Chapter Text
When her blood lies at your feet, then you will know how I feel! Slade shouts.
Oliver jerks awake. His heart is pounding and he's covered in sweat. His last memory of the nightmare was the look of terror on Felicity’s face. He has had the same nightmare almost every night for the last month since leaving Slade on Lian Yu, and even though he knows Slade is in “purgatory” and Felicity is safe in Starling City, he still fears for her safety. Yes, he willingly used her as bait to help him defeat Slade, but it was unthinkable that he should use someone he cares so deeply for in such a way. He knows the reason for the continuous nightmare was in part due to guilt; guilt in using her, guilt in that she almost died, but mostly guilt that he told her he loved her and allowed her to think it was a lie. Despite all the people he’s killed and all of the horrible things he had to do to survive on the island, this has to be the worst thing he could have ever done.
He’s not sure when it happened. He guesses it could have happened when she asked him why he slept with Isabel. It could have been the night the Count almost injected her with the deadly Vertigo. It could have even been on one of the numerous times she teased, encouraged or challenged his ego. One thing was for sure, he was in love with Felicity Smoak, and what’s worse is that he has no idea what to do about it.
It’s 4am and rather than try to go back to sleep, Oliver decides to head to the new lair to work on the set up. It’s taken a bit of time due to lack of funds mostly, but it was coming along nicely. He could work on setting up the training area some more and maybe get in a few hours of training while he’s at it. With his mind made up, he gets out of bed to get dressed. His temporary living arrangements are horrible compared to living at Queen manor, but while the lawyers work on getting him his company back as well as his home and club, he didn’t see the need to spend anymore money than necessary when the money he had saved needed to go towards fixing up the new lair.
Sleep? Felicity doesn’t even know what that is anymore. Since leaving Lian Ye, she hadn’t gotten anymore than 3 hours of sleep every night. So she spends a lot of her time at the new lair either working on computers or working out. How surprised are Oliver and John going to be when she develops enough muscle to actually lay one of them out on that mat? She smirks to herself at the image forming in her head. John would go easy on her, but Oliver? No way! He’d put up a good fight, but with her gaining strength and the tips Sara gave her before leaving town, she felt pretty confident that it won’t be long before she could hold her own.
It’s 4:15am and here she is surrounded by the best computers and gym equipment that money could buy, and all she keeps thinking about is the dream she keeps having every night that is causing her insomnia. She’s at Queen manor with Oliver and he’s telling her he loves her. God, she is such an idiot! Of course he doesn’t love her. A month later, as everyone is trying to get back to their “normal” lives, well as normal as a team of vigilante’s could be, she hasn’t spent anymore than a few minutes alone with Oliver. John is either around, or John and Lyla or Roy, or Roy and John, and occasionally Laurel. The team unilaterally decided not to divulge the location of their new operation to Laurel yet until they could all trust her more.
Sighing, Felicity turns to get up from the desk and makes her way to the locker room to change for her workout.
When Oliver walked in 10 minutes later, he wasn’t expecting to find anyone there, but as he walked past the desks towards the workout area, he hears grunting in between singing. Something about hitting with your best shot. Stopping in his tracks, he immediately recognizes the voice. His Felicity. He smiles and starts to make his way to the wall dividing the office from the workout area and stops realizing that it’s just the two of them here. He’s pretty certain John isn’t going to be walking in here at 4:30 in the morning. Suddenly he’s nervous, but maybe this is a good thing. Maybe it’s time he and Felicity spend some alone time together. Maybe it’s time for him to explore his feelings and their relationship.
Spying his head around the corner of the wall, he peeks in on her. Her back is to him and she’s punching and kicking the punching bag hanging from the rafters. He notices she has some of the weights down on the floor...15 and 25 pounders. Impressive! He stands there for a few minutes to admire her technique. Clearly she’s been doing this a while. He watches her for a few minutes and notices a few of Sara’s moves. Clearly she’s been paying attention and his chest fills with pride as it always does when she surprises him.
