Words: 3252
Genre: Romance/Angst
Status: Done.
"You should get some help. You know go to therapy. Take a class. Do something. Your mother and I are both worried about you," Her father urged her.
She didn't want to. All she wanted to was kill people. She wanted to hit things. "Dad, honestly, you should be more worried about you and mom. You guys were the ones who were so excited to have her back in your lives."
He shook his head. "You know, I know that this Cupid person wanted to come after you and your sister, but you shouldn't be worrying about that. You should be worried about your grief. When you grieve, you can get back into old patterns," He said, grasping at how he could get to his daughter.
She gave him a kiss on the cheek and smiled a little sadly at him, "I promise you, I'm not going into another spiral. But you have to promise me that too." She said, holding his shoulders and looking straight at him. He nodded. She grinned with a little bit more vibrance. Her dad was the only family she had left, because while she loved her mother, her mother would never truly be there for her. "And I promise you, I already have a class that I'm going to. So don't worry, I'm gonna be fine."
"Really?" He asked, excited like a puppy, "That's great. My Laurel getting back on her feet."
She laughed, "Yes, daddy. And if you don't let me go, I'm gonna be late. And then I could turn to booze and pills again." She joked with him.
"Laur," He said, stern with a straighter posture than before.
She shook her head. "Joke, dad. But seriously, I've got to leave, so lock up when you're done okay? Love you." She picked up her gym bag and waved goodbye to him. She took the elevator down and got into her car.
The drive was quick and without worry and on the end of it was Slade Wilson. "Well, don't you look nice, sweetheart. If only a tad overdressed." He said in that thick australian accent that made her blush a little.
"I'll take that as a compliment," She smiled to him.
He couldn't believe this girl. Still had so much fight in her. After everything she'd been through, she'd gone through and come out on the other side. "You should, darling." She whipped off her gold long sleeved shirt to reveal her toned torso in a beautiful pink sports bra from Victoria Secret and Slade couldn't help his eyes from roaming. "Got any more secrets hiding in there?" He asked.
"You're supposed to be training me, not ogling me. I need to be able to kill the Cupid." She told him.
He shook his head. If she didn't think that he'd been doing both, she was crazy and he'd even stated this on a couple of occasions. "Okay, come on sweetcheeks. We spar tonight,"
This wasn't a normal class and she hadn't been entirely truthful to her father. There was more than just her and Slade. There were in fact many teachers and students. But it wasn't something you just found in the paper. Slade found her and invited her. She'd had to go through some sort of initiation before she was brought in, but here, it was the best of the best.
She was dealing with her sister's death, but not in the way that he expected, besides, it wasn't so much about Sara but someone taking something that was important to her. She'd had enough of these people who think they could take anything from her.
"Come on, darling. Ladies first." He led her over to the mat.
She took her first swing before they ever got to the mat, because he had let his guard down and that was her first lesson. She punched him in the gut and then went back to her stance as he circled her. "Very good. You know better than to let a man lead you to your death." He said with the flash of teeth as he lunged at her.
They went back and forth and the fight was about even until Laurel started to get tired and telegraph her moves. This was somewhat later than he anticipated, so he was also not doing as well as he would have liked but he caught her leg and threw her to the ground, straddling her and putting his hands at throat. "Not too bad, darling. But you need to be better than that." He smirked.
She pulled her legs up and kneed him where he straddled her. It wasn't enough to really do anything but shock him for a moment and moment was all she needed as he let go of his grip. She switched their positions and locked her legs around his neck. "Aren't you the one who keeps saying don't get too cocky? Maybe you should listen to some of your own advice," She asked him and remarkably he tapped out.
"You're a little kangaroo with that kick, sweetheart." He said as she rolled off of him.
She looked to him and smiled. "I would have been toast if you didn't want to stop to gloat. You let your guard down."
"And you took advantage of that fact, like you should have, Lance. I'm proud of you. These people will let their guard down and you will need to know how to use that to your advantage. But I think you're done for tonight." He said. He didn't want to wear her out too much.
"We know each other pretty well, right?" Laurel asked him, out of the blue.
He snorted like a friend would do. "Well, I've gotten your boob sweat on me, so yes, I think you could say that." He laughed.
"You think you could do me a favor?" She asked him.
He looked at her intently, sizing her up, staring into her soul, and she blushed a little. It had been a long time since someone had looked at her like that. "Let me guess," He said, "You need a date to something."
"How'd you know?" She asked him, toweling off just a little bit of the sweat off her brow and sitting on a chair as she took a big gulp of water. He laughed easily with her as she tried to figure out the answer.
