They'll say you are bad
or perhaps you are mad
or at least you
should stay undercover.
Your mind must be bare
if you would dare
to think you can love
more than one lover.
― David Rovics
x
They call it correctional experience. Nora knows it's just an euphemism for house arrest.
Moving her from the Time Bureau facility to a much worse prison was Ava's idea of giving her a second choice. Nora would rather have stayed in her cell, blissfully alone with herself and her demons.
They put a monitor around her wrist, an enchanted silver cuff that forces her to stay within a one hundred feet radius from whoever wears its twin, which Ava gives to the last person everyone would have expected, especially Nora.
"Wait, what?" Nate exclaims, staring at the silver band Ava places in his hand like it's scorching hot. "Me? I thought- "
"You're in charge of miss Darhk's custody for as long as she is assigned to the Waverider," Ava declares. "Congratulations, Mr Heywood."
Nathaniel casts Ray a look that's almost scared, as if he's afraid his friend will hold him personally responsible for this. But sweet Ray Palmer just returns the look with a helpless shrug.
And that's it.
"So," Nate says as he opens the portal to the Waverider, the day of the official transfer. "It's you and me, Darhkling."
"Get lost," huffs Nora with a glare, wrinkling her nose at that stupid nickname.
"Aren't you the sweetest thing." Nate smiles sarcastically, then places his hand on the small of her back in a gentle but firm invitation to cross the portal. The warmth of his touch lingers on Nora's back even after it's gone.
Nate Heywood's countenance changes at once as he's on the Waverider. His shoulders loose their strict posture and relax into a more natural posture. There's a small smile he keeps trying to smother, but it won't fade completely.
He's in his element, here. He moves in the ship corridors with the confidence of someone who's showing his home to a guest. A home he's visibly proud of.
Nora doesn't remember when it was last time she felt at home. Her brain sends her a brief flash of herself receiving Ray's letter, and a flicker of joy emerges among her bitterness.
She meets the Legends in their control room and gets a full body scan from Captain Lance, whose guarded expression causes Nora to tense instinctively.
"Hey!" Ray walks into the room with a big smile plastered across his face. His attention lands immediately on Nora and Nate and, if possible, his smile gets brighter. "Buddy! So good to have you back on board!" He clasps his hand around Nate's and the two hug like they haven's seen each other in years. Then Ray looks at Nora, and she's smiling back before she even knows. "It's good to see you, too."
"Likewise," she says, and it surprises her to realise it's not even a lie. This big nerd has really grown on her.
Nora is assigned a room of her own, and Nate gets the one right in front of it. Nora feels as caged as she was at the Time Bureau, only here she has an audience and, apparently, a full time guardian.
But things actually are slightly better, here. She has a real bedroom. One with fresh linen and brand new clothes and stuff she can own.
And a Beebo on her bed.
She doesn't need to wonder whose corny idea it was. Whenever she looks at the stupid thing, she sees Ray Pamer's face watching her softly through his silly suit.
So damn huggable, she thinks, looking at the hideous fluffy thing, but she's not sure she's really thinking about it.
x
She has been taken out of a prison to be put in a home, but it's a home where she cannot seem to find her place.
She's meant to cooperate with the Legends and prove her good intentions, and she thought it would be easy, but it's not. She's a stranger in a close knit family, a foster kid among siblings, and this makes her feel even more alone. Even if Ray is constantly trying to make her feel welcome, she feels the others' eyes on herself all the time, feels the barrier marking the line between them and her. There may be no more bars around her, but she feels them all the same.
Back at the Time Bureau, at least, she was isolated. Here, she is constantly forced to put up with the Legends bickering and yelling at each other for the stupidest reasons. They are insufferable (and also a maybe little cute?) and Nora has to admit that, if this is a secret punishment, it's working damn well.
What hurts, however, the most is the gradual realisation that she might not be as special to Ray as she believed.
She sees him everyday, sees him with Nate, and it's a lot of little things that make her reconsider her own position in Ray Palmer's heart: there's something in Ray and Nate's physical interactions that gives off a strange vibe of intimacy that goes way beyond friendship.
Nora will never admit it, but it hurts.
