Coldflash and Legends One-Shots

In Between (Rated PG13)

Summary:

When Len destroys the Oculus, it doesn't kill him. It does something much, much worse.

Notes:

Written for the ColdFlash Week prompt 'Domestic life'. Assumes that there's quite a few years between when Len and Barry first meet and when Len joins the Waverider.

***

"Lisa! Lisa Snart, get back here!"

Barry leaps the banister, landing squarely in front of her, but without hesitation, she turns on her heel, tossing her long, brown hair over her shoulder and making a beeline for the kitchen. Standing in the living room, watching the whole scene go down, Len laughs.

"That's it, Lisa," he says, of no help whatsoever. "Keep it up. You'll tire him out eventually."

Technically, Barry has never met anyone who could tire him out. Kind of a consequence of having super speed fused into your DNA. Even Len couldn't manage to make Barry sweat, and he tried. Oh God, did he try.

Their week long honeymoon in Vail didn't make a dent in Barry's stamina, even though Len came back with three pulled ligaments and a dislocated shoulder. Mick would say that that's what happens when you marry a man twenty years your junior, but in Len's defense, not single man or woman he's slept with before Barry could even make Len breathe heavy.

But if anyone could succeed where Len failed, it would definitely be Lisa.

"Lisa! LISA!" Barry races through the living room, trying to catch up to the little girl, who's completely naked and dripping wet from her bath. She's only three-years-old and, biologically, Len's (with the help of a surrogate), but somehow she's managing to outmaneuver the fastest man alive. "Lisa Nora Allen Snart! You get your tush back here right now!"

"Face it. You're never gonna catch her, Red." Len shakes his head when an elfish but maniacal giggle echoes from the kitchen. "She's too slippery ... even for you."

Len doesn't follow the pair of them to see what happens next, but he hears another giggle, a manly yelp, a chair fall over, and the sound of a dish crashing to the floor, shattering to pieces. Len crosses his arms, tsking disapproval.

"Barry, Barry, Barry. You let the plate break? You're losing your touch."

Len watches Barry come back around the corner, carrying their precocious little girl in his arms, suspiciously calm considering the chase she just took her father on. Barry must think so, too, because he stops in front of Len and takes a look at their quiet girl.

But only quiet because she's munching on a tree-shaped Christmas cookie. Barry's eyes go so wide, they nearly explode.

"What the ...? You stole a ... how did you steal a cookie?" Barry groans. "Jesus Christ! You really are Len's daughter, aren't you? Well, you're my daughter, too, and you can't have cookies before dinner. If your grandmother were alive, she'd kill me. Give it here, Lisa. Give it ..." Barry reaches for the cookie, trying to snatch it out of Lisa's hand before she can devour the rest of it, but with her face mostly covered in bright green frosting, he's sure his battle is already lost. He could just put on a burst of speed and grab it, but he makes it a point not to use the Speed Force when dealing with Lisa. After all of the collateral damage he's left behind in past years (busted windows, clothing on fire, even shredded asphalt), he doesn't want to accidentally hurt her ... something Len's joshed him about dozens of times.

"Oh sure," Len would say. "You don't have a problem zipping me around town at Mach 10, the pressure doing God knows what to my body, but you can't snatch back a cookie?"