite the three layers he was wearing. He pulled the blanket closer to his face and curled up for extra warmth.
“Cisco?”
The voice came from outside his tent, but it was not the location of the voice that got Cisco’s attention, but the person it belonged to. Her voice sounded icy and yet soft, inhuman and yet gentle. There was only one person it could be.
Cisco crawled out of his sleeping bag and unzipped the tent.
“Frost?”
She was looking at him with a level of awkwardness that he never would’ve expected from a majestic immortal being. It was almost off-putting.
“Can I come in?” She asked.
He nodded, and so she did. Cisco zipped the tent back up, and Frost sat down with her hands in her lap. Unfortunately, her presence only made Cisco’s tent colder, so he got the blanket and wrapped it around his body again.
Frost opened her mouth to speak, but a few seconds of hesitation passed before words came. “I got you these.”
She opened her hand and revealed a few berries. They were coated in a thin layer of frost, but edible.
“They’re Fayeberries.”
“Whoa.” Cisco gently plucked them from her palm and held them in his hand. “I’ve only heard about these in books. Do they really taste like your favorite meal?”
Frost nodded.
Cisco let the frost thaw and plopped one in his mouth. “They taste like my mother’s enchiladas. Cool.”
“I wanted to apologize.” She looked as if the words for difficult for her to say, but she spoke them anyways. “For how I acted.”
“I just want to know why.” Cisco kept his voice even. “Did I do something wrong?”
“No.” Frost shook her head. “No, not at all. It’s not you.”
“Then what is it?”
“You’re human.” She sighed, frustrated with herself. “And I didn’t want to make the same mistake twice.”
Cisco furrowed his brow. “What does that mean?”
She hesitated. “Do you remember when you asked me if I had known a human before?”
He nodded.
“The answer is yes.” Frost said. “It was about a hundred years ago, give or take. His name was Hunter Zolomon. He came into this forest, plentiful as it was back then, and he found me. We talked, and for a moment, I was starting to care for him.”
“What happened?”
“The next thing I knew, there were fifty humans crowding the forest trying to find me and take me away from this forest.” Frost said. “Hunter had told them where I was. He didn’t care about me, he only wanted recognition amongst the other humans.”
“That’s awful,” Cisco’s words came out as a soft whisper.
“After that, I was convinced that humans were liars.” She said. “When I met you, I was hesitant. But you, you’re different. Honestly, the moment you tossed me your knife and made yourself vulnerable… that’s when I knew you weren’t Hunter.”
“I’m not here to hurt you.” Cisco said. “And that’s a promise. I know some humans are awful, but I’m good on my word, I swear.”
“I realize that.” Frost said. “You’re a very strange human, Cisco. And I want to get to know you.”
Cisco couldn’t help the grin that was forming.
“In return, I promise to stop holding stuff back.” She said. “You can ask me anything.”
“Alright,” Cisco thought for a second. “Do you have a name? I mean, besides Killer Frost.”
“No.” Killer Frost said. “Names are a human concept. I am nature. The humans have come up with several names for me over the years. Killer Frost is just one of many things they’ve called me. The Greeks called me Khione. I was quite fond of that one.”
“I read about that.” Cisco said. “The name ‘Killer Frost’ came from harsh winters.”
Frost nodded. “I am everything ice is. The beauty of it, and the danger.”
“Did you used to be human?” Cisco asked. “Like in Greek mythology, when humans were turned into gods?”
She shook her head. “I was never really born in the way you humans mean it. I was formed from icicles. I’ve always been like this. I don’t age, I just am.”
“Alright, one last question.” Cisco said. “Does this jacket make me look cute?”
Frost erupted into icy laughter.
“You’re cute for a human, Cisco.”
Cisco found himself blushing. Why was he blushing?
~~~
Frost frequented Cisco’s campsite often after that day. They talked daily, as they were the only ones keeping each other company in the vast icy forest. She invited him into her cave, and they could sit and talk, away from the biting cold of the forest. They would light a fire for when Cisco got too cold. Frost had no need for warmth, but she liked admiring the bright colors as the flames danced back and forth.
“One of my favorite memories from when I was a kid is sitting by the fire on a cold winter day and drinking hot cocoa that my mom made.” Cisco said. “Campfires kinda remind me of that.”
“What’s it like, growing up?”
“Uh, I don’t really know how to explain it.” Cisco scratched the back of his neck. “It’s something so normal that you kinda take it for granted. You can look back on your memories from when you were younger, but you can’t remember things from when you were super young. Like, no one remembers anything from when they were a baby.”
“Why not?”
Cisco shrugged. “Your longterm memory doesn’t start until you’re two or three or so.”
“Humans are such a weird species. You need to eat and sleep to live, you grow up, and you don’t even retain all your memories.”
He laughed. “I guess it’s weird, when you put it like that.”
“I’ve been alive since the start of humanity.” Frost said. “Humans have such short lives compared to that.”
“Well,” A smug-yet-silly grin grew on Cisco’s face. “You don’t look a day over 30.”
“Huh?” Frost furrowed her brow.
“Nothing,” He shrugged it off. “It’s a joke.”
She smiled.
“Sometimes I wonder what it’s like to be human.” She admitted. “I wish I could experience that, even just for a day. I get curious too, after all.”
“Maybe you can.”
Frost furrowed her brow. “What do you mean?”
“I have a hat and a scarf in my backpack. I could give you my bushy coat.” Cisco said. “We could disguise you enough to pass you off as human. Then maybe we could find a local town. Explore a bit.”
“Really?” A smile started to grow on her face. “You think it would work?”
Cisco nodded.
“There’s a town not too far from here.” Frost said. “If we leave in the morning, we could walk there.”
“Then it’s a plan.” Cisco met her eyes with an uplifting smile. “Tomorrow, you get to be human for a day.”
~~~
They had tied up all of Frost’s hair in Cisco’s beanie. Cisco had gotten the thickest scarf he had brought on the trip and wrapped it around her neck, propping it up so that it covered the bottom half of her face. He had an extra bulky coat which he had her wear, partly to cover the paleness of her skin, and partly because it would be suspicious to not wear a coat in this weather.
“Here, I have contacts.” Cisco dug into his bag and brought out a box of them. “They’re the disposable kind, so you can wear them.”
Frost held them in her hand. “What do you do with these?”
“Put them on your eyes.” Cisco said. “It’s always tricky to do it for the first time. Here. Hold your eyes open.”
He took the contacts and gently placed them on her eyes for her.
“There you go.” He said. “I don’t have a mirror, or else I would show you how human you look right now.”
“Wow.” Frost exhaled, creating a soft puff of swirling snow. “We’re really doing this.”
“We’re really doing this.” Cisco nodded. “Just don’t be suspicious, and don’t let anyone look at you too closely, and you’ll be fine. I’ll be with you the whole time in case you need me to cover for you.”
“Thank you, Cisco.” Her eyes practically melted with gratitude. “It means a lot that you’d be willing to do this for me.”
“Of course!” He said. “We will, however, need a fake name for you. I can’t exactly call you Frost when we’re in the town.”
“Do you have any ideas?”
Cisco thought for a moment. “Caitlin.”
She laughed. “Why Caitlin?”
He shrugged. “I dunno. It was just the first thing I thought of. Besides, I’ve always liked the name Caitlin.”
“Alright then.” She said. “Caitlin. It’s a nice name.”
“Caitlin Snow.” He decided. “Because you represent ice and snow.”
“Wouldn’t that be obvious?”
He shook his head. “Nah.”
When it was time for them to head out, Cisco put on a thick coat of his own and gave Frost a pair of gloves from his bag to hide her hands.
The walk didn’t seem like long, not to Cisco. They say time flies when you’re having fun. Sure, logically, the town was quite a ways away from Cisco’s campsite or Frost’s cave, but Cisco got caught up in telling Frost about his childhood memories that he didn’t even notice. He would tell her funny things that Dante used to do in middle school, and Frost would laugh in that way she always does, the laugh that always made Cisco’s heartbeat race.
“There it is,” He spoke when they were close enough to see buildings. “Here’s your shot at being human for a day.”
It was a pretty small town. The buildings were old and plain, and overall unimpressive. Wooden signs hung above the doors in order to differentiate one building from the next, because otherwise they were identical. Snow blanketed all the rooftops in the town, including the small well in the town’s center. Windows showed families inside, cuddled up next to the fire. Women were knitting, men were drinking, children were playing.
“So this is humanity.”
“This is a very, very small slice of humanity.” Cisco said. “But, yes. It’s humanity.”
They walked further into the town and discovered a snowman outside one of the homes. It had children’s gloves as its hands, implying that a child made it, maybe on their own, maybe with the help of a parent or two. Its coal smile seemed to be welcoming them into its home.
“What’s that?” Frost asked.
“That’s a snowman.” Cisco said. “Have you never made a snowman before?”
Frost shook her head.
“Huh, imagine that.” Cisco whistled. “You literally are snow, or at least the embodiment of it, and you’ve never made a snowman. Here, we need to rectify that.”
Cisco pulled Frost off to a corner of the town away from the buildings, and started packing up snow to roll in a ball.
“See, you get something like this…” He rolled it along the snow on the ground, demonstrating it for Frost. “And then you roll it until it’s big enough to be your base.”
“Or you could do it the easy way.”
Frost waved her hand, and a flurry of snow emerged from her fingertips and wrapped itself around Cisco’s attempt at a snowman base. It grew, and grew, and grew, until it was about the size of the base they saw on the other snowman, and oh-so-perfectly round. She made the torso and the head with two more perfect circles, and the buttons and facial features were made out of chunks of ice. It was the most flawless snowman Cisco had ever seen.
“That works too!”
She shrugged. “Magic makes things convenient.”
“Y’know,” Cisco said. “Since I’m holding snow anyways, there is another time-honored tradition for having fun in the snow.
“What is it?”
Cisco tossed the lump of snow at her.
“Snowball fights.”
The snow erupted across her face, causing her to explode into her usual icy laughter.
“Yeah?” She asked, still laughing. “How about this?”
She twirled her finger and created her own snowball from scratch, which she grabbed and held in her hand. She made playful eye contact with Cisco and smirked. There was a mischievous glint in her piercing white eyes as she threw the snowball at him.
“You got it!” Cisco grinned, brushing the snow out of his hair. “That’s the essence of snowball fights.”
“Humans have so much fun.”
“Really?” Cisco asked, confidence twinkling in his eyes. “Then how come I have the most fun when I’m around you?”
Frost blushed a shade of light blue.
“Here,” He fixed Frost’s scarf for her. “Let’s go see what this town has to offer.”
They found a pub nearby, indicated by a worn-down wooden sign with faded letters that were hardly readable anymore. Cisco held the door open for Frost, and the two of them walked in.
The pub was full of townsfolk. There were big, burly men with brown beards drinking beer at the far end of the bar, and they all turned to look at Frost and Cisco when they walked in. Frost gulped and stared at her feet. Cisco laid a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
Cisco sat at the bar and gestured for Frost to take the seat next to him.
“Do you want a beer?”
Frost furrowed her brows. “What’s that?”
“It’s a human drink. It tastes awful and it messes with your brain, so you legally have to be 21 to drink it.”
“Then why do people drink it?”
Cisco shrugged. “No idea.”
He ordered a beer for himself.
“I get the feeling that people are staring at me.” Frost muttered. “I’m not used to it, and I don’t care for it.”
“Trust me, I’ve been there.” Cisco said. “Frankly, I haven’t seen a single person in this town that isn’t white, and that isn’t a very good look.”
“Do you think they can tell that I’m not human?”
“Nah. Humans are very good at seeing what they want to see. They’re just staring because we’re not townsfolk.” Cisco said. “And besides, whatever happens, I’ll be right by your side.”
“Thank you.”
Soon enough, the bartender slid Cisco’s beer to him. He took a few sips and turned to Frost.
“You wanna try some?” He offered.
“Um… okay.”
She took it from him and held it in her hands ever-so-delicately. The stares of the townsfolk sent chills down her spine. Closing her eyes as to tune them out, she hesitantly raised the glass to her mouth and went to take a sip.
“Oh, no.”
The dread in Cisco’s voice concerned Frost. She opened her eyes, and gasped.
As soon as her lips had touched the liquid, it had turned to ice. And the whole pub saw.
She turned to Cisco. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to-”
Cisco didn’t have time to reply. The men who had been sitting at the other end of the bar were now drilling holes in Frost’s spine with their glares. They packed a lot of hate in one look. Frost looked more terrified than Cisco had ever seen her before. They stood up, and grabbed guns from holsters at their waists that Cisco and Frost hadn’t noticed previously.
“Fuck.” Cisco muttered. “Run.”
They scrambled out the door. Cisco grabbed onto Frost’s wrist and kept running. He turned behind him and saw the men from the pub following behind them.
He felt his heart pounding in his chest. “Oh, god.”
Not fast enough. An ear-splitting gunshot sounded in the air, and Cisco felt dread sink in his chest. The bullet flew through the air and perfectly hit Frost’s chest… then it kept going, leaving Frost unharmed. It was as if the bullet had gone through a cloud.
“You’re immune to bullets.”
She nodded.
He let out a sigh of relief.
“Thank god.” Cisco said. “Okay, let’s get out of here before-”
Too late. By the time they heard the gunshot, the damage had already been done. Cisco’s breath hitched, cutting off his words as he fell onto his knees, clutching his now-bloody gut.
“Cisco!”
More bullets flew through her head as she bent down to Cisco’s side. He was still breathing, but he was badly injured. She picked him up, flicked her hand and created a wall of ice between her and the men, and ran as fast as she could.
She ran far away from the town, all the way back into the woods. She surrounded herself with trees and bushes, and every so often she tossed ice blasts behind her with one hand to ensure she wasn’t being followed. The further she ran, the more her fear solidified, and the more her eyes welled up with tears. They streamed down her face, but she didn’t care. When she was sure she was far enough away from the town, she collapsed onto her knees, and laid Cisco down in front of her.
“I’m so sorry, this is all my fault, I wanted to go to the town, I blew my cover, I- I- I’m so sorry-”
“Hey,” Even when he was fighting the pain in his gut, he still managed to look at Frost as if she was the only thing that mattered in his life. “Don’t be sorry. I’m glad-” He winced. “I’m glad I met you. You… you gave my life meaning.”
“No, no, no-” If she had a heartbeat, it would be pounding. “This can’t be the end, it can’t be-”
An idea popped into Frost’s mind. Her eyes widened, and she looked at Cisco with newfound hope.
“I can save you.” She said. “I can make you immortal. Like me. But you have to be okay with it. There’s no going back. There’s no going back to your human life once I do it.”
Fighting the pain, he reached out and grabbed her hand.
“Do it.”
She nodded.
Frost leaned down and softly, lovingly placed a kiss on Cisco’s lips. The moment the contact happened, Cisco’s lips froze over and turned a shade of blue. His hair transformed from its usual black into a white that matched the snow his head laid on. His bullet wound froze over and healed instantly. He let out a soft exhale, the last breath he would ever need to take. His heartbeat stopped in his chest, and his body heat dropped to freezing temperatures. He wasn’t alive anymore, but he wasn’t dead, either.
He opened his chilling white eyes and sat up.
~~~
They call him Frostbite.
Children heard the stories. They told of a human who won over Killer Frost’s favor enough for her to make him immortal in the last second of his life. He walks with Frost side-by-side, hand-in-hand. They are equals, they are lovers, they are partners in crime. They were not gods, for people did not worship them. Rather, they were nature. They were the beauty of the snowy forests in which they lived. They were the harshness of blizzards and the delicacy of snowflakes. They were the calm before the storm, and the damage left behind once it’s gone.
They were not married, for their bond was much stronger than marriage. They were soulmates, through and through. And, as long as snow and ice existed on the Earth, so would their eternal love.
Killervibe Fic Week Day Six: Soulmates
Word count: 1233
Notes: Based off of the soulmate au where anything you write on your skin shows up on your soulmate’s body as well. This is a bit of a shorter fic compared to some of the other ones I’ve posted for fic week, but I hope you enjoy!
Tags: @thatkillervibe @shakesqueer-writes @narniasfinestavengingsociopath
~~~
The first thing Cisco learned about his soulmate was that she likes to doodle. He figured she does it when she’s bored. At various times of day, Cisco would look down and see a flower or a star doodled on his arm in black ink. It was always simple designs, nothing too complicated. She would spend minutes doodling different types of flowers all down her arm. Cisco would stare down at his arm and watch it unfold. The inked line seemed to have a mind of its own as it manifested itself on Cisco’s skin.
The second thing Cisco learned about his soulmate was that she was forgetful. She wrote a lot of reminders on the palms of her hands. They were sometimes to-do lists, consisting of things like “take out the trash” or “do math homework” or “ask Mom about Friday”. Sometimes, they were reminders about tests or big upcoming projects. Cisco would look down at his hand and see “English essay due Monday” written on it. Other times, they were grocery lists. Cisco always knew when his soulmate was out of milk because he’d find it written on his hand. Whenever his soulmate completed a task, she’d scratch it off in black ink. Cisco would look down at his hand and see the words “math homework” scratched off, and he’d know that she finished whatever homework she had to do.
The third thing Cisco learned about his soulmate was that she loved science. He would find names of famous scientists written on his wrists, or sometimes she would doodle the classic atom symbol. Once, she wrote down a reminder for an upcoming science fair. Every once in a while, Cisco would find famous equations written on his palm, used in both science and math. Cisco recognized a lot of them, being interested in mechanics himself. Whoever his soulmate was, he already admired her for her mind.
Cisco didn’t write on his skin much. He didn’t write on his skin at all, as a matter of fact. He never really felt a need to. He wasn’t terribly forgetful, and when he needed to write stuff down, he did so in a notebook or agenda. He didn’t doodle much, and if he did, it wasn’t on his skin. After all, the doodles from his soulmate were enough. He was always interested to see what she would draw next, but never once was he interested in contributing to the art.
That is, until one day. His soulmate was writing study notes on her palm, mostly equations from what Cisco assumed to be her science homework. Cisco noticed the ink appearing on his hand as she wrote it out. He watched the black ink form numbers and letters and symbols, and he recognized a lot of the equations she wrote down. So, when she accidentally wrote one of the equations down wrong, he knew.
Cisco picked up a pen and began to write.
That should be a 2, not a 6.
It was a simple sentence, scrawled onto his wrist in Cisco’s sloppy handwriting. After a moment, he decided to add a smiley face to the end to indicate he wasn’t being hostile.
For a few seconds, it was radio silence. Nothing was appearing on his wrist. His soulmate had gone quiet.
Then, he got a response.
Thanks.
One word.
He replied.
You’re welcome.
A beat.
So you’re my soulmate?
No, I’m just some random person with the ability to contact you via ink on skin.
What?
Sorry. That was sarcasm. I guess you can’t really tell tone when it’s written.
Oh.
He and his soulmate talked in that way until their arms looked like a 7th grade paper note passed between two friends in class. Cisco told her a bit about himself, like that he loves technology and engineering, he has a brother, he likes old movies. He found out a few things about her, like that she’s taking Biology, she’s an only child, she’s participated in local science fairs for five years in a row.
But most importantly, he found out her name.
Caitlin Snow.
And for the first time, Cisco knew his soulmate’s name.
Nice to meet you, Caitilin. I’m Cisco Ramon.
Nice to meet you, Cisco.
