This is my first YJ fic, and I decided to pay a small tribute to the yet-to air episode 'Targets' by retelling the story of Lian.
I know she has been in several stories so far, but I figured out a cute way for her father to retell her story with magical details left out and age-appropriate as well as a sudden twist involved. The teams don't appear, but they are mentioned, and I may do another YJ story involving the team and Roy.
Oh yeah, I'm aware this pairing is rare yet you can't deny it when it involves a cute little girl who has been a fan-favorite for more than twenty years!
Happy reading to you all!
Disclaimer: If I owned the series, "Targets" would have already aired and a certain 'graceful willow' would be coming on soon.
FADE IN:
Star City Apartment-Sundown
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, LIAN! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!"
At the center of a wooden table, a black-headed four-year-old smiled as her father snapped a picture of her in front of her pink cake, her party hat sliding off her head. She inhaled and blew out the 4 candle.
The various little soon-to-be kindergarten children cheered and pulled out gigantic objects wrapped in wrapping paper and ribbons. "This is from me!" little Diana cheered handing her a thin box. "Happy birthday!"
Lian ripped the paper off and revealed it to be a Bow and Arrow Care Kit. "Diana, thank you so much!" she cheered.
"Well, I know you like archery, so I thought that would be cool!" Diana smiled.
Lian's father tapped Diana on the shoulder. "You are now my new best friend."
The children and parents giggled. They knew Mr. Harper was a professional with archery.
After opening several coloring books, jewelry-making kits, and even a collection of every Robin Hood movie, little Beatrix frowned. "Mr. Harper, what's this red thing?"
Roy smiled and picked the red box up. "It's a mysterious gift," he said handing it to his daughter. "Every year, somebody gives us a mystery present for her birthday and Christmas."
Lian and her father ripped the wrapping paper off and opened the small cardboard box. "It's Melissa the Mystic Cat, Daddy!" she squealed pulling out a purple stuffed cat. "This is exactly what I wanted!"
Few people noticed his smile lightly fade.
Remy, who noticed, shoved a box in front of the Harpers. "Here, Lian," she said. "Vanessa and I picked it out for you."
Lian opened another cardboard box and pulled out a pair of blue pajamas with a cookie, lollipop, and cupcake on the front. "All of us are going to get one of those," she explained, "so if we ever have a sleepover, we can all wear them and confuse our parents when we wear those!"
The little girls laughed and continued pulling out presents.
At eight o' clock, it was time to leave. Lian waved goodbye to her friends and carried all of her new presents to her room.
Mr. Harper took a ten-minute shower and wrapped a white towel around his waist. He was inspecting his hair in the mirror-ever since he brought Lian home, he had been obsessively searching for signs of aging-when he heard a knock on the door.
"Daddy, are you decent?"
He chuckled at the voice and opened the door. Lian was already in those little blue pajamas and was holding Melissa the Mystic Cat and Marie, the girl cat from that Disney movie.
"Honey, what's wrong? Why aren't you in bed?"
She outstretched her arms out. "Can you tell me a bedtime story?" she asked.
He ruffled her black head and kissed her forehead. "Absolutely," he whispered.
She squealed and hopped back to her bedroom. He pulled on a red bathrobe and followed her to her pink bedroom. She was already under her covers-which a personal designer made of kittens shooting arrows at targets-and curled up with all of her stuffed cats, each a 'mysterious present' that they knew came from somebody personal.
"Daddy," she croaked looking up at him with his eyes, "can you tell me the story of how you and Mommy met?"
Roy nearly froze when she said that. Her mother was an extremely delicate subject.
"I will," he said. "Just settle down and listen, little squeaker."
Lian giggled.
"When I was undercover working alone, I was on the lookout for any assassination attempts when two countries, who were long at war, were working on a peace summit."
She nodded excitedly. All her life, she knew her father's job-the superhero she nicknamed the Scarlet Archer due to his training with the famed Emerald Archer- and the sad news her mother was the complete opposite.
