Aftermath

In a bustling cafe, a familiar black-haired man and a brunette female sat at the same table. While the latter cupped her hands around her coffee mug, the man had yet to put in his order.

"How much longer do you think he'll take?" 

"I'm not sure. We still haven't seen him since he came back and had his battle with Reverse Flash. He might not be up to it. Just be patient."

"Hmm, I think I've gotten so used to Barry speeding everywhere that it's hard for me to do so anymore." 

These two were Cisco and Caitlin.

It was still quite early in the morning, following the events of World War M the night before. 

Since then, not much has happened.

"Is something wrong?" Cisco asked a dazed Caitlin, to which the latter snapped out of her trance, coming clean.

"Well…I was just thinking about Reverse Flash. He's in the pipeline still trapped in Derek's Eclipse."

"I'm just wondering what exactly we'll see once we confront him considering…we haven't seen Professor Wells since yesterday…"

Cisco's expression instantly dropped to match hers as they both basked in a moment of silence.

"Whatever it is…we've already been prepared to face it. We'll get through it." Cisco nodded.

Since then, Barry hadn't let up the search for survivors in the prison wreckage.

Why?

Because his father was one of the few individuals still missing.

While most were suspected of using last night's chaos as a chance to escape, multiple reports and CCTV footage showed Henry Allen never left his ward.

But despite Barry, or rather the Flash, searching that area more than one hundred times, nothing was found.

"Hey guys."

Before the two could continue, a voice interrupted them before they had even noticed someone had approached them.

But as they turned, they both couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

"Who the hell are you?" Cisco raised his eyebrow, his tone becoming high in confusion as Caitlin also stared like she was deeply pondering something.

"Huh? What do you mean? It's me."

Before them stood a tall youth with piercing emerald eyes. His rather satisfyingly smooth skin and sharp jawline paired abnormally well with his wild unkempt hair, giving him a unique animal-like charm.

As for Cisco and Caitlin, well, they could somewhat tell this was indeed who they thought it was, however, they simply had a hard time contemplating how different he looked to the last time they'd seen him.

Additionally, it didn't seem as though they were alone in their stares as the youth would draw most of the eyes around him, typically the eyes of females.

"Derek?" Caitlin asked, making Derek furrow his eyebrows.

"Uh, yeah. Who else?" Derek took a seat beside Cisco and directly opposite Caitlin.

"Dude, what happened to you? You look like the before and after of Captain America." Cisco seemed to finally accept the reality of what he was seeing.

'Ah, I see. It's that bad, huh?'

Though Derek simply shrugged, feigning ignorance, he inwardly sighed.

He knew he should expect a few questions about how he'd changed in just a few days, but he didn't think the changes would be so great that it would garner this much attention.

Well, that was before he looked in the mirror.

When he did…

'Holy crap…'

Yup, he had changed too much for this to not attract some eyes.

He thought of using his Transformation ability, but…

'I've never thought myself to be Malcolm Merlyn level egotistical, but I can't bring myself to look uglier.'

Absolutely not.

He'd suffered dozens of migraines and headaches learning everything there is to learn about Medical Science and he'd almost died upon injecting the Mirakuru into himself.

'Fuck it. I deserve this.'

"I've been working out and all but I don't think it's made that much of a difference." Derek shrugged.

"Not that much of a difference? Are you kidding me, you look…" Caitlin found herself rambling like she would often, but caught herself before she could say anything embarrassing.

"You look great. And I say that from a genetic perspective…because I'm a geneticist of course. Why else would I speak of someone's appearance?" 

Despite having a few seconds to think of what to say, Caitlin still managed to fumble her words as she sighed, taking another sip of her coffee to shut herself up.

Fortunately, before they could ask anything else, a waitress arrived at their table.

"What can I get you?"

She asked, enthusiastically flipping open her notebook and smiling. But it was quite obvious her body language and eyes were directed more toward the youth who had joined the other two.

But clearly, Cisco didn't notice this, his eyes still glaring at Derek as he spoke.

"Yeah, can I have a…"

"I wasn't asking you."

