catchacold | Set you straight

"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.

"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."

"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.

"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."

"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."

"That would hardly be in character." Leonard smirked and then he reached out, perhaps against his better judgement, cupping the side of Mick's face with his hand. There was a lot of familiarity to that and he wasn't even surprised when he was hit by another wave of memories. But when he finally tore himself from it, there was a new intensity and he let his hand drop. "Did you talk to Lisa?"

Shit. It felt real. His hand against his face, it felt so real. Real and fucking cold like Leonard's dumb hands always somehow were. Honestly, sometimes it was like touching a block of ice. He pulled a face and looked at Leonard, unsure how this was happening. "No." He couldn't. He didn't want to go back and face her, he hid it and just hoped she'd have a few more years believing her brother was okay. "How are you here?"

"I was in the time stream." There wasn't more of an explanation, because he was iffy on the specifics still himself and he knew Mick couldn't care less. "I got pulled out." Somehow into his own body, which was the most confusing part of it, but it was his own consciousness, which was what he cared most about anyway. "You've been moping."

"I ain't been moping, I've been bored. I never wanted to play hero and get stuck on this ship, you did. I just got dragged along for the ride." And he's gotta be honest here, he's not loving it but where else did he have to go? Of course he was moping. He was grieving, he was hurt and he was on a ship full of assholes he barely liked trying to save time, something he cared little about. "Like you wouldn't mope in my shoes."

Leonard moved forward. Leaned in, until their foreheads were touching. He wasn't sure why, but it felt better, for the moment. To be close. Besides, maybe he could trigger another flash. "I prefer to take action." As he was doing now. He might not have decided on all the details or his ultimate loyalty yet, but he had plans. "I've come for you, Mick. You with me?"

"Why?" It was all strange and he had so many questions but that one was the same one. The easiest one. The one he just wanted to ask, in case of this all going array. He closed his eyes and sunk into the feel of Leonard. The actual real Leonard. It felt good. "I ain't with you, nothing is making a bit of sense, Snart."

"How much more sense do you need, Mick? I'm here, aren't I?" What was he supposed to do? He wasn't exactly used to having to prove that he was alive. Not that any of this was normal. "It's you and me again." Even if his plans were multilayered and he hadn't decided on the outcome yet, he had never debated that Mick would be a part of them. That was what had gone wrong before.

Either Mick had entirely lost his mind or this was happening and either way, both left him feeling a strange mix of hope and pain. "You came back." Maybe he hadn't, maybe it was all a lie but at least he didn't feel so hurt. He closed his eyes and leaned into Leonard, praying this wasn't some kind of headgame. He couldn't take any more of those. "Why'd you cuff me to a fucking radiator, genius?" He seems his tone gentle, despite his words.

"I wasn't sure how you'd react." Leonard still made no move to uncuff him, but he stayed as close as he had come, which was really quite a lot for Leonard, especially given they weren't actually off the clock, so to say. Leonard was never big on physicality, but he had his moments, during downtime. This wasn't exactly downtime, however. It really wasn't. But he wanted to be close to him nonetheless. "I still have things to figure out."

"Like what? How did you come back?" Mick wanted details, he needed to know how this happened. Was this is Leonard? Was he from another time? How long had he been back? Fuck, he had so many questions. "So that hallucination thing... was that actually you?" Either he was going to sound totally crazy or this was Leonard trying to reach him all along.

"Kinda. Think your mind filled in the details. But I was trying to come for you." Leonard shrugged and finally pulled back a little , although he didn't move further away, staying seated where he was. "Helped that you drank your body weight. Your mind just grasped it in a way it could." Leonard lifted a hand and moved his fingers, trying to find the right words. "The time stream. The speed force. All connected. I got pulled out by a speedster."

Huh." Mick had no idea what to say. No, honestly. What did he say to his former dead friend who did this for him, to come back to him. He closed his eyes and took a breath, wishing desperately that one of them at least sort of knew how to do emotions because Mick felt plenty of them but he had no idea how to express them. How to look at Leonard right now, how to lean into his touch, how to tell him how much he missed him. How much he loved him. "Good to have you back."

"Saw you meet up with me." 'Saw' wasn't really the right word, but it would do. Leonard knew they were both at a loss with emotions, but maybe they could find a roundabout way. Anger was a lot easier to get out of their system than these kind of emotions. "Made me realise how oblivious you are." Oh yeah, they were definitely on the right track with this. "You oughta know that you've been my hero since juvie, Mick."

"I ain't no ones hero, Snart." He didn't want to be a hero. He didn't see it in himself, he didn't see the good or any real qualities like that. He just thought of himself as a fuck up, a fuck up who blundered through life and got lucky once. With Leonard. And even then, it's not like he thought about it. He just acted cause he hated to see a kid like Snart get pounded. "It's ... It's different. Between me and you."

"You've been looking out for me since I was a little punk. Can't deny that." That was what he'd been telling Sara when he thought they were about to die. The last thing he'd have talked about, even while Mick was mad at him. He remembered the crumbling realisation that Mick really had betrayed them, him, when they faced the pirates, because not for a moment had the possibility occurred to him.

A lot of love between them and yet they failed again and again to talk about it right.

"What's different?"

"Not always." He grunted and turned his head. "And you're still a little punk, asshole." He hadn't changed that much, he older and smarter but he was still a punk. That was just what he was like. Personally, Mick always thought it was pretty funny, when he saw sparks of that runty kid still in Leonard. Leonard, who tried to be cool and untouchable, he still needed Mick.

"I dunno. There just is. Between us? It's always different."

"Look who's talking." Pot, kettle, black and all that. Leonard smirked and nodded. It was always different. Even when he'd taken Mick to cuff him to the radiator. Especially then, perhaps, because he wanted to keep him out of trouble and that seemed the easiest way. Leonard got up and looked over at the desk. He did have things to consider. Quite a few of them. "You care about your team?"

"They're not my team. They're your team. I'm just stuck with them now, aren't I? You made that call." Mick never wanted to be a legend but now he was stuck on the team and he had nothing else to do. He tried to be normal, he tried to go back to his old life but it was ruined. He had no Leonard and nothing really interested him. He hoped going back to the waverider would help but it didn't. "They're okay."

"I don't have a team." Well. There was the whole swearing allegiance to the Legion of Doom thing, but frankly that was more like some weirdos in high school starting a club and he couldn't imagine anyone actually expected him to take that stuff seriously. Bunch of middle-aged white guys experiencing homoerotic love for the first time ever and celebrating by making really stupid jokes and congratulating each other on them, he didn't really feel like he fit in. "I have you."

"Don't come that one with me, I've been with you from the start. I know how you operate. You always have a team, you like having a team. Those people on the ship? They were your team." And that was something he knew for a fact because he watched Leonard chose them over him once. And while it hurt a lot less these days, he would never make the mistake of thinking Leonard would only ever need him. He needed others, he wanted others and Mick was okay with that. "But you always got me too, partner."

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject