Summary: Len knows something is wrong from the moment he sees Barry drop his coffee cup.

It's not that the speedster isn't a klutz, so its not the cup slipping through the man's fingers that puts Len on alert. It's the fact that Barry didn't catch it. Instead the cup hits the ground with enough impact to knock the top off, spilling coffee all over the ground (and Barry's feet) as it toppled over on one side.

For a moment Barry just stands there, staring at his hands with a blank expression on his face.

Notes: For my Coldflash Bingo Card prompt I4 - Spilled Coffee

So I was going to do some kind of coffee shop AU with this prompt and then my brain went 'what if Len saw Barry drop his coffee because Barry didn't have his speed to catch it' and then spilled coffee turned into this somewhat angsty season 2 au instead.

I'll have to save the coffee shop AU for later I guess.

Observations and Offers of Help

Len knows something is wrong from the moment he sees Barry drop his coffee cup.

It's not that the speedster isn't a klutz, so its not the cup slipping through the man's fingers that puts Len on alert. It's the fact that Barry didn't catch it. Instead the cup hits the ground with enough impact to knock the top off, spilling coffee all over the ground (and Barry's feet) as it toppled over on one side.

For a moment Barry just stands there, staring at his hands with a blank expression on his face.

Then, ever the respectful badge, Barry throws away the cup and the lid in a nearby trashcan, but rather understandably leaves the coffee alone on the sidewalk. The other pedestrians are already avoiding the spill and it'll probably get washed away soon anyway. They're due rain in the next half hour or so.

There's something about the way Barry walks after that, as he disappears down the street towards the CCPD. His shoulders are a little hunched forward. He looks tired. Sad.

He hadn't exactly intended to spy on the speedster this morning. Len just happened to be in the right place at the right time and certainly there's no taking it back now.

The scene sticks with him for the rest of the day and Len slowly realizes he has something of a mystery on his hands.

Why didn't Barry Allen catch that cup?

The following day, Len deliberately returns to watch Barry get his morning cup of coffee.

The younger man gets off of a bus. Since when does the Flash take the bus? There's nothing else of note until the end of the day when, after leaving work, Barry once again takes the bus. This time to STAR Labs.

It's not a lot to go on, but… Len doesn't call himself a criminal genius to brag. If Barry Allen is taking the bus everywhere he goes, spilling coffee all over himself instead of catching the cup… then there's really only one explanation.

The Flash has lost his speed.

Disappointment courses through Len because… if Allen isn't the Flash anymore, then what's the point of being Captain Cold? It's not a challenge if there's no possibility of defeat, after all. And the Flash was the one who'd inspired him to up his game in the first place.

Sure, there was that new speedster who'd humiliated the Flash in front of the news reporters… but a person like that didn't play by the rules. They broke the rules and probably killed the survivors. Not the sort of person Len could play with indefinitely and, if he were being perfectly honest, not someone he was interested in dealing with at all if he could avoid it.

There was something else mixed in with the disappointment, however. And Len wasn't quite sure what it was. Sympathy, perhaps. It couldn't be easy to go from powered to normal like that.

It was probably a bad idea, walking into STAR Labs.

Len did it anyway.

Rather predictably, there was a gun pointed at Len's face when he sauntered into the main lab in the building. However, it wasn't Detective Joe West, which was a surprise.

"Harrison Wells," Len drawled. "I thought you were dead."

"He's not from here," Barry answered rather enigmatically, giving Len a pointed look and moving, subtly, between Len and Ramon. "What do you want, Snart?"

"See, now, I couldn't help noticing that Central City's friendly, neighborhood speedster seems to be running a little slow lately." Len smirked as Barry rolled his eyes. "I may have repaid you for stalling my father with that tip-off about the Weather Wizard and the Trickster's little team up in December, but I supposed I still owe Ramon a debt for being the one who took that bomb out of my sister's neck."

Wells glanced over at Ramon, who shrugged. "Unless you're here to give back the Cold Gun you stole or turn yourself in so you'll be headed back to jail, there's nothing you can do that I want."

"Even if I'm offering to help deal with your Zoom problem? No strings attached." Because much as he didn't want to have anything to do with Zoom, well… Len was one of Barry's best known enemies. If he didn't have a target on his back already where the black clad speedster was concerned, it was only a matter of time.

"Yeah, sure, you'd help us. Like you did at Ferris Air." Ramon scoffed.

"Consider for a moment that ARGUS is well known for putting together suicide squads out of their inmates. You can't honestly say that would've set well with your ethics, no matter how much you might like their current director on a personal level."

Ramon actually winced. Barry didn't so much as twitch however, and that confirmed a theory of Len's that, for now, he refrained from giving voice to.

Wells, however, was lowering his gun. "What, exactly, are you offering us?"

"My skills as a planner and, of course, my expertise with the Cold Gun. A temporary truce until Zoom's not a problem anymore and Barry's back to running laps around the city at ludicrous speeds." Len frowned, because Barry did flinch a little that time. "What happened to your speed, Barry? And where is the lovely Dr. Snow?"

Barry turned and looked at Ramon. The two had a silent conversation, the sort that Len could have with Mick or Lisa, and then Ramon sighed and nodded. "Fine," Ramon addressed Len. "We'll accept your help and this makes us square. But you stay the hell away from my brother from now on too."

