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DOWNTOWN STAR CITY
Drake
I follow Rene as me and William walk together side by side. I stuff my hands in my leather jacket pockets as it’s cold and windy outside for this November time frame. Christmas is coming up soon.
William stops walking as I continue to walk and pass him by a little. I quickly stop and turn around starring at him as he gets down tying his shoes. I stop for him and he looks at me struggling as his shoe laces get caught around his fingers. He doesn’t know how to tie his shoes.
“Let me help.” I walk towards the kid and get down on my knees and grab his shoe laces and tie them tight with a double knot. I then pat his shoe and smile. “You’re all set.”
“Thanks Drake.” Will says with a proud smile and he looks so innocent and so full of joy. I can’t remember a time like that. When everything was alright. I stand back up and hand him my hand and Will takes it. We both walk together catching up to Rene as he’s ahead of us.
“C’mon.” I say as Will slows me down with his shorter feet not being able to catch up to my walking pace. Rene continues walking fast and then stops noticing we are not behind him anymore. Rene turns around looking at the both of us and waits in front of a store.
“You guys walk slow.” Rene says trying to tease and mock me to be more friendlier but I ignore him. Rene opens the door to a restaurant and I walk in seeing waitresses walking around carrying burgers in their hands. I read their shirts seeing Big Belly on them and I haven’t had a sandwich from here since, Ollie.
The memory of Ollie creates a small lump in my stomach but I choose to ignore it and try to live my life. Rene walks around from behind and puts his arm around my waist and pushes me to sit down. I get confused and uncomfortable by his grip on me and if I wasn’t in public, I would snap his arm.
Rene makes me and William sit in a booth and Will sits across from me choosing to sit next to Rene. I make myself comfortable taking my leather jacket off and setting it aside from me. I let my dark grey turtle neck and black skinny jeans be the only fashion statement I make before anyone notices my identity.
A waitress quickly comes to us dropping off our menus in front of us and she smiles down at me specifically trying to make my face. Don’t let me be exposed. “You guys want anything to drink?” The waitress asks me and I shake my head softly not interested and wanting the waitress to leave as soon as she can.
“I’ll take a fruit punch!” Will yells and I smile at him lightly as he is adorable. I notice his behavior is different than other kids, he’s a happy child, especially for someone that lost his only family member. Other kids would be dark and brooding, going through trauma, anything to make that loss go away. Like Bruce.
“I’ll do the same as him.” Rene smiles at the waitress as I become very sheltered not looking directly at her and the waitress smiles brightly with a small chuckle.
“Thanks! I’ll be back with the drinks shortly.” The waitress says and then walks away with her notepad to the counter shaking a little. She knows I’m Drake Lance.
“What’s wrong?” Rene asks he pulls in forward to me to talk and I continue to stare at the menu but look up a little at him meanly.
“I’m trying to not get recognized.” I say stubbornly and close the menu already decided with a burger I’ll eat. I then look over at the counter as Rene does too and we spot the waiters talking and jumping like little kids getting their phones out. “And clearly I failed.”
“And I thought you were some sort of expert at the whole spy stuff, trying to not get compromised.” Rene says teasing me and I look over at him wondering how he found out about my work with ARGUS and The League.
“ARGUS has sent me on many missions, trust me, I’m the best of the best.” I say remembering my work in South Africa when I had to infiltrate a terrorist group and took them all down by myself. ARGUS had to do a lot of work to clean up after my mess to get the alibis right.
“Lyla told me a lot about you. I heard you went back to Russia to help Bratva to stop their opposing street gang. They told me you fell in love with somebody there.” Rene says bringing up Alexei and Will looks at Rene and me shocked already assuming I’m more than this singer. I remember the moment with Alexei but things don’t last forever and it wasn’t meant to be.
“Whatever happens in Russia, stays in Russia.” I say starring at Rene and then stare at Will. I give Will a small smile not wanting Will to get involved and know about my whereabouts. Will is going to become a vulnerability and a weak spot, it’s better to keep him quiet and not know much about me.
Rene begins to realize what he is doing and quickly shuts up. The way I like him. I look over at Will and stare at him as he begins to color in a coloring page on the Kid’s menu. I stare at him in silence amused by his skills in coloring. I then stare at the way he colors it as he’s almost like Ollie doing something. So focused and putting his full effort into it.
I stop starring at him and look at Rene as Rene smiles at me being proud of me. I look away ignoring him and look around the restaurant to search for any threats. It’s times like these when they attack, when I’m distracted.
The waitress walks back and drops off our drinks and she takes our orders. Will orders a kids menu item while I order something small to fill me up. I eat my food in silence as everyone else does but notice Will is not like anybody else. He’s a child.
“So Will.” I say to begin a conversation to get to know more of him. “What do you like?” I ask him as I pop a french fry into my mouth. I’ll regret that later.
“I like to play with toys and play pretend.” He says and I’m interested.
