Unexpected Turn of Conversations

Description: Roy is having trouble keeping secrets from Thea and when Oliver tries to give him advice, things take an unexpected turn when Roy assumes that Oliver has it easy.

Warnings: Spoilers for Arrow, up until 2x12.

Word count: 1,523

A/N: Just got the idea to write this little one-shot! It's nothing serious so be nice! Reviews are always welcome! =)

Roy threw punch after punch at the special-made punching-bag that Oliver had bought him. It was a stress reliever, and he had gotten quite fond of it considering that he was stressed out of his mind.

The last couple of days had been difficult for him mostly because of all the secrets he was keeping. It wasn't that he hadn't hid things from Thea before, but this, being a part of 'Team Arrow', was proving to be more difficult than he had ever expected.

Oliver had encouraged him to keep his job at Verdant and to use that to cover up his secrets. The only thing that Oliver didn't think of, was that Thea also worked there, and that she was constantly around him. Thea had forgiven him for hurting her, but the fact that she had to wear long-sleeved shirts for a while to cover up to bruises made him sick.

He had seen women being abused lots of times in the Glades. Most of time, he was able to help them, but sometimes, they didn't want anyones help, because they loved their boyfriend who did the abusing, no matter how much of a dick he was being.

Roy hated to admit it, but when Thea had simply accepted his apology, he felt like one of those dicks. He knew that with his new powers there was no way of knowing when he would lose control again, and Thea wasn't exactly the type of girl who just let things slide. She had already asked him several times why he wasn't picking up his phone or texting her back at night and time after time, he had had to lie to her and tell her that he had been asleep or hadn't heard it. Working at Verdant forced him to spend time with Thea. Usually, he wouldn't mind, since she was his girlfriend after all, but the secrets were getting harder and harder to keep with every day that passed.

So, instead of risking saying too much, Roy had decided to punch out his frustration on something that wouldn't talk back.

"Roy," a feminine voice behind him said, causing him to spin around. His shirt was already soaked through as his eyes met with Felicity's. "You're here early," she commented, giving him a once over. "Hard day?"

The knowing tone in her voice annoyed Roy, but for the last couple of weeks he had learned to keep himself in check around the blonde. He didn't want to scare, nor hurt her, like he had done to Thea by accident. "Make that a hard week," Roy snorted, before turning back to the punching-bag.

"If you need someone to talk to…" Felicity trailed off, leaving the sentence unfinished, but he understood anyway.

"Thanks," he said, coming off more bitter than he intended to, "but I'm fine, really."

Felicity only nodded and walked over to the computers.

Soon both Oliver and Diggle arrived to the lair and Roy was forced to leave his punching-bag behind as Felicity informed them on some criminal activities they would be taking down tonight. Roy tried focusing hard, but no matter what he did, his mind always went back to Thea and the secrets he was keeping from her.

After the mission was done, Roy once again found himself in the lair, looking through his phone at the text messages Thea had sent him. He groaned deeply as he read the third text asking him if he was feeling better. Once again, he had lied and told her that he was sick and that he couldn't make it to work.

"Hey, Roy," Oliver suddenly said beside him. "Are you okay?"

Roy looked up at Oliver, his eyebrow raised in question, "What?"

Oliver seemed to be struggling with his own words, which nearly caused Roy to chuckle. Perhaps the two of them were more alike than they both liked to admit. "Felicity told me you were having a rough week, and I figured I should ask you how you were doing with all of this," Oliver explained, motioning to the lair.

"Felicity told you to ask me, didn't she?" Roy asked, causing Oliver to grin sheepishly.

"Yeah, she did," he admitted. "I'm guessing you don't want to talk about it?" Oliver continued, shifting uncomfortably on his feet.

Roy didn't, but still, he couldn't keep his mouth shut. "It's just hard, you know? Lying to Thea all the time," he said.

Oliver nodded understandingly. "So this is about my sister," he said. "I figured."

