Scars are Souvenirs We Never Lose. With chloeas.

[olliequeen]

Oliver stood on the rooftop of the clocktower, looking out over the city with more than a small amount of frustration.

Emil had given him the go ahead to resume 'regular duties' earlier that day, but unfortunately 'regular duties' did not, apparently, include dressing in green leather and taking down bad guys.

It had been nearly three weeks since the incident with Doomsday, and to say he'd been feeling restless was an understatement. It was beyond restless now.

Now he was just starting to feel useless.

And Oliver Queen did not enjoy feeling useless.

Heaving a sigh, he leaned heavily on the ledge, an unhappy expression on his face.

(Rated NC-17 later in the thread)

Comments

[chloeas.livejournal.com]

Even though she had been going out of her way to keep him busy so he wouldn't miss Green Arrow as much, it was nearly impossible to distract him away from a part of himself. Especially when he had to watch Clark and the others coming in and calling her for help on whatever it was that they were working on, they asked Oliver for his opinion and he helped mapping out the missions, but she felt like that only made matters worse because he couldn't go with the team when they left.

Which was why he had gone up to the roof while Chloe had a conference call with Victor, Bart and Dinah, who were preparing for a mission.

But he had been up there for a while now and it had gotten cold since the sunset, so Chloe decided to go upstairs and see if she could get him back inside.

The look on his face and his posture alone were enough to let her know things were not good, "hey." She said quietly as she walked over to him.

[dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com]

"Hey," he responded without hesitation, still looking out over the city as she approached. "How'd it go?"

He'd wanted to stay for the conference call, but he knew it would only have made him want to go with the team that much more, so he'd vouched for the roof. The idea of the others going on missions without him had never sat well with him, even when it had been from necessity.

It was his team--his family. And if anything went wrong and he wasn't there, he wasn't sure he'd be able to forgive himself for that. He knew they were strong--with or without him--but that didn't stop him from feeling responsible for each of them and their safety.

[chloeas.livejournal.com]

Walking up to him, she reached to place a hand over his back, rubbing it slowly and watching his face before looking out at Metropolis too, "they are ready, but they have to wait a few more hours until they can go in so they will go over everything again."

[dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com]

He nodded slightly, falling silent, but relaxing a little, involuntarily, due to her gentle touch. She had a way of making him do that, that he couldn't even begin to explain. He let out a breath. "I need to be out there, Chloe," he murmured.

[chloeas.livejournal.com]

"It won't be much longer," she turned her face to look at him, it would be probably a couple more weeks at least, but she didn't want to bring that up, "we just need to make sure that when you go, you won't hurt yourself."

[dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com]

He sighed softly and glanced over at her, his eyes worried. "I know. Wouldn't be much use to anyone if I was dead. Or out of commission even longer."

[chloeas.livejournal.com]

Shaking her head, she met his gaze, "no, you wouldn't, which is why I'm not letting either one of those things happen." She leaned closer and kissed his cheek softly, "at least the doctor say you are recovering really well and faster than usual."

[dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com]

He turned and slid his arms around her, planting a kiss on her forehead. He knew himself well enough to know that if he hadn't been with Chloe, he'd be out there regardless of the doctor's orders. Probably a week ago, in fact.

"Which is kind of bizarre, really," he said, furrowing his eyebrows.

[chloeas.livejournal.com]

With a smile, she wrapped her other arm around him too, it was nice to be able to hold him like that and know she wouldn't hurt him, she had really missed this kind of thing, as well as everything that came with it, but they would get to that eventually.

"Not really, you usually take pretty good care of yourself and you eat well and exercise, it's not surprising you have a good metabolism."

[dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com]

"Well, and I've one hell of an amazing nurse taking care of me," he added with a faint grin.

[chloeas.livejournal.com]

Shrugging a little, she grinned softly and leaned closer, kissing the corner of his mouth, "hopefully you won't need my nursing skills for a while."

[dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com]

At that, he smirked. "I don't know. Been awhile since we've played doctor," he teased, kissing the corner of her mouth in return.

[chloeas.livejournal.com]

"Well that," she smirked, turning her face and kissing him briefly, "is a completely different story, and because it's been a while, we probably have to do it a lot to make up for going so long without it."

[dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com]

"I do love the way you think, Sidekick." He grinned at her, amusement dancing in his eyes. He kissed her again, softly.

[chloeas.livejournal.com]

She reached a hand up to cup his cheek and kissed him back, breaking the kiss after a moment and grinning up at him, "I'm glad you do, because I really missed it."

[dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com]

He smiled at her, leaning into her touch. "Me too," he admitted, pulling her a little closer. "We should go inside. You don't have on a coat and it's kind of chilly out here."

[chloeas.livejournal.com]

She nodded, brushing her thumb over his cheek gently, "sounds like a good idea, especially since I don't plan on wearing clothes for much longer, you?"

At least now, she had something else to keep his mind off of things.

[dl-greenarrow.livejournal.com]

He raised his eyebrows at that. "Definitely should go inside then." He grinned at her and wrapped an arm around her waist, leading her to the door.

[chloeas.livejournal.com]

She leaned into him, kissing his neck softly as they made their way inside.