- Starling city -

"Ollie?"

Oliver squeezed his eyes shut, then blinked a few times to rid the dull ache before looking at his sister. "Yeah, sorry," he said "lost in thought," he continued, turning to the brown bottle of beer and taking a swig.

Thea softened her tone. "About?" she raised a brow.

"It's nothing," Oliver shook his head, "just this and that, you know."

"Then why do you look so sad?" her tone stayed soft, which surprised Oliver, he must have looked miserable.

"It's nothing, just..." What was he supposed to say? There was nothing he could tell her about Slade without telling her the whole story and did he want her to know he was gay? Oliver was gay, yada yada yada, met this man Slade, yada yada yada, fell in love with him and now... Leaving out the missing pieces of information about everything Islandy made the story confusing when it came to the end. Telling her Slade died meant pity, saying Slade's visa ran out meant questions of why Oliver did not use his money and power as a Queen to keep him here. Saying that Slade was in the army and on tour at the moment was a good cover, but then he wouldn't come back and there would be even more questions. Oliver looked back at Thea, she looked sad. Oliver had been good at hiding everything, or at least enough to not raise any serious questions, but just a moment of thinking of Slade and it was clear as day that he was not okay.

It had been four months since he had got back home, which made ten months without Slade, and Oliver knew he'd never see him again. He'd fallen for Slade years ago but he didn't want to be with him, let alone says those words until the fear of the whole "we could die here" thing was over. Now it was and so were Oliver and Slade. He should have seen it coming, really. They pleased each other physically and they were friends, partners, but once the thing that brought and forced them together was gone, that was that. They were each other's way to cope, nothing else.

Had they first met each other in this city, would it have been different? Yes, back then Oliver was a spoilt manwhore, even Oliver could see that. The two would have never got along. Oliver would not have liked the whole meeting in a cafe beginning anyway; the Island gave them a bond, trust and made Oliver into a stronger person. A person whom Slade, having just met, may have liked. This Oliver was a warrior and he knew that he liked who he had become, even if it meant keeping secrets about his beginning.

Oliver looked to his side and made sure no one was nearby; the club had just opened, it was nowhere near full but there were a load of people inside and a queue outside. This was a popular place after all.

Oliver Looked back to Thea, before quickly looking away, blurting out "I'm gay."

- Lian Yu -

"What are you doing?" The gruff voice of the Australian made Oliver jump. Oliver was sitting on the grass next to the plane, before Slade had made him jump he had been looking out to the forest, eyes squinted as if concentrating on something.

"You made me lose count," Oliver complained, although there was a smile on his face seeing as Slade had returned from where he had been setting up the animal traps for the night.

Slade cocked a brow, now he was confused. "What?" Slade made his way over to Oliver, sitting behind the man, resting his back on the metal. "What are you looking at?" Slade squinted, but saw nothing.

Oliver's eyes followed Slade, pushed himself back so that he sat in-between Slade's legs, his own legs pulled up to his chest. He rested his back on the man's padded chest to which said man's arms locked around Oliver waist. Even if there were clothes, gloves and padding in the way, Oliver felt close to Slade, whose body was warm due to the all the hiking he had done.

"So," Slade's warm breath on Oliver's ear made the younger man shiver "What were you counting?"

"Cricket chirps," Oliver said simply, hiding his cold hands under Slade's arms

Slade nodded. "Any reason for that?"

Oliver smiled, enjoying the relaxing conversation. Yao Fei's daughter Shado was staying with them now, and that meant less time for Slade and Oliver to be close like this. They still slept next to each other but there was nothing else they could do while she was there except lightly knock boots when they were eating. Slade did not trust her enough to leave her at the plane while they went on hunts, so she had to come with them. She was a nice person though, a good fighter, she knew more about Fyers then the two of them put together and she was teaching Oliver how to become an archer. She had just started teaching him to make his own arrows. It was apparently really important that he made his own, something about knowing how every little thing worked or something like that. As Slade could see from the broken attempts on the floor, it was still very much a work in progress.

"I heard it on a documentary once," Oliver said flexing and straightening his fingers to warm them up. Feeling this Slade took off his gloves and, knowing that the younger man would not take them, he brought Oliver's hands together so one was on top of the other and placed them on the man's lap, covering them with his own hands. Oliver paused looking at the difference in size and colour and smiled slightly, turning his hands over to hold Slade's hands. The older man took a hand in each of his and weaved their fingers together. Oliver's smile grew.

"This documentary?" Slade asked, rubbing the muscle along the side of Oliver's hand with his thumb.

"It was about survival in the wilderness," Oliver grinned, "As if I'd ever need that."

Slade chuckled lightly.

"It said that snowy tree crickets' chirps can tell you the temperature," Oliver continued

Slade raised a brow, although Oliver couldn't see it.

Oliver thought for a second, then he said, "They synchronize their chirps, so you count the number of chirps for 13 seconds and add 40. That'll give you the temperature in degrees Fahrenheit," Oliver turned his head to look at Slade, "give or take a degree."

