Title: Reach for Something
Words: 2398
Pairing: Laurel/Oliver, Laurel/Thea brotp
Genre: Comfort/Friendship
Status: tentatively done.
Summary: When Laurel reaches Verdant, she tells Oliver that he is important to her. She proceeds to show him by helping get his mind off the drama for one night.
Laurel walked through the doors of Verdant with new eyes. This place, she didn't think it could be more different than it was a year ago, but here it was so shiny and new in her eyes. This is where family lived. This is where they played. This is where they showed their true colors. This is where Tommy learned to be a man. This is where Thea grew into an amazing vision of a woman. This is where Oliver was. This is where Sara worked. It was all of those things that would keep her coming back. Why she kept coming back.
Oliver sat on the stairs looking at a worn picture of his family, the four of them happy. They lived such a blissful and privileged life five years ago and then everything changed. Everything happened. His father knew, though. He never told any of them because it didn't matter. Thea was his daughter. Thea was part of his family. Why didn't she see that?
She saw his sad smile and smiled a little sadly back, "Oliver," She said.
He looked up suddenly and straight at her and the look on his face read all pain. He didn't know what to do anymore about everything.
She didn't really know what to do either. That look of pain had always been her sore spot. She always wanted to help him when it was on his face.
He put the photograph in his shirt pocket and looked away from her, afraid of the pain. He wanted to shut it out. He wanted to be strong. He couldn't do it though. She knew. She knew what he did for the city. And she couldn't let him run away from her like he was trying to.
He stood up from the step he sat on and she went to him and hugged him. She pressed her face into his strong chest and let him know that if there was one thing that he could do, it was protect her with his love. She wrapped her arms around him protectively, a reciprocal shield of defense, that sure as he protected her, she would use her love to keep him safe.
He put his hand on her shoulders and she relaxed a little, not much, because he needed the strength, but enough to tell him she wasn't mad. She wasn't the boa constrictor, here to squeeze him to death. "What's this for?" He asked softly.
"Because you're important to me," She whispered to him. He needed to know that she forgave him. Forgave him for lying. Forgave him for kidnapping her. Forgave him for keeping secrets. Even forgave him for the bullshit games he played with her.
He didn't know how she could forgive him for what he did to her. He failed her on every account. He went after people who failed the city, but the truth was that he failed her, his symbol of the city, more times than he could count. He released her and tucked a strand of hair behind her hair. "Where do we go from here?" He asked.
She grinned at him. She held out her hand for him to take it. "We get dinner," She told him as they walked out of the club.
He drove her car to Big Belly and he ordered them some food. "Sorry," He said and blushed. "I know you hate it when I do that, but this is gonna be good, I promise," He told her.
She put her hand out and smiled. "Look, Ollie, it's fine," She told him. "How are you?"
He nodded. She made it easy. "I'm shaky. Thea won't talk to me because of this thing."
"The parentage?" She asked.
He laughed a little, "How am I not surprised you know?" He asked her.
She chuckled at him, because he took it all in stride. "Because you know that Bear and I talk. And that since she's been told that you and her boyfriend or ex-boyfriend have sort of not been the people she's wanted to talk to about anything."
He put his wrist on his forehead and laughed at the table. Man, she never pulled any punches. "Yeah, that, is she doing okay?" He asked.
"She's sleeping on my couch," Laurel shrugged. "She's doing as good as she can," She took some fries and looked at him.
He looked at her with those big eyes. She shouldn't have told him where Thea was, but his concern touched her and she knew that giving it up would be more fruitful. "You're the one she went to?" He asked with a little bit of a smile.
"I don't think she'll fully give up on you." She promised him as she took his hands in hers and told him that he could trust her with everything. Maybe he didn't know that she knew about him. About the Arrow. But her trust in him never wavered. And then she broke out into a grin. "Either that, or she knows that you screwed me over, just as bad as you screwed her and she thought I'd keep her secret."
"I'm glad she has someone so capable looking after her," He told her.
She blushed. He loved seeing her blush like that. She blushed like that because he told her that he was proud of her. Just a little while ago, he never thought he would even be able to trust Laurel again. God, he was an idiot. This woman took his challenge and told him, you know, I'm raising you some stakes and I'll prove to you that I can be better than I was. Her courage, he wished he had that. He was a coward though. He didn't know how long he could keep her separate from his Arrow life, considering he hadn't done a great job of that, at all, but he wanted to have more of these moment and he knew she would hate him forever if she knew. All she knew was the justice system and making sure the right people were protected the legal ways.
She didn't blackmail or put arrows in them to get the right guy and to put him away forever and god he wished he could be more like her. "Yeah, well, you know, someone has to keep the Queens from totally self destructing and I figured I might as well take that job," She said and shrugged her shoulders with a smile.
"You do it amazingly, by the way," He told her. Always there. She would be right there by his side, helping his family and keeping him out of trouble, even when he didn't want her to be.
She shrugged, "It's what I do." She said as she ate more food and smiled at him. They ate in comfortable silence and the others looked at them like they were an eclipse and it was a sight to behold.
