She had never expected to fall in love with someone as sly and cruel and twisted as Leonard Snart. In fact, she'd never expected to fall in love with anyone at all…not after everything she had been through. Not after being resurrected from the dead, and the bloodlust had raged through her, turning her into a monster and removing what little sense of humanity she'd had left.

But then Rip Hunter came, and whisked her and a bunch of strangers away on a magical, albeit rather ludicrous and traumatic, trip through time and space to defeat an immortal tyrant by the name of Vandal Savage, all the while encountering evil like no other, from the past and future…and even from other worlds. Before Sara Lance knew it, nearly three years had passed since she'd decided to sign up for this dangerous adventure, two of which had been spent trapped in the fifties…the rest of the time spent getting to know her team. Or, more specifically, Snart, and his partner, Mick.

They were an odd pair. Sara remembered wondering initially why on earth someone clever enough to be a Time Master – whatever that actually was – would even consider recruiting a couple of petty criminals to help him stop what appeared to be the equivalent of Lord Voldemort from the future. They were thieves…just a pair of crooks from Central City who'd broken out of prison and spent their time doing nothing but robbing banks, looking out only for their own selfish gain. What good would they do on a mission to prevent an evil dictator rising to power, when that was pretty much what they seemed to aspire to do themselves?

Nevertheless, Sara was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. She even suggested going drinking with the pair of them on their first mission, which Snart responded to enthusiastically; praising her for her excellent idea, he led the way to the nearest seventies' bar they could find, and Mick selected a song from the jukebox that he had no idea would later make Sara feel empty inside.

'You wanna dance, Leonard?' she asked Snart, raising her eyebrows at him and trying to read through that strange, cold-hearted persona of his as 'Love Will Keep Us Together' blared out through the crackly speaker.

But Snart grinned right back at her. 'You go right ahead. I'll watch,' he replied in a drawling voice, holding out his hand for her beer bottle.

'Suit yourself,' Sara said, shrugging as she handed him his drink, and she wandered over to the empty space on the floor, shaking her hips in time to the catchy song and smiling at the feel of Snart's eyes on her.

They had already established merely an hour or so ago that Snart found her attractive, but that was not a problem for her. It only made her more aware to stay away from him, and she had rebuffed his attempts to make conversation with her as they explored the ship that would soon become their home, accusing him of staring at her. Of course, as she danced and got into a bar fight on their first trip out together, she knew he was still staring at her. He hadn't been put off by her clear disinterest. In fact, there was something more in his gaze that told her he didn't just find her hot; he looked almost admiring, maybe even impressed by her skills as a fighter.

And so their mission properly began, with Snart agreeing with Sara's encouraging pronouncement to the team that they all had the power to change their own fate and become Legends, for better or for worse, and as time went on, a mutual respect was formed between the two of them. Yes, he was still selfish and looked out only for opportunities to gain some extra money or jewels, and he still made eyes at Sara occasionally as he leaned across the table to pull that rare smile of his whenever she was talking…but he slowly became less cruel…less cold.

And then Russia happened. Russia, where Snart left Sara to get on with her task of killing Stein so that he could save his partner Mick, only to rush back and tell her to stop.

'Sara, don't do it,' he urged desperately over the coms.

'I have to,' Sara protested, her finger trembling as it rested beside the trigger. 'To save the city.'

'That's how a killer thinks. And that's not you anymore,' Snart said fiercely, and it was perhaps how uncharacteristic this was of him that made her stop and embrace the impact of what he had just said…and she lowered her gun.

From that moment on, Sara's opinion of Snart changed. He wasn't the Captain Cold she'd heard about, the evil selfish criminal who killed anyone who got in his way. He was Leonard Snart, the abused man who'd got in with the wrong crowd and been brought up by the wrong people, but was now slowly learning to not let his past define him. He was clever, unbelievably clever, he could be thoughtful (on the rare occasion), and he was witty – perhaps too sarcastic, maybe – but, still, he made her smile now. And it was a rare thing to see Sara smile nowadays.

