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Title: Reality is a Crutch 5/7
All Parts: Part 1, Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7
Author: kat8cha
Pairing: Roy/Wally
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Roy hates asking for help and can only do so when he is not the one in need.
Warnings: Drug use, referenced prostitution
A/N: The first part of the story behind![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
roygoesdown and quickblows's AU. Roy leaves when Ollie kicks him out and Wally never met Barry and thus never gained powers. Also for H/C bingo's hostages prompt.
Hal'd been acting suspiciously, that was why Ollie decided to hop in the car and head for Coast City. Not suspiciously like he was being mind-controlled or like he'd been replaced with an alien doppelganger, no, not suspiciously enough for League intervention. Plus, If Ollie had needed to call in the league he would have had to call in Barry too, or exclude Barry under the suspicion that he and Hal were in cahoots of some sort. There was definitely something fishy going on and it definitely included the two of them. Ollie had spent some time (just a few hours really) pondering if Hal and Barry had finally decided to settle all that way-too-friendly UST with some good old fashioned sex, but Barry wasn't acting guilty and if there was one thing Barry Allen was it was moral, and cheating on your wife just wasn't right.
It was a good thing Ollie had decided to investigate Hal's business anyway because it looked like the fine Green Lantern had gotten himself into a bit of trouble. Ollie wouldn't have even known if it wasn't for the villain involved, apparently The Art Critic wanted his voice heard, so he was getting a *lot* of television coverage for his crime. Now generally a clichéd villain like The Art Critic (his costume and his message were both ridiculous) would be a problem solved by a boxing glove arrow to the face, but Ollie felt like taking his time. Why? Because when he had passed the electronic store and seen the bits of heist televised by the media he'd spotted a familiar head of brown hair being held captive by a field of overly friendly sunflowers. Ollie had spent the entire minute it had taken him to change clothes laughing before he'd headed towards the museum. Once there it had been a brief internal battle between charging in the front door (or dropping in through that delightful skylight) or coming round the back. He picked 'coming round the back' because there were civilians around and the last thing Ollie wanted was to get them hurt. Also, he could mock Hal more if he snuck in and acted like a proper hero.
Coming in through the maintenance entrance wasn't glamorous. Ollie had to break the lock and then hike down three flights of stairs. He came out on the second floor because there was a balcony that overlooked the main room where The Art Critic was holding his hostages. He headed down the hallway and turned a corner… and would have run smack into a walking piece of Degas if he hadn't been pulled into a nearby broom closet by a thin, freckled hand.
"…" He stared at the teenager who had saved him from 'alerting the guards'. The teen was a redhead, and thin, with gauntness to his face that came from a high metabolism and not eating enough. Ollie'd seen it on Barry sometimes, when Barry overworked and couldn't quite get enough food to feed his speedster body. Ollie'd also seen it on plenty of teens. Freckles liberally dusted the kid's angular face and the skinny arms poking out of a slightly too large green polo, and his jeans were obviously second hand. The kid also had narrow green eyes that were regarding Ollie with suspicion.
There was nothing but coloring and age to tie him to Roy, and even then the kid looked younger than Roy would be now, still just looking at the kid made Ollie ache in a way he'd deny for all he was worth.
The kid was looking him over too and did not look impressed. "I was hoping for Batman." He eventually said, breaking the silence.
Ollie snorted. Kid had balls. "Ol' pointy ears generally keeps to Gotham, kid, except on League business. And this ain't League business." Ah, the Justice League, good for getting superheroes together and out of their home cities. "Think you can give me a brief description of events?"
The redhead rolled his eyes and leaned back against the broom closet wall. "I was here with…" a pause, the kid was trying to figure out how to cover something up and wasn't a very good liar, "some friends when the trouble went down. We were looking at the Impressionists," and the kid was smiling now, obviously remembering something funny, maybe he was thinking about the naked women in the paintings, "when The Art Critic showed up. My one friend pushed me into the closet before he got caught, I think. I think he tried to fight some of the paintings off." And now the kid was frowning and chewing on his bottom lip, worried. "I've managed to get pretty close, but I saw the paintings grab a few people earlier. They can definitely see and I don't want to end up another hostage."
