Archive of Our Own

Metropolis...Clocktower...Late Evening...

She was asleep. Out like a light, in fact. The promised “dress-and-shoes-on” sex when they returned to the Penthouse had exhausted her. 

No surprise. 

It had been intense and even a little bit angry, though Oliver knew the anger wasn't directed at him. Chloe was certainly capable of being angry with him, especially about League business, she proven that on more than on occasion. Those instances typically involved screaming at him across the Watchtower or over the comm. But she never brought that anger into the bedroom...or wherever they happened to be having sex that day. It just wasn't something she did. 

No, this anger was about Lex. 

Chloe hadn't told him what Lex had said to her and to Oliver, it almost didn't matter. Very little Lex said could hurt or upset her more than his very existence did. Simply being in the same room with the man was enough. Hell, being in the same city was enough. Enough to frustrate and anger her. To remind her of how much pain he'd already caused and would continue to cause the people they cared about. 

After they'd finished making love a second time, she'd seemed calmer and he hoped he'd been able to ease some of that frustration for her. She'd drifted off - sprawled on her stomach next to him – before he could ask her anymore about her encounter with Lex. Oliver tried dozing himself but his mind would not settle down. He kept running the scene in the museum gallery over in his mind. 

The sight of Lex looming over Chloe had made him so angry it had taken every bit of his mental training to confine his reactions to pulling Lex's hands away from her and not – as he had wanted – smashing the other man's shiny bald head into the marble floor. 

Oliver wasn't an idiot. He knew that Lex was having them followed for some time now and that he'd been well aware of when Oliver and Chloe's relationship changed from being friends to lovers. 

Oliver had also surmised that Lex interest in Chloe went beyond the scientific/meglomaniacal obsession with her meteor-power. Despite his cool demeanor and attempts to make himself immortal - both literally and figuratively – Lex was human, a human male, to be precise. A man who was as obsessed with Chloe as a woman as he was with her power. Even he could not fully hide his fascination with Chloe and certainly not from Oliver. Not only had Oliver known Lex Luthor for years, he knew what a man attracted to Chloe Sullivan looked like, having stared at one in a mirror for so long. 

Oliver suspected that Lex had harbored a simmering attraction to Chloe for years, possibly dating back to their brief alliance against the elder Luthor. Oliver had no illusions that Lex was in love with Chloe, having long since concluded that Lex had ridded himself of that particular ability, probably because he viewed it as a weakness.

Of course that didn't mean that Lex would let go of his obsession with Chloe anytime soon. On the contrary, between her ability and her relationship with Oliver, she was probably more attractive to Lex than ever. 

As a prize. 

Something to be acquired. 

Possessed.

Over Oliver's dead body. And even then, still never. 

Oliver leaned closer where Close still slept next to him and ran his palm lightly over her bare back, down to where her lower back curved sharply into her amazing ass. He was thoroughly fascinated by this curve. So much so that he could barely keep his hands off it. 

When they were working in the Watchtower, he would run his fingertips lightly over the spot as she explained some new piece of tech to him or gave him the rundown on some research she had down. She was getting better at not losing her train of thought as his fingers stroked her lower back, something that he found both amusing and mildly disappointing. There were few things in life more satisfying than making Chloe Sullivan's mind go blank.

When they were out in public, that soft curved spot was his preferred place to rest his hand as they moved together. It was the height of efficiency as far as he was concerned. He got to touch her, keep her close to him in case anything went awry, and let every male around with functioning retinas know that she was taken. Oliver wasn't a hockey fan typically but that sounded like a hat-trick to him.

Chloe moaned slightly and shifted under his touch as he drew a few figure eights at the base of her spine before reaching up to brush the tangled blond strands from her eyes. 

In his mind Oliver saw Lex reaching for her in the gallery again.

“He can't have you.” he said out loud, without thinking.

“Hmmm?” Chloe mumbled, without opening her eyes.

“Nothing, Baby. Go back to sleep.”

“I can't...” she groaned, her voice was thick from sleep and pretty sexy, if you asked him. “...you keep manhandling me.”

Oliver laughed and curved his palm around her bottom. “Manhandling you? That's not what you were calling it a little while ago and you sure weren't asking me to stop.”

Chloe opened one eye. “No, I wasn't, not then...hence the need for sleep now.”

“Baby, you just used 'hence' in a sentence. You're awake.”