Sara even discovered a side of Leonard that was somewhat normal; he liked to play cards. One day the two of them played a game of Gin with his pack that he'd brought along, and they bonded, almost as if they were two normal people, with no traumatic past and no scarring memories to make them fear connecting with another person. Thus a tradition was formed, and whenever Rip was in a particularly defeated mood and their mission came to a temporary stand-still, Sara spent most of her free time with Leonard, playing cards. Their time alone together became more frequent, particularly during Leonard and Mick's temporary fall-out – though Leonard brushed everything off as fine when Sara enquired about the current state of their friendship. This was the problem with Leonard; he never liked to open up about how he was feeling, even when around Sara, someone he could talk to more easily than anyone else on this ship, without Mick in the picture. It was something he would later come to regret, though he did not yet know it himself.

One day during that lonely period when Mick crossed over to the dark side, various circumstances involving a space-pirate invasion (yes, a space-pirate invasion) found Sara and Leonard marooned together in a lonely corner of the ship, trapped inside the engine room due to a dangerous hole in the outer wall that they had tried unsuccessfully to fix. With nothing to do apart from wait to see if the rest of the team could get them out before they froze to death, Sara and Leonard ended up sat down on the floor beside each other, shivering and hugging their knees as the room gradually got colder and colder. They'd been quiet for a while…after all, what were you supposed to say to someone you barely considered a friend when waiting to die? But eventually Sara could bare the silence no longer; she needed to distract herself from her desperate panicked thoughts that the team wouldn't be able to rescue them in time.

'I suppose this is like a day at the beach for you,' she muttered, teeth chattering, as the clouds from their breath filled the icy room.

'If I had to pick a way to die, freezing wouldn't be the worst. What's it like…dying?' Leonard asked, genuine curiosity in his harsh, drawling voice as he turned to gaze at her with that familiar smouldering look of his. 'I imagine you've got a unique perspective.'

Sara considered his question for a moment. 'Y'know, it's funny…I mean, you'd expect it to be…terrifying…just panic and…fear…'

'What'd you feel?' Leonard's voice was quieter, almost softer when he spoke, the sharpness of it quite gone; it stunned Sara into speaking more honestly about the experience than she had ever done before.

'I guess, lonely? Yeah…like everybody I loved was a million miles away,' Sara replied thoughtfully, a sad tone to her voice. 'I mean, I don't like you, but…at least I'm not dying alone.'

Leonard smiled slightly, impressed that she could make a joke in a situation as serious as this…but then again, Sara wasn't exactly a stranger to multiple near-death experiences. He tilted his head away slightly, feeling that it was only fair that he should speak up about his own experience now…but he didn't want to look at her while he spoke. He didn't want to see the pity in her eyes, or the surprise that he actually had a heart when it came to certain memories from his past.

'The closest I ever came to dying was, err…the day I met Mick.'

Sara raised her eyebrows. 'Why does that not surprise me?' she murmured, a hint of a smile on her face.

'No, it wasn't like that. It was my first day in juvie, I was fourteen and the smallest kid in there by far. Some of the older kids wanted to make sure I knew it,' Leonard said, and he paused, wondering whether to go on; Sara could tell it was costing him a great deal of effort to say this. 'So they jumped me. I fought back, but…one of them had a shiv…and I figured that was it. Until Mick stepped in.'

He looked at Sara, who was rapt with attention, taking in every word, almost as if making the most of this vulnerable Leonard who was opening up to her, a version of Leonard she'd never even known existed. It surprised him that it didn't make him feel hurt or ashamed to be letting the curtain fall…to let her see past the cold-hearted act that had once been true but was now just a façade.

'And they didn't mess with me after that,' Leonard went on, looking away from her. 'He's been standing up for me ever since.'

There was a silence as they dwelled on this, during which Leonard realised he'd never spoken about this to anyone before. Sara sighed; Leonard's story had moved her so much into forgetting that they were trapped in a freezing cold room, but now she could feel the temperature biting at her icy cheeks. It was starting to get painful.

'Let's just hope he's standing up for Rip and Jax now,' Sara said bracingly.

'Who else is going to take on those pirates?' Leonard pointed out, though he didn't sound as confident as he wanted to.

Sara then leapt to her feet, and Leonard stared up at her in alarm as she began to pace up and down before him, fiercely rubbing her arms.

'We can't just sit here, we need to move around,' Sara said in explanation, 'it's the only way to keep warm.'

'There are other ways to keep warm, y'know,' Leonard said suggestively, and Sara rolled her eyes; the old Leonard was back.

