#flarrowfemslashweek

Felicity stared at the mark for a moment, noting that it was fainter than her current feelings suggested. Even the trace of purple around her lips from a first kiss with a crush was darker, and that had left her devastated for days at him not being her soul mate. Then, again, the brightness of a soul mark’s color reflects, not your emotional state when you first touch the person but the person’s overall impact on your life. Hopefully these goons would be out of her life shortly.

Her tormentor lifted up the finger to show the bright orange of greed marking his fingertip. Most of the soul marks on his hands were orange, though none quite a bright as is newest one, which he waved in her face, “So, what do you think of that Ms. Palmer Tech?”

Felicity growled.

“What?” The man quipped as he put his glove back on. There were a few thumps in the distance, but that very well be the man’s friends rough-housing. Felicity doubted this gang was very sophisticated. “I didn’t hear you.”

Felicity rolled her eyes before issuing what she hoped was a death glare. The man loosened up her gag just enough to maybe breathe.  Felicity finally got a taunt in of her own, “The Black Canary will come and kick your asses.” Or at least it would have been a taunt if it hadn’t come out so muffled.

The man laughed as he jerked the gag tight again. “The Black Canary’s just a legend, and suppose that she did exist. How would she even know where we are?”

Even if she weren’t gagged, she wouldn’t have an answer to the man’s question. The Black Canary made a good taunt, but she was only a step above an urban legend at this point. Not even the police knew who she was (though Felicity had yet to actually check their database to confirm it). Moreover, unless her kidnappers were particularly sloppy with the ransom note, no one even knew where she was. Still, this had started as an ordinary mugging until these goons opened her wallet and discovered who she was, so she couldn’t discount that.

A few more thumps were heard, this time in the opposite direction. The man narrowed his eyes this time before picking up a walky-talky. “Stephen? David? What are you guys doing?” He paused for a moment. Silence. “Steven!”  The man pulled out a gun and stepped towards the sounds before a figure emerged from the shadows and knocked the gun out of his hand with a baton.

Felicity nearly jumped at the movement, and she gave a garbled scream in an attempt to get the figure to notice her.

Unfortunately, the man didn’t go down so quickly. He mauled towards the figure, now identifiable as a woman in black leather, despite the fact she hit him again with the baton in her other hand. He managed to grab her right hand, but before he could move closer the woman swung the baton in her left hand at her head and then gave him kick to the chest that caused him to finally stumble backwards. A final sweep of her leg brought the man to the ground.

The woman then rushed over to Felicity and untied Felicity’s gag. The woman’s fingers’ brushed against Felicity’s neck, though Felicity focused on the reassuring smile. As soon as the knot was undone, the woman threw the rag away. “Are you ok?”

Felicity nodded. “Yeah.” She glanced back at the man still groaning on the floor. “You’re the Black Canary, right?”

The woman nodded, having moved on to the ropes that tied Felicity’s ropes to the chair. “Let’s get you out of here quickly. I’m fairly certain I’ve covered the building, but we don’t want any of their friends showing up.”

The Black Canary’s hand had a rainbow of soul marks, which Felicity stared at as the woman worked. Like most people, a smattering of hopeful blues and compassionate indigos, probably from greeting family and friends, covered her palm. She also had swirls of willpower green across the back of her hand from what Felicity could guess was a tough job, though whether that was fighting crime, how she paid the bills, or an intense hobby, Felicity couldn’t tell. In contrast, Felicity didn’t have a hard time guessing where the stripes of reds and yellows down her fingers came from, and Felicity mused that the Black Canary probably wore gloves or concealer during the day time to prevent people from finding her secret.

Finally, and most strikingly, a bright violet dabbled across the Black Canary’s fingertips and down the side of her pinky. That’s an odd place to touch one’s soulmate, Felicity wondered, though supposed the woman wouldn’t have known who she was meeting at the time.

“Done.” The word caused Felicity to blink, and the Black Canary pulled off the ropes. “Are you sure, you’re ok? You spaced out for a moment.” She placed her hand on Felicity’s shoulder. “It’s ok if you need help.”

“No. I’m fine,” Felicity muttered, rubbing her wrists. “Just lost in thought.”

The woman gave a small laugh and started loosening the ropes around Felicity’s feet. It went quickly, though Felicity also wasn’t paying attention as closely. As soon as she finished that, the Black Canary, unfurled the man’s fingers, plucked out her glove, and put it on. She then held out her now concealed hand to Felicity, “I’ll show you to the nearest police station, so you can leave a report. I won’t come inside though.” A smirk came across her lips. “They aren’t exactly friends with me there.”

Felicity gave a warmhearted laugh and followed the Black Canary out of the building.

