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It’s Not Easy

Summary:

Leonard Snart ends up on a Marvel Earth and somehow becomes a mentor to Spider-Man and friends with other superheroes (it’s completely unintentional). Barry Allen is not especially happy when he comes to fetch Snart (he’s Barry’s villain, thank you very much).

Notes:

Disclaimer: Do not own. Complete fiction.

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

Leonard does think the whole metahuman thing is, at the very least, not boring. He’s always liked a challenge and the Flash and time travel have certainly tested his ingenuity. But it’s things like this, finding himself on an alternate Earth, that try his resolve. There’s no Central, or Starling, or Keystone. There are superheroes, but they are completely different – mutants or lab experiments. Oh, well, they do also have super high-tech ones, just different ones. Leonard’s in New York and he’s built himself up a little nest egg (relatively easy scores that wouldn’t be noticed for a while). He could just lay low until he (or someone else) figures out how to get him back to his Earth. Lying low is not exactly the most interesting thing to do, though.

He’s done research, of course, so he’s not that surprised by Spider-Man (wow, the press is not a fan) showing up after he’s gotten his loot. It starts well, but then he’s able to easily ice the hero. It’s disappointing, he was looking for the thrill of going up against an impressive foe. He goes over to the man and unmasks him because, well, that kind of information can be very valuable. And it’s not a man at all, it’s a kid, a teenager, but still.

“How old are you?”

The kid looks defiant. “What’s it to you?”

Leonard shrugs. “Nothing, really. Of course, an answer might not see me leaving you here unmasked for the police and press to find.”

“Nineteen.”

“Try again.”

“Sixteen.”

“Okay.” Leonard uses the cold gun to break up the ice and then backs up keeping the cold gun pointed at him.

The boy doesn’t take off right away. He’s shivering pretty hard so maybe he can’t, but it’s not as bad as it could be.

“Accelerated healing?”

The boy looks wary and doesn’t answer.

“Given how much you’re out on patrol and how you’ve been tossed around, you’d almost have to have it, kid.”

The boy shrugs.

“Word of advice? I like banter, but always be aware of what your opponent is doing during it. Also, get a more protective costume. And if someone has a weapon and you don’t know what it does, be very wary of it. Oh, and get yourself a support system, make sure somebody knows where you are and what you are doing.”

“I could have some-“

“You don’t. I could’ve easily killed you and dumped your body and nobody would’ve known.”

“Why are you giving me advice? I tried to stop you.”

“You could use it. Maybe you’ll give me more of a challenge next time. And you remind me a little of someone.”

“You’re not going to tell me I shouldn’t be doing this?”

“Uh, criminal.” Leonard points at himself. “It’s not really my place, you should’ve seen what I was doing at your age. Besides, I doubt very much you’d listen to anybody who told you to stop. See you around, kid. Stay frosty.”

