Roy

"Don't hold your breath," Roy mutters quietly by your ear, making you shudder slightly from the intensity of his voice. Your narrowed eyes are focused solely on the target in front of you. "Lift your elbow. A little more, that's perfect."

After a moment, you let go, and the arrow soars straight over the target, landing haphazardly in the dirt. You had been seeing Roy for a few weeks now, and he had offered to teach you archery. You were hoping to be a little more impressive than this.

Roy’s mouth is dry as he watches you walk into the club. God, how long has it been? The last time he spoke to you he was still going by Speedy. He wonders if you remember him.

It’d be embarrassing if you didn’t. You were his first kiss, his first silly, teenage crush. Roy remembers a lot about you, but the last argument you two had is seared into his mind. He remembers your tears, remembers the way you said you hated him.

Yeah. He shouldn’t say hi. Roy begins to turn away from you.

“I didn't baby trap you, alright? that's not what this is.” technically, but he didn't say that.

Okay, if it were to be honest, he didn't see it as baby trapping, yes, he taught Lian to call you her parent, and yes, he cried and begged you to stay while saying she would miss you– you were just going for a walk and thought that was really dramatic but okay.

But hey, he didn't get you pregnant! So, technically, technically! It wasn't baby trapping!

“Okay, yes, I did all that but who cares? You can't leave me. Right, sweetheart? You're not gonna leave us, you know that. We're a family, we're gonna raise our little girl together.” he had that sickling sweet smirk on his lips and his hands wrapped around your hips, pulling you closer.

So yeah, maybe he was a baby trapping you. But wasn't he so pretty while doing it? So annoyingly cute?

His hand went up to your cheeks and he pressed his lips against yours. “Don't leave me, ay? I wouldn't be able to live without you…” he whispered, his thumb caressing your lower lip.

“We wouldn't!” Lian called out from her room, making him laugh and roll his eyes, before adding. “Yeah, like I said, we wouldn't be able to live without you.” He would have to give Lian a coin for that later –okay, so maybe he was baby trapping you–.

Roy had jokingly signed up for Love is Blind after a drunken night with Jason. The two of them binge-watched the show and criticized the past contestants, joking about how they’d be better or how it wouldn’t work with them.

Then they both got a call from the producers, telling them they were cast

Roy was excited. Like, very excited. His past relationships hadn’t worked out, like ever, and maybe this was a good thing. A fresh start with a person who (hopefully) wouldn’t judge him or his lifestyle.

Minus the whole vigilante part. That was something he wouldn’t be airing on television.

and if he found someone, he’d get a trip to Mexico with the supposed love of his life, his future spouse.

that’s why Roy wasn’t totally off-put when he felt his heart skip a beat, or the way he seemed to get more excited when he started talking to Abby. his notebook, which the producers had provided each of the contestants with, was filled with a bunch of little things about them, from their favourite colour to the name of their pet.

Roy Harper was head over heels for a person he’d never seen and he didn’t care. The thought of the marriage at the end of this whole show suddenly didn’t seem so bad when he imagined it with Abby.

”hey, hot stuff!” Roy says when he steps into the pod, a bright grin on his face as he hears the subtle shuffling of another person on the other side of the blue wall that separates him and Abby, “miss me?”

Roy and Abby were friends in his early hero days, back when he still went by Speedy. She was young then, they both were. Freshly graduated and thinking they knew it all. She was so smart, wanted to be a lawyer or professor or something equally as impressive. Roy can’t remember. All he remembers is that wide smile and those expressive eyes and the way she smelled like mint and vanilla when they got close.

She was everything. His first, actually. Sure, people say guys always feel a connection to their first but this was different. Real. Even with Lian’s mom, a relationship that feels like forever ago now, he doesn’t know that he ever experienced love. Nothing like Abby.

He doesn’t think about her anymore. It’s been nearly 10 years, he’s got a kid for god’s sake. It’s not like they stayed in contact. Once he started using, everything went downhill. He destroyed everything in his life, including his relationship with her. But he’s clean now. Different. He knows that. No need to dwell on what could’ve-

What was that?

He saw a quick flash of that familiar face and it’s like his heart stopped. He couldn’t help but chase after her, legs moving in a brisk walk as he catches up with her.

“Abby? Is that y-“ his sentence is cut short when she turns around.

It’s her. It’s really her. And she’s got a kid.

Roy didn’t expect anything good whenever you come to his doorstep sobbing and bruised. You two have been friends for forever and lovers for a bit of that forever, some of that love never disappears even as you go on and find someone new. Just so happens that your new someone is not anyone that you should be with, your new lover is very abusive and Roy can tell — that’s why you always come to him crying, begging, for him to make you better like you’re something to be fixed. It’s not right.

“Please, I’m begging you. I don’t care who you’re with, baby, just don’t be with him.” Roy sighs as he gently pats a damp washcloth on your cut and bruised cheek. It takes everything in him not to just walk over to the man who did this to you and teach him a lesson.

“Breaks my heart to see you like this.” His hands go up to bring your hair behind your ear, his lips tug tightly together as he tries to stop tears from falling from his own eyes.