Just a little drabble. I don't LOVE it, but the idea struck me, and I figured I had to post it since this is my last day before NaNoWriMo hiatus. Enjoy!

The biggest dimensional rift among the 52 in Central City was in S.T.A.R. Labs' very own basement. And because it was so large, it was always visible. The others? Not so much. The others could be walked right past, and maybe, maybe someone would notice a ripple in the air like a heat mirage on a summer day. They'd dismiss it of course, rub their eyes, go on about their day unperturbed. But those other 51 rifts still existed. And, as it turned out, could become very visible when they were activated.

Zoom had to have some way to trigger them, that's how he brought evil metas from the other universes, but the first time Barry saw one of the rifts out in the city spring to life, there was no speedster in sight—other than him. Whatever had opened the rift had happened from the other side.

Barry wore street clothes, heading back to the precinct from a crime scene, nonchalant, not expecting anything. He didn't even know exactly where all of the rifts were without looking at Cisco's map, and so hadn't paid attention as he drew close to one. They'd dubbed most of them inert and invisible unless activated. Barry definitely didn't expect one to spark, and crackle, and erupt in a flash of blue and white light as a wormhole opened mere feet from where he'd been walking.

He glanced around. He'd ducked into an alley to better speed his way back to the precinct. No one else was in sight. When he looked back, the portal was already closing, but it had deposited a person onto the ground, facedown, unmoving. The light fizzled as quickly as it had appeared.

Thoughts of this being a trick, a trap of some sort of Zoom's making, faded as Barry dropped his bag and moved to the unconscious man's aid. Most of him was covered by a dark trench coat, his closely cropped hair revealing very little about his identity until Barry rolled the man carefully onto his back.

"Snart," Barry gasped, relieved to see that the man truly was out cold, if only that he didn't know how to respond to this. His Leonard Snart was locked up in Iron Heights. He knew nothing about this version. The universe he came from could hold all kinds of variations.

At least Snart was breathing, his pulse steady when Barry checked it, just knocked out.

Barry flashed off a quick text message to Cisco and Caitlin to expect his arrival—with company—snatched up his bag, and gently lifted Snart into his arms before speeding his way to S.T.A.R. Labs instead of the precinct.

"You didn't say it was Snart!" Cisco announced when Barry arrived, carefully lying the man down on the hospital bed.

"I didn't have time to parse out the best way to explain over text, okay," Barry defended. "And it's not Snart. Not our Snart anyway."

Barry explained what had happened as his friends gathered around him.

"So this is Earth 2 Snart," Caitlin said, checking his pulse as Barry had, though every medical check she did showed that he should be fine once he woke up.

"Maybe Earth 47 Snart, for all we know, if all those portals go to different universes," Cisco said. "Think we should restrain him?"

"Oh my," Caitlin said, staring with gaped mouth at Snart's wallet that she had pulled from the pocket of his coat.

"What is it?" Barry asked.

She stared a moment more before turning the item around to show them. It wasn't a wallet. It was a detective's badge.

Barry blinked down at Snart, allowing his tightly crossed arms to fall limp. Everything about the man looked like what he was used to. The trench he'd seen before, a nice pair of slacks, dress shirt, and tie, all in varying shades of blue. But the badge… "With his name?"

Caitlin nodded. She set the badge aside then let her hand rest lightly on the top of Snart's left hand, where Barry couldn't help being drawn to the simple gold band on his ring finger. This Snart was married. Caitlin noticed it as well and pursed her lips before withdrawing.

"Uh, guys?" Cisco chimed in from the computer terminal. "I've been running some tests on the location you found that rift, and…yeah, it's one of the 52, but I show some fluctuating readings in the area from about two minutes ago."

"I've been here almost ten minutes," Barry said.

"I know."

Barry crossed the room to Cisco's side. "Someone else came through after I left? I have to check it out." He looked to where his suit rested on display in its case, then back at the unconscious Snart on the bed, only that was the very moment when a weak moan left the man's lips.

Barry was back at his side with a spark of lightning. "Caitlin!"

She was there, Cisco rushing over as well. They hovered, not sure if they should expect a fight.

Slowly, Snart's eyes blinked awake, looking bluer than Barry remembered, maybe from the brightness of the lights above the bed. His vision didn't focus at first, turning to each of them unseeing, frowning, until he paused on Barry and his eyes widened as everything seemed to snap into focus.

Then he sagged back into the bed, relieved, his expression slightly…guilty. "Don't be mad. I know you said to leave the damn thing alone, but Billy got too close. Had to knock the kid out of the way. What happened?"

"Uhh…" Barry glanced around at the others.

Snart did as well. He frowned at Cisco like something wasn't quite right, though not like he didn't recognize him, but when his eyes landed on Caitlin, he sat up straighter in the bed. "Your hair…how did…? What's going…?" He looked past them, at the labs, the room, then back at each of them individually, eyes wider and mind buzzing.

