a bandit, a princess, and a knight in scarlet armor
part 2 of the [keep us together] series, sequel to a girl, a superhero, and a thief.
The job at the museum is mostly for Lisa. Len isn't completely sure on the details behind her reasoning, just knows it has something to do with an ex-boyfriend and a painting. He's okay with that, doesn't mind that she's mostly working under some sort of revenge or vendetta. It isn't as if he wouldn't do the same in her place.
He doesn't like the fact that they're doing it in broad daylight while the museum is open, but he understands the need to get the job done while the art is still on display and not boxed up and being sent halfway around the world.
He gets it, even though he doesn't like it.
When they storm into the museum, it's nearly empty. There's a handful of couples, a couple college students, and one kid with a dark haired man. The alarms trill when Lisa collects her spoils, and Len can't deny that it's all sorts of thrilling to hear them.
He lets out a few more vague threats, shoots his gun at an empty space on the wall, and turns to leave.
And then he sees the Flash. Barry Allen is the dark haired man with a kid, the girl's face buried into his chest.
The Flash could have taken them down in minutes, but Allen apparently refused to do it.
Len doesn't know if it's the risk of revealing his identity or the kid. He knows that Allen feels betrayed, feels angry. He gets that, given what he'd done.
He meets Barry Allen's eyes over the kid's head and feels almost threatened by the look in the young man's face.
-x-
Everything he knows about Barry Allen is thrown on its head when the kid walks into Saints & Sinners later that night. He's still wearing the outfit he had in the museum, though Len had half expected to be whisked out by the Flash instead.
He goes straight for Len, not even looking toward anyone else-and Len is fairly certain there are at least two people with warrants out for them within touching distance-and stops right there in front of him.
"We need to talk," Allen says and then he walks away.
Len knows it's stupid, that this could be some sort of ridiculous trap. But he follows Allen out anyway, matching him step for step as they traverse Central City.
And arrive at Allen's apartment.
-x-
Len knows that there's a possibility that he has a kid or two out there, somewhere. It's not likely, but not impossible. Even less probable is the idea that one of his kids would be able to find him, would want to.
He wouldn't have pictured Allen as someone who was promiscuous enough in his teens to end up with a child. He could have seen him as a parent eventually, but when he was more settled perhaps.
But he looks at the picture of him and his daughter, sees their similarities in their smiles, and he knows.
He doesn't know the circumstance, doesn't think it matters really.
There's a lot he doesn't know about Barry Allen, apparently.
-x-
Allen doesn't threaten him, doesn't do more than ask him not to tell anyone that the Flash has a kid.
Len has a hundred reasons why telling people the Flash has a kid is a good idea, and half of them relate to money.
But he doesn't. He doesn't tell anyone.
He doesn't tell anyone that the girl is the Flash's daughter for one reason.
It's not some misguided apology for double crossing him. It's not because he asked.
No, there's one thing that's never changed in his years in crime.
Innocent little girls are off limits.
-x-
It's not like he backs off during his banter and fighting with him after that. He doesn't, not in the least. And if anything, Allen seems to be fighting harder.
He'd always given it his all, but this was different.
Len always wondered what a good parent might look like.
He thinks maybe really he knows now.
There's an unspoken thank you there.
Len's not sure which one of them says it.
He's not sure it matters.
-x-
He's on his second drink when Barry Allen comes into the bar. He thinks, briefly, that he should find a new regular spot to drink in, but ultimately he doesn't think he cares enough.
Besides, it's not as if Allen is hard to look at when he comes in to find him.
The kid is dressed down, way down, when he walks up to him-old worn sweatshirt and a battered pair of jeans-and even his hair is slightly mussed. He definitely isn't here on Flash business, or for drinking.
"I need a favor, Snart," Barry says as he sits on the stool next to him.
-x-
The rush of being moved by the Flash was always disorienting and somewhat arousing, and even knowing he was being brought to act as a babysitter makes no exception to that feeling.
-x-
Nora is a beautiful girl, all long dark hair and blue eyes. She's initially quiet when Barry introduces him as Leonard (which, no), and doesn't seem to want anything to do with him until her father leaves.
Barry dons the Flash costume as he exits and then he's off.
Nora sighs a little and turns to him.
"Dad didn't know I know he's the Flash. I don't know who you are but I know he didn't want to ask you to watch me and I made him," the girl admits, folding her legs under her as she sits on the couch.
"I'm Len... Your dad said I... scared you a few weeks ago. At the museum."
"Oh... you're... a thief?" she asks cautiously, but she's smiling a little.
"I am... They call me Captain Cold."
"Oh. Because of the ice gun? Or your coat?" Nora asks, and Len relaxes.
-x-
Nora is impossibly bright and full of curiosity, and Len finds that he likes her. There are moment where she reminds him of Lisa as a child, but they're few and far between. Nora is definitely her own person, far more than Len had expected.
He's not sure if it's because he's only ever seen the serious side of the Flash or if it's because he's not used to children.
