Pluto
This is my contribution for day 7 of @captaincanary-week! The prompt was ‘free-for-all’, so this is a song-fic based of off "A Boy Named Pluto" by Hailey Knox. V good song 10/10 recommend. Hope you enjoy!
Read on AO3
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Leonard had lived his whole life in Central City. It was his city, no matter what anybody else said. He knew it better than anything else in his life.
When he'd left Central City for a time-traveling mission, he'd done so knowing that eventually he'd come back and the city would be just as it had been when he left, but then the months went by, and things changed. His priorities changed.
He knew one thing and one thing alone about that mission: he would never had guessed he'd end up dying to save time, but looking back, it was one of the soundest decisions he'd ever made.
But that had been six years ago, and now he was back, as if nothing had even happened.
He couldn't explain why he had decided to stay in Central City, but he had a feeling that it had more to do with spite than anything. His whole plan when the mission had begun in January 2016 was to come back to January 2016, no matter how much time had passed for him, and Mick would follow and they'd find Lisa and be back a band of rogues. When he'd turned up at the Vanishing Point, indelibly alive, he learned that it had been, in fact, six years since the night he'd decided to hold the failsafe down at the Oculus Wellspring, and now returning to Central City in 2016 wasn't a possibility. Not long later, he learned that Mick had no intention of returning to Central, even with his old partner back, and this in addition to finding out that Lisa didn't really hang around Central City too much anymore left his original plan in shambles, and in its place was an emotional tug-of-war: stay on the Waverider or leave and return to Central City.
In the end, habit was the stronger side, and he had left the Waverider, feeling Sara Lance's eyes on him as he went.
After Leonard's return and then quick departure, the Waverider began to dock in Central City's present time on the third Sunday of each month.
Leonard came to very much enjoy those Sundays. At first he had awaited them for a visit with Mick, but he'd quickly found more unanticipated effects of the six years he'd been gone: Mick, it seemed, had formed a sort of camaraderie with the team in Central City.
He had heard many poorly-told stories involving Leagues and aliens and Nazis (unfortunately) and other fiascos that had required wide scale efforts from not just the Legends and the Flash's team, but the Arrow and his crew as well. They had bonded during those times, even begrudgingly. When the Legends docked in Central City, Mick and the rest of them actually wanted to visit at S.T.A.R. Labs They wanted to drink and share stories and overzealously take on even the smallest of the Flash's calls together. Sara was the only exception. Sara wanted to use their shore leave as an actual leave, so she would greet the team at the lab, thank them for allowing her to dock the ship on their roof, and then she would depart, and Leonard would always follow.
And that was why he enjoyed those Sundays.
Sometimes they went to bars, other times they did cheesy sight-seeing things around the city (mostly museums that Leonard had been banned from before his record was expunged, and they were always tailed by security guards which, judging by her cat-like expression of glee, Sara greatly enjoyed), and occasionally, when the weather was nice, they would just walk around the city.
No matter where they were, they always talked — talked about their families, their jobs, the events of the past month, even their well-being weaseled its way into the conversation by the end of the day.
When they visited Central City, Sara's team usually docked by Jitters pretty early in the morning, grabbed coffee for everyone, and then arrived at S.T.A.R. Labs by ten in the morning.
That Sunday, Leonard let himself into the lab a few minutes past nine-thirty, and found his way into the empty Cortex.
About ten minutes later, Cisco and Caitlin arrived.
"Oh, look who's here," Cisco said, rolling his eyes, "What a surprise."
"Which entrance did you choose to break in through today, Snart?" Caitlin asked, placing her bag on the desk.
"Have you no faith in your security system?" Leonard responded with a smirk.
"Not sure," Cisco said suspiciously, "You're the one who upgraded it."
"Looking forward to seeing Mick?" Caitlin asked him.
"Oh please," Cisco cut in before Leonard could respond, "He's here for Sara. He'll talk to Mick for six minutes and then he and Sara will sneak away just like always."
"That's not true," he replied, glaring at Cisco, "Yes, Caitlin I am looking forward to seeing Mick. Thank you for asking."
"Well, that's good I guess," Cisco said with a nonchalant shrug, "The team sent a message that Sara wasn't coming today — something going on in Star City, I guess."
Leonard found himself unable to respond, shocked by how disappointed he felt. He knew he looked it too, aware that his mouth was open but no words were coming out. He wasn't able to turn what he was feeling into words — at least, not words he would say to Cisco.
He couldn't help but feel somewhat…betrayed. He had no way of contacting Sara while she was time-traveling, and she knew it wasn't possible for her to let him know she wouldn't be coming, but still…
"And I should care because…?" he finally brought himself to say.
