You've gotta know when to hold 'em..

[chosenbylightning]

Barry Allen's life hadn't exactly been on track since his mother's murder. After pleading with the police, social workers and anyone else who would listen to him for more than five minutes that his father was innocent, he realized it was a lost cause. Nobody believed him, and they sure as hell didn't believe his father.

So Henry went to prison and Barry went into the foster system.

He'd been out hustling cards the say the particle accelerator exploded, a bolt of lightning sending him into a coma for nearly a damn year.

Once he recovered, Barry fled Central City, fled the group of scientists that wanted to study him like some kind of lab rat. His speed took him to Starling and to Verdant, the best club in the city, owned by the Queen family.

Barry was damn good with cards, even before the lightning, he could make a decent living at Verdant and the job meant he wouldn't have to dodge the cops. It's boring work, but it keeps him in a decent apartment and plenty of beer.

He also keeps his eyes to himself which isn't easy considering the new manager is ridiculously attractive.

Comments

[chosenbylightning]

Barry pulls his hand back when Thea's hand moves towards his and the vibrations stop. That sort of touching is dangerous as hell and while they didn't get off on the right foot, the last thing he wants to do is hurt her (or anyone) with his speed.

A shrug. "It's both," he defends. "I've been running cards since I got out of juvie."

A decent job. No more gaming the tables. "So, what, you'd want me to be a pit boss? Watch the tables?"

[queenleftbehind]

"You know more about what to look for than I do." Not quite true. She'd caught on that there was something about him that was off, after all, but there was catching one person once on mostly luck and knowing the ins and outs of the system and being able to sense general trends and what to watch out for. She didn't want to have to be stuck behind a monitor or even out on the floor. She had the rest of the club to run, after all, and it wouldn't look good if she spent all her time at the tables.

Especially since she was reasonably sure that Ollie hadn't caught on to what was going on in his back rooms.

The corner of her mouth lifted. "You sound like you got into as much trouble as I did." And her mother had always paid to get her out of it, just like she had when Ollie had gotten into trouble back in the day.