thank you for the reviews!
also i accidentally uploaded the wrong chapter LOLLLL so hopefully it'll be down soon but sorry if you say that and were confused bc its the biggest WIP ever
i don't own arrow!
Artemis sat at the end of one of the couches in the Queen's mansion, playing with her hair absent-mindedly. She'd insisted that the rest of the Queen family go to bed, telling them they needed rest after a traumatic event. They'd argued the same for her, but Artemis had told them she was working night shifts this week and needed to adjust her sleep schedule for them. She'd wait up until Oliver came home.
Besides, she wanted to see with her own two eyes that Oliver was okay. Their thirty second phone call hadn't sufficed.
When Artemis arrived at the Queen's mansion, she was met with a family worried sick that Oliver wasn't there. Artemis was baffled as well, explaining that she'd spoken to him briefly and said that Diggle had gotten him out. She'd assumed both Oliver and his bodyguard would be back by now, but they were nowhere to be found.
Finally, at 3:47, the front doors creaked open. Artemis stood up, moving through the darkened living room towards the entry way. Oliver was already heading up the stairs, but he paused when he heard her footsteps.
"Where were you?" she asked him.
Oliver turned around slowly, frowning.
"What...what are you doing here?"
"I wanted to make sure you were okay. I couldn't find you after the shooting, and you hung up on me. I came here, and I found your family, terrified because you hadn't come home. Hadn't called them." Oliver was slowly walking down the steps to meet Artemis, sighing. "They had no idea where you were! All I could tell them was that Diggle got you out, but where's Diggle?"
"Oh," Oliver groaned, leaning his head against the post at the base of the stairs.
"Oliver - " Artemis sighed, collecting herself. They weren't going to get anywhere if she just got angry with him. "I saw how much you cared about about getting Thea and Moira to safety, getting me to safety. Don't you think we felt the same way about you?" Oliver stared at her, his eyes drawn and sad. Artemis sighed.
"I should get going," she murmured, gathering her purse that she'd left on the foyer table. She draped it over her shoulder. "Good night, Ollie."
"Wait." Oliver caught her wrist, and she looked back at him. His eyes were soft, almost pleading. "It's late, you don't have to leave...you can stay with - " Oliver caught himself just in time. "- in a guest room." Artemis shook her head. Her eyes were cool, vacant. She wasn't looking at him the way she used to, and Oliver wondered if he'd lost any chance he might have ever had with her.
"I'm going to my dad's," Artemis said. "I have an early morning thing there." Oliver dropped his hand, looking down, and Artemis slipped out the door.
Sighing, Oliver leaned against the post, dropping his head into his hands.
Once Artemis accepted his offer, Malcolm didn't waste any time in lining up a trainer. The very next morning, Artemis met her father in their kitchen. Her heart was beating nervously as she quickly made a breakfast of yogurt and granola. She was dressed for a workout in leggings, a tank top and sneakers, and her long hair was pulled back into a ponytail. Still, she felt wholly unprepared for what was waiting for her.
Malcolm met Artemis at the car and led her around back to where he'd transformed a pavilion into a sparring arena for fencing and boxing. Waiting in the center of the room was a tall blond man who looked vaguely familiar. Artemis frowned as she stepped closer to him, trying to place where she'd seen him. She realized that he must have been one of her father's trainers at some point - it made sense that Malcolm would hire someone he trusted to train his daughter.
Shaking off the niggling feeling, Artemis spared a glance at Malcolm.
"Artemis." Malcolm placed a hand on his daughter's shoulder, and the blond man looked at the young woman. "This is Lawrence. Lawrence, this is Artemis."
Lawrence held out a hand to Artemis, smiling at the girl. Artemis shook his hand, giving him a polite smile back. She couldn't shake an odd feeling that crept over her as he looked at her closely. It wasn't uncomfortable exactly, but rather off-putting. Artemis dropped her hand quickly, glancing at her father.
Malcolm smiled at her encouragingly, holding out his hand and beckoning her towards the center of the room, covered in mats.
"Lawrence is a good friend of mine," Malcolm said, studying his daughter. "We've trained together, and continue to be business associates. He's going to be in charge of training you."
"We'll be starting simple," Lawrence said. "Hand-to-hand combat." Malcolm stepped away from the mats, retreating to the side of the room to watch. Lawrence stepped in front of his pupil. Artemis nodded, glancing around. She was expecting to see a punching bag, or gloves of some kind, something that she was supposed to hit. Instead, Lawrence beckoned her forward. "Hit me."
