Set you straight

[catchacold]

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[catchacold]

"All alone? Not out with the new girl? Not very romantic." Leonard appeared to be sitting on the bench next to Mick, leaning back casually, ankle across his thigh and hands folded. Same old, except for how he was gone. "If you don't want to be a part of them anyway, then stay here. Stay anywhere. Get yourself a nice deal."

His voice sounded as it was supposed to, but there was a look of deeper concern on his face, eyes on Mick's face.

[boilover]

"You ain't real. I'm not talking to myself on a bench like a crazy person."

Mick muttered his words as he tried not to look at Leonard. It was official, he'd lost his mind. He lost it entirely and now he was going to be haunted for as long as he breathed. How badly had he cracked? Fuck. He stubbornly tried to ignore Leonard, just hoping he'd go away. Maybe it was one of those type deals.

[catchacold]

"You'll be out of options. No talking to yourself or the voices in your head and you're closing yourself off from the team. Sounds damn lonely." Leonard was still looking at Mick, shifting his body a little to the side. His clothes rustled, everything as realistic as it could possibly be.

"There ain't any rush to die, Mick. Nothing in it for you. I'd know."

[boilover]

At least if he was dead, he wouldn't have to deal. With this. With them. With whatever he was seeing. He could just stop everything and let it go. He knew it was the cowards way out but he didn't care any more. If he died in the line of duty, he died. No big deal.

"You're not him." Why should he listen to a fake?

[catchacold]

"Yeah?" Leonard finally put his elbows down on his knees, ducking his head low enough to make an attempt to see Mick's face again, although he didn't come any closer to him than he already was. "Try me."

Challenge extended. He watched Mick with an eyebrow arched, as if ready for anything. "Maybe you're just thinking that cause it's the easy way out."

[boilover]

"There's nothing I can ask you that would prove anything." He knew the answers to all their history questions, he knew what Leonard thought about most things and he had no way to confirm the things he didn't. There was no way to prove this was Leonard Snart, so naturally, he defaulting it to being a lie.

"I drank too much, it pickled my brain, you always said it'd happen." And look at that, now he was seeing dead people.

[catchacold]

"Yeah, though I was really more thinking you'd start seeing those pink elephants." They'd grown up watching Dumbo, it was a reasonable enough conclusion to draw. Leonard pulled one leg up, now having turned completely to face Mick, sitting sideways on the bench. He looked at him, how he stubbornly refused to so much as glance at him.

"So the question is how good your imagination is." It was all he said. However, his hand was suddenly on Mick's shoulder. Not a tight grip, but an unmistakable presence.

[boilover]

"It's a little weird. I'm too dumb to be this imaginative." Or that was what Mick always said because it was easier to dismiss everything like that. Hell, he was pretty sure that's exactly what his teammates would say if he told them about this. Mick still didn't look at him, he couldn't look at him. Even when he felt something.

Snart was dead. He was gone and this was just him losing his mind. "I'm fucking cracked."

[catchacold]

"You ain't dumb. You never let me or yourself think that, so don't try to now." Leonard's grip, light as it already was, relaxed even more, until he ran his hand down his arm and back up again. Not as if anyone else was about to comfort Mick in any way, especially with how he was denying himself every opportunity.

[boilover]

Mick grunted, clearly indifferent. He slid away from the touch because admittedly, he was feeling a little bitter. He wasn't just hurt, he wasn't just upset, he was angry. "I hate you." Hero or not, best friend or not, he hated him. And he was allowed to hate him. He could have found another way, he didn't have to do what he did and because of that, Mick was alone. And he hated him a little, just because of that. "You little fucker, you left me."

[catchacold]

"You started it," Leonard pointed out, "Could have let Raymond blow himself up, but nooo." He pulled his hand back, turning it around and curling his fingers in one by one. "Don't make this so easy on yourself. I looked for a way out. Just wasn't meant to be." Alexa and he'd meant to pull out, but the stars didn't align that way. It happened.

[boilover]

"What did I have to live for? Less than you." Mick didn't believe he was the one that should have lived, given every option. What did he have going for him? What made him worth it? Just a fuck ton of Chronos baggage and no real direction. Not supposed to be part of the team, not able to leave and just stuck in limbo. Leonard should have lived, he should have died. That was the way it should have gone. "You had no right to make that decision for me."

[catchacold]

"You were just fine with me making just about every decision for you for thirty years and the one that kept you alive you take issue with? I fucked up." Chronos was his fault and nothing would ever cancel that out. Handling Mick and the situation the way he had and assuming that he'd be able to come back for him, when clearly he could not. "I'd have never let you die. That's why I didn't come back for you. According to plan."

[catchacold]

The Legion of Doom had a stupid name, a stupid gimmick and their mission wasn't his goal, so it seemed like a good enough idea to agree to joining them. Meant he'd not mind skipping out on them later, which was an improvement over the last team he'd joined.

