(no subject)

[thescarletspeedster]

The chase has gone on way too long. It's ridiculous - Barry is a speedster, he can move faster than sound. And Derek is a werewolf - he can hear the jerk thief's heart beating from a mile away, but the tech he's using lets him leapfrog from spot to spot around the city.

Barry is annoyed and maybe a little humiliated by his inability just to nab the guy - for all his cool tech, the worst he's stolen are pawned necklaces from shops around town, he's the definition of a petty criminal, for god's sake - and when he thinks they finally have him cornered in an apartment on Apple he breathes a sigh of relief.

"I'm phasing through the wall," he murmurs, sure that Derek can hear him regardless. He begins to vibrate, higher and higher until he reaches the right frequency. "And then I'm going to wring his - "

Barry stops dead as he steps through the wall -

- into the middle of a six year old's birthday party.

"Mom, it's the Flash!" a tiny voice shrieks, and in slow motion, Barry watches the thief hiding behind the kitchen door disappear like he was never there.

"Godda - " he starts. "Um, bless you!" Barry glances around wildly, only to be met with more sweet, upturned faces. "Blessings from the Flash on your birthday!"

Comments

[triskehale]

Now Derek is just pissed off. A teleporter? How is that fair?

They’re so close but the guy jumps again, and Barry had had enough. He’s set to phase through the wall so Derek listens to try and figure out what might be on the other side. His eyes widen when he hears the shrieks of laughter.

“Flash, wait!” He calls out, but it’s too late. Barry is on the other side and Derek slams a gloved hand against the wall before he hightails it out of the apartment and into the hall. He doesn’t knock, because what’s another masked vigilante suddenly showing up in your home?

He walks through the front door and over a dozen little faces swing to look at him. Derek’s eyes widen beneath his domino mask, ears ringing when a few of them call out a shrill, “Alpha!”.

“Happy birthday,” he says gruffly, eyes widening again when a tiny blonde girl with pigtails throws herself at him. The adults in the room look confused, all of them staring at the other as if trying to figure out who might have arranged this.

“Alpha! Alpha!” The girl chants, climbing him like a jungle gym until her thin arms are looped around his neck. “Jeremy says Flash is his favorite but you’re my favorite!”

“Um,” Derek starts. “Thank—

“You look like a kitty!” She shrieks, and Derek scowls. “See!”

[thescarletspeedster]

"He...does," agrees Barry, even if he has no idea what the little girl means. But the children are swarming Derek now, and Barry enjoys the moments of relative peace. "The Alpha heard it was your birthday, um - " He darts forward faster than sight to read the birthday cake and returns, "Jacob. And he insisted on coming to sing you happy birthday."

Barry grins at him across the room. "Everyone hush now, so we can hear the Alpha's special song."

[triskehale]

Derek glowers at Barry’s sudden betrayal, eyes narrowing savagely at him. He’s distracted by the little girl’s fingers clawing at his face, presumably to remove his mask.

“Ah, careful. That’s a very special part of my suit,” he says gently, carefully taking her hand away from his face. Derek is good with kids, if a little out of practice. He just has to take a breath and switch gears. So he does, breathing out and sliding an arm under the little girl so she can sit nestled against his hip.

“Everyone knows that there’s no singing until the cake comes out, Flash,” he tells Barry, quirking a brow as he carries the girl through the room, bouncing her on his hip. He quickly learns that her name is Emily, and her favorite color is red, and she loves unicorns, but she thinks princesses are lame.

“So, which one of you is Jacob?” Derek asks, and Emily flings her little arm out at a sandy haired boy staring up at Barry in fascination.

“Him!” Emily shouts. “He’s my brother and he’s gross!”

[thescarletspeedster]

"He looks pretty cool to me," says Barry, bending down to give Jacob a high five. "You ready for your cake?" he asks. Jacob nods vigorously, and Barry aims a triumphant grin at Derek. "Cake it is!"

In a flash, he has the cake in his hands and every candle lit, ready for Jacob to blow them out as soon as he gets his song. "I'll tell you a secret," he whispers to Jacob, "The Alpha is shy. You want me to help him get the song started?"

Jacob nods, though in truth he looks like he'd agree to anything about now, and Barry smiles, looking up at Derek.

"Happy birthday to you..."

[triskehale]

“We’ll all sing nice and loud,” Derek says when Barry materializes with the cake, chuckling even as he reaches up to scratch his eyebrow with the tip of his middle finger. Once everyone else starts up he joins in, holding up the little girl and spinning around so that she giggles.

Once they’re all done singing, Jacob blows out his candles and Derek bends down to try and set Emily down in a chair, but she shrieks and clings to Derek’s neck.

“No! I want to stay with Alpha!” She shouts and Derek shoots an understanding look at the approaching adult, who must be her mother.

“Don’t you want cake?” Derek asks, and Emily looks torn. “And ice cream?”

[thescarletspeedster]

"And cupcakes!" Barry blurts, excited to see a small mountain of them on the table. "Oh, I really shouldn't," he says even as he accepts one pressed into his hand by another mother. It's gone in seconds, and Barry is still licking blue icing from his lips when it occurs to him he should have a present for the birthday boy.

