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The Watchtower was mostly silent except for the sound of her keyboard and the cooling fans inside the computers and Chloe working overtime.
It had been a long few days with the possibility of Zod and his people invading Earth the second Tess' towers went online and making all of them either prisoners or refugees. She had been trying to find as much information as she could on Tess' pet project as well as the Kandorians to try and come up with ways to stop him or at the very least, protect themselves as well as they could if things didn't turn out like they hoped.
She was halfway through breaking down firewalls to hack Tess' network at the Luthor mansion when she heard something out in the hall. It sounded like someone was dragging something heavy and whatever it was was hitting against the walls of the elevator and the hallway.
Frowning hard, Chloe reached for the gun that she kept hidden under her desk, her heart beating fast as she walked over to the door only to see an extremely tall shadow on the other side of it, moving slowly towards the door.
Holding her breath, she reached for the door, holding her gun up and yanking the door open quickly, her eyes falling not on a hideous, huge creature, but on the biggest Christmas tree she had ever seen and somehow, behind it, she could see a part of what looked like a pine needle covered Oliver.
He gave her a sheepish grin. "Hey."
She looked from what she could see of him back to the ridiculously big tree, gun still firmly in hand, "what is this?" She asked, still tense.
"It's a Christmas tree." He glanced back at it, raising his eyebrows, then looking at her once more.
She gave him an irritated look, "really, I'm so glad you're here to point out the obvious," she said dryly, "why is it here?"
"Because it's less than two weeks to Christmas," he told her, not bothered by her irritation.
"And you have a very large penthouse to put one of those in if you want to get in the spirit, Oliver."
"We spend more time here than we do at the clock tower," he said with a shrug. "Would you mind holding the door open?"
"You can't be serious about this?" She said, staring at him, "you can't fit that monstrosity in here, Oliver."
"Are you kidding? Chloe, this place is huge."
"And filled with computers," she told him, "this isn't the place for a Christmas tree." She paused, "if you need help getting it back downstairs and to the Clocktower, I'll help you with that."
"Nope. There's still plenty of room," he insisted. "It can go in front of that big window by the sofa."
Chloe sighed, irritated and shook her head, "there is no point of having it here, no one is going to be here for Christmas," at least, no one besides herself and she was trying her damn hardest to forget all about the holiday and if Oliver placed that thing in there, it would make it nearly impossible.
"No? So where are you going for the holiday?" he asked bluntly, raising an eyebrow.
Of course he would ask that, she rolled her eyes, "I don't plan on wasting time with celebrations this year, if you haven't noticed, we have an alien invasion to stop."
"One day isn't going to make that much of a difference, Chloe," Oliver pointed out, moving past her and opening the doors, then propping them open.
She watched him in silence as he opened the doors and walked over to the desk to put the gun away, her jaw clenching as she tried to calm herself down and not overreact about this, but she was awake for about thirty-six hours now and she had just run out of coffee about half an hour ago, so it was a harder task than usual.
He glanced at her even as he dragged the huge tree inside, over toward the window he'd told her he was going to put it in front of. "Anything new?" he asked.
"No," she answered, turning around a moment later and holding her breath when she saw the up against the corner of the room, she stilled for a second, her chest tightening a little, "I don't want it here, Oliver."
He was quiet for a moment and then he turned to face her. "Considering I'll be here too, I think I should get to have a say in that."
Her jaw tightened at that, mostly because it was the only way she could find of holding back her emotions, "why would you be here?"
"Why wouldn't I be?" he asked, his voice dropping as he turned away from her. "You're the closest thing to family that I have and if this is where you'll be, I will be, too."
Chloe paused at that, staring at him as her eyes widened a little more, "me?" She frowned, "what about the guys?" She asked, she always assumed that was who he spent holidays with anyway.
"The guys have their own families. AC's dad's in Florida, Dinah's family is somewhere near Gotham, Bart's spending it with his uncle Barry, and Vic's spending it with his new girlfriend Sherry." He shrugged a little.
Her face fell a little but she shook her head, "I'm sure their families would have you if you told them you were looking for a place to go," or if she did it for him.
"Just what every guy wants to be. The guy who crashes other people's holiday celebrations. No thanks."
"At least you would be with someone who actually wants to celebrate," she told him, sighing.
Oliver was quiet for a moment, and then he turned to look at her. "Maybe if we put it up together it'll help you get into the mood to celebrate?" he suggested.
"No offense, Oliver," she said, jaw tightening again, "but I don't think there is much that will get me in the Christmas spirit this year and honestly? I think I prefer it that way." She said tightly, trying her best to keep her emotions from showing.
His shoulders slumped at that. "Fine," he responded, turning away from her once more and yanking at the tree, dragging it across the floor once again.
Her chest tightened painfully when she saw him staring to drag the tree away and with a deep breath, she stepped forward and placed a hand on his arm, "stop."
