Still There (DC, Dinah/Ollie)
Fandom: DC Comics
Character/Pairing: Dinah Lance/Oliver Queen
Rating: PG-13-ish
Genre: Angst, Romance
Summary: It's Valentine's Day in Gotham and Dinah returns home after a rough day to an unexpected visitor.
Author's note: This is a very belated entry for bradygirl12's 2011 DCU Fic/Art Valentine's Day challenge. (Thank you for still accepting it!) and used the prompts of: music (lyrics belong to Butterflies by Sia), dancing, roses, dinner (sort of), other flowers, black, yellow, fishnets, aphrodisiacs that are not chocolate-in this case shrimp capers for Dinah (for anyone who has read Gail Simone's run of BoP, you'll get that one)
Also, I really was hoping for fluffier/sexier fic, but these two have a lot of issues to work out, so it went in a much angstier direction. And, while I'm not sure I picture Oliver as a Sia fan, the lyrics of this song were just too perfect for these two to pass up.
The night of Valentine’s Day was a particularly bloody night in Gotham City. Dinah had spent the entire night patrolling the streets and trying to stop bloodshed. She understood why this hallmark holiday could raise a few tempers, as it was one of those holidays that ensured that emotions were running high. Keeping the streets from running red with the blood of jilted lovers and domestic disputes, as well as the victims of madmen who took any chance to create a little mayhem had taken its toll.
Her last call of the night had resulted in reflexes that were slower than normal. If she had just been quicker to react, maybe she wouldn’t have been in the path of the debris that flew when the homemade pipe bomb blew up a bench in the park. Dinah had been quick enough to push the couple that was about to sit on that very bench out of the way, but not quite quick enough to shield herself fully. The brunt of it missed her, but a few chunks of the park bench had scraped away the skin on her leg and stuck there.
Her leg was loosely bound to prevent a bleed out, and she’d removed the largest pieces, but she wasn’t going to even try to pick out the smaller pieces of the bench that had ground into her wounds until she got home.
“Canary, there’s a problem a… situation you should know about.” Oracle’s voice crackled over her comm set as Dinah spend down the city streets toward her apartment.
Dinah sighed and took a moment to gather her patience before she answered.
“Oracle, you know what kind of night I’ve had. I just want to go home, clean up my injuries, take a nice hot bath and settle in with a glass or three of wine. Unless it’s a life or death situation, can it wait for tomorrow?”
The silence on the other end of the line made Dinah grimace. She was on the verge of apologizing when Oracle spoke again.
“You’re right, Canary. Just go home and relax. I’ll see what I can do about this little problem. Oh, and Happy Valentine’s Day, for what it’s worth.” Barbara’s voice was stretched thin, and Dinah regretted being short with her, but she really did just want to go home and get the pieces of bench cleaned out of the cuts on her leg and then possibly find a way to forget what day it was.
“Happy Valentine’s Day to you too,” Dinah replied just before the comm link crackled off again.
Dinah had barely gotten home and taken off her jacket when someone pounded on the door. She sighed and tried to ignore it, but the person didn’t seem to take a hint.
Finally, Dinah went over to the door and opened it. Her jaw dropped slightly at the person framed in the doorway.
“Ollie.” The sight of him created a little tug in her chest that she tried to ignore. The surprise in her voice faded quickly. She took a step back from the door and crossed her arms. “What are you doing here?”
Oliver took up most of the door frame, standing there in a green button-down shirt and black dress pants. A large bouquet of pink and yellow flowers was held tightly in one hand, with a bottle of champagne and a carry-out bag in the other.
Dinah recognized the flowers instantly. Maid Marion roses and the five-lobed leaves of the Canary flowers. Not your typical combination for a bouquet, but it had once been a meaningful combination for her. There had once been so many meaningful things between them, but she’d thought that was all over when she left him through that jail cell. Not the finest moment for either of them.
“I’m late, that’s what,” Oliver replied. He stepped inside, without invitation, and squeezed past Dinah to close the door behind them.
She glared at him.
“I didn’t invite you in. Ollie, I’m going to ask again. What are you doing here?”
“What I should have done months ago,” he said. “I’m here to apologize, and to make things right with my wife. And you can tell Oracle that changing all the traffic lights heading here to red and sending Huntress to shoot out my tires isn’t going to keep me away.”
