oliver sparks ☆ oliver queen. (nock) wrote in dunhavenic, @ 2018-09-12 21:29:00 |
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It had been just over three weeks since they had put in the offer on their new house, and they were going through the process of unpacking rooms systematically. The things from her house that she had kept had been moved out of storage. They had hit up a rather spectacular sale to buy a lot of new furniture that had been allowable through the discounted price that they’d managed to snag for the house. Everything seemed to be falling into place in their lives. Though they hadn’t set a wedding date yet, they would be married in due time. There had been times when she had felt impatient for these changes to take place, but with how everything had been working out so perfectly...she was fairly certain that it was all as it should have been. She had been working diligently on unpacking books and photos, organizing things as she went. Away from work and in the comfort of their home, she wasn’t as polished as she normally might have been. She had tied her hair up in a messy knot on the top of her head with a bandana secured as a headband to keep any escaped strands from falling into her face. She was barefoot and had ditched her pencil skirts and couture dresses for jeans and a t-shirt that she’d had for too many years. Finnley smiled a little, catching part of her reflection in the glass at the photo that she had pulled from the box. It felt so long ago now, but the photo of Jonas, Oliver, and Finnley was from the first time that she had ever met the youngest member of their family. It had been halloween, so they were all in costume as superheroes, but she loved that picture as much as any of the others they’d taken. There were plenty of photos now of her and Jonas - some of them framed - but they’d all taken place over the last year that she’d been in his life. It was strange to think that it had only been a year when it felt like a role she had perfectly fit into for so long. She loved Jonas as though she’d raised him from a baby, and though she knew that it was impossible to get the time back, she found herself missing the fact that she hadn’t gotten to experience his younger years. It had helped her step more easily into the role, perhaps, that there was no other mother figure in his life. She had been able to fulfill something for him that he had been missing, and in the process she’d realized that it was something she needed, too. More and more, she was certain that she didn’t just want to be his step-mom. He was her child now, no matter what happened, though she hadn’t been able to find the words to ask Jonas or Oliver about how they felt in regards to adoption. It would go beyond her vows to Oliver. She would be making a promise to Jonas, too. Pulling a photo album out of the box, she recognized it as one that came from Oliver’s apartment and curiosity got the better of her so she flipped it open to the first set of protected sheets. A younger Oliver was in those pictures, holding a very small - possibly newborn - Jonas. She took a few wandering steps towards their couch and settled the album into her lap, flipping through the pages and trying to soak up the little moments that she had never known she missed. Oliver had been trying to take on most of the heavy lifting and, though he hadn’t thought he and Jonas had had a lot, they seemed to have accumulated the heaviest household items they could manage. He’d just finished carrying the last box of Jonas’ up to his room when he decided that any further lifting was going to have to be done after a snack break. This new part of his life with Finnley and Jonas thrilled him in a way he hadn’t expected, but that didn’t mean that moving boxes and furniture wasn’t exhausting. He might have been overworking himself with it just a little, though. While he was at peace with his family’s new financial situation and had let go of many of the uncertainties he’d held onto before they’d bought the house, Oliver still felt a need to make sure he always put 100% of what he had into the life they were building together. Right now, that was channeled into being as useful with the moving and unpacking as he could be. On his way back down the stairs to grab a bottle of water and something to eat, he spied Finnley moving toward the couch. Something reacted inside of him--his heart, maybe his stomach--and a smile slid easily over his features. He loved her in every way, but especially so like this. He could tell that she was comfortable and so wholly herself. He loved the way she moved, the way her fingers moved so carefully over the pictures in the album she cradled in one hand. He loved her curiosity and a host of other things that made her so distinctly her. Abandoning the quest for a snack for the time being, he moved up behind her, leaning down to press a kiss to the top of her head while looking at the photo she’d flipped to. “Jonas’ first birthday,” he said. “I didn’t have the time or the money to go buy a birthday cake between school and taking care of him, so I used a cake I’d made in class. A miniature sample wedding cake. After about five minutes of digging his fingers into it cautiously, Jonas shoved his hands and face wholeheartedly into it and no one could tell what the cake had originally been, anyway.” She hadn’t gotten very far into the album when she got caught perusing the photos. She grinned up at Oliver almost sheepishly, but looked back down to the photos when he explained the one that had Jonas covered in cake and pastel frosting. He had smeared buttercream halfway to his elbows and what appeared to be even behind his ear. He had a wide smile in the photo, only a few teeth poking through his gums, and she couldn’t help but wonder what his laugh had sounded like when he was that little. It was familiar to her now, but in that smaller, barely used voice, what had those giggles been? “He doesn’t seem much like he minded what it was originally intended for. You made things work, and I’m sure it was a delicious cake,” she bit the inside of her cheek, manicured fingers lingering over that happy, pudgy baby face that she had never known until now, “Is it weird that I feel a bit sad