[ in the middle of winter, in the middle of the night, two full days after she should have gone home but didn't — well, suffice it to say, this isn't the best time for the power to go out. especially not a few days before christmas, when emergency maintenance is likely slim to none, and a response could take hours.
with a sigh, kara sits up, tugging the heavy down comforter with her. ]
[ a few years and he's mostly over no longer being a billionaire; times like this, though, there's a certain nostalgia for when hired help had existed, or how his family's sprawling mansion had been attached to a generator. star city winters could be pretty mild, comparatively speaking, unfortunately kara has the bad fortune of visiting during the worst one in decades.
being a vigilante does have benefits, though. like how he's bolt awake at the sound of the power shutting off ] It's probably just the breaker...happens all the time. Wait here. [ look, kara, he's a terrible liar and that's something you're just going to have to accept.
and also incredibly resistant to the cold; which explains the padding barefoot away from the bed, in a pair of green (shut up, it's legitimately his favorite color) boxer-briefs. not that his absence last longs; when he comes back, there's lit candle in his left hand, and he's looking at her in that slightly guilty way oliver has mastered ]
It's the whole neighborhood. Might be a few hours before a crew can make it out.
[ it's definitely not the breaker. but if it'll soothe oliver's mind to stumble across the cold hardwood floors barefoot and fumble with the switches in the dark, kara won't protest. at least, not that much. by the time he comes back into view, the candle in his hand does an excellent job of illuminating his pale skin in the dark. she can't help but roll her eyes at him. ]
I might have peeked out the window while you were gone.
[ might have meaning definitely. she definitely did. but these things should be expected. in any case, the air outside of the blanket-heat is cooling rapidly without the warmth from the central heating, and kara burrows a little more insistently into her comforter. ]
Come on, Oliver. You can be a hero when the sun comes up.
Looking out the window was my backup plan...for the record.
[ kara and her logic; the dancing flame reveal what passes for a smile, eyebrows raised in defiance. resistance to the cold, yes, but denying how she looks with the comforter drawn towards her chin, attempting to contain the fleeting warmth...a match for oliver’s fortitude has been found. one of her talents.
the candle finds a home on his nightstand; ignore the somewhat guilty look on his face over lacking spare blankets. a need hadn’t risen before this. instead he draws back the edge of the comforter closes to him and slips into bed beside her ] I’ll save my heroics until daylight, then. For you.
[ which, as good as his fire building skills are, burning down the house to give them extra comfort didn’t seem to be an appealing option. his arm slips around kara, pulling her closer, and the sensation of her skin pressing against his is immediate relief ] Staying warm is all about your core. [ fingertips dug lightly into her hip, and yes, he’s telling the truth, but his main reason is just to enjoy this ] Everything else will take care of itself.
Of course it was. [ consider her marginally impressed by his valiant effort to investigate the situation. a good hero checks off all possible boxes, after all, and for all of oliver's self-deprecation, he's a good hero. a vigilante, sure, but the hero star city needs.
kara doesn't need a hero, though. she's not much fond of bonnie tyler, nor of holding out for a cure to her loneliness in the middle of the night. with a smile only barely illuminated by the flickering candle, she stretches her legs out to lay parallel to him, unreasonably warm limbs tangling under the heavy down. ]
I thought staying warm was about making sure you wore a hat.
[ the stubborn lack of acknowledge how frigid the temperature is doesn’t take away from how much warmth kara is radiating; just the brush of her legs is like coming into contact with a heater. pleasantly roasting. candlelight isn’t the best at revealing oliver’s expression but it’s a far too serious one at the moment ]
Kara. [ important business, apparently. his hand is splayed out on her abdomen, calloused fingertips tracing the skin, and he gives a nod against the pillow ] The only time you’re allowed to wear a hat to bed is if it’s the only thing you’re wearing...and even then.