"Pineapple doesn't belong on pizza, Len," she says, her nose crinkled up like she's disgusted.
-x-
He wants to say he doesn't think about them over the few weeks that follow his babysitting. He wants to say it, but it would be a lie.
-x-
The job is fairly easy. The penthouse suite is fairly easy to access despite the hotel's pitiful attempts at security. He and Lisa make it over to the hotel next door with relative ease, and he's halfway down the hallway inside when he's suddenly attacked by a wet ten year old who smells like chlorine.
"Len, you should have stayed for breakfast!" Nora's voice is slightly muffled by his parka, but she pulls back a little to beam up at him. He can't help but return her smile and crouches a little to return the hug as well.
"Next time, Princess," he says to her, ruffling her wet hair a little. The water doesn't really soak through his gloves, but he doesn't think he'd care if it had.
"You promise?"
"Of course, darling." He's surprised to find he means it.
"Don't steal her anything," Barry warns, a hint of a smile on his lips when Len looks up. Something about that smile makes Len want.
He's scrawling his phone number across an old receipt he'd found in his pocket when Lisa's voice carries down the hall, annoyed.
"Let me know if you need me," he tells Barry as he hands it over.
And then he leaves.
-x-
[received text: Thanks.]
[sent text: Anytime, Scarlet. I mean it.]
-x-
Nora's face is sickly pale, and she curls into him when he picks her up. She's probably too old to be carried like he is, but he doesn't think he cares. She buckles her seat without prompting once he sets her in the back of Lisa's car-and he doesn't feel the least bit sorry for taking it without letting her know-and falls asleep before they make it a block away from her school.
Nora knows enough of her medical information to fill out the paperwork once they get inside the clinic, though she has to stop halfway through to throw up into a vomit bag a nurse comes over with.
By the time the doctor sees her, she's flagging again.
But it's just a stomach flu, the doctor reassures him.
Barry shows up just as he and Nora are walking back into the waiting area, and she immediately breaks off to go to him.
-x-
He thinks about the way the nurse tells him he's a good boyfriend, about how the doctor tells him that he and Barry are doing a good job keeping her healthy despite the flu.
And it isn't that he's averse to dating Barry, as Barry or the Flash. Because he can't deny that he's attracted.
But Len isn't a good person. He's always known that.
If he was actually with Barry, then he'd have both the issues of his differences with the Flash and the reality of dating someone with a kid.
He can't stop thinking about it-a real relationship with Barry Allen-and he doesn't know how he feels about that.
He wants. Wants both Barry and Nora in vastly different ways. In another life, he thinks he might truly have been a good parent.
But he doesn't have another life. Just this one.
Just this one, and the more time he spends in the presence of either of them, the more he has no idea what he's doing anymore.
The heists he does as Captain Cold? That's easy. Simple. Even with the Flash as his "nemesis".
But the real stuff?
-x-
He's not sure he's ever known what he's doing when it comes to something more than just a one night stand.
-x-
[received: I have a date.]
[sent: And you don't want anyone to know.]
[received: Basically, yes.]
[sent: When?]
-x-
He stops at the grocery store on his way to the apartment. He doesn't think about it until he's at the checkout, glaring at the curious cashier when he sets down his basket of homemade pizza ingredients and a box of bright pink cupcakes.
-x-
"Len!" He hears her before he sees her, and then he's got a pair of small arms hugging him tightly. He pats her lightly on the head and sets his groceries down on the counter.
"I'll be back in a couple hours. Be good for... For Len, okay, Nor?" Barry says, hesitating briefly over his name. Len smirks.
"I will, Daddy. You should go before you get cold feet," Nora says, and the matching smirk on her face tells him that she knows exactly what she just said.
Barry sighs a little, as if he's already regretting letting them spend time together.
"Love you, Nora," he finally says, and then he's gone.
Nora waits thirty seconds before she pounces on the plastic grocery bag.
"Ooooh! What'd ya bring me? Cupcakes!"
He snatches the bag out of her hands just as she's attempting to pick up the plastic box inside.
She pouts, but he doesn't relent.
She's cute, but she has nothing on Lisa's pouty stares as a child. Not that he will ever admit that, especially to Lisa.
"After you've eaten supper," he tells her. She frowns, obviously debating on her argument.
"Okay, but it better be good."
-x-
The kitchen gets a little messy while they're cooking, but she enjoys herself immensely. He ends up with a child sized handful of flour on his head, and somehow he can't even make himself care. Her attitude is infectious and she really truly is an amazing little girl.
He cleans the kitchen while she takes a shower after supper, and he hands her a cupcake when she stumbles out of the bathroom in her Hawkeye pajamas and still damp hair.
"Can you brush it for me?" she asks, settling herself down on the padded cushion of the kitchen chair nearest her. She sets her cupcake down on the table and offers him the black hairbrush she'd had in her other hand.
He hesitates, just long enough that he can see her shoulders drop just slightly, and then he takes it.
