Title: Whisper Words of Wisdom
Words: 2327
Pairings: Laurel/Oliver, Helena/Slade, Helena/Laurel brotp, Slade/Oliver brotp
Genre: Angst/Romance
Status: Done

Summary: Helena forgets dinner with Slade. Again. And to make it up, she goes to Oliver to learn to cook and hijinks ensue.

"Helena!" Slade shouted from the bottom of the stairs. He sat at dinner for an hour and she hadn't shown. "Helena! What the hell is going on?" He asked.

Helena rushed out of the bedroom and saw Slade, "Shit," She cursed, blushed, and ran down the stairs. "I forgot about dinner."

"This is the fourth time, Helena. If you didn't want dinner, that's fine," He gruffed as he moved past her without so much as a look to her. "Just don't tell me that you're coming when you won't." He finished as he went to the kitchen and made himself some dinner.

Helena went to him. "I promise I'm gonna make it up to you," She mewed.

"I'm not interested in making up, Helena. You have shown your true colors. Just leave." He said as he looked down at the counter.

"Slade, I-" She started.

He shook his head and stood his ground, "Just leave," He shouted.

"Hrmph," She pouted. It was clear Slade was pissed and really he had a right to be, but throwing her out? That was low. Especially for Slade. That was a cowardly move.

She'd just have to show him she wasn't nearly as cowardly as he was. And that meant making dinner for him, since she'd skipped out, unwittingly, on the last four dinners they were supposed to have together.

There was only one problem in this plan.

She didn't know how to cook. And she didn't really know anyone who knew how to cook. Except Oliver Queen.

She drove Slade's expensive Lamborghini to the Queen Mansion and smiled as she saw that Oliver's car was there. She rang the bell and was greeted by the goodnatured Raisa. "Hi," She greeted. "I'm here to see Oliver."

Raisa stepped aside and showed her. "One minute. I get him for you,"

"Spasibo," Helena replied and Raisa gave her that smile, like man, I remember why I liked you, and scurried off to get Oliver. She smiled when she saw Oliver come down. "Hey, stranger." She said in voice that was not what you would give a stranger.

"Helena," He beamed as he took her into a hug. "How's life?" He asked.

She nodded. "Good, except, I had a fight with Slade."

"What'd he do this time? I swear to god, if he's not treating you right, Laurel will have my ass if I don't kick him where it hurts," He said, ready to get a coat and go show Slade some pain.

She chuckled. "Actually this time, it's my fault," She told him, resting her hands on his, making sure he put the coat down. "I missed dinner." She said. He looked at her and she gasped. "Four times," She screwed up her face and he reluctantly smiled a little.

"How do you forget dinner, four times?" He asked, amused.

She shrugged her shoulders. "My investors called. And then I had to fight crime with Laurel. And then I was shopping. And today, I just forgot we had plans. Till he came home."

"So what do you need my help with?" He asked.

She twiddled her fingers and looked up at him, still waiting. "I need you to teach me how to cook. Something. Because I don't cook." She told him.

He laughed. "It's alright, neither does Laurel." He wished that was a funnier joke, but Laurel was terrible in the kitchen. She was brilliant at a multitude of things, but she had a housekeeper for her apartment and ate out for a reason.

He took her to the kitchen and got out a big cookbook full of recipes and looked to her, "What does the lady want to cook for Slade?" He asked her.

She pushed him over gently and flicked through the pages, entranced by the idea of cooking all of the food. She didn't want something that would be too hard to do on her own though and she wanted something Slade would love. Which meant things that they couldn't get on the island.

She flipped to a seared steak and pointed to it. "That one. Definitely that one. With other things of course, but that." She said, excited and he could tell that this was definitely the girl that he dated, all excited by the prospect of something new.

He took out some pans and looked through the meat they had on hand, thankfully they had a couple of steaks. He got a couple out and put one in front of her.

She looked weirded out by the steak, but he just chuckled. "The first thing we're gonna do is wait for the steaks to come up to room temperature. While we do that, we're gonna make sure the pan is up to 500 degrees okay?" He asked

"Okay, how do we do that?" She asked.

He simply laughed. Helena and Laurel really took clueless in the kitchen seriously. He put it in the oven. "Now you." He said.

She put it in tenderly and he nodded. She squealed.

Cooking went like this for awhile. They learned to sear steak and make vegetables and they were on potatoes and laughing and enjoying themselves so much, with a bottle of wine shared between them that they didn't hear the door open.

Laurel saw Helena in the Queen Mansion kitchen, with Oliver behind her, measuring things carefully and he had her hand in hers, trust me to help you kind of thing. Helena giggled and her eyes narrowed. They were having such a good time and the only time he ever had that much fun with Helena was when they were dating. "What the hell, Ollie? You could have waited until I wasn't coming home?" Laurel said.

"This isn't what it looks like," Oliver said, quickly and he was sure she hated that. It was never what it looked like, but the fact of the matter was that it did look pretty suspicious.

Helena looked sad in the background. "You told me you changed." Laurel said, turning to leave and he held her wrist.

"Please," Oliver pleaded as he touched her beautiful face. "I was just helping Helena learn how to cook. She and Slade got into an argument and she came over sad and needing my help and I knew you would hate it if I turned my back on her. Please Laurel, please believe me."

She looked at his hand on her wrist and looked to Helena. "What say you?" She asked Helena.

Helena nodded to her. "I forgot Slade and I had dinner plans. And he was upset. And I wanted to show him that he's important. He knows I don't cook. So I thought it might be the charm he needed. I don't know anyone who cooks."

