She woke up confused when morning light caressed her face from a different direction than usual. She squinted her eyes, frowning, looking around and realising she was sprawled naked on a bed that wasn’t hers. She quickly reached for the bed sheets and covered her body before hearing a soft chuckle “You woke up,” Oliver said, sitting on the bed next to her and caressing her forehead.

She blushed to the tips of her ears, remembering what they had done the previous night and how…direct and honest she had been, almost as if she had been drunk on her desire. “Why didn’t you wake me up…?” she asked, looking down, before seeing a hand caressing the one she had on her chest, holding the bedsheet. He wasn’t trying to be a creep, he just really only wanted to hold her hand.

“I thought about it, but I just wanted you in my arms as much as I could…feeling shy?” Oliver paused a moment before he asked the last part, making her blush even more when she nodded.

“It’s…too bright in here now,” the previous night was mostly dark and lit by a few candles. And now she was very naked and very visible, with all her flaws.

“You do realise you were completely on display just a second ago, right?” he was caressing her head and hair…they were down again; at some point during their sexy sessions he had pulled the string again, loving to touch her long hair. 

She looked up with very serious eyes, if a look could have killed, it was hers  “Sorry…I was just joking,” Oliver said, moving away his hand awkwardly, probably sensing she didn’t want that intimacy anymore. He smiled but looked sad when he moved to face another direction “I prepared some breakfast for you…if you want,” he said, standing up, ready to move away from her, but Chloe grabbed his wrist.

“Sorry,” she whispered, pulling him back down on the bed; once he was sitting next to her, she moved to hug him, wrapping her hands around his neck. She let the sheet be trapped loosely between their chests “I’m just a bit shy because…it is morning and I didn’t plan for you to see me like this… I thought I was going to go coolly, but I'm here all naked and with messy hair…”

Oliver chuckled and moved to gently grab her chin, to make her look at him “Do you regret last night?” she shook her head vigorously, “can I kiss you then?” he asked further, and this time she nodded just as vigorously, loving the soft, hot kiss that followed. 

The bedsheet was long gone when she moved to sit on his lap, her legs on either side of his thighs “Do you?” she asked, caressing his nape.

Her question had obviously surprised him because he just stared at her without saying a word, “regret last night…” Chole resolved to add to her previous question.

“Not a chance. I thought I made it abundantly clear last night how much I like you and want you,” he said, gazing intensely at her; and looking at his eyes in such a bright morning light hit her differently, especially because during sexy times words could be often misleading, but he wasn’t intoxicated by lust at that moment, he was just being himself.

“Stop overthinking Chloe, I like you, a lot, you’re one of the few able to turn me into a complete idiot and I really couldn’t imagine you looking any more gorgeous than you look now, with your apparently messy hair and your very relaxed pose,” Oliver raised an eyebrow and smirked. Ugh! Dork, why are you looking this smug now?

“I was sleeping with my legs spread apart, right?” he nodded “I was also mumbling?” he nodded again “and...drooling…” her last sentence was a bit more than a whisper. Admitting all her embarrassing sleeping habits was killing her pride. Only Liz had seen her acting so disgustingly.

“Uh no, I didn’t catch that… maybe you did while we were both sleeping,” Oliver grinned, he must have been so happy to have something to use against her in the future.

She sighed and covered her face “So embarrassing… giving you a show like that and for free too!”

“I won’t mention it again if you prefer it like that,” he spoke so softly that she almost pinched his cheeks. She, instead, looked at him, tilting her head to a side.

“You already saw it all… I know it will be forever engraved in your head,” she said, faking being annoyed and poking his forehead a few times. Oliver giggled as he covered his poor forehead from her attacks, only making her want to jump on him and annoy him even more. 

“Do you want your breakfast now? Or you prefer maybe taking a bath?” he asked when he was finally able to sit up straight. 

She looked down at her body “Do I need a bath? I’m not even covered in any nasty fluids from last night,” she said sarcastically before grunting. He was… a passionate lover, some may have said.

“I wouldn’t mind licking you clean to be honest,” he promptly said, without thinking, resulting in her freezing before punching his chest in embarrassment. Disgusting.

“Are you out of your mind?” and another punch reached his shoulder as she kept punching him and pushing him on the bed, sitting on top of him, almost hissing in his face.

“Ow…you could have asked gently if you wanted another round, no need to hurt my arm,” the fairy said, grabbing her hands and smiling softly. She smirked and bent over to capture his lips, biting them and sucking them softly. 

“I am a lady, why would I beg for another round?” she whispered, giggling and feeling all giddy. She was discovering sides of herself she had never experienced before, and it was so weird that they got this comfortable after just one night. No, it wasn't even one night; she got this comfortable after a few kisses. Chloe felt like she could have shown him all that, knowing she wasn’t going to be judged. To be completely honest, it hadn’t been the case with her exes. They obviously got intimate, but somehow she hid part of herself from them. She hid her body often, wanting intimacy to happen in dim light and with not much touching. She hid her character, showing them her feminine side, to the point that she almost got tired sometimes.  With Oliver, it was different, he wanted her, not a good version of her.

“I am about to become very naughty Chloe… stop misbehaving or I won’t be able to hold back!” Oliver said, bringing her back to reality. She had been kissing and nibbling on his lips and ears.

She looked at him shaking her head “oh Oliver… you haven’t learned anything from last night? Once I’m in the mood… I am the one unable to hold back,” hearing that, he pulled her in a very passionate kiss, pushing her on the bed and pulling down his own pants while he grunted in the kiss.

