How Oliver Queen had ended up in Central City sitting in a Karaoke bar listening to a drunk Diggle, Barry Allen and Roy do a surprisingly impressive rendition of 'Uptown Funk' was beyond him. He was torn between laughing his ass off and grumbling that they really shouldn't have left his city unguarded for a weekend for this.
But then out of the corner of his eye he saw Felicity rise from her chair on the other side of the table to give the guys a standing ovation while laughing so hard she was crying.
That's how he had ended up here.
The day before Barry had called them at the Foundry to beg Team Arrow to come visit for a last minute surprise party for Caitlin's birthday. At first he had refused, solely because he didn't want to leave Starling City abandoned for a few days, despite the lack of activity over the previous month. But then Felicity had given him the puppy dog eyes and pinched Roy in the side until he joined in. And when Roy was sporting the puppy eyes he knew that Thea wasn't far behind.
So he had caved, because even though he still wasn't a huge fan of Barry's he did like Caitlin. And according to Barry she was having a pretty hard time lately because her dead, not really dead metahuman ex-fiance was out of town again and she was planing on spending her birthday alone.
They had shut down the Foundry for the weekend, loaded up the truck with all of Team Arrow, even a reluctant Laurel and had headed to Central City. Oliver immediately regretted his decision when he had gotten to the bar and realized that Barry had rented out a Karaoke bar for the night and that anyone in attendance was expected to sing a song of the birthday girl's choosing.
But Caitlin was pretty happy with the situation. Which could have a lot to do with her inhaling her fifth cranberry and vodka, but he wasn't judging. He was actually hoping that she would get too hammered to remember that she hadn't forced him to get on the stage.
He smiled when he came out of the bathroom and Felicity and Thea were on stage arm in arm, belting out some old Kelly Clarkson song about their life sucking and pulling at each other. They were putting on quite the show and his team was all yelling and cheering for them at the front of the stage, and Caitlin was slam dancing with Cisco, a drink in both of their hands.
He returned to his seat just as the girls finished up on stage and bounced over to him drunkenly, Caitlin skipping along with them. Thea plopped down into his lap and wrapped her arms around his shoulders.
"Oh Ollie, you are not nearly drunk enough for this to be fun. But, my dear brother it is time for you to do your penance." Thea slurred to him, her smile bigger than he had seen on her face in ages. He would have laughed if he wasn't a bit terrified. He kind of wished he was a little drunk for this too.
He looked away from his swaying sister and over to Caitlin with wide eyes. "Come on, Snow, you know you would mush rather hear Roy beat box again. He is so much better than me at this kind of thing."
"Ooooh no, Queen. This is allll you." She announced as her and Felicity swayed together to music that no one else could hear. "Besides, besides, you know," She started to lose her train of thought as Felicity started to play with her hair and giggle in her ear. "Barry!" She said loudly, so loudly that Felicity squeaked and stopped braiding her hair "Barry told me that he has to beat you at something. And we all know that he sings like a glee kid or something. It's really not fair. So he thinks this is his chance. I owed to him. Or, owed that to him. Owe him that. One of the above, you get what I'm saying." She spouted off confusingly, and then looked at Oliver with a smile. "Now, I need you to get up there and sing Carry on My Wayward Son. I know you know it, because Felicity told me you like that supernatural show with those dudes in the flannel." She finished triumphantly and Oliver turned his gaze to Felicity who had suddenly become very fascinated by the hem of her skirt.
Oliver walked to the stage wondering what exactly he had done wrong in his life to end up here. Sure he had killed people, but he was kind of like a ninja and ninja's killed people and no one made them sing for it. Okay so maybe he was a little more drunk than he thought.
That was actually a good thing.
He climbed onto the stage and glared down at his team and the Flash crew as they all waited breathlessly for him to screw up so they could laugh. The only person not laughing was Thea, and that's because Thea was the only person still alive that knew he wasn't actually bad at this.
He rolled his eyes and pressed play on the little machine off to the side of the stage and grabbed the mic.
"Once I rose above the noise and confusion
Just to get a glimpse beyond this illusion
I was soaring ever higher, but I flew too high
Though my eyes could see I still was a blind man
Though my mind could think I still was a mad man
I hear the voices when I'm dreaming,
I can hear them say"
He would have laughed if he was a smaller person. And yet he was kind of laughing at the stunned look on everyone but Thea's face. And well, Barry didn't really look stunned, more like green. That seemed ironic.
Maybe he could learn to like this.
"Carry on my wayward son,
There'll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don't you cry no more
Masquerading as a man with a reason
My charade is the event of the season
And if I claim to be a wise man,
Well, it surely means that I don't know"
Yeah, okay so he was showing off a little. But Felicity was too drunk to hide the way he was affecting her and Barry looked like he wanted to turn back time (again) and it was making him really happy that he had agreed to this little trip.
"On a stormy sea of moving emotion
Tossed about, I'm like a ship on the ocean
I set a course for winds of fortune,
But I hear the voices say"
Finally Thea had gotten Laurel and Roy to dance around with her, and they had all produced lighters from some unknown source and were waving them around as they danced in a circle around the Flash team.
"Carry on my wayward son
There'll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don't you cry no more no!
Carry on,
You will always remember
Carry on,
Nothing equals the splendor
Now your life's no longer empty
Surely heaven waits for you
Carry on my wayward son
There'll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don't you cry,
Don't you cry no more,
No more!"
Oliver finished with an over exaggerated air guitar and literally dropped the mic as he jumped off stage. Thea, being the ever indulging little sister came running up to him and hugged him.
"Oh, Mr. Queen, can I have your autograph?" She asked, batting her lashes and biting her lip to hold in a giggle. Oliver laughed as she bounced away from him to grab Caitlin for another round of some poppy number and he returned to his seat.
Just as Thea and Caitlin made it back up to the stage the door to the bar opened. Caitlin looked up from the song listings and gasped so hard she gave herself the hiccups.
"Ronnie!" She yelled, running from the stage, losing a shoe and launched herself at the smiling man standing by the door.
Felicity came to join him at his table, sitting a beer in front of him and taking a sip of her red wine. Behind them, Thea had dragged Cisco on stage and they started in on her 'lady jam' as she introduced it and Felicity hmmed as she watched Caitlin drag Ronnie to the dance floor.
"So, that's the ex-fiance that's not really an ex?" She asked to no one in particular.
Oliver shrugged and answered "I guess so. I guess he's the not so ex tonight." He offered, and pointed to the way Caitlin's leg was half wrapped around Ronnie's thighs as they swayed to the super fast song Thea and Cisco were destroying.
"Guess not." Felicity said around a laugh. "You know, you guys kind of look alike." She said, squinting as she took in the metahuman.
Oliver huffed out a laugh around his bottle "You think?" He asked and smiled when she nodded. "Huh, guess we just have one of those faces."