After that day, it became a regular thing. They would communicate via scribbles on their hand, little notes to each other at the beginning of the day, and random doodles that they’d think the other one would like. They got to know each other pretty well. Hardly a day went by when one of them didn’t write something to the other. They considered each other good friends, and would often smile when they saw the ink appear on their wrist.
This continued for years. When Caitlin and Cisco graduated high school and moved on to college, they still kept in touch. Cisco’s friends would see the writing on his arms and friendly-tease him about it, and Cisco would just blush and change the subject. Over the years, Cisco found that he was taking after Caitlin’s handwriting after seeing it so often. They were small changes, such as writing his “y”s and “a”s the same way Caitlin did. Caitlin, on the other hand, started writing her “5”s the same way Cisco did.
When Cisco got the job at Star Labs, he was both ecstatic and nervous. He spent the morning of his first day telling himself that it was gonna be fine and reminding himself to breathe. That day, he walked into Star Labs for the first time with an optimistic outlook. He had already met Dr. Wells, and he couldn’t wait to start working for him. Star Labs was full of geniuses through and through, and that day, he became one of them.
Cisco’s first few hours didn’t go so great. Hartley Rathaway was in charge of showing him around, and so, for hours, Cisco was targeted to Hartley’s endless criticism and petty remarks. Not so great for a first day. He simply rolled his eyes and reminded himself that there’s more to this job than rude pricks with underlying jealousy.
But, through it all, Cisco persisted. And, as it turns out, it was worth it.
“Hartley, it looks like you have met your match.”
A woman walked up to Hartley and Cisco, slow-clapping at Hartley’s expense. She met Cisco with a warm smile and outstretched a hand.
“I’m Caitlin Snow.” She said. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“Wait,” Cisco blinked twice. “You’re Caitlin Snow?”
Caitlin tilted her head. “Yeah, why?”
“I’m Cisco Ramon.” Cisco smiled, and shook her hand. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”
“No way.” Caitlin couldn’t stop herself from grinning.
Cisco nodded, the only confirmation she needed.
Caitlin and Cisco hugged, much to Hartley’s confusion. Hartley raised an eyebrow, but didn’t press. Instead, he just walked off. Cailtin and Cisco laughed, partly at Hartley’s reaction, partly from the adrenaline of meeting their soulmate and long-time pen pal.
That evening, when Cisco got home, he picked up a pen and pressed it to his skin.
Meeting you was everything I had hoped and more.
He didn’t have to wait long for a response.
And you. I’m looking forwards to working with you.
He smiled.
So am I.
Killervibe Fic Week Day Five: Flashpoint
Word Count: 5014
Notes: Before this fic, I had never written anything in the Flashpoint universe, seeing as how the Flashpoint timeline only existed for one episode before Barry restored the timeline to normal, but I gotta say… This was really fun. Killervibe’s Flashpoint selves are so drastically different from their normal selves, and I got to experiment with new character types, and I loved that. Flashpoint!Cisco is a dick, but deep down, he does secretly care, he just puts on an arrogant persona for show, and that character type was really fun to write. Especially when he’s paired with Flashpoint!Caitlin, who is a humble, reserved eye doctor, aka his polar opposite.
Disclaimer: This is a tiny bit divergent from how the actual Flashpoint episode took place, but if I didn’t change the events around a bit, I wouldn’t have anything to write a fic out of.
Tags: @thatkillervibe @shakesqueer-writes @narniasfinestavengingsociopath
~~~
Cisco Ramon has had women fawning over him for years. Being the richest man in America has its benefits. The more his bank filled up, the sexier he became. He was on magazine covers, Buzzfeed articles, internet gifs. All of that deemed him one of the most desirable men in the country. He could get anyone he wanted, men and women, without having to even try. All he had to do was give them a flirtatious wink and use the sexy deep voice that he had spent so long perfecting in front of the mirror, and they were his.
But then he met her. And suddenly, none of that mattered anymore.
Everything in his life, his riches, his fame… it all felt trivial in comparison to her. The way he felt when he met her for the first time was unlike anything he had ever felt before, for anyone. He never knew he was missing something in his life until she came and filled that gap. He met her yesterday, and yet somehow, he felt like he had known her for an eternity. He felt like he had stood by her side through thick and thin, talked with her, laughed with her, cried with her. He felt like he knew her. He felt like he loved her.
But, as it turns out, the only thing he actually knew about her was her name.
Caitlin Snow.
That new speedster- Barry, he said his name was- had said she was a part of their team. A scientist, apparently.
It all made Cisco’s head hurt. He just wanted answers.
“Hey, stringbean.”
Cisco had followed Barry out into the corridor with the intentions of stopping him in his tracks. It worked. Upon hearing Cisco’s voice, Barry stopped walking and turned around to face him.
“Y’know, you ask me to call you Mr. Ramon, and yet you refuse to call me by my name.” Barry’s tone was more amused than accusatory, like he was speaking with an old friend. Maybe in his eyes, he was.
“Oh I’m sorry, are you the richest man in America?”
“No.”
“Didn’t think so, stringbean.”
“Right.” Barry rolled his eyes ever so slightly at Cisco’s lack of humility. “I assume you wanted to talk about something?”
“This Caitlin Snow. You said she was part of your team in this other timeline?”
“Our team. And yes. Where I’m from, Star Labs is still a thing. You and Caitlin are both employees there. You’ve known each other for years, you’re best friends. Practically inseparable.”
“Best friends, huh?”
Barry blinked. “Yeah, why?”
“That’s it?”
“Why, do you think there’d be something more?” Barry asked.
“No, no.” Cisco shook his head, but his tone and hurriedness to answer the question left Barry unconvinced. Noticing this, Cisco elaborated. “It’s just… I’ve only known her a day, but something about her makes me feel… weird. I feel like I’ve known her for years. I feel like I can trust her with my deepest secrets. Listen, no one knows my deepest secrets except me and myself alone. Especially not some girl I met yesterday.”
Barry tilted his head to the side, and a smirk formed on his face. “You feel love.”
Cisco laughed. “You’re delusional.”
“I know it sounds crazy, but hear me out.” Barry said. “Iris said the same thing.”
“About you?”
Barry nodded. “I think, what you’re describing with Caitlin, it’s the same thing. Your love for Caitlin, in the timeline I’m from, is so strong that you can sense it, here, in this timeline.”
“This alternate timeline shit is messing me up.” Cisco said. “This isn’t an alternate timeline. It’s my life. This is the life I’ve lived since the day I was born.”
“To you, yes, but…” Barry slid his hands into his jean pockets. “Not to me.”
“That’s insane.” Cisco sighed in defeat. “But whatever. I don’t want to think about that right now. Just tell me how to deal with… this.”
Barry shrugged. “The normal way. Talk to her. Tell her how you feel.”
“Absolutely not.” Cisco shook his head. “Feelings are gross. No thanks.”
“If I’m right, and these feelings are part of my timeline shining through, then… it’s incredibly possible that Caitlin feels the same way.” Barry said. “You just have to ask.”
“You said yourself that we’re supposedly just best friends in your timeline.” Cisco said. “What if the Cisco from your timeline is just some miserable pining loser and I was unfortunate enough to get his gross ass feelings in this timeline? I don’t want it. Make it go away. Do some speedster shit or something, I’m out.”
“I can’t fix this.” Barry said. “This is up to you.”
“That’s a crappy deal.” Cisco scoffed. “I was perfectly fine with my life up until a day ago when a literal stranger came into my building and told me that my entire life, everything I’ve ever known is just some alternate timeline he made by recklessly time-traveling.”
“Really?” Barry raised an eyebrow. “You haven’t once thought that there was something missing, something not quite right?”
Cisco hesitated. Barry’s words had hit harder than he’d like to admit.
“You don’t know me, stringbean.”
Barry laughed. “Yes, I do, Cisco. You and I have been friends for years.”
“No.” Cisco shook his head. “No, you don’t. You know the Cisco Ramon in your timeline. Whoever he is, he’s not me.”
“I know you well enough to know that you have a heart.” Barry said. “You act tough for show, but deep down, you care.”
Cisco struggled to think of a response for that. Luckily, he didn’t need to. Before he could answer, a scream sounded from the cortex, causing both Cisco and Barry to forget their conversation and rush to see what the matter was. Barry sped into the cortex, and Cisco ran up behind him not long after.
The Rival himself was standing in the middle of Ramon Industries, holding two guns pointed at Caitlin and Wally. The scream had come from Caitlin, whereas Wally gulped and looked to Barry and Cisco for help.
“Well, well, well.” The Rival kept the guns pointing straight at the hostages, but turned his head to face Barry. He sized him up and down, staring especially at his shoes, how they were worn down from speeding everywhere. “Two speedsters. Isn’t this a treat?”
Barry instantly regretted speeding into the room.
“You don’t need to put innocent people in harm.” Barry said. “You want speedsters, right? Put the guns down, and we’ll work something out.”
The Rival laughed. “Brave move, trying to save your friends. But you’re gonna have to do a little more than that to make me happy.”
“What do you want, then?” Barry raised his voice to a shout.
Cisco eyed him with a newfound respect. This Caitlin and this Wally… they weren’t the same ones Barry knew in his timeline, and yet he was still desperate to save them, no matter the cost.
“Y’know, robbing the city is fun, but… it gets a bit boring without a little competition.” The Rival tilted his head and puffed out his lip in a mocking pout, then exploded into laughter. “So I challenged the Flash. But then… just to my luck, another Flash shows up, here, in my city! What’re the odds? Two Flashes, two speedsters to challenge me!”
“Then, fight the Flash. Leave these civilians alone.” Barry took a step forwards, staring directly at The Rival. The Rival only narrowed his eyes at him.
“Nice try.” The Rival said. “It’s funny how much you can find out from eavesdropping. Like, for instance, listening in on just one little conversation can tell you the very identity of your city’s local masked runner.” He narrowed his eyes, staring directly at Wally. “Wally West, is it?”
Wally gulped.
“Maybe the speedsters just need a little extra motivation. After all, I can’t be a proper rival if I don’t raise the stakes, now can I?” The Rival cackled. “Hostages are great for that. Maybe I’ll just… take these two with me, and you two can come find them!”
Barry and Wally simultaneously cried out, but it wasn’t fast enough.
The Rival released the guns from his hands. Red lightning surrounded him, and everything else seemed to slow down. He surged forwards and grabbed Caitlin in one hand and Cisco in the other, and he was out of the building before the guns even clattered to the ground. Wally and Barry raced after him with their own streams of lightning following behind, but The Rival was gone.
~~~
Cisco rubbed his head and winced. The Rival had thrown him against the ground rather violently, and the impact had left a bump and a searing pain. He had blacked out for a couple seconds, but even just those couple seconds were enough for the Rival to tie him and Caitlin together using handcuffs around their wrists and one large rope around their torsos. The Rival left without saying a word. The last thing they saw was his red lightning, then he was gone, and the door shut behind him.
Cisco could feel Caitlin’s back pressed up against his. The rope dug into his chest, but when he tried to wiggle himself more room, he only further constricted Caitlin.
“Stop breathing so loud.” He hissed.
“I’m not breathing any louder than normal.”
“I can hear it, and it’s loud.”
Caitlin only sighed. If she rolled her eyes, Cisco didn’t see.
The two of them could hardly move without bumping heads against each other. In the movies, the hostages were usually at least tied to chairs or a pole, but in their unfortunate case, they were just abandoned on the dirty ground with the rats and cockroaches.
“Was it really necessary to tie us to each other?” Cisco grumbled. “Handcuffing us wasn’t enough? Nooo, we have to be back-to-back like in the movies.”
“Stop whining.”
“Stop whining?” Cisco nearly laughed, in a dry, humorless way. “In case you haven’t noticed, we’re hostages in the middle of God-knows-where, tied together and left for the rats! This isn’t exactly my idea of a fun vacation!”
“I’m tense too, I just know that whining isn’t going to solve anything.”
“Of course, silly me.” Cisco rolled his eyes, as if his heavily sarcastic tone wasn’t enough.
“Is it possible for you to actually act your age, or am I going to have to treat you like a damn six-year-old?”
Cisco’s eyes grew wide at Caitlin’s harsh tone. He wasn’t necessarily upset that she had snapped at him, mostly just… surprised.
“I didn’t think you had that in you, Kiddie Eye Doc.”
“Like I said.” She grumbled. “I’m tense.”
“Hey, I get it.” He said. “Let’s focus on trying to get out of here. Do you by any chance have some kickass powers that will help us escape?”
Caitlin shook her head.
“Dammit.” Cisco sighed. “Me neither.”
Cisco scanned the area. They were in some kind of empty warehouse, but Cisco had no idea where. It was big, and there were rotting wooden crates lying around in stacks that Cisco suspected hadn’t been touched in a very long time. In just the time he’d been there, Cisco had spotted two different rats, and he could hear the squeaking of more behind the crates. The warehouse had small windows for letting light in, but they were positioned just below the roof, possibly fifteen to twenty feet high. They were cracked open just enough to let bugs in. Right now, they were allowing light from the full moon outside to shine into the warehouse, supplying the only light source that Caitlin and Cisco had to go off of. The warehouse door was old and tattered, but it was made secure by chains and a lock.
“How well can you pick locks?” Cisco tilted his head as far back as he could, his best attempt at facing Caitlin when they were tied back-to-back.
“Well, when I was a kid I loved reading Nancy Drew books, so sometimes I’d lock my bedroom door and try to pick the lock back open just for fun.” Caitlin said. “I would wear hair pins in my hair just in case I ever needed to pick a lock.”
“Wow,” Cisco’s jaw dropped open just a bit, and the corner of his lips almost formed an impressed smile. His eyes glimmered with a look of surprise, and… newfound respect. “Kiddie Eye Doc has a rebellious side.”
“I was in the ninth grade. It’s been years,” Caitlin said.
“Well, unless you have a better option, that’s the most we’ve got to go off of.” Cisco said. “Do you have a hair tie on you right now?”
Caitlin nodded. “I’m wearing a few in my hair right now.”
“That’s perfect!” Cisco practically lit up. “Then we have a plan!”
“We do?” Caitlin raised an eyebrow. “How am I supposed to pick the lock when my hands are tied?”
Cisco bit his lip. He hadn’t thought of that.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”
“This plan isn’t very thought-out.” Caitlin pursed her lips. “Aren’t you supposed to be a genius?”
Cisco scoffed. “Excuse you. I am a genius, thank you very much.”
“Your plan has about a million holes in it.”
“Well, at least I’m actively trying to formulate a plan.” If Cisco could’ve made eye contact with her, he would’ve glared at her. “Look, do you wanna get out of here or not?”
Caitlin sighed. “Fine, we’ll try your way then.”
“Okay. We stand up on the count of three.” Cisco said. “One, two, three-”
Cisco stood up before Caitlin was ready, which caused Caitlin to stumble, which caused Cisco to fall with her. The both of them found themselves on the ground once again, and they hadn’t even been up for a solid two seconds.
Cisco sighed. “Alright, take two.”
Caitlin counted this time, and yet Cisco still got up before she did, and the imbalance threw them off.
“Maybe we should say ‘stand up’ or ‘go’ after we count.” Caitlin suggested. “That way, we can indicate exactly when we stand up.”
“We have that. It’s called ‘three’. You stand up on three.”
“I am standing up on three!”
“No, you’re not. I’m standing up on three. You’re standing up after three.”
“Well maybe that wasn’t clear enough.” Caitlin sounded like the self-righteous teacher’s pet of every 8th grade class. “It was my understanding that we would stand up after you finished saying the word three-”
“No! We stand up on three! That means, when I say it!”
Caitlin scoffed. “You’re impossible.”
“You’re impossible.”
She rolled her eyes. “Very mature of you.”
“Look, I don’t know about you, but I really want to get out of this crummy ass warehouse, so let’s at least try one more time and actually get it right.” Cisco would have rubbed his temples had he been able to freely move his hands.
“Fine.” She sighed. “One more try.”
They agreed to count to three at the same time in order to avoid confusion. They spoke slowly so that they could be in sync, but even then they were a little off. And yet, on three, they stood up. Both of them, at the same time, thank god. They stumbled a bit, but they quickly regained their balance and managed to stay upright. They both sighed in relief.
“We did it!” Cisco cheered. He would’ve pumped his fist in the air, or maybe even hugged Caitlin in his excitement, if he had been able to freely move his arms.
“Look at us!” Caitlin was grinning. “We’re standing!”
“We could do it after all!”
Maybe it was the euphoria of the moment. Maybe it was the underlying adrenaline of their situation. But, in that moment, standing upright in that abandoned warehouse, their backs pressed to each other… Cisco and Caitlin started laughing. They giggled like schoolchildren, not really sure why.
Cisco leaned the back of his head against Caitlin’s shoulder and sighed happily.
“Alright, let’s try walking towards the door.” Caitlin said. “Slowly.”
“Alright.”
Caitlin shuffled her feet forwards ever-so-carefully. Cisco followed suit, trying to keep up with Caitlin, even when he couldn’t see her feet.
“Okay, this is going nowhere.” Caitlin sighed after a full minute of meticulous shuffling. “I’m going to start taking bigger steps.”
“How big?”
“I’ll start small and get bigger.”
“Okay.”
Caitlin took a small step at first, and Cisco tried to match with his own step of equal distance. Caitlin stepped once more, and once more Cisco matched it. They began stepping in the direction of the door, slowly but steadily.
Then Caitlin took a step that was a bit too large. The movement tugged Cisco’s chest a bit too forcefully, and he lost his footing. He stumbled and fell to the ground, pulling Caitlin along with him.
“SHIT!” Cisco cursed. “That was way too big of a step.”
“Oh, so it’s my fault we fell?” Caitlin spit out a bit of dirt that got into her mouth when they fell. “You’re the one who stumbled.”
The two of them struggled against each other, trying to sit upright but lacking the coordination with the other that they needed in order to do so effectively. Eventually, they managed, but it took a solid thirty seconds.
“Great.” Cisco scoffed and rolled his eyes. “This is pointless. We’re never escaping. The headlines are gonna say ‘Cisco Ramon, richest man in America, found dead in an abandoned warehouse’.”
Caitlin would’ve glared at him if she had been able to make eye contact. “I guess it’s true, what they say about you.”
“What is?”
“That you only ever care about yourself.”
Cisco didn’t know how to reply to that. He knew it was pointless to try to deny it. He knew it was true. He was arrogant, sure, but one thing he would never be was an idiot.
“I guess it is.” He said after a long pause. He spoke with a low, quiet tone. He tried to sound casual, but he was afraid it didn’t convey that way.
“I don’t want to believe it.” She said. “I don’t want to see you as the person the media makes you out to be.”
“Even if there’s truth to it?”
Caitlin hesitated. “Surely you weren’t always this…” She trailed off.
“This what?” Cisco pressed. “Cocky? Arrogant? Dickish?”
“Closed-off.”
Oh.
Cisco hesitated.
“I wasn’t.” He said finally. “I used to be different. I used to… care.”
“Yeah?” Caitlin asked.
“I had a brother.” Cisco shuffled his shoe against the dirty warehouse floor as he talked. “Dante Ramon. He was two years older than me, but when we were young, people would ask if we were twins. Not because we looked alike- I take more after our mom, he takes more after our dad- but because we were inseparable. As kids, we would play in the backyard and go ‘exploring’ together. We’d play with old Pokemon cards. We’d watch old movies together and share popcorn, and he’d complain because I ate most of it, so I’d make more. We’d play pretend and make up our own fantasy worlds, with knights and elves and dragons. As we got older… things changed. I was more interested in technology, engineering, inventing things. He was the concert pianist… and the golden child. He was always our parents’ favorite, and I never knew why. He always got our parents’ approval without even trying, and I envied that. That jealousy is kinda what drove us apart, and it’s why I grew up to crave fame and attention. It’s bad, I know.”