He looked to her and wiped his hands with a napkin. He looked at the food they devoured and smiled. It was just like the old times, when it was simple, when he was just a boy and she was just a girl and all they knew is that she would run the world one day and he would be forever scared that he'd never be good enough for her. "I know I have no right to ask this, because I've been terrible to her but do you think I could come over and just see Thea? I don't want her to talk to me, but if she's sleeping, I'd just like to see her." He asked.
She nodded. It wasn't his place, but it also was. Thea was part of the Queens. "Come on," She said, exiting the booth they were in. "You want to drive or should I?" She asked as she held the keys in front of his face and she cracked a stupidly happy smile.
He took the keys and she waited for the door to unlock. He pressed the button on the fob and they both got in. He drove to her apartment and reminded himself that it could have very easily been there apartment if he hadn't been an idiot five years ago.
She took the key from his hand and opened the building door. He took her hand as they stood in the elevator. She let him. It was the first time he was going to see Thea since she walked out on him and Moira when they told him about Robert and how he loved her regardless.
She squeezed his hand gently and smiled at him and he smiled back. As the elevator dinged, they stepped out one at a time, and she led him down the hall and opened the door, making sure that he wasn't visible till she got a visual on Thea.
She chuckled when she saw that there was bad tv on her television and Thea passed out in an odd position with her junk food on her coffee table. She opened the door wider for him.
He came in and smoothed Thea's hair out of her face and looked at her like she was precious jewels for a moment. He gave her a kiss on the forehead and then looked back to Laurel. "Thank you," He whispered as he hugged her.
She hugged him back, full wraparound hug. She loved his hugs. They made her feel safe. She wanted nothing more than to be in his arms, and she wrapped her legs around his waist, crossed her ankles, and just smiled like the giddy idiot she was into his shoulder. "You don't have to go through it alone," She muffled into his shirt.
He cradled her head and smiled, "God, what did I do to deserve you?" He asked.
"You came into my life at the right time and your family offered me the best education money could buy to help you. It was a pretty good deal." She told him and nodded with a little bit of a goofy smirk on her face.
Oliver put her down on the counter. "I should probably go," He told her.
"Or you could stay?" She asked him as he stood there.
He raised his eyebrow at her. She wasn't like that. At least he didn't think so.
"Not with me, you idiot," She said, groaning that he even had the gall to think about that. "I have an extra bedroom. And she's not using it." She nodded over to Thea. "Someone should. Besides, I know you want to check in on her at random points during the night."
"I don't have any clothes," He offered, lamely.
She shook her head and jumped off the counter and went down the hall, beckoning him with her index finger as she opened up her closet and revealed a huge thing of his stuff from the past. "I know it won't all fit, but I'm sure you can find something." She told him.
"I would have thought you would have gotten rid of this stuff." He chuckled as he sat on the floor of the closet and looked through it. "God, I haven't seen this stuff in years."
She shrugged as she sat next to him. "Couldn't bear the thought of losing what I had left of you." She told him. "I know it's stupid, but this, it helped me through it," A tear flushed out of her eye.
"It's not stupid at all," He murmured. He wiped the tear away and her face looked more beautiful unmarred by the pain. "You were my saving grace on the island. That little picture of you? It got me through the days. I talked to you. I saw you when I made decisions."
"Really?" She asked him.
He nodded. "Laurel, it's you and me. Through everything, right?" He asked.
He sat there and for a minute he was actually afraid that she would turn his back on him. That she wouldn't want to do that. She wouldn't want to be at his side. She came to the Arrow and told him that she knew, the she'd been attracted to him. Even though he was dangerous. But she never said those things to Oliver. And for a second, he thought that she might just leave him there in the dust.
She smiled though. "Through everything, to hell and back." She said as she put her pinky out and he laughed and pinky swore her. "It's official now, no take backsies." She giggled.
"Like I'd take backsies on that," He grinned and kissed her. One time. That's all this was. And it wasn't even a full on kiss, but it's presence suggested more. "I shouldn't have done that,"
Laurel jutted her lip and didn't seem all that worried about it. "Sara can give me one kiss. Besides, it was a friend kiss." She told him.
"Why are you so calm about us now, coeur?" He asked.
"Because," She started, "I know that when the right time comes, you'll have gone through the experiences you need to, be the man you need to be, and I'm gonna be there. And you're gonna see that I always believed in you. And you always believed in me. And it's gonna be destiny. Besides, true love isn't easy." She said as she bumped him with her shoulder.
"Right," He said as he stood up and smiled at her. He gave her a hand up, "I should let you rest. You have work in the morning."
She believed in fate. She believed they were destined for each other. And that was enough for her to believe in him. And that was sort of beautiful. He went down the hall and thought that of all the things someone said, that was probably the sweetest.
"Oh, Ollie," Laurel said as she leaned out of the doorframe. He looked back to her. "Thanks for taking me out tonight,"
He pushed the door happily. She was the one who took him out. She was the one who helped him. She knew it too. You are important to me. She certainly meant it. He looked to Thea. No one else would have taken her in, no questions asked, no hesitations. Laurel didn't share Thea's opinion, but she also didn't badger Thea with the fact she was wrong.