The kid laughs and then covers his mouth like he didn’t mean to.

~~~

It’s two weeks before Leonard sees the kid. Spider-Man actually tracks him down since Leonard’s been pretty much avoiding places he might show up (he’d had some interesting run-ins with other heroes, including Hawkeye, who is not quite as annoying as Arrow, Human Torch, who sort of made him miss Mick, and, his favorite, an X-Men who has ice powers).

“What do you need, Arachn-Kid?”

“Oh wow, were you eventually going to come and find me, just so you could use that?”

“Maybe.”

The kid grins.

“So?”

“You gave good advice, but you didn’t seem like you would try to stop me if I didn’t take it. You also don’t seem like you would turn me in and you didn’t leave me there to get revealed.”

“If you want to go around fight crime, swinging from rooftops, it’s no skin off my nose,” Leonard starts, but stops when he realizes what this was about. “Wait, you want me as a mentor? Are you serious?”

“I think I could learn a lot from you. I know you’re a criminal, but you seem to have a lot of experience with superheroes, which I don’t really get because you kind of showed up out of nowhere and I couldn’t find anything on you before then.”

“So, what? I teach you and you look the other way?”

“No, if I see you committing a crime, I will stop you. I won’t aid or abet your crimes in any way.”

“Okay, vigilante,” Leonard says sarcastically.

The kid just shrugs, not seeming to be bothered by his own hypocrisy. “I don’t have any money to offer, I’m still in high school.”

“Oh, I guess I’m supposed to teach you out of the goodness of my heart.”

“No. I mean, I do think you have some, since you’ve avoided hurting any civilians on your, uh, heists. But you won’t be lo- bored. And you kind of seem bored. Also, I’ll be a better challenge for you to go up against.”

It’s not the worst offer. And Leonard does feel, not lonely, but alone here. He’s not exactly bored, just not as engaged as he usually is, maybe a consequence of feeling unmoored. “Leonard Snart.”

“What?”

“My name. Leonard Snart.”

“Really? Oh, uh, I thought you would go by your villain name, Captain Cold, right?”

“I go by that too.”

“Um, Peter Parker.”

Leonard sighs. “Okay, kid, first thing, just because someone offers you their name, it does not mean you have to offer yours.”

“But isn’t it a sign of trust?”

“And why would you trust me with that? You don’t know why I’m offering you my name, but you do know I’m a criminal. I could easily be lying.”

“With that name?”

Leonard concedes the point with a tilt of his head. “I expect I will soon be beyond your reach. And I like to build up my name. When you want others to work with you in the criminal world, a name is a powerful tool. For you, keeping your name unknown is a protection, and not just for you, for others around you, which I thought you knew. I could easily pass on your name to someone else.”

“I don’t think you will. But I guess, yeah, you could. Then, um, maybe I would have to figure out some way for Peter Parker and Spider-Man to be in the same place to discredit you.”

“That is actually not a terrible idea. Do you trust anyone to put on your suit and do it?”

“There’s a guy that could maybe do it, but I think I’ll save that for now, until it can be planned out so it doesn’t seem like a stunt.”

“Fair enough.”

“What did you mean beyond my reach?”

Leonard deliberates on it for a few minutes and decides he might as well tell the kid, he’s unlikely to try to stop Leonard and might actually be helpful at some point. “I’m from another Earth. I expect they are working on a way to get me back right now.”

“There’re other Earths? Is yours really different?”

“The city I was born in doesn’t exist here. A lot of the cities I know don’t exist. And none of the people I know exist.”

“That sucks.”

“Yeah. You seem awfully accepting of the whole other Earths thing.”

“You don’t really fit here and your gun, well, I’m not sure it’s completely possible, so another Earth actually makes sense.”

“Ah.”

“It’s a really cool gun, though.”

Leonard laughs. “That it is, kid, that it is.”

~~~

Leonard teaches Peter. Mostly he nudges Peter in the right direction and then laughs at him until he sort of learns. Leonard finds that teaching is fun.

“You’ve got to be faster, kid, or Captain Hook is going to skewer you.”

“Oh, ha, ha, like nobody’s ever called me Peter Pan before.”

“If the name fits.”

“I could use a Tinkerbell.”

“Or at the very least, some Lost Boys.”

“Yeah.”

~~~

Leonard steals a few other superheroes costumes (their security is laughable, maybe they just don’t think anyone would dare steal from them) and takes them to a guy he found and gets him to come up with a fabric that isn’t quite the best he’s seen, but one that is pretty close and actually possible in this world – flexible enough for Peter to do his acrobatics, but tough enough to withstand most anything thrown at it. He puts the suits back, so the kid doesn’t get all upset. The he steals a Spider-Man suit, to figure out the size, colors, and how it all fits together. It’s frustrating and a lot of effort, but he gets three suits made and replaces all of Peter’s.

When Peter turns up the next time in one of his new suits, he doesn’t say anything – not a thank you, nor a refusal. Leonard’s pretty sure Peter’s decided to ignore the possibly nefarious methods used to acquire the suits. Leonard doesn’t tell him about stealing other suits or paying using his ill-gotten gains. It’s a system.

~~~

Leonard watches as Peter swings through the warehouse. Leonard idly shoots one of Peter’s webs with his gun. Peter isn’t paying enough attention and can’t get another web out fast enough and tumbles to the floor. Leonard saunters over to where Peter’s groaning and rubbing his back.

Leonard crouches beside him and asks, “Not enough pixie dust?”

“Seriously, stop with the Peter Pan stuff.”

“Okay,” Leonard says agreeably. “Not enough bounce, Rabbit?”

