Their living arrangements had never been a topic. Actually, having several places gave Len a feeling of safety even one perfectly secured place couldn't. Yes, most of his time was spent either at the Labs or Barry's loft, but they weren't attached by the hip. And yes, the loft was home, felt like home, had been a home, but there was this last bit of resistance.

Barry enjoyed having Len over as much as he enjoyed hunting for his elusive partner and finding him at one of his many places, old and new, rented, owned or just acquired for a while. It was a fun game and he never grew tired of it.

Snart wasn't one for reminiscing, but whenever his speedster relaxed on the couch of the workshop, it brought back memories of before. Fond, soft memories that hadn't been part of Leonard Snart's life up until this point. Now he looked at the lean form stretched out on his couch chair or sofa, reading or just dozing, and he felt this little thrill, this warmth, and a hunger that wasn't purely sexual.

They were already living together, he thought. In a very unconventional way. It was as unconventional as their connection and partnership, and he liked it that way. Having what Mick and Ray had wouldn't work with them.

Barry also spent time with his friends just like before, going to movies, hanging out at Jitters, playing video games or just talking, and he dropped by Iris' or Joe's place regularly. There were family dinners or just invitations to come by. Len himself had his semi-regular coffee dates with Iris, who sometimes picked his brain on a certain article she was writing.

It was their life.

He liked it. He wanted it just like it was.

Looking at his very much wanted guest, still wearing his slightly too big sweater, the checkered shirt and faded blue jeans, looking like some hipster college student, Len knew he loved this man, their partnership, their relationship, their connection. Everything. He wanted this as it was, without the house and white picket fence.

It really drove it home in Barry how much they were becoming a team when he trained with Ray as the other man worked on becoming more accomplished with his water powers. He doggedly trained how to control the finer points of what he could do with water, maintaining their coherence, like bubbles, rings, globes, spheres, even whips and small fountains, down to individual droplets which were still difficult for him. Or Ray went all out and used the powerful offensive and defensive water abilities, which had knocked The Flash off his feet more than once.

Barry usually looked like a half-drowned rat whenever they were done, but no harm done. Running on water was no problem for The Flash, but getting hit by a localized tsunami could literally swipe him off his feet.

"Why aren't you using your powers?" Len asked pointedly.

"Uh, I am?"

It got Barry an eye-roll. "You can freeze time, Scarlet."

"I'm not…"

He waved him off. "Semantics. You could stop and take in the scene, case it, make a plan," he held up a finger, "execute the plan," second finger, "and…?"

"Throw away the plan," Barry laughed. "Come up with a new one. Yes, I get it. I'm just helping Ray train his powers. I'm not fighting the water totem bearer."

"Actually, you are. See it as a fight. You don't help either of you two by pretending."

Barry scowled at his partner and finally wriggled out of the sopping wet suit. He grabbed a towel. "This is just to train, Len," he repeated.

"Care to explain to me again how you trained your powers in the past?" he deadpanned. "I distinctly remember a lot of hair-brained stuff and as-you-go planning."

"And you and the Legends worked with perfect plans and had regular training sessions?" Barry shot back.

Snart had the audacity to smile. "We were manipulated, Scarlet. Everything about us had been pre-planned and wanted that way. To bumble through time and space and hope to right the wrongs." He gave a one-shouldered shrug. "In our case, we wanted to grab what we could and pull a fast one. That backfired. Spectacularly. As you already know, I developed… maybe a conscience, maybe sympathy, but the jury's out on that and not coming back."

Barry shook his head.

"Do not compare us," Len added. "You and your team are very different."

"That includes you now."

"Hm, agreed. My super-power is not dying."

Barry leaned close, dressed in only a towel as he was, and kissed him. "Which is awesome and I like it a lot."

"It also doesn't need training. If it did, I would need to have a real fight to know my limits," Len pointed out, eyebrows raised in a mocking reminder. "I didn't get to be the best thief in the gem cities by play-acting my heists or doing virtual sims either."

Another grimace. Len's smirk was a little victorious. He closed the distance again and pulled the naked speedster into a kiss.

"Learn through your mistakes, Barry," he purred. "We don't want Raymond dead in the first fight where he has to rely on his hydrokinesis alone."

Barry wrapped his arms around him, holding the other man in place. "Good idea," he agreed, chasing another kiss.

"I'm full of good ideas."

"Got one now?"

Len grinned, playful and challenging in one.

Mick joined in the fun after Ray talked his ear off about needing to train.

