#atomwaveweek

“What the hell is all this?”

Ray looks up from his frosting and grins.

“I made cupcakes!” he says and offers a plate of them to Snart and Mick.

Ray really hopes that his general cheerfulness was enough to mask the break in his voice. After all, there was no reason for him to be upset. Snart was alive and well, and he also seemed to have an idea of where Rip had ended up. Which definitely called for a celebration. Hence the kitchen full of cupcakes. Ray wasn’t trying to escape his feelings at all. Nope.

Snart eyes the plate and the surrounding counter full of cupcakes suspiciously.

“Cupcakes? Really Raymond?” he finally says. Ray just shrugs.

“Well, you’re back, and for the most part, unharmed despite being lost in a time stream, so obviously, cupcakes are in order. I wasn’t really sure what type was your favorite, so I made, well all of them essentially! There’s chocolate, vanilla, red velvet….” The scientist knows that he’s babbling and Snart and Mick have already dug into the cupcakes so they’re no longer listening to him, but he feels the need to continue talking just because.

Sara and the others eventually join in on the cupcake party, which makes it much less awkward for Ray, who can focus his attention on Nate or Stein or Amaya for conversation. Eventually, he’s able to sneak away from the whole thing so he doesn’t have to watch Mick and Snart make eyes at each other in between cupcakes.

Ray’s trying to be cheerful, he really is, but he’d almost forgotten how good the two of them look together. It’s obvious that there’s no place for him, and he’s really always just been Snart’s replacement anyway. It really shouldn’t surprise him that now that he had the real thing back, Mick would toss him out like chopped liver. He understood, he really did, nothing he could do could ever make up for over two decades of friendship and maybe more, but Ray still can’t help but feel betrayed all the same.

Why did he always have to be someone’s second choice? It wasn’t fair, Ray gave everything he had in every relationship he had but all he had gotten back was “sorry, I found the actual love of my life and it’s not you”. With Felicity it had really stung, and he should have known better with Kendra what with the whole soulmate thing, but he still went for it anyway.

Not that Mick even had a remote clue about how he felt. Ray honestly didn’t know how he himself felt until just a few days ago. It was simultaneously the best and worst feeling to realize that he was in love again (Ray had always been a romantic), but he was also in love with the one person who definitely wouldn’t return his feelings. 

Snart’s return was a blessing really, instead of nursing his crush and trying to slowly snuff it out, Ray had instead been forced to obliterate it in one fell swoop. It was like ripping off a Band-Aid honestly. A Band-Aid on what was unfortunately still a very fresh wound. But he’d get over it. Ray had no right to be jealous. He never told Mick how he felt, and now it was too late. There was no place for him.

Ray really wishes he could be mad at Snart, but he has eyes, Snart’s ridiculously attractive, he’s suave and cool, all the things Ray isn’t. All the things Mick wanted him to be, but Ray was never really good at being anyone but himself. Mick had told him that was enough, but obviously that wasn’t true.

And now Ray’s here, pacing around an empty room in an attempt to calm his nerves. He really should’ve just gone straight back to his bunk.

“For the record, I enjoy vanilla,” says a deep voice that Ray knows far too well despite not having heard it in months. Snart’s holding a cupcake in each hand, one of them is already half eaten.

Ray is pretty sure he should say something so he doesn’t just end up staring at Snart eat.

“…Cake or frosting?” Okay, maybe something more intelligent than that.

“Both,” the thief replies before biting into the second cupcake. “Really, the only time I’ll say I enjoy anything vanilla is when it comes to food, Raymond.”

Okay, now Snart was just gloating. It may have been a while since they’d last seen each other, but Ray’s been Mick’s partner in the interim and he’s definitely picked up some rather…uncouth language since then.

“That was….way more information than I needed to know on your first day back Snart,” Ray grumbles, trying really hard to sound more scandalized than bitter. Snart stops mid bite on his second cupcake and stares at Ray with an expression resembling shock, but also…intrigue. It isn’t long before the man’s signature smirk appears on his face.  

“I’m surprised you understood that double entendre Boy Scout,” Snart practically purrs at him. “Sounds like Mick was right, you two have been hanging out a lot since I’ve been gone.” He sounds unexpectedly pleased, instead of put out, which is what Ray was expecting. After all, the man couldn’t have been happy to know that Ray was intruding on his territory while he was gone.

“I…Mick needed someone to look after him. I thought, I thought that’s what you would’ve wanted.” Ray wishes he didn’t sound so lame, but the ache in his heart is still quite raw, and he really wasn’t ready to be facing his emotions this soon.  

“Yes, thank you for looking after him. Mick won’t admit it, but he gets lonely you know,” Snart replies, wiggling his eyebrows.