that I missed out on all of that? Like, obviously we didn’t know each other back then and everything happened in due time. I’m thankful that I get to be there for all the future birthdays, but to see him taste cake for the first time or watch him figure out how to walk or ride a bike…” She sighed a bit wistfully, knowing they were useless desires, but she still had them anyway, “I just love him.” It was probably as good a time as any to ask Oliver what he thought about her desire to legally adopt Jonas, but she hesitated, wondering if she had already said too much or if he was still busy upstairs and she would pull him away too long from his task. The thought was sobering to Oliver. He wouldn’t change a single thing about the life he’d had with his son because every moment of it, even when it was hard or discouraging, was precious to him. When it came down to it, though, he sometimes wondered what it would have been like to share those firsts with someone to whom they all meant as much as they did to him. So many years later, he couldn’t picture Jonas’ birth mother being in their lives, but he could picture Finnley there and a part of him couldn’t help but to think about how life might have been different if they’d crossed paths sooner, if she could have filled this space in their lives before now. Still, Oliver loved everything about his life right now and that had to include the timing of it. He wrapped one arm around the front of her and then reached out with the other hand to turn to the next page, this one holding another picture of a younger him holding a wriggling Jonas in his arms while they sat on a bench at the park. The picture, he remembered, had been taken by a stranger who’d been kind enough to take it for them. “It’s not weird at all. I look at these and I can see you there, even though you weren’t. It’s kind of crazy how easily you fit into all of this, like the three of us were meant for each other from the start.” He let his cheek rest against the top of her head, enjoying this sort of break even more than he would have enjoyed foraging for food. “It’s obvious, you know. That you love him, I mean. When people call him our son, I can’t even correct them because it feels right. It is right.” She leaned back a little into his touch over the back of the sofa, feeling the press of his chest and shoulders. She looked over that picture that his fingers seemed to linger over, and she understood what he meant. Maybe she hadn’t been there in their lives yet, but there had always been a space for her there that she was just now getting to fill. As much as she felt a righteous sort of anger in her chest for anyone that could abandon their child, she felt that she was destined to be a mother to Jonas, even if she stepped into that role a few years after she would have liked to. Finnley had heard other people assume before that she was Jonas’ biological mom, and she no longer tried to dissuade them as she might have when she first met the boy. Even then, it had been less out of a desire to separate herself and more not wanting to assume or overstep into a role that she didn’t have a right to claim, “I’ve been thinking about that a lot recently,” she admitted after a moment, lowering the picture album to the cushion beside her. If there was ever a perfect moment to bring it up, now seemed to be the time, “I know...ultimately the choice lies with Jonas, but I’ve wanted to ask you…” she wet her lips, her cheeks touched pink. “When we get married, I’d like to formally adopt Jonas, too. I don’t just want to be his step-mom. I want to be his mother, no questions asked, not just through marital ties. I want to ask him if that’s something he wants too, but I wanted to ask you first. We’ve been so caught up with the move and everything else that I just haven’t seemed to find the right time, but I’ve been thinking about it for a while. Because he’s not just your kid that I have an obligation to be attached to because I love you so much, and I want him to know that. I want you to know that, too. I didn’t know if I’d ever be a mom, but knowing him has made me one. When anyone calls him our son, I don’t just want it to feel right. I want it to be irrefutable. He is my son now, and he always will be no matter what. If we still need to wait a while for that, we can, but that’s...that’s what I want our future to look like.” She had said some very strong words, and she hoped it wasn’t too much. They’d struck a nice balance while they were dating, and since she’d been living with him, that balance had mostly stayed steady though she had taken on parenting a little more often than she had previously. She knew that they would still need to make decisions together and that Oliver’s opinion would always be important when deciding big things for Jonas. That was part of good co-parenting. Even if she never adopted Jonas, she would never let that make her less invested in his life, but it was important to her to at least try to make that commitment to both of them. It took Oliver a long while to answer, but only because he was trying his damndest to keep himself together. From the moment he had been born, Oliver had only wanted everything under the moon for Jonas. He’d wanted to be able to make sure there was not a single moment of his son’s life that would later feel unfulfilled. Jonas’ mother abandoning him hadn’t broken Oliver’s heart because he’d loved her, it had broken his heart because he loved his son more than life itself. Dating had become complicated then because it was no longer just about what Oliver wanted in a partner, but also about what Jonas needed from his parents. He couldn’t just let people come and go as they pleased as though the life he’d built with his son came with a revolving door. From the moment he’d known that he was in love with Finnley, though, he’d felt like their family was complete. He’d felt like Jonas’ life would finally be truly fulfilled. He’d known that he wanted Finnley to be his partner in all things in life, including parenting Jonas. And while it had been obvious that she naturally fit into that role, it had been something he’d always worried about asking her outright. Letting out a small breath, Oliver sniffed back the manifestation