Dinah let out a little noise of frustration and turned to head down the hall. She didn’t have the patience for this. There had been so much hurt between them over the years, and she just didn’t have the energy to open herself up to that anymore. No matter how much she missed him.
“Dinah, you’re hurt,” Oliver’s voice softened. He caught up to her and grabbed her arm, spinning her around to face him.
Hot tears threatened to spill over as Dinah looked into the green eyes of the man who was still legally her husband. She hadn’t yet filed the divorce papers. Couldn’t bring herself to put the final nail in the coffin after only two years of marriage. Two years, when compared with the great span of time that they’d both been doing this dance of back and forth. Even when compared to the time they’d actually spent as a couple, two years was merely a drop in the bucket. Worse than that, a part of her regretted leaving him when he’d needed her the most. She had been hurting and that had blinded her to everything else. It had just been easier to leave and pretend not to look back.
“Will you please just let me clean that up for you while we talk?” Oliver asked. “I know I should have followed you as soon as I was released. I should have…” his shoulders raised and then slumped in a defeated look. “I should have done a lot of things differently, but I can’t change what I’ve done. I just… want a chance to apologize.”
At least he knew better than to try to manhandle her into sitting down. Injured or not, Dinah would have knocked him on his ass if he’d tried.
“Fine,” she consented. Without waiting for Oliver, Dinah stomped to the living room and sat down, finally removing her boots. She breathed out a sigh of relief as the pressure was removed from her feet and lower legs.
Oliver appeared a few minutes later and set a glass of wine, a fork, and the carry-out box in front of her. He slipped out of the room again and Dinah heard him rustling through her bathroom cabinet. She sighed, but she supposed he would know just where to find the first-aid supplies. She hadn’t changed her organizational methods much since they’d lived together.
Dinah grudgingly took a sip of the champagne before turning her attention to the food. Her stomach rumbled appreciatively as the intoxicating aroma of shrimp capers wafted up to her. She glared at Oliver again.
“You know I can’t resist these,” she said. She’d once told Barbara that two bites of the shrimp capers would mean she never needed another man again. She supposed she should have been ordering them more often then.
Oliver remained bent over her leg, examining the extent of her injuries, but Dinah could still spot the grin.
“I know,” he said, unabashedly. “I figured I’d need all the help I could manage to get you to let me through your door.”
Dinah took a bite into one of the juicy morsels of shrimp and closed her eyes as it melted in her mouth. She bit her tongue to contain the ‘mmm’ that threatened to escape from her lips. She wasn’t about to give him that satisfaction.
“I think this pair of fishnets is a lost cause,” Oliver told her.
Dinah glanced down at the torn tights.
“I suppose you’re right,” she said.
Seconds later, a ripping sound filled the air. Dinah looked away and tried to focus on anything but the feel of Oliver’s hands brushing over her thigh as he ripped the tights away. No. Oliver did not get to come in here and just rip her clothes off. Not like… not like old times.
Once the fishnets were torn out of the way, Oliver set to the task of pulling out pieces of park bench with a tweezers. His hands skimmed the surface of her skin as he worked, the soft touch contrasting with the twinges of pain as he removed each splinter of plastic.
“Ollie, showing up with flowers and champagne and one of my favorite foods isn’t the way to fix our problems. You never did get that-a relationship isn’t about the big, romantic gestures. It’s the everyday. It’s the trust that two people build and maintain. It’s an entire life that two people share together, not piles upon piles of secrets.”
Oliver looked up from his work momentarily and met her eyes.
“I know, Dinah. I know,” he said softly. “You deserve better than I’ve ever been able to give you. I did keep you separate from some of the things I’d done, and I let things get out of hand. I wasn’t… I wasn’t proud of the mistakes I’d made, and I guess I just couldn’t face your reaction, couldn’t stand the thought of looking in your eyes and knowing that I’d let you down again.”
Dinah took another bite of the shrimp as Oliver slid the bandages over her wounds, gently but firmly pressing down to secure them. Once he finished, his hands gently touched her side, and then her arm. Not in a sensual way, though she still closed her eyes in an attempt to ignore the sensation of his touch. It had been too long since he’d been this close to her.
“I don’t see any other pieces,” Oliver said. His fingers lightly brushed the hair out of her face, and then travelled down to her chin.
Dinah opened her eyes again and met his. His hand lingered for just a moment on her chin. She caught his hand and looked up at him. Even with everything that had gone wrong between them, he was still the only person she’d wanted to see tonight. Still the person she missed the most.