“Well, now that you’re back, we don’t have to worry about that anymore,” Ray snaps unexpectedly, shocking both him and Snart. There’s an uncomfortable silence after that lasts almost a whole minute before Ray coughs to break the tension.

“I…I’m glad you’re back, I really am, but I just…I need to go now,” Ray says and he tries to navigate around Snart, but the other man stops him with a firm grip on his arm.  

“Who said you had to go anywhere?” Snart says and Ray’s heart does a million backflips when he hears it. “There’s nothing saying we can’t all work together, you know,“ he continues. “The three of us. I think we’d make a pretty good team, personally.”

“Y-you do?” Ray can’t believe his ears. Even if he couldn’t be with Mick, he could at least still be close to him and Snart. He’d still be alone, but not really. He’s good at being a third wheel.

“If Mick says you’re his partner, then you’re my partner too,” Snart replies, an easy grin on his face.

But then there’s something in the way that Snart says ‘partner’ that sends a chill straight down Ray’s spine and into his…well then. But there was no way he was suggesting, with him, and Mick, but was he? Could he…?

“Okay, just to be clear, because maybe I’m interpreting things completely wrong here, but when you just said ‘partner’-”

“I mean it in every sense of the word, Raymond,” Snart interrupts him and whoa, when did he get so close?

“I-Is that so?” Ray stammers, trying to focus on the matter at hand, but it’s really difficult with the intense way Snart is looking at him.

“Do you have a problem with that? You should speak now or forever hold your peace,” he says and suddenly Snart’s hand is caressing his cheek, and Ray is torn between staring at that and looking back at Snart’s face.

“I-I-I-I-I….” Ray is trying to answer in coherent sentences but his brain has chosen the perfect opportunity to short circuit as it considered all the different possibilities of what a ‘partnership’ with Snart and Mick would entail.

“AH HA!”

Mick’s booming voice shakes the two of them from their intense staring contest and thank goodness for that otherwise Ray is pretty sure he would’ve let Snart take him right there in the living room and the team would not appreciate that.

“Knew ya’ couldn’t be trusted Lenny,” Mick growls accusingly, causing Ray to panic.

“Mick, wait, this isn’t what it looks like, I, we can expla-”

“Course it is, Haircut, Len’s been trying to get into your pants since before he blew himself up,” Mick interrupts him.

“I…what?” Now Ray’s completely confused. But then suddenly the conversation him and Snart were having before has new context and oh. Oh.

Ray is pretty sure he’s having an out of body experience right now.

“Don’t worry Mick, I wasn’t planning on starting anything without you,” Snart replies in a soothing voice. Oh god, this was real, this was happening. “Was just getting reacquainted with our lovely boy scout here.”

“Eagle Scout,” Ray says without thinking. Both Snart and Mick’s faces snap to him in confusion.

“What’s that now, Haircut?”

“I, I guess I told Snart before, but I completed all 21 merit badges, so I’m an Eagle Scout,” Ray huffs out indignantly. Both Snart and Mick burst out laughing. Ray thinks he should be more insulted but he’s too distracted by how ridiculously attractive the two of them look right now. Even if it is at his expense.

“Glad to know nothing’s changed since I’ve been gone,” Len says, throwing an arm around Ray’s shoulder.  

“Plenty’s changed about Haircut since you left. He’s a lot more fun.” Mick adds.

The way Mick emphasizes on the word ‘fun’, like it’s a dirty word, causes heat to pool in Ray’s stomach and he barely suppresses a groan. He must’ve made some sort of noise though, because Snart’s head snaps back to face him and oh no, Ray had forgotten just how blue those eyes were, and they were way too close right now.

“Is that so, Raymond?” Snart asks with a smirk that is just downright sinful. Had he always looked like that or was Ray just oblivious to it all while he was with Kendra?

“I…guess you’ll just have to find out?” Ray did not just squeak while trying to be seductive. Nope, not at all. Snart and Mick are now sharing a wicked look. Ray practically melts when he realizes it’s about him.

“You think you handle both of us then, Eagle Scout?” Snart murmurs in his ear.

“Oh God yes.” Wow, way to sound desperate, Ray thinks to himself, but it’s not his fault, his ears have always been his weakness. But it looks like his response is the right one, based on the hungry looks they’re giving him.

“First rule, pretty boy, call me by my first name,” Snart, no Len tells him.

“I can do that Leonard,” Ray replies all too eagerly.

“Second rule,” Mick growls in his other ear, which basically turns Ray’s legs to jelly. “Lenny and I don’t share Haircut. So no messing around with anyone besides us.”

“Mmmmm, don’t want anyone else,” Ray replies in a daze.