"No worries, kid." Ollie patted the teen on the shoulder and received yet another unimpressed look for the effort. "I'll take it from here." Then, in a show of bravado, Ollie opened the closet door and found himself facing down a Picasso. Of course, acting on instinct, he shot it. Not that it did any good, the angles and boxy colors approached Ollie anyway, so he grabbed the kid and ran. "How do you stop these things?" He shouted at the kid, swerving around empty displays while somehow the clown chased after them.
"How should I know?" The kid shouted back, and then they both shut up because they were approaching the balcony and the last thing they wanted to lose was the element of surprise. Ollie shot the Picasso with an arrow again and this time pinned it to the wall. Immediately the painting flattened out and became a painting again… albeit with an arrow stuck in it. Ollie was suddenly sure that the curator of the museum would become a super villain just to punish Ollie for destroying art.
"I guess that's how you 'kill' them." The kid even did air quotes around the word 'kill'. It was cute, if ridiculous. The kid could have made someone a good sidekick.
Ollie crouched down so he was out of the line of sight of any other wandering paintings and motioned for the kid to do the same. "It doesn't count if they were lifeless to start." And the clown painting following them had been freaky, too freaky to be considered 'alive'. "Alright, kid, how do you feel about making me a distraction?"
". . ." The kid opened his mouth and then shut it, not like he'd forgotten what he was going to say but in a manner that suggested he was holding himself back. "How much of a distraction do you need?"
Ollie snuck closer to the glass railing that ran around the balcony and revealed the main floor below. He could see the heads of the hostages, many of them wrapped up in vaguely familiar pieces of art, and he could see The Art Critic, standing in the middle of them with a bullhorn and his eyes on the main doors. The Art Critic didn't look like the kind of guy who regularly battled the police, heroes, or villains. He was skinny, and his garishly colored costume (Ollie knew it was modeled after a painting, he could recognize that much, though hell if he could recognize the painting) wasn't as tight as many people liked it. It looked more like a pajamas than the spandex tracksuits most villains wore. Still, it was tight enough to show some muscle definition. The Art Critic *could* probably pack a punch. Not like Ollie was going to let him.
"Just shout some obscenities. You're a teenager, I'm sure you know some swear words." The teen rolled his eyes and Ollie rolled his right back. "Count of three alright with you?"
"Sure."
"Alright then. One…" Ollie moved around to a different side of the balcony while he readied an arrow. "Two…" He kept one eye on the hostages, especially Hal because Hal was known for doing stupid things. "Three!"
The kid popped up right on cue. "Hey! Stupid!" Almost half the hostages looked up, as well as the Art Critic. Ollie jumped over the railing. "I think Seurat sucks!" He fired in mid-air while the kid shouted… well, whatever it was he was shouting. The Art Critic's face turned red just before Ollie's boxing glove arrow hit him square in the jaw and knocked him off his feet.
"Why you-" The moving art halted when Ollie leveled a far less friendly arrow The Art Critic's way. "This violates my rights!"
"Tell it to the police." Then Ollie smacked T.A.C. hard under the chin, the villain's head bounced off the floor and his eyes rolled up into his skull. The art around the room faded, turned into canvas, or returned grindingly to their original positions, depending on the art. Hal carefully stepped off the canvas painting of sunflowers and shot Ollie a grateful look. Ollie smirked at him as the police pushed through the glass doors and gathered up the passed out villain before they started questioning the hostages. Ollie got a few thanks before he was ignored by cops who were more used to dealing with Green Lantern who dropped off bad guys and flew away. Green Arrow was generally the type to shoot and run too, he wasn't like Barry who enjoyed chatting with everyone, but he took this chance to lean against the wall and watch Hal. Hal couldn't just escape now that the room was swarming with police and hostages and he kept sending Ollie these little glances, like he wasn't sure if he wanted Ollie to leave or if he was grateful or if he desperately wanted to tell Ollie something but couldn't. It was probably all of the above.
