Clearing things up with dl_greenarrow.

[chloeas]

After Oliver left, Chloe heard him stepping on the rooftop and knew he was going on patrol. Which meant she knew he was going to be gone for a couple of hours at least. She went downstairs and checked on Mia, who, as far as she could tell, was asleep, then went back to Oliver's room, sat down on his bed and waited for him

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[dl_greenarrow]

Oliver was tired by the time he got back to Watchtower nearly four hours later. In that time he'd talked to Tess, taken down one mugger, stopped a guy from hijacking a car and spent the rest of the time wondering what he was even doing

[chloeas]

Chloe looked up from Lionel's diary when she heard him, setting it on her lap, she took a deep breath and watched Oliver for a second, "I'm sorry." She said simply, it was as good a start as any.

[dl_greenarrow]

He gazed at her for a moment, then shook his head. "No. You're not." His voice was quiet.

[chloeas]

Her stomach tightened and she raised her eyebrows at that, holding her breath and just looking at him.

[dl_greenarrow]

He was silent for a moment. "I know that." He didn't look at her. "But I do."

[chloeas]

Chloe stepped closer and sighed softly, "you're not responsible for what she does, Ollie."

[dl_greenarrow]

"I'm just the guy responsible for turning her into what she's become," he said with a hint of bitterness--the kind that was not directed at Chloe, or even Tess, but himself.

[chloeas]

"No, you're not." She didn't know details about Tess' life, but she knew exactly what Lex had done to her, Lana had filled her in on the details all those years ago and she had done some research of her own, "Lex is, you're the guy who gave her more chances than she deserved and she still chose not to accept them."

[dl_greenarrow]

"Do you?" He met her eyes.

[chloeas]

Her stomach tightened and she nodded, taking a deep breath as she held his gaze, "more than you know."

[dl_greenarrow]

He swallowed hard, then nodded a little, looking down at the floor.

[chloeas]

Chloe blinked and pulled her hand back from his back placing both hands on her lap, "things have been harder lately, I know. And if you need a break from everything, I understand."

[dl_greenarrow]

"It's not so much that I'm worried about whatever's coming. It's more that..." He turned so he was halfway facing her on the bed. "I don't know, finding out that my parents--or at least my dad for sure--was involved in Veritas...it's thrown me." His voice was quiet.

[chloeas]

She watched him closely and nodded, "I know it has, but that's the point of this trip, right? To find you answers, help you get to know your parents and their work better."

[dl_greenarrow]

"Just the fact that they were involved in all of this and then I wound up involved in the same thing without even knowing it...it's just...hard to wrap my brain around, Chloe." He sighed.

[chloeas]

"I know, Ollie," she told him quietly, "when I found my mom, after all that time, I wasn't sure what to do with the information either, but you can't expect yourself to just take it all in at once, finding out things about your parents isn't easy, give yourself time to digest it instead of trying to figure out what it all means and the ways in which it affects you all at once."

[dl_greenarrow]

His fingers gently massaged the back of her neck as he shifted closer to her. He lifted his other hand to her cheek as he slowly deepened the kiss.

[chloeas]

Chloe made a quiet noise of approval in the back of her throat as she wrapped one of her arms around him, her brain had gone from complete overload to completely blank as he deepened the kiss.

[dl_greenarrow]

It wasn't the first time they'd kissed.

They'd kissed at the Daily Planet Christmas party--something that felt like a lifetime ago.

He'd kissed her after finding out that Lex Luthor was still alive, before he and Tess had taken off for awhile to try and work out a plan.

There had been other instances, other almost but not quite instances that he'd wanted to kiss her, but practical reasons had stopped him. For the life of him, at that moment, he couldn't remember what those reasons were.

[chloeas]

She couldn't think of any of those reasons either. And she didn't want to. She had been wanting to kiss him for a long time now and every time, she stopped herself, she felt insecure about whether he wanted her to or not, about whether she was ready to or not.

But it didn't matter now. None of it did, because she felt like he wanted it as much as she did. Needed it as much as she did.

As much as she hated it, she had to pull back after a long moment for air. With a deep breath, she opened her eyes and looked up at him.