Roy has liked both the Arrow and Oliver Queen since he met them, so, it made perfect sense that they were the same person. And, yet, although he now knew who the Arrow was under his mask, he still had no idea who Oliver was on the inside. When Roy m...
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Oliver Queen huffed in dissatisfaction, walking off of the training ground in the middle of the Arrow Cave to wipe off his sweat. He heard his student groan loudly behind him.
"I... I just can't seem to get it!" Roy Harper exclaimed loudly. Oliver peered behind him to see the frustrated male drop his head in his hands in self-criticism. Oliver really wanted to comfort him and tell him to stop being so hard on himself, but, he knew too well that that wouldn't work. He had to give the boy some tough love if he wanted him to get anywhere in his training.He certainly hated to do this, but he'd hate more to see Roy waste his talent because he couldn't focus well enough. So, instead, Oliver turned around and threw Roy a towel, speaking, "Clean yourself and we'll restart. You just need to focus more. You have been more and more distracted lately. Why?"
As Oliver walked towards him, Roy hesitantly answered, "Well, I don't really know, it's frustrating, but I just don't think I'm capable of doing this! Of progressing!"
"That's not true and I know it. You might need extra help but that doesn't mean I'll give up on you. Tell me how I can help you, Roy. How can I help you focus?"
Roy gulped. He seemed to be contemplating whether he should answer. He looked away, avoiding eye contact with the older man. Oliver found Roy's behaviour strange but didn't say anything. After awhile, Roy opened his mouth.
"Um... well," Roy wavered, "I guess it would be easier to train with someone I really understand and trust as a person. Not that I don't trust you," he hurried to specify, "I just want to be able to rely on you mentally just as much as physically. It would really help if I actually train with someone I actually know, and I don't know you. You see, I just know the Arrow. I don't really know Oliver Queen." He stopped, swallowing nervously, looking into Oliver's eyes with a hidden vulnerability.
Oliver had a hard time understanding the strange, warm feeling growing inside of him - it was more than sympathy or wanting to help. He couldn't pinpoint what it was, but it was surprising, pleasant, and very unexpected - which made Oliver want to deny and resent it. But he couldn't, at least not fully. He didn't even like Roy at first, and yet, he was thinking of doing something for Roy he'd do for very few people. Opening up to him.
"Alright," Oliver shifted his weight, "how about we go out for dinner? Tomorrow at 6?"
"Um, I have to do something at 6, can we do 7?"
"Sure. I'll pick you up...?" Oliver paused questioningly.
"Here. Pick me up here," Roy quickly replied.
"Alright. I'll see you tomorrow," Oliver said, putting a hand on Roy's shoulder awkwardly. For some reason, it felt different from all the times before. Ignoring the strange and unknown to him feeling, Oliver walked out the door.
Others probably didn't notice - they were having a pretty normal day. They did some training in the morning with Oliver, Diggle, and Roy. Laurel came by to check in and informed Team Arrow that everything was going smoothly in the courtroom and the police department. Nothing out of the ordinary.
However, to the Arrow, several strange events occurred.
First of all, Roy and he made eye contact several times, on accident, but Oliver would immediately pull his gaze away, with a tingly, sucking feeling inside his chest, praying no one else noticed.
Secondly, when they trained, Oliver found himself gluing his vision to Diggle, in order to avoid accidentally peering at the younger member of the team, who fought alongside them, shirtless. That was just to name a few of the extraordinary unlikeness he faced that day.
Thankfully, later in the evening, Felicity found a more interesting activity for the four, also distracting Oliver from his newfound, worrying emotions.
"I pinned the criminals down," Felicity spoke, making the rest of the team walk up to her. "You know the ones from a couple days ago, the hacker team?"
Yeah, those guys, Oliver flinched internally. They hacked into the Police Department security system, cutting off all of the ways they could communicate. The task force was on a mission at that time, so, consequently, everyone panicked when their walkie-talkies suddenly disconnected. The robbers that the team was hunting down got away, and one of the policemen got shot. He was currently at the hospital, in a critical condition. The robbers and the hacker team were presumably working together. Since the police were still fixing their absolutely destroyed communication system, and, hopefully, improving it, this case sounded like one for Team Arrow.
"Right," Oliver breathed out, putting his hands on his hips, "Where are they?"
"They're at the parking lot, under the abandoned mall in the Glades. But we can't go after them spontaneously like we usually do, they're using a high-level laser security system."
"How do you know that?" Roy wondered, clearly impressed.
"I have my ways," was her mysterious reply.
"We've beaten those systems before," Oliver spoke again.
"This one's different. I don't even know how they have access to this type of tech. It's extreme and inaccessible technology, that's only used by the government and secret agencies, like A.R.G.U.S."
"We can probably train with A.R.G.U.S. using that laser system," Diggle stepped in, "I'll ask Lyla about getting us a spot. I'm sure Waller won't mind since we'll be doing it so we can help them capture criminals they haven't managed to hunt down."
"That's a great idea. Can you ask her now?" Asked Oliver.
"I'm on it!" Diggle took out his phone, dialing Lyla's number. After a short conversation, Diggle hung up, and informed, "She says she can do it, but it will only work tomorrow."
"That's fine. We'll just go back to our usual business, then."
The rest of the day went pretty much the same. Some more training, and a little bit of criminal tracking, which was unsuccessful. Roy left early, which didn't pass Oliver's attention, and, for some unknown reason, made his heart skip a beat. Diggle left after Roy since he had to babysit Sara, his daughter, leaving Felicity and Oliver alone. Oliver was about to leave, too, before Felicity delayed him.
"Oliver," she interrupted his train of thoughts as he was packing up, sounding nervous. Oliver turned to her, unwillingly feeling a tingle of irritability. "Yes?"
"Would you like to, maybe, stay behind with me and finish up some work?" She asked, fidgeting with her fingers and sucking on her bottom lip, looking fussy.
"No, sorry, Felicity. I already have something planned tonight."
"Oh," she looked down, disappointed.
Oliver left the building without hesitation. It was strange, he thought, as he walked to his car. Usually, he would have liked to spend an evening alone with Felicity. But not today. He found himself thinking about the...meeting Roy and him were having in the evening almost the entire day. More than that, he seemed to be losing his feelings for Felicity - he wanted to believe it was Ray Palmer. He went to his house to get ready for the meeting, while furiously fighting a war inside of his head with the tiny part of his brain, which kept telling him that the reason was something else.
