(Sorry for such a long pause and no updates. I've actually started writing again and have fallen back in love with it. Hope you enjoy these as I update more)

Odin Arrow's chest began to feel the weight of pressure and pain as his anger climaxed.

He threw everything in sight; the chair, books off shelves, an ornate vase.

It wasn't fair. Nothing for him had ever been fair; family, friends, himself, his demon. All of these elements kept throwing his own failure back into his face and he wanted it to stop. But what was there to do though besides cast every once of material object to the floor ?

"Stop !"

A lone voice dragged him momentarily from the waves of drowning madness. Odin realized the laughable irony in how a small host of an unquenchable vengeance was trying to briefly quell him.

She stood at the door and looked him dead in his eyes. She didn't shy away from him nor did she begin taunting him. His mind for an odd reason had defaulted to those two expectations from others.

"W-w-w-what's wrong" he spat "t-t-thought...m-m-maybe I should s-s-..."

Ava realized what he was trying to say even before he could finish his sentence. She looked away as she clenched her teeth and finished it for him.

"Stop being scared and start being furious ?" She resentfully chuckled a bit as she restated something that she had told him in confidence. She never would have thought he would use it against her like this.

He cursed himself. He hated this disability. Yes, he had accepted it was a disability a long time ago. His stutter, his loneliness, his pride, and his anger were disabilities. Before his mother used to disagree and soothe him with words of praise.

"What would she know ?" He contemplated "She had always been perfect."

"I didn't mean it." He retorted to Ava.

"Yeah, you did." Ava picked up his pathological lie instantly. This immediate response frightened him.

"She knows me so well she even picks up my lies ?"

How could he have been so foolish and lowered his guard for someone so foreign. She wasn't an Arrow; in fact, she hadn't been more than a stranger till very recently.

Ava wasn't afraid of him. She closed the distance between herself and Odin by walking over the wreckage of his episode.

In that moment she was the second bravest person he had ever met. Second only to the other woman in his life who had calmed his rages and insisted on loving him, despite all of his flaws.

Ava wasn't intimidating but she gave an aura of power and fortitude that nearly took his breath away when she stood inches from him looking up into his eyes.

How can someone be so authoritative while being so small ?

Then, what she did next shook him even further to his core. She hugged him.

"You think I don't understand" she paused sounding so sympathetic. No, empathetic.

"I understand this more than you'll ever know." She whispered.

Odin hugged her back.