Date

I woke up, as usual, to the soft glow of afternoon sunlight creeping through my blinds. Glancing over at the clock, I saw it was already two in the afternoon. Perfect. A few days had passed since the bee incident, and honestly, life had been pretty chill. Sleeping in late had become my routine, and right now, that wasn't something I was planning to change.

After lazily getting out of bed, I threw on my usual clothes and decided to head to STAR Labs. I mean, where else would I go? That's pretty much my second home at this point. Walking through the doors, I didn't expect much.

But as soon as I stepped in, something caught my eye—a sight that immediately pissed me off. There, in the middle of the room, was Barry...kissing Caitlin.

I"What the actually fuck does he think he is doing!" I mumbled harshly to myself before storming over

"Barry, what the fuck do you think you're doing?" I shouted, grabbing him by the shoulder and pulling him away from her. Without thinking twice, I swung a solid punch to the side of his head. "Keep your damn hands to yourself, man! What about Iris?"

As if on cue, Iris walked in. Her confused expression only made things worse.

"Who are you? And why is Barry on the floor!?" she asked, looking at me like I was some kind of lunatic.

Before I could explain, something unexpected, but not of my new usual, happened. The 'Barry' on the floor started shifting—his face, his entire body. It wasn't Barry at all. It was someone else entirely.

"Great," I muttered under my breath, piecing things together. This had been impersonating people, and now he'd pulled one on us, fuck. "Could've used a heads-up on this, guys."

It didn't take long for everyone to fill me in on what had been happening all day. Apparently, this is Hannable Bates had been going around impersonating people for months, and today he decided to go for Barry. Fantastic.

Once the situation cooled down a little, I pulled Caitlin aside into one of the side rooms. "Are you okay?" I asked, my voice softer than usual. The last thing I wanted was for her to feel weird about what had just happened. After all, some random guy had practically forced a kiss on her.

She stayed quiet for a moment, but I could see the apprehension in her eyes. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just—" She trailed off, but I could tell she was thinking, thinking about today's incident, thinking about everything that had happened between us before. Back when we almost started something...before Ronnie came back.

I stepped closer and gave her a gentle hug. "I gave you that bracelet to protect you," I said, holding her tight. "I know you didn't know it wasn't Barry, but even if it were really Barry, you still should have used the bracelet, I don't want to see anything like that happen again."

She stayed quiet, but I felt her relax a little. When I pulled away, there was a small, warm smile on her face. For a moment, everything felt okay again.

Back in the main room, I decided to take Bates to the Precinct myself so something like him escaping doesn't happen, and after 3 seconds I'm there, and I had the foresight to print out documents and evidence of the crimes and handed It to Cecile who was the person in charge Of this case, obviously she didn't recognize me as Matthew, but she did as Velocity.

"and this is?" she asked, looking at the person I brought in.

"Well this is the person who has been impersonating people and committing crimes, here is recorded footage and here is the paperwork I printed out, his name is Hanabble Bates."

After giving her all the documents and looming through it she spoke again.

"Well this is new territory for me, if i'm being honest."

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I was only recently able to become this powerful, even if the flash is faster than me, I can do a few things he can't." I say With a wink, and I soon realise I'm flirting with her as Velocity instead of as Matthew and with that realisation, I decide to head out.

"Well it was nice doing business with you but I need to get going."

"Thank you, Velocity."

Someone actually remembers my name for once. "All in a day's work" I say with a smirk before speeding off. Feeling like a total badass l, and not thinking how cringe that may have sounded.

…

After that whole debacle, and having to actually go back to the presence as they couldn't actually contain Hannable, we put him in the pipeline, and I took some sample of his DNA, as I wanted to see if I could maybe replicate some parts of his power, mostly for camouflage, but I realised that can be completely stupid, but then again if I ever get caught, I could put on someone else's face! But if they run a blood test it wouldn't be me. So for now I scrapped the idea, but still kept the sample and sealed it and kept it in a hidden refrigerator.

After that, I actually called up Cecil and asked if she wanted to explore some of the restraints the city had to offer, my treat of course.

…

About an hour later, I met up with Cecile at Pacci's Italian Kitchen, a place that hits the sweet spot between casual and a little fancy. It's not one of those "white-tablecloth" places, but it's nice enough to impress. Just the vibe I was going for.

