AN: I thought I was going to post this sooner and then I started a new show on Netflix and my life fell apart, but here I am. Plugging along in my little Flash story! Writing Oliver's teaching thing is literally the hardest I've ever done. Google has been my friend, unless what I've written is not good self defense and therefore Google will have declared itself my enemy by feeding me false information.
Also y'all don't understand how much your support means to me. I've had a really tough past couple weeks and to come on here and feel wanted literally means the world. Love you guys!
Chapter Eight – An Arrow Of Truth
"We haven't exactly met yet, but I'm the Arrow, and I'm about to give you a crash course in how to defend yourself. Meet me at the lab in ten minutes."
There was a long pause as Oliver Queen's words sunk in.
"Ten minutes- but I'm not the one with super speed!" Ella finally sputtered out, blurting one of many worries running around her head. Some of the others being I'm not ready, I'm going to hurt him, and but holy crap it's the freaking Green Arrow.
A small beat passed before he reiterated impatiently, "Ten minutes," and there was a click on the line. Oliver hung up on her. Ella laid there another second, the phone still pressed against her ear.
"Shoot, shoot, shoot..." She mumbled to herself as she unraveled herself from her cocoon of blankets and tumbled out of bed. Ella stood there for a second, trying to orientate herself. She quickly stepped out of her pajama shorts and pulled off her loose t-shirt and changed into sweatpants and a different loose t-shirt, before wondering if she was suppose to wear her suit.
What do you wear to a crash course in self defense?
What do you wear to meet the Arrow?
What do you wear to meet Oliver Queen?
The three last things Ella ever thought she'd have to plan an outfit for, but she thought she should focus more so on the self defense bit than anything else. She could do it.
Ugh, the friends her friends keep.
Finally deciding on that, she rushed to the bathroom to run a brush through her hair and knotted it into a lose bun and another brush over her teeth. Then Ella stood in the mirror, taking a deep breath. She could do this. It would be okay.
She went back to the bedroom and slipped on her shoes, before quietly padding out to the hall and knocking softly on Barry's door, as to not wake up Joe, but there was silence on the other end. She knocked again, before slowly opening the door a crack.
"Bear?" There was no response, so she opened it more, before realizing the room was dark. Ella swung it opened to find Barry sleeping, sprawled out on his bed.
"Barry!" She exclaimed, striding into his room. "What are you doing!?" Barry startled awake, bolting up before taking a second to assess the situation. He flopped back down and closed his eyes after just finding Ella looming angrily over him.
"Whaaat?" he moaned out, but he shifted to his back. His face turned to her, but his eyes stayed shut, and he groaned tiredly.
"Barry!" Ella cried, exasperated, "You're not ready!" A hand went to run her fingers through her hair before she remembered her hair was up, and it flopped to her side.
"For what?" he asked, finally peeking one eye open, and stretching into a more sitting up position.
"The thing with Oliver in like three minutes… the crash course in self defense," Ella answered, annoyed. "C'mon, you can't be late, you have freaking super speed! And he kind of scares me, just a little bit, so please, please help me make a good impression."
Barry let out a grunt that Ella thought was suppose to be a laugh, for the corners of lips lifted in a quick grin. He fell back against his bed and shut his eyes. "Sorry, El, training with Oliver is like a superhero right of passage, and it's something you must do alone."
"But..." Ella sputtered out, but she was at a loss of words to say. She didn't want to do this without Barry! He was the only reason she was getting use to this new world. He was the only one who could stop her if she lost control! "I can't stay in control without you."
"Oliver's good at what he does and I have faith in you, El. Plus you have your gloves, you'll be fine. I'll catch up with you later, but for now: good luck and don't be late," Barry advised, scooting back down in his covers. "Oh, and watch your back. He's shot me in mine."
Ella arrived in the lab with one minute to spare. The sun had began to peek through Barry's blinds when she left his room and bolted here, but the harsh lights of the lab was a bit too much for her eyes, and she winced upon arrival.
Oliver already stood in the room, in complete Arrow attire, assessing her (judging her, her mind whispered). "Good morning," he greeted, but it was in a tight voice. To match his tight jaw. And tight body.
"'Morning," Ella mumbled back in response, her anxiety threatening to take over. She couldn't shut down in front of Oliver, but the thought of the day ahead left her uneasy. She didn't do well with people she didn't know before she died, and now add to the fact she's a bit of a lose cannon and could do some serious damage if she lost control… but gloves. Barry was right. Ella had the gloves now. "I, uh, I didn't know what to wear, but seeing you're in your suit, I should probably get in mine."
