A/N: Another little fluff piece written after Episode 12 'Last Refuge'
"Now, you're sure this thing exists?" Sara asks as they creep past the door to Rip's quarters toward a hatch they've walked by repeatedly but never once opened.
"Yes," Kendra says, gesturing for Sara to lower her voice when she thinks she hears footsteps approaching. "Ray found it. He told me exactly where it is."
"And why would Rip have this again?"
"Nostalgia, I'm guessing," Kendra says, turning the latch to the metal door and wincing when it snaps unlocked with a hollow, metallic clang. "I mean, a lot of people equate breakfast cereal with childhood - Saturday mornings in front of the TV, the wacky shapes, the plasticky little prizes hidden inside the boxes that you had to search for. It's just…a happy thought. Plus, it was the only way you could get away with eating marshmallows before noon."
"You might have a point," Sara concedes, twisting her head around to make sure no one's following them. "But, they wouldn't be from his childhood, would they?"
"Well, they're from someone's childhood," Kendra deduces, opening the door by inches so it doesn't squeak and give them away, "so they still hold a certain air of whimsy."
"Personally, I think I'd pick Netflix over this."
"Yeah, well, you can get cheesy movies anywhere." Kendra steps through the hatch and motions Sara inside. "This you can only get one place, and some of them you can only find during a particular time."
Sara closes the hatch behind them and locks it tight. They walk silently, single file, along a dark, narrow corridor, which Sara assumes will probably lead to a stairway down into the belly of the Waverider. But instead, it begins to lighten, and through the shadows ahead both women can see that the passage they're traveling opens into what could be a hangar, but instead of stowing a ship inside, it houses aisles and aisles of boxes, like the warehouse of a supermarket that only sells one thing - cereal.
"Look at all that cereal," Kendra breathes, half in disbelief, half in awe.
"Oh...my…God," Sara says, mentally rescinding her Netflix preference. "It's better than I ever dreamed."
"When Ray said secret stash, I thought he meant maybe some boxes in a corner, covered by a tarp, possibly a crate, but this is…" Kendra's gaze climbs the stacks of cereal boxes from floor to ceiling, shrink-wrapped into columns, a couple with the plastic torn where someone has already liberated a few boxes.
"I…I wouldn't even know where to start," Kendra says with a laugh. "I mean, cereal isn't necessarily my favorite thing in the universe, but…"
"I know what you mean," Sara adds, walking up to the closest column and running her fingertips up the compactly wrapped boxes of Sir Grapefellow. "It's like having a little bit of home here with us."
"I wonder how many different kinds he has in here," Kendra muses, walking slowly from column to column.
"Just point me in the direction of the Sugar Smacks," Sara says, reaching the end of the aisle before Kendra. But a foot away from the edge, she stops, hairs on the back of her neck prickling, her body on high alert.
"Really?" Kendra comments, unaware of Sara's current state. "You strike me as more of a Wheaties kind of girl…"
"Hold up," Sara whispers, putting a hand on Kendra's shoulder.
"What…what is it?" Kendra asks, looking warily around, trying to sense what Sara senses.
Sara puts a hand to her ear, leaning close to the space between the boxes. "Do you hear that?"
Kendra listens, inclining her head in the same direction. It's faint, barely discernible over the inhale-exhale of her own breathing, but it's definitely the sound of crunching somewhere in the distance.
"Is that…"
Crouching a bit, they tiptoe the rest of the way, following the sound that seems to stay put, and gets louder with each step.
"Could the Waverider have rats?" Kendra asks, keeping close behind Sara and watching their backs.
Sara spots them first. She stops walking, straightens, and crosses her arms. "You could say that."
Kendra turns and follows Sara around the next corner of boxes. Kendra sees two pairs of scuffed, heavy boots, and she immediately knows what's coming next.
"Mick? Snart?"
"Hello, ladies," Leonard says, crossing his legs at the ankles and popping a handful of cereal into his mouth.
"How did you guys know this was here?" Kendra asks.
"Who do you think told little Ray-Ray about this hold?" Snart replies. "You don't think he actually sniffed this out on his own, do ya?"
"And you didn't think to tell us?" Sara asks, arms still crossed over her chest.
"We didn't think you cared so much about something as frivolous as breakfast cereal, and besides," – Len smirks – "we gave you guys a little more credit that you'd find it on your own eventually."
Sara strolls up to Mick, curious to get a peek at the bright yellow box he's holding, a cartoonish clown face drawn in crayon on the front.
"Your favorite cereal was called Kaboom?" Sara chuckles. "Why am I not surprised?"
"Nothing beats shoveling sugar-coated smiley faces down your throat every morning." Mick winks. "Gives ya quite a buzz."
"I'll bet," Sara says. "Just…turn the box around, would ya? That clown face is creeping me out."
"And your favorite cereal was called…" Kendra tilts her head, trying to read the box in Snart's lap, "Twinkles?"
"It was my mom's favorite actually," Snart clarifies. "You couldn't get it in the seventies, but she talked about it all the time." He glances down at the box as he reaches in and grabs another handful. "It's the red elephant on the box that really sells it."
"O-kay, well, you enjoy." Sara takes a step back, then turns to walk off in search of her own fave.
"Hey," he calls after her, "don't knock it till you've tried it."
"With a name like Twinkles," Kendra says, putting up a declining hand, "I think I'll pass."