{And in that moment, I swear we were infinite

[myheadisaprison]

For all your Soulmate AU desires!

Comments

for Leonard

[adultflash]

It's during the middle of a therapy session. One he was desperately seeking a way out of anyway, but the sensation hits him like a truck, and he legitimately feels dizzy.

"I...I'm sorry, I have to go. I don't feel well," he says, giving both Iris and the therapist an apologetic look. It's not the first time he's bailed, so they let him go. It's not a lie, either. He just doesn't know why he doesn't feel well.

He runs, and he doesn't even really know why he's running the direction he's running in, until his feet seem to stop on their own outside of Saints and Sinners.

[mypriority]

Leonard tried. He really did. He tried to stick it out with the team, to continue whatever purpose he seemed to have found in them somewhere along the way. But the truth of it all was... it was just too much for him to deal with. A Waverider without Mick just wasn't the same. So, he left and went home because it was the only place that made sense. The familiarity of the city is a bigger comfort than he expected it to be. Sure, there are plenty of gut-punches painted around the city blocks, but it's still better than being stuck on a timeship. Leonard finds himself at a bar that's more familiar than just about anything else in the whole city, nursing a beer in a booth in the back when something tugs and bursts a familiar warmth in his chest. He has no reason to think it's anything but the alcohol in his system and the memories long gone. He sips at his beer in silence, giving off enough of a 'leave me alone' vibe that most people are perfectly content to do just that.

[adultflash]

Fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately), Barry Allen is not most people. He just makes a beeline for him when he sees him, and it feels like he can't breathe for a moment. For some reason, a memory of that brief touch to his shoulder surfaces.

"Leonard?" he manages to ask quietly, sitting down next to him. "It's been awhile. Are you...are you back? Or just...here for a little bit?"

[mypriority]

A soft smirk slowly rolls across his lips as Barry sits down with him. "You would be the first one to find out I'm back," he drawls lightly, glancing up from his beer to look at the younger man. "You know, I haven't even told Lise yet. She might slap you for being first." There's a beat or two before he actually responds to the questions, but he does answer all the same. "It's...not temporary. I'm back." The words have a weight attached to them that he just can't shake.

[adultflash]

Barry laughs awkwardly. "I...I don't even know how I knew you were here. I just didn't feel well, and I started running, and then I was here."

He lets out a slow breath when Leonard says he's back. "Good. I'm glad. Things have been...well. You wouldn't have known, being out there in time and space, but I was trapped in the Speed Force for six months. Coming back has been...an adjustment."

FLIP A COIN, I GUESS?

[quinnbee]

Leeny knows it can't alway be like the movies where the first words you hear your soulmate say are romantic or poignant or touching or, or, or at least funny. Most soulmate tattoos are boring regular stuff, but at least individual enough to be useful.

She has a scribbled HA HA HA on her left wrist. How the hell is that going to help her? Is she fated to be with everyone in a sitcom studio audience? It's impossible. She'll never find out who is her match.

But when she hears it at Haly's circus, she knows this is right. She can feel something just click inside her and she follows the sound behind the tents, where the performer trailers sit.

"You gonna share the joke?"

[likeavirus]

She's greeted with identical faces twisting toward the sound of her voice in unison. Their reactions to her presence couldn't be more different, though.

"Uh- you know, you're really not supposed to be back here." This one was...well, geekier looking by all accounts, and sounded small and meek in a way the vibrant, animated boy next to him definitely wasn't.

"Who cares," he pipes up, bounding to his feet in one fluid motion, already walking over toward her. "She can be anywhere she wants." He doesn't see his brother's exaggerated eyeroll as he stops just short of her, extending one hand in an exaggerated fashion. "You're gorgeous and I'm Jerome. The wet blanket over there," he motions with a jerk of his thumb over his shoulder. "is Jeremiah. What can we do ya for?"

[quinnbee]

Leeny giggles and offers her hand like a grand duchess, biting her lip to keep from blurting you can do me all damn night. "I'm Harleen. Leeny, to friends." She smiles and tilts her head to make her hair fall just so. Don't they want to be her friend? "Sooo, which of you was laughing?" Please let it be Jerome, please let it be the fun one.

[likeavirus]

He grins and brings her hand to his lips. He's charming, obviously. "Does that mean I get ta call ya Leeny?" He waggles his eyebrows at her. He wants to be her friend. Or for her to be another toy to play with. One of those.

"That's...an odd question, Harleen." Repeat a person's name and you're more likely to remember it. And Jeremiah isn't a fan of nicknames, either. "Why do you ask?"

[quinnbee]

"It's not that odd. I could've asked way weirder stuff," she breaks away from Jerome to sit next to Jeremiah, leaning against his side. "Like, what color is your underwear? Are you circumcised? What's your soulmate tattoo say?"

Is this double dipping or triple dipping?

