&. I DON'T INTEND TO LOSE.

absentmindedly curtis has started lightly brushing his fingers up and down the other mans back while he waits for him to actually wake up enough to answer him. he doesn’t even realize he’s doing it, and the corners of his mouth twitch upwards into a small smile as rene buries his head into his chest. once again his breathing gets cut off abruptly at being called ‘babe’, and his stomach feels like it’s been infested with butterflies. even though he went to bed late, curtis doesn’t have any trouble waking up. he’s certain if he could form words at the moment he’d probably be babbling like an idiot, but thankfully for him he couldn’t quite figure out what to say at all. his hand pauses and he stops rubbing renes back, and he’s debating on if he called him ‘babe’ because he was half asleep and didn’t quite realize who he was with.

suddenly the warmth of the shorter man is gone, and curtis is painfully aware of the fact that he doesn’t actually have a shirt on. he moves his legs off the side of the bed, feet hitting the ground with soft padding noises as he gets up and moves to grab something to wear. his head jerks upwards for a moment and he nods, moving into his bathroom so he can grab the spare toothbrush he keeps for emergencies ( such emergencies being things like he’s sick and is going to need a new one, not whatever this is. ) within minutes he’s stepping out of the bathroom and tossing it to rene, not thinking about the fact that maybe he shouldn’t toss things to someone with an extreme hangover, but oh well. “here you go, one spare toothbrush. i’ve also got some extra strength tylenol if you need any?”

     it’s impossible to entirely ignore the situation. this isn’t rene’s apartment, which means he definitely stayed the night with one curtis holt. he hopes the team never finds out about this. glare plastered onto his face, he looks over his shoulder at the alarm clock. he’s so late for work. his phone is still in his pocket; he can feel the weight of it and how curtis got through the whole night without getting stabbed by rene’s phone, wallet, or keys, he’ll never know. he sighs, looking over just in time to see the toothbrush leave curtis’ hands — his own hands move as swiftly as possible, though he fumbles with the toothbrush in the air for a minute before he manages to catch it completely. he’s lucky, really. were their roles reversed, rene wouldn’t have had a spare toothbrush. whatever. it isn’t like he owes anything to curtis now.

whilst the sober version of rene might be embarrassed, or even annoyed with him, he would also be able to walk without almost falling over. in fact, he’s probably lucky he didn’t pass out on the sidewalk trying to walk to curtis’ apartment. of course it was just easier for him to carry the shorter man instead of constantly trying to make sure he didn’t fall over. glasses are taken off and placed on the nightstand, and he reaches over to turn off the light, lying on his back. his eyes are closed when rene responds, already almost halfway to sleep, but they immediately open so he can peer at him through the dark. he’s almost too tired to comprehend that rene just called him babe, but after a minute in which he is very confused, he rests his head back on the pillow and lets himself drift off.

curtis has always been known to move when he sleeps. always. if he’s sleeping alone he’ll eventually migrate to take over the middle of the bed as he sleeps, and it wasn’t a rare occurrence for paul to wake up with curtis wrapped around him like an octopus with only four legs. therefore it isn’t too surprising that when his alarm actually goes off, there’s someone curled up into him. actually no, it’s still extremely surprising. his free arm stretches to turn off the alarm, chin still resting on rene’s head as he groggily takes in his surroundings. he lifts his head to yawn, looking down to see the shorter man, who’s clearly quite comfortable using him as a pillow. his other arm is wrapped around him, trapped by rene’s weight on it. using his free hand he gently nudges his shoulder, not wanting to startle him awake. now he knew how paul felt being trapped by him. “hey, rene? you awake? we should probably get up soon. it’s actually starting to get pretty late.”

     intense sunlight puts a pressure on his eyelids that can’t be fought off. loud, abrasive noise magnifies the pounding in his head. rene is fully aware of the movement in bed; he can feel curtis reaching for the alarm clock, though it takes being tapped on the shoulder to fully realize that he isn’t alone. were he any less affected by the migraine the previous night has given to him as a gift, as if a fuck you from himself, he might have pulled away. instead, he buries his head into the man’s chest. ( man’s chest, he makes a note. that’s a first. ) the warmth does nothing to clear his head; memories of the night before are a blur. though he’ll swear never to drink so much again, it’s impossible to say with any certainty. a groan — he recognizes that voice. that’s definitely curtis. why is he in bed with curtis? “god, babe, my head’s killin’ me. five more minutes, okay?”

rubbing a hand over his face, joe honestly can’t remember the last time he slept, but it was probably sometime before barry had been found. he had been exhausted as his son went through surgery, and maybe only got in a catnap once they said barry was going to be okay. even then it was in a chair next to his bedside, as there was no way he was leaving him alone after everything that had happened. this was honestly the first time he let himself leave barrys side, and even so he had promised cisco to vibe and get him if he was needed, or if anything at all went wrong. he’d still be by his side if he didn’t trust cisco and caitlin so much, enough to get vibed over to star city and try and find out where oliver had been.