"I just don't think lying to her constantly is going to keep her around much longer," Roy said, suddenly finding it awfully easy to talk to Oliver.

"I get that it's difficult to lie to the people you love," Oliver sighed, putting his hand on Roy's shoulder, "but you need to remember why you're doing what you're doing. The only way to protect Thea, is to keep her out of the Arrow business."

"That's easy for you to say," Roy bitterly replied. "You're not constantly lying to your girlfriend."

Oliver's hand dropped from his shoulder and he took a step back, setting some distance between them. "What?"

Roy raised his eyebrow at him and motioned toward Felicity's desk with his head. "Yeah, you and Blondie? Did you think I wouldn't notice or something?" he asked.

Oliver's eyes widened for a brief second before he forced himself to take on a neutral face. "Felicity and I are not together, Roy," he told him and Roy raised his eyebrow.

"Well you sure fooled me," Roy said, now getting amused by the way Oliver was shifting uncomfortably again.

"You should have seen him when Barry was around," Diggle suddenly said as he walked toward them. Oliver groaned and Roy could have sworn he had seen something flash in his eyes.

"Who's Barry?" Roy asked. He was definitely amused now.

"No one important," Oliver bit out, turning to glare at Diggle.

"Yeah, no one," Diggle smirked, clearly enjoying the turn the conversation had taken. Ignoring Oliver's glare, he turned to Roy. "I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed though," he said, clearly referring to the accusation Roy had earlier made about Felicity and Oliver.

"Are the two of you ganging up on me?" Oliver asked, still shooting arrows at Diggle with his eyes.

Roy chuckled, now way too entertained to stop taunting his girlfriend's brother. "What are you going to do? Call your girlfriend and tell her to fry our bank accounts?" Roy mocked, just as a door opened.

"Who is going to fry your bank accounts?" Felicity asked, pushing her glasses up her nose. Roy could have sworn that even in the dim light of the lair, he saw just a hint of red stain Oliver's cheeks. If it was from embarrassment or anger, he didn't know.

"No one is freezing anyone's accounts," Oliver said, turning to Diggle and Roy again, "and you two," he motioned to them, "shut up." The warning in his tone made Roy chuckle and Diggle shake his head.

Felicity looked at the three of them, raising her eyebrow. "Okay, is this some testosterone induced 'man-fight' that I'm not allowed to participate in?" she asked, but Oliver put his hand on her shoulder, turning her toward the computers. His other hand found her other shoulder as he gently started pushing her toward the monitors.

"Don't listen to them, Felicity," he said, "they're just being childish."

"Okay?" Roy heard Felicity say as Oliver practically forced her to sit in her chair.

"Now show me how you hacked that prison system network last week," he told her, sitting down next to her in a chair. From a distance Diggle and Roy watched as the billionaire but his one arm around her shoulders, leaning in to look at the monitors. Felicity was looking at him, stunned for barely a moment, before turning her head to the monitors as well.

"It's simple really…" she began and started showing Oliver. Roy turned to look at Diggle, who was just shaking his head.

"When you spend a year with these two, you'll get used to it," the older man told him.

Roy couldn't help but grin suddenly. "Wanna bet on how long it's gonna take until the two of them hook up?"

Diggle didn't reply, only smirked and glanced at Oliver and Felicity from the side before holding his hand out for Roy to shake.

Maybe telling Thea the truth wouldn't be so bad one day, Roy thought as he looked at Oliver and Felicity again. They were now engaged in a deep conversation as Felicity showed him how she had covered up her tracks when hacking the system. Perhaps Thea could become the Felicity to his Oliver the day he finally decided to tell her?

For now though, he had to focus on controlling his strength. Roy went back to the punching bag and Diggle followed him, holding it in place for him as he threw punch after punch. At least he wasn't alone in dealing with the lies, he thought as Diggle patted his shoulder once the workout was over.

A/N: Thoughts? :) Thanks for reading! ;)