“Really? I used to love to play pretend when I was about your age too.” I say and he smiles wanting to hear my story. “Sara, Laurel and I would go over to your father’s house when we were all young on the weekends and sometimes after school, and while they were all playing inside I was playing alone in the woods next door.”
“Who did you play pretend as?” He asks me and I smile remembering my childhood memories when I would dress up as a Spartan and use my mind to fight the trees as the Athenian soldiers.
“A Spartan. And sometimes I would fight the Amazons.” I say raising my eyebrows to amuse him and he smiles. “What about you? Who do you pretend to be?”
“I like to pretend to have superpowers, like Flash!” He says proudly and I chuckle. “Sometimes I like to put on my green hoodie and be like Green Arrow.” He says and I smile lightly as he makes me happy. He makes me feel a little bit more human. It’s hard to feel human after all the things that have happened, and I have done.
Rene chuckles as well and then looks over at me smiling as he notices me being more human and a little bit more warmer. Will continues to talk and makes us laugh. He’s a funny kid.
“So what do you wanna do next?” I ask him wanting to see where he would like to go. Will begins to think and then Rene and I look at him waiting for a response.
“I wanna learn how to play the electric guitar.” He says and I nod. “Rene was showing me your music videos, and I know you play it. So you can teach me!” Will says and Rene laughs nervously being embarrassed by Will. I chuckle softly and look over at Rene as he blushes a little.
“We can make that happen.” I say with a smile and Rene scratches his head and I chuckle at him. “Rene you can join us too if you’d like.” I say teasing him, taking a sip from Will’s fruit punch.
“Hey!” He yells a little and I laugh giving it back to him. As I look at Will I feel an unwanted presence near me and decide to ignore it hoping whoever it is, would go away.
“Hey cutie, you come here often?” I hear a deep voice of a man and I look over to see him. What cliche pick up line is this? I see a guy dressed in all black, almost like a thug. He’s white and buff and looks to be maybe the same age as me, 24. “I have some friends by the bar if you’d like to come over there with us and ditch this party.” He says with his ego high and I chuckle.
“Sorry not interested pal.” I say and then look away from him. He then nods slowly as I’ve destroyed his ego and he walks away not going to bother anymore.
He’d be stupid to bother me one more time.
I then continue and Rene gives me a strange stare wanting things to stay calm worrying for me. “You alright?” Rene asks softly and I ignore his question, I can handle myself. I took down Rene 3 years ago with a simple scream and punch, I’m sure I can take care of this pathetic ego filled man.
I then look around to see where the douche is at and see him talking to his big crowd of party boys as they all make fun of him. Hopefully the embarrassment of this doesn’t force him to come back to me and try that again. I then feel easily irritated knowing if this guy comes back, I will snap and maybe snap a part of him.
“I think we should go.” I say looking at Rene as Will is already done eating. Rene looks at me as if I’m crazy and then realizes. “You know… Before anything else happens. I don’t want Will to be around if anything gets bad. Not that I don’t want him to see me fight, but because I don’t want his ears to go bad so young.” I say and wink at Will and he smiles. I leave a 100 dollar bill just to cover for our food and tips for the waitresses. No time for checks.
Rene nods and takes Will with him as he leaves the booth. I walk behind them as they exit the restaurant and I quickly feel a presence behind me. “Hey where you going sweet thing?” I hear the same voice of the same man and feel his hand land on my shoulder. He just touched me.
“I knew you were stupid.” I say under my voice and Rene and Will turn around as they stare at me. This is going to be fun.
I quickly turn around and grab the man’s arm and twist it breaking some bones and punch him in the stomach. He quickly gets pushed back and I see his entire crew of jocks gather around me getting ready to fight. The man stands up straight putting his fist up high and I make a small smirk.
Amateur hour. 7 guys against one Black Canary. What are the odds?
One of the guys quickly comes running at me and I quickly kick him to the side. Another one runs up from behind me and I quickly duck down as he throws a sloppy fist. I then get back up as he moves forward and grabs his head and throw him to the ground. Another of them come and I quickly swing my leg high up in the air kicking the guy in the face as he falls. The other man on the side comes and kick him in the stomach pushing him to the wall. The same man that originally was flirting comes and throws a punch to the side but I block it and punch him in the rib twice and then swing a hard side punch to his jaw and he falls hard to the ground.
They all lay on the floor groaning in pain and I fix my jacket as it looks wrinkled. I then look down at the jocks as they lay and I look up to see the waitresses filming me and cheering. I smirk and chuckle as this is my usual thing. Can’t wait to be on TMZ tonight.
I walk through the passed out bodies of men on the floor. I like it when I say no and they don’t listen.
“Don’t mess with Drake.” Rene says to Will and I turn around to see Will amazed and shocked.
“Don’t tell Felicity you saw me do this in front of you.” I tell Will and he nods. I then walk out with Rene and Will by my side of the restaurant and decide it’s time to head back for the night and let Will get some rest.
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