That night found Chloe and Oliver sitting together on her couch, clutching empty cups of hot chocolate and gazing admiringly at the tree, the boxes of decorations sitting expectantly at its base.
Oliver slung his arm lazily over her shoulder. "Not to blow my own horn or anything, but that tree is the greatest thing I have ever seen."
Chloe laughed. "I'd agree, but I'm afraid your ego won't fit out the door on your way out of here."
He nudged her in the side, whispering seductively in her ear, "Admit it. I did good. I'm the most awesome guy ever."
She giggled, trying to ignore the tone of his voice. "You, sir, are arrogant."
"Stop avoiding the point," he told her.
With a snort, she looked to the ceiling. "Incorrigible," she muttered. "Fine, you did good, Ollie. This was really sweet. And yes, the tree is amazing."
He tapped his ear expectantly, tilting it toward her. "Aaaand?" he prompted.
"And so are you," she laughed.
"That's what I thought," he said smugly, squeezing her into his side. Chloe felt her heart flutter lightly. This was nice, sitting snuggled into Oliver's side, the smell of pine enveloping them. She sighed softly, trying not to think about how dangerous this was for her. Instead she rested her head contentedly on his shoulder, closing her eyes and willing herself not to read too much into it.
Oliver looked discreetly at the top of her head, silently thrilled at where this day had led him. He smiled gently.
"Chloe?" he whispered after a few long moments, unsure as to whether she'd fallen asleep.
When he got no response he realized she had. He wondered if she had been as exhausted as he was. Considering she'd fallen asleep in her clothes, he imagined so. He pressed his lips to the crown of her head and chuckled softly, noting that she smelled like coffee.
And faintly of evergreen as well.
Smiling, he leaned his cheek on her head and closed his eyes, eventually falling asleep himself.
On Tuesday, Chloe woke with a strange feeling of contentedness. Something tugged vaguely at the corner of her mind, and she opened her eyes slowly. The first thing she saw was the tree, which brought an instant smile to her lips.
Her next realization was that she was not alone. With a start she realized that she and Oliver had fallen asleep on the couch. She was leaning against his chest with his arm thrown protectively across her stomach. She tried to sit up, or to turn at least, but his arm tightened. Wishing she couldn't feel the color rising in her cheeks and a faint ache low in her stomach, she rubbed his arm.
"Ollie," she said. "We fell asleep. Ollie."
"Mmmm," was his groggy reply.
Chuckling, she reached up behind her until her hand found the side of his face, which she tapped lightly. "Ollie, wake up. Let go. Ollie."
Roused by the feel of a hand against his cheek, Oliver's eyes fluttered sleepily. "Mmmm," he said again, shutting them tightly to block out the sunlight.
Slowly awareness that he was not alone crept in at the corners of his mind.
His eyes opened quickly now, surprised and not remembering the previous night right away. Realizing where he was, the memory came flooding back to him. He closed his eyes and leaned his head back on the pillow of the couch. Waking up like this was infinitely better than the previous morning. He wanted to relish it a moment.
But Chloe was persistent. "Ollie?" she asked, then more loudly. "Ollie, are you awake?"
"I'm trying not to be, thanks," he grumbled, eyes still shut, smile tugging at his mouth.
She scoffed amusedly, thinking vaguely how sexy his voice was in the morning. "Well fine, but would you mind releasing me?" she asked.
He rolled onto his side, bringing her with him so they were spooning and tightening his arm around her. "No," he said childishly.
Chloe, face completely red now, no to mention her slightly erratic heart beat, laughed embarrassedly. "Ollie, let me go."
"Mmm," was his sleepy response as he buried his face in her hair, smelling her again. She still smelled like coffee and evergreen, but now she smelled vaguely like him, too, he noted with primitive pleasure. "Give me one good reason."
She chuckled. "I'll give you three. Clark, Lois, and the team."
He groaned. Clark and Lois. And the team. Any of which might walk in on them at any given moment and completely misconstrue this, much to Chloe's chagrin. Personally, he wouldn't particularly mind. But he'd rather she weren't uncomfortable.
He sighed dramatically into her hair, making Chloe repress a shudder in response. "On a scale of one to ten, how much would you not like to have to explain how innocent this is to someone?" he asked, dismissing the fact that he wished it weren't innocent at all.
