Walking The Wire

A/N: This is a one-shot fic combining my Marvel fave, Spider-Man, and my DC fave, The Flash. It's not connected to the alternate-universe canon of my Spidey & Speedy fanfic trilogy, though. It's part of its own AU, separate from anything else I've written. Like all my other fics, though, it uses Andrew Garfield's and Grant Gustin's portrayals of their respective signature characters as the basis for the story in my mind. This AU crossover takes place on timelines concurrent, roughly, with early Season 4 of The Flash (the primary difference being that WestAllen is not a canon couple in this 'verse), as well as the period of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 where Peter's broken up with Gwen and is starting college (though he's going to school in Central City, not in New York.)

Many thanks, of course, to the great Whisperingwater for inspiring this fic with a stellar prompt based on an Instagram find in which Peter comes to Central City to be Barry's lab assistant. How could I resist? 

Enjoy!

WALKING THE WIRE

It used to be that I could work the crime lab all by myself, but with the brass unaware of my powers and convinced that I couldn't possibly be efficient on my own, they insist that I have a partner. Even when there comes a week when Julian's finally taking a vacation and visiting his family back home in England. So those bright sparky dicks, not to sound too Winchester brother-y, decided it was high time I took up training duties for a brand-new intern not even a year into his studies at CCU.

While waiting for the intern to arrive, I take a look at the material he sent up in his application. Not to me personally - or Julian, for that matter, he being the senior CSI - but to HR, who forwarded said application my way. Name: Peter Parker. Salutatorian at Midtown Science High School in New York City - which explains why his contact number has an area code I don't recognize. Graduated last year - which explains why he's got virtually nothing under employment experience, save for a mention of freelance photography for this trashy tabloid called The Daily Bugle. But he's majoring in biotech, which certainly piqued my interest and made me want to pick him out of all the interns whose info HR sent me.

There's a knock on the door, and I call out, "Come in."

This must be Peter Parker. Average height, but he looks taller with his slender build. Dark green peacoat, pseudo-military style. Large square glasses over brown eyes. I'm thrown, though, by his large, prominent eyebrows and his extra-messy hair, both of which combine to make him look like he could be my little brother.

I pretend not to know who he is, though. "Who are you?"

"My name is Peter. Peter Parker." Also like me, he's got a surprisingly deep voice. "I'm your new lab assistant."

"Barry Allen." I stand up from my desk and come around to shake his hand. I almost hate to be so relatively terse with him, but then again I am his boss, at least for now. It's such a strange feeling. I just hope the power doesn't go to my head or something. "Interesting that HR would even give your application the time of day," I tell him. "Normally, they want someone who's at least a junior."

"I know..." Peter lays his messenger bag on the nearest chair. "I know, but I applied anyway on the off chance I could get in, so I guess they must've seen something in me." He looks up, smiling even with his eyes, if only for a moment. "And so did you, I bet."

"Yeah, maybe."

"Really?" God, this kid is adorable. So much me at eighteen, but somehow even brighter. I just hope it's not covering some kind of traumatic past the way any chipperness on my part tends to do.