Work Text:
barry was on the verge of death.
maybe not really, but he sure as hell felt like it. somehow he had managed to catch a cold, which, considering that he was a super hero with incredible healing speeds, was slightly concerning.
caitlin had ran some tests on him, but she found nothing that would show any signs that something was wrong. aside from the bacteria that was strong enough to knock out a horse, apparently.
in an avarage human, the common cold lasted about a week, but for barry, it would only last a day or two. which was good, of course. but barry had gotten so used to not getting sick at all for the past two years, that a common cold had him whining in pain.
he had checked in with captain singh, and decided to take a few days off to recover. singh had kindly noted that he should take a week off because he looks like “fucking shit,” but barry had assured him that he would be back on his feet in no time.
but for the time being, he was just resting. he was still living with joe, but the detective was off work work, so he had the house to himself. not that he took that opportunity, though. he spent majority of his day laying on the couch, curled up in two blankets, while mindlessly staring at some new show he randomly discovered.
it was about an alien who accidentally crashed his ship onto earth. he was stranded, so he killed some random guy living in a beach house, and took up his form. he spent weeks watching law and order to master the human language, more specifically english, and he learned how to act human. when he thought that everything was on track, two cops showed up and uh-oh, turns out the human that he disguised himself as was a doctor who had to get back in town and get to work, because uh-oh, the only other doctor was murdered.
needless to say, it was entertaining. it was a good comedy, great acting skills, and just in general it was exciting enough to keep barry entertained while he suffered.
he had also managed to consume eleven bowls of instant noodle soups before he ran out of them. granted, he was too exhausted to run to a nearby store and get more, so he would have to text someone and ask them to buy him some. it would have worked, but he had left his phone on the kitchen counter, and he was definitely not going to leave the comfort of the warm blankets.
aside from a few hiccups, his day was fairly calm.
that was until he heard one of the windows in the kitchen slowly slide open.
barry froze. he didn't move for a moment, but them he quickly grabbed the remote, and paused the episode. he wasn't sure if he should sit up and expose his presence, or just lay under the blankets and hope for the best.
normally he would have jumped to action, but his limbs were aching from the fever he was having, and he overall felt extremely weak. still, he decided that he at least had to see what was going on.
he pushed himself up into a sitting position, and luckily for him, he could see into the kitchen from the position he was in.
“...snart?”
casual as ever, leonard gave a short nod to the hero. he strolled his way into the living room like he owned the place. he didn't even look apologetic at all, even though he just scared the living shit out of barry. “scarlet,” he greeted in response.
barry was at a loss for words. he didn't even know what to say. he had many questions on his mind, yet all he could do in that moment was stare at the criminal with his mouth parted in shock.
“oh, don't mind me,” snart spoke in his usual, drawled out voice. “just returning some things. didn't mean to interrupt your movie session, so go on ahead.”
the older man was wearing his blue parka, and as if he was a magician, he dug into the big pockets of it, and pulled out not one, but three casettes. barry's casettes.
“are those...” the brunette started, clearly in disbelief.
“yours? yes,” len was quick to reply. he was so calm about it, like this was a thing that people just did on a regular basis. he opened the cabinet built into the tv stand, and put the casettes back where he found them a couple days ago.
once he closed the cabinet, he spared a glance to barry, which caused a frown to appear on his face. “damn, scarlet. you look terrible.”
that had been enough to spark barry's mind back into functioning again. “you... you stole from me? and now you just- you just break into my home again to return it? are you serious??”
leonard shrugged his shoulders. “i found them while i was returning your book last week. figured i'd give them a watch. i like vintage stuff. personally not a fan of musicals, but i thought i'd give it a shot,” he took a dramatic pause, as if he was thinking, before slowly shaking his head and scrunching up his nose. “still not a fan.”
all he could do was slowly blink as he let that information sink in. he had just found out that snart has broken into his house on two seperate occasions, and judging by how familiar he was at the place, he probably regularly came over while no one was home. he must have expected barry to be at work, because normally, he would be. but he was also no rookie; he most certainly peeked inside before entering, so he was aware that barry was home when he broke in. he just didn't care all that much.
barry was pissed. he hugged the blankets tighter around himself and furrowed his eyebrows. he wanted to give a lecture to snart about how messed up it was that he just casually broke in and borrowed stuff whenever he felt like it, but his throat was sore. his head was aching, too. not to mention that he could barely breathe from his stuffed nose. he didn't want to waste his breath.
however...
“just so you know, i'm pissed at you. i just don't have the energy to yell at you right now. but since you're already here, do you think maybe you could... go grab some instant noodles for me? there's a small store just three blocks away. i mean, it's the least you could do after you stole from me.”
snart seemed impressed. he raised his eyebrows, and made no attempt at hiding the smirk that was tugging on his lips. he looked down at the floor, clearly thinking about if for a few moments, before ultimately crossing his arms with a sigh. “fine. i suppose you're right. but only this one time, barry. i owe you one after breaking that mug two weeks ago.”
“that was you??” the speedster blurted out, before simply raising his hands, as if to stop himself. “you know what? nevermind. just get that soup for me. grab like... i dunno, ten packs of it. and actually pay for them, will you?”
len huffed out a short chuckle. “i'll think about that last part on my way there."
once again, the younger man was too tired to argue. he flopped back down onto the couch, and listened to the sounds of snart exiting the house.
lord behold, the criminal returned within thirty minutes, and went onto talk about how he could have been much faster, if not for the old lady who went into a lenghty rant of the new whole-grain bread that the store was selling.
snart may be a criminal, an asshole, and a person who had no trouble stealing anything from anyone, but he sure was entertaining.