A HELPING HAND

8 | 3 AM SANDWICH

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CH. 8
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Your nap had been well deserved. Even when it turned from a nap into a full blown sleep through the night. You had spent hours working diligently and edited several articles without distraction. You had been very productive.

Granted the productivity had been to make up for the lack of work you'd done in the past few days. The day of the party you'd accomplished absolutely nothing and the next day had been mostly spent experimenting with sandwiches.
You had really only meant to sleep for an hour and then get up, have dinner, shower, and go to bed properly. It hadn't worked out that way. Instead you'd just ended up sleeping straight past the hour mark and well into the middle of the night.

And when the little metallic clang outside your window sounded and woke you up you could best be described as groggy.

You leaned over the back of the couch and watched the Green Arrow lift your window open with a dumb dopey smile. Half awake you barely had an idea of what year it was or which planet you happened to be on, but your instinct was to smile.

He huffed at you. "You're going to get robbed." He said before his feet had even touched the ground.

"I'll be okay." You were going to make a joke about fighting off intruders when a large yawn broke through. You stretched out across the couch, your joints popping satisfyingly.
When you opened your eyes and looked up he was standing beside the couch watching you intently.

"I didn't mean to wake you." He said quietly.
You shook your head and gestured vaguely to the end of the couch.

"Nonsense. Come sit." You sat up, pulling your legs back to give him room, and pulled your tank top back from where it'd bunched up in your sleep. Another yawn escaped. "What time is it?"

"Sometime around three." He said. "You fell asleep on the couch?" He hadn't sat yet, still hovering over the back of the couch.

"It was only supposed to be a little nap." You shrugged. "Want me to grab you a water?"

He shook his head. "I've got it."

And with that he walked over to your kitchen and went straight for the water bottles. He grabbed two then moved back to the couch and took a seat in his spot.

There was still a level of surrealism to your interactions, but it was somewhere in the back of your mind. Everything seemed more and more normal with every visit.

You thanked him when he handed you a bottle. After taking a long drink you turned the news on. "Hiding out? Cops again?"

He sighed. "From my team."

You furrowed your brow. The way he said it didn't sound like it was a serious concern, but it was amusing still. Was he avoiding his team of vigilantes the same way a normal person avoided family at holiday gatherings? "Everything alright?"

"They can be—a lot."

"Really? A lot like putting on masks and fighting crime a lot?" He gave that little exhale of breath you knew to mean a laugh.

"Well," you said, "I've only met Ragman and all I can really say is that he's very polite."

"He is that." He said, then rolled his shoulders in that particular way he had of getting comfortable. And just like that the little niggling thought far in the back of your mind snapped to the front. As if a light went on in your head everything suddenly made sense.

You gaped.

"Oliver Queen?"

You might have been able to convince yourself you were insane if his shoulders hadn't tensed the way they had. In the time that you'd known the Green Arrow you'd gotten very good at reading his nonverbal communication- and it was so clear to you right now.

"It is. I mean- you are." You tried to set your water bottle down on the coffee table beside you, but without being able to take your eyes off of him kept missing. You were failing at keeping cool.

He leaned over and guided your hand to the coffee table, waiting for you to let go of the bottle before he let go of your wrist. Then he sat back and sighed.

Your heart pounded in your chest as he reached up and pulled back his hood. Even without seeing his hair you already knew. The curve of his jaw, the stubble, the set of his lips. How many times had you see Oliver Queen on the news, even before he'd become mayor?

You should have realized the minute you met him two nights ago. But, then, there was a whole city full of people you were sure knew both the Green Arrow and Oliver Queen and they hadn't put it together or maybe they had and you were the actual last numbskull.

He tapped a spot on the chest of his suit, near his throat, then slowly reached up to peal off his mask. He looked at it for a moment, turning the mask in his hands, before looking up at you.

It took you a second to recognize the look in his eyes. He was concerned? Nervous? Worried?

"I won't tell anyone." You said quickly. "Nothing's changed. I swear, I would never tell anyone."

"I know." He said. It took a moment to reconcile Oliver Queen's voice even when you could see his unmasked face- you'd gotten so used to the deep distorted version. But as long as he kept smiling at you like that you figured you could get used to whatever. "I know you wouldn't."

"I didn't even mean to figure it out. I wasn't try to. It just hit me." You leaned forward for a moment, your fingers itching to reach out, before you remembered yourself and pulled back. So many thoughts raced through your head, so many questions needing answers. You only just managed to bite your tongue.
He reached over and took your hand. "Hey, I know. It's okay."

You sighed and gave his fingers a squeeze before pulling your hand back. Without looking away from him you reached over for the bottle and took several long drinks.

"It's my fault anyway." He said. "I just had to go talk to you at the party."

You grinned at him. "Yeah, a lot makes sense now. My friend Jane was losing her mind about the mayor talking to me. If only she knew."

"That would be quite a story."

A thought hit you and you jolted up and slapped his knee lightly. The amused look was back in full force.

"The sandwich." You said. "I'd been trying to figure out how to get you the sandwich we talked about without being weird. But now I can just make it."

He grinned and the smile felt like so much more than it had before. There was something about the relaxed slump of his shoulders as he sat on your couch in his Green Arrow costume, mask in hand, and smiled.

Something warm bloomed in you.

"So, what do you say?" You asked. "Feel like a 3 A.M. sandwich?"

He leaned forward and set his mask down on the coffee table before speaking.

"That sounds wonderful."