"So on a scale of 1 – 10 how much were you joking about your dad having to break up a party?" Ava asked as they were in the elevator heading up to Leonard Snart's apartment which was where the party was being held.

"It's only happened like…" Zari stopped to think for a moment, "two times?"

"Four," Nate chimed in, leaning back against the elevator wall, "There were few times the cops were called on us before you started hanging out with us Z,"

"Honestly most of the times were noise complaints," Amaya reassured.

"There was that one time Oliver and Tommy got arrested," Jax said.

"Yeah, well Tommy and Ollie were always getting in trouble," Sara said. She nudged Ava, giving her a reassuring smile.

The elevator dinged open and they were greeted by the muted but distinct sounds of pop music.

"Wait, I thought we beat Leonard here," Ray said as they walked down the hall. He knocked on a door and then tried the knob when there wasn't a response after a few seconds. The door opened and there were already half a dozen people or so. Ava recognized none of them. Scratch that. She knew one of their faces, because Amaya was already in there, beer in hand. Only it couldn't be Amaya. Amaya was standing behind her.

"Oie, about time you lot got here," the Amaya look called out, "I had to let myself in,"

"And how'd you do that, exactly?" Zari asked.

"Picked the lock, obviously," She said with a deadpan.

"You're lucky Len and Mick like you C," Wally said, "Or he might kill for breaking in,"

"It's not breaking in if I was invited,"

"If you'd just come with us to the show you wouldn't have had to break in," Amaya sounded mildly tired.

"Your baby party? No thanks,"

Amaya shook her head and Zari rolled her eyes. Sara snorted, turning to Ava, "Charlie, Ava. Ava, this is Amaya's sister, Charlie,"

"Nice to meet ya," Charlie said with a nod. The door was still open behind them and Mick appeared in it, followed by Nora, Cisco and Caitlyn.

"You let yourselves in," Mick growled, "Great I didn't have to it. There's beer in the fridge and Leonard is picking up the pizza. Don't go into my room or I'll kill you,"

"Micky," Charlie grinned ear to ear, "Good to see ya, pal,"

He grunted in a way that somehow sounded happy and gave her fist bump. The apartment quickly filled up with people from the show ad many more who Ava didn't know. Sara kept her at arm's length throughout the night, introducing her to everyone. She met former members of the dance group, Carter and Kendra who'd both retired from dance to peruse anthropology degrees with minors in Egyptian mythology. She learned the group of people dressed like they'd just watched out of an 80's grunge band were the members of Charlie's band.

When the apartment started getting full people filtered out onto the fire escape and roof, Legends included. Eventually the party progressed to the roof properly with Barry, Ray and Cisco Gerry rigging a mass of extension cords and cables to their music equipment to the roof.

"Are you sure that plug can handle that voltage?" One of Kara's friends, Lena asked, sounding dubious as Cisco pulled the cord close to reach the plug.

"I'm pretty sure," He answered. As he plugged it in there was a spark. He jumped back, snapping his hand away.

"Told you," Lena said.

"Do you want to do this yourself?" He bit out.

She arched a brow and went over to help them. The others laughed as she took over.

"So, I want to know," Nate said to Kara and Barry, his voice drawing Ava into the other conversation happening in their group, "Why that song?"

Barry gave a little shrug, "We wanted to do something we hadn't before,"

"Isn't the vocals normally the other way around," Wally asked, "Barry sang the woman's part and Kara the guy's,"

"We wanted to give it our own little mix,"

"So it has nothing to with the dude in the musical falling for a beautiful heiress?" Zari asked.

Alex snorted on her drink, coughing. Sam tapped her on the back lightly.

"What? No that's has nothing to do with anything," Kara said, adjusting her glasses.

"What's the deal there?" Ava asked in a whisper to Sara.

Sara was smirking behind her cup, "So much. Too much to get into right now,"

Cisco and Lena got the music up just then, sound blasting from the speakers. Wally's eyes perked up.

"This is my jam," He grabbed Sara, pulling her with him to dance.

"Are you guys always this carefree?" Ava asked Nate as she watched the group gravitate into the dance as well.

"Pretty much, yea," He laughed, "The Legends grown on you like that,"

"Still think that's an ostentatious name,"

"Because we haven't grown on you yet," His grin turned mischievous. He grabbed her arm and tugged her without warning to the mass of dancing bodies.