It hurts so much she wants to punch Nathaniel every time she sees his damn pretty face when she opens her door in the morning.
"'Morning, Sunshine," he greets today, just like every day, and Nora's stomach twists unplesantly.
"Ugh," she whines, brushing past him without even deigning him of a glare.
"Lovely to see you, too," he calls after her.
Nora speeds up her pace and groans in frustration when, three seconds later, the magic of the cuff abruptly pulls her back before the corridor turns.
"Sorry about that," Nate says as soon as he reaches her. "I'll try to keep up, next time."
Nora rolls her eyes. He sounds sincere, but she refuses to acknowledge it.
x
She doesn't really know what her place within team is supposed to be.
Sara is literally perfect: she can do anything and is flawlessly capable of handling a bunch of unruly kids with a mere snap of her fingers. This makes her intimidating and hard to approach. Not that she seems remotely interested in Nora.
Mick and Charlie ignore her most of the time, which is okay for Nora, as long as she gets to do the same.
Constantine likes her. He talks and listens to her, values her opinion and never fails to make her feel like she's actually bringing something to the table. She's deeply grateful for this.
She likes Zari, because Zari unapologetically doesn't like her and won't even bother to pretend otherwise. Unlike the others, who always seem to be a little patronising to Nora, Zari isn't afraid to tell her what she thinks, and Nora appreciates this kind of honesty. It keeps her motivated.
Ray is... Ray. He's around her as often as he can, chatting and rambling and showering her in attentions she is starting to be a bit afraid of, because they are increasing the something she feels for him.
And then there's Nate. Nate, who follows every second she spends with Ray with a critical eye, and looks both angry and sad at the same time. And who can read into her a little too easily.
"You don't have to pretend with me," he says once after he catches her staring longingly at Ray as he's literally just sitting there across the room, fixing a piece of his suit with music in his ears. "I know you like him."
Nora sinks back into her armchair with her arms crossed over her chest and gives Nate a pointed glare. "Oh, because you know me so well, don't you?"
Nate observes her, blue eyes full of curiosity. There's a softness about him Nora never noticed before. "No. But I know Ray," he says with a fond glance to the subject in question. "And you just can't meet Ray Palmer and not like him. Even Mick likes Ray."
"Well, I'm happy for Mick," she retorts sardonically. "They should get married."
There's a short pause, then Nora hears: "Oh."
Nate's eyebrows are rising in realisation. "Oooh!" He straightens up on the couch and leans towards Nora gaping in surprise. "Not only you like him. You have feelings for him!"
Blushing isn't the best reaction if you're aiming for denial, but Nora cannot stop herself. "That's- that's ridiculous."
"No, it's not."
"Mind your own business if you don't want that pretty face of yours turned into a pig snout!"
Nate smirks. "You think I'm pretty?"
"Oh my god, will you just leave me alone?"
Several seconds pass. Nora thinks she's finally safe, when Nate, without taking his attention from Ray, says: "He likes you, too, you know?"
"Yeah, sure," she replies in a mocking tone, but he insists: "He does." He sounds sad. Not angry. Just sad.
She starts wondering what is going on. What is this about? Is Nate going to threaten her because he's afraid Ray likes her more than him? As if there's even a chance. "Why are we having this conversation?"
"Because he's big and strong on the outside, but on the inside he's a delicate little flower," Nate finally turns to her, and the look on his face pierces her like a blade. "And if you break his heart, I'll kill you."
"Jealous, Nathaniel?" she teases. She's just trying to conceal her uneasiness: what Nate just said left a mark within her. It wasn't his words, but rather his tone, like he truly believes Nora could hurt Ray in any way.
Nora wants to stress that if there's anyone here who's going to get their heart broken, that is her, but her mouth stays shut.
She keeps watching Nate who is watching Ray, forehead creased by genuine grief, and for the first time she sees something beneath the confident surface. Something she can relate to.
Because Nate Heywood is doubtlessly in love with Ray Palmer and he, too, lives with the firm belief the one he loves loves someone else.
x
Nora is not allowed on the field.
She could do so much, and yet she is forced to stay on the ship and wait for everyone to come back, hoping everyone will come back.