There the Black Canary invited her onto a motorcycle, and though Felicity stammered that she’d never ridden one before, she soon found herself on top of it. Two days ago, Felicity wouldn’t have believed it if someone had told she would be on the back of a motorcycle, she would have laughed. But, now she was not only on one, but smiling. Still, it couldn’t hurt to be too careful, so she leaned forward and wrapped her arms around the Black Canary.

A block away from the station, the Black Canary pulled the motorcycle to the side of the road. “This is your stop. I’m not going any farther.”

Felicity pulled herself off of the motorcycle and took in the Black Canary’s figure one more time. She let her eyes linger. The Black Canary certainly was striking. “I know this may be against superhero rules, but is there any way I can reach you again to thank you? A name or phone number perhaps?”

The Black Canary gave her a wink. “Have a nice trip home Ms. Smoak.” And, with that, she drove off.

Felicity indeed had a safe trip home, though it was later than she expected, so she went straight to the shower.

First, the detectives would barely let her out of the building and took every moment to grill her about the Black Canary. What did she look like? What model was her motorcycle? Did Felicity notice any identifying marks? A tattoo, a scar, or a unique soul mark perhaps? It took all of Felicity’s nerve not to roll her eyes. This woman had just saved her fortune, if not her life, and they thought she was going to help them catch her. Felicity still provided some information since it was better to avoid the cops’ suspicion and ire anyways, but she didn’t give much and purposefully left out the soul marks she had seen on the Black Canary’s hand.

Afterwards, she needed to swing by the office to make sure everything was ok. Turns out the company’s stock had taken a small but noticeable dip during her kidnapping, and upon hearing this Felicity gave a small huff. Investors could be so fickle, though she supposed people would get worried if the CEO of Palmer Tech went missing. As such she scheduled a press conference for tomorrow morning to reassure everyone that she was ok. She then gave a quick check in on her key researchers before exiting the building.

Now, after all of the day’s stress, the water running over her skin felt wonderful. Tension eased out of her skin, and she could almost feel her muscles one by one relaxing.

While rubbing the soap across her body, Felicity paused over the red speckled lightning bolt on the back of her wrist and cringed. It wasn’t bright, but she didn’t have a lot of soul mark’s there, so it still stood out. Felicity futilely rubbed the area with her thumb. A part of her knew the soul mark wouldn’t go away, that it was a part of her along with the experience it signified, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t hope. After a minute, she finally gave up and went back to her normal cleaning, but she continued to try to keep the new mark out of sight.

Eventually, she turned the shower off, wrung her hair out, and stepped out of the shower. As she wrapped her hair in a towel for the night, Felicity noticed something new by her hair line. Turning around to get a better view of it in the mirror, Felicity saw it was a bright violet soul mark on the back of her neck, where the rag the gang had used to gag her had been tied. Right where the Black Canary had untied it.

With Palmer Tech and the Lance family’s continued support, Oliver Queen quickly soars, not only in popularity with his constituents, but to the top of Damien Darhk’s proverbial Naughty List - people, mostly public figures, who pose a great enough threat to Darkh’s plans that they beg being dealt with; and between the Queen campaign and the rise of the Green Arrow, Star City seems to be getting ready not only for the holidays but for repairing itself right before Darhk’s eyes...which simply will not do.

After the right strings have been tugged, he manages to break the Lance family up, sending not only a number of his so-called ghosts but eldest sister Laurel to National City to compete with the multitude of lawyers yearning to play a role in a number of high-profile cases. 

But as it turns out, she’s stronger and better than he’d thought, and after she helps Cat Grant and her empire escape prosecution and perhaps even heavy judgment for many of her sins, he knows he needs to shake things up a little more than he had, and recruits a more talented team to take the company down, and Lance with it. 

That, too, fails miserably, with not only Supergirl showing up to save Miss Grant - as expected - but one of Star City’s own vigilantes, the Black Canary, who’s older, more experienced, and better at dirty work than the Kryptonian girl-child. 

Damien does, of course, connect the dots within a week - but that’s a week during which the press has swarmed to the company, drawn back in by the pretense of a world to be ruled by fierce women. A week that, with Laurel Lance’s continued and still vocal support of both, CatCo and Queen’s electoral campaign have bolstered enough support that H.I.V.E.’s slightly-hostile takeover is practically foiled already. 

Problems only continue to arise: he happens upon his ex-wife in Star City, only to find that her new beau is Captain Lance himself...and that the daughter of Damien’s she’d had is the very woman running the second largest corporation that opposes him, not to even mention a confirmed ally of the Green Arrow and the fiancée of Oliver Queen. 

When CatCo Magazine announces the official partnership, both tactical and romantic, of Supergirl and the Black Canary, he almost admits that it’s the beginning of the end.

Felicity grins. “Yep…I also figured you needed a little pick me up for when we walk back to our dorm.”