~

“I swear if it wasn’t such a fucked up situation with our suspension and all that stuff… I’d say this is the happiest I've felt in a while,” Oliver’s voice came out hoarse from the pants and sexy moans of a few minutes before, and caressed her skin like a hot summer wind.

“Don’t be silly,” she said while playing with his hand, their fingers were tangled together perfectly.

“I’m serious, I know you don’t feel the same way, don’t worry… but I’m just so happy you’re here and secretly, I felt so happy you risked your own career… to protect me, fully knowing I did something forbidden.” It was the first time Oliver mentioned the whole situation. The night before they really hadn’t talked about it in detail as they got distracted by other… activities. 

“I was annoyed. I'm going to be honest, you misbehaving on our mission, and me knowing I was going to get scolded. I never once got scolded, I never broke the rules… and got caught, it isn’t like me…” Chole was speaking softly while still caressing Oliver’s hands, tracing some of the scars on his arm with her fingers “but I would lie if I said I wasn’t proud of you the other day,” she admitted, pausing a moment “I always try to not interfere or to do it in a way that I’m not directly doing it… but you dared to literally save a nest, and something tells me it wasn’t the first time.”  

Oliver sighed soundly and reached up to caress her hair “It wasn’t… I usually just make it in a way no one gets in trouble or I do the bare minimum… that bird species is always struggling in that area, Chloe I just…I’m sorry you got caught up in this”.

He kissed her head, making her smile before she hugged him “I’m not, this thing only made you even more attractive in my eyes. Of course, it really doesn’t go well with my love for rules and my strictness, but gosh, the way you looked at me and admitted to it, with such honesty, I wanted to smack you, and then smack myself for almost smiling at you.”

She was recalling that moment between the liriodendron trees, how he snapped and told her the truth. He looked so cool at that moment.

“Instead, you scolded me and raised your voice,” Oliver said, pouting.

“What should I have done? Jump you?” Chloe laughed, and laughed even more when Oliver made an “obviously” expression. “Don’t be silly, I have my pride…But I have to say you made it very hard not to…especially when you started fake-flirting with me.”

“I was flirting for real tho,”

“No you weren’t, you got so surprised when you ended up touching me.”

“Of course! I thought you were going to smack my hand away as always, and the way you froze… really, Chloe if we had been flirting for real, I would have totally kissed you all over. I hate the idea that you think you aren’t attractive just because of your scars. So, should I be ashamed of mine too? I’m covered in them…even on my face. Am I that ugly in your eyes?”.

Oliver reversed the situation with that question and now as she looked at his face and body, inspecting it thoroughly, his scars were part of him just as his freckles were, and she found them “fucking attractive!” she whispered without realizing her inner thoughts became outer thoughts. 

The other chuckled and caressed her face “So i’m fucking attractive and you were supposed to be ugly?”

“It’s different for you, men are always hot when they look strong, while everyone prefers delicate and smooth females,” she said, and naturally looked down at her body.

“This is some serious bullshit. Chole, everyone has a different taste, and really… your body is perfect. Also, I’d still love it even if you were missing a limb. I won’t lie I love your legs, and arms, and your boobs. Oh my god, they are just meant to be sucked and touched for hours…but that’s not why I'm attracted to you. When you use your sword and …” but Chloe stopped hearing any word he was saying after that particular word he used. She was just staring blankly at him with wide-open eyes.

“Chloe what happened?” he asked, shaking her lightly 

“Uh? ah…nothing,” she blabbered.

“Did I say something wrong? Did I upset you?” and he looked genuinely worried that he might have.

“No…no, you were just… perfect,” she smiled. “I’ll stop being stubborn, ok? No more saying my body isn’t attractive!” she giggled, trying to forget how hot his words made her feel. 

~

“Can’t you stay a little longer?” Oliver whined when she was about to go out. Chloe turned around and smiled at him. It was almost evening. She didn’t want to go, no idea why, but she just wanted to stay with him. Maybe because she knew that once she got out of there, things were going to be different… their whole friendship was going to change, even if they acted as friends and colleagues, that night and almost a whole day, were going to make it hard for it to go back to how they were before.

“I should go home,” Chloe whispered when she pointed at the door.

Oliver grabbed her hand and brought it to his lips “I don’t want it to be over like this,” he admitted, and time seemed to stop. Chloe looked at him with confused eyes. It could have meant many things “I want to keep this going Chloe…can we keep this up?” he looked at her with the warmest of looks, his eyes filled with a softness she rarely saw in them.

“What do you want to keep up, Oliver?” she asked, no hardness in her voice, just genuine curiosity.

Despite her genuine tone, Oliver looked hurt and lowered his gaze to the floor; he was almost ready to let go of her hand, but she tightened her grip instead “I only want to know what you mean…” she then shook his hand a bit, forcing him to look up. 

“Us, I want to keep seeing you, to… try and be a thing, me and you,” he surprised her, he wasn’t the type to go out with someone more than a couple of times, but he had also told her on multiple occasions how he had liked her for years. So it shouldn’t have been that strange for him to actually want to date her. She looked at him, his pretty face covered in freckles, his light almost grey eyes, his round nose, his plump lips. His whole face was absolutely gorgeous, especially when he looked at her with such a caring gaze.

“You mean as a couple? Oliver, I don’t have enough strength to be fuckbuddies…I had a great time but…” and before she could find an excuse, he interrupted her with a kiss, a very sweet one 

“I mean as a couple,” he whispered, smiling shyly, hope in his eyes.