A/N: Fun Fact: This chapter was actually the first one that I thought of for this story. I had originally planned on just writing it as a one-shot, and then I thought of ideas for more bonding between Cameron and the other ice villains, so I just made it a story. This is the original idea though, and my personal favorite.

Leonard Snart didn't really think of himself as a social person, but he had to admit, he was more willing to work in a group than a number of other villains were. After all, if one brilliant thief was able to become a master villain, than multiple thieves and rogues would be able to accomplish even more.

This was why he had formed The Rogues in the first place, and there were some pretty good perks when working on a team, if they were the right team. There was always somebody around who would be willing to watch your back as long as you watched theirs. More people with more specialties meant more possibilities. And it certainly made life a hell of a lot more interesting.

Of course, since it was his group, anybody who wanted to join had to play by his rules. He had a code that he expected his people to live by, and if they didn't, then they were out. Simple enough. He liked living by his code and not being a monster, but there were some disadvantages to his rules.

They had made him soft.

Leonard had grown used to living a specific way. He had grown used to people living by the standards he had set. It had almost (almost) made him forget that not everybody lived by a code like he did. He was fine with that, really he was, but it really made things difficult whenever Leonard decided to join up with his fellow ice villains for a heist.

They were a team of sorts, which Leonard was used to. What he was not used to was that he wasn't the boss of these people. Since he wasn't in charge he had no right to tell them how to live their lives.

That didn't mean that he had to be happy about what they did.

"Useless!" Icicle shouted as he threw twelve-year old and scrawny Cameron against the wall. Leonard winced at the sound of the kid's skull striking against the wall, but, against his better judgement, he did nothing to interfere. "What the hell were you thinking?!"

Icicle was absolutely furious, and was taking it out on his kid, which Leonard hated more than anything else. Granted, they were all pretty frustrated right now because their heist they had tried to pull off earlier that night hadn't gone the way any of them had wanted it to, each of them would only be walking away with half the cut they had been expecting, and, in a way, it was the kid's fault.

It had been his job to keep watch and warn them if somebody was coming. An easy enough job, but highly important, even if it wasn't always necessary. Cameron had gotten bored while keeping watch and had let his mind wander. The kid had been so sure that nobody would show up that when, to his surprise, a security guard did show up, Cameron hadn't noticed him until it was too late. Because of the kid's carelessness not only did they lost precious time, they also had to waste even more time to save his scrawny ass from the guard who had caught him.

The five of them had easily made it out, but with a much smaller take than any of them had been expecting, and none of them were happy about it. They all blamed each other, but Cameron, being the youngest and weakest one of them, not to mention the one who had messed up, got the brunt of the anger.

Even Leonard was mad at the kid, but that didn't mean that he thought he deserved this.

"I-I'm sorry, dad." Cameron stuttered pathetically. He had his hands pressed against the back of his head, probably in a vain attempt to stop the pounding pain he was certainly feeling. Leonard could see the kid's legs shaking, and it was a wonder that he was still standing. The kid was tougher than he looked, Leonard would give him that much.

"You think 'sorry' is going to fix anything?" Icicle growled. He backhanded his son harshly, and though the hit wasn't all that strong it still sent Cameron sprawling to the ground. The kid was down, but Icicle didn't look ready to let him off that easily. "Do you have any idea what your stupidity could have cost us?!" Icicle shouted as he kicked Cameron in the chest. Hard.

There was a harsh snapping sound and the poor kid screamed in pain. Leonard clenched his fists at the sound. He would bet his entire share from tonight that the kid's ribs were fractured, or at the very least severely bruised. The kid was seriously hurt, and obviously in a lot of pain. In Leonard's opinion he had more than learned his lesson.

From the burning and furious look in Icicle's eyes, he disagreed...No, that wasn't it. Icicle knew that Cameron had more than learned his lesson, and yet Leonard knew, he knew that the man still had the desire to hit his son. To hurt him. Leonard had tolerated Icicle's punishments towards his son, because the man was under the impression that what he was doing was for his kid's sake. That Cameron was too weak, and this was the only way to toughen him up.