"Well, a hot little thing like you. Lost your sister to a crazy person. And you haven't had the best of luck in love." He said and Laurel scrunched her face in disgust and a little bit of shock. "Come on, darling, everyone knows. Your last few partners made papers with their antics. But like I said, loss has made you get away from love. But you still have friends who want to invite you to benefits and you don't want to have to answer the question of who you're dating Or worse." He chuckled.
"So will you come to the Fashion Gala for the Starling City Met on Friday?" She asked him.
He nodded, "Not a problem, doll. But are you sure you want to bring me? I mean not all of your exes are terrible." He shrugged.
"No," She shook her head. Laurel couldn't go to this to Oliver. He wasn't speaking to her and since Cupid had killed Sara, she hadn't seen him. She'd hardly seen Thea and Moira who came over to give their condolences, but it was awkward. They all knew the history and it stood between them like ghosts. "It'd be weird. It's just...it'd be weird."
He put his hand up, "Say no more, I understand. Fancy suit and I'll meet you at your place at 7?" He asked.
"That'd be perfect." She told him and took her towel, water bottle, and bag and smiled at him. "Well, see you Friday." She said.
That was perfect. He got to spend more time with her and show her how vengeance was the right way to go. He was going to ruin her and Oliver Queen was going to blame himself for it. With any luck, he could turn her and she would be the one who would kill Oliver Queen. Wouldn't that be a trip? The woman he got on the boat to escape killing Oliver Queen. He almost liked how karmic the idea was.
It wasn't hard to get Laurel to trust him. All he had to do was tell her that he had evidence of Cupid. She'd been in perfect form. And this place, yeah, it was harder to infiltrate, but he had connections that he could use. And she'd only been too glad to have a place where she could learn to fight.
She was always a fighter. You could see it in that stiff lower lip of hers. It jutted out in defiance more times than he could count, but breaking her was not about submission. It was about twisting her motives. Getting her to go left instead of right and making her think it was her idea.
When Friday came around, he came to her apartment building, a relatively nice building, although, she'd had a string of unlucky string of break-ins, another benefit of getting training she said was that it retrained her instincts to a time when she was used to fighting with her body and not pulling a gun on someone.
He used the elevator and rang her bell. "Come on in, it's open, Slade." She said, trying to fasten her necklace on her neck, but not quite getting it.
Laurel looked beautiful. The dress she wore had a corset bodice style with straps and went all the way down to the floor in this beautiful forest green color. Almost reminded him of someone else's vigilante costume, but he didn't say anything. He wasn't supposed to know about her life. He wasn't supposed to know but the faintest details about Oliver.
"Let me help you with that, Beautiful." He said, swatting her hand away as he clipped the necklace on her neck delicately. He gave her a kiss at the nape of the neck and full body shiver erupted from her. "You make me feel a little under dressed," He told her with a smile.
"You look fabulous," She told him as she reached up to give him a kiss on the cheek. She took her purple clutch and found the keys to her apartment. "Oh, there's a car by the way. To drive us." She told him.
He just grinned. "Well, then lead the way, Laurel. You know Starling better than I do." He said
When they were in the car, it was the first time he truly saw the whole experience that she presented. The corset dress. The gold filigree accessories. The purple clutch. It was all done so beautifully and it was all a trick that she was playing on these people and he was just part of the trick.
When they got out, there were plenty of photographers and her hand went to his and they immediately went wild. When you saw Laurel Lance with someone new, they suspected money. She hated it, but this was her life. "You're gonna be okay," He whispered in her ear and lead them down the carpet into the building. "Not so bad, see?" He asked.
"Not bad at all, almost like you've done this before." She said, breathlessly as she gazed up at him.
He chuckled and gave her a knowing look. "Well, you know, Australia has it's share of millionaires too." He smiled to her, bemused by the whole thing.
"Get out," She shrieked, her voice becoming quite high as she playfully hit him with the back side of her hand.
His eyes glinted with the mischief that he so elegantly portrayed. "No, it's true. You hooked yourself another, Miss Lance."
"Well, this should be celebrated with a dance," She told him and started leading him to the dance floor, when they bumped into someone. Slade pulled her close into his arms and her cheeks rosed over, "Oliver," She said, her mouth falling open. "I didn't think you'd be here."
Slade looked between the two of them, a lot of history and baggage stood between them. "I was under the impression that you weren't going to come to this one. Because temptation. And you're trying to get clean." He said, sternly.
"Well, the Fashion Gala is one of my favorites. And I had a date. Best not waste the invitation." She said to him, fighting back. That was his Laurel. Fighter Laurel. "But if you want to lecture me, I'm done with that."
"Is this guy bothering you, Laurel?" Slade asked her as he stared down at Oliver.
She smiled, a little fake now, "No, this is just Oliver Queen. An ex boyfriend of mine."
"Well, it's a little more complicated than that-" Oliver started.
