Chapter 24

Author's Note: In a recent development, I've repurposed one of my old Twitter accounts to use in relation to my fics. If you want to get the occasional update on what I'm working on, make a request, ask any questions, see what music inspires my writing process, or just check out the inane bullshit I post then go give me a follow over on Twitter: JRW9699

It had taken them nearly another hour to manage to get out of bed. Whenever they tried to get up the two would fall back into each other's arms, their burning desire to be close to one another flaring up each and every time they were more than a few feet from each other. It took Kara's stomach making a noise that seemed like it belonged more coming from a blue whale than it did from the tiny blonde for them to finally make a move. In a fit of laughter, they managed to drag themselves apart and gather up the clothes that had been discarded the previous night.

Oliver's button-down had been beyond repair and Kara had flushed bright red as she remembered how she had ripped the fabric from his body. Thankfully, the grey tee he had been wearing underneath had survived. After shrugging on the leather jacket that he had abandoned by the door, Oliver led Kara out of the hotel and away from the city centre. By all accounts the best restaurants in the city were around the hotel in the middle of the city, but Oliver could almost guarantee that there would be a little too much attention if the mayor of Star City showed up without a booking and a mysterious blonde angel on his arm.

Instead, he had opted to aim for one of the quieter places on the outskirts of The Glades. Just one of the many places he, Digg, and Felicity had frequented when they had still been running the mission out of the Foundry. There had been more mornings than Oliver could count when the three of them had made their way to the hole in the wall diner after a long night. It had been a little over two years since Oliver had set foot in there.

Almost as soon as they had set foot outside the Starling Royal, Kara reached out and took Oliver's hand up in her own, tangling their fingers together. Oliver nearly tripped up over his own feet at the open showing off affection. Confessing his feelings was one thing, being able to openly act on them was another. Kara sensed his hesitation immediately and made a move to release her grip on him. Before she could, Oliver squeezed her hand, keeping her from pulling away.

"I'm a little out of practice with all this," Oliver smiled at Kara, trying to help calm the nervousness he could see welling up inside her. "It's nice, Kara, really."

True enough, Oliver hadn't been involved with anyone for a while. It had, after all, been more than a year since he and Felicity had officially called it quits on their relationship. Even then though, Oliver knew that he had never been the most openly affectionate person in the world. Emotionally stunted didn't even begin to cover it. Grand romantic gestures were easy enough, growing up a Queen had given him a genetic knowledge of how to do those, but one of his bigger romantic failings was his ability to show his love in the little ways, like holding hands while out on a walk.

Kara was different, Oliver had known that from the beginning. She wore her love for the people around her openly, in a way that Oliver didn't think he would ever be able to fully match. Even if he couldn't though, he could make the effort to change the little things.

As the two walked through the streets of Star City, Kara bombarded him with questions about the city's history and landmarks. Oliver realised that it was the first time she had been able to explore the city by day without the mission hanging over her head and keeping her focused. So, as they made their way from the bustling professional centre of the city to the more humble suburbs, Oliver found himself narrating the whole of Star City's history and culture.

It seemed oddly natural to him, to walk through the streets of his city, Kara's fingers intertwined with his own. Even the smile that had seldom left his lips since he woke up didn't feel alien to him. The comfortable air around them made it seem like the twenty minute walk to the diner took no time at all, and before Oliver knew it they were walking through the glass doors of Pepper's.

"Mr. Queen?" A voice claimed Oliver's attention.

Oliver looked across the room, seeing a family head of grey hair steeping out from behind the counter and heading over to them.

"It's Oliver, Julie." He smiled affectionately at the older woman.

"Whatever you say, Mayor Queen."

In the three years he had eaten semi-regularly at the diner, Julie had instead on calling him Mr Queen, no matter how many times he insisted otherwise. Being mayor granted him no exceptions it seemed.

"And who's this?" She continued.

"This is Kara, my—" Oliver wasn't sure how to finish that, they might have admitted to their feelings but neither of them had said a word as to the labels of their relationship.

"His girlfriend." Kara finished for him, and Oliver breathed a sigh of relief at Kara's open nature.

Hearing that word come from her, hearing Kara call herself his girlfriend sparked something unfamiliar in Oliver. The smile he had been wearing the whole morning deepened and Oliver found himself staring at Kara as if she were some distant star, beautiful and unattainable, not the woman whose bed he had found himself in just hours prior.