"Hal!" The kid had a voice that carried, or maybe it was just that Ollie was listening for it. He saw the kid push his way through uniforms over towards Hal, and since the teenagers back was to him he didn't see the look Ollie was now giving him. Ollie then glanced up at Hal when the crowd swarmed. It was hard to tell, but Hal was definitely blushing.
Well, Hal wouldn't be the first superhero to pick up a redheaded ward. And if Hal had picked the teen up because of… well. Hal could handle a kid. The way he played the ladies he was probably going to have one eventually. Ollie tried hard not to think about the kid he knew he had. With the kid not shouting and all the chatter going on Ollie couldn't hear what they were saying. Hal seemed nervous, and whatever he was saying he was nodding quite a bit and he eventually jerked his head to the left. Then the kid was pushing through the crowd again and Hal was walking over. Hal casually leaned against the wall by Ollie and crossed his arms over his chest.
"I can't believe you asked him to create a distraction." Hal sounded almost upset, although there was a large quotient of bafflement in there too. "He's not a sidekick or a hero, Ollie."
"I needed a distraction." Ollie stated defensively. "And I used what I had at hand! Plus, you seemed awful close to him, Hal, he a relative?" Ollie knew, distantly, that some heroes had family units, he knew that Hal had a family unit even if he wasn't too communicative with or about them. Still, the kid made him ache and Ollie refused to admit this or why. "Maybe you shouldn't get too close to me, he could figure out your secret identity."
"He knows." Hal shrugged and Ollie realized for the first time that Hal was dressed in his going out clothes. Oh, not his 'going out' clothes, but the nice clothes he wore when they decided to spend time together as civilians and wanted to be presentable. "He's not related though."
Ollie shook his head slowly and stroked his beard like he was contemplating something. "And here you were saying he wasn't a sidekick. If you're picking up young boys like Batman does…"
"No!" Hal's shout was almost loud enough to attract attention from the police now filtering hostages out the doors but Ollie waved his hand and they decided it wasn't worth the effort and looked away. "Look, he's not my ward or anything. I'm smart enough not to pick up a kid if all I'm going to end up doing is ditching him."
Ollie winced hard. "Hal…"
"Let's just drop it, Ollie." There was a sharp edge to Hal's voice that Ollie was sure he had never heard before. It made Ollie narrow his eyes and curl his hands into fists. Roy hadn't been all his fault. If Hal… if Dinah… if Roy…
"So, not a sidekick?" Ollie forced his fingers to uncurl and scanned the crowd for red hair. He spotted several redheads in the crowd but he found the one he was looking for on the other side of his room with his back to Ollie. He was talking to someone who was leaning against the wall and blocked from Ollie's line of sight by one of the paramedics checking the hostages over. The Paramedic's body language made Ollie think that whoever the redhead was talking to wasn't being a very good patient.
"He's a good kid." Hal said defensively and Ollie glanced back at his friend. "Nice, decent, cleans up good. He just needs a little help, so I'm giving it to him." Ollie continued to stare and Hal shifted his feet. "People are probably going to get… I'm going to deal with Wally, could you meet me at my apartment in like an hour? Wear civvies."
Then Hal was pushing through the crowd to get to the redhead on the other side of the room and Ollie was left alone. After a brief moment of debate Ollie shrugged and decided to make like a banana and split before someone started to give him more suspicious looks than usual. It didn't take him long to get back to where he'd stashed his clothes and change or to get back to his car. The kid was probably why Hal had been acting so strange lately. Kids… changed people. Well, they changed people if you were a decent person.
It didn't take Ollie long to reach Hal's apartment building and his brain was so preoccupied with not thinking about Roy and thinking about Hal and his kid that he promptly ignored the part of his conversation with Hal that had included 'in an hour'. Instead he headed up and cheerfully broke into Hal's apartment.
Although he wasn't sure if it counted as 'breaking in' if all he did was find Hal's spare key and use it to unlock the front door. He even locked the door after himself and looked around the apartment. If he had felt the need to Ollie wasn't sure he would have been able to bite back his chuckle. There couch was folded out into a bed and the sheets were rumpled. There were clothes hanging off of the arms of the couch and tossed in a pile on the coffee table. Ollie shook his head and smiled slightly, the kid made twice as big a mess as Roy ever had, and had similar taste in clothes. In fact, Ollie was sure that Roy had worn a short almost identical to the one that lay flat on the bed.
