AN: Okay so this got way longer than I planned for it to be and took a whole different turn than I thought it would, but I just kind of went with it and this is the result and I feel pretty confident about it considering this is the first thing I've wrote for this ship and arrow. - written for the flarrowfemslashweek over on tumblr.
Disclaimer: I don't own arrow, I'm simply just borrowing the characters for a bit.
Maybe it was Fate
Laurel closes her eyes for a brief moment when she walks through the door of her favorite coffee house in the city, letting the aroma feel her nostrils. The scent of freshly brewed coffee is probably one of her favorites, especially when she comes for a pick-me-up during or after a rough day. There's just something about the smell and the atmosphere that calms her.
She lets out a sigh as she steps in line, dreading the fact that she'd stayed up last night reviewing her current case.
Between fighting in the court room during the day and patrol the streets at night, she's tired. She'd thought by now she'd be at a point where she's used to her nighttime masked activities. She's still not going to give it up – this city needs more help than she can legally provide in a court.
Basically the city's a mess and whatever Assistant District Attorney Lance can't do, the Black Canary can. That's her thought process at this point, anyway.
The barista calls out her order and Laurel sighs in contentment when she finally gets her coffee and takes the first sip, letting the liquid run down her throat, warming herself from the inside out and slowly waking her up.
Laurel turns on her heel and manages to bump into someone in her hast to get to work. She lets out a groan the second her messenger bags slips from her shoulder and crashes to the floor, a few files an paper escape and making a new home on the floor. Laurel reaches for her papers and files only to be interrupted by another dainty hand.
"Looks like you're having a rough morning," a feminine voice says, holding out the now straighten file to her.
Laurel grabs the opposite end of the file as she glances up to meet the gaze of a dark haired woman. "It could be better I guess," she responds, straitening up and slipping the file back into her messenger bag which she situates on her shoulder again. "Thank you…."
"Nyssa," the woman replies.
"Laurel," the blonde responds with a small smile.
Over the next couple of weeks, Laurel manages to keep running into Nyssa every morning when she stops in for her coffee. And a part of her just brushes her off as a coincidence. Although, she doesn't see how running into the same person so many times in a short time period can be a coincidence.
But the fact that there's a mystery cloaked woman also roaming the streets at night who she's gotten into quite a many brawls with at the same time Nyssa shows up can't be a coincidence.
Or can it?
Stop it Laurel, she tries shaking the thoughts off as she steps off the elevator and heads towards her office. You need to stop being so suspicious of everyone.
But it's not her fault she has trust issues or that everyone in her life has left her. It's also not her fault that her trust issues are a result of everyone she's even cared about leaving her; her mom to Central City, her father to the bottle, her sister to her boyfriend and the both of them to a ship wreck. It's not her fault, she didn't ask for any of this shit.
What was so wrong with her that everyone leaves?
"Hello Laurel."
The voice, that sweet, feminine voice has her stopping in her tracks and pulling her out of her thoughts as she pushes through the door of her office. She glances up to see Nyssa leaning against the edge of her desk, a small smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.
Laurel's eyebrow quirks up. "Are you stalking me, now?"
Nyssa shrugs. "I was in the neighborhood and I guess I just wanted to see what it is that you do."
"Right now, it's waiting for the detectives to try and find something on this politician so that the charges might actually stick," Laurel responds with a sigh, finally stepping in the room and letting the door close behind her. "Until then this case isn't going to see the inside of a court room."
"Maybe that woman in black can help out the police in their investigation," Nyssa suggests.
"Maybe," Laurel agrees, even though she's not so sure she can do anything considering she's been running after that mysterious cloaked woman.
"You seem stressed," Nyssa observes after a while. "Perhaps you need a break."
Laurel rubs her eyes and pinches the bridge of her nose as if it'll relieve all the tense and stress from her body, a break would be good. A break from the case, a break from the lies she's telling her father about her nightly activities, just a break.
"Do you want to grab lunch?" Laurel suggest as she walks the short distance to her desk, unlocking the bottom door and digging around for her wallet. "I have this craving for a milkshake."
