#spartancanary

[whateverthought]

John Diggle and Laurel Lance are the Green Arrow/Black Canary we deserve.

[habibialkaysani]

that’s got to sting.

yeah - I’ve been through worse.

[lynseylou]

At the beggining of Arrow season 6 did anyone feel the charged chemistry between Diggle and Dinah? Like I legitimately thought they were gonna hook up. I love Dyla but... I didn’t hate it?!?

My headcanon about season 6 is they broke up the team because the writers saw the chemistry between them and they were like nope can’t do that

[habibialkaysani]

when you're ready, just say you're ready when all the baggage just ain't as heavy and the party's over, just don't forget me we'll change the pace and we'll just go slow you won't ever have to worry, you won't ever have to hide you've seen all my mistakes so look me in my eyes

[habibialkaysani]

Impossible (Dinah/Diggle; G)

Ships: Dinah/Diggle

Summary:  “Look, I don’t know what you want me to say, John. I woke up in the bunker and you were gone. I wasn’t exactly going to wait around for you to show, if you did. Some of us have day jobs, you know.”

A/N: This fic is a sequel to team spartan-canary but it should hopefully make sense on its own.Thank you to Dee/@richardson-sellers for reading this one through and giving me some much-needed characterisation suggestions. You're a star!

Read at AO3

Read at FFN

Dinah is in one of the interrogation rooms in the precinct, alone, writing some notes after having questioned a suspect for armed robbery. She sighs. It’s been a long day, and even though she had personally apprehended him as the Canary his lawyer was insistent on playing “caught by masked vigilantes” card. Her frustrations are interrupted, however, when she hears a knock on the door. She recognises the tall, broad-shouldered silhouette instantly, and her heart sinks as she closes her eyes and tries to gain some composure before calling resignedly, “Come in.”

The door opens, and in comes John Diggle.

“Hey,” he says.

“What are you doing here?” she says, and she winces at how sharp her words sound, but she can’t help it.

“I… wanted to see you.”

And Dinah can’t help but soften at that, even though she knows it’s literally the oldest cliche in the book.

“You want to shut the door?” she says. John does so, taking the seat opposite her, and despite everything she can’t help but chuckle. She’s interrogated a fair few people in this room, but she never expected him to be sitting in that chair.

No, she never expected him, period.

Still, he doesn’t seem comfortable, not seeming to know where to put his hands, finally settling with them in his lap. It’s only then that he speaks.

“The cameras -”

“- are off. It’s okay.” She clears her throat, tries to sit up a little straighter, but try as she might, she can’t meet his eyes. ”What is it? Does Oliver need something, or -?”

John shakes his head. “No, this is - about the other thing.”

“What happened to us agreeing not to talk about it?” Dinah says lightly. “Look, I don’t know what you want me to say, John. I woke up in the bunker and you were gone. I wasn’t exactly going to wait around for you to show, if you did. Some of us have day jobs, you know.”

“I’m sorry,” he says softly.

She attempts to swallow the lump that’s formed in her throat. “Me too. We - we were drinking, and it was a long night, and we were stupid. I was stupid.”

He closes his eyes and for a moment he puts his head in his hands. “No, I mean, I’m sorry I had to go. I, uh, got a text from Lyla.”

“Well, you said it yourself. She’s your wife.” (She wonders, then, what that makes her.)

“It was about JJ.”

“Oh,” she says, taken aback and instantly concerned. “Is he okay?”

“He will be, I hope. He was just coming down with something and throwing up a lot, so she… asked me to come home.”

There’s silence as she waits for him to continue.

“But I wanted you to know,” he says eventually, and there’s a scraping sound as he moves his chair forward an inch, “that I didn’t mean to - leave you in a lurch. I just - my son needed me.”

“And your wife,” she adds. Finally she’s able to look him in the eyes, and John clearly doesn’t have the heart to disagree.

“God, what did I do, Dinah? I’m supposed to be - Oliver always said I was the best man that he knew.”

“You are,” Dinah says firmly. “You’re the best man that I know, by a long shot.”

“How? When just last night I - cheated on the mother of my child and just last year I killed my brother -”

“Let’s not compare sins here,” she interrupts. “We’ll be here all day.”

“You don’t understand,” he says.

“No, you don’t.” Her hands are on the table, and they’re shaking and she makes to put them on her lap, but John covers them with his own before she can move.

“What do you mean?”

“Before - before you guys found me. Before you sought me out, you and the team -”

“You told me you were lost,” John says quietly. And he seems to realise what he’s doing and snatches his hand away.