"Excuse me?" Artemis asked, her eyes going wide. Lawrence nodded his head.
"I know you've thrown a punch before," he said steadily, casting a sly glance at her.
Artemis blushed. She'd been suspended from school once for fighting. A boy had been harassing her, following her around campus and making lewd remarks. Artemis had ignored him for as long as she could, but when he'd tried to grab her by the arm, she turned around and punched him. The blow broke his nose, and the family threatened to sue Artemis for assault. Malcolm had been traveling, so it had been up to Tommy to pick her up from the principal's office and contact their lawyers to take care of everything.
They settled it out of court, and Artemis paid the boy's medical bills, delivered to him in an envelope full in cash, with a note suggesting he be more respectful of women moving forwards.
After a little coaxing with the administration, Artemis was able to have the suspension removed from her record, citing that she was scared of what the boy was going to do to her, and when he'd grabbed her arm in the back of the mostly deserted library, she felt a physical response was the only appropriate one to save herself from whatever his intentions were.
The administration agreed, and removed the suspension. Artemis had been glad - she didn't want anything baring her opportunity to get to a good college.
"I want to see how you fight - what your strengths are, and more importantly, where you're weak. The bad habits you need to break. Once I know that, I'll know what you need to focus on." Artemis frowned.
"Okay..." She stepped back, bending her knees and rolling onto the balls of her feet. She held her hands in front of her face, trying to recall the little knowledge of fighting she had from her father's mandatory self-defense classes when she was a teenager. Lawrence watched her steadily, and before she could lose her nerve, Artemis threw a punch.
Her fist collided squarely with Lawrence's hand - he'd moved to block her punch so fast she hadn't even noticed. Artemis blinked in surprise, dropping her fist to her side. Recovering as quickly as she could, she struck him again with a right hook.
This time, Lawrence grabbed her arm, simultaneously redirecting her blow to the air and spinning her around. He let go of her as quickly as he'd grabbed her, and Artemis lost her balance. She fell to her knees, staring up at her trainer in shock.
"Get up," he said, nodding at her. Artemis scrambled to her feet, and he nodded again. "Keep going."
Artemis rushed at her trainer again, this time rotating her front foot to the side and lifting her back leg up to roundhouse kick Lawrence in the ribs. He moved again, blocking her kick and nearly knocking her off balance. Artemis stumbled, regained her footing quickly and straightened up again.
Bewildered, Artemis glanced at her father. He nodded at her once, impassively.
"Trust me," he said.
Despite the fact that Malcolm hadn't given Artemis a reason to do so, she found herself wanting to give in just the same.
Artemis sighed as she walked back into her apartment building for the first time since she'd been attacked. She'd steeled her resolve and decided to move back to her own place after spending several weeks at Tommy's.
The muscles in her legs quivered and ached as she walked up the steps to her building's lobby. She'd trained with Lawrence for five hours that afternoon, and he'd worked her hard. She'd been meeting with him almost daily for the past two weeks, for at least a couple hours a day and longer when she had time. She wasn't going to lie, the training was almost fun, even if it was hard work.
So far, he'd given her pointers on her fighting form, and had her boxing and doing mixed martial arts. A few days ago, he showed her how to handle a gun - he'd complimented her aim, which she'd attributed to her archery skills from high school.
"Not genetic?" Lawrence had asked her, eyebrows raised. "I remember your father to be quite the marksman." He spoke with a wry smile like he was making a joke. Artemis smiled politely, but she was puzzled.
"Maybe," she replied. "I guess that's why though - picked archery up because Dad liked it." She glanced at the gun in her hand, a slight frown flickering across her face. The weight of it felt uncomfortable, but not foreign. She was quite sure she'd never held a gun, but she couldn't shake the feeling that this wasn't the first time one had been in her hand. Shaking her head, Artemis placed it back on the table next to her and looked at Lawrence, finishing her thought. "But not genetic. I'm adopted."
She was surprised that Lawrence didn't know that. Not only was her adoption considered a big deal when it happened, the press comparing Artemis's adoption to that of Annie and Daddy Warbucks, a rags to riches story, but if he and Malcolm were friends, it was bound to have come up. And even just looking at Artemis with Tommy and Malcolm made it clear. Artemis's half-Asian features were a dead giveaway.
"Of course, my mistake," he murmured. He moved on quickly, prompting her to demonstrate the steps of unloading and disassembling the gun again. He'd drilled her hard on how to assemble and disassemble it, as well as how to clean a gun, load and unload it before he even asked to see her aim. He reminded her she should never be handling anything if she wasn't a hundred percent she knew what she was doing.
