An Origin Story: 7/23
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 6)
Next (Chapter 8)
Chapter 7:
Far Away Kingdoms Part I
Okay, she could admit it, traveling with Oliver was a dream. A magnificent, wonderful dream. She always appreciated the instant, easy gratification of letting Clark carry her somewhere, but she couldn't say she enjoyed. It always left her stomach a bit unsettled.
Yes, she thought easily, flying was the only way to travel. She set her cocktail down and reclined luxuriously in her chair.
Oliver was watching her in amusement. "Enjoying ourselves, are we?" he asked.
She nodded wordlessly, eyes still closed.
He chuckled. "So are you sure you packed everything?" he asked. He had never met a girl who traveled so light.
She nodded again. "It's only three days," she reminded.
"Yeah, but there's the luncheon, the dinner, the gala, not to mention whatever you're doing with your cousin..."
Chloe waved her hand in dismissal. "Two nice outfits, one formal dress, three blouses, one pair of jeans, and three sets of underwear. No big deal."
He laughed. "What about shoes, makeup, hair junk-"
"I've got it covered. And what I don't have, I can borrow from Lois." She opened an eye to look at him. "You're trying to find an excuse to buy me something aren't you?"
He smirked. "Maybe. If I thought you'd let me."
"Save it for your usual arm candy. I'm a cheap date."
"You say that like you're not arm candy."
She raised a skeptical eyebrow and chose not to reply.
"So I called your cousin."
Chloe coughed. "Beg pardon?"
"She's..." he searched for a delicate word, humor glinting in his eyes, "interesting."
She scoffed. "Why on earth did you call her?"
He shrugged. "I felt guilty about stealing you for so much time on your weekend home, I wanted to make sure she was fine with it."
"I have never yet come across quite this combination of idiocy and thoughtfulness in the same person."
He laughed. "I fail to see what was idiotic about it."
"You don't know my cousin. And-" she shifted uncomfortably, "-she didn't know about you."
Oliver looked at her in surprise. "What?"
Chloe heaved a dramatic sigh. "I hadn't exactly mentioned you to her before this."
"Why not?" Oliver was smirking at her, anticipating a convoluted, hair-brained idea that would be good for a laugh. He wasn't disappointed.
"Because she's Lois! If she knew I was friends with Oliver Queen she'd be begging me every five minutes to let her interview you-"
"She's a reporter, too?"
"-and I'd never hear the end of it. Never mind that I'm a reporter, too. Besides that, she's going to spend the next five years resenting the fact that I wasn't the one to tell her about you, and the next ten making less-than-subtle jokes and sexual innuendoes about us because in Lois Lane's world it's impossible for a man and woman to be friends and not be in love with each other." She paused for air. "And now I'm going to have to deal with her and it's all your fault!" she exclaimed, throwing a cocktail napkin at him. Unfortunately, it being a napkin and all, the item didn't make it far, but floated gently to the floor between them. She eyed it with contempt.
Oliver, meanwhile, was doing his best not to laugh too much. "Well, I didn't actually tell her who I was, so maybe you can escape the portion of your fate that involves being bugged for interviews."
Chloe glared at him.
"I'm sorry," he raised his hands in surrender. "I thought I was being considerate."
She looked at him suspiciously. "You did not. You were just curious because I talk about her all the time."
The corners of his mouth twitched in betrayal. Chloe rolled her eyes.
"I'm sorry, run that by me one more time," Lois insisted, leaning back in her seat, brow arched so high it seemed to have disappeared into her hairline.
Exasperated, Chloe said for what she hoped against reason would be the final time, "Oliver and I are just friends."
"So what you're saying is you're not romantically involved. And neither of you has the hots for the other?"
"Exactly," Chloe sighed, thinking they had finally gotten somewhere and might actually be able to have their movie night now.
Then Lois laughed hysterically. "Right. That's rich." She mocked sudden revelation, "Oh my gosh, so is he!"
Chloe dropped her face to her hands. Clearly, this was going nowhere fast. "I call stalemate," she said through her fingers.
"And I call dibs," Lois responded cheekily.
"UGH!" Chloe looked to the Heavens for help. "Look, Lo, accept that we're not into each other that way, and please, let's watch the movie."
"Fine."
"Thank you! So," she said, calming down now that they were past the frustrating part of the conversation, "What movie do you want to watch?"
"Hmm...how about My Best Friend's Wedding? Or maybe Just Friends? Wait, no, I've got it! When Harry Met Sally!"
"I give up."
"So you're sure it would be inappropriate to sneak in the kitchen and find some real booze?" Chloe muttered under her breath.
Oliver covered a laugh by coughing, elbowing her under the table. One of the events Oliver had to attend that weekend was a business luncheon, which was exactly as pretentious and boring as it had sounded when Oliver had originally described it.
Oliver and Chloe were carefully hiding from each other that they each knew Oliver's father had sent him on this trip in an effort to give him more responsibilities just as he'd explained to Chloe in the interview. Strangely enough, they both just assumed the other one was unaware of this situation, meaning they both enjoyed the smug amusement of thinking they knew something the other one didn't.
"It's almost over. Surely you can hold out?" Oliver whispered back, winking at her.
Chloe nodded grimly, eyes narrowing skeptically as an older man droned on and on.
And on.
"Quit fidgeting," he teased, passing her a glass of water. She glared at him in response. "What?" he asked innocently, knowing he was poking the proverbial bear.
"You owe me so much for this one."
He suppressed a grin, and nodded imperceptibly to her as he responded to what the older man had been saying. Chloe was secretly surprised and impressed that Oliver had even been paying attention to the rambling.
She raised an approving eyebrow but said nothing. Oliver didn't notice.
When the affair was over, Chloe couldn't contain her glee. "Ugh!" she groaned, stretching her arms out in relief. Oliver watched her with an amused smile.
"You don't mean to say you were bored, do you?" he provoked.
"Okay, I am perfectly capable of behaving like a lady, but I have never wanted to stand up on a table and start throwing dishes around that badly."
Oliver laughed at the image. "You? A lady?" he mocked. "Don't make me laugh."
She whirled on him. "Just for that," she poked his chest, "you owe me lunch."
He looked surprised at the demand. "We just came from lunch."
Chloe rolled her eyes. "That was a nap, not lunch. Besides, I've never seen that much finger food in one sitting. I want real food."
Which was how they found themselves sitting in a diner, eating french fries and burgers in their business clothes.
"So tell me," Chloe said between fries, "that this dinner tonight is not going to be as boring as the lunch was."
"I doubt it. I really like Garner and his wife. They're good people."
"And for what purpose are we meeting the good doctor and his beloved spouse?" Chloe asked, absently waving a french fry in her hand as she spoke.
Oliver smirked.
"What?"
"You're going to write an article on it, aren't you?
"Maybe," she said ambiguously, eyes sparkling.
He shook his head. "God help me for becoming your enabler."
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