"No, you totally care," Cisco replied, "You're never this bad at lying! And guess what? I made it up!"
"You what?"
"There was no message about Sara not coming. I made it up — to prove to you that you don't break into the lab — early — for Mick."
Leonard's retort was lost in Cisco's continuing barrage of remarks, and soon their voices were so intermingled that both were rendered completely meaningless.
"Oh leave him alone, Cisco," Caitlin said over the two of them, "He's in love."
That brought both Cisco and Leonard to silence.
At that moment, Barry sped into the Cortex, loose papers on the desk fluttering in his wake.
"Who's in love?" he asked with a grin.
"Snart, apparently," Cisco said.
Barry's smile morphed into a look of shock.
"With who?" he asked incredulously, looking wildly between Leonard, Cisco, and Caitlin.
"Captain Lance," Cisco replied, nodding emphatically when Barry's expression remained unchanged.
"Oh…man, that's…" Barry said weakly, running a hand through his hair, "She's scary."
"I think they'd be nice together," Caitlin said with a shrug.
"Wait," Cisco said, rounding on Caitlin, "How long have you known about this."
"I don't know," she replied, "It was always pretty obvious to me."
"What?!" he exclaimed.
"How?" Barry asked at the same time.
"I mean…it's just in the way they look at each other when they think the other isn't looking," Caitlin answered, "And Sara's smile is different when she's around Snart."
"So you think Sara's into him too?" Barry asked, his grin returning.
"Yes," Caitlin scoffed.
"Anything you have to say about any of this, Snart?" Cisco asked, but Leonard was silently dumbfounded, any snarky comment about meddling he may have had squelched by the notion that Sara was feeling even a fraction of what he felt, "Wow, Captain Cold speechless. That's a first."
We have to make something happen!" Barry exclaimed, "Today!"
Leonard half expected Caitlin to come to his rescue against Barry's enthusiasm, but she said nothing.
"C'mon man," he continued, "If you don't say something today, you'll have to wait another whole month!"
"I'm not talking to you about this," Leonard said, glaring at Barry.
Truthfully, Barry wasn't saying anything that Leonard hadn't already agonized about since the last time he saw Sara, but every time he even tried to figure out what he could say to her, a voice in his head started arguing against it, saying things like you can't possibly think she'd be interested in you. She's young and gorgeous and smart and captaining an entire team of time travelers and saving the world. She more out of your league than you could imagine.
It was the same voice that persuaded him to stay in Central City after he came back from the dead, and it was very convincing.
He had realized long ago, long before the Oculus even, that he was very much in love with Sara Lance. That revelation had been terrifying, frankly, but after a while it was something he was comfortable with (even though it was still an ever-present thought on the edge of his mind). He also had decided that he valued her presence in his life much more than any of his feelings, so he always ended up deciding that if telling her how he felt meant potentially losing her as a friend, he would rather remain silent.
And that's how that conversation always went, so he really wasn't interested in adding Barry or anyone else in this room to that.
"Leave him alone, guys," Caitlin said, finally coming to his rescue, "We know Snart. If he's not gonna do it, he's not gonna do it, so don't bother, even if they would be great together."
A moment later, there was chime sound from the computer signaling a proximity alarm being triggered.
"They're here," Barry said with a wide smile, flashing away to greet the team of Legends on the roof.
Leonard felt his heart rate increase as he waited. After about five minutes, he began to hear the faint chatter of the team as they followed Barry to the Cortex, who, a moment later, reappeared in the doorway, moving at a normal speed now, with the Legends close behind him.
Ray, Nate, and Zari were laden with cardboard trays of coffee cups and boxes of pastries, and hastily found a table to set them down on. Mick was close behind, quick to pick up one of the coffees before rummaging through a bag of donuts. Sara was at the rear, a tired expression on her face. Leonard watched as he scanned the room, and his heart leapt when her eyes met his. Her face softened and her lips quirked up in a small smile.
As Leonard got to his feet, Sara hugged Caitlin and greeted Cisco.
"Where's Harry?" she asked them.
"Oh, you know, he's around," Caitlin replied, "Avoiding the mayhem, probably."
The two teams, spread around the Cortex, chatted while they indulged in the Jitters coffee and pastries that the Legends had brought. Harry did in fact make an appearance after a while, just in time to grab the last coffee and a blueberry muffin, and he begrudgingly stayed and joined in the conversation.
Around the time Sara finished her coffee, Ray and Cisco had started rehashing a story from the alien invasion a few years earlier, with Mick interrupting with corrections whenever their telling of the events became a little too dashing and valiant. Under the guise of throwing out her coffee cup in a trash bin, Sara moved to stand beside Leonard where he leaned against a wall by the door.