John is teaching her how to use her magic for the right purposes and Nora is getting better and better at controlling her powers. Her dad would be proud, she thinks, to know she is doing her best to turn her life around.
The day Zari, John and Ray get injured by a strigoi and Gideon can't heal them, everybody turns to her for help. She sees the blood on their clothes and the paleness of their faces, and for a moment she doesn't think she can do it. Her friends are going to die and it will be her fault.
She stops on that fragment of thought, that little word that sounds so foreign on her tongue, and yet it came so naturally she barely marvels at it.
Friends.
She has friends.
The warmth this awareness brings to her helps her focus. She heals John and Zari in a matter of minutes, and their faces when they wake up to her brings tears to her eyes.
When she gets to Ray, things get complicated. She's nervous. Her hands keep shaking and somehow her magic won't flow through her as it did before.
"I- I don't why, but I- I can't- " She turns to John, desperate, asking the question with her whole, trembling body.
"You're too involved, love," he pants, and she doesn't even care everyone can hear. She wants to save Ray. Screw her feelings. "You need to detach yourself from your emotions or your fear will kill him."
Nora is crying. She feels them, the burning tears, roll down her face to fall one by one on Ray's bleeding body. He's dying. She's watching him die and she isn't doing anything about it. She can't do anything about it.
"Hey." A touch on her shoulder. A touch she knows, a warmth she remembers. Nate scrutinises her closely, gives her shoulder a gentle squeeze. "You can do this. Look at him. You can do this, Darhkling. I trust you."
A spark ignites in Nora's chest. The cold of her fear dissipates like mist under the sun and in a blink the warmth of Nate's touch is flooding through her hands and into Ray. The wounds slowly shrink and disappear. Colour returns in Ray's cheeks. He hazily opens his eyes and grins affectionately when he sees her above him.
"Nora."
She closes her eyes, a knot in her throat. The way he said her name makes her want to throw her arms around his neck and never let go. Ray can barely keep his eyes open, though, and everyone is looking, so she just cups his face and smiles reassuringly. "It's alright, big guy. You're gonna be okay."
In the same exact moment she senses the absence. The warmth on her shoulder is gone. Nate has taken a step back and observes her and Ray, smiling. Crying. He looks away when she seeks for his eyes.
Nora feels guilty, even if she doesn't know why.
"Have some rest, now," she whispers to Ray, running her thumb down his bloody cheekbone. She tries to absorb as much as she can of this moment, of this small shard of intimacy they're having, because she knows it can't last and she needs something to cling to when loneliness creeps under her skin at night.
She steps away from Ray and lets Gideon do her job with him and the others.
Nate has retreated in a corner and is quietly watching the scene from afar. There's that look on his face – that silent longing completey devoid of any hope. She knows that look as well as she knows the feeling that causes it: Nate sees a wall between himself and the one he loves, too.
"Don't worry, Pretty Face," Nora tells him before she leaves the med bay. "I'm not going to steal your boyfriend."
"No, you're not." Nate cracks a blue smile, eyes her like he knows a secret she ignores. "You can't steal something that's already yours."
x
Days turn into weeks, and weeks into months.
The Waverider still doesn't really feel like home to Nora, but it no longer feels like a cage.
Stupid Nate has spread his disease and now everybody is calling her Darhkling. Which she doesn't entirely mind (it reminds her of her father calling her Nora-doll) but every time someone uses that nickname, she feels like she's pushed a little closer to a line she's still not sure she wants to cross.
If she starts considering these people her family, she'll have something to lose again, and this would be terrifying.
She has shared pieces of herself with the people of the Waverider, and they have shared something of theirs with her. For the first time since forever, she is allowing herself to trust new people and develop a bond with them, and she can almost say she's happy.
But she isn't. She's better, yes, but not happy. Not yet.
Maybe she'll never be, but she feels dangerously close to it, sitting here reading with one eye and watching Star Wars with the other. Ray is snoring soundly next to her and, on his left, Nate keeps prodding his side to cut the snoring. Useslessly.
"I'm sorry we're still stuck with these."
Nora looks up from her book. A smile crawls up her lips before she even knows. Nate is fidgeting with the silver cuff on his wrist, turning it again and again between his fingers. He seems wistful.
