Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize is in any way shape or form owned by me. The idea is mine. Go my awesome brain! Go the brains at DC and the CW as well. Those brains actually belong to people who get paid to come up with this stuff. I don't. DON'T SUE ME!
As it turned out, Team Arrow operated with a fairly decent set of ground rules. You wouldn't think so given the fact that by definition they defied the law (the more country wide rules), but they did use them. Lance appreciated that fact.
Quentin Lance tended to like laws. As a cop, you could probably say that love of rules was essentially his life. The law was steady, the law was definite, and the law was unchanging. Being in a position to uphold those laws was what Lance had completely dedicated himself to. Having a group outside the law who still operated with rules made their existence an easier pill to swallow.
Unfortunately, those rules weren't the kind that go written down and passed around upon initiation in to the team. There was no how-to manual for aiding vigilantism, and even if there was one Lance was pretty sure he wouldn't own one. At least, not until it was too late for it to be helpful. These rules were definitely more learn-as-you-go.
Some of the rules were a bit more basic. The first one Lance really learned was that as of Oliver's return, killing was a major no-go. As a policeman who preferred to keep homicide minimal, this rule was one he appreciated. Of course, this rule had a few notable exceptions. Imminent death of personal selves and innocent third parties at the hands of equally homicidal criminal maniacs being one of them. That had been evidenced with the dead body of the Count crumpled and reduced to pin cushion status after attempting to hold Felicity Smoak hostage.
The next rule he learned was on a stormy night in January. He had been in the area of Thea Queen's loft on a cursory police patrol when some great weather god had decided to unleash a mega-sized bucket loud of water on them. He had been doing that more often lately. His patrols when he did them brought him in to the neighborhood of Thea's Loft and Felicity Smoak's townhouse. Keeping his own extra watch.
Thea had let him in to her loft to dry off holding a finger over her lips. "You can come in and dry off," she said quietly. "Just be quiet okay? Ollie's actually asleep so this time has now been deemed sacred."
Lance nodded and walked in, pulling off his soaked jacket and hanging it on a coat rack near the door. A quick glance confirmed that Oliver was indeed sleeping on the couch. Lance frowned, even sleeping Oliver Queen had changed. Oliver had passed out on Lance's couch often enough that Quentin knew he was the kind of sleeper who spread out. At least, he used to be. Now Oliver slept flat on his back in a flat line with his arms crossed over his chest.
Felicity Smoak looked up from the laptop she was tapping at mutedly and gave him a smile and a small wave. She lifted up a mug of coffee and gestured towards the kitchen to indicate the source of the hot beverage. Lance nodded his thanks and made his way in that direction, pouring himself a mug of black coffee and taking a place leaning against the wall near the window.
Rain poured passed the window in torrents and Oliver twitched slightly before resettling. Felicity and Thea both paused and watched carefully as Oliver's hands clenched against his arms and then loosened. The rain increased, reaching the volume of a dull roar.
Oliver tensed and jerked with each new noise. A string of low muttering came from him before he flipped to his side, burying his head against the couch cushion. His hands seized around the edges of the couch and Lance moved forward to wake him up. No one should have to go through a prolonged nightmare when they didn't have to.
Felicity beat him to it though, stepping in front of him. "No don't," she said. "Don't wake him up." She sat on the edge of the couch near Oliver's head and reached out a tentative hand, running it lightly over his head.
Oliver jerked a bit at the contact but slowly relaxed as Felicity's hand continued tracing random patterns over his neck and shoulders. Eventually he relaxed, the lines of tension falling away as he eased against her. As the thunder ceased Oliver's head rolled gradually in to her lap. One of his arms lay over her legs while the other tucked a little way underneath her.
Lightning flashed and Oliver bolted upright, still half asleep. "Felicity?" he asked tiredly, acknowledging where he was with dull eyes.
"I'm right here," she said quietly. "Your safe and we're al fine." She tugged lightly on his shoulder and Oliver let himself be tugged down back in to her lap. "Go back to sleep," she soothed.
