Eobard Origin II

 

Her hands are gentle on him. She leads him to his new home, and it’s small and cramped –but it’s as alive as she is next to him. There are little things that show proof of living, little things that show Barry’s personality, little things that make the place reflect Barry and show how homely the place is.

 

His own home had been closer to a mausoleum than a home, or even a sanitized building that the dead lived in.

 

But this place was now his home too. The future is now his past. This is his future. Barry is his future.

 

“I know it’s kind of small and messy,” she says in embarrassment, “but it’s home. And hopefully that means you too?”

 

He smiles brightly, because she is such a kind, loving person. He is a stranger. She has just met him. And yet she is so willing to open up her home to him, that he feels so much right then.

 

But he also dislikes the notion that if he wasn’t who he was and she had shown such kindness to someone who wouldn’t appreciate it like him, she could have been easily been taken advantage of. It makes his blood boil and he swears that he will never let anyone do so, and he will make any who try pay painfully.

 

Barry is his to protect, and all those who would dare hurt her will regret it.

 

She laughs suddenly, and her twinkling eyes smile at him just as her lips does.

 

“I never asked…but do you remember your name?”

 

He smiles back. “Eobard. I remember it’s Eobard.”

 

And when he needs a surname to allow him to stay there, to get work, to live in that era and with her…she gives him her name. His new identity is Eobard Allen, and it causes strange, staggering thumps within his chest to emerge.

 

He is Eobard Allen. She is Barry Allen. So quickly, so immediately has he come close to his idol that it feels surreal and too much like a dream. He is terrified of waking up and finding out it is.

 

Their lives together has just begun.

 

~*~*~

 

Neither of them know how to cook. It is an adventure in the kitchen, and he has fun trying with her. She makes chicken soup from scratch that is too sour. He tries for pancakes, but he makes the batter too thin. They try to make brownies together and they finally make a success. They’re good at baking.

 

She confesses she has always had a sweet tooth, particularly for chocolate. He has never had the opportunity to have one, but now decides that he too has a sweet tooth as well.

 

They bask in their success that night, watching Bond films and devouring the brownies they made.

 

It isn’t long after that, that he finds employment within a little coffeehouse called Jitters. They are hiring, and Barry encourages him to try for a job. He wants to impress her, so he does and he’s surprised when he gets hired. The job is tedious, but there are many interesting people coming in and out of the place. It is so much more different than the time he left behind, where people are monotonous and uncaring. He enjoys this time. It is more lively and freeing, and Barry Allen is alive and is his friend.

 

He feels greedy when he wants more.

 

Especially when she takes to checking up on him, always visiting him at his job. With her speed, it is no wonder she can just take off and be where she wants, even when she’s supposed to be at work. And that she uses her powers to check in on him, he feels special even when he’s sure that she probably does so for her other family and friends. But now he’s included in that close circle, so it’s just as well.

 

“You seem to be fitting in well and enjoying your job as well,” Barry says to him one night.

 

He smiles faintly at her. “I feel…comfortable. At home for once.”

 

“You must not have had a nice life before,” she muses gently, and carefully places her hand over his in comfort.

 

His heart thumps loudly.

 

“No, I don’t believe it was,” he murmurs. “So thank you for letting me into your life.”

 

Her bright smile makes him crave her all the more, and he hesitantly leans over and embraces her. She doesn’t stiffen up, but allows him and even moves to embrace him back. Her arms are tender and caring as they encircle him, and he knows that everything up until then has been worth it just for this.

 

And then she leans back, still smiling, and says, “Life is important, Eobard. You cherish it and don’t give up on it and the things you want to do in life and the things you want, no matter what obstacles you may face. In the end, it could be too late. You never know what tomorrow brings.”

 

It is so opposite of what his society believed in. They preached to only work on one’s abilities and capabilities, to not try something new, to give up when it is too hard and move on to something easier and a better use of time. It has always been about a streamlined life, a streamlined society.

 

He looks at her in awe and knows that he is irrevocably changed by this woman, and that he is completely and utterly in love with her.

 

Not even waking up in the morning, finding her walking around sleepily in her underwear, can remove him from his airy and content disposition. Though, his red face and slacked jaw did wonders to embarrass him, more so the erection he’d gained as he stared at her.

 

He’s mortified, but in the back of his mind he understands himself. Apart from Barry’s beauty and wonderful figure, he comes from an era where modesty is encouraged and no one walks around like that, even inside their own homes. Even as an embarrassing mistake from Barry herself, an anomaly consequence to her sleeping conditions, his society does not allow for lust, sexuality, or love even…His instant reaction is an unfortunate cause of being part of a society that has denied him all of that, and his sensitivity is higher than the people around him now.

