Chapter Text
If it wasn’t one damn thing, it was another.
Today’s damn thing is brought to you by the word “Gunman”, and resulted in Mana Rice being late for work for the first time in the eight months that she had been working at CC Jitters.
One moment, she was halted by a slowly-growing crowd of bystanders, watching a standoff between a pair of squad cars and a single crazed lunatic with a Glock across the street, raving about something she couldn’t hear over the hum of speculation.
The next she was trapped in a pair of red leather-clad arms and surrounded by the scent of ozone, with the familiar, unpleasant taste of copper in her mouth. And then her ears caught up to the sound of a fired gun’s echo.
She angled her head upward, sending a few perpetually loose strawberry blonde wisps backward, to focus on a sharp jawline and profile, halved by a cowl but still allowing access to view the dusted hazel gaze ringed in living gold. When she noticed the bullet hole over his shoulder in the concrete wall, right where she’d been standing, her fingers reflexively dug into the forearms around her.
“You okay? Breathe.”
Her mind was wiped clear by those three words that reverberated through her limbs and eardrums, and she took the suggestion. Mana looked back up at The Flash, unable to prevent the faint rose from painting her cheeks. “Y-yeah,” she stuttered and ordered her mind to make her hands let go. “Thanks,” she forced out and took a half step back from him.
He gave her a slight smile, then seemed to reappear across the street, already holding the gun and pinning the assaulter to the wall. Strands of hair tickled the back of her neck from the sudden gust of wind, raising gooseflesh on her skin, and making her shudder involuntarily. She braced herself on the wall, as she knew that her legs were in no shape for holding herself up, ready to collapse in shock.
In her dazed state, her mind suggested the notion about a blog that dealt with Flash sightings. She had reached for her phone and cast her sight around for her savior, only to notice that he had vanished in a flash.
Mana’s shoulder’s drooped at that, both for the lost opportunity and for the terrible pun.
“Dammit,” she said to no one aloud and dug for the blog link anyway. Once she found it, she started making a comment on the newest post from earlier in the day.
Gunman: Zero. Flash: N . Faster than a speeding bullet, indeed. #savedbytheFlash
Mana took a picture of the bullet hole and attached it to the post, locking her phone and shoving it back into her back pocket. She swore then, and took off at a jog towards Jitters. For whatever reason, she seemed to always know the exact and accurate time without even needing to look at a watch or clock. She prayed that she’d be cut some slack for being late today. “Hopefully.”
During the particularly slow post-breakfast lull, Mana took a moment to roll her left shoulder, sighing in relief at the delicious crack it made. She saw Iris wince out of the corner of her eye, and that made the blonde smirk a little. “Sorry,” she offered, but clearly was not sorry.
“I don’t understand people needing to crack their joints,” the brunette said, shaking her head slightly. “Eddie does it too and it drives me nuts.”
“Dunno about him, but It makes me feel looser. Eases tension and tightness,” Mana explained.
“You’re going to wind up with early-onset arthritis.”
“Probably,” Mana agreed, eyes twinkling. Her smile faltered a little when Iris’ did. “What?”
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Iris asked of her, one finely-penciled brow arching a little. “You were almost shot this morning. It’s normal to be at least a little off after something like that.”
“Normalcy is for the mundane, not for the acclaimed.” The blonde waved Iris off with false bravado and a wide smile, showcasing the slightly uneven set of her teeth. “Man, I’m fine. I might have jarred my bad shoulder a little on the Flash’s hard body.” Her smile turned a little suggestive and she wiggled her eyebrows. “Worth it.”
“God, I’m so jealous!” Iris slapped her other arm and laughed, while Mana cackled and turned her head back towards the counter to help the next guest.
“Hey Mana.” Cisco smiled winningly at her. If he had heard the exchange, he didn’t show it.
“Hey yourself. The usual?”
She watched him shake his head slightly. “Actually, can you add an extra shot?”
“Long day already? It’s barely after eleven!” She stepped to the side to set up the espresso machine with a double instead of the single.
“Pulled another all-nighter,” he confessed sheepishly, tucking some strands of dark hair behind the shells of his ears.
Mana made a disapproving sound in the back of her throat. She certainly understood those. It hadn’t been more than a few years out of college, where all-nighters had been the catch of the day. While the machine was percolating, she busied herself with pouring someone else a coffee refill and offered them a smile, before turning her attention back to Cisco. “Tough gig?”