Ollie absented to the kitchen to poke around Hal's fridge. At least this explained why Hal kept talking to Barry. Barry was pretty responsible, even if he hadn't had a kid. And considering Hal's tendency to run low on cash… if he was supporting a kid, Barry would probably be willing to lend him some cash. Ollie frowned at the half full fridge and instead turned to get a glass of water. He'd have leant Hal money too… though he didn't have a lot left. Ollie briefly thought of how much money he could have made off the Arrowplane if he hadn't decided to…
But there'd been a reason for it, even if the Ashram hadn't really given him any peace.
Ollie sighed into his glass of water and wished it was late enough he could crack open one of the beers in Hal's fridge and not feel guilty. But getting drunk so early in the afternoon would be a bad idea, even if Ollie was definitely dragging Hal out for a night on the town and getting drunk later.
Muffled noises filtered through from the hallway, Hal must be back with the kid. Ollie dumped the water into the sink and then placed the glass in it too. He debated between staying in the kitchen or sitting on the only open chair in the living room too long and the door was unlocked and opened while Ollie stood in the door to the kitchen.
"You can't lecture me," The kid with the red hair walked into the room, talking to someone over his shoulder, "what I did wasn't nearly as stupid as what you did, Roy."
Ollie's breath caught in his chest and he held it there, too scared to breathe, he shrunk back into the kitchen so that Hal, who was next through the door, wouldn't see him.
And he waited.
"You're always telling me you want me to be a hero, Wally." Roy Harper, large as life and twice as mad, kicked the door to Hal's apartment shut and then leaned against it. He had a bruise on his jaw and bandages peeked out from under his shirt sleeve.
"I was being a distraction." Wally pointed a finger in Roy's face. "You were being a brat. You were hostage! You're supposed to behave!"
"That guy was a sleaze and that naked painting was getting way too close to those girls, alright! He deserved it when I called him a pervert!"
"Mister Jordan," Wally turned with wide eyes to look at Hal, and on the way he caught sight of Ollie in the doorway to the kitchen. He stopped and stared at Ollie instead.
"Leave me out of the lover's quarrel, kid." Hal shrugged off his jacket and hung it on the rack. "What're you-" And then Hal was staring at the kitchen too.
And so was Roy.
Ollie felt anger and bile crowd in his throat making it almost so tight he couldn't speak. "I see why you wanted me to come in an hour, Hal."
Roy's face was pale and he made a desperate noise before he bolted to the front door. Wally caught at his sleeve and turned him around, the two redheads having a split second staring contest before Roy shook his head and bolted for Hal's bedroom. He slammed the door shut behind him and it was enough to shock the anger back down where it roiled in Ollie's stomach.
"Why couldn't you have come in an hour?" Hal asked, his face buried in his hands. "We'd have managed to get him to agree to stay by that point, or I'd have gotten him out of here and you'd never know he was here." Hal's shoulder slumped and then Hal slid into the only free chair in the room and stared at Ollie from it.
"Mister Queen?" And if Roy was still his sidekick he'd have had a talk with the kid about secret identities although it might have been Hal who told the kid is name. Wally walked over and stood right in front of Ollie with his feet planted and his hands balled into tight fists.
"Yeah, kid?" And Ollie could read the kid's moves from a million miles away, but he was still faintly surprised when the kid pulled back and clocked him one.
"I didn't think it'd be right to hit you in front of the other hostages," And it didn't even hurt much, just a little. Ollie'd probably bruise, and it was a well thrown punch, but there hadn't been a hell of a lot of power behind it and Ollie was used to facing down super-villains. "But you deserved that for what you did to Roy."
Then Wally strode over to the door to Hal's bedroom, knocked twice, and slipped in through the slim crack that Roy opened it, which left Ollie and Hal to stare blankly at each other, both of them hostages to past mistakes.
