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Whumptober Prompt #18- alt. Prompt #2- Broken Voice

Yooo!  Here’s more ColdFlash!  You guys really seem to like that one.  I was gonna do muffled scream but broken voice demanded to be done instead. Enjoy!

One last thing- this was heavily inspired by You Make Me Swoon by Crimson1 on AO3- it’s great piece go read it!

...

Barry stumbled into his apartment, dizzy and unstable.  He hadn’t even been able to get his keys into his locks, instead having to vibrate himself through the door to get in the apartment.  He needed food or he was going to pass out again.  He’d already flashed in and out of consciousness fighting the Rogues, unable to truly put in any effort into stopping their bank robbery.  Honestly, he was sure the bank was insured so it didn’t make too much of a difference to the speedster right now.  Right now, he was only focused on food, any food he could find.  His shaky hands pulled at the cabinets, finding nothing in them.  Living as a superhero didn’t exactly bring home the bacon, and his CSI’s salary was barely enough to keep him paying his rent and student loans on time.  He sometimes had to skip meals because he couldn’t afford them, and now he was drastically paying for it.  His cabinets were empty, his fridge was empty- wait!  One jar of grape jelly.  He didn’t care that he couldn’t make a sandwich, didn’t care that he didn’t have any toast, he just ripped off his glove and shoved his fingers into the jar.  But his hands were shaking, and he couldn’t control what was left of his strength, and the jar shattered on the floor.

Barry sank to his knees, uncaring about the glass, as tears streamed down his face.  His body screamed out for food.  He wanted to call Joe, call Cisco, call anyone for help, to get him some food but he couldn’t find the strength to do anything but lay on the floor and cry.

Distantly, he heard footsteps, and something opening the locks on his front door.  He didn’t even have the strength to lift his head.  He really hoped that was Joe or Iris, because he couldn’t think of anyone else who had keys to his apartment.

The door swung open to reveal Leonard Snart, not dressed in his parka but Barry couldn’t see his cold gun from the floor.  That didn’t mean he didn’t have it on him though.

“Scarlet?”  Snart’s voice so far off he may as well have been in the next city.  “Scarlet!”

Snart ran over to him, and he felt fingers pressing into his neck.

“Come on, Scarlet, say something.”  Snart muttered.  “What do you need?”

“-ood.”  Barry tried to say but he had no strength left to say it with.

“What?”  Snart frowned at him, an uncharacteristic look on unease on his face.  If Barry had been in a better mind, he would’ve called it fear.

“Food.”  Barry gasped out.  “Only had… jelly… gone.”

Snart looked around, saw the shattered jelly jar, his last vestiges of hope lying broken on the floor.  Then, he grabbed Barry under his arms and hauled him to his feet.  Barry’s legs were unable to stand on their own so he crashed into Snart, who readjusted his hold on Barry.  Kidnapping wasn’t on Barry’s list for things to do today, but he resigned himself to it.  There was nothing he could about it now.

Surprisingly though, Snart gently set him down on the couch.

“Stay here, Scarlet.  I’ll be right back.”

In his mind, Barry questioned if Snart was blind, clearly he couldn’t go anywhere under his own power.  Soon after Snart left, though, Barry’s thoughts became fuzzy as he drifted in an out of consciousness.  He was almost sure that what had happened had been a hypoglycemic dream when someone with a deep, dry voice shook him.

“Scarlet, wake up.  Come on, dammit, wake up.”

Barry blinked, the blurry light eventually taking the shape of Leonard Snart.  He realized Snart was holding a glass of orange juice in front of Barry’s lips.  He opened his mouth and Snart helped him drink the juice.  Once the glass was finished, Snart carefully fed him some yogurt that Barry could barely taste.  For one heartbeat, or ten minutes, Barry wasn’t sure, Snart just carefully fed him food that he somehow produced in a way that Barry’s hypoglycemic mind couldn’t process.

The more Barry ate, the more human he began to feel, the more he could perceive his surroundings.  Snart was sitting on his battered coffee table, carefully distributing his weight, with used wrappers and a jug of orange juice beside him.  The thief wore a blank expression, but Barry saw the fear in his eyes.  Snart then reached over and put his ungloved hand on Barry’s forehead.

“No fever.”  He muttered.  “Then what the hell is this?  Starvation?”

“What are you doing here?”  Barry asked, finally finding the strength to speak again.