"Hey," she said, meeting his eyes as she leaned next to him, her legs crossing at the ankle.
"Hey," Leonard said, unable to quell the small smile that crept onto his lips.
"I'm gonna try to sneak away," Sara said, "If you wanted to come."
"What, not interested in listening to Cisco pretend he contributed anything productive to whatever he's talking about."
Sara rolled her eyes.
"You coming or not?" she asked as she pushed herself off of the wall.
"Yeah," he replied with a nod, following Sara as she headed for the door.
He looked back into the Cortex to see Caitlin watching them. She met his eyes, then tipped her chin at Sara's retreating form with a pointed expression on her face. Leonard ignored her, turning back to follow Sara out of the lab.
"So where're we headed?" he asked as they made their way down the winding hall of the lab towards the main exit.
"Dunno," Sara replied with a shrug, "We just spent a week stranded in Reykjavik in February, and it's nice out here, so maybe we just walk around a little."
Leonard nodded, and when they reached the door, they started down a sidewalk he knew would eventually lead to a large park by the water. He had to admit that it was a beautiful day. July in Central City was always quite mild — sunny, with a nice breeze that kept the air warm, but not too hot. Normally, Leonard would have detested the way that the late morning sun beat through the trees, but, like whenever he was with Sara, he didn't seem to mind.
"So," he began, "Iceland in February. Good story there?"
"Eh," she shrugged, "Constantine showed up. There was a Yeti involved. Ray did something stupid. Nothing out of the ordinary. You?"
Leonard tipped his head to the side in consideration, "Been slow. Barry's trying to rehab a few of the metas in the pipeline, so that's been…amusing."
Sara chuckled.
"And Lisa's doing okay?" she asked.
"She is," he replied with a nod, "Not really sure what she gets up to, but she seems good," he hesitated for a moment, then said, "She asks about you…when we talk."
"She does?" Sara asked, a hint of a smile on her lips.
"Yeah," he replied, "I think she appreciated you staying in touch while I was dead."
"Yeah, of course," Sara said, "I know how important she is to you. We wouldn't have left her hanging."
Leonard nodded, and the next several minutes of their walk were spent in a comfortable silence.
He was always struck by how different Sara was from the person he'd met six years ago. When Sara walked onto the Waverider, she had just been resurrected and was all chaos and fire and uninhibited abandon. The Sara who'd pulled him out of the time stream was different in ways he couldn't quite place.
Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that, for Sara, it had been six years — no, eight, if you counted the two years she was stranded in the fifties — since the day the first mission began. Eight years was a long time, and Leonard knew that much had happened in that time, including an incredible amount of loss, most notably both her sister and her father. It also hadn't escaped his attention that the majority of the original team was gone, and although he'd been filled in on the necessary details (Kendra and Carter were married in Coast City, Jax was in college, Rip and Stein had died), he also knew that there had to be more there that Sara wasn't telling him.
It seemed that whatever had happened over the past eight years had given Sara the stability and self-control that she'd been seeking throughout the first six months of the mission, but he also knew that time-captaincy was not an easy job, and although she carried the responsibility remarkably well, Leonard could see in her eyes that the weight of the role sat heavy on her shoulders. Whenever the Legends visited and regaled the team at S.T.A.R. Labs with tales of ridiculous, bizarre, and sometimes supernatural missions, all Leonard could think of was the undeniable stress that must have put on Sara. Leonard remembered from the first mission that he hadn't paid any mind to what Rip wanted — a lot of the time he was outright disregarding his orders and putting himself and the team in unneeded harm. At the time, he hadn't really cared because…well, it was Rip, but now that Sara was the one in Rip's position, Nate's anecdotes of insubordination rang more irritating in his eyes than anything else, and while Sara always smiled and laughed and made sarcastic interjections in whatever stories the team was telling, Leonard could tell that it weighed on her more than she'd let on.
When he was sure Sara wouldn't notice, Leonard looked to her. She had her chin lifted to the sky, her blue eyes shining in the late morning sun as its beams reflected off her golden hair.
She seemed to lighten a little more with every step they took away from S.T.A.R. Labs, from the Waverider.
Acknowledging the passing of time had also sparked an old argument Leonard had repeated often with himself: before the Oculus, there had been many concerns preventing him from talking to Sara about how he felt, but one of the biggest ones was their difference in age. Logistically, he knew that Sara probably didn't care, but still — thirteen years was a lot in his eyes. Now, however, that thirteen-year gap had turned into a meager five, and for some reason, that made the prospect of telling her anything about how he felt even more terrifying.
