Destined to be Legends

She isn't quite sure why she can't shake the guilt. Maybe it's because she'd brushed him off when he tried to open up to her, or maybe it's because it feels like there should be something they can do. They're on a time ship.

But there's nothing. There's nothing but her guilt and her anger and her frustration and her colorless snowflake and she just wants everything to stop hurting.

At least when there's pain, though, she feels something other than alone.

Apparently, the rest of the team hadn't figured out Leonard was her soulmate. It's not like they'd really been subtle about it, despite the lack of physical affection, public or otherwise. And a snowflake? Who else would that be? But when they notice her mark has gone black and white, there is inevitably shock followed by pity.

Except from Rip. From Rip, she gets empathy without surprise.

"I am truly sorry, Sara," he says when she joins him to avoid the looks from the others. Mick is notably absent from the group. "If there were anything I could do, you know I would in a heartbeat." He puts his hand atop his covered tattoo. "Not only to spare anyone else the pain of losing their other half, but also because he truly was a hero, despite his past."

"Did you know?" she asks.

"That the two of you were soulmates? Not at first, no. Not when I chose you." He runs a hand through his hair. "I wouldn't have taken you both, honestly. Shipboard romances can be a distraction. I know that's hypocritical of me, but it's true. I didn't foresee things between Raymond and Kendra, either, but I didn't stop them.

"I did figure out Mr. Snart was your soulmate before much time had passed. The snowflake was pretty obvious, and you two were always very aware of each other. Honestly, I should've dropped the lot of you off sooner, but I am loathe to cause you more pain."

"I'm not ready to leave," Sara says. "Leonard died a hero. We can't give up until we've found a way to defeat Savage once and for all."

He isn't quite sure why he can't wake up. He's floating, but he doesn't know what he's floating in. He can't open his eyes, but he gets impressions. It feels like…

Strings. Like some sort of bizarre hammock, only the strings are made out of something he can feel but can't touch. When he presses on one, or on the impression of one, he sees…

Images. Flashes of pictures that he knows, somehow, are both past and future. He sees Mick, drinking alone on the Waverider, and then with Raymond. He sees Lisa, sees his younger self step between her and their father. He sees Sara in pain. He sees—

Impossibility. As he focuses on one, the image lingers. He and Sara are on his bed. They're in the clothes they wear for training, and there's a thin layer of sweat on each of them. That's not what has him riveted to the scene, though; they've crashed on his bed while they catch their breath before.

This time, though, she's sprawled out on top of him. Their hips press together. One of his hands holds her close while the other tangles in her hair. They kiss like nothing else in the world matters, like it's only the two of them, and it's clear this isn't stopping at just a kiss.

He's dead, or at least he should be even if it doesn't feel like he is, so how is he seeing this? He thought the contraption he'd died in was only supposed to show certainties. This hadn't ever happened, though, so this has to be the future.

Either this time thing is busted along with the machine he'd destroyed, or he isn't as dead as he thought.

He fumbles back through until he finds the one of Sara, alone in her room on the Waverider. He knows, somehow, that the pain is caused by his leaving, and not by anything else. He doesn't know how much information the strings are feeding him and how much he knows just because he knows Sara.

He tries to think. If he isn't dead, there has to be some way out of here, and this is where he wants to go. He needs to stop her pain, needs to return to the living, needs to give Mick a hard time about trying to save the world when he's supposed to be the more unscrupulous of the two of them.

He can't grab hold of the string, not in the physical sense. In the same way he's been pressing on them, he sort of wraps his fingers around the intangible space and closes them, focusing hard on the image of Sara.

Everything goes black again, and then the world bursts into color.

Sara's alone in her room, watching her tattoo. It's not the first time. They defeated Savage and got back on the ship, and Rip seems torn on whether to bring them home yet.

She isn't sure what she wants, so she's here, tracing the tiny lines she knows by heart. She frowns, imagining a flash of color, but when she lifts her finger, it's still black.

Or is it?

She stares. It's like those pictures where looking at it in a certain way shows an image; if she relaxes her eyes, the snowflake is in color. When she focuses again, it's not.

Before she can decide whether her mind is playing tricks on her, it's like the room shifts, and her tattoo is fully back in color, but she isn't looking at it anymore because standing next to her bed is Leonard.

She doesn't question it. She knows it's him, knows he's here, alive, and she leaps up with a gasp and wraps her arms around him before he can even speak.

"You were gone," she says when she can find the words. "You were dead. My snowflake was black and white, and you were gone."

"It's not a good feeling, is it?" Leonard pulls back and glances his wrist, and she's again reminded that his mark had gone dark for a year, and suddenly she's too far away from him. She pulls him closer, lifting her head this time so she can kiss him in a way that isn't just a hello, isn't a goodbye, but is a joining of two souls who were always destined to meet.

Mick finds them before they can take it any further than a kiss, and Leonard is wrapped into a hug for the second time in several minutes, this one a little more awkward but the person giving it no less appreciated.

He's dragged around the time ship, getting the reunions out of the way quickly, at least. Kendra and Carter apparently want some time on their own, off the Waverider, so they'll be landing in a while, but they have some time.

There's a look from Rip, relief mixed with sorrow, and Leonard isn't sure how to handle it. Instead, thoughts of the images he'd seen in that in between place on his mind, he asks Sara whether she wants to try sparring, and she grins before they go change, and he's not shocked at all when she comes out wearing the same thing he'd seen in that vision.

He was right, too; they don't stop at kissing.