“Ollie, this was a really bad night for you to stop by,” she said.
Oliver’s eyes clouded with hurt, and a few hot tears stung Dinah’s eyes. Even with all that had gone wrong with them, she still loved him, still didn’t want to hurt him. And she missed him. God, did she hate that.
“I didn’t want to spend Valentine’s Day without you,” he said.
Dinah nodded.
“Me neither,” she whispered. “Ollie, I’m sorry about the way I left.”
Oliver stepped forward and his arms slid around her back.
“I can’t say it didn’t hurt a lot, pretty bird. But to be fair, it would have hurt no matter when you’d left. Dinah, my life is with you. I’m sorry I screwed things up, but please give me the chance to make it right.”
Dinah turned her face away from his and rested her head against his shoulder.
“I miss you, but I don’t know if I can live with you. I can’t keep doing this. It hurts too much.”
Oliver pulled her closer and lightly kissed the top of her head.
“I’m not going anywhere, and I’m not keeping things from you anymore. Just tell me what you need from me to make this right.”
“Ollie, it’s not that simple. I can’t just set up some hoops for you to jump through and then everything will be all right.”
Oliver’s hand found her chin and guided her face to his.
“Nothing worthwhile is ever simple, and especially not with us. But I’m willing to do whatever it takes, if you’ll give me that chance.”
“Can you ask me again tomorrow? I need some time to think,” Dinah said. She looked away again, unable to look directly into his eyes and send him away.
It would have been so much easier just now to say yes, to let him kiss her and fall into his arms. To hope that, this time, things would be different. Because when things were good with them, it was hard to be hurt by everything that had gone wrong in the past. It was hard to be anything but happy. And she missed being happy with him so much that it hurt.
“I’ll ask you every day if you need me to,” Oliver murmured. “But I have one request for you tonight.”
He released her and slipped a CD in her CD player. He turned it on and turned to Dinah.
“One dance. Please.”
Dinah nodded and crossed the distance between them. She leaned into him and the two began to sway in perfect time to each other as a the smooth, lilting voice of Sia filled the speakers.
We've shared joy and we've shared pain
We've shared guilt and we've shared shame
We've bought into the stupid games
We've freed each other and we laid claim
Oh yes the butterflies are still there
Character/Pairing: Dinah Lance/Oliver Queen
Rating: PG-13-ish
Genre: Angst, Romance
Summary: It's Valentine's Day in Gotham and Dinah returns home after a rough day to an unexpected visitor.
Author's note: This is a very belated entry for bradygirl12's 2011 DCU Fic/Art Valentine's Day challenge. (Thank you for still accepting it!) and used the prompts of: music (lyrics belong to Butterflies by Sia), dancing, roses, dinner (sort of), other flowers, black, yellow, fishnets, aphrodisiacs that are not chocolate-in this case shrimp capers for Dinah (for anyone who has read Gail Simone's run of BoP, you'll get that one)
Also, I really was hoping for fluffier/sexier fic, but these two have a lot of issues to work out, so it went in a much angstier direction. And, while I'm not sure I picture Oliver as a Sia fan, the lyrics of this song were just too perfect for these two to pass up.
The night of Valentine’s Day was a particularly bloody night in Gotham City. Dinah had spent the entire night patrolling the streets and trying to stop bloodshed. She understood why this hallmark holiday could raise a few tempers, as it was one of those holidays that ensured that emotions were running high. Keeping the streets from running red with the blood of jilted lovers and domestic disputes, as well as the victims of madmen who took any chance to create a little mayhem had taken its toll.
Her last call of the night had resulted in reflexes that were slower than normal. If she had just been quicker to react, maybe she wouldn’t have been in the path of the debris that flew when the homemade pipe bomb blew up a bench in the park. Dinah had been quick enough to push the couple that was about to sit on that very bench out of the way, but not quite quick enough to shield herself fully. The brunt of it missed her, but a few chunks of the park bench had scraped away the skin on her leg and stuck there.
Her leg was loosely bound to prevent a bleed out, and she’d removed the largest pieces, but she wasn’t going to even try to pick out the smaller pieces of the bench that had ground into her wounds until she got home.
“Canary, there’s a problem a… situation you should know about.” Oracle’s voice crackled over her comm set as Dinah spend down the city streets toward her apartment.
Dinah sighed and took a moment to gather her patience before she answered.