It was an excuse that Leonard had heard before, and not one that he agreed with. And yet, for whatever reason, he let Icicle punish his son and teach him lessons. Leonard did absolutely nothing as the kid got hurt, and he hated himself for it every day.

Icicle always said that he never enjoyed hurting his kid, but it was necessary. That he had no other choice. The look in his eyes right now though, they told a different story. He wanted to hurt his son. He wanted to see the kid suffer.

He wanted to cause the pain that he knew the kid had to be feeling.

Leonard felt a cold fury build up inside of him. He had never been happy with the fact that Icicle beat his kid, but he had never done anything to stop it. Now though? It was completely different. Somehow, a line had been crossed.

Leonard saw Icicle getting ready to kick at his son again, this time aiming for the head, and he just snapped. "Enough, Joar." Leonard grabbed his cold gun from its holster on his hip and he aimed it at Icicle. In an instant Icicle had his own weapon up and aimed at Leonard. The two men stared each other down and the only sound to be heard in the room were Cameron's whimpers and short sobs.

Icicle was the first to break the silence. "You trying to tell me how to raise my kid, Snart?" He growled out, but Leonard didn't let himself be intimidated. He was through with being intimidated by men like Joar Mahkent, who thrived off the fear of others.

"I'm just saying maybe you should avoid killing your own son." Leonard hissed.

"I wasn't going to kill him." Icicle said heatedly.

"You sure about that?" Leonard raised an eyebrow at him. Icicle had been able to kick Cameron in the head. For all they knew, it could have possibly killed him, or at the very least have done some serious and possibly irreversible damage.

Icicle scowled, but Leonard was glad to see a hesitant look in his eyes, which confirmed what Leonard had thought this whole time. Icicle had just been acting in the heat of the moment tonight, without thought of the consequences. Icicle had wanted to hurt his son and cause him pain, which was horrible, but he had never wanted to damage his kid.

What Icicle didn't understand though was that he had probably already damaged his kid beyond repair. Leonard knew this better than anybody.

Without taking his eyes off of Leonard Icicle addressed his son. "Get out of here, Cam." He ordered roughly. "Don't let me see or hear from you again tonight." The boy whimpered and curled in on himself, but a moment later he was staggering to his feet. He was clearly in immense pain, and yet somehow Cameron was able to make his way out of the room.

With his son out of the way Icicle could turn his full attention to Leonard. The hot fury in Icicle's eyes had burned out and was replaced by his usual cold, calculating look. Like Leonard, Icicle was a planner. He calculated and schemed, and even though he lost his cool quicker than Leonard himself did, Icicle never stayed angry and burning for very long. Within minutes he always regained his composure.

Icicle was clearly still angry, but he was now in control of his emotions. Now that he was thinking clearly once again Icicle was studying Leonard, a slightly confused look on his face. He didn't understand something, and he wanted to. Leonard bristled at the look, because he knew exactly what it was about.

"Why does this bother you so much?" Icicle asked. Leonard scowled and tightened the grip on his gun. He did not want to talk about this. Not now, and not ever. "I've always known you were soft. Do you just feel sorry for him?"

"I don't like seeing children get hurt." Leonard admitted in a low voice. "You know that."

Icicle studied him for another minute before smirking slightly, a look of understanding in his eyes now. "I bet it brings back bad memories for you." Leonard tensed and his finger twitched over the trigger. The smug smirk on Icicle's face grew bigger. "Yeah, I know about that." Of course he freaking knew about it. Icicle made sure to read up on any and all villains, super-powered or not. He liked knowing what he was dealing with. Leonard liked doing the same thing with his crew, but damn it all if it was freaking infuriating to have it done to him.

Icicle sighed and lowered his weapon. "You're probably not going to believe me when I say this, but I don't enjoy doing this to Cam, but I have no choice. He needs to toughen up, and this is the only way to do that."

"You want to know how many times I heard that growing up?" Leonard asked coldly. "It doesn't excuse anything."