"Your mother was the one who came, but I managed to stop her assassination attempt."
"So Mommy got arrested?" she asked knowing the answer.
"Yes," he admitted. "Mommy was arrested. I managed to track her down at the prison, and she tried…um, flirting and messing with me. When I told her I worked alone and not with a bunch of sidekicks, she asked 'you think you're in my league' and she grabbed the top of my costume."
Lian looked worried, but her father gently patted her hand. "She asked where my mentor was when I really needed him, I said 'I don't' and she wrapped an arm around my neck-"
"Did you kiss yet?" Lian chirped.
'Not yet," Roy said. "She managed to escape with her least favorite ally, but I managed to track her down and continue fighting her."
"Aw, I thought you two fell in love," she pouted.
"We did," he said. "But you're too young to hear the whole story. Maybe when you're eleven or twelve you-"
"Six years?" she whined.
"Seven," he corrected.
She moaned, and her eyelids grew heavier. Her tiny mouth released a yawn.
"Good night, baby," he whispered pulling the sheets to her chest.
"Night, Daddy," she mumbled before falling asleep.
He kissed the back of her head and turned the lights off before closing the door behind him, her kitten nightlight the only thing glowing in the dark.
He left her in her room and changed into his sweatpants and a T-shirt. His back hurt from moving the furniture and lifting heavy presents. He slowly cleaned up the kitchen and put leftovers in the refrigerator and freezer.
He sat in his favorite chair and turned on the heating pad. How was he going to explain to his daughter the story of how she came to the world? He leaned back in his chair and replayed the key events in his mind.
He was fighting the lady in the cat mask, which was difficult because she was so stealth and skilled at this kind of combat. His arms and back ached so horribly he wanted to just drop his bow and run away. He brushed beads of sweat from his face and continued dodging her kicks and knives-
It was just as he was thinking about those claws that one of them slit across his chest.
He finally dropped the bow and collapsed onto his knees, his hands pressed against his wounds. He gasped in pain, trembling at the warm feeling of blood, and hissed as the wound began to burn. His back exploded and he collapsed on his left side.
Some hour later, he swallowed hard and felt a stiff feeling around his burning chest. The top of his biceps were glued to the surface of something, and his jaw hung around his throat. His head was nestled against a fluffy surface that felt like the inside of a muffin, and his bare feet were warm and relaxed.
He heard the sound of light humming and turned his head to the gentle noise, where he faced the back of the salad-green kimono, black hair pulled into a high ponytail. She was hunched over what she appeared to be working on, her bare feet wrinkled and her heels chipped and dry.
He moaned and closed his eyes when he knew she turned her head. He flexed his back painfully and stretched the muscles in his thighs, which felt heavy and weak.
He blinked and came face-to-face with the mask-less dark eyes and sallow skin. "W-w-where am I?" he moaned.
She gently shushed him and held a washcloth to his forehead. He fully opened his eyes and saw she had taken the top of his uniform off, but had wrapped an intense series of bandages around his chest. He flinched when he saw her sit in front of him and lightly caressed his face. "Welcome to my room," she whispered.
He blinked and painfully pulled himself up against the back of the bed. "Why-did-you-bring-me-here?" he hissed, dazed that one of his top targets had pulled him into her house.
She did not reply but instead gently wiped a sponge over his chest. "You're hurt," she purred patting the side of his face. "I had to bring you in here, so you would not have to bleed to death on the streets."
She tried to push him back down, but he protested. "Cheshire-"
"No," she whispered looking into his mask-less eyes. "I don't use that name in this world."
"Then what do you go by?" he hissed.
She shook her head and pulled herself off the bed and back to whatever she was doing, though he could not see."Why didn't you take me to a hospital?" he spat, sick of these kind of scenarios.
She rolled her head and turned to face him. "I felt like I should get to know you better," she purred.
He snorted. "Yeah, well, I'm not telling you personal details about my private past, thank you very-"
He stopped speaking as soon as she grabbed the back of his head and pressed his cold lips against his.