"We've been trying not to let the press get a hold of it, you know what journalists are like." Oliver added, earning himself a playful slap on the arm from Kara.

"Well your old table is empty, if you want it?" Julie smiled affectionately at them.

Oliver nodded his thanks and started towards the table slightly hidden from view in one corner of the room, Julie calling out that she'd be over to take their order soon. Oliver slid down into the booth, his back facing the wall so that he had a full view of the entrance to the café. Kara took a seat opposite him, their joined hands resting on top of the wooden table.

"This is a nice place." Kara hummed, looking around the room.

"My dad brought me here a few times when I was a kid. He had a factory a few blocks away," Oliver began. "When I first came back to Star City, I used to do a lot of work out of the old factory, built my club there, so I ended up wandering back here for breakfast after a lot of long nights."

When they had talked about some of his time as The Green Arrow during his stay on Earth-38 he had told Kara about building The Foundry up as his base of operations with the club on top of it as a cover. The look on Kara's face confirmed that she had remembered that conversation, and understood the subtext of what he had said.

Julie wandered over to them then. "Still a black coffee and the pancakes?"

"Julie, you're an angel." Oliver smiled at her.

The older woman rolled her eyes affectionately before turning her attention to Kara. "And for you, honey?"

Kara took up a menu from the table in her free hand and scanned over it. Form his position, Oliver could just see how quickly Kara's eyes were flicking around the page as she speed-read the items on the menu.

"I'll get a strawberry milkshake and the waffles, with a side of bacon."

"Make that two sides of bacon." Oliver added.

Once Julie scribbled down the order and walked back off towards the counter Oliver noticed the inquisitive look Kara was giving him.

"It's for you," He smiled warmly. "I know you're holding yourself back, I've seen you devour enough Chinese for three people before, Kara."

"Rao you're amazing." Kara beamed.

XXX

Breakfast had mostly been spent with Oliver continuing to brush Kara up on the history of Star City. Whereas he had been given plenty of time on her Earth to absorb information about her home and explore the streets of National City, Kara had spent next to no time in his city. With very little prompting, Oliver had also opened up a little about the Queen Family's influence on the city, from the founding of Queen Consolidated up to his own tenure as Mayor – even if there were large chunks of history missing to avoid some of his family's less reputable dealings.

Once they had finished eating, Oliver had left almost double the amount that of cash that their meal was worth on the table and the two had headed out into the streets. After a little aimless walking, Oliver led them to one of the parks that had been rebuilt as part of a city rejuvenation project he had set up. Hands still intertwined they took a seat at one of the benches overlooking a small lake. The park was otherwise deserted, it was still early enough in the morning that hardly anyone was on the streets unless they were on their way to work, so the couple had the whole place to themselves.

A few moments of relaxed silence drifted over them before Oliver's overactive mind started creeping up on him.

"About last night…" He trailed off, leaving the rest in the air.

Kara's eyes dropped immediately, catching onto what even Oliver was a little too nervous to broach openly.

"Do we have to talk about that?"

At the almost broken sound of Kara's voice Oliver almost dropped it there and then. His concern for making Kara feel worse than she already seemed to fell almost tipping over his need to make sure that the previous night was just a one off. It had been so tremendously out of Kara's character to do that, even if Oliver did understand all of her reasoning, that his worry for her making a similar move again weighed up heavily on him.

"We're not going to not talk about it," Oliver stumbled a little. Frustrated at his own nerves, Oliver bit his tongue to focus himself before continuing. "Kara, I'm the last person to judge you for what you did – God knows my parents had to buy my way out of more than a few drug charges when I was in college – but I'm worried about you."

Kara swallowed hard, fidgeting with her hands in her lap for a few moments before she finally looked up at Oliver.

"I'm not okay," She admitted, eyes dropping back to her lap. "I just wanted it to go away, everything I was feeling." Kara drew into herself for a moment, and Oliver stayed silent. He could tell she still had more to say, that the words were just escaping her. "But I know what I did last night was too far. I stole evidence…I got high on stolen evidence…"

"Okay." Oliver answered simply.

Kara's eyes host back up to him. "Okay?"

"I trust you, Kara," Oliver reached across and picked up one of her hands with his own. "You've acknowledged a mistake. But if you ever feel like that again, just know that you can come to me. You don't ever have to suffer alone."

