Surprise Visit

Rating: T
Disclaimer: copywrite, DC
Notes: Isn't Q just the cutest lil stalker ever? On a side note, I don't actually know Ollie's grandmother's maiden name, I just made one up. And by the way, thanks for the pleasant reviews. I have quite a bit of fondness for Q, and am glad to know that others do as well. He deserves all the love he can get.

Oliver Queen's hand was barely hovering over the keypad when his door's motion sensor triggered, opening up the brightly lit interior of his personal quarters on the Watchtower. Oliver hesitated for a moment before slowly retracting his hand, fingers curling into loose fists at his side as he took just enough steps to bring him into the room and allow the door to slide shut behind him. His expression warred between equal parts confusion, relief and irritation, before finally settling firmly upon irritation.

His room should have been safely locked and secured, the lights should have been turned off, and perhaps most importantly, the Question shouldn't have been sitting casually at the Green Arrow's computer desk as if he had every right to be there.

"How did you get in here?"

Question tilted his head minutely towards Green Arrow's direction, but remained hunched over whatever he was fiddling with on a cleared section of tabletop. "Grandmother's maiden name. 72967539."

"That's-"

"-too simple. Should consider changing to something more secure in the near future."

Oliver snapped his mouth shut, struggling to overcome the swell of unreality this conversation was threatening to drown him in. "Well, the computer told me it had a security rating of seven."

"Huhm. Will have to investigate password policies later."

"That's great and all, but- is that my shoe?" Oliver leaped forward, snatching the footwear out of a noticeably startled Question's hands. It was a rather plain white tennis shoe, wholly unremarkable except for its distinct lack of shoestring. "What did you do with my shoestring? Question?"

The faceless man laid a matching white shoelace on the table before him, absently tapping the capped end with a gloved finger. Oliver followed the movement with his eyes, resisting the urge to grab up the small, ropey object. "Aglets - the plastic tips at end of shoelaces. Their true purpose is sinister, and must be removed."

This was said as mater-of-factly as 'the sky in blue', 'two plus two is four' or 'girl scout cookies cause cancer'.

"So, what? You break into my quarters just to cut off the ends of my shoestrings?"

"No." Question sounded genuinely insulted. Turning back to the table, he picked up a straight blade box cutter Oliver hadn't previously noticed, and began to meticulously cut a thin line along one of the small plastic aglets on the white shoelace. "Removing, not defacing property."

"Oh, how terribly ignorant of me." Oliver drawled, sarcasm dripping thick. "You're removing the ends of my shoestrings. And when exactly were you going to tell me all about this?"

"Wasn't."

The tennis shoe warped under Oliver's suddenly clenching fist.

"Roster schedule had you listed as out on mission for an approximate two hours, which should have been more then enough time for me to finish." The slit was complete. Question set aside the box cutter, and started to carefully peal back the glued plastic cover from the cloth weave. "But, it seems that I have... underestimated the amount of laced footwear within your possession."

Oliver shot a quick glance over at his opened closet, taking note of the messy pile of shoes on the floor and the general chaos of the rest of the items within it, then back at the Question seated in his swivel chair in front of his computer desk. "Question... how many of my shoes have you done this to?"

"This is the last one."

"You-!"

Question reached into one of the many pockets within his trenchcoat, pulling out a tiny rubber band, and looping it tightly around the now aglet-free end of the shoelace. He dropped the plastic leftovers in an opposite pocket, before starting the same treatment on the aglet still left.

"Question, you can't... People just don't break into other people's places, destroy their property, and then act like it's okay!"

Question paused, then turned his blank face to stare directly at Oliver. "Aglets are a danger and must be removed for safety, Green Arrow."

Something in Question's tone of voice stopped the further complaints on the tip of Oliver's tongue. Maybe it was the sincerity, or the quiet conviction, but it slowly began to dawn on Oliver that the man sitting in front of him believed the words he was saying, utterly.

"You actually believe aglets are dangerous." Oliver heard himself say, faintly.

Question nodded, once, then turned back to the half-finished alget removal. "And you would too, if you bothered to ask the right questions."

You could have at least asked first, was what Oliver wanted to say, but Oliver knew, as most likely the Question knew, that would have been a fruitless endeavor. Oliver would have scoffed at any warning about a 'sinister aglet threat', just as his mind was still scoffing at the 'sinister aglet threat', and nothing would have come from it. While Question truly believed aglets were somehow dangerous, and was following the only logical course of action available within his mind to remove that danger from Oliver's life.

...to help keep a fellow Leaguer safe! Is that so wrong? Oliver's own words from a few weeks past sounded in his head, and Oliver thought back, firmly, no, it isn't.

And so Oliver handed over the shoe at Question's request without protest, and watched as the Question relaced his shoe with swift, practiced motions. He agreed to change his password at Question's continual urging and said goodbye without the animosity one might expect towards someone who had rummaged through his personal affects without any signs of remorse. And when Question was gone, Oliver stared at the haphazard pile of shoes with their rubber banded shoelaces, and thought about how Question was quite possibly not sane.

He wasn't quite sure how that was suppose to make him feel.