It'd been a long time since he'd brushed someone's hair, longer since he brushed a child's. He remembers brushing Lisa's hair, after her mom left. It wasn't as if their father was going to do it.
Nora reminds him a lot of Lisa, even when she doesn't.
Nora sits quietly while he brushes through her tangled wet hair, carefully peeling the wrapper off her cupcake. She picks it up in the middle, slowly tearing it in half before she flips the frosting side upside down and mashes it between the two halves.
"Taste better that way?"
"Mmhm. Less messy too-ah," she answers, breaking off in what he knows is an unintentional yelp when the brush catches.
-x-
"So all that remains," said Fudge, now buttering himself a second crumpet, "is to decide where you're going to spend the last three weeks of your vacation. I suggest you take a room here at the Leaky Cauldron and —"
Len pauses when he hears Barry step into Nora's bedroom a full two hours before Len even remotely expected him back and looks up.
"Having fun?"
-x-
"Are you inviting me to stay the night, Flash?" Len asks. Because he doesn't know what Barry's game is here, if not... And even if it is...
"Not the first time I've offered," Barry says, and Len is honestly surprised when he doesn't hear him waver over the words.
"Offered a man to stay the night?"
"Offered you."
And it's true. It's not. Barry offered that first night, when Len had watched Nora because the Flash had no one else he could ask. He doesn't think Barry had been offering more, not then.
But now? Things are different now, aren't they?
"Maybe you'll get lucky tonight after all."
-x-
Len wonders, in the quiet afterward, if it was wrong of him to want this. If it was more wrong to want Barry and the strings that came with him, if it was wrong to want the whole damn picture-ten year old and all.
If it was wrong to take it, if it was wrong to be okay with knowing that Barry probably only offered his body because he thought he could trust him with his kid.
He doesn't even know if Barry even realizes what all he's offered Len, all he's given him.
Len wonders if it makes him the worst kind of thief to realize he doesn't care.
-x-
Of course, come daylight, they don't even talk about it.
Len's not quite sure what lines they've drawn now, what Barry considers him to be. One night stand, boyfriend, lover-mistake?
-x-
[received: Nora says you're better at brushing her hair than I am.]
[sent: Of course I am.]
[received: Full of yourself, are you?]
[sent: So were you.]
-x-
Some of the things Barry texts him, usually late at night, get him half hard just remembering later. And it's not like Len doesn't give back as much as he gets, because he does.
He just hadn't expected Barry to fall into that kind of heavy conversation after one (honestly quite fantastic) night.
Especially since he'd expected they'd have to have an awkward talk about feelings first or something.
-x-
"Seriously, Lenny, you have got to quit hiding in your cold little hovel and do something. Mick and I haven't even seen you in weeks."
"I'm not hiding, Lise. And believe it or not, my life doesn't revolve around you."
"No shit, Len-"
His phone vibrates on the table between them, and he waits too long to react.
Lisa answers it, her voice all sexed up and incredibly uncomfortable to hear. "Why, hello there."
She blinks, her head snapping towards his in surprise as she speaks into the phone, "You are definitely not a girl."
Barry. Damn it.
"Oh my god, whatever. You must be my brother's boyfriend."
"Lisa, shut the fuck up and give me the phone," Len snarls. She rolls her eyes but finally hands it over.
"Hello?"
"A meta-human took the middle school hostage. I can't go in," Barry's voice is shaky, scared.
Nora.
"Is she-"
"She's inside and I can't-"
"I'm on my way."
He hangs up the phone, stuffing it into his pocket as he stands. Lisa stares at him.
"Len, what's going on?"
"None of your business, Lisa. I've got to go."
"Len-"
"Leave it," he snaps, slamming his bedroom door open.
She follows him, which pisses him off but at least she stops in his doorway.
"You're scaring me a little, Lenny," she says softly, and he can see it's true when he looks back at her face.
"I've got something to take care of," he says as he pulls on his parka.
She stares at him for a moment, "As Captain Cold?"
"Only way I'm going to be able to get in there."
"Get in where?"
He doesn't answer her.
-x-
"I do this, you owe me," Len says as he steps near Barry. He isn't unaware of the glares and anger of the people-mostly cops-around him. The air is practically vibrating with tension.
"Do it," Barry says, his voice a great deal more even and sure than it had been on the phone.
Len nods, and makes his way into the school without another word.
-x-
The meta-human is a woman, average height with bright red hair. Her skin is the color of moss, which isn't as disconcerting as the vines twisting from her hands.
"I think you need to chill out," Len says loudly, pulling her attention away from the teacher she's got pressed up against the auditorium bleachers with a thorn covered vine.
"I told them someone would die if they sent a cop-" the woman starts, and then there's a vine twisting around the teacher's neck.
"Good thing I'm not a cop," Len says with a smirk, lifting his gun.
The vine tightens, but Len doesn't budge.
"I could care less what you do to the faculty, but I find it more than a little cold to hold children hostage."
