text || @chronos

[hyperthermic]

Did you people get rid of all the bodies, or was all that bullet damage and laser scoring just a little bit of harmless fun?

And who's the guy with the angry seaweed for a face?

Place seems too interesting for its own good.

Comments

2/2

[hyperthermic]

Oh, he apologized to me, though. After you and your friends caged me. Said it was in my nature to do what I did. Should've expected it. Shouldn't have made you put me down.

Didn't say what he would have done instead, but he didn't have to think that through, did he?

[hypothermic]

Like I said, he's a prick

And he doesn't know shit about me, you, or us. Rip lives in his own sad little Doctor Who program.

Don't get it twisted, Mick. I know we're tools to him, and if it means we don't have to pay for gas on our inter-galactic road trip, while he underestimates us and all we're capable of, I'm happy to let him think it.

Since when have we ever cared about what people like him thought about people like us?

Since when did you get so damn sensitive?

[hyperthermic]

[ A long silence. ]

Since it started mattering to you.

[hypothermic]

[A longer silence.]

It doesn't.

You think me choosing the team over the pirates was about what people think? As if.

I didn't want them killing Sara, the kid, or any of the other people who had our backs when shit went down.

You were the one who refused to leave that overgrown Labrador Retriever back in Russia.

[hyperthermic]

[ A low growl. He'd forgotten what he did for Palmer. Chronos thumps the heel of his palm against his forehead.

Leonard is doing what he does, what he always did. Twisting things around until nothing but his way makes sense.

Sara, the kid, Haircut. Another growl, and with more force: ]

How hard did any of them fight you, when you decided to get rid of me? Or was it their idea? Haircut doesn't have it in him, but Sara--maybe she would have done the job right.

1/2

[hypothermic]

You were my partner. My responsibility. I wasn't going to leave the decision, or the job, up to anyone else.

The kid was pissed, but he's too young to have seen Old Yeller.

2/2

[hypothermic]

Y'know, Sara screwed up when you were gone. Went back to her roots as an assassin. Nearly took everyone out in the process.

You don't see her in a box, because she made a choice to come back. To try again.

Pull your head out of your ass, and you could too.

[hyperthermic]

While I was gone. [ A bitter laugh. ] Like I just left.

[ God, he wants to get his hands around Leonard's throat. He wants to squeeze until the man's breath is a whisper. Make him beg for air. Make him beg for death. Either one. ]

You think I'm that pathetic? That I would crawl back to a pack of idiots who didn't even vote against killing me?

[hypothermic]

I didn't give them a vote. I knew what I was going to do.

Finish up the job, and come back for you. What's going on between us is our business.

They wouldn't get it, anyway.

You don't exactly make it easy for people to understand you, Mick.

[hyperthermic]

[ Silence. He's not sure what he feels, at that last statement. It cuts, deeper than it should.

In a low growl: ]

This is pointless.

[hypothermic]

You're telling me.

Give it up, Mick.

Killing won't solve all your problems. It never has.

[hyperthermic]

It'll solve one, and it's the only one I've got to worry about right now.

[hypothermic]

[Why it still hurts, Len doesn't know.

Every time he thinks he's over it, over Mick, reality sucker-punches him in the gut.]

Simple things please simple minds.

...Except, last time I checked, yours wasn't so simple. So we'll see how long that pleasure lasts.

[hyperthermic]

[ Chronos starts to growl--simple minds. Always the basest insults. Always about what he's capable of without anyone else's help.

But then Leonard contradicts himself. Contradicts everyone. Hunter, the Professor, even some of the Time Masters.

For a second he remembers what it feels like to have Leonard on his side.

Somehow that just makes it all worse. ]

I get you somewhere private, where I can do some work, and I can make it last a long-ass time, Snart.

[hypothermic]

Are you looking for revenge, or a toy?

Too bad Santa Claus didn't wrap me up in a bow and leave me under your tree. Naughty, naughty Chronos.

You'll have to catch me if you want to play.

[hyperthermic]

Who says I can't have both?

Lisa isn't here, so I've gotta get creative.

[hypothermic]

I will never be anyone's toy.

[hyperthermic]

Yeah, figured you wouldn't like it if the tables were turned.

[hypothermic]

That's really what you think you were to me?

Don't be so dramatic.

[hyperthermic]

Hearing that from you is a laugh.

[hypothermic]

OK, Macbeth.