'Really?' she said sceptically, and he smirked. 'Hitting on me now? Here?'

'Sara, there's no point in walking up and down. There's nothing we can do now until the team gets us out,' Leonard said, his loud drawl echoing around the icy room.

Sara groaned loudly as she flumped back down onto the floor, on Leonard's other side. There were tiny icicles in the front strands of her hair now, and she could see frost beginning to form over Leonard's prominent eyebrows. Shaking vigorously now, Sara curled up, trying to fight the agony of the freezing temperature piercing at them.

'Take my jacket.'

Sara looked up at Leonard, stunned to see that he was taking off his black leather jacket. 'I'm not a weak little girl, Snart, I think I can handle the cold.'

'Not as well as me, c'mon, you've hardly got anything on,' Leonard insisted, indicating her skimpy little burgundy top that clung to her skin, and he smiled. 'I like the cold, anyway. Take it.'

'I'm fine,' she muttered through gritted teeth, as she shivered violently.

Sara could practically hear the roll of his eyes as Leonard groaned irritably and draped his jacket around her shoulders. She sighed in relief as she wrapped the jacket more firmly around herself, rubbing her shoulders agitatedly.

'Thanks,' she mumbled grudgingly.

'Anytime.' Even despite the likelihood of imminent death within the next ten or so minutes, he still sounded amused.

Time passed. Still, they heard nothing from the rest of the team, and the room was continuing to get colder and colder…so beyond freezing that it was incomprehensible. Even Leonard was struggling to cope with it now.

'Nothing quite like dying to make you think of all the mistakes, all the wrong choices…' Leonard muttered, shaking with the cold as he hugged himself tightly.

'Is this L-Leonard Snart coming to God in his final moments?' Sara asked through chattering teeth, smiling in surprise.

'Hardly,' Leonard replied, a soft laugh escaping his mouth as he rubbed his hands desperately together. 'I just…wish I could take a few things back. Should have left Mick back in Future Star City.'

'Why didn't you?'

Leonard shrugged, considering her question for a moment. 'Without me to keep him in check…Mick can be a scary guy,' he replied, trying to keep his breathing steady as they both shivered violently beside each other.

'Agreed. I hate to break it to you, but…even if we make it out of here alive…you're still gonna have a problem on your hands,' Sara said warningly, drawing her breaths in great, shuddering gasps. 'I've seen enough…to know that Mick's in a dark place…and he's not coming back.'

And then, unable to help herself, she grabbed his arm and leant up to him, needing to feel the warmth of someone's presence, to stop her from shivering. Leonard hesitated for a moment and turned his head away slightly while he adjusted his arm to let her cuddle up to him. In spite of his flirtatious comment about keeping warm earlier, Leonard was not a fan of any kind of physical closeness or intimacy. Perhaps that was because he associated any kind of touching with the abuse he'd suffered from at the hands of his father. Leonard had never had a proper relationship, or even gone as far as hugging anyone, as a result of that. He'd never held anyone before…and he'd never felt left out of that experience. He'd never wanted any of that. Until right now, as Sara clutched onto his arm desperately, her head leant against his shoulder as she shivered against him.

And so it was with difficulty that Leonard, shaking alongside her, slowly removed his arm from Sara's hold and instead wrapped it tentatively around her, drawing her closer to him. He felt her sigh in comfort as his arms held her protectively, and leaned against his chest, both of them still shivering painfully from the cold, but at least they had each other. Leonard wondered when the last time was that Sara had been this close with someone, and it was as she squeezed him he realised that Sara had been feeling lonely since the moment she'd died, even after she'd been resurrected and reunited with her loved ones. They were both lonely and were in unfamiliar territory. And they were dying. Again. But they were together, and Leonard was holding this beautiful, fierce woman who he now realised was far more than just a crush as she held him back desperately…and right now, that was all that mattered.

The team rescued them from the freezing engine room just in time. It was with some reluctance that Leonard and Sara let go of each other, for what excuse would they have to ever hold someone like that for a while? They had more pressing problems to attend to, however, the main one being Mick's betrayal. He had crossed over to the side of the space pirates, and began to fight them for the Waverider. Leonard didn't want to hurt Mick, but when he saw Mick chase after Sara to burn her with his gun, he knew he had no choice, so shot him with his cold gun. And then came the team's decision that something had to be done about Mick…something permanent, to keep them all from danger. Leonard knew what he had to do. He just didn't know if he had the strength to do it.

