Biting the Bullet Chapter 2

Roy huffed in annoyance and closed his eyes. "Damnit Oliver, I'm not in the mood to be taught a lesson." Roy grunted as from the darkness he was slugged in the gut. Oliver smirked as Roy bent over in sheer recoil from the blow. "gah!, This is bullshit." The older male grabbed him by the front of his hoodie and forced Roy to look at him. "No, you being careless and getting yourself injured while on a simple recon mission." Oliver grabbed him in a firm headlock and Roy grunted trying to pry free. "That's bullshit." Roy growled and shoved forward slamming Oliver's back into a nearby wall. "Alright! I get it! I messed up!, now lay off me!" Oliver let him go and Roy stormed over to the glass case where his suit was. Oliver narrowed his gaze. "Don't even think about suiting up you're still recovering from your injury."

Roy turned and looked at him. "Funny, you never follow that advice when we're giving it to you." He held Oliver's gaze as the older male approached slowly. "What part of 'we're brothers' did you not understand Roy?" The young man rolled his eyes and grabbed his bow. "I get that you're looking out for me Oliver, but I need to clear my head that's all."

Oliver huffed "Then let me come with you, to be sure you're safe." Roy glanced at him "You've never gone on patrol with me." Oliver smirked. "You're my eyes and ears remember?" Roy glanced at him "You're going to follow me regardless aren't you?" Oliver shrugged lightly. "Yep." Roy groaned. "Fine, let's go try and keep up." Oliver smirked. "I'll do better than that kid I'll catch you."

Roy snorted in amusement. "Yeah, hate to burst your bubble bro, but that's not gonna happen." Oliver smirked and eyed the other confidently. "Care to make it interesting?" Roy raise like a brow. "What like a wager?" Oliver nodded "For fun, yeah a wager between you and me, I catch you take the rest of the week off no exceptions." Roy blinked "Then what do I get if you can't catch me because you aren't going to." Oliver thought for a moment. "I'll teach you any new bow technique you want." Roy laughed "No way! you're finally gonna teach me how to shoot three arrows at once?!" Oliver nodded "If that's what you pick." Roy scoffed "Bet on!" They shook on it and Roy slowly exited the foundry Oliver following close behind. He pointed "We go to that roof top and then I get a 10 second head start." Oliver shook his head. "Five seconds." The young man smirked.
"Fine, five go!"

They both shot grapple arrows to a nearby roof and once at the top Roy sprinted forward and Oliver waited for several second before sprinting after him. Roy ran along the edge of the nearest roof and leaped vaulting up a fire escape. He smirked as Oliver cut him off and he leaped across the alleyway and Oliver growled. "You're a slippery one I'll give you that." Roy smirked "How else do you think I got away from your sister and Laurel?"

Oliver blinked "Wait, what are you talking about kid?" Roy scoffed "She seriously never told you about that?" The older man shook his head. "Nope, so you tell me." Roy leaped to another rooftop "I stole her purse, they ran after me, and thought they had me cornered, then I ran up a wall and leaped over a fence."

Oliver chuckled "Oh I can just see the look on their faces." Roy cackled. "Yeah they were pretty pissed." The older male followed closely behind Roy "Better speed it up I'm gaining on you."

Roy scoffed "Keep up will ya, I'm not even breaking a sweat yet." He shot forward lengthening his stride and Oliver muttered a curse of frustration "Oh don't you worry about me." Oliver said with smirk. As he and Roy leaped down into an alley the older male being heavier dropped quicker. He grabbed Arsenal by his hood. Roy instinctively grabbed his baton and struck the others' hand away. Oliver smirked slightly. "I'm glad to see you have good reflexes, it's been a while since we've had a good spar session." Roy scoffed "Does this mean the bet is off?" Oliver was silent for a moment. "Maybe instead of time off you need your fire stoked, you're not the type of guy who can stand to sit still, and you like to fight."

The youth smirked at his mentor. "Yeah we're alike in that way at least, you don't look for a fight, but you pretty much have obsessive training disorder...I can't wait to sit still because I see how this city has gone to hell it didn't used to be this bad...and without your help I'd be unable to do anything about it." A sudden buzzing interrupted the conversation and Roy checked his phone. "I need to take this." He walked away a few steps. "What's wrong?" Oliver observed as Roy paced a bit, this was interesting behavior he had never seen Roy nervous before. The brunette nodded and quickly hung up the phone. "Hey I need to go I'll holler at you later." Oliver nodded. "What's going on?" The ward shook his head "I don't have time to explain right now..It's personal." He brushed past Oliver and jogged down into the Foundry swapping out his Arsenal suit for his civilian clothes and before Oliver could object or try to stop him he was on the bike and out the door.

Oliver Queen strided over to Felicity who sat at the computer monitors. "Find him he's acting odd." The blonde looked at him for a moment. "You think he's in some sort of trouble?" Oliver shrugged "He said it was personal..what do we know about his parents?" Felicity sighed "Well his dad was also named Roy Harper..senior, but he died a few years back..." Oliver was slightly stunned. "His dad died?" Felicity nodded. "Not sure 'dad' is the right word for a man who abandoned his family..no wonder he looks up to you so much." Oliver blinked. "He doesn't just see me as a mentor..he sees me as a type of father figure?" Felicity nodded "Probably one of the reasons he tends to be so rebellious and eager to please you..he never had anyone there for him growing up." Oliver nodded "What about his mother. "We know even less about her, not even a name..but Roy did once say that she had been on Verigo and had kicked it..but he had just been busted for robbing Thea so that could have been a lie to get out of trouble with the cops."

Oliver watched the blinking red dot. "Where are you going Roy?"