Title: Lost in the Stars
Words: 2014
Genre: Romance/Comfort
Pairing: Laurel/Oliver
Status: Done.
Summary: Sara breaks it off with Oliver and he goes home where Moira tells him to go to Laurel and tell her how he feels.
"But he's not. That's all that matters." Sara had a tough time. Her instincts were sharp after years of being in the league and she wanted more than anything to trust them, but he knew she wanted to fight it too. And the will, the will to fight against killing, that was what was important.
"That's not true. I wanted to kill Roy. Because that's what I do. It's who I am." Sara told him point blank. She believed it too. He hurt from knowing that because he knew how hard it was not to kill. "I spent six years in the darkness and I looked into the eyes of the devil and I gave him my soul." She turned away from him ready to leave.
He couldn't let her go. "Let me help you get it back."
"No, you deserve someone better. Someone who can harness that light that's still inside of you. But I'm not that person. And I never will be." She smiled a little and hoped that he would take it to heart.
"Sara," He pleaded quietly "don't."
"I'm sorry. I just care about you too much to be with you." And then she was gone. Gone for now. Maybe gone forever. No one really knew with Sara. She came and went as she pleased. He wanted to cage her, but it didn't quite work.
He went back to Queen Mansion and saw his mother make a drink as he leaned on the doorframe of the study. "You're in good spirits," He noted to her.
"And you are not, my dear." She said as she took a sip and put the drink down. She looked to him. "What's going on?"
He shrugged. "Sara and I broke up."
"You didn't think it was going to last, did you?" She asked him with a bit of a chuckle. Sara Adelaide Lance, always a charmer, young and fresh, caught her son's eye when he was in a relationship with her older sister. He saw her and her light spontaneousness and immediately wanted to have it.
Oliver looked to his mother, "I thought it might. I wanted to move in with her."
"And you brought this up?" She asked him, an eyebrow quirked.
He nodded. "Yeah, I did. I just wanted a place to call my own and I wanted her to be with me. And so I thought maybe, she'd like to be with me."
"Oliver," Moira said as she sat by her son. "Sara is just like her mother. Has a hard time settling down. So when you asked her to do this for you, you probably freaked her out. Remember what happened when Laurel asked you to move in with her?"
Oliver shook his head. He really did not want to think about that. He hated the idea of getting on that boat and sailing away from her. He never deserved Laurel back then. "I know, mom."
"I'm not saying it to bring you down, I'm saying it because you need to realize where a freebird does not like to be caged. Laurel tried to do it to you. And you tried to do it to Sara and both times had disastrous consequences."
"You're great with the pep talks, mom." Oliver turned to her with a smile.
"So in the effort of curiosity, how did the breakup happen?"
Oliver sighed. His mother was asking him for a rehash, after she told him that he brought this on himself. "Her exact words were, 'No, you deserve someone better. Someone who can harness that light that's still inside of you. But I'm not that person. And I never will be.' and 'I just care about you too much to be with you.' and then she was gone."
"You really are your father's son." She chuckled as she took a drink of whiskey she poured earlier.
Oliver scrunched up his eyebrows. "I don't get it."
"She's making way for the person you were always best with." Moira said. "Go talk to her."
He realized what she might mean, but he didn't think it was true. Sara was a lot of things, but giving was not exactly among the top of the things that he give her characteristically. "You think I should go talk to Laurel?"
"I think that if you don't," Moira said as she stood up, "That it will be the biggest mistake you ever make. That girl loves you."
"You think she would take me back?" He asked her. "I kind of fucked it up last year,"
Moira shook her head. "There is very little in this world I am sure of. I am sure of my love for you and Thea and I'm sure of Laurel's love for you. Go unfuck it up, my beautiful boy."
He got up and hugged her. "Thank you,"
"Thank me when you get the girl. Not before." She told him as she took her glass into another room and waited for Walter who would no doubt be coming to do the post mortem of the rally.
He drove to Laurel's apartment, opened the door with the key he'd been given and then went up to her apartment and knocked on the door. "Sara, it's open, you don't have to knock." He heard from the otherside.
He opened the door and blushed. "It's not Sara. But I hope it's okay, I came in."
"Yeah," She said as she turned around and looked at him. "Sara hasn't come home yet. I'm kind of worried. She was with you, tonight, right?"
"She was," He admitted. "But I don't actually know where she went."
Laurel looked confused. "I thought you two told each other everything."