"I know." Icicle admitted. With that he seemed to deem their conversation finished and went to join Killer Frost for a drink of something on the other side of the room. Leonard stayed where he was for another minute, his cold gun still raised and everything, before swearing under his breath and lowering his weapon.

There was still the uneasy feeling in his chest of cold, hard anger. It wasn't an unfamiliar feeling, but one that he didn't like. At least over the years he had come to find ways to bury the feeling, by doing something with himself to preoccupy his mind.

Leonard stalked to the table in the corner and began the process of taking apart his cold gun, only to put it back together. It was something that he had done hundreds of times before, but still he took his time with it. The cold gun was a complicated weapon, and he didn't want to risk damaging it because he was impatient and hasty.

Taking his time with his weapon gave Leonard the chance to calm down. He could feel his frustration and anxiety ebbing away the longer he worked at it. Not only was it calming, but it was also a good way to pass the time, because all of them had a few hours of waiting still ahead of them.

The five of them had ultimately decided to lay low after committing the heist, just for a few hours, before making off with their individual takes. They didn't also lay low after heists, only when they were in cities like Gotham, which was so overrun with crime and villains that the police force only spent so much time focusing intently on a single heist. After two or three hours another heist would be committed by another group of people, and the police force would move on with their investigation.

It also helped that all of them made sure to not use their ice, so it would just look like any other heist. Gotham was filled with so many super criminals that often times their smaller crime was ignored.

So now they were just sitting here in a warehouse, waiting for the heat to die down a bit. It was a bit boring, but much more preferable to prison time. Leonard himself didn't actually mind the waiting. In a way, he actually enjoyed it. It gave him a chance to let the adrenalin from the heist die down a bit.

The hours passed quickly for Leonard and in what felt like no time at all it was the early hours of the morning, and the heat from their heist that night had probably long since burned down. If it wasn't safe for them to get out of town now, it never would be.

Killer Frost looked ready to get out of there, which was understandable. She hated being stuck in one place for too long. She was most definitely a free spirit. Mr. Freeze...honestly, Leonard had no idea what was going through that guy's head, and he never did. He was just always so expressionless and impossible to read. It was kind of unnerving sometimes.

Icicle, like Leonard, seemed mostly indifferent about lying low. He hadn't seemed to mind the wait at all, but once morning came Icicle sighed and got to his feet. Leonard watched warily as Icicle headed to the door of the room that Cameron had been hiding out in this whole time.

"Junior, come on, let's go." Icicle said gruffly. There was no response. Icicle scowled and entered the room. "Cam!" He barked, and Leonard tensed at the tone of his voice. It wasn't just angry, but also concerned. Something was wrong. Leonard snapped the last piece of his cold gun back into place, picked up his weapon and went to join Icicle in the doorway.

"What's going on?" He asked, though the question wasn't needed. Just one glance into the all too empty room told him exactly what was wrong.

"Cam's not here." Icicle glared into the empty room. "Where the hell could he have gone?"

Leonard cast his eyes around the room and quickly took notice of the single window. He had inspected every inch of this place when they had first got here, and he knew for a fact that the window had been locked. And yet here it was, unlocked and even slightly opened. These facts, as well as Leonard's own experience with this sort of thing, told him one thing.

"He ran off." Leonard said plainly.

"What? Why?" Leonard could tell that Icicle was growing angry again, but it somehow felt different from the anger that Leonard was used to seeing in people.

"Because of what you said earlier." Leonard stated as Icicle's earlier words to Cameron repeated in his mind. Icicle had told the kid that he didn't want to see or hear from him. The kid had been hurt, upset, and scared. People sometimes forgot how hard it was to hide your emotions, especially in silence. Leonard suspected that the kid had been crying and, despite his efforts, couldn't keep quiet. He had probably gotten scared that his dad would hear him and he would get in even bigger trouble than before. So he had run off, just until he calmed down.

"How do you know?" Icicle asked somewhat judgmentally.

