Note: I will ship CaptainCanary to the end of my days, although I did enjoy the alternate version of Snart we got. (And his relationship with the Ray.) I did notice that despite that, Leo didn't seem shy about flirting with Sara. And I think it's odd he decided to stay, even for a while. And I wondered what he might be up to...
She feels like no matter where she goes, there he is.
In the gallery talking to Jax when she goes in search of coffee, his eyes wide and sympathetic in a way his eyes would never have been. Assisting Nate and Ray with their experiments in one of the cargo bays (and actually being helpful with a minimum of snark). Eagerly perusing the books in the library with Zari and Amaya. Earnestly trying to counsel Mick in the training room. (And Mick's taking this only marginally better than she is.)
Finally, after one particularly annoying day in the time stream, when he seems to be just everywhere, borderline underfoot, Sara goes the one place she never goes anymore, a place she's relatively sure he doesn't even know about.
Their cargo bay.
She can't help thinking about it like that. For a long moment, Sara stands and stares at the room. There's where Leonard tended to sprawl when playing cards, there's where he was throwing that damned ball…
"About you?" asks a whisper of memory.
With a sigh, Sara sits, legs folded underneath her, and rests her head in her hands. After a moment, she starts concentrating on her breathing, trying to slow her racing heart and calm her wayward emotions.
She doesn't even hear him walk in.
"So."
Sara can't help it. She lifts her head with a growl, hand going to the knife up her sleeve, eyes narrowing to glare at the near-stranger who's wearing a friend's face, who's had the temerity to actually follow her here, of all places.
But Leo doesn't even flinch. He lifts an eyebrow at her, then leans back against the wall, letting himself slide down to sprawl on the floor.
He's thoroughly different from the man she'd known, in so many ways great and small, but in that moment, in that posture, he looks precisely the same. Sara looks away, then, steeling herself, back at him.
"I'm getting a little sick," she tells him shortly, preparing to rise, "of running into you everywhere I go."
That just makes the other eyebrow rise. He studies her, eyes considering and expression open in a way Leonard's never was. But he doesn't offer to leave, and Sara takes a deep breath, climbing to her feet and turning for the door.
His voice interrupts her.
"What was there?"
"Excuse me?" She turns back despite herself, hating the…she will not call it a waver…in her voice.
"Between me. And you."
The words, in that voice, hit like a sucker punch. For a moment, Sara just stares at him, barely able to breath, not sure if she wants to turn and walk away or scream or…
But although Leo doesn't let her expression pass unnoticed (she can tell by the flicker in his eyes), he doesn't comment on that. He does clarify.
"Well. Him." A tilt of his head. "Other me. The one from your Earth. The one who died."
The one who…
Sara sucks in a quick breath, annoyed that the words hurt. She's pretty sure he's not trying to be callous, not this version of Leonard Snart, and so she manages to keep from snapping. Instead, she straightens and sets her shoulders, tilting her head back a little and giving him her most intimidating stare.
"Nothing," she tells him coldly. "He was a teammate."
"Ah."
She waits a moment, then turns away again, hoping the conversation is over. Forever, preferably.
But he speaks again after she's only taken one step.
"Then why do you keep so determinedly avoiding me?" Leo muses, voice still familiar even if the gentle tone is not. "I mean, if he was really nothing to you. You only treat someone like that if you really loathe them or really…"
Sara spins and glares at him again. He looks unrepentant. (Now, that's familiar.)
"Trust me." A corner of his mouth lifts. "I know."
She's not going to ask. "You know nothing!" Cold. Stay cold. How ironic.
"Then tell me." His tone is still so gentle, despite her own surging anger. He hasn't twitched from his sprawl against the wall.
"And why the hell should I do that?" Sara realizes her fists are clenched, forces herself to relax them. "I barely know you. You come on board this ship and you start acting like you have to fix us. We're not broken. I'm not, Mick's not. None of us are. He wasn't!"
Silence from the man on the floor. She takes a deep breath, realizing she's let out more than she intended, closes her eyes a moment, then opens them and tries to take a more conciliatory air. It doesn't come easily. "Look, I'm leaving. This conversation is done now."
She turns away. Again.
And he speaks. Again.
Ass.
"You liked him," she hears from behind her. "And there are times you almost like me. Admit it. I've seen it in your eyes."
Smug bastard. He's got that in common with Leonard.
"And it's generally when I've said something…" She turns; he seems to consider and discard words, then actually offers her a grin, the expression open and unguarded, again unlike Leonard. "…when I'm attempting, apparently poorly, to flirt with you."
He snorts at her expression. "He did too, didn't he? And I know you were friends; Mick told me."
"Then why ask me?" Sara shoots back. She gives up and lets herself sink the floor opposite him. Maybe they need to have this out.
"Because I wanted to see what you'd say." He sits up, spreading his hands. "If you'd admit…"
"What? That I was madly in love with…with him, or something?" Easily to layer sarcasm in her tone; Leonard would have understood that.
But Leo doesn't respond with sarcasm. Instead, he eyes her in a way that's thoroughly…well, suggestive.
"No," he says decisively. "But…there was something. I can't imagine any world in which I wouldn't at least notice you."
Sara blinks at him, speechless again. He smirks at her, looking very like his doppelganger.
"I'm taken," he drawls (and that sounds like Leonard Snart). "I'm not blind."
Against her will, Sara laughs. Leo grins and leans back against the wall. Waiting.
Finally, she speaks. Quietly, almost to herself, because it's easier than looking at the face opposite her.
"He was an almost," she said, staring at her hands. "Well. I thought he was. But you…"
"…don't bother limiting myself by gender." He shrugs as she glances up. "If someone's got that combination of brains and badassery … well. I'm gone." A look through those lashes, and she can't help but shake her head at him and smile.
"Flirt."
"Yep."
They watch each other a moment. Sara can feel her shoulders relaxing, just a little, and she thinks ruefully that Leo'd been right. They'd needed to talk about this.
There were too many ghosts on the Waverider.
"You miss him," Leo says quietly, and Sara nods.
"Yes. A lot," she admits. "He…understood me. Probably better than anyone else on this ship. He had his own battles. I think we challenged each other to be better."
"That's a very valuable thing." For a moment, Leo's eyes are distant, then he shakes it off and looks back at her.
"I kissed him, before he died," Sara says, after a moment. "He'd made an overture, about the…our future, but I'd…I was angry at him. And then there was no more time."
" 'No more time.' The saddest words in any language." Leo gives her a melancholy little smile. "Lucky man. The kiss, I mean, not the dying." He pauses. "I'm sorry."
"Thanks." And she means it.
"It must have been…odd…to see me, wearing his face. Especially with the lack of, well, closure." Leo studies her, then grins again. Sara decides she rather likes seeing a Leonard Snart, from any world, wearing that expression. "And then having the temerity to flirt with you."
Sara snorts again, then grins back.
"He was the first person I…really let in, in that way," she says casually, stretching. "Since I died."
Now it's Leo's turn to blink at her. And, oh, that's satisfying.
"Got time for a story?" she asks, making a decision. "I know where to find some excellent Scotch."
Leo brightens. "I do. And…"
He pulls a deck of cards from his pocket. Sara stares at it, then looks back up at him.
"Gin?"
"What? No, I was thinking War."
"Close enough."