“Fine,” she grumbled. 'But I'm not getting up.” Instead she scooted closer to him and snuggled into his side, her head resting on his shoulder. Oliver wrapped his arm around her and again rested his hand her lower back. 

“I'm certainly not asking you to go anywhere.”

Once she was settled, he leaned down to study her face. She looked relaxed, focused only on trailing the fingernails of her right hand lightly over his chest.

“Chloe?”

“Hmmmm?”

“You planning on telling me what Lex said to you before I showed up?”

“Ugh, do we really have to talk about him right now?”

“No, we don't have to...but whatever he said obviously upset you, so I want to know what it was.”

Chloe groaned. “Why does it matter? I'm feeling better now and...” She stopped.

“And what?” Oliver prodded. 

“It's not something I want you to have to worry about.”

Oliver sighed. He really shouldn't have been surprised at her answer. “Babe, it's my job to worry about what you worry about. Didn't we go over this with the whole ring thing? There was crying and everything. Any of this ringing a bell?”

Chloe leaned up to meet his gaze. “Smartass.”

“Your smartass. Your devilishly handsome, brilliant, wise beyond his years ---”

“My God, do you ever shut up?” Chloe laughed as she kissed him hard on the lips to cut him off. 

It didn't take her long to deepen the kiss and Oliver enjoyed himself for several seconds, running his hands over all her bare skin that he could reach - until he realized what she was doing. Breaking the kiss, he nudged her cheek with his nose. “You're trying to distract me.”

“Of course I am and it's working, isn't it?” It was working. She pressed a kiss just under his jaw and he swallowed hard to regain his focus.

“Stop it...Chloe, c'mon, I'm being serious here.”

“OK, OK...” She stopped kissing him and adjusted her position on his chest until they could look at one another, then took a deep breath before she began speaking. “He didn't say anything important, just standard Lex mind-games... He did seem surprised that we were engaged. I guess the idiots he has tailing us missed that detail. One thing was kind of strange, though...”

Oliver willed his body not to tense as he replied, “What was that?”

“He seemed fixated on the idea that you didn't understand my meteor-power...actually he said couldn't understand it. I think it's safe to say he doesn't think much of your intellect.”

“The dumb blonde stereotype thing, I've been fighting it all my life,” Oliver quipped as he processed what Chloe had told him. “What exactly did he say?”

Chloe shrugged one shoulder. “Nonsense really. Something about you not being about to deal with anything that fell outside your narrow point of view.”

“My narrow point of view? Interesting choice of words.”

“I thought it was weird. He also said that you weren't equipped to understand my meteor power.”

“Equipped? He actually said that? Please tell me you responded with a thinly-veiled jibe at his manhood?”

Chloe rolled her eyes. “Of course I did, and if I hadn't you would have been well within your rights to be disappointed in me.”

Oliver chuckled again, “So I guess it's safe to say that Lex isn't my biggest fan and that he's not going to be inviting me to be a guest at his Mensa meetings anytime soon.”

“Yeah, that's a safe bet. It's probably a good thing. He's not likely to figure out that you're the Green Arrow if he's convinced that you're an idiot playboy.”

“You're right... But it's kind of weird that he felt the need to try to convince you of what an idiot I am.”

Chloe sighed and shifted towards her edge of the bed. “Ugh, like I said, I think that's just Lex's mind games again. I'm thirsty. You want anything?”

Oliver shook his head and watched as Chloe got up, slipped on a short, black silk robe and left the bedroom to head down to the kitchen.

Oliver rolled over onto his side for a moment, listening to the faint sounds of Chloe moving around the penthouse. Sounds he had grown used to, norrmal sounds. Sounds of living together, not just working together and sleeping together. 

He and Chloe had a life together, regardless of what Lex Luthor thought or did. 

The problem was, Lex Luthor was going to be a factor in their lives, whether they liked it or not. Barring a major change in the future timeline, they wouldn't be rid of him anytime soon. 

Years of mind-games.

With a grunt of frustration, Oliver heaved himself from the bed, pulled on a pair of pajama pants and made his way to the balcony doors. If it were up to him, he would have stayed naked but their recent engagement had perked the interest of the paparazzi (not to mention Lex's hired guns). Either or both could be staking out his balcony from the neighboring buildings. Oliver decided that there were already enough naked pictures of him on the Internet. No need to add more. 

He pushed the balcony doors open and let the cool night air rush over him, hoping in vain that it would clear his head. 

