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It had to be the beach.
Granted, it had been him (shockingly) that had brought up the idea of a team vacation, and the private beach that the Queen Family was a perfect getaway spot. He could remember spending time there as a child, and it had always been fun. But he wasn’t a child anymore, and he had his reasons for wanting to avoid the beach like the plague. Still, he hadn’t wanted to stop everyone else from going, so he reluctantly agreed (and Felicity had refused to let him stay in Starling by himself despite his best efforts).
They called up the S.T.A.R Labs crew, and they eagerly agreed to come as well. So it’s him, Felicity, Dig, Lyla, their baby, Roy, Thea, Tommy, Laurel, Ray, Cisco, Caitlin, Ronnie, Iris, Eddie, and of course Barry meeting up at the beach house. They are lucky the house is so big, though Dig and Lyla. Tommy and Laurel, Ronnie and Caitlin, and Roy and Thea (much to his dismay) are sharing rooms.
Of course the second they got settled in (with a crib and baby monitor being set up in the room across from Lyla and Dig) Thea wanted to head down to the beach and he was dragged against his will. He set up a towel on the sand to lay on and tried to ignore the sound of the crashing waves. He should have known that it wouldn't go well for him. Then again, was there anything that did?
“Come on Ollie! Come in the water with us!” His sister calls from the ocean and he is barely able to resist the urge to grab her out and make her sit on the beach with him. “Nah, I’m just going to soak up some sun.” He calls back as coolly as he can.
He tries to relax, he really does. But he can’t keep his eyes off the people in the ocean. Tommy, Thea, Roy, Ronnie, Eddie, and Cisco were having some kind of splash war. Ray and Felicity were walking down the beach in the shallow water. Dig and Lyla were playing with their baby on the edge of the water. Laurel, Caitlin, and Iris were watching the splash war and laughing as the floated in the water. He wasn’t quite sure exactly what Barry was doing, but he was hunched down in the water and he had a look of intense concentration on his face.
After a while of watching them (and bitterly wishing Sara hadn’t agreed to help Nyssa with some mission so he’d at least have her here), he finally convinced himself to lay back and close his eyes for a few minutes. Of course, some of his more mischievous friends (aka Tommy, Thea, and Roy) can’t pass up this opportunity so they creep up on him (well, he heard them coming but he figured they were just coming to get a drink or something so he ignored it) and dump three buckets of ocean water all over him.
He jolts up instantly and sees the three of them laughing. He tries to choke down the feelings that are rising up in his chest and focus on giving them his best glare. “Oh come on Oliver, now you’re wet so there’s no excuse for not coming and joining my team in the Splash Battle.” Tommy comments. “No way, he’s going to join my team. Right Ollie?” He sighs in exasperation. “I’m not joining anyone’s team, and I’m not getting in the water!” He hisses at them, perhaps a bit too harshly. Tommy rolls his eyes seeming rather frustrated and his sister gives him mock hurt look that seemed to have a little real hurt hidden in its depths. “Spoilsport.” She quips as she grabs Tommy’s hand and pulls him back toward the ocean. Roy had already run away the second he saw Oliver’s glare, because apparently Roy is the only smart one.
Oliver is trying to ignore the droplets of salty water that are clinging to his skin and breathing deeply to steady himself when he hears someone approaching again. He is literally about to scream. Why can’t they just accept that he doesn’t want to get in the water? He already has his ‘Arrow’ intimidation stare on full blast when Barry plops down beside him.
“Look at this! Do you see this?” Barry is holding what looks to be like several pieces of coral. “You found some coral?” He guesses, a little confused at why Barry sounds so irritated. “This didn’t come off naturally, someone broke it off! Look at the edging where it was originally attached. That doesn’t just happen!” The scientist exclaims. “So someone was out scuba diving and took a souvenir, but ended up losing it in the ocean and it washed up here.” He reasons, still not quite sure what his friend is so peeved about. “Oh, a souvenir? A souvenir? Do you know how long it takes this type of coral to grow to this fullness? Three hundred years Oliver! It takes three hundred years! And someone just broke it off like it was nothing! And people wonder what’s happening to all of nature’s...”
Oliver honestly mostly tunes Barry out as he continues to rant about coral and inconsiderate people before telling Oliver about the different types a shells he’d found and what types of marine life had once inhabited them.
He tries to focus on Barry’s voice and not the vast ocean that was mere feet away from him.
Later that night, Oliver is trying to get comfortable in bed but he can hear the waves crashing from here, something he loved when he was little but set him on edge now.
He hears his door creak open and Oliver’s favorite metahuman peeks his head in. “Hey, can I come in?” Barry inquires softly. He nods in response and the speedster pads into the room, shutting the door as quietly as possible behind him.
