Chapter Text
Chloe lifted a necklace over her neck and looked at her reflection for a moment then made a face and shook her head, lifting a second one and considering before dropping both of them in her jewelry box and picking out a third one, smirking as the green rock, which was not kryptonite but probably nothing of value either, shone in her reflection and nodding to herself. It was Ollie's favorite color and that was a big incentive, but also, it made her eyes pop and that was a plus.
She took a deep breath and reached for her perfume, spraying it in the air then walking through the mist when there was a knock on the door. Chloe frowned. Ollie was supposed to pick her up for their 'two month anniversary dinner' which she was pretty sure normal people didn't celebrate, but he was fifteen minutes early and that wasn't like him, he was usually precisely on time.
When the person knocked again and made her way to the door, "coming," she called, checking on her reflection just one more time before opening the door and stilling. No, definitely not Ollie.
Lois smiled at her brightly. "Hi! I'm in town for a few days. Hope you don't mind a roommate." She moved past her cousin and into the dorm room, dropping her duffel bag onto the floor and bouncing onto the edge of the bed.
Chloe cocked her head a little and shook her head, "hm, no," she said, turning to face her cousin, "when did you get in?" She hadn't exactly updated Lois on anything lately, mostly because she'd been in Europe with the general and messages between them had been very sporadic and brief.
"About three hours ago." She flopped back on the bed. "Ugh, I'm so jet-lagged. Never fly coach from Europe to Kansas. It's torture."
"And you're not staying with the General?" She asked curiously, cocking her head as she watched Lois. She didn't want to kick her out but she did have two superheroes who had the tendency to show up unannounced.
"He's still in Europe, dealing with Lucy's latest crisis." Lois propped herself up on her elbows and looked over at her. "I told him that my favorite cousin needed me." She flashed Chloe another bright smile.
"Right, I'm glad he's still buying that excuse after all these years," Chloe smirked.
"God. Me too. If I'd had to stay there much longer I would've had to throw myself off of London Bridge."
"At least you got to go to Europe," Chloe said, shrugging a little and sitting down on the edge of the bed too, "I'm guessing you're ready to pass out for the next twelve hours or so?"
"Maybe later. I'm starving. What do you say we grab some pizza or something?" She raised her eyebrows.
"Oh," Chloe pursed her lips together, "actually I kinda had dinner p--" she paused at the knock on the door and wrinkled her nose a little, she'd been hoping to tell Lois about him before he got there. Damn him for always being on time, "plans." She told Lois and took a deep breath before standing up and looking at the door, "come in." She called.
Lois glanced toward the door expectantly, falling silent, her eyes widening a little when she saw Oliver Queen stepping inside.
His eyes were immediately drawn to Chloe, and he smiled softly, his eyes bright. He'd been looking forward to dinner all day. "You look beautiful," he said quietly, not even noticing Lois at first.
Chloe held her breath and smiled softly at him, holding his gaze, "thank you," she said quietly then shifting on her heels, last time they were all in the same room Oliver had been there to pick up Lois so they could go on a date and that had gone horribly bad, "you, hm, you remember my cousin Lois, right?" She tried, motioning to her.
Oliver blinked and looked over to the brunette sprawled on the bed. "Oh. Right. Hi," he said awkwardly, reaching up to rub the back of his neck.
With a deep breath, Chloe looked down at her cousin, "Lois just got back from Europe, like, right this second."
He raised his eyebrows at that information. "Oh." He hesitated, glancing between them and then toward the door with a fair amount of uncertainty. "Should we...reschedule?" He tried to hide his disappointment, but he knew that Lois was more like a sister to Chloe than a cousin, and figured she'd probably want to spend some time with her.
Lois frowned. "No. Just buy us some dinner and we can all hang out."
At that, Chloe looked over at Lois then back at Ollie, she wanted to apologize to him, but didn't think she could do it without hurting Lois' feelings, "would you mind if she joined us for dinner?" She asked with every intention of letting her cousin have the dorm to herself that night, after dinner.
He figured that having dinner with both of them still meant having dinner with Chloe, which would always be preferable to eating alone. "No, that's fine. I can go get something," he said, nodding and smiling a little. "What sounds good?"