He paused in his tracks, not looking at her. "What?"
She held her breath, "leave it here," she told him, not looking at him either, her voice wavering slightly, "decorate it, do whatever you want if it will make it easier on you."
"I don't want to make you uncomfortable, Chloe. And I don't want to invade your territory." He drew in a breath and let it out slowly. "I just..."
"You just what?" She asked, taking a deep breath and looking over at him.
"I guess I thought it would be kinda nice for us to...I don't know, have some kind of sense of normalcy," he admitted quietly.
She dropped her hand from his arm and rubbed her hands over her face tiredly, mostly to get rid of the tears that were starting to form in her eyes, "right," she breathed, normality was the very thing she was trying to stay away from because with normality came memories and guilt, but she couldn't deny him that, especially not when he didn't have anywhere else to go, "I'm sorry, Oliver," she said quietly, shaking her head, "I haven't really slept and I didn't mean to be so harsh to you."
Oliver turned to look at her, watching her for a moment. Then he hesitantly moved closer to her, wrapping her in his arms and hoping she didn't mind.
Chloe stilled completely, her eyes widening as she lifted her head so her face wasn't pressed against his shoulder. Hesitantly she placed her hands over his back, trying to understand what had prompted this and at the same time, trying to push away the thought that she really couldn't remember the last time anyone had given her a hug, let alone such a heartfelt one.
When she actually hugged him back, he pulled her a little closer, resting his chin atop her head. "I know this is a hard time of year," he murmured. "But you're not alone, Chloe."
Her face crumbled at his words and she turned her face away from him, holding her breath to stop herself from sniffing or sobbing as she felt her eyes getting warmer again.
Oliver swallowed hard, closing his eyes as he gently rubbed her back.
Despite her attempt to stay quiet, she needed air, and as she took a deep breath, a silent sob broke through her, causing her body to shake slightly and instinctively, she wrapped her arms tighter around him, closing her eyes as the tears blurred her vision completely.
His chest tightened and he held her close. "Let it out," he whispered. "It's okay." He pressed a kiss to the top of her head without thinking about it.
She didn't have much of a choice, apparently, as she started crying harder, like all of the times she had pushed away everything she was feeling and had managed to lock down her emotions in order to stop herself from breaking down and suddenly deciding to catch up with her. She turned her head, hiding it against his chest as her hands wrapped around his jacket, she was trying to tell herself not to do this, that she didn't need to break down in front of Oliver like that, but having his arms around her as he soothed her, it was comforting and oddly safe.
She had, despite how much she tried to ignore it, felt so incredibly lonely in the past few months and the fact that the holidays were approaching were making it harder, no matter how much she tried to deny it and the fact that Oliver had gone out of his way to try and make it easier on her, it only made her want to hold on to him more.
He wasn't even sure what he had been thinking, but he'd driven by a Christmas tree sales lot on the outskirts of town on the way home from Kansas City, and found himself pulling into it and parking his car. The only person he'd thought of when he'd been picking one out was Chloe. It had dawned on him that not only had she saved his life, but he'd been a pretty lousy friend. She'd lost her husband, and her best friend, and he'd walked out on her, as well. Feeling a surge of protectiveness, he tightened his arms around her a little, not telling her to calm down or to stop crying. He knew that sometimes in order to heal, you had to do what you had to do. And this was just part of the process.
Chloe cried for a long time, she wasn't sure how long it was, but she was aware of his arms still wrapped tightly around her and his head resting on top of hers as she just... cried it all out and she'd never been so grateful for Oliver like she was right then. Even though he knew everything that had happened, knew that it was all her fault and that Jimmy had died because of her bad decisions, he was still there, willing to comfort her.
With a deep, shaky breath, she pulled back slightly, letting go of his jacket and sniffing as she lifted her head to look at him, "I'm sorry," she whispered, her voice breaking.
He lifted a hand to her cheek, gently wiping away a stray tear as he shook his head. "You don't need to apologize to me, Chloe," he whispered back, his eyes filled with concern.
She leaned into his touch slightly and swallowed hard, nodding softly.
He offered her a gentle smile, then dropped his hand from her cheek to hug her once more.
Chloe hugged him back instantly this time, closing her eyes once more, "thank you," she whispered, resting her forehead against his shoulder then making a face, apparently she had soaked his jacket with her tears.
"Not a problem," he assured her softly, resting his chin atop her head once more. He couldn't recall ever having hugged her before and now he regretted it. She fit into his arms perfectly.
"I got your jacket wet," she whispered, but didn't pull away, she thought Clark gave the best hugs, she'd been wrong.
He smiled at that. "It'll dry," he promised, not pulling away either.
She smiled slightly and sniffed, "I can put it in the drier," she offered, keeping her eyes closed as her fingers wrapped around his jacket again. She wasn't quite ready to let go of him yet.
"It's fine, Chloe," he murmured. "Nothing to worry about."
