AN#1) I was going through files on an old laptop and found this. It was written between seasons 1 and 2 of LOT. I still haven't seen season two, so a couple of things might not be completely accurate. This was inspired by Daphne Gottlieb's poem "15 ways to stay alive"

1. Love your sister. This is rule one. It will always be rule one. Take care of Lisa, she is the most important thing in the universe. Protect her as best you can. Indulge her. She is yours, she is the best thing in your life, even when she watches that damn Disney VHS over and over again.

(You think that you know why Pinocchio is her favorite. Geppetto cared about his son, worried endlessly about him(would never raise a hand to him). The Blue Fairy gives life and gives her child (she created him) to his father. She has a good reason to be gone, the Blue Fairy has people to protect and wishes to fulfill, she's a busy broad. Yet, she still makes the time to find someone to watch over her son. And when that fails she still comes in to save him at the end). Carol Snart had a dealer screw and coke to snort. She left her children with the fox and never looked back, not even as they drowned in the belly of the whale)

You can't bear to tell her that wishing on stars doesn't do shit - she finds out anyway

2. There are three of you (more really, if you want to be picky). You exist as three separate entities trapped in one body: Leo, Len and Lenny. Know the differences.

Know that Leo was an innocent child (though looking back on it how innocent is a child that does not react to armed men breaking into his house). Leo felt loved and adored. His daddy was a hero, his mommy had loved him but couldn't stay. Leo was the innocent child dangled before a wolf and swallowed whole.

Len is Red Riding Hood, torn from the belly of the beast by a woodsman who prefers fire to knives (though either would do in a pinch). Len is cool and confident, his voice is measured. His actions are without mercy. Len would gladly freeze you solid with the ice in his glare before sending his partner to shatter you piece by piece.

Lenny is Leo 2.0. He is guarded and only for a select few. Lenny is more skeptical than his footie pajama-wearing counterpart. He watches Disney movies and braids his sister's hair. Lenny is everything that is still warm inside of Lenard Snart. He exists solely for two people. Lenny exists behind an icy fortress that only they have the key to (actually only Lisa has a key, Mick has a heat gun and before that matches and the unyielding patience of an arsonist who knows what he wants).

3. Trust Mick Rory (but only as far as you can throw him). Mick Rory stood up for you once for no fathomable reason and he's been standing up for you ever since. Not that you haven't done the same for him. Both of you stand ready to protect each other from the packs of wolves that come running each time blood is spilled. That is ... until you turn your predator's gazes on each other rather than the pigs in wolves clothing.

(As it turns out, you can throw Mick Rory pretty far. Out of the city, out of your jobs, out of your life (even out of the time stream but that will come later). Eventually you realize that you'd rather have him by your side. After all, a tempting new temperature toy does make the best gift).

4. Teach your sister everything you can. Teach her how to tie her shoes and braid her hair, teach her how to tell a forgery from a masterpiece. Teach her how to drive (but don't let her play getaway driver until she's 12. Old enough to reach the pedals and young enough that the courts can think she was coerced into it). Teach her the words plausible deniability. But most importantly teach her what love feels like.

5. Laugh at the Time Masters. Smirk every time Rip Hunter speaks about changing time, controlling it. You know better. You do not control time, you learn to work with it not against it. Time measures the length of police response and alarms. Time keeps you out of jail. Rely on time, time is constant (timing is not, but that is human error), time can never leave you (but apparently you can leave it).

6. Save yourself. There are no heroes. They don't exist outside comic books. And even if they did why would they waste time on you?

(When the Flash shows up allow yourself a moment of shock. The Arrow is a vigilante, was a murderer, not hero material. But The Flash, Barry Allen, was born to be a hero (he was born to be a hero in every universe, though you do not know this. You have not swallowed the whole of time and space and spit it back out. You do not know this ... yet). When you face off against him little Leo tries to wake from the slumber that you assumed was death. Keep little Leo locked away behind your smirk. So what if heroes exist? It just makes the game more fun).