“Oh God, kill me now.”

~~~

After a few months, Peter is really starting to take shape. His banter is still going pretty strong, but he doesn’t get distracted as easily or hurt as often. Leonard’s starting to get antsy. He’d thought that they would’ve pulled him back by now. He might have to find that magician he’s heard about. Leonard’s pretty sure the magician won’t balk at the prospect. Peter’s right, Leonard doesn’t fit here, he doesn’t belong, it’s not close enough to his Earth. Leonard thinks some other people recognize it and the magician will too, and will want to put him back. He likes Peter, but he can’t stay here. Even if it’s pretty fun to go drinking with Wolverine and get into a bar fight, to tell tall tales with Johnny Storm (Leonard could do without the rest of that team, but the Human Torch is fine when he isn’t trying to stop Captain Cold), and to watch Black Widow beat the crap out of various superheroes (he’s pretty sure he only got the invite because he accidentally iced someone sneaking up on Hawkeye, but he’ll take it). He really shouldn’t be hanging out with so many heroes, but he can’t stand a lot of the villains. Deadpool is somewhere in-between (Leonard doesn’t admit it out loud, but that’s kind of where he sees himself), and he’s interesting, especially when he’s talking to nothing, but if Leonard’s around the merc too long, Leonard starts to worry about Deadpool like Leonard sometimes worries about Mick and that bothers him.

Peter’s campaigning to keep him here. Peter wheedled until Leonard started telling him stories about his Earth. Then after a while, when Peter would get a story out of Leonard about Mick, Peter would tell a story about Wolverine or Johnny Storm doing something funny or amazing. And when Peter would get a story out of Leonard about Sara, Peter would tell a story about Black Widow being kick-ass. Then when Peter would get a story out of Leonard about the Flash, Peter would tell a story about some exploit of Spider-Man’s. And so on. It’s kind of cute, Leonard is not sure if it’s just the mentor thing or what (God, he hopes it has nothing to do with any sort of father-figure thing). The only stories Peter doesn’t have a counterpoint for are the ones about Lisa. Leonard misses his sister. He misses his friends (he can’t believe there’s an ‘s’ there, but there is), too, but he thinks he might consider staying, if not for Lisa. It’s weird, they can go months without seeing each other and it’s fine, but then they’ll be in the same place at the same time and they’ll see each other maybe every other day for a meal or coffee or a game of pool or a job, catching up or annoying one another or both. Leonard’s not really sure he can function well for much longer without knowing she’s okay. When he was on the Waverider, he could check how she was with Gideon. Leonard can’t stay here, but it’s nice that somebody wants him to.

Leonard’s about a week out from calling in his favors with Tony Stark to find that damn magician. Leonard’s improved Stark’s security by a lot by ‘testing’ it (Stark doesn’t care much at all about the really expensive art he has hanging everywhere, meaning it’s a little too simple for Leonard to just take them, so he’d started switching them all around, or putting them in the frames backwards or upside-down and then when Stark had noticed, he’d called Leonard up and asked how he’d done it, Leonard had told him, Stark had fixed it, and then Leonard had started all over again.) The magician seems to have gone to ground. Or is in another dimension or something. A lot of people seem to have cottoned on that Leonard doesn’t quite fit (it’s sometimes hard to know whether events are common between this Earth and his until after he says something). Four different people have asked if he’s a mutant (he wonders what mutation they think he has). Most seem to think that he’s from an alternate timeline. Whatever they ask, he gives with a really vague answer, like horoscope vague. It’s interesting to see whether they think what he’s said confirms or denies it.

Leonard’s watching Peter show (off) what he’s learned in a deserted section of a shipyard. He’s talking about school and the guy he took down last night and his aunt and whatever else comes into his chatty little head. Suddenly, there’s a streak of lightning and there’s the Flash, standing in front of Leonard, smiling.

“Snart!”

“Scarlet!”

“Spider-Man,” Peter says, now hanging upside down from a web next to them.

Leonard gives Peter a look.

“What? You were doing S-names.”

Leonard smirks at him.

The smile falls from Barry’s face. “I’m the Flash,” he says to Peter.

“Like I said, Spider-Man,” Peter says gesturing to himself. “Wait, the Flash?” He asks Leonard, “This is the Flash?”

“What gave it away?” Leonard asks dryly.

Peter doesn’t banter back like Leonard is expecting, instead he snaps down and around off his web and jumps at Leonard. Leonard has an unexpected armful of teenager wrapped around him very tightly. “What the hell, kid? You know I’m very nearly three times your age, don’t you?” Leonard asks quietly, so Barry doesn’t hear.

“Really?”

“45.”

“Huh, thought you were a little younger. Relax. I saw the way he was looking at you and I’ve heard you talk about him. I’m doing you a favor, here. Not hitting on you, though you’re pretty hot for an old guy,” Peter whispers. Then he reluctantly lets go, steps back, and turns to a scowling Barry. “Sorry, just figured you were here to take him home. I don’t really want him to go.”

Barry tries for a more neutral expression. “No, I… get it. Snart kind of grows on you.”

“Leonard’s awesome, isn’t he? Does he have time to say goodbye to all his friends or do you have to go now?”

Barry looks bewildered. “Uh, we have a couple of hours. We weren’t sure I was going to be able to find him right away.”