"We didn't, but that's not why I don't know where she is." He told her as he sat on the couch and looked up to her. "Sara and I, we broke up."
"You broke up?" Laurel parroted back at him. He supposed she'd been supporting their relationship even if neither of them deserved it because of what it did to her. Still, she shoved those feelings aside and rightly so, was a little taken aback when she realized they were no longer.
He sighed. "Yeah, we broke up. I thought that we'd be together awhile. And this is not what I planned."
Laurel rubbed his back and he closed his eyes for a minute and let himself be taken by the sensation. "What happened?" She asked, quietly.
"She thought she was too dark. Wanted me to be with someone who could harness the light I had inside me." He looked to her kitchen, barely touched except for the coffee maker and the microwave.
She smiled a little to herself. "That sounds way too philosophical for the Sara who got on the boat with you."
"She was very different from the person who got on the boat." He told her.
She nodded and pushed him gently with her shoulder. "You are too. You know. You didn't do anything wrong."
"How do you know?" He asked her and looked into her eyes. Here was a woman who broke down. She had everything taken away from her. She literally hit rock bottom. She helped him with her sister when she shouldn't have, because they were both assholes to her. They both cheated her. And then they sort of threw their relationship in her face. She was someone who should hate him. Hate her sister. But she didn't.
She held his hand in hers and looked into his bright blue eyes that watered, "Because I know you better than anyone. And you wanted to show her light. You wanted to show her she could be normal. And real."
"Laurel," He said as he looked to their hands clasped together and then looked back once more to her eyes and saw her blushing. "Of all the people in the world, there is only one who gives me hope..."
She gulped a little and didn't know what to say to him. "Ollie,"
"Lo," He said as he cupped her cheek in his hand and smiled. "It's always been you. You're my light."
She blinked away a few of the tears on her face and smiled sadly to him. She looked into his eyes and put her hand on the one he held on her cheek. "I love you, Ollie. I'm always gonna love you. But I can't hop right back into this with you."
"I get it," He said to her he gulped. He didn't want to be with her unless it was a for real thing. He wanted her to know that she could trust him with her heart again and he deserved to work for it.
She looked at the space between them, there wasn't much and it felt heated, but there was enough. "I want you. I do. I have and will always love you, but we need to start from the beginning. We need to deal with this. We need to be honest with each other."
"So where do we go from here?" He asked.
She held his face in her hands and looked directly into his eyes. "You need to tell me."
"You already know, what is there to tell?" He asked her, because he knew what those boring eyes meant. It meant he kept a secret from her and she knew about it. He didn't know how she knew about it, but she knew about it. Seemed like everybody knew now.
She shook her head and flushed away some of the tears. "I need to hear it from you. I need you to tell me. I need to know that you let me in."
"Dinah Laurel Lance," He said as he held her hands and grounded her to his space. "I, Oliver Jonas Queen, am the city's Arrow. I have been saving you for two years and I hope that you forgive me for not telling you."
"Yes," She replied as she wrapped her whole body around his in a hug. His big presence always known. "I forgive you. I have forgiven you for everything. Doesn't mean I forgot abut it. Or that I'm not going to give you shit about it."
He chuckled to her as she smiled. "I think I can handle that," He told her.
"So let's start very very slow." She said as she got off the couch. "How about what we start with is coffee?"
"How about I make dinner, you and me? Just like the old times." He asked her as he felt his heart swell again. Sara was right. Someone who brought out of his light.
She looked to him. "You want to cook for me?" She asked him with a little bit of a laugh.
"Of course, I would." He told her as he went over to her kitchen and found lots of staples that she didn't use. Of course, the kitchen was always fully stocked. It seemed like they had been used recently though. "Sara been cooking for you?"
"Yes," She said as she smiled from the couch. "Her cooking isn't nearly as good as yours though. Even when all you did was make me omelettes and coffee."
"You make better coffee than I do," He told her.
"I do," She smirked at him, "But it's better when it's shared with you." She said as she got up from the couch and looked at her kitchen. "So what's cooking?" She asked him.
He looked at her pantry. She had some easy pasta. "I think this fettuccine in a bag will do nicely, what about you?"
"I think it sounds great," She told him. "And how about some wine to go with it?"
He gave her a funny look. "I thought you didn't drink anymore?" He asked.
She shrugged. "I'm learning to do things with moderation." She said as she gave him the bottle.
"Well, that's great," He told her as the water started to boil and gave her the bottle opener that was on the other side of him. "Looks, like we're all starting fresh."