A/N: I have other things that I should be writing right now, but I've been lacking the motivation for the past few days. I'm finally in the mood for writing something...and it's a one-shot that doesn't at all relate to one of my multiple multichapter stories that I'm working on right now. Oh well, I mean, I gotta write what I'm inspired to write. I can't control my muse, I just have to do what it says. I'm a slave to my inspiration.
Oh, and because I know that thing kind of thing isn't everybody's cup of tea and I don't want to get flamed at, this story kinda leans towards some kind of romantic relationship going on between Mick and Ray, with just a side shipping of Mick and Len. It's just hinting at something, but it's a little hard to ignore. So, if you don't want to read that, please don't. Go find something else that will suit your fancy.
It wasn't very often that the Legends got some time off. Traveling into the past to stop time aberrations, and going into the future to stop some villain kept them all pretty busy. Sometimes though the Legends allowed themselves just a couple of hours to unwind and relax. Maybe heroes should be expected to save the world without a break, but they weren't heroes, and they needed a night off every once and awhile.
The nights always ended up being extremely crazy, though they had never started out that way. Most of the time they would wake up either with a massive hangover, or find themselves asleep in somebody else's room (but, strangely, not both at the same time).
This night off hadn't even been planned. Gideon had detected a time aberration. It was a small one, and there wasn't necessarily a big hurry to put things right, which was good because it was taking awhile to find exactly what the aberration was. Amaya and Nate had been in the library for the past half hour trying to research what exactly the problem was, which left all the rest of the Legends to wait impatiently for them.
It didn't take long for boredom to take hold. Sara, who was tense and looking for something to get her mind off of the work they should be doing, told Gideon to turn on some music. The room was soon filled with the sound of a song that Mick only vaguely recognized because it was commonly played at bars and clubs. Not that he payed much attention to the music when he went out drinking. Why would he when he could just drink his damn whiskey?
And because bad (or good, if you asked him) habits died hard, the second that Sara had started playing the music Mick craving a drink. It was unfortunate that Gideon wouldn't fabricate alcohol anywhere that wasn't the galley, and don't tell him that she couldn't, because the ship's A.I. was too damn smart to only be able to create alcohol in just a single room.
Mick reluctantly made his way towards the galley, muttering swears about stupid A.I.s who thought they knew better than everybody else, just because they were all knowing machines. Mick grabbed a bottle of fake whiskey and opened it right then and there. He took a long drink of the alcohol and grimaced at the taste. He made a mental note to himself to pick up some real booze next time they stopped somewhere, because Gideon's fake stuff just didn't cut it.
Mick took another swig from the bottle and started to make his way back to where the others were. Normally he prefered to just drink himself numb by himself, but right then he was bored, and those idiots that he called his teammates were usually pretty good at offering some kind of entertainment.
And boy did they not disappoint.
Mick hadn't even entered the room where the others were before he noticed that something was different. The music wasn't the pop or rock crap that Sara usually listened to. It was Jazz music. Smooth, soft Jazz, which was the type of music that only Amaya or Professor Stein would appreciate.
The sight that greeted Mick when he returned from the galley was even stranger than the change in music. Professor Stein and Jax were on their feet and dancing. Not the type of stupid jumping around that people call dancing, but actual legit dancing. The type that happened with a partner and everything. And, wouldn't you know it, they were partnered with each other.
"What the hell am I missing here?" Mick muttered in a low voice. He had only been gone for two minutes. How could whatever this was have happened in such a short period of time? Ray turned and beamed at him (it seemed like anything could make that guy smile).
"Jax started dancing shortly after you left." Ray explained as Mick took a seat next to him. "Professor Stein got annoyed and claimed that what Jax was doing shouldn't even be called dancing. Then Jax got annoyed and asked if he could do any better, so Professor Stein is showing him that he can."
Alright, that explained the actual dancing. "Why the hell are they dancing together?" Mick asked. It was really weird to watch two guys who he knew weren't romantically involved to be dancing in a way that was obviously meant for couples.