Slade nodded, he'd never heard of such a thing. "Interesting," he said, leaning down to kiss Oliver, who smiled into it and returned the kiss.

Oliver turned his body and moved to sit on Slade's lap. Slade grinned, he oh so badly wanted to bite the younger man's neck, slip his hands down his front to grab his crotch and down the back to tease the his rim, listening and watching as the man moaned and begged - but Slade knew he could not. As soon as Slade knew that they were safe again, with or without Shado, he would fuck Oliver until they both passed out.

Slade pulled Oliver closer by his thighs. Their mouths were hungry, their kisses passionate.

- Starling city -

"Oh."

Oliver cocked a brow, "Oh?" he looked back to his sister.

She had her brows drawn together in thought, looking down towards the table but not really looking at anything. "It's just that..." she thought for a second before saying "You dated a lot," she smiled "but around the time of dates you always looked kind of sad and I never understood why. But..." Thea looked at Oliver "I guess it was hard to be with people you felt nothing for," her smile widened "Thank you for telling me."

Oliver smiled back.

"So," she tilted her head to the side, "what kind of guys do you like?"

Oliver out right laughed, he calmed down and then said "Oh, Thea," he chuckled "I don't know..." a smile crept on to his lips "Older," he started.

Thea nodded, wanting to know more.

Oliver looked at his hand on the table, remembering the times their hands had joined together. "Tanned," his smile grew bigger, "dark hair and eyes. A guy who's no pushover." Nowhere even close to a pushover Oliver thought, wanting to laugh. "Personality is more important, I guess," Oliver said, thinking about all the things Slade used to do; the way he grinned in pride and raised his voice in excitement, sounding happy every time Oliver did something that both helped them and showed that Oliver was cut out for this. The way he loved to tease Oliver, grinning when he succeeded and smiling when failed, because that had meant that Oliver had been the one to beat him, that he was getting smarter, faster and stronger. The way he held Oliver close to him, weaved their fingers together and how when they sat next to each, he would place a boot covered foot on each side of one of Oliver's, holding it gently, wanting to keep a hold of Oliver even when Shado and Yao Fei were there. Slade trusted him, treated him like an adult who could look after himself, but at the same time protected him.

"You met someone."

Oliver looked back at his sister to see her smiling, her eyes full of happiness. "What makes you say that?" he asked.

"Your face," she said, full of excitement, "Whoever he is, I like him if he makes you this happy."

Oliver's smile fell. Thea would never meet Slade in Starling city, and neither would Oliver, Slade was gone. Far away with no reason to ever come to this city. Some nights, when Oliver allowed himself to think about the older man, Oliver wished that he could see him for just more hour; run his fingers through the man's wiry hair, hold his face in his hands and kiss him, have sex with the man for one last time - but would a goodbye, a final night, have made any of this easier? Most likely not.

"On the other hand, I don't like him," Thea said, sounding sad.

Oliver blinked a few times, realising he had been lost in thought "No," Oliver said, a light smile on his face, "He's a nice guy," he looked his beer, not wanting to take a swig because that would not help his point. "He showed me that it was okay to be...me," he said, in case of eavesdroppers, "It just ended." Oliver did not want to say anymore, he looked at the floor sadly. After taking a second to recover himself, Oliver looked at one of the lists.

"Ollie?" Thea asked, with an expression Oliver knew would be sadness without even having to look at her.

"I don't really want to talk about it," he said simply, never taking his eyes off the list.

Thea took the other list, thinking that her brother just needed time.

The twosome looked back and forth from the lists for a good few minutes before Oliver saw it. He had no idea why he was there, but he knew that name.

Slade Wilson

Oliver stared at that name, eyes never blinking, time almost seeming to stop. Oliver could hear his heart beat over the music. Then an idea came to him. "No," he whispered, not heard over the music.

"Is there a Slade Wilson on your list?" he asked, never taking his eyes from the name.

"Slade Wilson..." she looked over the list, spotting the name after a while, "Yes, right here!" she pointed at the name. She turned to see Oliver staring at his list. "Ollie?"

"He's Australian."

"Uh...what?" she cocked a brow. How did Oliver get that from a name unless...

"He's from Australia, not New Zealand," His voice sounded dull, Oliver simply did not know what to think.

"You know him," Thea said, eyes huge.

Oliver nodded. What was he doing here? He was waiting for someone, a woman. Oliver felt an ache in his chest and his belly hurt. Slade had left him.

Oliver stood and left the table. He needed to get out of here

"Wha-" Thea ran after her brother. "Ollie wait," she called, "Wait!" she called again, but he ignored her. She grabbed her brother's wrist and pulled him back, he stopped. "Ollie?" she said, sounding worried.