Part 6!
All Parts: Part 1, Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7
Author: kat8cha
Pairing: Roy/Wally
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Roy hates asking for help and can only do so when he is not the one in need.
Warnings: Drug use, referenced prostitution
A/N: The first part of the story behind
roygoesdown and quickblows's AU. Roy leaves when Ollie kicks him out and Wally never met Barry and thus never gained powers. Also for H/C bingo's hostages prompt.Hal'd been acting suspiciously, that was why Ollie decided to hop in the car and head for Coast City. Not suspiciously like he was being mind-controlled or like he'd been replaced with an alien doppelganger, no, not suspiciously enough for League intervention. Plus, If Ollie had needed to call in the league he would have had to call in Barry too, or exclude Barry under the suspicion that he and Hal were in cahoots of some sort. There was definitely something fishy going on and it definitely included the two of them. Ollie had spent some time (just a few hours really) pondering if Hal and Barry had finally decided to settle all that way-too-friendly UST with some good old fashioned sex, but Barry wasn't acting guilty and if there was one thing Barry Allen was it was moral, and cheating on your wife just wasn't right.
It was a good thing Ollie had decided to investigate Hal's business anyway because it looked like the fine Green Lantern had gotten himself into a bit of trouble. Ollie wouldn't have even known if it wasn't for the villain involved, apparently The Art Critic wanted his voice heard, so he was getting a *lot* of television coverage for his crime. Now generally a clichéd villain like The Art Critic (his costume and his message were both ridiculous) would be a problem solved by a boxing glove arrow to the face, but Ollie felt like taking his time. Why? Because when he had passed the electronic store and seen the bits of heist televised by the media he'd spotted a familiar head of brown hair being held captive by a field of overly friendly sunflowers. Ollie had spent the entire minute it had taken him to change clothes laughing before he'd headed towards the museum. Once there it had been a brief internal battle between charging in the front door (or dropping in through that delightful skylight) or coming round the back. He picked 'coming round the back' because there were civilians around and the last thing Ollie wanted was to get them hurt. Also, he could mock Hal more if he snuck in and acted like a proper hero.
Coming in through the maintenance entrance wasn't glamorous. Ollie had to break the lock and then hike down three flights of stairs. He came out on the second floor because there was a balcony that overlooked the main room where The Art Critic was holding his hostages. He headed down the hallway and turned a corner… and would have run smack into a walking piece of Degas if he hadn't been pulled into a nearby broom closet by a thin, freckled hand.
"…" He stared at the teenager who had saved him from 'alerting the guards'. The teen was a redhead, and thin, with gauntness to his face that came from a high metabolism and not eating enough. Ollie'd seen it on Barry sometimes, when Barry overworked and couldn't quite get enough food to feed his speedster body. Ollie'd also seen it on plenty of teens. Freckles liberally dusted the kid's angular face and the skinny arms poking out of a slightly too large green polo, and his jeans were obviously second hand. The kid also had narrow green eyes that were regarding Ollie with suspicion.
There was nothing but coloring and age to tie him to Roy, and even then the kid looked younger than Roy would be now, still just looking at the kid made Ollie ache in a way he'd deny for all he was worth.
The kid was looking him over too and did not look impressed. "I was hoping for Batman." He eventually said, breaking the silence.
Ollie snorted. Kid had balls. "Ol' pointy ears generally keeps to Gotham, kid, except on League business. And this ain't League business." Ah, the Justice League, good for getting superheroes together and out of their home cities. "Think you can give me a brief description of events?"
The redhead rolled his eyes and leaned back against the broom closet wall. "I was here with…" a pause, the kid was trying to figure out how to cover something up and wasn't a very good liar, "some friends when the trouble went down. We were looking at the Impressionists," and the kid was smiling now, obviously remembering something funny, maybe he was thinking about the naked women in the paintings, "when The Art Critic showed up. My one friend pushed me into the closet before he got caught, I think. I think he tried to fight some of the paintings off." And now the kid was frowning and chewing on his bottom lip, worried. "I've managed to get pretty close, but I saw the paintings grab a few people earlier. They can definitely see and I don't want to end up another hostage."
