This is a belated birthday gift for the lovely agentmarymargaretskitz. Happy birthday!
Monday mornings went slow for the team of Legends. They all slept in, dragging themselves out of bed at a far later hour than Rip appreciated.
Sara, however, woke up early on Mondays, earlier even than Rip. She wasn't really sure why, but she wasn't going to question it.
She climbed out of bed and quietly made her way to the mess hall.
Sara liked when she was the only one up on the Waverider, when even Gideon was still in sleep mode. It was probably why she stayed up so late. She liked the silence and the stillness. It was different in the morning, though, as if entire pieces of the universe just stopped existing for the time being. Everything felt much simpler.
Sara hadn't bother to put shoes on, so not even her footsteps interrupted the silence. Maybe that's why she woke up so early, so she could bask in the foggy quiet of a Monday morning.
In the mess hall, Sara put on a pot of coffee — real coffee, not Gideon's fabricated stuff, which Sara tolerated, but she liked the real kind much better. The cabinets still held a few more bags of coffee beans they'd taken with them from their last visit to Central City.
As the coffee machine started, Sara turned to the stove and turned on one of the burners.
Of all the different food tastes they had on the Waverider, scrambled eggs was one of the only things they could all agree upon for breakfast, which Sara was grateful for, as they were also one of the only things she could consistently cook well.
As she was overseeing the eggs cooking over the stove, she heard the sound of someone else entering the mess hall. She knew who it was just by their footsteps and turned to see Leonard in the doorway.
She smiled softly at him before turning back to the stove.
He crossed the mess hall to her and wrapped his arms around her waist, hugging her from behind. He turned his head slightly to kiss her jawline.
"Good morning," he said, his voice still rough from sleep.
"Good morning," Sara murmured back, her hand not holding the spatula falling to entwine with his.
Hugs could never be long enough for Sara. With Leonard, she felt safe, her worries disappearing like dewdrops on grass in summer mornings. In his embrace, the world stopped turning, halting on its axis. There was no time, no wind, no rain. She felt at home.
"You're up early," he commented.
"So are you," she replied, transferring the eggs to a serving bowl. She switched off the stove and then turned to face him, not letting go of his hand.
"I woke up when I noticed you weren't there," he answered. Sara smiled up at him, "and I also noticed I had a fair amount of the blankets for once."
Sara nudged him, but her smile didn't fade.
"Is this early hour becoming a trend?" he asked, "Am I free from dragging you out of bed past noon at Rip's command?"
"I like mornings," she said simply, "It's…peaceful. In the mornings, you don't need words to explain anything. You just kind of know."
Leonard planted a kiss on the top of her head and pulled him towards her again, wrapping his arms tightly around her shoulders. Sara buried her face in his t-shirt, bathing in the smell of freshly laundered clothes. The world around them melted away, neither of them wanting the moment to end.
But, of course, it did.
Jax and Ray, roused probably by the smell of breakfast, traipsed into the mess hall.
"Aw, why do you guys have to be so cute everywhere," Jax said, feigning annoyance.
"I think it's sweet," Ray said. The two began quietly bickering about a variety of subjects.
Leonard and Sara stepped away from each other and smiled before going to serve themselves breakfast.
The early morning silence had been broken and now it was time for the day to start.