[itistolaugh]

The pain in her chest wakes Harley from a dead sleep. She doubles over to catch her breath and seriously thinks she might be dying before she realizes it feels like a pull. It's time, and it is total bullshit that she has to meet her soulmate at 4 friggin AM on a work day.

She slips on a beat up pair of sneakers and doesn't bother changing out of her pajamas, because if it really is her true soulmate then they just have to accept her pink flannels and all. But she does put on a bright red lipstick, because it isn't like she doesn't care.

Harley walks through the empty streets, letting the tug on her heart lead the way to a rundown park. When she sees him, she nearly turns on her heel and goes back home.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me."

[likeavirus]

Jerome felt it too, and he isn't sure what's so specific or special about today or 4am, but it seems like as good a time as any to discover whoever might have been born specifically to fall in love with him. It was...little more than a game to him, really. Poor schmuck wouldn't know what was comin' to 'em!

The too-familiar cackle can be heard across the way as she meanders her way through the park to the bench he's taken up residence on. He couldn't have been happier to see the woman walking towards him. He jumps to his feet and claps his hands together with a loud snap. "What'd I tell ya, all this time, doll? You and me," He makes an exaggerated sweep of his hand to indicate the space between them. "Meant to be, huh?"

[itistolaugh]

Harley rubs her palm against her eyes, trying to stave off the budding headache.

"Fine, you were right. Hope you liked hearing that because you never will again."

She stares at him for a long time before opening her arms. Okay, sure, come get a hug or whatever, you awful demon.

[likeavirus]

"Once is enough to last a lifetime." He grins and hops down off the bench, bounding over toward her. Hug, hell. He's going for a kiss, it may be the only one he ever freaking gets!

[itistolaugh]

She should have seen that coming, but she's tired so he gets about two seconds of smooching before she bites his mouth and pushes him away.

"I'm going back to bed."

Maybe when she wakes up this will all have been a dream, and her actual soulmate is a super rich beefcake of a man with no thoughts of his own.

[bringstheheat]

Mick has never given that much credence to soulmates or any of that destiny bullshit. Sure it's romantic and Becky eats that sort of shit up, but he's decided a long time ago that it wasn't for him. It doesn't matter that his soulmarks wind up his arms and across his chest like living flames because so far they haven't reacted to anybody.

Hell maybe he'll just spend his life Unmatched.
What? It happens. Sometimes.

Then he had to go and break up a fight on the quad and run into Leonard Snart. Tutoring became friendship and now they'd breeze in and out of one another's dorm rooms or meet for lunch or drinks and it was all good.

Well not really good.
Because Mick was stupidly fucking in love with Snart and the guy has absolutely no idea or no interest or both.

He doesn't say anything when his soulmarks start to hurt, when they start to burn when Lenny is around because that's stupid isn't it? It's nothing. He can swallow down the itching burn no matter how bad it gets.
Lenny doesn't love him so he can't possibly be his soulmate.
Mick sure as hell isn't going to mention that to him and risk losing him as a friend too.

[notjustalostcause]

Leonard had never had many--if any--friends before. Kind of hard to when his life was everything that it was before he got out of that house, away from being forced to live under his father's thumb all the time. College and living on campus the way he has, has opened up a lot of different doors he wasn't really used to. He had friends. Well. A friend. Mostly just the one. The others were more like neutral acquaintances from classes. But Mick? Mick was easily his best friend. He's gotten used to Mick in ways that he never would have expected to with anyone. He comes and goes as he pleases in Mick's dorm, and the invitation to do the same is always extended to Mick as well. He spends more time with him than he ever would have guessed he might after that first meeting, or even when they met a second time for tutoring sessions. It was just ridiculously easy around the other boy and Leonard relished a bit in that feeling of comfort. So much so that he found himself propped back on the pillows at the top of Mick's bed. Having an occasional movie night with Mick had become a bit of a regular fixture in his life and it was easier to enjoy it in Mick's dorm, where he's less likely to be disturbed because he lucked out massively in getting a single room this semester, completely free of roommates. "This is, like, the fifth ninja movie we've watched," he says, amused, as he tilts his head a little over his shoulder to look up at Mick.

[bringstheheat]

Everything was both easier and impossibly hard when Lenny was close. There were easy conversations, even easier silences that they didn't have to fill with unnecessary noise, it was all just.. easy. Good. Until his marks would start to itch and burn and hurt. But even then Mick simply swallowed down how it felt because he wanted to be close to Lenny.

The nurse at the clinic had looked at him with undisguised sympathy. Reminded him that soulmarks were there for a purpose and if he denied himself his soulmate, the pain would either eventually kill him or drive him insane.
Great.
Killed by love.
How fuckin' cliche is that anyway?