"I really thought you'd be free by now," he continues. "You've already proven you've changed. I'm sorry you're still-"
"Nate," she cuts in softy. She puts the book down and reaches out to place her hand over his own. "It's okay. This is not your fault. I'm... surprisingly content with the situation."
"Doesn't mean you deserve being a prisoner," he argues, his voice low in his throat. "I wish I could do something about this."
Nora addresses him a provocative chuckle: "I'm bound to you. Where you go, I go. There's a lot you could do."
"I can't give you the freedom you've legitimately earned."
Nora feels a familiar pang in her heart. It's the sharp awareness of desiring something you'll never be worthy of. "I can see why he loves you so much," she says out of the blue.
And Nate – Nate tires to pretend he doesn't undertstand, but he does. She knows him too well by now.
"Huh?"
"You're just like him." She smiles. A tired, sad smile like the one Nate wears when they talk about Ray. "Maybe not as bubbly, but... you're good, and brave, and kind. There's a lot to love, in you."
He sighs out a laugh, tilts his head to one side. "Is that a compliment, miss Darhk?"
Nora shrugs as nonchalantly as she can. "Mere assessment."
With the rest of the Legends off to a drinking night, the ship is unusually quiet – apart from Ray's snoring. Nora and Nate are used to this. They have been discovering each other in these silences, sometimes without speaking at all. When they talk, they talk about Ray, an awful lot, but talking about Ray inevitably leads them to talking about themselves, and this has changed a lot of things. Nora still sees Nate as a rival, an obstacle bewteen herself and the man she loves, but she has learned to accept Ray's uncoditional love from him, and she can now safely say that she and Nate have become, if not really friends, at least good frenemies.
"You know," begins Nate after a while, observing the peaceful rise and fall of Ray's chest between them. "When I first noticed this dork's interest in you, I thought it was just a crush. It didn't worry me. But then," he sighs, eyes low. "The way he looked at you changed. He saw something in you the rest of us couldn't see, and he liked it. He loved it." Nora wonders if she's reading him right, because he looks both glad and dejected at the same time, and she's not sure this is emotionally possible. "And that's when I knew I'd lost him. That's it, she caught him, he's not coming back, I told myself."
"Except you didn't lose him," Nora points out. It's a strange feeling for both of them, she believes, having Ray right here, between the two of them, and not knowing where any of them truly belongs.
"More like lost and found." Nate smiles nostalgically. "I tried to hate you for taking him from me, you know? But the more I get to know you, the more I understand that I could never hate you. You're one of a kind, Darhkling. Raymond's lucky to have you."
"You love him. You really do," she notes, and doesn't know why she sounds so surprised. After all, she already knew this.
"Oh, man," A small, hearty laugh escapes Nate's lips. His eye shimmer as he shakes his head lightly. "How can you not love this beautiful dork? He's- I don't think he realises the extent of the impact he's had on my life. I am who I am today because of him. He made me stronger. He made me better. He saved me in more many ways than I can count."
One corner of Nora's mouth curls. "Sorry, can't relate."
Nate smiles back. A warm shiver runs down Nora's spine. Her heart swells with fondness until it aches. Fondness for Ray, who never ceases to amaze her for all the love he effortlessly collects from people, but also for this man right here, telling her straight and flat he's glad she's in love with the man he loves.
"You really are something else," Nate says, then brushes a lock of hair behind Nora's ear as his thurmb outlines the curve of her cheek.
She leans into his touch without thinking – forbidding herself to think and ruin whatever is happening – and dares a small smile. "Is that a compliment, Mr Heywwod?"
Nate's eyes caress her in a way they never have before. "Mere assessment," he mutters, a husky edge to his tone.
The ground beneath Nora's feet starts shaking.
x
So maybe Nora has a bit of a thing for giant dorks with kind eyes and a pure heart.
And this is a problem. This is a problem because it only makes things exponentially worse for her.
Now she's in love with two people who are in love with each other, and there is no way this can possibly end well.
She feels stupid for not having realised this sooner. She knows there was an in between, a transition, but when she tires to think back of its stages, she cannot remember: it's like one day she was she was mad at Nate for even existing, and the next she was stroking the silver of the cuff linking them together like it was a precious gift.