For another long moment, she didn't move, but eventually and reluctantly, she took a deep breath and pulled back just enough to look up at him, "thank you," she murmured again, sincerely.
Oliver held her gaze. "You're welcome," he said simply, offering her a gentle smile.
She smiled slightly then finally pulled her arms from around him, rubbing her face and looking over at the tree, "we don't have any kind of decorations," she told him, sniffing.
His smile widened at that. "Actually...I have some in my car," he admitted.
"Oh," she looked back at him and nodded a little, clearing her throat, "of course you do." She told him, smiling a little more at the look on his face, it was clear that this was important to him.
Oliver held his hand out to her. "Help me out?"
Chloe nodded a little, looking down at his hand and sliding her hand in it after a moment, "yeah," she said quietly, smiling a little at him.
He gave her hand a squeeze and smiled.
* * *
It had taken them a long time to decorate the tree and well, most of the Watchtower, really since Oliver had bought enough decorations to decorate about five huge trees, the more they got into it, the more she relaxed and the more she was comfortable with the idea of spending Christmas there with him, alone. There would be no expectations and clearly, he wasn't uncomfortable with her if she just broke down and cried. And honestly, she was kind of glad she wouldn't be on her own if that did happen.
"What about food?" She asked, hanging the last of the red balls on the tree and turning to look at him.
Oliver glanced at her. "Well, we could go entirely traditional, or we could order in pizza or Chinese." He grinned. "I'm good any way we decide."
"Well, I don't know if we can justify a traditional meal for two people, besides, we both know I can't cook," she told him, pursing her lips and reaching for one of the extra lights they hadn't managed to fit in the tree, this one was completely green, which figured considering who picked them out.
Amusement made his eyes brighter than usual. "Ah, but I bet you don't know that I actually can."
And there was something mesmerizing about his eyes when they were like that, especially because his entire face just... lit up, "you can cook?"
"I can," he confirmed, nodding. "I'm not half bad in the kitchen." He grinned at her.
His choice of words put a smirk on her face, her brain going to a different place entirely and she shook her head, grinning a little, "well, have you ever made a turkey?"
"Not in an oven. I have deep fried one once. Been awhile though."
"Deep fried turkey?" She cocked her head, "that sounds... interesting?"
He grinned at her. "It's not bad. You think you want turkey for dinner?" he asked.
Chloe shrugged a little and shook her head, "it's your decision, I'm okay with pizza or chinese, but you're the one who wants to get in the Christmas spirit."
Oliver watched her for a moment. "All right. So how about I work on cleaning and organizing the kitchen the next few days, and I will make you a traditional Christmas dinner?" He arched an eyebrow at her.
She cocked her head a little, watching him for a moment then nodding and smiling a little, "okay, I can help, I mean, I can make mashed potatoes at least?"
He grinned. "Instant, right?" He stifled a laugh.
"You mean there's another kind?" She smirked, arching an eyebrow.
He chuckled, draping an arm around her shoulders and looking up at the tree. "I think we did a good job."
Chloe smiled softly, looking at him for a moment longer then looking up at the tree and nodding a little, "it looks pretty good..."
Oliver glanced at her sideways. "All right, so we've got the meal figured out and the decorations done. What else does a normal Christmas involve?" he asked.
"Well, depends who you ask," she told him, wrapping an arm around his back without thinking about it, "dad and I usually just ate and sat in the living room to watch movies, until the Kents started inviting us over then it was a big Christmas party."
"Any particular movies?" he asked curiously, wondering if they were Christmas movies or just regular ones.
"Whatever was on TV," she told him, shrugging a little, "we didn't really have a Christmas tradition other than setting up the tree together."
"Oh," he said softly, tugging her a little closer against his side.
Chloe turned to look at him once more and pursed her lips together, "what about you? What is your idea of an ideal Christmas?"
He smiled faintly at her question. "Snow. Friends. Good food. So I'll at least have two out of three for sure."
"Which one is missing?" She asked curiously.
"Snow, possibly. Can't control that one." He grinned.
"Please, have you seen the weather reports? Even if it's not snowing on Christmas, we will definitely be surrounded by it." She told him, smiling softly.
"Then that's my ideal Christmas," he told her, returning her smile.
Her chest tightened a little at that and she nodded, leaning against his side a little without thinking about it, "thank you for thinking of this, Ollie."
He gazed at her for a moment. "We're gonna be okay, Chloe," he whispered.
Chloe nodded, looking up at him for a moment longer then looking back at the tree, "yeah," she agreed quietly, "I know."
Oliver leaned his head against hers, and looked up at the tree once more, as well.
She sighed deeply and relaxed against his side, a soft smile appearing on her lips as she watched the tree, it could turn out to be a much better Christmas than she expected because when it came down to it, Oliver had it right. You didn't need much more on Christmas other than friends, good food and snow.