Of course the one fandom that would get me back into fic writing would be Olicity. Honestly, the CW is ruining my life… in all the best possible ways. Anyway, I doubt my writing will seriously be a recurring thing, and it really will be when I am hardcore procrastinating… like right now!
Without further ado, my flash fiction for SmoakandArrow's Olicity Flash Fic Prompt #6: In the Dark.
The darkness was stifling.
He couldn't breathe.
He could feel that cold icy terror slowly creeping through his chest, wrapping his heart in its tight fist and slowly starting to squeeze…. He couldn't breathe.
It was crippling.
A small pained whimper drew his eyes off into the hazy black of night, and he forced his eyes across the distance until they caught twin pools of blue, glimmering with tears. She lay no more than fifteen feet away, her legs crumpled beneath her as she struggled to stay propped up on her shaking arms.
He could see her trying to call out––to do anything––but nothing was escaping her mouth. Her usually bright blonde hair tumbled down around her tangles and mats, the ends dipped in the macabre red ink slowly spreading across the ground.
Desperately he reached his hand out to her, straining to get to his feet, but his legs were failing him. He felt heavy, so heavy. That feeling of terror was getting worse, taking hold of all reason and rationality as he frantically called her name.
Abruptly her eyes widened in horror, as he saw hands reach from the darkness, snag her ankles, and then drag her into the pitch black, into the dark.
"No!" he yelled, but her screams echoed through the night, her hands futilely grasping for purchase on the hard ground.
"Oliver!"
Oliver bolt upright with a gasp. In between the rapid thuds of his heartbeat and heaving breaths, he could feel cool sweat dripping down his bare torso into the sheets pooled around his waist. Snowflake-mottled moonlight streamed in through the large glass doors and diffused into bright streams across the floor and bed. Oliver drew a shaky hand up across his face and into his hair, as he attempted to get his breathing under some semblance of control.
"Hey," came a groggy voice to his left. "What's wrong?"
Oliver turned to see a half-asleep Felicity looking at him in concern. Without her glasses on, she had to squint a little, but Oliver knew that even with her extreme nearsightedness she could tell something was up.
"Nothing," he answered with a soft smile. "Just a bad dream." She frowned and reached up a hand toward his face, which he obligingly brought down closer to her, and she worked to gently smooth out the furrow between his eyes. Oliver let his eyes shut and leaned into her soft touch. He leaned into her touch for a few long moments before he gently grasped her hand and pressed a kiss into the palm.
"Go back to sleep, Felicity." Oliver released her hand, leaned down and pressed a lingering kiss to her forehead until he felt her eyes shut. He let out a soft sigh and just let his gaze linger on her face for a bit. Illuminated by the moonlight, her hair was almost silver, shining softly on her pillow rather than stained that sickening red as it had been in his dream. Oliver kept his stare locked on her face as he lowered himself back down to the mattress.
As much as he wanted to pull her into his arms, he knew she wouldn't appreciate it. Felicity had been referring to him as "my personal human furnace" for the last week and a half, and despite the winter weather outside, had exiled him to his side of the bed, only managing to stand minimal continuous contact before grimacing at the temperature and pulling away.
Oliver could see Felicity's right hand still out from under top sheet, so he gently snaked his left pinky around her right one, wanting to keep just a little bit of contact. He let his eyes drift shut, but he knew sleep was still far away. Oliver heard an exasperated huff leave Felicity, and he made to pull his hand away, but she stilled him by interlocking their fingers.
She squeezed his hand once and then released it before he heard the sheets rustling and the mattress shift. Oliver opened his eyes to see the Felicity swinging her feet over the side of the bed and standing up.
"Hey, I'm sorry," he began, but she shushed him and softly padded away in one of his dress shirts that she had taken to sleeping in. He frowned as she disappeared into the penthouse hallway, but in less than a minute she reappeared. Without another word she crawled back into the bed and cuddled right up next to him.
Bewildered, he reflexively let his left arm drape around her shoulders and his right arm to stretch across her hip.
"What–"
Felicity placed a soft kiss right over his Bratva tattoo and just snuggled closer. Her left hand crept up to lay over his heart, allowing soft streams of moonlight to diffract through the diamond adorning her fourth finger. A moment later, Oliver felt a small gust of cold air enter the room, and he frowned.
"Felicity, did you just turn on the air conditioning?"
"Yup," she answered, popping the "p" sound.
"You know it's snowing outside, right?"
"Yup."
"So?"
"So... if I'm not going to burn up all night, I'm going to have to make some accommodations."
Oliver couldn't help himself and let out a small chuckle, letting his right hand drift down her hip and thigh and up the hem of the shirt to cover her slightly rounded stomach. She scrunched up her nose, and he pressed a kiss to her forehead. "You're beautiful."
"Yeah, tell that to me in six months when I'm big as a house," she retorted.
"Doesn't matter. The fact that you just turned on the air conditioning when it's eighteen degrees outside just so I can hold you makes you the most gorgeous woman alive."
Felicity laughed and smiled up at him. "To be honest, I was about to do it anyway," she admitted. "You're not the only one who doesn't sleep as well without his adult teddy bear… Shut up."
Oliver just grinned at her and pressed a kiss to her lips. "Goodnight, Felicity."
"Sweet dreams, Oliver."
This time, the dark wasn't nearly as terrifying.