Work Text:
“Fuck!” The shout startled Oliver from his seat on his bed and out into the hallway. It was followed by, “Fuck, ow! Ow! Shit.” And a crash.
“Thea?” He pushed open the door to Thea’s room and almost ran into her in the doorway.
“Oh, hi, Ollie…” Thea was clutching her hand but there was blood smeared across her fingers
“Thea, what happened?” Oliver was already reaching for her hand, but Thea yanked it back.
“None of your business!”
“Come on. Thea…” Oliver grabbed her hand and this time Thea didn’t yank it away. He uncurled her fingers slowly until he could see the cut on the palm of her hand. “How’d you do this?”
“Also none of your business.” Thea said defensively, but opened her other hand, revealing a razor blade. Oliver sighed and took a moment to collect himself before taking the razor away from Thea.
“Come on, you need to clean this. It’s not bad enough to need stitches.” Thea let Oliver lead her to the bathroom and hold her hand under the water, rinsing the blood off, careful not to hurt her too much. Thea, for once, didn’t fight against him, just watched him complacently. Finally he looked up at her. “You’re lucky it wasn’t worse. In the future, I’d avoid cutting yourself on the same razor you use to cut your drugs.”
Thea stared defiantly back at him, but there was a spark of guilt in her eyes. “If you’re going to chew me out about-“
“I’m not going to.” Oliver turned off the water and opened the medicine cabinet, retrieving a tube of Neosporin and a bandage.
“No, you’re just going to… stare at me in silent disapproval. Great.” Thea pulled her hand back. “You know, I think I’ve got this.”
Oliver set the Neosporin down on top of the bandages. “Thea-“
“No, Ollie, you don’t get to do this. You can’t just… ignore me for so long and then suddenly pretend you care. I get that it’s hard for you, but you could at least try.”
“I’m trying, Thea. I’m trying to make sure you’re okay…”
“Well I’m not, thanks for asking. Oh right, you didn’t.” Thea snapped, meeting Oliver’s gaze with a glare. By this point, they were only a couple inches apart. Oliver frowned, but didn’t look away, holding eye contact until Thea finally blinked and looked away.
“I’m-“ Oliver tried to say, but before he could get anything else out Thea leaned the extra inch or so forward and pressed her mouth to his. Oliver didn’t respond, shocked into inaction for a moment. Thea didn’t give up, closing her eyes and reaching her uninjured hand up to the back of Oliver’s neck.
After that it only took a moment for Oliver to catch up to the present and, after another moment of indecision, kiss back. It was a careful kiss, like he wasn’t quite sure what he was doing. When they broke apart for Thea to breathe, Oliver was still frowning. “Thea… We can’t do this.”
“Ollie, don’t push me away like this. You were dead for five years, you… We can do whatever we want. We’re both capable of keeping secrets, and I've seen the way you look at me. I'm not stupid.” She sat back and held out her injured hand as a sort of peace offering. “We need to reconnect somehow.”
“I’ll think about it.” Oliver took the offered hand, spreading Neosporin on the cut.
Thea gave him a smile as he wrapped her hand, one of a rare few real smiles she’d given him since he came back. “You do that.”