Peter bounces. “Great! Hold on, let me call someone.” Peter walks off a few yards, pulling out his phone.

Barry looks at Leonard. “So, you’ve made some friends here?”

Leonard shrugs.

“That’s… uh, good, yeah.”

“How’s Lisa?”

“Oh, she’s okay. A little worried about you. But it seems like you’ve been in good hands,” Barry says, a note in his voice Leonard can’t identify.

Peter comes back. “Okay, we need to get to Stark Tower. Want me to swing you there?”

Peter has taken Leonard across the city that way a couple of times. It’s something, but he’s not sure if he wants to with the way Peter was just all over him.

“I could flash you there,” Barry says a little forcefully.

That would be the fast way. Leonard looks at Peter and says to Barry, “Take the k- Spider-Man, first. You know where it is?”

Barry nods jerkily.

Leonard grins at Peter. “You’ll love this.”

“Cool,” Peter says with a grin Leonard can hear behind his mask. “Is-“

Barry whisks him away before he can finish whatever it was he was going to say. Barry’s back in a few seconds. His jaw is clenched and he’s vibrating.

“Is something wrong?” Leonard asks.

“No, no, we can go.”

And before Leonard can breathe out again, he’s in front of Stark Tower. Peter’s there and he’s all eager excitement.

“That was, wow! You were so right, I loved it,” Peter says to Leonard, then he turns to Barry and says, “Thanks, really.”

It’s amusing to watch because Barry, eager puppy that he can be, doesn’t seem to have one clue how to deal someone just like that. “You’re, you’re welcome.”

“Maybe I can take you for a swing before you go,” Peter says enthusiastically.

“Maybe,” Barry says uncertainly.

“Come on, Leonard. Let’s go,” Peter says and takes Leonard by the arm, towing him along.

Barry follows them, scowling again for some reason.

They get waved through reception and get one of the elevators that goes to the top (three of them do, everybody but Stark and Leonard thinks only two of them do). A voice rings out as they step into it, “Mr. Snart, I hear that you are returning to where you came from. I shall miss your testing of the Stark security systems.”

“No, you won’t, JARVIS,” Leonard says. He mouths, “AI,” at Barry’s startled look.

“No, I truly will. Upgrading security systems has kept Mr. Stark from causing any major explosions for months.”

“The next time it looks like he’s ready to cause mayhem, you can tell him that I hid a subroutine.”

“Very good, Mr. Snart.”

They get to the penthouse and all the Avengers are there, plus Wolverine, Deadpool and another X-Men who Leonard can never remember the name of. Leonard looks at Peter.

Peter shrugs. “There was a thing.”

“A thing like sentient happy goo or a thing like aliens attacking from the skies?” Leonard asks.

“Uh, somewhere between the two,” Peter says.

They make the rounds and more superheroes start to show up. Like, possibly, every one he’s met while here. Plus, a couple who aren’t heroes. Barry’s sticking pretty close. He’s polite, but he’s got a weird expression almost the whole time. Deadpool corners him and drags him off for an eating contest of some sort. Leonard takes the opportunity to get Peter alone.

“Okay, kid, what’s going on? Why did you get everybody to talk me up?”

“I didn’t. I just got Tony to get the message out that you were leaving, so everyone came to say goodbye.”

“Fine, but they keep saying nice things about me, why?” Leonard asks exasperated.

Peter looks confused. “They like you.”

Leonard frowns at Peter.

“They like you. You’re funny, you’re smart, you help out sometimes, actually a lot. You tend to keep civilians out of it. And you know how you like a challenge? So do a lot of us, especially when it won’t end with someone seriously injured or dead. You’re a really good frenemy? Friendly rival? A good adversary? Whatever. You make it fun.”

Leonard’s a little touched, so he says sardonically, “You don’t have to get all sappy on me.”

Peter laughs.

They go back to the party. Barry’s waiting for them and he looks angry.

“Oh, Flash, sorry I didn’t warn you about Deadpool,” Leonard says. He likes Deadpool, but can see how he might easily grate on others.

Barry tilts his head. “Wh- Oh. It’s okay. You’re really popular, here, huh?”

“Guess so.”

Barry bites his lip. “We’re going to have to go soon, if we’re going.”

Peter jumps in, “Oh, Flash, I owe you a ride.”

Barry eyes Peter doubtfully. “I-“

“Scarlet, you should go, really,” Leonard says.

Barry nods.

“Great, let’s go up to the roof,” Peter says and latches onto Barry’s arm.

“The roof?” Barry asks as he’s dragged away.

Leonard makes the rounds to say his final goodbyes. He gets a lot more hugs than he’s really comfortable with. And he gets some presents. He gets a little choked up, so he ices part of the floor in retaliation (the mutant kids that came think it’s great, seems Iceman will only make them a rink outside). Peter and Barry come back, and Barry looks happy for the first time since he showed up. Leonard, Barry, and Peter all get on an elevator down. After they get off at the lobby (with a sincere farewell from JARVIS), Leonard’s suddenly got his arms full of Spider-Man again, only this time, it’s a real hug.

“I really don’t want you to go,” Peter says sadly.

Barry wanders a few feet away.

Leonard hugs Peter back. “I know, kid. You’ll be fine. Remember the things I told you.”

“I will.”

“You make a good friend, Peter Parker. And you will make a formidable superhero,” Leonard whispers.

Peter pulls out of the hug. “I’m going to go now. You take care of yourself, Captain Cold,” Peter says, voice thick.

“You, too, Spider-Man. Watch out for pirates,” Leonard says with a wink.

Peter laughs and then leaves, pausing outside to wave before slinging a web and disappearing.

“Ready to go?” Barry asks quietly behind Leonard.

Leonard blinks. “Yeah.”

