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When Oliver approached Speedy about an out of town assignment that he was going on, he wasn’t really sure what to think.
His first thoughts were along the lines of, Why are you telling me this? Do you need something? How are you going to drive yourself anywhere when you’re constantly drunk or high? Are you getting a plane?
“Do you want to come with me?” Oliver asked.
“Huh?”
“I wanted to know if you wanted to come with me on my trip. Dig offered to take over for the hero aspect, and I thought you might want to get out of town. It’s for my day job, so you’d have to find something to entertain yourself with while I’m in my actual meeting, but I thought you might be able to find something fun to do.”
Is he going to yell at me if I say no?
“How are you getting there?” Speedy asked.
“Oh, I’m driving.”
Which one is a bigger risk, saying no, or getting in a car with Oliver behind the wheel?
“Yeah, I’ll come,” he finally decided.
Oliver gave him a smile, then walked away.
Now Speedy is loading the car up, and he’s regretting his choices.
At least if I said no, he would have just yelled at me, then I could stay here. Now I’m going to be stuck in a car with him. What was I thinking?
Oliver put a hand on Speedy’s shoulder, causing him to jump.
“Whatcha doing? You’re just holding that bag and staring at the car.”
“Oh, sorry. I’ll-”
Speedy looks around. All of the bags are already in the car.
“I finished packing it while you were in lala land,” Oliver says, smirking at Speedy.
Speedy finds himself smiling too even if it’s small and he immediately looks away.
“Ok, I’ll just put this in there, and we can get going.”
Oliver nods.
You know, I thought he was hiding it well, but I really think he’s sober right now.
“Do you want to drive at all?” Oliver asks as he climbs into the driver’s seat.
“I can.”
“Ok, well, I’ll start out driving, and if you want to swap at any point, we can. If not, I can drive the whole time.”
Speedy nods as he climbs into the passenger’s seat. He grabs a book out of the backseat before buckling his seat belt. Oliver waits until he’s settled to take the car out of park.
“What’re you reading?” Oliver asks, not looking away from the road.
“The Hobbit. My teacher was impressed by how many books that I’ve read, so she just told me that I can read whatever I want for my book report. There was a list you could choose from, and she asked who had read what. I read all of them. They were all classics though.”
Oliver laughs.
“I was never one for reading. Well, technically I used to be, but life got in the way.”
Speedy looks back down at his book.
“Life sure does get in the way of a lot of things.”
Oliver hums, then flips the radio on.
“I can’t believe that I’ve never asked you what kind of music you like,” he says after a minute of flipping through stations.
“I mean, I like lots of things. I don’t really define my music tastes by genre.”
“Interesting. Well, do you want to pick a station?”
“No, that’s ok. You can just pick something.”
Oliver looks over at him with an odd look on his face, but he doesn’t say anything. The rest of the day is spent talking, or listening to music as they drive. Though Speedy is starting to feel a little sick when they stop for the night. He doesn’t say anything as they unload the car, and get settled for the night.
However, he doesn’t sleep, and ends up spending most of the night in the bathroom, throwing up as quietly as he could so as not to wake Oliver up. By the time morning rolls around and Oliver wakes up, Speedy has slipped into the shower. Once he comes out, Oliver immediately narrows his eyes at him.
“You look pale.”
“It’s probably just the shower. It was cold.”
“Oh, why did you take a cold shower?”
Speedy shrugs as he drops back onto the couch.
“When are we leaving?”
“As soon as I get a shower. So, be ready.”
Speedy already has the car completely packed by the time Oliver comes back.
“Wow, that was fast. I didn’t mean that you had to pack the car by yourself. I just meant to be ready to do that.”
“But you said to be ready to go, not ready to pack.”
“You’re right, I’ll be more specific next time. Anyway, are you sure you’re ok? You look like you’re catching something.”
Shit, how do I respond to that? I can’t make him late for his meeting.
Speedy nods.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
Oliver nods, though he still gives Speedy a strange look. Speedy ignores it, and heads out to the car. He tucks himself into the passenger’s seat while Oliver checks them out of the hotel. He’s already half asleep by the time Oliver gets to the car.
“Hey, buddy, did you not sleep well last night?”
Speedy shakes his head, not even really comprehending what they’re talking about. Oliver takes that at face value, and starts the car. Speedy sleeps for the first few hours, but is incredibly nauseous when he wakes up.
“Can you stop at that gas station?” Speedy asks as they’re passing a gas station.
Oliver pulls in, even though he has to turn pretty fast.
“Why?” he asks, though Speedy is already getting out of the car.
He ends up throwing up for a few minutes in the bathroom, though it’s not anything other than water.
He can hear Oliver outside of the stall before Oliver says, “Roy, are you ok?”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” he replies, though he’s still breathing heavily.
“You don’t sound ok. Why are you throwing up?”
“I don’t know.”
“You might have caught a bug. Just meet me back at the car when you’re good to keep driving. I’ll get some stuff for the ride.”
Speedy bites his lip to press back tears and a curse.
What does some stuff mean? Is he mad? Well, if he’s not now, he’s going to be if I don’t make sure that we’re on the road in time to get to his meeting. I’m fine, I just need to walk back out there. I don’t have anything else to throw up anyway, it’s fine.
He steps out of the stall, and washes his hands and face. Then he rushes back out to the car.
“You can lay down in the back, I moved our backpacks to the floorboard. I got some ginger candies, and some water bottles. Also, if you actually feel like you’re going to throw up, then you can throw up in this trash bag. They didn’t have any medicine, but we’ll get some when we get there if you’ll be alright till then.”
Speedy just stares at Oliver with wide eyes, and nods. Oliver gives him a small smile. Speedy ends up sleeping through the rest of the car ride. Oliver leaves him in the car to buy medicine, and doesn’t wake him up until they get to the hotel. Even then, Speedy is out of it, and just lets Oliver lead him inside. Oliver makes him take some medicine, then tucks him into bed before unloading the car again. Speedy wakes up alone while Oliver is at his meeting. However, aside from that meeting, Oliver ends up taking care of Speedy for the next couple days until he was feeling well enough for them to go home.