Notes:

This came to be because I suddenly remembered that Oliver knew how to fly a plane, cause his dad knew how and taught him... my muse took that idea and ran with it and then I sat down to write and it turned into something else entirely cause Sara took over... anyway... enjoy this little whatever this is...

Take me away A secret place A sweet escape Take me away Take me away To better days Take me away A hiding place

They've always had their secret places where they could hide away from the world and just be alone together, even before their affair. They'd both loved to be in crowds and around people, loved the attention and being the center of it, but that had also been very draining and they'd needed time away from everyone. So they'd looked for hidden places where no one would look for them and they wouldn't be found. The Queen estate had plenty of those and they'd been rotating between their favorite ones, making sure they wouldn't be discovered that way.

But none had been more significant and more dear to her than the airplane Ollie had gotten from his father for his sixteenth birthday. In a way that had been their place, their escape, more so than any other place they'd hide at. Even though Ollie had also more or less regularly taken Tommy flying and Laurel occasionally, her sister had not been a huge fan of small aircrafts, but most of the time he'd taken her when he felt like going flying and wanted some company.

It wasn't difficult for her to recall the first time Ollie had asked her to come flying with him. He'd been sixteen and had just passed his test. She'd been the first person he'd taken on a solo flight with him, and the first person he'd taken flying on his new plane. His reasoning had been so she could come as close as possible to feel what a bird must be feeling while flying across the sky. And he'd been right. It had been the best and most amazing feeling ever. Which might also have been in parts because Ollie'd been there with her and he hadn't made fun of her gushing and excitement and nerd-ing out about birds, he'd got it, well, maybe not the bird part, but the feeling free part. It was why he had enjoyed flying so much.

That had been the first time she'd been on a light aircraft, but far from the last.

Going flying together had sort of become one of their things after that very first flight, exploring the sky together, it had been fun, she'd loved his enthusiasm for everything airplane and the feeling she got when seeing the earth from a bird's perspective. It always made all of her problems feel so much smaller and she felt on top of the world.

Plus, they'd usually been alone up there; for hours, just the two of them, bonding. Talking about everything and nothing. She'd teased him about being a nerd, he'd tease her about wanting to be a bird. Those were some of her best and most treasured memories. Just the two of them up in the sky together, uninterruptedly. They'd shared their innermost secrets with each other and plotted different ways on how they could escape their lives, how they could just fly to wherever they wanted to go, a small island in the Caribbeans or wherever and just get lost. It was ironic, really, now that she looked back on it. They had gotten lost on an island. It just had been hell instead of the paradise they'd used to envision in their shared daydreams.

He'd given her a kind of freedom she'd been incapable of reaching herself, one that she probably would've never known had it not been for him. And she'd forever be grateful to him for that. For making her feel as free as a bird for the duration of their flights. It had been heaven and the nicest kind of escape, at least until they became physically involved. It had been a tie from that moment on.

She'd also always loved watching him work on the aircraft on the ground. It had been very hot. And he'd had the tendency to show her things about it and how it worked, and she'd loved it because he did. He would get so excited, and his single-minded focus had been very, very enticing. They'd screwed in the hangar on several occasions during their affair, cause she couldn't keep her hands off of him when he was getting his dirty by working on his plane. He'd been very fond of his cars, but he'd loved his plane. And so had she.

Another plus had been the fact that they could go wherever, fly to wherever they wanted to, within reason of course, it was a light aircraft, and it could only go so far before it needed to be refueled but still… they had their secret places, where no one would find them hours away from home and hard to reach by car.

Ollie knew about aerodynamics, could tell you exactly how far they would get depending on how much fuel the plane had, how fast they went, what the weather conditions were,… sure his math transcripts sucked, but that had nothing to do with his intelligence or lack of understanding of the subject. It had simply to do with his lack of interest in school or understanding why he should apply himself, when that time could be used for so much more interesting things. He'd used math class on more than one occasion to map out the next route they could take with his plane, considering all possibilities and weather conditions.

Her mom had comprehended the true origin of his scholastic issues early on, which had been the reason why she never gave up on him and kept on tutoring him. She had figured out that the issue Ollie had with school, apart from not seeing the point given his preplanned future as the CEO of Queen Consolidated, was that the format the subjects were taught in wasn't the right one for him, just as it wasn't the right one for her.

So her mom had always made it a point to teach them by showing them or using experiments. She'd never forget that time that mom had placed Laurel and Tommy in the same car with dad, her and Ollie in her car and they'd actually done one of the math problems while spending the day at a water park.