"Wait, no, no," She tried to back out. Unfortunately for her, Wally got hold of her next. There was something about this enthusiasm that made it impossible to deny.

It wasn't really any surprise that legends took over the dance floor. Even pulling off moves off the cuff their natural synergy made it seem cerography. Ava did escape the dancefloor when Charlie's band started to play. She retreated to a corner of the roof to catch her breath. She didn't want to admit to herself, but this was fun in its own way. It certainly wasn't her scene. But the Legends and their friends made up for that.

Sara found her there two songs later, a pair of plastic cups in hand.

"I got you a drink,"

"Umm…" Ava nervously glanced the cups.

"It's just soft drink," Sara reassured her.

Ava relaxed, "Thanks," She held her hand out but paused, "Which one?"

"Doesn't matter. Both are coke," Sara pressed the closer one into Ava's waiting hand.

Ava's surprise must have shown because Sara chuckled, sitting on the edge of the roof with her, "Shocked I'm not drinking?"

"No!" She said too loudly to be convincing.

"I don't blame you for assuming. I do drink. But I'm part of the sober crew for tonight,"

"Sober crew?"

"Yeah. We try to keep the ratio of drunk to sober people 50/50 in our group. We've got a few exorbitant drunks in our crew. Zari and whoever has DD duties for the night would never survive if everyone else got wasted,"

"That's… surprisingly mature,"

Sara threw her head back as she laughed, "Have we made that much of a bad impression?"

"Honestly…" Ava gave a sheepish smile, "You and your friends come across as the wild party animal type. Most of you. Amaya and Zari seem more reasonable,"

"Amaya is. But don't let Zari fool you. Dance parties aren't her natural turf. Give her a red bull and any battle royale game and that's her party,"

Ava chuckled.

"Wow, an actual laugh,"

"Hey," Ava sounded affronted.

"And here I was worried you weren't having fun,"

"I'm loathed to admit it, but… yeah, I am. Guess that's going to last until the cops come,"

"When they do, I know the back way out. I don't let you get caught,"

"The fact you just said when and not if does not inspire confidence,"

"Don't worry Sharpe, I got you," Sara grinned, holding out her cup. The smile was infectious. Ava couldn't help it as she tapped their cups together.

"I didn't get the chance to tell you what I thought of your performance,"

Sara waved a dismissive hand.

"No. You deserve the compliment,"

"And actual compliment? Did I give you spiked drink by accident?"

Ava shoved her shoulder. "I'm trying to be nice here!"

"And I was trying to be modest. But if you want to fuel my vanity with your praises, by all means, continue,"

"Don't make me regret it,"

"I don't think I could,"

"Have you all considered doing dancing for money?"

"We've done some shows for friends of friends and like where we got paid. Nothing too big. But everyone has other stuff. Now that the show's over I'm not going to see half of them in the studio for at least a month,"

"And what about you?"

"What about me?"

"How soon are you getting back in the studio?"

"Tomorrow. If Rip doesn't tell me to get lost so he and Gideon can hook up,"

"You really think they're hooking up?"

"Why else would they constantly be meeting?"

Ava shrugged, "You don't know what they're doing. Maybe it's official stuff for the center,"

Sara snorted, "Sure,"

Ava turned so she faced Sara properly, "But back to you and dance. Why don't you do gigs on your own?"

"It's not the same," Sara shrugged, "I don't like to perform alone,"

"I can't believe I'm going to say this, but watching you guys made me itch for the stage again,"

Sara's eyes lit up, "Why didn't you play then?"

"I would have been a farce if I got on the stage without any preparation. It would have been an insult to you and everyone else. You all worked so hard,"

"You are aware that your practice with Gideon at least three times a week,"

"Yeah but that's different,"

Sara shook her head, "We're having a good time, so I'm not doing to pick an argument by asking you how it's different. I'm just going to make you pinky swear you'll play next time,"

"Pinky swear? That thing kids do? You can't be serious,"

"I'm dead serious Sharpe," She wiggled her pinky in front of Ava, "Come on. Or we can spit shake on it if you prefer that,"

"Ew, no thank you," Ava curled her pinky around Sara's, "I'll consider playing next time,"

Sara groaned, "Fine, I'll let you slip in a loophole for tonight,"

They winced at a bad note from the music. Most of the proper band members had been switched out at this point, Lena was on the keyboard, Caitlyn on the bass. It was obvious they weren't used to playing together. Charlie and Alex were sharing a mic trying to harmonize a Queen song. Sara chuckled at the sight.