"It's okay. You're safe," Caitlin said, placing a hand on his shoulder that didn't hesitate to comfort a man who in their world had held her hostage. "I know this might seem disorienting, and will sound a little hard to believe, but you're actually—"

"In an alternate reality," Snart finished, relaxing marginally though his expression remained tight. "Shit. Shit. I am such an idiot."

"You know about alternate realities?" Cisco questioned, keeping a step further away from the bed than the others, but leaning forward now, intrigued.

"I've had some…prior experience," Snart said. He sat up fully and swung his legs over the side of the bed, though he didn't try to stand up.

Barry tensed, used to expecting trouble from Snart, at least used to watching his every move closely. Caitlin came around the bed so that the three of them could face the man as a unified front. Snart took a few deep breaths, but seemed fine now that he was more alert, at least physically.

Something in his gaze though, in the faint upturn of his mouth, like an almost smile, resigned but patient, looked kind to Barry in a way he had never seen from their Snart. The shadow that haunted Captain Cold didn't rest on this man's shoulders at all.

"Where are we?" he asked.

"S.T.A.R. Labs," Caitlin said. "It's—"

"I know what it is," he nodded, not giving away whether or not this news troubled or pleased him. "You brought me here?" he asked Barry.

"I saw you come through the rift. You were unconscious. I just wanted to help."

Snart smiled—genuinely smiled—and it forced the skeptical butterflies right out of Barry's stomach. The man was strikingly handsome at his worst; like this, he was stunning. "Then you and my Barry aren't so different."

Barry shivered, then squared his shoulders to collect himself. He was not getting flustered over Leonard Snart smiling at him, no matter how nice this version was.

"You sure as hell seem different," Cisco grumbled.

Barry shot him a glare, but Snart had already heard. His smile dropped as he looked at them all more closely.

"I'm not here. Another me, I mean. Are we not…?" He gestured a hand between him and Barry, but seemed to rethink what he had been about to say. "Not…on the same side?"

"Uh…no," Barry said.

"He just finished putting your ass in prison," Cisco stated bluntly.

"Cisco." Caitlin elbowed him.

"Oh…" Snart looked away, struggling to renew his smile. "I shouldn't expect similarities, I know. The physical differences are just easier to stomach. Like what you look like as a brunette," he nodded at Caitlin.

A static-filled silence surrounded them, each wondering if they were allowed to pry about that, about anything, though they seemed to all come to the conclusion that they shouldn't ask too many questions.

"So…you've had experience with other realities, Detective Snart?" Cisco asked, holding his arms over his chest like a shield, brows knit like he didn't dare let his guard down even if this Snart did seem hospitable and very different from theirs.

Caitlin took that moment to hand the badge back to him.

He accepted it with a grateful nod, replacing it in his pocket. "I do. Never before without you though," he indicated Barry. "The rift on our side started reacting to a friend of ours when he got close to it. Wouldn't have known it was even there if Billy hadn't passed it on his way to meet with you—" he cut himself off, smiled again, "I mean…with my Barry."

Barry felt his mouth twitch, wanting to smile back at Snart, as something unfamiliar tugged in his gut whenever the man said 'my Barry' so fondly like that, though Barry supposed what other way could he word it to avoid confusion?

"Billy's powers involve lightning like yours—I assume like yours," Snart said, "different but…let's just say his abilities have been known to react around cosmic disturbances. He called you—him, my Barry—but he was held up, so he sent me to check it out. He insisted I keep my distance, just make sure no bystanders got close while we waited, but…that darn kid, he was curious, always looks before he leaps, got too close, and it started sparking, growing. I rushed forward, pushed him out of the way, and then…"

"Then you were here," Cisco finished. "It must have grown, reacted enough to suck you in."

Snart nodded, more at ease than Barry would have expected, even if this man had encountered other realities in the past. "Just get me back to the rift and take me through. You can stay a bit if you want, explore our world, though it's not usually wise to stay too long." He smiled again, wide, playful even…until he saw the drawn looks Barry and the others gave him. "It didn't close, did it? Disappear?"

"No," Cisco said quickly, though his pause lingered afterwards as he fought for how to explain. "But it's not stable. There are rifts to other worlds all over the city, but we only got the one that's here in the labs to be a true portal back and forth, and that took some serious work on our end. We haven't fully tested it."

"Can't you do the same with the one I came through?"

"It's in an alley," Barry said, "not exactly situated for the equipment we'd need to put in place."

"And you don't know how to bring me back on your own yet, do you?" Snart's kind smile had dropped, crushed, pain in his eyes that Barry was more familiar with, especially after the recent encounter with Snart's father. Snart closed his eyes, shook his head, opened them again with that look—that awful look that had made Barry want to hug the man back during the heist when he'd had to tug the cold gun from his fingers.

