Green Arrow and Black Canary: Green Means Go
The borrowed motorbike spurred to life as the light turned green. Green... Conner watched the green clothed man a block ahead of him. He was laughing at the blonde woman holding onto his torso.
Superboy didn't know why he was following Green Arrow and Black Canary through the winding streets of Star City. He really didn't know. Conner eyed Black Canary as she leaned into her driver, her body pressed tightly against his muscled back.
She reached one hand out to play with the archer's silky goatee. Conner gripped the handlebars tighter. He followed them for the greater part of a hour before he lost them around a corner.
With nothing left to do, he went home to the cave. He tried to get some sleep. He saw the happy couple driving on in his dreams. Green...
"Superboy," Green Arrow's sardonic voice calls out.
Conner stops in his tracks. He breaths deep and relaxes the fists that he is forming. He waits for Arrow to walk around him until they are face to face.
"Is there something you need?" Superboy asks, no more emotion in his voice than his normal caustic attitude.
Green Arrow raises an eyebrow at the clone.
"Maybe I should be asking you the same thing," Ollie says.
Conner frowns.
"I don't understand." Superboy counts the arrows in Queen's quiver.
"I think I do," Ollie proclaims. He itches his goatee. "Kid, I saw you following us last night." The archer looks around the open space of the media room. "We should talk somewhere more..." he gestures to the room ",private."
Superboy shrugs. His footfalls are the only sound as he follows the older hero to a dusty study. He folds his arms in front of his body and waits for Arrow to speak up.
The blonde plays with his beard some more. He huffs and throws his hands away from his face.
He starts pulling off his hood, then his quiver, then, finally, his mask.
Superboy focuses on the man's eyes. Green eyed..
"Sorry," Queen says. "Sometimes, I just want to look at who I'm talking to without the pretenses. You know?"
Superboy doesn't have a clue what Queen means. The clone only ever talks to people without pretenses. He nods anyways.
Arrow smiles toothily in return.
"Good. Kid, Superboy...Conner. Like I was saying..." He rubs his goatee between two fingers again.
"I know you were following me last night and I think I know why," he tells the teen. Creases form in Superboy's forehead. He looks into Ollie's eyes. Green eyed...
"How can you know why I was following you. I don't even know why I was following you," Conner says. Ollie senses the long felt frustration in Superboy's words.
"It's okay, Conner. Every kid goes through some sort of confusion with figuring out their feelings. It's normal." Ollie tries to comfort the teen. He lightly places a hand on Superboy's shoulder.
"I'm sure if you stop to think about it again you'll be able to figure it out," Queen advises. He waits for Superboy to respond.
Superboy looks down from Queen's laughing eyes. He doesn't like being look at like a stupid kid. He stares at the goatee Ollie has returned to stroking. Something clicks in Conner's head.
"It's your," he motions to the archer's facial hair, "that." Ollie blinks and lets his fingers slip away from his face.
"What? What does my goatee have to do with Di-" Superboy cuts him off by muffling the older hero with a large palm.
Superboy lowers his hand and reaches Green Arrow's goatee. He runs his fingers through the tufts of hair the same way he's seen Dinah and Ollie do.
Conner lets go abruptly. He looks over his fingers and rubs them together as if reliving the sensation.
"I understand the attraction," Superboy concludes after a moment. Ollie's green eyes bulge.
"You what?" Green Arrow sputters. He almost loses his balance but Conner reaches out and steadies him with a firm grasp on the older man's shoulders.
Superboy doesn't let go.
Oliver has noticed before that Conner tends to invade personal space longer than socially acceptable. In the past, Ollie thought that the kid was just new to the idea of social norms, being a clone and all. Now, Ollie wonders if the boy lingers for another more distressing reason.
He pushes away the teen's support.
"Uh, Superboy," he starts. "I, erm, I'm flattered, but..." he trails off. Superboy picks up the slack.
"Don't worry, it's not like I'm going to do anything about it. That would be silly," Superboy says. Ollie's eyes twitch. He laughs nervously.
"Thank God for small miracles," Ollie whispers.
Superboy picks up the muttering with his super-hearing. He rubs his chin, contemplating.
"You really think it be that bad?" he asks, innocently. Ollie looks alarmed again. Superboy quickly tries to calm him down.
"I appreciate your opinion... sir. If you say I'd look completely silly with one then I'll close the door on it altogether."
Green Arrow pauses and processes what Superboy has just said. First, Ollie was sure Superboy was crushing on Dinah. Then, it seemed like the kid was jealous over him. Was hitting on him even. And now what is Conner saying? Getting one? Huh?
Ollie unconsciously rubs his goatee once more. Something clicks in his mind. He laughs.
"You mean my goatee? You're not going to get one of them because it would look silly on you?" he asks. It's more of a rhetorical question.
Superboy answers anyways.
"Right," he says. "It wouldn't work on my face..." He shrugs as if giving up on the conversation and turns to leave. "So, I'm going to go, Arrow." He yells on the way out the door. "Thanks for the talk. I believe I'm thinking clearly now."
Ollie waves the teen off. As he collects his quiver and replaces his mask, Oliver remembers why he started this conversation with Conner. He never did get to the real reason why Superboy had been following him last night. He remembers what Superboy said before he left: I'm thinking clearly now.
Briefly, Green Arrow thinks he should go find Superboy and ask him what he decided was his real motivation. Then he relives the awkward conversation he just had. Arrow chooses to never bring any of this up ever again.
Superboy tosses and turns that night. Not getting any sleep, the boy looks around his room. He inspects the blobs of eggshell white that cover the new drywall.
Red Tornado has forced him to patch the walls of his room himself each and every time he's struck a fist sized hole out of anger or frustration.
At first, he had repainted the spots with care. He had picked different hues from browns and reds to blues and greens for repainting the entire room. Conner lost his patience for the repairs with each new patch job. He only buys plain white paint now and doesn't bother to repaint the entire wall, leaving unsightly blotches instead.
If he could stop punching the walls and causing messes then he would. He just can't stop.
He thought knowing the cause of his frustration would solve his problems or would cut down on paint costs at least.
He groans and picks himself out of bed. When Conner reaches the sink, he splashes cool water onto his weary face.
He looks at his hairless chin. He knows he would look entirely ridiculous with a goatee.
Even if Dinah likes them...it's not worth it. How could it work? She is...unattainable. He barely knows her. And she wants...someone else.
He trips over a can of paint on his way back to his bed. It's an old color from back when he cared about his choices. Green...
Superboy decides he is going to repaint the floor in the morning. Anything but green.
He replays his conversation with Green Arrow over in his head as he cleans up the split paint. Conner recalls how at first Queen was bemused. He claimed everyone went through this. He had been laughing in his green eyes. Green eyed...
Ollie made Conner think. He doesn't want to change himself for anyone, not even Canary.
Conner's glad he's thinking clearly now. Or, at least as clearly as he can with this thing banging at the walls of his mind. This animal that he cannot stop.
This...Green eyed monster...
This time green does not mean go.
A/N: Suggest a ship for Conner's crush in another chapter and I'll fill it. Het, slash, mentors, villains...it's all acceptable. Tim is involved in the last chapter so don't pick him.