Rose Hathaway :: Vampire Academy (lildampeer) wrote in paradisolog, @ 2016-10-11 20:32:00 |
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Entry tags: | oliver queen (mynameisoliver), rose hathaway (lildampeer) |
WHO: Rose Hathaway & Oliver Queen
WHERE: Rose’s shelter
WHEN: this past Saturday, during the bonfire
WHAT: A little pillow talk
WARNINGS: Nakedness. Also talk about vampires and death
STATUS: Completed FTB log
Rose had a satisfied smile on her lips as she stretched out next to Oliver on the bed she'd woken up to just a week ago. As nice as it felt to sleep on a comfortable mattress, she couldn't help thinking that this was the best part of having a real bed. Oliver had come by a few times since she'd gotten it to help her “test it out” and “make sure it was sturdy enough” and she hadn't even thought of objecting when he'd suggested they skip the bonfire tonight in favor of running some more of those tests. In fact, as she laid here with him, she couldn't help thinking she never wanted to move from this spot again. Rose closed her eyes and hummed with contentment as she felt his fingertips run up her spine in the barest whisper of a touch. A part of her thought it was crazy to let herself get so attached to him in a place like this, but god did it feel good when he did that. The fact that she had yet to even kiss anyone else was probably kind of against the rules, but being with Oliver felt so good. It felt right, despite the fact that she knew he was in love with someone else. They'd talked about that and she knew his relationship with Felicity wasn't exclusive and that he cared about her, too. As unconventional as that would seem anywhere else, Rose was trying not to overthink it, especially in moments like this when she felt so at peace. “Mmmm, that feels nice,” she mumbled into his shoulder. She liked the bonfires, but she was really glad they'd decided to skip it tonight and spend this time together instead. “This was a really good idea you had.” Oliver had decided to skip the bonfire tonight so that Felicity could have some time of her own. She knew about Rose and had no objections to them spending time together even if Oliver didn’t really want to know who Felicity spent time with. Or Rose for that matter even though he didn’t think there was anyone else that Rose was seeing. He kissed her forehead and smiled. “I have good ideas every now and then,” he told her. “And I like this bed, it even has storage compartments so it’s practical.” He laughed and brushed some hair off her cheek. He shifted a bit so that he could sit up a little and when he did, he brushed against Rose’s hair and saw the tattoos on the back of her neck. He’d never noticed them before and then realized that he’d never actually seen her hair up. He’d seen it pulled back when they’d run, he’d seen it wet in the waterfall but he’d never seen the back of her neck. “What are these?” he asked, running his fingers lightly over them. “I’ve never noticed them before.” The way they were lined up suggested a pattern, a meaning, and it hit him that there was a lot more to Rose than he knew, something he’d suspected from the moment he met her. Rose didn't like talking about her tattoos and she shivered slightly as his fingertips moved over that part of her neck. Some of the marks were pretty fresh, only a few weeks old or so. They carried meaning in more ways than one. Not only did they signify her kills, but they also represented a life. One more person gone from the world. She killed strigoi because she had to, but she'd long ago lost the feeling that these marks were a badge of honor or there was any glory in them. She almost made something up, lied about what they were, but the thing was that Rose didn't really want to lie to Oliver. She knew he trusted her and she wanted to trust him in the same way. She didn't want to have secrets from him. “They're my guardian tattoos,” she answered after a long silence. Rose rolled over onto her side and faced him. “The one in the middle, that kind of curving line, is my promise mark. I got it when I graduated, the day I officially pledged myself to serve the Moroi as a guardian. The others-” she hesitated, much more reluctant to explain those. “-those are for my kills. There are creatures in my world. We call them strigoi but they're what you would think of as vampires. They're immortal, incredibly strong and fast. They're what I was trained to kill. Every time we kill one, we get what's called a molnija mark. Those are the ones that look like criss-crossed lightning. The star shaped ones are called zveda. They give us those when we’re in a big battle where they can't really track how many we took down.” Rose had two of the latter with a little more than half a dozen of molnijas surrounding her promise mark. Turning her head, she absently touched the two oldest marks of all the ones covering her neck. “These are for Isaiah and Elena. They kidnapped me and some of my friends in Spokane last year. My friend Mason died saving my life before I took them out with a little help from our friend Mia.” She traced the others next. Most of the rest I got in Russia” no way was she explaining that quest in more detail, but she turned back toward him, letting her hair fall back over the tattoos as she studied his expression, trying to gauge how much she'd freaked him out. Or how insane he thought she was. “What’s a Moroi?” he asked. Oliver wanted to understand her, this was obviously a huge part of her life and he needed to begin by understanding the marks. “That explains why you can fight so well. I knew you’d had some kind of training, I just couldn't figure out what.” He reached out and touched her cheek. “I’m sorry about your friend. I lost my best friend four years ago, he was like a brother to me, I blamed myself too even though I know now that it wasn’t my fault but still, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to