"Alright," Nyssa agreed, taking Laurel's outstretched hand and letting the blonde lead her from the room and back towards the elevator.
Nyssa's staring at her with a quizzical raised eyebrow.
"What?" Laurel asks, dropping the fry she'd just dipped in her shake into her mouth. "You've never tried this before?"
"I can't say that I have," Nyssa responds.
"Well try it," Laurel suggests. "What? Do you not trust me?"
Nyssa picks up a fry and dips it in her shake before slowly popping it in her mouth. After a few moments of chewing and deciding on whether or not she enjoys it, her eyes widen.
"Well?" Laurel prompts.
Nyssa nods, holding her hand in front of her mouth while she chews. "It's good."
Laurel smirks. "Told you."
Nyssa responds with a grin. "Well perhaps you were right, Laurel."
"If we're being honest, I'm surprised you actually tried it," Laurel admits. "My sister always thought I was weird and she would never agree to just humor me and try it."
"Thought?"
Laurel meets her gaze. "What?"
"You said, thought," Nyssa says.
Laurel drops her gaze.
"Did I hit a nerve?" Nyssa asks, titling her head. "If I did, I'm sorry."
Laurel glances back up, and shakes her head. "No its fine….it's just – weird to…" she trails off, not knowing what to say. She closes her eyes for a moment and lets out a breath. "A few years ago my sister was in a ship wreck and I never saw her again…She's gone and I don't know if I can miss her or be upset with the fact that's she's gone when I'm trying to hide the fact that I'm also mad at her because she slept with my boyfriend but I can't be mad because she's gone and he's gone too and I…."
Laurel sighs and stops herself. "And I'm rambling and I'm sorry, you didn't sign up for that."
"I have heard that it's easier to talk to people who aren't biased to the situation," Nyssa says with a shrug. "I don't mind."
Laurel gives her a small smile. "Still to unload all of my issues on someone I've only just met and who I literally bumped into when I first met her."
"These things have a weird way of happening."
"Yeah, you're right," Laurel agrees. "So how long are you staying in Starling?" Laurel asks after a while.
"I'm not sure yet," Nyssa responds.
That gives Laurel an idea. "Have you gotten the lay of the city yet?"
"More or less…what are thinking about in that pretty blonde hair of yours?" Nyssa questions, rising an eyebrow.
"A tour of Starling?" Laurel suggest. "Or my favorite parts anyway."
Nyssa shrugs. "Alright."
"Who are you and what are you doing in Starling?" Laurel shouts as she ducks out of the way of a fist. It's not the first time she's asked this woman this question and she's never gotten an answer – so why would this time be any different?
"What do you want?" Laurel asks again, as the two of them revert back to this same dance they've been doing every time they've met on the streets. Fighting is probably one of her favorite moments, when she can turn off her brain and just feel – she feels the rush of adrenaline and just lets her consume her for the moment.
Before Laurel realizes it, the masked woman is laying on her back on the ground and she's standing over her. The blonde's chest is rising and falling and she's doesn't know what she's going to do next – she didn't really think she'd get this far.
"Why don't you just kill me already?" the masked woman asks and Laurel falters. She knows that voice, in fact she's heard it multiple times – it's Nyssa.
Nyssa….the same woman she's laughed with, the same woman she's made try her fry dipped in milkshake thing, the same woman she met in a coffee shop a month and a half ago. The same woman who's she's rarely heard laugh but it's a sound she's grown to love and maybe there's more to this thing between them – for her anyway. And now she's not sure what to make of the situation.
What is she supposed to do about the fact that Nyssa, Nyssa is the masked woman?
"I'm not a killer, it's not who I am," Laurel says, pulling herself out of her thoughts, stepping away and turning around, posing to leave.
"I was looking for someone, or answers actually," the hooded woman responds after a few moments causing Laurel to turn around. "I thought I'd find them here."
"And did you?"
"I'd like to think so."
Laurel hadn't even realized she was bleeding from the rush of adrenaline that was pumping through her veins from the fight. But now that she's standing in her kitchen under the fluorescent light with the rush slowly edging away she can feel it and yeah it kind of hurts.
