Title: A Scarlet Christmas
Words: 2337
Pairing: Lauliver and Tauliver
Genre: Romance/Holiday
Status: Done.
Prompt: Scarlet
Summary: Oliver and Laurel on the day of the annual Queen Christmas Gala and this year, Oliver has a really special present for his wife.
Laurel unwrapped her arms from her coat around her and reached for the door. "Oliver, I'm home. Sorry, I was late, work waits for no one, especially me. And there was this big mess at the office," She said as pushed the apart the coat and put it on the rack.
Oliver appeared down the steps of their penthouse apartment in his towel and he looked wild and rugged, not exactly a normal look for him. "You have to get into the shower like now, babe. Because we're running late." He told her.
"I know work kept me late, but what am I forgetting?" She asked him as she gave him a kiss and took her shoes off.
His eyes bugged out. "You can't be serious right now," He told her as he realized that she really had forgotten what today was. "December 20th, the day of the Queen-Lance Christmas Gala?" He asked.
"Shit," She said as the sudden realization came upon her. "That's today isn't it?"
He nodded. "Get in the shower. I'll pick you out a dress from your closet." Oliver said as he ran up the stairs after her.
"Pick me out something festive, okay?" She asked him.
He shook his head, this was something that in a million years he never would have dreamed. "I think I can figure out what you like babe," He told her as he heard the water start.
She leaned into the bedroom, "Make sure it's not something worn for an event before, okay?" She asked him. "I do like to make a good impression with the public and they are so very fickle." She told him and he heard her step in.
He went into her closet and looked at all the outfits she had. Thankfully, her event dresses were on one side and all of her work clothes were on the other. Her section for her casual clothes looked remarkably small and he made a note to pamper her soon and take her shopping for some of those clothes.
He looked at her pictures on google to see which ones she had worn in public and remarkably she had worn almost every dress at least once to an event.
Except one.
It still had the tags on it and everything. And it was beautiful. Scarlet in color which would just set her skin off in the grandest way. It would fit her perfectly and he thought about it, he had a tie to match this dress and it would be perfect.
He went to his closet and took out his suit on the bed and picked up the dress in its stead and brought it to his tie rack and looked at all of his ties and found one that was the exact same color. He picked out some of the cufflinks that Laurel had given him as a christmas present before.
He put the dress back on the bed and got his pants on and then realized that she would need shoes and such with the dress. He couldn't get the shoes because he knew that she would want to do that on her own, because Laurel was particular about her shoes, but he could lay out some jewelry.
He heard the water turn off and knew that he would have to be quick, he picked out a snowflake necklace and picked her a green jacket out so she wouldn't get too cold. She came out clean and he smiled at her. "You look beautiful," He said as he kissed her face.
"You only say that because I'm not wearing anything," She told him with a bit of a smirk.
He grinned as he took her in his arms and kissed her deeply, "Well, that certainly has something to do with it, but you are beautiful and you know it." He told her and nodded.
She blushed and looked over to the bed and saw what he picked out and smiled. "You know if you didn't like crime fighting so much, I'd say you'd have another job picked out. This is perfect." She told him as she kissed him on the cheek and dropped the towel right there in the middle of the room. She went into her closet and got out some new undergarments and she put on some cute snow bunny earrings.
Oliver looked at the time. "We've got about twenty minutes before the company sends the car over. Keep that in mind." He told her as he put his shirt on and buttoned the buttons.
"So no complicated updos or products?" She asked him as she leaned on her closet door frame in just her underwear, earrings, and white strappy heels.
He nodded and winked. "I'm sure you can figure it out," He told her with a kiss, "But seriously, if you don't get into this dress, I'm gonna make us late."
As she went over to grab the dress, she nipped his ear. "Wouldn't have been the first time." She said as she unzipped the dress and stepped into it.
He came behind her and put his hand on her back and zipped the mostly backless dress. She had a beautiful back and it was a good thing he'd picked out a coat to go with it.
"So do you need help with that tie?" She asked him.
He grinned. "Of course," She twisted it into a double windsor and gave him the necklace and he put it on her.
She found a cuff real quickly and put it on and he put his cufflinks on and she dried the rest of her hair. He looked at time, "Babe, we only have a couple more minutes, we need to start heading down," He told her.
"I'm almost ready, just need a bag, okay?" She asked him.
He rolled his eyes. "Quickly, m'dear."
"You're the one who picked out this awesome dress. It needs amazing support pieces." She said as she found a silvery clutch and quickly put all of her things in it. He looked at the time and and they probably should have been out of the apartment a couple of minutes ago, but honestly looking at her, the entire rest of the world could wait.
She got out of her closet and stood by him and they looked in the full length mirror and smiled. "Don't we look picture perfect?" He asked.
"The couple in scarlet." She told him, "The most bewitching couple of all."
He nodded and took her hand and led her to the elevator where they went down and arrived in the foyer, where there was already a couple of people from the press and the car awaited them.
They chatted for a couple of minutes in the car before arriving on the red carpet of their own event. The Queen Mansion which he kept, but now was mostly an event space, looked beautiful in the snow. They smiled to each other as the driver came around to open the door. "Ready?" He asked.
