Who: Leonard Snart coldest & Sara Lance thecanary What: Late Night Phone-A-Friend When: Monday, April 29, late night Where: Their respective homes. 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. Also? He's going to ask naughty questions because it's a cure for boredom. Status: Closed/Complete
~*~
"So, Sam Winchester, how did that happen?"
Leonard Snart was not the kind to do anything as expecting up to and including make phone calls to people in the middle of the night. He was bored, the fancy phone he'd been given had an amazing directory, and Sara happened to be his favorite non-relative in the domed city. It was better for him to call her on the phone than try to invite himself over to her place at the present hour.
"I'm bored. Amuse me with sordid details?"
He wouldn't complain too much if Sara told him she didn't kiss and tell. They were both private people in some ways while being open books about other things; their criteria for each was their own which Leonard respected. There hadn't been many people in his life he wanted to do nothing more than pass the time alongside. Sara was in a very limited group of people for him. It didn't worry him where she placed him in her social calendar.
His opinion was what mattered to him. Other people didn't define Leonard Snart. He defined himself. Always.
"And please don't tell me you aren't in the mood to talk. I'm very bored and talking to you is the only thing keeping me inside my dome-assigned-domicile rather than wreaking havoc on the streets."
Sara was still awake when her phone rang and the thought that Snart was calling her for bail flitted through her mind as she reached to answer it. His opening was somehow more surprising and she couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Can we clarify exactly what you mean by ‘that’?” Sara asked. She didn’t know if he was referring to her having a relationship with Sam or if Sam had elected not to heed her advice and told him about the threesome they had last time he was in town. “Because there’s a lot that happened with Sam.”
It was hard to believe it had been just about a year since they’d split. She did miss him sometimes, still had a soft spot for him, but was pretty well determined not to even attempt another actual relationship again.
"I think 'that' could mean a lot of things, but I was going for how you wound up dating him. He seems a little too butch for your usual tastes. I was thinking you preferred a softer figure."
Leonard picked at his shirt as he lay on his bed, boring ceiling overhead with his legs bent to allow his left knee to drape over his right. He bounced his foot idly as he tried not to give away too much. It was never as easy to remain in control on a phone call rather than in person. All the other party had to go on was his voice over the phone lines whereas he had numerous ways to distract in person.
"Don't tell me I've misjudged your type. I think I'd be inconsolable if you were to let slip the muscular hero is your preference over the smooth criminal."
His tone was jovial, joking, but he was only too serious when it came to Sara. She was the most interesting woman he'd met in his life. Considering the bane of his existence was boredom and he fought a constant battle against the same, it was not surprising he wanted to remain as close to her as he could. It helped to think she enjoyed his company equally. They kept one another safe, right? They were teammates. Partners. Sara could do a lot better than---well, than him when it came down to it, but why not try?
Leonard had to believe he'd been given a second chance with Sara -or was it a first chance since he'd only gotten the one kiss before his unfortunate death?- for a reason. It helped to imagine someone or something higher than himself also wanted him to get the girl for a change.
The story of how Sara and Sam ended up together was long and required a lot of backstory, but Sara didn’t see any reason not to share it with Snart. Her life in Madison Valley had taken a lot of interesting twists and turns through the years and Snart was one of the few people that she trusted without reservation.
“Well… let’s see,” she mused, settling back on her bed to get comfortable. “A few years ago, I started dating this guy Eliot.” Who, in hindsight, was an awful lot like Snart though she’d started dating Eliot long before she met Snart back home. She decided not to mention that her ex was a noble thief sort. “Then Ollie showed up and you know he and I had a thing back home at one time. And the three of us ended up in a relationship together.”
That part was probably unnecessary to share, but Sara wasn’t shy or easily embarrassed by her past. “Ollie got sent back home and it was just me and Eliot. Then I got sent home and came back from right after Laurel had me resurrected. I was… a mess.” That was an understatement and she knew that Snart would probably be able to tell as much. “I ended things with Eliot and shortly after that, he got sent home.”
