It had started out as a normal day. They woke up, had breakfast together, went to work, met up for lunch, then at the end of the day they teamed up to fight a meta in Star City.
Barry had been staying at Star for a few days now, seeing as each time the two heroes confronted the meta, things all backfired and he got away.
Oliver, was getting pissed. He was struggling to keep his city (and his boyfriend) safe. That probably explains how the fight had begun anyway.
XXX
It happened as they arrived in the Arrow Cave moments after their third encounter with the meta Cisco hasn't named yet.
Oliver slammed his Bow and Quiver down on a nearby table in frustration. Barry trugded behind, sighing tiredly - equally annoyed as Oliver.
Felicity was the first to break the tense silence, "What happened out there?"
Cisco and Caitlin winced at the question, knowing what was about to happen.
Oliver scowled, "Barry decided to be a self sacrificing idiot and acted without thinking, letting the meta get away."
"If I hadn't have 'acted without thinking', then that 9 year old girl would have been killed, Oliver! What was I meant to do?" Barry nearly yelled in hurt.
Oliver turned to face his boyfriend, throwing his arms up in the air, "You let me handle it Barry! You were the surprise attack! He got away because you didn't keep to the plan!"
"The girl would have died Oliv-"
"And now many more people in my city are going to die because you couldn't listen and you weren't fast enough!" Oliver shouted, his mouth moving faster than his mind, "You didn't listen to Jay about time travel and ended up ruining everyones' lives Barry! What human being does that? Let alone a hero! I thought you would've learnt your lesson by now! Especially when you weren't fast enough to save your parents." Oliver muttered the last part, trying to stop himself from saying it but still too late.
Everyone else but Barry audibly gasped. Olivers' mind caught up with him and his face paled and his heart sunk. He just-
He turned to Barry, horror on his face. Barry looked down at the floor, his hands and legs shaking while silent tears streamed down his cheeks. Oliver reached out to Barry, "Bear, I-"
His words choked him when Barry flinched away from Olivers' hand. Even Barry looked shocked at his own action.
He had jusy flinched away from Oliver. From his boyfriend. Did Barry think Oliver would have hurt him?
Before he could apologise. Before Oliver could take back everything he said, Barry sped off out of the Arrow Cave; leaving Diggle, Felicity, Caitlin and Cisco all glaring at Oliver.
Before anyone could even comprehend what had happened, a loud slap echoed through the room as Felicitys' hand connected with Olivers' cheek, "How could you say that Oliver?!"
"I-I-" Another slap sounded as Caitlin copied Felicity.
"You of all people should know how much guilt Barry carries on his shoulders! He was healing, Oliver! He was happy! And now you go and do something as... stupid... as that? You should be ashamed of yourself!" Caitlin nearly screamed.
"Man, you best find him and apologise, like now bro. He might think you hate him or something because that's how Barry thinks. If you thought he wasn't co-operating before then-" Cisco was interuppted when the meta alert system (which Cisco had proudly installed just in case) sounded.
Felicity whipped round, "That meta, he's at that old Wayne Industries warehouse - the one that went bankrupt."
Oliver nodded and turned around, ready to go and confront the meta once more. Dig stopped him, "Wait, we need Barry on this one."
His name made Olivers' chest hurt, knowing that he had crushed Barrys' growing confidence since Flashpoint. God, he just hoped Barry could forgive him, so he could begin to forgive himself.
He waited about a minute before Cisco confirmed Barry was on his way. Oliver made his way there, anticipating the confrontation.
Not with the meta, but with Barry.
What had he done?
XXX
So here they were, both heroes plastered outside the warehouse. No one dared to speak, and they shuffled on their feet awkwardly. It wasn't until Felicity spoke in their ears that they focused on the mission.
"Careful guys, the warehouse hasn't been refurnished in years. The building won't handle a lot of damage, so try to keep it quick."
Barry and Oliver turned to each other, "I'll do a quick perimeter check." Barry said, before running off for five seconds and returning back, "Clear."
Oliver nodded, hesitantly moving foward, he turned around to Barry who was hot on his heels, "You ready?"
Barry nodded, refusing to meet Olivers' eyes. "Yeah, look, I um... I know you really hate me right now but... c-can we... can we just deal with the meta first before w-we... I don't know, do anything?"
