Chlollie Fanfic: Beauty in the Breakdown IV - Falling In, Part 1
Hi everyone!
Just wanted to say thanks for all the lovely comments. I'm hoping I can find time to edit Part 2 (which is all written) and post within the next couple of hours. I don't want to keep you all hanging too long!
Hugs,
Dee. :-)
Title: Beauty in the Breakdown IV - Falling In
Author: BabyDee
Pairing: Chlollie
Rating: NC-17 (this chapter PG-13) New Series.
Warnings: A Re-telling of Chlollie post-Warrior
Timeline: Season 9
Disclaimer: All characters belong to the CW & DC comics.
Summary: With Oliver by her side, Chloe learns to let go, find peace, and fall in love.
Feedback: …the more, the merrier! J
Written for sxymami0909 , based on my favourite song on the Chlollie playlist she sent me. J
Awesome banner by ellashy .
Beauty in the Breakdown IV
Falling In
Every time I see your face
My heart takes off on a high-speed chase, now
Don’t be scared, it’s only love
Baby, that we’re falling in…
- Falling In, by Lifehouse
***
Part 1
She should have called ahead to say she was coming.
Truth be told, she almost did, but she’d chickened out at the last minute, strangely worried that he might try to dissuade her from dropping by with lame excuses. I’d love to see you, Chloe, but it’s not a good time; I’m fixing my hair/polishing my bows/cleaning my apartment from top to bottom…
Fact was, she had no idea what to expect now that it had been a week since their first tumultuous coupling. But she knew what she wanted.
The elevator jarred to a stop as it reached the penthouse floor. Well, it was too late for regrets now, she thought grimly as she reached for the grate. Maybe she was being extremely presumptuous to think she could just pick up where she and Oliver had left off, but after what had happened, she couldn’t help but think he’d deliberately left an open door of communication between them for a reason. And he was the one who’d initiated sex, so it shouldn’t really come as a surprise to him to realise she wanted more of what he was offering, but…
She sighed and squared her shoulders as she yanked open the iron grate. Whatever would be would be. Worst case scenario, he’d turn his back on her and pretend like she’d never existed; nothing she hadn’t handled before.
She stepped out of the car and did a double take at the scene that greeted her eyes.
There were boxes of knick-knacks and items of clothing strewn from one side of the room to the other, with a small pile of folded shirts on the sofa. And standing in the middle of the room, humming softly with his back to her, was Oliver.
He looked like some domestic god, wearing khaki knee-length shorts and not much else. He was wielding a vacuum cleaner in one hand and some kind of spray cleaner in the other, a cleaning cloth resting casually on one bare shoulder. The headphones in his ears explained why he hadn’t heard her buzzing the intercom.
And there I was thinking the ‘I’m Spring-cleaning my apartment’ excuse was just a cliché, she thought with a touch of irony.
Oliver’s humming turned to vocalising, and she couldn’t help grinning as he smoothly sang along to the haunting strains of Sade.
Oh…when you’re cold, I’ll be there; hold you tight to me
When you’re on the outside, baby, and you can’t get in,
I will show you, you’re so much better than you know…
He swivelled the Dyson in a circular motion and turned around, coming face to face with her mid-tune.
“Chloe!” he exclaimed, his eyes wide. “What are you doing here?”
Ouch. “I, um…” she cleared her throat, floored by the unexpected direct question. Nice one, Chloe. “I heard you were back in town…” totally lo-jacked your flight manifest “…and thought I’d just thought I’d pop by and say hi…” and stalk you for some more hot sex. “But I can see you’re busy so I’ll just, er…make myself scarce.” She started to turn back into the elevator, her cheeks burning with awkward embarrassment.
“No wait!” he said quickly, turning off the Dyson and walking over to her, taking her small hand in his. “It’s really good to see you.”
She glanced up at him warily, surprised at the genuine smile on his face. Well, bless him for at least looking like he actually means it, she thought wryly.
“You don’t have to say that, Ollie,” she said gently. “I mean, I know how pissed off I get when someone drops in unannounced as I’m cleaning house.”
“Ah yes,” he mused, stroking his jaw thoughtfully. “There is that…”
She smiled. “I’ll get out of your way, it’s no problem-”
“Actually, I’ll be happier if you stayed,” he replied hopefully. “Maybe you could give me a hand here? I could really use your help.”
She frowned. “Really?”
“Yeah, really. I thought I could sort this mess out single-handedly, but it’s proving more of a challenge than I’d originally anticipated.”
