AO3 Stories

Olivarry: Staying Warm

FANDOM: The Arrow/The Flash

PAIRING: Oliver Queen/Barry Allen

Hot chocolate. Just a drink to mere mortals, but lifeblood to Barry and Oliver. Barry knows that Oliver loves to tease him about his sweet tooth, but the man has almost as big of one. The house is constantly stuffed with sweets, cookies and candy and ice cream. And while Oliver may claim it's all for Barry, what with his fast metabolism, he knows Oliver eats his share.

So, of course, they have a perfected hot chocolate making routine. Because they don't use the premade mixes, no. Nor do they make their own mix. They make the fancy stuff. Double boiler melted chocolate and everything.

Barry hops onto the counter, climbing to reach the top spice shelf. "Ollie, can you heat up the water?"

"Why don't you just mix it super fast, it'll boil in no time." Oliver jokes, setting a small pot on the stove.

"Haha. Speed jokes. So funny." Barry grabs the chili powder and cinnamon before leaping down, landing on the balls of his feet.

"Careful, someday you're going to crack your head open."

Barry laughs, walking behind Oliver and resting his head on the man's shoulder. "Super healing, remember?"

"Yeah, I remember, you never let me forget." Oliver turns around to face Barry.

"Hey, I'm just glad we've graduated from you shooting me in the back with arrows every time I walked in a room."

"You had to learn to observe your environment!" Barry scoffs, a smile playing on his lips.

"I've observed the environment enough to know that the heat on the pot is too high and the water is about to overflow."

Oliver jerks away, turning the nob halfway back around to medium "Aw, crap. This is why you're the hot chocolate maker."

**************

They make a little nest of blankets and pillows on the floor in front of the fireplace and there they settle with their mugs of sugar, side by side.

"This is one of the best batches we've made," Oliver takes a long swig of the liquid, wincing at the temperature, "the cinnamon and chili powder to milk ratio is perfect this time."

Barry follows suit, licking his lips "Man, I love whipped cream almost as much as I love you,"

"Really? I would've thought whipped cream would be above me." Oliver teases, running his thumb across the corner of Barry's lip, catching the bit of cream he missed. "You're so messy." he murmurs, eyes locked on the younger's lips, which quirk up when he noticed Oliver staring at them.

Taking both their nearly-empty mugs, Barry sets them aside before swinging a leg over Oliver's hips.

"Hello." Oliver breaths back as Barry leans closer, agonizingly slow.

"Hi," Barry whispers back before connecting their lips. Oliver's hands settle on Barry's hips, holding him in place as he slides from his slouching position into a true sitting position. Barry moves down to his neck lazily mouthing at his pulse point, hands previously on Oliver's shoulders sliding down his torso, before jabbing into his side, and tickling.

Oliver breaks away with a gasp, trying to contain his laughter.

"You play dirty!" He whines, trying in vain to scoot away, pushing weakly at the boy. He's just resigned himself to death by tickling when his phone buzzes with a text. "Saved by the bell." He stands up, letting Barry fall into the pit of pillows and blankets. "It's Caitlin, something came up and she and Iris won't be able to make it tonight and wonder if we could do a movie sometime this week instead." Oliver reads, looking up at speedster who's facedown in the blankets. "We could do a movie, that way Cisco could come, maybe Thea," he suggests, watching as Barry raised an arm with a thumbs-up. "Okay, I'll tell her that sounds fine."

"I can't believe you are suggesting you will willingly hang out with people for two hours." Barry snorts as Oliver joins him again. This time they both curl around each other, neither up for any more tickling.

"Two hours where I have an excuse to not talk to them but still get points for being around them, why wouldn't I?" Oliver jokes, wrapping an arm around Barry, his fingers running through the boy's hair.

"Mm, true." Barry hums in contentment, eyes slipping closed with a sigh. "Ollie, I've told you how glad I am that you didn't kill me after I gave you rat poison, right?"

"Once or twice," Oliver replies, leaning his own head against Barry's. "Love you."

Barry cracks an eye, gazing at Oliver "I love you too."

Before long, the two begin to drift into a midafternoon nap, stomachs full of cocoa and love, to the sounds of the softly crackling fire.

*************

It doesn't really matter but the first four parts of this collection can all be read separately or connected. They were originally for a 12 days of Christmas writing thing but I'm bad at following through with commitments so :)