"I'm sure it is," Slade cut him off quick. He looked to Laurel and smiled, "But the lady doesn't want to talk to you. You should respect that, mate." He gave Laurel the quickest flash of an unguarded face. "I'm gonna go get us a drink. Don't get into too much trouble."
Oliver took her by the waist, "I heard you mention something about a dance." He said as they moved together to dance floor. Laurel looked to Slade who was at the bar getting a drink made for him no doubt and what she wouldn't give to be doing the same. "So you met someone."
"Yeah Ollie, I met someone, god, does that bother you?" She asked him, her voice accusing him of things. He knew that this was a bad idea, but she was the one person in this room that he really cared about and Slade was smart. He probably knew Laurel was vulnerable.
He shook his head. "I'm sorry. I have no right. But you mean the world to me. And I want to know that this guy is treating you right. What's his name?" He asked, trying a new tactic, because he could tell accusing her wasn't going to work.
"Do you really want to talk about the guy I'm dating? I haven't seen you in months Ollie. Sara was killed in that time. Killed by someone who was looking for you. We haven't talked since you said you were done. And you know what, I've gotten my life on track. So if you really want to talk about Slade, we can talk about Slade, but we both know it's more than that."
Oliver sighed. "I'm sorry. I've been a jerk. You have every right to be mad at me. I wasn't there for you. The sara thing was hard. I just had a lot to think about. You know, obviously my taste in girls hasn't been great. That is since you." He tilted his head down and looked sincerely in her eyes. "Screwing it up with you is my biggest regret. But you're happy now. And that's all I want for you. Even if it can't be with me," He sighed. He resigned himself and he heard the music stop and he took his hands off of her. "So you want to tell me about the guy?"
Slade stepped in before it could go any further and wrapped his arm around Laurel's waist and gave her a cute smile. "What are we talking about?" He asked.
"You." Laurel said, taking her coke with one hand and rubbing his forearm with another.
"Ah, really, well, should I be flattered?"
Laurel smiled, "Oh, you should. If Oliver's jealous, means your doing something right."
It was Oliver's turn to blush, "So where'd you two meet?"
They definitely couldn't tell him about the class and the gym and the underground society of ripped people she'd been inducted into. Oh no. That'd absolutely not do. No, she looked up to Slade and offered him a smile and then looked back at Oliver. "Slade is my yoga instructor. I really got into yoga after I got clean. Keeps me zen. And slade is very flexible. And keeps me flexible."
Yeah, right. Oliver thought. But as Laurel's hand worked its way around Slade, he had a sinking feeling that Laurel had no idea she was a pawn in his game. God dammit. And he had used the I'm the good guy card. This was so fantastically bad.
"She's a star pupil, definitely does one of the best downward dogs." He said, squeezing her butt. She looked shocked, but then let it die down and smiled up at him.
Oliver couldn't believe it. "Laurel, can I speak to you in private?" He asked.
"Really? We're gonna go down this road again? I thought we got the apology over and done with. I don't want to fight."
"One second, I promise and then you can get back to the yoga instructor who clearly has his hands full of you," He told her and he lead her to a private room of the Starling City Met.
"What exactly is it that you want Oliver? Slade is my yoga instructor. And I'm happy can't you see that."
Oliver snorted. "You don't go for yoga instructors. You don't do yoga. It's pretentious remember? So where'd you really meet him?"
"Does it really bother you that much that I'm seeing someone else? Someone that makes me happy? I know he isn't the type of guy I usually date, but that's sort of the point of recovery right? To make a change. And you're the one who wanted me to go into recovery."
He shook his head. "Look, Slade is a bad guy."
"Really? You're really grasping at this straw. Look, Slade is a perfectly nice guy. He treats me right. I don't want to do this with you. You have no evidence that, so if you don't mind, I'm gonna go see the fashion with him. And last time I checked, you said you stopped caring about me, but you've been acting like a jealous boyfriend all night."
"Laurel," He said, it was clear he was losing her again. But he couldn't. He couldn't let her be manipulated by Slade. "Look, I know I haven't been the best friend in the world. And I promise you that this will all make sense, but I'm telling you Slade is not who he says he is."
"Ollie," Laurel seethed. "Tell me something real." She looked him in the eye. "Tell me something real right now or I'm going to go out there and never look back."
"Laurel," He said. He sighed. What she was asking was too big a price, but he was going to have to pay it. He was going to have to give her a gesture of good faith. "Slade, he's part of my past. I met Slade on the Island and it didn't work out well."
"That means, you and Slade," She said, and he could just see her mind working at the whole thing. She went pale and cocked her head sort of looking at his whole face. She wasn't sure, but it was definite. "You. It's you. That girl wasn't just after your dick was she?"
"No," He said and his face was red. "I promise you, I'll tell you more later, but I need you to just act like nothing is wrong tonight, but you need to get away from him as soon as possible."