"Dante Ramon and his concert pianist hands will stay far, far away from me and my Cold Gun," Len agreed graciously.

"Not your damn gun," Ramon grumbled, crossing his arms and glowering at Len.

"Zoom kidnapped Caitlin," Barry told Len, speaking quietly but firmly over the sound of his friend's grumbling. "And he took my speed."

"Sounds like quite the story. Start at the beginning. If I'm going to plan the downfall of a speedster, I'm going to need all the facts first."

"So, by not from here I assume you mean Wells is from Earth 2 as well?" Len asked.

They were taking a break from filling him in on all things Zoom and while Barry got himself, and Ramon, a coffee from the break room, Len was making himself some Swiss Miss hot cocoa since that was, apparently, all they had at STAR Labs. (Okay, so Len was a hot cocoa and hot chocolate snob. Whatever. It fit with his Captain Cold persona so he didn't have to hide it anymore.)

"Are you really going to help us or are you doing this for your own amusement?" Barry asked.

"I helped last time, didn't I? And I don't mean when I dropped by your foster father's house either." Nor did he mean what happened with Lewis Snart, which Barry was smart enough to realize too.

"You double crossed us at Ferris Air."

"I'm sorry, was that not what you wanted me to do?" Len smirked when Barry looked away. "Let me guess. Wells – evil Wells – convinced you that keeping the metas locked up here would be a temporary thing until they could be depowered and then he proceeded to do fuck all to actually depower them? By the time you realized he was giving you an excellent snow job, you were stuck with a bunch of illegally incarcerated metas and a team full of people who'd been all too easily desensitized to your captives basic human rights. You needed to make sure things didn't get worse and the metas didn't immediately retaliate upon being set loose. I was your play."

"You're not wrong," Barry admitted quietly. "Wasn't really impressed that Joe never did see what we were doing was wrong. He has some… frustrating blind spots."

"You could have dumped them at Iron Heights. You're certainly fast enough. Or you were, anyway."

Barry shook his head. "We'd done enough damage. For the most part, they've kept their heads down. Nimbus is living a quiet and surprisingly normal life in LA. Changed his name, but he turns into deadly poison so I've been keeping track of him in case he starts gassing people for cutting him off in traffic or something. Roy's art career has taken off in Texas and apparently he's been seeking out therapy to deal with his depression. No more rage incidents that I've heard of either, so I guess he's keeping things legal. Shawna got a scholarship to finish her nursing degree that she didn't remember applying for but wasn't about to turn down either. Though I also know she's been stealing for your Rogues on the side."

Len raised an eyebrow, impressed despite himself. "She and Lisa hit it off and Shawna's doing the odd job to send money to someone in Florida. Ailing relative, she says, but the relative changes from time to time. Aunt. Grandmother. Cousin. Don't suppose you know which it actually is."

"Didn't know what she was doing with the money at all. As long as she's with your crew, well… we have a deal."

"Do we now? I thought only innocents were off the table. My father wasn't innocent."

"You're the one who handed me your gun and yourself over to the police," Barry pointed out. "I don't know if I would have run you out of there or not… but you didn't even ask."

Not that Len had been in any sort of shape to think of things like that. He killed his father, in front of the Flash no less. It hadn't occurred to him, at the time, that he wouldn't be going to jail. He'd been in shock. But if Barry had just sped him away, Len would not have appreciated it in the least. Things worked out better this way.

"Not going to mention the Weather Wizard?" Len said instead, changing the subject.

"We both know where he is," Barry replied dryly.

Iron Heights, of course.

"What happened to your speed, Barry?" Len asked, moving to lean against the counter beside the younger man.

"I've got a brother now, as I'm sure you're aware," Barry said, eyes trained on Len's face.

"Wallace West. Yes, I'm aware."

"Zoom used Wally against me. He didn't just take my speed. He put me in the position of having to choose to give it to him."

Len thought, for a moment, about his sister and the bomb in her neck and how he'd have done whatever that monster who fathered him asked for if only to ensure her safety. No matter how awful. "I can understand what sort of position you found yourself," Len said quietly. "Once he had your speed, that was when he took Dr. Snow?"

"Yeah."

It's not the full story, which Len needs. But he can get that when they return to the main lab. For now… for now its enough, though. Enough for him to ask, "how are you handling that loss? Really handling it, not that mask you wear for your friends' sakes."

Barry's face goes blank. Like when he dropped that damn coffee cup. "It hurts. All the time. Like I've been hollowed out."

Impulsively, Len reaches out and cups the other man's cheek. When that gets Barry's attention, wiping out the blank look for a surprised and curious expression, Len leaned in, murmuring "tell me to stop and I will," before closing the rest of the distance between them, pressing his mouth to Barry's.

Barry Allen kisses back, hard and demanding. Hands grasping the sleeves of Len's shirt to hold him close. Its intoxicating and wonderful and Len's going to have to find reasons to do it again.

"Do you really think I'll get my speed back?" Barry asks, when they pull away.

Len has to think a moment, but he did imply that eventuality earlier. "Yes," he finally said. "Yes, I do." Though he has no idea how they'll pull it off. It's just... he can't imagine a future where Barry isn't the Flash, playing cat and mouse with Captain Cold.

And its worth reassuring Barry for the slow, honest smile that blooms upon his face.