~~~

Leonard wakes up to a crash. He sighs and gets up, wondering what Lisa broke. He thought he had convinced her that she didn’t need to break into his place and make him food (she’s a terrible cook). It’s been three weeks since he got back and she’s still checking in with him several times a day. Apparently, they’d had a lot more uncertainty on this end about him getting back than he’d had and for a while there they’d actually thought he’d ended up in a star. Figuring out how to get Barry over to where Leonard was and back without winding up in the star was part of what took them so long. Leonard’s fine with Lisa wanting to check in with him so much, he just doesn’t want her cooking.

Lisa’s not there when he gets to the kitchen. Leonard looks around for the source of the noise he’d heard, when lightning goes by.

“Barry.”

Barry comes to a stop. “Hi, sorry, I came in and I accidentally broke this vase and it looked important and I couldn’t find any glue, so I went out to get some so I could fix it-,” Barry’s babble cuts off when he actually looks up at Leonard, “You are not wearing a shirt.”

“That’s what happens when you break into my apartment early morning.”

Barry mumbles something the sounds like it ends, “….more often.”

“What?”

“Nothing. And I didn’t break in, Lisa gave me a key.”

“The key she stole, so technically, yes you did.”

“Whatever. I brought you breakfast.” Barry flashes over with a white paper bag.

Leonard takes the bag and pulls out a thermal cup and lid.

“Hot chocolate,” Barry says.

Leonard pulls two small scones out of the bag. “Scones?”

“White chocolate pecan. I was supposed to get you a full diner breakfast, Lisa said. And I did, it’s here,” Barry says and flashes back to the kitchen, holding up a much bigger bag, “if you want it. I just thought you didn’t really go for a bigger breakfast.” Barry puts the bag down again.

“Usually not, but when I would take Lisa to the diner for breakfast when she was a kid, it was a big deal, and we got the full spread.”

“Oh, so she thinks that’s what you like for breakfast.”

“Yeah,” Leonard says, breaking off a piece of scone and popping it in his mouth. He looks up at Barry, who has looking at Leonard all big-eyed and with a melting expression. “Don’t say it.”

“Aww.”

“Barry.”

“You know, when you and your sister aren’t shooting your guns at people, you can be really sweet about each other.”

“But we do shoot our guns at people.”

“Not lately. You haven’t planned anything or pulled a job since you got back.”

“Are you complaining?”

“No. No. Yes. Are you- Do you miss it? Being there, I mean.”