Felicity is so wrapped up in her workout and music and she loves it. Had she known that working out like this would help release some pent up physical, not to mention sexual, frustrations, she would have done it ages ago. She decides to try a roundhouse on the dummy standing just to her right. Putting every ounce of energy into it, she swings her leg and kicks the dummy so hard that it actually snaps back a few inches. Smiling to herself, she turns again and screams. “Oliver! Geez, you scared the crap out of me! What are you doing here at this hour?”
“I could ask you the same thing. How long have you been working on your own like this?” He asks.
“Well…” she hesitates. Should she be honest and tell him she can’t sleep because all she can think about is his admission of love that was a lie, or should she just be coy? “You know I was working with Digg and Sara for a while, but mostly by myself in the last month.” So not necessarily a lie.
“Hmm, I didn’t realize you were interested in upping the ante with your training. How about we go a round?” He asks. “That roundhouse you just did was pretty on point. I’m impressed.”
Is he serious right now? How long had he been standing there anyway? “Um, ok.”
Oliver walks fully into the room, drops his bag on the floor and removes his shirt. Felicity just gawks and swallows. Really? Is that totally necessary? He’s killing me!
They take their fighting stance and Oliver slowly starts circling her. He decides to go easy on her at first, wanting to see just how much she’s learned. So when he goes in for the first few punches, she easily blocks or sidesteps him. Very good, he thinks. Let’s kick this up a notch.
Suddenly he moves faster and can tell she’s getting a bit flustered by the change in his stance. She reaches out to punch him several times and he blocks each time. On her fourth try, her fist makes contact makes contact with his chin and he’s momentarily stunned. Before he knows it, she kicks his legs out from under him and is straddling his chest with her forearm to his windpipe. Blinking several times, he looks up at her smirking face. A second turns into 20 and they’re just staring at each other. Her face becomes impassive with that far off look that she gets sometimes when he knows she’s thinking too much. Quick to break the tension, Oliver grabs her by the elbows, flips her onto her back and is then straddling her holding her hands up by her head. Her stunned expression is priceless.
“Don’t get cocky,” he reminds her.
That comment seems to anger her. He sees her brow furrow, and she spits out “Don’t worry, I won’t. Let me up please.”
He gets up and grabs her hand to assist her. She pulls it from his grasp. “I’m fine,” she says, and gets up on her own.
“Do you want to go again?” Oliver asks.
“No thanks. I prefer working alone,” she replies and turns to leave.
Oliver grabs her hand and pulls her back. “What’s going on with you Felicity?”
God, she hates when he says her name. He always says it with a seductive tone that seeps into her brain, drains down into her heart and squeezes it. Cleaning up Starling City is just as important to her as it is to him, but she’s not sure how much longer she could continue to work with him and feel the way she does.
“Nothing. I’m fine,” she replies. “I guess I’m not ready for hand to hand combat. I’ll ask John to teach me weapons next.”
“Even with a weapon, you have to have strict control over your emotions Felicity,” he says.
In a raised voice, Felicity says “and what the hell do you know about emotions Oliver? You’re like a freaking robot most of the time.” She could tell that comment hurt him because he always get this hurt look in his eyes when she puts him in his place, which seems to be more often than not lately.
Oliver stares at her for a moment in stunned silence. How could she say that to him? He cares. He cares deeply. Maybe even a little too deeply. How many times has he saved her or John or Thea or anyone else in his life that he cared about? Far too many to count.
Sighing heavily, he says, “I’m sorry if you’re angry at me Felicity. Things have been a little crazy since Lian Yu between setting up the lair and me trying to get my company back. I know I haven’t been there for you very much, and I should have been. Especially since Slade almost took you from me.”
Felicity simply stares at him. Yeah, God forbid he would have to deal with his own computers or learn to hack into any system for information that he wants or needs.
Oliver is still holding her hand and she looks down at their hands. Suddenly it’s as if a floodgate opened and the tears begin to form. She shakes her head vigorously. “I gotta go. I’ll see you later.”
Pulling her hand out of his, she walks out without even a backward glance.