 

He is also confronted by a woman who he has idol worshipped, loved, and grown close to. It makes sense that he’s unable to hide himself from her, and react so quickly to this fantastical woman he never thought he’d ever meet.

 

She laughs in embarrassment, he laughs with her and gives a half-grin, and the moment is awkward but still perfect and natural.

 

Eobard is full of lust and love, his body heated, and fully embarrassed –but he embraces all those emotions. Because he is living in the moment, instead of withering away in the past –his past.

 

~*~*~

 

He is starting to fit in and have a life. Everything is going the way he’d dreamed it would, and he is happy.

 

He gets a shock in the form of his ancestor.

 

Eddie Thawne is no one special. Even before, when he was required to know his family line, he recalls his name vaguely. Eddie had been one of the Thawnes in history who had done nothing special, nothing to stick to his name. He had been born, lived, became a cop, passed on the line, and then had died.

 

Eobard hadn’t known Eddie had worked so closely with Barry though.

 

It is slightly unnerving, but nothing to him. His ancestor married some nameless woman, and had a child. The child carried on the line.

 

He is not worried about Eddie and whatever connection he has with Barry. His history, as he recalls it, showed that Barry had never been with anyone. There have been numerous rumors and whispers about her connections to Hal Jordan, Bruce Wayne, and even Leonard Snart –Captain Cold himself. There have been rumors of others. But never has she ever been completely romantically linked with anyone, and he is sure of that. Eddie Thawne had never been a thought, and no one in history really recalled him, much less gossiped about him and Barry together.

 

But he dislikes and keeps an eye on the long gazes his ancestor sends Barry in the café, the lingering touches the blond man carefully places upon the cheerful superhero, and the grins that Eddie offers readily to her.

 

It makes him inwardly cringe and bristle at the same time. None of them deserve Barry. That was his thought then, when he was learning about her life and all the men connected to her, and that is his thought now.

 

Eobard can’t stand the thought of her with anyone. Anyone that isn’t him at least.

 

However, it turns out it isn’t his ancestor he has to really worry about after all. A robbery occurs and Captain Cold is behind it. Eobard is curious, so he races over to see Barry in action. She’s quick and efficient with the others, neatly knocking them out…but she takes her time with Cold, who simply grins widely and aims his gun. He shoots lazily at her, and Barry dodges. It’s like Snart isn’t even trying. And Barry…and Barry is laughing delightedly.

 

The two of them trade barbs, and she’s almost playful as she taunts him. Cold is snickering and-and looking –he’s gazing unashamedly at Barry, not even bothering to hide his wanton gaze or his lust. And Eobard can see through it all, and realizes that they’re practically flirting.

 

It makes his blood boil, and he desperately wants to speed out there and beat Cold to the ground and then grab onto Barry possessively. He gets a hold of himself, and breathes in and out. In. Out.

 

He goes back to his job and finishes out the day with a morose air surrounding him. By the time he’s home, he’s huddled in his bed and burying his face into his pillow. He falls asleep quickly and he dreams of the time he visited the museum for heroes, and remembers The Flash’s area –he remembers greedily looking at all the information, trying to soak it all in, and stumbles across a section for her enemies.

 

The Reverse Flash is the complete opposite of Barry Allen. A man in her colors in reverse form, with powers likened to hers.

 

He is The Flash’s greatest enemy. He’d come from nowhere, challenging her and sometimes equally fighting her to a draw. His name and face were never revealed, but his eyes were the shade of what looked like blue jewels.

 

His origin may have been unknown, but his presence had become infamous and familiar quickly.

 

And Eobard wakes up miserably, trudging into the bathroom with thoughts about villains and jealousy, and stares at himself in the mirror. Those eyes…

 

His eyes are the exact replica of the man in his dreams.

 

Eobard doesn’t realize the hysteria that overcomes him, not until he finds himself in a panicked embrace and that Barry is clutching onto him tightly. He wants to scream at her to not hold him, for he is her monster. That he is going to be the monster that tears her down, the villain to her hero. The darkness to her light.

 

They were to be opposing forces, and Eobard wishes he could wipe his mind clean of this information.

 

But instead she holds onto him and he clutches onto her.

 

His life had been perfect. Why has it come to this?

 

“It is an equivalent exchange. To want for something, you must give up something. You cannot live as if you are entitled to it all.”

 

It is one of the few things his father had imparted on him, to explain the workings of their society. That their society didn’t truly ‘want,’ because to want, something must be given to ‘have.’ That even in their society, in the shallow wants that did occur, equivalent exchange was the law of the world.

 

To ensure everything was fair and balanced.

 

To know that now, his father’s words would be so true and rule the situation he was stuck in…Eobard did have everything. In fact, he’d wanted Barry Allen so much, to just be in his life and for him to be in hers, and was blissful when that came true.

 

But now that Eobard finally had her, he had to give something up. He is selfish and he doesn’t want to. He would fight even the gods if he had to.

