AN: Bonjour. Welcome to For the Love of Spandex, I hope you enjoy it. This story will contain some strong-ish language and frequent sexual allusions. You, my friend, have been warned. My profile contains more details as well as a link to an accompanying playlist. –SS

Beta's make me happy. Thanks BJ Louis, Inazuma Akai and Kyoko Kasshu Minamino

All standard disclaimers apply.

For the Love of Spandex

"You're breaking up with me?"

"Yes."

"Yes? After four months Connor, all you can say to me is 'yes'?" Max questioned as the pitch of her voice became increasingly higher. Soon only dogs would be able to hear her.

"Yes."

Max's hands wrapped into tight fists and if Connor wasn't careful it wouldn't be long before furniture started flying.

"Maxine." When had he started calling her Maxine? "You're a beautiful girl and without a doubt one of the smartest people I know and I- well I—" Connor paused and crooked his head to the side, staring intently at the back of the room. When his gaze finally returned to hers there was a new found confidence etched into his voice. "You're young. You're still finding out who you are and where your place is in this world and you aren't ready for the kind of dedicated relationship a guy in my position needs. Seriously, what kind of eighteen year old is?" His hand reached out to trace invisible words on the skin of her cheek as the corner of his lip twitched up into what could almost be a smirk. "Even when you sleep you're all elbows and knees. Joints sticking out in every direction just to make sure no one ever gets too close to you and until you've matured enough to let your guard down this could never work."

Max stood stock still; her chest heaving in and out as anger slowly began to overtake her. It started at her mouth, stilling her tongue and forcing her plump lips into an unnaturally thin line. It then travelled slowly up to her ears so Connor's words faded and all that was left was the base humdrum of his voice and the violent beat of her eardrums. The anger ventured further upwards still and blinded her to the beautiful man in front of her. All his green eyes, cutting cheekbones, shining skin and even more resplendent hair were forgotten as an angry red light pulsed in front of her eyes. The buzzing that held her senses then began to affect her brain. Max acknowledged the way his voice was just an octave too deep and saw the way his smile never quite reached his eyes but with the cloying set of anger -or was that despair- hanging in her chest, she just couldn't care and instead she said, "You're ending this because of the way I sleep?"

Connor chuckled, presumably at her naivety and nodded his head quickly before saying with perhaps what was just a hint of smugness, "Yes dear, this is about how you sleep."

He then stooped down the several inches between their heads and pressed his mouth to hers. After what was barely a moment he pulled up to his full height taking with him all of the breath left within the crestfallen girl and whispered, "Goodbye, Maxine."

With that the strapping man turned on his heel and exited her flat. Not long after the door whizzed shut a crystal vase smashed into its shiny metal frame leaving smatterings of glass all over the wooden floors. Max had wanted to get rid of that ugly thing anyway.

Max sank down into the comfort of her couch and exhaled. How had she become this? The girl screaming and throwing dishes over some silly boy? What would her parents think if they could see their strong little girl now? What would her sister think about that famous boy-resistant Gibson resolve? What would Terry think--?

"I told you older guys were trouble."

The forlorn teenager turned her head ever so slightly to find her best friend lurking in her living room shadows in all his Knight-time best.

"Go away McGinnis."

"Aw come on Max, that guy was a jerk." Terry removed his cowl and swung his body over the back of the leather couch so he could gather his best friend in his arms and allow her to tuck away the tears he would never actually see into the safety of his shoulder. "At least you'll always have me, right?"

"And here I thought you were supposed to be making me feel better."

"Not schway." The dark haired teen chided as he squeezed her lightly whilst stroking the length of her arm.

Max buried her head further into the crook of Terry's shoulder as if trying to find strength within its dark Lycra padding. "Do you know that he actually tried to tell me that I'm not mature enough for him? Me…Max Gibson not mature enough for the lunatic who runs around the city in a green, spandex suit, with arrows strapped to his back. I mean honestly, what century is it? Bet that condescending son-of-a-bitch thought I wasn't mature enough to figure out his secret identity. I have half a mind to post it on the nets so everyone knows."