“In more ways than one,” she says. “When I first got my powers, it took me a while to control them. And when I was trying to uncover what happened to Vinnie, there was… collateral damage. A lot of it. But I was an undercover cop. I was good at covering my tracks. I kept on the move. So I didn’t get caught.”

Still, John doesn’t look convinced. “I still think what I’ve done is worse.”

She shrugs. “I don’t know, John. But what I’m saying is - I have absolutely no right to judge, because whatever you’ve done, I’ve probably done worse.”

“So, what, does that make us - kindred spirits or something?”

“No, it makes us human.”

“Technically, you’re a metahuman,” John says.

Dinah rolls her eyes. “You know what I mean. Humans… we make mistakes. We screw up. We lose our moral compass for a hot minute and then it’s up to us to find it again.”

There’s silence for a moment, and John’s gaze drops to the table. “Was… was last night a screw-up?”

And she hates herself, but she would do anything to get rid of the guilt in his eyes. “Maybe,” she says eventually.

He sighs. “So it’s decided, then?”

“Yeah,” she says faintly. “Forget it ever happened it is.”

“Okay.”

“And you’re not going to tell Lyla.” It’s meant to be a question, but it doesn’t quite come out that way.

“What’s one more secret between us?” he says bitterly. “And - it’s not like I can go back. Even if time travel does exist.”

That throws her off completely. “Okay, alternate universes took a while to get my head around but - time travel? Seriously?”

And then to her surprise he laughs. “Come on, Dinah. I told you about the aliens. And - you’re a walking example of the impossible. Is it that hard to believe?”

“I - don’t change the subject,” Dinah says. “We were talking about -”

“Moving on,” he says.

And it’s surprising how much his words slice at her heart. But she gets to her feet, now, and turns her back on him, because she can’t possibly look him in the eyes after he says that.  “Yeah. That.”

“Dinah, I -”

“I should go,” she says in a brittle voice as she turns to face him. “Got to get back to my day job. See you in the bunker.”

“Are you - are we going to be okay?”

Dinah shakes her head, walks to the door and opens it for him. “Yeah. ’Course. Go home, John. Go home to your wife and son. And just - I want you to remember something.”

“What?” John says uncertainly as he gets to his feet, and as he takes a couple of steps towards her it occurs to Dinah that this is the closest they’ve been since the previous night. She can’t help her sharp intake of breath.

“Whatever you’ve done - whatever we’ve done - you’re still a good person. And you always will be. Don’t ever forget that.”

Tagging (because you were in the notes of the preview or prequel): @lancedinah @thoughtsandlife23 @salvatorecaroline @sirenscanary @jewishraypalmer @the-bi-canary @ohhsoadorkable @sophiacfandom @stungunmilly2 @ambergwin420

[habibialkaysani]

preview of my next fic (Dinah/Diggle; T for now but will be higher)

She sighs. “It’s hard. In our line of work - having someone - loving someone… anyone, isn’t easy. But you’ve got to realise that you’ve been through a lot.”

“So have you. But here you are, already promoted and looking like you’re dealing just fine.”

Shaking her head, she gets up, reaching for the bottle. He gets there first, and there is another flicker of electricity as their fingers touch. Neither of them let go, until finally she comes to her senses and snatches her hand away as though burned. Still on her feet, Dinah turns her back on him, and it’s easier to talk when she’s not drowning in his eyes (and thinking how they soften as he looks at her).

“That’s not true. Just because my badge is a bit shinier doesn’t mean I…” But she trails off, and she hears the scrape of the chair as John gets to his feet.

“What?”

Now she turns around. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but since - since Vinnie. Things have been… different with me.”

“You mean you’ve been feeling lonely,” he says softly.

“Aside from you guys, I don’t really do - friends. Lovers. Family. I can’t remember the last time I spent the night with someone without ghosting them the morning after. But you - you have that, John. With Lyla, with JJ. You’re lucky. Don’t let that slip through your fingers.”

“It wouldn’t be the first time Lyla and I got divorced.”

She tilts her head to one side sadly.

“You say that like it’s a real possibility.”

“It is. I mean… we’ve been through it before. I know the signs.”

“But you loved her enough to marry her twice,” she reasons. “That’s got to mean something, surely.”

“She’s the mother of my child. I’ll always love her. But what I can’t do right now is talk to her. Not like…” But he trails off, now, and it’s only then that she realises that she’s holding her breath.

“Not like what?”

He busies himself with pouring more vodka into the two glasses, but his hands are shaking and she finds herself steadying them for him, taking the bottle gently out of his hands and setting it back on the table.