And none of this actually involved Sam, but it was important to explain the context. “Sam’s brother is my housemate. He came over to visit and we hooked up. And then we kept hooking up. And eventually we ended up in a relationship. Though it was a fairly open one.”
"Eliot. Ollie. Sammy. Tsk tsk," Snart made a chiding noise, "You're disappointing my lurid fantasies, Sara. Here I thought you would have collected your own harem of beautiful ladies and instead you seem to have found yourself surrounded with too much testosterone."
It went without saying she'd also been surrounded by muscles. Leonard didn't need to have a picture of Eliot if he was in the same class as Oliver Queen or Sam Winchester. He wondered if the guy had been good to her or if she'd pulled Queen in with them trying to find something she wasn't getting already.
People always had something to bring to the table. Leonard Snart brought charm, a quick wit, and an insatiable curiosity which drove him to recklessness more than one would think. He doubted Sara was in the market for a serious relationship, but what about something 'fairly open' again? There was no reason for him to be jealous of her time if she still gave him plenty.
"I find it suspect you fell into bed more than once with Sammy without some kind of feelings driving you. I have a feeling he's being flirtatious with me because you decided I was an acceptable addition to date night once upon a time ago. For the record, I rarely do multiples. I've been over my slut phase since I turned twenty-five. I must have given a respectable showing to have inspired him to remember me---unless he's the prudish type who doesn't typically go for a bit of rough with his ladies?"
Men had been willing to experiment with Snart since well before he was legal. Nothing surprised him when it came to the why or how behind a hook-up where a man was concerned. Men thought with their dicks. That usually meant they didn't think at all when most of their blood supply was diverted below their belts. He did wonder what had possessed him to try something with Sam and Sara when he knew which of the pair he actually wanted.
“Oh, there have been plenty of ladies,” Sara assured him. She shouldn’t be surprised that he figured out what happened between the three of them back in the day. He knew her well enough and she’d probably given the rest away with her story. “Just no one serious.”
The serious relationships were definitely the exceptions rather than the rule since by and large, Sara was not a relationship sort of person.
“Would you like a list?” she asked. “Plenty of them are still around. I would be happy to give you recommendations, both male and female.” She would also put herself at the top of that list, but saw no reason to say as much to him at this point. It was more fun to see how long they could dance this dance.
Snart didn't realize he had been holding his breath until he let it out on a shaky exhale which trembled with laughter from some strange place inside of himself which always found humor in the darkest of things. Who knew he could find a topic he didn't want to explore every nuance of from start to finish? He supposed it was karma catching up to him for all the bad he'd done in his life. Sometimes a man deserved to pay a little penance to the universe.
"I think I'll pass on the list. Hearing about the competition brings my competitive side out and no one wants that right now."
Fair play was a concept largely foreign to Snart; he didn't want to get too invested right out of the gate with Sara. She could have kissed him for no other reason than he was dying. Imminently. Immediately. Inescapably.
"Someone posted a city-wide invite to an orgy at that strip club you think I'd do well at and I'm not certain what to make of such a thing. You know I've never been to an orgy before? What sort of protocols are in place there? The invite was issued by a woman who pointed out clothing really should be limited to have the most fun, but I've never been fond of exposure."
Sara’s lips twisted into a satisfied smirk when he admitted that he thought of the people she’d been with as competition. They hadn’t really had an opportunity to explore what might be possible between them last time he was in town because she’d already been with Sam and she couldn’t help but let herself wonder what was possible even though she wasn’t likely to ever have a successful relationship.
“The club puts on great parties,” she said. “There’s no obligation to participate if you don’t want to. And I have no doubt that you can do plenty of fun things while remaining fully clothed. They do provide the necessities though.” Condoms and lube, basically, but it was a pretty responsible thing all told.
She paused for a long moment before adding, “I’ll be attending.”
Language was what separated humans from animals. People often thought they said things without thinking, but, really, they always had a reason for saying something out loud. Those reasons might not be readily apparent to them or even conscious reasons on their part---they were still backed by reasoning.