“It’s basic psychology.” Caitlin said. “You were second best in your childhood, so you crave the spotlight as an adult.”
“Yeah.” Cisco said. “Anyways, in my early 20’s, I realized just how much I missed my brother. So, I reached out to him, and we started to reconnect. We went out for a drink every once in a while to catch up. We watched old movies together like we used to do when we were kids. I started to really feel like I had gotten my brother back.”
“What happened?”
“He died.”
Cisco stared at the dirt on the bottom of his shoe. He felt a sinking feeling in his gut, but he ignored it. He hated that feeling. It was the same feeling he got at Dante’s funeral. It was the same feeling he got when he had to pack up the movies that reminded him of his brother. It was the same feeling he got right when he was about to cry. He hated crying.
“I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be. It’s not your fault.” Cisco let out a deep sigh and continued. “It happened in a car accident. Dante was driving home after dark, and a drunk driver came out of nowhere and swerved right into his car. I got the call the next day telling me… telling me what happened.”
“That’s why you’re closed-off.” Caitlin said. “Because you’ve been hurt.”
“After Dante died, I immersed myself in my job. I tucked away all my feelings. To me, it was better to not feel at all than to feel pain.” Cisco made a face of disgust. “Feelings. Emotional attachments. I hate the lot. It’s all gross, and I can do just fine without it.”
“You can’t just lock away your emotions.” Caitlin’s voice was gentle. “You need them. They’re a part of being human, no matter how hard you try to suppress them.”
“No thanks.” Cisco said. “The press sees me as just another arrogant rich prick anyways. Why not live up to the expectation?”
“Because you’re more than that.”
Cisco scoffed. “That part of me died with Dante.”
“No, it didn’t.” Caitlin shook her head softly. “If you were truly emotionless, you wouldn’t have opened up to me just now.”
He felt a twang of regret. “I… don’t really know why I did that. I don’t open up to anyone. Ever. Especially not people I just met.”
“And yet you did.”
Cisco recalled the conversation he had with Barry.
That’s different. You aren’t just any random stranger to me.
Not that he would ever admit that, of course.
“I’m glad you opened up to me.” Caitlin spoke again after a moment’s pause. “It’s good to know you’re not heartless.”
“Thanks, I guess.” Cisco tried his hardest to maintain his natural nonchalant tone. “And, uh… it’s good to see you’re more than just a kiddie eye doctor.”
To Cisco’s surprise, Caitlin laughed.
“Thanks, Cisco.”
And for once, Cisco didn’t mind that she called him by his first name.
“Is it weird that, uh…” Cisco didn’t know what he was saying. He spoke without thinking, his words coming out without his control. His blush increased with each individual word. “I feel like I’ve known you for a long time. I feel like I can trust you. I guess that’s why I opened up.” He cringed. “No, that’s weird. Nevermind. Forget I said anything.”
“I get what you mean.”
Cisco perked up. He couldn’t look at her directly, but he raised his head and tilted it slightly in Caitlin’s direction.
“You do?”
Caitlin nodded. “It is weird, and yet… I feel the same way towards you. I feel like I’ve known you for years. I guess that’s why I so desperately wanted to believe you were more than what they say about you. You proved me right.”
Cisco was glad Caitlin couldn’t see his face, because in that moment, he smiled, and he blushed, like a damn eighth grader talking to their crush. He could feel butterflies in his stomach, which only made it worse. He had known her for one day. Even if it was because of this timeline shit that Barry keeps mentioning, it was still weird.
“Oh. Well…” Cisco hated this feeling. He felt more humble than he had felt in years, and he hated humility. It made him feel vulnerable, and weak. “Good to know it’s mutual.”
“It is.”
“Y’know, Kiddie Eye Doc, you’re not that bad.” Cisco said. “I guess, if I had to be trapped here with anyone, I’m glad it’s with you.”
“Thanks.”
Cisco couldn’t see her expression, and he couldn’t tell from her tone whether she was expressing genuine gratitude or if she was being sarcastic. He wasn’t about to ask.
He was about to speak, but the sound of thumping caught his attention. The metal door shook with each pound, as if someone was trying to break it open.
Then the thumping stopped. And, for a moment, it was quiet.
Caitlin gulped. “Do you think that was The Rival?”
“Who cares who it was? They’re gone now.”
And then a figure phased through the door, leaving a trail of lightning behind them. The speedster was moving so fast that all Caitlin and Cisco saw was a vague blur.
Cisco felt a sinking dread in his gut. Caitlin was right, The Rival’s back-
But then he realized something. The lightning was yellow. The Rival’s lightning was red.
The figure ran to the far side of the warehouse before stopping. His lightning faded, and his body was no longer a blur. He wore a red suit instead of The Rival’s black one, and he looked at Cisco and Caitlin with a sense of friendly familiarity, not malice.
A wave of relief washed over Cisco, and he couldn’t stop himself from grinning.
“Stringbean!”
Barry sighed. “I’m saving your life and you still won’t call me by my name.”
“Sorry.” Cisco said. “Seriously, thanks for saving us.”
Wally phased through the door a few seconds later and skidded to a stop next to Barry.
“I talked to my dad. He’s gonna take The Rival to CCPD.” Wally said. “He’s already in meta-cuffs so he won’t try anything.”
“Okay, good.”
In a flurry of lightning, Barry untied both Cisco and Caitlin. The two of them stood up and stretched, finally free from the ropes binding them together. Cisco met Caitlin’s brown eyes, and he smiled. Not his usual cocky, arrogant smile… but a genuine, sweet one.
And she smiled back.
“Alright,” Barry said. “Let’s get out of here.”
~~~
Cisco took a deep breath, as if mentally preparing himself, and then swung open the door and walked in.
There was a sign above the front desk that displayed the words “Central City Ophthalmology” in big, bold letters. What stood out was the ugly shade of green and the rather unflattering font they had chosen. All throughout the inside of the building were advertisements of smiling models in various types of glasses. Their smiles looked noticeably fake, but as far as marketing goes, it wasn’t terrible.
He walked up to the front desk.
“Hi, I’m looking for a Dr. Caitlin Snow.”
The receptionist looked up at him. “Do you have an appointment?”
“Oh, no, I’m not here for an eye appointment.” He said. “I just wanna… talk to her.”
She raised an eyebrow, but let it be. “Dr. Snow gets off of work soon. You can talk to her then.”
Cisco opened his mouth to ask her when Caitlin got off work, when he heard a familiar voice.
“Cisco?”
He looked up to see that Caitlin had walked into the lobby area. She was looking at him with a perplexed expression, as if silently asking him what his reason was for coming.
His eyes lit up upon seeing her. “Kiddie Eye Doc!”
She laughed at the nickname.
“I heard you ask for me and I got curious.” She said. “Why are you here?”
Cisco searched for an answer to that question, but words failed him. “Can I talk to you… somewhere private? It’ll only take a second, I swear.”
Caitlin furrowed her brow in confusion, but agreed. The two of them stepped outside.
“I’ll admit,” Caitlin said. “It is nice seeing you.”
“Yeah?” Cisco raised an eyebrow.
“Don’t let it get to your head.” Caitlin’s tone was teasing, the same way she’d talk to a friend. Is that what they were?
Cisco laughed.
“So what brings you here?”
“Well, I wanted to see you. There’s something about being kidnapped and tied to each other that makes you feel a little bit closer to that person once it’s over. We bonded a bit, don’t you think?” Cisco ran his hand through his hair. “And uh… I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately. I’m not the best with feelings, that much is a given, but… I’m willing to try.”
Something about Cisco seemed different. His general demeanor, how he held himself, how he spoke. He wasn’t cocky, he wasn’t boasting. He wasn’t holding himself up high. He was sincere. He spoke with a soft, genuine tone, compared to his usual tone, which was arrogant and self-righteous. He stumbled a bit over his words, an imperfection that he wouldn’t have dared shown when he was maintaining his prideful reputation.
He truly was trying to be a better person, and it showed.
“That’s mature of you.”
“I was wondering if you’d be interested in possibly having dinner with me sometime.” Cisco was blushing now. Cisco Ramon. Blushing. “It’s totally fine if not-”
Caitlin smiled.
“I’d love to.”
Killervibe Fic Week Day Four: Free Day
Word Count: 5840
Notes: Based off of the popular headcanon that Lia (Nora’s best friend from the 5x18 flashforwards episode) is Killervibe’s adopted daughter, due to the fact that she parallels both Cisco and Caitlin in a lot of ways, has a similar personality to Cisco, and displays a lot of Cisco’s mannerisms, even in just the one episode she appears in. This is also a bit canon divergent, because Barry never disappears in this fic, and Nora gets her powers a lot sooner than she does on the show. This fic honestly ended up being a bit more centered around Lia than it is around Killervibe, but it’s still a Killervibe fic because Caitlin and Cisco are married and they’re raising a kid together.
Warnings: character death (albeit one that was shown in the actual show), mourning, brief mention of a funeral
Tags: @thatkillervibe @shakesqueer-writes @narniasfinestavengingsociopath
~~~
Lia was five.
Cisco held her on his shoulders and walked around the kitchen humming a melody. Lia couldn’t stop giggling. Her dad bounced her around playfully and Lia would shriek with laughter every time. He would twirl around, and she would hold onto him and cheer happily.
“I have to put you down now, sweetie.”
“Aww!” Lia protested. “But this is fun!”
“I’m sorry.” Cisco said, setting her gently on the ground in front of him. “But I have to make dinner, and it’s hard to do that with you on my shoulders.”
“Then I wanna help!”
Cisco smiled. “You’re gonna help me make dinner?”
Lia nodded.
“Well, thank you, kiddo. I appreciate the help.” Cisco ruffled her hair affectionately. “We’re going to need the meat from the freezer. Can you go get that out?”
“Yeah!” She ran over to the fridge and pulled open the freezer door, then she climbed up on the door’s railing to get better leverage, and rummaged through the freezer until she found what she was looking for. She shut the freezer closed and hurried back over to her dad, proudly presenting the meat.
“Good job!”
Lia beamed.
Cisco got out the stuff that was too high for her to reach or too heavy for her to hold, but he let Lia get out everything she could. Before long, they had set out all the ingredients on the counter, and Cisco showed her how to prepare it.
“First, you cut the meat. I’m going to do this because I don’t want you to hurt yourself, but you can watch, and when you’re older you’ll know how to do it.”
“Okay!”
Cisco cut the meat into small sections and tossed them onto the pan to cook. Lia watched intently, sitting on the counter and dangling her legs as she did.
Fifty minutes later, the two of them had prepared a full meal.
Caitlin joined them, commenting on how good it smelled. Cisco made her a plate and Lia presented it to her, beaming with pride.
“Mommy! I helped make dinner!”
“Really? Look at you, being helpful!” Caitlin took a bite of her food and turned back to Lia. “Well, you did good, because it’s delicious.”
“Thank you!” Lia said. “Do you think I could be a chef one day?”
“You can be whatever you want to be, sweetheart.”
Caitlin kissed the top of Lia’s head. Lia grinned, and ran back to Cisco to get her own plate of food.
~~~
Lia was six.
It was Mother’s Day morning. Caitlin woke up to her husband and daughter greeting her with breakfast in bed, something they did for her every Mother’s Day. And, every year, she thanked them with the same amount of surprise she did the year before. There were eggs, bacon, toast, and a yogurt parfait, which was all Caitlin needed.
“Thank you, guys!” Caitlin said. “This looks great.”
Cisco sat on his side of the bed and hoisted Lia up on his lap. “Lia was really excited about helping prepare the eggs this year.”
Lia nodded, as if confirming Cisco’s words. “Happy Mother’s Day, Mommy!”
“Thanks, sweetheart!”
“Mommy, I have something for you!”
“Lia, I thought we were giving her the presents at lunch?” Cisco asked.
“I know, but I just can’t wait! I’m excited!”
“Alright,” Cisco chuckled. “Go bring her your gift.”
Lia hopped off the bed and ran into the other room to get it. When she returned, she was carrying a small pot of flowers and a single paper.
“Daddy took me to the store to pick out flowers for you!” Lia said, handing her the flowers. “He said these are your favorite.”
They were white lilies, placed in a beautiful decorative assortment with some light blue daisies for color. She had always loved lillies, and the white and blue color scheme fit well for her. She turned to Cisco with a warm, grateful smile.
“And then I drew this for you!”
Lia gave Caitlin the paper she had been holding. It was a drawing done in colored pencil, depicting a triangular slice of pie.
“I’m not good at drawing people, but then I remembered that time we made pie together and I drew that!” Lia said.
Caitlin couldn’t help the smile growing on her face. She hugged Lia tight and kissed her forehead.
“Thank you, sweetie. I love it.”
“You’re welcome!” Lia said. “Thanks for being the best Mommy ever.”
“Ever?” Caitlin laughed.
Lia nodded. “The best Mommy in the whole wide world!”
“Well, that’s all because I have the best daughter in the whole wide world.”
Lia giggled. “Thanks, Mommy.”
~~~
Lia was eight.
She groaned because Nora had won Mario Kart for the sixth time in the last hour.
“How are you so good at this?”
Nora shrugged. “I’ve had a lot of practice. I play against my dad a lot.”
“I never knew Uncle Barry was good at Mario Kart.”
“He’s not, really.” Nora leaned forwards and grabbed some chips off of the plate on the table. “I win against him all the time. Uncle Wally is really good, though. I play against him and Aunt Jesse whenever they come to visit. Sometimes Aunt Jenna will play with me, but she’s busy with homework and studying.”
“Let’s play one last round.” Lia said. “I’m bound to win at least one.”
“If you’re sure.” Nora picked up her controller again. “I’ll be Peach.”
Lia selected Rosalina for her character. “I get to pick the course this time. Which means absolutely no Rainbow Road.”
“We’ve done easier courses.” Nora said. “I still won.”
“No need to brag.” Lia scoffed. “Alright, let’s do Yoshi Circuit. I like that one.”
The race started, and Nora took off with the boost at the beginning. Lia sighed. She was already in first place.
Lia picked up every power-up that she could find in hopes of getting something that would help. At one point, she hit Nora with a red shell and pulled into first place, and she cheered at her victory. However, her cheer caused her to lose her place as Nora took the opportunity to hit Lia with a blue shell and reclaim her position.
Inevitably, Nora finished the race in first, and Lia pulled in third.
Lia sighed in resignation and turned the tv off.
“Fine, you win.”
“We can play something else if you want.”
Before Lia could reply to Nora’s offer, the sound of footsteps cut her off and caused the two of them to look at the source of the sound. Cisco walked downstairs, twirling his keys in his hand, and turned to the girls on his living room couch.
“I have a question for you two,” He said. “What would you say to going out and getting Big Belly Burger?”
Their response was simultaneous. “Yes!”
Cisco smiled. “I thought so. C’mon, let’s get in the car.”
Both girls ran into the garage and scrambled to climb into the backseat of Cisco’s car. Cisco followed behind and got in the driver’s seat. When he started the car, he put on the radio so the kids could listen to music.
The kids played rock-paper-scissors in the backseat until Cisco pulled into the drive-thru.
“Okay, tell me your orders one at a time.” Cisco said. “If I can’t hear you, then I can’t order anything for you.”
Lia told him her order, and then Nora. Cisco got the both of them the meals they wanted, and when the food came, he stretched backseat to hand them their food.
“Thanks, Dad!”
“Thanks, Uncle Cisco!”
Lia took a huge bite out of her burger. Nora dug into her fries first, saving her burger for later.
Cisco drove a bit further until he arrived at the park. They brought their food to a picnic table in the shade, and ate there. The kids traded their Happy Meals toys and shared fries, and drank the smoothies they had ordered until they got brain freeze.
“When you’re done with your food, then you can go play.” Cisco gestured towards the playground. “But you have to be done with your food first.”
“Okay!”
The kids wolfed down their food as fast as their eight-year-old mouths could chew. They threw away their trash only after Cisco reminded them to, then raced to the playground. Nora naturally won, which caused Lia to only sigh once more.
“One more time!” Lia insisted. “I’m going to win this time.”
Nora laughed. “If you say so.”
Cisco watched the kids play with a smile on his face, then turned back to his burger.
~~~
Lia was eleven.
She woke up to snow and the news that school had been canceled. For a sixth-grader, there’s no better thing.
Caitlin told her that if she bundled up in winter clothes, then she could go outside. Lia got dressed into her warmest winter coat and furry winter boots, and Caitlin put on a scarf, hat, and mittens.
Lia ran outside and twirled around in the snow until she got dizzy, then she laid on the ground and made snow angels.
Her parents invited the West-Allens over to enjoy their day off school. Barry and Iris stayed inside and talked with Caitlin and Cisco over a cup of hot coffee, while Lia and Nora played around in the snow. They got as much snow together as they could and tried to make a snowman, but it ended up just looking like a deformed pile of snow.
The kids ran inside and convinced their parents to come out and enjoy the weather with them, and eventually the parents gave in. They put on their coats and walked out into the snow, leaving footprints as they did so.
“We tried to make a snowman, but it didn’t work out so well.” Nora sighed.
“You just need to know how to properly make a snowman.” Cisco said. “My brother and I used to make snowmen all the time when we were kids. Here, I’ll show you.”
He began gathering a small round lump of snow and shaped it into a ball as if he was making a snowball. Then, he rolled it against the snow and watched it grow in size.
“You don’t just lump the snow together. There has to be a method to your madness.” He said. “You have to roll it out, like so.”
The two families all joined forces in rolling out the snow and forming it until it looked more like an actual snowman. Once they had the base, then they rolled out another ball of snow for the middle, then they made the head. Lia and Nora went searching for stones that they could use as buttons, and Caitlin went and got a carrot from inside for the nose.
“He’s missing a hat.” Lia said. “Snowmen in the movies all have hats.”
“Well, we don’t have any stereotypical top hats if that’s what you’re looking for.” Caitlin said.
“Mom, can you make one?” Lia asked. “Please?”
“Alright.” Caitlin said. “For you.”
She took her gloves off and handed them to Iris to hold. She concentrated for a second- it only took a second. Her eyes glowed a bright icy white, and her hair changed to match. Snow swirled from her fingertips and clumped together on the top of the snowman’s head to form a nice, perfectly shaped top hat like the one Lia wanted. The second she was done, her eyes reverted to their normal state, and her hair melted back to brown.
“Thank you!”
“There it is,” Nora looked at the snowman with the same pride a mother would look at her child. “Our perfect snowman.”
“He needs a name.” Barry said. “What’re we gonna name him?”
“Hm…” Lia pondered.
“What about Ronald?” Iris suggested. “He looks like a Ronald to me.”
“Ronald the Snowman.” Nora laughed.
“I like it.” Lia said. “Ronald the Snowman it is.”
No one saw it coming. It happened when everyone was distracted by the snowman. They only saw the aftermath.
Barry’s chest had a white puff of snow right in the center. He had felt the impact and looked up at Cisco, who was holding another snowball in his hand and snickering.
“Gotcha.”
