An Origin Story: 4/23
Author: BlueSuede
Title: An Origin Story
Rating: R/M
Genre: Friendship/Romance
Pairings: Chloe/Oliver
Summary: AU in which Oliver's parents never died
Warnings: minor spoilers for most early seasons
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Prologue
Previous (Chapter 3)
Next (Chapter 5)
Chapter 4:
Queens and Royal Banquets
One Month later
Chloe took a deep breath. She was going to get this one. She was.
After about three weeks at the Gazette, Weisinger had stopped spoon-feeding her articles. She'd sufficiently proven herself worthy, and so she was expected to find the stories on her own. Or convince him to give them to her.
Which was exactly what she was planning to do now.
She walked confidently into the editor's office. "You wanted to see me?" she asked.
Weisinger looked properly startled for once. "Did I?" He looked confused, with good reason, of course. Chloe had invited herself in. She was confusing him on purpose. She nodded.
"Yes."
Attempting to save face, he grumbled, "Right, yes, of course, Sullivan..." he trailed off, trying to remember why he would have called for her.
"I think it was about the Queen Charity Ball tomorrow night. The hurricane relief effort project?"
Now he looked sufficiently dumbfounded. "The gala? Umm...right, naturally."
"You mentioned that since I interviewed Mr. Queen last month, it would only make sense for me to cover the function. A kind of follow-up article?" Chloe 'reminded' him.
Weisinger seemed to take in the idea. "Of course. Just the thing. Glad I thought of it. Queen actually called to let us know that he liked you, said to send you over in the future, too."
It was Chloe's turn to look surprised. "He did?"
"What do you think? I'm making it up? Of course he did. Said he liked your spunk and he thought the article was dead on."
Chloe positively glowed.
"What are you standing around for? What am I paying you for? Make sure you dress appropriately for this thing tomorrow, got it?"
"Absolutely, sir. No problem," Chloe promised, fleeing his office before he could realize what she'd done.
Flushed with success, she grabbed Jeremy's arm as he past in front of her. "Hey, handsome," she teased the teenager. "Think you can rent a tux for tomorrow? You'll need one."
"Oliver, I just don't understand why you're not bringing a date tomorrow."
Oliver groaned inwardly. He'd agreed to take his mother out to lunch purely out of curiosity. Whenever she said that she wanted to spend more time with her son, it meant he was in the doghouse for something. This time, he hadn't been able to think what he'd done. All things considered, he'd sufficiently avoided any major trouble the last couple of months. "If it's that important to you, Mom, I'll bring someone, but considering your complete disdain for my past couple of dates, I thought you'd prefer if I went solo tomorrow night." He liked keeping his mother happy, he really did. It didn't stop him from having his share of tumbles in bed, but he tried not to bring those kind of women around his parents, for more reasons than one.
She sighed. "How hard is it to find a woman with a college education, Oliver, darling? Honestly."
He chuckled. "I'm not looking for someone to settle down with, Mom."
The wrong thing to say, apparently. "And why not, may I ask? I don't understand how you can stand to spend time with women like that...Muffy or whatever her name was."
"Buffy was an up-and-coming actress, I gave her a little limelight to help her career out."
His mother rolled her eyes. "Right. How philanthropic of you."
Oliver grinned. "Look, Mom, we both know this subject is just getting you worked up. I'm sorry I didn't make plans to take someone, but this late in the game, there's no way I could get someone you'd approve of. It would just be a repeat Buffy."
"What kind of a name is Buffy, anyway? It sounds like a poodle," his mother muttered with disdain.
Oliver chuckled, shaking his head. "Why don't I order you some tea, Mom?"
She pursed her lips, trying not to smile, and he took that to mean yes to tea, and yes to the conversation being over.
Thank God.
It wasn't that Oliver didn't want what his parents had on some level. He just didn't think it was in the works for him. There was no woman out there who could possibly understand the double life he lead. There were so many reasons it just wouldn't work out.
At the moment he certainly wasn't complaining, anyway. Even if he weren't the Green Arrow, he wouldn't be ready to settle down yet.
Chloe bit her lip, holding up first one dress and then the other, staring at herself in the mirror.
