Work Text:
Barry was exhausted. There was a serial killer- a normal, human serial killer- going around Central City and filling his desk with more work than usual. It led to a lot of early mornings and late nights trying to process evidence, on top of all the other crime in the district.
On top of that, the state wrote new laws about how detailed a report needs to be in order to be submitted into court, so he was spending more time than ever explaining in writing how the evidence he collected related to the case and how he came to conclusions, which often led to him forgetting to eat lunch until he was absolutely starving.
Then after work he rushed to STAR labs in order to be the Flash. He stayed out until late at night, about the time the serial killer should be out killing serially, and ran through all the back alleys and dark corners of the city to try to find them. He usually wouldn’t get home until around three in the morning, then have to wake up at seven again to start it all over again.
His diet at this point pretty much solely consisted of the high-calorie bars that Cisco made for him, and he’d been caught a few times in the past week nearly fainting because he forgot to eat.
Len was worried about him, he’d had to catch Barry a couple of times now lest he hit his head on the corner of a table or something of the sort. The thief was trying to get him to come home earlier, but he couldn’t sleep knowing there was someone doing unthinkable things in his city in the middle of the night.
Barry felt bad about all of it, he really did. He knew that his friends and boyfriend were worrying about him, he knew that he could put a stop to it if he just went home a little earlier, set an alarm to remind him to eat, or just spent some time not working for a couple of hours.
He’d already cancelled date night with Leonard twice because of this, he’d declined going to get coffee with Iris or play games with Cisco or have drinks with Caitlyn more times than he could count.
He knew he was overworking himself, but he couldn’t find it in him to relax with so much on his mind.
He got a text from Len during work, asking if he would be up for date night. Barry hated himself for canceling a third time, but he had to. He didn’t have time to relax, to do anything he wanted to do, because if he relaxed, people would be hurting, dying, and he wouldn’t be doing anything to stop it.
When Leonard got the text from his boyfriend of almost two years, the concern he’d been feeling over the past month grew exponentially. They hadn’t missed a single night (unless it was interrupted, but shit happens) since they’d gotten together, so the third cancellation in a row was unprecedented.
Len knew what Barry was going through, had gotten him to talk about it in the beginning when he still got home before midnight, but had barely been able to see the man except for the half hour he took to get ready in the morning. He couldn’t go on like this, neither could. Barry was going to hurt himself if he didn’t keep up on his calories, nevermind the sheer exhaustion, and Leonard was stressing out on his behalf. He was about ready to go full Captain Cold on every criminal in the city just to give his boyfriend a break.
That actually gave him an idea. He picked his phone up off the counter to call his Rogues with a smile forming on his face.
Barry had just shown up to the labs when the alarm went off. It had rarely done that in the past couple of weeks. It seemed like the killer had gone above everybody’s expectations and the organized criminals of the city were waiting to strike until they would have the Flash’s full attention.
He wondered if his boyfriend had anything to do with that.
He sped off to neutralize the threat without paying much attention to what it was beforehand. He was tired enough that Cisco talking in his ear was just background noise, no matter how much he tried to focus on it. He eventually turned off his comm, he would figure out the threat when he got there.
He found the door slightly ajar, and did not expect what followed. There was a humming coming from a room on the other side of the house, but not far from the door. There was the sound of cooking, alongside a wonderful smell that had his mouth watering. He stepped inside the house without as much caution as he should have taken, his feet moving before he could think to tell them to. He rounded the corner to the room that the noise was coming from, and the sight that greeted him was more than welcome.
Len was cooking. There was a large pot of something simmering next to him, as well as a much smaller pot that looked like mashed potatoes. The counters were littered with half-opened spices that Barry knew would be closed and put away before anything hit the table. The oven was on, though he couldn’t see what was inside. Whatever it was, everything smelled devine.
His stomach audibly growled. He’d skipped lunch today.
Leonard turned slightly, just enough to confirm it was him who had entered the house, then went back to cooking. Barry walked forward and hugged him from behind, burying his face in his boyfriend’s shoulder.
“You know I can’t stay.” He mumbled.
“Why not?”
“I have to do my job, Len.”
Leonard hummed, and turned the temperature on the stove down. “You are doing your job, though.”
“Dating you is more of a hobby than a job, I think.”
“You can go, there’s nobody stopping you. But my Rogues are currently doing their own recon on that killer you’re trying to catch. They have contacts that might not be in your phone book. And really, what’s one night to yourself going to hurt?”
“What if another person dies tonight because I couldn’t stop them?”
“That’s not on you, Scarlet. You aren’t good to anybody if you don’t take care of yourself. What if you fainted while running and somebody pulled off your mask and took pictures? Then you’d be in a much more difficult situation than you are now.”
Len turned around to hold Barry’s face in his hands. “You are the most precious thing I’ve ever held. Trust in me and my team, for just one night. If nothing happens out there tonight, then at least you’re fed and rested. If something does, they have been instructed to call me and then you can speed off and it’ll be over with.”
Barry sighed. He couldn’t argue against that. While he knew that he would feel guilty if another person got hurt while he was having dinner, he also knew that this was the best option for everybody.
“What are you making?”
They ended up eating a four course meal including homemade soup, a giant salad, an entire roasted chicken, and half of a gallon of ice cream.
After eating much more than he should have been able to, Barry sat back in his chair, enjoying the feeling of being full for the first time in a while. Soon, Len had packed the leftovers he’d made sure to make and put all the dishes in the sink. Then, he grabbed Barry’s hand and pulled him to what seemed to be a bedroom.
“Len, I’m not really in the mood for-”
“No, don’t worry about that. This is about relaxing.”
The bedroom was nice, it had a television and all the things you’d expect to find, but Barry felt weird about it. It wasn’t theirs.
“What’s wrong?”
“Why don’t we just go home?”
“I wouldn’t want to leave such a mess in one of my safehouses, Scarlet.”
Without warning, Barry sped off to clean the kitchen. It took him less than three minutes to get all of the dishes either in the dishwasher or cleaned and put away, and another minute to get the surfaces looking spotless.
He stopped in front of Len, closer than he meant to be. He was feeling this sort of desperation to be in their space instead of a random house. At the same time, he wanted to take his time getting there.
“Drive us?” He asked, holding out Len’s motorcycle keys. The latter nodded, and they left the safehouse almost how it had been before they arrived, but with more food in the fridge and the dishwasher running.
When they got back to their apartment, they again went to the bedroom. Barry felt much more comfortable hanging up his flash suit in the closet and getting under the covers. The rest of the night was spent with just the two of them, something playing in the background while they each basked in the other’s presence.
After weeks of barely being able to see each other, it was a much-needed night.
Barry ended up falling asleep around eight o’clock. Leonard had already notified the STAR labs team about where Barry was and what was happening. A text message woke him up from a light doze about two hours later, photos providing evidence of who the police had been trying to catch.
The Central City police would get those photos from an anonymous source tomorrow morning, putting an end to all the trouble they’d been having in their city.
Len didn’t care about any of that, though. He was just happy that his Scarlet was finally able to get some sleep. He turned off the TV, wrapped his arms around the other man, and fell asleep.