Laurel's reaching for the first aid kit she drug out of her bathroom medicine cabinet and brought into the kitchen for better lighting when she hears the familiar feminine voice behind her and she freezes.
"What did you do?"
Laurel spins around to see Nyssa standing in her kitchen and her eyes widen. "How did you even get in here Nyssa?" she asks even though she's sure she already knows that answer, but she wants to hear it from Nyssa.
"I asked you a question first," Nyssa retorts.
"It's just a cut," Laurel explains with a shrug. "No big deal…Now how did you get in here?"
"You're bleeding," Nyssa states as if Laurel doesn't know that. Nyssa walks further into the room and reaches for the first aid kit that's sitting on the counter top behind Laurel.
"I can see that, Nyssa," Laurel sighs.
"How'd you get one on your upper arm?" Nyssa questions, opening the first aid cut and beginning to tend to her wound.
Laurel sighs, not knowing what to say to explain the cut on her bicep or the fact that there's a purpling bruise on her abdomen that's covered by her black tank top.
"Laurel," Nyssa prompts.
Laurel closes her eyes for a moment and runs a hand through her hair. "Are you going to tell me how you got in?"
Nyssa quirks an eyebrow. "The window….now what happened?"
Laurel runs her free hand through her hair. "You remember that woman you black that's been running around the city?"
"The vigilante who's been kicking a lot of ass if I do say so myself?" Nyssa asks walking over to the sink and wetting a cloth to clean the wound. "What about her?"
"She – that woman," Laurel starts and stops, glancing down at her feet.
"She's you," Nyssa says simply, adding antibiotic ointment to the wound before reaching for the gauge and the tape.
Laurel's taken about. "Wait you know?"
"Just as I'm sure you know that the woman with the hood," Nyssa explains, cover the wound and stepping back from the blonde. "I just wanted to hear it from you."
A smile tugs at the corners of Laurel's mouth. "How long have you known?"
"Maybe as long as you have," Nyssa responds.
"What are you really doing in Starling?"
"I wasn't lying when I told you I was looking for answers," Nyssa says, moving forward to lean against the counter top. "But it also wasn't the whole truth…I was also trying to stay away from my father – we, well we have a complicated relationship and certain things happened recently and I just had to get away."
"I'm sorry to hear that," Laurel says, reaching out a comforting hand to settle on her arm.
Nyssa shakes her head. "I'm not…when I first left, I didn't know what I was looking for exactly but coming here for whatever reason it was that drew me to this particular city, I think I have. And this may sound strange but I don't think it was a coincidence that we met that day."
"You want to know what's stranger? I don't think it was either," Laurel adds with a shrug. "If I believed in fate, I might say that's what it was."
Nyssa tilts her head. "Perhaps it was."
The two woman stand there in Laurel's kitchen in the silence of the night, just a few inches away from one another and neither could say who made the first move. But here they were, noses almost touching, breathing the same breathes.
Laurel or maybe it's Nyssa, she's not for sure who makes the first move, but suddenly her lips are gliding over Nyssa's. There's a hand cupping the back of her neck and Laurel's hands are moving upwards to burry themselves in Nyssa's hair.
It's different than other kisses Laurel's had, softer and sweeter than any with Oliver or even Tommy
"Wow," Laurel says, breathless after she pulls away.
Nyssa chuckles. "Yeah."
There's a moment of silence as the two woman stand together with their foreheads pressed together. Until Laurel finally breaks the silence by voicing her growing fear, what if she's abandoned again? What is another person she's grown to care about leaves her? Laurel doesn't think she could survive that again.
"So what are we going to do about this? Everyone that I have ever cared about have left me as if there's something wrong with me and I – I don't think I could go through that again."
"Well for starters, I could help you on this mission of yours to protect your city," Nyssa responds. "As for this, I guess we can just take it one day at a time. But between the two of us, I don't plan on leaving."
"One day at a time," Laurel repeats. Yeah she could do this, just put one foot in front of the other and take things as they come.
Yeah, she could definitely do this. It's new and exciting and also strangely comforting and maybe a little frightening but maybe Laurel is ready to take that jump.