Title: The Private Thoughts of a Frustrated and Confused Man
Summary: Oliver's thoughts as Chloe tends his wounds in Absolute Justice
Rating: PG
Notes: I'm always looking for idea to write one shots. It's kind of funny I only find them when I stumble upon them. Through a certain chain of events during a conversation with
gen717 we got to talking about the AJ scene where Chloe is tending Oliver's wounds. I'm sure ALL of us have rewatched that scene. Anyway, this is what I WANTED Oliver to be thinking during that scene.
Oh, and BTW, thank you to everyone that told me congratulations. I wanted to go back and say thanks I just didn't think I'd get such a huge response. Plus, I haven't been on much. I was just grateful I got this out. So maybe consider this my thank you. :)
He watched her for a few moments, eyes flicking between her hands on his arms to her face and back again. It wasn’t long that he allowed himself to watch her, but it was enough that he knew he'd be uncomfortable if she caught him watching her. So he looked away quickly and rubbed his neck, wincing at the pain, but more so at the uncomfortable situation he had just found himself in.
Being picked up by a huge man bird and thrown threw a window was embarrassing enough. Then add to that the woman standing between his legs, the distance between them only a matter of inches, and he was having a very shitty day.
Oliver didn’t need anyone to tell him, as he was sure they would, that lusting after Chloe Sullivan was a very, very bad idea. In the beginning he put it off to being in such close proximity to an attractive woman. Oliver had known Chloe a while, but they had rarely worked together one on one, at least not before she'd used a two-ton truck to bring him
back from his most recent bout with self-destruction.
Then suddenly he was at the Watchtower all the time. For league related business and sometimes because he just didn’t feel like sitting at Luthorcorp doing work. Chloe was much better company then anyone there. She didn’t bother him, went along with her work, and much of the time past in silence. Yet for some reason he just liked being around her.
Except that reason alone wasn’t sufficient for him. There had to be more to it than that. Chloe Sullivan was off limits. There were numerous reasons why and most of them involved each of their very painful, sordid pasts. Each of them had their own hurt and sins that they had yet to work through. There was too much of a past between them for him to suddenly be appreciating her ass in skirts and her legs in heels, to be sneaking peeks of a hint of cleavage, to let his eyes flicker to her lips when she was close.
No, Oliver quickly realized it was more than just being in close proximity to her. So that led him to his second reason, Chloe had saved his life and he was obviously going through some crazy psychological thing were you fall for the hero (the irony of him, the Green Arrow, falling for the hero hadn’t been lost on him either). There had to be a term for it.
But really, it wasn’t the first time Oliver had his ass bailed out of trouble.
Glancing back at Chloe, Oliver noted that somehow she seemed to have gotten closer. Big mistake. Pursing his lips he looked away again. Picking apart his feelings for Chloe wasn’t helping, so he opted for talking instead.
“Ten to one says pigeon man has Clark locked up in a bird cage somewhere.” Obviously speaking the first thing on his mind probably wasn’t the best idea, at least he assumed it wasn’t from her frown. Sure he wanted to distract himself from her body, and of course he didn’t want to recognize the feelings brewing within him, but that didn’t mean he wanted to get her upset with him either.
“I don’t know who the hell these people are but they sure don’t like us.” Whatever the hell she was doing to his arm- “Ow!”
“I thought you said it didn’t hurt?” Chloe asked, concern lacing her voice as she pulled back.
“I lied.” What the hell was wrong with him? LIke I god damn kid whining and pouting to get attention. Yea it stung a bit, but really, it was hardly the worst thing that had ever happened to him. In fact he could think of quite a lot of things, pretty quickly, that had hurt a lot worse. At least she pulled away though, and he could only hope she was through, even though the concern on her face seemed to make him even more uncomfortable.
But no, his sudden urge to flinch away had done nothing to shorten his torturous sentence. If anything, it had made it worse. Before her thigh had just brushed his knee as she cleaned the cuts on his arm. Now, she stepped closer, closing distance between them. No way in her right mind could she just think stepping between his legs would be okay. So maybe if she would if she was looking at it objectively, maybe. But come on. Could the woman, that had stepped way into his personal space not realize what the hell she was doing? Possibly.
Then she leaned in, pressed her hand against his forehead and propped the other on his shoulder, resting against the back of his neck. Suddenly, he realized that she actually had no clue what she was doing to him, because Chloe Sullivan would have been the last woman to use something like this to flirt with him. She was all business. So he finally concluded it was just him acting like a hormonal teenage.
“You know you’re lucky he didn’t drop you from ten stories up.”
Actually, from where he was sitting, he was pretty lucky. Regardless of how wrong it all was, Oliver had to finally admit he didn’t realy mind the situation he had found himself in. Sure it was uncomfortable, because it was something he shouldn’t have been taking any amount of pleasure in, but the problem was, he couldn’t help it. No amount of talking himself out of watching her, appreciating the small neat little package she came in and actually beginning to have feelings for her would stop him. There comes a point where there just is no turning back, and Oliver was finally beginning to realize he was reaching that point.
Even so, she was to close. Because as the seconds ticked by, which felt like minutes, and he became more and more aware of her body near his, he couldn’t ignore the sudden urge to reach out. Those urges had never risen before. His time fixated on her had consisted primarily of checking her out and telling himself that it was wrong, even if he couldn’t convince himself to go out and date other women.
Now, it wasn’t just thoughts about Chloe that consumed him, it was a sudden urge just to do something. In all his life, when there was a woman Oliver wanted, he’d never stood idly by. But with Chloe he did. She was his friend foremost, so putting the moves on her had never really entered his mind. Now though, with her standing between his legs, leaning on him, hands at his face and neck, all he could think about was what he wanted to do.
He’d much rather she wasn’t so oblivious. The situation would have worked better in his favor if some of her actions were for the purpose of at least flirting. If they were then maybe he’d let himself look her in the eyes, instead of avoiding them. If she was on the same level as him she’d get the point. If she didn’t back away he’d reach out, slide his hand to her back and gently pull her forward while letting his other hand cup the back of her neck, tilting her head down just enough so he could kiss her.
“I don’t feel lucky. As much as I hate to admit it these people really know what they’re doing.”
And just like that it was over. “OW!” Suddenly he was marveling at the fact that the woman he had just been fantasizing about had just caused him pain, and not in a good way. He definitely would need to work on his technique with her, but in the mean time damage control. Because obviously when he spent his time fantasizing about her his mouth was not relaying what it decided to say to his brain, or else he might have chosen his words more carefully.