"No worries, kid." Ollie patted the teen on the shoulder and received yet another unimpressed look for the effort. "I'll take it from here." Then, in a show of bravado, Ollie opened the closet door and found himself facing down a Picasso. Of course, acting on instinct, he shot it. Not that it did any good, the angles and boxy colors approached Ollie anyway, so he grabbed the kid and ran. "How do you stop these things?" He shouted at the kid, swerving around empty displays while somehow the clown chased after them.
"How should I know?" The kid shouted back, and then they both shut up because they were approaching the balcony and the last thing they wanted to lose was the element of surprise. Ollie shot the Picasso with an arrow again and this time pinned it to the wall. Immediately the painting flattened out and became a painting again… albeit with an arrow stuck in it. Ollie was suddenly sure that the curator of the museum would become a super villain just to punish Ollie for destroying art.
"I guess that's how you 'kill' them." The kid even did air quotes around the word 'kill'. It was cute, if ridiculous. The kid could have made someone a good sidekick.
Ollie crouched down so he was out of the line of sight of any other wandering paintings and motioned for the kid to do the same. "It doesn't count if they were lifeless to start." And the clown painting following them had been freaky, too freaky to be considered 'alive'. "Alright, kid, how do you feel about making me a distraction?"
". . ." The kid opened his mouth and then shut it, not like he'd forgotten what he was going to say but in a manner that suggested he was holding himself back. "How much of a distraction do you need?"
Ollie snuck closer to the glass railing that ran around the balcony and revealed the main floor below. He could see the heads of the hostages, many of them wrapped up in vaguely familiar pieces of art, and he could see The Art Critic, standing in the middle of them with a bullhorn and his eyes on the main doors. The Art Critic didn't look like the kind of guy who regularly battled the police, heroes, or villains. He was skinny, and his garishly colored costume (Ollie knew it was modeled after a painting, he could recognize that much, though hell if he could recognize the painting) wasn't as tight as many people liked it. It looked more like a pajamas than the spandex tracksuits most villains wore. Still, it was tight enough to show some muscle definition. The Art Critic *could* probably pack a punch. Not like Ollie was going to let him.
"Just shout some obscenities. You're a teenager, I'm sure you know some swear words." The teen rolled his eyes and Ollie rolled his right back. "Count of three alright with you?"
"Sure."
"Alright then. One…" Ollie moved around to a different side of the balcony while he readied an arrow. "Two…" He kept one eye on the hostages, especially Hal because Hal was known for doing stupid things. "Three!"
The kid popped up right on cue. "Hey! Stupid!" Almost half the hostages looked up, as well as the Art Critic. Ollie jumped over the railing. "I think Seurat sucks!" He fired in mid-air while the kid shouted… well, whatever it was he was shouting. The Art Critic's face turned red just before Ollie's boxing glove arrow hit him square in the jaw and knocked him off his feet.
"Why you-" The moving art halted when Ollie leveled a far less friendly arrow The Art Critic's way. "This violates my rights!"
"Tell it to the police." Then Ollie smacked T.A.C. hard under the chin, the villain's head bounced off the floor and his eyes rolled up into his skull. The art around the room faded, turned into canvas, or returned grindingly to their original positions, depending on the art. Hal carefully stepped off the canvas painting of sunflowers and shot Ollie a grateful look. Ollie smirked at him as the police pushed through the glass doors and gathered up the passed out villain before they started questioning the hostages. Ollie got a few thanks before he was ignored by cops who were more used to dealing with Green Lantern who dropped off bad guys and flew away. Green Arrow was generally the type to shoot and run too, he wasn't like Barry who enjoyed chatting with everyone, but he took this chance to lean against the wall and watch Hal. Hal couldn't just escape now that the room was swarming with police and hostages and he kept sending Ollie these little glances, like he wasn't sure if he wanted Ollie to leave or if he was grateful or if he desperately wanted to tell Ollie something but couldn't. It was probably all of the above.
