God, she just wanted to dance. Hair flinging, hip shaking, arms up and smile-splitting dancing. She felt joyous, light and free. Something she hadn't felt for months.

Felicity looked around to the faces surrounding her on the packed dance floor. Coloured lights, syncopated with the beat, distorted them slightly, but they were still the beloved faces of her four best friends from Vegas.

The 'Shiny Terrors', her mother used to call them, like they were a start-up roller derby team or something. Granted, there was a fair amount of sequins, spandex, killer heels and gloss coloured lips on show tonight, but that wasn't unexpected given her friends had all taken the 'Vegas showgirl' route after high school - which when visiting here in Starling, translated to colourful club dresses and some outrageous dance moves on the floor.

Felicity was having a ball and knew she looked good, even if she was the only one not brandishing sequins and cleavage. Her blonde hair was straightened and hung down her bare back, the tips brushing against her skin as she moved and gyrated. Her sky-blue halter neck dress was tight, and short, and her yellow and white striped heels were her new most-favourite shoes in the world.

Felicity burst out laughing when red clad, red-haired Sylvie, and gold-sequined, black-bobbed Anika, brought out some old-school 80s dance moves, playing off each other and becoming more and more ridiculous as a crowd formed around them.

"It's Footloose bitches!" Sylvie yelled, laughter sweeping through the dance floor crowd and a few catcalls bouncing.

Felicity swung her arm around a tall brunette - Samantha, her oldest friend - and pulled her to her side. 'I have missed you guys,' she said, her voice choking a little.

'Not as much as we've missed you, Smoak,' Samantha said, squeezing her tight. 'We need to visit you here in Starling more often, and you need to come back to Vegas more than once a year too.'

Blonde-haired Tara bounced up to them, grabbing Felicity in a twirl. 'So, where to next? A guy trying to buy me a drink at the bar said this place called Verdant is the hap-pen-ing club in Starling. Let's head there.'

'Nooo. No, no, nooo.' Felicity's voice was panicked, her eyes slightly wide.

Tara and Samantha were looking at her quizzically, as Sylvie and Anika finished their impromptu dance off to applause and loud whistles, and the five women walked off the dance floor and back to their booth, trailing admirers in their wake.

'What's going on?,' Anika asked, as she reached for her luminous pink drink.

'Well, I had just suggested we try this club Verdant next, and Felicity had a - mild reaction - not unlike my response the time I was invited to my douchebag ex-fiance's wedding,' Tara said, with a raised an eyebrow.

'You got drunk and were arrested after you smashed in the windscreen of Jake-the-douchebag's car, Tara.'

'Yep, that's about akin to it,' Tara giggled, looking towards Felicity with mischief in her eyes.

Felicity plastered a smile on her face and tried to backpedal, as four beautiful, curious faces stared at her expectantly.

'I mean, yeah, I've heard Verdant's okay, but just...you know...really out of the way, and there are reaaallly long lines to get in, and it had a mouse plague, I think, according to the news and ah...' Felicity trailed off.

'Yeah, not buying what you're selling Smoak. What's going on?' Samantha laughed.

Felicity sighed and looked down at her hands in her lap.

'It's Oliver's club,' she mumbled.

'Sorry, did you say Oliver's club?' Sylvie screeched.

Felicity looked up at her with a confounded expression. 'You have freakishly good hearing, you know that Sylvie?'

'Uh uh - you're not getting out of this one. We're talking about Oliver, right. Your Oliver?'

'He's not my-'

'Handsome, rich, God's gift to straight women, Oliver Queen?' Tara interjected. 'The boss that we can't get you to say more than three words about, let alone introduce us to. Oh, we are going, Smoak. We are sooo going!'

Felicity looked around at her gleeful friends gathering up their purses and heading towards the club exit, and groaned.

This. Was not going to end well...

Oliver hung his bow back up in its case and looked around the foundry, trying for nonchalance as he noted the empty chair in front of the computers.

'So, Felicity is out tonight. With her friends,' he commented.

Dig gave him a look. 'Not happening Oliver.'

'What?'

'We are leaving her alone to have a nice night off. No Arrow activities. No interruptions.'

'Yeah, of course Dig. I know. I just thought-'

'Oliver, man. She deserves a night off.'

Oliver pressed his lips together and nodded his head slightly.

But he was antsy. And intrigued. He was realising how little he knew of Felicity's past.

She never really talked about her friends or her family, which was crazy, considering how much she knew about his life. Hell, how much she had taken over his life. Wait, what? He caught himself in the thought and wondered at it. Exhaling a breath, he let it settle as the truth.

He knew something was going on between them, they'd been in a dance since the first moment they'd met, back in the IT office at QC.

He knew he felt things for her, he just didn't know what it meant. She challenged him. She amused him. She made him want to be better.

He knew she was the brightest part of his day, and he missed her when she wasn't around. He wanted to know her more, but that for someone who talked so much, she didn't share easily when it came to her past.

After a morning of avoiding his attempts at conversation at the office - a long, technical phone call, a report that was needed by deadline, an 'emergency' down in the IT department that apparently only she could fix - she'd shot out of the office at midday with a 'Bye' darted his way, to pick her friends up from the Starling airport.

She'd thwarted his plans to oh-so-subtly invite himself to dinner with her friends - his one clear chance to meet some of the people in Felicity's life, and perhaps get to know her the way they did.

Sighing, he headed to the shower in the foundry, disappointed he'd missed his opportunity.

'Don't wait around Dig. I'm heading upstairs to speak to Thea about some club business, and then I'm just going home.'