of his emotions, and nodded, his cheek ruffling her hair. “I want that, too. And I’m almost 100% sure that Jonas does, as well, but I fully support you asking him. I don’t want there to ever be any question that this family is ours equally.” He loved her so goddamn much that it felt nearly impossible just then to contain just how much love his heart held for this woman he was somehow lucky enough to marry. Finnley smiled, his answer worth the wait as she turned in his embrace so that she could see him properly without having to crane her neck. Though she could hear the emotion in his voice and see a bit of dampness in the corner of his eyes, she didn’t point it out. He seemed to be trying very hard to keep himself together. She would ask Jonas soon, then, not wanting to put this off any longer than was really necessary. It was a happy thing, even if she had been nervous to bring it up, “Thank you, Oliver. I just never want to make him feel like he doesn’t have a choice in it, but I’m hoping that he says yes, too.” She shifted onto her knees there on the couch, reaching up to put her arms around Oliver’s shoulders. Leaning in, she stole a much needed kiss, and then another. She knew that this meant as much to him as it did for her...more, even. Jonas had been without a mother figure for so long, but he had never resisted her stepping into that role. She had known by the time that she met Jonas that she loved Oliver and wanted this to work with him, and after that first night...it had been clear to her that this was the road she needed to walk. A grin returned to linger at the corner of her lips even as she leaned back a bit from the kiss, “We still need to pick a date for the wedding, too. Maybe we can plan it all so that it happens around the same time?” Oliver didn’t know what he’d done to get so lucky to have his life look like this. Somehow, everything was coming up Sparks for him and his family and he was too pleased by it to question it. His arms went securely around Finnley, his lips eagerly accepting her stolen kisses (though he wasn’t sure they could be stolen when they were so willingly given). Without giving himself a moment to think about it, he said, “What about July 25? Two years from when we first met. It’s probably on a weekday, but all of the people we’d invite are local, anyway, so it wouldn’t be a big deal with people traveling.” She took his suggestion into account, thinking about it as she held onto him. It was eleven months away, which felt far now, but it would mean they would have plenty of time to get everything in order and plan to make sure the day was what they wanted. Though honestly, as long as they were married by the end of the day, Finnley would count their wedding as a success. He was right that it didn’t matter whether the wedding was on a weekday or a weekend. They weren’t going to have some destination beach wedding. The months would likely fly by, and at that, it wasn’t as though they were waiting on everything else. That year would be spent in the house that they had just bought together. The engagement lasting a little longer wasn’t going to impede them in their day to day lives. “It’s certainly romantic. I don’t want like...a huge blowout wedding that people talk about as the party of the century, but it would be nice to have time to figure out exactly what we do want and where.” A thought occurred to her and she grinned a bit wider, her eyes crinkling at the edges, “Maybe we could do the reception at The Square. It’s where everything began, you know? I think we could probably pull some strings to make it happen.” Oliver understood the hesitation--he didn’t want to wait nearly a year to marry her, either. He was comfortable, though, with just knowing the three of them were together and beginning their lives together, with or without pieces of paper. This right here was all that he really needed. Eleven months, he thought, was enough time to make sure they could plan their wedding and neither of them would need to get stressed out over it. He lifted a hand to run his fingers affectionately over her cheek before he stole another kiss from her. “If we don’t serve that potato at the reception, it’s a real missed opportunity,” Oliver said, resting his forehead against hers, a lazy grin on his face. “I know a guy who knows a guy who knows a woman, so I’ll see if I can make it happen.” “For the sake of the guests, it may be kind to serve the pickles on the side with instructions that it’s delicious inside the potato. Of course, we should never explain the choice, just to keep them guessing.” She was not above having a bit of a laugh over the inside joke without really informing anyone else of the details. She was fairly confident that they could get The Square for the night, even if they had to rent it out. They would pay for the space and the meal for their guests, and it should cover any potential profit loss. She wouldn’t think of asking them to do it with a risk involved. Her parents could just find another restaurant to go to dinner to that night, because the likelihood of her inviting them had dwindled to just about nothing. “The time will go by before we know it. Especially with the planning. Maybe we can set aside some time over the next couple of weeks to really go over the details and make a preliminary guest list so we can see what we need to look into for arrangements.” She knew that shopping for dresses, hers and her bridesmaids, would have to be fairly early on in this process because it could take so many months just for a single dress to be delivered, and then altered. She was not at all going to complain about cake testing when the time came for it, “I think it’s going to be fun planning it. I like having a reason to celebrate us.” “I’m pretty sure this party’s for us,” Oliver teased, “so they’ll have to take or leave the pickled potatoes.” He stole another lingering kiss from her, his heart full from the knowledge that they really were beginning the rest of their lives together. Their story was a good one, one that he was looking forward to reading for many years to come. “Sweetheart,” he said, punctuating the term of endearment with another kiss. “I think we have a reason to celebrate us every day.” |