Something is bothering her.
Oliver noticed it right away, but she hasn't say anything, so at first it was only a sensation.
Now he's certain.
They've been on the road for five months, and they've been the best five months of his life. They're in love and free to be together without being afraid to be chased or killed.
They've travelled along the coast and ended up in this little rental house on a deserted beach, and it was paradise.
At first he was afraid that the change in their relationship was too sudden, from just love each other at a distance, to share everything together, every moment of everyday was maybe too much for them.
He was wrong.
As soon as they reached their first stop of their escape, they were in each other arms. Finally sharing what they had held inside them for far too long. And from that moment, all came so naturally that it almost felt like it was meant to be. And he actually started to believe that.
Being around her, doing normal stuff around the house, sharing memories, making new ones and just being themself in love and happy, made him realise that this life with her, is what he wants.
He knows her expression when she wakes beside him in the morning, he knows what she likes for breakfast, he knows that she can't cook anything beside a cup of coffee, he knows that she likes to sleep wrapped in his arms, he knows that she needs to hear him say that he loves her.
Finally…he knows how to love her.
So he also knows when something isn't totally right with her. And he notices that from a couple of days, she's distracted.
When he's cooking and she's sitting on the counter watching him, her eyes slips away in thoughts that he doesn't reach. When they're lying in bed after making love, and he's wrapped around her, she locks their fingers together and stares at their joined hands, going somewhere else in her mind.
He doesn't say anything for a while, respecting her privacy.
One night, he wakes to find the bed empty. He calls for her immediatly, until he sees her from the window. She's laying on the sand, the water reaching her feet time to time…and finally he decides that it's time to talk.
Putting a pair of cargo pants on, he walks on the beach toward her. When he's near her, he stops, observing her. She's laying down, open eyes staring at the stars, hair like a halo on the sand, and just when he's behind her, he notices that she's whispering something to herself.
He gently sits next to her and she jumps in surprise, placing a hand to her heart.
"Jeez, Oliver! You almost gave me an heart attack!"
He sits, turning his head down to her. "I woke up and you were gone, i was worried." He says quietly, studying her.
She closes her eyes for a second, then stares back at him. "I couldn't sleep."
She looks conflicted and genually sorry for leaving him in bed alone, so he lays on his elbow, his face near hers.
"Are you okay?" he whispers, raising his hand to brush away a blond lock from her face.
She turns her head to face him, hand seeking his, locking their fingers together. "I'm fine."
And she smiles.
Above the many other things that he learned about her, one is that she can smiles with her heart, or only with her head. That smile was from the head.
"Have you ever watched the stars from the city? I just realise i didn't. Ever. And i just wonder how they look like from there, you know…because here, they're beutiful. Can we see them from back home? They look the same as here? More close…or more distant."
He stays quiet at her words, but raises their joined hands to his mouth, kissing the back of hers; his pointing eyes never leaving her blue ones.
She sighs heavily. "I'm sorry…I don't know what's going on with me."
Oliver kisses her hand again. "Wherever is bothering you, we can fix it."
At his words she turns back to him, meeting his eyes again. And when he sees the disconfort and the conflict right under the blue, he starts to worry.
"I love you." She says, placing a hand to the side of his face, her fingers tracing the line of his cheek, and then his mouth.
"You're worrying me."
She slips her hand to the back of his neck, making him lean down until they're kissing.
He kisses her with all the love he has, burying his finger in her hair and tugging her close.
When they both need oxygen, he stares back at her with an encouraging look on his face.
"This has nothing to do with my feelings for you." She takes a deep breath.
"I-i think i want to go home."
Silence falls between them.
His eyes leave hers for a moment, travelling back to the ocean, and when he meets hers again he sees fear and worry staring back at him.
"You..uhm, you're not happy?" He finds difficult to says the words, because the thought of him, loving with all his heart their months together, while maybe she was having second thoughts, just kills him from the inside.
She sits up immediatly, his face in her hands, making him look at her. "Oliver, i'm happy. I'm the happiest person alive. You have to believe me when i tell you this."
"Then…Why?"
She lowers her head for a moment. "I miss John. I miss QC. I miss working and our life there. I miss helping people…"
Then her eyes meet his again. "But…it has nothing to do with us. I love you. I've loved every single day, every single second that we spent together in the past five months, and i want to keep having those days forever. And that's why i'm torn and i can't sleep, i want to go back…but at the same time i don't! And it's eating me alive!"
She shakes her head in exsasperation.
"I'm afraid that if we go back…I don't know, something is gonna tears us apart again, and i can't…"
A single tear escapes from her eye and she wipes it away immediatly. "I don't want to go back if that means that something between us is gonna change. I love us, like this. I prefer stay away from Starling, from what we were back home…rather then lose you again, bacause this time…i won't survive."
His look softens and his heart starts beating again at her words. He places a hand to the side of her face, leaning toward her until their foreheads meet.
He doesn't get the chance to speak because suddenly she takes his hand in hers and starts talking again, struggling to get the words out.
"So, tell me. Tell me that you don't want to go back and we won't, we'll stay here. Tell me that we'll be happier elsewhere and i'll follow you wherever you wanna go and we'll never go back home. Just tell me…Please."
As soon as she stops talking she closes her eyes, breathing heavily and she squeezes his hand, nervous.
He moves a lock of blonde hair away from her face.
"You're my home."
It took a few seconds for his words to sink in her mind, and then she's smiling. This time, a real one.
"And you're mine." She whispers back.
"We can go back if you want to." He says, taking her in his arms.
"But-"
"Nothing is gonna change for me Felicity. I love you. I want to be with you. And i don't care where we are, as long as i can fall asleep with you in my arms, and wake up next to you in the morning." He whispers to her forehead. She sighs in his neck. "But what if being back in the city…i don't know. And the Arrow? If we go back to our night job, i mean…"
His hand travels to her neck, making her look at him again.
"We can figure it all out together. You know we can. I won't allow any of that to get between us. Ever again."
She places her hand on his cheek.
"I'm just afraid to leave this place…i don't know. Being here with you, just the two us…it made me love you even more. And i didn't think it was even poss-"
He kisses her.
When they broke apart, Oliver stands without speaking, offering a hand to her. She looks at him in confusion for a moment, then she takes it.
He takes off his pants without breaking eye contact with her, her eyes travels down his body for a moment and when they lands back on his face, she blushes lightly. He smiles, taking a step toward her he places his hands at the her sides, where his t-shirt lands on her body, asking permission with his eyes.
When she raises her arms over her head, he takes off her shirt, tossing it on the sand.
He places an arm around her waist, embracing her completly, their faces so close that they breathe each other air.
With her in his arms, Oliver begins to walk them backwards into the sea.
When the warm water reaches their shoulders, she looks up at him and she finds only love and adoration staring back at her.
Her hands travel from his shoulders to his face, and he takes her even closer to his body.
When he speaks, his voice is low and inclined with emotions.
"The only thing that i care about is you. I want you to know that i'll be with you…here, in Starling, doesn't matter. I'll be right next to you everyday, as long as you want."
Her heart skips a beat at his words and she knows that there are tears in her eyes ready to fall.
"Forever. I want forever." She whispers leaning to his face, not even a breath between them.
"That's all i ever wanted."
Their lips finally met, and it feels like a promise.
Oliver's hands travel on her body, and when they reach her sides, he lifts her in the air. She gasps in surprise, and when she sees him nodding above her, she tilts her head back.
The sky is dark, clean and full of stars…the moon illuminating their bodies.
And in that moment, she knows.
Doesn't matter where they are, as long as they're together, the stars are always gonna look the same, just like them.
With you, doesn't matter where.
