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Mick asks him the question during their first night together on the ship. Mick is leant back against the wall, the flickering flames of his window screen licking across his body. He’s watching Snart get undressed, still in awe after thirty years that this is all his.
He breaks his own reverie with the words that are going to mark their relationship for the coming months, are going to spell their downfall.
“Will Palmer be a problem?”
He’s thinking of pretty nerds with hero complexes, of quick little bastards who nearly drove his partner insane, of unrequited obsessions that nearly tore them apart. He’s thinking Scarlet is the real reason Snart has come on this trip.
He’s thinking he’s never been Leonard’s type, not really, and now Leonard’s type is right there. He’s thinking he’s going to have to fight to keep the only person he’s ever loved.
Snart looks up at him, pastes on the kind of smirk Mick hates, the looks he isn’t supposed to get.
“Feeling insecure, Mick?”
Mick doesn’t dignify his snark with an answer, simply stares Snart down. He wants an answer, he wants to know if he’s going to lose Lenny.
“Mick.” The voice is long suffering, the tone is one Mick recognises as exasperated fondness.
Snart climbs into the bunk with him, straddles his legs. He’s hunched over, to avoid the low roof in the tiny bed space. He’s also looking at Mick like he’s the only thing in the world.
“You and me, Mick.” Len tells him, “Gonna take more than a pretty face to screw that up.”
Mick grunts in affirmation, before reaching up and pulling Leonard down into a fierce kiss.
Conversation over. No more to be said.
---x
Mick asks him again after their first missions, when Carter’s body is retrieved and Kendra is in pieces.
He, Snart, and Palmer have worked together now, and they make a formidable team. Teething problems are a given, Ray’s subtlety needs work, as does his ability to listen to orders, but Mick finds himself liking the kid in spite of his fuck ups and he can see Snart does too.
There’s a warmth to his teasing now, and Palmer seems to understand it’s all in good fun. Mick’s spotted Leonard looking at Ray when he thinks nobody is watching – Mick’s always watching, how could anyone keep their eyes off Leonard.
Leonard is late back to their room, Mick knows he was having drinks with Ray. He was invited but had felt like a third wheel just thinking about it. There’s a warm smile on Leonard’s face, as he slips back into the room, and Mick knows that look.
Leonard will slide into bed with him, and initiate sex. He’ll be attentive, romantic, will tell Mick how much he adores him, how hot and brilliant he is. He won’t say Mick’s name, his mind will be a million miles away. Or a few doors down, with a gorgeous physicist that he’s infatuated with.
As Len slips under the sheet, and leans to kiss him, Mick places his hands on his chest and keeps him back.
“Is Palmer going to be a problem?”
“Mick.” Leonard purrs his name, his soft smile twisting into a smirk, “Jealousy doesn’t become you.”
Leonard pushes against Mick’s hands, and Mick lets him. He wants to melt into Leonard, to completely give in. He doesn’t want to think about Ray, about the boy who could ruin everything.
So he doesn’t.
---x
After Snart and Palmer get back from their little honey trap mission, Leonard tastes wrong. Mick pushes him back when he kisses him, and Leonard all but rolls his eyes.
“Raymond’s seduction technique needs work.”
As if it’s an answer.
Leonard leans to kiss him again, but Mick holds him back. There’s a panic in him that he isn’t used to, his heart is beating a mile a minute and he wants to burn Leonard and Ray to the ground.
“Vostock. The moron screwed up flirting, and I had to step in. Kissing her was the easiest way to reach her her wallet, and security badge.” Leonard elaborates, “Not exactly my type, Mick.”
“And Palmer?”
“Devastated his puppy dog eyes couldn’t win her over.”
It’s not the answer Mick is looking for, and Leonard knows it isn’t. Still Mick doesn’t stop him when Len leans in to kiss him again.
---x
When Mick and Ray are stranded in the Gulag, after Leonard and Ray have had chance to bond, Mick realises what it is Leonard sees in the kid.
There’s more to him than meets the eye. He’s a moron, but he’s also fiercely loyal. He takes a beating for Mick, though Mick has never given him reason to. He’s got a quick tongue, and he’s fearless. He’s a giant dopey puppy, but he’s also the kind of guy Mick would trust to have his back.
Ray asks about Leonard while they’re stuck there. He sounds like he’s trying to keep Mick’s spirits up, another infuriating quality.
“When you call Snart your partner, is that like, business, in crime, or...” He trails off.
“All three.”
“How long?”
“Nearly 30 years.”
“Wow.”
And he genuinely sounds awed. It’s not bitter, it’s not jealousy, it’s not scheming. Mick wonders for a moment if this means another unrequited obsession on Len’s side. He feels lighter.