Oliver nodded with a curt smile. "Yeah, that's a good idea."
"Be right back." Before the words were completely out of her mouth, she bolted and quickly changed into her suit. She wanted to give herself another pep talk, but she knew she didn't have the time, so she just returned back to the main room instead.
It was quiet for a moment longer before Ella took a long breath and began to speak, "Thanks, Oliver, for doing this..." but he had also started with, "Okay, well, we're..." They both abruptly stopped speaking.
"They told you I'm Oliver Queen."
"Oh! No, they did not tell me… I just, well. Noticed things. And noticed how the gang spoke of Oliver and Arrow and maybe there was a slip up one day, I don't know. I guess. I can make myself invisible- not literally, that would be so cool, but metaphorically. I always know a little too much… it's what got me in this mess to begin with," Ella babbled, her nerves spouting whatever came to her mind through her mouth with no thought process whatsoever. Her gloved hands locked together anxiously. "Me, knowing too much, and me, not telling secrets."
"O-kay… people like you are the ones to look out for," Oliver finally cut in, a faint grin on his face. "Don't worry about it. You seem to worry a lot… there's a healthy degree of worry that clears your mind and helps you make quick decisions. And then there's too much worry, that paralyzes you on the spot and runs too many scenarios around your head. You're the last one. But we'll work on it."
"I either think too much or too little. There's no in between with me..."
"The in between comes with guidance and practice. And today I'm giving you that guidance and Barry will help with the practice after I'm gone." Oliver went on to explain that he had a car outside and we were driving a little outside of the city, to an abandoned little house and an open field where him and Barry trained for the first time.
"I still think Barry should be there with us," Ella said, as they walked together to his car. "He-"
"I know I have a reputation to be a bit scary, but it's effective. If you want to learn-" He cut her off, but it wasn't long before Ella returned the favor.
"For your sake, Oliver! Have you not heard I've killed four people? And I've hurt a child? Do you even know what I'm capable of?"
"Have you not heard I survived on a god forsaken island for five years? That I was known for killing people every single night to protect my city? The things I have seen..." Oliver snapped back. He paused for, no doubt, emphasize before finishing, "You don't scare me, Bolt."
"Being shot through the lung and having your friend bring me back from the dead, and then waking up with uncontrollable powers aren't under your condescending 'things I've seen'? Not even a little bit?" Ella bit back, the air around them thickening like before a storm.
He ran a hand down his face, causing a shock of static electricity to zap his hand, and he just sighed. "No, not really."
Ella looked into the storm in his eyes and took a breath, loosening the air to the normal consistency you'd have in the hall of a building. A storm would not be brewing in one… and there shouldn't be a storm in full force going on inside Oliver.
"Sorry," Ella finally said, wondering if maybe she could take off her gloves and give him a few moments of peace, but then decided against it. The gloves must stay on, no matter what Oliver has seen. For her sanity, if not for his safety.
He gave a curt nod and they walked a couple beats in silence, before Ella couldn't take it anymore.
"Nothing back? Ugh, you're so infuriating."
A genuine grin lit up his face then. "That's what they say."
Barry wasn't expecting Oliver to wake Ella up before the crack of dawn for training and he equally wasn't expecting Ella barging into his room to at that time either. Though this would be the third time she's popped in his room unannounced, he was just glad it wasn't under 'Zoom was just in my room!' or 'I just had a nightmare about the night I was tortured and died for you!' category.
He knew he couldn't just push off his problems to someone else, but Oliver knew better what he was doing with Ella than Barry would be. Maybe it'll be easier after Oliver's self defense 101.
When Ella finally bolted away to meet Oliver that morning, Barry settled back down deep in his covers and tried get back to where he was being he was interrupted… but a new dream took hold, causing the old one to quickly fade away.
"Bear."
His nickname was a whisper against his chest. Barry stood facing a window, facing a desk with pictures of him and… a women with a pixie cut with a corner of shaved hair, a smile teasing her cherry lips. It was then he realized he could feel her soft hair against his chin as well. She curved perfectly in the crook of his neck and was pressed so tightly in his arms.
"Faye?" He realized slowly, pulling away from the small women in his arms. Despite this weird tickle in the back of his mind, his face broke into a grin at the sight of her.
"Daddy!" A tiny voice called behind him. The title surprised him, but Barry flung around nonetheless to see the little boy running up to him. A name escaped his lips, "Sebastian!"