She nodded. "With you? Always," She said as she took his hand and he stepped out. She scooted to the edge and stepped out with him.
She unbuttoned her coat and let the dress talk for her and smiled to the cameras. "Mr and Mrs. Queen," the reporters shouted and they took turns and as they turned to the last one, she smiled at them. "What's special about Christmas for you, Mr. and Mrs. Queen? And in particular this party which Mr. Queen has been throwing for about five years?"
"You know," Laurel started with a smile. "This is a time when we get to really visit with our families and having the christmas gala is a great way to get everyone in one place and just have a fun time. I think we both look forward to it, because for a long time it reminded us of happier times and now it is the best time of the year."
Oliver chuckled, "I mean coming off that answer is gonna be hard, but yeah, this is the time of year when I get the privilege of standing next to this incredibly gorgeous woman in scarlet and really remember what is important to the both of us. Which can be a little bit hard in the frenetic day to day." Oliver laughed a little more. "Was that any good of answer?" He asked.
The reporter nodded, "Oh, it was perfect," She told him and they posed one more time for the cameras and then went inside.
The party went on and he saw Laurel's face light up when her father came up and talked to her as he talked to Merlyn reluctantly, but he kept his eyes on her and grinning like a fool. "You know, I can tell you're not paying any attention to me, Queen?" Merlyn said.
"I'm sorry what?" He asked.
"Exactly," He said as he looked over his shoulder. "So you married her?" He asked.
Oliver shook his head. "She married me. I was lucky to be part of that deal."
"I don't know what Tommy and you saw in her, but Thea's smitten with her too," He said as the two girls went over and danced with big stupid grins on both of their faces to Winter Wonderland.
Oliver chuckled. "Bear has always loved her," Oliver said with the biggest stupid grin watching them dance. "Ever since the first day I brought her home to meet them. You should make the time to know her. She knew Tommy in the time you didn't. But if you excuse me, I think I'm gonna try and take over this dance," He said as he went across the floor.
He tapped Thea on the shoulder and she smiled to him, "Hey, let me guess, you wanna dance with a lioness in a beautiful scarlet dress? Seriously yowza." She said to Laurel who laughed unhibited.
He nodded. "I picked out that yowza dress and yes, I would." He told her.
She stepped aside and he took Laurel's hand. "You're not a total loser when it comes to picking out clothes," Thea told him as she stuck her tongue out at him.
And as the song faded out, and the next one faded in, he looked to Laurel and smiled as he put his forehead on hers and swayed to the music. "You know, I think this is gonna be the best Christmas yet," He told her.
She smiled to him, "You know I think you might be right. I mean I have a great husband who throws a great gala. And picks out the perfect dress. and doesn't tease me too bad when I forget one date a year," She told him as she smiled.
"Thea can't stop talking to Malcolm about you," He said with a bigger grin.
She shook her head. "I can't believe you still let him have access to her."
He shrugged. "It's not like he has that much access. And she needs as much family as she can get. Besides, I like the fact that she can't stop talking about her lioness to him."
"Bear's good to me too." She said as they turned. They didn't even notice Thea take their picture, but it was the best. "I'm glad we take this day out of the year to just be us,"
Thea ran up to them excitedly once the song ended and showed them their picture. "This is so going on my blog." She told them and smiled to herself as she went over to Roy and he picked her up and smiled.
"You know, last year, I gave you the ring on your finger and I didn't think I could top that, but this year, I actually think I might have done a little bit better than that,"
She looked to him with her eyebrows raised. "Is that so?" She asked.
"Sneak off to the library with me?" He asked as he put his hand out.
She took it and they snuck out of the party and to the library and she pushed the door open and her jaw dropped.
"Tommy?" She asked and he grinned like he always did. "How did you do this, Oliver?"
"Ra'as Al Ghul owed me a favor. And I figured Christmas would be the best time. Marrying you. Being with you like the old days, except better. Made me realize that we needed him."
Laurel threw her arms over Tommy. "God, you're back. It's really you." She cried a little.
"Oh, Laur, we can't have that. We need you in front of the cameras with us. We can't have you ruin that awesome makeup you took a lot of time getting right," Tommy soothed as he smoothed over her hair.
She shook her head. "Oh, we're not announcing this tonight, you, you're going home with us tonight. And tomorrow we can deal with all the press. But for one night, it needs to be the three of us, with no cameras, no bullshit." She said as she covered his face with kisses. "Oliver get over here."
"I can't believe the two of you took this long to get married," He laughed a little.
Oliver chuckled. "We were a little busy and it took us a little time for us to find our way back to each other, but we always do."
Laurel kissed Oliver right on the beard. "Could you call the car around?" She asked him.
He nodded. "Already did," He hugged Tommy and kissed him like they used to. "I told you it was gonna be the best christmas," Oliver told her.
"And I believed you, but I didn't know you were gonna step up your game like this," She told him as she twirled around in his arms and took both of her boys hands and snuck out of the library, because all she really wanted was to shed this scarlet dress for a blush all over.