No such luck. His brain was still a muddled mess. Oliver gripped the balcony railing and rested his weight on his arms. 

Lex was playing mind games alright and Oliver was letting him. He had to get the other man out of his head. 

He didn't know how long he stood there – five, maybe ten minutes – until he heard Chloe calling his name.

“Ollie? Ollie, what are you doing?”

“Just clearing my head, I'll be in a minute.” He didn't think for a second that she would accept that response so he wasn't surprised when she appeared at his side, pausing only briefly to set down her water glass and tighten the sash on her robe.

“Oliie...this is why I didn't want to talk to you about what he said. I didn't want you to obsess over it.”

“I'll let you in on a little secret, Professor: I was obsessing over that conversation before I knew a word of it. Seeing him near you was enough.”

“He's not stupid enough to have done anything in the middle of that gallery.”

“I know that, but it doesn't matter. He's not going to make a move tonight or tomorrow but he is going to do something. We know that and he's knows that we know. That's part of the game.”

“Yeah, but we knew that before, why is this upsetting you now?”

Oliver hesitated before responding. She was right. Nothing that happened tonight had taught them anything new about Lex, not really...except...

“This isn't just about your meteor-power, you know.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Lex. He's not just obsessed with you because of your meteor-power.”

“Of course he is. Not to toot my own horn or anything but as meteor-powers go, this one's a doozy. It's right up Lex's twisted alley, his whole god complex. This is totally him.”

“That's all true but it's not the only reason. He wants you, Chlo. You.”

“Me? As in...” her eyes went wide with understanding. “....me? That's ridiculous.”

“No, it isn't. It's true, I've suspected it for a while but I could tell for sure tonight. From the way he watched you, from what he said to you. If this were just about your meteor-power, he wouldn't care who you were sleeping with.”

Chloe shook her head. “No, you two have a history. He despises you. That's why he cares. Not because of me.”

“He has a history with you, too. He risked his skin to keep you alive before he even knew you had a meteor-power.”

“That was different.” Chloe protested weakly. “And it was years ago.”

“How was it different? If anything, in Lex's twisted mind, by keeping you alive back then, he has even more of a claim on you now.”

“No, Lex isn't the same person he was back then.”

“Of course he isn't. Neither am I, neither are you. He may despise me but he never cared who I was with before. Now he's got people following us and he's taking care to let you know how unworthy I am of you.”

Chloe was silent as she let Oliver's words sink in, then she shivered slightly and crossed her arms over her chest. 

“Baby, I'm not saying this to scare you. I just want you to know what we're dealing with here. Lex doesn't just want to replicate your meteor-power, he's invested in this. In you.”

“But...why? Why me? Lex can have anyone he wants.”

Oliver gave an amused huff. “You want me to give you an unbiased opinion of why I think a man would be attracted to you?”

“Ollie----”

“Why do you think it's so clear to me how he feels about you?”

“You don't honestly expect me to believe that Lex is in love with me?”

“No, he'd need a working soul for that...but he is obsessed with you. You need to be aware of that.”

Chloe released a long breath. “OK, if that is true...what am I supposed to do about that? I can't undo it.”

“I know that...” Oliver rubbed his palm over his jaw before speaking again. “Look, I didn't tell you this to upset you. I just want us both to know what we're dealing with when we interact with him. This is what's driving him. It's more complicated than we thought.”

Chloe nodded. “You're right and I'm not upset at you. I guess, on some level, thinking that he saw me as a lab rat is easier than...the alternative.”

Oliver's jaw clenched as he saw how uncomfortable saying the words made her, “I won't let him hurt you. I'll kill him before I let that happen, I swear it.”

“You think I don't know that? But if what we saw of the future is true, he's not going anywhere anytime time soon. He's part of our future, whether we like it or not.”

He sighed heavily leaned back against the balcony's railing. “And if we take him out of it, it could change things we don't want to change.”

Their friends. Their family. Their children. Most importantly of all, their children.

They were both silent for a few moments while they let the significance of that sink in, finally Chloe spoke.

“It's not worth the risk, Ollie. I can handle him. We can handle him. Whatever he thinks he wants from me, he's not going to get it.”

Oliver nodded slowly, “You're sure?”

“I'm sure.” she replied, joining him at the railing, but facing out to look at the lights of the Metropolis skyline. After another moment she added, “This might eventually work to our advantage, you know.”

