#THANK U FOR LETTING ME RAMBLE ABOUT AMAYA

[creacherkeeper]

Okay now i have to ask who is the person you kept reblogging who is always a signing and could be possibly gay i need to know explian it to me write a whole page i will read it all but i need to know now

this is general amaya from the netflix cartoon the dragon prince! 

some things drew me to her character immediately when she was introduced in season 1 

1) hot strong lady in armor. like honestly what more could you want 

2) she’s canonically deaf, and uses ASL (american sign language) to communicate! 

i was really excited about this because i know some ASL (i took three classes in college - two from a Deaf teacher) so i was able to keep up with some of her speech and i was really pumped to see representation like that in a kids show!! when there is another character around to translate, they voice what amaya is saying (this is generally done by commander gren - her personal interpreter and best friend). however, sometimes amaya’s speech is left to stand on its own. we don’t always get a translation of what she says, and that’s a decision i can respect, especially coming from children’s media. she’s also one of the highest ranking members of the army in the show, and they never treat her deafness like it’s an issue! her soldiers clearly respect her and she’s shown to have good relationships with a lot of the characters on the show. overall (as a disability advocate and not as a deaf person myself) i think her deafness is handled really respectfully and you can see the care they put into research and consulting about it

i also just LOVE her fighting style. she’s great with a sword, but amaya is very much a brawler type. where a sword won’t do, she’s just as likely to throw a punch, or, as we see a lot later on, just full on bash people with her huge shield. there’s a moment in her introductory episode where she full on just smashes a piece of furniture with her shield by ramming through it and i was like ... oh *heart eyes* 

she’s also very caring, devoted, and funny! she is very blunt (something that i think speaks to how much care they put into researching Deaf people and culture) and she absolutely loves her nephews (the two boys in the main trio of the show) and would do anything to protect them. she also has the Good Angsty Backstory of having lost her sister before the show starts, which is explored more later. she also, in her own very blunt way, likes to make jokes and just generally be a stubborn dick for the laughs, which is ... so endearing. she literally tells someone to shove their sword up their own ass and when they ask if she thinks she’s clever she’s like “lol yea” 

(spoilers for season 3!!) 

another thing that i did not think was going to happen, but that absolutely sent me over the moon with joy, is that 

*pats amaya* THIS BAD BOY CAN FIT SO MUCH GAY IN IT 

she actually gets an enemies to lovers arc in season 3!! WITH A WOMAN!!! 

i will be honest, amaya never gets a TON of screentime in the series (she’s definitely a secondary character), but in season 3 she got a whole arc with solo scenes!! like actual time dedicated to her!!! AND WHAT AN ARC IT WAS! for me, it was easily one of the most compelling arcs in the show (in a really good season, too!) and let me tell you, i fell for this ship HARD. they really don’t hold back on the emotional punches in this arc. OR THE GAY. THEY ALSO DON’T HOLD BACK ON THE GAY. (they have multiple other characters in queer relationships in the show too!!) 

(spoilers over) 

this is all to say that i LOVE amaya and that’s why i post so much about her lol. she’s strong, funny, caring, blunt, a fair leader, and an honorable warrior. and i for one CAN’T WAIT to see where they’re going to take her in future seasons!! 

[myriadimagines]

See You Soon

DC (Arrowverse) One Shot

Pairing: Reader x Nate Heywood 

Other Characters: Sara Lance, Ray Palmer, Jax Jackson, Amaya Jiwe

Warnings: mentions of death and alcohol

Request: n/a

Summary: The Legends have arrived in Star City to fix another anachronism. For some reason, Sara is trying to keep Nate in the dark and wants him to stay on the Waverider, and he doesn’t understand why. That is, until he realises what year it is. The year something terrible happened.

Word Count: 2,676

A/N: hi please don’t kill me for writing a one shot while they’re closed. but seeing as my blog is officially 1 year old (whaaaaaat?!), i thought i might commemorate it in some way. and because i love nate and i love torturing myself, i present to you…….. this fic. and spoiler alert i know jax left but at the time that i wrote this hE WAS STILL PART OF THE LEGENDS OK. thank u guys for tolerating my slow ass writing, weird ramblings and all that, i still can’t believe i’ve been writing for a whole year?! 

please reblog/leave comments!! and despite this, one shots are still closed!

Your name: submit What is this?