Snart wondered if Sara had offered her attendance at the lurid little party at Den of Dionysus as a way to tell him she was available for something physical or as a way to say she wasn't available for anything serious. Both options posed interesting conundrums worthy of contemplation. He had no doubt he'd wind up thinking about Sara saying 'I'll be attending.' in reference to an orgy for a lot longer than any orgy could ever last.
"I can do more than enough while keeping myself completely clothed though I thank you for your vote of confidence. My ego always loves stroking."
He swallowed back the fact more than his ego liked stroking in favor of asking, "Do you want a wingman for the party? I promise to only get in the way if you want me to and I can easily help decipher the best potential candidates for no questions asked activities. I wouldn't mind going if I happened to be attending with you."
“Not just your ego, I would imagine,” Sara said, unable to let the easy volley slide pass without comment.
His offer to be a wingman was unexpected though and she wasn’t entirely sure what to think about it. Considering he’d just moments ago said he didn’t want to think about his competition with her, it was an offer that didn’t make much sense. Then again, there were a lot of things about Snart that kept her off balance, which was one of the reasons she found him so fascinating.
Rather than answering his question, she opted for a different tactic. “I’m insulted that you think I need a wingman.”
Leonard loudly rolled his eyes before agreeing, "Fine. Not just my ego likes stroking. We went there. Happy now?"
All people needed a wingman at an orgy in his opinion, but Snart knew Sara was capable of handling herself. He hadn't offered to protect her though he wasn't sure how to say that without saying it directly.
Then again: who said being direct was a bad thing?
"I don't think you need a wingman. I think I'd like to be your wingman. It makes it easier for me to prove I'm the best offer on the table if I'm there for the sake of comparison. Besides. Everyone needs a wingman at an orgy or they wind up doing illicit things with people they aren't explicitly interested in."
Snart figured it should be painfully obvious who he was explicitly interested in. It made him feel---strange so he shut up, hoping Sara would say something he could use to turn their conversation back to a less serious mode.
That was a more direct answer than Sara was expecting and she shook her head slightly even though there was no one there to see it. Snart managed to keep surprising her.
“Well, Lenny, first of all, I wasn’t aware you had an offer on the table,” she said, knowing that her use of the nickname was going to annoy him and not caring one bit. “Second of all, what makes you think you need to prove anything?”
She wasn’t going to make this easy for him. That wouldn’t be nearly as much fun.
“However, if you’d like me to chaperone you at the orgy, I am happy to offer my services.”
Everyone had triggers. Leonard Snart might have been christened 'Captain Cold' by Cisco Ramon, but even he had things which bothered him. He pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger while he coped with the fact he was getting verbally played by Sara Lance. "I don't need a chaperone. Actually if you call me Lenny again I won't be much use to anyone at a sex party because every time I hear that I think of my sister and -contrary to some very vulgar rumors- we are not that kind of close."
Relationships were complicated when a guy had no faith in others. Leonard Snart couldn't recall when he'd last tried a relationship on for size which was anything other than business practical. He supposed Mick Rory was as close to a relationship as he'd ever managed and they weren't more than partners.
Also contrary to some very vulgar rumors, which, come to that, why were there so many rumors about who he was sharing his bed with and why?
"I'm good with Leonard. Len. Snart. Any nickname you like including but not limited to 'sweetheart,' 'babe,' or 'honey.' Though 'honey' tends to make me bitchy. I'd also like to point out everyone has something to prove. You're the kind of lover a person doesn't often get to meet. You should always expect hopefuls to try to prove their worth. You deserve it. I would say my offer hasn't been very explicitly stated, but I'm willing to get explicit if you're interested."
Snart was willing to get more than a little explicit for Sara. He was good with words, but he was capable of being serious.
“Tell me more about what kind of lover you think I am.”
Sara knew that she was playing with fire now, but she figured if Snart didn’t want that, he wouldn’t have called her in the middle of the night and asked about her relationship with Sam. She was just going to ignore the fact that she was already pretty well turned on by their verbal sparring and that she was baiting him to see just how far he would go.
