The progress of this fic can be tracked as follows. I reblogged this gifset: olicities dot tumblr dot com / post / 109586795232 / olicity-au-everything-is-black-and-white-until (without the spaces and everything; you know the drill), talked to my lovely friend Lara (theraggedyblog on tumblr), got excited and wrote this.

My first proper foray into the Arrow fandom (I wrote a bit on Oliver and Felicity moving in together, but I never posted it), so I'm really sorry if it's horrible.

Disclaimer: Title from OneRepublic's 'Life in Colour'. Prompt from the above gifset. Most of the dialogue from the show.

It had begun with her name – uttered by a then stranger – that was what had pulled her into a life of colour, a life that showed her she could be more than just an IT girl.

"Felicity Smoak?"

She spun in her chair, wondering who had come to bother her now – she'd told Danielle that she couldn't help – and was overwhelmed.

By beautiful, bright, bursting colours.

The man who had come to see her – his sweater was grey, his hair blonde, eyes blue. The wall he was standing in front of was turquoise. She blinked rapidly at the sudden inrush of colours – smiled. "Hi, I'm Oliver Queen."

She came to her senses, removed the pen she'd been chewing from her mouth – it was red, she realised, at the same time as realised that she was never going to get used to this. "Of course. I know who you are—" my soulmate "—you're Mr. Queen."

"No," he said, but his voice was light, friendly, and he hadn't noticed a thing. "Mr. Queen was my father."

"Right, but he's dead." She shook her head. Right, point out to the grieving son. "I mean, he drowned. But you didn't, which means you could come down to the IT department … and listen to me babble." She tapped the pen against the table, trying to force herself to stop doing exactly that. "Which will end. In three … two, one."

Oliver smiled again, producing a battered laptop. Felicity barely restrained herself from clucking her tongue in sympathy for the machine. "I'm having some trouble with my computer and they told me you were the person to come and see. I was at my coffee shop surfing the web, and I spilt a latte on it."

She looked up from the poor, poor laptop in order to show her disbelief. "Really?"

"Yeah."

"'Cause … these look like bullet holes."

"My coffee shop is in a bad neighbourhood."

She cocked her head to the side, sure that he could see the 'are you serious?' branded onto her eyeballs. He smiled once again.

"If there is anything that you could salvage from it, I would really appreciate it."

"Mm-hmm," she nodded, and was left alone.

"Of course," she muttered, picking up her pen again. Of course she had found her soulmate – and she wasn't his.

"What are you doing?" asked Felicity, walking into the Foundry, where Barry was working in a makeshift lab.

"Uh, just messing around with something," he answered, placing a beaker on a stand and removing his safety goggles.

"Shouldn't you be trying to figure out what's causing Oliver's hallucinations?" she suggested, lightly resting a hand on his shoulder as she walked past.

"Sample's still being scanned," he assured, turning to face her as she sat next to him. "Shouldn't be too much longer.

"Good."

"You're really worried about him, huh?" he asked.

"He takes crazy chances. Even when he's not hallucinating about beautiful island girls."

"Hmm. The other night, I asked you if you liked Oliver."

"I told you," she said, though the lie threatened to tear her up inside. "I don't."

"I remember," he nodded. "But … if … you did, I could see why. I mean, Oliver Queen. He is a billionaire by day and saves the city by night."

Felicity laughed. "Sounds like you want to date him."

"I just have a little experience with liking someone who doesn't see you the same way."

She smiled softly. "He's my soulmate, Barry."

"He's – of course," his smile disappeared. "But you're not his." It wasn't a question.

Felicity shook her head. "It's the same for you, isn't it? This person who doesn't see you the same way?"

He glanced down at his watch, and looked almost apologetic as he turned on the laptop.

"Protests continue into the final countdown for tonight's ignition of S.T.A.R. Labs' controversial particle accelerator," said the reporter. "S.T.A.R. Labs' founder Harrison Wells promises a new era of scientific advancement is at hand."

"I guess I won't be back in time to see them turn it on," said Barry, almost ruefully.

"Barry …" she was reluctant to ask. She tugged on her blouse, pointing out one of the designs on it. "What colour is this?"

He sighed. "Yellow."

Felicity nodded. "What's her name?"

"Iris," he replied, switching off the laptop again and checking the progress of the scan on Oliver's blood. "We grew up together. The world has always been in colour for me, ever since I was five years old. Of course," he chuckled, "people thought it was my overactive imagination. Didn't help when I tried to tell the police what happened when my mom died."

"I'm sorry," she said, reaching out to touch his arm. "About your mother. And Iris."

"I'm sorry about Oliver."

She was going on a date. With her soulmate. Who didn't feel the same way about her. Couldn't't.

"Hi," she said softly, standing to hug him.

"Hi."

He chuckled as they sat.

"What?"

"Nothing. I'm just—"

"Nervous?" she suggested. It was certainly how she felt.

"Yeah."

She smiled. "Line forms behind me."

"Scotch. Neat," said Oliver to the waiter who stood expectantly at the table.

"Just the water for me, thanks," she smiled, when he turned to her. Oliver stopped the man with a hand on his arm.

"Are you – are you sure? The booze might sort of help with the whole—"

"The alcohol is not going to mix well with the three benzos I took," she cut him off, smiling again to the waiter, who nodded and left.

"Am I being crazy?" asked Oliver, and Felicity laughed softly. "I mean, what do we have to be nervous about?"

"Well, we've already exhausted every topic that one would normally talk about on a first date," she pointed out. "And a second date and a third date, and … every date, actually. And I've already seen you shirtless," she added, cursing the words as soon as they'd left her mouth. "Multiple times. Shirtless all the time."