“Where’s our next destination, Captain?” Ray asked as he strolled up to Sara, who was staring at the map of anachronism. He could see a troubled expression on Sara’s face, and he frowned as he asked, “Hey, what’s wrong?”

“Star City, 2015.” Sara pointing at a glowing spot on the map. “It’s a level 8.”

“Surely that’s not the only thing bothering you.” Ray tilted his head, and Sara sighed as she turned around, her arms folded across her chest.

“It’s about Nate.” she finally said, looking over Ray’s shoulder to make sure no one was else was listening. “You know I do background checks for everyone on the team, and… well, something happened to Nate in 2015. He can’t go on the mission with us.”

“Seriously?” Ray asked. “Did he get hurt or something?”

“It’s not like that.” Sara shook her head. “Something didn’t happen to him specifically – it has to do with someone he loves.”

–

Nate could feel his head spinning as the Waverider landed. Despite time travelling so many times, he sometimes still felt the side effects. He looked over at Zari, who looked slightly nauseous, and couldn’t help but chuckle. At least he was doing better than her.

“Alright, what’s the anachronism?” Nate clapped his hands together as he got up from his seat. Sara was already around the console, pulling up a map. Nate looked outside, and noticed the setting look pretty modern – a nice contrast considering they had spent so much time back in the old days. It looked familiar, Nate realised, and he asked, “Wait, Sara, are we where I think we are?”

“Star City.” Sara responded, her tone somewhat wary as she exchanged glances with Ray, who immediately looked concerned, too. “Uh, Nate, I think it’s best if you sit this one out.”

“What?” Nate’s face scrunched up as he turned around. “Why?”

“Jax needs someone to take care of the Waverider.” Sara replied, without missing a beat, and Nate turned to Jax as he looked at Sara in confusion.

“No I don’t-” Jax tried to protest, but quickly stopped mid sentence when Sara glared at him. “I mean, yeah, totally.”

“Gideon, what year are we in?” Nate looked up at the ceiling, putting his hands on his hips. He didn’t know why Sara was preventing him from leaving, but perhaps knowing what time he was in might help.

Before Gideon could respond, Sara interjected, “Gideon, don’t.”

“Come on, Sara.” Nate tossed his hands in the air. “Just tell me what’s going on!”

“Nate, this is for your own good.” Sara pointed at him as the rest of the team awkwardly looked amongst each other. Only Sara and Ray knew what was going on, while the rest of the team were as clueless as Nate. Waving her arms, Sara continued, “Everyone else, let’s get ready to move out.”

Nate groaned in frustration as no one came to his defense, quickly walking away instead. Before Amaya walked out the room, Nate quickly grabbed her arm, hissing, “Hey, Amaya, what is up with Sara?”

“I don’t know, Nate.” Amaya sighed, shaking her head. “I don’t understand it either. Did anything important happen to you in 2015?”

“2015?” Nate’s eyebrows furrowed, before his face paled. Amaya’s expression immediately became concerned as she reached out to squeeze his shoulder.

“Nate?” she gave him a small shake. “What’s wrong?”

“N-nothing.” he stammered. If he told Amaya the truth, he knew she’d also stop him from leaving the ship.

2015. The year the love of his life was killed.

–

Nate never thought he’d experience true love. Sure, it’d be nice, but he thought it was unrealistic. He’d been on a few dates, of course, but it never became anything more than a one night stand.

He met you at a library. He still smiled to himself when he thought about it – how cliché it was, like he was in a movie. You happened to be in the same history section as him, and he noticed you out of the corner of his eye debating between two books. Unable to keep to himself, he recommended a book to you, and when you turned to thank him, Nate was blown away by how beautiful you were. You had such a joyful smile that Nate made him smile too, and he thought your laugh was the most adorable thing he had ever heard.

“Thanks,” you said, waving the book Nate recommended as you put the other one back on the shelf. Nate nodded, at loss for words as you continued, “If it wasn’t for you, I’d probably be stuck here all day deciding.”

“Oh, I’ve definitely done that.” Nate nervously chuckled after he had finally found his voice again. “One time, I had too many books and had to leave at least 10 behind otherwise I’d exceed the limit, but I couldn’t decide which ones to ditch so I kinda just stole them all.”

Your mouth dropped open as Nate began to blush profusely, stammering, “Well, I mean, I didn’t… I didn’t steal them, I returned them, of course-”

“Relax,” you laughed, reaching out to touch his arm. You winked at him, responding, “I won’t tell on you, I promise. You know, I didn’t take you for the rebellious type.”