“Honey,” she added after a beat because she thought she was funny. It felt weird to use any term of endearment with Snart and she’d have to think about a more appropriate nickname to use for him.
"I think you're demanding."
Leonard hadn't allowed himself a second to think before he answered. If he started thinking about everything which could go wrong if things between them went wrong, he knew he'd never tell her anything other than glib half-truths. Fear was an emotion he was capable of feeling. It was simply one he hated enough to fight it every time it tried to overtake him. "I think you're the kind of lover who asks for as good as you give because you give everything. In bed. You're like me that way," he murmured, "We give as little as possible in public since we're not very good at sharing. In bed? You can give all you have and more. Everything you have. All you are. It doesn't matter with a lover because the act is fleeting. Staying in bed forever isn't an option. You know as well as I do the time you spend with a lover is over nearly as quickly as it's started. The hard part to admit is I also think you're unforgettable. That scares me. What scares you, Sara?"
Some would have thought he would use the opportunity to push his luck, ask for her to flatter her, push her to admit whether or not she wanted him too.
All he wanted was a little bit of honesty in his dishonest life.
"And I've changed my mind. You can call me 'honey.' I can like it for you."
Sara sucked in a barely perceptible breath as he spoke. At least she hoped it was barely perceptible since she didn’t know if she wanted him to know just how much his words affected her. Of course, the moment she spoke, that illusion would shatter since she would not be able to hide the huskiness in her voice.
“You scare me,” she admitted before clearing her throat. “More accurately, the connection between us scares me.” This was not where she expected their conversation to go when she answered his call, but then she supposed that was the whole point. There was something undeniable between them and she didn’t know how she felt about it. “The fact that you actually get me in a way that no one else has.”
It was unsettling that he could read her so well. After all of her years with the League and as the Black Canary, she prided herself on not letting people get too close. She’d relaxed that a fraction on the Wave Rider, but none of the other crew was as close, even the ones who’d been with her longer.
Honesty made Leonard Snart close his eyes. Who knew? He hadn't. There had been precious little opportunity for him to use honesty in his life. All he'd known growing up had been lying, stealing, and using whatever advantage he had at his disposal to keep ahead of the competition.
There'd always been competition for him.
"I closed my eyes. It makes it easier to see you. I can see you just like you're right here with me. Eidetic memory," he admitted, keeping his voice low out of habit rather than concern someone would overhear, "It means I can remember every detail of something I've seen. Schematics. Passwords. Private journals. It doesn't matter. I get a good enough look? It's with me forever. I've never told anyone about that. Except Lisa. She knows everything about me I can stand to tell her though."
It went without saying there were aspects of his life he couldn't stand to talk about with Lisa. She had no real illusions about him, but she was still his baby sister and he wanted to protect her from his worst parts as much as he could.
The difference between Sara and Lisa for Leonard should have been obvious by now. He wanted to protect Lisa. Sara didn't need protection. She was as close to an equal as he'd ever come.
“Not exactly as if I was next to you,” Sara said. This conversation was getting a little too serious and she felt like she needed to try to regain the upper hand. “Since you’ve never seen me naked.” She was actually wearing a pair of shorts and a tank top, but he didn’t need to know that.
She filed away the tidbit about the eidetic memory to think about later. It certainly explained a few things and she was going to have to be careful about what she left lying around where Snart could see it now that she knew. That was a better train of thought than letting herself think too much about the fact that he trusted her with something so personal.
“Laurel knows all of the worst things I’ve done,” she said. She and her sister hadn’t always been close, but they were now and she didn’t keep secrets from Laurel at this point. They’d been through too much together.
"What else is family for other than accepting all our faults? You can choose your friends, can't choose your family? I'm sure you're familiar with that one."
A smile stretched his lips as he started to imagine how much fun he could have with Sara if she was willing to play a little. They'd passed time together on the Waverider. Played cards. Talked. A few times they'd even taken turns throwing cards into a hat then knives into a makeshift target and Sara had enjoyed spending time with him, right? She had. They were passing the time together.
