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Barry wasn’t quite sure how it had become a thing. But now that they had the metahuman wing at Iron Heights, he ended up there quite often, either as the Flash dropping off a metahuman, or on CCPD business as Barry Allen, forensic scientist. Snart must have noticed.
*
Barry was speeding through the prison one night quite happily after dropping off a new metahuman when suddenly he tripped. He tried to put his arms out, but ended up falling flat on his face, bashing his nose on the concrete floor.
“Owwww,” he groaned and picked himself up off the floor, putting his hand to his face to feel his nose. He didn’t think it was broken. He hoped it wasn’t. If it was Caitlin would have to break it again so that it could heal properly.
He wondered why he had tripped, and then looked down at the ground. It was barely visible, but there was a thin trip wire stretched across the corridor.
“What the hell….?” he muttered.
“Having fun there Flash?” Came a voice from the nearest cell door. Barry knew that voice. He turned and saw Leonard Snart smirking at him from behind the cell door.
“You did this!” Barry exclaimed. Len just shrugged and tilted his head.
“What can I say? I get bored, stuck in here all by myself.”
Barry snorted. “Tripping me up is entertainment for you?”
“Oh, definitely.” Len’s smirk just grew wider.
“Well…” Barry paused. “Well, I’ll be watching for a trip wire every time I go past now. You won’t get me again.” Len just laughed at him, God, that man was annoying.
“Be seeing you, Flash.”
Barry flashed away.
*
The next time it was a trap dropping down over Barry Allen, CCPD, as he was walking through the prison alone to process some evidence from a new meta. Once again, he ended up falling flat on his face and when he looked around, yep, there was Captain Cold’s smug face grinning at him from behind his cell door.
*
The next time he went past he was super careful. He checked the floor, the walls and the ceiling outside Len’s cell. Nothing. He was safe. He went back up to full speed and flashed down the corridor.
Wham!
He hit the floor. The trap wasn’t outside Len’s door this time though, it was one door down. God damnit!
He could hear Len’s chuckling echoing down the hall.
*
Of course he could just avoid Len’s corridor when running through the building. There were plenty of other routes. Through corridors where the criminals inside might have hated him and wanted him dead, but they felt no desire to put harmless traps in their corridors just to harass him. He could also report Len to the guards. He probably should report Len to the guards, or report the guards to somebody else, for sloppy guard work. But somehow he felt like that would be cheating. It would be admitting that Len had him beaten. The good law abiding part of Barry Allen said that it wasn’t important how he felt, he should just tell somebody and they would fix whatever security loopholes Len was using.
The rebellious part of Barry Allen said hell no! No way was he giving in and admitting defeat. He would manage to outsmart Len, and he would walk all the way down that corridor without tripping. Then he would walk back to Len’s door, smile and laugh infuriatingly just like Len always did, and then walk away again.
*
The feathers and glue were too much.
*
It was how he ended up sitting in the Iron Heights visitor room, as Len was brought in and sat in the chair opposite him. He picked up the phone and held it to his ear.
“Barry Allen, I must say I’m surprised to see you here visiting me.”
“Shut up Snart.”
“But surely you came here so you could talk to me? I wonder why? Need my help on a case perhaps? Need to get inside the mind of villain the way only a true criminal can?”
“No,” Barry hissed. “You know why I’m here. Those feathers….”
Len started laughing.
“It’s not funny! I was trying to get them off the suit for hours. And then Cisco showed up while I was in the middle of it. And he was like ‘man! how on earth did you get this stuck to the suit? Did you get pranked as the Flash? And not by me?’ He actually looked genuinely hurt,” Barry said. “That he could no longer be the first person to prank the Flash! And then he had to invent a whole new type of solvent that could work on my suit without damaging it, it took hours, Cold,” Barry rested his head on one of his hands and groaned. “Hours.”
Len was still laughing. A genuine laugh, it brightened up his whole face. Barry felt his heart jump and a sudden burst of attraction. He tried to keep the frown on his face but he couldn’t, it was rather funny in a strange way, and he started laughing as well. It took them a minute to stop.
“I would apologise, but I’m not actually sorry,” Len said. “What can I say, it gets dull in here, there’s nobody interesting to talk to.”
Suddenly Barry had an idea. “Fine. I’ll make you a deal.”
“I’m listening.” Len looked curious.
