Mick has to keep reminding himself, even though he's spent the first couple hours at the bar doing nothing but morosely staring into a beer or two as the rest of the world laughs and parties around him. He's never felt so terrible, so much like he's all but betraying his partner.
The free and light question as a pretty girl settles in beside him has Mick blinking out of his thoughts. A roll of his shoulder. "Kinda. Something like that."
"Well, don't let it bum ya out!" She insists, and then she's a flurry of motion for a moment as she turns her attention to the bartender. "Hey, Frank! Get me another round'a shots for me and my new friend--" her attention swings back to him. "Didn't catch ya name." She grins, wide and full of life. "I'm Hailey. And you're comin' back to my table with me. I've decided."
Instinct is screaming at him to go. To get back to Leonard and away from her.
But he said it was okay. So Mick allows himself to be tugged back towards a table without protest. She's young, she's pretty and for some unknown reason, she's interested in him.
She grins and leads the way back to the table with her friends. A round of vague introductions that he'll forget in five minutes goes around and everyone takes shots from the tray he's carrying.
"I've seen you in here before, right?" Hailey tips her head a little to one side, squinting a little at him. "Isn't there usually someone else with you?
She sees...something in his eyes. Something she can't quite place and she decides it must mean whoever he was usually with was otherwise occupied and he had no choice but to be here.
"Well, good. I like just you." She grins and takes another shot.
The night wears on and eventually, whatever tension she'd pulled back to the front of his mind is eased away with liquor and laughter.
Out of nowhere, though, Hailey beams up at the new member of her group for the night and hops up to her feet. "Dance with me." It isn't even a request that's open for debate or refusal, something about her is so playfully commanding that people just can't help following her into whatever she asks for. She's magnetic that way.
"Tell me something about yourself," she grins as she pulls him onto the dancefloor, complete with a seductive slides of her eyes up towards his own.
"Oh you don't want me to.." and Mick still goes when he's tugged. The floor is crowded enough with other bodies that no one is busy looking at him and for the moment it's nice to just be someone else's focus. To relax. To just be without having to watch every word and every gesture.
"Not much to tell," he admits. "Started working odd jobs out of juvie and never really looked back." Not a blatant lie, but he's also not telling the full truth either.
She just laughs in place of insisting he's wrong, and then he's there on the dancefloor with her anyway, despite his obvious reservations about it.
"Ohh," she moves in close and loops her arms around his neck. "My mama warned about boys like you," she smirks and presses her forehead against his. "Lucky you, I don't take my mama's advice too often." She doesn't actually give him a choice before her lips are on his in a kiss, equal parts flirty and deep, like she means it, even if she doesn't and this night is just a throwaway in a long line of throwaways.
Mick is about to agree that he's absolutely the sort that any parent would warn their kids about but then she's pressing up against him, warm and soft and she smells so good. Mick can taste the last shot on her lips and on her tongue, equal parts fruity and sharp and it is so so very easy to get lost in the moment, to get lost in the heat and touch that he'd been craving.
Leonard has a bad habit of forgetting to do the most basic of things like eating and sleeping if Mick or Lisa aren't around to poke and prod at him about it. He just goes until his body gives up because he's so bad about letting himself be distracted or gets so wrapped up in things, he just doesn't notice that he's hungry or tired.
He's in the same spot as when Mick left, though he's slid down and is very clearly passed out at the late hour--or early, depending on how you look at it--that Mick wanders back through the door. He's quiet enough about it that anyone else probably would sleep through it. But Leonard Snart isn't most people and most people aren't wired to sound the way he is. So when the door thuds softly shut and the lock clicks behind it, Leonard hears it.
He stirs and blinks, hard, as consciousness hits him like a brick. He knows the distinct sounds of both Lisa and Mick's footsteps echoing in the halls-- so he knows it's Mick.
And he'd made a guess as to where he went when he left.
The idea may have been his own, but he still isn't entirely sure how to feel about it. Especially now, in the wake of knowing it happened, that Mick took him up on the suggestion.
"Hey," he says quietly from his spot in the doorway to the kitchen, where he seems to have suddenly materialized.
Mick had even stopped at one of their safehouses to shower, to wash away any trace of Hailey left on his skin or his clothes. He's.. actually relaxed enough to sleep, but Mick will also bet a very nice steak dinner that Snart had gotten so caught up in his reading he forgot to eat. Again.
So he'll fix him a sandwich. Maybe knock together one of those easy breakfast casseroles that all he has to do is bake in the morning.