She'd told dad which route to take, when to leave and how fast he was allowed to go and to use a timer the entire drive and only stop it once they reached their goal, no stops in between. And she'd taken Ollie and her with her car a different route at a different pace, doing the same thing with a timer. It had been a blast. They'd reached their destination before dad, Laurel and Tommy. And mom had used the time they'd waited for them to explain to them why, and to solve a couple more problems. She'd also used the slides and other equipment in the park to explain how to solve those types of math problems.

It was one of the reasons her mom was such a great and beloved professor. She tried to reach everyone of her students at their level and explain the subjects in a way that would make sense to the majority and took the time to explain them in a different way after class to the ones who were still struggling.

Those had been the best times of her life, and she only now realized how much she missed it. She couldn't even recall the last time she and Ollie had gone flying together, but she was sure it had been before the Gambit. Sara wondered if he might miss it too, what his reaction would be if she brought it up and asked him if he'd go flying with her again sometime. And if they'd ever actually found the time to do it, given their respective busy schedules.

It had been easier when she'd been back home to find time to spend together in between QC, their families, and Arrow business, they could sneak in a dinner here, a late breakfast there, and a lunch date every once in a while, plus their daily training sessions and late night meals after a mission.

Now that he was in Star, and she was on the Waverider, finding time to spend together seemed almost impossible unless it was an international crisis and that didn't count. Which sucked. Because she missed him and while she was very fond of their regular phone conversations, it wasn't the same. But Ollie was busy as the mayor and Green Arrow and with his team and the personal shit he was dealing with, and she was occupied with her team and time pirates, and keeping the timeline intact and whatever other crazy shit the universe decided to throw at her and her team.

God, she missed the times when it was just the two of them. The comfort of his physical presence. She missed the person she was with him and the person he was with her. She missed them just being able to completely and unapologetically be themselves. She missed the fun they used to have and the deep conversation they'd participated in. She missed their daydreaming and sometimes wished she could go back to that time. Back when they still belonged to each other and things were simpler — not easy, but simpler. Back when they didn't belong to the world and before people were looking to them for answers and counting on them to solve complicated issues and problems that shouldn't even exist.

She missed those moments when they were in the sky together, both of them knowing that theoretically they could fly to wherever they wanted to. They could just escape and disappear. It was something they'd never actually done, well never for longer than a day or three, but it was also a privilege they no longer had. And it was mostly because of the choices they made and she wouldn't change those. At least she didn't think she would. Being with the Legends gave her a purpose when she had none. It gave her a place where she could feel she belonged while home had no longer felt that way. And what she was doing with the Legends was important and she was proud of her work, just like she was proud of Ollie and the way he was trying to change their home from two fronts, hoping that it was the way he could finally make a lasting impact and turn the city into a better place.

And she was hoping with him, because it wasn't just important to him, it was important to her as well and he was working so hard, sacrificing so much for the city and the people living in it. He deserved a win, more than anyone else. He'd suffered so much. Plus, she still dreaded the dystopian future she'd accidentally been privy to… a future with a broken and hopeless Oliver in it. She still had nightmares about it.

Because Ollie had always been her rock, always believing in the good, convinced people could change for the better, never faltering, never giving up. The look in his eyes haunted her, and she still wondered about the exact version of events that had broken him. Grant Wilson alone wouldn't have managed that, not even with removing Ollie's arm. No, he'd gotten past that and kept on fighting, kept on going… there had to have been more, but his older version hadn't elaborated and she hadn't felt it was her place to ask, plus there hadn't really been time for a heart to heart. She knew for a fact that that version of Star City no longer existed, she and Ray had made sure of that by coming back home on several occasions and she made it a point to stay in regular contact with Ollie, to ensure he knew she was still alive and to check in on him and see how he was doing.

They should find a way to not only talk on the phone but to actually spend time together regularly. Maybe they could do like a once a month thing or something like that. She needed to bring it up with him the next time they talked. It was important. She missed him. She missed the simplicity of hanging out with him.

She looked at her phone as it rang and had to grin, shaking her head in amusement. It was almost as if he'd known she was thinking about him, but then again, they'd always been in tune with each other.

"Hey Ollie, wanna go fly with me?"

Notes:

I just figured this could be something they would've enjoyed doing together.
And isn't it kinda awesome that Sara ended up in a job where she got to fly on the regular, kinda like a bird... that realization makes me so happy for her.

I would love to hear your thoughts on it because I'm not sure about it mostly because it turned out so very differently than originally intended.

Also I know literally nothing about flying a plane, I did a very little amount of research on the matter and if I got anything wrong, let me know. I'd love to learn.

Plus also, we love Dinah Lance over here!

Yes, Oliver, I detest swimming, Jonas Queen was dragged into a water park by his friends, he was regularly overruled on that matter. And he loves them too much to not hang out with them simply because he really, really doesn't like swimming.

Chapter title is from the song "Pocketful Of Sunshine" by Natasha Bedingfield.