— DREADFUL FEELINGS OF DESPAIR
season three — episode three

CHAPTER THREE

THE NEXT MORNING, OLIVER woke up early — despite not having to go to work that day — and headed straight for Starcourt mall. He, Robin, Dustin, and Steve had all agreed to meet up again in the morning to try and crack the code. So far, they were having no luck. Oliver sat on top of the ledge beneath the window that divided the two rooms while Robin stood next to him, headphones sitting on her head with the cassette playing through it. Dustin and Steve had said that they were going to try and figure out what the code was from outside of the parlor, but Oliver knew that was just an excuse for them to play spies.

Oliver furrowed his eyebrows when the bell on the counter started to sound continuously. He turned and smiled at the sight of Erica — Lucas' younger sister — standing behind the counter with an annoyed look on her face. "Robin." He reached over and shook her shoulders, finally getting her attention. She turned and sighed, pulling the headphones off her head. For good measure, Erica rang the bell once more before an innocent smile grew on her face. "I'd like to try the peanut butter chocolate swirl, please."

"No. No more samples today." Robin said through amused — although partially annoyed — laughter. Erica pushed her eyebrows together and frowned. "Why not?" Robin leaned forward and gave her the same innocent smile she had just received. "Because you're abusing our company policy." Erica looked at her with an unamused face, pressing her lips together in a thin line. "Where's the sailor man?" It was obvious she liked Steve more than Robin.

      "Sorry, he can't help you. He's busy." Robin answered, turning around to resume listening to the cassette. However, she had to turn right back around when Erica asked more questions. "Busy with what?" Robin gave her a sarcastic smile and simply answered with one word. "Spycraft." She turned around once more and resumed listening. Oliver chuckled lightly and got up from where he was sitting, placing a finger over his lips toward Erica as he picked up one of the sample sticks.

      Quickly, he scooped up some ice cream and handed it to her, winking at her when she smiled at him. "Shh." He said and ushered her away before Robin could see anything. Erica nodded and turned on her heel, her friends following after her.  He turned back around and hopped back onto the ledge, marking and circling words that he thought were important with a red pen.

      Eventually, Robin and Oliver switched places — now she was sitting on the ledge and he was leaning against it, both of them looking at the sheet of paper that had the code on it. "The week is long—." Oliver had already heard the words multiple times, so he already had them planted in his head and no longer had to listen to the cassette. If he wanted to, he could recite it word for word with no mistakes. In fact, he could probably speak basic Russian by now from how much he had studied the dictionary if he was being completely honest.

      Oliver was resting his head against the palm of his hand, his cheek squishing as he did, listening as Robin read off the words once again. There had to be something they were missing. He tilted his head when he heard someone knocking and walked into the backroom, Robin not too far behind him. She managed to get ahead of him and pulled the door open, revealing a delivery man holding a large box of what Oliver assumed was ice cream. "Delivery for you." He handed her the box and she set it on the table behind them. "Thank you." Oliver leaned up against the wall beside them, crossing his feet so that he had more support.

      He pulled out a clipboard and a pen and held them out towards her, waiting while she signed her name, shooting Oliver a friendly smile. However, Oliver was too busy staring at the name on his polo. "LYNX TRANSPORTATION." The silver cat feeds when blue meets yellow in the west. The line from the cassette replayed in his mind. Robin handed him the clipboard and followed after him when he started to go down the hall. When he turned around, his suspicions were confirmed. A silver cat was on the back of the man's shirt. "Silver cat." She muttered, shooting Oliver a glance. He nodded along, basically telling her that he had noticed too.

      "You're not gonna believe who Dustin thought was a Russian." He heard Steve say, probably just walking back into the parlor, and he was right.  Dustin smacked him on the chest as both Robin and Oliver rushed past them, jumping up onto the ledge of the fountain. "A trip to China sounds nice." Robin began to mutter until her gaze landed on IMPERIAL PANDA. "A trip to China sounds nice." She said with more confidence.