The tension he'd been carrying is gone. Mick looks far more at ease in his own skin as he turns. This is it. Either the deal will work or things are going to spectacularly fall apart. "Hey Lenny."
Leonard can see the effects of the night on Mick instantly. There's an ease in the lines around his eyes and the tension in his shoulders is gone.
I guess you had fun.
Was it worth it?
The list of things he could say in this moment are almost endless and keep rolling over and over in his mind, one after another, each snappier and more jealous than the last. But that's stupid, isn't it? He told him to do it. That it was okay. That he should go for it, because there's no other way out of this endless cycle they've already fallen into.
But.
That doesn't mean he likes it.
And if Leonard dared to do something like be honest with himself, he might even admit that the jealousy isn't at someone else having Mick, not really. Sure, it's a factor, but it's not the real core of it. It's that someone else made him feel this at ease, this relaxed and boneless, and Leonard...can't.
None of those awful, snippy things running through his mind make it out of his mouth, though. He keeps his face a schooled sort of neutral and just tips his head to one side. "You look..." His stomach twists at the images lovingly suggested by his own brain--A faceless woman latching herself onto him like a man in hell with a glass of water; Mick pressing a faceless man against a wall that smirk that was only supposed to belong to him. "better."
Somehow, he manages it all with a straight face. No glances away, no angry-tinted words. Just even and collected, like none of this phases him, when nothing could be further from the truth. Lying is as easy as breathing, and sometimes, even Leonard is surprised by how easily he can con even the closest of people to him.
It's no secret that Leonard can be viciously jealous when the mood takes him. So for as relaxed as Mick might be, there's a cold lump lodged in his chest as his partner lounges in the doorway looking like absolutely nothing is wrong.
He can't be sorry for this. Leonard had said that it was okay. Because there were some things that he just couldn't do anymore. Things that had Mick telegraphing every touch and stuffing down the disappointment when Leonard would dance out of the way smooth as anything.
Mick wants his partner. Lenny. But it's not something he can give so easily these days.
A hitch in the way he rolls a shoulder. It didn't mean anything. It was just a night out. No strings. "Yeah." He was better. That itch crawling beneath his skin was gone and he could sleep easily and quietly beside his partner tonight. A glance over at him. "You eat tonight? Or do you just wanna crash?"
The tension is thick enough to suffocate, and Leonard doesn't know how to make it dissipate. This was supposed to make things better, or at the very least easier, but none of this feels like either of those things.
The questions startles a realization from him, though. "Oh. Uh- no, I didn't," he mumbles, shaking his head a little. "But I'm...not really hungry." He shrugs a little, awkward, stiff, no clue what to do with himself, his hands or his head. He folds his arms across his chest, a silent and, admittedly, mostly subconscious, barrier from the awkward tension in the room, and the reason it exists in the first place.
"Probably can't sleep now, anyway," he adds, unhelpfully. He isn't sure what time he passed out, but he's willing to bet he got a good three or so hours and...Leonard knows himself pretty well. Sleep doesn't come often, and it doesn't happen quickly on the heels of a nap, either.
He's not sure what that leaves, given Mick's options, there, and he probably looks just as lost about that fact as he feels.
Mick almost wishes that Leonard had gotten angry, had picked some kind of fight. It would be easier than this.. mess. The kitchen is a wash of awkwardly uncomfortable tension and a part of him is tempted to just walk away before he goes and makes shit worse.
Again.
"Oh." He shoves the food back into the refrigerator. Suddenly he's not hungry and it at least gives him something to do with his hands. It doesn't last long and Mick doesn't look at Leonard when he speaks.
"For what?" The words tumble out of his mouth dumbly, like he doesn't know what Mick is apologizing for. He can't help it-- he said it was okay, he can t be mad. That's the mantra he keeps repeating to himself over and over. This was a way to fix what was broke. And he had given it the okay. He has to be okay with it.
He's sorry for needing things that Leonard can't give anymore. He's sorry for missing the earlier years when things were so much easier between them. He's sorry for wondering just why in the hell Leonard keeps him around.
But he doesn't say any of it. He just rests his forehead on the cool metal and breathes out. "You know."
Mick slips past him and heads for their room. He's going to lay down and wait for sleep to eventually take him.
"Don't," he mumbles and catches Mick's wrist as he tries to brush by him, tugs enough to make him stop. Leonard's eyes slide up to meet his, "don't be sorry for something that-" he falters, the slightest bit before settling on the word, "helps." Maybe not the best word, but it's not exactly wrong, either. Tension in the air aside, Leonard sees it in everything down to his posture.
