The Flash - You Only Kiss Twice

[elrhiarhodan]

Title: You Only Kiss Twice
Author: elrhiarhodan
Fandom: The Flash
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Pairings: Harrison Wells | Eobard Thawne, Barry Allen; Harrison Wells/Barry Allen (past)
Spoilers: None
Warnings/Enticements/Triggers: None
Word Count: ~1650
Summary: Eobard likes taking trains, although he doesn't particularly enjoy when they get stalled by unexpected snowstorms – but he makes the best of it. Nor does he enjoy having some quiet time interrupted by the appearance of an old fling. No-powers A/U

A/N: Written for @timeforalongstory (kyele on AO3), who was having a particularly bad day. I asked her for a random number, and she gave me "23", which was "Meeting on a train a/u" on the list of prompts for a short fic meme.

__________________



Eobard is always surprised at how much he likes trains. Perhaps it's the very real sense of speed he gets from riding the rails, and the thrumming of the wheels and the engine is strangely satisfying. There is so little that satisfies him these days.
He could have driven to Starling, or better yet, been driven, but for what he'd needed to do, the more anonymous nature of the intra-city rail system is a better choice. No driver to tell tales, no suspicious accumulation of mileage, no records of his car at a toll booth. Just cash at the ticket machine and a low profile in an empty train car.

Besides, old habits die hard.

But it's just his luck that a freak snowstorm drops three feet of snow an hour outside of Central City, and the train comes to a halt. The engineer is apologetic, but the likelihood is that they'll be standing still for at least four hours until they can continue on the way to Starling City. It is going to take that long to get a plow out to clear the line.

Eobard tells himself to relax, that there is no point in getting aggravated by the delay. He is, after all, a very patient man. Eobard opens his laptop and starts working on a thought-piece for The American Scholar. No need to waste the time, even though he has an abundance of it.

Concentrating on the writing, Eobard absently notes the sound of the door at the near end of the car opening up, following by a blast of frigid air. He wouldn't have looked up except that whoever entered the car tripped and fell, right in front of him. He does look up, and to his utter shock, the person he least wants to see – Barry Allen – is at his feet.

Their eyes meet and the expression on Barry face turns from smiling self-deprecation to hot embarrassment and anger.

"Eobard, you turn up in the strangest places."

"I could say the same, Flash." Eobard can't keep his lip from curling on that last, albeit whispered, word.

Barry gets up, dusts himself off, but otherwise doesn't make a move to leave.

"Are you going to stand there all night or …" Eobard makes a little shooing gesture.

Barry, of course, flushes bright red. But he still doesn't move.

Eobard asks, "Is this an unlucky coincidence or are you in the game?" He wonders just what puts Barry on a train running between two small American cities.

Barry shook his head. "Apparently it's just bad luck – for both of us." Barry's right hand reaches into his jacket and Eobard's does the same – a reflexive gesture and a futile one on his part. There is no way he'll be able to get the drop on Barry Allen, not any more.

But Barry isn't going for a weapon, just his cell phone, and Eobard relaxes. Barry is sending someone a text.

"Please give Iris my regards." Eobard is trying for a level of suave detachment but to his own ears, he sounds jealous and petty.

"Why would I do that?"

Eobard shrugs. "I'm just trying to be polite."

"Oh, I think we moved past politeness a long time ago." There is so much unspoken in that cold assessment.

Eobard sighs and gestures to the seat across from his. "Stop looming. Either move along or sit down."

Barry drops into the seat with little of his innate grace.

"And how is Ms. West?" Eobard works hard at keeping the contempt out of his voice. He only succeeds by not referring to Iris as Mrs. West-Allen.

Barry looks at him with one eyebrow raised. "What is your obsession with Iris?"

Eobard closes his eyes for a too-brief second. He used to have so much better control over his emotions. "No obsession. Like I said, I'm being polite, making small talk."

"Why?"

Annoyed, Eobard snaps, "Because we're stuck on a train in the middle of nowhere and despite my suggestions for you to move along and leave me alone, you seem to be almost pathetically eager for my company."

Barry stands up, "Then let me go. There's no shortage of seats."

"I'm not keeping you here, Mr. Allen."

But when Barry moves to leave, Eobard grabs Barry's hand like a pathetic old fool, and begs, "Don't. Don't go."

Barry asks. "What do you want from me, Eobard?"

"What I've always wanted. You." Eobard is disgusted with himself. "I have no pride, it seems."

"You had what you wanted, and then you didn't want it any more. You made that very clear six months ago when we were in London. You kicked me out of our hotel room."

