Archive of Our Own ^beta

The sunlight beaming in through the gap in his curtains was nice and warm, and Barry indulged in a long, luxurious stretch before he nestled back into his blankets and pillow as he waited for his alarm to go off. He dozed off and on for several minutes until an uneasy suspicion began to itch beneath his skin.

He rolled over to look at his alarm clock and discovered it was blinking an ominous 12:00.

Abruptly awake, Barry reached for his phone, only to find that it had died at some point during the night, just like the power apparently had. He accessed the Speed Force and fed his phone a little jolt of electricity, praying that he wouldn't short it out completely—

Which was exactly what he did.

He flopped back on his bed and groaned loudly. Okay. It was just going to be that kind of day.

He sped into his clothing for the day and then hurried into the living room to boot up his laptop, which kindly told him he was now an hour-and-a-half late for work. Barry had originally set his alarm to give him enough time to have breakfast, but one of Cisco's power bars would have to do for now.

He ran his way to work, pausing in an alley to scuff his smoking shoes, and took a deep breath before he walked into the precinct, bracing himself for the call to Singh's office.

If Barry was honest with himself, he'd admit that a lot of his days had turned into a mess recently. Maybe even more often than not. And while he would never admit it out loud, there were times he understood Oliver's need to shut down and put a wall up between him and those he cared about.

Not that Barry could, or even would, do that. There'd be a race for who could knock sense into him the fastest — Iris would cheat and call Wally, Joe would probably team up with Cisco and Caitlin. It would be ridiculous. So yeah. Shutting down and suffering alone was a no go.

Not that he was suffering. He just wanted to rest.

Barry slogged his way through three cases worth of evidence before it was finally time for him to go. Out of habit, he flashed over to STAR Labs and grabbed an earpiece. He wasn't on patrol tonight, but he wanted to be reachable if someone needed him. It seemed more and more that, as the world grew more familiar with metas, he was really only needed for the bigger, world-ending events. It was an adjustment.

Heading home, he saved two pedestrians from jerk drivers, stopped a fire in a trash can from becoming more serious, and saved a cat from a tree. He didn't really want anyone's gratitude, so he flashed his way out before anyone tried to talk with him. It was routine — he didn't want to be thanked for being nice.

Once Barry dodged the last thankful citizen, he resumed his path, slowing down to a walk. Somehow, it was already dark, and the streetlights started to turn on overhead. He had no plans for the evening, and hurrying home just to turn on Netflix seemed like a huge waste. No need to make his day drag even longer.

He was trying to plan his next day — he needed to be on time for real tomorrow, and he needed a new phone, and maybe he'd take a page from Joe's book and actually get a battery powered analog clock and just accept everyone teasing him for a year — when the temperature dropped between one step and the next, and Barry's breath steamed as a pocket of frigid air grew around him.

The hair on the back of his neck stood up, goosebumps prickling his arms, and he looked around to try and spot the source, the Speed Force stirring to life beneath his skin. The air crackled, a transformer high up on a pole making a loud popping sound as it started sparking, electricity raining down like fireworks on the street below.

Something was ripping energy and heat from the surrounding area, and Barry was torn between calling it in or investigating more before he made a decision. "Hello?" he said, even though it looked like he was still alone. A shiver raced through him, and he vibrated in place to keep warm, immediately raising his hand to his ear to activate the receiver. "Cisco, Caitlin, I—"

A rumble of thunder split the night despite the clear sky, and a breeze kicked up, stirring the leaves in a wind eddy around his feet. It was ominous enough that Barry finally reached for the Speed Force in earnest. At his first attempt to scout the street, he could tell something was different. It was difficult to run, like his legs were caught in quicksand, like something was clinging to him with all its strength. He resisted the pull as thunder rumbled again, deafeningly loud, and all at once Barry could see something forming out of electricity and wind and light.

It was a person after all, or at least it was the shape of a person, and Barry squinted, stepping closer despite himself. There was something achingly familiar in that bizarre phenomenon that drew him in, and he held his breath instinctively as the fabric of reality seemed to warp and tear.

All at once, everything snapped back into place, with only two things left behind to prove what had just happened — the ringing in Barry's ears and the person kneeling before him.

"Snart?" Barry breathed, and Leonard Snart crumpled forward like a puppet with its strings cut. Barry caught him, gentling the fall so Snart wouldn't get a concussion, and then he dragged his fingers through his hair, looking wildly around the empty street.

Leonard Snart was warm and breathing and had appeared out of thin air right in front of him.

Seriously, what the hell?

He slowly raised his hand to his ear again. "Sorry. False alarm."

~*~

Barry took Leonard home to his apartment and laid him on the sofa, putting a pillow under his head. His heart was thudding loudly in his chest, and he sat on the coffee table across from the sofa, unable to tear his eyes away from Leonard. Dark jeans, Henley, dark blue denim jacket — it all seemed like something Snart would wear if he didn't have his parka. His hair was a little more salt-and-pepper than it was the last time Barry had seen him.

Even asleep, Leonard had a little worry line between his brows. Barry looked away and took a deep breath. It was probably just another doppelganger. Combining Earths still left room for pocket dimensions and split timelines.

It would've been smarter to take Leonard to the lab for the safety of everyone in Central, but Barry just wanted a little time to himself to pretend before it all exploded in his face.

