Apartment
Drake Lance
I wake up in my couch not remembering how I got here or what happened before. I look over at the bright Christmas tree and it makes my eyes sore. I drank too much, and my meta-cells is good at rejecting alcohol. I slowly rise up with a headache and hear a child laughing. I then hear a deeper and more older laugh of someone else in the house and I turn around to see Slade and Will running into the living room.
They both hold a Green Arrow and my older sister's Black Canary toy. They both battle each other with the toys and I watch them play together. They don't see me as I watch them closely and see how comfortable Slade is with Will. I observe them both and Will looks like he is enjoying himself as he plays as Green Arrow and Slade being Laurel's Black Canary. I make a small creak when moving on the couch a little bit and Slade quickly turns his head and looks at me.
"You're awake!" Slade says with a happy tone and Will turns to me too and runs to me happy. Slade watches Will run to me and I open my arms letting him run to me.
"Drake!" Will shouts and jumps on to me and hugs me tight. "I'm glad you're okay." He says and I begin to remember what happened to me yesterday. I hug Will tightly and realize that he must be as scared as I am to lose him.
"I'm glad that you are too." I say holding on to him and look at Slade as he looks worried about me but gives me a smile. Will lets go of me and as he does I hear a timer go off and look over to see the kitchen with pots and seasonings laid out. The dinner table is all set up with silverware, plates, and wine glasses. I begin to get confused and look outside to see it dark still, I then look at the time to see that it is 6 pm.
"You woke up right on time, dinner is ready." Slade says and quickly walks over to the kitchen and Will follows. "Grab the plates mate will yah?" Slade says and I watch Will run to grab three plates and lay it out on to the counter. I walk over to the kitchen island slowly and watch them behave with each other.
Slade opens the cover of a pot and gets a clean wooden spoon and stirs it. The steam rises and Will hands Slade a plate waiting to be served. Slade serves Will a small portion of spaghetti and Will looks at it confused as Slade is only teasing him. "What? You wanted more?" Slade says chuckling and then serves Will more with 3 added on meatballs.
"Thanks Slade, you're the coolest!" Will responds back and walks to the dinner table taking a seat waiting for us as he pours himself a cup of juice. Slade looks at me and then turns away as I take my distance and cross my arms being worried with what is happening outside this apartment. I turn around as well and stare at the windows as I begin to remember what happened. I saw Ollie as the Ghost Archer, I abandoned my team, I got so drunk that I can't even remember how I got home.
I close my eyes tight and take a deep breath. I remember the exact moment I flipped The Ghost Archer over me throwing him to the ground. I grabbed his mask and it fell out, and when he got up, it was him. Ollie didn't recognize but I did, I recognized all those facial scars from his time on the island. Those scars can't just be placed on there like detailed paint. There's no way he could be from another earth, the other Olivers are dead or are nazi soldiers.
"I wish we had more time-" I hear his voice echo in my head and a tear slips out from my closed eyes. I see his hand drop the ring he never got the chance to give to me on to the palm of my hand. I was confused as to why he would do something like that, I couldn't speak or hear, I didn't get the chance to say goodbye. I never got the chance to tell him how much I loved him. I looked up at him to stare at me with sadness and hope, and then he said "... I love you." He ran off to the plane that never came back with the bomb.
I open my eyes and grab on to the necklace with Ollie's ring on it and hold it tight in my hands. "You want some Drake?" Slade breaks me from my thoughts and I turn around quickly seeing him hold two filled plates with spaghetti and meatballs. I wipe my eyes with my hands and Slade walks to the dinner table and I follow along. We all sit down together and begin to eat like a family. We have a normal conversation about Will's academic and school life and talk about our life before we became who we are today.
______________
I walk back into the kitchen from Will's room as I put him to sleep. I spot Slade finish cleaning up the dishes and the kitchen and I sit on a chair under the island and watch him. Slade scrubs a pot with a sponge with soap buds covering his entire hand and wrist. It's weird to see the world's best and most wanted mercenary/assassin cleaning pots after cooking an entire family dinner.
"What?" Slade says seriously and I chuckle at him as I don't take him serious anymore.
"Nothing." I say with a small grin as I'm beginning to enjoy myself. Slade washes off the last pot and turns the water off as we both watch each other. "How did I end up back here?" I ask him wanting to know who brought me back, and he grabs a towel and begins to pat his hands dry with it.
"After you threw your tantrum at the bunker... I-I followed you around, while... you drank your brains out." He says hesitantly being afraid to tell me something. He walks over to me and takes a seat next to me on the same chairs I sit in. "I ended up finding you passed out on top of some garbage bags behind a bar. You were talking to someone the entire night but I couldn't figure out who?" He says as he's beginning to refer to Adrian. I look away being embarrassed of myself for letting myself go. "Then I brought you back here." He says quietly and I look at him as I begin to feel different about Slade.
Slade has always given many people a look of disgust as if he is superior to them. He has this unique way of intimidating people with his eyes by striking fear into them. He has this ability to turn his humanity off when necessary. As I stare at him, right now, he doesn't give me that look. In fact, he never gave me that look. When I took him down in Paris, he looked at me with amazement. I stare at his eyes and expression to only see a man who is alone, damaged, and hurt. He looks at me with worry and love. He cares for me.
"If I ask you something will you answer it truthfully?" I ask him wanting some answers and he nods whispering 'of course' under his breath. "The photo in your bathroom at the clocktower... the one with the kid... Who was he?" I ask softly being blunt with my question and Slade hesitates.
"He's uh... M-my son." He stutters and I bring my brows close confused. "His name is Joe."
"Where is he now?" I ask wanting to know more about this son of his. It explains how he is so good at entertaining Will.