“I suppose I got used to being around some of those people.”

“Spider-Man.”

“Him, yes.”

“Do you wish you’d stayed?”

“No. Lisa’s here.”

“If Lisa wasn’t here, if she was on whichever Earth you wanted, would you have stayed?”

Leonard puts the hot chocolate and the scones down on the table and thinks about it. “I don’t know. I wasn’t my father’s son over there. They had no idea who he was, no idea what he’d done.”

“Then they had no idea who you were.”

“I didn’t tell them my whole record, no, but I let enough slip that they knew most of it.”

“I’m not talking about that. They don’t know how you survived. They don’t know how you protected your sister. They don’t know the choices you made, the actions you took in spite of him. They have no idea how strong you are, what you are capable of,” Barry says, impassioned.

Leonard’s a little stunned by Barry’s outburst. “Barry?”

“Did you love him?”

“What? Love who? My father?”

“No. Spider-Man.”

Leonard is really not sure how to answer.

“Oh. Wow, you did, you do. I think, I have, I’m going to go.”

“Barry, why does it matter to you?”

“You have got to be kidding. You know, there was a point when they were doing the calculations for missing the star and they were close, but they didn’t want to send me until they were sure. I came this close to just taking the chance. I didn’t because I’ve got people here I love, too.”

“Too?”

“How could you not see it? I was so jealous over there, I wouldn’t have been surprised if you had called me Emerald instead of Scarlet.”

“That’s what he was doing.”

“What?”

“Spider-Man, he was trying to make you jealous.”

“Well, he succeeded. And, wow, that’s kind of mean.”

“Barry, I had talked about the Flash and he picked up on something and he said something about how you looked at me and I didn’t believe him. I kind of thought he was trolling me, and I let him have his fun because turnabout is fair play.”

“I don’t think I understood any of that.”

“I love him, like a friend, maybe kind of like a little brother. What he did in the shipyard wasn’t real.”

“Oh. Hey, you said he picked up on something?”

“I did.”

“From you? About me?”

“From me. About you.”

Barry flashes over so he’s in Leonard’s space, noses almost touching, almost exactly the same height, staring into each other’s eyes only a few inches apart. Barry tilts his head a little, almost in question. Leonard tilts his head the other way and then their lips are meeting. It’s slow, a little wet, deep and filled with feeling.

Barry pulls back and blows out a breath. “Wow.”

Leonard licks his lips, which Barry watches avidly. “You know I’m going to call you Emerald from now on.”

Barry laughs and groans at the same time.

~~~

Two months later, Leonard is about to open the safe he’s been working on, when Barry flashes Leonard over to STAR Labs.

“Barry,” Leonard says warningly, “we’ve talked about this.”

“You’ve opened that safe a million times.”

“I’ve opened that safe three hundred and eighty-seven times and I’ll open it a hundred and thirteen more times, because that’s how you get to be an expert at things.”

“Okay, but look,” Barry says and gestures to the screen Cisco Ramon is standing next to. And Tony Stark is on that screen.

Leonard looks at Barry who shrugs and Ramon who shrugs more expansively and then back at the screen.

“Snart, there you are? Can you hear me?” Stark asks.

“Yes.”

“Good. Where is that hidden subroutine?”

Leonard laughs.

“There is none, is there? I have spent months looking for it,” Stark says, annoyed.

“Tell JARVIS, ‘You’re welcome,’ for me.”

JARVIS’ voice rings out over the line, “Most effective, Mr. Snart, bravo.”

Stark scoffs. “Whatever. Hey, Snart, you’ll be around tomorrow, same time?”

Snart raises his eyebrows at Stark.

“You’ve got a Spider-Fan, who has been all mopey since you left. I was thinking I could bring him here and you could talk.”

“I’ll be here.”

“’kay.”

“Stark?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks,” Leonard says a little grudgingly, but sincerely.

“Whatever.” And the screen goes blank.

“So, going to talk to Spider-Man,” Barry says.

“Yes, Emerald, I am.”

Barry smiles. “No, just, um, tell him, ‘Thanks,’ for me.”

Leonard smiles. “Okay.”

“Okay, now you both have to go. I’ve seen those smiles and I know what happens next and I don’t want to see you guys making out ever again. Get out,” Ramon says.

Barry laughs and flashes Leonard back to the apartment with the safe. It’s a while before Leonard starts number three hundred and eighty-eight.

The End

Notes:

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