Sara alone out of everyone on the ship seemed to understand how painful this was for Leonard. Though the others were sympathetic, they still saw Leonard to be the same heartless, murderous criminal who'd robbed practically everywhere in Central City. They didn't think he cared enough about disposing of someone, whether it was his partner or not. But Sara knew different. After their conversation while they had been freezing to death, she felt like he was a different person altogether.

Not long after Mick had been 'taken care of' and the Waverider had set off for their next destination, Sara went over to Leonard's personal quarters to see how he was doing. He was slouched on his bed – there was a rarely a time when he wasn't draping himself over furniture – and was staring up at the ceiling, looking troubled. When Sara tapped on the open door, he turned his head and raised his eyebrows at her in surprise; they hadn't crossed the bedroom territory before now. Of course though, no matter how much he would try to deny it to himself, today had brought them closer. In fact, they could perhaps even consider each other friends.

'You saved me today,' Sara said, leaning against the wall in the doorway. 'Mick was gonna kill me, but…you shot him. I know that must have been hard for you…to choose to do that, to Mick. So…thank you.'

'All right, let's not make a song and dance about it,' Leonard said with a roll of his eyes, sitting up straight in his bed.

'Are you okay?' Sara asked, concerned.

He shrugged casually. 'Peachy.'

'You just killed your best friend,' Sara said accusingly, frowning as she stepped into the room. 'The guy who saved you in juvie, the guy who's always been there for you…your partner. And you killed him. To save a bunch of people you hardly know.'

'Your point?'

'My point is it's a load of crap,' Sara said firmly, and Leonard eyed her with pleasant surprise. 'The rest of the team might believe your story that you "took care" of Mick, but I don't buy it. I know you. You're loyal to Mick and Mick only, you would not kill him for us. And you're not the same criminal you were who killed people just for the sake of it. You're different now. So what did you do to him? If you lie to me I'll cut up your parka.'

Sara immediately regretted the feeble choice of a threat, something Leonard could see in her eyes, and he smirked at her. 'I don't wear that anymore, so feel free.'

'I rest my case. You're fed up of being evil Captain Cold, aren't you?' Sara said in a self-satisfied way, and he closed his eyes, in denial. 'So talk to me. What did you do to Mick?'

Leonard considered her for a moment, then sighed, realising there was no point in keeping it from her; and besides, he felt he could trust her and her alone to keep it their secret. 'I left him there. In the woods,' he admitted, his voice deeper and quieter than usual. 'I knocked him out, and I left him.'

Sara nodded slowly. 'And then what? You're going to go get him back when this is all over?' she asked sceptically, and Leonard smiled slyly at her.

'You do know me, don't you?'

He was almost impressed…but he so hated letting people in. Mainly because he wasn't used to it. The only person he had ever let in was his sister, Lisa. The only person he ever cared about. Only that wasn't exactly true anymore. He cared about Mick. He'd even started to care about Barry, back in Central City. And looking at those pursed red lips, the sparkling glint in her eyes, the long flowing blonde hair…he knew he was starting to care about Sara way more than he should.

'This isn't going to work, you know. Something will go wrong,' Sara said forebodingly, as Leonard got up of his bed and walked past her towards the doorway. 'He'll come back!''

But Leonard stopped walking and spun round to face her irritably. 'What would you have done, then?' he spat, his voice back to its usual harsh tone. 'Would you have killed him?'

There was a moment of silence as Sara stared fiercely back at him, maintaining her ground, and Leonard breathed angrily, his eyebrows set in that frown that seemed almost permanent. He was so hard to read…he was so closed off to the rest of the world. It made Sara almost pity him, if it wasn't for the agonised glare he was unfairly giving her.

'You know I wouldn't,' she murmured. 'You stopped me being that person.'

'Well stop trying to change me into whatever kind of person you expect me to be,' Leonard muttered darkly, and he turned away from her as he strode out of his room. 'I've said it before – I'm not interested in being the good guy. Don't expect that to ever change.'

Oh, but how wrong he was.