Note: I couldn't resist a shout out to one of my favorite lines from Veronica Mars - kudos to anyone that recognizes it!
This is going to be the start of another series called Across the Multiverse in which the team is going to be going from one Earth to another.
"It just figures," Leonard drawled as he and Sara walked down the street, "that the first time we go to another Earth to help the Flash out, the Waverider breaks down."
Barry had made use of the Gideon at S.T.A.R. Labs to reach out and contact the Gideon that was on the ship and asked for their help over on what he called Earth-3. Apparently, he knew the man that was the Flash on this Earth after he'd saved him from Zoom, a speedster that had been intent on ruling as many Earths as possible.
Jay Garrick had managed to reach Barry on their Earth to ask for help dealing with a trio of villains: the Fiddler, Rag Doll, and Garrick's very own version of the Reverse-Flash. Once Barry had heard what they were capable of, he'd reached out to what Cisco fondly referred to as Team Legends—a team with a master thief and an assassin along with Firestorm, Heatwave, and a demigoddess seemed to be the way to go when asking for back up. Rip had actually agreed and Barry had had Cisco open up a portal to Earth-3 (Leonard had looked like he'd been slapped when he'd heard about Earth-2, where he was apparently mayor while Sara hadn't been able to stop herself from laughing—and calling him Mr. Mayor when they played cards later).
The trip between the two Earths had not been pleasant and Leonard definitely wasn't looking forward to experiencing that again. Though the look on Barry's face had been pretty priceless. Running to another Earth made for a much smoother trip it seemed.
Once there, they'd split up in to teams and gone after each villain. It'd been a pain in the ass but they'd managed to capture each of them. Leonard had been the one to track Rag Doll's movements—one thief was able to track another, after all. Mick had turned out to be the one that was able to go after Rag Doll when he was in the middle of one of his speeches—his years with the Time Masters had left him able to resist being hypnotized, which had allowed him to get close enough to...well, Rag Doll wouldn't be making any speeches any time soon. That had left the floor open, so to speak, for Sara to come in and help Mick take him down.
The others had taken down the Fiddler while Barry and Garrick had gone after the Reverse-Flash. Now that all three had been captured, they should have been able to go home.
Except the Waverider had taken some damage during the trip here and during the battle between the three speedsters, which meant they were stuck here until the repairs had been made. It hadn't taken long for the team to decide to explore with Rip shouting after them not to ruin their other selves' lives. Mick had rolled his eyes and said he was going to get a drink, telling Leonard and Sara where to find him if they got bored with walking the city, while everyone else had scattered to different areas.
Sara laughed. "It's not like it ran out of gas or something. It needs actual repairs."
"For a time ship from the future, that happens a lot, you ever notice that?"
She grinned up at him and opened her mouth to reply only to be cut off by a shriek of laughter that had Leonard freezing, his head snapping to the left so fast that Sara was afraid he'd hurt himself.
"What is it?" she asked, tensing.
"That laugh," he said, his voice just above a whisper. "That's Lisa's laugh. Except she sounds like she's a kid." He glanced down at her a question in his eyes and she nodded. They hadn't bothered to check what year it was before leaving the ship—something Rip would kill them for if he knew—so maybe Earth-3's timeline was behind theirs.
They had barely turned in the direction of Lisa's laugh when they heard Lisa laugh again, followed by her saying, "Again, Sara!"
The request was followed by a different laugh, this one bright and more carefree than he'd ever heard it before.
Sara Lance of Earth-3 was with his baby sister.
He glanced down and noted the surprised look on Sara's face before her expression cleared and she stepped forward, heading in the direction of the laughter. Leonard didn't hesitate to follow.
They walked in between two buildings, rounded the corner, and stopped at the sight that greeted them.
Lisa looked like she was seven or eight at the most, Leonard noted, while Sara looked like she was only about eighteen. She was grinning as she swung Lisa up and off of the merry go round.
"If I do that, you won't be able to walk straight," she said.
Lisa pouted. "Worth it."
Shaking her head, Sara set Lisa down and turned her towards the swings. "How about the swings instead?"
Lisa's face lit up and she ran to the swing on the end, settling on it. "Will you make it so it feels like I'm flying?" she asked.
Sara poked her in the side as she walked behind her and Leonard couldn't stop the surprise he felt at the way Lisa didn't flinch at the touch. Instead, Lisa tilted her head back to stare up at Sara, leaning back against her.