"Hal!" The kid had a voice that carried, or maybe it was just that Ollie was listening for it. He saw the kid push his way through uniforms over towards Hal, and since the teenagers back was to him he didn't see the look Ollie was now giving him. Ollie then glanced up at Hal when the crowd swarmed. It was hard to tell, but Hal was definitely blushing.
Well, Hal wouldn't be the first superhero to pick up a redheaded ward. And if Hal had picked the teen up because of… well. Hal could handle a kid. The way he played the ladies he was probably going to have one eventually. Ollie tried hard not to think about the kid he knew he had. With the kid not shouting and all the chatter going on Ollie couldn't hear what they were saying. Hal seemed nervous, and whatever he was saying he was nodding quite a bit and he eventually jerked his head to the left. Then the kid was pushing through the crowd again and Hal was walking over. Hal casually leaned against the wall by Ollie and crossed his arms over his chest.
"I can't believe you asked him to create a distraction." Hal sounded almost upset, although there was a large quotient of bafflement in there too. "He's not a sidekick or a hero, Ollie."
"I needed a distraction." Ollie stated defensively. "And I used what I had at hand! Plus, you seemed awful close to him, Hal, he a relative?" Ollie knew, distantly, that some heroes had family units, he knew that Hal had a family unit even if he wasn't too communicative with or about them. Still, the kid made him ache and Ollie refused to admit this or why. "Maybe you shouldn't get too close to me, he could figure out your secret identity."
"He knows." Hal shrugged and Ollie realized for the first time that Hal was dressed in his going out clothes. Oh, not his 'going out' clothes, but the nice clothes he wore when they decided to spend time together as civilians and wanted to be presentable. "He's not related though."
Ollie shook his head slowly and stroked his beard like he was contemplating something. "And here you were saying he wasn't a sidekick. If you're picking up young boys like Batman does…"
"No!" Hal's shout was almost loud enough to attract attention from the police now filtering hostages out the doors but Ollie waved his hand and they decided it wasn't worth the effort and looked away. "Look, he's not my ward or anything. I'm smart enough not to pick up a kid if all I'm going to end up doing is ditching him."
Ollie winced hard. "Hal…"
"Let's just drop it, Ollie." There was a sharp edge to Hal's voice that Ollie was sure he had never heard before. It made Ollie narrow his eyes and curl his hands into fists. Roy hadn't been all his fault. If Hal… if Dinah… if Roy…
"So, not a sidekick?" Ollie forced his fingers to uncurl and scanned the crowd for red hair. He spotted several redheads in the crowd but he found the one he was looking for on the other side of his room with his back to Ollie. He was talking to someone who was leaning against the wall and blocked from Ollie's line of sight by one of the paramedics checking the hostages over. The Paramedic's body language made Ollie think that whoever the redhead was talking to wasn't being a very good patient.
"He's a good kid." Hal said defensively and Ollie glanced back at his friend. "Nice, decent, cleans up good. He just needs a little help, so I'm giving it to him." Ollie continued to stare and Hal shifted his feet. "People are probably going to get… I'm going to deal with Wally, could you meet me at my apartment in like an hour? Wear civvies."
Then Hal was pushing through the crowd to get to the redhead on the other side of the room and Ollie was left alone. After a brief moment of debate Ollie shrugged and decided to make like a banana and split before someone started to give him more suspicious looks than usual. It didn't take him long to get back to where he'd stashed his clothes and change or to get back to his car. The kid was probably why Hal had been acting so strange lately. Kids… changed people. Well, they changed people if you were a decent person.
It didn't take Ollie long to reach Hal's apartment building and his brain was so preoccupied with not thinking about Roy and thinking about Hal and his kid that he promptly ignored the part of his conversation with Hal that had included 'in an hour'. Instead he headed up and cheerfully broke into Hal's apartment.
Although he wasn't sure if it counted as 'breaking in' if all he did was find Hal's spare key and use it to unlock the front door. He even locked the door after himself and looked around the apartment. If he had felt the need to Ollie wasn't sure he would have been able to bite back his chuckle. There couch was folded out into a bed and the sheets were rumpled. There were clothes hanging off of the arms of the couch and tossed in a pile on the coffee table. Ollie shook his head and smiled slightly, the kid made twice as big a mess as Roy ever had, and had similar taste in clothes. In fact, Ollie was sure that Roy had worn a short almost identical to the one that lay flat on the bed.
