"So, you wanna dance, Leonard?"

Leonard looks back at her, and after a moment, the surprised expression is replaced by a familiar spark, a more familiar smirk...and an unfamiliar answer.

"Why not?" he drawls, taking a step forward and holding out a hand to her. "Been waiting long enough."

You say you've cried a thousand rivers
And now you're swimming for the shore

The Leonard she'd just met back when she'd first asked that question would never have pulled her as close as this one now does, would never have allowed their bodies to fit together as well as they do now, or put his arms around her almost possessively. For her part, Sara runs her hands along his back before she arranges her arms around his shoulders, there in the darkness of the balcony, music rising from below where the other heroes dance in the light.

You left me drowning in my tears
And you won't save me anymore
I'm praying to God you'll give me one more chance girl

"Fitting," she almost thinks she hears him murmur, but she's not sure, and she's not going to ask. Instead, she just puts her head on his shoulder with a sigh.

I'll be there for you, these five words I swear to you
When you breathe, I want to be the air for you
I'll be there for you

She thinks she hears Leonard chuckle. "Were you even born when this song was released?" he whispers into her hair. Sara, still marveling at how they're fitting together...and how distracting it is...declines to answer.

She's not sure he'd want to know that she was 2, anyway.

I'd live and I'd die for you
I'd steal the sun from the sky for you
Words can't say what love can do
I'll be there for you

They're barely moving, really, just swaying together like something out of a high school dance, and Sara's managed to snake her arms up under his suit coat, resting her hands against the warmth of a nicely muscled back. His hands, she thinks with amusement, have drifted down, and if they go much lower, she's going to be obliged to punch him or kiss him.

She knows which option she'd prefer.

I know you know we've had some good times
Now they have their own hiding place
Well I can promise you tomorrow
But I can't buy back yesterday

This whole thing feels surreal.

But Leonard isn't in the mood to question it, really. There was no way he'd been about to decline the offer of a dance again, and now Sara is warm and strong in his arms, tilting her head back so he can see the glint in her eyes.

"I'm still mad at you," she says quietly to him. "For not telling us you were back, but also for being an idiot hero. Back at the Oculus."

For all the sentiment, though, she slowly runs a hand down his spine again, and he nearly loses track of his response.

"Mmm. I didn't have much time to make the decision," he tells her. "Couldn't leave either of you to die." He takes a breath. "I regret not being there for… so much. And that you had to deal with my asshole former self. But still can't regret the decision."

"Hmmm." Sara eyes him a moment, then smiles. "Well. Guess you get a second chance."

"At life?" he drawls, trying to grasp a little more control of the situation. They're really not moving at all anymore, just standing there holding each other.

"And…other things."

And baby you know my hands are dirty
But I wanted to be your Valentine
I'll be the water when you get thirsty, baby
When you get drunk, I'll be the wine

Sara's starting to get tired of waiting. She stills her hands on Leonard's back, looking up, then sighs.

"You idiot," she tells him, exasperation and fondness in her tone. "I always thought you were a hell…"

But there's a long-fingered hand curving around the back of her head, now, and Leonard's mouth is suddenly on hers, his other hand resting on her hip, pulling her even closer as she gasps.

For a long moment, it's a fairly innocent kiss, a tentative one, lips soft against lips, as if it takes them both a moment to realize what they're doing, that it's finally happening, that there's no Oculus here now, nothing to keep them from….

They both deepen the kiss in unison, Sara tilting her head as she rises up on her toes, hands grabbing fistfuls of Leonard's shirt even his hands tangle in her hair. Sara can't help a moan as his teeth graze her bottom lip; she feels his fingers tighten involuntarily at the exhalation.

Things are just starting to get serious when they are, inevitably, interrupted.

Leonard sees the flicker of Speed Force energy through closed eyelids and sighs to himself, opening his eyes even as he tries to figure out how they're going to wiggle out of this.

"Whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Barry Allen, still in his tux with a scarlet rose pinned to his lapel, skids to a stop in front of them, throwing his hands up in front of his eyes as if he'd seen more than a kiss that was only starting to get somewhat steamy. "Snart? Sara? Uuhhh..."

With another sigh, Leonard breaks the kiss, smirking a little at Sara's growl and the bloody glare she directs at Barry, who takes a step back involuntarily before looking toward the stairway.

"Look, Oliver's behind me; he insisted he saw something up here," he tells them in a loud whisper. "So... uh… get under cover, OK? I'll tell him no one's here and distract him if I can, but..."

He gives them a beleaguered glance again and shakes his head.

"Seriously?" he repeats. "Here? You couldn't find somewhere better to do this?"