"I don't know... After I left to come to Star City to get my revenge on Oliver, my son disappeared." He says and I look at him as there is more to this mercenary. "Why'd you leave Star City without saying anything to anyone?" He asks me the biggest question that everyone in Star City has wondered.
"I hate goodbyes." I say as I look down and not directly at Slade. "I've always just, disappeared." I say and it gets awkwardly silent. "It's better that way... being alone." I look over at him and he smirks and shakes his head.
"Not all the time, sometimes all we need is each other." Slade says and chuckles. I grab the necklace again and hold it in my hand knowing that by talking to someone about it, to someone who understands, maybe I'll move on.
"Does it get easier?" I ask him and look back at him and he looks down.
"No one forgets their first love Drake, but we have to move on. We live on with our lives and hope that someone else comes into our lives to fill that void." He says and I listen to him knowing he's been through it all. I stare at him and he still gives me that stare, and I look at him like he is my savior. "It wasn't always just me and Oliver on Lian Yu. Before we discovered that your sister, Sara had survived the Gambit, there was another woman. Her name was Shado. She was so beautiful." Slade pauses and then looks at me to continue the story.
"I loved her and I would've done anything for her... When I was injected with the mirakuru and died, her death woke me up. I felt her die. The mirakuru was in my system and I was so caught up in my own rage that I killed anyone who came in my way. I began to blame Oliver for the death of Shado and took my vengeance to make sure she was avenged properly." He says and then pauses as he begins to feel his own emotions. "I made sure that whoever was responsible for Shado's death, would pay the same price she paid." Slade says with some rage knowing that those actions are past him. "I made terrible mistakes with grief Drake, don't let your anger dictate what you do." He says as he must know that I want whoever is responsible for Ollie's situation to pay back.
"Why are you so nice to me? A couple of weeks ago you tried to slit my throat, and here you are... In my apartment." I ask and he hesitates with a small chuckle. "-Slade." I say softly laying my hand on his warm arm, and he looks at my hand as he stops chuckling. He grabs on to my hand and holds it and looks into my eyes.
"Because I think you might be the person that has been filling that void for me lately." Slade says and I make a small smile not knowing how I feel about Slade. He's helped me through all this, and has looked out for me. "You've made me feel normal and I've never felt that before. Look, I don't know how you feel about me, if you even feel the same? But I can't lose you-" He says and then I quickly lunge towards him and hook my lips onto his.
"You don't have to." I say as this kiss feels right. He gets back and looks at me worried. He presses his hands against my face and goes in for another kiss making his move. This is mutual.
He grabs on to my shoulders and I hold him as we make out. We get off the chairs and Slade and I continue to kiss. I jump into his arms and Slade carries me into the bedroom. He closes the door behind him and drops me on to the bed and I rise up watching him take his clothes off as I throw my shirt to the side of the bed.
Slade stands at the end of the bed slowly staring at my toned and bruised body and crawls on. He grabs on to my jeans and pulls them off from my ankles and makes his way on top of me.
______________
I stay in the bed laying on top of Slade's chest as I lightly caress his chest with my fingers. I draw imaginary circles on his chest and hear his heartbeat as it comforts my loneliness. I feel his hand brush through my hair feeling and lightly scratch my scalp. The feeling is enjoyable and this happens for maybe about 30 minutes.
As I lay on top of Slade's chest I begin to think about the future of whatever this is between me and Slade. He's on the most wanted and Bruce neither anyone would accept the option of him hiding in my shadow. No one would believe the humanity that I see in Slade. He's gentle, sweet, and caring.
The people he works for want me and plenty of other people dead. I trust Slade with my life but I can't say for the other people. I've seen what he's done in my line of work, especially the stunt he pulled in Paris. He has the network to flip an entire country's government within a night. If this goes public or to anyone, I would be associated and would be back on square-one trying to figure how to get out of it.
The idea of a relationship and future with Slade is ideal, beautiful, but our lives are not meant for it. We are too dangerous, and we would be putting each other and Will up as a persons of interest. His entire life would be spent hidden in the shadows and that's not what Ollie or his mother would've wanted. I'm not comfortable living my entire life looking over my shoulder. This cannot happen.
"What are you thinking about?" Slade says to start a conversation and I rise up slowly off his chest and stare down at him. I get serious knowing that his can't happen. Black Canary and Deathstroke can never happen.
"That maybe this was a mistake." I say softly and Slade rises up from the bed putting his hand on my shoulder. He looks at me confused with what I am saying not realizing that our lives can never intertwine like this again.
"No, this wasn't a mistake." He denies the idea and tries to prove me wrong. "We can figure this out." He says trying to comfort me and I begin to get upset knowing that this is the love I've been waiting for after Ollie.
"I wish it was that easy." I say and he begins to get upset too and he presses his head against mine. "I think it's time that you keep my end of the deal, and... disappear." I say wanting him to leave knowing that he is only going to get caught if he stays longer. He'll put all our lives in danger if he chooses to stay and he knows that.
"You want me to leave?" He asks and he moves away and I don't respond as he has taken the hint. I wish I had thought about this before we did anything, it would've saved some pain. I enjoy his company and his help but I'm in a conflicted zone.
"I'm sorry." I say and Slade turns away and gets up from the bed naked. He grabs on to his underwear and slips it on and then puts on his jeans and the rest of his clothes. Slade doesn't look at me and ignores me and I feel guilty knowing that this is my fault. There is no one else to blame, except for what I did.
Slade walks out of the room and I hear him walk out. He says nothing and I don't choose to follow him knowing that this has to be done. I never meant for him to be hurt by this or anyone. I then hear the door open and close as he is fully gone from the home.
If circumstances were different, this would've been different.