[ that’s not some weird kink on his side, either. maybe a santa hat. though letting the train of his thoughts continue down that path would make things go an entirely different way. ] How can it be in the twenties outside and you feel like you were just sunbathing?
I hadn't meant — not in bed, obviously. [ her tone is chiding, almost exasperated, but there's a brightness in her eyes caught by the light that softens the blow. ] Jeez.
[ his hands are rough around the edges, trailing the beginnings of goosebumps on her bare skin. oliver is cold to the touch, the chilly air pooling over him, but kara's always been warm. she's always run hot; eliza had blamed it on the solar battery functionality of her kryptonian dna. ]
Alien, remember? [ as in, remember how you said you didn't like aliens, oliver queen? ] One of my many talents.
[Thea was staying over while between apartments, the memories had been too much to handle alone and Oliver had suggested it over her just moving into a hotel. But tonight was the worst cold snap in ages so she was a trembling wreck on the sofa post an attempt at finding a space heater. She was also under just about every blanket she could find by this point.]
][ Thea being around made it feel more like the holidays; she’s always been his tether to what being Oliver Queen means, and that’s needed, more now than ever. The thought of her being alone in some hotel room days before Christmas was unbearable. Though with the temperature plummeting, maybe she would have been better off ]
Hang on, Speedy. I’ll see what I can do. [ Having built up a resistance to being cold didn’t make him completely immune; being in the midst of star city’s worst winter storm since either of them have been alive doesn’t help. nor does his ingenuity with machines, try as he might, Oliver couldn’t get the heat to come back on. Instead he was moving towards the sofa and the pile of blankets that Thea was buried somewhere beneath ]
Scoot over. We had to deal with this a lot on Lian Yu, I know a few tricks.
Do tell Ollie? [As Thea peeked from under the blanket pile to pass several over to Oliver. He had talked her out of spending the holidays in a hotel since she needed that reminder about family and finding solace in ways not attached to sleeping the holidays away (which she did threaten to do, she was never herself emotionally this time of year.) To make it worse she was shivering, she had gabbed the pile before giving in and getting under them.]
Let me guess, no sign of a repair person till daybreak? Think I cleaned out the hall closet and 3 of the bedrooms blanket wise too.
Tomorrow morning is the optimistic guess. If they get the roads clear.
[ The city was used to dealing with emergencies; only very rarely did those include weather, though. It wasn’t going to discourage him. Everything that mattered was in the room; more than he probably deserved, but after nearly losing her before, this was the type of thing he didn’t take for granted any longer ]
It could be worse. We still have power, which means watching Die Hard. [ Peeling back the mountain of blankets, Oliver slipped underneath, settling in against ] Come here. The trick is called trusting your older brother to not let you freeze to death.
Sounds about right, pending the roads. [Thea knew that all too well, especially after everything from the last few years. But after all her own near losses she was holding onto every good moment and then some.]
When in doubt embrace the fact there's power, cable and we're within a sprint of the coffee maker and tea pot. [The joke was weak but she was trying. Thea then threw in the towel and snuggled in against Oliver while snagging some of the loose blankets. Thea was still shivering but nowhere near as badly as during the sprint for supplies.]
Hot chocolate is definitely on the agenda tonight. I even picked up candy canes for us...like when you were a kid. [ She’s not that little girl anymore; grown into the kind of person that Oliver couldn’t have imagined, beautiful and intelligent, better than him in the best of ways. Letting his arm slip around her, he sunk back against the sofa, giving a nod of his head in response ]
Could be worse, all things considered. One of the winters I was away...I spent it in Russia, and that gave a new definition to being cold.
[Thea was slowly getting warmer now that she was under blankets and enveloped by Oliver. They both had changed but for the better she kept reminding herself even now, she was facing her demons one day at a time. But she does smile at the candy canes.]
I'll totally accept that. [She muses a second or so later.] Anything can top Star City's brand of cold right? [She's sunk against the sofa as she shakes a bit less now that she's warm.] Maybe that last supply sprint was not the best idea?
