“Yeah. I think it really freaked him out. Hey, it freaks me out too. I think he just needs some space.” He said as they approached his apartment complex. It looked to be in fairly good condition.
Violet furrowed her brow. “Ah. So now we have more things in common. He kicked me out.”
“There are particular reasons why he kicked me out. I’ll spare you the details.” He sighed. “I’m sorry he kicked out out. He probably just wants to keep you safe. He’s been in a lot of tough spots right now.”
Barry felt like hell. He’d been patched up, and his healing factor was working faster than the average person, but he was still in bad shape. Leonard and his had helped him, saved him from dying, but he couldn’t burden his hospitality anymore than was necessary.
Digging into his pocket, he broke out his keys and quietly entered his apartment. He was bandaged pretty heavily, his face cut up and he was moving with a bit of a limp. Barry was just happy to be home, leaning on the kitchen counter and letting out a tired sigh. He’d wanted to be home before Charlie, give himself time to clean-up so she wouldn’t be too worried. Running a hand through his hair, he turned, intending to go get a shower and some long sleeved clothes to hide exactly how injured he was. The puncture wounds were all over, Lewis’ metal shards not missing any part of his body. At least he could get some rest now.
Cisco heard keys jangling outside of the door and opened his eyes, not moving from his hiding spot. He’d gotten a notification that the GPS in the Flash suit was moving earlier that day, but Cisco didn’t look at it, trying to respect Barry’s wishes.
He heard a sigh come from the kitchen area, and he peeked his head out from under the blankets. “You okay, Bar?”
The scolding had quite the opposite effect of actually shaming Eobard. He gave Cisco a crooked grin, oddly pleased by that little rant. Any little sign of the Cisco he’d known was promising. “I know what the limits are. I’ve been treading them for the last fifteen years.”
He sobered up at the next statement, though. “I’d say the wristbands are an accomplishment.”
Cisco was a terrible liar, and always has been. Of all the bad habits he could have picked up from Eobard over the years, at least dishonesty hadn’t been one of them. (Though it was unfortunate that wrecking cities was.) “I fail to see how shooting you helps.” Cisco responded best to praise and positive reinforcement. Terrorizing the boy was never going to get anyone anywhere useful, and it was unnecessary besides.
“I asked him to train me, and apparently that included shooting at me.” He sighed, looking up at the man. “It was a good idea at the time, okay?” Cisco felt the man’s eyes on him, and he let his gaze drift away from Eobard as his hand found the texture of the scar through his shirt. Thoughts began racing through his mind, and he zoned out staring at the wall a few feet from the man.
One minute he was staring at the wall, and the next minute there was an intense pain shooting though his head. The pain stretched from temple to temple, and Cisco immediately dropped the screwdriver in his hand and squeezed his eyes shut. As the screwdriver hit the ground, his hands flew up to cover his ears. It felt like he could hear everything at the same time. There was a sharp taste of metal in his mouth. His head was screaming, and Cisco was doing all that he could not to scream out in pain, as that would likely make things worse.
Oliver’s hands tightened around his collar with the new information. He tried to swallow down the anger but nothing seemed quell the ache in the middle of his chest. “Do you know what happened and why it happened? Do you understand how you can deal with this.”
Cisco cracked open and eye to look at the man that stood before him. He just barely saw his knuckles go white as his hands gripped his collar tighter. “I know what happened, but I had no control. I couldn’t stop it from happening after it started. I have these though.” Cisco said, pulling up his sleeves to reveal a pair of silvery bands on his wrists. “These essentially take my powers away. I can’t trust myself to have control over them right now. There’s a code on it so I can’t take them off without the person who imputed the code. I’m keeping them on until I can properly train.”
“I did ‘bro’ you. Probably because you’re my brother and that’s what all the cool kids say.” Violet slung an arm around Cisco’s shoulder. “Sounds good.”
“All the cool kids? Ooookay. Whatever you say.” He grinned as she stepped closer and threw her arm over his shoulder. It was easy, as he was just an inch or two shorter than her. “I live on the 5th floor, and there are 6 levels to my building. I think I might be in the clear, but some of my framed stuff may have fallen off the wall and whatnot.”
Violet nodded. She grew silent as they walked, clearly thinking hard about something. “Have you spoken to Barry recently?”
Cisco tensed up at Barry’s name. “Um, about that. He asked me to leave STAR labs. I’m no longer part of the team, and starting now, my apartment is my lab.”
Since the pair grew close, Cisco had been sneaking his way into Barry’s place to pull pranks of him. This time wasn’t for pulling pranks. This was to apologize, to have Barry set the code on his wristbands after He’d hurt his bestfriend by letting a man who had betrayed them set it. Cisco wasn’t thinking at the time, he was so terrified of what he was capable of.
Tonight was the night. Cisco found the spare key and let himself in, placing the ket back where it belonged and locking the door behind him. He flicked his flashlight keychain on and walked quietly over to the couch where he sat down and stared down the door. About an hour passed, and he was growing sleepy. He turned and laid down, pulling the blanket over his body, face and all. @always-going-faster
Cisco backup 