Work Text:
If there is one undeniable truth about Dr Caitlin Snow, it's that she's a terrible liar. And while that may have been a benefit when it came to parsing out the emotions of his team, it's not a comforting thought now. Still, he decides to humor her.
"I often forget how important it is to step away from my ever present routine. Thank you, Caitlin." What are you hiding, you silly girl? "This morning has been... A refreshing change of pace."
Her forced smile grows a little less taunt, more natural, as she shift in her seat. "Well you can have more than two hard-boiled eggs for breakfast, Dr Wells." She says and Eobard has to wonder if she truly thinks that his eating habits are that mundane.
It doesn't matter.
"What can I say? I guess I'm a creature of habit." He tells her and glances up when the waitress arrives with two dark red mugs. "I'm sorry, but I believe those were to go."
Across from him, Caitlin jolts, practically lunging in eagerness as the tight-lipped smile from before reappears. "Actually, I thought we could sit here and enjoy them."
He licks his lips and tries to remember if something might have happened recently to trigger such odd behavior in his most level-headed scientist. She fiddles with her bracelet, then her sleeve, and can barely meet his eyes when he smiles. "Why not?"
"You know, Dr Wells," She begins and he can practically see her thinking up a lie. "I want to thank you again for what you've done for Ronnie."
Eobard can count on one hand the amount of times that Dr Snow has ever expressed gratitude twice over the same thing in the last two years and shakes his head. She'll have to do better than that.
"One thank you will suffice, I'm sure." He tells her and the pause afterward while he waits for her reply is excruciating. Then it hits him, why Caitlin would ever lie to keep him away from STAR Labs, and he has the peculiar feeling of wanting to be wrong about something for the first time in his life.
Cisco.
Removing his glasses, he sets them on the table and clenches his fists in his lap to keep them from shaking in a toxic mix of anger and sadness. "You know, Caitlin," he says and for a moment she looks absolutely terrified that he's found her out. "If Cisco were to adjust the radial velocity parameters of the STAR Labs satellite, we might be able to better detect the vortex of a storm."
The look of relief that dances across her face in that moment is almost painful to see. "And if we could detect those air updrafts, no matter where they originate, no matter how small," He continues and retrieves his glasses from their resting place on the table. "We might be able to locate Mark Mardon."
"That's a great idea." She breathes out a sharp breath and smiles.
"So why don't we go to STAR Labs and alert Cisco?" The smile dies and he replaces it with one of his own as she hesitates.
"Let me just get these to go." She finally says and he only stays long enough for her to start speaking to the teller.
...
He can hear the hologram through the walls of the elevator when he finally arrives on the floor holding the containment cell and the most prominent thought in his head as the doors open is how two years of progress in a relationship with a mind like Cisco Ramon's is a shame to have to throw away.
"...not like the Flash at all." The hologram says and Eobard breathes in.
"Some would say I'm the reverse." He finishes and when Cisco turns to look at him, it's the first time that he can't immediately read the the expression on his face. He walks forward and his hands start to tingle, so he claps them, slow and measured, to try and banish the feeling.
"You're incredibly clever, Cisco." Too clever. "I've always said so."
And he has, both verbally while at work and silently at home, with words pressed into his spine and kissed against the curves of the soulmark on his wrist. But that doesn't matter now.
"You're him," Cisco breathes and at one point he would've found the betrayal in the young engineers eyes beautiful. "The Reverse Flash."
"You and I have never been truly properly introduced." Not in two whole years of intimacy and the regret in his words are sharp enough to cut. "I am Eobard Thawne."
He gives a small bow and Cisco's head tilts to the side, as if looking at him differently will make this moment a lie.
"Thawne? Like Eddie?" He asks and Eobard thinks that he's going to miss that unrepentant curiosity the most.
"Let's call him a distant relative." Thawne allows and Cisco jerks his thumb toward the containment cell, already moving on.
"The night that we trapped the Reverse Flash you almost died." Eobard hums an affirmative , but lets him work through it on his own. "There were two of you."
He pauses him there by holding up a finger and Cisco's face becomes a mixture of awe and fear as he creates a speed mirage. The awe must win out however, because he walks closer and Eobard looks at his double so that Cisco won't see the genuine smile that graces his face.
"It's an after-image, a speed mirage, if you will." He stops running and his double vanishes as he begins walking toward the computer station on the left.
Cisco's hands come up to rub at his temples and Eobard wishes that he could run his hands through his hair. "Joe was right. You were there that night fifteen years ago. In Barry's house." It's not an accusation, so much as a statement of fact and Eobard can just tell that Cisco's searching for an explanation outside of the obvious. "You killed Nora Allen."
There is none, but he can't care about that. Now now. Not when the words on his wrist flare up like the sun, burning his soulmark black with such intensity that he pauses in closing the laptop before him.
"It was never my intention to kill Nora. I was there to kill Barry." He corrects and he's never hated Barry more than in this moment. For creating the circumstances that have lead him to his soulmate, only to have him lose him so soon afterwards. It builds up in his chest like lightning and he has to walk it out before it consumes him.
"Why?" Cisco asks. "You're his friend. You've been teaching him to-"
"Go faster." Eobard cuts in and it's a testament to the trust between them that Cisco doesn't turn to face him as he walks a measured circle around him. "I know. A means to an end, and I'll tell you why."
Cisco deserves that much from him at least. An explanation as to why he can't live, a reason as to why Eobard would ever hurt him after all that's passed between them.
"It's because I have been stuck here," He clenches his fists, biting out the words before he can swallow them down again. "Marooned here in this place for fifteen long years."
Another circle.
"And the Flash and the Flash's speed is the key to my returning to my world. To my time." He pauses and turns to face the young man behind him, tone lowering to almost a whisper when he sees the grief in Cisco's expression. "And no one is going to prevent that from happening."
Not even you, he thinks, and Cisco's next words makes a part of him shiver.
"I can help you." He says and it's not a plea for his life so much as a genuine offer to help. And, oh, how much he loves this brilliant boy.
But still, he shakes his head. "You're smart, Cisco." Because no matter what, Cisco Ramon is pure. He wouldn't be able to live with knowing that his soul mate killed his best friend's mother. "But not that smart."
And he'll never have to.
When the tears finally fall from where they've gathered on Cisco's lashes, he wants to kiss them away, but Cisco looks down and shakes his head.
"Do you know how hard it has been to keep all of this from you," He lays his hand at the nape of his neck instead, cradling his face as his hands strokes the saline from his cheeks. "Especially from you? Because the truth is that I've grown to love you."
It's the first time he's said it and Cisco looks up in surprise, eyes catching on Eobard's soulmark as more tears slip free. "And in many ways, you have shown me what it's like to have a soul mate."
He strikes before Cisco can look away again, hand curling around his heart, and Cisco's lips part in shock. He presses a kiss to the corner of his mouth as his heart stops.
"Forgive me," He pleads, breathing the words against Cisco's cheek as the light fades from his eyes. "But to me you've been dead for centuries.
His only consolation is that Cisco is dead before he even hits the ground.