-x-
He hefts the woman over his shoulder, trying to avoid looking at the twisted mess of bloody foliage and ice.
The children and handful of faculty who had been locked inside the auditorium with them race out ahead of him, the adults herding the children forward. Nora initially attempts to stay behind, but he shakes his head when she attempts to convince the teacher to let her stay.
He doesn't know what the meta's motivations were, but he knows that something doesn't seem right about the situation.
It feels like it was a trap, one meant for The Flash.
-x-
When he gets back to his apartment half an hour later, Lisa is sitting on his couch with a paperback novel in her hands.
"You're back sooner than I expected," she notes, dropping the paperback on the couch without marking her page.
"Not in the mood," he grunts, peeling off his parka as he walks past her towards his room.
"I wasn't going to say anything," she says.
He doesn't know if he believes her.
Not that it mattered.
"You hungry?" She asks after a few minutes of silence. He comes out of his room with the desire to wash his hands even though he'd been wearing gloves, and almost tells her to leave.
"Get something with chicken and absolutely nothing green."
-x-
[sent: Nora doing okay?]
[received: So far.]
[received: She won't eat anything green though.]
-x-
He waits three days. He waits three days, the first of which is filled with avoiding Lisa's probing questions, and then he heads to Barry's apartment.
And then he waits again, crouched on the fire escape for nearly half an hour before Barry's company leaves.
Nora gives him a hug when he slips inside, her arms wrapping him a little tighter than usual. He ruffles her hair a little, and smiles when her nose scrunches up in annoyance.
"I missed you," she says a moment later, "you need to come over more."
"I'll work on that, Princess," Len tells her, smiling at her wide grin.
"Say goodnight, Nora. You need to get to bed," Barry tells her. She sighs, loud and exaggerated.
"Good night, Len. Love you!" She says, retreating to her bedroom before Len can even think about responding.
He's about to ask Barry if she really said she loved him, but then Barry's mouth is on his and he forgets about asking entirely.
-x-
But he doesn't forget she said it.
-x-
The heist is Mick's idea, and Len agrees to it mostly to get Lisa off his back.
The Flash shows up halfway through and he's in a better mood than he'd been the last time they were in the position to play their parts. Len enjoys their banter just as much as the physicality of their back and forth, and he thinks Barry does too.
They end up beating a hasty retreat-without the goods-but Len thinks it was worth the attempt.
Even if Lisa called him out on flirting with the Flash.
-x-
[received text: u sprained my wrist]
[sent text: Don't you heal insanely fast, Scarlet?]
His phone rings as he's leaning against Mick's sink with a beer in his hand. Lisa and Mick look a little surprised at the intrusion, and Len makes the decision to take the call outside without a word to either of them.
"Poor baby having trouble texting one handed?" He asks instead of a regular greeting.
"We both know who won today," Barry replies.
"Rub it in, much?"
"I'd like to, but you sprained my wrist." Barry's response is enough that he wants.
"Oh... Is that how you want to play this, Flash?"
"Don't you?"
"Give me a few, I've got to get somewhere a little more... private... for this conversation," Len says, emphasizing the word private. Barry laughs, amused.
"Did I interrupt you in your den of evil, Cold?"
"Hardly... I'll call you back when I get home, unless you'd rather I-"
"I'll see you in twenty, Captain."
Len hangs up the phone without a response, heading back towards Mick's apartment. He needs to make his leave before Barry decides to finish up without him.
He hadn't expected Barry's emphasis on his professional identity, but he couldn't exactly say he was against it. The opposite, in fact. He just hadn't expected Barry to want it too.
"What the hell, Len?" Lisa asks once he walks back inside. He smirks at her.
"I'd love to stay and chat, but I'm wanted elsewhere." Len says smugly. She crinkles her nose in disgust.
"I'll stop by tomorrow afternoon," Len says to Mick as he shrugs his jacket back on, "if you still needed someone to take care of things...?"
"Thanks," Mick replies gruffly.
Len doesn't stay to see if Mick or Lisa have anything else to say.
-x-
Len doesn't leave Barry's apartment until nearly two the next afternoon and barely makes it to Mick's apartment in time.
"Should be back by four," Mick tells him, handing over a tiny sleepy toddler.
"She need a nap?" Len asks as the man opens his front door to leave.
"Just woke up from one."
Mick doesn't bother waiting for a response, shutting the door behind him.
"So, just you and me, huh, Haydn?"
-x-
He hadn't spent a lot of time with Haydn before, on her own or with Mick. Most of the time, Mick preferred to keep her away from everything else. Len didn't blame him. He understood that desire with an increasing ferocity the more time he spent with Barry and Nora-not that he'd admit that to anyone.
He did know that unlike Nora, Haydn's mother was still alive and well. From what little he'd gleaned from Mick, Haydn's mother was flighty at best and entirely neglectful at her worst. Mick hadn't expected to be saddled with Haydn-hadn't known she existed until her mother showed up a few days after she was born and handed her over like she was delivering a pizza.