"Because I used to do the same thing." Leonard said, and suddenly Icicle was looking at him in a whole new light. "He's probably done this sort of thing before, but this...this is different." Gotham wasn't like Star City. Icicle seemed to have realized this at the same time as Leonard did, and the fierce protectiveness in his eyes (Leonard only recognized the look because it was the same look he got in his own eyes when it came to his younger sister, Lisa.) grew stronger.

"We have to find him." Icicle all but growled.

"You talking about Junior?" Killer Frost butt in. Leonard and Icicle both glared at her, neither of them being in the mood for her antics. They hadn't known that she, and Mr. Freeze, had overheard them.

"Gotham is no place for a child." Mr. Freeze said stiffly. "Especially not at night."

"Which is why we'll go out and look for him." Killer Frost said simply. She glared at Leonard and Icicle when she caught them both staring at her in surprise. "Look, that kid is the only one of you guys that I even remotely like. I'm not about to let something happen to him just because you men are too proud to ask for help."

"Three pairs of eyes will have a better chance of finding him than two." Leonard added.

"Do what you want." Icicle agreed, just because he didn't want to waste time fighting about it. "Just find my son."

The three of them split up to find him while Mr. Freeze stayed at their warehouse hideout. He didn't care about Cameron at all, barely even liked him, but he did swear to call them if the kid were to show up again.

Leonard watched as both Icicle and Killer Frost headed for the central parts of the city. Neither of them probably had any idea of where to even begin looking for Cameron, not like Leonard did. Cameron may not be the smartest kid on the block, but he wouldn't be stupid enough to wander around the streets of Gotham by himself. Especially if he had been out here all night, like Leonard suspected he had.

No, he believed that Cameron had gone somewhere a little more private and safe. Leonard wasn't as familiar with Gotham as he was with Keystone and Central City, but he did know that Gotham Park was only about ten blocks away from their current location. There was no guarantee that that was where Cameron had wandered off to, but it was as good an idea as any, so Leonard decided to go with it.

It took less than fifteen minutes for Leonard to get to the park. He walked past all the guys selling and using drugs (Yet another activity that he highly disapproved of), the couples making out in the dark (Do none of them have apartments to do that in?), and the teenage delinquents that were hanging around (Because nothing said 'Badass' like hanging out at a park). He ignored everybody and just made his way for the large playground.

It looked abandoned, but Leonard didn't give up hope, because sometimes looks could be deceiving. Leonard climbed onto the playground, marveling at how small it was...well, small to him. Leonard was sure that in a child's eyes, the playground would seem huge. The playground was actually made up of multiple structures, all attached to each other by a bridge or a tunnel. There were a number of slides and towers, but at the moment Leonard was only concerned about two things.

The tunnel bridges, or tunnel slides. If Cameron was here, that would likely be where he was hiding, since there really weren't any other hiding places. Unless he was hiding underneath this whole structure, because that was also a possibility.

First things first though, Leonard got to his knees, bent his head and looked inside the first tunnel bridge. It was empty, like he had half expected it to be. That was fine though, because there were more tunnels for him to check, and an entire city after that.

...yeah, this might take a while.

Fortunately Leonard's gut instincts were right, just like he had thought they would be. He got lucky at his third tunnel bridge, which wasn't empty like the others had been. No, this one had the curled up form of a kid who looked kind of cramped in there. Leonard suspected the only reason the kid fit at all was because of how scrawny and small he was for his age.

"Cam?" Leonard reached in and gently shook the boy's shoulder. Immediately the kid's eyes flew open in a panic and, acting on instinct, he shot a shard of ice towards the person who had woken him. Thankfully, Leonard had quick reflexes and was able to dodge the ice blast, because that would have been a pain to deal with.

"Kid, calm down." Leonard said it what he hoped was a calming tone. He didn't have a lot of experience with kids. "It's just me."

Cameron stared at Leonard with wide eyes for a moment before a look of recognition come over his face. "Len? What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you." Leonard said. "Have you been out here all night?"