She laughed quietly. At the moment? She was so comfy, and it felt so early, and he was so unforgivably warm and pleasant. "Three or four."
He hid his surprise. "Then we're definitely not going anywhere yet," he said happily, snuggling her closer to him and giving into the sleep still toying with him.
Chloe didn't close her eyes immediately. She had noticed something sitting under the tree.
A small white box with a green bow tied around it.
More coffee? she questioned vaguely. How odd. She wondered what was prompting Santa to suddenly supply her addiction for the season. She was too sleepy to put much effort into the thought process, though, and she was soon contentedly asleep again, reveling in the intimate hold Oliver had on her.
This is just not good, she thought vaguely at how thrilled she was about the whole situation.
When Oliver left Chloe much later in the morning, he was having trouble hiding how utterly pleased he was. He just kept smiling at her. Well, at everything really.
It wasn't until he was walking down the sidewalk that he slid his hands in the pockets of his coat and felt something in his right hand pocket.
Confused, he pulled out a small white box with a green ribbon tied around it. He blinked in surprise. How on earth had someone gotten it...Chloe? he wondered suddenly. Had she left the other box?
Thinking of her genuine surprise to find the tree and just her personality in general, he doubted it, but he also didn't know who else could have put it there.
Giving up on figuring it out, he flipped the tag over to read, which-he noted-was definitely not in Chloe's handwriting either.
To Oliver,
For Your Right Hand.
Santa
Curiosity growing, he immediately opened the package. This time it was not an ad, but something more ambiguous.
He stared in confusion at the small charm. A jade heart, attached to a delicate silver chain. A bracelet? For his right hand? He was a man, damn it.
Then the meaning sunk in on him. His right hand. Metaphorically. Automatically he thought of Chloe, who was his partner in everything by this point in his life. She was without question his right-hand-man. Woman. Whatever. Either way, he got it. He smiled at the bracelet. Simple, elegant, inexpensive. He liked it. He wondered how Chloe would feel about him giving her a gift. He shrugged dismissively as he closed the box and began walking again, slipping it back into his pocket. It was Christmas, and he was her boss, co-worker, and friend. He had every right in the world to give her something. He'd bring it by Christmas Eve, which was...he mentally calculated...two days away. Wow. How had that snuck up on him?
This was a weird Christmas.
As soon as Oliver was gone, Chloe rushed to the tree to snatch up the box, wondering what was in it now. Assuming the tag was the same as last time she opened it immediately this time, pulling out-to her total bewilderment-a pair of forest green wool socks much too large for her. They were very nice of course, soft and warm looking and quality made, but they made no sense.
She turned back to the tag for explanation.
To Chloe,
For Someone Who's Asking For It
Santa
She quirked an eyebrow, wondering what it meant before suddenly remembering Oliver's words the other day.
"Dear Sidekick, Please tell Santa I want wool socks for Christmas. Love, me."
She had to laugh. What an odd thing. She wondered whether Oliver would think it were weird if she actually gave him a pair of socks. It seemed like a really odd thing to do, but why fight it, she decided.
"Whatever you say, Santa," she chuckled, closing the lid on the box and heading upstairs to set it out of the way.
Oliver spent his entire day thinking of Chloe and trying to come up with an excuse to come over again.
Finally he remembered that they'd talked about getting the team together to decorate the tree and he started making phone calls.
After a while, he'd arranged for everyone to spend the morning at Watchtower the next day, so they could all decorate the tree and enjoy a little holiday togetherness.
He couldn't let go of the desire to see her again today, though. This morning had left him feeling more hopeful than he'd dared to in a while. Her obvious comfort around him, the way she'd positively glowed over something as simple as a tree...maybe there was a chance of winning her yet.
After a while he decided to throw caution to the wind, and just come see her with no particular excuse for it.
Chloe was humming Christmas carols pleasantly as she floated dreamily around Watchtower that day, barely paying attention to her work for once in her life. She kept thinking-with an unrelenting flutter in her stomach-of how it had felt being wrapped in Oliver's arms that morning.
Stupid as it was, she had relished every second of it. Which meant that the moment Oliver walked in unannounced she felt a horrible betrayal of color flushing her cheeks at his mere presence.
Wonderful.
"Hey!" she greeted him casually but pleasantly. "What're you up to?"
"Bored. Hungry. Missed you. Kidnapping you," he said bluntly.