But Mick was good with her, and despite the way she'd come to him, he loved her.
Len's halfway through composing a text to Barry when Mick returns to his apartment with Haydn's older sister in tow.
"Uncle Len," the fifteen year old mumbles before she bolts towards her bedroom.
"Thanks, Snart." Mick takes the happy (if quiet) child from his lap as soon as the door is shut behind him.
"Anytime, Mick. How's Sera?"
"Happy to have the braces off."
"Tell her congratulations?" Len says, and he makes his leave before he can start asking stupid questions about Sera as a preteen.
He's not ready to share Barry's existence as Barry with anyone, let alone Nora's.
The Flash is one thing. Barry and Nora, they're something else.
His.
-x-
He ends up back at Barry's apartment once he leaves Mick's. He doesn't mean to, has no intention of going back there.
But it happens anyway.
It happens anyway, and it keeps happening. Len would like to pretend that it's just for Nora or just for sex, but the more time he spends with them outside their public identities, the more time he spends with them holed up in Barry's apartment together, the more he knows it isn't.
He's somehow backed himself sideways into a committed relationship with a dad and his ten year old and he doesn't think he minds.
He bears the secret of it because he has to, because he knows that for either him or Barry, this relationship has the stain of mistake to everyone else in their lives. Because no one would understand, because Len doesn't understand. He just wants this little life he's building with them in the in-between, needs this life.
Family used to be him and Lisa, and the longer he spends with Barry and Nora, the more selfish he gets about keeping them, about them being family too.
He doesn't get good things, but for the moment he's somehow allowed to share in someone else's.
So he keeps going back to the apartment, ignores the fact that he's somehow gained a drawer in Barry's dresser that neither of them talk about, ignores the fact that he's one of the two responsible parties attached to Nora's library card, ignores the fact that he bought half the groceries in the kitchen, and he ignores the fact that he only sleeps in his own apartment-in any of them-three or four days a week. He keeps coming back.
-x-
Nora's incredibly stubborn about her birthday. Nora's incredibly stubborn about a lot of things really, but her birthday is the one thing they really can't give her like she wants.
She wants Len there, alongside her with all of Barry's family and friends.
He wants to be there, but he can't.
It's the first time the secret whatever-the-hell they are hurts.
-x-
"She told everyone she wanted her dad's boyfriend to come to her party next year," Barry tells him. Len shrugs off his jacket as Barry collapses back on the mattress in nothing but his favorite red track pants and thick white socks.
"I'm not surprised."
Barry sighs, "Me neither."
-x-
They don't talk about the label-boyfriend. They don't talk about it, but the next time Nora calls them that, they don't disagree.
-x-
Of course, then they're interrupted on one of Barry's days off less than a week later by an urgent phone call from Ramon, and then several more from both Detective West and his daughter.
He doesn't see Barry for nearly two weeks, doesn't see Nora either. He sees the news reports, gets texted updates from Barry, and even talks to Nora on the phone once during that time, but nothing more.
He keeps watch on Nora from afar though, makes sure she's okay. Barry doesn't make it home often, and Len knows how much that must hurt him.
Len doesn't like that Barry's duties as the Flash (and, admittedly, as Barry Allen, CSI) have somehow exiled him from spending time with either of them as well. He hates that it bothers him, not being able to be there for either of them.
-x-
"Just a sec, Caitlin," Barry says when Len answers the phone, "Hey, Len. I need a favor. Can you watch Nora for a bit? I need Cisco here and he's about to head out. I don't want her left alone for long."
"I'll be there in a flash," Len answers.
Barry huffs a little laugh, "Thanks."
-x-
Of course, his worry about her being left alone for too long ends up with Len ducking a punch from Cisco Ramon in front of Nora.
"Stop!" Nora yells and Ramon does.
"What the hell are you doing here, Snart?!"
"I missed you, Len!" Nora says before Len can even think of a sarcastic reply.
Ramon blinks a few times, his hands balled into fists.
"Len?"
He ignores Ramon as he moves past him into the apartment, ruffling Nora's already messy hair, "Missed you too, Princess. Your dad said you got a hundred percent on your spelling test last week."
"I did! Bye, Uncle Cisco!" Nora says, waving towards the other man as she runs to show him the test taped to the refrigerator.
He doesn't wait to see if Ramon leaves right away.
Nothing Len can do about it now, and he's fully aware that Barry really does need him.
-x-
He takes Nora to the library, locking the apartment up as they leave. He uses Nora's keys, because he doesn't have a set of his own. His usual method of entry is a tad more illegal, though Barry has yet to mention minding that fact.
She's on a fantasy kick, and it takes him nearly half an hour and the help of two different librarians to find something in her age range that she hasn't read. In the end, she settles on TA Barron, though she refuses to leave without a handful of them.
By the time they get back to Barry's apartment, he's somehow become the one carrying all six of her books as he unlocks the door.
"Some warning would have been nice, kid," Len says when he walks inside to a surprise visit of Snow and Ramon.