The comment drags him out of his reverie and he shifts a little, trying to take some of the pressure off his left shoulder where the marks are flaring up again. "What? You got something against ninja movies? Ninjas are cool," he counters with an easy smile.

[notjustalostcause]

He shakes his head a little, "Nah, nothin' against them or anything. Just an observation."

Leonard has always been... avoidant of physical contact with people. Of any kind, even the most basic of social convention could make him tense. But it seemed that the more time he spent with Mick, the more those walls crumbled.

He notices the way he shifts, and it's easy to recognize it as a specific choice rather than a casual unthought thing. The careful way he tries to ease discomfort from pain. It's a move Leonard is painfully familiar with and it brings a slight frown to his face. "What's wrong?" He asks quietly, fingertips tracing lightly over the tip of a flame at top of Mick's shoulder.

[bringstheheat]

Everything. Everything is wrong.
It's wrong because the marks are calling out for his soulmate, only he doesn't love him back. The careful way his fingers follow the path of a flame only make it worse because what Mick wouldn't give to feel those quick fingers all the time, touches brought on by love and want rather than the careful concern of a friend.

"Took a bad hit at practice," he lies easily. "Just a little sore is all. 'm okay Lenny."

[goodviberations]

He's had the tattoo since he turned 12. There had been a part of him up until then that had admittedly worried he wasn't going to get one. He knew a handful of people who were Unmarked, his parents included. He knew having a soulmate wasn't the be all end all of life, and yet, the thought of not having one was torture. Fortunately, though, the morning of his 12th birthday dawned with a new tattoo on the inside of his left wrist. Someone, somewhere, had the exact same tattoo. And one day, they would find each other.

Fast forward fifteen years, and Cisco's life had gotten a lot more complicated. Between the particle accelerator and The Flash and developing powers of his own, the idea of finding his soulmate had kind of fallen to the wayside. Until he finds himself on Earth-2, face to face with his doppelganger. A doppelganger with exactly the same tattoo.

[youcouldbeagod]

Paco has never really given much thought or credence to the soulmate legends. Even when he found a tattoo on the inside of his wrist on the morning of his 12th birthday, it just didn't mean much to him. He wasn't concerned about meeting a perfect match to spend forever with. He doesn't even really like most people and dating is an awkward ritual he'd rather avoid.

When a doppelganger crashes his way through a breach onto his Earth, it doesn't phase him. He's got a handle on his powers to far further extremes than the spazz he's seen here. He's met other versions of himself, exploring the multiverse. Or at least keeping a watch on it for Zoom. "Glad you could finally join the party. Vibe."

[goodviberations]

Cisco really doesn't like Earth-2. For all Harry's spouting about it being more technologically advanced- which, yeah. Okay. It technically is- there are parts of it that are definitely far behind Earth-1. Like fashion. It feels like everyone here is stuck in the 50s. And as amusing as it is to see Earth-2 Barry in wire-framed glasses, he's already ready to go home.

And that's before he runs into his Samurai-haired doppelganger.

Sure, he'd been bitching to Harry about not being able to find his doppelganger anywhere. But finding out he was a super villain working for Zoom? Yeah, he'd have rather not found him.

"How do you know me?" Obviously the guy would know he's his doppelganger. It's kind of hard to miss, given that they're virtually identical apart from the guyliner. But he and Barry had just chosen that name for him, like, two weeks ago. How would a meta on another Earth know it?

[youcouldbeagod]

There's a sound that's half-laugh, half-scoff as he shakes his head. "While you've been busy trying to help your speedster figure out how to get faster, I've been perfecting my own abilities." And working for an evil fuckhead of a speedster himself, but he has his reasons. And hopefully that will all be coming to an end soon enough, too.

He takes a few carefully placed steps forward. "Meanwhile, you have barely scraped the surface. It's pathetic. I'm disappointed, truly." He tsks and shakes his head. "You could be so...much....more." He lifts one hand in a slight wave to impress the point. The sleeve of his jacket move just enough to show the tattoo on his wrist, but he doesn't think about it at all.

[goodviberations]

The scary thing is that Cisco recognizes this version of himself. The angry, bitter part of him that festered in the shadow of his brother's acclaim. But unlike his doppelganger, Cisco had found a new family. Created one all his own. And that had been enough for him to let go of the darker parts of himself. Apparently, this version of him hadn't been so lucky.

"Yeah, because the opinion of my psycho doppelganger is-" He stops short when he sees the flash of ink on the other meta's wrist. Very familiar ink. For a split second, he's willing to dismiss it. Maybe doppelgangers have the same Soul Marks. It wouldn't be the weirdest thing he's ever heard. Except he knows that's not the case. Not for Wells- although that could probably be dismissed as Thawne somehow warping Original!Wells' form somehow- and not for Barry. His Barry's Soul Mark is completely different from Earth-2 Barry's. Which means...

"Dios mio."