“I think we’re all a little bit rebellious, don’t you?” Nate grinned, and you smiled back. Awkwardly clearing his throat, Nate stretched his arm out as he said, “I’m Nate, by the way.”

“y/n.” you shook his hand, tucking your hair behind your ears with your other hand.

“That is a beautiful name.” Nate breathed out, more to himself than for you to hear, but you blushed.

“Thank you, Nate.” you smiled. You looked down at your watch, before letting out a sigh. “I’ve actually gotta run and check this out.”

“Oh.” Nate’s shoulders slumped slightly, the disappointment evident in his voice. “Do you, uh, come here often?”

“Well, I actually just moved to Star City.” you confessed, and Nate’s eyes widened.

“I could show you around the city.” Nate blurted before he could stop himself, and your smile widened. “I mean, if you’re cool with it.”

“I’d love that.” you gushed, pulling your phone out of your pocket. “Here, why don’t you tell me your number so I can text you?”

Had he just scored a date with you? No, Nate told himself, it was just casual – but he was so excited nevertheless. He was so excited, in fact, he had almost forgotten what his number was.

–

It was probably the best day of his life, showing you around the city. You had texted Nate the minute you left the library, and the two of you had been texting nonstop until you met up a week later. The two of you had clicked instantly, and there was not one awkward silence between the two of you. The both of you told jokes and talked about anything and everything, as if you had known each other for years.

The two of you had just finished dinner at Nate’s favorite restaurant, and he was driving you back to your apartment. You were singing to a song playing on the radio, and Nate tried his best to keep his eyes on the road, despite wanting to just stare at you. You looked so happy, bobbing your head up and down and waving your arm out the car window.

He finally pulled up at your apartment and parked the car. You turned to face each other as you said, “Thanks for taking me out, Nate, I had a lot of fun.”

“So did I.” Nate grinned. Running his hands through his hair, he added, “We should do this again.”

“Definitely.” you agreed, before suddenly looking nervous yourself. Vaguely gesturing to your apartment complex, you asked, “Do you… do you want to go inside?”

Nate’s eyes widened before he quickly nodded, and you smiled at him as the both of you got out of the car. You reached for Nate’s hand as you led him to the apartment, and fumbled to find the keys in your pocket.

Was this moving too quickly?

Screw that, Nate thought. He wanted to be with you. You were the one for him, he just knew it.

–

“Nate…” Jax shook his head as he caught Nate trying to sneak out of the Waverider. Nate cringed as he slowly turned around to face Jax, who was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. “I can’t let you leave the ship – Sara’s orders.”

“Jax, please.” Nate begged. “There’s something really important I need to do.”

“Look, man,” Jax stepped closer to Nate, stuffing his hands in his pockets as he shrugged. “I don’t know why Sara insists you stay behind, but she’s gotta have a good reason for it. Just trust her, dude, she’s trying to protect you.”

Nate scoffed and shook his head. “Jax, just help me out. I’ll be back before the team returns. And even if I don’t, I’ll take full responsibility. I’ll say I knocked you out!”

“Seriously?” Jax raised his eyebrows, and Nate sighed.

“It was worth a shot.” Nate muttered. “Jax, this is Star City, our home! Think about it, nothing bad is going to happen to me here that I can’t handle.”

Jax pressed his lips together, before finally throwing his hands in the air in defeat. “Promise you’ll take full responsibility?”

“I promise.” Nate nodded, before turning around and running off before Jax could change his mind.

–

“Hey,” Nate stopped a man on the street, who looked up at Nate warily. “What’s the date?”

“December 19th.” the man responded, his eyebrows furrowed.

“Ok, thanks.” Nate patted the man on the shoulder before continuing on his way. He almost felt sick just thinking about what was going to happen.

December 18th, after 2 years of dating, Nate had proposed to you. And you said yes.

As Nate approached the the office building where you worked, he thought about that day. The two of you had gone to the library again to check out some books for a paper you needed to write. Nate had written down a list of books he thought would be helpful, and as you were pulling them off the shelf, you noticed there was one book that looked familiar – the book you had checked out when you and Nate first met.

“Oh my gosh, Nate.” you nudged him excitedly, holding up the book. “Remember this?”

