Mission: Ruin Lex Luthor. With chloeas

[olliequeen]

Oliver hadn't been home from the Metropolis office of Q.I. for a full hour before the sun began to descend, which meant it was time to put his plan into action. Feeling confident as he drank down the last of his coffee, he made his way to his secret room and changed into his Green Arrow uniform. He checked over his supplies, and satisfied he had everything he needed, he stepped out of the room, ready to call out and let Chloe know that he was going out for patrol.

Which was mostly the truth.

Except Chloe was standing right in front of him, her arms folded across her chest.

And he had the distinct feeling he wasn't going to be leaving quite as soon as he thought.

Comments

[dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com]

He paused, doing his best not to react with the shock he couldn't help feel. "Oh."

[chloeas.livejournal.com]

"I know," She said quietly, taking a deep breath and lifting her head to look at him, "he's been with the company for over twenty years now and hopefully, he will retire soon."

She sipped on her hot chocolate then looked at him, "it pays well and he is happy in Smallville," she paused and shrugged a shoulder, "and of course he remains blissfully unaware of everything I know... I didn't even tell him I found her."

[dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com]

He was silent for a moment, then he set his mug down on the table and reached out, putting a hand on her arm. "Is there a reason you haven't told him?" he asked very quietly, not wanting to push her, but thinking maybe she needed to talk about it.

[chloeas.livejournal.com]

"To protect him?" She shifted a little, taking a deep breath, "over three years ago, I made some really bad choices and he got caught up in the middle of the whole thing, I only told him what was necessary and the impression I got was that he didn't want to know more than he had to."

Chloe swallowed hard, turning her eyes down to her mug again, "my dad is a great man, very smart and he's usually pretty open minded, but I guess he just... knows that whatever it is that Clark and I have been involved in for years is dangerous and he knows even if he tries to, he won't be able to stop me from being in the middle of it and... if he doesn't know, he won't have to try to."

"He knows my high school theories about the meteor infected, but since I just stopped talking about them once I found out the truth about Clark, he doesn't know what is real and what isnt and he also doesn't know that both my mom and I are infected, I don't think he even knows she's alive and... it's probably better that it stays that way."

She knew she was babbling and a lot of this was probably not even making sense to Oliver, but now that she started, she just wanted to get it all out, "when she left, she broke his heart and if he sees her like she is now..." she shook her head, eyes still on her mug.

[dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com]

Oliver studied her as she spoke, sensing that whatever had happened three years ago still had an impact on her life--even if the only thing that was changed was her relationship with her dad. He heard the tinge of sadness in her voice, and he couldn't help but wonder about the rest of the story. But it wasn't his place to ask.

Shifting closer to her on the sofa, he put an arm around her shoulders. It wasn't part of the game, it wasn't meant to be sexual in the least. It was simply a gesture of comfort. They were, after all, friends.

"How old were you when she left?" he asked quietly.

[chloeas.livejournal.com]

With one more sip of her chocolate, she leaned forward to place her mug on the coffee table and when she leaned back, she shifted closer to him, not thinking anything of the arm that was around her past the comfort he was willing to offer.

"Five," she answered quietly, a sad smile on her lips, "I woke up one morning, she was gone and my dad was burning breakfast."

[dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com]

His eyes were sad and without thinking, he gave her a gentle squeeze. "And you didn't know why until recently," he guessed, his voice still quiet.

[chloeas.livejournal.com]

She shook her head, glancing at him, "I had no idea."

[dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com]

Without thinking about it, he pressed a kiss to her forehead. "That must have been difficult. All those years wondering what happened..." His voice trailed off. In a way, he'd been lucky. While he'd lost his parents when he was nine, he at least knew what happened to them. He had closure early on, even if it had turned him into an angry young man for many years. But Chloe hadn't had anything resembling closure. Even now.

[chloeas.livejournal.com]

With a soft sigh and a humorless smile, she shook her head and lifted a hand to wipe her face, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to turn the conversation into this." She wasn't embarrassed or uncomfortable like talking about her mom usually made her, but she knew parents was, understandably, a touchy subject with Oliver and here she was, feeling sorry for herself because her mom had left when he had lost both his parents at a young age, she had no room to complain.

[dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com]

His eyebrows furrowed a little. "You don't have to apologize, Chloe." He offered her a small, sad smile. "Friends talk about this kind of stuff. Right?" There was a hint of uncertainty in his voice.

It had been a long time since he'd had a friend to talk to about the serious things. It was all League-related or business-related or idle chat during one night stands.

[chloeas.livejournal.com]

She looked up at him, a little surprised and nodded, leaning against his side and relaxing, "yeah, they do." She answered quietly, glad he considered her a friend.

[dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com]

He relaxed a little, nodding as well. "Good." He rested his head against hers for a moment.

[chloeas.livejournal.com]

Without thinking about it, she wrapped an arm around him and nodded, "do you wanna start the movie?"

[dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com]

Surprised by the move, he instinctively wound his other arm around her, hugging her. "Sure," he agreed, a faint smile on his face.

[chloeas.livejournal.com]

With a deep breath, she relaxed against him and turned her eyes to the tv, not wanting to think about the subjects they were just talking about, just to enjoy the bad horror movie and relax.

[dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com]

He started the movie, but didn't pull away from her when she didn't pull away from him. He relaxed a little more, focusing on the movie, a faint smile on his face.