With those parting words, he turns and flashes away. Leonard turns, too, casting about for a hiding space, then grabs Sara's hand and pulls her toward another door in the corner of the room. It's unlocked, and Sara steps past him, diving inside first and turning to drag him in after her. He pulls the door shut behind them, then pauses in the pitch-black space to listen for voices on the balcony.

Or at least he would have, if Sara hadn't decided that enough was enough.

Her hands hit his shoulders, sliding the suit coat off them before she pushes him not-quite-roughly up against the wall in the tiny storage space, goes up on her toes again and wraps both hands around the back of his head, nails digging into his scalp, pulling his month down to hers in a kiss that's probably best described, he thinks, as fierce.

After a startled millisecond, he responds, wrapping his arms around her, returning the kiss for a long, heated moment before spinning them both around and boosting her up, bracing her back against the wall so she can hook an leg around his waist. That move brings them even closer than before, and she moves purposefully against him as she brings her other leg up around his hip, drawing a strangled noise from his throat as he moves an arm to slid a hand under her knee.

And just like that, another vision seen and felt in the Time Force comes true.

He's tried to retain every little detail for so long: the scent of her perfume, sandalwood and cinnamon, rising around him; the silky feel of her dress –and skin-under his hands; the taste of her mouth on his; even the faint sound of voices outside their little hidey hole. It's almost difficult to believe he's not going to wake up in a lonely bed with those sensations fading, as he gasps her name like the fool she's turned him into.

No, a little voice points out in the far corner of his brain that's still functioning. He's going to wake up in a far more real and painful manner all too soon.

He ignores it, tangling a hand in her hair and moving his mouth to her neck, a move that draws a rather satisfying noise.

They might have been there hours, but it's probably more like minutes when Sara places a hand flat against his chest and pushes, just a little, and they both sigh as he slowly lowers her feet to the floor.

Sara leans against him even after that, though, and he tilts his head down to her as she raises her eyes to his.

"They're gone," she breathes. "Think it's safe?"

He listens a moment, then shrugs, takes her hand again, and returns her gaze. Sara smirks, and after a second, they both move out of the storage room into the, yes, empty balcony, through the top door, down the stairs and out the bottom door.

At this point, they're pretty much running, still hand in hand, and Sara starts laughing, a sound with an edge of giddiness to it. They pass a startled waiter as they pass as close as they get to the ballroom, but he doesn't follow them, and after a few moments retracing their way through the maze of corridors, they stagger to a stop back out on the street, safely away from the main entrance and blinking in the illumination from a streetlight.

Sara's hair is in disarray, as is the neckline of her dress, and her eye makeup is smudged badly. She grins at him—her lips are swollen—as he glances down as himself, noting the lipstick on his shirt collar (god only know what his face looks like) and that at least three buttons on his shirt are undone. (He doesn't even remember her doing that.)

They look like they've been doing—precisely what they've been doing.

Leonard can't keep the smile from crossing his face as he looks at her, and the mischievous look on Sara's face softens as she sees it. She stretches to press a quick kiss to the corner of his mouth, then lifts her mouth to his ear.

"It's midnight," she says softly. "Reception's over. We should probably get off the street."

Their bikes—and Sara's change of clothes—are back at STAR Labs. But the odds of Team Flash—well, everyone but Barry and Iris, anyway—going back there to rehash the wedding and festivities is high, and...

And that's not what he wants to do, anyway.

"When do you have to go back?" he asks abruptly. "To the ship. How long?"

"I told the others not to bother until late morning. I figured I'd go back to the Waverider to check on things, but I don't...really have to." She studies him, a tiny smile touching her lips again. "Why?"

"I have a safe house near here, a newish one. Needed something Mick and Lisa didn't know about. It's not much, but..."

She grabs his hand. "C'mon."

"Sara, you don't know where it is."

"So tell me already."

Ten hours later

Mick can't say he's really surprised when Sara's the first one back to the ship in the morning. She takes her duties as captain seriously, and he'd gotten the distinct impression she hadn't really wanted to take part in all the wedding hullaballoo anyway. (As shown by her quick agreement to patrol the city instead.)

But there'd been something odd in her voice when she'd signed off the comm last night, and so he'd wondered, just a little, if she'd found someone to, err, pass some time with while on her patrol. In fact, knowing Sara's penchant for slightly bad boys and girls, he runs down a quick list of the Rogues in his head, wondering who might be in town, then sighs, knowing they'd probably all scattered when...

He shakes his head, then jerks his musings back to happier thoughts as he leans against a tree outside the shielded Waverider and waits for the team to trickle back to the ship. He has a number of them now, he thinks as he recalls (with an air of pleasant disbelief) the previous night. Who'd ever have thought...