get past that.” He still remembered Tommy’s face, how he had begged him to stop killing, to find another way to save the city. He’d tried for a while and had succeeded but in the end, based on what Thea had told him, he had had to kill again. Rose nodded, understanding what he meant perfectly. For a long while, she'd blamed herself for Mason’s death. He'd made his own choices, but she had made some bad decisions, too. She knew he had moved on and found peace, but there was a part of her that would always regret what had happened. Knowing that Oliver understood that only intensified the connection she felt to him. It made her feel like she'd made the right choice to let him in. “The moroi are vampires, too, but they're not like strigoi. They have souls and they're mortal. They're born, they live and they die just like humans. They do have to drink blood to survive, but they don't kill, overall, they're a peaceful race. They're dying, though, hunted by the strigoi, so it's my job as a guardian to protect them.” She watched him again, trying to judge how he was taking all of this. It was a big risk, telling him everything, but it felt right. “I'm a dhampir,” she continued, forcing herself to keep looking him in the eye as she gave up her last secret. “Half human, half moroi. My mom’s a dhampir like me, but my dad’s Moroi.” She laughed a little. “He's also basically a mobster. If you met my parents, you'd know why I'm as crazy as I am. I'm still not sure how that happened.” “You should have met my parents. My father was a businessman who I thought was a good one but it turned out that he wasn’t. My mother was the very definition of overbearing and was involved in a plot to destroy the bad part of town in order to rebuild and make money off killing people.” He shook his head. “That also doesn’t include the fact that both of them were cheating on each other for their entire marriage and that Thea is actually not my father’s biological child. My best friend’s father is also Thea’s father, my mother apparently likes evil businessmen. Except for the man she married after my dad died, Walter. He’s a good guy.” It was a very complicated story but he wanted to get it out there. “We didn’t know about Thea until she was nineteen. My mother knew of course and so did Malcolm, that’s Thea’s biological father but she didn’t know, I didn’t know and my best friend died without ever knowing that the girl he’d always thought of as a little sister actually was his sister. So I get the crazy parents thing. Also? You’re not crazy. I ran around town in a green hood and shot arrows at criminals. So yeah.” Rose laughed a little, unable to help herself. “Did that outfit make it here, because I kind of want to see you dressed up as Robin Hood,” she teased. It was amazing how much lighter she felt having told him the truth. Maybe it would have been different if he hadn’t reacted to it the way he had, but it felt great to have been honest with him. She sobered a little, getting a little more serious again. “No, I mean, for most people vampires aren’t even real, but I just told you I have a few in my family tree and you’re not blinking an eye. I guess they must have some pretty crazy stuff where you’re from, too, huh?” “No, the outfit did not make it here, although I do wish my bow and arrows had,” he smiled at her and leaned in to kiss her. “The island that I was on, it was off the coast of China somewhere, I don’t know exactly where but it was…...I guess you’d call it mystical. There were a lot of strange things going on there, I’m not even aware of all of them This thing here…” he moved to show her the Chinese characters on his right ribcage. “Was given to me by a man named John Constantine with some kind of artifact he found there. It was supposed to protect me from whatever magic was there. Funny thing is that I thought he was full of shit until the day that someone tried to kill me with a Chinese idol and it started glowing and I wasn’t hurt at all. After that I was a lot more open minded so vampires that are alive? Not that much of a stretch really.” Rose reached over to touch the mark on his ribs, fascinated by the thought of a new kind of a magic and grateful for the way it had apparently kept him safe. She was grateful, too, that his background made it easy for him to accept her story. Rose wasn’t so sure anyone else could have handled it so well and having him not only believe her, but not be afraid of her for what she was meant a lot. It deepened her trust and affection for him. “I like it,” she murmured, shifting and pressing a kiss over one of the characters that had kept him safe. Her more serious expression relaxed a little more as she shifted again, kissing her way up his chest until she reached his neck. “Any more cool tattoos you wanna show me?” she asked him more playfully. “Or maybe I should just investigate, see if I can discover them for myself.” Oliver laughed. “Well there’s one right in front of you and I’m surprised you haven’t noticed it before now.” He was referring to the Russian Bratva tattoo on his chest. It was usually the first thing that people noticed about him when he wasn’t wearing a shirt. He was even more surprised that she had mentioned being in Russia and was curious as to why she’d been there. One thing he had learned about Rose though was that she was a lot like him when it came to personal things. If she wanted to tell him, she would and that was fine with him. Everyone had their secrets and sometimes they were meant to be kept. “Mmm, I did see that one,” she mumbled, half distracting herself with kissing his neck. “ but I was wondering if you had more I haven't seen. I feel like it might be worth an investigation to find out.” Or maybe she just wanted a convenient excuse to explore his body a little more. That was entirely possible and she didn't really think he'd mind it that much. “There’s one more,” he