His mind split into a Jekyll and Hyde personality-his hormonal side screamed Yes! Yes! Give her everything you have, Roy! His heroic side that Ollie helped him build screeched Get Away From Her!
He felt the latter fade as she began sucking on his lips like a ripe plum.
He moaned, arched his back, and wrapped his arm around the back of her head.
Her nimble finger tips tapped the center of his chest and he watched her untie the bandages around his chest. Slowly and then quickly, the bloodstained cloth slipped from his muscles, exposing a red gash around his contours and diaphragm.
He swallowed his own breath as she leaned forward and slowly kissed the closing scar on his chest. "Why…are you doing this to me?" he whispered.
She pulled her head up seductively and gently pushed him down on the mattress. He looked up at her batting eyelashes. "Because I like you," she whispered. "I know your job is to catch people like me…but I see something inside you, that doesn't have to do with fighting crime. You seem like a big toughie on the outside, but on the inside…I know there's something gentle and loving."
"You brought me here…just to find out if I had a soft side?" he laughed.
She shook her head and pushed his hair back. "If there wasn't something inside you, you would have not kissed me back."
His shiny throat bulged. "I was just testing you-"
"Lie," she interrupted. For a moment there was only the sound of flying birds. Then she stood up and walked over to a heating pot he did not see before. "Cup of tea?" she purred holding a steaming cup.
He frowned at her. "How do I know that's tea and not poison?" he asked.
She sipped first slowly and licked her lips. Then she handed him the cup. "It's just mellow," she whispered.
He took it without a word, sniffed it, and gulped half it down. The pain in his chest diminished, and his muscles seemed relaxed. She knelt to the pot and slid a lid over the hole-thought she wasn't aware he could see up her thigh.
Without warning his hormones erupted.
"It has a healing powder in it," she said honestly, sliding it to a corner. "I use it all the time after I-"
She felt a heavy hand on her shoulder and she turned to see his lips aiming right for hers.
Her breath hitched and she slowly responded. The pain in his chest gone, he lifted her into his arms and carried her onto the oval bed, where they still feverishly kissed and he pinned her below him.
He held her arms over her head as he sucked her neck between his lips. She muffled a 'do you?' and he responded with a 'yes'. She pulled her head back while his hands untied the stash around her waist and he kissed the side of her neck. He pulled the sides away, exposing her in a small black slip.
Her small body trembled. He slowly pulled back and stared into her dark pools. "What's wrong?" he asked.
"Red-"
"Don't," he whispered. She stared at him blankly. "It's Roy."
"Roy," she whispered. "I like that name."
She reached for his neck and roughly kissed him on the lips. He bunched her slip up to her hips but his hands vanished elsewhere.
She watched him over her pale legs as he undid his red pants and leaned her head back when she knew what was coming.
He held himself above her and she sighed staring up at that gorgeous red mess on his head."You ready?" he whispered. Over her knees, she could see red spandex shoved into a heap at his ankles and now he was kicking them off and he was-
"Yes," she responded closing her eyes. In the mist of it, she knew he was pulling the blanket over them
"Don't," he whispered caressing the side of her jaw. "I want you to look up at me."
She nodded slowly and wrapped her arms around his neck. She stared into his eyes he looked down at hers. "I just realized," he whispered into her cheek, "I love you."
Slowly, slowly, she could feel it, he tried to push himself inside of her. She tightened her abdominal muscles in fear until he gently caressed her hair back. "One, two, three-"
She harshly gasped at a sudden pain below her. The hurt crawled up her skin, and brought tears to her eyes. The pain increased between her legs and rubbed roughly against her crotch.
"Hey, it's okay," he whispered in her ear, hugging her gently. "Chesh-"
"Jade," she interrupted. "It's Jade."
He kissed her on the cheek. "I'm sorry, Jade," he comforted running his lips along the top of her chest.
She closed her eyes and threw her arm back, encouraging him on, while he continued moving against her. She winced in pain a few times but otherwise grew more relaxed as she grew used to it.
