A/N: What's that? Another new story? I know, I can't believe it either! The AU bug bit hard! This is mainly a Thea/Roy story with a heaping side dish of Queen sibling family feels and a (eventual) dash of Olicity. Please keep in mind that this story is AU and events may be altered to fit the plot.
I don't own Arrow or its characters.
xxx
The first time they meet, it's random.
He's walking home from a party at two in the morning. His building is at the edge of the Glades, so not gang territory but not exactly a nice neighborhood to be strolling through at night.
Unless your name is Roy Harper and you've got mad fighting skills.
Roy pulls the red hood of his sweatshirt up.
He sees the girl when he rounds the corner onto his block. She's sitting on the curb outside his building, shivering in a black minidress and no jacket, staring out at the street with tears streaming down her cheeks.
"Hey," Roy calls out softly.
He stops a few feet away from her, trying not to scare her. "You okay?"
"I'm fine," she says in a hard little voice, crossing her skinny arms over her chest.
"You sure? 'Cus it's the middle of the night and you're alone in the Glades."
"I'm aware of that," she says dryly.
"Do you need help? I can walk you home or help you find a cab."
She laughs but it's dry and painful sounding. "I'm waiting for a ride, actually."
"Do you mind if I wait with you?" he asks.
She looks up at him for the first time. She's pretty, with wide eyes and delicate bone structure, and she's clearly way too young to be out this late.
"I live here," he tells her, pointing to his building behind them. "I'd feel responsible if something happened to you."
"Whatever," she shrugs, so Roy sinks down on the curb next to her.
"What are you doing out here, anyway?" he asks, taking in her expensive shoes and designer purse. "The Glades doesn't really seem like your scene."
"I went to a party with my boyfriend," she explains, fiddling with a small silver bracelet. "We got in a fight on the way home."
Roy opens his mouth in horror. "He left you here?"
"No, I broke up with him, and then I jumped out of the car."
"And he drove away."
"I told him to."
"Them either you're crazy, or you have a death wish."
That earns him a smile, which totally throws him. "Aren't you perceptive," she says wryly.
"How old are you anyway?" he asks.
"Twenty-two," she says coolly.
Roy snorts. "You want to try that again, princess?"
She bites her bottom lip. "Nineteen?"
"Mm, I'm nineteen, and I'm definitely older than you."
She grins suddenly, like she's grateful to him for catching her in a lie. "I'm seventeen."
"Isn't it a school night?" he teases.
"So?"
"Aren't your parents wondering where you are?"
She looks back out at the street, the spark of light he saw in her eyes a second ago going out. "I don't have parents."
"Oh. Me either."
"I'm sorry," the girl says softly, a frown playing across her lovely face.
"What happened to them?" he asks.
She looks at him intently and gives a small shake of her head, sending long brown curls flying. "You really have no idea who I am, do you?"
He wrinkles his forehead. "Should I?"
She tilts her head. "I kind of like that you don't."
A black Range Rover comes down the street flashing it's lights, slowing down and pulling up in front of the curb.
"That your ride?" he asks.
"Yeah," she says, but doesn't make a move to get up.
"You going to get in?" he asks, amused and mystified by this strange girl.
She leans into him, bumping his shoulder. "One more minute."
After about thirty seconds a large man with biceps the size of Roy's head gets out of the car and walks up to them.
"Miss Thea," he says in a deep voice, raising a stern eyebrow at her.
"Mr. Diggle."
The man turns to Roy, his eye skimming over him like he's doing a threat assessment. "And you are?"
"He's my friend," the girl-Thea-says quickly. "He was just waiting with me."
"Alright kid, let's go," the man says, hauling her up by her elbow. "You are way past curfew."
"Wait," Thea yells, twisting in his arms as he hustles her into the backseat. "What's your name?"
"Roy!" he shouts, and she waves desperately as the door shuts behind her.
The window rolls down and he hears her yell, "Goodnight, Roy!" and the car pulls away, leaving Roy alone on the street.
xxx
The night after her mother's funeral Thea woke up screaming.
Ollie ran into her room and held her by the shoulders, Thea, Thea, what's wrong, talk to me.
"It hurts," she sobbed, pointed to her chest. "Oh god, Ollie, it hurts."
Oliver wrapped her in blankets, carried her through the mansion and drove her to the ER. In the hospital a nice looking doctor with a gentle smile explained that she was fine, that healthy teenage girls don't have heart attacks but the symptoms of a panic attack can be almost identical.
