#dinahmite

Requested by anon: hey! do you think you could do a dinahxlaurel where dinah is celebrating hanukkah alone and laurel finds out and celebrates it with her?

Words: 1417

Ever since moving to Star City, Dinah had gotten used to celebrating holidays alone. In the past, she had Vince to celebrate Hanukkah with, but ever since he died, she had been forced to celebrate alone.

For the past two years, there wasn’t much reason to celebrate in her opinion. Sure, she lit up a Menorah in her living room and ate latkes from the local bakery, but the usual festive cheer was gone. There was just no reason to play the usual games and do anything particularly fun for the holidays. Besides, it wasn’t like she had anyone to give gifts to.

Team Arrow knew that Dinah was Jewish, and Felicity was busy celebrating with Oliver. She had invited Dinah over to celebrate of course, but Dinah didn’t want to be a party crasher in the Queen house. Seeing Oliver and Felicity happily married only reminded her of all the things she had lost in her own life. It was probably for the best that she spent the next few days either busy at work or alone at home.

Needless to say, Felicity could not stand to see one of her closest friends celebrating this holiday alone. Yes, she knew that Dinah was most likely brooding at home alone, but she also knew a certain person who might cheer her up for the next few days. The only challenge was getting this person to admit their feelings for the police captain.

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“Ms. Lance, there’s a Felicity Smoak here to see you.” The DA’s secretary seemed to be scared shitless as the blonde DA gave her a cold glare.

Sighing in frustration, Laurel gave the secretary a cold nod as she closed another file. She already had enough on her plate with all the cases going on in Star City, what did Felicity want now? Another favor? What could it possibly be this time around?

After less than two minutes into “small talk”, Felicity finally revealed the reason why she had so boldly come unannounced. “I think Dinah is celebrating Hanukkah alone this year.”

Laurel could not see what this had to do with her. “So…..that’s it? That’s all you came to me to talk about? Maybe she wants to be alone once in a while, unlike you and that man-child you call a hu--”

“Hey, this is Oliver we’re talking about here. Besides, if you don’t like him so much why did you help him out of jail? I know you went through a lot of trouble to help him.”

“Maybe I needed an easy case as a warm up to becoming the DA for this godforsaken city.”

“Hmm, and it didn’t have anything to do with the fact that Dinah noticed how helpful and selfless you were?”

“You know, I am perfectly capable of doing things out of the goodness of my own heart. Without the help of any outside factors.” Laurel looked pissed that anyone would dare question her motives.

“If you say so. Here is Dinah’s address if you feel like changing your story anytime.” Felicity’s face looked smug as she slipped a folded piece of paper across the table toward Laurel.

Laurel snorted as Felicity left. Her? Doing things for Dinah’s approval? That was literally the most ridiculous thing she’s heard all day and she hasn’t even had her first drink yet.

As the day wore on, Laurel could not help but think over what Felicity had told her. What if Dinah was actually lonely during Hanukkah? That was unacceptable. Opening her computer, Laurel resolved to learn about Jewish traditions during this time of year as best she could before she got out of work.

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Laurel got out of the taxi a block away from Dinah’s apartment. What the hell did she think she was doing? She had a gift that she had bought after work, and she had spent a solid half hour doing some elaborate gift-wrapping that she hadn’t done in who knows how long. But the most important question remained: why was she here, instead of going straight home and watching Netflix on her couch? Felicity’s endless lectures about being a selfless individual must be getting to her head in order for her to be here.

Realizing that she had been pacing up and down the same street for the last fifteen minutes, Laurel resolved to buckle up and do what she came here to do. Worrying over something so simple as stopping at a colleagues house was ridiculous.

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The most frustrating thing about this whole situation was that Laurel had to take several deep breaths before she was able to gather the courage to knock on Dinah’s door. Why did it feel like her heart was about to race out of her chest and find its way on Dinah’s lap every time she was in a ten foot radius of the police captain? Laurel barely had time to gather her nerves before Dinah opened the door.

“What are you doing here at this hour?” Dinah looked confused to see Laurel nervously fidgeting with her hands at 8:30pm in front of her door. “Is there something wrong at the DA’s office?”

“No, no! I am here for something else!” Laurel started blushing furiously when she saw Dinah’s confused eyes search her face for an explanation.

“Well, do you want to come in and explain to me inside my apartment?” Dinah stood to the side and waited for Laurel to come in. Laurel stared at the open door, not sure if she wanted to take the leap of faith.

Taking a few hesitant steps toward Dinah’s apartment, Laurel awkwardly held out the present that she had brought with her. “Here, this is for you.”

Dinah stared at the package in Laurel’s hand. “What is that for?”

“Well, I heard from a certain source that you were celebrating Hanukkah alone this year. I researched some Jewish traditions before I came, and apparently, there is a tradition of exchanging presents. I thought that any company would be better than no company, so that’s why I’m here.” Laurel had never felt so awkward in her life as she stood there with her present still in the air.