"I think you should pick the purple one, Miss Sullivan," Jeremy said behind her. "I like that one best."
"Funny, I was just going to recommend she choose the green," came a deeper male voice, startling both Chloe and Jeremy. Chloe glanced behind her in the mirror then turned to see Oliver Queen, smirking as he leaned against the wall.
Chloe lifted an eyebrow, staring him in the eye. "Purple it is," she said, handing the chosen dress to Jeremy.
Oliver looked deeply amused. "We meet again," he said, walking over to shake her hand. "I never did get your name."
She accepted his hand, but only smiled mischievously. "No, you didn't."
"May I get your name?"
Chloe put on a pretense of thinking it over. "Nope," she said, smirking at him.
"Why not?"
"Because you clearly don't need to be encouraged," she told him teasingly, moving past him to hang the green dress back up. Jeremy was watching the exchange between them with deep interest.
"Fine," Oliver said with mock indignation. He turned to Jeremy and shook the young man's hand. "I'm Oliver Queen. And you are?"
"J-Jeremy Cooper," Jeremy sputtered nervously, shaking Oliver's hand in return.
Oliver glanced up at Chloe, a twinkle of mirth in his dark brown eyes. "See how easy that was?"
Chloe just continued to smirk at him.
"So, who are you, Jeremy? Her younger brother?"
"I...umm..." Jeremy was looking nervously past Oliver's shoulder where Chloe was silently shaking her head and motioning for him not to say anything. "We work together...?"
Chloe dropped her arms in defeat.
"Oh?" Oliver said. "Where do you work?"
Her frantic motions started up again. "S-somewhere?" Jeremy stammered eyes darting nervously back and forth between them.
Oliver chuckled. "Fine, don't tell me."
"What are you doing in the women's department anyway?" Chloe demanded, distracting him in an effort to save Jeremy.
The corner of Oliver's lips twitched. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
"Are you a cross dresser? Look, it's okay. There's room for all kinds of people in this world. I won't judge you."
Oliver quirked an amused eyebrow at her. "I think you already have judged me, no offense."
Chloe looked somewhat abashed, but before she could respond. Another woman spoke behind her. "Oliver, darling. I think I'm ready to go."
Chloe and Jeremy looked around to see an older woman, to be specific, Laura Queen, carrying a couple of bags in her arms. Oliver immediately stepped forward to take them from her. Oliver had been right. Chloe wouldn't have believed he was helping his mother shop. She looked at Chloe and Jeremy.
"Who are your friends?" she asked, eyeing Chloe with no small curiosity.
Oliver's grin could not have been more pronounced as Chloe was forced to introduce herself.
"I'm Chloe Sullivan," she shook the woman's hand politely. "And this is Jeremy Cooper."
"Miss Sullivan," Mrs. Queen repeated with recognition. "I believe you wrote the article last month on the Pentagon contract, didn't you? Robert was quite impressed with you," she shot her son a significant glance.
Chloe's cheeks tinged pink. "Thank you very much."
"How did you meet my son?"
"Just briefly outside of Mr. Queen's office. This was entirely a chance meeting," Chloe indicated their current situation, feeling like a bit of an idiot.
"Interesting. So you work for the Gazette?"
"Yes," Chloe said, well aware of the triumphant expression on Oliver's face.
"Wonderful, wonderful. Well, don't let me interrupt anything. I actually thought I'd take a look at-"
"Oh no," Chloe said hurriedly, seizing Jeremy's arm a little too roughly, "We were just leaving. Pleasure to have met you," she said, shaking Mrs. Queen's hand a second time.
"And you, dear," she smiled disappointedly.
"Goodbye, Miss Sullivan!" Oliver called after her and Jeremy mockingly.
Chloe rolled her eyes. Ugh.
Jeremy was looking at her amusedly. "He likes you."
"Um, Jeremy, honey? Have you met the man? He likes all women."
Jeremy laughed.
"Some date you are," Chloe teased. "Letting other men waltz up and start hitting on me like that."
Jeremy shrugged. "I'm just here to carry your bags. Tomorrow I'm your date."
Chloe teasingly swatted the back of his head.
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Next (Chapter 5)