She's not familiar with feelings and relationships. She has no idea how they work and what it is supposed to be like to be in love, but she's quite positive your affection shouldn't go two separate directions and you shouldn't hope the two very recepients of said affection end up together.
Thinking about Ray and Nate... it's a funny thing. Seeing them together makes her both incredibly happy and unbearably miserable.
Something must be wrong with her. Something in the way she feels must be working all wrong.
She opens up about this with John. He's sort of become her mentor, after all, and she knows he'll understand.
"There's nothing wrong with you, love," he says with a smirk and a gentle pat on her cheek. "That's just you being a perfectly functional human being. Congratulations."
"Have you ever- " Nora starts, but the words die on her lips.
John, however, magic or not, is an excellent mind reader: "Been in love with two people?"
Nora just nods. John smirks again, mischievously: "Our capability to love doesn't hit capacity after our first lover, does it? If we can fall in love again after loving one, and then again, and again... why couldn't we love two at the same time? Why just two?"
John's words keep Nora awake at night. She turns and turns them in her head, tries to weave them into her memories, to see if they match with what she's lived with Ray and Nate. She wonders if John is right. Is she can love, and love twice.
She gets up, restless, and heads for the door. She's already outside when she realises she cannot go to the kitchen: the cuff on her wrist keeps her here. She can only go so far from Nate.
But just as she turns to go back inside, Nate's door opens and she finds herself facing his tired face, the gray shadows under his eyes. He hasn't been sleeping, either.
"I didn't mean to wake you," she mumbles.
"You didn't," he says. He's barefoot, just as she is, wearing nothing but deep blue pyjama pants. "Couldn't sleep?"
Nora nods. "Yeah." She can't bring herself to look at him. She's too afraid she'll like what she sees.
"How about a cup of tea?" he offers, and Nora feels a surge of heat in her cheeks.
"I'd love that," she says, wrapping her arms around herself. Nate notices. He disappears in his room and comes back with a white shirt in one hand and a hoodie in the other. He hands it to Nora. "Fresh from the laundry, I promise. Smells pretty good, doesn't it?"
Nora accepts it. It's huge on her and falls way below her waist. It does smell good. It smells like him.
Nate makes her chai latte. He steals it from Zari's not so secret stash.
"She's going to kill me if she finds out," he comments, sounding anything but apologetic. "But this stuff is to die for."
He hands her the steamy mug – the one with Keep calm and dream on, they don't really know who brought it to the ship – and Nora's fingertips brush against his skin when she takes it. Nate stares at their touching hands with a contemplative expression. Or maybe he's just reading the writing on the mug. Maybe both.
"Thank you," she mutters. It breaks the spell. Nate blinks, retreats his hand. His focus is still on Nora's.
They sip their latte in silence, only occasionally sharing a surreptitious glance. Nate keeps shifting his position against the counter. It's not exactly like he's uncomfortable; it seems more like he's trying to keep himself distracted.
"So," Nora begins to break the ice. "What's keeping you awake?"
Nate lays his mug down. He rolled his sleeves up to his elbows and Nora just can't not notice the cuff glistening around his wrist, the trail of light hair all over his strong forearm.
It's you and me, Darhkling, he said at the beginning, and who knew, at that time, they would end up here, stalling on the edge of an unthinkable borderline.
"Things have changed around here," he says, colourlessly. "You've turned a lot of tables, Darhkling."
The way his eyes set on her makes Nora's knees weak. He has that face again, that bittersweet look she can't yet can understand. He steps closer to her, so close that his scent is not only in her nostrils anymore, but all around her. So close it hurts.
"Nate- "
"No, it's okay." His hand cups her face. Nora has to close her eyes because what she sees in Nate's eyes is taking her breath away. "I've loved and lost before," he whispers. "I can handle it."
But I can't, she sobs in her mind. Despite this, she brushes the back of her hand down Nate's face, his stubble rough under her skin. Nate's fingers close around her wrist, over the cuff that has been keeping them bound all these months. The cuff that has forced them to gaze into each other and find something neither of them had been looking for.
And yet.
Here they are.