-x-
Lunch is... awkward. He dishes out Nora's favorites without a word, and ignores the looks Snow and Ramon give each other. He's careful not to touch Barry, because he doesn't want to make them uncomfortable.
It doesn't occur to him until much later that he didn't want to make Barry's friends uncomfortable with him. As if being tactile with him would be the thing that made them uncomfortable and not the bevy of totally fucked up things he's done to them.
-x-
It's easier, somehow, after that. The case that kept Barry tied up for weeks finally gets closed, and Len finds himself spending time with Barry and Nora even more than he had before.
Somehow it's now Barry's apartment that Len sleeps at most nights, Barry's apartment that Len thinks of when the word home comes up.
-x-
They run into Lisa on date night and the manic glee in her eyes when she looks Barry over is enough to terrify him a little, her commentary about his crush on the Flash notwithstanding.
When he goes back to his apartment the next morning, Lisa ambushes him with questions and bitchy commentary until he gets her to shut up by telling her he was a CSI for CCPD.
Not that she stays that way for long, going back and forth between mortification and utter glee.
-x-
Lisa finally joins them for dinner a few weeks after that, and Nora immediately latches onto her as "Auntie Lisa".
-x-
Len takes Nora out with Lisa one afternoon while Barry's on Flash duty, and they end up going ice skating. It's not his favorite thing, but Lisa loves it and despite not being steady on her feet, so does Nora.
It's a good day, and something in Len settles at the idea of his sister and Nora being able to have something together.
When they take Nora home that night, Len leaves Barry with a kiss that has Lisa wolf-whistling behind them and Nora still giggling when they leave.
-x-
[received: So. Iris is pissed. Saw Nora calling you Len at the rink.]
[sent: Fuck. Should I stay clear for awhile?]
[received: She said she'd keep it quiet for a few weeks. I think it means I have to tell Joe about us.]
Len presses the call button instead of responding, and immediately starts talking as soon as Barry answers. "You're going to tell him?"
"Well, yeah. Why wouldn't I?"
"He's not going to like it. You know that, Scarlet."
"I know. But, you're worth it."
-x-
Len doesn't know how to react when Barry says things like that. Doesn't think he is worth it.
-x-
In the end, though, Barry's choice is completely taken from him.
Len gets the call in the early evening while he's eating take-out on Mick's couch with Mick and his sister, Sera feeding Haydn in her high chair a few feet away in the kitchen.
"Hello?"
"Len."
"Scarlet?"
Mick and Lisa tense beside him.
"The metas. You said they owe you one, right?"
"Yes."
"I need to know where Mardon is. Now."
"What's-"
"He has Nora, Len." Len freezes, a white hot thread of fear choking him. It's like that day Barry called him about the meta-human in the middle school. Except it's worse. It's worse because he knows them better now, worse because if all else failed he knew that Barry would risk exposure to save Nora then, and worse because he loves them a helluva lot more than he had then.
He loves them.
"I'll call you as soon as I know." Len says, and then he hangs up. He stands, his hand tightly fisted around his cell phone.
"Lisa, find out where the fuck Mardon is, now," Len manages to calmly ask, his voice even.
"What's going on-"
"He took Nora, now hurry the fuck up," Len interrupts, shoving his phone in his pocket.
"Oh my god, Len, of course," Lisa says, and she bolts from her seat with her phone at her ear as she calls.
"Who's Nora?" Mick asks, and Len wants to laugh. Not because it's funny because it's not.
It's not.
"My boyfriend's eleven year old daughter," Len says, and there's a look in Mick's eyes that makes him relax, just a little.
"Sera, we gotta take care of somethin'. You okay with watching your sister?" Mick says as he stands up from the couch.
"Mick, you don't-"
"Yeah, Daddy. I can watch her," Sera says as she unbuckles her sister's high chair.
"Len, I got the address!" Lisa says, whirling her way back into the room.
Len doesn't hesitate.
Neither does Mick, "Yeah, I do."
-x-
"Mardon!" Len yells as he stomps his way into the warehouse. Mardon freezes in place where he stands with his arm bracketing Nora in place.
"Captain Cold. I assume you're the reason that the Flash found me so fast?" Mardon taunts. Len narrows his eyes.
"Let go of her," Len snarls, and he takes pleasure in the way Mardon's eyes widen in surprise. Mardon's eyes break over to where Barry is nearly frozen in place from the sheer cold when the man huffs out a laugh, but Len refuses to turn away.
"Why should I let the little brat go, exactly? Hmmm? She called Detective West her grandpa and I can't have him-"
Len steps forward with his gun, several huge steps until he's within feet of Mardon and Nora. He's pissed and a little afraid (and when was the last time he was truly afraid?) and he doesn't give a shit about Mardon or what the man could have done for him in the future.
"I don't care about your revenge, even served cold. Let go of her or I will shoot you," Len says sharply, pointing his gun at Nora's face.
Nora doesn't look terrified anymore. She's not afraid because she knows why Len's here, and what he's saying means.