"Pizza," Lois said immediately. "Oh, god. Pizza with tons of meat. Sausage and pepperoni and ham."
"Are you sure," She asked Ollie, ignoring her cousin for the time being.
He met her eyes, holding her gaze and nodding slightly. "Definitely."
"Okay," Chloe breathed and glanced at her cousin then took Ollie by the hand and dragged him back out of the dorm, closing the door behind them and looking up at him, "I'm so sorry, Ollie. She just showed up and I haven't seen her in a while so I can't just... kick her out."
He offered her a gentle smile, lifting his free hand to her cheek. "I wouldn't expect you to. She's family."
Her face softened at that and she took a deep breath, nodding a little, "so why don't I update her on everything while you go get food and then I can also pack some stuff and we can go over to your place after dinner?"
Oliver dipped his neck and kissed her mouth softly. "I can do that. And if you want to spend time with Lois, it's okay," he said sincerely. "I'm always here."
She relaxed a little and nodded, leaning closer and kissing him softly again, "I will, tomorrow, not tonight."
He smiled at that. "All right." He brushed his nose lightly over hers, his eyes bright. "Should I pick up anything else while I'm getting pizza?"
"Maybe soda?" She said, pursing her lips together, "I'm really sorry."
"Shh." He silenced her with another kiss. "Stop apologizing. I'm not upset. I promise."
Chloe searched his eyes for a moment then nodded a little, taking a deep breath, "okay, I'll see you soon, then?"
"I'll be back before you even have a chance to miss me," he told her with a soft smile, kissing her forehead. He turned to head away, then paused and looked at her once more. "You really do look stunning."
She held her breath and looked at him for a moment, shaking her head a little and grinning shyly, "I'll see you soon," she told him before reaching for the door and pushing it open again.
He grinned as he watched her step into her dorm room, then nodded politely at a couple of the girls passing by him in the hallway as he made his way toward the exit.
Chloe took a deep breath and closed the door again, waiting to be bombarded by the thousand questions her cousin would no doubt want to ask her.
Lois raised her eyebrows at her. "So you and Billionaire Boy Wonder are getting pretty serious?"
Biting down on her bottom lip, Chloe walked over to her and shrugged, "kinda?"
"Well, you're awfully dressed up for dinner with a good friend, aren't you?" She smirked.
"Yeah, well, he can afford all the five star restaurants, you never really know where you'll end up with him." She said, arching her eyebrow.
"Like Paris?" Lois sat up on the bed, studying her cousin intently as though she knew for sure she was onto something big.
"Like the restaurant on top of the Metropolitan, you're going way too far, Lo."
She eyed her suspiciously. "Maybe so far."
Chloe took a deep breath, "okay, fine, we're pretty serious but we're not taking spontaneous trips to Paris anytime soon," she told her, sitting back down on her bed.
Lois arched an eyebrow. "And why not? It's not like he can't afford it or you don't deserve it."
"Because I don't want him to think I expect anything like that," she told her, "mostly every woman he's been with before was interested in his money and I'm not."
She pursed her lips at that and then nodded a little, satisfied with the answer. "So how is he?"
"He's good," Chloe said, not sure how her cousin meant the question.
"Just good?"
She cocked her head at her cousin, "what exactly are we talking about here?"
Lois sighed heavily. "Sex. You know, the horizontal tango. How is it?"
Sighing, Chloe rolled her eyes at her cousin, "amazing, mind-blowing, incredible," she said, arching her eyebrows and smirking slightly, she wasn't one to kiss and tell but she knew Lois would never leave her alone without a straight answer.
She grinned brightly. "See? That wasn't so hard." She smirked.
"Yeah, well," Chloe shrugged, "just make sure to behave when he gets back? Clark already gave him a hard enough time as is."
"That's because Smallville is the most uptight guy around." She rolled her eyes.
"Still, Lo," Chloe said, arching an eyebrow, "go easy on him."
"Hey, when do I ever not go easy on people?" she asked innocently.
"Uh huh," she got up again and reached under her bed, pulling out an overnight bag, "anyway, we'll have dinner and then you can have the room to yourself."
"So you can have some of that amazing, mind-blowing incredible sex?" She smirked.