"Because they can." Ray said simply, as though he had no reason to question it at all. Mick decided that it was probably best to not question their reasoning, because he had long since given up thinking that he could possibly understand the way his teammates thought. It wasn't like they gave a damn about trying to understand the way that he thought.
(Sometimes Mick wondered if they gave a damn about him at all, and then Ray would smile dopily at him and those doubts would disappear, at least for a little while).
Still, no matter how much Mick accepted that he would never understand his teammates, that didn't mean that he wasn't going to point out how stupid they looked. "They're acting like a bunch of idiots." And Mick wasn't trying to be insulting, he was just stating facts. An old man and a barely legal kid were clumsily dancing to smooth jazz together. How were they not idiots?
"Or maybe they have the right idea and we all need to relax." Sara smirked in that arrogant, constantly seductive voice of hers. She got to her feet and immediately started swaying to the rhythm of the music. It was clear that this song wasn't the type that she normally danced to, but she didn't seem to care. She probably cared even less that it was a song typically danced to by a couple. Sara just did her own thing, like she always did.
Ray grinned (seriously, how was it possible for somebody to get this happy this easily?) and practically jumped to his feet. Mick knew that he was just wanting to dance and have fun with Sara, Jax, and Professor Stein. What Mick didn't expect though was for Ray to turn to him, a pleading but not quite begging look in his eyes.
"No." Mick growled, because he knew what Ray was going to ask before he even said a word. "I'm not gonna dance." The bright spark in Ray's eyes dimmed slightly, but the smile never left his face.
"Well, you can always change your mind later." Ray said, as if he honestly expected Mick to change his mind in the near future, which he wouldn't. Ray joined the others in the middle of the room and started dancing...or, at least, he tried to dance, though it looked even more awkward than Professor Stein and Jax were.
Ray had a lot of energy though, and he was clearly having fun, so there was that.
Fifteen minutes or so later Nate and Amaya came back and Mick was foolish enough to think that maybe this ridiculousness would end. The two of them probably had the information they had been looking for, and they all had a job to do. Apparently though that job wasn't very important, because when Nate and Amaya saw everybody else acting like a bunch of idiots, they decided to join them.
Mick watched as his teammates seemed to dance to a beat of their own. He didn't consider himself an expert on music or dancing, but even Mick could tell that none of their dancing matched the song that was playing at all, and none of them seemed to care.
Mick grunted and went to take another drink from his bottle when he felt somebody approaching him. Mick glared in annoyance at Ray, who was smiling kindly at him. "What do you want?" Mick asked roughly.
Ray held out his hand. "To ask if you want to dance."
Mick didn't even know how to respond to that. It took him a moment to get over his shock. "Not with you I don't." Mick actually didn't want to dance at all, but especially not with Ray. It wasn't that he hated the guy, but to Mick whenever somebody wanted to dance with somebody, it meant that there was romantic, or at least lustful, feelings involved.
"It's just a dance." Ray said, and somehow Mick could tell that the younger man could tell exactly what he was thinking. "It doesn't have to mean anything if you don't want it to."
Those words sparked a memory in Mick's mind that he had all but forgotten about.
"Hey, Micky, come dance with me." A young woman that Mick knew all too well held out her hand towards him, a playful look in her eyes.
"Not a chance." Mick had grunted as he turned away from her. He hated going to clubs like this, where minors were allowed so alcohol wasn't. He didn't frequent these clubs, and even when he was dragged into coming he didn't get a lot of dance requests, and even the ones he did get he often refused. Normally it was because he wasn't in the mood to deal with a random girl throwing herself at him as she tried to seduce him or something.
That night though Mick had multiple reasons to refuse this girl. The first being that she was underage, barely sixteen, and Mick really didn't want to deal with that can of worms. The second and most important reason being that this girl's older brother was his best friend and had already scared off a dozen young men who had tried to invite Lisa to dance.
