InsaneJournal

Oliver opened the wooden case that had arrived with him and carefully pulled out the decanter of vodka. He had no idea how old the vodka was but Anatoly had said that it was very old and very rare. The only time that anyone drank it was when a comrade died, it was a Bratva ritual. Oliver and Diggle had continued it but there was still a lot left. Being sucked onto the Enterprise seemed like a good excuse to have a couple of shots if there ever was one. There wa also the fact that really hot girl had said she wanted vodka.

Let no one ever say that Oliver Queen wasn’t hospitable.

He heard the buzzer at the door and he walked over to touch the pad on the wall. The door swept open and he got his first look at Rose who was even hotter in person. “Hello, you must be Rose,” he said and smiled at her. “I’m Oliver. Come in.”

Rose had joked easily when he’d said there wouldn’t be any shenanigans, but the truth was that she wasn’t worried. She could pretty easily handle herself and she’d make sure he knew that if he turned out to be, like, an axe murderer or something. Besides, despite playing it coy to Tony, she had noticed Oliver was kind of good looking. Not knowing what the hell was going on with her and Adrian anymore, she wasn’t sure she needed to complicate her love life further, but she thought it would be nice to hang out with some good eye candy for a little while.

Besides... vodka. She hadn’t really had any since Siberia and that had been, well, a really shitty time, honestly. This was bound to be a lot more fun than getting drunk at her undead ex-boyfriend’s funeral.

Rose made her way to the room number Oliver had given her, hitting the button to let him know she was there. When he let her in, she flashed him a wide grin and tried not to obviously check him out. Huh. Maybe she’d have to upgrade that description from passably hot to something else.

“So, do you really have vodka or is that just a line you use to lure teenage girls over,” she teased as she stepped through the doorway into his quarters. They looked a lot like hers, she noticed. She supposed they all did.

“No, I actually do have vodka,” he assured her. “Given to me by a Russian friend. It’s very old and very rare, he told me. I can promise you that’s it good too. Have a seat.” The wooden box was sitting on the coffee table and he reached into it to get the glasses. Putting the box aside, he held up the decanter and showed it to Rose. “As you can see, it is authentically Russian.” he took off the top and poured them each a shot.

“The tradition of this particular bottle is that whenever a comrade dies, you take a shot in their memory. No one has died but we’re in outer space so I figure that deserves a shot. I think Anatoly would agree if he were here. He’s the one who gave me the bottle.” Oliver wasn’t about to go into the whole story which included a branch of the Russian Mafia and would probably make Rose question why she agreed to come here. “So who or what should we drink to? Do you speak Russian by the way? Because the toast my friend used is in Russian. Or we can do it in English, doesn’t matter.”

Rose’s smile faltered for an instant when he explained the story behind the vodka. It was the briefest moment, barely noticeable, but she couldn't help remembering that the last time she'd had vodka had been about death, too.

She quickly forced her smile back into place and focused on the rest of what he was saying. “A little,” she said. “Not very much but I've picked up a few phrases here and there.” She'd had to in Russia. She was far from fluent, though.

“Let's drink to...” She paused, trying to think of something. “New experiences,” she finished after a moment.

“I will drink to that,” he said and lifted his glass. “Because this is certainly a new experience and also to new friends.” At least he hoped that she would become a friend. Besides the fact that she was very attractive, there was something else about her that caught his attention. He’d learned a lot about reading people during his time on the island and there was something about Rose that told him, she’d be very interesting to get to know.

“Yeah, I’ve definitely never been in freaking space before, she said with a laugh as she lifted her own glass and clinked it against his. “New friends are good, too.” She didn’t actually have anyone she knew here, no one from her own world. The idea of making some new friends was pretty appealing, definitely more so than being alone here.

“So, tell me about yourself, Oliver Queen,” she said with a grin as she leaned back and took a sip of the vodka. She almost coughed when it burned against her throat and she laughed again. “Okay, I stand corrected,” she said. “That’s every bit as strong as the stuff I had in Siberia.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if Anatoly got it in Siberia to be honest,” Oliver contemplated the glass in his hand. “It’s apparently Bratva tradition. That’s what he told me.”

He leaned back against the couch as he tried to decide what he wanted to tell her. There was a lot to tell and a lot of it wasn’t pleasant so he decided to settle on a version of the truth and if they did become friends, he could always add in the details.

“I was a spoiled rich kid, My parents gave me and my little sister everything. I was also a real douche bag when I was in high school and college. Although I use the term college loosely since I was kicked out of four,” he put his glass down and stretched his arms across the back of the couch.

“I was a party boy and I’m not proud of it, I did a lot of really stupid things including dated two sisters. One that I thought I was in love with and then her younger sister who was more fun. Long story short, I took the fun sister with me on a cruise on my dad’s boat. There was a storm and the boat sank. Sara was lost at sea, the only survivors were my dad, a crewman and me. I was the only one that ultimately survived, I ended up on an island and I was there for five years give or take. And I’m not talking Gilligan’s Island, it was more like Hell Island.” he closed his eyes for a moment.