"Daddy, can I have a sip of your coffee again? Please, Daddy, please!" The boy begged, gripping the bottom of Barry shirt in dramatics. Sebastian's dark eyes pleaded with him- well, eye. Lose curls splattered around his head, covering half his face. Today they were going to have to make him get a hair cut, despite Seb's dislike of hair cuts for his first day of preschool. The two parents had decided a trip to the mall with a food court lunch and Dippin' Dots ice cream afterward was a good reward for taming his mess of curls.
'Barrrry!" Faye chided, a feigned look of annoyance on her face, but then it fell in disappointment when a loud buzzing erupted her pout. "I'll see you at Jitters soon."
"Daddy, don't leave yet!" Sebastian cried, flinging his arms around Barry's waist, but he was already fading, and fast.
"Sebastian!" Barry blurted out upon waking up. He jerked straight up, getting caught of his tangled mess of blankets. "Sebastian?" He mumbled to himself, confused on why he yelled out the name, as a image of a little boy with dark eyes and curly hair faded from his mind's eye. What was he dreaming? He had curly hair and needed a hair cut?
Barry shook his head, trying to clear the sleep from his brain, and reached over to turn off his alarm clock. He ran a hand down his face before flinging off the covers and getting out of bed.
A tickle of something nagged the back of his mind, and he had this overwhelming need to get coffee at Jitters before work this morning.
"Bear!" A voice greeted Barry when he walked in Jitters about twenty minutes later. Her bright lips were the first thing that caught his eye, before focusing in on the rest of her body. She sat at a high top table, heavily leaning against the table. A stretch of lower back teased out from under her black shirt.
"Faye, right?" Barry flashed a smile, too aware of his heart trying to pound out of his chest.
"Knew you wouldn't forget me," She smirked, jumping down from her chair, revealing ripped skin tight jeans, showing off pale skin starting at her pant pockets and ending near her feet. Barry's eyes jerked up back to hers, but Faye knew what she was doing to him.
"Your hair… is pretty hard to forget," He replied lamely, wincing internally. Not that it wasn't, the buzzed left size blending into a pixie cut, but smoother things could have came from his mouth.
Faye nodded slowly, the smile never slipping from her face. "Yeah, I get that a lot."
A silence overcame them as Barry thought of something to keep the conversation going, but he drew a blank. He couldn't even think of something so lame as "it's a nice day outside".
But Faye could find something to say, that immediately made Barry wish he could come up with a topic of conversation.
"So, listen, I didn't mean to upset your friend earlier… of course if some new girl she didn't know came along and thought you were hot, I'd be jealous too. Especially since you clearly don't have the same feelings," She drawled, causing Barry to flush at her words.
"Ah, well, it's complicated..." He stuttered out. Now not flustered at just her looks, she brings Ella into this, who is currently the most confusing and complicated human being in his life.
"Why? You either know you like her. Or you don't," Faye put in, imploringly.
"It's not-"
"That simple? Yeah, it is, Barry," She cut him off, and truthfully Barry couldn't think of a good response.
"I'm going to be late for work. I should go order my coffee," He finally said weakly, but instead of doing what he said he just stood there.
Faye let out a short laugh and didn't say anything more, but Barry didn't know why. She went back to her table and climbed back on her seat, pulling out her phone with one hand, and picked up her coffee with the other. She typed furiously with one finger.
It took another second longer for Barry to unfreeze enough to go up and place his order, and as he waited he watched her out of the corner of his eye.
Why was it so complicated? Why couldn't he be sure of his feelings for Ella? Why did it matter what that seer said, what is supposed Fate? Shouldn't he just go with what he feels?
But what is what he feels… he could love Ella, but not at the expense of his life being controlled by some outside force. He wanted to love Ella because he loved Ella, not because someone who saw the future tells him he loves Ella.
These thoughts went round and around in his head, till he was walking away with his coffee, and Faye interrupted his thoughts.
"Screw complicated. Come to dinner with me tonight."
There was another moment that drew out forever, as if Barry was using his superspeed to think.
It shouldn't be this complicated with Ella. He didn't want to be forced into a relationship by the future.
"Okay."
Ella and Oliver worked on offense for the first few hours. Ella learned how to use her lightning teleportation to dodge an attack and arrive somewhere else at a different angle, so she could defend herself. He taught her how to punch and how to defend herself and the anxiety Ella was feeling earlier had died down tremendously. There was no reason to worry with the gloves on.
But of course, after she understood what he was teaching her, and felt like she could practice on her own with Barry, Oliver wanted the gloves off.
She balked at the idea. Ella tried to convince him it was too dangerous, she was too dangerous. Maybe if Barry was here…
"All right, Ella, stop," He commanded with a sigh and walked over to the stairs of the house and sat down, with enough room for her to take the space next to him, so she followed suit. "I'm not going to sugar coat what I'm about to tell you."