"Don't need to. I know how to throw fireballs, Haircut," was the gruff reply.

"It's not just about fireballs. You have a lot of untapped potential! Understanding the totem's powers is vital, Mick!"

It got Ray an unimpressed look as Mick devoured another bag of chips. Barry sometimes wondered if the other man had the same speedster metabolism he himself had to deal with. The man was the bottomless black hole others claimed Barry was, and he didn't gain an ounce of weight!

"We're a team," Ray insisted. "What if you accidentally blow someone or something up?"

There was a grunt and Mick balled up the bag. "Nothing accidental about it when it happens."

"Mick!"

Rory raised his eyebrows. Ray met the expression with a stubborn one of his own, arms crossed in front of his chest.

"I'd say withhold sex until he caves," Len drawled, voice low and filled with merciless laughter. "But knowing Mick, he'll take matters into his own hands." He smirked when an impressive scowl was directed his way.

Barry just shook his head. "You really passing on the chance to throw fire at me?" he teased the pyrokinetic. "I'll go slow, I promise."

Mick huffed a laugh. "Like I haven't roasted you before, Red."

"With the heat gun. Not with the totem's powers." Barry tilted his head, challenging. "How about it?"

"You really want to get your butt kicked, Flash?" Mick called a small ball of fire that he lazily spun between his fingers. "Bring it on."

Len rolled his eyes and Ray just looked pleased. Manipulative little bastard, Len thought, impressed.

In the end Barry gave Mick a run for his money, but the man was good with his powers and he had a margin of control that was still missing with Ray. Barry was convinced he was using his Sentinel senses and he was intrigued. Sight and touch enabled Mick to really finetune his attacks and he got close once or twice. He had a sense of where an opponent was, even one using the Speed Force.

Ray was watching with apt fascination, almost a little starstruck. Mick simply shot him a 'told you so' look as Barry came to a stop beside him, looking only slightly singed.

"It's all in the wrist," the Sentinel rumbled and grabbed a bottle, which, surprisingly, didn't contain any form of alcohol.

Yes, maybe it was all in the wrist, but it was also his affinity to fire, the way he instinctively understood the element, and it shower in every attack of defense. It was Mick's element.

Ray was quickly learning to trust in his own instincts, got very experimental, and when he turned to water the first time, everyone was just staring. Clothes and all, Ray Palmer had turned to water. The human shape reformed, fully dressed, turned into Ray, and the man was smiling so widely, it had to hurt.

"This is so cool!" he exclaimed. "Amazing! I didn't think I could do that just yet! It was just there, like a suggestion from the totem and it worked!"

Cisco whooped and they high-fived. "You think the ATOM suit would be influenced by magic, too?" the engineer asked. "Turn to water and then reshape into the fully functional exo-suit?"

"One way to find out," Ray announced, beaming, thrumming with energy and high on adrenaline.

Mick just scowled at him, but that seemed to be his default setting when it came to his Guide.

"Wouldn't that mean Mick can turn into fire?" Cisco asked. "Not just have fire around his body and on the surface of his skin"

Len raised an eyebrow at his oldest friend. "Wouldn't it?" he echoed.

Mick grunted. "Not a show pony."

Ray was bouncing on the balls of his feet. "It might be possible. The elemental totems are quite similar. You might just be able to do that, Mick."

"No."

Len smirked. "Give it time, Raymond. Mick won't be able to resist becoming fire."

He pushed away from the wall he had been leaning against and left the training area.

It was the large hangar next to the abandoned airfield The Flash had used countless times before. It was also where Len had learned to handle his bike, as well as his guns. The bike in question was just parked outside and he started it up, heading back to the city at easy cruising speed.

Snart knew Mick was too much affiliated with fire not to try out becoming fire. He might even have already managed that little trick of magic and simply didn't want to show his hand. But he would master the craft if it hadn't occurred until now.

Training sessions for all of them happened on an irregular basis, working on their strengths and weaknesses, on how they communicated, and how they coordinated everything with what Cisco, Caitlin or Harrison had to relay in form of information. It only took Cisco two attempts to develop a comm device Mick was satisfied with. He also tweaked the heat gun a little more, streamlining it as he had done the cold gun.

"Why do you even need the gun?" he asked. "You have fire-calling powers!"

"Back-up."

Cisco blinked. "Uhm. That's… actually kinda logical."

Mick smiled darkly, almost ferally. "Not as dumb and slow as you expected, kid?"