Stung by the memory, Eobard lets go of Barry's hand. "I don't grovel and I'm no one's second choice. Not even yours."

"What are you talking about?" Barry's face takes on a confused cast, one that Eobard used to find unbearably adorable.

Alone in an anonymous train car, stranded for who knowns how many hours, Eobard plays the hand he's been dealt. "You were planning on proposing to Iris. I heard you practicing."

Barry steps back, his body stiff with outrage. "Really? So, what? We spend a week in bed, where I give you every single piece of my soul. I tell you how much I love you, and yet I am planning on proposing to my adopted sister?"

"That's the sum of it." Eobard tries to manufacture a sneer.

"You're an even bigger asshole than I thought you were." Barry shakes his head and starts to leave. "Have a nice life, Eo."

Eobard lets Barry go, or would have, had the train not lurched into motion. Barry falls and from the pained sound he makes, he's hurt. The train stops and the lights flicker once, twice, and a third time before going out.

"Damn it."

Eobard gets up and goes to help Barry, who tries to fight him off. "Stop it, just – stop it." He pulls Barry into the seat next to the one he'd been sitting in. "Let me see." Eobard fished out his phone and used the flashlight feature to examine Barry – there's the lump on Barry's forehead, but no broken skin. "For someone with the reputation for being as graceful as a gazelle, you are terribly clumsy tonight." Eobard presses lightly on the bruise. "I think you'll survive."

Barry stares at him, his pupils reduced to pinpricks from the bright light. "I don't know what you heard to make you think I was planning on asking Iris to marry me."

Eobard turned off his phone and put it away. The fresh darkness gives this moment a strange sort of intimacy – like a hotel room at three AM. He can still hear Barry in that hotel room, through the closed door, "Will you marry me?". "It certainly sounded like you were rehearing a proposal."

"I was. But I wasn't planning on asking Iris."

The darkness thickens and so does the pain in Eobard's soul. "Who – who were you planning on asking?"

"You, you stupid bastard. I was going to ask you to marry me. I'd even gotten clearance from Control. I was going to leave the field. There was an opening in Operations. I wanted you more than any adrenaline rush I ever got from being Agent Barry Allen, code-name 'Flash'."

"Ah." Eobard remembers every cruel thing he'd said to Barry that afternoon. How he'd belittled him, how he drove him away. All to protect his own wounded soul.

"That's all you have to say?" Barry's voice is quiet, there's an odd lack of anger in his tone.

"I don't think there's anything else I can say." Eobard thinks for a moment. "Other than I'm terribly sorry."

"That's it?"

Eobard wishes Barry would just leave. Leave him to his shame and his grief. But Barry doesn't move and Eobard can't escape.

"How about, if I hadn't been such a jackass, I would have said 'yes'." Eobard chuckles and the sound is bitter in his mouth. The taste of forfeited dreams.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Of course." Eobard can give Barry that.

"Why wouldn't you fight for me? Why wouldn't you even try to persuade me to stay with you, to leave Iris?"

Those answers are easy. "Because she's who you always wanted. And she's young and beautiful and the two of you together seem like destiny written in granite."

"You're such a fucking poet, Eobard." Despite the invective, there seems to be laughter in Barry's voice.

"She's not twice your age, she's not crippled by a lifetime's worth of guilt and scarred by too many bad decisions. She's as bright and shining as you are, Barry. You deserve a lifetime with her, not a half-life with me."

"But I love you." Barry's words ring out like bells.

Eobard doesn't have a rejoinder to that. Not when he realizes that Barry is speaking in the present tense. "Mr. Allen?"

"Yes, Professor Thawne?"

Eobard's eyes have adjusted to the darkness, and it's not so thick or impenetrable. The train car's emergency lights provide plenty of illumination. He can now see as clearly as if it were high noon without a cloud in the sky. "Are we really stuck out here in the middle of nowhere for the next six hours?"

"Only if you want to be." Barry leans in and whispers, "You're going to have to grovel, you know."

"Whatever it takes. Whatever you want."

"Not for me. For Cisco. He's burned a lot of favors for this stunt."

Eobard laughs lightly, joy bubbling in his veins like the finest champagne. "I'm sure I'll find a way to pay him back. But first, I need to find a way to earn your trust again."

"We can start with this." Barry presses a soft kiss against Eobard's lips and the bitterness is gone.

All Eobard can taste is happiness.

FIN

Comments

[daria234.livejournal.com]

Aww this is surprisingly sweet and warm. NIcely done!

[elrhiarhodan]

Thank you. I had no idea when I started that I'd end up with a spy A/U, especially one so sweet and warm.