Slow Dancing In A Burning Room

Pairing: Tess/Ollie

Summary: She had seen the future. She knew that the only person he would share his destiny with was Tess.

Author's Note: This was just a very random idea prompted by Chloe's return. This is from her perspective.

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

It had all started innocently enough. Their dinner was winding down. The dessert had been eaten; the appropriate amount of liquor had been consumed to loosen all of their inhibitions, and the music seemed to be calling to all of them.

She got up with him from the table, her hand in his as he led her out to the floor, and brought her in close to him. The feel of his muscular body against hers stirred emotions in her that she had been missing for so long. He held her tightly to him. He led them all over the dance floor, completely comfortable taking the lead. It's not like this was the first time around and his history gave him plenty of experience with how to move to the music.

The music was soft and slow. It was everything any woman would want to hear while wrapped up in the arms of such a charming and handsome man like she was at this precise moment.

It was all she wanted, all she had been thinking of and it was this moment that she never wanted to end.

But all songs have an end. So did this one.

The music died down, and the MC for the night slowly prodded them into their seats again.

She sat there next to him and he smiled at her. She smiled back at him and nothing could be more perfect until the MC started speaking only moments later.

"Well, folks I hope you are all having a particularly enjoyable evening. On this wonderful night of romance, dancing, and merriment I was wondering if any of you were up to the challenge of a dancing a tango?"

The murmur fell over the crowd as people started to buzz about who could possibly get up the nerve to dance in front of the entire room. It was clear by the tone the MC used that he knew very well a few choice people among this highbrow crowd would be able to dance a tango and that their egos would not allow them to turn down a challenge.

"Oliver you have to do this. I know you can dance the tango."

Chloe whipped her head around to see Lois cuddled up next to Clark in a very comfortable position that gave every indication that neither of them would be getting up to dance. The problem was that while Oliver may be able to dance the tango, she could most certainly not dance the tango.

She spoke up trying to stop this moment before it ever got going, "No, Lois. I don't think that's a good idea. See, I can't dance the tango."

Chloe thought the crisis was averted but no sooner did the words get out of her mouth before they received a reply.

"That's okay, Chloe. I can dance with him." The smooth and silky voice could belong to no one but Tess Mercer.

Oliver's voice was the next to be heard but his attention was not on her for the first time that evening. It was on the illustrious redhead that sat across from them. "Excuse me, when did I agree to dance?"

Tess leaned in slightly and raised an eyebrow. "I have never seen Oliver Queen ignore a challenge so let's hope you won't make that day in history be today."

And without even looking back at her or sparing her a glance, Oliver rose slowly and purposefully from his chair which elicited a murmur of excitement from the crowd that someone had accepted the challenge of the MC.

"Aw, ladies and gentlemen it looks as though the one and only Oliver Queen will be treating us with a dance tonight. And who shall his lucky lady be?"

Not me, Chloe thought.

Oliver walked around the table and extended his hand to Tess as she sat calmly on her seat but she had had her eyes on him the entire time as he made his way toward her.

She examined his hand for a moment as if she were suspicious of his offer but then only a second later she placed her hand in his and was led out toward the dance floor.

"Aw, the lovely lady Tess Mercer will be his dance partner tonight. Let's give them a round of applause, huh?" The MC instructed and the crowd erupted.

Her stomach began to itself into knots as she watched Tess and Oliver position themselves in the middle of the dance floor.

The moment seemed to be suspended in time for her. The dread that began to sweep over her body, her entire system, was almost making it hard for her to breath. She wanted to stand up and scream that she could try to dance with him. She wanted to at least try but all of a sudden the music came to life, as did Tess and Oliver and her opportunity was lost.

Tess flowed to the music and her burgundy dress whistled in the wind her body was creating with its dramatic rhythm. Oliver spun her around, led her all around the dance floor as he held her closer and closer every time he pulled Tess back into him and the action was reciprocated by the redhead.

The longer the music played the closer Tess and Oliver got until they became a practically seamless pair. The only thing distinguishing between man and woman was the burgundy color of her dress but even that seemed to match his black as night tux when they were wrapped up in one another.

Chloe took a moment to glance around the table at her friends to see if she was the only one noticing the electricity between her boyfriend and his former girlfriend.

Clark looked entirely surprised by his two friends dancing and maybe a little amused but Chloe could tell he saw what she saw. Her eyes moved to Tess' date and the jealousy in his eyes could easily tell her that he saw it too.

Then Chloe looked at Lois and oddly enough… her cousin was looking back at her with sympathy in her eyes. Lois saw it too and felt sorry for having suggested it but it was too late to take it back and Chloe moved her eyes back to the couple that had the whole room transfixed.

The room began to fill with the tension they had between them.

Their passionate caresses, the tight way they held each other, the way their mouths seemed to be drawn together as if now that they were so close together it pained them to resist something they both wanted. Their eyes were locked on another and Chloe wondered if perhaps they had even forgotten that they were being watched or that they were not alone.

Chloe wondered if perhaps Oliver had forgotten she was there at all. She had known this would happen when Tess had volunteered herself to be Oliver's dance partner. They could pretend that there was nothing between them when they weren't wrapped up together, with their bodies touching in so many places, and they could pretend they were just friends when they weren't so close.

But when they were so close… it was hard to ignore.

Actually, looking at them now it seemed it was almost impossible for them to ignore the lingering feelings that almost every one of their friends knew existed between them. And it was just as easy for Chloe to ignore those feelings as well when it wasn't right in front of her face like it was in this moment.

It was easy to forget that she had seen the future when Oliver told her of his feelings or when they were dancing like they had been earlier this evening. It was easy to believe that perhaps they could be together forever when she could ignore all of the smirks exchanged between Tess and Oliver that masked the sexual tension that bubbled between them all of the time.

It wasn't so easy to forget that she had seen the future when she was looking at it on the dance floor. One day Tess and Oliver were going to realize how deep their feelings still went for one another. One day they were going to realize that no matter what they had done to each other in the past that they both still wanted a future together. And one day Chloe was going to realize that once they made the decision to be together that nothing was going to keep the two of them apart…not even her own relationship with the billionaire bad boy.

That will just fade away into the haziness of the past when Tess and Oliver will sit around Watchtower with the rest of their superhero friends and laugh about the wacky days when Oliver dated Lois' cousin briefly.

And that will be that.

One day Tess and Oliver will realize all of these things and start on the path toward their future.

Chloe was brought back to the present when the music ended abruptly and focused on the two people that were the center of her musings. Tess and Oliver stared at one another and they both looked completely dazed but very turned on and each seemed to be searching the other for answers to questions that they had been trying to ignore for so long.

Not even the loud cheers from the crowd or the MC speaking their praises into the microphone seemed to register to them.

Chloe sat back in her chair and realized that maybe that "one day" that would start them all on their paths to their futures and their destinies, was today.

There was nothing Chloe could do about it… she stood up with the rest of her table and applauded the couple for their excellent performance. She wondered if she cheered loud enough and pretended to be happy long enough then she could just pretend her own heart wasn't breaking.

Oliver was in the arms of the only woman he would ever truly, unconditionally love, and Tess was in the arms of the only man that would ever understand her and accept her for everything she was and was not.

They were in the arms of their soulmates. And the time they spent apart would only bring them closer together because they were now on the road to discovering that soulmates always find their way to each other in the end.

Chloe could do nothing about it but hold off the tears that wanted to stream down her face and realize that not even she could stand in the way of fate for very long. Plus she had to admit… they dance one hell of a tango.

End.

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