Artemis was in fairly decent shape thanks to her propensity for long walks and short but frequent jogs, but that hadn't prepared her for the drills Lawrence had pushed her through. She'd been either running, doing agility training, and lifting weights every day since they'd met. He'd instructed her that she should be exercising on her own, as their time together would be spent on technical skills.
Artemis was in better shape than she'd been in her entire life. She was also more sore than she'd been her entire life.
But she had to admit, her father was right. She did feel safer, safe enough to return to her own apartment. She'd arranged to have training equipment moved into one of her extra bedrooms, turning the space into a gym so she could keep up with her exercise plan. She wasn't sure if any of this training would really help her in a life or death situation, but she figured it couldn't hurt.
Artemis pulled her keys out of her bag as the elevator doors opened. She paused in the hallway, tilting her head to the side. Someone was in front of her door.
"Ollie," Artemis said in surprise, heading over to the man. "What's up? What are you doing here?"
"Tommy said you were coming back to your apartment," Oliver responded, shifting his weight. "I wanted...I wanted to check in on you." A smile curved over Artemis's lips, touched by his concern. She was still pissed at him for the way he'd acted after being shot, but she wasn't going to lie and say she didn't feel safer with Oliver there with her.
"Thanks," she murmured, unlocking her apartment door and holding it open for Oliver. He followed her in, pausing in the entry hall and watching Artemis closely as she looked around her apartment, her heart pounding. Memories of gunshots and intruders filled her mind, and she jumped when Oliver put a hand on her shoulder.
"You okay?" The young man was looking at his friend in concern, recognizing the look on Artemis's face - trauma.
"Fine," Artemis said with forced lightness in her voice. She squeezed the bridge of her nose. "Just thinking. Come on, let's sit. Can I get you a glass of wine?" Artemis was already heading towards the kitchen, unwilling to face the first night in her apartment without some liquid courage.
"Sure," Oliver responded. Artemis came back holding two glasses and a bottle of pinot grigio. She settled herself on the couch next to Oliver, offering him one of the glasses. She poured a generous amount into both wine glasses and held hers up, clinking it gently against Oliver's.
"Cheers," she murmured, smiling shyly at Oliver. A deep dimple appeared in her right cheek when she smiled. Oliver smiled back, taking a sip of wine. Artemis looked around the apartment in an exaggerated manner. "So...where's your bodyguard?"
"Ah." Oliver smiled wryly. "Long story short...Diggle quit, new guy was hired, new guy quit, Diggle's back." Oliver grinned again. "But I gave him the night off. I didn't think he needed to be around for this." Artemis's heartbeat quickened. Oliver placed his wineglass on the table, and leaned over towards Artemis. His eyes were guarded, almost wary, as he brushed a lock of hair behind her ear.
"I'm sorry," he told her quietly. "I should have called you and my family and told you I was safe. But the thing is...I was used to not being safe on the island, and them not knowing that. All that mattered to me was that you all were okay. That you were okay."
Artemis watched Oliver, unmoving. She didn't want to push him. As Oliver leaned closer, she closed her eyes, letting her lips part as their noses brushed.
When Oliver kissed her, his hands pressed gently against her waist, Artemis let herself melt against him. She tilted her head to the side, deepening the kiss as she moved one of her hands to his hair.
A loud pounding at the door made Artemis jump, and she stifled a shriek.
"Jesus!" she gasped, leaning backward with her hand clasped over her heart. She looked up at Oliver, who hadn't so much as flinched, and she began to laugh, shocked and enthralled by their kiss. He chuckled with her, his blue eyes warm with amusement. Their laughter was interrupted by another loud knock on the door.
"SCPD! Open up!" Artemis's mouth fell open, and she turned towards Oliver with her eyes wide. His expression was suddenly grave, his lips pressed into a frown as both of them moved to stand.
Artemis leaned over and grabbed Oliver's hand, pulling him close to her as she moved towards the door. Her mind was whirling, wondering if it was really the police, or whether this was a ruse of someone else trying to break in. She tried desperately to remember everything she'd learned today just in case it was the latter.
Reaching the door, Artemis leaned gingerly forward to peer into the peephole. When she saw who was on the other side, she felt her shoulders collapse in relief.
"Detective Lance," she sighed, unlatching the lock on her door and pulling it open. She looked at him quizzically. "What's going on?"
"Dr. Merlyn," the detective nodded at her, placing his hand on his gun. Artemis's eyes went wide, and she cast a look over her shoulder instinctively, wondering if there was someone in her apartment. "Step aside."