“So it lives.”  Snart chuckled, avoiding the question.  “And here I thought I had lost my nemesis to malnutrition.”

Barry frowned at Snart.

“What are you doing here?”  He repeated.  “Why are you helping me?”

Snart snorted.  “I don’t have the kind of dirt on anyone else as I do you.  I’m merely keeping our business relationship intact.”

“Screw off, Snart.”  Barry groaned.  “I don’t want your pity and I don’t need your help.”

“I think that’s where you and I disagree, Scarlet.”  Snart said.  “You’re bleeding, and I doubt you can stand on your own.  Help isn’t my strongest suit, but I’m willing to make an exception in this very unusual case.”

“I can stand.”  Barry said, and made to do just that.

Snart cocked an eyebrow at him.

Barry stood.  For all of two seconds before his legs gave and Snart had to help him back down to the couch.

“I think that proves my point, Scarlet.”  Snart chuckled, obviously amused at his expense.

“Go home.”  Barry sighed.  “I don’t have the energy to deal with you.”

“Here, drink some more OJ.”  Snart poured him another glass.  “It’ll help.”

This time, Barry was able to hold the glass himself, though his hands were still so shaky that Snart held onto the glass just in case.  Barry would never admit it, but he was grateful the man had decided to help instead of taking advantage of the situation.

“I feel like shit.”  Barry admitted, feeling so miserable that he could even admit it to Snart of all people.

“I think that’s the first time I’ve ever heard you curse.”  Snart chuckled dryly.

“I try to censor myself in the suit.”  Barry said.  “Set a good example for anyone who’s listening.”

“Isn’t that sweet?”  Snart smirked.  “Gotta be a hero even kids can look up to.”

Barry rolled his eyes.  “You never answered my question.”

“You never answered mine.”  Snart responded.  “What is this?  What’s wrong with you?”

“My metabolism goes so fast it requires so many more calories and my blood sugar can drop in an instant.”  Barry explained.  Snart already knew his weakness to cold and his identity.  How could telling him this be any worse?  “I didn’t eat breakfast this morning, I got home so late from Flash business last night I overslept.  Was almost late to work.  Skipped lunch, there were three new unsolved murders on my desk and they were all marked priority.  Couldn’t eat dinner because of you.  That’s been my day for the last three weeks.  Only a matter of time before I ran out of energy completely.”

Snart pursed his lips.  “I’ll be sure to schedule my heists after dinner time then.”

Barry shoved at Snart, unbalancing the man but not knocking him off the coffee table.

“Fuck off, Snart.  I don’t need your bullshit.”

Snart rolled his eyes.  “And you say helping people is its own reward.”

“Why are you here, dammit?”  Barry snapped.  His fuse was always short when he was hungry and his stomach was still rumbling, though Barry seemed to have gone through everything Snart had bought or stolen from the twenty-four hour grocery store down the street.  If Barry had been thinking more clearly, he would’ve stopped there before coming home.

“Because I wanted to be the hero tonight.”  Snart teased.  “Thought it might be a fun change of pace.”

“No!”  Barry’s voice broke and blood rushed to his cheeks but he was too tired, too spent, too angry to stop and be truly embarrassed.  “No one stops to help me, dammit.  Everyone in this goddamn city takes and takes and takes and posts about it on social media and no one ever even asks if I’m okay!  I’m the Hero of Central City and sometimes I’m just so goddamn done!”

It wasn’t until Snart had reached over with a tissue that Barry realized he’d been crying.

“You’re still bleeding.” Snart said, thankfully avoiding Barry’s outburst.  “Let me get some tweezers.”

“In the bathroom, in the basket on top of the toilet.”  Barry replied.  “They’re somewhere in there, just gotta look through the hair bobs, combs, and the nail clippers.”

Snart raised an eyebrow.

“My sister stays over here a lot.”  Barry explained.  “It’s just easier to have these things instead of her constantly forgetting them.”

Snart nodded, and Barry knew he understood, having a sister of his own.  Snart returned a minute later with some tweezers and a small plate that came from Barry’s cupboard.

“Let me at your shoulder.”  Snart said, gesturing to Barry’s left shoulder.

Barry shifted as best as he could in the suit to give Snart easier access.  Snart dutifully started tugging at the glass embedded in Barry’s skin.

“Look, Snart, about what I said-”

“Len.”

“What?”  Barry frowned.

