Disclaimer: I own absolutely freaking zilch. In this case, I don't even own the entire idea for this chapter because I was sent a prompt for it. Anyway, people of the CW, please don't sue me. It really wouldn't be worth your time. Person who sent me this prompt, also please don't sue me. Same reason.
One of Oliver Queen's worse traits was that he had always been relatively horrible at sharing. At face value, it would have been easy for Lance to assume that that was purely a result of being an only child with access to more money than was good for him for nearly a decade. Besides, it wasn't like Tommy Merlyn his best friend didn't have enough of his own stuff.
It was easy to think that he had just never really had to share. Practice made perfect, and in the art of sharing, Oliver Queen had none.
The arrival of Thea had disproved that theory.
When Thea had come in to the world Lance had watched Oliver with some interest to see if it would change the kid's perspective at all. He wasn't sure what exactly he had been expecting. Maybe a sudden flood of willingness to share toys or something? When Sara had been born Laurel had taken a day or two to warm up to her. Then she had started sharing her dolls and orchestrating games to play.
Not so much so with Oliver and Thea. Oliver was nearly an entire decade older than Thea. By the time Thea was big enough to play with toys that didn't come with choke warnings Oliver had been sixteen. Suffice it to say they hadn't really shared interests or items they could play with together.
That wasn't to say that Oliver didn't spend time playing with Thea. Lance had to admit that Queen was really incredibly generous with his time when it came to his little sister. He was never shy about spending time with her or about buying her presents. Sometimes lavish ones in Lance's opinion, but at least it looked like he cared.
Lance had once had to chaperone Sara to the mall and had passed a seventeen year od Oliver standing outside of a store called Justice with a pained look on his face. Lance recognized the look as the same one his face took on whenever he was pulled in to IKEA with Dinah. It was a look that emulated equal parts dread and boredom.
Quentin couldn't stop himself from throwing out one barb. "When did you become a twelve year old girl Queen?"
Oliver looked up from the contemplation he had been conducting of his shoelaces and pulled a face. "Thea's inside," he explained. "Mom was supposed to take her back to school shopping. Apparently second grade is big so..." He trailed off with a shrug.
"If your mom was supposed to take her then what are you doing here?" Lance questioned.
He sighed. "Charity gala. Something about saving... something," he shook his head and Lance tried not to be disturbed by the fact that the kid had absolutely no idea what Charity was actually being celebrated. "Anyway," Queen continued. "She was busy. And I didn't want Thea to cry so," he shrugged. "Now I'm here."
At that moment Thea charged out of the store clutching a bag of clothes that from the one glance Lance got of them seemed to be scarily brightly colored and glittery. "Ollie!" she squealed.
"Hey Speedy," Oliver greeted, catching her bag and all in a big hug. Lance watched as he scooped her up into the air and Thea giggled. His face had transformed completely from bored to grinning. He set her back down but automatically took the bag so she wouldn't have to carry it. "Alright, are we good here?"
"Here yeah," Thea said cheerfully. "But now I'm hungry. Can we get lunch?"
Oliver nodded. "We'll stop at the food court on the way out." He nodded to Quentin as he walked past, leading Thea by the hand. Distantly he heard Oliver ask, "so sandwiches, Chinese, Italian, or Pizza?"
The point being, Oliver never really needed to share toys with Thea, but he was never against spending time with his little sister. Oliver could share, kind of. In fact he was fine at sharing material things and things like his time. As time went on it was proved that he was absolutely shit a sharing people.
If Oliver really, seriously cared about someone then Lance noticed that he tended to keep them close. Those kept close people also tended to be people he took responsibility for. Tommy Merlyn tended to be a little bit the same way. Lance supposed it made a little bit of sense. Both boys had enough money to buy whatever sort of objects they wanted. What they couldn't actually buy was people who cared about them.
At least, Lance hoped to God they weren't allowed to buy people. Being a billionaire was one thing but being able to buy people was still slavery and completely illegal. Arresting family friends also seemed like a pretty sure fire way to make a barbecue awkward. (The fact that Lance did actually arrest Oliver for vigilantism in the future did not actually escape him in the realm of irony.)
