[ Cisco hears it in his voice even before Eddie gets to anything particularly emotional, that he's about to say something important. He turns to face him as they walk, seeing the way Eddie hesitates, how he has to pull the words free. It makes Cisco's heart ache with fondness. How could he have been so wrong about Eddie, when they first met? Thought he was shallow, and effortless, and simple. When the truth is, he's entirely the opposite.

What Eddie says... after he'd been thinking about Barry, and Caitlin, and that whole period of his life... it's a lot to process.

Maybe the right thing to do is disagree with Eddie. Try to insist that he would be okay all on his own, that he is mature and independent and self-sufficient. But the fact is, as they've just been discussing, Cisco had gotten a hard crash course in just how fucking awful it can be without having someone close. To be on his own. And sure, Eddie has friends here. Coworkers. Yuri. But it's not the same, and he knows it.

So he just comes in closer, wrapping an arm around Eddie's waist. It makes the walking slower, and more ungainly, but right now Cisco doesn't care. ]

I... I don't, um. I don't think I'd do fine without you, either.

[ Cisco turns away from Eddie, only to rest his temple against Eddie's shoulder as they walk. Clumsily, he explains: ]

With them, I didn't- just before I came through the portal here, we got the team back together. Took down a couple metas. But it wasn't... I was so terrified I'd say the wrong thing or do the wrong thing and scare them off. I didn't even realize it, but I was suffocating. I didn't want them to know... anything going on in my life. That I was a meta, or... anything.

[ He doesn't know if he's told Eddie that, before. That even Barry and Caitlin never knew about his powers. That Eddie was the first (well, apart from Stein, and Eobard). ]

But with you, I want you to know everything. 'Cause... I'm not afraid, when I'm with you.