Collateral Damage (snowbarry)

Control

"Who doesn't have an elevator?" Cisco complains as him and Caitlin turn to begin their twelfth flight of stairs. "You're trying to kill me."

"It's good for you." Caitlin argues through her heavy breathing.

"You know, if we'd brought Barry, we would've been up there ten minutes ago."

"I don't want Barry to know I'm looking yet." Caitlin says, leaning against the door of the fourteenth floor to catch her breath.

"And why not?" Cisco drops to his knees on the fourteenth-floor landing and lays on the cold cement. "Oh, sweet Jesus we're there."

"Because I don't want anyone to have an opinion on which place I pick." She says as she slides down the wall and sits against the door with her legs out in front of her. "This is my place. No help. No ties to anybody."

"Then why did you bring me?" Cisco says, face down on the cement.

Caitlin laughs at the sight. "Because you're my best friend and you offer company without the unwanted advice."

"Good to know." Cisco says sarcastically, his voice slightly muffled because his nose is pressed into the ground.

"And because I know you'll never leave me." She says, standing.

"I might if you ever make me climb fourteen flights of stairs again." He rolls over and makes a show of trying to get to his feet. "My unwanted advice: don't move somewhere that will kill anyone attempting to visit you."

Caitlin laughs as they open the door and make their way down the hall to the apartment they are looking at. After spending a whole five minutes walking around, they bid the landlord a good day and quickly walk to the stairwell to begin their trek back down to the ground floor. Once the door to the stair well is closed, they both burst into laughter. They laugh for five floors before coming to a stop to catch their breath.

"Was he serious?" Cisco says through teary eyes and laughs. "That place had an actual hole in the wall. The size of a tire."

"The hole? I was too distracted by the smell in the kitchen." Caitlin snorts out. "Smells worse than when I left that milk in the fridge for nine months."

The two continue to laugh their whole way down to the ground floor. When they get to Jitters for a lunch break, they're both exhausted from laughing and from a full morning of apartment hunting. They sit down with their coffees and sandwiches and begin talking about the places they saw, and the ones left that afternoon.

"You know you can afford to raise the rent. I don't understand why you're so stingy with your money." Cisco says through a full mouth.

"I just want to keep a good nest egg in case something goes wrong at S.T.A.R. Labs. You and I are lucky we're still making money at all. You can barely consider what we have a job." Caitlin explains. "I try to keep my budget low."

"Fine. But if you're gonna get a crap apartment, might as well get one closer to me. Might save you on gas." Cisco says.

"Remember what I said about unwanted advice?" Caitlin jokes, raising her eyebrows.

"Ouch."

They both start laughing.

"I'm kidding. I was considering it anyway. Our 3:00 appointment is my favorite. And it's close to you." Caitlin says. She laughs at Cisco's ear-to-ear grin and finishes her sandwich.

"So...speaking of that unwanted advice," Cisco starts. Caitlin looks up from her coffee at him. "What made you so determined to do this alone?" He looks at her thoughtfully. "I mean alone with me." He corrects.