Chloe felt her cheeks getting warm but rolled her eyes, "yeah, well that and so that we don't have to share a twin bed."
Lois simply grinned at her victoriously.
Shaking her head, she took a deep breath, "so how are things with Lucy and the General?" She asked, mostly trying to change the subject.
She rolled her eyes at that, flopping back onto the bed once more. "Same ole."
"Are you gonna start taking classes again?" She asked curiously as she shoved a couple of things in her overnight bag.
"I don't know. Maybe." She cocked her head to the side.
"Are you okay, Lo?" She asked, turning to face her cousin and frowning a little.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Lois shrugged a little.
Cocking her head, Chloe dropped her bag on the floor and arched her eyebrows at her cousin.
"Okay, so I have no idea what I'm doing now," she admitted, sighing.
"Well you just got back to the country, you should take some time to decide," she suggested, walking back to the bed and sitting down next to Lois, "maybe look at the classes they'll have in the summer and see if anything sounds interesting?"
Lois glanced at her. "I don't know if I'm really cut out for the whole school thing, Cuz."
"It's not that bad once you find a pace that works for you," of course, a pace that worked for Chloe was six classes a semester, but she and Lois always worked in different ways when it came to school, "and you can take online classes and they are a lot easier."
She cocked her head to the side, thinking about it. "Maybe."
"I can help you find a job if you want to?" She suggested.
"Maybe both. I think tonight I just want to stuff myself full of pizza and pass out for twelve hours."
Chloe smiled softly at that and reached for her cousin's hand, squeezing it, "sounds good, maybe you can come meet me for lunch tomorrow?"
Lois yawned. "Count on it."
"Are you sure you'll be up long enough for pizza?"
"I'm too hungry to sleep." She stretched on the bed, yawning again.
"I'm sure he won't be much longer," she promised, watching her cousin closely, she was sure the General had given her another one of his 'what are you doing with your life' talks and that was never easy on her, so she made a mental note to help her out with figuring it out.
Lois rolled over so she was on her side, and propped her head up on one hand, studying Chloe. "So you really like him?"
Chloe paused at that and took a deep breath, nodding a little, "I like him a lot," more like she loved him and even though she said told Ollie as much, she didn't know if Lois was ready to hear that, especially when she was in some kind of life crisis.
She smiled. "I suppose I'll go easy on him as long as I have no reason not to."
"You don't have any reasons not to," she assured her, smiling softly, "he's a good guy."
"Good. Because you deserve someone who appreciates you," Lois informed her.
With a deep breath, Chloe smiled and nodded a little, "you don't have to worry about that."
At that moment there was a knock on the door. "I come bearing food."
Chloe's face brightened at that and she got up from the bed, making her way over to the door and opening it for him, "then you're welcome here."
Lois watched the way her cousin's face lit up at the sound of his voice and smiled.
Smiling brightly at Ollie, she took the plastic bag with the sodas from him and stepped aside, making room for him without taking her eyes off his face.
He grinned back at her just as brightly, carrying the pizza inside.
Chloe closed the door and followed him, finally realizing the way her cousin was looking at her and rolling her eyes a little but smiling as she placed the bottles over the desk then reached for glasses, "should we eat?"
"God, yes. I'm starving." Lois sat up quickly.
Oliver leaned down and kissed Chloe's forehead lightly without thinking about it. "It smells good."
Grinning softly, Chloe looked from the boxes to Ollie, "you even went to the good place." She said, filling three glasses with soda.
"And came back pretty fast. Bonus points for that," Lois informed them, stuffing a bite of pizza in her mouth.
Chloe grinned and sat down on the edge of the bed and shrugged, "see? Lois likes you already, you have nothing to worry about when you finally meet dad."
Lois raised her eyebrows at that. "You're gonna meet Uncle Gabe?" she asked around the food.
Oliver looked at Chloe, wondering if the two women were really blood-related. "Hopefully."
"Eventually," Chloe said, looking from Lois to Ollie, "well, technically you already met him," she teased, smirking.
He smirked back at her. "I don't think that really counts, though."
"He remembers it," she told him, smirking more as she took a bite of her pizza.
