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When Leonard and Barry got locked in a classroom together last year, Leonard thought it was going to be the longest night of his life. Not only had he never spoken to Barry, he could tell from the way Barry was avoiding looking at him that he had heard the stories about him. Leonard was the first to admit that he was far from a goody-two-shoes, but what started as a rumor that he was caught shoplifting, had slowly grown into a dozen stories ranging from him robbing a bank, to having killed someone over the summer.
For hours the two teenagers had sat in the classroom in silence, Barry checking his phone every two seconds even though the thing died hours ago, and Leonard wishing he hadn’t been texting Mick during class so his phone wouldn’t have been taken from him. There was no way to contact anyone on the outside, and even though Leonard considered trying to break down the door, or smashing a window and trying to jump out without breaking his legs, part of him figured people would come looking for them eventually. Or rather, people would start looking for Barry.
When midnight struck, it was obvious that no one was coming for them, and that they would be stuck together for the whole night, until a teacher would find them in the morning. Barry still seemed a little hesitant, but seeing as Leonard hadn’t hurt him yet, he finally decided to try and talk to him.
Neither of them had had dinner, so Barry had offered him half of his sandwich and cookies, and as awkward as they still were around each other, it was enough to start a conversation. They spent hours getting to know each other, and in the end they were so comfortable with each other that Barry fell asleep with his head on Leonard’s shoulder.
In the morning Leonard figured that whatever they had shared that night would be forgotten about, and that Barry would go back to ignoring him. Barry was a goody-two-shoes, and seeing as Leonard had been arrested by Joe more than once, he doubted he would approve of the two of them talking, let alone be friends.
Barry seemingly was ready to finally go against the rules, because just before they were found by a teacher, and their night together was about to end, he had kissed Leonard. It came as such a shock that it didn’t fully hit Leonard what had happened until hours later. He figured it was a one-off, and Barry would regret it and pretend it never happened, but days later Barry had found him on his own, and he had kissed him again.
They knew they couldn’t meet at school, or surely they would be caught. So they would meet up in secret in a rundown building not far from Leonard’s home. It wasn’t the perfect meeting place, or the perfect way to start something, but it hadn’t mattered, because now - months later - they are still meeting up as often as they can.
This afternoon they were supposed to meet up again, but when Leonard arrived at their meeting spot, Barry wasn’t there yet. Barry isn’t one to be late, but Leonard hadn’t given it too much thought. It’s been thirty minutes, though, and Leonard can’t help but worry. His first thought is that Barry finally saw sense and decided he no longer wanted to see him, but Barry wouldn’t do that. No matter what, he’d still be polite enough to dump him face to face.
Leonard looks out of the window, but there is no sight of Barry yet. He considers giving it another fifteen minutes, but there’s a nagging feeling in the pit of his stomach that something is wrong. So he goes downstairs, hoping that by the time he reaches the door, Barry will be there. There is still no sight of him, though, and as much as Leonard likes to pretend that this is just a casual thing, he has come to care about Barry a lot, and he can’t help but worry.
It doesn’t take long before he hears shouting. He figures it could just be kids playing, but something about it feels off. So he rushes over to the noise - part of him still hoping to find that nothing’s wrong. But there is a group of kids from their year, crowding around Barry - shouting crap at him about how his father killed his mother, and they are trying to take his bag. Leonard can’t stand these people at the best of times, seeing as they are always looking for an easy victim to bully. But now that they have decided to choose Barry as their new victim, something inside of him snaps.
Without hesitation, he jumps the leader of the group, and he kicks him to the ground. He starts to pound on him, the rage inside of him making him see red. Before he knows it, his hands are around the guy’s throat. The group is too shocked and scared to try and stop him, and it isn’t until Barry grabs him and pulls him off, that he realizes what he was doing.
Barry and Leonard just sit there, staring at each other as the seriousness of the situation hits. But when they hear police sirens, they know they have to act.
“Go!” Leonard orders. He knows he can’t get out of this, but he can at least try and protect Barry. If anyone finds out they were together, Barry will be in trouble, seeing as he’s been lying to his family for months about where he goes after school. And if Joe finds out - especially after what happened today - he will make sure they will never get to see each other again.
“No, I’m not leaving you, I…,” Barry objects, but Leonard stops him.
“Go, Barry!”
Barry hesitates, but he knows that there is nothing he can do to help Leonard if he stays here. So he flashes an apologetic look, before running off, just as the police car drives into the street.
The group of bullies are screaming and shouting at Leonard, and as soon as the police car stops, they all jump it to shout out their accusations. Leonard could try and defend himself, but he is well-known by the police, and he knows that no matter what he would say, they would just see his past mistakes. So he keeps his mouth shut as the police arrest him - the group still spitting out accusations even as he is being thrown into the back of the car.