"I'll push you so high, you need wings," Sara promised and Lisa beamed as Sara pulled her back and then let go so that she swung forward. She pumped her legs with each push that Sara gave her and Leonard smiled slightly at the sight of his sister so happy. He couldn't remember the last time she'd been that happy on their Earth.
"Well, look at that. Perfect Sara with the delinquent's sister," a voice to the left said snidely.
Leonard stiffened as Sara tensed up next to him. They glanced over to see a small group of teenagers watching the other Sara and Lisa.
"I swear, I don't get what he sees in her," one of the girls said, crossing her arms.
"The way she looks on her back and knees," the first guy snickered. "I mean, what else are you going to do with her?"
"Seems he found a use for her either way. I'd shove my brat sister at her too if it freed up some of my time," a second guy said. Leonard's hands clenched in to fists. He knew he couldn't draw attention to himself and Sara without causing a lot of questions but that didn't mean he wasn't wishing he could tell these brats exactly what he thought of them and their opinions.
"Whatever," one of the girls interrupted. "I'm just saying that Leonard Snart is hot. What does he see in a cop's daughter?"
"A get out of jail free card?"
"Maybe it's an arrangement. Sara gets to get her fill of the bad boy and make herself feel better and in return, she keeps daddy dearest from arresting him."
Sara's hand wrapped around his wrist and he glanced down to see that her jaw was clenched as she stared at the other Sara. It was clear in the way her shoulders had stiffened that while she was keeping Lisa distracted, she was able to hear exactly what was being said about her and Earth-3's Leonard.
"Hey, Lisa," the other Sara's voice was still light and happy for Lisa's sake and Leonard could only appreciate the effort she was going through to make sure Lisa didn't hear what was said, "you ready for that water fight?"
Lisa's foot shot down to the ground, dragging through the dirt to slow herself down. "Yeah!" She jumped off the swing and spun to face Sara. "I get the red one, right?"
"Always," Sara agreed as they walked towards a large duffle bag. She reached in and pulled out two large Super Soakers and handed the red one to Lisa while keeping the blue one for herself. With a grin, she and Lisa backed away from each other, pumping the guns to get the water going.
As if there'd been some sort of unspoken signal, they each ran forward, shooting each other with water. Leonard and Sara watched as the other Sara's eyes ticked towards the group still watching them. A moment later, the stream of water hit them instead of Lisa, causing the girls to shriek and the guys to swear.
"Oops," she called, "sorry about that. Guess my aim was off."
"My dress is see through now," the girl that had called Leonard hot snapped. She glared at the guy standing next to her. "Let's go." With one last glare at Sara, she stormed off, the rest of the group following her, each of them muttering about getting wet.
"Your aim is never that off."
Leonard and Sara looked to the left again when the other Sara and Lisa spun towards the voice only to spot a Leonard Snart that looked no older than the other Sara standing there with a knowing smirk.
"LENNY!" Lisa dropped her water gun and took off like a shot, running straight towards her brother and launching herself at him without any hesitation. He caught her easily and swung her in a circle to make her laugh before putting her down just as Sara walked up to him.
"My aim is impeccable. It's not my fault she wore white to a park well known for water fights." She smirked when he started laughing and Sara snorted at her other self. Leonard grinned.
"Yeah, that's what I thought," the other Leonard said, leaning down and pressing a kiss to his Sara's lips.
"Gross," Lisa said. Leonard bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing when he saw his other self pull away from the kiss with a sigh.
"Yeah, keep thinking that way, short stuff."
Lisa stomped her foot. "I'm not short," she insisted. "Mick said so."
"Oh yeah?" He raised his eyebrows in surprise. "What did he say you were then?"
"Fun sized." Lisa seemed to find this a much better description and Leonard dropped his forehead to the top of Sara's head, his shoulders shaking in silent laughter. Sara elbowed him and brushed Lisa's hair back.
"Perfect description," she agreed. She began to pull Leonard along behind Lisa when she started to run back towards the water guns. "You're out early."
"Yeah, well, the cooler broke down and so the manager closed early and sent everyone home," he explained. He paused, pulling her to a stop. "Hey, you know what they said isn't true, right?"
Sara smiled. "I know." She hopped up on her tip toes and pecked him on the mouth. "I know better than to listen to anything they say."
It seemed like that's all he'd been worried about and he relaxed. "Good." Leonard held up a hand with a twenty dollar bill. "Ice cream? Their treat." He tilted his head in the direction the group had walked off and Sara's eyes widened before she burst out laughing.
"Len," she managed to say, pressing her forehead against his arm.