Because he loves that little girl and there's no way she doesn't know that. There's no way she's not just as smart as her dad.
"You wouldn't dare. If you want me to let her go so bad, you wouldn't risk-"
"Let my kid go or I will kill you where you stand!" Len snarls, stomping forward as the wind picks up from Mardon's powers.
Len shoots, and there's that whoosh of air deplacement in front of him alongside the whiff of smoke and he knows.
He knows that the plan worked, that Barry was able to move fast enough.
He lets himself take a deep breath in before he holsters his gun and turns to release Mardon's other prisoners.
He's cutting through the ropes tying Detective West to his chair and his head feels like it's full of cotton. He knows he's close to crashing, close to falling apart. It's the first time in years he's felt like he was on the verge of a panic attack and he hates the feeling.
"Thank you, Flash. And the rest of you," Detective West says, as he stands up and takes Nora's hand, bringing Len's mind back to the here and now. He leads them all out, with no other words or threats.
Len looks back once they're free of the burning structure and sees Barry grabbing his sister's wrist. He can't hear what they're saying, but then she takes her arm back and he takes his cowl down and he thinks he knows anyway.
-x-
He makes it just inside the doorway of his apartment before everything inside him crashes down. It takes several minutes to stop hyperventilating, and his skin feels like too much, and he just wants everything to stop for awhile.
He wanted to be a part of Barry's life, of Nora's.
He wanted it, still does. And he has been a part of it, for months now, hasn't he?
He just forgot, for awhile.
He forgot what having a family felt like.
Forgot what being so totally afraid for someone was like.
For all he cares about Lisa, she hasn't been in a situation where she needed him like that in a long time. And, he can admit, in the end Lisa is his sister. But she's not the only important part of his life anymore. She hasn't been in a long time.
-x-
Len wakes up early in the morning, a hint of moonlight still creeping through his windows. His neck and back hurt from sleeping on the floor, and his chest still aches from the stress of his panic.
He pulls his phone out to see texts from Lisa and Mick, and even one from Sera.
But nothing from Barry.
-x-
He sleeps most of the day after that, in his bed this time. Lisa calls him a few times, but he sends it straight to voicemail.
He doesn't want to talk to anyone, not until he's spoken to Barry, seen Nora.
But he's afraid to.
He's afraid of Barry telling him that they can't be anymore, afraid of Barry telling him that the risk to Nora isn't worth it.
By evening, Barry still hasn't texted.
He still hasn't called.
Len tries to pretend it doesn't hurt.
-x-
"Len, open the fucking door before I break in," Lisa's voice is hardly muffled by the door, and if Len actually gave a damn what his neighbors thought, he might be pissed at her just for that.
He doesn't want to talk to her, doesn't want to see her.
But he knows she's serious, and if he has to face her, it should at least be on his terms.
He opens the door and lets her in.
"For fuck's sake, Len, you look like shit."
"Shut up," he mutters in response, not even bothering to raise his voice.
"... Len?" Her voice is softer then, and he isn't sure that he likes it.
"What do you want, Lisa?"
"Well, I was going to give you the third degree for not telling me that the Hottie McBoyfriend you're playing House with was the Flash, but... I haven't seen you look like this in years... What happened, Lenny?"
"I don't want to talk, especially not to you."
"Harsh, Len..." Lisa says, sighing, "...but I guess I deserved that."
They're both silent for a few minutes, and it's uncomfortable but he doesn't really know what to do with it.
"Why aren't you off celebrating with them?" Lisa finally breaks the silence.
"Celebrating what, exactly?"
"Um, the fact that you totally swept in like a knight in shining armor? The fact that he's okay with me knowing he's the Flash?"
"I'm sure he's fine with all that, that's why he hasn't spoken to me since," Len snaps, and he finds himself angry about it for the first time.
Lisa looks like she's about to placate him again, perhaps offer some sort of comfort.
But then she doesn't.
"Have you spoken to him? Maybe he's waiting-"
"What possible reason would he be waiting?"
"Honestly, you're such a man. I realize that's a horrible stereotype but I don't care at the moment. He's probably sulking over their in his apartment, thinking you're freaking out. Which, you kind of are."
"You're a bitch," Len says, but he picks his phone up anyway.
He stares at it for a long time, and when he looks up, Lisa is still staring at him.
"Just fucking text him already, dumbass."
[sent: Nora okay?]
Len is prepared to wait for a response. He's prepared to wait as long as Lisa will let him, anyway.
He doesn't have to wait long.
His phone rings in his hand, not the chime of a text, but a call.
"Answer it!" Lisa hisses, and Len almost doesn't just to spite her.
He takes it into his bedroom and shuts the door, probably barely making it before the voicemail would have picked up.
"Scarlet?"
"Len," Barry's voice sounds almost relieved.
"I didn't think you wanted to talk to me," Len admits, swallowing heavily.
"Of course I did. I was just hoping you'd show up soon than later. I dropped my phone in that warehouse."