When Snart summoned his smile back, it was cracked, fractured as he looked at them all.

"You're younger. I can tell. All of you. It took you years to learn how to temper dimensional rifts in my world, Barry. Dimensions don't run by each other perfectly linear. Some might be ahead or behind others, even by centuries. You described it to me once, Cisco, like a cloth tossed in the air. The way it falls and rests on the ground, folded imperfectly, crumpled together—that's reality, and every part of the multiverse exists on a single atom of the threads. Some are side by side, some on opposite ends from each other, both in events and in time."

"So…your world might be a lot like ours, just…a few years into the future?" Caitlin ventured.

Snart nodded. "Or your future might look nothing like my world. There's no way to know. But if you're a few years behind mine, either way…getting me home won't be the easy trick I was expecting." His eyes dropped to his lap, and Barry watched the way he fingered his wedding band.

"Snart…can I ask—?"

"Wait!" Cisco jumped on the balls of his feet. "Someone came through the rift behind you! There was activity a few minutes after Barry brought you here."

Barry had nearly forgotten. "Could it be this Billy of yours?" he asked Snart. "Or maybe—"

Barry's phone chimed in his pocket. Instinctively, he checked it, seeing that it was Joe. He looked up apologetically as he answered.

"Hey, Joe, now's not really a good—"

"So I'm not going crazy. And you're not. I sure as hell hope he's not…"

"Joe?" Barry frowned. "What are you talking about? Who—"

"Headed home for lunch after leaving the crime scene. Suddenly you come walking through the door, only claiming you're not you, wondering where Snart is."

Barry's eyes lit up, locking onto Snart's. "There's another Barry there with you at the house? Looking for Snart?"

At last Snart hopped down from the hospital bed, that stunning smile overtaking his face again.

"Is this all part of that multi-theory nonsense—"

"Multiverse theory, and yes. Joe, tell him to come to the labs. Snart's here."

"Snart's out of Iron—"

"Not our Snart. His Snart. Just…just go with it, Joe. It's fine. Tell him to come to the labs."

"I swear this all gets crazier by the day…" Joe muttered. Then Barry could hear him explaining things to someone on the other end, and suddenly, "Not-you just zipped outta here like a bat outta hell. What—"

"I'll explain later, Joe. Thank you. And don't worry. It's fine."

"Barr—"

"Later, Joe." He hung up before he could get pulled into any more explanation. He nodded to Snart, unable to keep the mirrored smile from his face. "Sounds like your Barry followed you through the portal. He's on his way. You'll get to go home. And maybe you can help us figure out these rifts a little on our end too."

"Gladly," Snart said.

An alarm sounded from the computer terminal. Cisco jumped, taking a moment before he dashed over to see what the issue was. "Whoa, something just blew past our security protocols, and—"

He cut off as a gust of wind erupted into the room, Snart already having moved around the bed past the others so that as soon as he was out in the open, another body attached itself to his. Barry's identical twin stood in their midst, wrapping Snart up in a tight embrace, pressing his face to the other man's neck and holding him close, while Snart, completely unfazed, hugged him right back.

"Damn it, Len, don't do that to me," the twin said in Barry's same voice, muffled as it was by Snart's shoulder. "Billy was freaking out, crying, said the portal swallowed you up like some monster. What if it had closed behind you? How would I have found you with endless possibilities to search? You can't…you can't do that."

"Barry," Snart said with raw emotion in his voice, "I'm fine. It's fine. The kid got too close, I had no other choice. It's okay. You saved me," he chuckled.

The Barry in Snart's arms seemed to realize then that they weren't alone. He started at the sight of…himself, eyes widening further as he took in Caitlin and Cisco. "Wow… Joe looked so similar, I just thought…"

"Yeah, I know. First thing I saw was you. Figured at the very worst I was having a nice dream." Snart's smile seemed sweeter now, affectionate, as his left hand with the gold band intertwined fingers with the other Barry's right. Other-Barry's left hand bore a ring that matched Snart's perfectly.

"Whaaa…?" Cisco's eyes strayed to the rings, the linked hands, which Barry couldn't stop staring at either.

"Thank you for helping him," Other-Barry said, heartfelt, his eyes shining with gratitude and…yes, looking slightly older, Barry thought, though only by a few years. He turned into his…husband, and reached for the other man's face.

"Uh, babe," Snart said, trying to tug away with how the others were all gaping at them, "in this world, we're not—"

"I don't care," Other-Barry said.

And as their lips met, not even heated, just chaste and simple, an intimate but domestic press of lips, Barry's stomach twisted with something he wasn't prepared to feel in regards to Leonard Snart.

Longing.

THE END