He looked back at Leonard, jumping a little when he realized Leonard's eyes were open and fixed on him. Barry raised his hands slowly to show he meant no harm. "Hey. How do you feel?"

Leonard frowned and pushed himself upright, taking a second to scan the unfamiliar room. "Barry? What are you doing here?"

Barry bit his lip, trying to stop his smile. It was a Leonard who knew him. Awesome. "What's the last thing you remember?"

"It's complicated." Leonard finished his sweep of the room and fixed his attention on Barry again. "Had my hands in the guts of something called the Oculus." Leonard looked down at his hand and flexed his fingers. "Thought it exploded."

A frisson of anxious energy shot through Barry, and he jiggled his knee, his foot tapping on the hardwood floor beneath him. "What about—" He cleared his throat. "What about me? When was the last time you saw me?"

Leonard's frown deepened into suspicion, and he looked up at Barry again, his eyes narrowing. "You left me in Siberia." His chin tilted up, defiance and wariness growing in every line of his body. "Unless you're not the Flash I know."

Something cracked inside Barry, and out of his numbness came something that felt like hope. His skin prickled from head to toe as if he'd been asleep for the longest time and had just started to come back to life. "Is it really you?" Barry swallowed hard, fighting the heat in his cheeks, in his eyes. "You're not some Leonard Snart from the future or a different dimension?"

Leonard cut a look to the left, avoiding Barry's eyes. "I've been in the future, if that counts."

Barry gripped the edges of his coffee table hard. "Do you remember who you were with?"

Leonard stared at Barry for a moment. "Mick. The hawks. Jax and Stein. Palmer. Lance."

A lump rose in Barry's throat, and he gave in, blurring in place as he raised his hand to his face and started to cry. It was his Leonard Snart. Or Earth-1 Leonard Snart, or whatever classification they were using now, and he was almost sick with the knot of complicated emotions that came with that knowledge. He needed to find a way to contact Mick. Did anyone know where Lisa had holed up?

He tried to imagine himself in Leonard's place — how he'd feel if everyone he cared about had moved on without him — and it choked him up even more, his shoulders shaking with the force of his emotions. It had been years, and the unfairness of it all struck Barry like a punch to the stomach.

When Barry finally managed to calm himself down, he sped to the kitchen and got himself a glass of water, downing it all at once. Marginally in more control, he finally slowed down and let the world catch up with him.

Leonard was watching him with narrow eyes, and he drummed his fingers against the arm of the couch. "Did you just cry in super speed?"

"You can't prove it," Barry answered immediately, a flush rising in his cheeks and stinging the raw, tear-stained skin before it healed up.

Leonard stopped watching him, his attention on the apartment again as he slowly looked around. "Iris," he said eventually. "You saved her?"

Barry nodded. "Yeah. We did."

Leonard took a deep breath and then released it all at once, resignation in the slope of his shoulders, in the way he purposefully looked away from Barry as he began to speak. "Well. Let me have it, kid. How long was I gone?"

"Seven years." Barry's heart ached as he watched Leonard absorb that information. He was so locked in that he noted the twitch of Leonard's jaw, the way his hand went still on the arm of the sofa and clutched tight instead.

"Hm. Thought you and the missus would have a couple of kids by now," Leonard said lightly, and the tone made Barry's heart ache all over again.

"No. Iris and I…just didn't work out. Kids showed up from alternate timelines, her dead ex-boyfriend came back to life — everything kind of went crazy. She's still my best friend, but. We made a decision to step away." Barry cleared his throat. "Anyway, do you know how you got here?"

Leonard shook his head slowly. "Honestly, I kind of feel like I was chewed up and spit out."

That made sense, in a weird way. With how often timelines and alternate histories were born and died, and how many Earths had come together during the Crisis, he probably had been chewed up and spit out at a quantum level. Maybe Leonard would let Barry take him to STAR Labs and run some tests, if he was lucky.

Leonard shifted on the couch, drawing Barry's attention back. "I'll get out of your way in a few hours. I just need to catch my bearings."

"What? No!" Barry started shaking his head before Leonard had finished speaking. "No, you're staying here. Of course you're staying with me! We've got to figure out where Mick and Lisa are, and things have changed in Central, I can't just—" He reached out and squeezed Leonard's forearm. "I want to help you. Please let me help."

Leonard didn't try to shrug Barry off, which he had been a little worried about, but he did grow quiet and thoughtful. Barry held his breath, doing his best to remain still and leave the ball in Leonard's court.

After several minutes, Leonard shrugged. "I don't really have any other options, do I?"

Barry's relief was so intense he grew light headed, and he raised a finger to silence whatever else Leonard was going to say. "I promise we'll talk and get things figured out. I just… I really need to hug you, okay?"

Their positions made it awkward, and Leonard didn't make it any easier by sitting stiffly like a weirdo who never had a hug before, but Barry was determined. He leaned in, pulling Leonard forward to meet him halfway, and hugged him tight. "I'm so glad you're here," Barry murmured. "You're alive. Is it stupid that I'm so grateful? Because I am. You survived. You came back."

Leonard didn't say anything, but the weight of his head on Barry's shoulder was real. And the way Leonard grabbed fistfuls of Barry's sweater and hung on — that was real, too.