“Anyway it turned out that Sara wasn’t dead and she was living on a boat that was docked off shore, that’s how I met Anatoly and saved his life. Finally I went home, I had changed a lot, things weren’t all that great. I got to be a really good shot with a bow and arrow. I was going through a vigilante phase I guess you could say. Then I came here.” Oliver shrugged. He had left out a lot including Slade Wilson, Tommy, Malcolm, the Undertaking. What he’d told her was a good enough story. “In fact the box had my bow in it but they took it. I guess they were afraid that I would use the passengers for target practice. Hopefully I’ll get it back.”

Rose searched her mind for the translation. Her time in Siberia had helped her pick up a little Russian but not much. “Brotherhood? Were you, like, in a Russian fraternity or something?”

He kind of sounded like it. She was on the verge of judging that whole rich party boy thing when he mentioned the boating accident. Maybe he'd been like that once, but she'd thought the same about Adrian before realizing she'd misjudged him. Rose felt a pang thinking about him and she pushed the thought away, focusing on Oliver.

“Did you blame yourself for what happened?” she asked, “when you thought she was dead?” She couldn't help thinking of Mason. Even though she'd come to terms with her friend’s death, there was a part of her that would always feel guilty for her part in it. She wondered if Oliver felt the same way.

“Not exactly a fraternity,” he said. “More like…..let’s just say you want them for your friends and not your enemies.” Telling someone you just met that technically you were a captain in a branch of the Russian Mafia was probably not the smartest thing he’d ever done.

Her question gave him pause and for a moment, he couldn’t say anything and then he slowly nodded. “Yes. I did blame myself. If she hadn’t been with me, it wouldn’t have happened. I also blamed myself because I not only hurt her but I hurt her sister. Laurel and her family didn’t know Sara was with me until the boat was reported missing. They thought we were all dead, I even had a gravestone in my family plot.” It had been a very strange experience, seeing his own tombstone.

“I blamed myself for a lot of things, including my best friend’s death. I kind of have frequent flyer miles on the guilt trip express..”

“Shit, that’s...” Rose didn't really know what to say. She'd been through her own version of hell and most of it was stuff she couldn't really talk about, but it sounded like he'd been through a hell of a lot, too. Sympathy flashed in her eyes or maybe it was empathy. She could imagine how he felt.

“About 7 months ago,” she offered quietly after taking a long drink from her glass, “one of my best friends was killed. I was the reason he was there. He had a, um, crush on me, but I wasn't really into it.” She shrugged, realizing she couldn't exactly tell him the details. Even in a place like this she didn't think admitting she fought vampires was a smart move.

“He died trying to protect me,” she admitted after a moment, finishing off her drink before adding, “then I killed the people who killed him.” She didn't know why she was telling him even that much. It wasn't exactly the kind of story you shared with someone you'd just met, but, well, after what he told her about his life, she figured he'd get it.

“You did the right thing,” Oliver said. “Your friend was trying to save you, you avenged his death. I understand that.” He would have done the same and even though that was partly what Slade Wilson had been trying to do when he’d killed Oliver’s mother and tried to kill Felicity and Laurel, it was a different situation. Slade had been insane from the Mirukuru and there had been nothing between him and Shado. It was all in his mind.

“The whole eye for an eye thing might not be the best philosophy but I get it.” He finished off his vodka and put the glass down. “As tempting as it is, I’m not going to pour anymore. I promised to save it and who knows we might end up needing it again if we don’t get off this ship soon.”

Rose shook her head. “I had to. They would have killed me if I hadn’t killed them, but Mase was still gone. Nothing was going to bring him back.” It was weird, talking about Mason after all this time. Since he’d found peace, she’d found a way to move on with life. It didn’t hurt that life had only gotten more crazy after that.

“Only one shot?” Rose made a slight face at that. “I guess it’s a good thing the drinks in the lounge are free.”

“Well I made a promise so I’m going to keep it. I’m not exactly how much that decanter holds but I don’t want to waste it. And the drinks are free? I think I need to see this lounge. It might be the best way to handle all this.” Oliver looked around the room. “I’ve heard of the Enterprise even if I never watched the show or anything but I sure as hell never thought I’d be on it.”

“What show?” The show had been before her time, so Rose didn’t know what he was talking about, but this whole situation was pretty weird, so whatever. She figured she’d just go with it. “Yep, free drinks and apparently there’s tons of alien booze. Wanna come sample some with me?”

“Yeah. Star Trek. It was way before my time but there were movies and books and a couple of other shows.” he shrugged. “Not my kind of thing but alien booze? I could get behind that. I think we need to go and check this out.”

Grinning, Rose pushed herself up and held out her hand. “Let’s go then,” she said. If Star Trek was before his time, it was definitely before hers, but that didn’t really matter at the moment. Hitting the lounge and sampling some of the alien booze sounded like a lot of fun and she was glad to have some company for it.</i></i>