"All night?" Cameron frowned in confusion and slowly crawled out of the tunnel. He looked at the sky and blinked in surprise at the brightening sky of the dawn. "Oh, it's morning."

"Yeah, it's morning." Leonard rolled his eyes. Did all kids enjoy stating the obvious, or was it just Cam? "What, did you just end up falling asleep out here?" Cameron's sheepish expression confirmed Leonard's belief. Well, at least he knew why Cameron had been gone for so long.

"You're such an idiot." Leonard shook his head. "Do you have any idea how worried your dad was when he found out your were gone?"

"Worried? Yeah right." Cameron scoffed darkly. Cameron sat down at the edge of the playground, letting his feet dangle over the edge. He stared intently at the ground, his eyes shining with unshed tears. "My dad doesn't care about me." He sniffled pathetically.

Leonard sighed and sat next to Cameron. "Trust me, kid, I know exactly how you feel."

"No, you don't." Cameron insisted stubbornly. He crossed his arms over his chest, then hissed painfully and pulled his arms away to avoid irritating his ribs. Leonard reached into his coat pocket and brought out a bottle of painkillers. He had gotten into the habit of carrying the stuff around when he was a teenager, and it had come in handy more times than he could count since then.

"Try going into ice mode." Leonard suggested as he handed Cameron some of the pills. He had gotten rib injuries before, and he knew that putting ice on the injury would help ease the pain and the swelling. Because of Cameron's, well, uniqueness, Leonard wasn't sure how useful an ice pack would be. But hey, for all they knew him going into ice mode would have the same effect as an actual ice pack. It was at least worth a shot.

"Believe it or not, Cam, I do understand." Leonard said again, because it was true. He did understand what Cameron was going through, because he had gone through the same thing. The fear. The beatings. The pain. The anger. Leonard understood it all.

He remembered going to school every day, lying about where he got his injuries while he resented his teachers for not seeing the truth. He remembered the countless nights of cowering in the back of his closet, trying to stifle his sobs and praying that he wouldn't be heard. He remembered the ever-present feeling of hopelessness.

Leonard remembered what it was like to live with an abusive father.

"You're not the only person who grew up with the constant fear." Leonard looked straight ahead. He felt rather than saw Cameron look at him. "The fear of making a mistake, screwing up just a bit, and be given hell for it."

"...Did you dad-?" Cameron trailed off.

"Hit me? All the time." Leonard had a difficult time recalling a day when his dad hadn't abused him when he was a kid. "You may not like me saying this, but trust me, you have it lucky."

"Lucky?" Cameron looked understandably angry and hurt. "How am I lucky?

"Because while your dad may be an abusive asshole," There was no denying that much. "He's an abusive asshole who does love you." It felt so weird to say that out loud.

"Love?" Cameron wrinkled his nose at the word. It wasn't a word that was often used in the vocabulary of villains. "How do you know he l-loves me?"

"It's the little things." Leonard leaned back. "Like how your dad stays home to take care of you whenever you get heat exhaustion." Which happened a couple of times every summer because of Cameron's extreme sensitivity to heat. It was always annoying when the five of them had a heist planned and at the last minute Icicle would insist on postponing it, just because of Cameron.

"Or how he loses his cool whenever you're in danger." Icicle may hurt his kid, but Leonard could remember countless times when he would become infuriated if anybody else ever dared to threaten or hurt his kid. He was a protective dad...except, you know, when he wasn't. "You can't tell me you can't think of a time when your dad showed his softer side."

"...He does help me whenever I'm hurt." Cameron admitted quietly. "Even when he's the one who hurt me in the first place, he still helps. He's more, I don't know, gentle at those times than he usually is."

"Yeah, I bet." Leonard said as he cursed Joar Mahkent for being so incredibly inconsistent with how he treated Cameron. He would abuse and degrade his son, and then he would turn right around and act like the caring father that he should be. No wonder Cameron was confused with how his dad felt towards him.

