Home. Heart. Hero.

Heart of Gold

So I'm going to post another chapter to give you a feel of what the story is about. Let me know what you think.

-------------------------------
One of the perks of living in a tough environment was that finding a comfortable place to sleep became easier with time. That's the only reason Katie could come up with for why she was able to just fall asleep on the carpeted floor of their living room. It was the loud doorbell that woke her up. It rang and her eyes snapped open, but she didn't move. She actually needed to catch up to her body. It was strange, but for a moment she forgot where she was. It rang again and she suddenly came back to reality. She was home. The doorbell rang a third time and jumped to her feet before rushing to the door.

"Hey, someone not answering after three rings usually means fuck off!" she snapped before swinging open the door to see the familiar face of Oliver Queen standing in front of her.

"Sorry." he said stuffing his hands in the pockets of his pants and clearing his throat. "It's just last night you seemed-" he looked like he was searching for the right words and the look on Katie's face showed her impatience. "Is everything alright?"

"Fan-fucking-tabulous, good day." she said before moving to shut the door, but Oliver quickly drew up a hand stopping her.

"Twinkie-" was all he was able to say before she growled and turned stalking away. He let out a sigh before stepping inside, closing the door behind him. "Sorry, old habits die hard." he followed her toward her kitchen and he instinctively let his eyes wander. It was in this moment did he realize how long it's been since he's been inside these walls. He found her in the kitchen searching for something. It was when she pulled out the pouch of coffee did he find out what. "You want to talk about it?" she looked at him with a look of disbelief. "I know you literally found out that I was alive yesterday, but you look like you need to talk"

"What are you doing here Oliver?" Katie asked as she emptied the bag off coffee into the machine. She didn't want to talk, because she was afraid if she did, she'd probably never stop.

"I've been back for a little over two months and it was yesterday that I realized that I hadn't even heard a mention of your name." he said and she turned around to face him, leaning against the counter and crossing her arms over her chest. He let out a bit of a sigh before running a hand on the back of his neck.

"You only do that when you want to say something, but you're not sure you should." Katie said he looked back up to her. "It's sickening how much I know about you" she turned and went in search for a mug. "Just say it."

"Tommy told me about your dad." Oliver said and she stopped what she was doing. "Katie, I'm-"

"Don't-" she said and it was more of a whisper more than anything. She turned back to him. "Don't give me your condolences or tell me how sorry you are for my situation, because I can't do that now."

"Well I know you too and I know you love your father." he said taking a step closer to her, only for her to back away from him. "I know this has to be killing you." he watched her bite her bottom lip. It was a tactic she used to stop herself from crying. She just shook her head before turning to searching for that coffee mug. "Katie-"

"You were limping when you walked in here." she said and if she could see the look on his face, then she would see just how much he didn't expect her to say that. He thought he was hiding it well. Thea nor his mother had even noticed, but he should've figured Twinkie would. She grabbed a mug and walked over to the coffee maker. "What happened?"

"Twisted ankle," he said nonchalantly and she looked over to him. "It's fine."

"Well if it is a twisted ankle then you shouldn't be walking on it. Go home and take the weight off of it." she said pouring herself a cup.