Day 2: Finding the perfect gift.
Summary: Oliver Queen always let his sister buy Christmas presents for everyone. But this year he wants to be the one to choose and buy a gift for a very special person
Oliver Queen had always been an absolute disaster when it came to buy gifts. It didn't matter how well he knew the people he was buying the gift for. He could never think about anything that was really perfect for them. He always went back to safe non personal gifts.
Oliver was particularly bad when it came to Laurel and Tommy. They were the most important people in his life and yet he could never figure out the right gift for them.
Usually he turned to Thea for help. His sister was a genius when it came to gifts.
This year was different thought. He asked Thea for help for Diggle and Felicity, but he wanted to find Laurel's gift alone.
They had got back together in June, shortly after Dahrk's defeat. Things seemed to run smoothly. In those years apart they had grown and they had got to understand each other better. They were both more mature. They were acutely aware of each other's faults and strengths and they knew how to complete each other. There weren't any secrets between them anymore. They were their own person, both independent and with a defined identity. They were two grown ups that had chosen to be together and were determined to make things work.
It was the 23th of December and Oliver still hadn't found the right gift. He had visited all the shops in the city and he had come up empty handed. He was starting to regret his decision of not involving Thea. Instead of tasking his sister with buying the present he could simply have listened to some advice and then go and buy it himself. But he had decided to do it completely alone, he wanted this gift to be really special, and now he was facing the very real possibility of not finding anything. He would never be able to look Laurel in the eyes anymore if he turned up at Christmas without a present.
Out of desperation he decided to take another walk in the city, hoping that something would catch his attention.
Oliver was walking down a little alley close to the docks when he saw a jewelery he hadn't noticed the first time he went there. It was a tiny shop, pressed between a coffee shop and a book store. He stopped in front of the window to take a look. And he found himself staring at the perfect gift. He pushed open the door of the shop and walked in. Behind the counter there was a nice old woman that welcomed him with a warm smile.
- What can I do for you dear? –
Oliver pointed at the window.
- I was looking for the perfect gift for my girlfriend and I was desperate, I was sure I wouldn't find it. – He shared. – But then I saw that necklace and it's just perfect…-
The old woman smiled and went to retrieve it.
- Here you go, dear. – She said giving it to him.
Oliver took it and stared at it for a while. It really was perfect.
The necklace was a simple rubber lace with a perfectly round coin attached. On one side of the coin there was a canary, which was what had drawn his attention in the first place. Giving her a necklace with a canary would show Laurel that despite his first negative reaction at her decision of becoming the Black Canary he was now fully on board. And he was very proud of the amazing fighter she had become and deeply regretted his refusal to train her.
But what really made the gift absolutely perfect was the incision on the other side of the coin: an arrow. The Green Arrow and the Black Canary together in the streets and together in a coin around Laurel's neck, this way somehow she would always have a part of him with her.
Oliver left the shop happy and satisfied. Next year he would go back at asking Thea to buy all the gift, but this years with the help of sheer luck he'd found the perfect one on his own. Sometimes Christmas Miracles really happened.