The Prodigal Son

"Yo, what's up little brother?!"

Barry jumped a mile and nearly knocked over a beaker that was sitting on his lab bench. He looked up from his microscope in irritation. His eyes widened at first when he saw who was standing in the doorway of his lab, but they then quickly narrowed in irritation.

"Sebastian," Barry replied stiffly.

"Wow. Please, tell me I don't look like that when I scowl," Sebastian laughed, sitting in Barry's chair and putting his feet up on his desk, "The look really doesn't suit us."

"What are you doing here?" Barry demanded.

"What?" Sebastian asked in mock-innocence, "I can't come see my little brother?"

"First of all," Barry hissed, "You're older than me by twelve minutes, so stop calling me your little brother. Secondly, I haven't seen you in three years. So, no, you can't just drop in and visit me, especially in my lab in the middle of the work day."

"Ouch," Sebastian smirked.

"Seriously," Barry sighed, "What do you want, Bash?"

"Nothing," his brother replied, looking absently at his nails, "Just thought I'd drop in. Say hi. Maybe stir up a bit of trouble. How's dear old dad been? Still rotting in Iron Heights?"

Barry felt like he was going to explode. His face turned a furious shade of red as he glared at his twin.

"Get out," he gritted, "Get out of my lab."

"Touchy," Sebastian tutted, "Why you even still care about that bastard, I'll never know."

"Because he's innocent," Barry snapped, "Dad didn't kill mom. It was—"

"The man in yellow. Blah, blah, blah," Sebastian mocked, rolling his eyes in annoyance, "Still going on about that?"

"It's the truth," Barry spat, "And if you came here just to argue about it with me, then you might as well leave. I'm done trying to convince you, Bash. You lost your faith in dad a long time ago, and it's become painfully clear that you're never going listen to the truth."

"Sure," Sebastian said sarcastically, "Let's pretend that I'm the one in denial. And how many shrinks did they send you to, Barry boy? I lost count by the time we were twelve."

Barry didn't say anything. He silently turned back to the blood analysis he had been doing, his frustration beyond words.

"Alright," Sebastian huffed, "Sorry. I didn't come here just to argue about dad, alright?"

"Then why did you come here?" Barry asked bitterly, shooting a glare at his brother.

Sebastian crossed his arms, his eyes narrowing.

"My only brother is struck by lightning and wakes up from a coma nine months later and doesn't even bother to call me?"

"Oh, don't act like you're hurt," Barry snipped, "Why would I call you? You've never cared before."

"That hurts," Sebastian said, dramatically putting a hand to his heart, "You're my brother, Bar. I care about you."

Barry scoffed.

"That's rich," he huffed, changing out a slide in his microscope, "If you cared so much, you would have made more of an attempt to stay in touch all these years."

Sebastian rolled his eyes.

"Sorry I didn't feel like coming back to Central City after mom was murdered here," he replied defensively, "I didn't exactly get to choose whom I was adopted by."

"You could've come back," Barry murmured, "You had the option to go to school here. We could have stayed together."

"Please, Bar. You were a wreck," Sebastian scoffed, "You're the one who saw the whole thing. You were the damaged one. The social workers didn't want you poisoning my mind with all your delusions. That's why they separated us. Because of you, not me."

"So you just went on your way then," Barry said bitterly, "Off to your fancy private school with your rich, new family."

"You could have had a different family, too," Sebastian pointed out, "You chose to let that detective take you in, so you could stay here."

"I decided to stay here so I could help dad," Barry said angrily, "And I'm perfectly happy with the family I ended up with."

Sebastian just shook his head at him in amusement.

"God, you never change, Bar," he said with a dry laugh, "I thought maybe that lightning had unscrambled your brains, but I guess not."

He stood up to leave then.

"I'll be stopping by the house later," he said offhandedly, "Drop in and say hi to the rest of your family. See you around, Barry boy."

Before Barry could tell his brother to stay the hell away from him, Sebastian had already disappeared through the lab door, as fast as he had appeared. Barry sank down into his desk chair with a sigh. Why did this have to be happening now?

Sebastian grinned to himself as he walked down the stairs. It was just way too easy to push his brother's buttons. The guy really needed to lighten up a little. Sebastian found himself really looking forward to dropping by the house later. The only people who were more fun to annoy than Barry were Joe and Iris. Barry's foster family disliked him just as much as Barry did, but it was strangely amusing how they at least tried to hide it—unlike Barry.

It seemed that as soon as the man popped into Sebastian's head, Joe was suddenly in sight. Sebastian was only half-way down the stairs when he noticed one Detective West walking through the ground level of the Central City precinct. He seemed to have just exited a small office on the other side of the room—one marked "Captain" on the door. Sebastian grinned to himself. As tempted as he was to go and mess with Barry's boss, he thought that might be taking things a step too far too soon. For now, he would settle for Barry's foster father.

"Hey, Bar," Joe greeted when he sauntered over to the detective's desk, "What do you say to grabbing an early lunch today? If I'm hungry, I'm sure you must be starving."

Sebastian smirked in amusement. He and Barry were completely identical, so identical that even Barry's surrogate father hadn't noticed the difference.

"Oh, yeah," he laughed, "That's me, always hungry. Must be all the pot."

Joe's eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"What?"

Sebastian just laughed.

"Yeah, I just smoked a fat joint upstairs just now," he said casually, jerking a thumb over his shoulder, "What else do you think I do up in that lab all day? Science?"

Joe blinked at him for a moment and then let out a light laugh.

"I think you better come up with a better excuse for your new appetite," he chuckled, shaking his head, "I don't think people are really going to buy that one, Bar."

A small laugh escaped Sebastian's lips.

"Yeah, you're probably right," he sighed, "I haven't dope smoked since college. Iris and I used to all the time behind your back. It's a shame she decided to go clean on me."

Joe frowned at that, his expression no longer amused.

"Not funny," he said, looking at him in confusion, his brow furrowing.

"It was pretty funny at the time," Sebastian said with a shrug, "Every time you left the house, she and I would get baked. We were quite the rebels, she and I."

Sebastian promptly walked away then, leaving Joe completely dumbfounded as he tried to wrap his mind around what he had just said.

Messing with all of them was going to be too easy.