“Oh yeah?” Barry smirked. He leaned down and picked up snow off the ground to form his own snowballs for payback. With his speed, he formed four snowballs in no time at all, and sent them all flying at Cisco. “How’s that for payback?”
Cisco brushed the snow off his jacket. “Oh, it’s on, Allen.”
Iris and Caitlin watched the two of them and laughed to themselves.
“I swear, even now they still act so much like kids sometimes.” Iris said.
“You wanna join them?” Caitlin asked.
“Oh, absolutely.” Iris nodded. “Let’s team up so we can win against them.”
“Deal.”
The kids were all too keen on the idea of a snowball fight. They grabbed as much snow as they could carry, and prepared to defend themselves against their parents.
Before long, their snowball fight was an all-out war… but all in good fun. Loyalties shifted throughout the game. Iris ended up allying herself with Barry, and Caitlin with Cisco. The kids joined their parents. Turns out the West-Allens are really good at making snowballs. Iris and Nora were tough competition to beat, but Lia and Cisco managed. With their powers, all bets were off. Caitlin could create new snowballs from thin air and pass them on to her husband and daughter. Cisco could open breaches and drop them on the West-Allens while he stayed a far ways away, safe from any snowballs they might throw in retaliation. Barry and Nora could use their speed to make a bunch of snowballs within seconds, and to attack their opponents before they knew what was happening.
At the end of the day, Caitlin’s endless supply of snowballs and Cisco’s breaches declared the more useful tactic. The Ramon family was declared the winners, and both families went inside for a cup of hot chocolate in front of the fire.
Nora and Lia talked and laughed, sipping their hot chocolate with plenty of marshmallows on top. The adults all chatted with each other and enjoyed their own beverages.
The West-Allens stayed for dinner as well. By the time they went home, Lia was sad to see them go. She hugged Nora tight, despite the fact that she’d see her at school the very next day.
Lia decided then and there that snow days were her favorite.
~~~
Lia was fourteen.
High school hit her hard. The workload was tons more than she was used to, the school was bigger, the teachers were new, and what’s more, Nora went to a different high school, so Lia was alone and friendless.
She found herself tapping her pencil against the kitchen table, trying to will her mind to focus but to no avail. The clock ticked as seconds turned into minutes and minutes turned into hours. She groaned and grabbed her hair in her fists, but nothing helped.
There was a math test tomorrow in first period, and yet she understood nothing. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t get the answers right, and she was doomed to fail.
“Honey?”
Lia looked up to see her mother, looking at her with an expression of concern.
“You okay?” She gently brushed Lia’s hair behind her ear. “Do you need help?”
As much as Lia’s pride urged her to deny the offer, her better judgement said otherwise.
“Yes.” She said. “Desperately.”
“I’ll help, then.” Caitlin pulled up a chair and sat down so that she could better look over Lia’s assignment. “You’re doing math?”
Lia nodded. “It’s confusing, and it’s hard, and I hate it.”
“If you approach it with that attitude, then you won’t learn.” Caitlin’s voice was gentle and guiding. “Here, let’s take it one step at a time.”
“I tried that, I don’t even know where to start!” Lia’s frustration got the better of her, and she snapped. “High school is so much harder than middle school. I wish I could go back to when things were easy, and simple, and I didn’t have to worry about stupid complicated math problems, or kids that think it’s weird that I’m adopted, because apparently that’s a bad thing, or- or-” Lia started to choke up a bit on her words. She felt a lump in her throat forming. As much as she hated it, tears started to well up in her eyes, and there was nothing she could do to stop them. “Or having to feel alone at school because Nora’s going to some fancy charter school that I didn’t get into, and I have to face the fact that I’ve really only had one friend my whole life and that’s because you and Dad have been friends with the West-Allens since before I came along! Eating lunch at school sucks because I have to sit out in the hallway when I don’t know anyone and I just stare at the blank pages of a book I don’t really want to read, just so I look a little less awkward!” Her tears were streaming down her cheeks now, but she didn’t care. “And on top of that, I’m- I’m confused, and I wish I could talk to Nora about it but Nora’s always busy with homework, and I know it’s not her fault, and I’m not angry at her, I just… feel so alone, and lost, and… it’s so complicated.”
“Sweetie,” Caitlin wiped Lia’s tears from her face. “I’m sorry you’re feeling this way. If you were confused, you could’ve just talked to me.”
“No, that’s-” Lia shook her head. “You don’t get it.”
“Then help me understand.”
Lia stayed silent for a long moment. Caitlin wondered if she was ever gonna talk. Lia just cried into her hands, and sniffed, and blew her nose into a tissue. She was conflicted, fighting an inner battle between her emotions and her better judgment. She was pained, that much was clear. Something was troubling her, and she knew that it would hurt to speak it aloud, but she also knew that it was something she had to say.
“I… I think I like girls.” Lia muttered, finally. “And boys. I think? I don’t know. It’s all so confusing, and I just wish I could figure myself out already without all this contemplating nonsense.”
“Oh, honey.” Caitlin hugged her daughter. “There’s no rush to figure yourself out. That’s your journey, and there’s no beginning or end to it. Whoever you are, your dad and I will love you just the same. But you can’t force it. You have to figure yourself out at your own pace.”
Lia sniffed. “Thanks, Mom.”
“I’m sorry you feel alone at school. Would you want to join some clubs to try to meet new people?”
“That sounds scary.” Lia said. “New environment.”
“I get that.” Caitlin said. “Well, how about this? This weekend, you and Nora can go out shopping, see a movie, whatever you’d like, and you’d get to spend some quality time together. I can’t promise that Nora will be free every weekend, but maybe you girls could come up with a plan to get together and have a sleepover maybe once a month, just to catch up. And I’m sure your dad wouldn’t mind hosting dinners with the West-Allens more often.”
Lia smiled through her tears. “That sounds like fun.”
“But for now, let’s just focus on this math problem.” Caitlin said. “I promise, life will work itself out, but you have to take it one step at a time.”
“Okay.” She picked her pencil back up. “I’m ready to try.”
“That’s my girl.”
~~~
Lia was eighteen.
Various packing boxes sat before her. Her college dorm was a lot smaller than she had expected, but from what she heard, that was normal. By some hint of luck, both Lia and Nora had been accepted into Central City University, and their request to be roommates was approved. Nora had finished unpacking in mere seconds. Granted, she used her speed, and Lia unfortunately was left to unpack at a normal human pace.
“The worst part about being adopted,” Lia sighed. “Not inheriting powers.”
“Don’t worry. I gotcha.” In a flurry of yellow and purple lightning, Nora emptied out all of Lia’s boxes and arranged her posters, decorations, and other belongings along her space. She skidded to a halt, and turned to Lia. “How’s that? If you don’t like it, I can undo it.”
“That looks…” Lia looked at her newly decorated space in awe. “Wonderful. Thank you.”
“Anytime.” Nora flopped down onto her bed. “Just one of the perks of having a speedster for a best friend.”
“Another perk is never letting said speedster best friend forget the time she sped-run right into a stop sign.” Lia gently shoved Nora’s shoulder in a friendly-teasing gesture.
Nora groaned at the memory. “That hurt like hell. I had a bruise on my face for three whole days.”
“Hey, three days is not a lot.” Lia sat down next to Nora. “Be glad you have speed-healing.”
“I’d be lost without it.” Nora said. “When I got my powers, the first thing Dad taught me was how to brake. Thank god for that.”
“And yet it only works if you’re paying attention to what’s in front of you.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Nora chuckled.
“Oh! I wanted to ask.” Lia spoke suddenly, as if it had just occurred to her. “Apparently some other freshman in a dorm not too far from ours are having a movie night tonight. Some girl passed me in the hallway earlier and asked if I’d want to go.”
“Do you wanna go?”
Lia shrugged. “I’ll go if you do. Otherwise, I’ll pass.”
“Well, how about we have a Netflix night tonight, just the two of us?” Nora said. “We can binge more classic tv shows from when our parents were in college, and even better, I’ll run to the store and get snacks. I’ll buy some chocolate for me and some licorice for you.”
“You know me so well.” Lia smiled. “That sounds great.”
“Hey, what’re best friends for?” Nora said. “You get Netflix pulled up. I’ll be back in a sec with snacks.”
She sped out the door, leaving a trail of purple and yellow lightning behind her.
~~~
Lia was twenty.
The steak was warm and well-cooked. Her mom had prepared green beans and mashed potatoes. The West-Allens had brought over some food as well. Barry had prepared it, seeing as how he’s always been better at Iris than cooking. No one would ever admit that to Iris, but they knew it was true. Too many times in Nora and Lia’s youth, Nora would complain that her mom was cooking that night because her dad was busy.
The Christmas tree was lit up and decorated with ornaments. They had decorated it together, both the Ramons and the West-Allens, just earlier that day. After all, Christmas Eve should be spent with family, and the West-Allens were exactly that.
Lia had spent the last few weeks shopping for both her parents, Nora, and Barry and Iris. As a college kid living off of frozen pizzas and ramen, she didn’t have too much to spend on gifts, but she was proud of what she ended up getting, and confident that they would like it.
“I hope the weather’s been treating you well.” Caitlin reached for the gravy.
“Actually, I got a pretty bad cold last week.” Lia said. “It sucked ass, but Nora made me hot tea, which was nice of her.”
Nora shrugged. “It was the least I could do.”
“Colds are the worst.” Caitlin sighed. “I’m glad you’re better now, though.”
“Actually, something exciting happened not too long ago.” Nora turned to Lia. “Tell them, Lia.”
“Oh! Right!” Lia smiled, and turned to everybody else at the table. “Nora and I went to our first pride about two weeks ago! It was Central City’s local pride parade. Nora had this huge lesbian flag that she was wearing as a cape, and I had face makeup with the bi pride colors.”
“That sounds like fun!” Cisco said.
Iris smiled. “I’m glad you girls got to go.”
“I already can’t wait for the next one.” Nora said. “We met all sorts of cool new people.”
“Y’know, Wally and Jesse went to a pride parade on Earth-2 not too long ago.” Barry said. “They had a bi pride flag and everything.”
“Oh, cool!” Lia turned to Nora. “I didn’t know your uncle was bi.”
Nora nodded. “Uncle Wally, Aunt Jesse, and Aunt Jenna. I have a lot of bi relatives.”
“How’s Jenna doing, by the way?”
“She’s doing good.” Nora said. “She loves her new job as a therapist. She says the empath powers really work well for her.”
“I can see why.” Lia said through a bit of mashed potatoes.
The friendly conversation continued until dinner was over. They talked in the living room and watched The Polar Express, one of Lia’s favorite movies from when she was a kid, and when the movie was over, they called it a night.
The next day was Christmas.
Lia didn’t wake up at 5am like she used to do every Christmas morning when she was a kid, but she did wake up when the others did, and the group ate breakfast and admired the Christmas lights. When they decided it was time, they passed around the presents from under the tree and opened them one at a time.
She bought Nora a new pair of sneakers, because she constantly wore down her old ones by speeding everywhere. They were cute, and matched Nora’s style perfectly. Even better, they fit perfectly.
“These are so cute!” Nora grinned. “Thanks!”
“You’re welcome!”
Lia had saved up her money to buy an old vintage movie set. They were the classics, from all the way back before her dad was born. She wrapped it carefully and handed it to her dad, and his face glowed up upon seeing it.
“Oh my god, sweetie, thank you!” Cisco squeezed his daughter tight. “This is amazing.”
“I was thinking sometime we could get Twizzlers and watch an old movie or two together.” Lia said. “Just you and me, like a father-daughter movie night.”
“Count me in.” Cisco grinned. “I can’t think of a better way to spend my afternoons.”
As for her mother, Lia had spent some time knitting her a scarf. It was white and blue, like Frost’s preferred color scheme, and it had little snowflakes across the rim.
“I’m not the best at knitting, but I’ve been learning.” Lia said. “And I figured you’re cold a lot with your powers, so I made that for you.”
Caitlin held it in her hands, rubbing the soft material and tracing the snowflakes with her fingers.
“It’s beautiful.” Caitlin exhaled softly, in awe. “Thank you. I couldn’t ask for a better gift.”
“You’re welcome, Mom.”
As the families talked and shared the holiday together, it started to snow ever so lightly outside. That White Christmas went down in Lia’s memory of one of her favorites.
As the day came to a close, Lia was reminded of exactly how wonderful her family is.
~~~
Lia was twenty-eight.
Twenty-eight short years fulled to the brim with happy memories, only to be cut short so abruptly.
No one expected it. No one could have predicted it.
It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. Lia was supposed to live a long and fulfilling life. She was supposed to get married and give Cisco and Caitlin grandkids. She was supposed to be Aunt Lia to Nora’s kids, and vice versa. She was supposed to spend so many more holidays with her family. Her parents weren’t supposed to outlive her.
But fate had other plans.
On that ill-fated day, Lia interfered with the wrong evil speedster. On that day, Godspeed left her for dead. On that day, Lia Ramon’s life ended.
No more movie nights with her dad. No more pride parades with Nora. No more snow days with her mom.
Lia was gone.
Every sweet moment that she had shared with her loved ones was history. They lived on as memories, but that was all they had left of the girl they knew. The girl that Cisco and Caitlin had raised.
Nora was driven into a rage. It’s always easier to be angry than to be sad. She wanted to be angry, she wanted to yell, she wanted to scream. She wanted to track down Godspeed and make him pay. She wanted someone to blame this on, and she wanted justice.
Except… justice wouldn’t bring Lia back.
Godspeed was sent to jail, and Nora had lost her scapegoat for her anger. Instead, she was left with an emptiness. As if she had lost a part of herself, and now there was just a big hole in its place. She would’ve rather have lost her arm than have lost Lia.
Nora found herself falling into a depression.
Cisco and Caitlin didn’t know how to cope with it at first. They couldn’t go on with their lives like normal, but it hurt too much to face the truth. They left Lia’s stuff untouched, because they knew they couldn’t so much as see it without experiencing the pain that came with it.
Lia’s funeral felt dismal.
Cisco started crying during the eulogy. That’s when it really hit him that his daughter was gone. He sobbed into some tissues that Caitlin had brought, and leaned on Caitlin’s shoulder for support.
After the funeral, Cisco and Caitlin went home and finally mustered up the courage to go through Lia’s old childhood bedroom.
Everything in there was attached to some memory of their daughter, and it stung. It just added salt to the wound, but it needed to be done. They needed to pack up Lia’s stuff, they couldn’t leave it out in her room forever. Besides, Lia needed to be honored, not forgotten.
So, together, Cisco and Caitlin went through her room.
Both of them were crying. Their eyes were red and puffy, and their noses were sore. They had brought tissues along with them, and they were going through them quickly. And yet, they found the strength in them to smile despite their tears. They found sweet, treasured memories in the midst of their pain.
“This was her favorite stuffed animal when she was five.” Caitlin sniffed and held up an old, tattered stuffed animal in the shape of a bunny.
“Mr. Snuggles,” Cisco took it and held it in his hands, looking at it with a certain fondness, mixed with nostalgia, and regret, and pain. “She took it everywhere with her.”
“And then one time she lost it at a Target.”
“We had to search for it in every aisle.” Cisco recalled the memory with a sad smile. “Even some of the employees helped look for it.”
“We found it in the toy section,” Caitlin said. “Next to the Legos.”
Caitlin set the stuffed animal in a box.
“Oh, it’s the old cd player.” Cisco picked it up and dusted off the top. “She’d put cds in here and we’d listen to music and have dance parties to old songs.”
“I remember that.” The memory made Caitlin smile. “I used to love watching you two dancing like you didn’t have a care in the world.”
“There was that one time when I convinced you to join us, remember?” Cisco asked. “The three of us, just dancing together, like time didn’t exist and we were immortal.”
Caitlin nodded. “She was adorable, dancing as a toddler.”
“She was.”
Cisco set the cd player in a box.
“Look at this,” Caitlin held up a pink frilly dress and a matching toy wand. “She used to wear this around the house and say she wanted to be a princess when she grew up.”
“She must’ve been about five then,” Cisco rubbed the dress’s scratchy material in between his fingers. “She wanted to be everything. A princess, a chef, a ballerina, a wizard.”
“Remember when she wanted to go to space?”
Cisco nodded. “We always told her the same thing.”
“You can be anything you want to be.” Caitlin said. “As long as you set your mind to it.”
“When she got her job as a CSI, she made us the proudest parents in the multiverse.” Cisco smiled, thinking about the day he got an excited phone call from Lia telling him about the big news.
“Honey, we were already the proudest parents in the multiverse.”
“That is true.”
Caitlin set the dress in a box.
With each item, a new memory. Each happy memory came with a bittersweet aftertaste, each sad memory came with a twang of regret. But no matter what, they knew they weren’t alone.
Cisco grabbed Caitlin’s hand. He held it gently, rubbing her palm with his thumb comfortingly. He met her tear-stained eyes with a look of compassion, understanding, empathy.
“Hey, I know this is hard.” Cisco said. “It’s going to be hard. This isn’t something we can recover from easily. But… it’s going to be okay. Because we have each other.”
More tears streamed from the corners of Caitlin’s eyes. They followed the same path down her cheeks that her other tears did. She had been crying so much that they formed a visible trail down the sides of her face, but she didn’t care. The warmth in Cisco’s eyes was enough to remind her of how loved she was.
“We’re going to get through this, together.” Cisco wrapped his arms around Caitlin and pressed a kiss to her wet cheek. “One bit at a time. We’ll take things slow. And, with time, life will get better. I promise. I’ll be right here with you, every step of the way.”
“Thank you, Cisco.”
It took them a long time to recover from that loss. But life moves on. And, eventually, they healed. They counted on the other, and they provided the support that their partner needed. With time, they learned how to enjoy life again.
After all, it’s what Lia would have wanted.
Killervibe Fic Week Day Three: Doppelgangers
Word count: 3111
Notes: Thank you to @thatkillervibe for proofreading!!
Tags: @shakesqueer-writes @narniasfinestavengingsociopath
~~~
“Aw, man! That’s the third mosquito bite I’ve gotten since we got here,” Ralph whined, rubbing his arm where the mosquito bit him. “Earth-31 sucks.”
“Earth-1 has mosquitos too, Ralph.” Barry said.
“Not this many!”
“Ralph, you can shapeshift,” Cisco said. “Can’t you just… magically make your bug bites disappear or something?”
“No, it doesn’t work that way.” Ralph grumbled. “Believe me, I’ve tried.”
“It would be impossible.” Caitlin piped up. “Mosquito bites itch because of the body’s reaction to the mosquito’s saliva, which has already entered his blood once the mosquito bites him. Although Ralph’s cells can multiply and allow him to stretch or change his appearance, he can’t take the saliva out of his blood once they’re in there, nor can he stop his body’s reaction to it.”
“Great.” Ralph sighed. “I have bug spit in me.”
Cisco stumbled over an overgrown tree root and he would’ve fallen if he hadn’t grabbed onto the tree next to it. The moss and the wet leaves stuck to his shoes as he treaded through the deep forest, and the humidity caused him to sweat, especially in the thick leather of his Vibe suit. Ralph was right. Earth-31 does suck.
“Well, hopefully we won’t have to be here long.” Barry said. “If this is the place that Cisco vibed, then the meta couldn’t have gone far. We can have him arrested and go home by the end of today.”
“This is definitely it.” Cisco pointed to a tall tree a few yards ahead of them. “In my vision, the meta was standing next to that tree.”
“How can you tell?” Caitlin asked. “It all looks the same.”