"Now you've got me all hot which means I'm bothered. I hate being hot. Come on! You're not really laying naked over on your side of the line, are you? I remember trying to catch you sleeping naked more than once on the ship only to come up empty-handed. Don't tell me I just wasn't checking on the right days."
Sara laughed, a deep, throaty chuckle, but she didn’t actually answer his question. What would be the fun in that?
“Do you really think Gideon let you get away with anything that I didn’t know about?” she asked. She may not have been the Captain when Snart was on the crew, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t aware of exactly what was happening. All that League training had to be useful for something.
That made her realize that he probably didn’t know she’d taken over as Captain though. Or even that Rip had left them. This wasn’t the appropriate time to catch him up on everything he’d missed though. There was plenty of time for that later.
In all honesty, Snart hadn't considered the ship's AI in his movements. He knew the ship had a sentient computer system. They'd all had at least one conversation with Gideon during their time aboard. Knowing the ship had a sentience and considering the ship as sentient were two different things however and he'd never given much thought to what could come about as a result of simply the ship monitoring their actions.
"Never really thought about the ship. I figured if I should worry over the ship? It wouldn't have let me pick the locks on everyone's doors. Clearly whatever protocol Gideon had running wasn't opposed to human curiosity."
Was the ship capable of its own curiosity? Did the Waverider wonder about him being gone?
"You think Gideon had her own curiosity? Maybe she wanted me to catch you sleeping au natural. Could have been an exciting event for her too. She could have watched. Listened. Played it back whenever she got bored. That's how I do things. I have a whole mental reel I play to keep me out of the worst trouble when the boredom threatens to drive me crazy. What do you think about when you're alone in the dark? Has it ever been me?"
Leonard was genuinely curious as opposed to seeking a boost for his ego. More than one night had passed for him with thoughts of Sara dancing in his head. She had the best smile and the way she moved---she should have been a thief. Crime fighting was a waste of her natural grace. It didn't take any of that to beat on street thugs or capture inept wannabe criminals. Sara would have been great at robbing banks with laser grids or stealing priceless artifacts right out of state-of-the-art security systems in private mansions. He'd have went with her anywhere to steal anything. Guaranteed.
“Gideon definitely has her own curiosity,” Sara said. “She was here for a while. You missed her.” It had been nice having the AI around and having her knowledge available, but Sara figured she was happier not being stuck in a human body.
She cleared her throat before answering his other question, unsure of how she wanted to respond. When she finally did speak, she surprised herself by answering with a vulnerable honesty. “I don’t like the dark,” she said. Ever since her death, she’d found the dark unsettling and even moreso since being possessed by Mallus. One of the benefits to running a nightclub was that she was busy during the dark hours and didn’t have as much time to think too much. It was one of the reason she was still awake when he called. She found it much easier to sleep when there was some light in the sky.
That was something she’d never admitted to anyone. It was at odds with the persona she presented to the world, so it was something she kept to herself, something she didn’t even like to acknowledge was a part of who she was. And yet she’d barely hesitated before telling Snart.
Fear was anathema to the knowledge Snart already had of Sara. He tried and failed to imagine her being afraid of something as innocuous as the absence of light. There were few things which surprised him: hearing Sara Lance admit to any kind of weakness stunned him into silence.
"I---"
Nothing Snart could come up with felt adequate enough to respond to Sara's admission. They weren't the soul-baring types, yet wasn't that what this was turning into? It didn't have the same wicked feeling to it which had started the conversation based on curiosity regarding a former lover.
"I wasn't allowed to be afraid. My father liked to beat the fear out of me and if it wasn't him? There were plenty of others interested in taking his place. Mick kept me safe in juvie when I should have been eaten up in there. I consider you as good a friend as him so here? I trust you to have my back. You can trust me to have yours. As long as I'm around, there's nothing in the dark I won't help you fight. You don't have to ever be afraid with me."
Leonard Snart had fears. They weren't as numerous as some people had maybe, but he had them all the same. He figured if Sara could tell him about one of hers? He could tell her he'd help her face them.
"Ask me anything. I'll answer. You can keep that part of me for yourself and the next time you're in the dark alone? You can think about how you know me and how that means you're never alone."