The arrival of their drinks brought a welcome end to her babbling.

"Thank you," she said, and Oliver did the same. She took a gulp of her water.

"There are still … a few things that you don't know about me."

"Please. Name one," she said, drawing her chair in closer to the table.

"The five years that I was away … I wasn't always on Lian Yu."

"I thought so. Where were you?"

"Hong Kong … for one. And I have been thinking a lot recently about … my time there. The choices that I had to make."

"Those years sound like they were full of a whole lot of suck," she said, sad that she couldn't say anything to make him feel better.

He smiled softly. "I'm sorry. I'm just … a little out of my element. The entire time that I was gone, I could never … completely trust someone. And when that goes on for so long, you stop … seeing people for people. You see … threats. Or targets. And when I decided to come home, I … I just didn't know how to turn that part of me off. Then I walked into your office."

She smiled faintly.

"You were the first person that I could see as a … a person. There was just something about you."

"Yeah," she said, rubbing her head. "I was chewing on a pen."

"It was red."

She stared at him, feeling her heart twinge almost painfully. "It was – you can – am I—"

He smiled a brilliant smile. She wasn't sure if she wanted to kiss him or hit him. "You're my soulmate, Felicity."

"You didn't—"

"Do you remember when I told you that because of what we do, I didn't think that I could be with someone that I … that I could really care about?"

"Yeah, I remember," she nodded.

"So maybe I was wrong. Wrong to think that way. Wrong to keep this from you. I'm sorry."

Felicity smiled, and, for the first time since she had seen her first colour, she dared to hope.

And then those hopes were destroyed in an explosion.

"I'm sorry," said Felicity, walking into the Foundry. "Something came up." She realised the scene before her. "Oh."

"Let's give them a minute," said John quietly, after shaking Oliver's hand. He and Roy left. Felicity didn't move.

"So you're going?"

He nodded. "Mm-hmm."

"To Nanda Parbat?"

"No, it's a neutral site," he patted the bag he packed to bring with him, adding one last thing to it. "It'll be fine. I'll come back. Thea will be okay."

"I wish that sounded more convincing," said Felicity, placing her handbag on a chair and approaching him. "And I wish you wouldn't go, but I know you better, so I'm not going to ask you to stay."

"I appreciate that."

"But there is one thing I need to ask you to do." She walked closer. "And you're not going to want to."

"Well, if it's you asking, I'll do it."

She desperately hoped that were true. "Kill him. You have to kill Ra's al Ghul. This is a duel… Oliver, with one of the most dangerous men that has ever walked the earth."

"I wouldn't be doing it if I didn't think I could win."

"I don't doubt that. I don't doubt that you can beat him. I am terrified that you won't kill him. Because that's not who you are anymore. And I am so afraid that Ra's al Ghul is going to use your humanity against you."

Oliver pulled the bag over his head. "Felicity, I honestly don't know if I'm a killer anymore. But I do know two things. The first is that … whoever I am, I am someone that will do whatever – whatever– it takes to save my sister."

He pulled her into his chest, and pressed a kiss to her forehead. She squeezed her eyes shut, fighting back tears.

"And the second thing?"

"I love you."

She stood there long after he had left, only moving when Diggle pulled her into a hug.

It was early in the morning when she lurched awake. Fumbling for the switch of her bedside lamp, she glanced around her room.

The sight that greeted her was not unfamiliar – she had seen it every day as she went to bed.

Until she had met Oliver.

The weight of what she was seeing bore down on her, crushing her.

She cried until the sun rose, casting a grey light over the world.

She kept the truth from the other two, knowing that they couldn't give up on Oliver. Not when there was any sliver of hope. It could have been a disease in her eyes. She couldn't be sure.

She couldn't believe that he was dead.

Until proof arrived, in the form of bloodied sword that she could no longer see as red.

"This is your fault," said Felicity, voice low and angry. "Oliver went there because of you. Because of what you did to Thea. You made her a target for the League so that he would have to challenge Ra's just to save her." She sniffed. She was not going to cry in front of this man. "You killed him."

"You are right. And I will live with that guilt for the rest of my days. I am truly sorry," said Merlyn. "I can see how much you loved him. I remember the first time I couldn't see in colour any more – when I knew my wife was dead."

"Save it, Merlyn," said Digg, sounding very much as if he wanted to take out his gun again. "You're enjoying this."

"Ms Smoak is correct. I orchestrated the matter to eliminate the death warrant Ra's placed on my head. Oliver was that way. His death means my own."

"Good," said Felicity, staring him down. He left, and she reached out to the touch the sword – marred by the blood that was black in her eyes.

"Felicity—"

"Yes, he was my soulmate." She couldn't meet Roy's eyes. "And now he's gone."

She found herself returning to the Foundry, despite her previous declaration that she was 'done'. It drew her like a moth to a flame; was where she'd spent most of the last three years of her life.

John was there, alone. He smiled faintly as she entered.

"Oliver would want us to keep doing this. He brought us in for a reason, and—" he gestured to the screen that displayed the amount of people they had to track down all over again, "we can't just leave this as it is."

"I know," she sighed. "I'm sorry, but you can't blame me for what I did. If I lost anyone else—"

She was cut off by a sudden blinding rush of colour, grabbing Digg's sleeve to keep herself upright.

"Felicity?" he asked, concerned, a hand bracing on her shoulder.

She smiled, much to his apparent confusion. "He's alive, Digg. Oliver's alive."

I haven't seen 3x11 or 3x12 yet, so I may come back and add in the reunion scene. We'll see.

I don't think we were ever given names for Felicity's coworkers, so Danielle's one of those =)