This story is loosely based on Keith Urban's song Habit of You. If you want to listen to the song, here is a link: watch?v=CxBniX1MUi0 Enjoy!
Leonard Snart had been stuck in the time stream for what had felt like an entirety. He had watched many different realities drift pass him while he was stuck there and it didn't take long from him to give up the little hope he had of ever returning to his own. Instead he stayed right where he was and waited for the agony to end. Sometimes he even wished for it. It would have been one thing if he saw potential timelines that focused on historic events and people he had never met but everything he saw was about him or someone he cared about. There was one Lisa was a successful painter who had fallen in love with a tech entrepreneur. And of course, that tech entrepreneur was Cisco. Even worse, Mick was stuck being his bodyguard. There was another one where he had never become a criminal and had become mayor instead. He didn't see any timeline where that would come to fruition but it was still interesting to see what a life without thieving could consist of. Then there was the one that he absolutely hated to see. This one focused on Sara. She had never set foot on the Gambit and fell for a thief in Central City instead. She thought that she could change him and she must have been right because the two of them got married a few years later. It also looked like the two of them had a wonderful life together. Those were the ones that irritated him the most. If he was going to be stuck in the time stream for the rest of his life or for the rest of entirety, he'd much rather see hell freeze over than see instances where he and the ones he cared about were happy and living their lives to the fullest. Seeing those timelines reminded him of the predicament he was in. Alive but stranded in the time stream while everyone he cared about, Mick, Sara, and Lisa especially, all thought he was dead and were probably still mourning him. Leonard didn't believe in karma but he now understood why everyone said it was a bitch. Because it truly was, it knew how to tear your world apart just as things were finally starting to get good.
"Leonard?" he heard a familiar voice ask.
Not this again. He thought as he kept himself from opening his eyes. The time stream sure did know how to torture him. When he got tired of seeing futures that he would never have, he would close his eyes and then the hallucinations would start. They were always the same too. The Oculus had never exploded and he was still with the ones he loved. The worst part about the hallucinations was hearing everyone plead for him to return, especially when it was her doing the pleading. He always heard her voice. On some rare occasions it would Mick or Lisa telling him that everything was fine and that he was back where he belonged but a majority of the time, it was always her guiding him through the dream like state. Even worse, she didn't even sound like the Sara he knew. This Sara always sounded heartbroken and scared which was how a part of him always knew that the hallucination wasn't real. Sara never showed her emotions, she thought it was a sign of weakness. He hardly doubted that her mindset had changed in whatever amount of time he had been gone.
"Damn it Snart. We went through hell to get you back. Don't you dare leave us again." Her voice dropped to a whisper as she added, "Don't leave me again."
He could hear her voice crack and a part of him wondered if he actually wasn't hallucinating for once. All the other ones had played out the same, but this not this one. He almost opened his eyes but when he had done that before, she wasn't there and he didn't think that would ever change. No matter how much he wanted it to.
"Gideon," he heard Mick ask, "I thought you said he was conscious?"
"He is. It appears that Mr. Snart thinks that he is hallucinating and is refusing to wake up." The A.I. responded.
"Well can you alter his subconscious somehow and show him that this isn't a dream?" Sara wondered, he could also pick up a bit of annoyance in her voice. He had forgotten how much he missed that.
"Or you could just kiss him Blondie," Mick added.
Not long after that, Leonard felt the warm touch of Sara's soft lips press against his, just like they did before he had sacrificed himself for the good of the team. But this time was different. The last time she was telling him goodbye but this time the kiss was filled with hope and it felt like she was saying: come back to me. Still too afraid to open his eyes, Leonard reached up and placed his hand in her hair. When he felt the soft blonde hair tickle his palm, his eyes flew open. He could never feel her in the hallucinations, maybe just maybe everything that was happening was real and he was saved from that torture chamber known as the time stream. Once his eyes adjusted to the bright white light in the room, he was greeted by a very blurry face. After blinking a few times the picture in front of him got much clearer and he found himself looking into the very familiar blue eyes of the one and only Sara Lance. "Sara?" he glanced around and realized he was lying in the Waverider's Medbay. Sara was sitting next to him and he also noticed that Mick was leaning against the wall watching him. "Mick? What happened?" he paused and looked back at Sara. As he did, he found a few slight changes in her appearance. Her hair was longer and her eyes were slightly darker than they were the last time he saw her. Her eyes were also puffy and he could tell that she had been crying. "How long?"
"We found you in the time stream drifting over a part of the Vanishing Point that used to be called the Apollo Chamber. It's where the Time Masters viewed all the potential timelines to see how badly time pirates had manipulated time." Mick started.
Sara didn't take her eyes off of him as she added, "It's been two and a half years. We've been searching all over the time stream for you whenever we have a break from our current mission."