"Is Slade coming over here?" She asked as she looked to the food and then looked back to Oliver.

Oliver looked to Helena and shrugged. That actually wouldn't be a terrible idea. Slade seeing how much Helena had actually done might actually win him over. "You know that's not a half bad idea," He said to her. "You okay?"

She shook her head. "No, I just accused you and my best friend of betraying me. I have some things I need to work out." She said, pushing her hair back.

"Shush," He soothed and enveloped her in his arms. "You've earned the right to be suspicious of me. It wouldn't have been the first time I did something incredibly stupid under your nose," He would always feel guilty for the way he treated her in the past, but he was turning over a new leaf.

Helena faux gagged. "Come on, guys, really. We have food. And you're about to have guests."

"Why do we like her?" Laurel asked Oliver with a smile and gave him a kiss.

He shook his head and laughed. "I don't know. You're the one who insists that we keep her." He said as he took her to the next room so that he could call Slade while she sat in a chair with her legs over the arm like the adorable dork she was. "Yeah, man. Wanted to invite you to dinner. Since Helena missed yours. No, Laurel told me. Come on, I've got food and you have to still be hungry. Perfect. We'll see you in an hour."

"So he's coming in an hour? What are we gonna do with the food you just made to practice with her?" Laurel asked.

Oliver thought about it and then he remembered that Walter and Moira were probably still in the house. "Let's feed the others first," He told her as he kissed her nose.

"You're a good boy, not wasting food." She said and she wiggled her nose. It was one of the things she'd always tried to break him of. Because she wasn't from his rich family and having a meat refrigerator and so giving into her request that he not just throw food out was reasonable.

Helena and Oliver cooked while Laurel drank a glass of wine and they all laughed and joked in the kitchen. It was funny to be so domestic when if you had told him five years ago that'd he'd have two women in the kitchen and he'd be teaching one how to cook, he'd have told you that you were crazy.

"Door for you, Mr. Queen. It's a Mr. Wilson." Raisa came in and smiled at him.

He held her shoulders and kissed her cheek, "Thank you, Raisa, thank you so much," He said as he moved to go get Slade.

Laurel smiled to Helena, "Come on, Ollie's gonna get him in the dining room, we can go the other way." She whispered and Helena held the biggest smile on her face as they went the other way.

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Helena asked her.

Laurel put her finger over her lips and implored her to hush. "Come on," She said as she listened at the door.

"So where is the dear Miss Lance? I thought she told you about the incident with Helena?" Slade asked and Laurel giggled on the other side and Helena shushed her now.

Oliver nodded to him, "Laurel did tell me about the trouble you've been having with Helena. She'll be with us in a minute, she's just putting everything on plates."

"She didn't cook the food, did she?" Slade asked, apprehensive to have Laurel's cooking in his mouth. Her suck was renowned.

He laughed a little nervously, "No, we actually had a guest cook. I think you're gonna like it. Why don't you go wash up and food will be here in just a minute."

Slade side eyed Oliver. Something wasn't right. Something was off. "Something's going on Queen. And I will find out," He told Oliver.

Oliver promised that he wasn't the case. "I'd tell you if something was going on, Slade. You're one of my friends. I'd never keep anything from you."

"I know the way you treat your friends, Queen. I'm not impressed," He said as he turned his back to go to the restroom. Oliver let the girls in and smiled as they put the food on the table. "Now, Helena, go that way," Oliver told her.

"Why?" She asked.

Laurel smiled. "The big reveal, come in the regular door in just a minute. He'll be out in about 30 seconds." She said, shoving Helena through the door to the kitchen.

Slade smiled as he came in and saw Laurel and Oliver standing there like giddy idiots and he looked at the table. "I'm impressed, Queen. It looks fantastic," He said as he sat a the table and saw an extra setting. "Expecting another guest?" He asked.

"Actually," Laurel told him, "Yes. We invited the chef to come enjoy the meal with us," She winked to Oliver.

Slade put down his silverware and looked at the both of them. "And who is this mystery chef?" He asked.

"Me," Helena said as she leaned in the doorway, boobs out, and smiling to him with the biggest grin. She looked like the picture of happiness and perfection.

The look on Slade's face was priceless. "Darling?" He said as he moved away from the table and over to his girlfriend. "You made this?" He asked.

She grinned like the cat who ate the canary. "Yep, I did. Because I love you. I'm sorry I didn't make to dinner all of those times."

"You cooked for me?" He asked, starting to smile.

She shrugged. "Technically, I cooked for all of us. You know the two matchmakers too." She said, nodding to the Oliver and Laurel, the latter of who was sat on the former's lap.

"Ya know, it's only because we love you," Laurel told them as she looked away from Oliver, but never took her arms away from his neck.

Oliver smiled to his girl as he rubbed his head against her neck. "Yeah, we need to keep you two together. We need couple friends." He smiled to them.

"I don't know how I feel about that, but let's eat. This is a bountiful feast that Helena has so graciously prepared for us and I want to savor it." Slade said as he smiled to Helena. "You have made me proud, darling." He told her with the sincerest of tones.

"Am I forgiven?" She asked him.

He kissed her and smiled to her, genuine and free. "You most certainly are,"

A dinner party, Slade hadn't thought it would be so satisfying, but it was one of the first times he was surprised in a while and he got to sit there and laugh with his girl and his best friend and his girl.

"Happy ending all around," Laurel said, giddy that her friend was happy and that they had their friends back together. "So now we eat," She said as she dug in and everyone else followed suit.