Anyway, Oliver wasn't good about sharing the people he cared about. It was no coincidence that Tommy and Oliver ad been each other's best and only friends. From what Lance saw each of them could have simply walked up to any random person and declared that they wanted to be friends. But neither of them did. Neither of them ever seemed to feel the desire or the inclination to make any other friends.
Dinah once broached the subject with both boys trying not to sound irritated over the fact that the two of them were constantly around. "You're around for dinner again?" she asked. "I would have thought maybe you guys would have a few other places to hang out." Oliver, Tommy, and Laurel had been in the eighth grade at the time. Laurel had dragged them over to work on a project the week before, and since then the boys had been at the Lance's home more than they had been at their own.
Tommy pulled a face around the bite of Pizza he had just taken. "My Dad's security team runs a security check and makes a perimeter or something around houses when I make friends with new people," he said. "With you guys it's just one security named Jared who waits in the car."
"You got your dad down to one guy?" Oliver had asked, sounded vaguely impressed. "My parents still won't let me come over here from school without sending around three guys."
Tommy had frowned. "Who is it this week?"
Lance saw Oliver frown as he tried to remember. "I think it was, Marcus, Jamie, and Lowell. Or maybe Max was there. He and Marcus are twins it gets confusing. Anyway, we really appreciate you letting us come over Mrs. Lance," he said it with wide, impossibly blue eyes. "If you need us to leave we will, it's just that our parents get worried about us making the wrong friends. It makes it easier to just stick with people we trust."
That night had ended with Dinah refusing to let Queen and Merlyn leave without eating two full servings of vegetables.
Oliver was bad about sharing Thea's care with other people to. He didn't seem to trust anybody else to really do a good enough job mot of the time. The best example Lance could come up with for that had been when Thea had decided she wanted to try ballet when she was seven. Lance had been dropping Sara off at the hip hop class she had decided to try that month.
When Lance had walked passed the main office on the way out of the studio Oliver had barreled through the door. Lance had paused in the hallway across from the office and paused to watch. He had heard the sound of a small child crying on his way in to drop off Sara and felt bad for the kid. Now it turned out the kid he had felt bad for was Thea Queen.
Thea was sitting on a chair in the office curled up in a little ball. Lance saw Oliver squat down next to the chair and fix the instructor with a glare. He reached out and wrap an arm around Thea's shoulders "What happened?"
"She- she," the instructor spluttered. The young women seemed to shrink back from Oliver's glare. That may have actually been the first time that Quentin Lance actually forced himself to acknowledge the fact that Oliver Queen could be scary. In fact, he could be scary as hell. "She tripped and fell," she finally finished. "We tried to call your parents but we couldn't find the file and the only number she would give us was yours."
"I wanted Ollie," Thea said around her tears.
Lance saw Oliver scoot closer to Thea, pulling a tissue out of a box on the cluttered desk and handing it to her. "Tell me what happened Speedy. Are you okay?"
"I slipped and my foot twisted," Thea explained. Her tears seemed to be clearing up rapidly now that Oliver was there. "Then I kind of fell on top of it."
Lance saw Oliver frown. "Which foot? Can you walk on it?"
Thea sniffed and stretched out her left ankle. Lance couldn't help but wince for the little girl. Her foot looked like a large blue dinosaur had laid an egg on her foot. It was puffy and swollen looking as well. "Not really," she answered.
Oliver examined the bruise and then scooped Thea up off the ground. "Okay. We're going to go by the hospital and have Dr. Lamb x-ray that foot. He'll check on it and maybe get you some crutches and then we'll go home. Raisa will make you some of those Russian cookies that you like and you can pick a movie to watch, okay?"
The instructor took a step forward. "Can you tell us your parents number so we can tell them what happened. That's what our policy-"
"I will be the one to call my parents and tell them about this," Oliver said, renewing his glare. "Until then how about you try to figure out a good reason for not even getting my little sister an ice pack." Then he had stormed out and paused in front of Lance. "Detective Lance, because you are an office of the law I just really want to clarify that I will definitely be waiting until I get home to make that phone call."
Lance gave him an approving nod. "Good call kid. If you ever talk on the phone while driving any of my daughters or your little sister I will personally break your thumbs." He glanced down at Thea's tear stained face. "Feel better Kiddo."
