bakerstreet | If our love's tragedy

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If our love's tragedy

The Bittersweet Love Meme

Happy endings are what we crave, right? If we see a couple we like in movies or in real life, we root for them to make it. Why, then, is there such a desire to see love that's tragic, doomed, or bittersweet? People watch sad movies like Titanic, and they know what will happen, but somehow that makes it more poignant. This goes all the way back to tales like Romeo and Juliet. There's just something about a good cry that makes us feel that much more human and even more receptive of beauty.

This meme is equal parts tragedy and beauty, sweet and bitter. Some prompts may be triggering, so tread with caution.

How to Play
- Comment with your character, preferences, etc.
- Comment to others.
- Roll the RNG to determine which scenario to play out.

Prompts

Romeo and Juliet: The classic starcrossed lovers. You can't be together because of warring factions, and you're at the end of your rope. You have to do something.
Not the Same: Angel and demon. Human and god. Whatever the combination, you're not of the same kind. This probably won't end well, especially if one of you is immortal and the other's not, or there's some kind of power difference.
Past Wounds: One of you was hurt in the past, and it was so bad that it's hurting your relationship. Can you be healed by love, or is this something that can't ever be fixed?
Bad Things: This bad thing isn't in the past. This happened when you were together, and now it's affecting how your lover behaves toward you.
Loss: Perhaps it's a loss only one of you suffered, like a family member. Or it's something the both of you share, like the loss of a child. Sometimes, together you can pull through. Other times, it's just too much to bare.
I Can't Live Without You: Whether it be through injury, curse, terminal illness, one of you is dying. There's only a limited time left. Will you spend your last days with the person you love, or will you end it for their own good, so they don't have to watch you die?
Unfaithful: One of you has been unfaithful, even if you still love your significant other. Can this wrong ever be forgiven?
Gone Away: You're being torn apart by location and distance.
A New Start: The sweet part of bitter. Where one relationship ends, another begins. But is your heart too hurt to accept new love?
WILDCARD

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[some of my favorite stuff... m/f]

[ What it says on the tin - an Ariel from a TLM that veers more accurately into the realm of the original story. Read: it don't end happy around here.

SO yeah what I'm saying is fuck me uuuup. ]

[ISO - no to 7 but anything else is fair.]

[ ota! ]

( no #5 but anything else is fair game. )

((Nothing is ever easy with this guy))

Mick's hands hurt as he opened and closed them examining the bruises on his knuckles. His hands hurt because he'd used them to beat Leonard black and blue...retaliation for having been left behind for the Time pigs to find and abuse and manipulate into their assassin. Punishment for abandoning his partner..his husband. A physical representation on Len's face of the pain Mick feels inside. Honestly that's what hurt Mick the most. They took vows, they said the words and signed the papers and exchanged rings. They've had fights that drove them apart for years but they never really left each other. Even if they left geographically one phone call would have brought the other running in a heartbeat. Now...now Mick wasn't so sure.

He's in the kitchen, empty beer bottles all around him. The crew really hadn't wanted to let him out of his cell but well, lets face it these people weren't his friends. They didn't trust him, the didn't care about him, hell they didn't even want him around. Apparently no one did. He contemplates hijacking the jump ship and just going back to Central City but nothing was waiting for him there either. So he just...sits. Sits and drinks and tries not to think about how much his heart hurts.

He deserved it. Every bruise.
Hell for a moment he thought Mick really was going to kill him. But he deserved nothing less.

He was always coming back for him.
He wouldn't leave Mick behind.
He just needed him to cool off, to see what Leonard saw in the mission.

So he refuses to go to medical and have Gideon treat his injuries. Mick suffered so much more at the hands of the Time Masters, he can suffer a few bruises and injured ribs.

Leonard moves like a ghost on the ship. Slipping silently from one room to another. Into the kitchen for something to eat even though he isn't hungry.

Mick. Everything inside him aches seeing him there, lost and alone. But it's on him. His fault. Leonard had done this and he isn't sure he can fix it.

"You just gonna stand there or are you going to come and eat something? I can hear your stomach from here." Mick grumbles. He really can't hear it but he knows Leonard well enough to know that he probably hasn't eaten since their scuffle in the brig. He continues to sip his beer, not looking over at the other man because it hurts to much.