7. Kill your father. The first time you wanted to hurt him you were six and your mother had a bruised jaw. The first time you felt genuinely homicidal towards the man you were 13 and going to juvie (leaving Lisa) to cover his ass. When he comes back and threatens Lisa (threatens the one thing you hold above all others), when he breaks her heart ... well it's only fair that you break his in exchange.

8. Do not regret taking a life. These people, the nameless security guards, the mobsters, the cops, they don't matter. Not to you. Save regret for the big things. For missing Lisa's first skating competition, for leaving her alone with Lewis, for abandoning Mick, for countless other things. Your people deserve regret. The others do not.

9. When Mick betrays the team (not you. He made provisions for you, planned to keep you away from the rest) find somewhere to leave him. Don't be surprised by his apparent betrayal. It makes sense. Mick's got a good head on his shoulders, you've always known this, he can survive without you, he just doesn't want to. Besides, he's never been one for playing the hero. He wouldn't betray you just like you wouldn't (intentionally) betray him. A team is different. Teams come and go, some of them are like Alexa - they try to sell you out, others need to be iced for their own reasons. As long as you've got your partner the team doesn't matter. You know that it is this mentality that has caused this problem.

You have to leave him behind. It is the only way to save him from the team (assassins, hawk-goddesses, and metahumans, oh my). Just make sure that it is somewhere that you can retrieve him from. Think of it as a safe house, when the heat dies down you will go back for him and the two of you can leave together.

(You probably should have vetted the time and location more thoroughly)

10. When you see Mick behind Chronos's mask act surprised.

(In reality it makes sense, well... As much as your best friend becoming Boba Fett can make sense. Who else would be so dedicated to their job? Who else had motive?)

11. Allow Chronos (the arsonist formally known as Mick Rory?) to stab you in the chest with a rusty knife (it's not like he'll hit anything. You've been reliably informed that your heart, if it exists, was frozen solid long ago). To be fair he's only returning the favor, returning the rusty implement that you'd left buried in his back while the others assumed you were burying him in ice (for a group of self-proclaimed "heroes" they really are quite bloodthirsty)

12. Follow your instincts, they have yet to steer you wrong. When you see Mick Rory with his hand on the button you know what to do. Only two people in the world have ever given a shit about you for a prolonged period of time. Out of the two of them he's the one that's never needed you to survive. He's the one who never had to care.

13. Don't leave the world the way you came in, under someone else's control. You lived like that for years letting Lewis, Prison Guards, even your own fears control you. You stopped it, broke out of the castle, freed yourself and the princess (though not before the dragon hurt you both). Most importantly, you shattered the dragon. You were a free man, should still be a free man. No one else should have control over you (no one but the golden princess who's had you wrapped around her finger since she was a baby). Do what you have to do to die your own man.

14. When you die don't think about your life. Don't think about Lewis or prison (you can think about juvie, about a partnership that spanned the decades). Don't think about what could have been if things were different (hell, you could've been a politician. You'd still be a criminal but a well paid one).

Instead concentrate on Lisa's smile when she skates, on her chubby hand in yours when you brought her to her first day of school. Think of the Waverider crew, of Sarah Lance who doesn't deserve this shit.

Think about Mick Rory who once sat in a bar with you looking like he'd aged a hundred years and afterwards couldn't recall the meeting (time travel, you think when Chronos takes his mask off to reveal Mick Rory and you see that particular dead look in his eyes for the first time since 2013, explains so much). Think about the words "you're a hero to me" said in a tone you hadn't heard since you'd managed to pry the story of the house fire out of Mick.

If you're going to die while playing hero then at least give yourself solace in the knowledge that you are freeing everyone else from the same control you've despised your entire life.

15. When the moment finally comes look at the bastard threatening all you hold dear but don't see him. Instead hold a picture firmly in your mind. Lisa and Mick on a crappy couch watching the VHS of a Disney movie that you stole from Blockbuster while you make popcorn. Smile and sing along with them.

There are no strings on me

AN#2 Eventually I'll write one of these without referencing Disney, today is obviously not that day.