Of Reverse Love And Stuff

How he met his lightning rod

Strangely enough, if Rose hadn't turned him down and broken his heart with that, Eobard probably wouldn't have given Nina a chance when she sat down across from him in that café. So he was sort of grateful for Rose's actions, even though he was still furious about it.

Everything started with his quest to find out which time period the Flash was from. As he traveled in time, he once ended up somewhere before the Flash was born, and while he was searching for clues regarding whether or not he found the right time, Eobard decided to sit in a café, reading a newspaper and watching the people around him.

Out of the corner of his eye he noticed two young women sitting at a table who were chatting over their coffee and a pile of books. Normally he wouldn't have paid much attention to this, but one of them glanced over at him every once in a while, smiling whenever their eyes met. Eobard wondered if she was flirting with him, and this thought–if he was right, of course–somehow made him happy. He liked the attention; he really did.

His assumption was proven right when she suddenly stood up, picked up her coffee and walked over to his table.

"Do you mind if I sit here?" she asked, although she didn't wait for his answer and occupied the empty chair across from him. "I'm Nina," the woman added, extending her hand.

Eobard shook it with a barely visible smile on his lips. "I'm Eobard, it's nice to meet you."

"Eobard? That's... unique," Nina told him. She suddenly turned around, looking at her friend as if she was trying to tell her something. He wondered what it was all about. Was she planning to stand up and leave? A part of him definitely didn't want that, so he was glad to see her turn back to him and rest her elbows on the table, placing her hands on the sides of the coffee mug. "So are you from Central City?"

"No, I'm only here for a few days."

"Too bad," she told him without thinking.

He slightly tilted his head to the side, thinking about what it was all about. Based on her looks he thought she was only around twenty, since the books indicated that she was most probably a college student. Even though he was in his late twenties himself, he still didn't understand why she would flirt with him. But who knew, maybe it was just the doubt the events with Rose had left behind.

Even though he was only here to find the Flash, Eobard couldn't get himself to stand up and leave; he wanted to find out why she was interested in him. So he leaned back with a smirk and glanced at her with an almost challenging look as he asked, "Why?"

"Because I have a feeling you're an interesting person. And I like interesting people," she replied cheerfully. "So what do you do?"

"I'm a... scientist."

"And what's your field?"

Eobard couldn't say he was studying the Speed Force so he thought for a moment and said, "Physics. What about you?"

"I'm still going to college where I'm studying law, but I work for Central City Picture News as an intern. Hopefully I'll be a real journalist. Sounds a bit more fun than being a lawyer."

The moment he heard the word journalist, his body froze. It was all too familiar and reminded him of Rose which made him consider saying goodbye. But then he told himself she wasn't Rose, that this young woman came to his table by herself so he had no reason to push her away. He was planning to stick around for a few days anyway which meant he had time to see where this was going. Eobard wasn't looking for a relationship, it was only an experiment.

And so he continued the conversation, slowly learning quite a lot about the young woman. Her father was a lawyer, while her mother had a small company of her own, so her family could be considered wealthy--which she strangely didn't like because many people believed she was just some spoiled rich kid.

Their neighbor was a certain Dr. Harrison Wells he knew well enough from history books: he was the founder of S.T.A.R. Labs, the establishment that would one day begin the era of metahumans once the particle accelerator exploded.

After a while they realized the café was getting crowded and people were waiting for empty tables so they stood up and left the place, though they didn't part ways right away.

"Do you have plans for tonight?" she suddenly asked once they stepped outside. "Maybe we should continue this conversation over a drink."

"Are you old enough to drink alcohol?"

Nina's eyebrows rose as she looked at him. "Officially, no, according to the fake ID I may or may not have, yes. But don't worry about that, it's irrelevant. So would you like to join me tonight?"

A little voice in the back of his mind told him something wasn't right but he soon realized it was only his experience with Rose that made him doubt her intentions. "Are you sure?"

"I wouldn't have asked if I wasn't," Nina assured him with a wide grin.

And so Eobard agreed to meet her later that day. This was the first time he felt like a woman was really into him, like they truly wanted to get to know him. Not his work, but the person he was. It was a nice change.