Caffeine Fix

[run_barry]

Things are finally starting to calm down in Central City. The epidemic is starting to let up, and those affected are on the road to wellness. The antibodies Caitlin developed (and farmed in Cisco) were shared with CCPD first and now the department is regaining its ranks from the previously bedridden.

Barry could probably do with a vacation sometime soon, but with Yamato's help, and short stints at the comm from Cisco and Caitlin, The Flash has seen Central City through the crisis.

With a break in the chaos achieved at last, there's only one way to celebrate. Coffee.

Holding the front door to CC Jitters open, Barry gestures Yamato inside with a flourish.

"And here we are, best cup of coffee in Central City."

It's the typical trendy sort of joint, high-tables with modern stools, couches and overstuffed chairs, and a hipster huddled with their laptop in every semi-dark corner.

The air is fragrant with the smells of fresh-ground roast, and behind the counter an espresso machine sputters under the deft control of a barista, while another woman loads fresh pastries into the bakery case.

Comments

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato is just starting to angrily jab his chin at Barry and then at Cisco's, complete with a mouthed 'your world, you go first' when Cisco looks over at him, and he goes very still.

(Maybe Cisco's like a dinosaur.

Maybe Cisco just won't see them if they don't move.)

"What? Us? We're not doing anything, are we, Barry? We're just enjoying this refreshing coffee. What are you doing?"

[run_barry]

Barry is ready to make the silent argument that Yamato's incident happened first and therefore he should be the one to start, when Cisco catches them.

Freezing in place, the idea crosses Barry's mind that all he has to do is hold still longer than Yamato and then the T-rex Cisco will get Yamato first.

Yamato making a terrible denial and then lobbing it back at Barry ruins that, and Barry tries then fails to keep it going before he relents.

"No, not doing anything. At all. It's all about the coffee. And y'know talking... about stuff. Couple things that happened, without you around."

[makes_the_toys]

"I'm not doing anything," Cisco denies. "You guys are being weird. Conspiring or something."

Cisco eyes them both some more.

"What things?" Cisco has the suspicion that these aren't good things. Whether for him or for them, he's not sure quite yet.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato just glares at Barry. The two of you totally could have fooled him, Barry! You are both such exceptionally good liars, after all!

"Nothing big," he assures Cisco. "Minor stuff. Tiny things that barely matter at all, otherwise we definitely would've brought them up by now."

Exceptionally good liars.

[makes_the_toys]

"What Kind of minor stuff that barely even matters?" Cisco asks, not liking where this is going.

[run_barry]

Barry gives Yamato a pointed look. Clearly they were never going to maintain the ruse, and now everything that happens is definitely Yamato's fault.

"Little small things," Barry says, holding up his thumb and forefinger pinched together.

"For instance mine, I had a little bit of a sugar crash. Almost passed out a couple of times on a high-speed chase. I had some orange juice and stuff and it was cool," he says, talking fast. Maybe a little too fast to be fully understood, but that's totally not on purpose. Right.

"And Yamato... " Barry gestures at Yamato, indicating he should go right ahead now.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

In the interests of supporting Barry, Yamato makes a gesture with his fingers an inch apart to indicate that it really was a little bit of a sugar crash, nothing to worry about, look how fine Barry is.

"Right, right, I, er ..." He says, rubbing the back of his neck. "I ended up in the desert with an infected open wound, and instead of treating it or finding water, I may have just walked through the desert for four days while it and also dehydration got worse. And I might've been in a tiny bit of a bad way when I was found."

Beat.

"But it's cool and fine and stuff, and also I'm fine? And also Barry's fine. We are both so fine."

[run_barry]

"Totally fine," Barry pipes in quick after Yamato is finished.

"One hundred-- ninety... mmm, eighty? Eight-six percent back to normal?" Barry peers at Yamato, hoping for help with coming up with a solid number, then deciding to just say, "We're good. My glucose levels are totally, mostly, back to normal and Yamato is once again fully hydrated. And minus that gnarly scar on his arm, he's cool."

[makes_the_toys]

"What are you guys crazy none of that is fine," Cisco exclaims after all their horrible attempts to downplay the matter.

"Why the hell weren't you monitoring your glucose levels, Barry? And what hell were you doing wandering through a desert, Yamato? Are you a horse? Is your name 'no name'? Why did nobody tell me this stuff before?"

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Barry's totally, mostly, back to normal," Yamato echoes, nodding firmly. "And I'm hydrated and took antibiotics and also my arm is fine."

He demonstrates this by giving his arm a quick, solid punch. See! It didn't burst into blood! That is how you know it is fine.

"Barry was just, you know, trying to keep on top of everything while the CCPD were down and forgot a few things. But he -- totally had it in hand when I saw him," Yamato says, and definitely does not mention that 'having it in hand' here means 'was failing to set up a drip,' because he recalls Caitlin's reaction to that. "And I, er, I don't get those references, but we were attacked, and got scattered, and I wanted to find the others. And I did! Or they found me. I'm not sure which. But it totally paid off in the end."

Those last six hours or so are really blurry, and also about fifty percent hallucination, but still, they met up somehow.

"... We didn't want to worry you while you were sick. You had your own stuff to deal with."

[run_barry]

"Don't flip out man," Barry says, holding up a hand. "We're both fine. It's like Yamato says, we just didn't want to worry you when you were going through your own thing."

Rubbing his neck, Barry shrugs a little, "It's been a bit of a rough time, but we've all made it through. That's the main point."

[makes_the_toys]

"The main point is you two obviously can't be trusted to take care of yourselves when I'm not around," Cisco counters.

Before either of them can try to argue him on this, he starts to list out, "Both of you almost died, wrecked my robot, and oh yeah, I found the blown up lightsaber, one of my suits is missing, and you've spilled the beans about the end of the universe to Dr. Wells and Caitlin. Am I missing anything?