The last thing Kara needed was berating. It was beyond clear to him that Kara regretted what she had done. Alex or J'onn might have been more inclined to give Kara a lecture for doing what she did, but Oliver had no intention to. Between what had happened on Earth-38 compelling Kara to do it, then actually stealing and using the drugs they had seized, the guilt weighing on her was obvious. He understood that.

"Thank you." Kara's voice cracked a little.

Oliver didn't hesitate before wrapping his arms around Kara and pulling her into him. She responded in kind, arms engulfing his body, hands fisting in his jacket. A sob escaped Kara immediately as her face buried itself in his chest, and Oliver tightened his hold on her as the stress of the last few days boiled over for Kara. She hadn't had time to really process it all. They'd been so busy running around and putting out fires, and then falling into bed with each other that she hadn't even been able to reflect. He had known that as soon as she took that first step the dam would break. It was what he had been hoping Kara would get to.

When Oliver had taken his first life he had been told it was a necessity, to ignore his guilt and get on with it. Kara needed to accept what she had done, even if that meant a small degree of self-loathing, because Oliver knew how dangerous it would be for Kara to reach his level of detachment. There was nothing left for him to say. Instead, he just held Kara and let her cry in his arms.

XXX

"My earlier question stands, you know?" Oliver asked her nearly three hours later.

They had stayed in the park long after Kara had stopped crying, sat in silence and enjoying basking in each other's presence. It was only when it was rapidly approaching midday and the park began to fill up with people that Oliver decided they needed to make a move to avoid drawing any attention. Being Mayor was almost more annoying than it had been when he was still a billionaire for Oliver. At least before the island the press only every cared about whatever tabloid worthy antics he had gotten up to. As Mayor he could get approached by all kinds of people, for all manner of reasons. In a strange way, Oliver missed the anonymity he had over on Earth-38.

Reluctantly, Oliver had admitted he needed to head into City Hall. As inconvenient as it could be, his day job still needed his attention. Unlike the night they arrived back at Star City, Oliver told Kara that she wouldn't just be able to walk through the front doors with him. During the day, the building would be filled with all manner of personnel, and there would always be press of some degree lingering outside the building. So, Oliver couldn't be photographed walking into City Hall with a mystery woman on his arm. Instead, Oliver had headed into his office alone, then opened up one of the wall-length windows for Kara to super-speed herself inside.

After that, Oliver had borrowed a laptop from Rene's office for Kara, who had eagerly delved onto the internet to learn about the differences between their realities. While Oliver had ploughed on with his workload. Thea and Quentin had done a good job keeping on top of the worst of it for him, but neither of them dared to fake his seal and signature on the documents that required his office approval.

"What question?" Kara looked up from where she had been sat on his sofa.

"What do we do now?" Oliver put the question forward again. "As much as it might be, this doesn't exactly feel new, does it?"

Kara smiled softly at that, getting up from her seat and beginning to make her way over to him. "Since we probably should have done this 3 months ago, you mean?"

"Yeah, that." Oliver matched her smile as Kara perched herself on the edge of his desk.

"You're not freaking out because I called myself your girlfriend earlier are you?" Kara asked quickly. "Because if that was too quick I—"

"The opposite actually," Oliver cut over her before Kara could spiral further. "It sounded right. That's my point. We haven't really been doing this at a normal pace, have we?"

Kara's smiled returned. "Normal doesn't really fit anything we do."

"If that's not the truth…" Oliver chuckled. He reached out with one hand, took up one of Kara's and brought it up to place a kiss on her knuckles. "After months of waiting it doesn't really feel like we're rushing."

"Well fast just happens to be one of my specialities." Kara giggled.

Oliver found himself laughing with her before he could stop himself, playing along with the double meaning as if someone were listening in on them. "One of many talents I'm sure."

"So, we're good?"

"We're good." Oliver agreed.

With a smile Kara leant down, Oliver straightening up in his chair to match her movements. The warm light of the afternoon sun of his back was nothing compared to the wave of heat that flooded through Oliver as his lips met Kara's once again. Instinctively Oliver reached out with his free hand, fingers tangling in the hair at Kara's neck and pulling her closer. The Kryptonian hummed her approval into his mouth before responding in kind.

"OH MY GOD!"

The duo bolted apart at the sudden shriek, Oliver sinking back into his chair and Kara super-speeding herself a respectable distance away. His gaze landed on the door to his office, cracked open with a grinning head poking though it.

"Hi, Speedy."

End Note: And we officially have ONE chapter left. Is anyone else nervous? I'm nervous