Barry walks over to him, hesitating for just a moment before sitting on the edge of the bed. “I just wanted to see how you were doing.” Oliver gives him a puzzled look. “I’m fine.” Barry nods, but he has a calculating look on his face. “I’m sorry about earlier. I didn’t see them going to dump the water on you, I would have stopped them if I had.” He freezes up for a second before plastering the most convincing smile he can on his face. Barry does not look convinced. “It wasn’t your fault, besides it was just water.” Barry sighs and runs a hand through his chocolate brown locks. “Look Oliver, I know you don’t like talking about your feelings, but it’s okay. You know that right?” Barry questions. “What’s okay?” Barry looks at him with such sincere understanding eyes that he wants to look away so he won’t break down in front of the other man. “It’s okay that you’re afraid of the ocean.” Oliver tries to scoff but it comes out sounding weak even to his own ears. “I’m not afraid of the o-”
It had been a while since someone had been able to shut Oliver up with just a look, but Barry did it effortlessly. He looked away from the other man. Barry simply took one of his hands in response. Oliver tensed but didn’t pull his hand back. “You don’t need to be ashamed of it. It’s perfectly understandable after everything you’ve been through.” Oliver didn’t say a word but apparently Barry heard him anyway. “It’s not weakness to be afraid, everyone has their fears. There’s no one in this universe or any other that is completely fearless, and anyone who tries say that they are is even more full of crap than you are.” Oliver manages a small smile at the reminder of his last heart-to-heart with the Central City hero, but he still doesn’t say anything or look up at Barry. Barry sighs again.
“You know after the man and yellow killed my mother and my father went to jail I was terrified of that…that force that took her, took both of them really, away from me. I spent years having nightmares about super speed, it scared me, and it made me angry, and I hated it. I hated it for giving someone the power to kill my mom. I hated it for letting someone get away with that. I hated it for making my dad take the blame. I hated it for every look of pity. I hated it for every time someone insulted my dad. I hated it for every person who didn’t believe me. I hated it for every time someone told me I was crazy. I hated it for every time it made me feel like I was crazy, every time I almost gave up hope. And then suddenly I was a speedster. I was the thing that I had feared and loathed for all those years.” Oliver finally looked up at Barry. Seeing the look on his face, Barry continued. “Don’t get me wrong, I love my speed. It’s amazing and awesome and it gives me the power to help people, to save people. But making the transition from despising super speed, from being utterly horrified by it, to suddenly having it was…it was a lot harder for me than I let anyone know.” He confessed a with a few tears rolling down his beautiful face.
Oliver’s heart hurt seeing his friend like that and he couldn’t resist pulling the younger man to his chest, holding him tightly. Barry wraps his arms just as tightly around Oliver in return and they stay like that in silence for some time before Oliver takes a deep breath and begins.
“I saw Sara get pulled into the ocean and drown. I know now that she didn’t die, but I thought she did, and it was all my fault. It was on the ocean, floating in a rickety little lifeboat that a saw my father, a man I loved and admired more than pretty much anyone, kill a man. I saw the man that my dad killed, fall back into the ocean and sink. Right before my dad killed himself. It was on the ocean that I drifted for days, hungry and scared and confused and sitting right next to the lifeless body of my father. It was the ocean that washed me up onto the island. It was the ocean that brought in storms that left me wet and cold and hungry because all the animals would hide. It was the ocean that kept me separated from everything I loved. It was the ocean that-” He chokes up, tears that had been building up as he spoke spilling over at last.
Barry just nuzzles deeper into him and rubs his back soothingly. He squeezes Barry tighter as he tries to push away the memories that were overtaking him. “Hey, you don’t have to keep going. That was so good. I’m so proud of you. Thank you for trusting me.” Oliver pulls back slightly and looks at Barry’s face. There is no hint of him thinking Oliver was being stupid or laughing at him or even worse pity as Oliver had feared. There were no signs of Barry thinking he was broken or damaged or weak. There was just warm, endless compassion and caring.
“Please, don’t leave me.” He hates how needy he sounds as he makes his request but Barry doesn’t even hesitate to pull Oliver back into his comforting embrace. “I’m here. I’m not going anywhere. I’ll always be here for you when you need me and even when you don’t. I’ll never leave you. I’ll never abandon you. You’re safe with me.” Barry assures. Oliver lays back on the bed pulling Barry on top of him. Barry curls up on his chest with his arms still around the older vigilante. Oliver really doesn't want to think about how good it feels. How right it feels. How much he never want's to let the man he's holding go. Barry starts to sing softly (and who knew he could sing that well?) and Oliver finds himself focusing on Barry’s voice instead of the ocean just like he did earlier today when Barry was going on and on about coral and marine life.
As he drifts off to sleep, he wonders if the other man is doing that on purpose.
By some stroke of their usually non-existent luck he and Barry wake up before anyone else the next morning, saving them from awkward questions and teasing about them sleeping together.