Dinah slowly closed the gap between them and finally accepted the gift. “Does this source happen to have blond hair and glasses?” Her smirk reassured Laurel as they headed towards the kitchen. “Can I get you anything, since you’re here and all?” There was an unspoken grateful undertone that Dinah tried to hide under a poker face, but Laurel had played that game too many times to be fooled.

“Yeah, sure. Whatever you have would be fine.” Laurel took this chance to have a look around Dinah’s apartment. “You have good taste in decoration, for a police captain.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.” Dinah came back with two glasses and a bottle. Both of them drank in silence for a while. It wasn’t an uncomfortable silence, it was just both of them appreciating the fact that they weren’t alone for the night.

As an hour went by with both of them occasionally moving to refill their glass, Dinah finally decided to break the silence. “Thank you for stopping by to keep me company. Also, I appreciate the present. We should do this more often in the future.”

“You want to spend more time with me?” Laurel was truly surprised that Dinah wanted to see more of her around.

“Yes, you’re one of the few people who doesn’t force me to talk and isn’t intimidated by silence. I appreciate that in a person.” Dinah uncharacteristically fiddled with the hem of her shirt as she talked to Laurel.

“Well, are you going to open the present that I got you?”

“Sure.” Dinah looked somewhat excited as she tore through the paper. Inside the box, there was a new leather holster with Dinah’s initials embedded in it. “This is so beautiful!”

Just like you, Laurel thought. But she managed to keep her face in check and say, “I’m glad you like it.”

“Are you kidding? I love it!” Dinah seemed ecstatic over her present. “You’ll definitely have to come over tomorrow! I’ll get you a present too.”

“No, no you don’t have to do that --”

“It’s tradition, and I insist. I’ll walk you here after work myself if I must.” Dinah seemed determined to get Laurel to return to her apartment.

It’s literally the only time I see her consistently brought up anymore. 

Maybe I’m just in the wrong parts of fandom (which tbf I am not as active as I used to be and I think pm all the BC/BOP blogs I used to follow are mostly defunct or changed fandoms completely) but like, unless it’s an Arrowfam blog, she literally just comes up as group therapist for not only the Batfam but also the Justice League. She’s one of the most well connected heroes out there, with a great history, lots of friendships and is one of the best hand to hand fighters, and y’all only ever bring her up when she’s being a therapist to other characters. She’s only there to further other characters storylines or jokes to y’all and I am TIRED of it.

I love Arrowfam, they’re great and I love Dinah as a part of the Arrowfam, but like also, she’s not defined by her relationship with Ollie either, considering they’ve probably spent more time broken up or straight up like widowed than together, even if they are one of the DC power couples. Dinah has been part of a shit ton of teams and line-ups and friend groups.

Like, she doesn’t need to be in Batfam stuff or anything, but like she has more connections to the Fam as a whole than as their therapist (and if we go by the old Battle of the Cowl rules, she is a Batfam member), considering she’s genuinely good friends with at least a third of them, and has mentored at least half of the batkids at some point. She’s a JL founder in some origins and otherwise is the leader at different points in time, including like actually very recently (I’m not caught up enough to know if she is still in a leadership position but she was as recently as last year! Current JL run!), and she just like, knows so many people having been in the business or connected to the business since birth. 

do I like them: yes of course is that even a question lmao5 good qualities: could kick my ass, could kick batman’s ass, is like the best friend anyone could ask for, is an amazing leader, is gorgeous as hell3 bad qualities: is a m e s s (i love her for it tho), has horrible taste in men (god love him but Ollie??? RA’S AL GHUL???), has a temperfavourite episode/etc: I’m just gonna go with fave title for her which is probs Birds of Prey tbhotp: uhhh *shifty eyes* coughshaldinahcoughsbrotp: I wanna say DinahHelena or DinahBabs but I otp ship her with both of them too (pm everyone I would pick for her brotp I also otp ship her with them lol) uhhh RoyDinah then??ot3: Dialbarry aka Dinah/Hal/Barrynotp: I actually don’t know Ra’s/Dinah? (even tho this was in Arrow I’m also still very put off by Wildcanary)best quote: tbh the entire scene after Batman one hit KO’d Guy in JLI “Batman belted him- and I missed it?  Oh, god, I’m depressed.” (Especially bc in later continuity it turns out she faxed fucked photos of passed out Guy to Diana) on a more serious note, I also love the quote “Tonight, if I join the fallen in this community that I have loved all of my life… so be it. Let me die fighting, fists up and head high.” head canon: so like obvi by my url i headcanon Dinah as bi but like I have this headcanon where she doesn’t realize she likes girls for a long while bc she really likes guys and it just doesn’t cross her mind? she really doesn’t discover it until she ends up getting kissed by a villainess (my money being on Talia TaliaDinah is real okay) and she’s surprisingly into it and she tries to blame it on like hallucinogenic/aphrodisiac lipstick or some shit (like Poison Ivy would have) and someone just has to go “sweetie no”