Home. Heart. Hero.

The Truth in the Heart

"All my life, my heart has yearned for a thing I cannot name."

-Andre Breton

Love was not a word Oliver Queen tossed around often. When he said it, when he felt it, then he meant it, even under the most inconvenient circumstances. That's how he described his current situation. It seemed crossing names off the list was a grueling chore, one he accepted. Then there was the fact that his sister was somewhat out of control and dating a very shady character who stole her purse and was now working at the club. His mother was hiding something from him. Something he didn't know if he should worry about or not, but it was there and in the air. On top of all of that he had to go and fall in love with the most stubborn, hotheaded, and pain in the ass woman in the world.

Oliver stood in the kitchen, leaning on the counter deep in his thoughts with a mug of coffee in hand, when Katie rushed in, in nothing but a bathrobe, and a towel wrapped around her hair. Oliver turned away from her and cursed the fact that she just couldn't wear one of those big fluffy robes that hid things. No, she wore one of those thin robes, that clung to her body and made his heart skip a beat.

"I hate you!" she snapped walking over to him. "Look at this." she lifted her head so he could see that even after a week there was still some bruising on her neck. "It'll be healed by then Twinkie, no one will notice Twinkie." she said deepening her voice to mock him before she dropped her head and smacked his arm. "It's not healed and I can notice."

"Twinkie, it doesn't even look that bad."

"Yes it does. It looks like I'm fifty shades super fan." she replied before turning with a growl and stalking toward the door. Before she left she turned and walked back over to him, taking the cup of coffee from his hand. "I need this more than you." and with that she went rushing out of the kitchen.

"Good morning to you too!" Oliver called after her. God, he loved that woman. And for the longest time he wondered what that feeling was. He wondered why when she smiled or laughed, it was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. He wondered why when she was sad, he wanted to be the one there for her, just him. Even when she was angry, or yelling at him, he wondered why a fluttering thought of kissing her passed through his mind. For the longest time he ignored the feelings, he pretended like they weren't there, and then he actually admitted them and now he couldn't hide from them any longer.

A normal person in his position should be happy. They should be on top of the world the moment they realize that they are in love with their best friend, but Oliver wasn't a normal person. Oliver Queen was a man who struggled immensely with having to live two separate lives and he didn't see any room to complicate things with love. Oliver heard something crash above him and sighed before pushing himself from the counter and moving to go up the stairs. Her door was slightly open and he could hear her ranting to herself, but he couldn't hear exactly what she was saying until he walked up to the door.

"No, this doesn't look right!" he heard her snap. He rose a hand to knock, but stopped as he began to wonder if he really wanted to enter the crazy land that was happening in there. He had no choice because soon the door swung open. "Are you going to stand here and stare at my door, or are you going to help me?" she turned without waiting for his answer and Oliver took that as his invitation to come in. Crazy land was definitely an understatement he thought as he walked inside to see clothes and shoes all over the place.

"What the hell happened in here?" Oliver asked turning to where Katie had entered her closet. "I didn't even know you owned this much stuff."

"Guess what I don't own?" Katie called from her closet.

"I don't know, what?" Katie stepped from her closet and sent a glare to him.

"No guess, out of all the crap that's in this room, what don't I have."