"What's going on?" she repeated. Two uniformed officers walked through her door, and she gasped as one of them pulled her away from Oliver and held her back as the other one shoved him against the wall, forcing Oliver's arms behind his back. "Ollie!"
"What the hell is going on?" Oliver growled.
"Apologies, Dr. Merlyn, this has nothing to do with you," Lance said walking through the doorway. "We pinged Queen's phone and found that he was here." Artemis shook her head desperately, struggling against the police officer again.
"Let go of me," she snarled, ripping her arm from the officer's grasp. The police officer stepped back, shooting Artemis a cool look as he took handcuffs from his belt and approached Oliver. She stepped forward, trying to intervene, but Lance glanced at her coldly.
"Stay back, Merlyn." Artemis opened her mouth to demand answers, but before she could, Lance had turned back to Oliver and was speaking. "Oliver Queen, you're under arrest on suspicion of obstruction of justice, aggravated assault, tresspassing, acting as a vigilante - "
"What?" Artemis shrieked, at the same time as Oliver shouted, "Are you out of your mind?"
"And murder," Queen finished, staring Oliver dead in the eye. Artemis's mouth fell open. One of the officers began to read Oliver his Miranda rights as they marched him out of Artemis's apartment. Oliver didn't fight against the officers, but his jaw was set tightly.
Shell shocked, Artemis found herself standing frozen in her entryway as the officers led Oliver to the elevator. Her mind was whirling.
Lance thought Oliver was the vigilante. Was he crazy?
But she couldn't help thinking of how odd Oliver had been acting, his cool behavior when the assassins had broken into her apartment, his disappearing acts, running towards active gunfire at the banquet -
"Mouse!" Oliver's voice brought Artemis back to the present. He was craning his body out of the elevator, fighting against the hands of the officers pulling him back. "Call my family. It's going to be okay - "
The elevator doors slid shut, cutting off Oliver's promise. Artemis exhaled loudly, closing her eyes to collect herself as she turned back towards the living room and grabbed her phone. She dialed Moira's number, pressing the phone to her ear and collapsing on her couch as she listened to it ring.
This was so not how she'd pictured the night going.
"What are you doing here?" Artemis sighed as she walked into her office at work. Tommy was waiting for her.
"Hello to you, too," Tommy replied, straightening up from where he was leaning against her desk. He followed her across the small office as she pulled a file out of her stack and began to update her notes. "I wanted to talk. You haven't been answering your phone, and you're never at home. Work's the only place I know I can catch you." Artemis shook her head.
"I've been busy," she muttered, not meeting her brother's eyes. She'd been avoiding him since she and Oliver had kissed, knowing her brother wouldn't be particularly pleased with Oliver or her.
Not to mention that she was confused herself. She desperately needed to talk to Oliver.
Only she couldn't because he was being held in jail for suspicion of being the vigilante.
Artemis closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. If she thought too much about it, she was going to make herself crazy. And she had thought her relationship with Nicky was complicated.
"Oliver's bail hearing was yesterday," Tommy said. Artemis hummed non-committedly, flipping through her notes in a file. "Didn't see you there." He grabbed the file Artemis was examining from her hand, forcing her to look at him. "Seriously. He's been asking for you. You were with him when he got arrested. Why are you avoiding him?"
"I'm not," Artemis replied, snatching the folder back. "Keep your hands off my paperwork." Tommy arched an eyebrow.
"Okay, new question. Why was he at your apartment when he got arrested?" Artemis looked at Tommy sharply.
"He was just stopping by," she replied with a casual shrug. Her mind flashed back to the other night, the feeling of Oliver's lips against hers and she suppressed a shudder. "You know, just checking in."
"Uh-huh." Tommy eyed his sister suspiciously, and when it became clear she wasn't going to say anything else, he sighed. "Just..." Tommy sighed. "If something was, you know, going on with you and Oliver..." Artemis looked up sharply, meeting Tommy's gaze. "I mean, you'd tell me, right?"
"No, probably not," Artemis replied. Tommy groaned, rolling his eyes.
"Mouse." Something about his tone of voice made Artemis pause, and she looked at Tommy. He was staring at her seriously. "You know I wouldn't..." Tommy groped for the words. "I wouldn't care," he said finally. Artemis studied her brother, waiting for him to find his words. "Am I crazy about the idea of my little sister and my best friend? Not particularly. But...I trust you. And, besides - "
"People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones?" Artemis cut in, referring to Tommy and Laurel's relationship. Tommy glared at her.
