Chapter Text
“Do you have the building plans up?” Barry asked, almost at the site.
“I find your lack of faith disturbing,” Cisco said, slightly distracted. Barry could hear the faint tap of keys from his suit’s comms. “Yes, I do.”
“Great,” Barry said, skidding to a halt in an alleyway just up the street from the building he was supposed to be sneaking into. He peered around the edge, looking for guards—
There, there, and there. This would be a little tricky, then. Lightning trailing behind him wasn’t exactly inconspicuous. However, ARGUS had assigned him this mission because no one else based in Central City could get to Colorado quickly enough, nor could they speed into the building, grab the files ARGUS needed, and get back out like he could.
“Got it!” Cisco cheered. “These people had terrible cyber security, damn. I’m almost disappointed. You’re going to be making your way to the third floor, right hand side—”
“Are we in a Harry Potter novel?” Barry asked skeptically.
Cisco cackled, then cleared his throat in a way that meant someone had probably just walked up behind him. “Should be the…ninth door.”
“All right,” Barry said. He watched the guards for a few seconds more, judging it, eyeing the door, and then he was gone, easily passing through the break in their patrol and into the building itself.
Not even an alarm. Cisco was right, this was sad.
Up to the third floor, ninth door on the right, grab the files, get gone.
“I’m in the clear and on the way back,” Barry said into his comms.
“See you soon,” Cisco said.
Barry handed in the files to his supervisor, grabbed a bunch of the souped up calorie bars ARGUS kept on hand specifically for him, speed-wrote his report, changed into civvies, and ran back to his apartment. Cisco was already there, watching something on TV.
“Hey,” Barry said, throwing himself down on the couch. Cisco twisted so that his back against the arm of the couch, his legs landing in Barry’s lap. “What are we watching?”
“Skyfall,” Cisco said absently, his gaze already focused back on the TV. Barry didn’t take offence; Q was making his first appearance onscreen, and Cisco loved Q. He also loved making jokes about being ARGUS’ Q, which was – really accurate, actually.
He’d made Barry’s suit. He’d made or helped work on a lot of the assistive devices for other metahumans working at ARGUS. He did all sorts of amazing, wonderful things and pretty much ran the R&D division.
Cisco had honest to god petitioned to have it officially named Q Branch early on and had been amusedly but firmly denied. Barry knew, he had been there the day Cisco was writing up the request. He had also seen the memo Director Michaels had sent back down, the one Cisco later framed and hung in their apartment.
Barry had been working for ARGUS since the summer before his junior year of college. It had only been part-time then, but ARGUS was always looking for promising new people to recruit, and he ended up being carefully offered training and a part-time while he finished his degree. Barry hadn’t been sure what he wanted to do with his life – it was between becoming a CSI, or working at STAR or Mercury Labs if he could get in – and he had figured it couldn’t hurt to at least have job experience before he went out into the world.
Of course, he had ended up loving it, loving the people in it and the things that they did. He loved being a field agent, too, which was what he had ended up becoming after he had graduated and been fully inducted into the agency.
A few more easy years working for ARGUS, getting to know other agents, striking up friendships with people in the R&D division, and then—
The particle accelerator explosion. The lightning. The nine month gap in his life.
ARGUS had been with him through the aftermath, helping him as it had helped all its effected agents get back on their feet, learn about their powers, and deal with the consequences not just for them, but for the whole of Central City.
Cisco had been there for him during that time, too.
Cisco, who was currently busy quoting Q’s lines under his breath in sync with the film. Barry couldn’t help the fond smile. He settled in to watch the movie, knowing he’d have to get up in a half hour or so to make himself more food, but at the moment he was too content in enjoying his boyfriend’s warmth and presence.