      "If you tread lightly." While she was decoding that part — Oliver had already assumed it had to do with a shoe store by the time they had figured out that man was wearing a silver cat on his shirt, so that probably meant KAUFMAN SHOES — Oliver began to look around for anything blue and yellow in the west, eventually catching sight of the clock. "When blue meets yellow in the west." Upon hearing those words come out of Oliver's mouth, Robin turned to look at him, gaze slowly moving over to where he was looking. "Robin. Ollie. What are you two doing?" Steve's voice broke the two out of their concentration.

      Oliver and Robin gave each other a smile and a nod, Oliver hopping down from the fountain ledge. "We cracked it." Steve pushed his eyebrows together and looked at him in confusion, letting his arms rest by his side. "Cracked what?" Robin jumped off the ledge as well and interrupted Oliver before he could tell them exactly what he was talking about. "We cracked the code."

      Steve and Dustin looked at them in shock. "What? Seriously?" Oliver hummed and nodded his head, beginning to make his way back to the parlor, everyone close behind him. "This guy came to deliver ice cream for us, and he was wearing a shirt with a silver cat, that's how we started to piece things together." Robin started, Oliver nodding once again in agreement, everyone following him into the backroom. "Then we started to go over the entire thing." He grabbed the notepad that had the code on it and set it on the table after moving the box of ice cream. Both Dustin and Steve peered over the table to look at it.

      "'A trip to Chine sounds nice.'" He pointed at the part that he had highlighted, now circling the word China. He drew an arrow that pointed to the side and quickly wrote 'IMPERIAL PANDA.' He then moved down. "'If you tread lightly.'" He drew yet another arrow going to the other side so that everything wasn't so jumbled before writing 'KAUFMAN SHOES.'

He set the pen down and looked at them. "When blue meets yellow in the west. The clock just outside of here has one blue hand and one yellow hand and it's in the west." When he finished explaining, the two of them seemed flabbergasted, not knowing how the two of them had figured that much out from so little. "Holy shit." Robin laughed lightly as she started to put away the ice cream so that it didn't melt. "So. . . are we all thinking what I'm thinking?" Steve asked, using his hands to help support himself and keep himself from falling to the ground.

"Depends on what you're thinking, Harrington," Oliver answered, shooting him a smile. Steve shook his head with a smile and stood up straight. "Are we gonna go find some Russians?" Oliver looked at Robin — who had just finished putting away the last of the ice cream — and sent her a questioning glance. Robin shrugged her shoulders and joined all of them around the table. "I guess so. It's almost time for closing anyway."

She was right, around ten more minutes and the whole mall would be closed. "Alright then," Oliver said, jumping off from where he was. "I'll be back." He dug into his pocket and pulled out his wallet, starting to head out. "Woah, Woah. Where are you going?" Steve questioned, keeping him from going any further.

"Well, it's raining outside. We'll need raincoats, don't you agree?" He questioned. Steve sighed and slowly nodded his head, feeling bad that Oliver was about to buy four raincoats. "Don't worry about it, Steve, I'll make the money back in no time." He assured, giving him a quick smile before turning on his heel and running out of the store, trying to make it to a clothing store before it closed.

When he returned, it was exactly 11 O'Clock — which meant everything was shutting down. He tossed everyone a raincoat before slipping his own on, making sure his shoes were tied because he couldn't help but feel like this was an absolutely fucking stupid idea.

Quickly, the four of them rushed down the hall that the delivery man had gone down, eventually making their way outside after walking for what felt like at least an hour ( it was really only twenty minutes. ) As soon as they stepped one foot out, the rain soaked them. Oliver was glad he had made the decision to but these, they would've regretted this if he hadn't. "Okay, everyone stay as quiet as possible," Oliver instructed, receiving nods from everyone. He gave them a curt nod and they all started to make their way around a large building. Soon, they stood in front of a ladder. Oliver decided to go first just in case there was anyone at the top waiting for them. He carefully made his way up since it was slippery from the rain and jumped over the ledge, his shoes squeaking ever-so-slightly. He looked around momentarily before peeking over the edge, giving them a thumbs up.

