Who: Leonard Snart coldest & Sara Lance thecanary What: Arrival When: Saturday, April 26, midday Where: Verdant Rating: Reader Discretion is Advised Warnings: Spoilers for Legends of Tomorrow. Leonard is snarky, sometimes crude, and believes flirting with anything with a pulse is acceptable behavior. Status: Closed/Complete
~*~
Pain was an expected sensation to accompany death. Would he feel it for a minute? A second? Would he feel anything at all? Leonard knew from experience some pains were too intense for the human mind to process. He'd frozen his own hand, shattered it into pieces, and it had hurt for less than what seemed to be a moment whereas he knew he should have been in agony if he hadn't been in shock.
Did a man go into shock during an explosion?
Leonard found himself blinking against a blinding light -how cliche- before a tearing sensation ripped through him followed by---a light breeze.
Opening his eyes, he thought perhaps he'd finally reached the fabled afterlife religious aficionados touted existing only to realize his surroundings were beyond mundane.
Regular city streets, a temperate breeze, moderate sun, and people who seemed in no more of a hurry or worry than anywhere else he'd ever been. No one was shocking in their perfection. No one was wearing white robes or sporting halos or wings. There certainly weren't any angry looking guys with pitchforks prodding people into fiery pits either. On the whole, if this was the afterlife, Leonard was disappointed.
An overly enthusiastic man suddenly raced in front of Leonard with a gibbered spiel about 'Welcome to Madison Valley' and here was his apartment keys -what kind of realtor gave a guy keys before a tour?- and he perked up at the mention of a bank card preloaded with a thousand dollars -chump change- before the guy was gone. He wasn't feeling any more informed than before. The only thing Leonard was certain about was he definitely was not dead. He might have had the intention of dying nobly for the greater good, but it seemed that was not the fate he'd been handed.
Turning on the cell phone the 'Welcome Committee' had given him, Snart pulled up a map of Madison Valley which he used to locate where he was presently, where the apartment complex was he was meant to be living free of charge, and where the bank was which was apparently holding his free money. All the basics covered, he started looking for names he recognized. Several coffee houses which were familiar to him, some shopping centers, and---Verdant?
"Interesting."
Leonard smiled the whole stroll to the club, congenially nodding and even waving at strangers on the streets as he lifted a wallet here and there, taking the cash and tossing everything else until he reached the Madison Valley Verdant.
It wasn't an exact replica. Did that mean Leonard was or wasn't likely to encounter someone he knew inside? He wasn't challenged at the doors so he went inside to stroll up to the bar, asking the person behind it, "Could you point me in the direction of the owner? Or manager? Or basically anyone who is higher on the food chain than 'barback' will do."
Sara was in her office when Scarlett poked her head in without knocking, something that was unusual enough that she was on her feet before the other woman even spoke. The moment she said that there was a man there with really short hair and blue eyes that made everything sound more sarcastic than she did asking to speak with the manager, Sara’s heartbeat sped up just a little. That sounded an awful lot like Snart and she needed to find out if the dome actually brought him back.
The relief around her was palpable when she realized that it was him and there was a big smile on her face as she walked over behind him and tapped his shoulder. “Excuse me,” she said. “I heard you’re harassing my bartenders. Can I help you with something?”
As soon as he turned around, he would find himself with an armful of Sara.
Physical contact was usually a no-go with Leonard Snart unless he was the one initiating it. He'd been beat on too many times for him to let anyone get away with handling him without a pass. The only exceptions he'd ever made were for his sister, Mick, and a certain blonde currently hugging him as if he were the best thing she'd ever seen in her life.
"Now this is what I call a welcome committee. I thought that kiss I got was a fluke or one of those so-you're-dying-a-hero-have-a-kiss-before-you-go things. You're starting to put entirely other thoughts into my head which could be dangerous."
Sara Lance was easily one of the most beautiful women he'd ever spent time with, but, more importantly, she was his friend; Leonard found he respected her more than he wanted her which increased her value exponentially.
Oh yes, people came with dollar signs for him the same as everything else. It was instinct for him to think in terms of appraisal rates. What else did one expect from a career criminal? He might have been playing at being a hero, but a leopard didn't change its spots completely. That was just a foolish bit of wishful thinking there.
"You keep letting me hold you, I'm definitely cashing in on the opportunity."
It was more of a cheerful warning than anything else. He could have stood there for another ten minutes doing nothing other than breathing in and out with his friend. The only thing which gave him pause was they weren't alone and they both had reputations to uphold.
It was a completely unnecessary warning because Sara was genuinely happy to see him, though his greeting made her realize two things quickly. One was that he had no memories of being in town before and the second was that apparently he’d arrived from the moments surrounding his death.