“You see that stream over there? I saw that in my vibe as well.” Cisco pointed. “That tree was closest to it.”
“Well, that’s good.” Barry said. “He should be around here somewhere.”
“Not to point out the obvious, but this is one thick forest.” Ralph said. “How are we gonna find one guy in this place when the trees are barely three feet apart?”
“Ralph’s got a point.” Caitlin said. “Not to mention, this forest probably stretches for miles.”
“Alright, then we’ll split up.” Barry said. “I’ll go with Ralph. Cisco, you go with Caitlin. I can cover ground a lot faster if I run, and Cisco can breach to different parts of the forest. That way, we have much better chances of finding him.”
Cisco shrugged. “Seems fair to me.”
“Then it’s a plan. We’ll meet back by the stream in a few hours.”
Barry grabbed onto Ralph and ran off at super-speed, leaving just Cisco and Caitlin to venture off to the rest of the forest. The two of them continued walking forwards, minding their step as they did so.
“This forest kinda makes me nostalgic.”
“Really?” Caitlin looked at him. “How so?”
“When Dante and I were kids, we used to go exploring in the woods behind our house. We’d find sticks in the woods and pretend to battle each other with them, and then we’d go and find cool-looking rocks to bring home and show our parents,” Cisco said.
“Aww, that’s sweet,” Caitlin smiled. “I take it you two used to be a lot closer.”
“We were thick as thieves when we were kids.”
“What changed?”
Cisco shrugged. “We grew up. We each went on different paths, I suppose. Dante was the concert pianist, the golden child, the chick magnet. I was his nerdy younger brother, collecting tech magazines and going on for hours about how a computer works. My brother bathed in his glory. I didn’t get any of it.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It is what it is,” Cisco said. “I envy you for being an only child.”
“Actually, it got pretty lonely growing up,” Caitlin said. “I was ten when my dad disappeared, and after that, my mom was distant and obsessed with her work. She hid all her emotions away out of fear. She didn’t want to get hurt again. But in doing so, she only drove me away.”
Cisco offered a sympathetic smile. “I guess none of us had a normal childhood.”
“Honestly, have our lives ever been normal?”
Cisco laughed at that. “No, I don’t think so.”
“At least we’ve acknowledged it.”
There wasn’t much Cisco could think to say to that, so he decided to let it go. The next few minutes consisted of silent walking, with the occasional warning to the other person telling them to watch their footing.
“We’ve been walking in one direction for far enough. If he was here, we would’ve found him by now,” Cisco said. “I’ll breach us to the other side of the forest, maybe we’ll have better luck there.”
“You’re probably right.”
Cisco held his hand out in front of him, and formed a breach big enough for him and Caitlin to walk through. Before they could, however, a figure ran up and grabbed Cisco by the collar of his Vibe jacket, and ran through Cisco’s breach, yanking Cisco along with him. The breach closed the second that Cisco went through, leaving Caitlin stranded on the other side.
Once the breach closed, the figure tossed Cisco onto the ground. He had just managed to get himself up in a sitting position when he got his first good look at the man that had grabbed him.
“It’s you!” Cisco exclaimed. “The one I saw.”
“And you’re tracking me.” The meta matched Cisco’s emphasis mockingly.
“You heard us?”
“It’s not hard to hide in these woods,” He spat. “I can’t have you and your friends following my trail. Fortunately, without you they’ll have a much harder time.”
“You think I pose the biggest threat?” Cisco asked. “What, cause I’m a breacher?”
“Exactly.”
“Well, you’re wrong,” Cisco said. “We have a speedster on our team. He’s who you really have to be afraid of.”
“Yeah?” The meta gave an unamused, vaguely threatening chuckle. “Well, without their breacher to vibe my location or breach anywhere in the forest, I’m at least safe for now. I can take on this speedster when he comes.”
Cisco was trying to formulate a witty reply in his head when a long stream of ice came out of nowhere, knocking the meta against a tree. He managed to gather himself in time to run away before anybody could catch him. He was long gone in the trees in just a few seconds.
Cisco stood up, his heartbeat racing in his chest. He turned to his savior with a grin on his face.
“Caitlin! How’d you get here so fast- you were all the way across the forest- nevermind that, though, thank you so much for saving me--” Cisco paused a moment to catch his breath, and furrowed his brow. “Wait. You’re not in your Frost form. You just shot that stream of ice, how are you not Frost?”
Meanwhile, Caitlin was staring at him like she had just seen a ghost. “Cisco?!”
Cisco raised an eyebrow. “...Yes?”
“It’s really you?” Caitlin poked his shoulder, as if making sure he wasn’t a hologram. “But… this shouldn’t be possible!”
“Uh…”
“Wait.” Caitlin studied him from head to toe. Her expression seemed… disappointed, but not surprised. “You’re from another Earth, aren’t you?”
“What do you mean?”
Caitlin tried again. “Are you from this Earth?”
“No.”
“That’s what I thought,” Caitlin sighed. “You’re a doppelganger.”
Cisco blinked. “Wait, so that means…”
“Whatever Caitlin you think I am, I’m not her.” Caitlin- no, not Caitlin- said. “I’m from this Earth. Surely you’ve encountered doppelgangers before, breacher.”
“Yeah, of course,” Cisco said. “Sorry. My mind is still reeling. A minute ago, I was walking with Caitlin- my Caitlin- on the complete other side of the forest, then I open a breach only to get straight-up abducted by the very person we’re trying to catch, then not even thirty seconds later, I’m saved by the doppelganger of the exact person I was just with!” Cisco gestured wildly with his hands. “It’s been a very crazy 60 seconds!”
Caitlin smiled. “You remind me of the Cisco of my Earth.”
“I assume that’s a compliment,” Cisco said. “Unless the Earth-31 Cisco is a supervillain. Wouldn’t be the first time.”
“It’s a compliment, I assure you,” Caitlin said. “It’s nice to meet you, doppelganger-Cisco. You can call me Caity.”
“Caity?” Cisco raised an eyebrow.
She nodded. “I prefer it to Caitlin. It just fits me better.”
“Alright then… Caity.” Cisco said. “I’m Cisco. From Earth-1.”
“Earth-1? What’re you doing here, then?”
“I had a vibe about the meta-criminal here, the one that was just here. We came here to catch him.” Cisco said. “Wait, what’re you doing here? In this forest, I mean.”
“...Camping.”
It was an obvious lie, but Cisco decided not to press.
“I need to find my friends.” Cisco said.
“I’ll help you.” Caity said. “I know these woods fairly well.”
“You will?” Cisco smiled in his appreciation. “I’d love the help. I recognized the sliver of the forest I had seen in my vibe, but… I’m a long ways away from that now.”
“Of course.” Caity said. “After all, you’re Cisco, even if you’re not the one I’m familiar with.”
The two of them started walking through the woods, talking along the way.
“The Cisco on this Earth, what’s he like?”
“Funny. Witty. Charming.” Caity responded. “He always knew the best way to make me laugh. Oh, and caring. That’s one of his best qualities. There’s nothing more important to Cisco Ramon than his friends.”
“That does sound like me.” Cisco said. “I guess this Cisco and I aren’t too different after all.”
“What about the Caitlin of your Earth?” Caity asked. “What’s she like?”
“She’s… beyond words, really.” Cisco said. “She’s incredibly smart, and she’s sweet and loving and kind, and so brave. I can always count on her when I need a friend. She’s helped me through some of my worst times. I don’t know what I’d do without her.”
“How long have you guys been together?”
The question took Cisco off guard. “What? Oh, no, we’re just friends. Best friends, nothing more.”
“I see.”
“So,” Cisco changed the subject. “I take it the Cisco of this Earth is a breacher as well?”
Caity nodded. “I take it the Caitlin of your Earth has ice powers? You recognized me after you saw my ice blast.”
“Yup.” Cisco said. “Although, her powers work a bit differently than yours.”
“How so?”
“When she uses her powers, she gets white hair and white eyes.”
“Lucky.” Caity said. “I want white hair. That’d be badass.”
“She is badass.” Cisco said. “You should see her in full-out Frost mode. She could do some serious damage if she wanted to.”
“You’re pretty powerful, too.” Caity said. “That is, if you’re anything like my Cisco. You can vibe, and breach, and shoot vibe blasts, and-”
“I’ve met some pretty powerful breachers before.” Cisco said. “I’m kinda the least powerful out of the ones I’ve met, though. I dated a breacher once and she could do wonders with her powers. I’m not like that.”
“I’m sure you could get better with practice.” Caity said. “How long have you had your powers?”
“Five years.” Cisco said. “But to be fair, for a long time I was more focused on doing away with my powers than using them.”
“Why’s that?”
“When I first got my powers, I thought they were a curse.” Cisco said. “My first ever vibe, I watched myself die. It happened in an erased timeline. My friend, he’s a speedster, had changed the timeline and brought me back to life in doing so. I would’ve had no memory of it ever happening if it weren’t for my powers.”
“Yikes.” Caity grimaced. “I can see why that would make you hate your powers.”
“Oh, believe me, I did, at first.” Cisco said. “But… that changed. They grew on me. The more I used them, the more comfortable with them I became. Now they’re a part of who I am. I’d be lost without them.”
“I always envied Cisco’s powers.” Caity said.
“I do like that I can go anywhere I want at any time.” Cisco said. “It’s convenient.”
“The Cisco I knew loved to breach to different places and see what the universe has to offer.” Caity said. “He was always willing to go exploring new places, and his powers made that possible.”
Something about Caity’s tone seemed off with Cisco, but he couldn’t quite seem to place a finger on it until now. The realization left an uneasy feeling in his stomach.
Caity talked about her Cisco the same way that Caitlin talked about Ronnie.
“Every time you’ve brought up Cisco,” Cisco said. “You’ve spoken about him in the past tense.”
Caity nodded slowly, her movements solemn. She was looking at the forest floor, choosing to focus on the moss growing on the tree trunks instead of facing Cisco.
“For years, Cisco and I were a superhero crime-fighting duo.” She said. “The two of us versus any metas that dared cause trouble. We were practically inseparable. That is, until about two years ago. We were up against our strongest foe yet, a speedster by the name of Eddie Thawne. He was terrorizing people, killing them, all for a sick little game. We managed to stop him, but… Cisco paid the price. He sacrificed his own life to save everyone.”
“I’m sorry.” Cisco said. “I take it seeing me only served as a reminder of what you lost.”
“Rather, the contrary.”
Cisco tilted his head. “How so?”
“If I can help you, even in just a small way, then maybe it can be my way of… paying my respects to Cisco.” Caity said. “Honoring his memory.”
“I never thought of it that way.” Cisco said. “Wait, is that why you were in this forest? To help me?”
Caity shook her head. “No. I had no idea you were going to be here. Finding you was completely by coincidence.”
“Then what were you doing in the forest?”
“I don’t expect you to know this, seeing as how you’re from another Earth.” Caity said. “But this forest actually holds some significance here. The meta you’re tracking, the one in this forest, I reckon he doesn’t care much about this forest’s meaning, but I do. There’s an old rumor that the spirits of your loved ones can see you in this forest, and that you can venture into this forest to pay your respects to them. It’s sentimental, I know, but I was here because I was missing Cisco. Never would I have guessed that I would run into his doppelganger here, and be granted with an opportunity to actually do something to honor him.”
“Well, I’m happy to offer that for you.” Cisco said. “And frankly, I could use the help. This forest is huge, and I have no idea where my friends or the meta is.”
“Actually,” Caity stopped walking and turned to Cisco, like an imaginary lightbulb had just lit up over her head. “This didn’t occur to me before, but there’s a small hill about midway through the forest. Maybe you could breach to the hill and get a higher view point, and maybe you’d be able to see your friends from there?”
“It’s worth a try.”
Cisco formed a breach in front of them, but when they stepped through it, they discovered that the hill wasn’t empty like they’d thought. Cisco immediately recognized his friends before him, surrounding the hill, on high alert. They watched as the breach closed behind Caity and Cisco, and for a few seconds they were frozen, processing what they saw.
But then the meta ran up from behind the hill and punched Ralph in the gut, and Cisco realized what was going on.
There wasn’t time to explain, not now. Cisco shot a vibe blast at the meta, knocking him onto the ground, and Ralph pinned him down with a stretched-out arm until Barry was able to get meta-cuffs on him. Only once the meta was secured did the team take a moment to regain their breath. Killer Frost morphed back into Caitlin, and Ralph stretched his arm back to its normal length.
Then the team turned to Caity, and Cisco standing beside her.
Caitlin was staring at her with the most shock. “You’re… my doppelgänger.”
“Cisco told me about you. It’s nice to finally meet you.”
Caitlin raised an eyebrow in interest. “Cisco told you about me?”
Caity smiled. “All good things, I swear.”
“Look, Caitlin,” Cisco teased. “You finally have a doppelganger that isn’t a villain.”
“You’re one to talk.” Caitlin said. “We’ve met one doppelganger of yours and that was Reverb. Very evil dude.”
“Hey, I’ll take it. At least it’s better than what Harry has to be doppelgangers with.”
“Which one?”
Both Caitlin and Cisco erupted into a fit of giggles, like schoolchildren sharing an inside joke. Caity looked between the two of them with a knowing smirk, but didn’t say anything.
As the team was getting ready to head back to their own Earth, Caity pulled Cisco aside.
“There’s something else I never mentioned.” She said.
Cisco raised an eyebrow. “What is it?”
“Back when Cisco and I were hero partners… I developed a crush on him. For years, I was hopelessly pining for him, and too much of a coward to ask him out. He died before I got the chance to tell him how I feel.” Caity said. “Don’t make the same mistake I did. Tell Caitlin how you feel.”
“What? But I don’t...”
Caity didn’t say anything, but her expression told Cisco that resisting wasn’t worth the trouble.
“You don’t have to pretend with me.” Caity said. “I’ve been there. After all… I think Cisco Ramon and Caitlin Snow are soulmates in every universe.”
Cisco took one last look over to where Caitlin was standing with the others. She laughed at something Ralph had said. The sun shined on her face as she threw her head back, and her brown hair bounced ever so slightly. Just the sight gave Cisco butterflies in his stomach.
He turned back to Caity. “Thank you.”
Caity smiled at him. “Don’t mention it.”
“Cisco! You ready to go?”
Barry had called him from where they were standing. Cisco looked over at him and then back to Caity.
“Goodbye, Cisco Ramon.”
“Bye, Caity.”
Cisco ran off to join his friends. He formed a breach set for Earth-1, and waited as his friends all passed through it, Barry taking the hand-cuffed meta along with him. Cisco turned and waved to Caity one last time… then he stepped through the breach, never to return to Earth-31 again.
Killervibe Week Day Two: Canon Divergent
Word Count: 1051
Notes: You remember that one episode in season one when Cisco died in an erased timeline? That episode sure was angsty, wasn’t it? I wonder what could make it even angstier. Oh, I know!
Takes place during 1x15, in the few minutes in between Cisco’s death and when Barry resets the timeline.
Disclaimer: When I refer to Dr. Wells in this fic, I’m referring to Eobard Thawne in disguise as Dr. Wells, but seeing as how Caitlin doesn’t know his real name at this point, I’m calling him Dr. Wells.
Warning: Major character death (albeit one that was shown in the actual show, but still); mentions of blood and fatal wounds; coping with a betrayal; coping with loss of a best friend; blaming oneself for something that isn’t their fault; angst without a happy ending
Tags: @thatkillervibe @shakesqueer-writes @narniasfinestavengingsociopath
~~~
Caitlin’s mind was still reeling. When Cisco had told her that he suspected Dr. Wells, she thought he was mistaken. Not that she doubted Cisco, of course, but… it was Dr. Wells. He wasn’t evil. Or at least she thought.
She couldn’t shake the image from her mind. She was in Jitters, ordering the coffee to go, and she turned around and he was gone. Like that. The only thing left behind was his wheelchair. Dr. Wells has been paralyzed ever since the particle accelerator explosion. It just wasn’t possible. He couldn’t so much as stand without his wheelchair, and for him to have left Jitters in the few seconds it took for Caitlin to order the coffee… Forget just being able to walk. He would’ve had to have been a speedster.
Which means Cisco was right all along.
Dr. Wells isn’t just working with the Reverse-Flash.
He is the Reverse-Flash.
Their boss is the man who killed Barry’s mother.
All Caitlin could feel was the adrenaline. There were a million thoughts racing through her head. The only thing faster than them was her heartbeat, thumping in her chest at a thousand beats per second. She had looked up to Dr. Wells since the very first day she came to work for him. He wasn’t just her boss. He was her hero. He helped her, guided her, inspired her. He was her friend. He helped her cope with Ronnie’s death. A day ago, Caitlin would’ve vouched that Dr. Wells was one of the most compassionate men she knows. Now, Caitlin knows the truth.
He’s a murderer.
Her heartbeat froze in terror as a thought occurred to her.
Cisco’s in trouble.
Cisco was investigating Dr. Wells. If Dr. Wells knew he was in danger of being found out, who knows what awful things he could do to Cisco.
She ran into Star Labs calling Cisco’s name. Each time she spoke it, she became more frantic, her heartbeat raced a little faster. Her mind started to fill up with fears, the dread started to sink into her stomach. She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself before continuing.
The basement.
Of course. Cisco said he was going to be in the basement.
Caitlin ran down the hallways, all the way to the Star Labs basement. The adrenaline made her run faster than she ever had before, but she didn’t care about how fast she was running. All she cared about was seeing Cisco again.
Finally, after what felt like centuries, the doors opened, letting Caitlin into the basement.
The sight sickened Caitlin so much she wished she had never stepped foot into the basement at all.
There he was. Cisco Ramon, her best friend in the whole wide world, the only person who truly knew how to make her laugh since Ronnie passed away, the guy who brought her chocolates and a movie when she was feeling down, the guy she had spent countless lunches at Big Belly Burger with, laughing endlessly at some joke. He was just a few yards away from her.
And he was dead.
She was too late.
Caitlin rushed forwards and kneeled by his side. There was a fresh wound right in the middle of his rib cage, directly where his heart is. Wet blood stained his shirt. His lifeless eyes were still wet with tears that hadn’t quite dried.
“No, no, NO!”
This was all her fault. If only she had stalled Dr. Wells for a bit longer. If only she had arrived sooner. If only she had been there. She’s a doctor, she could’ve done something, anything to save him, she would’ve given her own life in his place if she had to-
Caitlin couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t see, she couldn’t feel, she couldn’t hear her own pained screams. Tears trickled down her cheeks and she didn’t care enough to wipe them away. She felt lightheaded, but she didn’t care enough to do anything about it.
Her heart twang with regret. If only she had more time. She would’ve binged the Walking Dead with him no matter how confusing it was to her, she would’ve brought him Big Belly Burger to repay him for the time he bought her lunch, she would’ve treasured each and every moment they shared. She would’ve told him how much he meant to her.
Cisco’s laugh could light up a whole room. His eyes twinkled with enthusiasm whenever he spoke about his favorite classic movies. Caitlin always chastised him about his enormous sweet tooth, but sometimes he’d share his candy with her, even though he never shared with Barry. He ordered the same thing each time at Big Belly Burger, but every time without fail he’d study the menu for a few minutes as if he was going to change it up this time. He never did.
Caitlin grasped Cisco’s hand in hers as she sobbed.
Now she’d never experience any of that again.
Her best friend was gone. The person who knew her best, the person who could make her laugh when she was feeling down, the person who stood by her side no matter what… gone.