That particular incident had resulted in the Lances finding a new place for Sara to take her dance class. Also, as it had turned out Thea had sprained her ankle and been on crutches for two weeks. During that time Lance had seen Oliver be a more attentive older brother and all around better person than he had been showing himself to be lately. When Oliver and Laurel had been trying to date, again, for the fifth time, Lance just tried to hold on to the memory of Oliver mass producing ice in the refrigerator and watching YouTube videos about the right way to wrap an Ace bandage.
Basically, when people Oliver cared about were hurt or needed help he demanded to do it himself and wouldn't let anyone else get close. On the other hand, when he decided to care he really went all out. One of the only reassuring things Lance could find in Oliver and his daughter dating was that Laurel would at least be safe when they went out together. At least, she would be safe from everyone else.
From everything Lance had ever seen from Oliver he didn't ever share the people he cared about. When Laurel went out on a date with Oliver Lance could rest assured that she wouldn't have any kind of issue with some other guy. If someone came close then occasionally bad things tended to happen.
One time Lance had come in from a late night working to find Oliver and Laurel sitting on the couch in the living room while Oliver iced his hand. Lance caught site of the dish towel wrapped around the ice and sighed. "Do I even want to know?" he asked exhaustedly.
Oliver rolled his head to rest on the back of the couch to look back at him. "I kind of gut punched a guy at the carnival we went to," he said, not even having the decency to look a little bit guilty about it. "On the bright side I kicked ass at that arcade game we played. You know that one with the darts you throw to try to pop balloons? I got the high score of the night," he turned to grin at Laurel. "Apparently my aim is awesome."
Lance sighed. He guessed that explained why there was a gigantic plush elephant taking up an entire corner of the room. "No offense Kid," he said to Oliver. "But Laurel why the hell do you keep on dating this moron who can't seem to keep himself from getting arrested for drunken disorderliness and violent behavior? I mean seriously. I'm trying to be nice about this and I really don't want to have to arrest your boyfriend but you're not making this easy on me Sweetie!"
"Daddy!" Laurel protested. "What Ollie did was actually so sweet."
Lance couldn't help but roll his eyes. At that point he highly doubted that anything that had resulted in Oliver punching a guy had involved something sweet. "For the record," Oliver said from the sofa. "I'm completely sober. Also, I decided that punching a creepy guy who was trying to feel Laurel up in line would have been worth the payoff my parents would have done to keep me out of jail."
Lance paused and looked to Laurel who nodded in confirmation with a look of remembered disgust. Then Laurel looked back to Oliver. "How creepy are we talking about here?"
"Tattoos, piercings, and a blue dyed foehawk, with the beginnings of a beard worthy of a ZZ top member," Laurel described. "He looked like someone from one of your arrest books. On of the drug dealer ones."
Quentin flipped his focus back and forth between his daughter and her boyfriend. "Could either of you ID him off of a security cam?" The two looked at each other and nodded and Lance side. "Queen," he barked. "How did you punch him?"
"Double shot somewhere near the solar-plexus," he answered.
Lance considered. "Did he drop?"
"Like a brick."
"Problems with security?"
"Not a one," Laurel assured.
"Did you tuck your thumb?" Lance checked with Oliver.
Oliver shook his head, trying to bight back a small grin. "Wouldn't dream of it."
Lance took a moment to think it over and began to walk out of the living room towards the hallway. "I can live with it."
This past experience was what had Lance's ears pricking up when Felicity Smoak first met Barry Allen. As soon as the Allen Kid had started talking Lance had seen Oliver's jaw tighten. Something in his expression, or maybe his body language had just become more alert. "Who are you?" Lance had asked. It had seemed prudent as an officer of the law to check who was at his crime scene.
"And do your parents know that you're here?" Oliver had checked with a heavy edge of mocking in his voice.
Lance had to work hard to keep himself from smirking as he walked away from the scene. He knew Oliver Queen, and the man was now exhibiting all of the typical signs of jealousy. An emotion he was pretty sure Queen had had little occasion to experience lately. For one thing he didn't think there had been many people to be jealous over on the island. (Future him of course learned that that wasn't necessarily true). Also, Oliver had seemed bizarrely calm about Laurel dating Tommy.
Oliver Queen was jealous over the fact that Felicity was making friends with Barry Allen. Lance wasn't really around to see how that played out but he had to assume it hadn't really gone anywhere. He hadn't seen Barry again until he had visited Detective West in Central City to help investigate a case. His coffee had floated and it had been incredibly bizarre.