"Which lately hasn't been a lot," Mick finished, "Rip has us chasing a mystery man and he thinks he might have finally found his location. Sara had to hold a knife to his throat just to get him to agree to let us look for you before going after him."
Leonard smirked as he directed his gaze back to Sara, "Sounds like the Sara I remember. Nice to see too much hasn't changed."
"Awe," Mick started as he headed towards the door, "That's my cue to go. You two have some catching up to do. It's good to finally have you back Snart."
"It's good to be back," Leonard added as Mick nodded his head and left the Medbay making sure that the door closed behind him as he did. "So," he started, "It turns out that I am one hell of thief."
Sara did her best to hold back the smile that was spreading across her face as she replied, "How do you know that I didn't kiss you so you would wake up and realize that you weren't dreaming?"
"I don't," Leonard replied, "but what about the kiss before that? I assume you're going to tell me it meant nothing and was just a way to say goodbye?"
"I thought that was what it was at time. Now I see it being more of a promise," She answered truthfully.
Intrigued by what she had to say, Leonard raised one of his eyebrows and asked, "A promise? For what?"
"To finish our conversation," she said while placing her hand in his and lacing their fingers together, "about the future and what it might hold for me. And you. And me and you."
After that, things seemed to fall into place for the team. Rip actually did find the location of the mystery man who had been manipulating major historic events and creating drastic changes to the timeline. It turned out that he was an ex-Time Master who had gone rogue after the Oculus exploded. The team also welcomed Leonard back with open arms and couldn't help but notice how the resident thief had changed during the few months he was back. He still acted like he could care less about protecting the timeline and was still snarky, especially around Rip, but he was also more considerate and more vulnerable than he was before. He also more patent when it came to planning missions and the rest of the team, even the new members, had a feeling that Sara had something to do with it.
Sara, their resident assassin, had also changed in the months that Leonard had been back on the Waverider. She was always troubled but since losing Leonard and learning of her sister's death she let her demons control her and kept to herself a lot. She had helped out on missions but always retreated to her room when they were traveling to their next location. Now she still spent a lot of time in her room but for a completely different reason. She also seemed happier and it was like she was finally living again after coming out of the pit over three years ago. Her teammates would always see Sara smiling at least once and a day and they knew that Leonard was the one responsible for her newfound happiness.
When the team wasn't busy chasing down time pirates completing missions for the Justice Society of America, Sara and Leonard found every excuse they could to be alone. It didn't take long for the two of them to turn their relationship into a physical one. Between Sara dying and coming back to life and Leonard's almost brush with death, they didn't see any reason to take things slow, especially with the type of work they did. All they had was the present and nothing else was a given. They had developed a system to make sure that they weren't disturbed as well. Just like how kids in college would put socks on their door handles, Sara and Leonard would hang Leonard's parka over the sensor to either her or his door when they needed time to be alone. Which as Jax loved to remind the team seemed to happen at least once a day, if they were lucky that is. Somedays it more than once.
The crook and assassin also didn't care what the others thought, they were just happy that they finally got to be together. Both of them had danced and flirted around the other before the Oculus and they weren't planning to waste any more time. Which the team had found out the hard way, the two couldn't seem to keep their hands off each other. Mick seemed to always be the one to find the two of them making out in a secluded part of the ship. At first he would smirk and say "Get a room." Now, he didn't say anything he just rolled his eyes and let them have their fun. If the two of them wanted to act like teenagers, there was no way he would be able to convince them otherwise. Mick just hoped that the honeymoon phase would pass soon and then they would keep their hands off of each other until they were in one of their rooms.
Mick was right. Sara and Leonard started to act more like adults around the rest of the team and when they weren't needed they would stay in their room wrapped in each other's arms. "You know I could make a habit of this," Leonard said one morning while lacing their fingers together and kissing the back of Sara's hand, "being in bed all day together. With nothing to worry about except me and you."
"Yeah," Sara replied as she turned towards him, "It's quite nice. Not focusing on the timeline or the next person we need to stop from taking over the world. It's very relaxing."
"You know. There was once a time where all I could think about was the heist I was working on or the next thing I was going to steal," he started. Sara nodded but didn't reply. He had a feeling that she was thinking about her days in the League where all she did was train and focus on her next target. Doing his best to keep her thoughts from taking over he added, "Not anymore. My thoughts are focused on something else entirely."
"What's that?" she wondered as he pulled her closer to him.
"You," he replied before kissing her. It was a sweet kiss, not one filled with lust or wanting to go somewhere else. Not one filled with regret about what could have been or the need to explore what's there, but a kiss that said everything that he was still afraid to say. She was everything to him and he didn't want to lose her again.