You began to flip through it absentmindedly, before noticing a sticky note at the back of it. Scrawled in a handwriting you immediately recognized as Nate’s, your mouth dropped open as you read it.

Will you marry me?

You turned around to see Nate, already on one knee, open a box with a glittering ring inside. He smiled at you as he asked, “Well, what do you say?”

You laughed, blinking back tears of joy as you responded, “I think I’d be an idiot to say no.”

As Nate slid the ring on your finger and wrapped his arms around your waist to kiss you, he thought about the day he showed you around Star City, and how he thought that was probably the best day of his life.

This was definitely the best day of his life.

–

Nate was about to enter the lobby of the building, when someone cleared their throat behind him.

“Nate, what are you doing?” Sara asked, and Nate whipped around.

“How did you know I’d be here?” Nate groaned, and Sara shrugged.

“I put a tracking device in your jacket.” she responded, and Nate shrugged his jacket off and tossed it at her, which she caught without looking. “I knew you’d figure out what was going on at one point, and I knew you’d come here.”

“I have to save them, Sara.” Nate said, his voice cracking, and Sara sighed. She knew what Nate was going through, and as much as she wanted to let him, she knew the consequences. “y/n’s going to leave any minute now, and-”

“I can’t let you, Nate.” Sara interrupted, and Nate brought his hand to his face. “You don’t know what’ll happen to the timeline if you change this.”

“Sara, in less than an hour the only person I’ve ever loved is going to get on the road to drive home, except they’ll never make it. They’ll get hit by a drunk driver, and they won’t even make it to the hospital.” Nate said desperately, recalling the events almost like it was yesterday. He was waiting in his apartment for you so the two of you could go out for dinner. It was a Wednesday night, and you usually worked late on Wednesdays, so he wasn’t concerned when you didn’t come home at first. Then it reached ten o’clock. Then eleven. Then when it reached midnight, the police showed up at Nate’s doorstep and delivered the worst news of his entire life.

“Nate, calm down.” Sara tried to say, but she could see the tears welling in his eyes as he constantly looked over his shoulder, making sure you hadn’t left.

“All I need to do is to stall y/n for ten minutes.” Nate gestured wildly. “Or tell them to take another route home. I can save them!”  

“Nate, what happened, happened.” Sara reached forward and grabbed his arm. “I know you think you can change it, but you can’t mess with history – you of all people should know that.”

“I was going to marry them, Sara.” Nate choked out. “I had just proposed to them yesterday.”

“If you could save y/n and have no consequences, you know I’d let you.” Sara said, her voice low. “I know it’s hard, Nate. If I had the opportunity to save Laurel, I’d do it in a heartbeat. I miss my sister everyday, but there’s nothing I can do to bring her back. You know we can’t mess with time.”

Nate finally bowed his head, knowing Sara was right. He hated himself for acknowledging the consequences, but he had to. He wished he didn’t care, and that he had the willpower to save you anyway, no matter what would happen to the timeline.

But he knew if you were in the same position, you would do the right thing.

“Nate!”

Nate froze upon hearing your voice, and Sara looked over Nate’s shoulder and saw you approach. She had never actually met you, only read about you while researching Nate, but seeing you in person seemed to make the situation feel so much more real. You looked so innocent, and that was what struck Sara the hardest – why was it always the innocent who were hurt?

Sara looked back at Nate, who looked paralysed. She simply gave Nate a sad smile and nodded slightly, before turning around to leave the two of you in private. Nate could physically feel his heart breaking in two as he turned around, looking at you for what felt like the very first and the last time. You looked just as beautiful as he remembered you, still smiling that gorgeous smile. You had your car keys in your hand, and you walked up to him.

“What are you doing here?” you laughed, wrapping your arms around his neck as Nate instinctively wrapped his arms around your waist. “I was just about to go home.”

Nate struggled to respond, and your smile faded. You reached out to touch Nate’s face as you asked, “Hey, what’s wrong?”

“I… I just… I need to do something important.” he finally said, before simply grabbing your face in his hands and kissing you. Nate pulled away, pressing his forehead against yours as he caressed your cheek. “I love you, y/n.”

“I love you too, Nate.” you smiled at him, brushing your thumb against his cheek. “Don’t take too long, okay? I’ll see you later tonight, then.”