“How do you figure?”

“Well, if you're right and Lex doesn't just want my meteor-power, he wants me...”

“I am right.”

Chloe rolled her eyes and pressed on, “If that's true, his decisions aren't as purely logical and strategic as he thinks they are. He's acting out of emotion, at least on some level.”

Oliver mulled this over, “That makes sense, inasmuch as he lets himself feel any emotion anymore.”

“He does, believe me. Lionel wasn't able to drive that 'weakness' out of him, though he certainly tried. The point is, we've both known Lex long enough to know that when he lets his emotions get involved, he makes pretty bad decisions. It's always been his biggest flaw. We can exploit that.”

Smiling, Oliver leaned down and kissed her lips. “You're pretty brilliant, you know that?”

“Oh, I know it, but you should definitely keep saying it.” She leaned up, wrapped her arms around his bare shoulders and sank into his kiss, parting her lips so he could kiss her more deeply. Oliver ran his hands down the back of her silky robe and was about to let his fingers skim underneath the hem when a breeze reminded him of their exposed location on the balcony.

“Chloe...ummm...Chloe,” he said against he lips between kisses. “We're all out in the open here. He's probably got cameras on us.”

She pulled back and blinked, seeming to realize what he said a few seconds later. “You're right, he probably does. We should go inside.”

Instead of pulling him inside, however, she locked her hands behind his neck and hitched one leg up near his hip. Instinctively, he did what he typically did when she positioned herself that way and lifted her up by her hips so her legs were wrapped around his waist.

“Not that I'm complaining but what are you doing?” he asked, kissing her chin.

“We'll go inside, but first what do you say we show him who I really belong to?” she asked, the grin on her face making it clear that any distress she had felt about the evening or their discussion was gone, or at least forgotten for the moment. 

“I say you're beautiful, brilliant...and all mine.” 

She was laughing when he kissed her again, which made him laugh, in between short kisses to her mouth, cheeks, and jaw. Eventually, though, she twined her fingers in his hair to hold his head in place so she could kiss him properly. The slow, deep, lazy kisses that seemed to stop time no matter where they were. 

Dimly Oliver kept his head out of the rapidly building lust fog enough to not let his hands wander too much over or under her robe. Lex and his hired goons weren't going to see any more of Chloe than was absolutely necessary.

After several minutes of this, however, the reality of having Chloe's soft, semi-clothed body pressed up against his was having the inevitable effect. She moaned softly as he mouthed kisses along her neck and the sound nearly made his knees buckle. 

“I need you, Ollie.”

“We're going inside. Now,” he whispered into her neck. “I get you all to myself for the next part.” 

With two long strides, he carried her inside as she laughed in his ear.

Ever the multi-tasker, he kicked the balcony door shut with his foot while his fingers worked at her robe sash. The silky fabric fluttered to the floor just seconds after the door slammed. 

*****
Metropolis...Luthor Penthouse...Early the Next Morning...

Despite suffering from the after-effects of drinking too much alcohol too late into the night, Lex was at his desk in his home office well before 8am the following morning. 

He had just finished skimming reports of the Japanese financial markets when William, his butler appeared with his breakfast tray.

His face must have shown his disgust at the sight of the food on the tray because William immediately asked, “May I get you something else, sir? Some medication?”

“No, I'll be fine, “ Lex replied. His elevated immunity and metabolism would take care of this problem soon enough. He mentally chided himself for drinking enough to cause a hangover in the first place. It was an adolescent thing to do. Something he should be long past.

William set the coffee down on this desk and left the food on a table a few feet away. He then turned and laid a small, metallic object next to the coffee pot. 

“This arrived this morning, as well, sir. As usual.”

Lex eyed the familiar object but did not reach for it. It should contain last night's images. Mostly images from the gallery opening, which were of little interest to him since he'd been there himself. Then he recalled that he'd approved a second photographer, one to follow Queen's car from the gallery to his penthouse. He reached for the flash drive.

“Thank you, William.”

William knew when he'd been dismissed and he closed the office door behind him. 

Lex attached the drive to his laptop and waited for the authentication. Chloe Sullivan's hacking skills had made it necessary for his investigators to hand-deliver their work to him several times per week. While Lex trusted the security of his own servers, if there was a weakness in the systems used by his investigators, Chloe would find it.