said, his hands tangling in her hair. “But it’s not as easy to find.” It was on his right shoulder and the story behind hit was a little more complicated than the other two. “That sounds like a challenge to me,” she grinned back at him. Rose didn't know how interested she actually was in looking for it at the moment, but then again, if it gave her an excuse to kiss various parts of him, she figured that was the kind of scavenger hunt she could really get into. Still smiling, she dipped her head down and pressed another kiss to his chest. “Do I at least get a hint?” she asked him. Oliver laughed. “Well okay, I’ll give you a hint. It’s on my back.” It was the only tattoo on his back and the story behind it was painful to tell but if she wanted to know, he would tell her. After all, she’d been open with him and he would the same for her. Rose took her time getting there, taking a moment to press more kisses to his skin as she moved so she could see the tattoo he was talking about. She’d noticed the scars that covered his chest before, but there were more on his back, along with the tattoo. She traced the spots gently with her fingers. “Did you get all of these on the island?” she asked him quietly. She’d been teasing just moments before, but now she was serious again and she found that she really did want to know. “Most of them, yes,” he said quietly. “A few after I got home but most of them were from my time on the island. I spent some time in Hong Kong too. It’s a really long story.” Oliver paused for a moment and then he told her everything. The shipwreck, the island, Shado, Slade, how Slade gave him the tattoo as a punishment for Shado’s death, how he’d come to Starling City to seek revenge and took it by killing Moira. “Then I came here,” he finished. “And I’ve already told you what Thea told me.” Oliver turned so that he was facing her and reached to take her hand. “Rose...I promised to be honest with you and you know that I love Felicity but I want you to know that I care about you too. It’s not the same but we have both been through similar experiences and sometimes it helps to have somebody who gets that. I like spending time with you and not just this part of it.” Rose was speechless for a moment when he told her about everything he’d gone through. He’d been through hell, almost literally. It almost made everything she’d gone through seem tame. She knew what she’d been through still sucked, but wow. She couldn’t even find the words to tell him how sorry she was for what he’d been through. She nodded when he turned back towards her and when her took her hand, she immediately laced her fingers through his, holding on tightly for a moment. She wasn’t sure if his words scared her or thrilled her more. Those were definitely both things she was feeling as he admitted that he cared about her. “The next breath she drew was a little shaky and she had to force herself to keep looking at him as she made an admission of her own. “I feel the same way about you.” He could tell that it wasn’t easy for her to say that and he leaned forward and softly kissed her. “You still want to hang out with me even after I’ve aired all my dirty laundry?” “Yes,” she said emphatically, bringing her hands to the sides of his face and kissing him again. “If anything, it makes me like you more.” That was a hard thing to admit, too, but mostly it was scary to admit to herself how much she did like him. It was so different from what she felt for Adrian. That wasn't to say she didn't love Adrian, because she was pretty sure she did, but she was just as sure she could love Oliver, maybe even that she kind of already did. That felt too dangerous to admit, even to herself, and she squashed the thought immediately. However much they cared about each other, she knew his heart belonged to someone else. It would be stupid to let herself seriously fall for him. “You still want to hang out with me after I've aired [...] most of mine?” she asked, keeping her tone light even thought a part of her still expected him to run for the hills. He didn't even know all of it, she realized. She'd told him about what she was, but not about her arrest. He still didn't know she was an accused murderer, whether she'd actually done it or not. “Absolutely,” he assured her. “I like being around you. “ Oliver was glad that they had opened up to each other and that she understood that he cared about her even though he was in love with someone else. “I'm guessing that the things you told me…. they aren't things you talk about very often. It goes no further than me.” Rose had known when she'd confided in him that he wouldn't spread it around, but she still appreciated him telling her he'd keep it to himself. “Me, too,” she said. “I mean I'm not going to go around telling people about the stuff you told me, either. That's your business if you want them to know.” A part of her wanted to come clean about the rest of her life, but she didn't really know how to do it. Oh, hey, by the way I was arrested for murder and I sort of have a boyfriend at home? It sounded crappy, even in her head. “I mean, I also like being around you, too. Not just for, um, this but I'll admit I really like this part, too,” she added. There were enough people here from Oliver’s home that he wasn’t worried about anyone knowing his story. They all knew it anyway and he wasn’t particularly worried about the rest of the island. “Well I like this part too,” he said and kissed her softly.”and we’ve been talking for a while so maybe it’s time to concentrate on that part for a little while.” “That,” she said is the second best idea you've had today.” Rose's smile turned a little more devious as she pulled him closer and kissed him a little more deeply. Since neither of them was going to the bonfire or had any other plans, they could stay like this for hours, if they wanted, maybe even until morning. That suited her just find. |