"Trust me, Cameron, I am the last person who would try to make excuses for how your dad treats you." Leonard said. He knew that Icicle said that he only hurt Cameron because the kid had to toughen up and he didn't know any other way to make it happen. Still, Leonard believed that Icicle should find a better method for making Cam stronger, other than just by breaking him down.

"So why are you trying so hard to fix our relationship?" Cameron asked, which made Leonard pause and think. It really was a good question, and it took him a few minutes to come up with what he hoped was a good answer.

"Because life is hard enough as it is. You don't need to go around making things harder for yourself by not having somebody around you can count on." Leonard was well aware of how sentimental he sounded at the moment, but he really didn't give a damn. What he was saying was kinda sappy, but important nonetheless. "My advice to you is that if you have somebody in your life that actually gives a damn about you, don't let them go."

Cameron nodded, though Leonard was sure he didn't really understand. "How am I supposed to do that?"

"The best I can say is that you need to live through the bad times, and never forget the good." Leonard shrugged. It was the only advice he could think of to give on the matter.

Cameron was quiet for a minute and he looked uncertain about something. Finally he turned to Leonard hesitantly. "...Was my dad really worried when he saw that I was gone?"

"Kid, you have no idea." Leonard smirked. He got to his feet, stretched, and held out a hand to Cameron. "You ready to head back? I'm sure your dad will be relieved to know that you're not lying dead in some dirty Gotham alleyway."

"Yeah, probably." Cameron took the offered hand and slowly got to his feet, wincing when the movement jarred his ribs. Leonard took out his cell phone and quickly sent a text to both Icicle and Killer Frost, telling them that he had found Cameron and they were on their way back to the warehouse. With the messages sent Leonard and Cameron began the walk back.

When it had been just Leonard it had been a relatively short walk, now though he had Cameron with him and was forced to walk more slowly, so to not hurt his ribs. Finally they arrived at the warehouse. They went inside and almost immediately Icicle was upon them.

"Cam!" The boy looked shocked at the genuine relief in his father's voice. Cameron turned to look at Leonard, who raised a knowing eyebrow at him. Their look of mutual understanding was interrupted when Icicle suddenly and unexpectedly put his arms around Cam, pulled him close, and actually embraced him. It was...shocking. Leonard was pleased to notice though that even though Icicle's hold was tight, he was still careful with Cameron's ribs.

The kid stood there dumbfounded for a minute before the shock wore off. Once it dead he hesitantly, as if afraid he was doing something wrong, leaned into his father's embrace. Icicle didn't shout at or scold him though. He just held him close, protectively.

"Don't you dare run off like that again." Icicle said threateningly. Leonard snorted and shook his head. Honestly, only Icicle would threaten somebody because they were worried about them getting hurt.

"...I'm sorry, dad." Cameron said weakly. "I just-"

"I know, Cam." Icicle interrupted. "I know. Just...please don't do something like that again."

Cameron blinked and stared at his father. His dad never said please. He rarely ever asked for something, let alone politely. He would rather make commands than requests any day. Icicle must be feeling desperate to actually ask.

"I won't." Cameron swore, because, really, how could he say no to this? He had never meant to worry his dad.

Leonard watched the two of them for a moment before turning away and heading for his corner to gather his things. Cameron and his father had a dysfunctional relationship, at best, but Leonard was sure the two of them would figure it out.

Actually, now that he thought about it Leonard realized that dysfunctional relationships were kind of the norm for villains and criminals, and that was if they even had any relationships at all. A lot of criminals preferred to work solo, and honestly, who could blame them when getting into relationships seemed to be the quickest way to turn one's life into a shakespeare drama?

As far as dysfunctional relationships went, Leonard liked to think that Cameron's and Icicle's was one of the better ones. God knows that it was nowhere near perfect, but in all seriousness, perfect seemed impossible and boring.

Maybe 'okay' would be good enough for them.

A/N: I love Leonard Snart. He's, like, one of my favorite DC characters. It was a little hard to find a way to write Len's opinions on what's going on between Cameron and his dad. It's complicated, but I think I did it okay.