She was sent home with a bottle of sedatives and a pamphlet with a sad faced girl on the cover. It made Thea mad just to look at it. Her problems couldn't be solved by some stupid piece of paper.
That was the beginning.
The pills helped.
They helped numb the pain of her mother's sudden death.
They helped her fall back asleep when she was plagued with nightmares, her parents' dead faces staring at her.
They helped when her brother decided to sell the mansion she'd grown up in, and moved them into a loft in downtown Starling.
The loft is big and cold and empty, even now, a year after her mother's death. There are fireplaces everywhere but no matter how many fires she lights Thea can't seem to stay warm.
The truth is, the drugs started before her mom died, after the boat her father and brother where on sank and her mother turned into a ghost, left Thea to fend for herself.
She starting going out on the weekends. Thea made friends with older boys who wanted her, and it made her feel good.
They wanted her to shake her hips and let them touch her, and she'd open her mouth for a little round pill that they'd slip between her lips.
She stopped feeling, and it was bliss.
She kept waiting for someone to stop her but nobody did. And then Ollie came home and everything changed.
The more out of control she got the angrier at her he grew. Like she was just supposed to be cool with him coming back from the dead, like the past five years of hell had never happened. Was it only obvious to her that her brother had gone completely mental on that island?
Thea was supposed to be normal normal normal for him and their mom. Get good grades and kiss her brother's cheek and prove to the world that the Queen Empire was just fine.
Who could take that kind of pressure?
She's silent during the car ride home. Mr. Diggle doesn't try to engage her, just smoothly drives the car out of the Glades, away from the beautiful boy in the red hoodie, and back to the loft.
She wishes she hadn't called for a ride now. She wants to be back on that curb, sitting next to a boy who made her feel more alive than she has in years just by looking at her.
There was something about his eyes. Besides the startling bright color and clarity, something deeper. Like he saw through the whole facade: the eyeliner and the designer outfit, the tough veneer.
Like he looked at her and saw all of her pain, and understood.
When Mr. Diggle parks outside her building Thea unbuckles her seatbelt and leans towards him.
"Don't tell Ollie, okay? Please?"
He snorts. "Which part?"
She kisses his cheek and gives him a sweet smile. "Thanks for the ride."
He shakes his head at her but he's smiling when he pulls away.
Thea pulls off her heels in the elevator, sighing. Her brother won't be as easy to manipulate.
When she creeps inside the loft he's waiting for her, sitting at the kitchen table with a glass of whiskey in one hand.
Shit. She is so screwed.
"You missed curfew by two hours."
"I know," she says awkwardly, standing a good six feet away from him.
"Do you want to tell me what happened?"
"Chase and I broke up."
"That doesn't explain why Diggle had to pick you up in the Glades."
"Thanks for your sympathy," she sneers. God, why does he have to be so completely emotionally stunted?
"What the hell is wrong with you?" he explodes. "Was Mom not enough for you to learn your lesson?"
Her eyes burn with tears and she stumbles back, tripping over her bare feet.
"Shit, Thea…" Oliver sighs and scrubs his face. "I didn't mean it like that."
She swallows back tears, biting down hard on the inside of her cheek.
"Hey." He slides off the stool and walks over in front of her, forces her face up to look at him. "I shouldn't have said that. I'm just worried about you."
"Sorry," she whispers, and blinks rapidly to keep the tears from falling.
"It's okay," he murmurs. "I shouldn't have yelled at you."
"Jerk," she mutters.
"Hey, I'm trying to apologize here."
"It's fine, I get it. I just want to go to bed."
"Okay." He squeezes her wrist. "I love you, you know."
Thea rolls her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. You too, big bro."
She escapes to her room and locks the door, and immediately the tears begin to fall.
Was Mom not enough for you to learn your lesson?
Thea swallows a sob and tugs her dress off, throwing it into the hamper. She pulls on a camisole and boxers, and scrubs off her makeup in the bathroom, choking back tears.
Fuck her brother and his self-righteous bullshit. Doesn't he know how guilty she feels already?
Thea swallows two pills from the stash she keeps taped to the inside of her vanity drawer (her mother might have been oblivious to her little habit but Ollie doesn't miss a thing and therefore requires outright deception).
She falls asleep thinking of Roy, of clear blue eyes that look like they could swallow an ocean of pain and drown it forever.
xxx
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