Peachy

ZERO

Part of the rewrite 

chapter finished at 31 March 2021, 11:44 pm

It had been a weird week for Barry Allen, but that Friday took the cake. He accidentally traveled in time... again, only to run into Sara and the rest of the Legends. But that wasn't the weird part. No, the weird part was that Leonard Snart was with them and Barry was pretty sure they'd told him the ice-themed thief had died a year ago. Naturally, all he could do was stare at the man, who stared back with that icy and guarded expression he always had.

"What? H-how is he alive?" Was all he could blurt out after a few beats of silence and weird looks. 

"Well, we're happy to see you too Barry," Sara cheekily replied to that sentence, doing nothing to clear up his confusion at all. Sara seemed to notice that too because she let out a sigh and rubbed her forehead. "Uh yeah, long story. Let's go back to the Waverider and we'll tell it to you." 

She sounded a little tired to him and somewhere he felt guilty for burdening his visit on her and the rest of the crew while they might be in the middle of a mission, or they just finished one, and now they had to deal with him. But then again, he always had bad timing. 

So yeah, he felt a bit guilty, but confusion still had the upper-hand. Barry followed them, quite quietly, to the Waverider. Looking around, he still had no idea where or when he might be, so that was another thing he had to ask the crew. Said crew was laughing and joking around, except for Mick Rory and Leonard Snart, but they never smiled. As far as Barry knew, the only humor they possessed was the ice and cold-related puns that Snart made. Though, he would grudgingly admit that those did make him smile sometimes. 

But that was besides the point. The speedster followed them to something he could only describe as some sort of kitchen, even though there were no appliances or a counter, or oven, or even a microwave. He'd never actually been on board the Waverider before, now he thought about it. Once there, they sat down, well, Mick was already getting a beer and leaned against the wall behind Snart. Barry guessed he wasn't going to sit down. 

"Uhm, so...What happened?" Barry asked, a bit tentatively and definitely awkward. 

Maybe it was easier not to ask, because the explanation they launched into hurt his brain. Snart apparently sacrificed himself for Mick and his team, that much Barry knew. It had been hard to believe to hear that the man had acted as a hero, definitely since he was so adamant on emphasising the fact that he was a criminal and a bad guy. He knew that wasn't true though. Barry had seen goodness in the man, though maybe not in the most straightforward way. And yeah, he was definitely messed up by his father, which he killed, but it was still there. Apparently, he got scattered across the timeline because of it, sucked into something called the Oculus. Barry was already kind of lost there, so the exact way the team got Snart back didn't really process in his brain. 

"Oh. Wow. That's uhm- That's a lot," Barry managed to stammer out, to which Snart responded with a smirk. 

"Well, Scarlet, you're speechless for once, who would've thought." The words the older man spoke made him blush, though he didn't know exactly why, because he was pretty sure he felt a slight flutter in his stomach too. Which- No. 

He. Was. Not. Getting. Butterflies. In. His. Stomach.

Well, he tried to tell himself that at least, but actual facts pointed otherwise. Then again, Barry was quite good at ignoring facts. He simply couldn't be getting all warm and fuzzy because the Flash's signature villain smirked at him and made a quip. It wasn't even flirting, just a quip. Snart's said worse before and he'd never felt like that. Maybe it was just the tension of the whole week rearing up its head. 

Or- said a little voice in his head- you felt something for this man, but were oblivious to it until he was gone. Which is why his death hit you so hard and now that he's back, those feelings are going to be very annoying until you acknowledge them. 

Well, wasn't he fucked.