"We shouldn't do this," she breathes shakily, but her body is saying something else. She doesn't even know what is going on, because she's pretty sure she and Nate have spent the last few months remarking how much they are in love with Ray, and that is still true, but this is also true, and...
"It'd be such a bad idea," Nate agrees just as his fingers curl around Nora's head.
"Yeah."
"The worst."
"Yeah."
"Maybe just- " Nate leans in, so slightly Nora barely registers it. And he fixes her with those beautiful eyes so full of... of... "Just once..."
There's a crash of ceramic against the floor. Hot latte splashes their feet as Nora's mug crashes and Keep calm and Dream on go separate ways.
She throws her arms around Nate's neck and pulls him down into a desperate kiss. Nate envelops her in his arms, holds her tight against his chest. He's much taller than her and firm and solid as a rock, but the way he kisses her and runs his palms over her back is soft and delicate. Loving.
Nora's head starts spinning. She loves Ray. Nate loves Ray. But this thing happening between them... it feels so real. So deep.
When the kiss ends and they break apart, Nora's heart is racing. She gasps for air, dizzy and shocked, and looks at Nate full of dismay and... something else. She opens her mouth but he shakes his head, breathing hard, and stops her before she even knows what she wants to say.
"We're not talking about this."
It sounds reasonable. Nora isn't even sure she can deal with this right now. It's too sudden. Too unexpected. The one certainty she has been clinging to has just crumbled through her fingers and now she doesn't know what to believe anymore.
"Okay." She steps back, runs a hand over her mouth, where Nate's taste still lingers, then eyes him playfully: "We're still jealous of each other, right?"
Nate brings his hands to his hips. A silent laugh shakes his chest. "Absolutely."
"Okay," Nora nods and takes a deep breath. They're still standing too close.
"Okay," Nate echoes without moving an inch.
"We probably should..." She gestures at the mess on the floor and only now Nate seems to realise what happened.
Nora bends to collect the shards, but Nate stops her. "Careful. You could cut yourself."
She cocks her head with a disbelieving smile. "And here I thought you were the one with Haemophilia."
He blushes behind a shy grin. "I'll get a towel."
While Nate dries the floor, Nora picks up the pieces of her mug one by one and tries her best to ignore the fact that she's probably going to have to do the same with her heart very soon.
x
Love is a very peculiar thing, Nora muses while listening to Nate rambling about how he feels sorry for what happened between them and why it should never happen again.
She wants to tell him that this long, passionate speech is only making her like him even more, but he's so cute she cannot bring herself to stop him.
He's so good. So pure of heart.
Nora definitely has a type.
"I'm going to tell Ava that if she really wants to still keep you on a leash, she's going to have to do this without me, because I can't possibly keep this up any futher. You deserve to be free, and deserve to be with Ray without these restraints and without me ruining everything for the both of you."
"Nate," she cuts in. "I'd love to be free and even more I'd love to be with Ray, but let's face it: he loves you. There's no way I could ever- "
Nate takes her hands, squeezes them tight. "I'm not getting in the way, Nore. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. I just want you guys to be happy."
"Ray would never be happy without you," she half giggles. Even if it hurts to say it. "Can't you see? You two have been in love since way before I arrived!"
"But Ray deserves-"
"Ray deserves someone good!" she exclaims, and this time it's so blunt it makes Nate jump. "Someone like you!"
"No!" Nate yells back. He's so fervent he's crushing her hands into his own. "He deserves someone he loves and who loves him back!"
"Which is exactly why it should be- "
"Both of you!" Ray stands on the threshold of the library with his hands threateningly planted on his hips. "What's going on in here?"
They didn't even hear him enter.
"Nothing." Nate immediately drops Nora's hands and steps away from her, as if he was afraid Ray may accuse him of something.
"It was not nothing," Ray strides into the room and considers them disappointedly. "I could hear you arguing from down the hallway. You're breaking my heart, guys."
Nora exchanges a glance with Nate. "We weren't... exactly..."
Nate steps forward and spreads his arms with a sigh. "I was trying to convince Nora to tell you how she feels about you."
Ray scowls in the funniest way and turns to Nora. "Oh?"
"Which is useless," she says, glaring at Nate for his foolishness. "Because you two are clearly in love with each other!"