“What shall we drink to?” he asks instead. For some reason she finds herself smiling. Maybe it’s the alcohol she can feel in her blood, the bitter taste at the back of her throat. Whatever it is, John looks surprised as he raises his eyebrows.

Dinah lifts her shot glass. “To Team Arrow.”

John shakes his head. “It was just us out there tonight. And you know Oliver doesn’t like it when we call it that.”

“Okay. To Team Canary-Spartan.”

And this time John does smile, and Dinah lets out the breath she didn’t even know she was holding in relief. “Spartan-Canary sounds better.”

She chuckles. “Of course it does. To you, anyway.”

[habibialkaysani]

also did I mention I will happily sell my soul for spartancanary to be canon? because I will. oops.

[habibialkaysani]

@therewas-a-girl

replied to your post

“preview of my next fic (Dinah/Diggle; T for now but will be higher)”

I like how well u capture dinahs dry sense of humor btw

aww thank you. she has a few of those moments in this fic. :)

@therewas-a-girl

replied to your post

“y'all why are you sleeping on my fic I want people to actually read it...”

I was about to write this in the fic but i realized it wouldnt be relevant there. I thibk one issue might be the cheating element. I mean it is for me. I dont willingly go out to look for fics about people cheating. Idk i never have. But then again maybe this is just me xause i know plentybof ppl who ship things like that - like canarrow even before sara came back and oliver and laurel were over. So idk

I mean - yeah. I get that. totally. and I’m not saying I’m condoning cheating or saying that this is in any way an ideal or healthy relationship. because like idk if you read my other spartancanary fic but I actually had dinah have the line “you’re fucking your problems away” and like, it’s dysfunctional and wrong but that’s... kinda what makes it a rich story, for me? idk if that makes sense. I just think it’s an interesting relationship, you know? plus, call me annoying but like - I like writing non-white ships. as in ships that have all parties be people of colour. (in fact I might include a white people joke just because.) there aren’t enough of them out there esp in dctv where most of the big superheroes are white.

and I’m glad you brought up canarrow. I’m sure I’ve come across a fic about sara and oliver’s first time together in the back of a car or at some kind of festival or something, and like, oliver was very clearly cheating on laurel and not just with anyone - with his girlfriend’s sister. but in the comments no one brought that up, that I can remember, anyway, and it was actually quite widely read if I remember correctly. but I’m searching for it and I have no clue who wrote it lmao so it’s not hugely substantial evidence that I’m right :P

I do get that maybe ollie was the kind of douche to do that to his girlfriend whereas diggle wouldn’t do that to the mother of his child, and I know it’s different in that sense. but I also think - john is in a realllllllly bad place rn with his ptsd (which he does have even if the show will never vocalise it) and the injury he sustained while on lian yu. and I feel like when you’re in a bad place you do things you regret. or things you wouldn’t normally do. I think that’s what’s happening to john here. and dinah is a good person too and she hates the idea of being the other woman but in the last month or so she’s found herself feeling really lonely. and it’s like that line from a streetcar named desire, my favourite play ever by tennessee williams - “you need somebody, and I need somebody, too. could it be - you and me?”

@therewas-a-girl

replied to your post

“preview of my next fic (Dinah/Diggle; T for now but will be higher)”

Your characterisation is on point as ever and i have a very special love in my heart for quiet moments between teammates - regartkess of if theyre lovers or friends. Im a tually very here for a fic exploring dinahs feelings and where her head is. What shes doing with her life. How THIS life has impacted her as a person. Id read that with love bc i love her character

yeah I mean the first bit minus a few moments could be construed as just a really intense friendship (which is what I’m feeling like the writers will go for with them because wendy mericle and juliana harkavy have both said that it’s not going to be romantic) and I am totally here for the moments of peace between the team. but yeah I think there are a lot of gaps to be filled in with dinah’s character and a lot to her story we don’t really know. plus those five months where she gets promoted and seems more confident as canary is also development done offscreen. glad you like my characterisation - esp because I barely write one character and have only just started writing the other and I wasn’t sure how they would come across on paper.

@lancedinah

replied to your post

“okay, medical people of tumblr. can anyone explain to me what john...”

I'm not the medical side of tumblr and I still need to watch the episode but usually with degenerative nerve damage it means that it is irreversible and once your nerves begin to get damaged they become weakened and that can cause tremors to occur.

ah I see. so basically (spoilers) diggle got a bit of shrapnel in his chest during the explosion on lian yu and that led to degenerative nerve damage, resulting in him being unable to fire his gun. but if you’re saying it’s irreversible I can see how it would affect john mentally too, as well as the tremor.