Oliver wakes up first, which is no surprise considering he has never gotten out of the habit of waking up before dawn since his return from the island. And he finds himself perfectly content to watch Barry sleep in his arms. In fact the sight brings a smile to his face which surprises him a little. Barry wakes up about an hour later and blushes when he see Oliver gazing at him.
“You could have woken me. I would’ve moved so you could get up.” Oliver shrugs and tries to ignore cold, empty feeling he gets as Barry leaves his arms to go back to his own room and get ready for the day. “It’s not like I had anything in particular I needed to be doing.” Barry nods, still blushing, and turns to leave the room. “Hey, Barry.” Oliver calls out to him as he opens the door. “Yeah?” Barry whispers back. Oliver hesitates for a moment. “Thank you.” It’s hard for him to say, but Barry’s bright smile makes it more than worth it. “Anytime.”
Later on, the rest of their teams decide to go back down to the beach again, and Oliver is a little less reluctant to go. He still refuses to go in the water, but before anyone can fuss about IT, Barry declares that Oliver will be helping him build a sand castle. He raises an eyebrow at the other man who grins back at him as he set up a variety of plastic toys, shovels, and buckets to build said sand castle with.
He chuckles and heads over, sitting down beside Barry. “You’re doing this to distract me.” He accuses with a fond smile. “Just like you were doing yesterday when you were telling me all about coral disrespect and shell life.” Barry gives him a sheepish look. “You picked up on that huh? I just figured that if the ocean was bringing up bad memories, I obviously wouldn’t be in them, so I was hoping me talking to you would remind you that you weren’t there anymore.” He admits. “Well, it did help. Thank you.” Barry’s eyes sparkle in the sunlight. “Of course. But this isn’t just for you benefit. We are going to build the best damn sand castle this beach has ever seen. With your strength packing the sand in to full capacity, my knowledge of the science and math behind architecture and ability flip the buckets so fast that not a single grain will dare to fall out of place, there is no way we can fail to build the most architecturally correct, stable, perfect, bad ass building made of eroded particles that has ever existed.”
Oliver laughed harder than he had in a long time. "You know someone should write up a list of everything you’ve ever said that no normal person would ever say.” He suggested. “Not even I have the time to write a list that long Oliver.” Barry dismisses. Oliver laughs some more as he starts packing sand into the buckets.
One hour later the Flarrow Palace (Cisco really needed to work on his obsession with naming things) was finished. “That was actually really fun.” A sand covered Oliver confessed to and equally sand covered Barry. Thankfully since this was his family’s private beach, no one else was there and Barry was able to use his speed to quickly blow the sand off of them (though he’d made sure the moved far enough away from their masterpiece that it wouldn’t be harmed by accident). “It was, and it had the added benefit of getting the others off your back for today.”
“Wow, you’re done, now all you need is two pretty princesses to live in your castle. Or are you two the princesses?” His sister teased “Or not.” He and Barry plopped down beside the Palace. “You’re just jealous of our awesome sand castle.” Barry shot back. His sister got a mischievous look on her face. Uh oh. “You know, I think I should take a closer look at the sand castle.” She started to stalk over. “She’s planning an attack! She’s planning an attack! Defensive positions! Defensive positions! Quickly Oliver! Retrieve your bow!” Oliver was barely holding in his laughter. “I didn’t bring it.” Barry whipped around to look at him. “What do you mean you didn’t bring it?” Oliver shrugged. “We were only coming down here for a few hours. I highly doubt we’re going to be attacked on my family’s privately owned beach, so it would just be something extra to carry here and back. There was no real need to bring it, why would I?”
“IMPOSTER! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH THE REAL OLIVER QUEEN!” Barry shouted as he backed away in mock horror. Oliver just about lost it at that. An idea struck him. He gave his best sinister smirk. “I captured him, and now I’m going to do the same to you.” Oliver played along as he pounced on Barry, pinning the other man (who he might add could have easily gotten away) down on the sand. Barry laughed and smiled up at him and Oliver grinned right back down at Barry.
Then he leaned down and captured the pinned man’s lips with his own.
Oliver doesn’t know what made him do it. And for a second he panics that he may have just ruined one of the most wonderful friendships he’s ever had, but then Barry’s arms escape his grip and the younger man wraps them around Oliver, pulling the Starling City hero down on top of him and moaning lightly as he parts his lips for Oliver. They stay like that for a good few minutes, tongues colliding as they explore each other’s mouths.
Then Roy wolf-whistles and they belatedly realize that literally everyone is watching them make-out.
Oliver looks over at Roy and the very intelligent young man immediately starts running. Oliver glances back down at Barry. “Give me just a second.” Barry nods and Oliver move off of him and reaches under one of the towels they’ve laid out. Barry laughs infectiously from beside him. “I knew you brought it with you.”
Oliver’s laughter joins Barry’s as he nocks an arrow and aims.