Leonard brought himself in just enough, but he made certain teams very well known. So when a confrontation happened, his old team against his new one, he stayed out of it. Stayed out of it until he watched Mick almost getting sliced open, because he just didn't seem to care to stay out of the way.

Things were simple then, once the day was saved in the Legends' eyes and the Legion was celebrating another secret victory in the grand scheme of things.

Leonard went after Mick. Using the technology they had available to move around, to knock him out, to transport him and, in a reversal, he ended up with Mick in his current room, handcuffed to the radiator. Leonard was sitting on a chair, leg pulled up and looking through a file, reading it with quite a bit of interest as he waited for Mick to wake up.

[boilover]

Mick didn't sit upright for a while, he just lay there, head pounding, unable to fully comprehend what was going on. His eyes were a little fuzzy as he slowly opened them. The last thing he remembered was everyone celebrating and then his head hurt. And he wasn't even sure how he'd ended up with that happened. After a win, who the hell was still pitching a fight?

He tried to sit up but as he rolled, the cuffs tugged and yanked at his arm sharply back. That was enough to wake him up properly. He hauled himself upright and hissed angrily, yanking his wrist and trying to dislodge it. Not his smartest move.

"What the --" He cut off when he caught sight of the person sitting opposite him. All the words died and he stared for a while, not sure what to say or do. That was... That was Leonard? How?

[catchacold]

"You're going to hurt yourself." It was a rather obvious observation and Leonard didn't bother looking back at him, instead turning a sheet of paper and tapping his fingers down on the desk. Apparently any information wasn't forthcoming easily or immediately. He was still trying to gather his own thoughts, something he should possibly have done in its entirety before getting Mick here. Eh.

[boilover]

"Leonard?"

Was this another hallucination? Great. This is just what he needed. To be seeing Leonard while he'd kidnapped by psychos. "You know, I thought I was over this. Seeing things. When did you creep back into my head?" Because apparently he was going to have to be tormented by the ghost of his best friend again and he had no idea what mental breakdown triggered it this time.

[catchacold]

"You think I got nothing better going on then hanging out in your head?" Seemed like a legitimate question to him. He finally turned around, arms crossed as he looked down at Mick. He lowered his eyelids as reality adjusted in his mind and he simply rode it out. Over time, anyone could get used to anything. "I told you I'd come for you."

[boilover]

"Well, could you do something useful, Casper? Help me out of these things." He really needed to get his hands free. He wanted to get out of here before he needed up caught by that psycho speedster and his bffs. He shuffled so he was facing ghost Leonard, giving him a curious look. "If you're gonna haunt my ass, the least you can do is be a little useful. You see a key around here or anything? I don't think I can break the chain."

[catchacold]

"I put them on you." Simple statement and he waited for any possible reaction he'd get, while holding his hand up and, in a simple move, suddenly held up the key. Some things weren't forgotten and he'd always been swift with his hands. Leonard palmed the key again, making it clear that he had no intention of actually using it for something like letting Mick out. That'd miss the entire point of the exercise. "Only so many ways to keep you out of trouble."

[boilover]

"Ghosts can't tie someone up." This was getting weird, it was relying on a lot of hope and he didn't want to have that. He didn't want to feel something that could so easily be snatched away. "Leonard is dead, genius. If you're going to pose as him, you need to do your fact checking better." He wasn't falling for this. He couldn't let himself fall for it. This wasn't Leonard Snart, there was no way it could be.

[catchacold]

"Sure, Mick, but corpses aren't known to get a lot of shit done and I gotta get a lot of shit done." Leonard got up, disentangling his legs so he could walk up to Mick. He crouched down in front of him, not seeing any reason to stay out of range. His hands were tied anyway, literally. Leonard caught his eyes and shrugged. "Some people come back. Sara did."

[boilover]

"Sara had some weird magical ninja bullshit going on. You don't." Mick didn't believe it, he refused to believe it. He glared as he launched forward, baring his teeth. He growled dangerously, unhappy that he was being played with like this. What was 'Leonard's' angle here? What was he playing at? "You're impersonating my dead best friend. I don't like that." It was a warning, an insistence to stop. It hurt too much, seeing Leonard like this.

[catchacold]

"You don't know what kinda deals I have with magic ninjas." Leonard stayed calm enough, only moving back so Mick wouldn't headbutt him. It wasn't as if he was that eager for Mick to believe him. This could play out the same way no matter what. "Why would anyone bother impersonating me? Ain't that important to anyone but you."

[boilover]

"People know that. They'd use it. You're not -- you can't be here!" It wasn't possible and Mick didn't like his emotions being dicked around with. He could see it looked exactly like Leonard, it smelled like Leonard and it spoke like Leonard but he knew Leonard was dead. They all did. So how the hell could he even be here? It made no sense. It was madness. "Stop lying to me."