“You stay away from using liquids and things that have a long lasting effects,” he paused. “I’m talking about things like the hair dye.”
“What?” Len spread his hands. “You look good with orange hair and skin. Really clashes with the suit in a way that brings out your eyes.”
Barry rolled his eyes at Len.
“Anyway, you do that, I’ll come and visit you every Saturday like this, tell you a little bit about what’s been going on outside.” Len thought about it for a minute.
“That seems like a fair deal Scarlet, I accept. I would shake your hand but…” he gestured at the glass between them.
“Yeah,” Barry nodded.
“You realise this just means my traps in that corridor will just be more creative than they ever were before.”
Barry smiled. “I’m looking forward to it.
*
It went on for a few months. Barry’s visits to Iron Heights were a small bright spot in his life, where he could forget about all of the troubles with the Zoom for a while. His visits with Snart on Saturday were…interesting. Rather enjoyable, actually, if he was being honest. Len was aware of his secret identity, and that made him one of the few people that Barry could talk to honestly. He was also a very different person from the gang at Star Labs and the Wests so he often had a different perspective on things. Not necessarily one Barry agreed with, but it was refreshing to get advice from somebody different.
*
One night a few months later, Barry finally managed it. He made it all of the way down the corridor, and nothing happened. He was elated, finally he’d managed to beat Len! He walked back down from the end of the corridor towards Len’s cell, thinking about all of the things he would say, all of the mocking that would take place. He finally reached the cell door.
"How does it feel…."he trailed off, as he peered through the bars. The cell was empty.
*
Well, that was that then. Snart was out again, running around the city planning robberies and thefts and not planning elaborate traps in a single corridor just to trip up the Flash. It was strange the things you could end up feeling nostalgic for. He could run all through Iron Heights with no pause. But the building felt colder every time he did so, and he no longer spent anytime lingering, it was full of people who would happily torture and kill him, after all.
*
It was Christmas Eve. Dark, cold, and the nights were long. Joe was out working a shift, and so Barry would be all alone. He was so tired, it had been a busy Christmas with all of his CCPD work and his Flash work, he no longer had any enthusiasm for anything. He just hoped that nobody would decide to pull something on Christmas Day, and he could have a real lie in. He opened the front door to Joe’s house and walked into the dark entranceway, hitting the light on the wall as he went past. He took a step forward and felt his foot catch on something. He whirled his arms, trying to keep his balance but he was unsuccessful. He fell forward, in a way he hadn’t in weeks, and even before he hit the ground he knew who was behind it and exactly what he was going to see when he looked round at the living room.
"Hello Barry.” Len was sitting in an armchair facing the front door with a small grin on his face, watching him.
“Ugh,” was all Barry managed to get out as he got up. When he looked closer he could see a thin trip wire, the same as Len’s original trap. “What on earth are you doing here?”
“Well, you were so kind as to drop by at Iron Heights, it only seemed fair that I return the favour.”
“Seriously? You broke into Joe’s house just to trip me up? Surely there are more entertaining things to occupy your time with now that you’re back out again?” Barry protested, but he didn’t put too much effort into it.
“Not really,” Len shrugged, and got up out of the chair to leave. He walked toward the door, past where Barry was standing in the entranceway and then paused suddenly.
“Huh,” Barry heard Len mutter to himself.
“What….”
Then suddenly Len had turned his head and was kissing him. Barry startled and made a surprised sound, but Len didn’t pull away. His lips were soft and insistent, and after a second, Barry relaxed into the kiss. He wrapped an arm around Len’s waist and they kissed slowly, Len surprisingly gentle. They pulled away slightly from each other to take a breath, and Barry sighed. That had been…nice. Very nice. Suddenly the world seemed a much warmer place, and he couldn’t stop the smile spreading on his face. He looked up at Len’s face, and felt himself flush at Len’s heated eyes upon him.
“What was that for?” Barry asked, and Len simply pointed up at the mistletoe. Barry only had a second to look up, and then Len was pulling him into a kiss again. Maybe Christmas wasn’t so bad after all.
*
“Ahhhhhhhhhh!”
THUNK!
Barry bolted upright in his bed and looked at his alarm clock. 4:ooam.
“Wha…?” he muttered blearily to himself.
“Baaarrrrrrry!” he heard Joe yell loudly. “Why is there a trip wire stretched across the doorway to my house?!”