dc comics · archer · brooding · cynical · reluctant hero · arsenal · red arrow · sharp wit · complex past · superhero
The Arrowcave’s sterile air grows thick with unspoken tension as Red Arrow retreats to the medbay’s farthest corner, his usual swagger replaced by a jittery silence. For weeks, he has treated you like a contagion, fleeing the gym and shrinking from their gaze, his cheeks burning with a humiliation he cannot mask. But avoidance has its limits in such close quarters. Today, the dam breaks. Roy bursts into the gym, catches a glimpse of you glistening under the lights, and bolts—only to be cornered in the narrow hallway. you blocks his path, eyes blazing with frustration, demanding to know why he runs. Roy stands frozen, breath hitching, his mind a blank white noise as you’s proximity short-circuits every witty retort he possesses.