Len fucked up big time. Mick has always been behind Len no matter what. He's always been in his corner, always been there to help him. Whether it was patching him up after Lewis beat him, giving him a place to crash with Lisa that was safe, making sure they had food, making sure someone had his back during a heist. Always. Yeah sometimes he lost himself, sometimes the fire called to strongly and he had to give in. Sometimes he got lost in the chaos and the destruction. Sometimes he got tired of Len pulling away from him. Of his nit picking and his obsessive need to be in control of everything. Normally Mick didn't pay any attention to it. He knew when Len was stressed he would cling to anything he could control. His eating. Nit picking everything Mick did be it good or bad because it gave him something to focus on. But this time...this time Mick had enough. They'd abandoned Central and Lisa to go on a wild goose chase for a mad man who was hell bent on destroying two chicken people and taking over the world. This was way above his pay grade. He was perfectly happy back home running jobs with Len, taking care of their little family of misfits...which was probably why he found that chaos time line so appealing. He could so as he pleased with no worry of the consequences. He could be happy...content. Why couldn't Len see that's all he wanted?

Len knows Mick has abandonment issues. Len KNOWS Mick doesn't do well alone for long periods of time yet he'd left him anyway. Tossed him aside like yesterdays garbage. No...forgiveness wasn't going to be easily rendered this time. Mick is too raw and too hurt to be the bigger man here.

Snart goes still at the words. Freezes and for a moment his heart is in his throat because he feels suddenly like that small and skinny kid sneaking around his old man when he got into the booze. Terrified to be seen to the point of wishing he could simply disappear.

They're no good with words.
Hell it's why most of their fights were settled with fists and cutting words than anything even close to honesty.

He walks to the sink. Draws a glass of water. Maybe it's the innate stubbornness in him but he refuses to eat - he hasn't had an appetite in days if he was honest. The only time he'd eat was when Jax or Raymond shoved something under his nose and threatened to nag him until he ate what he was given.

There's no going back from this. Leonard meant to get him back but if Mick had been abandoned that long? That can only mean one thing.
He isn't going to survive long enough to do it.

The silence stretches on. Because what can he say that won't be thrown back in his face? What can he say when the guilt keeps him up most of the night? Nothing. He can't say anything at all.

Mick heaves a heavy sigh and looks up at Len who is stubbornly drinking a glass of water and not getting food.

"Lenny, regardless of how pissed off both of us are, you need to eat something. Doc said you ain't eaten since you put me in the brig and that was days ago." This would be so much easier NOT trapped on a time ship. At least back in Central, Snart could escape to another safe house or even to Saints for food and not have to worry about tip-toeing around Mick.

He turns back around and opens another beer. No matter how drunk Mick got he never ever raised a hand to Len. He yelled sure, but they both did...usually as a result of Leonard nit-picking something Mick did or didn't do. A show of dominance, a display of control. Normally Mick didn't give two shits, following Len's directions took the guess work out of everything, but sometimes he had opinions and he would appreciate it if his partner listened. Still...

Mick waits for Len to get food and either take it with him or sit down and eat. If neither happen he grunts and gets up, fabricates a 6-pack and heads for his own room muttering about stupid Snart's and their control issues. All three Snart's that he knew had them...Len's he knew intimately.

Edited 2018-07-25 23:35 (UTC)

Something turns in his stomach at Mick's almost concern over his general state. A reminder of all those times when Mick was the one shoving food under him, nagging him until he ate something that wasn't Big Belly Burger. What he wouldn't give for those times now.

Still, Mick should know better than calling him out like that. Of course he's going to hound him about eating and of course Leonard is going to be a stubborn asshole and not eat. Never mind he still doesn't have anything even close to an appetite.

So he dallies around the machine, watches as Mick calls up another six pack and heads back to his room and he would like nothing more than to go with him. But he's long since lost that right since he left him behind, since he left Mick with every intention of bringing him home.

This mission will kill him.
It's the only reason he can think of that will keep him from his parnter's side. From his husband. From his love.

It's late or early depending on how you look at it. Mick had gone to his room, fiddled with some projects, passed out on the floor beside his bed, and woken up covered in a cold sweat with visions of torture and the Time Lords and things that made him shake. Few things disturbed Mick Rory but the trauma he'd suffered at the hands of those bastards was too much, still too new so be a scare. He showered, changed, shuffled barefoot through the ship on autopilot till he found himself outside of Len's door.