“He must be something special.”
And there’s the wistful, longing tone Mick has been dreading. The one that tells Mick this isn’t one sided, the one setting off warning bells in his head.
He hates Palmer til he takes the beating for him, til he whispers with his last ounce of strength, “Can’t let Snart hate me for ruining your face too.”
---x
In 2046, Mick thinks he could be happy. There’s anarchy, there’s fire, they could rule this Star City. He could have Leonard to himself and it would be beautiful.
Mick flirts because it’s easy, because he can. He drinks because the booze is there. He enjoys the debauchery because he’s been so well behaved for so long. Leonard is bored, and Mick is happy. It’s his goddamn turn.
Eventually he tires of the woman on his arm, he always does, they’re not Snart. He steals his partner away, to a back room of the bar they’re holed up in and slams him against the wall.
“You sure you wouldn’t prefer your floozy?” Leonard asks.
Mick’s hands tighten around his wrists, “You sure you wouldn’t prefer Ray?”
“Be lying if I said I wasn’t thinking about it.”
He knows Leonard means it as a taunt, meant to spur Mick into action, to make his partner fuck him hard and rough, but it cuts too close.
Mick grunts, and lets go of Leonard’s wrists. He turns on his heel, and heads back to the bar. He knows Leonard won’t call after him, won’t tell him it was only a joke, he’s too proud for that. Besides, Mick’s started to think Leonard has started to realise he’s not joking anymore.
When they return to the Waverider, Ray stands with him, commiserates with him and Mick still can’t hate him.
---x
“I kissed him.” Leonard tells him.
Mick wants it to be a dream.
It’s not a dream.
He and Leonard may be on rocky footing, Mick may have been convinced this was inevitable, but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt.
“I wanted to kiss him. I wanted to fuck him. I wanted to go further. He intrigues me.”
Mick wants to punch him out. He wants to rip his damn face off, to burn him to ash. He wants to be white hot and furious but he can’t find it in him.
Leonard just stares at him, as if waiting for the inevitable explosion.
Mick knows he should say something, should beg Leonard not to leave him, not to throw away thirty years over intrigue. He wants to tell Leonard to fuck Ray, to get it out of his system but to come home.
“Get out, Snart.” Mick hisses instead.
“Mick.”
Mick reaches for his gun, and Leonard twitches. For a moment he looks like everyone else, all the other people who don’t know what’s behind Mick’s hard shell. He looks frightened of Mick, as if Mick really could burn him to the ground.
It’s a moment, only a moment, before he turns on his heel and leaves their bunk.
Mick takes great, if fleeting, joy in burning the photo of Lisa that Leonard keeps in their bunk. He loves the girl to death, but he knows it will piss Leonard off and that’s his top priority.
Leonard doesn’t come back that night, or the next. He slips back in three days later, slides under the blankets and curls into Mick’s side. Mick’s tired. He doesn’t want to fight. Leonard’s come back to him, doesn’t smell of anything but Leonard.
Mick wraps an arm around him, and Leonard mumbles an “I’m sorry” against his neck, follows up with “I love you”.
“Palmer’s a problem.”
“Palmer’s a problem.” Leonard agrees.
---x
The ship breaks, and Mick is captured by space pirates. Leonard and Sara are trapped in the engine room and Ray nearly dies.
Mick is torn into by Rip, and reminded that he’s nothing without Snart, and he wants to leave. He wants to take Snart and get away, back to Central City, to The Flash and the Rogues. This isn’t him, and he shouldn’t be here.
So he mutinies, because it’s the only thing that makes sense right now. He and Leonard can get home, and this can all be over.
Except it’s not. He gives Leonard the choice, and he makes the wrong one. He chooses being a hero, changing the world, Palmer. They’re on opposing sides and it’s wrong, it’s killing him.
When Snart knocks him to the floor in the engine room, Ray’s right behind him, watching Mick’s heart break into a thousand pieces. As Ray rests a hand on Len’s shoulder, Mick knows he’s lost.
---x
Mick baits Leonard as the gun is pointed at his face. It’s easier than being honest, than telling Leonard that he’s broken his goddamn heart, or that he’s never felt so betrayed. It’s easier than telling him that there’s no coming back from this, there’s no way to be anything like what they were.
He wants Len to kill him, it’s easier than dealing with these white hot knives to his chest. Without Leonard, Mick doesn’t think he knows who he is anymore.
When Leonard pussies out, and shoots next to him, Mick baits him again before the crack to his head.
He hates that he expects Lenny to change his mind, right up til the moment the gun meets his skull.