He smiled a little. "Hopefully that doesn't count against me."
"Not that I know of," she told him then glanced over at Lois, "you remember that, right? When dad and I went to pick up Lex from Excelsior?"
Lois raised an eyebrow, taking a drink of soda. "I remember. You sent me a picture."
"Yeah," Chloe grinned, "and I found that picture just what, a month ago?" She said, turning to Ollie, doing her best to make sure both of them were comfortable.
"Yeah, it wasn't very long ago." He smiled softly at her.
"Well, almost a decade ago, I think I was twelve or thirteen." She told him, pursing her lips together as she tried to remember.
"I was sixteen," he said softly. "So yeah. That would be about right."
"It's kind of weird that you two have met so many times before, isn't it?" Lois raised her eyebrows, watching them intently.
"Yeah, kinda," Chloe agreed, glancing at her cousin, "we just kept bumping into each other."
Oliver smiled a little. "I suppose it is a little odd."
"In a good way?" She asked him, arching her eyebrows.
"In the best way," he said quietly.
She grinned softly and nodded at him, holding his gaze before turning back to her pizza, she couldn't help but wonder if she would ever not feel the butterflies in her stomach every time he looked at her like that.
Lois looked between them and shook her head, smiling a little. Looked like her little cousin was in good hands.
* * *
An hour and a half later found Oliver and Chloe heading up the elevator that led to his penthouse. His arms were wrapped around her waist from behind, his chin resting on her shoulder. "I thought about you all day." His voice was soft. That in and of itself wasn't unusual. She seemed to be on his mind in a rather consistent basis. But two months had been a record for him--his relationships in the past tended to be quick and brutal. This was anything but. This felt comfortable, right.
Chloe smiled at his words, brushing her fingers over his arms lightly as she turned her head as well as she could, pressing a kiss to his jaw, "I thought about you too," she whispered. This was her longest and pretty much only relationship ever, the thing she had with Clark in high school was one-sided and with Jimmy it had been too brief to be considered a relationship at all.
He smiled softly when she kissed him and he shifted, kissing her cheek lightly. "What do you want to do tonight?"
She leaned back against him and closed her eyes for a second before looking at him again, "I don't care as long as you're involved."
His arms tightened around her just a little. "I love you." His voice was soft.
"I love you too," she said quietly, wrapping her arms around his, "I'm sorry about the late start on alone time tonight."
Oliver brushed his nose against hers. "Shh. Stop apologizing. It was fine."
"I know, that was the last time," she said, kissing the corner of his mouth.
He grinned at that. "Somehow I doubt it." There was a hint of amusement in his voice.
"Yeah, yeah, maybe you know me too well for your own good," she teased.
He chuckled. "And Lois doesn't seem like the kind of person to be detoured for long."
"She's not, you're lucky she was tired," she told him, "I'm meeting with her for lunch tomorrow."
Oliver smiled, guiding her off the elevator and into the apartment.
"Did you have anything planned for us tonight?" she asked, turning to face him and walking backwards.
"Maybe a little something." His eyes were bright as he followed her, dipping his head to kiss her.
She smiled against his lips and kissed him back, wrapping her arms around his neck and stepping closer to him.
He grinned back, sliding his arms around her, as well. "Come on." He turned them toward the hallway.
Chloe walked with him, keeping her arms around his neck but not bothering turning to face the hallway, she trusted him to guide her.
Oliver dipped his head, kissing her lightly once more as he guided her down the hall toward the bedroom. He reached out, flipping on the light to reveal the room that was full of tulips of every color.
She looked up at him when he turned on the lightly then paused, looking around and smiling when she saw all the flowers, "Ollie," she whispered, "you didn't have to do this."
"I wanted to," he murmured, kissing her cheek. "They're your favorite."
"You're so amazing," she said, turning to look at him again and cupping his cheek.
Oliver leaned into her touch, his smile soft. He tugged her closer to him, kissing her softly.
Chloe kissed him back, hugging him back tightly, pulling him as close as she could.
He slid a hand up and into her hair, slowly deepening the kiss. It was their two month anniversary and he'd survived his first semi-awkward family dinner with her cousin. They had plenty of reasons to celebrate.