#waveatom

He’s nervous. In a few hours he’s supposed to be sixteen, his skin will itch and his life might change forever. He’ll get a name - a name that he long ago decided that he’s going to protect and cherish, gives his life for if he’ll have to. This person will be his. This person will be meant for him, and he won’t have to question whether they want him, whether they hate him or not. He won’t have to question why they don’t hate him when he didn’t do anything just yet. 

His hands are trembling and he needs to calm down. He can’t wake up his family. His fingers light a match and Mick takes a deep breath staring at the flame. 

Maybe the name will be as beautiful as the flame is.

It’s only when the whole room is painted red, the flame licking at his skin and the screams get louder when Mick wakes and his eyes widen. 

 Oh hell. 

Mick doesn’t look away from the cold white wall. Not when a woman comes in to inform him that she is so sorry but his family didn’t make it. Not when she tells him he’s going to have to come with her after he’ll be cleared out of hospital. Not when the doctor tells him that his arms are going to be scarred and they couldn’t save his name. 

His fingers curl up painfully and he takes a small breath. It’s better that way. For his soulmate. It would be unfair for them to have someone as crazy as Mick. 

After all this, Mick doesn’t deserve the hope. 

His arm itches and burns and Mick doesn’t call for the nurse. Neither does he look away from the wall. 

Meeting Snart is interesting. The boy is cold and calculating and he doesn’t stand down from a fight, even though he should. Or maybe he shouldn’t, maybe he has a plan in that brain of his. Mick doesn’t really know, but for some reason he still steps forward.

When they are alone the kid lifts his head high. 

“Leonard Snart.” he says glaring at Mick as if just daring him to recognize the name. Mick scoffs. Maybe the two will get along after all. 

“Mick Rory.”

“You lost focus, became obsessed.” Len says and Mick turns to glare at him. 

“I’m obsessed? What about you? You’re usually counting the seconds, got the whole thing planned out, dotting t s, crossing the i’€s. “ He is not stupid. Maybe Len doesn’t think he notices, but Mick does. After all he might allow Snart to be the brain of the heists, but Mick’s smart enough to decide when he should stop listening. “ But all you care about now is the Flash. “

There’s something in the way Len freezes just for a few seconds. 

 “We have to put him down.” 

“Why? We got the finger painting. “ It’s then when it finally makes sense to him. “You touched him, didn’t you? Or he touched you. Did you finally find your ‘Barry’.”

Snart doesn’t say anything to that. Mick doesn’t either. But he does notice how Snart’s obsession grows and grows. He notices how over the time when Lisa breaks them out and when they start more heists, Snart disappears over and over again. He notices how the man starts focusing more attention on the Flash. 

And when The Snart daddy dearest joins the show, Mick knows the ship’s sinking. 

“I’m not blaming you.” Snart says, as if that matters. “I would do the same.” Mick knows that. It’s what makes them partners, knowing when the other would pull out and counting with that and not carrying the hate further down the line. It’s what allows them to do jobs together again, even after Len and his soulmate got together, in a way. 

Then Hunter comes and there’s something about him that just rubs Mick the wrong way. It’s probably they way he smells  like his soulmate died, like he found them and then wasn’t good enough to protect them. But Snart wants to join…. and Mick tries to tell himself he doesn’t owe shit to the man, but he still agrees to participate in this madness. 

The team’s… not as bad as Mick thought they might be. The professor pretends to be a prude, but a guy that manages to roofie his partner is anything but that. The man also doesn’t hide his name, a clear sign of being married to your soulmate, so that makes it easier for Mick to not hate the guy, at least a tiny bit. 

They all know about Kendra’s and Carter’s soulmates, even though Kendra is still hiding her name. As well as Jax is.

Sara’s not hiding anything and she tells everyone who asks that her name disappeared when she died. Mick notices her rubbing her neck every now and then and he even hears the name ‘Nyssa’ several times. 

Then there’s Hair Cut. The guy is full of smiles when it comes to almost everyone and full of distrust when it comes to Mick and Snart. He distances himself, calls them criminals and the cloth is firmly pressed against his inner wrist - a place rumored for great loyalty and love when it comes to your soulmate. 

The isolation works for Mick, at least until Snart messes it up. Suddenly, Palmer doesn’t think they are the evil spawns of Satan and actually tries to make up by spending time with them. Hell, he even listens to their conversations and Mick’s pretty sure that’s not something either of them wanted. But Snart doesn’t even look like he minds too much, even though he’s still snarky around the guy and Mick wants to strangle him. 

“You don’t really like me much, do you?” The guy says and Mick wonders how he managed to catch Mick alone. Did he plan that? If he did, he’s a little more devious than Mick thought. 

“Did you figure it out on your own?” 

“Why not?” Pretty Boy asks and he’s frowning, his confusion almost adorable. Almost, because Mick doesn’t care for things like that. 

“I don’t like anyone.” Mick grumbles, trying to walk around the guy, but Palmer just steps in front of the door. 

“That’s not true. You like Snart.” 

“I know Snart.” 

“Well you can get to know us.” Mick has no idea why he should even try. It wouldn’t change anything. The lot would still be a group of goody-two-shoes that gasped and whined after saving the world for whatever selfish reason they had. Mick didn’t care about the world. The world never cared about him so Mick doesn’t owe the world anything. For all he cares it could burn and Mick would happily watch. 