He lets his forehead rest against the cold steel for a long moment before pressing his hand to the entrance key and letting himself inside. Would Len welcome him? Would he help? He wasn't sure he deserved it but it was all he knew. The only place he felt safe to go too.

"Snart?" he asks softly not sure if the man was awake.

Even though he isn't hungry, Leonard manages to choke something down that tastes vaguely like ashes and sawdust before returning to his room. He falls into a fitful doze in his room, never quite dropping off into restful sleep. Bruised ribs aren't easy to sleep on and he continues to refuse any sort of treatment for his injuries.

He isn't going to survive the mission. His mind keeps tripping over that one fact but not because he's afraid of death. No - Leonard always knew he wouldn't live to a ripe old age. He keeps coming back to it because that's how he fails Mick, that's why he never came back for him.

The sound of his door opening pulls him awake instantly, heart slamming in his chest. Nobody is stupid enough to go walking into his..

Mick.

His eyes snap open and he pulls himself up. "Mick?"

Len doesn't dare to hope. But he'll give his partner whatever he needs. Anything.

"Can I come in?" He asks still standing in the door way, uncertain if he was welcome given their current feelings towards each other and themselves. He was still reeling from the nightmares, still anxious and lost. Still afraid.

But Len, Len was safe..had always been safe. No matter where they were he was home as long as Len was there. It was all he could think to do to try and keep from lighting something on fire which wasn't a smart thing to do inside of an enclosed space like the Waverider.

"Please?" Mick rarely says please for anything, that alone should let Len know that he's not okay.

Mick Rory doesn't ask for anything.
Leonard pulls himself up, a faint frown creasing his brow. The hour is either stupidly early or late. "Close the door Mick. Come in." He sits up, the sheets pooling around his waist. With anyone else, he would have covered himself, reaching for a shirt or pulling the blanket around him but this was Mick. It doesn't matter how bad things are between them right now - this is his partner. His Mick.

His voice is soft in the half light of his room.

"What can I do, Mick?"

Mick steps inside and pads to the bed. He hesitates only a moment before climbing in and sitting beside his husband. He lets his eyes dance over milky skin criss-crossed by years and years of abuse. Miles of adventure and lessons and trials endured leaving a roadmap over an otherwise flawless body.

He doesn't stop himself from reaching out and gently trailing a hand over Len's left arm down to his hand. "Just let me be here for a while. Listen maybe." Mick says gruffly and was silent for a long time. His fingers absentmindedly rubbing over Len's ring finger where a band once lay.

"Had a dream...all jumbled and messy. Started with us gettin' hitched...sayin' vows and shit. You put the ring on my finger then stepped back. You aimed your cold gun at me and told me I won't worth it anymore, that it was a mistake..." Mick trails off and takes a deep breath. They don't talk about this shit. Maybe if they did it wouldn't be so hard when they did fight.

"Anyway it ended with me remembering what those Time bastards did to me....wasn't pretty. When I woke up I wasn't sure it wasn't all a dream...I needed to see you...to know I wasn't still there."

He doesn't move when Mick touches him. Contact has always helped ground Mick when he gets too lost in his own head and after all that he'd done, Leonard can give that to him without complaint.

"It was never a mistake," he answers quietly. Never a mistake to call him partner, never a mistake to call him his husband.

Leonard breathes out slowly. "I know I don't have any right to ask, but I want you to promise me something. I want you to stay with the ship. No matter what happens, Mick. Promise me." The Waverider could be so good for him, it could give Mick a sense of purpose beyond the mayhem and the fire and if this job is going to kill him, he needs to know that Mick will be looked after.

"I wanna go home, Leonard. I wanna go back to Central City at least for a little while. Get my feet back on solid ground...not be around people who hate me. Only reason I'm here at all is cause you're here. Otherwise well...I ain't exactly popular with people." Mick says with a heavy grunting sigh. "You go, I go. You stay, I stay." He says as his promise because honestly he's pretty damn sure he's gonna be the one gone first, not Len.

"I don't care what they think, Mick." And he still doesn't. Mick is still his partner and they are still a package damn deal. If Hunter doesn't like that he can take it up with the business end of his cold gun.

