It's short and a really light story (written in order to take some break from angst in "A Professional Observation"), without any double bottom. No one dies this time. Wanted to make some fun of certain things which bothered me on early stage of season 4 and also pay some attention on certain flaws in Green Arrow's costume. There is one thing which every amateur archer will mark as something which just can't work when it comes to the archery.

Since it's not black humor like in "Must Be May" I think nobody will feel offended. ;)

Many thanks to Perosha for beta. :)

The Very Basics of Archery

It has been a few weeks since Oliver came back into action. During his absence Starling City turned into Star City, and he himself was not the same vigilante he once was. The Arrow was officially dead and his original green hood (or The Original Green Hood as Oliver liked to name it in his thoughts) was gone for good, locked up in the police's evidence locker. Since there was no chance that Captain Lance will ever give it back, what else was there to do than to become something else?

Again.

After Oliver made up his mind, he decided that Green Arrow maybe didn't sound that lame and took on that name. Come to think of it, green was always his favorite color.

So it was a new codename, a new costume, a new bow... And a new design of his arrows' fletching, because it turned out that the combination of two green vanes with a black cockvane was a bit cheaper than his original with a yellowish one. After making a very quick calculation in Excel, Felicity decided that they would save a considerable sum of money thanks to that move — Oliver was not exactly sure that those few bucks they had saved so far could be called "a considerable sum," but since his girlfriend was the one who had the money and was founding his crazy crusade now, he preferred to not argue to not get cut off from the source of cash. The sad truth was that he was completely broke, and financing his mission was, well... expensive. Very.

Step by step, he was coming to terms with the rest of the team. Dig was still looking at him a bit askance and gave him the cold shoulder from time to time, but gradually started to exchange more than few words a day with him. It was a good sign. Thea and Laurel were more easy to get along with—they had just shot him a concerned glance when he started talking about cooking recipes once.

So, generally everything was progressing in a good direction—as long as he kept a safe distance from Captain Lance, who wore a sour expression every time they met, as if he was thinking about sending him behind bars and throwing the key into the Starling Bay. In the deepest place. But Oliver still hoped that he would warm up to him eventually. He saved the city last May (again), he swore not to kill (again, because he broke that promise few times), he took on a new identity... So somehow it cancelled all his bad deeds. Well, maybe not all, but it had to change the scales somehow. At least a little, tiny bit.

But seriously, how could Thea and Laurel not be thrilled about a recipe for banana bread?

Sometimes, however, Oliver felt like a fifth wheel. Or even a sixth. Like today, when the team went to infiltrate a hideout of some drug dealers located in an old abandoned warehouse in the port.

When they got to the place, Laurel, Thea and Dig gathered in a circle to work out a plan. Whether by accident or design there was no place for Oliver to join them, so he just stopped close by behind their backs to listen. Before he managed to say anything, the rest of the team distributed the tasks between themselves swiftly and efficiently.

"I'll have the back covered," said Thea.

"I'll take the front," said Laurel.

"And I'll get through the side doors," said Dig.

"Than what am I supposed to do?" asked Oliver anxiously, shifting his bow from his left to right hand and turning it upside down to grasp by the upper limb. He knew that there were no more entrances to the warehouse.

Dig shot him a brief glance, and frowned as if he hadn't noticed him earlier.

"Just stay close by the warehouse and watch out for anyone who might try to escape," he said finally.

Oliver opened his mouth as if to argue, but closed it without uttering a word. He reminded himself soon enough that he was not exactly the leader any more. He sighed when the team left to take their positions and looked around to locate the most shadowy corner in the area. Once he found it, he nocked an arrow on the bowstring, and holding the bow without drawing it back, waited.

He tried not to think about how he was a bit cold in this costume with bare arms. Hell, after surviving Lian Yu (and Hong Kong, and Russia, and a few other places during his time on and off the island), he wasn't supposed to get cold.

Maybe he got a little bit too used to the cozy life he had with Felicity during those few months in Ivy Town. He missed their rented house by Briar Street 25 (he had no idea why people often thought it was 52). The suburban district of Maple Leaf was such a nice neighborhood, very calm and silent. Subconsciously Oliver knew that it couldn't last forever, but he preferred to not to think about it and just enjoy the moment, living with his longtime flame (they were together well over a month when they moved in, so he could call her that, right?). He really got into cooking. During his time on the island he rarely had an occasion to eat well, not to mention that his meals consisted mostly of half raw fish and whatever he managed to hunt once his archery reached a level which allowed him to send arrows in more or less the intended direction. When he was unlucky in catching anything, he had to eat whatever he could find—eggs from birds' nests he raided, plants which looked edible (sometimes it turned that they were not) and in some cases quite disgusting things, like ants. So yes, he presumed there was nothing strange that given the opportunity, he preferred his food properly cooked.

Oliver was deep in these thoughts, pondering what he should prepare for the supper (Felicity really liked his salad with boiled chicken, rice, corn and pineapple, so maybe that one?), when suddenly he caught a motion by the side of the warehouse. A shadowy figure broke away from the cover of the wall and started to run down the broad street. Someone was escaping from the scene, looking over his shoulder.

Oliver got the chicken salad out of his head and immediately rushed into action.