[ damien darhk may be dead as far as oliver knows, but he's still more than alive and causing trouble if you have a time machine and the task to guard history against unwarranted interventions. trying to figure out what he's up to has led them to searching a mountain area for an amulet, and sara's glad that they asked for help, because it's a lot of ground to cover and right now, she isn't covering any of it.
neither is ollie, her partner for this mission - one of the legends with one of the volunteers, that had been sara's decree. if she's going to be stuck in a cave with someone, only one blanket and a snow storm raging outside, she's glad it's oliver. she's worried about her team, she's worried about their friends, but right now, they have themselves to worry about, too. ]
So, feel like cuddling?
[ sara holds up the blanket. the sun's going down, and as soon as it does, temperatures will drop even further. sharing body heat is the way to go. ]
[ sometimes distraction is what’s needed; getting away from star city after everything...he couldn’t turn it down. especially when sara was the one asking. denying her isn’t a talent that he’s ever developed. besides, this, the two of them trekking over across the base of a mountain, there’s a familiarity. lian yu. lifetimes ago when they were completely different people.
heavy snowfall made finding tender impossible; nor did the cave have anything in the way of firewood to begin with. glancing up at the sound of her voice, his eyebrows lift, attention shifting towards the blanket and then back ]
I can’t imagine saying no to that question.
[ being around sara just...lets him be more natural, after what they’ve been through together, how could it be another way? moving from the rock he’s been sitting on, oliver crosses the distance between them, moving in close to her ]
The others, they’ll be okay. [ because he knows what the burden of leadership feels like. pulling his gloves off and unzipping the jacket, his arm slips around sara ] Come here.
[ there's a familiarity to this, reminding both of them to lian yu, but while everything after the queen's gambit had been difficult, sara no longer seeks to change those things about herself. she is who she is, and she wasn't meant for a normal life. lian yu, the league of assassins, everything she's done to survive has shaped her into the person she is today. maybe that person isn't who she'd once thought she would be, but she's doing something that's important. she's more than an assassin, but she isn't a hero, either.
ollie is the same, and completely different, more a hero than she is but struggling with the same dichotomy. they're cut from the same cloth, or they've been woven into something similar. the metaphor doesn't matter; the feeling of kinship does. ]
Yeah, they will be. [ they're not helpless by any stretch of the imagination, but sara is still glad for his words. the others aren't helpless, but she won't be around to help them if they do need aid. she's their captain; she's responsible.
but ollie slips his arm around her and sara settles her own hands at his back, under the jacket, head resting against his chest even as she turns it to look up at him. ]
[ he shouldn’t be surprised; how easily things come back, despite the time spent apart, or what’s happened in between. even the location isn’t overly important. the foundry; a cave...holding her provides the kind of comfort he didn’t realize was missing before. she’s a former assassin; a survivor, beyond what others could comprehend, and...no one would be quick to ever call sara lance vulnerable. the softer side of her, he’s never really been able to let go of, or ‘get over’.
tension leaves his body and his free hand slips into sara’s blond locks; since constantine restored her soul, little of the time they’ve been able to spend together has been alone like this. always a crisis around the corner; and what she’s doing now, thinking of a more important task would be nearly impossible ]
Sara…[ his voice is just above a whisper, intimate, though it still echoes off the walls, dulled by howling winds. ] I’ve missed you.
[ the best opportunity to say something like that? no; but that’s never stopped either of them before. it feels...important, for her to know. looking down, there’s a thick swallow ]
That’s half the reason why I came. [ he would have had her back, regardless, but still ]
[ there are times when sara doesn't feel strong at all. after her sister's death, she hadn't known how to go on, hadn't really wanted to — but she had, somehow, and it's one more thing sara has survived, including coming back from death itself. she may not always feel it, but she knows that she's strong, she knows that she can endure — and she knows just how far she'll go to make sure that she lives, and the things that she will never do again. ollie is like that, too; maybe that's why it's easy to let him see doubt when she feels it, why she trusts him with star city, with her family.
maybe that's why she trusts him with this intimacy, too, even when she's felt like she's on thin ice with regard to her own emotions ever since her death, ever since the pit. for a moment, she smiles, halfway between amused and something sadder. ]
I've missed you, too, Ollie.
