punkette180

"Cold Embrace" The Flash - Cisco/Merry   "What is that?" asked Merry. They were alone and the alarms at S.T.A.R. Labs were blaring. Wells was still AWOL, Caitlin was on a coffee run and Barry hadn't shown up yet.   Cisco quickly pushed his chair along to one of the computers, surveying the footage from the CCTV cameras. "It's a security breach."   "Where?" As Merry followed suit, she realised that half of the camera views had been obscured. It was like trying to see something through frosted glass.   "I have no idea... Judging by the cameras that have been tampered with, I'm guessing somewhere around the front of the building?"   No

   "Here."   Chihiro stared blankly as Cass plonked a glass jar down in front of her on the top of the piano. It was empty. She had no idea what she was expected to do with it.   Cass laughed at the confused look on her face. "It's a tip jar. I'm just sorry I didn't think of the idea myself or we could have done this for you over the last two nights as well."   Chihiro felt awkward. "Oh, you really don't need to do that. I mean, you're already paying me as it is."   "It's no skin off my nose," Cass assured. "If people want to tip you, then you should let them, especially if you're saving for a new piano. Every little helps, right?"

   The following night at the café was a quiz night. Chihiro spent most of the day working on a new piece of music that she'd begun composing. She had the first few stanzas down, but couldn't find a suitable theme to bridge them together, let alone anything after that. When she got fed up of staring at a blank page, she left the house and went shopping instead. At least, her version of shopping.   She wasn't particularly a fan of shopping. When most people went shopping, they ended up returning with plenty of things that they didn't need, having wasted their money on impulse buys. Chihiro didn't want to do that. She needed to save her

   Lou stared at the four walls around her - unfamiliar, alien - and suddenly, she felt the overwhelming sensation like she was caged again. She hastily propped open the door that joined onto the corridor, then ran to the window and threw it wide open, looking out onto the campus of the school. X Academy, as she'd been told it was called.   She half sat, half knelt on the small window seat underneath it and rested her face on top of her arms, leaning against the sill of the window as she looked out at the world below her. So much of her life had suddenly changed in just the last few hours. A whole new world had been opened up to her today.