“Oracle, you know what kind of night I’ve had. I just want to go home, clean up my injuries, take a nice hot bath and settle in with a glass or three of wine. Unless it’s a life or death situation, can it wait for tomorrow?”
The silence on the other end of the line made Dinah grimace. She was on the verge of apologizing when Oracle spoke again.
“You’re right, Canary. Just go home and relax. I’ll see what I can do about this little problem. Oh, and Happy Valentine’s Day, for what it’s worth.” Barbara’s voice was stretched thin, and Dinah regretted being short with her, but she really did just want to go home and get the pieces of bench cleaned out of the cuts on her leg and then possibly find a way to forget what day it was.
“Happy Valentine’s Day to you too,” Dinah replied just before the comm link crackled off again.
Dinah had barely gotten home and taken off her jacket when someone pounded on the door. She sighed and tried to ignore it, but the person didn’t seem to take a hint.
Finally, Dinah went over to the door and opened it. Her jaw dropped slightly at the person framed in the doorway.
“Ollie.” The sight of him created a little tug in her chest that she tried to ignore. The surprise in her voice faded quickly. She took a step back from the door and crossed her arms. “What are you doing here?”
Oliver took up most of the door frame, standing there in a green button-down shirt and black dress pants. A large bouquet of pink and yellow flowers was held tightly in one hand, with a bottle of champagne and a carry-out bag in the other.
Dinah recognized the flowers instantly. Maid Marion roses and the five-lobed leaves of the Canary flowers. Not your typical combination for a bouquet, but it had once been a meaningful combination for her. There had once been so many meaningful things between them, but she’d thought that was all over when she left him through that jail cell. Not the finest moment for either of them.
“I’m late, that’s what,” Oliver replied. He stepped inside, without invitation, and squeezed past Dinah to close the door behind them.
She glared at him.
“I didn’t invite you in. Ollie, I’m going to ask again. What are you doing here?”
“What I should have done months ago,” he said. “I’m here to apologize, and to make things right with my wife. And you can tell Oracle that changing all the traffic lights heading here to red and sending Huntress to shoot out my tires isn’t going to keep me away.”
Dinah let out a little noise of frustration and turned to head down the hall. She didn’t have the patience for this. There had been so much hurt between them over the years, and she just didn’t have the energy to open herself up to that anymore. No matter how much she missed him.
“Dinah, you’re hurt,” Oliver’s voice softened. He caught up to her and grabbed her arm, spinning her around to face him.
Hot tears threatened to spill over as Dinah looked into the green eyes of the man who was still legally her husband. She hadn’t yet filed the divorce papers. Couldn’t bring herself to put the final nail in the coffin after only two years of marriage. Two years, when compared with the great span of time that they’d both been doing this dance of back and forth. Even when compared to the time they’d actually spent as a couple, two years was merely a drop in the bucket. Worse than that, a part of her regretted leaving him when he’d needed her the most. She had been hurting and that had blinded her to everything else. It had just been easier to leave and pretend not to look back.
“Will you please just let me clean that up for you while we talk?” Oliver asked. “I know I should have followed you as soon as I was released. I should have…” his shoulders raised and then slumped in a defeated look. “I should have done a lot of things differently, but I can’t change what I’ve done. I just… want a chance to apologize.”
At least he knew better than to try to manhandle her into sitting down. Injured or not, Dinah would have knocked him on his ass if he’d tried.
“Fine,” she consented. Without waiting for Oliver, Dinah stomped to the living room and sat down, finally removing her boots. She breathed out a sigh of relief as the pressure was removed from her feet and lower legs.
Oliver appeared a few minutes later and set a glass of wine, a fork, and the carry-out box in front of her. He slipped out of the room again and Dinah heard him rustling through her bathroom cabinet. She sighed, but she supposed he would know just where to find the first-aid supplies. She hadn’t changed her organizational methods much since they’d lived together.
Dinah grudgingly took a sip of the champagne before turning her attention to the food. Her stomach rumbled appreciatively as the intoxicating aroma of shrimp capers wafted up to her. She glared at Oliver again.
“You know I can’t resist these,” she said. She’d once told Barbara that two bites of the shrimp capers would mean she never needed another man again. She supposed she should have been ordering them more often then.
Oliver remained bent over her leg, examining the extent of her injuries, but Dinah could still spot the grin.
“I know,” he said, unabashedly. “I figured I’d need all the help I could manage to get you to let me through your door.”