“Let’s go talk,” she said, gesturing for Scarlett to hand her a bottle of whiskey before leading Snart back to her office. Her staff would probably assume she was going to give him a very personal sort of welcome and, well, she wasn’t opposed to that, though she figured they had some catching up to do first.
She nodded at the sofa in her office and grabbed a couple of glasses from her desk. “I’m guessing you haven’t been in town long,” she said. There was no way that she would have missed his return for long.
"Fresh off the Oculus explosion boat," Leonard agreed, nimbly helping himself to one of the glasses Sara had acquired for them, "You've been here a while. Does that mean I've been dead for a while or is this some alternative timeline courtesy of another legendary screw-up?"
Drinking was more of a comfort than a requirement for stressful situations as far as Snart was concerned. He offered his glass with a raised eyebrow. The drink would come with an explanation if he knew Sara at all. She would give it to him straight too. They weren't the kind of people who believed in putting things gently.
A quick assessment of her looks made him question it being possible he'd missed her for too long. Either she hadn't aged more than a tease or it'd been a less than comfortable length of time for her. Sara certainly didn't look any the worse for wear either way. Some people aged well while others didn't. Snart hoped Sara wasn't about to tell him it'd been a decade since he'd become atomic material even if he did love the idea of her holding her years well.
"Given I've never heard of Madison Valley and I couldn't find Central City or Star City on the map I pulled up on my fancy new phone? I'm thinking the explanation here is going to be very interesting."
“I’ve been here just shy of five years,” Sara said. Well, five years as far as this place was concerned. That didn’t count the several trips home she’d had courtesy of the dome. “But the last thing I remember from home was a couple of years after when you’re from.” She decided that she wouldn’t meeting the version of him from the creepy Nazi Earth just yet.
She realized that she probably needed to back up a little. “This place is basically like a… pocket dimension,” she said. “It sort of exists outside of time and space. In as much as that if and when we get sent back to our own universe, no time will have passed.” It wasn’t exactly time travel though. Not like what they did on the Waverider.
Ray would be able to explain things so much better and she missed having him around even though his stay had been brief. “You were actually here before, but you don’t remember it,” she explained. “That happens fairly regularly to people. So in addition to some folks from home that you’ll know, there are other people who may recognize you.” Like Sam, who she probably ought to at least give a heads up about Snart’s return.
"Five years for you here. How long was I here? Was it once? Twice? Do I pop in every random Thursday?"
Sara didn't sound as if she were having him on which meant Snart was taking her at face value. Everything she said made sense in its own strange way courtesy of the life they'd both been suckered into by way of Rip Hunter. There was no reason to believe he might have been there recently given her affectionate welcome.
Sara was not the kind of woman to throw herself into the arms of a man no matter how good their friendship had been---not unless it had been some time since she'd seen him.
"I have a feeling you mean I've more than acquainted myself with this place in the past. Don't tell me I have no memory of a much more intimate reunion with you. I think that would break my heart."
Relationships had never been easy for Snart. His father had been the worst example of manhood any boy could ever hope to have and his mother hadn't exactly been the most maternal figure herself. All his life he'd stolen what he wanted either outright or through a calculated grift. He couldn't let himself think about what it would mean if he'd been in this place -this domestic little city- long enough to become more than friends with a woman he admired as much as he desired only to have been taken away with not even one memory of the event to hold close.
Sara gave him a mischievous look. “It wasn’t a reunion,” she said. That was all she was going to say about that at the moment though. No need to get into the whole thing about her dating Sam and them having a threesome, especially since she had been very single for the past year or so.
“You weren’t here that long. Maybe a year tops.” It was hard to remember honestly. She’d seen so many people come and go during her time here that she lost track of the details. “Your sister is here. So’s mine. Snow from Barry’s crew. My ex, Nyssa. And a few other people that are from our world, but you wouldn’t know.”
Over the years, more of them had been around, but it was probably good that Barry and Ollie weren’t here at the moment since Snart tended to have conflicts with them.
“It’s a weird little town and crazy shit happens on a fairly regular basis,” she said. “Oh, and we’re stuck here. Can’t leave.” That part sucked.
"You are just trying to hurt me now. I can tell."
Lisa.
An honest smile changed the sharp angles of his face, making him more welcoming in an instant, and Snart couldn't recall the last time he'd smiled without any worries to edge down the corners of his lips. Wasn't that a sad state of affairs? Pathetic. He would need to see Lisa as soon as he could. All the other people Sara listed out were irrelevant in his view of the world.
Could they prove useful eventually? Sure. Anyone could be useful eventually. It just depended on whether a guy was willing to play the long game or not.