joe nodded slowly, jaw clenching as he thought. part of him didn’t want to believe that oliver had beaten barry up, not because he trusted him, but because he didn’t want that to be something that had happened to barry. “honestly do you think that oliver — that he might do something like this?” hearing that quentin would talk to him  got him to relax slightly. “yes, please. there is still the possibility that he’ll lie to you but i’d feel a lot better. you know i wouldn’t be asking this if i wasn’t sure.” he already planned on assigning a ccpd officer or two to keep an eye on barry around the clock, but that needed to wait until he was healed just a bit more. it would be a bit suspicious if it got out that barry went from being on deaths doorstep to having completely healed in less than a week. “if we hadn’t found him — he was almost dead. definitely wouldn’t have made it through the night. i just — don’t know what else to do.”

     stomach tightens from nerves. quentin would give anything to be able to confidently say oliver is not at fault. it’s easy to say that oliver has become the kind of person who would never hurt someone he cared so much about and yet quentin’s still far too familiar with the man’s past. it takes a lot of damage to one’s psyche to do what oliver does and that’s on top of how screwed up he was back in the day. ( who cheats on their girlfriend with her sister? ) a deep breath. talking to oliver is something he can definitely do, but making the man who is technically his boss angry can’t be a good idea. “five years ago, definitely. today?” a pause as he considers it. “i can’t promise he wouldn’t, but i’d like to believe he’s better than that.” if he didn’t believe oliver had become better than that, he wouldn’t be able to work so closely with the man.

the words cause him to pause for a moment and it takes everything in him not to laugh. mostly because he’s sure rene will still try and punch him, and that will end with one or both of them falling on the floor. “and you remembered my address, that you heard once, months ago, when you forgot your own??” he had to smile somewhat at that logic as they moved, curtis leading him towards his bedroom. it wasn’t like he was just gonna let him sleep on the couch, plus the bed was more than large enough for the two of them combined. his breathing hitches for a second at the soft pressure of fingers against his skin, and it feels as if every nerve is hypersensitive to the rene’s touch. maybe he should have grabbed a shirt when he was woken up, but he was so out of it it never even crossed his mind. he’s pulled back to reality at his words, sighing to himself. why he even assumed for a second that rene would stay hydrated was beyond anyone’s guess. they’re almost to his room when curtis shakes his head, and just picks rene up in a sort of bridal style carry, because it’s the easiest way to carry him right now, and carries him down the hallway. shoving his door fully open with his foot, he lays rene down on one half of the bed, pulling the covers up over him. “there. now you can crash.” he smiles softly at him before climbing into his own side of the bed. he isn’t sure if rene’s even awake still, or if he can hear him, but he still whispers. “goodnight, rene.”

once he’s assured himself that no one’s hurt it’s actually really obvious just how inebriated rene is. breath catches in his throat for a minute, hidden by just the fact that the other is far too drunk to notice it, and he positions his arm so that he can support him better, ready to catch him should he suddenly tip forwards. “i’m hoping you mean crash in a figurative sense and not in a literal one, although, honestly, with how drunk you seem it wouldn’t surprise me if both of those happened. and how do you even know where i live? not that i’m annoyed or anything i just     didn’t think you knew.” passing through the living room, curtis still had to wonder why rene came to his house. what was wrong that he couldn’t go back to his own place?? “what     what do you mean, can’t go back to your place? did something happen to your apartment?” it still didn’t answer why he was here of all places, but it was an answer. “have you had anything to drink tonight? other than alcohol i mean, have you had any water tonight? because if you haven’t you’re gonna be hating yourself in the morning.”

a sharp ( and extremely loud ) rapping of knuckles on wood is what jerks curtis from a very sound sleep. it takes him a moment to shove his glasses onto his face, eyes scanning his brightly lit phone screen for the time ( and also to see if he’d gotten any urgent calls from any of team arrow ). brows furrow as he makes his way to the door, barely an inch from stubbing his toe when he actually reaches the light switch. he is utterly exhausted, and alright, maybe that’s partially his fault for staying up so late to work on his t-spheres, but he also wasn’t expecting anyone at his door at two am either. curtis unlocks the door and pulls it open, surprise ( and concern ) on his face at the sight of rene there. his first thought is that somethings being attacked, or one of the team is hurt or missing and that’s why he’s being woken up at this hour, until he sees how unsteady the other man is. “hey, rene… are     you alright? here come on in before you     fall over or something.” he reaches out to gently grab a hold of the shorter mans arm, hoping to steady him.