She glanced at the room in disarray and raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you that men are genetically incapable of multitasking?”
He gave her a sheepish grin. “Hence my desperate need for your feminine touch. Please? Call it payback for not calling to let me know you were coming.”
She felt a grin tugging the corners of her mouth up. “It’s only fair, I suppose.”
He grinned again, looking genuinely pleased. “Great! That’s settled. Why not kick your shoes off, get comfortable?”
“Sure.” She slipped her heels off and placed them on the shoe-rack beside a pair of his office shoes. The sight of their footwear side-by-side, looking innocently intimate, made a little jolt of electricity run through her.
“Folding, or wiping?” he asked from behind her.
She turned and frowned. “What, no vacuuming?”
He rolled his eyes affectionately. “We’ll do that last, otherwise we’ll be yelling over each other anytime we want to talk and constantly stop-starting the damn thing.”
She nodded, tearing her eyes away from his mesmerising chest. “Good point. Um…okay, wiping.”
“Wiping it is.” He took the cloth off his shoulder and picked up the spray bottle he was holding. “That’s for windows and glass, get started on that.”
“So why are you doing all this stuff by yourself anyway?” she asked as she took off her jacket and hung it on a hook. “You done something to piss of the help?”
He gave her a mock glare. “Very funny. I gave her some well-earned, much-needed time off, as she was hoping to attend a family wedding in Tuscany,” he said defensively. “She’s a sweet old dear; came highly recommended by Nonna, extremely reliable and dependable. I didn’t realise how much so until her last day at work before she went on vacation.”
Chloe squirted some liquid onto the solid glass table and started polishing. “Oh?”
He put down a fresh pile of folded shirts and turned to her with a sheepish grin. “You’re gonna laugh at this. She’s finished cleaning the apartment and she’s on her way out the door, putting on her coat, when she calmly says that the third compound bow on the left is beginning to get a little rusty.”
Her jaw dropped. “She WHAT??”
“Seriously. Said I might want to give it some regular use.”
“Oh, my God!” she exclaimed, her eyes wide. “What did you say?”
“What could I say? I gulped said something along the lines of, ‘so you know, then?’ to which she gave me a condescending look and dryly replied, ‘that you’re the Green Arrow? Of course I know! What, you think all the equipment and weapons in that room have been cleaning themselves?’”
The smile Chloe had been trying to suppress gave way to an explosive fit of laughter.
Oliver continued. “Made even funnier by the fact that we had the entire conversation in Italian, complete with patented hand gestures and everything.”
This time she collapsed to the floor, holding her middle as the laughter threatened to cramp her stomach muscles. “How did she get the code to the door?” she managed to wheeze.
He thrust his hands in his shorts pockets and idly toed the floor. “I uh…may have written it down when I changed it and left it carelessly lying around,” he mumbled, scowling as he glanced up and caught the derisive expression on her face. “Yes, I know better now, Chloe,” he snarked. “You don’t need to give me that look.”
She sighed and folded her arms, grinning up at him. “You know, you’re damn lucky you keep your employees sweet. She’s not gonna rat you out, is she?”
He grinned and crouched down next to her. “Nah, she’s cool. Besides, she said I saved her nephew from an attack once, so she’s been a fan since long before she started working for me.”
“Huh. You never know whose life you save until something like this happens.”
He shrugged. “I guess.” One hand reached out and traced her lips with his thumb. “It’s good to hear you laugh again,” he said softly. “I haven’t heard that laugh since…”
He trailed off, and she tried to cast her mind back to a time when she’d genuinely been happy. She remembered smiling and laughing on her doomed wedding day, but the honest truth was that everything she’d said and done from the moment Brainiac had infected her was through a haze, a deep fog that had occasionally lifted, letting her see the decisions he’d made, and the damage he’d done. The influence had persisted even after he’d been cleansed from her, continuing right up until Davis’s demise when the connection had finally been broken.
“It has been a while,” she admitted. “Since I got fired from the Daily Planet, if I have to be really honest.”
They stared at each other for a while, and then Oliver smiled and held out his hand.
“C’mon,” he said, rising to his feet and helping her to hers. “The sooner we finish all this, the sooner we can break for lunch.”
She grinned and reached for her cloth and spray bottle, returning to the task at hand. She was having a surprisingly fun afternoon, even if this wasn’t exactly the kind of fun she’d been planning on having.
***
Part 2…