Sara moves into sight, then, strolling around the corner of the derelict warehouse that's screening the site from curious eyes. Mick notes her, then straightens, frowning. She's smiling, he can see that from here, but...

Sara Lance is humming. Happily. Some song that tickles at the edges of his memory from way back, like, maybe the godforsaken '80s? And she's dressed in a man's shirt that's much too big for her and a...hell, is that a kilt? As she draws closer, Mick peers at it, frowning, then realizes where he's staring (and that Sara has knives) and quickly lifts his eyes back to her face.

To his surprise, Sara's paused, looking at him with a faint, fond smile on her face, one tinged with what almost be...regret? Mick Rory will be the first person to acknowledge he's not that good with emotional crap, but that's really the best word he can come up with for it.

"I'm the first one back?" she asks casually, studying him and apparently perfectly at ease with her odd mix of clothing.

"Uh huh." Mick shifts a bit uncomfortably, then catches himself. "Haircut called in last night to remind us again they wouldn't be back until morning; he was pretty toasted. And I know Stein likes the time with his wife, and… so, what the hell happened to you?"

Sara just smiles again, and leans up against the tree next to him, looking back the way she came. "Oh. Let's just say I ran into a… friend. It's a bit complicated. But… never mind me." She gives him a look sparkling with mischief. "Now, is Amaya still in bed?"

The Boss had tried for years to get him to think before he spoke. It never quite took. "Don' think so," he says before he thinks. "She wanted to get ready and back to her room before… oh, shit."

Sara just laughs, though, and doesn't say anything more. She stares at the city, and Mick stares too, thinking about past, and present, and future.

"It's weird," he says, after a moment. "S'place used to be home. Ship is now. But I still… well, I still sort of wanna make sure it's OK. For him. Silly, huh?"

Sara doesn't laugh, though. She squeezes his arm, instead, and he realizes that… oh, yeah, she gets it.

"We'll be back before too long, Mick," she says wistfully, staring at the city. "I'm sure of it."

"I do know we'll meet again."

Sara, who's been staring at the patterns made by the sunlight filtering through the tiny crack of a window and trying to find more excuses not to leave, tilts her head back at Len's quiet words, trying to see his expression.

She'd woken tucked up against his shoulder, legs still entwined with his, warm and cozy and, OK, sated. Neither of them had gotten much sleep, but she's as content as she can remember being, and she doesn't particularly want to move or think about what's next.

"Pardon?"

"I wasn't, strictly speaking, telling the truth when I said I didn't see you in the Time Force at all," he says, staring at the ceiling. "I did… a … couple of times." He turns his head and she sees the gleam of his eyes. "Last night, the first vision came true."

"Last night? What… oh, you jerk," she says with feeling, poking him in the ribs as he wheezes in laughter. "You knew? That we…"

"Ow!" He captured her hand in his as she moves to poke him again, rolling over a little so they're face to face. "It wasn't quite what you're thinking."

"Mmm." She can't quite manage to be angry with him, not now, not here, and what's more, she believes him. So she tilts her head up to kiss him again, and they lose a few minutes in that, desire rising, threatening to pull them both back in.

Leonard finally pulls back a little, a look of mock reproach on his face. "Seriously. And there…" A breath. "There was another vision." At Sara's expression, he continues. "We were fighting together. Back to back. You were in your White Canary get-up, I had the… a… cold gun. And we were in Central, battling some sort of robots."

Robots? "No indication of a timeline?"

"Nope. We look much as we do now." A smile tugs again at the edge of his mouth as he looks her up and down. "Well, maybe not now…"

She rolls her eyes and pillows her head back on his shoulder, looking up into ice-blue eyes. "So. Shouldn't be too much longer. And hopefully you can tell the others then. And maybe…" She dares. "… maybe you'll be OK to come back home."

Leonard doesn't answer, not in words. But he ducks his head and kisses her again… and maybe she can spare just a little more time.

It takes all Leonard has not to follow Sara back to the Waverider that morning.

But between the chances Mick will see him, or that Gideon's sensors will, he knows he can't. He watches her leave, then lets out a long breath, leaning against the closed door and hating the twists of fate that keep him here.

And so. What next?

He's promised, grudgingly, to help Team Flash keep an eye on Central City during Barry's absence, and he means to keep his word. He'll make sure to make frequent visits to the safe house he saw in his vision of Lisa, just to make sure that meeting happens as it needs to. He'll stay here, in the city, waiting and watching for trouble (and robots) and hoping that one night, one day, he can go…home.

And he'll make sure, no matter what, that his third vision of Sara Lance never comes true.

No matter what it takes.

Author's Note: I have two sequels (Just One Day and Just One Life) planned.