skinny love | barry allen

33

"Is she sleeping?-" Cisco's voice woke me up, before he was snapping his fingers in front of my face, "Wake up! I have a whole presentation planned-"

"Hey, leave her alone-" I heard Barry swat Cisco's hand away, "She was up til like four am writing her article- her deadline is in a few hours-"

"No- it's alright-" My eyes opened, squinting at the light, rubbing then lightly, yawning, "I'm awake-"

"See what you did?" Barry shot Cisco a look, but it was slight, before setting my usual go to coffee next on the desk I was just sprawled on, "Hey- I got your usual- I was planning on giving it to you in at least thirty minutes- but-"

"It's okay, I'm up-" I got up, before hugging his middle and pushing myself onto my tippy toes, pecking his lips, "Thank you-"

Barry scrunches his nose and kisses my forehead, then pulls me into his side, rubbing my arm.

Cisco looks at us, his tone slightly playful, "Are you guys done being all cute and lovey dovey, 'cause I'd like to start-"

"Get on with it-" I leaned back into Barry, picking up the coffee he got me, sipping it through the straw.

"Thank you-" Cisco walked toward the monitor, "As some of you may well know, I've been deeply embroiled in a secret, one-sided battle with an invisible enemy-"

Caitlin almost laughs, "No, not the Turtle again."

"This is what you woke me up for?" I interject.

"What?-" Barry was confused at Cisco's words, "What is the- or who is the Turtle?"

Caitlin replies, "It's Cisco's white whale."

"Half whale, half turtle." Jay looked at Cisco.

"No-" Cisco huffs, "Do you see what you're doing, Caitlin? Everybody's confused now."

Harry cuts it short, "Get to it."

"I stumbled upon a few of these cases when we were looking for the Reverse Flash, robberies that were seemingly committed at high speed- people holding their beloved items one second- those items were gone the next." Cisco did exactly that and gestures to the screen that played the footage he had retrieved, "Tell me what you see."

"So he can- what?" Caitlin thought, "Stop time?"

"No, no, no- look at the time code." Cisco points to it, "It's still running."

"Yeah, okay." Barry looked closer, "So- if he's not stopping time, what is he doing?"

"Well- think-" I stood straight and took a step closer to the screen, observing the footage, sipping on my coffee, "Times still running- everyone around him is still, while he moves at normal speed- he's slowing down everything around him."

Cisco points, "And that is why we call him the Turtle."

Barry looks at him, "Why have you never mentioned this guy to me before?"

"Oh, I don't know, I think we've just been a little distracted, you know, what with Captain Cold and the Weather Wizard and Gorilla Grodd." Cisco stares at him with a look, "Do I need to go on?-"

Jay nods once, "Okay, so if we can catch him, figure out how he uses his powers-"

Cisco smiles lightly, "Maybe we can show Zoom what life is like in the slow lane-"

"That's smart-" I high five him, "Nice job."

Harry questions, "How would you even know where to find him?"