“Why? This table is fairly comfortable,” Laurel says laying her head on her textbook as if to prove a point. “Besides I need to study.”

Felicity sighs. “You’ve studied long and hard for this test tomorrow. What you need now is a break and a good night’s sleep before your test….You also need to relax too.”

Laurel rubs her free hand over her face as she stifles a yawn. “Okay, so maybe you’re right.”

“Oh I know I am,” Felicity says, nonchalant. She reaches across the table and places a hand on Laurel’s. “Now pack up your stuff, we’re going to relax.”

Laurel playfully rolls her eyes. “Fine, but only because I know I’m never going to hear the end of this if I don’t agree.”

Laurel starts to gather up her textbook and her notebooks and placing them in a pile before shoving them back into her messenger page. She then closes her laptop and places it in the laptop sleeve and putting it in her bag with the rest of her things.

Laurel stands up from the table and pushes her chair in before taking Felicity’s outstretched hand and lets Felicity lead her from the library.

Laurel shudders when they push through the main door and walk out into the frozen air, wishing she’d grabbed that extra jacket before she left her room. Laurel reaches up and pushes her beanie down further over her ears as if it’ll make a difference.

“Made you should have checked the weather,” Felicity teases, linking her arm with Laurel’s.

Laurel sighs and watches her breath until it disappears. “Oh shut up….I didn’t realize it was going to drop this low, this fast.”

“It’s a good thing we have plenty of blankets,” Felicity remarks.

Laurel lets her eyes slip close for a moment as she fantasizes about cuddling up in her nice, warm bed with a pile of blankets, her best friend, girlfriend, a bunch of movies, popcorn and snacks. Yeah a nice good break is exactly what she needs.

“So what are your plans?” Laurel ponders, closing the dorm room door behind her, being careful not to let it slam. She pulls off her beanie as she crosses the small space and tosses it on her desk. Laurel sighs and carefully lets her messenger bag slip from her shoulder and places it on the floor next to her desk.

Laurel sits down on her bed, places the remainder of her hot chocolate on her desk and yanks off her boots while Felicity pulls out her laptop. “I was thinking whatever we find out netflix.”

Laurel raises an eyebrow. “You know how long that’s going to take?”

“I figured laughing over how ridiculous we get when we’re arguing over what movie to watch will amuse us,” Felicity tosses over her shoulder. “Now get the popcorn while I set up my laptop.”

“Okay,” Laurel finally agrees, sliding off her bed and bending down to pull her food container out from under her bed. She reaches for her popcorn and her giant bag of skittles, tossing the candy on the bed before sitting her container back in its place.

“I guess I’ll humor you,” Laurel adds, standing up and walking towards the microwave. “Besides if I don’t agree I will probably never hear the end of it from you.”

“Maybe,” Felicity says simply.

After a few minutes, the freshly popped popcorn is in a bowl settled in Laurel’s lap, while the two of them are covered with blankets with Netflix cued up on Felicity’s laptop which is settled in her lap. Laurel reaches for the bag of skittles and opens them before stealing a glance at Felicity.

“You’re not going to be mad if I dump the skittles in the popcorn, are you?” Laurel asks.

Felicity shakes her head. “No…It’s actually not that bad.”

“That’s funny, my sister always calls me weird for it,” Laurel states, shaking out some skittles into the bowl.

“Like she does for the fry in the milkshake thing?”

Laurel nods. “Yep.”

“Well you have to admit Laurel, that may be just a little bit weird,” Felicity teases.

“Hey,” Laurel says, playfully slapping her arm. “You can’t knock it until you’ve tried it. And speaking of trying it, we are going out for food later and we’re going to a place that has milkshakes and I’m going to make you try it….For now we’re going to watch a movie.”

“Alright,” Felicity agrees, turning back to the laptop screen, choosing a random movie on Netflix to watch. “But I still say it’s weird.”

“You say that now,” Laurel says, tossing a handful of popcorn and skittles into her mouth before holding out the bowl to Felicity.

Felicity takes a hand full of popcorn. “Oh shush.”

Linda come over to the bed and sat next to Iris. She placed her hand on Iris’s. She waited for Iris to continue.

Iris took a breath. She had planned this out for a while, ever since they had made plans for Linda to stay at her house for the night, but the words didn’t seem to fit in her mouth now. She bent them over and folded them a moment. “I pick my skin.”

After a moment, Linda blinked and then squinted, obviously confused. “You… pick your skin?” There was an undertone of disbelief, not necessarily of what Iris was saying, but more around the build up to the statement. Still, Linda kept her hand on Iris’s in support.

