"Well that went spectacularly," Len hummed to himself quietly as he watched Mick make what really only amounted to a brief escape. Not that he really blamed Mick for not taking the news exceptionally well. Len couldn't say that if the shoe were on the other foot he would have been any more receptive to that kind of news. Except that unlike Mick he had the benefit of perspective from having been in this weird pocket of reality for so long. That and the phrase 'you only live once' was particularly important to him only recently. Barry had been there for him in his worst moments. After Mick had come back as Chronos. After he'd found out he was dead. He couldn't really expect Mick to encompass all of that when he told him the news.
But, he'd also learned a lot from this place. Namely that letting either of them stew in their feelings and not talk about shit was precicesly why he'd made the mistake of not telling Mick how he felt about him ages ago when he should have. That didn't mean that he was particularly good about talking about his feelings or expressing them all the time, but Mick definitely deserved better than either of them avoiding the subject. Especially knowing that if either of them got sent back, that was it. He'd never see Mick or anyone else again.
That, and if any more poor suckers retreated from the bathroom with a broken nose Sara was probably going to be pissed.
Len slipped into the bathroom not too long after the guy with the bloody nose made his escape. Unlike Mick though he had the sense to lock the door behind him should anyone else feel the need to interrupt. He wouldn't force Mick to talk about it, knew better. But he felt the need to try.
"I figured you might not take it well, but actually punching someone? I wonder if I should be flattered.." Len leaned back against the door, giving Mick some space but effectively blocking his way out for the moment. Just until Mick made it clear he wasn't going to have the conversation.
"I think I always had something for you, you know. But I never knew how to keep you around without manipulating things. I never thought I could just ask and you'd stay. Because we never talked about it. Us. We should have a long time ago.." He fiddled, ironically, with the lighter in his pocket before he thought better of it and held it out knowing Mick would probably need it more than he did.
"I didn't replace you with Barry, if that's what you're thinking. You don't replace thirty years of partnership with anything, Mick. You don't give up your life for just anybody." He met his gaze again, uncharacteristically earnest, but maybe Barry was rubbing off on him too much. "But I made room for him too. Maybe even before this place or the Waverider. He saw something good in me, Mick. Nobody's ever seen that before. Not until now anyway." And it didn't really matter when he was too dead to hear it.
"He's never asked me to change. But he's made me want to. To be something better. Not just for me or for him. But for Lisa, and for you, too.." He trailed off for a second, feeling a little more exposed than he was comfortable with but if Mick had ever been good at anything it was getting him to lay himself bare in front of him. "I just need you to know this isn't some fling like either of us have had before. And you never were either. Even if I never said it, and if you go back you'll never hear me say it. I'm saying it now."