Collateral Damage (snowbarry)

Abduction

"Cisco!" A slightly older, slightly more clean-cut version of Cisco starts walking toward Caitlin and Cisco who just walked into his parents' house.

"Hi Dante." Cisco says, significantly less enthusiastic than his brother did. "Dante, this is Caitlin. Caitlin, this is my brother, Dante."

Caitlin sticks her hand out to shake Dante's and he pulls her in for a hug. "Oh. Um, nice to meet you." She says, pulling away awkwardly.

Dante walks away as quickly as he appeared. Cisco sighs and looks pleadingly at Caitlin who smiles back. She hooks her arm in his and they walk into the living room, where Cisco's parents and a few others are sitting around a piano that Dante is about to start playing. Caitlin and Cisco try to sneak over to the corner chair without being seen, but unfortunately, his mom spots them. She makes her way over to them.

"Francisco." His mom says flatly. "Nice of you to join us again this year."

"I didn't have anything going on today, so I figured I'd drop by." Cisco says, hoping that she catches that he wouldn't be here if had literally anything else he could be doing.

"I imagine you wouldn't have anything to do with your place of employment having blown up the city and all." She whispers with a passive-aggressive smile on her face.

"The city didn't blow up, mom. You're clearly still alive to scold me so..."

"Hush. Your brother is playing." She says before walking away.

"Lovely woman." Caitlin comments, squeezing Cisco's shoulder. "Let's mingle enough to make it seem like an effort and head out."

Cisco smiles up at her and leans back in the armchair. After he's done playing, Dante makes his way over to Caitlin and Cisco.

"So how is S.P.A.R.K. Labs, Cisco?" He asks.

"S.T.A.R., Dante. And it's going great. How's unemployment?"

"If you mean my occupational independence, it's fantastic." Dante answers, his chin in the air.

"Dante is auditioning for the symphony next week." His mom announces, walking over and putting her arm around Dante.

"Cisco has been helping the CCPD with developing more advanced methods of catching criminals. He's been completely booked between helping them out and working at S.T.A.R. Labs." Caitlin says. She started out sounding proud, but she couldn't hide the pointedness of her statement by the end.

"Well I guess you'd have to stay busy to make a living doing what you do Cisco." Dante says, smirking.

Cisco sighs and Caitlin looks down at him in defeat. She wants to snap back, but starting a fight with Dante didn't seem like the best idea. Dante is called over to talk to some of his dad's friends. His mom gives a final smirk to Cisco and Caitlin before following Dante.

"So..." Caitlin starts. "They're the worst."

"Yep." Cisco answers, sinking into the chair.

"Wanna sneak out the back?" Caitlin asks, causing Cisco to sit up and smile at her.

They slowly make their way over to the kitchen. Cisco grabs two slices of the cake after smudging out the D and e on it making it say 'Happy Birthday ant,' and snickering to himself as him and Caitlin sneak out the kitchen door to the backyard. Once they open the extremely creaky fence door, they quickly jog to the car and sit, eating their cake, and laughing about the face Dante made while he was playing the piano.

"He looked like he was trying to sniff a fly." Caitlin laughs out while Cisco does a spot-on impression of Dante.

"Wanna go get a drink?" Cisco offers.