"Nora!"
"Nate, come on!" she soothes. "I love you guys, you deserve to be happy. Together."
Anger flashes through Nate's eyes as he stomps up to her face: "And how am I supposed to be happy without you?"
Nora frowns. "What?" she breathes, just at the same time as Ray does. They look at each other puzzledly, then at Nate again.
"Okay, this is awkward." Nate grins nervously. "So, uhm... I may be in love with you. As in, both of you."
"You're what?" Ray and Nora shirek in unison.
"Yeah, this is nuts, right?" Nate's grin is getting more and more awkward. "Please, don't tell me I'm just confused. It took me a long time to figure this out and I swear- "
Ray straightens his back and and clear his throat while stepping forward. "If you're confused, so am I."
"That makes three of us," Nora conveys tentatively, eyes wide.
"Wait, what?"
There is a moment of silence, during which they all stare questioningly at each other. The situation is a little too unlikely to be real, and if it was real, it would almost be comical because... well, it cannot be that simple?
"Are we all..." Nate's gaze flickers in disbelief from Ray to Nora and back. "Confused?"
Ray is beaming like an idiot despite the absurdity of what is happening. "I think we are?"
"Stop speaking in metaphors, this is confusing enough!" A small, timid smile tickles Nora's lips as she meets the boys' amused looks and realises the accidental irony of her words. "Don't say anything," she snaps, but she can't make herself sound menacious.
Ray raises a hand. "Can I just- Just to make sure... Am I getting this right? Are we seriously all into each other?"
Nate scratches the back of his head with a goofy grin. "Yeah."
"It's hard not to be into you guys," says Nora, smiling. "You're far too easy to love."
"Oh my god." An expression of sheer wonder spreads on Ray's face. "I can't believe it worked."
"What worked?"
Ray gives a guilty shrug. "I may have persuaded Ava that Nate would be the best choice as Nora's supervisor on the ship. I just wanted you two to become friends – you know, like a get along shirt? I couldn't have dreamed you would..."
Nate gapes at him. "You played with us?"
"No! I was just- "
"We nearly clawed each other's eyes out for you, pal!"
Ray blinks like an innocent lamb. "Me?"
"Us both being in love with you was the reason we hated each other so much in the first place," Nora explains, and understanding finally dawns upon him. "Oh."
Nate comes to pat Ray's back with a big grin brightening his face. "Turns out being in love with Ray Palmer is a great subject to bond over," he says, and squeezes Nora's shoulder.
Ray looks overjoyed and insufferably smug. He keeps looking from Nate to Nora like an excited child. Nora would punch him for plotting this behind their back, if she wasn't so happy with the result.
"So," Ray says sheepishly. He opens his arms in an unmistakable invitation. "Is it okay if I... If we..."
Nate breaks into a delighted laugh and without a warning pulls him into his arms. "Come here, big guy," he giggles. The hug has Nora trapped between their bodies, and she has no intention to complain. "Let's just try not to crush our tiny Darhkling," Nate adds, winking down at her.
Nora scoffs to conceal the moved tears that are rising in her eyes.
She lets her two giant dorks rock her into their embrace and sighs blissfully, thinking that this must be what home feels like.
Warm.
Safe.
Full of love.
Full of love.
A/N: Yep, I really wrote this. I don't know where this came out from, but here we are. I can't remember feeling so inspired in a very long time, but these people have sneaked their way into my heart and now won't leave. This was initially going to involve Ray much more, but it wrote itself differently than I expected. As usual, though, my stories end up being basically very long love letters to Ray Palmer. Sorry, I'm just so in love with this guy. And, yeah, I love Nate and Nora, too, so here we are.
As I said, I love all these characters so much I started thinking what would happen if they were forced to face their feelings for each other one way or another. I firmly believe Ray loves both Nate and Nora with all his heart (and that's a lot), and I feel like Nate and Nora would work just fine together, so... yeah, this is what happens when I take my multishipping to the next level.
I'm painfully aware this is not going to get much attention, because it's already hard enough to get a review in more popular ships, this is so unique noody will probably bother to even read it. but still, if by any chance you read this end enjoyed this, it would mean so much to me if you left even a tiny review.