Their panting increased and Jade swallowed. "Where's the League when you really need them?" he whispered teasingly in her ear.
"I don't," she responded, her hands sliding down his muscled back. When they met at the small of his back, he leaned forward and kissed her. She abandoned his back and held on to the sides of his neck while they kissed.
The night continued with their lovemaking, her gasps fading into moans and his grunts slowing down into breaths of exhaustion. They managed to kiss a few times before he continued to thrust against her.
She grew to felt something heavy in the pit of her stomach that was giving her pain. Her forehead erupted in heat and before she could stop herself it exploded, causing her to wince and melt in his arms, fingernails almost ripping the flesh from his neck. He kissed her on the temple and urged her to make eye contact with him. "I'm going to explode," he whispered before she felt a warm pop in her stomach, making her moan in pleasure. He kissed her along the chest and pulled himself out.
"Roy, don't leave me-"
"I'm not," he whispered rolling onto his back, his arms and chest shiny from perspiration. "Not when I have the most beautiful girl in my bed."
"Your bed?" she asked exhausted.
He chuckled and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. She purred and crawled up to his chest, the sheets around her lower back, one arm around his neck and his around her sore legs.
Roy woke up suddenly with a pain in his back. The clock in front of him read nine twenty-four. He stood up slowly and knocked on his daughter's door.
"Yes?" came a muffled voice.
"Want to go out for breakfast?" he asked.
The door opened and he looked down at his princess-his almost mini version of Jade. Her black hair was knotted on top of her head, and her pajamas were rumpled around her small body.
The same body that grew in her mother for nine months after his nighttime memory…
"What?" she yawned, rubbing her eye with her hand.
"Cover your mouth when you yawn," he whispered smoothing the rumpled mess around her face. "Want to eat out for breakfast?"
She looked down at her bare feet, one leg of her pajama bottom pulled up to her knee. "Okay," she chirped skipping back into her room.
"Lian," he whispered.
"Yes?" She turned around and stared back at him with his eyes. He saw her mother in her face, even from the time he first met his baby…
It was almost an entire year after he last saw her. It was hard to not see her for a year. He desperately missed her, his hormones not telling him that. Even the junior JL told him they haven't seen her for almost a whole year.
He was still in his uniform, equipment in hand. He had never forgiven himself for leaving her like that. She was still asleep and curled up to his chest when he gently and quietly pulled his body away from the bed, retrieved his clothing scattered around the floor, and hastily redressed himself. He picked up his bow and full quiver and slid his boots back on.
Before leaving, he looked back at the Vietnamese lover tangled in the sheets. It was during these brief…pauses that they shared information about themselves-she was born in Vietnam but narrowly ran away from child slavery and trained under a hard-to-believe skilled fighter, he lost his father to a forest fire and a medicine chief he saved thanked him by raising the toddler on the Indian reservation and taught him archery.
He gently kissed the top of her black head, whispered "I love you", and slid out the window.
A twig branch snapped behind him and he turned around.
The very woman he had dreamed about was standing in front of him, the creepy mask smiling at him.
"Jade," he whispered cautiously lowering his arms.
"Roy," she purred gently.
Without hesitation, without fear of punishment or revenge, without doubt that she was going to revenge herself upon the man who abandoned her in bed, he dropped the bow.
She stepped forward.
He could not see behind the mask.
He could envision it-she would drop her angry feelings and rush forward and embrace him to make up for the whole year that they have never seen each other.
Instead she reached forward. "Come with me."
He followed her to her expensive-looking house. Ferns grew around a small pond and a fresh violet scent tingled in the night air.
He followed her inside, past a sitting room and heater, and into a doorway with beads. He closed his eyes and prepared for the claws to rip his face and spill his blood.
He opened his eyes and gasped.