Or he did.
Before he spoke up and everything slammed back down on top of Mick's shoulders again. It makes something in his stomach twist as he considers that, in a way, he's the problem. "I mean, it was, until I--" he scoffs softly, no ounce of amusement in the sound at all and lets his hand drop down to his side again. "It's okay," he says quietly, and his voice drops even lower with the next words that come. "it's not cheating."
It takes everything in Mick not to protest when those fingers close around his wrist and bid him to stay, to try and hmmer home that whatever weakness Mick has it somehow isn't his fault .
He'd needed something so goddamn simple. But it wasn't something he could get from his partner.
All Mick wants to do is hold him, tell Leonard that they're okay and that nothing about what happened changes anything between them.
But when have either of them been good with feelings lately?
"I know Lenny. I know."
He shifts uneasily. "Stay with me? Just until.. until I fall asleep."
Leonard presses his lips together at the uneasy silence that stretches longer than he would have liked. The request is so...simple it almost hurts. He nods, glancing down for a moment before looking back up at him, because he deserves that much as he answers with a quiet, "Yeah. Yeah, I can do that."
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no subject
Date: 2018-03-16 08:22 pm (UTC)He said it was okay.
Mick has to keep reminding himself, even though he's spent the first couple hours at the bar doing nothing but morosely staring into a beer or two as the rest of the world laughs and parties around him. He's never felt so terrible, so much like he's all but betraying his partner.
The free and light question as a pretty girl settles in beside him has Mick blinking out of his thoughts. A roll of his shoulder. "Kinda. Something like that."
no subject
Date: 2018-03-16 11:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-03-17 12:33 am (UTC)But he said it was okay.
So Mick allows himself to be tugged back towards a table without protest. She's young, she's pretty and for some unknown reason, she's interested in him.
He even carries the shots. "Mick. I'm Mick."
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Date: 2018-03-17 01:17 am (UTC)"I've seen you in here before, right?" Hailey tips her head a little to one side, squinting a little at him. "Isn't there usually someone else with you?
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Date: 2018-03-17 01:42 am (UTC)Mention of another only reminds him of his partner and Christ he feels sick.
"Not tonight. It's just me. Nobody else."
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Date: 2018-03-17 05:51 am (UTC)"Well, good. I like just you." She grins and takes another shot.
The night wears on and eventually, whatever tension she'd pulled back to the front of his mind is eased away with liquor and laughter.
Out of nowhere, though, Hailey beams up at the new member of her group for the night and hops up to her feet. "Dance with me." It isn't even a request that's open for debate or refusal, something about her is so playfully commanding that people just can't help following her into whatever she asks for. She's magnetic that way.
"Tell me something about yourself," she grins as she pulls him onto the dancefloor, complete with a seductive slides of her eyes up towards his own.
no subject
Date: 2018-03-21 08:33 pm (UTC)"Not much to tell," he admits. "Started working odd jobs out of juvie and never really looked back." Not a blatant lie, but he's also not telling the full truth either.
no subject
Date: 2018-03-22 12:18 am (UTC)"Ohh," she moves in close and loops her arms around his neck. "My mama warned about boys like you," she smirks and presses her forehead against his. "Lucky you, I don't take my mama's advice too often." She doesn't actually give him a choice before her lips are on his in a kiss, equal parts flirty and deep, like she means it, even if she doesn't and this night is just a throwaway in a long line of throwaways.
no subject
Date: 2018-03-22 01:09 pm (UTC)Just for one night.
Only one.
no subject
Date: 2018-03-23 12:08 am (UTC)He's in the same spot as when Mick left, though he's slid down and is very clearly passed out at the late hour--or early, depending on how you look at it--that Mick wanders back through the door. He's quiet enough about it that anyone else probably would sleep through it. But Leonard Snart isn't most people and most people aren't wired to sound the way he is. So when the door thuds softly shut and the lock clicks behind it, Leonard hears it.
He stirs and blinks, hard, as consciousness hits him like a brick. He knows the distinct sounds of both Lisa and Mick's footsteps echoing in the halls-- so he knows it's Mick.
And he'd made a guess as to where he went when he left.
The idea may have been his own, but he still isn't entirely sure how to feel about it. Especially now, in the wake of knowing it happened, that Mick took him up on the suggestion.
"Hey," he says quietly from his spot in the doorway to the kitchen, where he seems to have suddenly materialized.
no subject
Date: 2018-03-23 01:05 am (UTC)So he'll fix him a sandwich. Maybe knock together one of those easy breakfast casseroles that all he has to do is bake in the morning.
