On May 12, 2016, Destiny aired and that long-awaited Captain Canary kiss I'd psyched myself up for ended in tragedy. Two years later, it still breaks my heart. But I'm contributing to the annual Snart Lives/Fuck Destiny campaign with some Captain Canary fic. Hopefully this will be the first of many new fics over the summer.
Enjoy!
Of all the destinations to vacation in, Aruba was not at the top of Leonard Snart's list. If anything, it was near the bottom. He never had been a fan of the heat and did everything to avoid it. But the team had made a decision to take a well-deserved vacation there and he had gone along with it. After all, it wasn't like he would be staying in Aruba permanently.
Leonard leaned on the railing of the rental he was sharing with Sara and gazed out at the beach before him. The rest of the team was lounging out in the sun, an activity he'd declined to join to pursue another plan. Now that he'd figured out what he was going to do, he was allowing himself to appreciate the place he was in. Heat aside, Aruba was not completely horrible. It was easy to lose himself in the tranquility of this particular.
He was a lucky man to be where he was right now. It had been two years to the day since he almost died in sacrifice for the team. His near-death at the Oculus still held a place in his nightmares, although it occurred less frequently than it had in the previous year. Leonard couldn't have imagined all the things he would have missed out on had he not been rescued last minute by Firestorm. Even with the events he wished he had never witnessed, those were outweighed by everything else that Leonard had been able to see and do.
Far ahead along the line of beach chairs, Sara suddenly stood up and began to walk back towards him. Leonard caught her smile in the distance and returned it with one of his own. Had he not made it that day, 'me and you' would have been a thought left hanging. Two years later, it had become a wonderful reality he was grateful to have exist.
Sara climbed up the steps of the porch to take a place beside Leonard. He was leaning against the railing, staring out at the crashing waves. As soon as she settled next to him, Leonard turned toward her and offered her a smile. She lowered her sunglasses in return, smirking at swipe of sunblock he hadn't quite rubbed in completely.
"You sure you don't want to join the party over there?" she asked, nodding towards the row of chairs where their team, their family, was lounging. "It's not so bad."
"I don't feel like baking in the sun," Leonard muttered. "Besides, the view's pretty great from out here."
"Fair enough," she shrugged. "I have to say, it's nice to take a break from running after aberrations. But I wouldn't be able to stay here longer than a week. I'd get bored."
Her boyfriend nodded in agreement with her words. Sara still got a spark run through her every time she remembered how fortunate they were to have what they did. It had nearly been snatched away from them at the Oculus, but a miracle had been granted to them when Leonard made it out alive. Second chances were not to be wasted and they had made sure to take it after defeating Vandal Savage. Ever since then, Sara and Leonard had slowly built up their relationship and faced all the hurdles that had been thrown in their way.
"Time travel has spoiled us," Leonard mused. "We can't seem to go for a few days without getting fidgety about protecting something."
"No," Sara shook her head. "Remember when Rip first assembled the team?"
"I thought he was mad and all I'd get out of it was swiping some priceless objects throughout history," Leonard chuckled. "Now I'm in the last places I ever expected to find myself. Aruba. A hero. In a relationship with an assassin."
Sara elbowed him. "Hey, if it weren't for Rip, we'd probably have never met on the same side."
"Yeah," he agreed somberly. "Shame he wasn't able to see this last mission through."
Sara bit her lip and nodded. "And we'll never be able to tell Martin that we stopped Mallus either."
"At least Jax helped us end it. The kid made it out alive and he's got a pretty good life in our future."
"He deserves it," Sara said. "I'm glad that he made it out of this life. Same with Amaya and Kendra."
"Hopefully the rest of us make it out," Leonard murmured. "I've come too close to death once. I'd rather not get that close again for a while."
"And I'd like to stop dying," Sara added, pushing her sunglasses back up. "Sometimes I hope I make it out of this life and get the chance to retire one day."
"Like you said earlier, you'd get bored within a week of getting off," he reminded her.
"Maybe so," Sara shrugged. "But so would you."
Leonard smirked. "I'd be able to figure something out to pass the time. Perhaps some private consultation. Maybe give Allen and his little band a hand from time to time should he need it."
Sara gasped in mock amazement. "Leonard Snart contemplating offering help to Team Flash? Who would have ever thought?"
"People change, Sara," he said. "None of us are the same people we were when we boarded the Waverider."
"Yeah," she agreed. "I like to think I've changed for the better."
"Me too," Leonard stared out towards the waves once more. "Wish I could have been able to thank Hunter for bringing me on board and starting all this."
"If only," Sara pulled her wrap from her shoulders and tied it back around her waist. "I'm just glad you made it out two years ago."
Leonard frowned and turned back to her.
"Yes, I remember what today is," she smirked. "I've been keeping track of days, no matter how hard it's been in the time stream. The Oculus was two years ago. But you're still here and we're still us."
"Thanks to the professor and the kid," Leonard nodded. "I owe them a lot for that day."
"We both do," Sara said as she leaned up and kissed him.
"Well," someone muttered behind them. "You two seem to be enjoying yourselves on vacation."
Sara spun around with her knife at the ready only to lower it and glare at the interruption.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Leonard inquired, his voice tight.
"We're here for you and your team," John Constantine said. "There are some things that need to be discussed."
"We?" Sara frowned.
Constantine pointed over towards the rest of the team, where a man was pulling off a yellow wig and talking with the other Legends. Even from this far away, Sara could tell it was Gary.
"Gary's been tagging along with me lately," he explained. "He's been quite the assistant. We've been dealing with various matters, but then we got a massive spike in demonic activity. When I looked into it further, I found out someone had broken open the cage holding Mallus."
Leonard tilted his head. "Then this isn't a social call?
Constantine shook his head. "Afraid not. Mallus wasn't the only thing in that cage that got out. You Legends released a whole lot more onto the timeline."
Sara straightened up and turned to Leonard. "We need to get everyone together. Vacation's over."
Her boyfriend nodded as they followed Constantine along the beach to the rest of the team.
Leonard trudged through the sand with Sara and Constantine to meet the rest of their team and Gary, the latter who seemed to be copying the demonologist in dress. He should have known that things would not have gone so easily. No matter how many plans he would make, he always had to throw it all away. Such was the curse of being a Legend.
The box with the ring felt heavier in his pocket now. If John Constantine hadn't interrupted him, he would have popped the question by now.
It'd just have to wait for a little longer.
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