At that moment, Sara looked over and met his eyes.
"What?" she asked, noticing that his gaze was directed at her. Leonard shrugged as he looked away, fixing his eyes on a stone fountain a few hundred yards ahead of them.
"You want to stop?" she asked, tipping her head towards a small viewing deck built off of the stone pathway. With a metal railing, a few wooden benches, and a coin-operated binocular set built into the planked floor, it was the perfect spot to observe Central City's harbor.
"Sure," he said with a nod, and followed her off of the sidewalk. Rather than head for the bench, Sara crossed the deck to lean against the railing and look out onto the bay. Leonard stood next to her, his hands gripping the metal bar as he watched small boats moving in and out of the harbor.
A minute or two later, he felt her eyes on him and turned to meet them. Rather than look away, she held his gaze for a while, a small smile appearing on her lips.
"What?" Leonard asked, unable to stop his own smile from appearing.
She was the one to shrug this time, finally looking back to the water.
"You doing okay?" he asked her.
"Yeah," she replied with a nod, "Break's nice, though. I wish we could have a longer one."
"Why don't you?"
"Something always comes up," Sara said with a shrug, "With the Time Bureau gone and Constantine popping up every three weeks with some new supernatural problem, we're apparently the only people safeguarding all of time."
She let out a dry laugh at the thought.
"Barry said ARGUS was working on building up a Time Bureau-adjacent," Leonard said.
"Apparently, but ARGUS is…" Sara paused, then scoffed lightly, "ARGUS is ARGUS, so in my book, whatever they put together would just be another thing for me to keep an eye on."
Leonard nodded, although there was more he would have said, more he wanted to say.
Sara sighed.
"Team's different now," she said, now looking very intently at a seagull perched on wooden pillar jutting out of the water, "I mean — the team's different every other week…but sometimes I think about that first mission and we were…we were somethin' else."
Leonard knew there was probably much more to what Sara had just said, but he didn't press.
"I sometimes wonder how things would be if you were on the team still," she continued, and Leonard noticed the tiniest waver in her voice.
He hesitated for a moment before responding.
"I could come back."
"There are things for you here, though," Sara said, "Central City's your home. Isn't that what you said before?"
Leonard didn't respond.
"C'mon," Sara said, tipping her head back towards the sidewalk, "Let's keep going. Didn't that new modern art museum finally open? I wanna go check it out, see if their security team got your name yet."
Her lips upturned in an impish smile and Leonard felt his heart pang. As Sara pushed away from the railing and headed back for the stone walkway, alarm bells started ringing in Leonard's ears — once they were in a quiet museum, any prospect of saying anything to Sara would fly out the window, driven away by his own anxiety and doubt. If he was going to do anything, he had to do it now. Barry's words from earlier started to repeat in Leonard's mind:
"C'mon man!" Barry had said, "If you don't say something today, you'll have to wait another whole month!"
He wasn't going to wait another month. He couldn't last another month. He had to do this right now.
"Sara," Leonard said, his heart pounding in his chest so hard it bordered on painful.
Sara stopped and turned back to face him.
He was silent for a moment.
"I really would come back," he told her, forcing himself to meet her eyes.
"I know."
"I think about it a lot," he added, pushing himself to keep going despite the panic he was feeling, "I think about…you…a lot."
"What?" Sara took a questioning step closer to him.
Leonard could tell that he had no control over what he was saying, and no matter how many times he'd tried to formulate these words, it didn't matter.
"I…all the things I said…before the Oculus. I'm still…that's all still true…for me."
"Len," Sara said, her expression unreadable.
"I've known for a while," he said, now looking determinately at a spot over her shoulder, "that I-I'm…I'm very much in love with you. Whenever you're around, things are just…better. I don't…I don't know."
Finally, he met her eyes, and they were both silent for a while, staring at each other.
"Why did you leave, then?" Sara asked him, the words coming out a bit choked.
"I…it was six years for you," Leonard said, trying desperately to control the waver in his voice, "And Mick told me about…French queens and Salem and something about Camelot and…and directors, so…I didn't think you felt the same way anymore," he took a deep breath and then more words spilled out, steadier now, "To be honest, I wasn't sure you felt anything at all — you didn't exactly respond positively to what I had said in your quarters, and at the Oculus when you…" he trailed off, "I thought maybe it was just to…to ease the weight of what I was doing more than anything else, or—"
"You thought it was a pity kiss?" Sara cut him off, anger in her eyes. Leonard didn't respond, so she continued, "Do you really think I care so little about your emotions, or-or think so highly of myself that I would kiss you just to make it easier for you to blow yourself up? Did you even consider what you were asking me to do?" Sara didn't wait for a response, barreling on without hesitation, "You asked me to drag Mick — your best friend, who you had just concussed — out of an active bomb, leaving you to die not even an hour after you made this big confession to me. Do you not see how fucked up that all is? And now you're asking if it was a pity kiss?"
