***
William took a quick look around the bunker, then quickly stuck his finger in the frosting at the bottom of Thea's cake. "Ah ah ah!" Kara hastily hurried over, and William stared at her with wide eyes. "You do not get to do that without me," she declared, swiping some frosting of her own.
William snickered as she stuck the frosting in her mouth. "You are lucky you are my brother's fiancée," Thea chuckled as she walked up.
"Mmm," Kara licked her lips, turning to Thea. "I'm lucky I'm going to have such a cool sister-in-law who hopefully isn't going to tell him this."
Thea sighed dramatically, winking at William. "You're lucky you have such a cool aunt who approves of bad behavior."
Kara giggled as she took a sip of her punch, and William beamed up at Thea. "I'm gonna miss you."
"And I'm gonna miss you, too," Thea smiled, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Just promise me that you're gonna watch over your dad, OK?"
William frowned. "But he's the Green Arrow."
Thea got a devilish smirk on her lips and beckoned Kara closer. "You know," she whispered conspiratorially, making Oliver poke his head around where he, Quentin, J'onn, and Alex were speaking with Roy, and he quickly hurried over. "Before he was the Green Arrow, he actually used to be really afraid of the dark, and he needed a nightlight in his room till he was, like, what . . . six . . . " She grinned when she saw her brother walk over. "Sixteen?"
"It was a nightlight," Oliver immediately went on the defensive, even as Kara laughed giddily. "I couldn't sleep with it being pitch black. By the way, I see that, of you," he looked between his fiancée and son. "Go get a fork and a plate and get yourselves slices of cake." He was about to say more when Kara gave him a pouty look, and he groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Only because I know you have high metabolism, angel."
"Yes!" Kara whooped, taking William's hand and dragging him off to where the eating utensils were.
"You are a Alex yelled as they passed her by.
"That's these two!" Laurel countered from nearby.
Slade snorted and started choking on his drink as Malcolm immediately started protesting, starting new rounds of laughter from all around the bunker. Oliver rolled his eyes fondly, and Thea smiled up at him. "Thank you for doing this," she said. "It's . . . actually pretty cool."
"Why do you sound surprised?" Oliver raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, I – I don't know," Thea scratched the back of her head. "I just thought that maybe you would . . . you'd be a little more anti me going."
"I'm the one who encouraged you to go follow your heart," Oliver reminded her. "Malcolm's the one you're probably gonna need to keep buttering up to convince him."
"I heard that!" Malcolm barked.
"You were meant to!" Oliver shouted back.
Thea chuckled. "I know, I know," she told him. "It's just that now that it's all real, I just . . . I thought that maybe you would be, like, a tad less supportive."
"I am completely supportive of anything and everything that makes you happy," Oliver promised her. "Speaking of which, I tell Roy that the two times that I shot him with arrows would be nothing compared to what would happen to him if you end up unhappy."
"Ah," Thea winced.
"Yeah," Oliver nodded. "Do you understand?"
"So what did my dad threaten him with?"
"Probably every weapon imaginable, and everything I still can't believe could actually be a weapon," Roy grimaced as he walked over to join them.
"Ah," Kara slid into the conversation, a large corner piece of cake in her hands. "I heard something involving overbearing big brothers and fathers."
"Yeah, no, no, they've been like that," Thea rolled her eyes playfully.
"Mmmhmm," Kara nodded, sticking a piece of cake in her mouth. "And you know what? Yesterday, I saw a pig fly over the bunker."
Oliver huffed, turning to look at Malcolm as he disengaged from Slade and Laurel to walk over. "Your sister's insulting us."
"So now she's just my sister and not your fiancée?" Malcolm raised an eyebrow. "Oh, good to know. We can keep her for ourselves, then."
"Nope," Oliver immediately shook his head.
"You see, now hear an overprotective fiancé," Malcolm smirked.
Oliver sighed in frustration as Kara and Thea giggled. "Why do I keep you around?"
"Her," Thea and Kara pointed to each other at the same time.
"I'm being ganged up on," Oliver grumbled. "Wonderful."
"Now you know how Slade and I feel sometimes," Malcolm smirked victoriously, raising his drink in acknowledgment to the statement.
Kara sighed, turning to look at Thea. "I know it's been said a million times, but we're gonna miss you," she smiled. "And I've only known Roy for, like, a second compared to the rest of you, and I'm gonna miss you, too."
"Well, you guys have to come visit us once we find out where we're gonna land," Roy shrugged.
"Where do you think that's gonna be?" Oliver asked, genuinely curious.
"Well, we don't really know exactly," Thea admitted. "But that's – that's kind of the best part. I mean, we're gonna figure it out as we go along."
"So just like these two, except you're both human," Malcolm nodded.
"Hey, don't drag me into this!" Kara protested.
Malcolm raised an eyebrow. "No guidebook, right?"
Kara squawked, staring at him in shock, and Oliver sighed, seeing Thea's confused look. "There's no guidebook saying how this is gonna work," he summarized, gesturing between himself and Kara.
"Oh," Thea nodded in understanding.
"Well, as long as we're together, that's really all that matters, right?" Roy smiled at Thea.
"Amen to that," Oliver smiled down at Kara, who beamed in response as he kissed the top of her head.
***
"So how's the whole, you know, 'back from the dead' thing going?" Winn asked Laurel.
"It's going," Laurel rolled her eyes.
"It's actually Diaz, huh?" Mon-El scowled.
"Unfortunately, yes," Laurel sighed.
"I never liked him," James frowned.