“Call me Len.”  Snart replied.  “Within the past hour, I’ve pulled you off your floor, fed you, and now I’m pulling glass out of you.  Least you can do in return is call me by my name.”

“Len, then.”  Barry tested the name out.  Surprisingly enough, it rolled right off his tongue.  “About what I said-”

“You don’t have to explain, Barry.”  Sna-Len said, using his own name for the first time.  It felt almost strange yet so very familiar.  “You don’t have to convince me that being a hero isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”

“It’s just so damn hard.”  Barry’s voice broke again, but this time he couldn’t be bothered to care.  Tears streamed freely down his cheeks but he carried on.  “People want to be saved and they’re grateful but everyone expects to be saved, all the time, and I’m just one person.  I’m only one Flash, and I’ve got this Man in Yellow and the Rogues, and it feels like every week there’s a new villain who wants to kill me.  And there’s the natural shit, fires from faulty wiring, muggers, and everything else that just normally happens in a city.  I can’t keep up with it.  There’s just so much.”

Barry dissolved into tears as Len silently pulled out the pieces of glass in his shoulder.  The only sounds for a little while was the clinking of the glass on the plate and Barry’s sobs.

“Should I be concerned that I counted twelve cuts when I first started and now I only count nine?”  Len said, breaking the silence.

Barry shook his head.  “I-hic-I heal fast.  One of the perks.”

“So because this heals in a matter of minutes, your metabolism needs what… five, six thousand calories a day?”  Len asked, pressing some gauze from Barry’s first aid kit into the wounds.  Barry almost couldn’t believe Snart’s gentle touch.

“More like ten thousand.”  Barry said.  “I’m always hungry and I never have enough money for food.  Rent and student loans are hard enough, let alone something nice at the grocery store.  And it’s not like being the Flash pays.”

Len wisely kept a comment Barry could see coming to himself.

“That’s why there’s no food in this house?”  Len asked.

Barry nodded.  “I’m always hungry.  I can never keep up with my stomach.”

“I see.”  Len nodded thoughtfully.  “Just to double check, your full name is Bartholomew Henry Allen right?”

Barry nodded slowly, unsure.

“Just checking.”  Len winked and Barry felt like he’d been had in some way.  “You should get some rest.  I’ll grab you a change of clothes from your room.”

Len headed into his bedroom, somehow knowing where it was in his apartment.  Though, given Cold’s obsession with time and control, it made sense.  Len probably hadn’t followed him here, probably just knew where his apartment was, like he knew Barry’s full name.

With practiced ease, Barry started to slip out of the suit.

Len came back with one of Joe’s old t-shirts that Barry wore as a sleep shirt and some pajama bottoms.  Len turned his back as Barry changed into them.  Then without another word, he grabbed Barry by his right arm, slung it over his shoulder and led Barry into his bedroom, setting him down on the bed.

“Be right back.”  Len muttered, almost to himself.  Barry used that time to get comfortable.  Len returned with a glass of water.  “OJ’s in the fridge, and I set some of the yogurt in there too for you tomorrow.”

By this point, Barry was completely fine with Len helping, even though it was one of the strangest nights Barry had ever had, and he was counting when he was in college and one of his dorm-mates drunkenly barged into his room to have him sing “Happy Birthday” to someone he had never met.  To this day, he still wasn’t sure who he had sung it to.

“Thank you, Len.”  Barry said, settling down.  “I mean it.  Thanks.  You didn’t have to do this.”

“Let’s just keep it our little secret and you’ll be fine.”  Len said, the edge of a threat in his voice.  It hadn’t worked as the man had wanted it to.  He didn’t have to say it out loud though.

“Still.  Thanks.”  Barry said, sleep already pulling him down.

Len nodded, and turned off the light.

“You never answered my question though.”  Barry mumbled, half-asleep already.  “Why were you here?”

“That’s a question for another day, Scarlet.”  Len whispered.

He wasn’t sure if he’d dreamed it or not, but Barry did have the distinct feeling of a gentle hand brushing the strands of his hair back and soft lips pressed to his forehead before he tumbled down into sleep.

(What he didn’t dream though was the next week, a letter came saying that his student loan paperwork had been lost and he was no longer liable to pay the loans.  He bought himself six large pizzas to celebrate.)

...

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21087476

Oh, and...

It seems I have been in denial.

Uraume rly just turned to dust bc sukuna disappeared.