Finding His Way Out of the Time Stream:
< Chapter 9 >
Leonard scowled annoyance and let out a grumble of his own at his sister's pushing for him and Mick to talk, though he'd never admit that sometimes it was exactly what the two of them needed. He figured he might as well get this over with and stepped into the room more so that he was in front of Mick, resisting the urge to grab his arm and check the self-inflicted wound from the last mission. "How's your arm?" He crossed his own over himself as he spoke, partly to show his disapproval at the subject and partly as a way to stop from checking the wound himself.
Mick let out a grunt and turned his chair away so he was facing the partly done writing on his desk, taking a swig of the beer he had in his hand before answering. "Doesn't matter, ain't like new scars gonna do anything." The thing that pissed Leonard off the most about that statement? The fact that he saw it as the undeniable truth, is an unarguable fact of his life. He stepped forward and grabbed Mick's closest wrist in his own hand, resisting with he tried to pull it away despite the fact it could easily get him knocked on his ass.
He pushed the sleeve up with his free hand before speaking, it wasn't the arm that Mick had burned just a few days ago but Leonard's stomach churned at the fact that he could see fresher scars over top of the ones from that job in 2014. He should have realized how odd it was that Mick had been avoiding taking his shirt off around him; even when they'd been intimate since he'd been back. "If it doesn't matter then what the fuck is this? If it didn't matter you'd stop fucking doing it." Mick tried pulling his arm away, but with a grip on it using both hands, he wasn't as easy to shake. "This is going to kill you, Mick. One of these days it's gonna go too far and I'm not going to be there to pull you out."
This time Mick shoved him before attempting to pull his arm away, managing it this time before pulling his sleeve back down with a look on his face that said he could kill. "You say that like you didn't just run that night and stay away for nearly an entire year Snart, and then get yourself blown up in my place. I've always known I was going to die by the fire, I've known that longer than I've known you." He stood up then and Leonard didn't move away when he took a step toward him pointing, finger jabbing him in the chest at his next words. "But you had to go and die in my place anyway."
"Was I supposed to stay and watch you burn?" His eyes narrowed and he smacked away Mick's hand before pushing the other man back himself. "Who do you think called so that someone could get you out? Even trapped between fucking time I was more focused on making sure you didn't spiral this far than getting myself out, making sure that I didn't lose you before you even knew I wasn't dead because you're too goddamn stubborn to call your fucking shrink when you're in your present time." Maybe he was hypocritical in that, at least Mick bothered seeing someone when he felt like it. Outside of being forced to because of his Night Terrors when cause he was locked up? Leonard didn't think it was worth his time, but then again the most his compulsions caused was for him to snag people's wallets and accessories without thinking much about it.
"I thought you were dead for almost 2 fucking years." There was a mix of anger and hurt in the way Mick aimed his word at him. "You don't get to judge me for how I managed to survive that." And he had a bit of a point, Leonard hadn't hurt himself, but he had gotten reckless in the 10 months they were apart after that fire. Once he knew Mick had survived he was a little better, but he had been sure that they were never going to get past that and he still wasn't as careful as he had been for years before that.
"I had already left you behind twice Mick, first in that fire and then in those wood. I was going to die before I did it again, go ahead and be pissed at me for that." He didn't care if he was pissed at him for it, he was alive and that was the whole point of it-and turns out they had both survived it. Leonard didn't wait for Mick to respond, walking around Mick and back out the door, headed down to the cargo bay in order to avoid Lisa being able to find him again and make him come back. for them to yell at each other again. It wasn't going anywhere, Leonard wasn't sorry Mick had thought he had died and that pissed the other off-Mick didn't see how what he was doing to cope was wrong and that pissed him off. "Not in the mood Stein-" He said when he saw the older man come into the room out of the corner of his eye.
Stein didn't say anything for a minute and Leonard almost hoped that he was going to just leave it be and leave, instead though? he walked over and dropped a small drawstring back down by Leonard and spoke. "I found it in your things when Jax and I were packing it all up, Mick didn't want to go anywhere near your things after what happened-I had been trying to track down your sister myself to return it to her since we didn't know about..." He turned and took a few steps away before turning back. "A word of advice, though my marriage might be worlds different from yours Mr. Snart? Talking through an argument is better than angry avoidance. In our line of work you never know when will be your last chance to work things out."
With that he walked away and left Leonard to his own thoughts, it was a couple of minutes before he stopped messing with his Cold Gun and reached over to grab the drawstring bag that had been in his go binder. He opened it and poured the necklace inside that once belonged to his and Lisa's mother out into his hand, holding it up to let the Star of David dangle for a moment before dropping it back into the bag and shoving it into his pocket. He had just assumed that Mick had given the item to Lisa himself when he took the money from his go binder, turns out he had probably thought that he'd either lost it or already given it to her himself. He stood from where he was sitting and headed to get something to eat, hoping to avoid Lisa getting on his ass for at least a few more hours.