Caitlin’s tears felt heavy against her cheeks.
The lump in her throat only intensified, making it harder to swallow or breathe. She clutched Cisco’s shirt in her fists, holding onto him even though she knew he would never respond, even though it hurt her more to hold him and not feel a heartbeat.
This was all Wells.
He killed Cisco.
Caitlin didn’t know how, but… she was gonna make him pay.
She clenched her fist with a newfound rage, and stormed out of the basement.
Killervibe Fic Week Day One: Fake Dating
Word Count: 3063
Notes: Occurs in the place of 5x07 (the season five Thanksgiving episode).
Tags: @thatkillervibe @shakesqueer-writes @narniasfinestavengingsociopath
~~~
“I need a really big favor.”
Cisco looked up from the tech he was working on and faced Caitlin. “Yeah?”
“I need you to pretend to be my boyfriend.”
Cisco raised an eyebrow. “That’s quite the request. What for?”
“My mom invited me to Thanksgiving with the extended family this year. I tried to get out of it by telling her I was spending Thanksgiving with my boyfriend, but then she insisted that I bring my boyfriend along with me.” Caitlin said. “I had to tell her it was a boyfriend. She wouldn’t have gotten off my case if it were anything else.”
“So you need me to pretend to be that boyfriend?” Cisco asked. “Why not Barry?”
“He’s spending Thanksgiving with Iris and Nora. This is his first Thanksgiving with his daughter, I’m not gonna take that away.” Caitlin said. “Please, man, you’re my only option.”
“Alright.” Cisco slowly nodded. “I’ll do it.”
“Oh, thank you so much.” Caitlin beamed. “Anything you need in return, it’s yours.”
“If I ever need a favor, I’ll be sure to let you know. Besides,” Cisco met her eyes with a soft, caring gaze. “I’m not about to subject my best friend to the wrath of a judgemental mother alone. I know what that’s like. My mom was always asking me when I’m gonna get a girlfriend, when I’m gonna get married, when I’m gonna give her grandchildren.”
“See? That’s why I need you.” Caitlin rested a hand on Cisco’s shoulder. “You get me.”
“Hey, you know I’m always here for you. Even if that includes being your fake boyfriend for some family Thanksgiving you don’t really wanna go to.”
“Like I said.” Caitlin chuckled softly. “You get me.”
~~~
The smell of food filled the entire house. The turkey was still warm from the oven, golden-brown and rich, and surrounded by plenty of sides to go around. Cisco hadn’t left Caitlin’s side since they got there, and even now, he was sitting in the seat next to her. He was mostly making harmless small-talk with Caitlin’s relatives, talking about his job at Star Labs or his family, anything they asked. A few of them asked about his relationship with Caitlin. As someone who kept a whole secret superhero identity, Cisco had gotten used to lying. However, he found that lying about being in a romantic relationship with Caitlin was a lot easier than he expected.
“So, Cisco,” Caitlin’s mother passed the mashed potatoes to him, along with a side of gravy. “How did you and my daughter start dating?”
“Well,” Cisco looked over at Caitlin to his left, meeting her eyes with the softest loving gaze he could muster. It wasn’t hard, looking at her. Then he turned back to Caitlin’s mother. “Caitlin has been my coworker and best friend for years. Spending all that time with her, I got to know her as the truly amazing, wonderful person she is… the feelings came naturally. I eventually mustered up the courage to confess, and well… look at where we are now.”
“Aww, that’s sweet!” One of Caitlin’s cousins piped in.
“Cisco is truly the best boyfriend I could ask for. We go for coffee dates at Jitters so often, the staff practically recognizes us. If I’m having a bad day, all it takes is one text and this guy will show up at my door with chocolates and a movie. He’s the most thoughtful, most considerate guy I know, and I’m so lucky to have him in my life. And I…” Caitlin laced her fingers in with Cisco’s, and gently squeezed his hand in hers. “I love him.”
“You guys are too cute!”
“Alright, enough.” Caitlin’s uncle teased. “You’re gonna make the rest of us jealous.”
Everyone at the table laughed heartily, and the conversation changed. Instead, they were discussing sports and the Macy’s Day Parade, and Caitlin and Cisco were off the hook. It was only when Caitlin let go of Cisco’s hand to grab some green beans that they both realized how long she had been holding it. Cisco and Caitlin both blushed, and then desperately tried to change the subject.
Cisco was asked multiple times about what he does at Star Labs, but Cisco didn’t mind explaining. Caitlin’s family seemed to respect that he was a mechanical engineer. They asked about what it’s like living in Central City with all the meta attacks, to which Cisco tried to answer in the most vague way possible as to not reveal that he’s a meta himself, and one of the heroes stopping the attacks. Caitlin’s mother seemed particularly skeptical of Cisco’s answer on that question, but Cisco understood why. Dr. Tannhauser knows about her daughter’s superhero life. It wouldn’t take a genius for her to gather that Cisco is involved, too.
After dinner, Caitlin and Cisco helped clear off the table. The leftover food was placed into containers or wrapped in tin foil to be saved for later. Caitlin’s mother offered Cisco some leftover turkey to bring home with him, and he took it because he didn’t want to be rude. He figured he could have it for dinner one night when he didn’t feel like cooking or stopping by Big Belly Burger on the way home from work.
The evening was coming to a close and the sun was setting in the distance. And yet, no one was quite ready to leave. The kids were upstairs playing with action figures, the adults were downstairs talking. Cisco and Caitlin managed to get away from the small talk for a bit, and Caitlin decided to bring Cisco upstairs and show him around her childhood home. After all, the house was a large part of Caitlin’s childhood, and she wanted to share that with her best friend.
“This was my bedroom for twelve years.” Caitlin said. “Over there, I had a bulletin board with notes, pictures, postcards, et cetera. And over here,” Caitlin opened up her closet and took out an old, battered stuffed animal. “I had all my stuffed animals. This one was my favorite when I was about ten. I think his name was Oscar.”
Cisco took the stuffed animal and held it ever-so-gently in his hands. “He looks like an Oscar.”
Caitlin walked over to the other side of her room, where she had a telescope positioned so that it was looking right out her window. She turned to Cisco. “My dad got me this telescope for my ninth birthday. I had practically begged him for it for years.”
“Wow, this is nice.” Cisco walked over and peered through the telescope. “You can see Mars from here.”
“My dad and I spent so many nights together just looking at the stars, identifying constellations.” Caitlin said. “He would make some astrological pun and I would laugh, and he’d make another and I’d keep laughing. Mom would hear us down the hall and remind us that it’s late, and it was a school night. Dad would just make me promise to wake up for school the next day, and we’d continue looking at the stars until one of us got too tired.”
Cisco wasn’t entirely sure what to say. Caitlin grabbed a photo frame off of her dresser and showed it to Cisco. Cisco blew off some of the dust.
It was a picture of the Snow family. Caitlin looked about eight or nine in the picture. Her brown hair was woven into two little twin braids that rested on her shoulders. She was wearing a floral print dress and holding hands with both of her parents on either side of her. Her dad was smiling in the camera with a loving gaze that Cisco had never seen from Thomas Snow, and her mom was laughing- something Cisco had never seen Carla Tannhauser do. Cisco held the picture delicately in his hands.
It wasn’t just a picture. It was a piece of Caitlin’s childhood.
“We did a photoshoot in the park for our Christmas cards. The photo turned out really nice, so Mom got it framed. I’ve had it ever since.” Caitlin said. “Those were simpler times, y’know? That was before Dad was Icicle, before I was Killer Frost, before Mom grew distant. Back when my main worry was stupid Lexi LaRoche.”
Cisco wrapped his arm around Caitlin’s shoulder, offering her a comforting side-hug. He set the photo back down on her dresser, then turned back to Caitlin and brushed her hair behind her ear. “You know I’m here for you, right? No matter what happens with Icicle, no matter what happens with Cicada. You and I, we’re a team. I dare fate to try to seperate us. I’m always going to have your back.”
“Thank you, Cisco.” The warmth in Caitlin’s eyes reflected her gratitude more than words ever could. “And, you know… The present is certainly different from the past, but it’s not necessarily worse.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” Caitlin nodded. “Because right now, you’re here with me.”
Cisco couldn’t stop himself from grinning. “You’re a sap.”
“Yeah, yeah, maybe so.” Caitlin laughed. “C’mon, let’s head out. It’s getting late.”
The two of them walked back downstairs and said their polite thank yous and goodbyes to Caitlin’s family before heading out the door. Cisco twirled the keys around his finger as he walked down the sidewalk, and only stopped once they reached the car, in order to open and start it. Once Cisco had pulled out of the driveway, Caitlin began searching the radio for something to listen to.
“Why are they playing so many songs from 2009-2010?” Caitlin asked.
“I have no idea, but I’m not complaining.” Cisco shrugged. “2009 songs weren’t half bad.”
“You also unironically like Rick Astley so I don’t know if I trust your music taste.”
“Ouch. That hurts.”
“What, me saying I don’t like your music taste?”
“Yes, exactly that. I hold my music taste in high regards, thank you very much.”
“Wait- shh.”
Cisco glanced at Caitlin with a curious eyebrow raised, silently asking her what the matter was. Caitlin only leaned forward to adjust the volume on the radio, making the current song loud enough for Cisco to hear.
“Oh my god, they’re playing Poker Face.”
Caitlin nodded. “Cisco, this is like our song.”
“From the very first time we met Barry.” Cisco said. “It feels like forever ago.”
“Five years is a long time.”
“Sing with me.”
Caitlin laughed. “What?”
“Sing along with me.” Cisco looked at her with a certain playful glint in his eyes, one that he knew she couldn’t say no to. “C’mon, you know the lyrics.”
“You’re driving!”
“So? I’ve been driving long enough to know how to focus on the road and sing at the same time.” Cisco said. “Besides, there’s not that many cars out tonight.”
“I’m not the best singer.”
“Who cares? It’s just us.” Cisco offered his signature smile, the one he knew Caitlin couldn’t say no to. “C’mon. Sing with me.”
“Oh, alright, alright.” Caitlin gave in. She couldn’t resist smiling a bit at Cisco’s playfulness. He always knew the best way to persuade her. “But you start.”
“Alright, deal.”
Cisco started off humming the tune, then progressed into actually singing the words. Caitlin joined in, singing quietly at first, but she got gradually louder as she grew more comfortable. Cisco was right. She knew the lyrics. It was only the two of them. There was no harm in letting loose a little.
Towards the end of the song, the both of them were belting the lyrics into air-microphones they pretended to hold in their hands. When the time the last note played, they burst into a fit of giggles, sounding less like adults and more like schoolchildren. Cisco was intent on staying focused on the road, but he took the liberty of taking one hand off the wheel to playfully shove Caitlin’s shoulder.
“See? I knew you’d have fun.”
“Alright, alright. You were righ-”
Caitlin trailed off as she heard the car engine began sputtering and slowing down. She looked at Cisco, who met her eyes with a concerned gaze of his own. He trailed off to the side of the road and managed to park the car on the dirt before it completely broke down. The two of them immediately unbuckled and got out of the car to take a look at what went wrong. Cisco popped the hood to try to understand what happened, but even he couldn’t figure it out.
“Maybe your car’s just old.” Caitlin suggested.
“Hey, don’t insult her like that.” Cisco rubbed the side of the car’s hood, as if comforting it. “She works great for her age.”
Caitlin laughed. “You’re a weirdo.”
“Oh my god.” Cisco gasped, as if a realization had just dawned on him. “The battery.”
“What about it?”
“I was supposed to replace the battery and I completely forgot.”
“Ah, so that’s it.”
“Look, in my defense, life has been kinda crazy for us lately. We had just defeated Devoe- and Devoe was rough- when Barry and Iris’s daughter from the future shows up, and just her being here is causing timeline changes everywhere, and apparently now there’s a new supervillain named Cicada, and he can dampen our powers with that dagger of his. So yeah, I maybe forgot about a few things from my non-superhero life.”
“I don’t blame you.” Caitlin said. “I know firsthand how crazy life has been.”
“Hang on, maybe I can call someone for help. I wonder if Barry’s willing to come get us.”
“Couldn’t you breach us?”
Cisco held up his hands, showing Caitlin the white bandages tied around them. “My powers are still dampened from the shrapnel, remember?”
“Right. Sorry. It’s been a long day.”
“It’s okay. Lemme call Barry or Iris and see if they can come get us.”
Cisco made a quick phone call. Caitlin decided to wait in the car, so she got back in the passenger’s seat and waited to hear from Cisco. Once Cisco hung up, he climbed into the driver’s seat next to Caitlin and placed his phone down on the dashboard.
“Barry’s coming to pick us up.” He said. “He’s taking Iris’s car. We can call a tow truck for my own car, seeing as how there’s no way Iris’s will be able to tow it.”
“Alright.” Caitlin said. “So I guess now the only thing to do is wait.”
“I’m sorry. You’d probably be home by now if we hadn’t broken down.”
“What’re you apologizing for? It’s not like you planned on it.”
“Yeah, I know.” Cisco sighed and leaned back against his seat. “Still, though. Even with your family’s constant questions… I’m glad I came with you tonight.”
“Yeah?” Caitlin turned to him. “Even though my uncles wouldn’t stop asking you about baseball?”
Cisco laughed. “I was really confused. I really haven’t got a clue about baseball. But yes, even then.”
“Well, good. I’m glad you came out with me tonight, too.”
“Honestly, it’s better than eating store-bought turkey while watching Star Wars alone in my apartment, which is honestly probably what I would’ve done.”
“Hey, I wouldn’t have let you be alone for Thanksgiving. I would’ve invited you over.”
“That’s nice of you. Thanks.”
“Y’know,” Caitlin readjusted her position so that she could face Cisco without leaning her neck. “I have to admit, I’m kinda glad Barry and Ralph were busy.”
“Why?”
“Because… I don’t think it would’ve been quite this special if I had done it with Barry or Ralph. Barry, he’s married. Ralph, he’s not really my type.”
“What, and you’re saying I am?” It was initially a joke. Cisco followed it up with a chuckle, as if implying the idea was absurd.
Caitlin didn’t respond.
“Wait.” Cisco met Caitlin’s eyes with a million emotions at once as he realized what Caitlin’s silence meant. “You’re saying…”
“Look, Cisco…” Caitlin took a deep breath as she mentally prepared her next words. “There’s another reason why I really wanted you to go with me tonight. Why I wanted you to pretend to be my boyfriend. Because, if I’m being honest with you… I like you. As more than a friend.” She hesitated. “God, I sound like I’m in middle school. But it’s the truth.”
Cisco paused. He took a moment to process the confession he had just gotten. The wheels in his head were turning, his heartbeat raced in his chest. He sighed, then found his words.
“You wanna know why I was so good at pretending to be your boyfriend tonight? I mean, none of your family members suspected a thing. Acting has never really been my forte. I took some acting classes with Dante back in high school, but we both sucked and inevitably dropped out. My point is, I can sell a fake story to cover up my hero alter ego when I have to, and I can lie when something really depends on it. But pretending to be in love with someone… I think I could only pull that off if it were at least partially true.”
“What’re you saying?”
“Remember when I told your mom that story about how we got together?” Cisco said. “Well, the whole part about me catching feelings for you... that was true.”
Caitlin’s eyes widened. “You… have feelings for me?”
“Don’t act so surprised. With your intelligence and your charming personality, I’m surprised anyone can look at you and not fall completely in love.”
She blushed. “I just… never thought my feelings were reciprocated.”
“Neither did I.”
“I’m glad we did this then.”
“Y’know, Caitlin…” Cisco tapped his fingers against the leather car seat. “I think I have a great idea for how you can cash in that favor you owe me.”
“Yeah?”
“We’ll go out together, somewhere where it’s just us. We can talk and joke and I’ll buy you coffee. It’ll be a date. Our first real romantic one.” Cisco studied Caitlin’s expression for a reaction. “How does that sound?”
Caitlin reached for Cisco’s hand and laced her fingers into his, holding his palm gently in hers. It was just like she had held it back at dinner, only this time, it wasn’t for show.
“That sounds wonderful.”
8 + 9 for Killervibe please x
Deja Vu
Request: amnesia + secret relationship
Ship: Killervibe (Cisco Ramon x Caitlin Snow)
Characters: Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Barry Allen, Iris West-Allen, Ralph Dibny
Word count: 5376
Notes: Thanks so much for the request!! Sorry it took me a bit to upload!! I hope you enjoy. Special thank you to @thatkillervibe for beta-reading and offering feedback!! This one shot doesn’t take place at any specific point on the show, but in my head I saw it as taking place post-season five, but in an au where Cisco doesn’t lose his powers in 5x22.
Tags: @shakesqueer-writes @narniasfinestavengingsociopath
~~~
To say that tensions were high would be an understatement. To say that Team Flash was stressed would also be an understatement. They weren’t just stressed. They were at a stage of emotion that only led to hair-pulling and temper tantrums. There were two metahumans ganging up on Barry, another on Ralph, and another on Cisco. Iris was on comms, frantically trying to take control of the situation at hand. A four-person meta-gang would’ve been hard for them on any day, but it was even worse considering the fact that they were down a member. While every member of Team Flash was stressed down to their core, Cisco was taking it the worst of them all. After all, the member they were lacking just so happened to be the one Cisco knew best.
The metahuman facing Cisco let out a creepy giggle as she flicked her wrist, causing dark green superhuman vines to rise up through the pavement and wrap around Cisco’s legs. As his breathing quickened, he forced himself to stay calm, and instead tried opening a breach underneath him. However, to his dismay, the breach only faltered and faded out of existence the moment it touched the magical vines.
“Silly Vibe,” the villain cackled. It wasn’t the time, but Cisco mentally coined her as Green Goddess. “You thought that would work. But, as it turns out, there’s no escape. Nowhere to run to now.”
“Uh, Iris, now would be a great time for those meta-cuffs.” Cisco huffed into his comms. “I can feel these vines getting tighter, and I really don’t wanna say goodbye to my legs today.”
“If you haven’t noticed, Cisco, I’m a little busy at the moment!” was the reply he got.
Through his comms he could hear Barry panting as he exhausted himself trying to take on two metas at once, and Ralph saying “Ow ow ow ow ow!” repeatedly. He had no idea what was going on, as the four metas had separated them early on in the battle and now Cisco had no visuals on either of them, but he figured Iris was busy with whatever Ralph was up against.
The vines surrounding his legs only squeezed tighter and tighter. Cisco gulped. That was definitely gonna bruise.
After a moment, Iris’s voice returned to his comms. Whatever had just gone on, she was noticeably winded from it. She took a moment to catch her breath before muttering “Cisco, the extrapolator might be your best invention yet.”
“Is that a yes on the meta-cuffs then?”
Iris didn’t take the time to reply. Instead, she just opened a breach right behind Green Goddess and clasped the meta-cuffs on her before she had time to react. The shimmering blue breach closed behind Iris, who gave an exhausted-but-triumphant thumbs up to a now vines-free Cisco. Within seconds, a flash of lighting appeared in front of them and faded once as Barry came to a skidding halt, holding two metahumans in meta-cuffs. The second he stopped, he buckled over from sheer exhaustion, taking in huge gulps of air.
“Cisco, do you think you could…” Barry made a weak gesture to indicate he meant a breach. “I don’t think I can run back to the lab. Not right now.”