"No. Well, yes. But no." Tommy sighed, standing up. He knew Artemis well enough to tell that she wasn't ready to have this conversation with him. "Look. Just promise me you'll be careful, okay? I love Ollie, but he's still Oliver." Artemis nodded, biting her lip.
"I know," she said quietly. The thing was, playboy Oliver - that was something Artemis could deal with. This new Oliver with all his secrets...she wasn't sure. Tommy watched Artemis for a long moment, but it became clear she wasn't going to say anything. He sighed, turning to leave.
"Look. He's throwing a party tonight -"
"Of course he is," Artemis muttered, rolling her eyes. Tommy held up his hands.
"Listen, you're going to be the one dealing with his decisions if you guys - " Artemis glared at him, and Tommy cleared his throat. "Okay, never mind. But I think you should stop by."
"I'll think about it," Artemis said, in a tone of voice that suggested that she'd already made up her mind. She turned around, looking back at her paperwork. "Now go away. I need to get back to work."
Artemis skipped the party. She couldn't bring herself to look Oliver in the eye and pretend everything was okay. She was so confused.
As she'd learned, the night of the party, the Hood had stopped an arms deal in the Glades. Oliver hadn't left the Queen mansion that night, and all the charges were dropped.
But Artemis still couldn't face him. She couldn't stand to hear his explanation or lack of an explanation. Not until Laurel called.
"Artemis?" The lawyer's voice over Artemis's phone had surprised her. She and Laurel were friendly enough, but they rarely spoke on the phone.
"Laurel," she responded. "What's going on?"
"I need to ask a favor," Laurel replied, sounding slightly guilty. "Can you...can you check in on Oliver? I think...I think he could use a friend right now. I was his lawyer during the trial and...and some heavy stuff came up. " Artemis bit her lip, and Laurel continued. "It seems to me like you're the only person he's been letting in since he's been back. And besides...you always kind of had him wrapped around your finger."
"Laurel, I'm sorry," Artemis whispered, guilt curling in her stomach. Laurel laughed lightly over the phone, unbothered.
"Don't be," she responded. "Oliver and I were over long before the Gambit. But I still care about it him, as a friend. I want to make sure he's okay, and I think you're the best person to get through to him." Laurel paused for a minute, and then added, quietly. "He kept that picture of the two of you in his wallet, you know. The whole time, those five years." Artemis closed her eyes, a rush of emotion speeding through her.
She knew the picture Laurel was talking about. The last lunch she'd had with Oliver, she'd brought out her polaroid cameras and taken two pictures of them. She'd given one to Oliver, and kept the other. Artemis wasn't even sure where her's went, something that had made her sob and curse herself for not being more careful with it when the Queen's Gambit had gone down, but the fact that Oliver had kept his all that time.
It might mean nothing, she told herself. But maybe it did. Maybe she wanted it to mean something.
"Okay," she murmured. "I'll talk to him."
First Tommy, now Laurel. Maybe a planned attack by both of them, or maybe the universe was guilt-tripping her into confronting Oliver.
But she knew she couldn't wait any longer before speaking to him. She'd figured out what had been bugging her since he'd been arrested, and she needed to hear what he had to say.
To her relief, Oliver was there when she got to the mansion. She was too edgy to wait around for him to come back. Moira let her inside and she went upstairs to Oliver's room.
"Artemis," Oliver said in surprise as he opened the door to her knock. "What are you doing here?"
"I wanted to talk to you," she said. Oliver frowned, stepping aside to let her into his room. She headed over to the window, staring out at the yard as she collected her thoughts.
"I heard someone attacked you the night of the party," Artemis said at last. "I'm glad you're okay."
"Thank you," Oliver said quietly. He paused, and then added, "Somehow I doubt that's all you came here to say." Artemis swallowed hard. Oliver walked up behind her, placing a hand on her shoulder. She turned around to look at him. "You've been avoiding me," he said. His eyes were guarded. "Artemis, if I...overstepped a boundary the other night, I'm sorry - "
"It's not that," Artemis interrupted him. "It's just..." she pressed her lips together. "When you get arrested, something started to bother me. I couldn't figure it out at first, but now... " She sank onto his bed, tracing the pattern of the quilt with her fingers. Oliver waited for a long moment, but she didn't continue.
"Gonna make me guess?" Artemis inhaled slowly, pressing her fingers into the corner of her eyes. She was exhausted. She hadn't been sleeping well. But she knew she couldn't leave until they'd had this out. She needed to hear Oliver explain himself.