Immediately, Dustin started to climb up, almost slipping halfway through — giving Steve a heart attack. Oliver stuck his hand out when he was almost at the top and helped him up the rest of the way, doing the same with the other two. Dustin grabbed his binoculars and set them off the bridge of his nose, searching for anything when a truck started backing into an empty area, with two guards waiting. "Look for Imperial Panda and Kaufman Shoes," Robin told Steve and Dustin, knowing Oliver already knew.

Oliver squinted his eyes as rain fell onto his eyelashes, blocking his view slightly. He wiped his eyes and fixed his hood, making sure it was covering his whole face before he continued to look. "They're with that whistling guy, ten o'clock," Dustin told them and they all turned their heads to look. Steve pursed his lips and pushed his wet hair back, wiping his face. "What do you think's in there?" He asked, voice sort of louder because of the rain.

Dustin shrugged before saying exactly what came to mind. "Guns, bombs?" Robin nodded and decided to add to that, her voice a lot louder for Oliver since he was right beside her and Steve. "Chemical weapons?" Oliver hummed and looked at Steve.

"Just think anything that can be used to harm others." Steve nodded and resumed looking at them, feeling intimidated by one guy with a shaved head who was gripping a gun quite tightly.
"Whatever it is, they're armed to the teeth." Oliver could see quite well despite all of the rain and watched as one guy opened an area filled with other boxes. "Hey, what's in there?" Robin asked, not being able to see as well as him and Dustin.

"It's just more boxes." Steve moved to grab Dustin's binoculars and started to take them from him. "Let me check it out." Dustin protested and shook his head. "No, I'm still looking." Oliver turned to them and gave them an unimpressed look, trying to shush the two of them. "Lemme see it. Hang on!" Thunder sounded loudly near them, but it seemed like the guards had heard them slightly as they grabbed their guns. "Duck!" Dustin whisper-shouted, all of them obliging.

Oliver felt a hand slip into his and squeeze tightly. He already knew who it was so he held it with the same strength, chest heaving up and down as he hoped they hadn't actually heard them and wouldn't try to find them. He heard someone shout and Russian, but he knew enough to understand what he had said. "Stay here! Watch the door!" He cursed and ushered them to the ledge, helping them back down quickly. He heard the door slam open just as they entered the halls once again. "Well, I think we found your Russians," Robin said, adrenaline pumping through her body from the entire thing.

Oliver laughed slightly and nodded, still holding onto Steve's hand tightly, not even realizing it. However, neither had Steve. "Yeah." He said through a breath. "Same place tomorrow, right?" Dustin asked, confirming that they were meeting up again. Oliver nodded slowly and looked at them.

"Why don't we all just stay at my place tonight? Figure out what we're gonna do tomorrow?" He suggested, knowing that he probably had the most hospitable place to stay in — except maybe Dustin's house, but he had no extra room. Robin nodded quickly, Dustin agreeing almost immediately as well. "Yeah, I like the sound of that," Robin said with a small laugh, truthfully not wanting to be alone after all that considering she got quite paranoid.

"Alright. We'll meet you there, Steve." Steve nodded and he ran ahead, finally disconnecting their hands. That's when both Oliver and Steve realized they had been holding hands this entire time. He felt a small smile grow on his face while Steve felt a blush crawl onto his cheeks, staining his cheeks pink. "Dustin, go get your bike." Dustin nodded and rushed ahead as well, grabbing his bike from the bike rack and following Robin and Oliver to Oliver's car.

Time for planning.

rewatching s3 for this has made me realize just how underrated this season is?!1?1? like ITS SO GOOD??? still not better than season two ( SEASON TWO REMAINS UNTOUCHED AS THE BEST SEASON ) butSTILL