Archive of Our Own ^beta

It all started when Barry was in high school. He had been breaking and entering into an old abandoned house a couple of blocks over and some nosey neighbors called the cops on him. Barry ended up spending the night in lockup, as it was his first offence. Unfortunately, there had been a few too many other arrests that night and all the holding cells were full. Barry ended up in the same cell as a small time robber named Marcus, Marcus had gotten caught rewiring an ATM machine and was stuck in lockup until morning before he could be transferred to Iron Heights with some of the others. Marcus and Barry sat on the opposite sides of the small cell swapping stories, Marcus telling about some of his prouder thieving moments and Barry telling him about a few of the weirder things he has seen and read about on his hunt for the supernatural.

The next time was a few months later, Barry had once gotten caught trespassing on private property. Another night in lockup with a new person, Janus, who had been detained in a bar fight and was cooling his heels overnight. Barry did most of the talking that night, he rambled on about the newest article he had read about some government conspiracy or another for a few hours before Janus fell asleep to Barry’s talking.

It happened quite a few more times before he graduated, always getting caught on minor offences and having to spend the night in lock up. He had actually made a few friends with some of the more frequent criminals that he wound up spending the night with. Barry had spent the night with Janus two more times, both while he was unintoxicated, and three times he spent the night with a man named Cole, who got arrested for vandalism after spray painting the side of town hall on three separate occasions.

Almost every time Barry had to spend the night in lockup he had to share his cell. Without fail, every time he had to share a cell Barry stayed up all night trading stories with who ever it was that night. It had gotten to a point that minor criminals would ask to be put with ‘that Allen kid’ over night because people kept spreading how their nights in lockup were spent with Barry Allen.

It did not stop after Barry graduated high school either. When he went to Sun City University his troublesome, and minorly criminal, activities kept steady with a whole new city worth of trouble to get into.

By the time he actually had the time to go exploring in college he had learned how to not be noticed breaking and entering, having been taught by some practiced thieves waiting for a transfer the last time he had gotten locked up.

Barry was getting fairly good at getting in, exploring, and getting out without being seen by the time he was done with his freshman year of college.

When he got back home to Central City, Barry decided, on a whim, to go exploring in the sketchier neighborhoods of Central and perhaps to find a quiet bar to sit in for the night. What he had expected was to get a beer or two and then retire to the corner of the bar to watch the other patrons. What had happened was when Barry walked into some dive bar and sat down on a grimey stool the bartender that took his order wound up being a slight man named Ed that had been arrested for indecent exposure a bit over a year ago. Ed had recognised him on the spot and gave him a cosmopaltion “on the house for the sweetest criminal Central has to offer” Ed chuckled as he handed him the drink.

Barry made a habit of taking walks down the grungier streets at least once a week, if only to make small talk with some of the prostitutes who enjoyed the company on slower nights.

It continued like this for the next three years, when Barry was off at college he would inadvertently practice being a criminal while trying to find an explanation for the unexplainable. When he was back in Central he became more acquainted with the other half of the city, the kind of people he would spend the night in a six by eight foot cell, while still managing to keep his status as an upstanding citizen. It was almost like the criminals of Central made it a game of trying to get Barry’s attention on the street without the people he was walking with noticing, and as soon a he nodded at the other person they would smile and continue on with their days.

Even after graduating from college and getting a job as a CSI with the Central City Police Department Barry kept up with Centrals underground. He still went on weekend walks and had a drink or two in his favorite bars. Hell, he was even taught how to hustle people at pool by a few burly guys in a small gang on the outskirts of the city. The criminals took his new job in stride, trying to catch his attention at work whenever they were booked and he was in the main portion of the precinct.

After Barry got struck by lightning the entirety of the criminal side of Central froze in place. Barry Allen, sweet funny Barry Allen that would ramble on about aliens and bigfoot, was in a coma after being struck by lightning of all things. Some of the bartenders that knew Barry well created a new drink called The Lightning as a way to mourn Barry even if he was not dead.

In the nine months that Barry was in a coma there was less major crimes and more petty crimes, almost like they were trying to stay relatively behaved for Barry while he was absent.

Two weeks after Barry woke up he had finally managed to make it down to his favorite bar. When he walked in the whole joint went silent before exploding into cheers. Most of the patrons swarmed Barry, trying to at least touch him, trying to make sure that is actually Barry Allen standing there after nine months.

After news spread through the underground that Barry was up and about again crimes sprang up more and more around the city. However, quite a few of the crimes were stopped by a red blur sweeping through the streets of Central.

The criminals took note of the blur and Ed the bartender noticed that after the crimes were stopped they were not usually taken to jale, actually they were more often than not dropped off at their houses in a flash.

When Leonard Snart, someone Barry had only met in person once while in lockup, Barry was in for his usual breaking and entering and Snart was awaiting a transfer to Iron Heights, decided that it was high time to step up his game by becoming a supervillain with his long time partner in crime Mick Rory, Barry and Mick met twice both on minor arson Barry’s being accidental, and challenged the blur known as the Flash.

Ed was the first one to notice that Barry showed up to his bar with bruises covering his arms an hour after the Flash fought the newly dubbed Captain Cold and Heatwave. If Ed, or any of the patrons, noticed a correlation between Flash’s fights and Barry showing up later covered in injuries, well, that was a secret they would take to the grave.

It took until the very televised kidnapping of Doctor Caitlin Snow and the much less known kidnappings of Cisco and Dante Ramon for Leonard and Mick to realise that they had been trying to hurt the sweetheart of Central City’s underground.

After that revelation things were different, the Flash still got into fights with Captain Cold and Heatwave, as well as the seemingly endless hoard of rouge metahumans, but the fights with Cold and Heatwave started to look more like they were playing a game than actually fighting. Instead of aiming for the Flash’s chest, Captain Cold and Heatwave always aimed to the side, and the Flash, in return, never harmed Cold or Heatwave. All the verbal fighting sounded more like how old friends would argue and tease back and forth with each other.

After fights Barry would still come down to bars, Saints and Sinners became his main haunt, much to Ed’s disappointment, and Mick Rory and Leonard Snart would often join him there. And if anyone thought there was anything weird about it, they just kept it to themselves.