[ she drops her gaze away from his face, pressing her cheek against his shirt for a moment. ] Did I tell you about the time we visited 2048?
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grouphugs2016-12-22 03:32 am
Oliver Queen
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with a sigh, kara sits up, tugging the heavy down comforter with her. ]
That's not good.
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being a vigilante does have benefits, though. like how he's bolt awake at the sound of the power shutting off ] It's probably just the breaker...happens all the time. Wait here. [ look, kara, he's a terrible liar and that's something you're just going to have to accept.
and also incredibly resistant to the cold; which explains the padding barefoot away from the bed, in a pair of green (shut up, it's legitimately his favorite color) boxer-briefs. not that his absence last longs; when he comes back, there's lit candle in his left hand, and he's looking at her in that slightly guilty way oliver has mastered ]
It's the whole neighborhood. Might be a few hours before a crew can make it out.
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I might have peeked out the window while you were gone.
[ might have meaning definitely. she definitely did. but these things should be expected. in any case, the air outside of the blanket-heat is cooling rapidly without the warmth from the central heating, and kara burrows a little more insistently into her comforter. ]
Come on, Oliver. You can be a hero when the sun comes up.
no subject
[ kara and her logic; the dancing flame reveal what passes for a smile, eyebrows raised in defiance. resistance to the cold, yes, but denying how she looks with the comforter drawn towards her chin, attempting to contain the fleeting warmth...a match for oliver’s fortitude has been found. one of her talents.
the candle finds a home on his nightstand; ignore the somewhat guilty look on his face over lacking spare blankets. a need hadn’t risen before this. instead he draws back the edge of the comforter closes to him and slips into bed beside her ] I’ll save my heroics until daylight, then. For you.
[ which, as good as his fire building skills are, burning down the house to give them extra comfort didn’t seem to be an appealing option. his arm slips around kara, pulling her closer, and the sensation of her skin pressing against his is immediate relief ] Staying warm is all about your core. [ fingertips dug lightly into her hip, and yes, he’s telling the truth, but his main reason is just to enjoy this ] Everything else will take care of itself.
no subject
kara doesn't need a hero, though. she's not much fond of bonnie tyler, nor of holding out for a cure to her loneliness in the middle of the night. with a smile only barely illuminated by the flickering candle, she stretches her legs out to lay parallel to him, unreasonably warm limbs tangling under the heavy down. ]
I thought staying warm was about making sure you wore a hat.
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Kara. [ important business, apparently. his hand is splayed out on her abdomen, calloused fingertips tracing the skin, and he gives a nod against the pillow ] The only time you’re allowed to wear a hat to bed is if it’s the only thing you’re wearing...and even then.
[ that’s not some weird kink on his side, either. maybe a santa hat. though letting the train of his thoughts continue down that path would make things go an entirely different way. ] How can it be in the twenties outside and you feel like you were just sunbathing?
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[ his hands are rough around the edges, trailing the beginnings of goosebumps on her bare skin. oliver is cold to the touch, the chilly air pooling over him, but kara's always been warm. she's always run hot; eliza had blamed it on the solar battery functionality of her kryptonian dna. ]
Alien, remember? [ as in, remember how you said you didn't like aliens, oliver queen? ] One of my many talents.
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Ollie! Heat's on the brink!