Nate screwed his eyes shut, not wanting to cry. He finally opened his eyes, and croaked out, “I’ll see you soon.”

tags: @jedisimonlewis​​

[captainwhogotthecanary]

For I Think I Still Love You (Do You Mind) (7/16)

Lighter chapter before shit hits the fan next update.

Also, I wanted to take a second to thank everyone for reading. It means so much to get the kudos and comments, really.

This chapter ran a little long, as well as a lot fluffy for this story. I hope nobody minds ;)

Thanks to Tavyn for letting me ramble and checking for migraine-related issues.

On AO3 if you prefer.

Things with the team aren’t easy, but they’re easier. She’s able to relax again.

Plus, it’s easier than she wants to admit to pretend she’s sneaking out every night to meet up with a lover.

Not that they’ve done anything, of course, not even after she spent the night again. They’d had dinner together in his bed, talking like they used to when they played cards, and everything just… She hasn’t felt so grounded in a long time. And then he didn’t argue later when she burrowed under the covers instead of leaving, just let her do it, joining her a few minutes afterward.

Now, she’s on the bridge with the rest of the crew, better rested than she’s been in months. It’s like she can see clearly again, and she’s ready to go on a mission on something other than autopilot.

So of course, Rip announces there’s no mission that day.

“What?” Ray asks before Sara can. “I thought we were doing the thing today, you know, so we could–”

Rip stops him with a shake of his head. “Some of Gideon’s readings are a little off. Jax and I will get her recalibrated without any real difficulty, but it will, unfortunately, take most of the day. We can resume the mission tomorrow.”

Mick snorts and starts muttering something about being allowed to abandon the mission for a day. Ray looks around almost aimlessly before asking whether there’s anything he can do to help. The rest of the team starts trailing from the room.

Sara’s already making a plan.

It’s not like Rip doesn’t let them have days off. They’re volunteers now, and he doesn’t hold them hostage. Still, there’s not been a down day like this since she’s had a reason to want one. She knows she isn’t supposed to show up at Len’s place during the day, that she was pushing it even showing up just after dark the night before, but she has an idea, and she fully intends to run with it.

She stops by the fabricator before heading to her room and filling a backpack with what she’ll need. She hesitates before adding an outfit that’s technically for working out but is also comfortable enough to sleep in; sleeping in whatever she’s wearing is getting old, and as much as she’d love to see Leonard’s reaction, she’s not to the point of stripping to her underwear to crawl into bed with him. As she goes to put the comfortable clothing in the backpack, there’s a light knock on her door frame.

She glances up and sees Amaya, one of the newer members of the team. “Come on in,” Sara says. Amaya comes and sits carefully on Sara’s bed. The other woman’s tentative movements abruptly force Sara to realize how disconnected she’s been from everything since the Oculus. Her own movements slow, and she sets the backpack down so she can sit next to Amaya, who she’d probably have befriended by now under any other circumstances.

The rest of her team shouldn’t be hesitant to talk to her.

“What’s up?” she asks, breaking the silence.

“You’ve seemed better,” Amaya says. She gestures to the backpack. “Is this for… whoever it is you’ve been seeing?”

Sara nods. “Figured since we have the day off, I wouldn’t just stay the night.” It’s not like the fact she’s been out all night, every night, is a secret. Much of her still wishes she could tell the team the whole truth, but this, at least, feels close to it.

“The person makes you happy?” There’s a trace of sadness in Amaya’s voice, and Sara remembers she’s lost someone, too.

“Yeah, he does.” When the room is quiet again, Amaya moves to stand.

“I just wanted to make sure,” she says.

Sara gestures for her to sit back down, biting back a hint of impatience; Leonard doesn’t expect her, anyway, and maybe she can start to fix how she’s been treating her teammates. “You settling in okay on the Waverider?”

***

Sara ends up talking to Amaya longer than she means to, but she’s still on her way to Leonard’s before lunch. While she’s still on guard, making sure nobody follows her or sees her too close to his place, there’s a spring in her step that she’s missed. For a moment, she slows down; there’s no way she can be happy–she’s happy–for long before something happens to ruin it. She shakes her head and picks up the pace again.

Not today. Maybe everything will come crashing down before it gets back to normal, but not today. She can feel it.

Sara knocks on Leonard’s door, a jaunty pattern she hopes will get him to the door sooner than a standard knock; the house is “empty,” after all, so he wouldn’t want to answer the door for a routine visit, and she’s pretty sure trying to pick his lock in the middle of the day is a horrible idea.