Oliver turned his head and pressed a small kiss against her knee. "Love you," he said. Then he drifted back to sleep, curling further in to felicity's side as the storm went on.
Felicity simply left one hand resting against his back as Oliver drifted back to sleep while her other hand typed away at her computer. "I know," she said quietly.
That was when Lance realized one major rule for Team Arrow. Never ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever wakeup Oliver when he is sleeping. It will only end one of two ways. Either Oliver could wake up and choke the person doing the waking, or he could just end up sleep deprived which could result in death. If at all possible, always get the kid back to freaking sleep.
The next rule was Felicity's and one that she was never shy about vocalizing. Do. Not. Touch. The. Computers. EVER.
If you do then somebody had better be dying and that person should probably be Felicity if someone else was close to one of her computers. And if that was the case then it would probably be good if everyone was very well clear of Oliver because he would be on a deathly warpath approaching near Mongol proportions against the person who had hurt her. Lance had only ever seen it happen once and the experience had been one that terrified him more than anything else he had ever witnessed.
If Felicity was in fact perfectly healthy, then the rule still stood that touching the tech was by Team Arrow standards completely illegal. They had to have their own standard of legality because the standard one was clearly one they were choosing to ignore.
Oliver and Diggle had both been sitting at the monitors clicking hopefully and occasionally prodding the keyboard as they tried to access a file while Felicity had arrived after sitting in rush hour traffic. "Back away from the technology," she commanded, jabbing a finger at both of them. She stepped forwards between them. Diggle move immediately while Felicity placed a hand against Oliver's chest to push him back. "I love you both. Clearly in different ways for different reasons but the two of you together form the literal bane of technology."
She had sat down at her computers and her fingers began flying over the keys with quick taps. "Oh my poor baby," Felicity said quietly. Lance caught the confused gazes Diggle and Oiver exchanged. "What did the scary big muscly guys do to you? I'll fix you, don't worry."
Lance saw Oliver shake his head slightly. He placed a hand on her shoulder and dropped his head to place a kiss on the crown of her head. "Call us back over when you have the location."
Felicity had nodded absently and shooed them away.
Diggle had certain rules to contribute as well. The main one was to never let any of the time go in to any situation without back up. This philosophy occasionally jived with Oliver's apparent policy of lying through his teeth if it would keep the other team members safe.
"Don't even try to tell me I can't come to back you up Oliver," Diggle had demanded. Damian Dahrk was closing in on all of them and Oliver had been getting ready to face him, trying to charge out like a gladiator walking in to a ring to do battle alone. Diggle had grabbed an extra gun and two spare clips of ammunition before moving after him. "Never let a brother go in to battle alone."
"Neither one of you is going anywhere without these," Felicity proclaimed, stepping towards both of them and holding out two sets of miniature electronic devices. "Tracking and ear pieces. I may not be able to go with you but I will be damned if I let either of you go against Dahrk without me for backup."
Lance could see Oliver's jaw whined tighter as he looked at Felicity. "I want you out of here," he said seriously. "Dahrk has resources and he definitely knows where this is. He'll come for you, and I can't let that happen."
"This is my choice Oliver," Felicity said in a manor that suggested they had already had this conversation some time Lance hadn't been around to hear it. "My life. I'm staying."
Oliver had sighed but nodded and looked over his shoulder to Thea and Laurel. "If Digg is with me then you two are sticking together. Watch each other's backs."
"Always," Thea agreed as Laurel nodded.
Those three were the major rules. Don't touch Felicity's computers, always accept the fact that you will have back up, never try to wake Oliver when he's sleeping, and if at all possible avoid homicide. Those rules were the enforced and unchanging ones.
The smaller rules were a bit more of a bitch to try to keep track off.
One day he heard Oliver shout across the top floor of Palmer Technologies saying, "I don't care if you think this place needs a name Felicity! We are not calling it the Arrow Cave 2.0 or the Lair. New rule." Frankly Lance didn't think that particular rule was ever actually enforced past a grumpy face and some griping from Oliver that Felicity always managed to quickly sooth away with a kiss or a babble.