Olivers' heart shattered, his ears tuning out after Barry said 'hate'. No. NO. Oliver didn't HATE him. He never could, he just... he was mad, he was worried. He didn't mean any of it.
"No, Barry I-" A loud crash thundered across the field they were in from the warehouse in front of them. Any emotion in their eyes faded as they looked at each other, ready to take down the meta.
Oliver surged foward, kicking open the doors which groaned at the movement. Inside, the air was thick with dust, and the second floor was crumbling slowly, with the walls and floors slowly crumbling further down into it's grave. Above, Oliver could see many scaffolding pipes dangling from the damaged roof.
On the second floor, the silohette of the meta was clearly visable to the two superheroes.
Oliver drew an arrow, "Stand down!"
The man only laughed, "Or what, greenie? You gonna shoot me? Didn't you try that already?"
Oliver remained silent, his grip only growing tighter. Barry decided to speak up, "Why are you here? Isn't your thing more robbing banks and taking hostages?"
"Well I'm glad you asked, red. See, earlier, I saw you willing to save a little girls' life, even if it meant putting yours in jeaprody."
"That's kinda my job around here." Barry joked. Oliver tensed.
"And your job is a problem for me, red. As is yours, green. So, why not just, find a solution?" The man laughed before flicking his wrists upwards.
At the very motion, the entire warehouse seemed to shake, as if the building could no longer hold itself together. Oliver and Barry whipped round to find the doors closed and coincidently barricaded. They sprinted towards the rubble blocking their exit, trying to clear a path out, but to no avail.
"Check for more exits!" Oliver yelled over the crashing. Barry nodded, and they both departed, desperately feeling for weak points on the walls which could prove their freedom.
Barry scraped his hands across the damp, crumbling cement. After what seemed like an eternity, he found a thinner cracked section in the middle of the wall. "Over here!"
Oliver, doing the exact same as Barry, turned at his boyfriends call. He found his punching at a part of the wall, obviously finding a possible way out. He began to run towards him to help him, when the meta flicked his wrists upwards once more.
Both superheroes stopped, looking up the roof to see the dangling pipes coming free, falling hard towards the ground.
Towards Oliver.
Before Oliver could even try to cover his head, a strong force pushed him towards the wall. A shot of electricity ran through him before it disappeared, and his sight momentarily consisted of red.
Then, then the vigilante saw the worst thing he could possibly see in his life. Something he wished he would have never seen.
His vision cleared as he stay slumped against the wall. He saw Barry. Red. Barry. Barry was in the middle of the floor, his arms out towards Oliver. Pushed. Barry had pushed Oliver out of the way. He watched helplessly as Barry looked up at the oncoming pipes, barely avoiding each one as the plummeted towards him.
But then, in one unlucky blink of an eye, Barry was unable to dodge a pipe... and it surged right through his chest.
Olivers' face morphed into one of horror as the pipe left through the other side of Barry's body. "Barry!"
As the final pipes bounced across the floor, Oliver stumbled as he stood, dropping his bow, letting it clatter on the ground. He ran towards Barry, catching the gasping and bleeding hero before he fell to the ground.
Oliver held Barry in his arms, crading the wound with a shaky hand, "Y-you're gonna be fine, Bear."
Barry groaned, "I'm s-sorry O-ollie..."
Oliver shook his defiantly - desperately, "No no no, Bear. Please don't apologise."
"F-flashpoint... Not fast-t enough... I-" Barry began choking on his own blood.
Oliver pressed his hand to the wound, "Barry, no! We can talk about this later, okay? Just, hang on, for me."
Barry coughed some more, writhing in Olivers' grip, however the vigilante only held tighter. "D-do you... do you h-hate me?"
Oliver paled, completely forgetting what Barry had said previously, "No, no! I don't hate you, I love you Bear!" Oliver began sobbing, "I love you."
Barry smiled, his mouth filled with red, "I love you too." He rasped, before his eyes rolled to the back of his head. He slowly struggled to breathe but Oliver could hear tyres screeching in the distance. He barely realised that the comms had gone silent.
Oliver shook Barry desperately, trying to rouse him back to consiousness. "Barry? Please don't do this!"
When Barry never awoke, Oliver couldn't focus. He couldn't focus on anything. The meta escaping. Team Flash and Arrow arriving. Nothing. Because now... now his World seemed empty.
And he just couldn't seem to focus.