Instead of an angry Jade in front of him was a small wooden crib filled with silk blankets and a stuffed cat. "Jade…"
She slowly pushed him forward, and he gripped the top of the crib. Under the blanket he saw two bare tiny feet, and two smaller hands holding the stuffed cat. Under the hands was a baby head, topped with ginger curls-ginger…
Jade stood behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist, chin resting on his shoulder. "Jade…is this-"
"Our baby," she finished. "She's yours."
He spun around, and she held his shoulders. "No…I'm a-"
"That's why I have been absent for a year. Roy…I became pregnant with your baby…and I waited for you to return…."
"I couldn't, Jade. If the JL or even the sidekicks knew about our love-"
"I've managed to hide her, Roy," she shivered pressing her head against his chest. "But I think the Shadows already know. They could take her, kill her for me falling in love with an enemy-"
She choked and shook in his arms. He rubbed her back slowly.
"Roy…her name is Lian, 'the graceful willow,'" she whispered. She looked up with tearstained eyes. "Please…take her to America and hide her from your enemies. If the Shadows find out I bore your child, you may be spared, but they will hold consequences for me. Please…don't tell the League or even your own teams and allies."
He kissed the top of her head. "I won't."
She smiled at him through her tears. "You have to take her to the US…tonight."
He jumped back and almost hit the top of the crib. "What-"
"The Shadows…they are coming for me, I know it. You have to take her home. Please, Roy…"
He nodded and let go of her. "Don't worry. She will be safe with me."
She hunched over the crib and slowly picked up the bundle of blankets. A tiny moan interrupted the silence. "Here," she whispered handing him the infant. "This is all you'll need for now. She may have to get used to the daylight changes, but here at midnight she needs a feeding and wakes up six hours later. Roy…" She handed him the stuffed cat. "Tell her this is to specifically remind her of…me. Her mother…"
He kissed the top of her head and gently took the blankets from her arms. He wasn't expecting the warmth in the blanket, but he wasn't expecting to fully see her round face.
"Honey," Jade whispered softly shaking her shoulder. Lian shifted in his arms. "Sweetie, wake up…"
Lian blinked, and he stared into her eyes.
His eyes…
She cooed and outstretched her tiny arm. He brushed a finger against the tip of her nose and her pouty lips formed into a gentle smile.
He leaned forward and kissed the top of her head.
"Roy," Jade snapped, "we have to go. Here"-she handed him a gigantic bag. "It has bottles and pacifiers and one month's stock of baby soap. You may have to go shopping back home, but otherwise, they can do you good."
She kissed him on the lips one last time and then looked at her drowsy baby. "Goodbye, baby," she wept kissing the back of her head. "Mommy loves you. Don't ever forget that. Mommy loves you…"
She looked up at Roy and nodded. Then they departed, nothing else left in the house.
She wasn't that fussy on the ride home but she did scream when the engines took off. He gently calmed her down and slid a pacifier into her mouth until she fell asleep sucking quietly.
When they left the airport, his arms aching, he paused in front of the store in front of him and nestled his cheek against her hairy head. "Welcome to America, little girl…welcome home…."
Roy jumped suddenly when he felt a small weight on his lap. Lian was in a pair of summer shorts but was shirtless. In her hands she held up a white shirt with a pink butterfly and a blue shirt with a daisy. "Daddy, what shirt would you prefer?"
He shrugged. "I don't know. Surprise me."
She grinned and ran back to her room.
For three and a half years, he managed to hide her from the JL and YJ, but he knew one of them was going to find out sooner or later. He raised her as a single parent while studying college online. When crime hit, he gently put her to sleep and dashed home as soon as he was finished. By the time she could manage a full conversation he asked her not to reveal his secret identity to not even her closest friends. She agreed.
The little girl ran over in the butterfly shirt, and he took her small hand. "Ready, Daddy?" she squeaked.
He nodded and scooped her up in the air, a playful squeal making him smile. "Yes I am," he said. "You ready?"
She smiled and nodded.
He kissed her cheek and carried his princess down the steps to his car.
Let me know if you would like other YJ fics because I have a cute baby one in mind.