Cisco finally slowly turned to the waitress who didn't even look him in the eye, still smiling at Derek.

"Um…can I have a Late?"

"Of course. Anything else?"

"No, thank you."

The waitress lingered for a second longer, finally leaving as the three stared at each other in silence.

"Alright, I'm going to get my coffee manually and try not to drown myself in the boiling water they keep in the coffee machine." Cisco wore a sarcastic smile as he stormed off, mumbling under his breath.

"...Should I say something?" Derek asked with a defeated expression.

"No, he'll get over it. He's taken worse, trust me." Caitlin smiled, her eyes tracing over Derek's face.

"But you really have changed." Her tone changed to one of consoling as she leaned in closer, laying her elbows on the table.

"What can I say? I'm still young, maybe I'm experiencing a second wave of puberty." He chuckled, to which she tilted her head slightly, the same soft smile on her face.

"I'm serious. Should I be worried about you?"

Derek's playful smile faded, his eyes locking with hers.

"Really, I'm fine. I'm strong. I even took out Reverse Flash, remember?"

Caitlin softly chuckled.

"Nobody can handle everything by themselves. Not even the Flash or Derek Bond."

"That's right. But that's why I have Caitlin Snow to help if I'm ever in trouble." 

"Definitely. After all, I still owe you for saving me from that train. Maybe I can help by finding you a barber to fix that jungle on your head." Caitlin pointed to Derek's overground hair.

It sat on his forehead, bordering his eyes while comfortably enshrouding his ears like earmuffs. Any longer and it would obscure his vision.

"Hmm, I don't know. There's something about unfamiliar hands poking at my head for an hour that puts me off it."

Derek could put himself through it if he wanted to, but he'd rather not. He didn't see his hair as that much of a problem anyway.

"It doesn't have to be anything professional. My dad used to cut my hair for me. With a comb and scissors, I could do just as good a job."

Derek pondered this for a moment, his eyes moving down to Caitlin's hand.

In the next second, he went to grab it, taking a second to press his thumb over her palm.

'Soft and rather warm despite the fact she'll soon be known for her icy abilities.'

Most likely because she had it cupped around her coffee mug. However, there was something more to it than simply soothing any discomfort Derek previously had about the idea.

[Caitlin Snow has peered closer at you]

'Huh…'

Derek saw the screen, simultaneously looking up to her as he did, only to see Caitlin taken aback, staring at him with slightly wider eyes than usual while the rest of her expression remained neutral as if it lagged to keep up.

Where her previous stares could be linked to confusion at Derek's change, curiosity or interest, this time, Derek couldn't quite tell what this was.

Which was rare since he was quite familiar with these characters.

Additionally, Derek could catch the colour on her face having changed.

"Oh, sorry." 

He remarked, quickly unhanding her as he went back to his original seated position.

"Mhm." 

She replied after a slight pause, breaking eye contact as she went back to stare at her coffee.

At that moment, a thought couldn't help but flash in Derek's mind, seeing her face.

He'd only ever witnessed her on the screen, but even then, she was someone who stuck out to him from all the other female cast of the show.

'...No, at this point in time, Ronnie is still alive and she knows this. She'd probably hate herself if…'

"Here's your Latte."

The silence was broken as the same waitress from before returned with his coffee, leaving quicker this time.

Derek stared at the beverage for a second, soon taking a sip.

And as soon as it touched his tongue…

"Ugh…still disgusting." He spoke out loud.

"Not a fan?"

"No, but it's sort of become a tradition whenever I come here."

"For some, it can be an acquired taste. You'll get used to it soon."

Derek found this hard to believe, considering it tasted just as bad as when he first had it, if not worse.

Silence prevailed for the next few seconds as Derek took a few deep breaths, knowing he was about to chug it in the next second while Caitlin watched.

"Aren't you going to wait till it cools down…"

But it was too late. 

In a matter of seconds, Derek had completely downed the hot coffee, much to Caitlin's surprise.

As he did, he spoke inwardly in a sorry attempt to distract himself.

'It has also become a tradition to view the changes to the system while doing this. So let's see what's changed since completing my quest.'