A flurry of different minute emotions flitted across his face that she couldn’t keep up with, but she caught something that looked like ‘worry’ or ‘concern’ before he schooled his features into a somewhat forced smile. “Like you wouldn’t believe.”
Mana poured both espresso shots into a sturdy paper cup and topped it off with coffee, adding steamed milk and a bit of foam on top. Before she could put a lid on the cup, she saw Cisco furrow his eyebrows at his phone, then look up at her suddenly. “‘Sup?”
He tilted his head to the right, absently tucking hair behind his ear again. “Um,” he started.
She raised both of her eyebrows at him in askance.
“See, I dunno how to ask this, so I’ll just show you,” he blurted cryptically, and held up his phone towards her with the post from earlier in the day, from the ‘Saved By The Flash’ Blog. “Was that you?”
Mana glanced at the device and then back towards the cup on the counter, smiling slightly, settling the lid of the coffee cup in place. “Guilty as charged.”
“You good, Mana?” He paused, lips pursed a little. “Like, for real?”
The blonde offered a crooked smile to him. “Yeah, yeah, I’m good. Great, even.”
She noticed the extra couple of dollars Cisco was trying to offer her, and she waved him off, grabbing the rest. “Put that shit away. Extra shot is on me today.”
“Best. Barista. Ever,” Cisco insisted, his smile more honest and bright. As he took the cup from her, he smirked then, arching a brow and pointing at the cup. “What’s this I see?”
“Dunno,” Mana lied with a wink. “Could be a symbol of some kind.”
“Dude, I knew you had to be a fellow nerd, Mana,” he said, eying the small Star Trek logo at the end of his name with a smiley face inside of it. “That earns you a tip.”
“‘Don’t take any wooden nickels’?” she fired back with a snort.
“That, too,” he pointed at her, grinning and shaking his head, before shoving the extra couple of bucks into the tip jar and nodded to her, holding up the cup.
Mana threw him a peace sign as he walked towards the exit.
“So, that was adorably nerdy,” Iris mused next to her, leaning on the counter.
“Cisco has hair that I just wanna...” Mana looked back at the other woman, motioning with her hands as if she wanted to run them through something, and she saw Iris nod in agreement. “He’s got that cute geek thing going also. And if it keeps him coming back, what’s the harm?”
“Sound logic,” Iris agreed, then went about helping someone who was calling for a refill at a table.
As is wont to happen, when some people manage to cheat Death, they begin becoming obsessed. Either with trying to find out if it was a fluke and tempting Fate again or with the object that saved them. In Mana’s case, it was the latter. In the following days, she was becoming hell-bent on trying to catch another solid look at The Flash. She had even taken to trying to catch him at scenes of an altercation, though it was clearly in vain since he never seemed to hold still for long.
Whenever there was a slow moment during work, she was furiously refreshing the blog, reading other sightings attached to the posts. Iris had questioned her about it, and she had been caught in trying to lie her way out of not having a low-key crush on the hero.
“C’mon.” Iris poked her in the shoulder, smirking. “You can admit it to me, you know.”
“There’s nothing to admit to.” The blonde cast her blue eyes out the window and away from the look Iris was trying to bore into her.
“Whaaaaat are we not admitting to?” Iris’ friend Barry seemed to appear nearby, most assuredly out of the ether, and Mana nearly tripped into a table at her surprise when she backed up.
“ Jeez , Barry. You’re like a wraith sometimes!” Iris swiped at his arm, and he winced at the power behind it, rubbing where she’d smacked him. “Mana was trying to lie her way out of--”
“--Never you mind it,” Mana interrupted, covering Iris’ mouth and grinning at the CSI. She felt more than heard Iris protest against her hand, and she shot the woman a look before letting go. “Girl talk.”
“That excuse won’t work on him, Mana,” Iris quipped, eyes alight with mirth. “We talked a lot of Girl Talk when we were kids.”
Barry blanched at the unsaid insinuation. “Wow, thanks for that.”
Iris waved him off with a smile, and Mana watched him smile back at her, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. She probably doesn’t even realize what she said and how it could be taken. Mana filed that away for later scrutiny.
“If it helps, I talked a lot of Guy Talk growing up, too. Much to my chagrin.” Mana winked at Barry when he raised both eyebrows at her, the smile becoming more genuine as his tension eased.