 

By then, Eobard knows that he would die for Barry Allen.

 

~*~*~

 

He goes into denial, and refuses to think more on the subject. Whether or not the Reverse Flash existed does not matter, because he will not exist now. He continues on with his life, and Barry –worried still –is always there for him. He tries to do the same, for he cannot and will not lose her.

 

He is surprised by how hard it is actually.

 

He thought the temptation to become the Reverse Flash would be nonexistent, because he never wanted to be Barry’s enemy. But then Barry becomes more and more involved with villains that don’t care or like her in the same way her Rogues does. The villains in Central City are anomalies and care too much about the hero they are supposed to oppose.

 

Barry, as powerful as she is, lacks a true opponent –a rival that would help her continue to match and surpass her height of power. In fact, the lack of challenge has caused her to become lax at times.

 

It frightens him. More so, as he remembers what his past –the future –had taught him. The enemies she would face, especially the ones with otherworldly powers. Those that come from other dimensions. From other planets. Other timelines, he thinks ironically.

 

Barry is not yet ready for those trials.

 

Still, he is reluctant. He does not want to give her up, to be her villain. He is happy where he is, and maybe at least he can stay by her side. There is no worry in revealing himself to her, if only he can mask who he is as the villain she needs. He can have his life with her, and be the one who pushes her limits at the same time.

 

Eobard gives in and creates and dons the costume that he knows belongs to The Flash’s lifelong arch nemesis, and prepares himself to play this role for her own good.

 

The next time she faces off against Captain Cold, Eobard is there and ready to make his debut into her life as her reverse. He admits he feels a bit of vindictive glee as he interrupts their battle, throwing all good humored banter off as he comes in between them. He is even more satisfied after he easily takes Cold out, throwing him away and knocking him unconscious.

 

He wears his signature suit, the matching colors in reverse to Barry’s outfit, and faces her from his profile. He stares back at her, watching her surprise turn into wariness. He knows his eyes are a glowing red, a trick he’d learned and practiced back when he was in his own time, and is thankful for it as it helps to disguise himself and keep her from knowing the truth. He recognized his own eyes; he doubts that Barry wouldn’t be able to either.

 

He takes a deep breath. And then he races forward in a crackle of red lightning that matches her golden aura. He crashes into her and then they smash through the wall in a thunderous explosion of marble and concrete and glass. They land on the sidewalk, but with both of their speeds, they were up and then running. Literally.

 

They race through the city and he’s practically breathless. Not just because of the race he’s participating in, but because he’s finally seeing Barry Allen at her best. He’d always imagined, ever since he was a little boy, how she would speed around, fight her enemies, the voracity of her movements and the power of what she called the Speed Force surrounding her.

 

This was amazing. This was breathtaking.

 

Eobard has to refrain from breaking out into excited whoops at the exhilaration he is experiencing. It wouldn’t be very frightening and intimidating of him, if he were to do so. The whole point of this was to give Barry a real villain, someone to challenge and push her to her limits and beyond.

 

It goes without saying that Barry is still more experienced, faster, and powerful than him at this point. They wreck upon the old Ferris Air Testing Facility, where Barry is faster to recover and lashes out with her foot, catching him in the gut with a back kick as she plants her hands on the ground. She flips backwards and lands on her feet, touching ground for only a second before she’s off and catches him in the jaw with a hook punch.

 

Eobard’s able to speed away and gather his wits, and this time he manages a haymaker that catches her across the face as it smacks right into her cheek. He doesn’t allow himself to feel regret, making himself push his inexperienced body into fighting a fight with a more experienced fighter. He needs to prove he is a challenge and to challenge her as at least an almost equal. With time, he knows he can become better. But now, he needs to at least prove a point.

 

An uppercut punch makes him stumble back, but he shakes it off and kicks out, aiming for her side. It’s blocked, but she grabs onto his leg and yanks him forward. She’s able to grab him by the throat and pick him up, tossing him into the ground. She straddles him and grips his wrists, but before he can attempt to toss her off, she glares into his eyes.

 

“What the hell, Eobard?”

 

He freezes from underneath her and looks up into her angry hazel eyes, even as he’s pleased that he’s got her as breathless as himself, and seemingly had given her a challenge as he’d meant to.

 

“I’m not stupid,” she almost snarls at him. “I know you well enough to know the way you move, the way you adjust your body.”

 

Eobard shouldn’t be so damn happy about that, but he is. He so is.

 

“Why?”

 

What he can’t stand and is unhappy to see, is the heartbreak in her voice and the tears lining her eyes.

 

He catches his breath as she leans away from him and takes her hands away from his wrists. In return, he reaches up and grasps her face in his hands.

 

“My name is Eobard Thawne. I was born in the year 2151…”