The tension he'd been carrying is gone. Mick looks far more at ease in his own skin as he turns. This is it. Either the deal will work or things are going to spectacularly fall apart. "Hey Lenny."
no subject
Date: 2018-03-23 02:22 am (UTC)I guess you had fun.
Was it worth it?
The list of things he could say in this moment are almost endless and keep rolling over and over in his mind, one after another, each snappier and more jealous than the last. But that's stupid, isn't it? He told him to do it. That it was okay. That he should go for it, because there's no other way out of this endless cycle they've already fallen into.
But.
That doesn't mean he likes it.
And if Leonard dared to do something like be honest with himself, he might even admit that the jealousy isn't at someone else having Mick, not really. Sure, it's a factor, but it's not the real core of it. It's that someone else made him feel this at ease, this relaxed and boneless, and Leonard...can't.
None of those awful, snippy things running through his mind make it out of his mouth, though. He keeps his face a schooled sort of neutral and just tips his head to one side. "You look..." His stomach twists at the images lovingly suggested by his own brain--A faceless woman latching herself onto him like a man in hell with a glass of water; Mick pressing a faceless man against a wall that smirk that was only supposed to belong to him. "better."
Somehow, he manages it all with a straight face. No glances away, no angry-tinted words. Just even and collected, like none of this phases him, when nothing could be further from the truth. Lying is as easy as breathing, and sometimes, even Leonard is surprised by how easily he can con even the closest of people to him.
no subject
Date: 2018-03-26 12:51 pm (UTC)He can't be sorry for this.
Leonard had said that it was okay.
Because there were some things that he just couldn't do anymore. Things that had Mick telegraphing every touch and stuffing down the disappointment when Leonard would dance out of the way smooth as anything.
Mick wants his partner. Lenny.
But it's not something he can give so easily these days.
A hitch in the way he rolls a shoulder. It didn't mean anything. It was just a night out. No strings. "Yeah." He was better. That itch crawling beneath his skin was gone and he could sleep easily and quietly beside his partner tonight. A glance over at him. "You eat tonight? Or do you just wanna crash?"
no subject
Date: 2018-03-26 08:28 pm (UTC)The questions startles a realization from him, though. "Oh. Uh- no, I didn't," he mumbles, shaking his head a little. "But I'm...not really hungry." He shrugs a little, awkward, stiff, no clue what to do with himself, his hands or his head. He folds his arms across his chest, a silent and, admittedly, mostly subconscious, barrier from the awkward tension in the room, and the reason it exists in the first place.
"Probably can't sleep now, anyway," he adds, unhelpfully. He isn't sure what time he passed out, but he's willing to bet he got a good three or so hours and...Leonard knows himself pretty well. Sleep doesn't come often, and it doesn't happen quickly on the heels of a nap, either.
He's not sure what that leaves, given Mick's options, there, and he probably looks just as lost about that fact as he feels.
no subject
Date: 2018-03-28 11:53 am (UTC)Again.
"Oh." He shoves the food back into the refrigerator. Suddenly he's not hungry and it at least gives him something to do with his hands. It doesn't last long and Mick doesn't look at Leonard when he speaks.
"'m sorry."
no subject
Date: 2018-03-28 12:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-03-28 12:42 pm (UTC)He's sorry for missing the earlier years when things were so much easier between them.
He's sorry for wondering just why in the hell Leonard keeps him around.
But he doesn't say any of it. He just rests his forehead on the cool metal and breathes out. "You know."
Mick slips past him and heads for their room.
He's going to lay down and wait for sleep to eventually take him.
no subject
Date: 2018-03-28 04:19 pm (UTC)Or he did.
Before he spoke up and everything slammed back down on top of Mick's shoulders again. It makes something in his stomach twist as he considers that, in a way, he's the problem. "I mean, it was, until I--" he scoffs softly, no ounce of amusement in the sound at all and lets his hand drop down to his side again. "It's okay," he says quietly, and his voice drops even lower with the next words that come. "it's not cheating."
no subject
Date: 2018-03-29 01:14 am (UTC)He'd needed something so goddamn simple.
But it wasn't something he could get from his partner.
All Mick wants to do is hold him, tell Leonard that they're okay and that nothing about what happened changes anything between them.
But when have either of them been good with feelings lately?
"I know Lenny. I know."
He shifts uneasily. "Stay with me? Just until.. until I fall asleep."
no subject
Date: 2018-03-29 03:15 am (UTC)