"What?" he asked, unable to hide the smirk on his face. "I was making use of my delinquent talents."
Sara shook her head, still laughing before she turned. "How does ice cream sound to you, Lisa?"
"Mint chocolate chip!" That seemed to be the only answer they were going to get from Lisa and Sara lifted her eyebrows at Leonard.
"Make yourself useful, mister, and carry the bag."
"Carry the bag. Buy you ice cream. I do everything around here."
Sara nodded and wrapped an arm around his waist. "Heavy lifting and buying me things, that's what I keep you around for," she teased. "You're also here for your looks. So, if you want to go make yourself pretty, you go right ahead and do that, sugar lips." She grinned and shoved him lightly with the hand that had been toying with the edge of his shirt.
Leonard shook his head as he easily picked the duffle bag up and swung it so that it was slung over his shoulder. "I feel so cheap."
"Tragic," Sara deadpanned.
"What is?" Lisa asked as she ran up from where she'd stopped to retie her shoes.
"The fact we don't have ice cream yet," Sara told her without missing a beat. "You got everything?"
Lisa nodded and Leonard put a hand on her back as Sara took one of her hands and they began to walk in the opposite direction of the group that Sara had sprayed with water. Lisa began to tell Leonard about everything she and Sara had already done that day (which included yet another trip to the zoo it seemed) with Leonard nodding and asking a question every now and then.
Leonard and Sara watched the teen versions of themselves walk with Lisa until they were no longer in sight.
"We better start walking again," Sara finally said. "It's a miracle we weren't spotted."
"Well we are pretty good at blending in when necessary," Leonard replied, letting out a breath. He couldn't help but wonder what was different on this Earth, other than the obvious lack of age gap between him and Sara. He glanced over at her and thought back to what they'd just watched.
His years as a teenager had never been happy. He'd spent them keeping Lisa out of his father's reach. He'd dropped out of school after a while and he'd never graduated. Instead, he'd gotten his GED since he knew that he might need it someday. But it'd been easier to protect Lisa if he was home when Lewis was and so school hadn't been a priority.
By the time he was eighteen, he was already in the habit of wearing long sleeves, no matter the weather, to hide the scars on his arms. This version of himself on Earth-3 had been wearing a regular shirt and no jacket. The lack of scars from broken beer bottles or cigarettes on his arms told Leonard that this version of himself didn't have to worry about it as did the fact that the other teenagers seemed to know him. It wasn't anything they'd said—he'd been called plenty of names over the years—but the tone they'd used. It was the same way they'd talked about Sara, like they saw him on a daily basis and felt as if they had the right to talk about him.
Whatever had happened, it was pretty clear that Lewis Snart was not part of his or Lisa's life at this point and it had made quite the difference. And while he wasn't going to go around announcing it, he was sure that finding Sara so much earlier had done the rest.
"You know," Sara said out of nowhere, "I was never that popular in high school on our Earth either."
"I know it wasn't because you were dating me." Leonard glanced down at her. "So what was it?"
Sara smiled a bit. "I liked another girl's boyfriend. I didn't drag him in to a closet to make out or anything but I liked flirting with him. She and her friends didn't like that at all so they made me their favorite target. I kept coming home with so many bruises that my dad signed me and Laurel up for self-defense classes."
He nodded. "You ever bruise them back?" he asked, unable to hide his curiosity.
"Well, let's just say the next time they started a fight, I was the one that finished it." She shrugged lightly. "It wasn't so bad after that."
Leonard smirked. "I'll bet."
They fell silent again and continued walking, turning in the direction of the bar Mick was supposed to be at in unspoken agreement.
"They looked pretty happy," Sara finally said, her voice just loud enough for him to be able to hear.
"Yeah," he agreed. "Yeah, they did."
The silence between them had just started to become awkward when the bar came in to view and their steps quickened just a bit.
"Come on," Sara told him. "I'll get the first round."
He pulled the door open and waited for her to enter first. "I should hope so. I'm already buying the ice cream."
She paused and turned towards him, raising an eyebrow. When he simply shrugged and smirked, she scoffed and shook her head.
"With someone else's money."
"Still counts."
"What's so funny?" Mick asked as they slid on to stools next to him as Sara laughed. Leonard and Sara exchanged a look, silently coming to an agreement.
"Just a couple of kids we saw on the way here," Leonard said. Next to him, Sara smiled and leaned her shoulder in to his briefly.
"Now tell me what's good here," Sara told them. "I haven't been to this place on our Earth either."
Sending her a small smile, Leonard signaled for the bartender.