“Do you have a brother?”
Mana shook her head. “Only child. I was just a tomboy with mostly male friends.” She glanced over at the opening door and gave a wave to a patron, zoning out on the quiet conversation that the two of them were having.
When she glanced back at them, there was something in the way that Barry was looking down at Iris as they talked that gave her pause, and her brows narrowed in thought.
That jawline… Mana felt herself leaning a little backward and hand coming up horizontally to block some of Barry’s face from view. Have I seen it before?
Before she could get a clear vision, Iris had ducked under her hand and smiled at her.
“You okay in there?”
“Absolutely,” Mana nodded, carding her fingers through her loose hair and laughing quietly. When she looked away from Iris to Barry, her forced laughter started to die away at the look he was giving her; somewhere between guardedness and curiosity.
Perhaps she was imagining it.
Mana cleared her throat and rolled her left shoulder again, which had become a nervous tick of hers that she couldn’t stop, no matter how much she wanted to. “Decaf, Barry?”
“Huh?” he replied dumbly, then seemed to remember himself. “Yes-- I mean, no-- I mean how could you tell?”
The way he stumbled over his words made the strain in her smile melt, smoothing it into something real. “Just a hunch,” she said and slipped behind the counter to pour him a mug, while Iris wandered away to meet with Eddie, who had come in to surprise her.
She watched Barry watching the two of them being a couple, and part of her felt bad for the guy. It was clear that he had a thing for the petite beauty, and it was slowly chipping away at him to see her with someone else. Mana knew a little something about that, and it felt like crap.
“Here you go,” she said gently to catch his attention and saw him startle a little.
As Barry turned away from Eddie and Iris, he plastered on a smile, which ebbed away when he saw the look on her own face. “W-what?”
Mana said nothing, softening her look and smile, then leaned on the counter to watch the couple. She saw Barry look back their way as well out of the corner of her eye. “It won’t last,” she offered with kindness, indicating them with a jut of her chin. “Physical attraction only goes so far.”
She heard him sigh quietly. “Is it that obvious?” he muttered under his breath, the barest hint of a blush coloring the apples of his cheeks in an attractive way.
“Only to someone who’s been there.” She patted him on the shoulder a few times. “School your features there, Mister Allen.” As he did so in a blink, she nodded in approval. “Atta boy.”
“Thanks,” he said and started to fish for his wallet, handing over cash for the coffee, and Mana gave him his change, which he dumped into the tip jar, before heading away from the counter.
Barry settled down at the table with Cisco and Caitlin, who were both having a quiet discussion. “Hey.”
Cisco lifted his head slightly in both acknowledgment and question.
Barry cast his eyes over towards Mana, watching her having a light conversation with the person in line, who seemed to lighten up as she talked to him, both laughing at some joke one of them made. He looked back at his friends. “What do you know about her?”
Caitlin cantered her head to the side a little. “What do you mean?”
“About Mana? She’s awesome.” Cisco smiled, looking over at her. “Not only does she make a mean espresso and gets it perfect every time, but she’s also a fellow nerd.” Cisco took a sip from his drink and swallowed, looking back at the two of them. “She’s not like a scientist or doctor or anything like us, but she’s got the street nerd creds.”
Barry must have had a confused look on his face because Cisco sighed.
“What I mean is, her working knowledge of movies, comic books, and video games is up there. She’s also basically got the whole Back To The Future trilogy memorized.”
“You know her pretty well, man.” Barry took a sip from his drink and appreciated that it was just sweet enough and not overdone like most people seem to do.
“She was also affected by the particle accelerator,” Caitlin added mildly, sipping at her own coffee.
Barry stared at Caitlin. “She’s a meta?”
“Nah, man.” Cisco waved it off, looking over at the blonde, who was singing along with the music playing in the cafe and smiled a little. “She has traces of dark matter, but the amounts weren’t really anything that raised our suspicions.”
“Wellll…” Caitlin drew out. “Dr. Wells did kind of take a passing interest in her records, though,” Caitlin looked over at Mana now, which caused Barry to look back at her.
“Why?”
“Check it,” Cisco said. “Apparently, someone had called 911 about her because she’d been knocked over the railing and fell down half a flight of stairs when the wave of dark matter rolled over the city.”
