#theacearcher

It wasn’t fair to say Miguel messed things up sometimes. Fair was more like saying Miguel messed things up most of the time, or that Miguel was usually messing something up so long as his eyes were open and his lips were moving. Sometimes, those didn’t even have to be qualifiers. (He’d kneed Gabri in his sleep once, when his brother tried to crawl into his bed after a nightmare. Two dozen years later, and Gabri still brought it up when he needed leverage. Asshole.) 

So, Miguel messed things up most of the time, and why should today be any different? Why should he expect he’d be able to toss his stupid phone out the window the second Tiberius Stone’s smug face popped up on the screen without hearing a passerby cry out in pain a half-second later? Really, Miguel should’ve seen this coming. He really should have.

Which brought him to the alley underneath his fire escape where a well-dressed man was rubbing an impressive lump on his forehead and Miguel was ignoring the phone that had been shattered yesterday and was probably irreparable now. It was fine. He probably didn’t need the damn thing, anyway. Sighing, he rubbed the back of his neck. “No, look, just... I feel like dirt, man. I really didn’t mean to clock you. Look, you wanna come upstairs? I can get you a glass of...” He trailed off, considering for a moment before admitting, “Okay, all I’ve got is water, but. Come on, I gotta do something to apologize, right? Bag of chips? At least let me get you some ice for the head.”

The last wedding Simon went to was Nazir and Sira’s and, in all honesty, he drank too much to actually remember it after the fact. He remembered his father’s eyes catching him in a glare across the room, remembered Nazir daring him to take a shot while maintaining eye contact ‘to see if he can actually kill you with his mind,’ remembered doing it... and not much after that. Sira told him he was better off not knowing. He kind of believed her.

But this wedding was different. This wedding was at least classy-adjacent on account of the billions of dollars in the groom’s back pocket, and Simon figured Colleen would stab him if he messed anything up. So he focused on the food instead of the drinks. He hadn’t exactly stocked the fridge after moving in (or squatting, whatever) to the Lantern sector house, so... finger foods were being transferred from the plates on the table into his suit pockets, wrapped carefully in napkins. There was plenty to go around, right?

He felt eyes on the back of his head and froze, turning around and fully expecting to find Colleen ready to find some way to skewer him without getting any blood on her wedding dress, but instead it was Oliver Queen standing behind him, looking half-amused. Simon flashed him a grin. “I’m not stealing food. I’m just. Taking some over to Jess. She’s on the dancefloor. Starving. I’m the hero of this story.”

@theacearcher​

Oliver was a good person, tried to offer comfort where he could, and real advice when needed. And often times, Jessica found that he was right. About a lot of things. (But she had never thanked him for it properly. In the moment, she was always resistant to whatever he said. Digging her heels into her feelings and thoughts so deeply it was hard to see anything else.) But this time, she had a moment away from the event to breathe, a moment to center herself and think about what happened. “Maybe not, but I—” Jessica looked at Oliver, desperation in her eyes. “I feel. And Hal had to save me. And I... I can’t keep putting them in that position,” she whispered. “I’m a liability.” 

@theacearcher

It felt like only days ago she was poking fun at Dinah for still being hung up on the color green — and now Oliver was there. As if willed into existence by their chatter, but she had heard nothing from Dinah about the ex boy-thing being in town… and yet… here he was. Zatanna took a small sip of her drink, staring blankly at Oliver as he committed on someone on the other side of the room. It was an icebreaker that a kinder person would have let be that. But instead, Zee turned towards him and dramatically rose her brow before finishing off her drink. “Oliver Queen — as I live and breathe,” she said dramatically, putting a hand on her chest as she looked at him. “I didn’t realize you were in town. Figured you went to space or something with Hal.” Not that Dinah had ever hinted at that — but Oliver had a tendency of chasing a thread across the universe, just like Zee would chase her own demons across dimensions. “You here for the drink or the company?”

The corner at a party and John Constantine were intimate acquaintances. Especially at a snotty toff party where he stuck out like a sodding sore thumb. He had done his bit by wearing a suit and mask, but that had only been to get him inside. A closer inspection revealed a decidedly messy suit and the cheapest, plainest mask possible, which meant that the corner was the most obvious place for him to head, lest a toff notice him and criticize his attire. Naturally, with his luck, a toff did notice him, but at least it was one that he knew. "What d'you care, Ollie? It ain't yer party, so I ain't embarrassin' you." John said, eyeing Oliver over his drink. "So unless there's demons tryin' ta make off wit' th' punch bowl, let me brood in peace, yeah?"

@theacearcher

@theacearcher

@theacearcher

She had heard about Green Arrow before, but she never thought she’d meet him. He was on the fire escape above her and Rogue must have had a look in her eye because he made a flippant comment. “That’s some dramatic line that I’d expect from Scott, sugar.” Though Scott would have been talking about the visor and claim that he was aiming for something poetic. “Just a little surprised is all, thought you were a local of a different city,” Rogue said. “And y’know, not many people pull off green the way I do.” There was a friendly smile on her face, but it shifted slightly. “Ya ain’t friends with any enforcers, are ya? At least give me a chance at a head start if ya are.”