Cisco nodded, and formed a breach that engulfed all of them and brought them back to the lab. Ralph had already collapsed onto a chair, presumably from when Iris came and rescued him only moments before she came to Cisco’s aid. Once Barry took a moment to sit down and catch his breath, he was feeling better already, and he turned to Iris with a grin.
“We did it.” Barry said, first to Iris, then repeating it to Ralph and Cisco. “We did it, guys.”
“What, you think this is a win?” Cisco had already crashed into a chair and rolled up his pants legs up to his knees in an attempt to investigate the damage on his legs. “We would’ve been screwed if Iris hadn’t come and saved our asses. I can hardly stand up because of what that Green Goddess did to me.”
“Hey, nice name.”
“Do not change the subject, Ralph.”
“Look, I get it! Does it look like I was playing around? I had two metas coming at me at once from different angles. Ralph got an electric shock to the chest. Iris was having to juggle all three of us.” Barry said. “All I’m saying is, it was hard, but we got through it. That’s celebratory.”
“What, so we can just ignore the elephant in the room? You can’t live in denial forever, Barry.”
“We’ve tried everything we can think of to get her back, Cisco, and nothing is working! What do you expect us to do?”
“So what, we’re just supposed to give up on her? Turn our backs on our friend? All these years working with you, I never thought you were a quitter!”
“Barry, Cisco!” Iris intervened before the argument got worse. “We all miss Caitlin. We’re all a little tense. I get it. But fighting isn’t going to help anyone.”
They knew she was right. Barry and Cisco both sighed and backed down.
“We’ve tried everything.” Barry spoke with a much calmer tone now. Instead of getting defensive, he instead sounded… regretful. “We tried tracking her kidnapper. We can’t get an identification on him because of his mask. We tried tracking his mask. Turns out it’s sold from pretty much every Halloween store in the city. We even tried tracking Caitlin’s cold signature. Nothing.”
“It’s hard when we know virtually nothing about the guy who took her.” Ralph pitched in. “I mean, I’ve had to drop many cases before because there just wasn’t enough to go off of.”
“This isn’t some random P.I. case, Ralph.” Cisco said. “This is Caitlin.”
“I know, but he has a point.” Iris spoke with a sympathetic tone. “We know virtually nothing about her kidnapper. We know he was a meta. We know his powers have something to do with the mind. That’s… pretty much it.”
Cisco bit his lip. As much as he didn’t want to admit it, he knew they were right. What else could they possibly do?
“Caitlin’s a strong girl. She’ll be able to hold her own until we can rescue her. She’ll be okay, I promise.” Barry’s words were meant to be reassuring, but somehow they only stung.
I just don’t know if I can do this without her.
When Cisco looked around Star Labs, all he saw was memories of Caitlin. The time she worked late to help him with a project that he just couldn’t quite figure out. The time they spilled Big Belly Burger sauce in one of the computers and blamed Hartley. The time Cisco found Caitlin crying so he just read off a bunch of corny puns he found online until she laughed. The time they placed a bet on how much ice cream they could eat in one sitting and both got stomach aches afterwards.
Cisco saw history in the walls. He recalled the day he realized that Caitlin was his best friend, and the day he realized she was so much more. Every nook and cranny of Star Labs was taunting him with memories- memories that brought a smile to his face, and memories that felt like blows to his already-sunken heart.
Without Caitlin, Star Labs would never feel like home to him.
“I just need to get out of here. I’m going to Jitters.”
“Are you sure your legs will be okay to walk?”
Cisco stood up, and instantly regretted it. The pain came searing through his legs the second he applied pressure, which made it a hassle to even just stand up. And yet, Cisco decided he could live with it.
“I’ll be fine.”
Sure enough, he made it through. He breached to Jitters instead of driving to make it easier for him, but he made it nonetheless. He figured the pain would eventually wear off if he just pressed on through. Either that, or he’d just make it worse. Either one.
He got in line and mentally decided on an order without having to look at the menu. You’d think Team Flash practically lived at Jitters with how often they met there for casual coffee chats, or just an early morning pick-me-up.
The lady in front of him placed her order and moved on to find a table, and Cisco stepped up to the counter. He had opened his mouth in preparation to state his order, but the second he met the cashier’s eyes, everything stopped. He forgot his coffee order, his name… everything he had ever known. None of that mattered to him anymore, not after he saw her.
Brown eyes, but not just any brown eyes. The most perfect brown eyes Cisco had ever seen in his life. They were the eyes that lit up with passion when she was talking about everything scientific, everything medical. They were the eyes that twinkled with fondness every time they met Cisco’s. They were the eyes that gave Cisco a playful glare whenever he made a bad joke, but also the eyes that sparkled with the laughter she was trying to keep in. They were the eyes that shined with the beauty of a thousand stars. Gentle, joyful, calming. Her gaze never failed to stir up the butterflies in Cisco’s stomach, and he never grew tired of the feeling.
“Caitlin?!”
Caitlin blinked, clearly startled. She stared at Cisco for a short moment before speaking.
“I’m sorry. Who are you?”
~~~
Her legs dangled off of the bed in the Star Labs medical bay. She looked around the place with a mixture of confusion and awe in her eyes, she met everyone’s gazes with an unfamiliar distant look. As everyone else stood around her, Cisco had gotten a chair and sat, fiddling with his thumbs and trying not to look at Caitlin. Just hearing her voice was painful enough. He knew that if he met her eyes and only saw her blank stare in return, his heart would shatter all over again.
“You really don’t remember anything?”
“That’s the fourth time you guys have asked me that.”
“So that’s a no.” Ralph sighed.
Barry turned to Cisco. “You said you saw her at Jitters?”
Cisco nodded.
“Today was my third day on the job.” Caitlin said. “I had to get a new job, seeing as how I didn’t remember enough about who I am to show up to my last one. I’m assuming this is it, though?”
“This is Star Labs.” Barry said. “You’re our bio-engineer, and resident doctor. Do you know your name?”
“Caitlin Snow. That’s what it said on my driver’s license.” Caitlin said. “When I woke up with no memory of who I was, that was the first thing I checked.”
“So, what exactly do you remember?” Barry asked.
“Well, a few weeks ago I woke up in some abandoned warehouse with no memory of how I got there or who I was. I was alone. I know how to drive, but I don’t remember ever learning. I couldn’t tell you my name or age or anything about me, until I checked my wallet.”
“You had your wallet on you when you woke up?” Ralph asked. “You were kidnapped and abandoned, but he left your wallet?”
“He didn’t want money.” Barry’s voice was solemn. Cisco recognized that look from when they were up against Devoe, or when Cicada had injured Nora. “He must’ve kidnapped Caitlin for a different reason.”
“Kidnapped?” Caitlin raised an eyebrow. “That sounds intense.”
“Caitlin,” Iris spoke with a gentle tone, careful not to overwhelm Caitlin. “Do you remember the warehouse you woke up in?”
Caitlin nodded. “I wrote down the address in case I needed to go to the police.”
“Smart move.” Iris said.
“Okay, then that’s our next move.” Barry decided. “Tomorrow, we go check out the warehouse and stop this meta once and for all.”
Nods of agreement followed from Ralph, Cisco, and Iris.
“So then it’s settled.” Barry said. “I’ll head over to CCPD and fill Joe in on what’s happening. He can get CCPD on alert.”
With that, he walked out of Star Labs.
~~~
The stars shimmered against the nighttime sky. Cisco leaned forwards against the balcony’s metal railing and stared up at the moon, his mind still racing from the events of that day. It was getting late, but Cisco was still at Star Labs. Just earlier that day, he couldn’t find it in him to stay, but now, he couldn’t find it in him to leave.
He heard footsteps coming from the Star Labs lounge behind him, and turned around to see Caitlin walking up to him. She stepped with hesitation, as if silently asking permission to join him. Cisco nodded and stepped aside as if allowing room for her to stand next to him.
“I’m surprised you’re still here.”
“I wanted to stay a bit longer.” Caitlin said. “It’s weird, but… I wanted to check out this place. I think part of me was secretly hoping that if I could explore this building, somehow it would help me remember something from my life.”
“Did it work?”
Caitlin shook her head. “It’s pointless.”
“That’s okay. Nobody expected you to get your memories back in one day.”
She leaned her body against the railing and sighed. “There’s just so much I don’t understand. I’m so confused, and I know everything would make sense if I could just remember, but it’s… not that easy.”
“What’re you confused on? I could try to explain.”
“How did I end up in that abandoned warehouse? Why was I kidnapped? Why did they take me if not for money?”
“Ah.” Cisco said. “That’s a bit of a long story, but I’ll try to put it simply. Do you know what a meta is?”
Caitlin hesitated for a moment, as if trying to come up with an answer. “Sorry, but I don’t think I do.”
“That’s okay.” Cisco gave her a gentle, reassuring smile, and went on to explain it. “A meta, or a metahuman, is someone with powers.”
“Like… Iron-Man?”
“Famously a hero without powers, but yes, you have the right idea.” Cisco said. “Years ago, there was this particle accelerator that malfunctioned, and it exploded, causing a large ripple of dark matter to spread throughout the city. That dark matter infected certain people and physically changed their DNA structure, giving them superhuman abilities.”
“So superheroes are real?” Caitlin said. “You’re serious?”
Cisco nodded. “Absolutely serious. In the few weeks that you’ve been conscious, have you heard of The Flash?”
“The Jitters drink?”
Cisco laughed softly before shaking his head. “The drink is named after the superhero. You see, when that particle accelerator went off, it made villains, but it also made heroes. The Flash was struck by lightning and sent into a coma, and when he woke up nine months later, he was given the ability to run faster than the speed of light.”
“No way. So there’s a hero with super-speed, here in this very city?”
“Yup.” Cisco nodded. “And you haven’t even heard the craziest part.”
“Which is?”
“The Flash just so happens to be Barry Allen.”
Caitlin’s eyes grew twice their size as the realization dawned on her. “No way. The guy I met earlier was a superhero?”
“But wait, there’s more.” Cisco said. “We’re all superheroes. I’m known as Vibe. Ralph- you met him earlier- is Elongated Man. Iris is the team leader. She doesn’t have powers, but she’s just as heroic without them. And you… you were Killer Frost.”
For about thirty seconds, all Caitlin could do was blink and process what she had just heard. “I’m a hero?”
“One of the best.” Cisco said. “You have cold powers. Everything ice and snow.”
“My last name is Snow, and I have ice powers?” Caitlin tilted her head. “That’s convenient.”
Cisco couldn’t hold back a smile at that. “You’d be surprised at how many villains we face that have names sounding like they came right out of a comic book.”
“I’ll bet.” Caitlin hesitated for a moment, then something occurred to her. “This whole thing, me being kidnapped, me losing my memories… it happened because I’m a superhero, didn’t it?”
Cisco nodded. “My guess? He didn’t kidnap you for money. He kidnapped you to handicap the Flash. It was a lot harder to face metas without you helping out, and I think that’s what he wanted.”
“How did it happen?”
“Well…” Cisco let out a brief sigh, and began to tell the story. “About a month ago, CCPD started getting reports of various attacks from throughout the city. It was a different person each time, but they all had one thing in common: when the culprit was brought in for police questioning, they would always claim to have no memory of the event. We suspected that there was a meta with mind-control behind these attacks. A few days later, CCPD got an anonymous tip telling them to check out the Central City Park that night, and they’d have their guy. Well, CCPD went, and it turns out it was a trap. Joe called Barry and told him what was happening, so we all showed up to the scene. But this meta was… powerful. He could get inside our heads and throw us off our rhythm. Before we knew what was happening, he took you and got away.”
“Wow.” was the only response Caitlin could muster. “So that’s how he erased my memory, then. He had powers.”
Cisco nodded.
A moment passed between the two of them, neither one saying a word. It felt so strange, and yet, it felt so comfortable. Cisco knew that she didn’t remember him, but one look at her and all he saw was Caitlin. His Caitlin. Caitlin, the one he’s been falling for a little more each day for the past six years.
Then she spoke.
“Cisco?”
“Yes?”
“I’m sorry.”
Cisco tilted his head in his confusion. “Sorry? You have nothing to be sorry for.”
“This whole thing must be really hard on you.” Caitlin said.
“That’s not your fault.” Cisco said. “For the past month, all I’ve wanted was for you to come back. And now you’re back, but it’s… not the same. Yeah, it’s hard, but you shouldn’t blame yourself. I don’t expect you to remember, I don’t expect you to make it up to me. You’re the most amazing person I know, Caitlin. I just wish you knew that.”
Caitlin met Cisco’s eyes.
“You and I… we weren’t just friends, were we?”
Cisco shook his head. “How’d you know?”
“The way you look at me.”
“Caitlin, what we have, it’s… escaped definition.”
“But it’s love?”
“Yes. It’s love.”
“Do the others know?”
“No.” Cisco said. “You and I have worked together for years. We became instant friends, and for a while, that was all it was. But as the years passed, we survived every little crazy thing together, we never left the other’s side, and… the feelings formed on their own. We were in denial for a long time. I dated other people, I thought that I could move on from you if I found someone I loved just as much. But it never happened. Not a single soul in the universe is as perfect for me as you are. You’re practically my soulmate. Then you confessed. And I realized that our love for each other was mutual. After that, we started dating in secret. The team was going through a lot at the time, and frankly we both wanted to keep it on the down-low for now. But then you were kidnapped. After all these years, I finally had you, and then I lost you. Just like that, you were gone. For a whole month, I had no idea if I was ever going to see you again.”
“And now I don’t remember anything.”
“But you’re here.” Cisco said. “We’ll get your memories back one way or another, I promise.”
“What if we can’t?” Caitlin asked. “I mean, you said yourself that things were so much harder without me helping you out, but without my memories, I can’t help. I supposedly have powers, but I don’t have the slightest idea how to use them.”
Cisco paused for a moment, then his whole face lit up. “Wait. I have an idea.”
“Yeah?”
“When you use your powers, you become this whole other persona. You physically transform into Killer Frost. If you could transform now, maybe that would be enough to trigger your memories.”
“But… I don’t know how.”
“It’s okay, just try.” Cisco said. “It was hard for me to use my powers at first, too. Take a deep breath, close your eyes, and focus on becoming Killer Frost.”
Caitlin inhaled a shaky breath, stood up straight, and closed her eyes. Cisco watched with a hopeful grin, crossing his fingers and wishing for the best.
A beat. Nothing.
Caitlin let go of the breath she had been holding and opened her eyes. “I can’t do it.”
“That’s okay.” Cisco placed a gentle hand on Caitlin’s shoulder reassuringly. “You did your best. Thanks for trying.”
“I should be getting home soon. It’s late and I’m starting to get tired.”
“Do you want me to take you to your apartment?” Cisco asked.
“You sure you’d be okay driving me?”
“Who said I was gonna drive you?” Cisco’s eyes twinkled with a hint of playfulness. “I never did tell you what my powers were. Watch this.”
Cisco outstretched his palm and concentrated for a few seconds. Before long, a bright blue shimmering breach appeared in front of the two of them.
“Whoa. You can make portals?”
He nodded. “We call them breaches. They can take me anywhere I wanna go in the multiverse at any time.”
“Multiverse?” Caitlin raised an eyebrow. “The multiverse theory is real?”
“Yeah. We have a couple friends from different universes, actually.”
“Alright, I definitely wanna know more about that. But not tonight.” Caitlin started to step through the portal, but turned back and met Cisco’s eyes one last time. She smiled in a way that made Cisco’s heart melt. “Goodnight, Cisco.”
He smiled back.
“Goodnight, Caitlin.”
~~~
The day was just getting started as Team Flash gathered in Star Labs and prepared their ambush on the warehouse Caitlin woke up in. Cisco brought a granola bar and was snacking on it. Ralph was tapping his foot against his chair. Caitlin sat in the cortex, keeping quiet while everyone else made plans.
“Alright, everyone has to be on high alert. He doesn’t know that we’ve found Caitlin, so there’s no way he can be expecting us, but we can’t let our guard down. He’s bested us once before, let’s not give him the chance to do it again.” Barry said.
“I searched the address Caitlin gave and found this warehouse near the edge of the city.” Cisco set his granola bar down and pulled his search results up on the computer screens. “In other news, I’ve been brainstorming a name for this guy. I’m thinking… Mind Master.”
“You really like alliterative names, huh?” Barry raised an eyebrow.
Cisco shrugged. “They sound nice.”
Everyone was suited up and ready to go. Cisco threw away his empty granola bar wrapper, sighed, and outstretched his hand. A shimmering blue breach appeared before the team, ready to transport them right to the warehouse.
“Wait.”
The team turned around. The voice had belonged to Caitlin, who was now standing in front of her seat, staring at them with a look of determination that reminded them all of her old self.
“I want to go with you.”
Barry spoke up. “Caitlin, without you being able to access your powers-”
“I know, but I’m the only one who’s actually been in the warehouse. And if this guy took away my memories… maybe he could give them back.”
“She has a point.” Cisco said.
“If she wants to go, let her go.” Iris reached into the cabinet behind her and pulled out an energy rifle. “Here, Caitlin. To defend yourself.”
Caitlin took it. “What’s this?”
“It’s an energy rifle. Basically a fancy gun, but it shoots energy instead of bullets.” Iris said. “Just pull the trigger, you’ll be fine.”
“Okay, I don’t mean to rush us here, but I’ve been holding this breach open for like, almost a full minute, and it’s very draining.”
“Right. Sorry, Cisco.”
With Caitlin now holding the energy rifle, the team stepped through the breach and into the unknown.
The warehouse was dark, empty, and cold. It felt unwelcome, like the creepy mansion you’d expect in an old cheesy horror movie. Chills crept down their spines as they treaded lightly into the unknown.
“This is the place.” Caitlin confirmed.
“Yikes. You woke up here, all alone?” Ralph raised an eyebrow. “Respect.”
“Well, it’s not like I had a choice in the matter.”
“Let’s just find Mind Master and get out of here.” Cisco said. “This place is creeping me out.”
“It’s… empty.” Barry said.
You really fell for the same trick twice? The Flash isn’t as smart as I thought.
They didn’t hear the voice. It wasn’t spoken. It appeared in their heads, as if it was a thought, but it wasn’t their own. It was his.
“That’s him.” The tremor in Ralph’s voice reflected the fear they all felt. “He’s here.”
Do you think I wouldn’t expect you to find your friend again? Do you think I didn’t expect you to try to find me?
“He led us here.”
“This is my fault.” Caitlin looked like she was gonna be sick. “I brought you here. This is on me.”
“No.” Cisco reached out and laid a hand on Caitlin’s shoulder reassuringly. “Don’t think that. It’s not your fault.”
A purple mist surrounded them, clouding their view of the warehouse. They heard footsteps somewhere nearby, but they couldn’t tell where. Whether it was real or just in their head, they had no idea.
Then they saw him. Walking through the fog towards them, there he was. The master behind it all.
A deep, hearty, intimidating laugh escaped his throat.
“You lot are no match for me.”
Cisco shot a vibe blast out of his palm. The blast was aimed right for Mind Master’s chest and it should have hit, but to the team’s dismay, it only passed right through and instead left an impact on the wall behind them. Magic Master’s image glitched and disappeared, gone from sight.
He lowered his hand in defeat. “It was a hologram.”
“Wow.” Ralph muttered. “This guy’s no joke.”
Barry cursed under his breath. “Once again, he could be anywhe-”
Caitlin’s shriek cut Barry off. Mind Master had taken advantage of the distraction and was pinning Caitlin up against the wall, facing the team with a sly grin.
