sara/len hcs about when they retire from super heroism
Ooooh this is something I’ve never thought about. And not a ship I’ve really written for either, so even more fun.
(Obviously this is in an AU where the LoT s1 finale did not happen // canon-divergent from there. I don’t keep up with the rest of the ‘verse so forgive me.)
I don’t know that they WOULD retire, honestly. At least not voluntarily.
But maybe something happens. A significant injury. Enough to make the Canary reconsider her life choices. Not life-threatening, but a long recovery process.
And it hits her that they’re not young anymore. (Len hasn’t been for a very long time, and that’s a separate issue, but she herself has too much faith in her resilience.)
So during those weeks of being sidelined, they talk and make the choice to step back. Together. Not a full retirement, not all at once, but a process of passing the mantle down to the younger generation.
It takes time. A year or two.
As they shift, they learn to be normal human beings for the first time in their lives, with hobbies that don’t include violence and mayhem.
Sara attempts to take up gardening. She’s terrible at first, but over the years that follow she finds a certain peace in it. In middle-age, decades past her expected lifespan, she enters a rosebush in a competition. She doesn’t win, but it’s a highlight.
Len reads a lot. He has more programming to undo. He winds up in therapy for the first voluntary time in his life, and he hates it but realizes there are wounds to heal.
They get a house in a quiet neighborhood, the kind of place one almost expects a pair of mostly-retired superheroes to live. They accidentally acquire a cat. They both hate cats, but the half-dead kitten under their porch speaks to something in their souls and what starts as “we’re just gonna take care of it until it’s able to walk on its own” turns into fifteen years of devoted housepet.
They still have connections, old friends who swing by when they feel like it. Mick appropriates the spare bedroom at his leisure, but over time the bond of fire and ice shifts into something a little less codependent.
They’re happy. Somehow.