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Hey, hey, the lightsaber isn't our fault, that was Camera Commander. He switched it on and it exploded, that's on him."

That might be the only part of this they can claim no responsibility for, but at least they have that.

[makes_the_toys]

"Of course it exploded, I had to shelve that project because an irate Jedi made me, which means I never stabilized the plasma containment field. You're lucky that explosion didn't take out you or the whole building," Cisco returns, not mollified in the least.

[run_barry]

"Dude, none of what happened could've been helped. Things went pretty badly in Yamato's world and he did what he could to handle it. Things were pretty crazy here and I was just trying to help get the city through it."

Barry gestures with his hands, palms out.

"The rest... I needed help, and telling the truth was the easiest way to explain Yamato. And it's definitely Camera Commander's fault that your tech got destroyed."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Suit notwithstanding, that one might be my fault. Mine and ..." It occurs to him partway through that sentence that Barry might not want anyone to know it was Eddie who shot him. "... Others."

The sting of it is lessened some by what Barry said at the time, and the fact that they caught the Commander is a decent enough balm for his pride, but he still absolutely blames himself for that plan failing and Barry getting shot.

"I get it, you're angry with us," he adds, ducking his head a little. "But Barry was doing the best he could to keep the city safe, and he was working on a cure, you can't put the blame for any of this on him."

[makes_the_toys]

"Here I've been worried about GP out there in the world alone and it's you two I should've been building vests and bodyguard drones for."

It doesn't matter that the situations were rough, or their explanations make sense. At least most of what happened happened because Cisco was down and Barry didn't have a team backing him up. And the rest is because Yamato is some kind of nutbar.

Feeling guilty and frustrated, the only course Cisco sees to deflect those feelings is to stay mad at them.

"I blame both of you, and I am so disappointed right now. Like, Firefly being cancelled levels of disappointment, but instead of hating on Fox I have to be angry at Mal and Jayne for it."

[run_barry]

Barry casts a quick glance at Yamato when Eddie's name is almost dropped, then shakes his head.

"Really not your fault," he says, knowing he'll probably never be able to convince Yamato of that, but not about to give up trying.

"Cisco, c'mon... " he sighs. "I know it sounds bad but, the stuff we do gets rough sometimes, you know that. We handled it as best we could, and on the other side of it now, everyone is okay."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato still doesn't understand any of those references, so he gives Cisco a quizzical squint.

"I think Cisco would disagree with you on that," he remarks to Barry, raising an eyebrow. He's pretty sure that would bear out, even if part of him knows that Cisco wouldn't exactly be the most objective judge on that matter right about now.

Cisco's remark about being disappointed hurts a little (or more than a little, but Yamato's not going to admit that one), so he withdraws into his shell some, his shoulders hunching inwards and his expression going flatly neutral as his gaze moves from looking at Barry and Cisco to intently looking at his coffee.

[makes_the_toys]

"Well it sure wasn't my fault," he snaps, then grumbles at himself for snapping.

Running a hand through his hair, he studies the tabletop for a moment, then looks up and catches sight of Yamato and the way he's looking now.

Frowning and letting out a sigh, Cisco says, "You guys don't get it. How freaky it is to think about one of you dying. Or, maybe you do and you just handle it better than I do. Either way, I hate it, and I'd just appreciate it if you did it a little less."

[run_barry]

Barry gives Yamato a pointed look. He will keep arguing Yamato about this. Although, maybe not right now...

"Again, we're sorry, man," he says to Cisco. "Freaking you out is definitely the last thing I wanna do."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Barry gets a pointed look directed back at him in return. Yamato's not entirely sure whose side Cisco would take in that debate (and part of him is morbidly fascinated to find out and get it over with), but he's still pretty sure he needs to make amends to Cisco over how that plan turned out anyway.

He doesn't look over at Cisco, but he does reach over to give the guy's head a light shove. "Sorry, kiddo. Didn't mean to freak you out."

[makes_the_toys]

Cisco raises a hand to push him off, finally easing a little.

"Yeah, well, you did. And I almost want to say that you have to let Barry name you to make it up." Almost, but as funny as that would be it would hurt Cisco's nom de guerreian sensibilities.

"I guess we're cool, though. I'm sorry I wasn't able to help either of you out through all of that."

[run_barry]

"Not your fault," Barry says to Cisco before he pouts. "And c'mon, don't make my name's punishments. They're not that bad. It's almost like an honor, really."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Kid, you don't need to apologise for that. You got sick, there's nothing anybody could've done about that," Yamato says. "... But please don't make me take one of Barry's names. That's a cruel and unusual punishment. It's probably a war crime."

Don't be that guy, Cisco. Don't subject him to a Barry Name.

He huffs out a sigh, knocking one foot against the leg of the table. "Getting everything out in the open, though," because he's being eaten away at by his nerves over this, "I did screw up while doing your job. Or, I think I did, Barry disagrees."

Which helps.

"I suggested using a transport with some of CC's captured henchmen as bait to draw him out, because otherwise he was going to go underground and we wouldn't be able to find him for months. I didn't expect him to have tracked our communications back to S.T.A.R. Labs, but he had, and he cut off our comms and sent GirderMax after me, and by the time I'd taken down the robot and got comms back online, Barry had been hurt. We got CC's location out of it, but some of the henchmen got away," he says, carefully leaving out Eddie's involvement. "Barry healed up pretty quick, and we got both those henchmen and CC behind bars eventually, but."

He shrugs. "I still figure I should apologise to you. You trusted me to fill in for you, and things went wrong, at least for a while, so -- sorry."

That, at least, clears up everything they haven't told Cisco, and even not knowing his reaction, Yamato still feels like he's gotten a weight off his chest.