Arrow in My Heart // Green Arrow Fanfic

- 14. Cheater -

I couldn't sleep.

I tossed.

I turned.

I took some more Vicodin.

But the clock mocked me cruelly as I counted the number of hours I'd been trying to sleep.

It was one o'clock in the morning when I got up to make a mug of tea. Like normal, Bonnie was no where to be found, so I didn't worry about trying to be quiet as I rummaged through the kitchen cabinets.

In fact, I set my phone on the counter and pressed shuffle on my sleep playlist.

The soft tune of Moonlight Sonata filled the kitchen, and I closed my eyes as I focused on the notes that stretched and danced from the speaker of my phone.

I finished pouring the boiling water into the mug and stuck the tea bag inside. While the tea brewed, I poured the water I wasn't using down the sink, causing a cloud of steam to rise.

The smell of tea wafted upwards, and I breathed in the steam as I put the pot on the stove to cool. Feeling comforted, I started to hum along to the melody under my breath as I searched the kitchen for honey.

"This is where you live?"

I yelped and grabbed the pot off the stove as I whirled around to face the smirking vigilante that was sitting on the windowsill of my now-open window.

Oliver's smile disappeared as I pressed my free hand into my chest, against the rapid thumping of my heart. "Hey, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."

"I'm fine," I said, though the frantic pace of my heart disagreed. I knew he hadn't meant any harm, but thoughts of suffocation and hospital rooms swirled around in my mind.

I set the pot down on the stove and returned to my mission for honey. "So..." I cleared my throat in my effort to seem unbothered by Oliver's sudden appearance. "You turned your dad's old steel factory into your secret hide-out."

"Yeah," Oliver said, drawing the word out before chuckling and scratching his neck.

I gave up on finding the honey, instead hopping up on the counter and crossing my legs as I drank from my mug of tea. "Smart building the nightclub on top of it."

"Thank you." Oliver pulled his hood down and his mask off, setting the mask on the arm of my ratty couch.

An awkward silence fell.

Oliver looked strange in my cramped apartment. I wasn't sure if it was the fact that he was much larger than anyone else who'd visited me here, or if I just wasn't used to the notion that he'd visit me.

I shook myself out of my thoughts.

"So I'm guessing your learned all your Hood-related skills on the island."

"Lian Yu."

I waited for Oliver to add more, but he didn't. He just slid his bow and quiver off his back and set it carefully on the floor beside the couch, refusing to look at me.

I felt bad for wanting to know. Wanting to know about his scars, about how he'd cultivated his deadly accuracy with the bow, about how he survived, about the hard decisions he had to make, about all of it.

"I'm sorry," I said as I jumped off the counter to stand close him, "that I'm prying. I know it was traumatic for you, and the last thing I would want to do is make it worse-"

"You're not. Making it worse." Oliver sat heavily on the couch, covering his face with his hands. After a moment, I sat beside him. I wanted to comfort him, to help him, but I didn't know how.