#billie and thea do not get NEARLY enough attention

[brittlebutch]

reorganized my comic display shelf today and this is my new favorite corner of it <3

[Image ID: A close-cropped photo of a ‘Bill and Ted are Doomed’ comic cover next to a photo screenshot from Face the Music. The photo shows Billie and Thea dancing as they listen to music with headphones in the garage. The comic cover shows Bill and Ted practicing on their guitars in the garage. Both of their poses greatly resemble each other’s.]

[shannyfishwriter]

Arrow: “I Wrote My Way Out” 05

Title: I Wrote My Way Out Rating: T Summary: Takes place after 5x09. Felicity cannot allow herself to continue to grieve for Billy with Prometheus still out and Diggle in jail. She must rise up and focus on getting the justice that she thinks is deserved as well as put the team back together. *~*~*~*~*~*~*

Her back was pressed against his chest, their breathing slowly syncing up, Oliver's arm along hers, and her focus straight instead of the string or the fletching.  It was a way of letting go of the world all around for a moment.  Sure, she was mindful of Oliver and the bow and even the target, but everything else...it faded away.  The world fading away was welcomed for that moment. Aim. Breathe. Release. Thwick.   Breathe. The arrow traveled through the air and towards its target quickly, but Oliver was guiding her to ready another arrow nearly instantly.  Her arrow hit the target far closer than her last had.  Felicity knew that once in the field that she wouldn't have a lot of time in between.  She'd witnessed Oliver, Roy, and Thea all out in the field with bows.  Sure, not all of them used compound bows, but she was fairly sure that using one meant that she should just be quicker than she was.  Out in the field, against Prometheus, it would mean life or death.   Life or death. So much of it had already been death. They needed the life part.   She needed it. "Again!" he snapped immediately after an arrow had been released.  He was trying to get her to do rapid fire succession, but Felicity didn't know if she was capable of such things.  "Again!"  This was something that she'd seen when he'd trained the others.  She was used to his snappy tone, it was just a little hard to take when it was in her ear and normally when he got like this, it was something that she fought against.   Not this time. No. She knew that she needed to welcome it.   But she was still Felicity Smoak, no matter how much she tried to channel her inner arrow-y masked hero.  She'd felt good for all of ten seconds until her arrow had clattered to the floor.  She let out a sigh and almost felt like bursting into tears at the sound of it.   His sigh emphasized how much of a failure she felt in that moment all the more.  "Let's take a break." Deciding that maybe that was a good idea, she walked away to get a drink of water.  She found Curtis sitting in her normal spot, his hand already kindly extended with a waiting water bottle.  "You okay?" "What?" she questioned and then it processed a moment later as she twisted the cap off of the water bottle.  Felicity squeezed her eyes shut before shaking her head slightly, as if she were trying to reset her brain computer into functioning properly.  "I mean, yeah...yeah I'm okay."  As she drank the water, she didn't miss the look of disbelief on Curtis' face.  "What?" she asked.   "You can be honest, you know?" She frowned in immediate response before turning to take in where Oliver was.  Felicity didn't see him. "He stepped out." "What?" she asked as she whipped back around. "He's probably just as frustrated as you are," Curtis told her. Standing there for a moment, she thought about that.  She knew that training her, especially training her on a tight timeline had to be difficult because she definitely wasn't Thea or Sara.  They both likely needed a lot less training than she did, or at least attention on the subject.  Felicity felt like she was letting Oliver down by not picking it up as quickly as they needed or that she wanted.  It wasn't just Oliver, though, that she felt like she was letting down...it was herself, the team...and Billy. "Okay, whatever darkness is in your head right now, just let it go." Blinking, she looked right at Curtis.  "What?" "I can see it.  I know you're trying to hide it, but you can't...not from Oliver and certainly not from me," Curtis told her.  "We haven't worked together for that long, but I can still tell when something is wrong with you...and something's wrong...I mean, obviously things are wrong, but what I mean--" "Okay, okay," Felicity said as she held up a hand.  She took a sip of the water and took a calming breath.  "I just don't want to be the weakest link." "You will be." She glared slightly at him. "I mean it in a practical way since you're just right now learning how to use a bow," Curtis told her. "I should have pushed Digg and Oliver to work on at least some more advanced self defense training over the years," Felicity stated before sipping her water once again.   "You're badass as it is," he pointed out.  "You learning how to use a bow is only going to up your threat level against your foes." "If only this were some video game…" "Just think of it that way," Curtis told her.  "Let's think of a class…" "Hacker." Curtis shook his head, a smile spreading across his face.  "Well...bows and arrows...how about a hunter?" "Do I get a pet?" "You've got Oliver...and Thea." She smiled a little at that.  "I suppose that can work." "And you have me." Felicity smiled more.  "Okay, so I'm a hunter…" "Leather wearer.  Lone wolf.  That way you don't require a pet.  You're badass enough to go lone wolf, right?" Lone wolf. It hit her. It was like a switch went off inside of her.  It was like everything they'd been talking about suddenly made sense in her head.  Her tone was distracted and almost distant as she finally responded to him.  "Yeah...yeah I am." Read at AO3 or ff.net

