An Open Fire. With chloeas.

[dl_greenarrow]

Oliver lay on the floor of the cabin, stretched out in front of the fireplace, watching the flames dance and flicker before him. He glanced up when he caught sight of movement from the corner of his eye and smiled a bit when he turned to see Chloe staring out the window at the rapidly falling snow

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[chloeas]

She sipped on her coffee and smiled, watching the window for a second longer then turning to face him, "are you kidding me? I don't think my body is back to regular temperature yet."

[dl_greenarrow]

He smiled. "Well, that's why I built the fire." He patted the floor beside him.

[chloeas]

"Do you want coffee?" She asked as she stepped closer to him.

[dl_greenarrow]

"No, I'm good," he assured her, turning to look back at the fire once more.

[dl_greenarrow]

Oliver was silent for a moment, then he sat up slowly. "All right, lie down," he said quietly, motioning for her to lie down as he'd done.

[chloeas]

Her eyes widened slightly and she shook her head, smiling awkwardly, "it's not that bad, just kinda sore." Because having him massage her thighs was probably not the best way to keep this from going places it shouldn't, especially not when they were alone in a cabin in the middle of nowhere, with a fireplace and lots of snow outside.

[dl_greenarrow]

He frowned a little, suddenly unsure of what exactly she thought he was planning to do. "Uh, I was gonna show you a stretching excercize that should help alleviate the pain." His voice was quiet, uncertain.

[chloeas]

"Oh," she turned away to place her mug on the side of the couch and rolled her eyes at herself while he couldn't see her face then moved to lay down on the floor, turning to look at him, "okay?"

[chloeas]

Chloe grinned softly and shook her head, "not the point, the point is that first you start getting used to being in control and next thing you know, you quit listening to the Watchtower when you're out there and get yourself in trouble."

[dl_greenarrow]

"Ouch. How about a little give and take in this relationship?" His voice was still light, amused. "You tell me what to do on missions, and I'll tell you how to train and ease the pain from excercise."

[chloeas]

At that, she turned on her side to look at him, considering for a moment, "I guess I can work with that."

[dl_greenarrow]

Oliver grinned at her. "Feel better?" he asked, searching her eyes.

[dl_greenarrow]

Oliver was quiet for a moment. "Was it easier back then?" His voice was very soft, almost inaudible.

[chloeas]

Raising her eyebrows, she grinned a little, but without much humor, "a thousand times easier," shaking her head, she shrugged, "it could be easy now if I chose to ignore everything that is going on and everything that happened, I could go back to the Planet and just make money like everyone else, but easier isn't good enough."

[dl_greenarrow]

He searched her eyes. "That's because you're far too amazing of a person, Chloe," he said quietly. "There a lot of people who are perfectly content to just focus on their own lives and ignore everything else, but that's not who you are." He smiled softly.

[chloeas]

Shrugging softly, she glanced away then back at him, "the reason why I wanted to work at the Planet in the first place was to bring people the truth through my stories, to give them the justice they deserve, but under the current administration, I would never be able to do that, so, what we do is much more rewarding."

[dl_greenarrow]

He opened his mouth to respond, but found he was a little speechless for a moment. "You know me scarily well."

[chloeas]

With a shrug, she cocked her head slightly, watching him, "I'm observant." She teased.

[dl_greenarrow]

He smiled. "That you are," he agreed, giving her hand another light squeeze.

[chloeas]

Chloe watched him silently for a second, "I know you have been worried about me," she had had that feeling since they saw Lois' memory from the future and she had nearly broken down, he had since made more of an effort to be around her, so much that he had left his perfectly comfortable clock tower behind and had moved into the Watchtower with her, "and I appreciate you concern. A lot."

Probably more than she could actually tell him, "and I also appreciate the opportunity to relax and try to get my mind off of things."