Max could feel Terry's smirk against her forehead but the boy decided to keep his mouth firmly shut. He was smarter than she sometimes gave him credit for.

"Whoa, wait a minute, Connor was--?" Terry started before he was cut off.

"Yeah. I assumed you knew."

"Alias Connor Hawke, male, thirty-six years old, 5"11, mixed heritage, currently deactivated from service of the Justice League." He rattled off the statistics he had so obviously memorized. He must have heard Max's quizzical groan because he responded, "Bruce likes to keep in the know of other suits passing through the city and your boy's been wandering up and down the east coast for quite a while now but after that whole fiasco with the new Speedy I wouldn't be too eager to get back to Star City either."

Terry shifted and rearranged the entangled pair into a more comfortable position. "He's stayed in Gotham longer than anywhere else, but I guess it's pretty easy to figure out why… Still Max, you could have told me."

Max looked up at Terry and there were no traces of the tears that were dampening his suit anywhere on the pretty girl's face and she rasped, "I'm an impenetrable fortress of secrets McGinnis, and that is all thanks to you."

"Well I figured if you knew anything about other suits, I'd be the one you'd tell being your best friend and all." Terry mumbled his expression akin to one of a sulky child.

Max snorted and said in a pointed tone, "Trust me McGinnis if I was going to reveal secret identities it wouldn't be to you. Besides, Connor had his ways of making me want to spill all of my secrets, again and again and again..."

Terry groaned and scrunched his eyes shut. "Ugh, that's sick Max! Why would you tell me that?"

She shrugged and said in her lightest tone, "I just figured that after all the years of hearing explicit details about your sordid affair from Dana, then over-sharing should be a two-way street." She untangled herself from his strong arms and replaced his arms with her own. Max walked quickly across the space of her apartment and into her bedroom, her arms still wrapped firmly around herself. "Behind the bleachers, McGinnis? I didn't know you had it in you." And with that the door to her bedroom swooshed shut.

They both knew that Max's light-hearted banter was just her way of asking to be left alone and as always Max knew that Terry would comply. She imagined him muttering, "Girls," and then pulling on his cowl before exiting through the window of her eighteenth floor apartment and blending into the darkness of the night.

Max smirked briefly at Terry's predictable reaction before letting her easy-going façade fall helplessly to the floor and her body soon followed suit. She sat on her bedroom floor; fingers curled tightly into the shag carpet, and sobbed her lonely tears into her lonelier apartment.

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On a rooftop not too far away a green-clad figure perched precariously on the ledge looking down into the neon blur that was Gotham city. The wind dashed around him causing a rustling of fabric but he sat perfectly still with his hands stretched out to his sides and anchoring him in place.

"I broke it off with her." He called out to the darkness. He was greeted with silence but this didn't seem to faze him and he continued, "You know the others seem to think that you're different. Approachable. More into teamwork than he was but you probably don't realize that you're just as much of a controlling bastard as your predecessor."

His hands gripped the edge of the roof tightly as his knuckles strained against the confines of his gloves. He angled his head and glanced over his shoulder before continuing, "I guess it must be a requirement of the job. But the more you keep trying to control everything and everyone around you the more you'll succeed in pushing them away and in the end all you'll be left with is the suit and a cave full of shitting mammals." There was a pause as his words were carried on the chill in the air and into the darkness. "And if you're not careful she'll hate you for it."

With that The Green Arrow hopped deftly over the edge of the skyscraper and into the chaos in the lower levels of Gotham for one last time before he moved on to another city.

TBC

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AN: So please allow yourself a smug grin if you managed to figure out that Max was dating the nouveau Green Arrow before that last tid bit. Connor Hawke is Oliver Queen's son and took on the moniker of the Green Arrow after his father's "death". I don't know much about his personality but I chose to model his character after the arrogance so often showed by his daddy.

Hope you enjoyed it.

Updates will be sparse. But reviews are encouraging good or bad.

SS.