Ollie absented to the kitchen to poke around Hal's fridge. At least this explained why Hal kept talking to Barry. Barry was pretty responsible, even if he hadn't had a kid. And considering Hal's tendency to run low on cash… if he was supporting a kid, Barry would probably be willing to lend him some cash. Ollie frowned at the half full fridge and instead turned to get a glass of water. He'd have leant Hal money too… though he didn't have a lot left. Ollie briefly thought of how much money he could have made off the Arrowplane if he hadn't decided to…
But there'd been a reason for it, even if the Ashram hadn't really given him any peace.
Ollie sighed into his glass of water and wished it was late enough he could crack open one of the beers in Hal's fridge and not feel guilty. But getting drunk so early in the afternoon would be a bad idea, even if Ollie was definitely dragging Hal out for a night on the town and getting drunk later.
Muffled noises filtered through from the hallway, Hal must be back with the kid. Ollie dumped the water into the sink and then placed the glass in it too. He debated between staying in the kitchen or sitting on the only open chair in the living room too long and the door was unlocked and opened while Ollie stood in the door to the kitchen.
"You can't lecture me," The kid with the red hair walked into the room, talking to someone over his shoulder, "what I did wasn't nearly as stupid as what you did, Roy."
Ollie's breath caught in his chest and he held it there, too scared to breathe, he shrunk back into the kitchen so that Hal, who was next through the door, wouldn't see him.
And he waited.
"You're always telling me you want me to be a hero, Wally." Roy Harper, large as life and twice as mad, kicked the door to Hal's apartment shut and then leaned against it. He had a bruise on his jaw and bandages peeked out from under his shirt sleeve.
"I was being a distraction." Wally pointed a finger in Roy's face. "You were being a brat. You were hostage! You're supposed to behave!"
"That guy was a sleaze and that naked painting was getting way too close to those girls, alright! He deserved it when I called him a pervert!"
"Mister Jordan," Wally turned with wide eyes to look at Hal, and on the way he caught sight of Ollie in the doorway to the kitchen. He stopped and stared at Ollie instead.
"Leave me out of the lover's quarrel, kid." Hal shrugged off his jacket and hung it on the rack. "What're you-" And then Hal was staring at the kitchen too.
And so was Roy.
Ollie felt anger and bile crowd in his throat making it almost so tight he couldn't speak. "I see why you wanted me to come in an hour, Hal."
Roy's face was pale and he made a desperate noise before he bolted to the front door. Wally caught at his sleeve and turned him around, the two redheads having a split second staring contest before Roy shook his head and bolted for Hal's bedroom. He slammed the door shut behind him and it was enough to shock the anger back down where it roiled in Ollie's stomach.
"Why couldn't you have come in an hour?" Hal asked, his face buried in his hands. "We'd have managed to get him to agree to stay by that point, or I'd have gotten him out of here and you'd never know he was here." Hal's shoulder slumped and then Hal slid into the only free chair in the room and stared at Ollie from it.
"Mister Queen?" And if Roy was still his sidekick he'd have had a talk with the kid about secret identities although it might have been Hal who told the kid is name. Wally walked over and stood right in front of Ollie with his feet planted and his hands balled into tight fists.
"Yeah, kid?" And Ollie could read the kid's moves from a million miles away, but he was still faintly surprised when the kid pulled back and clocked him one.
"I didn't think it'd be right to hit you in front of the other hostages," And it didn't even hurt much, just a little. Ollie'd probably bruise, and it was a well thrown punch, but there hadn't been a hell of a lot of power behind it and Ollie was used to facing down super-villains. "But you deserved that for what you did to Roy."
Then Wally strode over to the door to Hal's bedroom, knocked twice, and slipped in through the slim crack that Roy opened it, which left Ollie and Hal to stare blankly at each other, both of them hostages to past mistakes.
Part 6!