"Oh..." Len says, and he wishes that didn't make a whole lot of fucking sense, "I wasn't sure, with Detective West."
"Come home? Nora misses you," Barry says quietly.
Come home. Come home.
"And you?" Len has to ask, because he needs to know. Needs to hear it.
"So do I. Miss you, I mean."
Len doesn't say anything for a long moment, isn't sure he could manage to if he had the words.
"I've got to make a pit stop first, talk to Lisa and Mick. But I'll... I'll be home soon," Len promises.
And he means it.
-x-
Lisa immediately grins when he walks back out, and it takes almost all of his self-control not to say anything.
"So, was I right or was I right?"
"We're not talking about this anymore. You bring your car?" Len asks her, smirking at her slightly confused look.
"Why do you want my car, exactly?"
"It's Christmas Eve, isn't it?"
"Yeah-oh... You want someone to lug a bunch of presents to your hot superhero boyfriend's place, don't you?"
"No. Everything I bought them is already over there..." Len says, and he hesitates obviously before he continues, "but I kept everyone else's presents here."
"Who else did you buy presents for?" Lisa asks, surprised and a little excited.
"You. Mick and the girls."
Lisa's smile is a little blinding.
-x-
He knocks on the door to Barry's apartment for the first time in a long time. Barry answers quickly, pulling him into a hug before he even crosses the threshold.
"Thank you," Barry whispers into his neck, and Len's not even sure what Barry is thanking him for.
He means to ask, really, he does.
"I love you."
Barry stills and then pulls his head back away from Len, though he doesn't loosen his grip on Len's coat.
"You mean that?" Barry chokes out, and Len can only nod.
"I love you too," Barry says, "So much."
-x-
In the morning, Nora wakes them bright and early by jumping into their bed without bothering to find a place to land that isn't attached to anyone. He wants to be mad-he took a very pointy elbow to the gut that he hadn't remotely expected-but she's so full of excited glee that he can't.
Len snaps a picture of Barry's horrible bed head with his phone and slips out of the room after Nora before Barry can retaliate.
They eat chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast as they watch Nora open her presents from Len, and he french braids Nora's hair before she and Barry head to Iron Heights to see his father.
It's easy and domestic and he likes it more than he ever expected to, ever thought he could.
-x-
He doesn't plan it, but instead of hiding away or spending more time with Lisa, lamenting their lack of real Christmases in years, he ends up at the West house while Barry and Nora are gone.
Detective West answers the door with a concerned look on his face.
Len doesn't blame him.
"What are you doing here, Snart?"
"He wanted to tell you. Before, I mean," Len says, "He was going to tell you after Christmas, didn't want to ruin it for you or Nora."
-x-
When Barry and Nora get back from their Christmas celebrations, and Nora gets off to bed, Barry corners Len with a kiss and pressed a little box into his chest.
"What's this?"
"Merry Christmas..." Barry says simply, and he watches him intently as he opens it.
There's a key chain inside, a simple metal piece with a snowflake shape punched out of the bottom.
There's a key attached, and Len doesn't have to ask to know what it means.
The key is identical to Nora's.
-x-
After Barry falls asleep, Len lies awake for a long time. He thinks about how things have changed, how he's changed.
But maybe that's not exactly true-maybe it's not a change so much as a reversion. A regression to the mean of who he used to be. Used to think he could be, for Lisa's sake.
He had dreams, once. Dreams of having a family, a child to care for, a spouse to love. He dreamed of being free of his father, of Lisa being safe. He's got that now.
And Barry hadn't tried to change him. Len had done that on his own, hadn't he? For Nora, but on his own.
He still had plans in play, for heists. Still had every intention of following through.
But at the end of the day, after the thrill of the game and the rush of going toe to toe with the Flash, he had to come home to them. Both of them.
He couldn't give up the way being Captain Cold made him feel alive, but he didn't need it like he used to, as much as he used to.
He's not a good person, never really had the chance to try to be, had he? He knows that, always has.
But he knows he's better than he used to be, better than the cold shell he used to crawl inside. He's not a white knight or a black one, but something else.
Maybe he's the bandit who stole the white knight's heart, who let the sun of the little princess's heart fade his clothes a lighter shade of grey.
Or maybe, instead of something absurdly poetic and overly romantic, he's just Len. Something in between who he was, and who he thinks he wants to be for Nora. A work in progress.
Len falls asleep with Barry's arm flung across his chest and his head pillowed on his shoulder.
-x-
In the morning, the Flash is called for duty. Len stays in their apartment, cajoles Nora into helping him start a pot of homemade soup for lunch, and waits.
Waits for Barry to come home, or a call to arms to help him. Len doesn't think it matters either way.
He'll answer.
Author's Note: There's a quote from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in here. It, obviously, does not belong to me.
And, I'm sure you'll be ecstatic to know, I don't intend for this to be the end of the series. I've got a few more ideas, both domestic and plot-driven, to write up for you.
Hope you enjoyed this~!