As soon as Barry had run off, he decided he was going to do whatever it took to help Leonard. It was a risk, though, because surely if he tried to help him, people would figure out that they were friends - or more. It could be the end of whatever they’ve had together these last few months, but if he didn’t at least try to fix things, he couldn’t live with himself.
So he had gone to the police station, not entirely sure what he was going to do yet. But if he had gone home, he couldn’t have done anything. Now that he’s walking through the door, though, it’s starting to feel like a bad idea to come here. Because what is he going to do? Make a grab for Leonard and try to help him escape?
He has visited Joe at the station many times, so everyone knows him, and they don’t find it odd to see him there. But that only makes him feel more nervous and guilty. Not that he is technically doing anything wrong. Not yet, anyway.
When he finds Leonard in the hallway, waiting to be taken in for questioning, he’s shocked to find that no one is with him. It’s the perfect chance to try and sneak him out, but even if they could get away, where would they go? The police would come after them, and then they’d both be in trouble.
Barry knows that there is only one thing he can truly do. It makes him nervous as hell, but the thought of Leonard being locked up because he was trying to protect him makes him feel a hundred times worse. So he quickly sneaks into the seat next to Leonard, hoping they will have at least a minute or two before someone catches them.
“What are you doing here?” Leonard asks. “I told you to…”
“I’m going to take care of this,” Barry interrupts.
“Don’t,” Leonard warns him. “If someone catches you here…”
“I don’t care, Len. This is my fault, so I’m going to fix it.”
Leonard shakes his head, looking more frustrated than upset at the situation he’s in. So Barry grabs his hand, and he gives it a reassuring squeeze.
“I’ll go talk to Joe. I’ll tell him what really happened.”
“I can’t ask you to do that,” Leonard objects. “If he finds out why you were there in the first place, you’ll be in trouble. It’s not my first time here, and…”
Barry doesn’t care what Leonard says, and with every second he sits here listening to him being stubborn, the chance they get caught gets bigger. So he kisses him to shut him up, still holding on tightly to his hand.
“I’ll take care of it, okay?” He repeats, before getting up to leave. “I promise.”
Barry’s heart is almost beating out of his chest by the time he makes it through the station without being asked a question, and he gets to Joe’s office. He has to take a deep breath before knocking on the door, but it doesn’t help one bit.
“What are you doing here?” Joe asks. “I thought…”
“I was there,” Barry blurts out, feeling his cheeks flush.
“You were where?” Joe asks, dropping the paper he was holding onto his desk. “What’s this about?”
“With Leonard, when he was arrested…”
“Leonard…,” Joe sighs. “Snart? What were you doing there? Did he…”
“I know what he did,” Barry interrupts, unable to keep the words in any longer. “I know that he attacked that guy, but he only did it to protect me. They were saying things about my mom and my dad, and Len…”
“Len?” Joe scoffs. “What the hell were you doing there, Barry?”
Barry shrugs, not quite ready to tell Joe about their relationship - or whatever it is that they have - just yet. Because once he tells Joe, he certainly won’t want to help Leonard anymore.
“Why would someone like Leonard Snart stick up for you?” Joe asks. “If you’re going to try and convince me to let him go without charges just because you feel sorry for him… wait, does he have something on you? Did he tell you to come here? Because I swear, if he threatened you…” Joe rants, and it’s obvious that he doesn’t exactly like Leonard.
“No, he didn’t,” Barry sighs, wishing he could just tell Joe the truth. But he’s scared, and the angrier Joe gets, the more nervous he is about being here - the more he wishes he would have tried to help Leonard escape after all. But deep down he knows that it wouldn’t have done any good. “I was there to meet him. I tried to hide for a while to avoid those guys, but…”
“Hold up, why were you meeting him?” Joe interrupts, his anger slowly fading into worry.
“Because we’re…,” Barry tries, but the words get stuck in his throat. “He’s sort of…”
“Sort of what, Barry?”
“My boyfriend?” Barry mumbles, hoping that Joe has heard him, because he doubts that he would be able to repeat it.
“Leonard Snart is your…!” Joe starts, but he stops himself from saying whatever he else was going to say, and he sighs, burying his face in his hands in frustration.
“Are you angry with me?” Barry asks, not sure if Joe is about to explode, or if he’s just taking a moment to process.
“I’m not angry,. I’m just…,” Joe sighs again, before looking up. “I can’t say I saw that one coming.”
“I really like him, Joe.”
“That doesn’t change the fact that he just tried to kill a guy,” Joe spits out. “So go home, Barry, we’ll talk about this later.”
“He didn’t try to kill him. I was there! He was protecting me!”
“We have multiple witnesses, saying…”
“They’re lying!” Barry interrupts, getting desperate now. He’s not sure what he was expecting, coming here, but he can’t just walk away, leaving Leonard to fend for himself. “He didn’t mean to hurt him, Joe,” Barry says, but he has to admit that he didn’t even think to check if he was badly hurt. “How bad is it? Is he…”
“He’ll be fine,” Joe quickly says. “Just a couple of bruises and a split lip.”