Lex didn't care if Chloe and Oliver knew he was having them followed but he did care that they could prove it and they could not.

“Remember, they have to be able to prove that you've done something but you don't have to prove that you haven't.” Lionel had once said, with no small amount of gravitas. He may not have been the best father in the world but he knew quite a bit about avoiding felony convictions. 

Lex scrolled past most of the images from the gallery opening, finding little that he had not seen already. 

He stopped scrolling once he spotted an unfamiliar scene. Leaning closer, he realized it had been taken outside the museum, likely as Oliver and Chloe waited for their driver to pick them up. She was still wearing his jacket, which was so large on her that the hem fell well below the hemline of her gold cocktail dress. Oliver stood behind her, his arms wrapped around her waist. He was saying something into her ear and she was laughing in response. 

It was the kind of photograph that any member of the paparazzi would have given a limb to have taken. Full of that dreadful romantic sentimentality that sold newspapers and magazines and drove web traffic. And it didn't matter if it was real or manufactured.

To Lex, this relationship was about as real as those of public relations “romances” between Hollywood actors who just happened to have a movie coming out.

Oliver might believe it was real, and he might truly be in love with Chloe. Inasmuch as he was capable of loving anything other than his reflection, that is. Queen certainly wasn't smart enough to see Chloe for the calculating bitch that she had become. 

Lex wondered how far she would take this game with Queen. Would she actually marry him?

Probably. She'd snagged a billionaire after all. A few months on her back, and a good divorce attorney and she'd be set for life. Nice work if you could get it. As long as she could stomach fucking Oliver Queen. 

Lex scrolled to the next photo, this one taken from the building across from the ridiculous clocktower Queen had set himself up in. They were on the balcony and barely dressed. Once again Lex made a note to tell his investigators to try again on bugging Queen's penthouse. All of their previous attempts had failed. Lex suspected that they were having the place swept regularly. He decided they should keep trying. They had to slip up sometime. Everyone did eventually. Another thing Lex had learned from Lionel. 

Without bugs, he had no idea what they were talking about. Lex doubted very much it was about her meteor-power, her hacking skills, her intelligence or any of the things that made her valuable as far as he was concerned. Oliver's appreciation for Chloe likely began and ended with the way she filled out her sweaters. Or maybe her jeans. Whatever his taste ran to these days. 

Sure enough, in the next photo, they were all over each other again. His photographer had switched to a zoom lens and captured a tighter shot of the couple in full heated embrace. Their lower bodies were obscured by the stone balcony wall and railing, and their position had Oliver's back to the camera but Chloe's face was clearly visible. From the angle of his head, Lex presumed Oliver was kissing Chloe's neck or shoulder. Their ridiculous height difference seemed to be gone so Lex concluded that Oliver had lifted her up. 

Whether Chloe was enjoying his ministrations was harder to determine. Her head was titled back to give Oliver room, her eyes were closed and her lips parted, presumably in pleasure. But Chloe had proven herself to skilled at all kinds of deception before. Why should sex be any different? Particularly sex with Oliver. 

The thought made the coffee in his stomach turn over so he switched to the last photo. In this one, Oliver's back was to the camera again, but they were closer to the balcony door and Lex could see that Oliver was still holding her up and she'd wrapped her legs around his waist. At least Queen had the presence of mind not to fuck her right on the balcony. Perhaps because it was they knew that Lex's photographers were looming nearby, or perhaps Oliver had belatedly unearthed some long-dormant modicum of his breeding. Whatever the case, Lex found himself inexplicably relieved that his photographer had not been able to capture any images of the couple having sex. Though he didn't doubt that he would have viewed such photos and retained them for some future use, he was somewhat pleased that the decision was taken out of his hands. 

It was one thing to see know that Chloe was capable to debasing herself with Queen, but another thing entirely to see it for himself. Lex lingered on the photo for another moment, his eyes focused on Chloe's bare legs wrapped around Queen's waist, and her small hands wrapped around his neck. He could not stop himself from wondering what it felt like to be between her thighs, underneath her fingernails, pressed against all the lush softness of her body. 

What a waste. She had so much potential. That mind, that body, that incredible ability, wasted on Queen. 

All was not lost though. Lex prided himself on being able to convince people to see the error of their ways. To reconsider their poor decisions. To see things his way.

Even people as stubborn and strong willed as Chloe Sullivan.

He had time. He had plenty of time. He could take all the time he needed to fix this.