Cisco/Caitlin The Flash Sunflowers in September

Climb a Tree

Caitlin straddled the tree branch and pushed away leaves that blocked her view below. Twenty minutes had passed, and so far, the only sign of life had been a wandering deer. Her stomach grumbled and she frowned. She had been so preoccupied with making sure she had done enough research for the mission that she had forgotten to pack snacks for the stakeout.

"Did you ever think life would be this way?"

Caitlin lifted her head to look up at the sound of Cisco's voice. His legs dangled over the branch above the one she was on.

"You mean did I ever think I'd climb a tree in the middle of the night on a different Earth, one hundred years into the future to find my heat-vampire doppelganger?" she asked with only a bit of sarcasm in her voice.

Cisco's Big Belly Burger bag rustled as he dug around inside. "Nah, I meant that this place would discontinue their cheese fries. What has this life become," he said dramatically. He tilted his head back and dropped in a fry.

Caitlin shook her head but smiled. Her eyes scanned the ground below, but there was still no movement. Her stomach grumbled again. Suddenly a glowing, blue breach opened beside her. She glanced up but she couldn't see her friend's face through the leaves. She folded her lips and carefully crawled over and through the breach.

"Whoa," she yelped as she wobbled on the branch.

"I gotcha."

Caitlin leaned into Cisco as he wrapped his arm around her waist. He held onto the fast-food bag with his other hand. She balanced herself, but wasn't too quick to straighten her back so that she no longer needed his arm for support. If he thought she was taking too long, he didn't say anything to her about it.

"Look what I have," he said in a sing-songy tone.

Caitlin inhaled the greasy smell and whined, "You know I love cheese fries. But this is not the proper diet for a stakeout."

Cisco pulled a plastic fork out of his pocket and waved it in front of her face. "I hear the rumbly in your tumbly," he teased.

Caitlin snatched the fork out of his hand and speared fries out of the bag. She hummed once she munched on their cheesy goodness. "This is probably how you imagined life," Caitlin said lightly. She watched Cisco's face turn serious in the moonlight. "What's wrong?"

He shook his head and softly knocked his fist against the tree branch.

Caitlin lowered her fork into the bag and frowned. "Cisco."

"We've been at this a long time, Caitlin," he said with his eyes focused on the ground far below the tree. "Good Wells. Bed Wells. Future Robo-Barry. We didn't have powers. We do have powers..."

"Yeah," she said softly, not wanting to say more so that he could get whatever was bothering him off of his chest.

"I don't want this forever." Cisco lifted his gaze to her. "Do you?"

Without hesitation Caitlin answered, "Yes." She no longer had an appetite. "Cisco, are you thinking about quitting the team?"

Caitlin felt like the wind had been knocked out of her when Cisco looked away. She tilted back slightly and would have accidentally fallen out of the tree if Cisco hadn't instinctively held onto her. The bag from Big Belly Burger fell to a branch below. Even with the assist, he looked past her instead of at her.

"I'm not trying to freak you out. I know this is heavy for a multi-verse stakeout. But it's been on my mind lately. And I know if I talk about it, you know, out loud...with you. I'll only be able to be honest," Cisco said.

"Why with me," Caitlin replied, unable to keep the bitterness from her tone. She didn't want to have this conversation. She needed Cisco. She didn't want to think about him leaving the team. In no universe or timeline had she imagined having to be without him. And what scared her the most was that deep down she knew him leaving the team meant she would too. She had left so many times before when things went wrong and the one constant that she had always returned to was Cisco.

"Because I can lie to our friends. Our family. Myself." He looked her in the eye. "But not to you."

"You never have to," she replied honestly. Even though the thought of him leaving had her stomach in knots, Caitlin knew she had to support whatever he felt was best for him.

The tired and worried expression on Cisco's face cleared. He already had one arm around her waist, so he wrapped the other one around her shoulder to hug her tight. Caitlin felt some of the tension in her body relax as they held onto each other.

He turned to speak into her ear. "I want a baby."

Caitlin leaned back enough so that she could see his eyes. His breath was warm on her face in the chilly night air. "You don't think a baby would be safe if you were to stay on the team?"

Cisco bunched his eyebrows together. He let out a half-hearted chuckle. "It's more like how am I going to find someone to make a baby with that's cool with me fighting crime in leather and hanging out with the Flash? I mean, I think it's time to make my type non-meta human. No immortals. No Earth 19 baddies with hearts of gold. Just...I don't know. Some nice girl that works at a bar or something."

They both heard whispers and footsteps below. Suddenly, they both remembered the main reason for sitting in a tree in the middle of the night.

"We've got work to do." Caitlin moved out of his embrace. Cisco opened a breach for her to crawl through. She looked over her shoulder before she left and said, "You shouldn't limit yourself. I worked at a bar once."

The breach didn't have a chance to close before Cisco leapt into it to catch up with Caitlin. They both landed at the base of the tree, face to face with Caitlin's heat-vampire doppelganger.

Cisco held up a finger and said, "Would you excuse us, Murderous Ice Queen."

Before Caitlin could protest, Cisco opened another breach and pulled her through it. She blinked once she realized that they were back in Star Labs.

"Cisco, we have..." she started but he interrupted her by taking her hand in his.

"Were you implying what I thought you were implying? Because Caitlin, I don't want you to think you have to...I don't know. Whatever you're thinking, because you're afraid of me leaving the team. If I ever do leave, know that I would only be leaving a job behind. I would never be leaving you. You, Barry, Iris, Joe or any of our family will always be my family. We'll always be in each other's lives and..."

This time Caitlin cut him off. She knew arguing with him would send the clear message that he needed to hear. That she needed him to hear. So, she grabbed his face and kissed him like their futures depended on it. Because to her, they did.

When she finally let him go, she said in a breathy tone, "We have to go back to that tree, Cisco. But did I make myself clear?"

He looked at her in awe as his chest rose and fell. "You taste like cheese fries."

She watched a grin spread across his lips and his eyes lit up with happiness.

She smiled back and replied, "So do you."

End note: This oneshot was based off the prompt climb a tree from the September OTP Prompt Challenge posted by lavendarotpprompts.tumblr. Thank you for sharing prompts, person from the internet.