“See!” Barry says, even though a moment ago he wasn’t convinced himself that Leonard hadn’t gone too far. “He was just trying to keep them from hurting me. Please, Joe, if he hadn’t jumped in…”
“I can’t just release him,” Joe objects, but he has never seen Barry this desperate and panicked, and it’s obvious that he’s telling the truth. “Look, I’ll see what I can do, but I’m not promising anything.”
“I know.”
“Now go home, Barry.”
As soon as Joe had come home, Barry started asking questions about Leonard. It was obvious that Joe was still upset with trying to interfere with his work, though, and he had refused to talk about it. He wouldn’t even say what had happened to Leonard. So Barry had lain awake all night, tossing and turning. He had sent Leonard a text, but seeing as there was no reply, he figured he couldn’t have been released after all.
Barry feels sick to his stomach with exhaustion and guilt, because he had promised Leonard that he was taking care of it, but he didn’t. He feels like an idiot, because Leonard could have seriously hurt that guy, and of course there would be repercussions.
He’s shocked to find Leonard standing by his locker, though, and for a moment all he can do is stand there and stare. But then he snaps out of it, and he rushes over to him. Normally they would stay as far away from each other as possible at school, but right now he doesn’t give a damn about anyone seeing them together.
“What happened?” he asks.
“I’m not sure.” Leonard shrugs, like it was no big deal at all what happened yesterday - or rather, what could have happened. “One minute they were saying I tried to kill the guy, the next minute they let me go. Apparently someone had seen the whole thing happening, so…” He slams his locker shut, and when he sees the shy grin on Barry’s face, he can’t help but laugh. “What did you do?”
“I may have told Joe that you’re my boyfriend,” Barry admits, blushing deeply. Because they may have been meeting up in secret for months now, but they never actually talked about what they were. Nothing was ever actually made official, and now that he has said the words, he feels stupid. Because what if this was just something casual to Leonard, and he got the wrong end of the stick, thinking they were more?
“Your boyfriend, huh?” Leonard grins. “What did he say?”
“Not much.”
“He didn’t tell you to stay the hell away from me?”
“I think he’s still too shocked to know what to say,” Barry admits, still blushing. “But he got you out, so that’s a good sign, I suppose…”
Leonard looks over his shoulder to make sure they’re still alone, and normally Barry would have been grateful for his caution, but today it makes him feel awful. Because for months they had to meet up in secret, and they had to pretend not to know each other in school, all because Barry was too nervous about people’s reactions once they found out about their relationship. He was too worried about Joe finding out, and while Leonard had understood and he never objected, Barry feels terrible for making him lie, and for making him feel like he was ashamed to be seen with him - even if Leonard never made an issue of it, or admitted that it upset him. But right now Barry can see the discomfort in Leonard’s eyes - the longing to stop hiding.
Barry’s biggest worry was Joe’s reaction, and while Joe may be upset for a while about him dating someone who gets arrested every other week, nothing had changed between them. For months he had made Leonard lie, and for what? If he had simply told Joe the truth from the start, they could have avoided having to meet in secret, and they could have actually gone out together. If Barry had told the truth, he wouldn’t have been on his way to meet Leonard on his own yesterday, and the whole situation could have been avoided.
He feels awful, and obviously Leonard can tell, because after checking again if they’re alone, he pulls him close, and he gives him a hug. Barry can’t help but smile, because he knows that Leonard isn’t the hugging-type, and he’s only doing this to make him feel better.
He quickly steps away from Barry when someone steps into the hallway, though, but Barry is sick and tired of hiding. So he pulls Len close again, and he kisses him.
“What was that for?” Leonard laughs, a shocked look on his face.
“To say thank you,” Barry says, still holding onto Leonard’s hands, even though he knows that people are looking and whispering already. “For saving me yesterday. If it wasn’t for you…”
“You wouldn’t have been there,” Leonard states.
“Maybe.” Barry smiles shyly, fully aware of the what-ifs. But they don’t matter anymore, because they can’t go back and change things. All they can do is try and get it right now, and the first thing Barry wants to get right is telling Leonard how he truly feels about him. He wants to know that this isn’t a casual hook-up to him, and that he cares about him. So as big as the words are, and as awkward as it may be when Leonard doesn’t feel the same way, Barry pulls him closer, and he tells him, “I love you.”
As soon as he has said the words, he fears he may have ruined everything. But after looking shocked for a moment, a small smile forms on Leonard’s lips.
“I love you too,” he says, and while he may not always show his true feelings, he looks relieved to finally have said the words.
Barry can’t stop the smile from forming on his lips - too happy and too relieved to try and hide it any longer. And as the hallway starts filling up with their fellow students, he pulls Leonard closer and he kisses him again.