Dinah took a bite into one of the juicy morsels of shrimp and closed her eyes as it melted in her mouth. She bit her tongue to contain the ‘mmm’ that threatened to escape from her lips. She wasn’t about to give him that satisfaction.
“I think this pair of fishnets is a lost cause,” Oliver told her.
Dinah glanced down at the torn tights.
“I suppose you’re right,” she said.
Seconds later, a ripping sound filled the air. Dinah looked away and tried to focus on anything but the feel of Oliver’s hands brushing over her thigh as he ripped the tights away. No. Oliver did not get to come in here and just rip her clothes off. Not like… not like old times.
Once the fishnets were torn out of the way, Oliver set to the task of pulling out pieces of park bench with a tweezers. His hands skimmed the surface of her skin as he worked, the soft touch contrasting with the twinges of pain as he removed each splinter of plastic.
“Ollie, showing up with flowers and champagne and one of my favorite foods isn’t the way to fix our problems. You never did get that-a relationship isn’t about the big, romantic gestures. It’s the everyday. It’s the trust that two people build and maintain. It’s an entire life that two people share together, not piles upon piles of secrets.”
Oliver looked up from his work momentarily and met her eyes.
“I know, Dinah. I know,” he said softly. “You deserve better than I’ve ever been able to give you. I did keep you separate from some of the things I’d done, and I let things get out of hand. I wasn’t… I wasn’t proud of the mistakes I’d made, and I guess I just couldn’t face your reaction, couldn’t stand the thought of looking in your eyes and knowing that I’d let you down again.”
Dinah took another bite of the shrimp as Oliver slid the bandages over her wounds, gently but firmly pressing down to secure them. Once he finished, his hands gently touched her side, and then her arm. Not in a sensual way, though she still closed her eyes in an attempt to ignore the sensation of his touch. It had been too long since he’d been this close to her.
“I don’t see any other pieces,” Oliver said. His fingers lightly brushed the hair out of her face, and then travelled down to her chin.
Dinah opened her eyes again and met his. His hand lingered for just a moment on her chin. She caught his hand and looked up at him. Even with everything that had gone wrong between them, he was still the only person she’d wanted to see tonight. Still the person she missed the most.
“Ollie, this was a really bad night for you to stop by,” she said.
Oliver’s eyes clouded with hurt, and a few hot tears stung Dinah’s eyes. Even with all that had gone wrong with them, she still loved him, still didn’t want to hurt him. And she missed him. God, did she hate that.
“I didn’t want to spend Valentine’s Day without you,” he said.
Dinah nodded.
“Me neither,” she whispered. “Ollie, I’m sorry about the way I left.”
Oliver stepped forward and his arms slid around her back.
“I can’t say it didn’t hurt a lot, pretty bird. But to be fair, it would have hurt no matter when you’d left. Dinah, my life is with you. I’m sorry I screwed things up, but please give me the chance to make it right.”
Dinah turned her face away from his and rested her head against his shoulder.
“I miss you, but I don’t know if I can live with you. I can’t keep doing this. It hurts too much.”
Oliver pulled her closer and lightly kissed the top of her head.
“I’m not going anywhere, and I’m not keeping things from you anymore. Just tell me what you need from me to make this right.”
“Ollie, it’s not that simple. I can’t just set up some hoops for you to jump through and then everything will be all right.”
Oliver’s hand found her chin and guided her face to his.
“Nothing worthwhile is ever simple, and especially not with us. But I’m willing to do whatever it takes, if you’ll give me that chance.”
“Can you ask me again tomorrow? I need some time to think,” Dinah said. She looked away again, unable to look directly into his eyes and send him away.
It would have been so much easier just now to say yes, to let him kiss her and fall into his arms. To hope that, this time, things would be different. Because when things were good with them, it was hard to be hurt by everything that had gone wrong in the past. It was hard to be anything but happy. And she missed being happy with him so much that it hurt.
“I’ll ask you every day if you need me to,” Oliver murmured. “But I have one request for you tonight.”
He released her and slipped a CD in her CD player. He turned it on and turned to Dinah.
“One dance. Please.”
Dinah nodded and crossed the distance between them. She leaned into him and the two began to sway in perfect time to each other as a the smooth, lilting voice of Sia filled the speakers.
We've shared joy and we've shared pain
We've shared guilt and we've shared shame
We've bought into the stupid games
We've freed each other and we laid claim
Oh yes the butterflies are still there