"When the Hood attacked Nicky he told me that I wasn't supposed to be there," Artemis recalled. Her eyes were far away, gazing into the distance at something only she could see. "Earlier that day when you were so insistent that I stay away from him, I told him, in front of you, that I had a night shift. That I wouldn't be able to make dinner with him. It wasn't until later my co-worker asked to switch shifts with me, and I went to his house for drinks."
Oliver stared at Artemis, impassive.
"What are you saying?" he asked her quietly. "You think I'm this vigilante?" Artemis stared at him, and Oliver scoffed loudly, turning away from her. "I can't believe - "
"Well, what am I supposed to think?" Artemis found her voice at last, her exclamation rising to a yell as it all came flooding out. "Something is going on with you, Ollie, and you won't tell me anything!" She paced around his room frantically, all her suspicions and concerns about Oliver spilling out.
"You disappear all the time. You've gained muscle in the past five years, even though you should have been nearly starving. You threw a butter knife across a room with perfect aim. You heard an assassin breaking in when they got the jump on two police officers supposed to be on guard. You disappeared when someone open-fired on a room full of people, running away from safety. And you were right when you told me to stay away from Nicholas, right before the Hood attacked him."
Artemis stared at Oliver. He didn't say anything. Artemis laughed almost hysterically, covering her face with her hands. "And then the police arrested you. What...what was I supposed to think?"
"You're supposed to trust me," he told her angrily, his eyes piercing and his jaw tight. Artemis stared at Oliver.
"Give me a reason to," she whispered, all the bravado leaving her as her eyes filled with tears. Oliver blinked, shock rippling across his face and Artemis realized that this conversation held far more weight on their evolving relationship than their kiss the other night.
Oliver was staring at Artemis impassively, his jaw tight. She sank onto his bed, all the fight leaving her body as exhaustion overwhelmed her. Artemis closed her eyes.
"Ollie, something happened to you on that island," she said quietly. "I need...I need to know what. Or else I...I can't...I can't do...this." She shook her head, laughing slightly. "Whatever this is." Artemis's voice trailed off and she stood up again, facing Oliver. "Just tell me when you're ready," she said quietly as she walked past him. She put her hand on his doorknob, resting her forehead against the door jamb as she blinked away tears.
Oliver watched the young woman as she tried to collect herself.
He hadn't wanted this, hadn't wanted her to know. He just wanted her. But it wasn't fair of him to ask her to be in his life if she was going in blind.
"Artemis," he said quietly. She turned around slowly. Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes wet. He walked over to her, his hands rising to his shirt. "Come here." Artemis watched as Oliver slowly unbuttoned his shirt. Her throat clenched as his scars came into view. There were long slashes from knives, puckered circles from bullets, all white with age. She reached out unconsciously, her eyes welling with tears as her fingers traced lightly over his scars.
"What happened?" she whispered, stepping close to him.
"The people on the island," Oliver whispered. "They tortured me. I didn't want you to see me as what I am - damaged." Oliver shook his head. His eyes were red and watery. "I can barely sign my name, let alone aim a bow and arrow. I am not this vigilante." Oliver raised his head, looking at her in eye. "Please...I need you to believe me."
Artemis's mouth twisted, and she stepped toward Oliver, gently cupping his face in her hands.
"Ollie," she breathed quietly. "I never thought for a second that you came home from that island without crosses to bear." Artemis shook her head, her gaze dropping back to his scarred chest. "How - how did you survive this?"
"There were times when I wanted to die," he said, his eyes distant. He blinked, as if shaking himself out of a memory, and looked at Artemis. His eyes were unguarded for once, soft and hopeful as he looked at the woman in front of him, the woman he'd been in love with for years but couldn't bring himself to admit it. The woman he wanted to come back for. "In the end...there was something I wanted more."
Artemis's heart was pounding. She leaned in closer to Oliver, waiting for a cue from him to tell her it was okay. He nodded slowly, as if reading her mind, and moved forward to meet her in the middle.
Their lips met again and Artemis sank into his embrace, her head buzzing.
"Stay tonight?" he asked her quietly. Artemis nodded.
She was done questioning Oliver for the moment. But not forever.
There were still pieces that didn't fit. There were things she didn't understand. But she was certain of one thing.
Whatever secrets Oliver kept, he was keeping them to protect her. And, for tonight, that was enough.
some development in artemis and oliver's relationship! it's gonna be slowish burn lmao
please leave a review and let me know what you think!