"We should see the job through." A beat. Because he's always made the calls, always made the decisions and maybe it's time to stop. "But what do you want to do, Mick?" Maybe he dies on the ship, maybe he dies back home, but something is going to take him down before he gets as far as Central, something that will keep him from getting Mick.

"I didn't wanna come in the first place. Tried to talk you out of it, remember?" Mick says turning his head sideways to look at Len. That when he notices the look on his face. "What's wrong?" The initial conversation is no longer important because Leonard never looks like this unless he knows something no one else does...and he knows it's bad.

Naturally Mick catches that expression before he can pull it back and keep it shuttered away. And this time, this one time, Leonard can't lie to him. He can't hide it.

"I know why," he says after a long moment. "I know why I never went back for you Mick."

Leonard looks down at his hands, fingers reaching to curl around his husband's. "Because I die. Death is the only thing that would ever keep me from going to get you."

Mick's eyes furrow in confusion at first when Len actually seems willing to tell him what is wrong. He had been expecting a lie, for him to brush it off and for Mick to have to push for him to actually tell him.

He gives him time, he doesn't interrupt. If Len is going to tell him than he is going to let him do wit. Then his husband is curling their fingers together and saying words that have blood rushing through his head and causing him to shake it in denial.

"No. No, Len, I'm not gonna let that happen." Mick says. "You go, I go. I aint gonna be able to do this shit without ya." He says honestly.

This time, this one time, Leonard is going to be completely honest with Mick. He owes him the truth no matter how much it hurts them both.

"I was going to come back for you Mick, hijack the jump ship and get you a few moments after I left. The only reason I wouldn't have come is because I was dead."

He doesn't know what this means for them, he doesn't know what that means for the future. "That's why I asked you to stay with the ship."

"We aint gonna let that shit happen, I'm telling you that. You ain't dying any time soon, Len. Not if I can stop it." He says kissing the back of Len's hand. "We'll make contingencies or something, start carrying all kinds of shit around just in case." He's not loosing Len without a fight.

"Mick.." Leonard rests a steadying hand on his. "We make the plan, but we need to prepare for that plan to go off the rails."

Mick won't accept that he might lose him but Leonard has to make plans, contingencies upon contingencies, whatever it would take. He has to make sure that Mick survives this.

"I aint talkin about this right now. I'm beat...can we sleep...please?" Mick never says please and here it is again twice in one night. Len should be aware of that...he should realize that Mick is barely hanging on right now. This is not the conversation they can have right now and have him actually be a willing participant.

Leonard's expression softens in ways it doesn't for anyone else outside of his sister. Mick is tired, overwhelmed and hurting. "Of course Mick," he says quietly.

A murmur to Gideon reduces the light level and he allows Mick to curl into bed with him and either hold him or allow himself to be held.

Whatever Mick needs, he'll do.

Mick stands up long enough to get resettled in the bed a murmur of thanks at Gideon for lowering the lights and then shutting them down fully once they are comfortably in the bed. Mick only hesitates for a moment before pressing close and wrapping himself around Len. They are facing one another, his forehead now resting against the others. He closes his eyes. Face to face, still sharing warmth and touch, but still able to move freely if need be. Tomorrow they might have to talk more, but for now Mick just breathes in the scent of his husband and relaxes letting sleep come if it will.

Leonard doesn't deserve this.
He doesn't deserve the contact, the familiar weight of arms around him and the breath blowing softly across his skin.

Mick is a goddamn furnace when he sleeps and after an hour in the dark, he shifts to lay on his back, smiling softly to himself when Mick tucks in against his side and holds on even tighter.

He doesn't know how to fix this. Leonard isn't worried about his own death as much as he's worried about who is going to take care of Mick after he goes. someone has to.

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If our love's tragedy

Rogue | xmcu

ariel ♆ tlm (darker fantasy au) ♆ ota

Genevieve Moreau | OC | M/F

will herondale | the infernal devices.

ace | one piece | ota

Leonard Snart - Flash/LoT - OTA

Bodhi Rook | Star Wars | OTA

Sansa Stark | GoT | F/M

Maedhros | The Silmarillion | M/M

emma cullen | the magnificent seven (2016) | ota

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