Arrow/The Flash, "The Other Side of Lonely" Chapter Four, Laurel/Cisco, rated M

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 Fandoms: Arrow, The Flash
Title: The Other Side of Lonely: Chapter 4
Characters/Pairings: Laurel Lance, Cisco Ramon, Cisco/Laurel (BlackVibe), other characters mentioned
Rating: M (eventually)
Genre: Action/Romance
Warnings/Spoilers: Loosely based on the season 1 finale of The Flash, and the season 3 finale of Arrow. Adult situations in future chapters.

Notes: Finished for wipbigbang 2022. Loosely based on canon from the end of Season 1 of The Flash and the end of Season 3 of Arrow.

Links: AO3 | FFnet

Summary: Fighting alone on the streets of Starling City, the Black Canary could use a little help from a friend. Enter: Cisco Ramon.

Chapter Four

 Cisco settled in his van in an alley not too far from the location where Laurel headed off to investigate, but not too far that he couldn’t swoop in and help her if needed. While linking to Laurel’s phone, Cisco monitored several computer screens in the van that mapped the area, and he spoke to her through her earpiece. 

She was relatively quiet as he tracked her location, and she kept a low profile. When she set off, she kept to the shadows, and she was cognizant of anyone who would be following. The location was mostly abandoned, and with some heat mapping, Cisco could see that the abandoned storage lockers were clear of people. He knew that the victims were probably being shielded by some kind of technology to block out infrared technology.

For now, he’d depend on Laurel’s intel on where the kids were most likely being kept. 

As she prowled through the dark crevices and alleys of the commercial area, Cisco began to feel tension worsen in his shoulders as he thought about his premonition. He knew that Laurel was ultimately in danger the moment she left his van, but he trusted in her abilities and he knew that she could more than take care of herself.

While lost in his thoughts, he snapped in attention when he finally heard her voice. “I got ‘em,” Laurel told him bluntly, though he could detect satisfaction in her tone. 

 Cisco also felt relieved, and he began to wonder if his premonition was just a fluke warning. 

“You!” he heard Laurel yell in her earpiece. Suddenly, he heard a mixture of voices, interference from a scuffle, and then the audio went dead. 

“Black Canary! Can you hear me? What happened?” he frantically called out to her, but the line still stayed dead. 

 Cisco scrambled, cursing himself for thinking they could be in the clear and that his premonition meant nothing. He gathered up some of his mobile techs, checked the location, and headed out to where Laurel’s signal went dead. 

He only hoped that when he arrived at her location, she was alright and had taken care of everything. Still, it didn’t hurt for him to give her some backup.

 ---

The moment she located the missing children in a cargo container, she was ambushed by goons with the villain in question appearing from the shadows to come and sneer at her. She hated his sneer which seemed to be permanently plastered on his face; the same one he used toward her when they had battled in the courtroom. 

“Well, look what we have here, boys. Such a special bounty we’ve caught tonight,” said Thomas Helheim. “It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Ms. Black Canary. I have heard so much about you - that is, I know it’s been you sniffing around my business.”

“Hrmm, I can’t say it’s a pleasure for me to meet you,” Black Canary countered, and she was grateful that her secret identity was intact. If Helheim knew who she really was, this could be a much more dangerous situation. She didn’t even want to think about what he’d do to her if he knew that she was also District Attorney Laurel Lance.

“I hate to be rude, but since you’re here, I have no choice but to clip your wings, Ms. Canary,” he said, and he approached her confidently, his goons fading to the background as he came close to her face and gripped her chin. He didn’t even bother to restrain her, and she started to feel odd at his touch. Her body turned cold as if every nerve in her body was frozen solid. She wanted so badly to throw a punch at him, to scream out her Canary Cry to subdue him and cause him pain. She had worked out the events in her head, but for some reason, she just couldn’t move a muscle.

What was Helheim doing to her? Was there a meta-human nearby? 

…Or was he the meta human? She cursed inside her head. Damn, she should have known he had some sort of super abilities that had allowed him to continuously circumvent the law.

He caressed her cheek, and she felt sweat drip down her face and nausea fill in her stomach. She wanted so desperately to get away and fight back, but he was looking down at her like she was a full-course meal - the cat that caught the canary.

“I wonder who is under this mask? I wonder if I know you personally,” he said just above a whisper. “No other vigilante or cop has gotten this close to me. What information do you have on me, Ms. Canary?”

She felt his fingers trace the seam of her eye mask, pulling at it idly. She was horrified that he would find out who she truly was at any moment, and she could do nothing about it while her body continued to betray her and turn her into nothing more than a statue. 

Instead, she was shocked when he pushed her gently backward, and she landed on her bottom. She felt two goons manhandle her and drag her to the group of scared children huddled together in the cargo box. 

“We will know your identity soon enough,” Helheim said with a wave of his hand. “In the meantime, we have a deadline to meet with our customer. Boys, get these ladies ready for transport. Adding Black Canary to the merchandise is just a bonus perk.”

He grinned his yellowing teeth at her, and then he turned heel and headed out of the cargo box before his henchmen sealed it shut. Despite Helheim’s absence, Laurel’s body was still temporarily frozen, and she assumed that it was the same case for the kids that she had joined in that box as well.

---

Cisco ducked through shadows, carefully hiding from the sudden groups of goons that seemed to litter around the docking area. He looked down at his phone, still not seeing any sign of bodies with the heat mapping. 