"Alex must be drunk if they got her to sing,"

"She doesn't sing usually?"

"She'll only sing sober if she's in her shower,"

"She sounds good for someone who only drunk sings,"

"Which is what we all tell her. Hey, I have an idea. You should play a song with them," Sara said, nudging Ava with her foot.

"What, no I can't,"

"I'm sure you can. There must be one song you all know in common. And no one here is going to care if you mess up. Half the people are too drunk to notice anyway,"

"But…"

"Hush. It will be fine," She whistled to get the stage's attention, "Hey! You guys want a violin for some backup?"

"A violin? With a rock set up?" Charlie asked, taking into the mic without much care, "I like the idea, Ms. Lance. Anything's worth trying once. Get 'em up here,"

"Sara. I don't even know any of the same songs,"

"You all must have one pop song in common," Sara got Ava's violin case for her, holing it out.

"But I haven't played for a crowd since… it's been a while,"

"Then this the best place to dip your toes back in. Everyone on stage right now is just going off the cuff anyway,"

Ava's hand clenched.

"I'm not going to force you, Sharpe. But you're pretty amazing,"

Jax had set up a mic stand for Ava and was waiting for her so he could adjust the height.

With a nervous grin, she opened her violin case and her heart stopped. Everything stopped. She made a choked sound. Sara startled at it.

"What? Ava!" She grabbed her hand. She looked she knew instantly what was wrong.

"My violin," Ava's voice was horse, "Where is it?"

"You morons!" She turned, searching for the boys

"Sara my violin, it's gone," Her breathing was panicked, "What… Someone stole it. And replaced it with… with this," She took out a plastic ukulele.

"Ava, breath, please," Sara took her hands, "It wasn't stolen,"

"But," Her mind race back through the night. She had with her at all times. The last time she saw it… the last time. The violin itself, she last saw it when he put in the case before leaving. She didn't open the case once. So how...

"I know who took it,"

"You do?" Her words were short and strained.

"Got ya!" Wally shouted out, but he paled when he saw Ava's stricken expression.

"Hey, Ava it's okay. Your violin's safe," Nate tried to reassure.

It didn't help because Ava had just become aware that not only was she having a panic attack. It was happening in the middle of a party and everyone was looking at her.

"I told you we weren't doing the prank on her," Sara fumed.

"But… tradition," Nate said weakly.

"My violin," Ava said, looking up, struggling to breathe properly.

Wally and Nate were understanding how badly this backfired at this point and they were both apologizing.

"It's safe as it can possibly be. We swear," Nate said.

"It's locked in Rip's office in his cupboard. You can go first thing in the morning,"

"No, that's… it's my violin. I can't go home without it,"

"Hey, it's fine. We can do get it tonight," Sara said.

"What?" Wally did a double take, "Sara it's after midnight,"

"I'll go with her," Sara said, "Ray, lend me your car,"

"Uh, right," Ray fished in his pockets for his keys. He threw them for Sara.

Sara put an arm on Ava's back, leading her back through the apartment. She gave a dirty look back other shoulders at Wally and Nate as they let.

They were halfway to the center when it dawned on Ava just what they were doing, "I'm sorry," She said in a small voice.

"Why are you apologizing?"

"I dragged you away from the party and your friends,"

"Ava, you didn't drag me anywhere. Thirty minutes and we'll back at the party,"

"But,"

"If anyone should be sorry it's me. I knew they had something planned. I told them to drop it when you said you weren't performing. But they went along anyway,"

"Nate… mentioned tradition,"

"Yeah. It's an old standing thing at the youth center. To help anyone new not feel as nervous for their first performance, we prank them. My prank was my outfit got switched out with a corset and leather pants. Looked great, but good to dance in though,"

"I feel so stupid. I didn't even notice,"

"You weren't looking at your stuff when you were helping set up,"

"But it's my violin, Sara. It's my instrument,"

The car pulled into the parking lot for the center. It was empty by now. Sara turned off the engine and looked at Ava, "Hey. You don't have any reason to feel bad here. I promise you, once we get your violin safely back in your hands I'm going to kick Nate and Wally's asses so hard they won't be able to sit for a year,"

Ava gave a weak laugh, "Don't punish your friends on my account,"

"But it's fun to punish them,"

This made Ava laugh again.

"Okay?"

"Better," Ava said.

"Okay, let's go,"

Nardragon~ until the next page.