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When he was very young his mom worked part time in a little barber shop just off main street in downtown central.
Not just to make ends meet but because she loved it. Loved talking to the customers, hearing their stories, helping them look their best.
One of Len’s earliest memories is sitting in the big chair. The snip snip of her scissors and the buzzing sound of a razor. Back before she died and everything went to shit. Just him and his mom with her hands combing carefully through his hair.
She loved his hair even though it looked nothing like hers. She said he might look more like her when he was older. He did in the end but back then he looked like his father. Back then that was a good thing.
She even loved it when he let his hair grow out all soft and stupid looking over his forehead.
When she would take time to brush it carefully Lewis would say that she was babying him and she should have had a daughter instead. Len didn’t care, he loved the attention.
Everything goes to shit. That ends up being a recurring theme for Len.
After his mom dies there is nobody to cut his hair. Lewis certainly doesn’t bother to take him to get it cut. With puberty kicking in it grows in thicker and darker and he’s surprised to find that he actually does start to look a little bit more like his mom. It’s a comfort for a while.
Len is 13 when his father takes him on the first job. Small hands, light fingers, nobody notices another kid running around making trouble. Len didn’t want to do it. He begs Lewis not to make him. He learns his first lesson.
It’s not like his father never hit him before. After prison, after mom, after. But usually he was usually drunk and Len could mostly dodge. He can’t this time. His father grabs him by his over long hair. Holds him by it. .
The job goes ok even though Len can’t move without hurting. He’s has learned his lesson.
After the job Lewis sends Len home while he goes out to celebrate. It’s a relief even if it means Lewis will be drunk and mean when he gets home.
As soon as he’s in the house Len goes for the scissors. It ends up being a horrible mess. Len cuts himself more than once and when lewis sees he teaches Len another lesson. He doesn’t regret it. It’s one less thing the world can use against him.
Within a year Len is in juvie.
Lewis’s plan goes to shit not to Len’s surprise and he decides that naturally Len takes the fall. Len is more resigned than pissed. He knew he was ending up here eventually. And anything that meant getting away from his father and his new girlfriend couldn’t be all bad.
Len is wrong. Juvie is all bad. He is there all of 20 minutes before he’s nearly shived. That might have something to do with the fact that he had made a pun implying that the guy holding the shiv was descended from goat fuckers. Len really couldn’t be blamed the guy left himself open for that one. Either way Len is irritated because he actually wasn’t planning on dying like this thank you very much.
That’s about when Mick Rory shows up.
Mick Rory is 16. Mick Rory is tall and looks like he’s going to be broad too if he eats enough in his formative years. Mick Rory has singed eyebrows and chunks of his hair is missing. He looks fucking stupid.
Mick rory is his guardian angel with a bad attitude and mental instability. He’s perfect.
In his six months in juvie two things happen that change Len’s life. First he gains a partner. Second he gains a sister. Of course he doesn’t know about the second one until he’s out. Not like lewis was wasting time visiting his kid.
He’s there when Len’s get’s out but that’s more for appearance's sake than anything. That’s when he springs it on Len. He knocked up the new girlfriend. Len’s now to be a big brother.
Lisa is tiny. She has thin wispy blonde hair and doesn’t really do much more than cry. She is his and Len would die for her.
Lisa’s mother is gone shortly after her first birthday. Doesn’t matter she always liked Len better anyway.
Mick get’s out of juvie and comes looking for Len. He finds a desperate 16 year old with a crying 5 month old. He starts showing up with shit like food, baby clothes, toys, most of it so clearly stolen that it has security tags on it but Len is grateful. Lewis doesn’t notice.
Len masters braiding Lisa’s fine dark blonde hair around the same time as he realises that he looks a lot less like a deranged cancer patient if he get’s Mick to shave his hair for him.
It’s a revelation. Mick is handy with a razor and Len would never say it out loud but the 15 minutes of Mick’s strong hands and the buzzing razor are pretty much the best thing he can imagine right now.
Mick on the other hand still always looks a bit singed around the edges but what can you do. Len has been trying to break him of the habit of lighting his own hair on fire while it’s still attached to his head. Len doesn’t know how he managed before he met him.
Lewis takes still takes Len on jobs but now also he and Mick steal shit on their own as well. They make ends meet. They get Lisa into a good school. Len thinks everything is going pretty well all considering so of course Lewis has to fuck everything up.
He finds out about he and mick’s little side venture. Len always knew that was a possibility but he also knew that Lewis Snart was not going to shell out for ice skating lessons for his daughter. What he didn’t know was that when he found out Lewis wouldn’t take it out on him but instead Lisa.
Mick is the one to take Lisa to the ER because Len is shaking to much to drive. Everything for the next few days is a blur. At the end of it Lewis and a whole bunch of the family have been arrested because of new evidence suddenly coming to light.
There is nothing connecting it to Len of course but if he was smart he’d probably still get out of dodge.
Of course he can’t because then he’s battling CPS for custody. A twenty two year old with a sketchy past isn’t exactly the best option for gardien but he manages it. Maybe by sheer desperation.
The first Night he’s got her for real after everything they all three sit in the living room for hours just watching shitty movies and relaxing after what feels like a battle for their lives. Lisa Let’s Len braid her hair into a hundred tiny braids. Mick holds the hair ties.
The first time Mick get’s burned bad he’s still got that stupid mop of uneven dark hair that he insists is fine and not totally ridiculous.
They’re not even working a job. Mick is just fucking around in the kitchen.
Theoretically he’s making fried chicken, in reality he’s making a mess.
There is of course a small grease fire because that is how Len’s life works. And that should be fine. Really. This is a house where Mick Rory hangs out, there is a fire extinguisher in nearly every room, but there’s a glass of water holding flowers Len got for Lisa after a skating competition on a shelf near the stove.
Stupid fucking move Len could fucking kick himself. It of course get’s knocked over.
Lisa is dispatched to the neighbours and Len rushes Mick to the ER. they’re damn luck they don’t run into any cops on the way because technically Len can’t drive. At all.
In the end Mick’s hands are a little fucked up, his eyebrows are very nearly gone, and his hair is even worse than usual but it could have been a lot worse. Len is still shaking.
Len drives them home again under Mick’s watchful if slightly medicated guidance.
It’s about a week after that Mick comes to him and asks if Len will shave his head. Len is practically an expert at this by now. Has his own razor and everything. Mick bought it for him. It’s red.
Mick sits on a stool shirtless in the bathroom and Len goes through the familiar motions on someone else for the first time. Starts on the sides and moves around to the bumps on the back of Mick’s head. He can feel Mick’s warmth when he brushes the stray hair off his shoulders. He doesn’t usually get to touch Mick all that much. They’re to used to keeping their distance.
When he’s done Len clicks off the razor and sets it down. in the sudden silence he hesitates. He puts both hands on Mick shoulders. Mick looks up at him and smiles and something clicks. He still looks stupid with eyebrows just starting to grow back and weirdly pale head. Hell, he’s all pink with burns. He’s still the most beautiful thing Len’s ever seen.
Len leans down and they’re kissing. If he ever thought about this happening he would have assumed it’d be rough. All heat of the moment. But this is soft. This feels like home. This is the safest he’s felt since he was tiny and sitting in a big chair in that little barber shop just off main street in downtown central. This feels like home.