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Hang on, Speedy. I’ll see what I can do. [ Having built up a resistance to being cold didn’t make him completely immune; being in the midst of star city’s worst winter storm since either of them have been alive doesn’t help. nor does his ingenuity with machines, try as he might, Oliver couldn’t get the heat to come back on. Instead he was moving towards the sofa and the pile of blankets that Thea was buried somewhere beneath ]
Scoot over. We had to deal with this a lot on Lian Yu, I know a few tricks.
no subject
Let me guess, no sign of a repair person till daybreak? Think I cleaned out the hall closet and 3 of the bedrooms blanket wise too.
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[ The city was used to dealing with emergencies; only very rarely did those include weather, though. It wasn’t going to discourage him. Everything that mattered was in the room; more than he probably deserved, but after nearly losing her before, this was the type of thing he didn’t take for granted any longer ]
It could be worse. We still have power, which means watching Die Hard. [ Peeling back the mountain of blankets, Oliver slipped underneath, settling in against ] Come here. The trick is called trusting your older brother to not let you freeze to death.
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When in doubt embrace the fact there's power, cable and we're within a sprint of the coffee maker and tea pot. [The joke was weak but she was trying. Thea then threw in the towel and snuggled in against Oliver while snagging some of the loose blankets. Thea was still shivering but nowhere near as badly as during the sprint for supplies.]
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Could be worse, all things considered. One of the winters I was away...I spent it in Russia, and that gave a new definition to being cold.
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I'll totally accept that. [She muses a second or so later.] Anything can top Star City's brand of cold right? [She's sunk against the sofa as she shakes a bit less now that she's warm.] Maybe that last supply sprint was not the best idea?
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neither is ollie, her partner for this mission - one of the legends with one of the volunteers, that had been sara's decree. if she's going to be stuck in a cave with someone, only one blanket and a snow storm raging outside, she's glad it's oliver. she's worried about her team, she's worried about their friends, but right now, they have themselves to worry about, too. ]
So, feel like cuddling?
[ sara holds up the blanket. the sun's going down, and as soon as it does, temperatures will drop even further. sharing body heat is the way to go. ]
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heavy snowfall made finding tender impossible; nor did the cave have anything in the way of firewood to begin with. glancing up at the sound of her voice, his eyebrows lift, attention shifting towards the blanket and then back ]
I can’t imagine saying no to that question.
[ being around sara just...lets him be more natural, after what they’ve been through together, how could it be another way? moving from the rock he’s been sitting on, oliver crosses the distance between them, moving in close to her ]
The others, they’ll be okay. [ because he knows what the burden of leadership feels like. pulling his gloves off and unzipping the jacket, his arm slips around sara ] Come here.
no subject
ollie is the same, and completely different, more a hero than she is but struggling with the same dichotomy. they're cut from the same cloth, or they've been woven into something similar. the metaphor doesn't matter; the feeling of kinship does. ]
Yeah, they will be. [ they're not helpless by any stretch of the imagination, but sara is still glad for his words. the others aren't helpless, but she won't be around to help them if they do need aid. she's their captain; she's responsible.
but ollie slips his arm around her and sara settles her own hands at his back, under the jacket, head resting against his chest even as she turns it to look up at him. ]
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tension leaves his body and his free hand slips into sara’s blond locks; since constantine restored her soul, little of the time they’ve been able to spend together has been alone like this. always a crisis around the corner; and what she’s doing now, thinking of a more important task would be nearly impossible ]
Sara…[ his voice is just above a whisper, intimate, though it still echoes off the walls, dulled by howling winds. ] I’ve missed you.
[ the best opportunity to say something like that? no; but that’s never stopped either of them before. it feels...important, for her to know. looking down, there’s a thick swallow ]
That’s half the reason why I came. [ he would have had her back, regardless, but still ]
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maybe that's why she trusts him with this intimacy, too, even when she's felt like she's on thin ice with regard to her own emotions ever since her death, ever since the pit. for a moment, she smiles, halfway between amused and something sadder. ]
I've missed you, too, Ollie.
[ she drops her gaze away from his face, pressing her cheek against his shirt for a moment. ] Did I tell you about the time we visited 2048?