"I never said you were dumb! Or slow. I know you have mechanical skills. And as a thief you pulled some pretty astounding stuff with Snart. You can take apart the gun and put it back together without blowing yourself up. You actually adjusted it and did some interesting upgrading."

The Sentinel regarded him with a hard to read expression, then chuckled. "You want to write my resumé? Let me help you: I can dumb down tech talk, fly a time-ship, and kick assassin ass."

Cisco snorted a little laugh. "I can believe that. The ass-kicking. You're good at that."

Mick cocked his head. "If you ever want pointers, kid, lemme know." He pointed at the heat gun. "Don't mess with that."

And he walked off.

Cisco found that not much of the original heat gun he had designed was left. Rory had truly taken the whole thing apart, done some astoundingly complex adjustments, and he had made the whole weapon a lot more effective.

So Cisco documented the changes, then added a few more things, especially a measure of intensity for the blasts. When he returned it to Mick, it had two new settings, both for intense heat. Though the blasts didn't last long, they were quite effective.

Mick raised his eyebrows. "Nice," he commented.

"Nice?" Cisco added, looking affronted. "The new setting is ten times your last output! And it's EMP shielded! Right now you could burn a very precise hole into the smallest target or just blow up a car."

"Nice," Mick repeated, smirking. "Make it last longer and it'd be very nice."

Cisco stared at him, mouth open.

"You want pointers how to modify the gun? Ask me. Otherwise, I'll let you know when I'm done tinkering and tweaking your improvements."

Cisco gave a small wheeze. "Tinkering? Tweaking?!"

Mick just patted one shoulder, then took the gun and walked off.

"Tinkering?!" he yelled. "Really? You're not tinkering with my gun, Rory!"

Mick gave him a one-finger salute and kept on walking. He passed by Ray, looking extremely self-satisfied, and Ray chuckled.

"I just added ten times the fire power and your Sentinel is going to tinker with my gun!" Cisco complained.

Palmer shrugged. "He's rather good with that gun. And technically, it's his."

"I made it!"

"The first model," the other man told him calmly, smiling. "Mick took your original creation completely apart and created a whole new gun. He does have more than just a decent understanding of mechanics and engineering. If I didn't know better, I'd say he took at least basic courses."

"He didn't?" Cisco asked, intrigued.

"Nope. All self-taught."

"Wow."

"He doesn't do well with blueprints and schematics, but the moment he can take apart a thing, he can also put it back together, and it works, and he can improve it." Ray sounded proud and he knew it. He was proud of the other man. His Sentinel.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure." He gave the other engineer a bright smile.

"It might be personal."

Ray frowned mildly, then his eyes lit up with something akin to humor. "Mick and I?"

"Uhm… kinda? I didn't know you are a Guide."

"Not many know. I'm… well, was, a Universal Guide. I helped all kinds of Sentinels."

Cisco chewed his lower lip. "Like The Arrow?"

Ray chuckled. "Yes. Sometimes. He's quite… difficult. Very intense."

"And Heatwave isn't?"

"Mick was the first Sentinel that felt… right. We didn't click. Sure, I just knew he was on-line and I could feel him, but we didn't fall all over ourselves and well, bond. It was a slow connection. It took time and building trust. Mick wasn't happy about having a Guide sensing his moods, all those sudden spikes or dips. I know people like to think it's this magical connection when a Guide and Sentinel fine one another, the so-called click, but it's just as complicated as any relationship. Just because he felt good for me doesn't mean I have to bond."

"But you did."

Ray nodded, his smile softer now. "Yes. I know it looks weird from the outside, but we are completely bonded."

"Fire and water?" Cisco asked, brows rising. "I mean, he has the fire totem and you have water."

Another nod.

"Cool."

"It is."

"So… the gun…"

"You're not getting it back," the other man stated, eyes alight with laughter.

Cisco sighed. Oh well…

He didn't bring up an outfit for Mick Rory. He wasn't that suicidal. While Snart appreciated the protective gear and the bike, Mick Rory wasn't the guy for matching outfits. Ray didn't go up against the threat of the week in his new ATOM suit right from the start, now that he had the totem powers, and Mick had never been one for any kind of specialized armor.

Cisco knew about Chronos and he understood that the reluctance, downright dismissal, to wear something like that again. No armor, no exo-suit, okay, but maybe something along the lines what he had done for Snart? He just doodled with designs in his free time. It was fun to imagine, to think about what he could possibly add, what would hinder, what would help, and how to keep things from catching on fire.

Even if Mick Rory would never wear it.