“I’m not really interested.” He says and goes to step around the guy, but Palmer reaches out and as his fingers touch Mick’s wrist, skin on skin and there’s the tell-tale spark that moves to the part of Mick’s arm that carries the scarred name. His eyes widen - as do Palmer’s. It’s just seconds before a wide smile appears on the guy’s face. 

“You’re my-” 

“I’m your nothing.” Mick interrupts him, hissing and quickly pushes around the guy and out of the kitchen. He refuses to be Palmer’s soulmate. 

“You’re an idiot.” Mick tells the Boy Scout and refuses to look at his bruised body, even though his fingers itch to reach out and just… see if there’s anything he could do to help. 

“Well, I’m pretty sure people did more for their other halves before.” The smile that Palmer gives him is bloody and must hurt, but Ray still smiles, like there is no worry in the world. Like he doesn’t have his ribs bruised, or worse, broken. 

“I’m not your -” 

“Yes, you are.” He interrupts Mick, and it feels weird, because just a few days ago Mick was the one doing the interrupting. “But that’s not why I did it. There are some things that are more important than survival, like standing up for what you believe in, your principles, your team.” He sighs and his eyes slip closed. “There must be something you’re willing to die for.” 

Mick frowns and doesn’t say anything. Instead he turns the lighter on and watches the flame. His mind doesn’t go wild though, like it usually does. Instead he ends up counting Ray’s breaths, the rising of his chest. The seconds when the body’s not moving at all and wondering.

Mick thought he’d feel the worst when looking at Snart’s face when he comes up with the offer. The Snart he once knew would take it. He isn’t so sure about this Snart. But looking at the faces of ‘the team’ it’s Hair Cut that gets to him the most. Because the angry look that he gives Mick is just a facade. Mick pretends it’s just a lucky guess, not the certainty he feels, not the hurt and betrayed feeling running through his mind as Raymond is looking at him. There is no way they would be able to establish any kind of bond, not so soon. 

The next thing Mick knows, Snart’s firing his gun and the fight starts. 

“You’ll either execute all of them or bring them to us, Chronos, do you understand?” 

“…yes.” 

When Mick finally comes back, everything goes to hell again. They dealt with the Hunters. They even dealt with the Pilgrim, something Mick wasn’t sure they would actually be able to do. 

They managed to deal with Savage and the Time Masters and not once Mick felt weak. 

Not as weak as he feels now, with Pretty Boy staring at him, his eyes focused solely on Mick and not a bit of blame hiding in there. 

“You said the only way you held onto yourself the first time was by focusing on your hate. What did you focus on this time?” 

It’s quiet and wondering and Mick can lie. The words ‘the team’ are on the tip of Mick’s tongue, but the way Ray’s looking at him, not really hopeful, just curious, makes Mick open his mouth, the truth slipping out. 

“You.” 

Ray’s eyes widen, the cupcake falling from his hands and Mick rolls his eyes before reaching over the table and pulling the boy up. 

The flame runs over his mark again as he presses his mouth against Raymond’s. It takes seconds, but his boy is kissing back, giving as great as he takes, his fingers clutching at Mick’s jacket and when Mick can’t hold his breath anymore and is forced to pull back, he licks his lips. 

“I’m not letting you die.” He says to his breathless soulmate. 

“He wasn’t supposed to die.” Raymond says quietly, there is a hint of self-blame in his voice. Mick frowns and his hand tightens on Ray’s shoulder, pulling him a bit closer. 

“It wasn’t your fault. It was his. Son of a bitch never did anything without a plan. The bastard thought he owed something to me. It wasn’t your fault.” Mick repeats growling and Ray shrugs. 

“Doesn’t sound like he had a plan for Barry.” He motions with his head towards the fresh - and empty - grave, where a figure is kneeling on the ground, his head pressed down and curled up on himself. “I was the one who was supposed to die, and I can’t help feeling that maybe if it was like that then-”

“The world would burn.” Mick interrupts him and when Ray rolls his eyes at him, Mick catches his chin and turns his face to him slowly. He waits until Ray’s eyes meet his before continuing. 

“I would burn everything. There would be nothing left of this world, or the future.” 

Ray swallows and his eyes slowly turn from Mick back to Barry’s shaking back.

Ray is kind of really freaking out when he realizes he might have a massive crush on Mick and has no idea who he can go to. Maybe they’ve stopped in 2016 or Barry’s helping with a mission but Ray goes to Barry because out of everyone he’d be the most accepting.

Ray confesses to Barry who has this completely understanding look then confesses he kind of maybe be a little bit in love with Len. Both of them just start talking about their crush like stereotypical teenage girls. Everyone notices how Ray and Barry seem closer, hanging out more and stuff. Maybe there ends up being some misunderstanding, since the Legend’s team are more nosey then the Rouges and team Flash combined, so they think Barry and Ray are a thing. Len ends up acting a little colder to both of them and Mick seems angrier. Barry asks Gideon who tells them what’s up. Both want to confess to their crush but is afraid to so Ray comes up with the idea of doing it for one another. So Ray goes up to Len and lets him know that Barry is kind of in love with him but is freaking out about asking him while Barry let’s Mick know that Ray has had a massive crush on him but was pretty sure he would be punched if Mick didn’t feel the same.