Barry’s eyes widened at that. “She what?”
“Right?” Cisco nodded a few times. “Other than being knocked out and having a mild shoulder sprain, she was fine, which she shouldn’t have been. But that’s not even the best part.”
Barry jerked around to look at Cisco. “None of that sounds fun at all…”
Cisco didn’t pay any attention to his words and kept talking, a smile widening on his face. “While she was unconscious for those few days, the clocks around her apparently kept failing to keep proper time.”
He looked right at Barry, eyes twinkling in excitement. “Even the analog ones.”
Barry absently sipped at his coffee again, watching her more carefully. None of what Cisco had told him made any sense. She wasn’t classified as a meta, when time itself seemed to go haywire around her when she was unconscious? He, himself, had been causing electrical malfunctions when he’d been in his coma. Though he knew why now, doctors were still baffled by it and had apparently been glad to release him to S.T.A.R. Labs when Joe authorized it.
“Apparently it was a fluke occurrence though,” Caitlin spoke up again, standing from her bar stool, and Cisco followed suit. “We and Dr. Wells have been keeping an eye on her since she started working here a couple of months after you came to us in your coma.”
Barry stood up and drained the last of his drink, then turned to grab Caitlin’s empty mug as well as his own. “I’ll meet you outside,” he said, indicating the cups and they nodded, walking out the door.
Barry took the mugs over to the counter and smiled at Mana, setting them down.
“Aww, you didn’t need to bring these over.” She smiled at him, eyes crinkling slightly at the corners as she smiled, tucking a few loose strands of blonde behind her ear.
Barry shook his head, smiling. “Least I could do,” he said.
“The least you could do is nothing,” she quipped, wagging her finger at him.
“Yes,” he nodded, smiling. “That is true.”
“I appreciate it though.” She moved to grab the mug handles and accidentally brushed his knuckle.
Barry and Mana both felt a slight shock at the contact.
Normally, a static shock is nothing to write home about. It happens all the time, especially when there’s a lot of dry weather like there was that day. It also happens when there’s friction between items, like when you scuff your feet on the carpet and then poke your sibling, and they squawk from the shock. Or when you take a rubber balloon, blow it up and tie it off, and then rub it on your hair. Your hairs raise up after being charged as they repel themselves from one another.
This was not just some natural occurring static, especially not to a Speedster.
They looked at one another in surprise, and at the same moment, somehow became very aware of one another.
Mana shook out her hand and laughed at him, which pulled Barry out of the moment. “Shocking development,” she snarked, grabbed the mugs, and turned away from him towards the sink to begin washing them.
Barry backed up and almost into someone, spinning around to avoid them just in time before he moved towards the exit.
Mana would have thought that going to the bank was a safe, mundane thing to do.
It usually was, at least until things changed in January. Now, in the midst of November, crime had skyrocketed, despite the rumblings of a masked vigilante in red leather that was faster than the speed of sound and light. If anything, more crazies were coming out of the woodwork, in hopes of being the exception to the rule, or flying under his radar.
And if the muzzle buried between Mana’s shoulderblades was any indication, she had chosen the wrong place and time to do her banking. God, am I a gun magnet now or something?
“Stay quiet and don’t be a hero,” another masked robber muttered in her ear and she stilled, her mouth snapping shut, not having noticed that it had even been open until that moment.
She watched from the partially obstructed position she was in, as The Flash made his appearance and disarmed both of the other two robbers in a blink. She heard the other one behind her take a quick breath, and she reacted.
Mana jammed her elbow backward into his chest, grabbed the forearm that was holding the gun around the side of her arm, and yanked it forward with all of her might. She used her back as a fulcrum and bent forward, hurling the assailant onto the marbled floor in front of her with a yell.
The Flash turned his head towards the commotion and gave a look of surprise, before reappearing over the robber and snatching the pistol from his grip before he could try again to shoot. “Thanks,” his vibrating vocals said to her, grinning.
“Turnabout is fair play,” Mana looked up at him, smiling, blue eyes blown wide. “Think I’m gonna faint now,” she muttered before she pitched forward when the adrenaline in her body cut out.
The last thing she would recall was strong arms wrapping around her, and the scent of ozone once again, mingling with a clean, pleasant cologne that reminded her of spring rain and something else she couldn’t quite place before she gave into the darkness.