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Leonard went out of his way to make sure no one knew he and Mick were soulmates. Of course everyone knew they were partners. He figured most people even knew they were sleeping together. But he had learned from a young age that love was a weakness you did not show people. He learned that from his father. And his father followed through by proving it to him on more than one occasion, using both Lisa and Mick against him repeatedly. So he felt no remorse when he shot a shard of ice through the bastard’s heart. Even though Scarlet sent him to Iron Heights before he had a chance to see his sister or Mick again.
Lisa was the one who called in that favor with Mardon, but Len didn’t want any part in the crazy scheme of his, especially after he brought in the Trickster. Just, no. He told himself that was why he warned the Flash, and that it had nothing to do with that ridiculous hope Barry had in him.
After he did that, the first thing he did was go searching for Mick and Lisa. He had to check three safe houses before he found them. He was met with a gold gun and a heat gun in his face once he “let” himself in. It was so familiar, Len couldn’t help breaking out into a grin.
“Nice to see you, too,” he drawled. “Please tell me you did manage to get away with the score before we were rudely interrupted.”
“Oh my god, Lenny!” Lisa said. The gold gun clattered to the floor and she rushed over to him almost as fast as the Flash and wrapped her arms around him. “We heard about Mardon’s break-out, but we didn’t know where you went. I didn’t know he was going to break out Jesse too.”
“It’s okay,” he said. He hugged her back perhaps a bit more tightly than he would have otherwise. When he pulled back, he brushed her hair over her shoulder so he could look at her neck.
She winced, but she didn’t move away. “I’m okay. Cisco and his friends got it out.”
“Yes. Scarlet told me before he arrested me.” Len frowned. “Well, he told me you were safe, and I shot our bastard father in the chest.”
“Oh my god.” Lisa wrapped her arms around him again, only this time she held onto the back of his head with one hand and leaned up to wrap the other arm around his shoulders. “I can’t believe he’s dead. Lenny…”
“I know… He’s gone. He’s finally gone, Lis…” Len held her tightly and let himself bury his face in his hair. “You never need to worry about him again.”
Lisa started to shake, so Len squeezed her tighter until the tremors calmed down. She clutched his parka tightly, but finally pulled back so she could give him a vicious grin. “Thank you, Lenny.”
“Told you I would protect you from him.”
“You did. You did.”
She finally let him go and stepped back so Len could see Mick, who had been waiting patiently while the siblings had their reunion. Mick took a step forward and grabbed Len’s right arm with his left hand. He yanked Len towards him until he was close enough so he could wrap his other hand around the back of Len’s neck and kiss him filthily. Len may have melted into the kiss a bit.
When they pulled back, Mick growled, “Take this fucking thing off.” He started to push the parka off Len’s shoulders. Len knew what he wanted, so he carefully slipped out of his parka and tossed it onto the couch. Mick pushed up the sleeve of Len’s shirt so his forearm was bare.
Len turned his wrist over to reveal the underside, where his soulmark was imprinted over his pulsepoint. The small three-pointed flame, surrounded by a simple circle, seemed especially bright. Perhaps that was because he hadn’t connected with his soulmate in a few months. Mick rolled up the left sleeve of his own jacket and took Len’s arm again, this time a lot more gently. He squeezed Len’s forearm, and Len responded by wrapping his own fingers around Mick’s larger forearm.
Len let out a long breath when their soulmarks lined up. He leaned forward to rest his forehead against Mick’s neck and squeezed his arm tighter. Mick wrapped his other arm around Len’s waist and held him close.
“He deserved it…” Len whispered.
“I know,” Mick responded, his voice a low, soothing rumble.
“He deserved it,” Len repeated. “He had deserved it for over twenty years.”
“Longer. Since the first time he dared lay a hand on you.”
Len chuckled, but it sounded a little wet to his ears. “I know you wanted to burn him, but…”
“It was better that you were the one to do it in the end.”
Len nodded, and then finally pulled back. He kept their arms clasped together for another moment, and then finally let go. Before Mick could take his hand back, Len turned it over so he could see the simple six-pointed snowflake on the inside of his wrist that was the match to Len’s own soulmark. He gently ran the pads of his fingers over the mark and then let go of Mick’s wrist.
Lisa had retreated to another room to give them some privacy, but she came back out when they were done. “So what’s the plan now, Lenny?”
“Well…” he drawled out slowly as a smirk came to his face. “Our friend the Flash will be quite busy dealing with Mardon and Jesse. Which is the perfect time to steal something.”
He wasn’t a hero. And yet he still ended up on this “heroic” mission with Rip Hunter and the rest of the crew of the Waverider. And of course he dragged Mick along with him. When they started, he thought he would just get to steal a few baubles, and have a good laugh at the other supposed heroes.
But then the first mission took them to 1975 and he realized it was only days before his father was going to attempt his first very botched heist. He didn’t tell Mick his real plan when they convinced the kid to take them to Central City. While Mick didn’t try to stop him, he clearly wasn’t happy about it. Even though he knew he could have completely changed the events that lead to him and Mick meeting, he still couldn’t help the desire to try to make his and Lisa’s lives better.
Everything went downhill from there.
Which was how he found himself staring Mick down in some dark forest, with his cold gun charged and raised. And Mick looked at him like he believed Len was actually going to kill him, like he actually could kill him. After everything they’d been through. So he knocked him out, again. And left him behind. Because this was all a mistake, but they had to complete the mission, and then he would go back for Mick.
As he walked back up the ramp onto the ship, he rubbed his hand across his face, and then dropped it to see Sara standing there with her arms crossed and her stance defensive and wide. She was still in the same clothes from earlier and her shirt sleeve was ripped to make room for the bandage where Mick had burned her.
Len didn’t do guilt and yet he felt a twinge of guilt seeing the injury. It felt entirely misplaced considering Sara could take care of herself, and what he’d just done to Mick. He looked at her for a moment and then he started to walk by her.
“Leonard,” she said calmly, but with a sharp edge to her voice. “What did you do?”
“I did what I said I would do,” he replied as he stopped in the doorway with his back to her. “I took care of it.”
He heard Sara shift like she was turning to look at him. “I don’t believe you. I don’t think you would have done that to your soulmate .”
Len frowned and rested his hand on the butt of his cold gun. It was a stance that calmed him and reminded him of the power he carried strapped to his leg. “Well then you don’t know me very well.”
“Show me your arm,” she instructed as she walked over to him. “Prove it to me. If you really killed Mick, your soulmark will start fading.”
Len turned to glare down at her. “You saw it the first time on accident because it looked like we were going to freeze to death. That doesn’t mean you get a free pass to see my soulmark or talk about my soul bond.”
Sara’s stance was still strong. She looked up at him with determination. “Thought so.” She stepped up the few steps so she was right up in his face, even though she was nearly a head shorter than him. “At some point, you are going to have to be honest with someone instead of lying to everyone.”
Len smirked. “Don’t you remember? I’m a liar and thief. That’s what I do, and that’s not changing.”
“Right. Well, if you want to talk about what happened, you know where I’ll be.” She brushed past him and walked towards her room.
Leonard watched her until she disappeared, and then he raised his left hand so he could use his teeth to pull off his glove. And then he slipped his fingers into the right sleeve of his jacket so he could press them against his soulmark. The sympathetic thrum was still there, but the pulse was so much weaker than when Mick was around. Len didn’t look too much into what that meant.