She laughed. "I beg your pardon?"
"Want to grab dinner?" he asked her, grinning.
"Can we do take-out?" she asked, looking at herself ruefully. "I'm a bit of a mess. I've got to stop sleeping here," she added, looking up at him conspiratorially.
He had to grin at that. "Fine by me. I'll order. What do we want?" he asked.
"Anything that can be followed by chocolate cake and a good cup of coffee," she said with a wink.
He grinned. "Italian it is."
Surrounded by empty takeout boxes and one pleasantly empty coffee mug Oliver and Chloe found themselves on the floor beside their beloved tree, Chloe groaning.
"Why? Why would you ever allow me to eat that much?" she asked, head resting on his lap as her hand rubbed her stomach gingerly.
He laughed. "I like how this is my fault."
She opened an eye to look at him. "Well, duh," she said, as though this were quite obvious.
He chuckled at her.
"Note to self. Don't feed the Chloe."
She sat up. "Did I say that? I don't believe I said that," she reprimanded. "I believe I said no too let me eat so much, not to quit feeding me altogether. Horrible person," she accused him, hitting his arm playfully.
He laughed, raising his hands in surrender. "Apologies!"
Sighing, she collapsed back on his lap. "I'll forgive you if you make sure not to let me fall asleep on the floor.
He smirked, looking down at her. "No promises."
Looking up into his eyes, Chloe felt her face growing hot, and was suddenly a lot less sleepy, a heady feeling of desire down her body. She sat up again, willing the color in her cheeks to normalize itself so that he wouldn't notice.
"What time is it?" she asked. "I should make sure the team's all right."
"Relax, I had them all check in with me today so that you could have a day off.
She stared blankly at him.
"What?"
"Seriously?"
He nodded.
"I don't know whether I'm annoyed or grateful."
"Just to save us both trouble, I vote for being grateful."
She laughed at his logic and started to stand up. "I need to get going. Otherwise this will make the third night in a row I've slept here, and Lois may come try to castrate you."
He rose as well. "I may regret asking this, but why?"
Chloe shrugged. "She decided about a month or so ago that you're the source of all of my problems."
"Uh huh," he said dryly, "and she got this idea where?"
"She's Lois. She finds a scapegoat and she sticks to it."
That night Chloe played Christmas music as she floated around the Talon apartment, humming along to herself.
Lois raised an eyebrow at her. "Someone's in a good mood," she pointed out, smirking.
Chloe looked up from brushing her teeth to see Lois leaning in the bathroom doorway, arms folded as she looked at Chloe suspiciously. "Hmm?" she asked innocently, eyebrows drifting into her hair line and her mouth still full of toothpaste. "Wha?" she asked thickly.
Lois snorted. "Spill. Who is he?"
Chloe just blinked at her, but Lois wasn't fooled.
"The guy, Chloe. Who's the guy?"
Chloe spit and rinsed her mouth. "I honestly don't know what you're talking about." But her mind flashed automatically to an image of Oliver without her permission.
"Please. This is me you're talking to, Chlo. I know when my baby cuz is in love. I haven't seen you this happy since-" Lois suddenly realized she was about to say she hadn't seen Chloe this happy since her wedding to Jimmy and stopped herself in the nick of time. "Since they accidentally gave you a vente for the price of a tall at Starbucks," she finished instead.
Chloe just raised an eyebrow. "Maybe I'm just enjoying the Christmas season. Has that occurred to you?" she asked calmly as she brushed past her cousin to head for bed.
She fell asleep with Christmas carols streaming unceasingly through her head, not realizing of course, that to anyone who wasn't in love, this would probably be extremely annoying after the first sixty seconds.
Oliver couldn't sleep. He wasn't sure he wanted to. For one thing, he was extremely curious about where the mysterious gifts had come from the last couple of days. For another, he was full of adrenaline because for the first time, he was beginning to believe he had hope of winning Chloe over after all.
So, not realizing how much like a child waiting up for Santa Claus he was, he determined not to go to sleep, determined to figure out the source of the gifts. After all, if he'd gotten something two days in a row with no explanation, there was no reason to believe it shouldn't happen a third time.
So he sat down on the couch in front of the television, channel surfing until he found a Christmas movie he hadn't watched since he was a kid and leaned back in the chair, prepared to stay up the entire night.