So he was right. Something was blocking his technology from seeing all these people here during a full-blown operation. His only saving grace was that when he’d made an enhancement to Laurel’s tech, he had strengthened the depth of field in finding her through certain common blockages, like lead and other metals. He cautiously headed her way, but he was feeling anxious from all the goons he had to dodge.

Finally, he had made it to a large cluster of cargo containers ready to be transported into the sea and most likely, out of the country. He peered around the container, looking to where the closest one was to pinpoint Laurel’s signal.

When he rested his hand on one of the steel containers, he closed his eyes, and he tried to tap into that power again, that bond that he had with Laurel to find her location. He couldn’t explain it, but somehow, if he gave himself the chance and naturally opened his mind, he could grab onto a vibe to find her. 

When he felt his body swell with heat, hot water that pulsated through his body like a shower, he grabbed onto the feeling, pulling to find where Laurel was. In his mind’s eye, he saw her within a distorted picture. She was lying down, struggling to move. Behind her, scared children were trying to cry, whimpering but behaving just as immobile as Laurel was.

“Black Canary!” He called out in his mind, which seemed to travel the stream and get to her. Her eyes opened. She had heard him!

He turned to his mobile tech, knowing just what he had to do. “Long-range commands are on. Time for the loudest Canary Cry without hurting the kids.”

He activated the command on his phone, and suddenly the automated Cry exploded through the cargo box. He followed the path of destruction and saw smoke and dust kick up as Laurel managed to hobble to her feet through the busted door of the cargo pod. She had more luck moving again, and so did the kids. Something in the Canary Cry had nullified Helheim’s influence, so Cisco suspected that whatever he had done to Black Canary and the kids was sensory based. He watched Laurel, still disoriented, as she looked around to find her rescuer. 

Cisco ran to her and she turned to the kids. He scooped her into his arms, holding her steady as she caught her breath. “Helheim is a meta, some kind of nerve paralyzing power by using touch. The moment he touched me I couldn’t do anything.”

Cisco hummed, satisfied he was right about his suspicions against Helheim. 

“We need to get these kids out of here,” Cisco said, looking at the battered and frightened children.

Laurel nodded, mostly recovered. “There are likely more kids in other cargo pods.” Cisco watched her swallow a breath, and then he saw the anger raise up in her expression. Black Canary was more than ready to fight and take her revenge. Cisco felt a shiver run through his body as he watched the fury embolden her. She spat out a curse and said, “But first, I need to deal with Helheim.”

“Be careful, and don’t let him touch you again,” Cisco said.

Laurel nodded, and she smiled fondly at him as he continued to hold her close to him. She started to break away, and she laid a hand on his arm. “You have to tell me how you were able to find me, and how you were able to trigger my Canary Cry without a scream.”

Cisco grinned happily. “All will be revealed, milady.” Laurel snorted out a small laugh. 

“So it is you again,” said a deep, unhappy voice behind them. Cisco and Laurel turned their attention to Helheim, and the children they’d just rescued cowered behind them. 

Cisco held out his arm, and he clicked on his earpiece and filled his audio with yellow noise. Laurel was momentarily jarred as she heard it too. “He’s definitely a meta,” he said, as alarms in his tech were going off. “I’d also suspect he could use his power with not just touch, but sound too.”

“What a smart sidekick you have, Ms. Canary,” he said, unhappy that his power was known. “But no matter, I’ll deal with you now and my secret will die with you.”

“I don’t think so!” Laurel raged at him, and she let out a Canary scream that zeroed in on Helheim and knocked out his goons. Helheim, being a meta, wasn’t as wildly affected, but the Cry did push him to his knees. He clutched his ears in pain, but he still managed to glare at Black Canary.

“I think you wanted to say, we will deal with you,” Cisco said, and he released custom-made technology, five drones shaped like gunmetal balls that whirred around Helheim and generated an electric surge to completely immobilize him. He fell to the ground, stunned, and passed out.

“We have to move fast. This tech is experimental in dealing with metas,” Cisco said. He ran to the unconscious Helheim with a bag, pulling out supplies that immediately clamped over his mouth and bound his hands and legs so in the event Helheim did wake up, he wouldn’t be able to use his powers. “He should be well contained before the authorities get here. Let’s hope.”

“Wow, impressive. I’m going to have to order some of those for my future busts,” Black Canary said, watching Cisco with a coy smirk.

“For you, it’ll be free,” Cisco said with a wink.

“Well, time to call my father with an anonymous tip,” Laurel said, pulling out her phone. 

“Is he going to be mad when he sees this mess?” Cisco asked, looking around.

“Yeah, but secretly, he’ll be relieved. I’m not the only one that’s been pursuing this case,” Laurel said. She turned to him and met his eyes. “Cisco, I really appreciate you helping me with this.”

He shook his head. “No problem. I will always take a side hustle with you, Black Canary. No questions asked.”

She stared at him for a long moment, and Cisco started to feel self-conscious as she watched him, and he could see that she was hesitating on something she wanted to say. Instead, she closed the distance between them, and he felt the cool slide of her leather gloves on the sides of his face as she pulled him forward, capturing his lips within hers. 

Cisco was startled by the kiss, rough and hot and almost biting against his lips. He opened his mouth and he felt her tongue lick inside him, tilting her head for better access. Wow, he was kissing Black Canary! And she tasted amazing.

He never wanted to stop.

They broke apart reluctantly when they heard sirens head closer to their position. Laurel grabbed his hand in hers, and she drew him forward as they headed back to the van. Cisco stared at her dreamily as she pulled him along, the smile never leaving her lovely lips.

.