"I know Barry feels like your safety raft, but he is not. He will fail you… he has fail you and will not always be there, despite his promises. You may think he holds the moon and the stars, butElla, he does not. Your happiness and your control is yours and yours alone. He may be able to fight you, but you are the only one who can control you," Oliver told her, trying to keep eye contact with Ella, but she found she couldn't. He continued, "And whether the two of you are meant to be or not, does not change who you are or who you're going to be. You can do this, Ella, and you sure as hell can do it with out Barry Allen."
Ella's throat felt weirdly thick during Oliver's speech. As much as she wanted Barry, Oliver was right. She needed to live life like Barry was the only thing keeping her afloat. She looked down at her hands, playing with the tip of the glove.
"I know you can recognize the signs of losing control now. Back at the lab, when the air got thick and when I touched my face, the electricity zapped me? I saw your breathing techniques."
"I had the gloves..." Ella interjected quietly, because she wanted to believe him. She wanted to do exactly what he said she could do.
"Apply what you did there to calm yourself down with out the gloves. You have to learn to live with out them. Your enemy will realize these are your weakness. Your enemy will use your gloves against you, and that's why you must take them off now. You must fight with me today," Oliver finished his speech and stood up, waiting for Ella to react.
She swallowed, hard. The words he just said were truer than his previous ones. What if something were to happen to her gloves? Ella could hurt so many people.
"Fine," She finally responded, barely a breath out of her lungs. Oliver held out his hand and helped pull her up. With a deep breath, she slowly pulled the purple gloves from her fingers, slowing revealing pale skin with silver running through them.
Ella shoved the gloves in her pockets then and stood there, waiting. Waiting for what, she wasn't entirely sure, but whatever it was caused her heart to pound, and then her breathing to hitch. Whatever it was was going to happen any second no-
"Ella, look at me. Ella." His voice brought her back in a swoop. His hands suddenly covered her cheeks, forcing her to look at Oliver. "Breath. Breath in, one, two, three, four. Hold it for one, two, three, four, and release it, one, two, three, four…" He repeated the breathing techniques a couple times till Ella finally matched them.
His hands had dropped to her shoulders at some point, till they finally fell away. With controlled breathes, she looked out into the field around her, her eyes falling on the hay dummy Oliver made for her to practice on. She internally named him Sammy.
Oliver started off slowly with her. First, he had her aim for Sammy out in the field. Closer and closer they got to it though, and the closer they got the more power Ella felt. In herself and radiating off the dummy.
The situation felt controlled. So far she hadn't missed her mark by much, if she did not hit it, and the more she did it, the more she got the feel of it. The tug and the pull of the power. How much or how little of it she should do.
Though she knew even before the exercises were over, she'd put the gloves back on even if she could stay in control. For she had too much power, too much control. In the end, it was her who needed dampening, not the lightning.
It was Ella who called it a day. The sun was fading and she was exhausted. Hands up, she finally just fell back in the grass and looked up into the sky. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Oliver join her.
She lifted her hands above her face as he began to speak again, "You have done well today, Ella. Control is a lot of fighting, whether you have the upperhand or not. You must always have control and I believe one day you will. One day your power won't scare you as much either."
Ella didn't respond, just watched the lightning streaks trail around her fingers, over and over again.
"There's one good thing about this, Oliver. I found it immediately. I think it'll make up for all I've done wrong one day..." she suddenly spoke, placing a hand on Oliver's arm. Ella sat up as he laid back.
"I can feel it, the storm raging in you." Her hand was soft on his arm and as the calming touch ran up his arm and through his body, Oliver's eyes shut for a moment.
"I don't know what I'm fighting for if I don't feel these things," he admitted, after a moment of silence. Silence overtook them again before he finally said, "Please stop."
And Ella did. Oliver pushed himself up to begin cleaning up his supplies as Ella put back on her gloves.
They were walking back to the car when he thanked her.
It was a long day for Barry. The anticipation and excitement for this unknown and unplanned evening distracted him and he couldn't focus. It took twice as long for him to get anything done. However it was still faster than a person without his superspeed.
Finally the clock struck 5pm and he was home in an instant.
One minute later, he was date ready.
There was just the little issue of needing to meet her at 7pm, not 5:05pm.
He decided to spend the remaining time with a run through the city, trying to clear his head. Trying to convince himself tonight was right.
Barry didn't owe Ella or Fate anything. Faye was completely and utterly his decision. It was his decision to say yes, his decision to take her out for dinner, and his decision to walk her back to her house that night.
And it was Barry's decision not to leave her house that night.
Fate be damned.