"Come on, Mick." Lisa took Mick's hand and tried to pull him towards the dance floor, but he barely budged. "I wanna dance." She made it sound like the only way that she could possibly dance was if it was with him. To be fair though, there was some truth to that statement, as he was probably the only guy that who wasn't likely to get scared off by Leonard.
Still, he wasn't going to risk a dance, because Mick knew how traitorous his body could be sometimes. With just the smallest touch that could be considered suggestive, even just an embrace, a hand to the shoulder, or a dance, Mick's body could either freeze up like he was afraid of being hurt, or it would...well, stiffen in an entirely different way, particularly in the lower areas.
As much as Mick insisted that he didn't need anybody in his life, he did value the Len as a friend, and he wasn't about to ruin that by having an accidental boner while dancing with Lisa, who was really starting to grow into her looks.
Len, who had been listening to their conversation, sighed in annoyance and got to his feet. He gently pushed his younger sister out of the way and pulled Mick to his feet. "Come on, you big baby." Len said as he pulled him straight onto the dance floor. Mick, who had been too surprised to realize what was happening, started to pull back.
"Leonard, what are you doing?" Mick said in a low, warning voice. His friend knew about his thing with affectionate touches, so what the hell was he up to? "I'm not gonna dan-" Mick froze when Leonard took each of his hands in his own and started to dance. It wasn't anything elaborate, just swaying side to side while forcing Mick to do the same.
"It's just a dance, Mick." Len said in that tone of voice that always made Mick look him in the eyes for some reason. "See? It doesn't have to mean anything if you don't want it to." Maybe it was the way that Len was holding his hands and he was too frozen to pull away, or maybe it was the way that Len was looking at him and talking to him in, but Mick trusted his friend, and, for whatever reason, didn't pull away. He couldn't...and he didn't know if he wanted to.
"So?" Ray asked, and Mick realized that he was still there, waiting for him. "Will you come dance? It could be fun."
Mick snorted took another drink. "I doubt that."
"Well, how will you know if you don't try?" Ray asked slowly, He still had that pleading, puppy dog look in his eyes. Mick absolutely despised that look, because it was just getting harder and harder to say no to it. "Please?"
Mick didn't know what the big deal was. He didn't understand why Ray was so desperate to get him to dance. He didn't know why he felt so wary about the invitation, and yet secretly pleased...and he absolutely didn't know what had possessed him to put his beer bottle down and take Ray's hand.
Ray smiled more broadly than Mick had seen in awhile and pulled Mick to his feet just as a new song was coming on. He didn't drag him to the center of the room to join the others. Ray seemed perfectly content to stay in their little corner, which Mick was relieved about, because even though he was fine dancing with Ray he thought that joining the rest of the team would probably put him over the edge.
Ray also switched their positions so that Mick was the one with his back towards the others, which he was glad about. He didn't need to see the judgmental and teasing looks that he was sure that the other's were going to give him.
Even though Ray had done these few things to make Mick more comfortable, he wasn't completely relaxed, and he definitely wasn't invested in the dancing. Mick's definition of dancing was basically to stand there, sway a little, and let the other person do all the work. With every song that passed though Mick became more and more comfortable with whatever it was that they were doing. He still didn't really like it, but it was...okay.
Mick watched as Ray danced with just as much energy as before, even though he now had a partner who moved more like a zombie than anything. Even when Mick all but growled at Ray whenever he tried to get him to do something more elaborate than step touch swaying, the younger man never stopped smiling. And it was the type of smile that was contagious and spread good feelings wherever it was seen without shoving happiness down other people's throats.
Ray Palmer was the only person that Mick knew who could smile like that all the time. And it was...nice. It was actually really nice.
Maybe dancing wasn't so bad after all.
(Mick still thought that they all looked like a bunch of idiots though).
A/N: I was really not expecting this to get so shippy. I swear, it's just how it happened. It's only when I've finished writing this do I realize that whatever feelings are going on between Mick and Ray are probably not entirely platonic at this point.