“Try and stop me now, heroes.”
Caitlin was practically whimpering. Cisco felt his heart pounding in his chest. He hated seeing the panic on Caitlin’s face. She could get out of there, if only she remembered how.
“Caitlin, you can take him. You gotta transform.” Cisco stepped forward, meeting Caitlin’s eyes and trying to appear as calm as possible in spite of the situation.
“I- I don’t know how.”
“Think about what motivates you. Fear, anger, spite…” Cisco recalled all the times he would get Caitlin to transform in the past. “I know you can do it. I believe in you.”
“Oops. Not soon enough.” Mind Master raised his fist and aimed it at Caitlin.
“No!”
A flash of lightning whipped past them, soaring through the air with enough force to blow Cisco’s hair in front of his face. Before they knew it, Barry had knocked Mind Master onto the ground, freeing Caitlin from his grasp. After that, all the others saw of the fight was Barry’s yellow lightning and Mind Master dodging, throwing punches.
Until Mind Master got away.
Cisco didn’t register what was happening until it was too late. He felt a force throwing him back, knocking him against the ground. He looked up and saw Mind Master’s fist only inches from his, his eyes holding more malice than the Reverse-Flash. Cisco shut his eyes and his heart skipped a beat…
“No!”
The voice was all so familiar, and yet distorted at the same time. She spoke with a hint of an echo, a magical voice perfectly fit for the person it belonged to. It was icicles and blizzards and the crunch of fresh snow beneath a traveler’s foot, and yet it was warm, and sweet, and so very Caitlin, all at the same time.
A blast of icy whirlwinds knocked Mind Master off of Cisco and against the wall with enough impact to render him too weak to fight back. Barry grabbed the metacuffs and put them on him before he could try anything else. Mind Master slumped in defeat, his powers no longer at his expense.
Cisco got up and faced his savior. Sprinkles of white were dancing around her fingertips. The frozen mist was still fading around her. Her hair sported a shade of white that matched the piercing frostiness of her eyes, the ones that were looking at Cisco with a warmth someone wouldn’t normally expect from an ice queen.
Killer Frost.
“You did it.” Despite his heart still thumping in his chest, he couldn’t stop grinning. “I knew you could.”
“It worked.”
“What?”
“It worked!”
Frost shut her eyes and exhaled the breath she had been holding. The ice around her faded, her hair reverted to its natural warm brown, her eyes lost their frozen touch. Her grin was accented with her natural warm brown aesthetic, the excitement in her expression was something so genuinely her. She ran up to Cisco, not caring about anything in the world except for him. She cupped his face, and she kissed him.
“I remember.” She huffed, a joyful grin stuck on her face. “I remember everything.”
~~~
“So, when were you two planning on telling us about your relationship?”
Cisco and Caitlin laughed. Iris was looking at them with a sparkle in her eyes, one that showed how happy she was for the both of them. The heroes were all still a little worn out from the battle beforehand, but Caitlin hadn’t been able to stop holding Cisco’s hand since they left. Even now, in Star Labs, Caitlin was leaning against the chair that Cisco was sitting in.
“Just throwing it out there, I totally called it.” Ralph said.
“You did not.” Barry raised an eyebrow at him.
“I did! Remember when I pulled up Ralph’s Guide To A Healthy Relationship and I said, ‘huh, Cisco and Caitlin would be great for each other’.”
“That doesn’t count. You said the same thing about Kamilla when Cisco was dating her.”
“I’m supportive of all Cisco’s romantic interests!”
Cisco laughed softly at the team’s playful bickering, and reached into the desk’s bottom drawer to pull out a Twizzler. He offered one to Caitlin, who took it and held it in front of her teeth.
“This monitor is old.” Cisco said. “I think this is the same one from that time maybe about six years ago when we spilled Big Belly Burger sauce on it-”
Caitlin laughed. “Didn’t we blame it on Hartley?”
“Yeah, we did!”
“Dr. Wells was pissed.”
“Oh well. Hartley was a dick anyways.”
The two of them shared memories and giggled to themselves like schoolchildren for one long, precious moment. When it ended, Cisco was simply looking up at Caitlin with lovestruck eyes.
“What?” Caitlin smiled.
“Nothing.” Cisco shrugged. “I’m just glad to have you back.”
Caitlin leaned over and kissed Cisco one more time. “I’m not leaving. Ever again.”
“You didn’t leave. You were kidnapped. And for the record,” Cisco tucked Caitlin’s hair behind her ear. “The next person who tries to take you away is going to have to pry you from my cold, dead hands.”
“Yeah?” Caitlin’s voice reflected her amused smile. “I thought I was the one with the cold hands.”
“You just had to make a cold joke, didn’t you?”
“You love it.”
Cisco chuckled softly. “I do.”
send me two numbers + a pairing and i’ll write something combining two tropes
Fake relationship
Bed sharing
Body swap
Mistaken for a couple
Enemies to lovers
Friends to lovers
Soulmates
Amnesia
Secret relationship
De-aged
Time travel
Arranged marriage
Roommates
Road trip
A/B/O
Mutual pining
Sex then love
Reunion
Outsider POV
Misunderstanding
Domestic
High School/College AU
Sex worker AU
Historical AU
Mob AU
Coffeeshop AU
Office AU
Fantasy AU
What I find really odd about fanfic in general is that you can almost tell what kind of a person is writing it, you know?? Like some people are really poetic in their descriptions, some people almost drown in the feelings they write, others create dialogue that flows so well it feels like you’re watching real people discuss things in front of your eyes… I just really love that aspect of it, and I love placing writers in a kind of “hey look they’re a descriptions/feelings/dialogue kind of person” box so to speak. It’s such a pleasure reading it when it’s written so individually
Well now I’m curious what you guys think I am? Descriptions/feelings/dialogue writer?
Reblog if you write fanfiction!
Writeblr has a lot of original WIPs which is fantastic, but I want to see how big the fanfiction community is too!
100 dialogue writing prompts.
make this into a fun ask meme. send a ship + a number!
01. “I’m not even sure why you’re here.” 02. “Yeah, well, your pun game is weak.” 03. “What the hell is that and why are you wearing it?” 04. “And that doesn’t scare you?” 05. “Dude, you can’t just make stuff up.” 06. “I don’t know if I want to know the answer, but what are you doing?” 07. “You might be right, but you don’t have to be so mean about it.” 08. “I look at you and I think, ‘sunshine. Literal sunshine.’ It’s annoying.” 09. “I should’ve told you back then, but I didn’t want you to leave.” 10. “I’m outta here. Have fun.” 11. “You assume correctly.” 12. “It’s not like I love you or anything.” 13. “I dare you to kiss me.” 14. “I know you’re the president of the Anti-Social Club, but why don’t you join me?” 15. “Aren’t you tired of this?” 85 more prompts under the cut!
Keep reading
The Daughter of Barry Allen
TV Show: The Flash
Characters: Nora West-Allen, Iris West-Allen, Barry Allen, as well as Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Ralph Dibny (briefly)
Warnings: Sexist/insensitive comments, self-doubting, mentions of sexism/racism/homophobia
Word count: 2335
Notes: Follows the canon, takes place in early season five. Thanks to @the-frosty-doctor and @narniasfinestavengingsociopath for proofreading!!
Tag list: @angsty-hoodie @ciscoatthedisco @thatkillervibe
~~~
Barry and Nora sped into the cortex in two individual streams of lightning that faded as they came to a stop. Both of them were wearing their triumph on their face in the form of a grin, as were all their friends, who had watched the whole thing go down on computer screens.
“High-five for the best father-daughter hero team-up ever!” Barry held his hand up and Nora met it with a high-five. “You were awesome out there, Nora.”
“Thanks, Dad!” Nora beamed with pride.
“You both were.” Iris slid her hand into Barry’s, and looked at both Barry and Nora with a loving gaze. “There’s not a single metahuman in Central City that my wonderful husband and brilliant daughter can’t handle.”
Barry lightly kissed the top of Iris’s head, then turned towards Cisco. “Hey Cisco, we got a name yet?”
“Hm, let’s see. A metahuman who can summon objects out of thin air...” Cisco spun in his chair as he thought of a name. “What about-”
“Genie?” Caitlin suggested.
“Hey, Caitlin, you know I’m the designated nicknamer,” Cisco teased. “Although that one’s actually pretty good.”
“Well, whatever his name is, he’s in the pipeline now.” Ralph said. “He won’t be robbing any more banks for a long time.”
“The media’s already reporting on it.” Nora announced, scrolling through her phone. She read off a headline. “ ‘The Flash and new female speedster, XS, successfully defeat a new metahuman’. That was fast.”
“What if Cicada sees that?” Iris bit her lip. “We know Cicada’s targeting metas. I don’t want him targeting Nora or Barry.”
“Actually, on that-” Cisco rolled his chair over to the computers, and he pulled up a bunch of articles that had been written on the Flash and XS over the course of the last few months. “The media has been reporting on Barry and Nora for some time, and Cicada so far hasn’t targeted them.”
“What if it’s only a matter of time before he does, though?” Caitlin asked. “I don’t know if that’s something we can risk.”
“Well, that’s when something occurred to me.” Cisco said. “Do you guys remember when Cicada attacked me, Barry, and Ralph? Ralph and I were injured, and Cicada had the upper hand on Barry. He could’ve easily killed him and it would’ve been over, but then Nora showed up and called out, ‘Dad!’. Cicada got up and left Barry alone.”
“He left Barry alone because he has a daughter.” Ralph said. “So you’re saying Cicada won’t target Barry or Nora because of that?”
“I’m just saying, ever since we found out Cicada’s identity, we know that the only reason he hates metas is because they put his little girl in the hospital,” Cisco shrugged. “I think Barry and Nora are safe. If he hurts Nora, then he puts Barry in the same position that he’s in now.”
“And besides,” Caitlin said. “My immunity gives us an advantage. My powers aren’t affected by Cicada’s dagger, so if he were to take away Barry and Nora’s speed or Cisco’s breaches or Ralph’s elasticity, at least we still have me.”
“Exactly.” Cisco nodded.
“So you’re saying the media reporting on Barry and Nora won’t pose any new threats?” Iris asked.
“If my theory is right, then yup.” Cisco said.
“Well then,” Iris turned to Nora. “I’m glad Central City is finally getting to know what an amazing young woman you are.”
“Aww, Mom.” Nora wrapped her arms around her in a hug. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, Nora.”
~~~
Nora walked into Jitters, reciting her friends’ orders in her head. When she had offered to get coffee and bring it back to Star Labs, she didn’t expect everyone to take her up on it.
She looked at the drink menu and tried not to smile. One thing she loved about this coffee shop was their tendency to name their drinks after Central City heroes and villains. There were drinks called the Flash, the Killer Frost, the Kid Flash, even one called the Zoom if you ordered from the secret menu. Nora’s personal favorite drink was the Killer Frost, although she had yet to get a drink from Jitters that she didn’t like.
The line at Jitters was long, and Nora internally sighed. Waiting is annoying for anybody, but for a speedster, each second feels like an eternity.
“Have you heard about the latest Flash news?”
The voice came from the person in the line in front of Nora. They were two friends, guys, about college-aged, reading headlines off their phones. Nora didn’t mean to listen in on their conversation, but she couldn’t really help otherwise, especially knowing that they were talking about the Flash.
“Yeah. Yesterday’s attack at Central City bank, right?”
“Uh huh. It was the Flash and the new girl speedster. You know, the one that’s been helping out lately?”
“I don’t know why the Flash needs a sidekick. I mean, what’s the point? He’s been able to take on so many other metas on his own. Why does he need a partner now?”
“Especially a girl. I mean, not to be sexist, but guys are stronger and typically more capable. The girl’s gonna have to try so much harder to do what the Flash could do in seconds. Don’t even bother. Just leave it to the Flash.”
Nora fidgeted with her bracelet. She took a deep breath, and tried to keep herself calm. It’s okay, Nora. Just ignore them. Just buy the coffee, and get back to Star Labs.
“She doesn’t even seem that experienced. She messes up a lot.”
“That’s just girls for you. They’re too emotional and less experienced, they slip up easier.”
“I’m worried she’s just gonna slow him down. He could handle things so much easier without having to worry about a girl relying on him.”
“Right? She can’t even do anything on her own without the Flash there.”
The line was taking forever to get through, and Nora was just getting more anxious to get away. She knew that she shouldn’t let it get to her, but the more they talked, the angrier she got.
She wanted to prove that she wasn’t a mere hindrance. She wanted to prove that, despite being new to using her powers, she was capable. She wanted an opportunity, anything…
That’s when her phone rang.
“Nora, there’s a robbery at the corner of 6th and 8th.” Her mom’s voice came through the phone. “Your dad will be there soon. You can forget the coffee, just get there.”
Bingo.
“Actually, Mom, tell Dad not to worry. I got it.”
She hung up the phone, and sprinted into action.
Purple and yellow lightning streamed behind her as she ran. She had changed into her hero suit in a split second, and it only took her a couple seconds more to arrive at the scene.
“That purse isn’t yours.” She faced the thief, standing up straight and trying her best to make herself seem intimidating. She had seen her dad do the same countless times, all she had to do was imitate it.
“What’re you gonna do? Threaten me?” The thief laughed. “You picked the wrong person to mess with, girl.”
He held his hands out and they started to spark with electricity. The yellow surged from his forearms to his fingertips, reflecting the malice in his eyes.
So, he’s a metahuman. No biggie, I got this.
Nora took a deep breath, preparing herself. Her intent was to steady herself and then attack, but her moment of vulnerability was all that he needed to make his move.
The metahuman shot threatening sparks from his hands, and they flew through the air before hitting Nora’s chest. She was thrust backwards and onto the ground, her breath escaping her upon impact. Shocks of electricity surged through her body, forfeiting her ability to register her surroundings. The last thing Nora felt was her head on the gravel before she fell unconscious.
~~~
She woke up on a hospital bed in the Star Labs medical bay. The first thing she made sense of was the electronic beeping of the medical equipment surrounding her. The second thing was her mom sitting beside her bed.
“Mom?” Nora’s voice reflected how groggy she felt.
Iris gasped and turned around to face Nora. “You’re awake! Oh, thank god. Are you okay?”
Nora nodded, rubbing her eyes and yawning. “How long was I out?”
“Not long, maybe 45 minutes.” Iris said. “It would’ve been a lot longer if it wasn’t for your speed healing abilities.”
“Did they get the metahuman?” Nora asked.
Iris nodded. “He’s in the pipeline now.”
“Look-”
“Save it.” Iris gave her daughter a stern look. “Nora West-Allen, what the hell were you thinking? Going after that villain alone was incredibly irresponsible of you. You could’ve died! You’re lucky your father got there in time to bring you back to Star Labs.”
“Oh, so this is all about Dad now?” Nora muttered, sinking into the white pillows. “It always is.”
“What could you possibly mean by that?” Iris scoffed.
“Dad can do anything, can’t he? He’s the Flash, people look up to him. But the second that a new speedster shows up, she can’t do anything right, she’s a hindrance at best-”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Iris cut her off. “What’s this about?”
“Earlier today, at Jitters, I overheard some guys talking about the latest meta attack that Dad and I were involved in. They were talking about me being the Flash’s new sidekick, and they didn’t think he needed one. They said that, because I’m a girl, I’m only going to mess everything up and get in the Flash’s way. I guess, when you called me about the meta attack, I saw it as a way to… prove myself, in a way.”
“So that’s why you wanted to face him alone.” Iris said. “Well, now at least I can understand why. I’m sorry those guys said those things, that was completely out of line. You’re an amazing superhero, and I’m proud of everything you’ve done so far. If they saw everything that your dad and I have seen in you these past few months, they’d know that you’re an amazing, capable young woman.”
“They don’t see that, though, and that’s the problem.” Nora said. “I’m never going to be held to the same standards as Dad. Part of it is because he’s been a speedster longer, and the city already loves him.”
“What’s the other part?”
Nora hesitated. “The guys from earlier said that I wasn’t capable just because I was a girl. Not because of me, but because of my gender. And that won’t be the last time I’m held to different standards because of things I can’t control. I’m a girl, I’m biracial, and on top of it all, I’m lesbian. People are always gonna view me differently because of those three things. Dad doesn’t have to worry about any of that.”
“As sad as it is, bigotry will always be a part of society. It’s unfair, and it sucks, but that’s how it is.” Iris said. “But, there’s a flip side to that, too. For every bigot you meet, you’ll have a hundred supporters to defend you. Those are the people you need to focus on. The thing about bigots is that… they’re not very smart. Their opinion means nothing. It doesn’t define you, you define you. And there’s millions of people out there just like you. There are people in Central City who will see themselves in XS. For every bigot, there’s a few more people who will look up to XS for staying strong and not being afraid to be herself.”
Nora sighed. “It’s hard being the daughter of the Flash.”
“How so?”
“I mean, it’s normal for kids to idolize their parents, but my dad is not only my hero, but an entire city’s hero. He has a literal museum in his name. The Flash Museum, a complete record of all of Dad’s accomplishments, everything he did right and nothing he did wrong. He’s immortalized in golden statues, he’s written into textbooks, he’ll be remembered for years to come.” Nora said. “And… that’s quite the reputation to live up to. There’s no way I’ll ever be as amazing as Dad.”
“Sweetie, you already are.” Iris said. “You’re sweet, funny, kind, and incredibly smart. You never cease to impress me. You’re every bit as amazing as your father, and if the bigots out there don’t realize that, that’s their problem. We don’t expect you to be this perfect, flawless hero. Not even your dad’s perfect- he’s human, and so are you. We just expect you to be you. You’re not the daughter of the Flash, you’re the daughter of a man who loves you for who you are. You’re the daughter of Barry Allen.”
A small smile grew on Nora’s face. “The Flash is Barry Allen, Mom.”
Iris laughed. “You know full well what I meant.”
“I know.” Nora nodded, laughing softly. “And thank you. Everything that you’ve said- it really does mean a lot.”
“I’m glad.” Iris said. “But there is one more thing.”
“Which is?”
Iris folded her hands in her lap. “You have to understand that you can’t just go taking on metahumans by yourself. That’s reckless, and incredibly dangerous. When you hung up on me back at Jitters and ran off on your own, I was scared. And then your dad found you unconscious, and we all were worried about you. This is about your own safety.”
Nora bit her lip. “I know. I’m sorry.”
“Just… promise me you won’t do it again.”
“I promise.”
“Good.” Iris took Nora’s hand and helped her up. “Let’s go show the others you’re okay. They were worried too, y’know.”
Iris hesitated for a second before walking out of the medical bay.
“You know I love you, right?”
Nora nodded.
“I love you too, Mom.”
Mini Killervibe Ficlet
Loosely based on the short Killervibe ficlets that @thatkillervibe has been doing, where the ficlet is only a couple sentences long, but it still tells a story.
~~~
Cisco walked into the cortex with a pep in his step, greeting Barry with a smile and turning to Caitlin lovingly.
“Good morning. You know I love you, right? You’re the best girlfriend in the world.” He pressed a soft kiss to her lips.
“Wow, that’s quite the way to be greeted.” Caitlin offered a surprised-but-pleased smile. “I love you too babe, but... Why are you so cheerful today? Is it a special occasion?”
“Every day I spend with you is a special occasion.” Cisco said, tucking Caitlin’s hair behind her ear and kissing her again.
Cisco proposed later that day.