Ray Palmer had been a whole spate ordeal. Then everyone else had had to watch Oliver watch Ray and Felicity have an actual responsible and functioning relationship. Roy told Lance later that Oliver had snapped the night he had seen Felicity kiss Ray and nearly flipped an entire table's worth of research equipment. Basically, Oliver had an issue with sharing the people he cared about. And Lance could see that he cared about Felicity a whole lot more than he was willing to admit.
He had actually gotten to see Oliver explode over jealousy about Felicity only once, and it was over a guy named Michael Holt who had just started working as the head of Applied Sciences.
The two of them had come in to the Arrow Cave 2.0 arguing. This wasn't so completely out of the realm of normality. They were the kind of couple that bickered often. Either until Oliver did something pig headed in spite of Felicity's point or simply gave up and admitted that she was right.
"I just don't like that the guy calls himself Mr. Terrific," Oliver was griping. "What is the point of that anyway?"
"Uhg!" Felicity shouted in frustration. "That's not your problem and you know it! Every time I work with someone new you start background checking them and glaring at them! You just don't like the fact that I'm working with someone nice. Newsflash Oliver, I will be working with other people! It's a really freaking big company. You should know that, your family designed the building."
Lance saw Oliver grind his teeth together with enough force to make him genuinely concerned that Queen's jaw was going to snap in half. "That's not it," he bit out. "I just don't like him okay?"
Felicity rubbed a tired hand over her eyes. "Oliver! You are wearing the same expression as that time when you broke a training dummy in half when I mentioned that Barry went out and got me Susi! It's not like you ever had a problem with anyone else on the team getting food for me."
"Mr. Terrific," Oliver spat. "Is not on this team. And I don't think I have to be okay with the fact that other guys are bringing my girlfriend dinner. I can bring you dinner. It's not like spending time together to eat dinner would be a bad thing."
Lance saw Felicity jab a finger into Oliver's chest. "You can just freaking get over someone else bringing me dinner when we can hardly go anywhere in this city without running into someone that you've slept with! Isabel Rochev Oliver! She turned out to be a super villain. Whom I hated before hand by the way!"
That was the moment that Lance felt the need to look away as Oliver stopped the rest of Felicity's tirade by kissing her. There were some things that Lance just didn't need to see. One of those things being the person he thought of as an honorary daughter making out with a kid he'd known since childhood.
"None of those people mattered because I have been in love with you since the moment I met you and to me the people before that aren't important right now," Oliver said it with a bit more anger than Lance thought that statement typically deserved. He also tried to ignore the fact that two of those girls were his daughters. Again, some things were better left uncontemplated. Like the sound of continued making out that followed he, Diggle, and Thea back out of the lair.
"Is it worth it to go back and mention that the guy they're arguing about is actually way more likely to be in to Oliver than he would be Felicity?" Thea asked as they shut the door firmly behind them.
Diggle raised an eyebrow at her. "Do you really want to go back in there?"
"Hell no!" Thea said adamantly. "I have money on kids in two years."
Lance frowned. "You have a bet going on this?"
"Captain Lance," Diggle said with a small smile and a shake of the head. "There has been a bet going on this since Oliver tried to spin some line about not having enough sports bottles. I jacked the stakes up the first time when she signed on and Oliver said he was going to protect her. When my sister in law moved away Roy joined in."
Lance sighed, but chipped in forty bucks to the pool with some pretty reasonable odds. After all, if their was one thing to get those two moving forward it was the fact that Oliver had always been a possessive, protective, and over all horrible at sharing the people he loved.
A/N: So what did you guys think? I wasn't completely sure how it went but I gave it a good shot. I think Oliver being overly jealous about everything doesn't necessarily fit with the kind of character the show had established, but I trade to make it fit with my writing style. Tell me how I did! I might not be able to update for a little while because I start school on Tuesday and I spend 14 hours a day there six days a week (it's a British prep school system being used in America. Try not to question it). Either way, I won't have a lot of time for a while.
This prompt came from Starlight Angel 12 so I hope I did them justice and filled out what they wanted from it. I still have another prompt to work on when I've got time. So stick with me.
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