@honorhaunted | for ray

the ticking of a clock and lab lights in the dead of night set a tense scene, lizzie feeling more and more frustrated with every idea ray shoots down in favor of one of his own. “sometimes you’re so infuriating!” the exclamation comes mid-way into an all-nighter at lord’s lab, her and ray working on a new prototype for mr. lord’s next tech launch. she should be at the dorm and studying this weekend instead of working overtime to get this done– especially when they both seem to be clashing so much. 

truth be told, she was only a head intern and didn’t really have a place to make such a statement, but she was tired and well, it had come out. besides, intern or not, their boss would have both their heads if the last tweaks to get the device to work weren’t figured out by monday. after all she had been assigned to help him with this project so it would be completed on time. “i’m sorry. that was out of line. i’m going to get coffee from the break room. do you want some?” though, perhaps a break is what they both needed.

ray remembers what it’s like to be an intern, to be as young as she is. it’s true that she’s full of ideas — and brilliant ones at that. what she lacks is experience. every idea, no matter how great can and should be improved upon. it isn’t like he’s trying to be rude or dismissive of her ideas, though he can understand why she might feel that way. frustration is something every young scientist faces at some point and as natural as it is for her to feel it, ray can’t help but feel personally attacked.

PLOTTED STARTER ▌✖ ¦ @honorvowed

             REPLICATED ! ! the stories have been proven true in all accounts of doppleganger theology. first barry & & caitlin & & cisco — tales that made scientist’s head spin until he could see straight through linear equations & & multiverse theories ( he just needed to talk it through & & think a proverbial hole through his skull ). after all the things he’s been through ? it’s not really MUCH of a surprise. but it’s one thing to hear about it & & another to experience it entirely — center of experiment GONE RIGHT, sensation of being torn from reality & & floating outside frame that’s defined his life for the better part of thirty-five years. he doesn’t know much about this maxwell lorde but the similarities are pretty much what he decides to FOCUS on — nice to know he would’ve been this EMPIRICAL ADVENTURER in almost any world. the other ray ( ray 2 ? reverse ray ? what do they call him ? ) mimics exact behaviors & & patterns of thinking so that each time they end up saying the same thing or suggesting the same thing, he almost laughs his head off. ( like having danny around again ) except with a bit of sting for brothers lost. 

            giddy curiosity unable to be hidden as he peeks over shoulder very familiar to his own ( mirror reflection, it’s just so fascinating ! ). ❝ so, how far along are you in the schematics ? ❞

excitement has yet to wear off; it’s impossible to count the number of times ray has said he’d be able to think twice as well with help from another ray palmer. it has yet to be seen whether he’s going to be more or less efficient with another version of himself present — as if one of them doesn’t drink enough coffee and lose enough sleep for the both of them. in the end, maybe ray’s just lucky to have full access to the labs at lord tech. getting to a place where he was his boss’ second in command was a long road, though definitely worthwhile. he can’t imagine a life where he doesn’t work in a lab for someone he respects. this life is what he enjoys, although it’s easy to wonder, given this other ray’s apparent affinity for pushing the envelope in the scientific world, if he’s meant for more. if he’d be somehow happier not tied down to one lab, or one project for a lengthy amount of time. he shakes the thought off in favor of grinning and letting himself enjoy this moment. it isn’t like his counterpart is from the future, but having a version of himself around who has already built the atom suit is definitely cool.

oliver queen had never been a person that he thought he could trust. even before he was lost at sea, before he became the vigilante he was now, joe disapproved of the kid. how the arrow got his information from people didn’t make him trust oliver any more, but even so he never thought he’d hurt his son. Until he found Barry, barely breathing and lying, beaten half to death, in the streets. “honestly?” joe sighed, “no, i don’t have proof, and i’m not sure why he’d attack barry the way he did, but listen quentin. there’s nothing to show that he defended himself, at all, like he just let himself get beat half to death, and he won’t tell us who attacked him but every time someone even mentions olivers name, he just about jumps out of his skin.” joe knew this wasn’t anywhere near the kind of proof he’d need, but he had no idea where else to go. “just, answer this for me. two nights ago, where was oliver?” he had cisco and caitlin trying to find anything that could id the attacker, but right now he was following his gut, and his gut told him quentin wouldn’t know where he was.

confusion strikes further. oliver is screwed up; anyone in their right mind knows that. but he hasn’t been a mindless killer in quite some time. and, knowing oliver the way he does, if killing barry had been the intention, barry would certainly be dead. still, he’s a cop at his core. the evidence provided certainly does suggest that oliver is the assailant. oliver, or his doppleganger, but the chances of his doppleganger tracking down and harming barry — just barry — aren’t very high. he lets out a breath; he doesn’t like this. “i thought oliver was with william. i know he wasn’t with his team. but you know, i — i don’t keep tabs on him as much as i used to.”