Who is...Jacob, right. Barry doesn't know anything about him, but almost all little boys love sports. He disappears in a crackle, reappearing a few moments later to add another present to the pile. The gift note says, With love, from the Flash and the Alpha.

[triskehale]

By the time Derek gets Emily untangled from him and in a chair with a cupcake in her hands, Barry already smells like he rolled around in sugar and there's a present on the table that wasn't there a moment ago. The children now seem heavily invested in their desserts, so Derek steps back and puts a hand low on Barry's back as he inches towards the window.

"Well, we really should get back to patrolling the city," Derek says in his best Alpha voice. "The bad guys won't lock themselves up. Right, Flash?"

[thescarletspeedster]

"Oh," Barry murmurs, "Right." He's caught up in the balloons and streamers and the second cupcake pressed into his hand, but they really should get back to patrolling. "Duty never sleeps," he says brightly to the room. "Happy birthday again!" Figuring the children will like it, he gives a short salute before gathering Derek to him and speeding back to the street in a flash.

"That was fun," he says. "We should patrol in birthday parties more often."

[triskehale]

"It wasn't bad," Derek agrees, keeping an arm around Barry's waist and leaning in to take a bite from the cupcake still resting in his hand. "Kids are fun. Then they turn into teenagers and ruin everything."

He presses a sticky kiss to Barry's jaw, leaving a smeared blue print behind before he pulls away and licks his lips, cleaning them of all the frosting before he quirks a brow at Barry. "Should we resume the hunt or call it a night?"

[thescarletspeedster]

"I'll be honest," says Barry, looking down at his half-eaten cupcake, "I just want to call it a night and eat now. That was really cute, though." He smiles. "Birthdays were weird for me after my mom died and my dad was gone - I'd forgotten how fun they are for a kid." Barry looks back up at the window above them, brightly lit against the night and covered in streamers. "Growing up sucks."

[triskehale]

"I'm okay with that. Off to the lair, then?" Derek asks, his expression going sympathetic as Barry speaks about his childhood. He nods and presses a quick kiss to Barry's cheek just below his cowl, sighing softly before looking up at the window as well. "I can imagine. Our birthdays were normally just family affairs. Little wolves all jacked up on sugar are too unpredictable to have a lot of people over. At that age we can't do more than eyes and teeth, maybe claws, but still."

It would be impossible for Derek to miss the bitter scent of melancholy coming off of Barry, nothing serious but enough to have Derek nuzzling against his cheek. "Our birthdays are coming up. Do you want cake and streamers? Pointy hats and all?"

He's mostly teasing, but if Barry wanted it, Derek would make it happen.

[thescarletspeedster]

Barry laughs, leaning his head onto Derek's shoulder. "A whole bunch of werebabies hopped up on sugar sounds equally dangerous and cute. And n'aw, that kind of magic is reserved for childhood, I think." He turns, winding his arms comfortably around Derek's neck. "Unless that's a secret desire you yourself have." He doesn't seem to move, but in the next moment Derek is wearing a 'borrowed' party hat. Barry snaps the elastic and grins. "Actually I'm warming to it."

[triskehale]

"It was very cute," Derek says wistfully, though he's startled by Barry's remark about a secret desire. He completely misinterprets it, wondering if Barry is somehow referring to him wanting children of his own, but by the time he's able to get himself worked up about it, his hood is knocked back and there's a party hat on his head. Derek huffs out a laugh, but he does earmark the thought. They're getting married. That's a discussion they should probably have at some point, right?

"Really? This is what does it for you?" Derek asks dryly, reaching up to knock the hat a little askew before leaning in and wrapping an arm around Barry's waist. "Come on, I want to get these suits off."

[thescarletspeedster]

"Your favorite part of patrol is always us getting naked after," Barry says, not at all looking like he disapproves. He leans into Derek, preparing to scoop him up for the race home, but he pauses. "You want us to bring anything home? I kind of want cake now."

Mmm, and frosting. Barry licks his lips in memory of the cupcake, but instead of the little baked treat he imagines licking frosting off something else entirely.

[triskehale]

“What can I say? These suits are uncomfortable,” he says with a smirk, curling an arm around Barry’s shoulders. “I never say no to cake.”

Barry’s eyes glaze over a bit and Derek quirks a brow, leaning in to press his face against Barry’s neck and inhale. A familiar spicy scent hits his nose and he lets out a huff of laughter, biting softly at Barry’s jaw. “Are you still thinking about cake? If so, I have questions.”

[thescarletspeedster]

"Frosting," Barry admits, squirming a little. He thinks of bugs and clowns furiously, willing the situation in the lower half of his suit to go away so he can run. "And my suit is very comfortable, thank you. Benefit of having one bespoke."

He grins. "We could take yours to a tailor."

[triskehale]

"It could fit me like a second skin and I would still prefer being naked," Derek says with a chuckle, kissing the corner of Barry's smiling mouth and pulling him closer. "Run me home, and then go get some frosting so we can do whatever you're thinking about in that dirty little mind of yours."