"Freeze!" he shouted, running after the escaping thug.

The man stopped in place and turned around. His eyes popped out on stalks once he noticed Green Arrow.

"Stay away from me, you costumed freak!" he yelled, his voice slightly panicked.

Instead of staying away, Oliver pulled back the string raising the bow in one swift move and released the arrow, convinced that he would take down this random thug in no time.

However, to his great surprise the guy seized the cover of a trash bin standing nearby and using it as a shield, deflecting his arrow without much effort.

Oliver frowned. Damn, something was seriously not right if those days even the most common bad guys were able to deflect his arrows so easily! He must have been more out of shape that he had thought.

What was even more unacceptable: the thug, who certainly didn't know how to play by the rules (Green Arrow appears, bad guys freak outs, et cetera) dared to throw the trash bin cover at him.

Oliver dodged it, nocking anther arrow on the bowstring at the same time. He was not going to give up easily. That guy had already annoyed him, he had to take him down. And show that he was still competent in doing his vigilantism, because seriously, shouldn't the petty criminals' hearts be filled with dread when they saw him?

The situation, however, got a bit complicated. Since he wanted to send that arrow in a split second, it was impossible to keep a correct archery stance. He rotated the elbow of his left arm, his back still slightly hunched after making that dodge. Didn't even draw back the bow to its full nominal draw. Once he released the arrow it veered to the side, but what was worse he smacked his forearm with the bowstring painfully.

"Ouch!"

The arrow missed its intended target by miles. Calling it a crappy shot would be an understatement.

Black Canary was at his side instantly.

"Are you okay?" she asked Green Arrow worriedly.

"Yes, I'm okay," answered Oliver through gritted teeth, trying to not think about the throbbing pain he felt in his arm.

Speedy also stopped by.

"Oh my God! What happened? Are you okay?"

"Yes," answered Oliver with an emphasis on that one word, holding his left forearm.

"Oliver..." He heard Dig's voice in his communicator.

"I said I'm okay," Oliver cut short. What was wrong with all those people constantly asking him if he was okay?

Dig fell silent for a short while.

"That's great, because in case you didn't notice, the guys we are after are getting away!"

Damn, he was not going to count this mission as a successful one. Not wasting more time, he engaged in the pursuit, running after Speedy and Black Canary.

His forearm still badly hurt.

„What is this?" asked Felicity curiously, turning away from the computer screens and glancing at the package Oliver had just placed on the table close by. They were alone in the Arrowcave (version 2.0, which meant more space, more computers, more of everything... and also a ridiculously high electric bill) and a few days had passed since that unfortunate mission when he made fool of himself. Smacking his arm with a bowstring like some amateur who had held a bow in his hands for the first time in his life.

"You will see."

Oliver opened the package and took out a green leather jacket with a hood. When it came to design, it was very similar in look to the one of Green Arrow's costumes, but with small modification. It had full length sleeves, which brought to mind how the Arrow's original jacket—now put in some box as an evidence and locked in the police's storage room—had looked.

"I asked Cisco to make a new version," he explained.

"But why? Didn't you like my original design?" asked Felicity, half jokingly, not offended at all. From the very beginning she wanted Green Arrow's costume to be functional. Sketched a general concept on paper, basing her project on how the original one looked. It was Cisco who manufactured the costume, making necessary tweaks to the design and adding a few improvements. He also chose the right material, which could give the archer additional protection without impairing his agility—a polymer kevlar weave, which was his own invention. There were no considerable changes when it came to the bow—modified Oneida Kestrel worked fine, but they both agreed that Oliver should have a bit bigger quiver to carry more arrows with him. Twenty-four of them seemed to be a bit too low , especially since Green Arrow was about to be faced with crime which reached an extreme level. After some tests it turned out that fifty-two arrows were not an option. Eventually they managed to push thirty-two arrows into the new quiver. It had to do. At least for the time being.

However, since none of them had been running around in costume themselves (and thank goodness, because Felicity didn't exactly look forward to it; she thought she was much more useful in front of the computer screens), it was quite possible that they had missed something important.

"So?" Felicity gazed at the new jacket, but the only difference seemed to be that it had full-length sleeves. What did it change, exactly?

Oliver only smiled.

"You know, my dear, when it comes to archery, one of the basics is that protection of the inside of the archer's forearms is the most important. I was reminded of that the hard way."

Felicity shot him a questioning look, tilting her head and raising her eyebrows.

"Meaning?"

He rounded up the long sleeve of sweater he was wearing today and showed her the inside of his left forearm. Felicity opened her eyes wide. How could she not notice it earlier?

The inside of his left forearm was covered by a huge dark violet bruise left by the bowstring.

The End

A/N: Hope you liked it. Now if you wonder smacking your arm with a bow string is damn painful. The very first thing Oliver should do after he put on the new costume was modyfing it by adding some bracers. They wanted to make the costume look more like Green Arrow's from the comics? Fine, but don't forget about the protection for his arms! He can't always have a correct archery stance when he is involved in a melee, right?

Always good time to make fun of Oliver's obsession with cooking and the fact that his girlfriend is the one with cash and founding his crazy crusade. And also that annoying thing when everyone are asking each other if they are okay every five minutes.