It was more the darkness that existed within her that scared Sara than what might be lurking in the dark and she wasn’t sure that Snart could help her fight that effectively. Then again, maybe he could. He definitely knew her on a level that no one else ever cared to know her on before and she suspected that he would understand better than most people about the war she was constantly fighting with herself.
The opportunity to ask him anything was enticing and Sara didn’t want to waste that question on something frivolous.
“Can I take a raincheck on that?” she asked after a few moments of contemplation. “I can’t think of anything worth asking at this particular moment.” At least not anything she was willing to know the answer to.
Besides, telling her more about his past was pretty significant. “I will always have your back,” she added, almost as an afterthought.
"Consider it deposited into the bank. We at Snart Security Savings will keep it safe for you. You can withdraw it later when the need arises or you're just in the mood to brighten a rainy day."
Snart had thought it would be ironic if he could manage to get a job at a bank. Considering all he knew about them, he'd make a fantastic security officer. Bank robbers did know more about banks than most bank managers. Why wouldn't they want to capitalize on his knowledge and experience with security systems both advanced and archaic?
"Does this mean you're going to tell me what you're wearing now?"
Teasing Sara brought a smile to his face. He was glad they were only on a voice call because it was the real kind of smile he rarely showed anyone because it emphasized the roundness of his face and the fact he had lips a little too big to be masculine and a nose a little too wide to be classically attractive. More of his age showed on his face these days than he liked though he knew his biggest giveaway was his frosty hair. A dye job would have lowered his visible age by at least a decade, but he happened to like his hair.
"I'm scandalously undressed myself."
“What’s life without a little mystery, honey?” Sara said, deliberately using the pet name in an effort to lighten the conversation again. She did chuckle at his admission. “So, what? You took off your parka?” From what she knew of him, that would likely classify as ‘scandalously undressed’.
She stretched her bare legs in front of her and let her mind wander just a little to what Snart’s hands would feel like touching them. No doubt he had the rough hands of someone who worked hard and the contrast against her soft skin would be exciting. Her legs were largely unmarked, most of the scars on her body were on her torso and arms. The scars didn’t embarrass her though. They told her story.
“You know, we probably ought to sleep at some point,” she added.
Mystery was one of the only things to keep life worth living. Snart rolled his eyes again at Sara. She gave as good as she got in any kind of sparring match, verbal or physical. It made him want to spend all his time goading her to see what kind of reaction he'd get. He would admit sleep was low on his priority scale all the time.
"I'm hurt. I'll have you know I also took off my boots."
Sleep was elusive for him more often than not. Insomnia wasn't as much of a weakness as other things, but he still didn't want to admit to it on this first call to Sara. They'd already swapped weighty stories for the night. Leonard was going to keep things light as they said their goodbyes.
"How about I meet you at the Den of Dionysus for Beltane and we---talk or whatever? I know it's an idea interesting enough to inspire some good dreams for me."
Sara gasped in faux outrage when he said he’d also taken off his boots. “Well, I never,” she said, affecting a southern accent. “I’ll be there,” she said. “I’ll look forward to seeing you.” And maybe doing more than talking. Oh, who was she kidding? They would definitely end up doing more than talking. It was an orgy and there had been undeniable chemistry between them for a long time.
“Sweet dreams.”
"Same."
Snart bit back the words 'I never dream.'
He'd given too much to Sara already. They were flirting. This was a flirtation. They were possibly going to try for more than flirtation. It didn't mean it would lead to anything serious, but it might. Who knew what it would be like to have an actual relationship at this stage in his life?
Sara and he both had literally died and returned from death. Why couldn't they see what they could manage together?
"Sweet dreams, Sara. I know I'll be spending my dream time thinking about you. After our party encounter, I'm going to say you'll be spending your dream time thinking about me. Turnabout is fair play and all that."
He ended the call with his thumb, letting the phone fall onto his chest as he settled back on his bed, comfortable with spending the rest of his night thinking better thoughts in the dark than he'd had in the light.