She kissed back with the same gentleness and with the same passion. She needed him just as much as he needed her. She had never felt this way before. She had lusted after Oliver before the Gambit and sought comfort in him when she returned to Starling City. She had been looking for the girl she was before the League and a distraction from the monster she had become and nothing more than that. Nyssa was there for her when she was lost and at needed a way to survive. She had helped Sara learn more about herself but it was Leonard who knew who she was and accepted her it for it. There was no judgement in his eyes, only understanding. She may have been an assassin but she was also his saving grace just like he was hers. He had grown a lot during his first trip on the Waverider and since he had returned he had shown her just how important she was to him. It was no longer about the heist or about the money. It was no longer about pride it was about being someone Sara could be proud of. "I think about you too," Sara started, "All the time actually. Um, I don't say these words a lot but when I do I really mean them. I want you to know that," she took a deep breath and then continued, "I….I love you Leonard."
He smiled at that, a genuine smile and Sara couldn't help but take in the beautiful sight that was before her. She had never seen him smile before but it was something she would love to see more of. "I love you too Sara."
That was the moment that everything changed for them. Sara had only signed on to Rip's new mission because she felt like she had nowhere else to go and it's what Laurel would have wanted her to do. What Sara didn't realize until that moment was that her sister just wanted her to be happy and being with Leonard had made her the happiest she had been in a very long time. She didn't have to save the world to feel like she was making a difference anymore. She was okay with leaving the Waverider and starting a life with Leonard. She never imagined she'd have a house and kids after the Gambit but now she could see that happening again in her future. She was tortured soul but so was Leonard and the two of them could take on any challenge they faced if they did together. She asked Leonard what he thought about leaving and his answer surprised her. "Let's do it. There's plenty of places that need an ex crook and ex assassin to take care of it. We don't have to follow Rip on this mission, we can make one of our own."
"Are you sure? What about Mick?"
"Mick's a big boy, he can handle himself. Besides he'll know where to find us if he runs into trouble." It didn't take long after that conversation for the two of them to start their new life together. They wished to be relieved of their duties on the Waverider and dropped off in present day Central City. Which turned out to be May of 2019. "Lisa is going to kill me," Leonard said, "Unless she already thinks I'm dead then maybe she'll let off the hook."
Sara just laughed as they stepped off the Waverider and then watched as it flew off to continue its mission of protecting the timeline. "So what do we do now that we're back? I'm assuming you want to get back into the stealing game?"
Leonard just shook his head as he pulled her closer to him, "No. I just want a life with you. If that means playing vigilante or getting a house with a picket fence and filling it with kids, I'm in. Whatever you want is what I want"
Sara smiled as she took his hand and asked, "How does taking it one day at a time sound? We'll make up our future as we go."
Leonard smirked as he replied, "Sounds perfect assassin. That's always been a favorite habit of mine."
Sara pretended to pout as she asked, "I thought I was your favorite habit?"
"You are. I made a habit of you Assassin and it's one I'm never going to give up."
Sara smiled before standing on her tiptoes and kissing Leonard. He quickly pushed her closer to him and deepened the kiss. He had never felt this way about anyone and the fact that they had managed to get together and plan a future together after everything they'd been through, still made him question if this wasn't just all a dream. He had been afraid of that for a few weeks and every once in a while he thought that he'd wake up and find himself in the time stream alone again. He finally had Sara Lance all to himself and he was never going to let go.
"Snart," he heard a familiar forensic scientist say, "You're back. We thought you were dead."
He and Sara broke apart just enough that he could see the Scarlet Speedster out of the corner of his eye. He turned towards him and said, "Well I'm very much alive and I'm quite busy at the moment. Beat it kid."
"I don't think so," Barry sternly replied.
Following his lead, Sara turned towards Barry and said, "I think you should listen him Flash. You see Captain Cold and I have some very important business to attend too, so why don't run somewhere else? I hear you're quite good at that."
Barry didn't say anything else and Leonard just smirked at him as he took Sara's hand and added, "I think a change of scenery might be nice. There's too many people in Central City that think the worst of me."
Sara nodded, "Yeah a fresh start would be good." She waved at Barry before they walked away from him hand and hand. She looked over her shoulder and added, "Catch you later Flash. I'm sure we'll be seeing each other again real soon."
Barry stood there awestruck as the two of them continued towards Downtown Central City. Leonard Snart may have been a crook the last time he saw the Scarlet Speedster but he had no problem acting like nothing had changed in the three years he had been gone. The last thing he needed was to see Barry's smug face when he eventually found out that Leonard had in fact become a hero.
"So how about Keystone?" Sara wondered as she glanced across the river. "I hear it's quite nice this time of year."
"Sounds perfect Assassin. Lead the way." The two of them didn't know what their new life would consist of, but what they did know was that they were ready for it. No matter what life threw at them, they would face it together. They were in it for the long haul, something that neither of them never thought they would be capable of. Leonard especially didn't think that type of life was for him, but with Sara Lance in the picture anything was possible.
Hope you liked it! Please leave a review and tell me what you thought.