When I arrived, Cecile was already waiting by the door, dressed casually, but still looking like she could walk into any courtroom and win a case. I waved as I approached, and she smiled.

"Glad you made it," she said.

"Of course. I promised you dinner, didn't I?" I replied, opening the door for her. "My treat, remember?"

We headed inside, and the place had that nice, low-key hum of conversation going on around us. We found a table near the window and settled in, taking a quick glance at the menu.

After we ordered, Cecile leaned back in her chair and let out a soft sigh. "You wouldn't believe the stuff I've been dealing with lately. A lot of craziness. Oh, and I met one of our resident superheroes today. I have to Say, it was rather cool, imagine running so fast!"

I raised an eyebrow, giving her a teasing smirk. "Talking about other guys on a date with me? Bold move, Cecile."

She laughed, giving me a playful look. "Hey, you're not the only one in town who wears a suit."

"Yeah, but my suit's way cooler," I shot back with a grin and a slight look of false indignation.

Dinner came soon after, and we spent most of it swapping stories. She told me about her day in the courtroom, handling cases that would make anyone's head spin. Apparently, some people in Central City don't care that there are superheroes running around—they'll still try anything.

"Seriously," she said between bites of her pasta, "some guy tried to plead not guilty to armed robbery, and he had his name stitched onto his jacket in big letters."

I almost choked on my drink. "You're kidding. That's... actually hilarious."

She nodded, rolling her eyes. "I swear, sometimes I don't know what's worse— the so-called 'supervillains' or regular criminals who think they're smarter than they are."

I leaned forward, resting my elbows on the table. "Well, at least with supervillains, you know they're dangerous. These idiots... they're just asking to get caught."

She laughed, and for a second, everything felt light, easy. It was a nice break from the usual chaos.

…

Pretty soon, we finished our meal, enjoying dessert that topped off an already great evening. Both Cecile and I were satisfied—not just with the food, but with the whole vibe of the night. As we left the restaurant, I walked her to her car, the cool evening air wrapping around us.

But then, as we were nearing her car, someone jumped into our path. Or, more like... appeared. It was clear what was about to happen. The guy looked jittery, nervous, and as soon as his hand disappeared into his trench coat, I knew what was coming.

Before long, he pulled out a gun. Without hesitation, I stepped in front of Cecile, feeling her tense up behind me. I quickly muttered under my breath, "How do these guys keep getting guns? Seriously, where the fuck are they getting them from?"

I think Cecile heard me, because even in the moment, I caught her giving a half-snarky, half-worried smile, but her attention was on the guy in front of us.

"Whoa, hey, man," I said, holding my hands up. "We don't want any trouble."

The guy was jittery, his hand shaking as he pointed the gun. "Give me your purse, give me your phone, your money! Hurry up!" he barked, voice cracking under the pressure. He was just some typical, desperate criminal.

"Alright, alright," I said calmly, reaching into my pocket for my wallet, keeping my movements slow. "I'm getting it..."

I pulled out my wallet and, without missing a beat, tossed it up in the air. The moment his eyes flicked upward to follow it, I moved. No super speed necessary. I punched him square in the gut, making him double over. Then, in one quick motion, I grabbed his shoulders and drove my knee into his chest, knocking him out cold.

"Whew." I let out a breath, standing up straight. "That was... something."

Turning around, I saw Cecile already on her phone, calling the CCPD to come pick up the guy. 'We'll, damn, that was quick.' As the situation wrapped up and we made our way to her car, she turned to me with a playful grin.

"My hero," she said, her voice teasing but warm. "That was way cooler than any superhero."

I smirked. 'You have no idea' I thought to myself.

As a thank you, she leaned in and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek, her lips soft and warm. "Thanks for tonight. It was... fun."

"Anytime," I said with a smile, trying to play it cool.

She got into her car, giving me one last wave before driving off into the night. As I watched her car disappear down the street, I couldn't help but feel pretty damn satisfied with how the night went.

Making my way back to my own car—yeah, I brought it with me on this date—I hopped in and headed home, still riding the high of the evening and feeling pretty proud of myself.