"Look," Leonard replied, his voice harder, "Forget about it. I don't want to ruin anything. I just wanted you to know how I feel because I was losing my mind not saying anything. If you don't feel the same, that's fine."
"Who said I don't feel the same?"
Leonard took an involuntary step back, and Sara herself seemed a little shocked.
"You didn't say anything."
"You didn't say anything," she retorted, taking a step towards him, "You chose to leave the Waverider. That kind of told me everything I needed to know."
Leonard waited a beat before answering, his nerves dulling his ability to process what Sara was telling him.
"It was six years," he said again, the anger gone from his voice, "That's a long time. I figured…if you had felt anything at all before, it would be gone…or…"
"Yeah, or it was enough time to…process, I guess…how I feel," Sara said, running a hand through her hair. She let out a quick exhale before continuing, "I honestly didn't know how I felt when you told me what you told me before the Oculus, and after you died, I was just…stuck coming to terms wit-with the fact that I was falling in love with you, and you didn't even exist anymore. I spent an entire year after the Oculus dealing with that bullshit, and halfway through that, evil-you showed up and I had to look at your face and see no recognition at all and it destroyed me, Len. And yeah — there were other people, but even my best memories with any of them — yes, even the director — came nowhere near how I felt when we realized you were alive."
Sara let out a heavy breath.
"But then you left," she finished.
"I…yeah," Leonard replied, not sure what else to say.
They both stared at each other for a while, both processing what the other had said, both coming to terms with knowing they both felt the same way.
"I…I don't want to leave the Waverider," Sara finally said, taking a step towards Leonard.
"I wasn't asking you to," he responded.
"But I…I always look forward to the visit because…because I want to see you," she continued, taking another step forward, "I don't know how you do it, but when I'm around you, the whole world just seems…"
"Easier," he finished, his voice low. Sara nodded, her eyes involuntarily darting to his lips for just a moment before meeting his gaze again.
"Yeah," she finally said, with just a hint of a smile.
They spent another another few long moments in silence. Discomfited, Leonard shifted his weight, somewhat astounded by what Sara was telling him. He hadn't allowed himself to believe Caitlin when she said that she thought Sara was interested in him, but now that he was hearing it from Sara herself, his disbelief had been replaced with dumbfounded shock. He'd spent so long trying to figure out what to say to her, but now that he had, he wasn't sure what to do next.
"Um…okay," Sara said after a while, "Well…did you want to keep walking or…"
"Yeah," he said with a nod, "Sure."
As Sara turned away, Leonard caught her arm and tugged her back towards him, wasting no time stealing the kiss she'd challenged him to. Sara immediately reciprocated, letting out a minuscule breath of relief as she crashed her lips against his. She twined her arms around his neck as Leonard's hand tangled in her hair, his other arm wrapping around Sara's waist, pulling her close to him. His heart was pounding in his chest so hard he could hear it, but he refused to let it distract him from the feeling of Sara's warm skin beneath his fingertips. They kissed with an urgent fervor and if any passersby looked their way, they didn't pay them any mind, too caught up in each other and the relief of finally being able to act on the longing that had been building up for so long to even notice.
After a long while, when both their breathing had gone ragged, their lungs empty, they both pulled away from each other, foreheads touching. When he'd caught his breath, Leonard leaned in and kissed Sara again, slower now, relishing the feeling of her lips on his. She smelled of coffee and leather and mint and something just uniquely Sara, and suddenly he felt as if an enormous pressure was being lifted away, like he'd been homesick for this person before him and hadn't even been able to realize it until he was finally by her side again.
After a moment, he felt Sara lips curve up in a smile.
"What?" Leonard asked her, his voice low. Sara just gave a minuscule shake of her head before lifting her head to capture his lips in one more soft kiss.
Finally, they both stepped away. Leonard's arms stayed firmly around Sara's waist, keeping her from moving too far away. Sara's hands slid from his shoulders down his arms to grip Leonard's wrists as she looked up at him.
"Maybe extending the team's shore leave wouldn't be the worst thing in the world," she said with just a hint of a smirk.
"Really?" Leonard replied, matching her smirk with his own, "You think that'd be okay with the captain?"
"Yeah," Sara said, her lips spreading into a smile, "It'd be okay."