[shannyfishwriter]

Arrow: “I Wrote My Way Out” 07/10

Title: I Wrote My Way Out Rating: T Summary: Takes place after 5x09. Felicity cannot allow herself to continue to grieve for Billy with Prometheus still out and Diggle in jail. She must rise up and focus on getting the justice that she thinks is deserved as well as put the team back together. *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

There were some things that were just better when they were written down on paper.  They lived in a world of tech and text, but this...this was something that not even Felicity could type out.  It wasn't something that was properly conveyed through numb plain text or emojis.  No, this was something that had to go down on paper with a pen.   I wouldn't trade any of it. She sat there, her knees pulled close to her chest with the pad of paper pressed against her legs as she wrote.  Felicity was determined to finish the letter.  She had to.  It was hard enough to say goodbye, but if she was going to say goodbye...then she needed to do it properly.   I refuse to lose the chance to say goodbye properly to you.  You're in my head and my heart.  No matter what comes, you'll always be there.   Tears rolled down her cheeks.  Being happy, she'd learned, was a hard thing to keep hold of.  It seemed like no matter who she loved in life, seriously...they were always taken away from her.  Felicity knew that sometimes people blamed God or the fates or the stars themselves...but Felicity blamed herself.  She'd been unable to walk away from hacking or from Team Arrow.  She'd allowed herself and those around her to be continually exposed to every evil thing out there that came for the team...for her…   So, she was saying goodbye.  She needed to. No matter how hard. No matter how it hurt. The sounds of footfalls echoing through the Arrow Cave brought Felicity's attention up from the paper briefly.  She was just seeing who it was and where they were.  This letter, it wasn't something that was really for sharing, especially not then.  They were so close to finding Prometheus and Felicity didn't need to distract any of them or have them thinking that she wasn't ready for this...for facing Prometheus. She was. "Felicity?" It was Thea and Felicity realized that the younger Queen sibling had to have been able to see over her shoulder as she'd wrote.  Her mouth dropped open slightly as she stared at Thea back over her shoulder.  She didn't know what to say.  All she knew was that her letter couldn't be a distraction.  Damn this family they'd made for themselves and she being the only one clumsy enough to make noise.  Swallowing hard, she knew that she needed to get in front of this.  "Thea--" "I think I found Prometheus," Curtis announced as he appeared from the other side of the Arrow Cave.  Oliver was walking close behind him, obviously wanting to hear what Curtis had to say.   Felicity turned in her chair, staring down at the letter for a moment.  She knew that it was nearly done and she just couldn't leave it like that.  So, she signed it.   With love always, Felicity Quickly she folded up the letter and tucked it under her keyboard before shooting Thea a quick look.  There really wasn't time for this conversation and Felicity also didn't want to bring Curtis and Oliver into it.  No, this was for her alone.  It didn't matter who the letter was to, it was private, and though the group of them didn't have that much opportunity for privacy...this was one of those times where Felicity would demand it if necessary. "Don't worry," Thea whispered with a sigh.  "But we're talking about this later…" Felicity didn't say anything, instead she got up and she and Thea crossed the distance to meet where Curtis was already showing Oliver something on his tablet.  "You're sure about this?" Felicity asked. It was only a breath before Curtis was bring up footage, a live feed, of Prometheus...and he wasn't alone.  Sucking in a breath, Felicity reminded herself that she couldn't think about Billy, not now.  She couldn't be a liability to the team, especially after she'd pushed so much for herself to go out into the field and then to get any kind of training so that she could do it armed.   "Are you sure?" Oliver asked. Her eyes raised to meet his and she gave a nod.  "I am," Felicity confirmed.  She wasn't sitting this out.  She needed to be out there.   "Then let's suit up."

Read on AO3 or ff.net