Rules were generally made to be broken anyway.
"Can we make it a mutual rule between all of us that we never speak of this?" Caitlin Snow asked after the entire back up crew for the Flash came to Starling City. The trip had involved a very strange karaoke night and a whole lot of alcohol. Lance wasn't sure his ear drums would ever recover from some of the more horrible attempts at singing.
The most bizarre thing Lance had heard was a duet between Barry Allen and Malcolm Merlyn. What was worse was that as far as musical performance went, the two of them together hadn't sounded half bad. Of course, the amount of alcohol consumed by all parties (besides the Lances and Oliver weirdly enough) combined with several sets of super powers and some highly developed skill sets meant that some things could have ended up stranger.
"I could be okay with that," Oliver said. "Is that good with you?" he asked, looking own to Felicity who nodded. "Very okay with it," she answered.
Barry nodded as well, for once actually nursing a hangover thanks to an experimental alcoholic mix Caitlin and Cisco had developed. "All right," he said. "It is now an official rule. No mentioning this night ever."
That rule was brought in to action periodically. When a night had seriously sucked or gone totally absurd, the people involved were allowed to place a taboo on ever mentioning it again. As rules went, Lance thought that this was a pretty good one.
The next rule Lance learned was Thea's, and he learned it standing once again by the huge windows in Thea's loft. Felicity sat on a tell stool at the kitchen counter holding a mirror as Thea curled her hair. "You know you didn't have to do my hair and make up Thea," Felicity told her.
"Yeah I did," Thea said. "It's nice to have girl time. Besides, sister-ship rules state that I always get to do your hair and makeup."
"I'm not your sister yet Thea," Felicity reminded her with a little smile.
Thea shook her off. "Okay so I'm jumping the title gun by like, three hours. Big deal. Now, hold still so I don't burn you with this very hot and most probably lethal in some way hair curler."
Felicity shrugged a little bit. "Well, I'm sure you could probably make it lethal if you felt like it. That said I really hope you never do feel like it considering you are holding the iron you know, right next to my head. And I am going to be your sister in law so if you do feel the inclination it would have been great if you had told me like a year ago..."
"Breath Felicity," Thea reminded. "And I promise that I feel absolutely zero compulsion to kill you with or without a hair curler." She lowered the object just the same and then pulled Felicity to her feet. "Now go put on your pretty white dress with the dark green sash that made Ollie go weirdly mushy and possessive while I finish up my own hair."
A knock sounded on the door as Felicity moved to comply and Thea put on a new cote of lipstick. She spun immediately and gestured to Lance. "Get the door and shove my brother out of it and back to Diggle at the car. Groom is not allowed to see the bride before the wedding. Marriage rule."
Lance sighed. "Why exactly does it have to be my job to keep your brother away from his fiancé?" Lance wasn't necessarily a genius, but he definitely knew that getting between Oliver when he wanted to see Felicity was not a good idea.
Thea's eyes narrowed and Lance had to do a quick reevaluation of which Queen sibling he was actually more afraid of. He was actually coming down on the side of Thea when she began to speak. "Because you are acting as father of the bride. And I am pretty sure that wedding rules also say it is your job to divert the groom until you deliver said bride to his waiting arms."
"I don't remember that rule ever coming up at my wedding," Lance grumbled as he moved for the door to carry out Thea's wishes.
"I made it up," Thea called after him. "Now kick my brother's ass back down to the car and tell him to grow a little patience."
Well, what else could Lance do? He opened the door with the kind of sinister smile every father wears at least once when dealing with their future son in law.
Rules were rules. And Team Arrow had a set of them that definitely needed to be upheld.
A/N: So how was it? I think it's a decent chapter. Sorry it took me so long to write it and get it out to you guys. I had finals I had to pass all this week at school. Trust me, it was an infinitely large corner of my own special hell. I hope you guys like it now that you have it though! If you have more ideas for these sorts of stories I am open for taking requests! Review for me! xoxoxooxoxoxxooxoxoxoxoxooxxoxoxoxoxooxoxxooxoxoxoxoxo