"I'm going to need to see my sister. Lisa is my favorite lady in every universe. You understand I'm sure since your sister is here as well. I seem to recollect she and I did not have such pleasant interactions before. Don't worry. I'll forgive her. I am not one to hold grudges. Or even if I were one to hold grudges, I'd say getting stuck in a pocket dimension with some of my favorite ladies is enough to have me pushing all those negative thoughts and feelings aside."
“You know I’d only hurt you in the best ways,” Sara said with a smirk.
She wasn’t surprised at all to see the change in his expression when he realized his sister was in town. The Snart siblings had an odd relationship, to be sure, though she probably had no room to talk given her and Laurel’s history, but there was no doubt that Leonard had real affection for Lisa. “You can message her on that fancy new phone. There’s a whole network where you can communicate with the other people who are displaced here.”
And Lisa would also be pleased that her brother had returned. “And, for the record, you can’t steal or anything here. We’re stuck and it’s a small town.”
"How nice to know this thing has a purpose other than GPS."
Sara would be one of the only people in this place who could hurt him in any way. Leonard knew that much though he kept it to himself, hiding his thoughts behind a wry grin as she admonished him on the ways of small towns. He wondered if she had any idea how easy it was to steal from small town people. It was doubtful she did as she'd never been that kind of criminal.
"Should I take your advice from this point forward?"
Snart pulled a wad of bills from his pocket to hold between two fingers and disappear back into his sleeve with a flick of his wrist. He'd been doing sleight of hand tricks since before he could hold a rational conversation. It was as second nature to him as breathing or blinking.
"I haven't exactly been on my very best behavior since I popped into existence outside a little coffee shop. Don't worry. No one noticed a thing. I do wonder what you think I'll be doing if I'm not stealing my keep. My marketable skills are generally not legal to market."
Of course he’d already been up to no good. Sara should have expected that. “Just remember that if you get caught, there’s no escape,” she said. It wasn’t her job to keep him on the straight and narrow.
She smirked though. “There’s a strip club in town,” she said. “I’m sure you could get a job there. Or maybe you have a friend who owns a nightclub and would hire you as a bartender.” It wasn’t like he had to decide right now since he’d only just arrived, but it would be easier for him in the long run if he found a legit job.
Snart couldn't help the way his eyebrows crawled toward his hairline at Sara's first suggestion.
"A strip club?" He gave her a low whistle as he shook his head to try to bring his expression under control, a grin twisting his lips against his better judgment, "Here I thought you knew I'm the kind of present one has to work to unwrap. There is absolutely no way the people of this insane little pocket dimension carry enough cash to get me out of my parka much less the rest."
Bartending was something he could do. It went without saying his father's degenerate lifestyle had led Snart to learn more about liquor than any child should have before he had even made it to his first stay in juvie. Come to that, Leonard Snart had known how to mix a martini before he'd ever dreamed of meeting Mick Rory. He didn't have very many positive memories of alcohol for all his familiarity with the subject.
"I'll consider mixing drinks. I am not always good with the intoxicated. People get handsy? I get handsy. It's a vicious cycle. You own this fine establishment or are you just the management?"
“It’s mine,” Sara said. “Thea was here a long time ago and she opened it up, hired me as a bartender. When she left, I took it over. Been running it on my own for a few years now. Well, I have a great staff and business manager.” And she’d had help from Ollie and Eliot back in the day.
She couldn’t help but laugh at his comment about people not getting him out of his parka though. “You have some time to decide.” It was probably not a great idea to hire him given her penchant for sleeping with her staff, but oh well.
"Knowing the current ownership might sway my decision. I will be taking some time to think it over. I've always been a bit of a planner as I'm sure you know."
Mick was the one who rushed into a situation guns blazing. It was always Leonard who ensured their plans were outlined before a job and it was always Leonard who got the blame when things went sideways though that was rarely due to any fault of his own. He traced his thumb over his pinkie only to realize it was bare.
Focusing on Sara's face, Leonard pushed down the realization he'd left his most prized possessions with his best friend in preparation for his own death only a bit over an hour ago.
A beautiful woman had hugged him as if she were truly glad to see him. That same woman had given him a kiss he'd not deserved only a bit before for him---though it'd been five years for her from her own testimony. Far be it from Leonard Snart to dismiss his blessings in favor of wallowing in his misfortunes.
"I'm going to go check on my baby sister. I hope I can use this phone to check in on you later. I'm thinking you'll answer if I call you. Don't disappoint me. I'm fragile."
He gave her a parting wink as he made his way out of her office, out of her club, and out of her sight for the time being.