Chapter Two

"Mom! I'm eighteen! You cannot possibly ground me!"

"Yes, you are eighteen, clearly still a child and I can and I will ground you" Moria Queen huffed and crossed her arms in a defense. She knew she was coming off a bit harsh but parenting requires a level of stubbornness.

"Ollie! I hate you" Thea shrieked and closed her door with a loud thud.

Oliver could only give a loud chuckle.

~.~

Few Hours ago…

It wasn't as if he didn't enjoy the previous night. It was just plainly difficult to muster up an evil look to the Allen kid and give out a charming smile towards his Felicity at the same time.

With every joke Barry cracked, Oliver wanted nothing more than to use the Arrow voice and command him to leave immediately.But Oliver knew that wouldn't be fair. As much he hated the reason behind her laughs, he loved the way her eyes glimmered under the false lights, the way her nose quirked up, the way her cheeks glowed with each laugh.

And so he was patient.

As patient as he could be, that is.

It took him all together fifteen minutes to ditch the party and call for Felicity, to help him to hack in to the archives of SCPD's system. He could hear the groan in her voice, but he pushed aside the tiny stab of guilt and quirked up to see her by his side in an instant. He couldn't have goaded more because Digg was there, just around the corner of their lookout with a shimmer of knowing look.

"Felicity, thanks. " He said, his eyes too intense when her vision trailed towards his lips. His fingers trailed on her elbow, a bit longer than the usual and Felicity seemed to have forgotten that her winning debate with Allen was duly interrupted by a job that could have been done the next day.

"Sure, no problem. You know that I'm always available when you need me." She said and her breath faltered once more when she found his eyes almost half lidded. A much needed cough from Digg made her to jerk away from the thoughts that seemed a little too inappropriate and she fumbled once more before taking leave for the night.

"Not a word" Oliver said lifting his finger up when he saw Digg's brow raised in an unvoiced question.

His guard was lowered a bit more than his liking and he needed a night drive on his racer, to clear off his mind, before he could do something irrecoverably stupid, maybe, like going over to Felicity's and kissing her senseless.

He could feel the embrace of cool air, the welcoming beam of the benevolent moon and the jumbling thoughts finally settled down. He looked around and realized that he was in to the deeper parts of the Glades. Before he could turn around in the main street, he saw a familiar flash of red hood under the ribbon of street light.

Oliver knew he shouldn't, but it was always a fun to mess with Thea. He knew Roy Harper was a good kid and had a righteous heart, but his brotherly protective streak at times do hover on him and hence the occasional growl towards the kid.

He remembered the smug look she had when he was almost hissing under his breath in the party on seeing the low cut backless dress she had made Felicity to wear. He was used to Felicity's usual cute short skirts with printed flowers and rainbows, but not anything more. What Thea did was a bit overboard and so it was Oliver's turn to take things to the next level of sibling rivalry.

He got off his bike and walked towards Roy. He was in a deep conversation with a pixie haircut girl and Thea.

"Hey" Oliver greeted and the trios visibly jumped.

"Ollie, what are you doing here?" Thea asked.

"My questions exactly" he said, his look serene and pointed.

"We were just..hanging out" Thea breathed out a lie.

"At 1 AM?"

"Uh-hm" She nodded and Roy had his lips straightened out in a thin line.

"Thea…the truth?" Oliver pressed further. He was no fool, he could see that the teenagers were in the middle of planning on how to catch his alter ego.

"Uh, Roy was just teaching Thea how to ride a bike" The shorter girl said and Thea frantically nodded. Oliver's gaze shifted to the killer bike nearby, in a worn out condition, beyond its salvageable form.

A shard of glint crawled in to his eyes and Thea mustered up her puppy look that had melted their father's heart million times. Her eyes grew large, her lips formed a definable pout that could pull enough heart strings and she let out a little whimper that would mellow down anyone.

It was a good thing that Oliver was unaffected.

It didn't take him long to drop in the fact to their mother almost by mistake in the middle of a casual conversation, that Thea was trying to get back in streets without her license.

"Oops" He had said when Moria Queen had almost flipped in fury about Thea's wild behavior. He did see the look of pure evil in his sister's narrowed eyes before she closed her door.

And Oliver knew that not even his arrow could save him from the plan she was gonna scheme in her now free time.

~.~.~.~

Word count – 912

Thanks for the reviews, the follows and the favorites : )

Made my day.