It’s still a solid minute before he opens the door, and Sara is fidgeting by that point. He lets her inside before he says anything. His arms are crossed over his chest, and he’s leaning against the door he’s closed behind them, a scowl on his face.

“Either your clock is broken,” he says, “or you are very bad at telling time.”

Sara studies him for a couple seconds. He’s frowning, sure, but he doesn’t actually look upset. A little frustrated, maybe, but not angry. Plus, if he actually wanted her gone, he wouldn’t have let her in, wouldn’t be blocking the door.

She rolls her eyes. “I wanted to do something with you today, and it wouldn’t work if I waited until tonight. Plus, I’ve actually got the day off.”

Leonard raises an eyebrow. “What couldn’t wait for night time?”

She walks over to the living room chair and sets down her backpack, pulling out what she’d grabbed from the fabricator. “I got us disguises. Prosthetic makeup, too.” She holds up a bag with some skin-colored lumps. “We put these on your cheekbones and stuff, and it makes it so you won’t come up on any automated searches. It’s not safe for all the time, because someone still might be able to tell it’s you if they look closely enough, but it’ll fool the computers for a day.”

He’s standing there, staring at her, and she lowers the bag.

“I thought it might be good, you know, for you to get out of the house without having to hide the whole time,” she says. “This was the first thing that came to mind, and I thought it might actually work. We don’t have to–”

“I want to,” he interrupts, moving toward her. “What else do you have?”

Sara grins. “There’s face stuff for me, too, ‘cause I figure it’s less of a leap to recognize you if someone sees one of the team. And then we’ve got tourist outfits.” She holds up the pale, tropical shirts proudly. They don’t quite match, but it’s close. They scream tourist, but the color is subtle enough that they’re not going to draw a lot of unwanted attention.

“We’re supposed to wear those?” He pours skepticism into his drawl, but Sara can see the amusement in his eyes.

“Hey, these kinds of shirts are actually pretty expensive,” Sara says in mock protest. “Besides, nobody would expect you to be wearing this with khakis.” She rummages in the bag again, pulling out the pants she grabbed, and Leonard snorts. “Go ahead and change, and then we’ll do makeup.” She grabs him one more item, a long-sleeved, white shirt to go under the hawaiian one, and he nods gratefully before going to change.

Glancing down the short hallway, she sees that Leonard’s gone into the bedroom to change, so she ducks into the bathroom. When she’s finished, she glances in the mirror and has to bite down a laugh.

She looks ridiculous, and she can’t even see the whole outfit. There are people this looks good on, sure, but she’s not one of them. Maybe it’s not even that she looks ridiculous; she just doesn’t look like herself, which is the whole point of it, anyway.

When she comes out of the bathroom, Leonard’s waiting, and he looks less himself than she does. She doesn’t want to laugh, though. He looks soft, exposed even though all his skin is still covered, like someone who lived a life neither of them did. He seems to be waiting for some reaction, so she smiles at him softly.

“Come on, let’s do makeup.” She leads him back to the chair, moving her backpack so he can sit. “It'll be quicker if we take turns. I can do yours first, and we've got the best light in here.”

She needs to look at him straight on to get everything even, but his legs are too long, and they get in the way until he moves them far enough apart for her to stand between them.

It takes an inordinate amount of focus not to take advantage of the situation. She tries her best to view it objectively, changing his face with the advanced makeup. She mostly succeeds, setting aside for later the fact that he lets her touch his face without flinching, until she's nearly finished.

“Costume makeup isn’t really my area,” she says, smoothing one last line of makeup over synthetic skin into something that looks more natural, “but this stuff is pretty easy to work with.” She slows, her thumb pausing on his natural skin when she realizes how closely he’s watching her.

The pads on his upper face change his look even more than she expects, and the ones on his cheeks change his smirk, but his eyes are still his, and there’s so much in them that she needs to look away, but she can’t seem to manage it.

“That didn’t take long at all,” she says, hearing her voice croak. It gives her the strength she needs to back up. “Go look in the mirror and see if you like it, and then you can do mine.”

***

Leonard looks in the mirror, fighting the urge to throw cold water in his face since that’ll completely ruin the makeup job that got him so wound up in the first place.

Having her so close, with them both awake and neither of them in distress, was hard, especially with her touching him like she was. She started out professional, but her touches got softer as she went until they were nearly caresses.

