Soothsayer ⚡ Barry Allen

Calling in Favors

Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays ❤

I had gone back to Cat and I's apartment before hitting the international airport; Sel never failed to leave me a getaway plan, and it took about half an hour to find the stashed passports. Currently, Suzie Campbell was on her way to Dubai, fleeing the place she once found sanctuary, the only place she truly felt home. For now, I couldn't think about what I was leaving behind, only what I was working toward.

I tucked a stray piece of hair behind my ear, wondering how it had escaped my bun, when I spotted a fluffy coat. I sighed, mostly thinking I was being paranoid; this day and age you had to be. Leonard Snart just proved that point. "What're you doing, Andy?" he asked, a hint of reprimand in his voice.

"What're you doing, Lenny? 'Cause lately all it seems to be is follow me," I countered, turning my head to face him. He couldn't see my eyes behind my sunglasses, couldn't read me properly, but his concern as his eyes rapidly moved over my face made it almost felt like I had become a Lisa. "Do you care about me?"

"So to speak," he nodded. "Why'd you leave Barry boy behind this trip?" I took a deep breath and started to go for the knife in my sleeve, but remembered I was in an airport and had purposely left it at Barry's.

"Why does it matter to you? I don't take him everywhere I go." With a deep sigh, Snart sat beside me and looked me over, probably able to tell I was no longer looking at him. I didn't care, I just wanted to board my flight and be gone.

"It matters to me who you're getting into bed with." I scoffed, no one would be getting into my bed anytime soon.

"Why?" I restated. "I'm not your sister, Leonard. Why do I matter to you?"

"I thought you were the one person people didn't have to spell things out for," he scoffed, shaking his head.

"Now boarding Flight 134 to Dubai." I shook my head as well.

"Thanks for the send off, Len. It's nice seeing a friendly face before all this." I grabbed my bag as I stood, quickly making my way to the terminal.

"I'll bet my fuzzy hood there'll be something to keep you here," Snart tried, keeping up with me. He was starting to recognize my jerkish movements, but he still retracted when I snapped around on him, my hair escaping my ear.

"The Joker and Harley Quinn's heads," I answered in a low tone. "Nothing more and nothing less." My face was hard and impassive: my 'immovable force' as the Clown had donned it. Snart's lips pulled into a flat, tight line, confliction clear. "Stay away from Barry," I tacked on, turning on my heel and entering the boarding gate.

⚡

Dubai was just the start of it, so I felt I owed myself a beach day. My skin would undoubtedly tan with my time in the Middle East, so it could use a bit of a preperation. I had taken Christine from Barry's collection, to hold my attention for as long as possible. When I wasn't reading, I was peoplewatching over the top of my book, ever vigalant. I was fairly close to the water, the sounds of the waves rolling over each other and crashing into the sand was soothing, and I needed a source of comfort that wasn't the smell of Barry's living quarters clinging to the pages of the book. I planned to make it back to him, things just had to change first. I have to change.

The water was disturbed of its normal pattern and I didn't even look up, just grabbed a pair of sunglasses and sat up so I was no longer laying on my stomach. After I settled with my book in hand, I looked up and froze.

It wasn't the dark skin; I was in India, for Christ sake. It was the heavy black, tribal ink covering the arms and torso of my recent friend, the Atlantian. God, he was pretty with a bulky jacket on, without anything on above the waist, he was a nice view. I dropped my eyes back to the book and started reading, hoping to a higher power that he hadn't seen me. But, like all the other times, the big man, woman, entity, what have you, let me down. "You just gunna pretend I didn't watch you undress me with your eyes?" he asked when he stepped close. "Barry was worried you might make a beach trip without him."

With a sigh, I pushed past the memory of agreeing on it and looked to the shorts clinging to his thighs before meeting his light eyes. "Like you leave much for the imagination," I shrugged, pulling a laugh from him. "Did he send you?" As Arthur was Atlantian, at least partly, I assume he made his way here by the water before me.

"One of your friends told him you were headed here. He would've came himself, but he thought you'd react badly, whatever that means." I took off my glasses, my dark brown eyes dull and lacking their normal light of humor.

"I can show you? Dunno how fast you heal compared to Barry, but I'm willing to test it if you are." Chuckling to himself, Arthur sat in the sand before me, causing me to set down the book.

"Yeah, I'm good on that," he laughed. "So, what are you doing halfway around the world, chika?"

"If I told you I'd have to kill you," I sighed, "and you're one of the few I like." I didn't know Arthur all that well, he knew me even less, but I could see in his expression that he realized I was different. "And to think, you thought I couldn't breathe without Barry beside me," I added with the ghost of a chuckle.

"Is this breathing, though? Or is this holding your breath until you find air again?" I looked over the Atlantian for a moment before standing, grabbing my book and bag as he scrambled to follow, to correct whatever he said that had set me off. "What am I supposed to tell Barry?" he tried, following after me as I walked away from him.

"I told him all I had to say already. You tell him whatever you think is best," I exhaled tensely. A hand closed around my wrist so without thinking I shortly turned and took out a knee, surprising myself when I found Arthur knelt down, shaking his head at me. Barry said it took strength and speed to even land a blow on an Atlantian. Either I was a bit better off than I thought I was, or that's what they wanted me to think.

"He's not the only one worrying about you, Andy," he softly chuckled, unfazed that I had lashed out at him. "You got more friends than you think." His pale eyes came up to my contrastingly dark ones, his ease clashing hard with my panic and the instinct to flee.

"Right now, my number of friends means nothing if I'm the reason they're all killed." I broke his unwavering grip on my wrist and walked away, feeling his light eyes burning holes into the galaxy on my back as I left.

⚡

Barry hung up his phone quickly, forgetting to say goodbye to Arthur as he ran around his space, collecting all the books he'd pulled off the shelf in frustration and returning them to their normal places. 'She was reading a book, had your Sharpie initials over the tops of the pages.' For the years Iris had mocked him for marking all his books with such, he felt it had finally paid off.

When things where in their proper places, there was a definate gap where one book belonged, now it was a process of figuring out which one. Barry had watched prison movies, he was confident that if Andy had left any crypitc message behind for him, it'd be in the books. When he finally figured it out, he stilled and took a deep breath, the air around him was disturbed and threw stray papers about. "Christine," he muttered to himself, racking his brain for any meaning behind it.

Other than he had recently finished it and when he had recovered from his stuttering control of his Speed, he couldn't find any significance to it. He leaned against the bookshelf and took deep breath, uttering, "Damnit!" with his exhale.