Oliver could not deal with this; he could barely cope with Slade being gone, with the idea of moving on and the fact that Slade did not feel the love Oliver felt for the older man, but to have it all rubbed in his face? No. No, no, no, no! He was getting far away from here, he would just hide away for a while and not think about the Island, the death and the fact that the person who had kept him alive through all of it was a fucking asshole who left him and came back not even for Oliver but some whore who-

"There he is," Thea said.

Oliver froze and slowly turned to look at the crowd. There was Slade Wilson making his way to the bar. From the waist down he looked pretty much the same, wearing leather lace-up boots over grey cargo pants, although they were more baggy than the ones he wore on the Island and there was no knife holster on his calf for the six inch blade, nor did he have on his belt with its gun holster and multiple pouches for herbs, back up ammo and anything else useful he could fit in there. He was wearing what looked like to be a simple black shirt covered by a leather jacket, which Oliver was not surprised by. Slade had told Oliver that he had always like the practical and potentially useful, leather was good for keeping warm, reducing bodily harm and it was easily cleaned. Cargo pants for...well cargo, some place useful to keep things; if Slade did have a knife or two somewhere that's where they'd likely be. That or a makeshift pocket in the Jacket, which was just as likely if not more. Slade was Slade. Even if he was not wearing his protective padding or the katana sword on his back.

Slade was here, at the club and Oliver had no idea what to do.

Thea smiled. "Slade!" she yelled so the man could hear.

Slade stiffened, but turned to look around where the voice had come from. It was high up, to the right. Looking there Slade saw a teenage girl looking at him, holding the wrist of a man who looked like he wanted to leave. The man was tall, blonde, and was looking at him too. He...

"Oliver?" Slade mumbled, eyes wide in shock. He smiled.

Oliver did not even think for a second, he made his way down the stairs, Thea letting go of his wrist as he went, a smile Oliver could not see plastered on her face. Oliver made his way to the bottom of the stairs and saw that Slade was making his way towards him. The man was only a few steps away so Oliver stood and let Slade come to him. Then there they were, Oliver and Slade face to face, no fear of death, no Island, just them.

"It's good to see you again," Slade said in that rough voice of his.

Oliver placed a hand on the back of Slade's neck, pulled him forward and kissed him. God to feel Slade close to him again was amazing, to kiss him again was wonderful and Oliver's heart melted when the man kissed him back. The warmth of his body, the touch of his soft lips, just having Slade again was almost too much, Oliver could not, did not, even think about losing it all again.

Slade broke the kiss. "I missed you too," he kissed Oliver's forehead "We should talk."

Oliver was worried but nodded; he followed Slade out the building. Turning his head back he saw his sister giving him the thumbs up. Oliver did not know what to think, he would just have to see what happened. Thankfully, no one minus Thea looked like they had seen them kissing, if this all went badly Oliver did not want to be reminded of it.

The night had just started but the breeze was blowing cold air on his face, hands and down his neck. The cold was something Oliver had grown used to on the Island, the only times he had been warm was when he was with Slade. That, and training and fighting, but the first was a much nicer warmth. Oliver missed the warmth of another person against his skin, the warmth of their breath, their lips on his lips or on his skin. That unbelievable warm pressure of having someone inside of him, stretching him, filling him in ways he never knew he needed and the warm liquid that rolled inside of him, a mixture of honey and semen. Oliver missed all of it.

The two men walked side by side, neither saying anything. After a while Slade spoke up. "I'm sorry I could not have seen you sooner. We had to make sure this whole thing was over, turns out there were a lot of people involved and getting them was a bitch. Weren't even allowed to send rescue for you for another year just in case, but..."

"You did anyway," Oliver smiled, looking at Slade

"I could never leave you behind," he looked at Oliver, his near black orbs showing concern, "don't forget that."

Oliver nodded, but had to ask. "Why are you here?" he said, before he could stop himself.

Slade stopped, Oliver did as well. The corners of Slade's lips pulled down lightly. "I'm sorry," he stepped forward and held Oliver's face with his hands. "I'm sorry I left you behind," he said, sounding vulnerable which was beyond unnatural. He stroked his thumb over Oliver's jawbone, and the younger man closed his eyes, just letting himself enjoy the feeling. "Had I known, I would have stayed with you," Slade continued, resting their foreheads together.

Oliver was shocked. Slade had come back for him. He smiled. "I missed you so much," he opened his eyes, light green meeting dark brown.

Slade pulled Oliver's head forward and kissed him. Oliver smiled, grabbing the older man's shoulders to pull him closer.

After a while the two pulled back from the kiss, still staying close, "Hey gorgeous," Slade said, smile on his face, happy to finally have Oliver back. "Now that we're off the Island, how about I take you to dinner?"

Oliver looked at him, eyebrows raised. He took a second but then he smiled, looking at Slade's chest "Yeah," he said sounding a bit sheepish, "I'd like that," Oliver placed his head on Slade's chest, enjoying the warmth. Slade wrapped his arms around Oliver's body, pulling him closer.