The face staring back at him in the mirror isn’t his, he’ll give her that. He takes a steadying breath before going back to the living room to take his turn.

He wants to say he does a better job at staying professional than Sara, but that would be a lie. She closes her eyes while he works, almost gravitating toward his touch as he smooths a powdered thumb over her freckles. The makeup changes her face, as it’s supposed to, but he can still see her underneath, can still feel her when he traces her jawline.

He clears his throat and backs away as soon as he’s finished. She looks a little disoriented as she blinks at him.

He knows the feeling.

“Where are we going today, anyway?” he asks, fairly certain he manages a normal tone.

“Wherever you want,” she says. “I mean, we can’t interact with anyone you know, but I thought it’d be good to let you pick. If you weren’t under house arrest, where would you go?”

***

Their day is completely ordinary and almost perfect. They go to a museum, where Leonard plans through how he’d steal each item that catches his attention, whispering pieces of plans to Sara and making her laugh. They eat at the museum restaurant, some overpriced food that Sara makes a show of paying for. They take turns taking photos of each other, of some random fountain and stupid birds, with a disposable camera Sara produces, even knowing they’ll need to wait until everything’s safe before they get the film developed.

After the first hour, Leonard doesn’t really see the makeup anymore, doesn’t see the unusual clothes, just sees Sara again. The physical tension is less in public; even with the disguises, they have to be a little on guard, and it helps, as does the potential audience. Despite that, though, Leonard is able to soak up the day. He’s pretty sure he’ll be able to get through another week or two of solitude fueled solely by memories of this day, and he’s equally sure that was what prompted her to do this in the first place.

They go back to his little shack after dinner. There’s still the joy, but he feels it slip some at the thought that she’ll be leaving soon.

He really shouldn’t have worried.

She tosses her backpack back on the chair and pulls out some clothes he hasn’t seen yet. “I’m gonna go get ready for bed,” she says casually, turning to him and raising her eyebrow almost in challenge.

“You can’t stay here every night.” It kills him to say it, especially after the day they’ve had, and he’s not sure whether it makes it better or worse when she just smirks at him.

“Whatever you say, Snart.”

“Sara…” He trails off as she approaches him.

“Look, I know you’re trying to be responsible and all,” she says from much too close, “and you can keep telling me I can’t stay here if you want. I won’t come over during the day anymore, ‘cause great as today was, I know that’s not a good idea. Staying here at night, though, isn’t gonna hurt anyone, so I’m gonna be here as often as I can.”

He does intend to keep arguing her visits, because as much as he appreciates them, they really aren’t the safest course of action. She’s clearly made up her mind, though, so he won’t waste any more breath on debating the issue tonight. He nods, and she rests her hand on his chest for a moment before she turns and goes into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her.

It’s not until he reaches his bedroom that he realizes how domestic this whole situation is. The day they shared, and now she’s getting ready to get in bed, the bed that she’ll share with him. He expects panic, but he doesn’t feel it, not at the normalcy of their being together amongst all the uncertainty.

He does have an oh crap sort of moment when he realizes he doesn’t have anything to wear to bed, really. He would rather not sleep in his jeans again, or even in the softer khakis, but when he’s alone, he sleeps in his boxers. He looks toward the hallway, then shrugs to himself before stripping down to boxers and undershirt and getting under the covers.

It’s Sara. It’s not like he’s any more exposed sleeping like this than he has been the past couple nights, anyway.

He doubts his decision for more than a second when he sees her come into the room. She’s wearing soft, athletic leggings, and an oversized shirt that does nothing to hide the fact there’s nothing underneath it. He snaps his eyes back to her face in time to see her finish checking out his arms, and he laughs internally at how silly they’re both acting.

“Come on,” he says, and it breaks the moment. She gets into bed as if nothing’s out of the ordinary, shutting off the light and scooting toward the middle of the mattress. He hesitates only a couple seconds before he puts his arm over her. She scoots back into him, humming contentedly, and the room falls silent.

For about five minutes.

“Len? I’m not actually tired yet.”

They end up talking. He’s not sure for how long, only that he loves listening to her, loves the feel of her voice vibrating against his chest, loves how still she gets when she’s listening to him. By the time they’re both finally falling asleep, he’s almost managed to forget everything that’s weighing on them, waiting to bring them down.

This is the best day he’s had in so long he can’t remember. He thinks he tells her as much, but it might only be a dream.