“Um…” Iris looked down then back at Linda. “It might be better to show you.” She wasn’t surprised that Linda didn’t immediately get the gravity of the situation. Nearly everyone had popped a zit at some point, and even if Linda hadn’t, Iris didn’t know that many people who had trouble controlling the urge to pick. So, Iris pulled up her sleeve, then deciding to go all out and lifted her shirt over her head and let it fall on the bed beside her.

For another couple this may have been an everyday occurrence, at least Iris imagined it would be. Yet, Iris had insisted on constantly wearing a shirt that at least covered her shoulders, at least when she was around other people. Linda had been hesitant and more than a bit curious, but she hadn’t made a big deal of it. As soon as Iris said she didn’t want to talk about it, Linda had dropped the subject, and the couple had been able to have their fun regardless.

Linda’s patience was something Iris appreciated, especially because on the surface Linda had appeared to be an impatient person. She certainly hadn’t given Barry much wiggle room when they were dating. Yet, Iris had discovered that Linda was simply not one to deal with a stranger’s bullshit, and after dealing with your family lying to you, Iris could sympathize. (Though, Iris tended to be more forgiving and optimistic in her relations.) Getting involved with someone who wasn’t willing to confront their own emotional baggage let alone lie about why they had to ditch the plans they made was not high on Linda’s wish list.

However, when Linda had figured out the whole situation she had apologized to Iris for any rudeness on her part and, without completely forgiving Barry, had given him another chance to at least be a friend. She may not like other people’s bullshit, but life is complicated and messy. Moreover, Iris discovered that when you came to her with trouble being honest and genuine or you clearly maintained your own boundaries, Linda respected that.

And, at this point, Iris was comfortable enough with her that she could show her skin, speckled with scabs. They clustered along her shoulders and along her color bone, while a few ones drifted down her arms.  Dark splotches appeared in areas where the skin wasn’t quite punctured.

Linda’s mouth formed an ‘oh’ and she lifted her hand up by Iris’s neck before pausing. Iris nodded, and Linda’s finger’s grazed the dots before pulling back. Linda started to say something but then closed her mouth before finally deciding on, “Do you know why you… pick?”

Iris shrugged, “Not exactly, though there are certain trends.” Iris pushed herself more onto the bed and leaned against the headboard. “The biggest of these is that it’s like picking a zit. There’s a tiny bit of satisfaction in finally getting the puss out of you. But, this inflates it, makes tiny imperfections worse than they actually are. And, the worst part is I know it. Even as I pick my skin, I regret it. I know what marks it will leave in the morning. Even if I don’t see any blood- and most of the time I don’t and don’t mean to-“ Iris added knowing how that can be interpreted as self-harm even though its comes from a different place “I still know a tiny scab might form. After a particularly bad night, my skin sometimes sensitive enough that my bra strap is uncomfortable.”

Iris took a deep breath, and Linda put her hand in Iris’s. Linda looked Iris in the eye. “I’m here.”

Iris nodded. “Thank you.” She took another deep breath and absorbed Linda’s supporting presence. It was nice, and Iris lost her place. “Where was I? … Oh, yeah, why I do this. As said, I don’t really know, but I can predict when I’m more likely do it. For example, it cycles with my period and gets worse with stress. It’s not even that I can’t handle the stress ‘cuase I can and I make it through it, but that doesn’t stop me from picking.” She let out a sigh. “That’s part of the reason it’s so bad tonight. Between my period, you and Barry almost dying, and the article due yesterday, I was practically doomed.”

Linda scooched up on the bed to sit next to Iris so that their arms were pressed up against each other. “I’m sorry about what happened with Zoom and Dr. Light last Tuesday. And,” Linda held a finger up, “before you tell me that it wasn’t my fault, I know. That doesn’t stop me from wishing it didn’t happen.” Linda went back to holding Iris’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “For that matter, you can wish you didn’t pick while it still isn’t your fault. I still love you. You’re a talented, badass, beautiful women with or without a few scabs.”

“Thanks,” Iris whispered, and she gave Linda a kiss to the forehead. “Thing is I know I’m still talented and beautiful, but when I start picking I don’t feel like I’m in control anymore, and having the scabs there afterwards reminds me of it. It makes me feel ashamed.”

“Thank you for telling me.” Linda squeezed Iris’s hand again.  “You don’t have to answer this, but how many people know about this?”

“Well,” Iris thought for a moment. “To start, there’s Barry and Joe. This started during puberty, so it would have been hard for them not to have known. Plus, there was a college roommate and a few friends from those times who found out. Also, maybe a few people who have noticed something and didn’t say anything, but it always feels more visible to me than to others, so who knows. It’s not exactly something I shout from the rooftops.”

Linda nodded slowly as if contemplating something deep, before a mischievous smile crept onto her face. “So, have you had somebody give each one of the scabs a kiss?”

Iris immediately smiled back and slid down the bed so that there was no risk of bumping her head against the backboard. “I don’t think I have.”