Tuesday, 12/30/14

Felicity had just finished clocking out when she turned and jumped. Oliver Queen was standing behind her and was just watching her.

"Jeez Oliver. Do you have to scare me every time you act like a ninja and sneak up behind me?" He grinned.

"Sorry." His grin dropped, leaving his face quite serious. "I need to ask a favor of you."

"Okay. Shoot."

"Is there any way that you could cover my shift tomorrow evening? I'm supposed to work 8-6am, but I haven't seen my family much over the past couple weeks and Thea just came home from school to see us all." He took a breath and looked like he might continue, but Felicity stopped him with a hand.

"Yeah. I can do it. I wasn't going to be doing anything tomorrow night anyway."

"Thank you!" He hugged her, pressing a light kiss to her cheek. "You're the best!" Felicity nodded. The things she'd do for that man…

Wednesday, 12/31/14

Felicity actually ended up arriving at the store around 6pm since one of the other front end employees-Sara- got sick and was sent home early. She almost ran into Oliver on her way in; since he had taken her shift instead he got off at 6pm. He waved on his way out and Felicity settled in for what could be a long night.

It was 10pm when Felicity first felt herself getting tired. There was barely anyone coming by anymore so she managed to slip away for a coffee, but after that she was left with nothing to do and she didn't want to bother her friends and their families. She almost couldn't believe she still had another 8 hours to get through.

By 11:30pm she was the only one left there besides the security guard who was hanging out in the back. She hadn't seen anyone in 45 minutes and she was pretty sure she wouldn't actually see anyone else this shift. After another 10 minutes of silence Felicity gave in and started a game of solitaire on her cell phone. Even with the sad lonely feelings she had growing she still managed to let herself settle into the games, so when her phone started vibrating 20 minutes later she jumped. Realizing the time she took a quick solitaire break and sent out texts to her friends that simply said "Happy New Year." She didn't get any texts back right away, but eventually Oliver texted her back saying something along the lines of 'being sorry that he'd asked her to work for him, and how super grateful he was.' The final note was that he was going to make it up to her. No one else texted her back and 15 minutes later she found that she'd made at least 10 paper airplanes. Most of them were scattered on the floor, but Felicity didn't want to get up so she just let them be. When she heard the sound of the doors opening around 12:30 she jumped up.

"Shit!" She was aiming to speak quietly, but it came out louder than she'd intended as she was scrabbling around, trying to get all the paper airplanes she'd thrown across the room.

"Seriously Felicity?" She jolted when she heard that voice and instantly stopped collecting the planes, instead standing up to find out why Oliver was here and not at home.

"Shouldn't you be with your family?" Felicity watched him, extremely confused as to why he'd leave his family.

"Well I'm hoping one day you'll be part of my family. And there is no way that I could leave family behind." It took a moment for Felicity's mind to catch up on what he'd just said.

"Really?" She was surprised. Oliver laughed.

"That's all you have to say here?"

"Uhh… yes?"

"Okay." Felicity couldn't describe the look that crossed his face, but it was concerning all the same. He took a step towards her. "I'll see if I can make it just a little clearer then."

Before Felicity could do anything else Oliver had pulled her into his arms and kissed her. After a minute he pulled his head back, but did nothing to loosen the grip he had on her waist.

"Do you understand?" All Felicity could do was nod. Oliver smiled. "Good." He released all but her hand and pulled her back around the counter.

He pulled a stool over so it was right besides hers and, after she was situated on her stool, he did the same with his.

"So. What are we doing then?" Felicity blinked.

"You're staying?" Oliver nodded.

"What about Thea and the rest of your family?" He shrugged.

"I got to talk to them, but they understood that I needed to do this. They want you to come have breakfast with us tomorrow morning." He hesitated. "That is, of course, if you agree to get dinner with me sometime in the next week." Felicity smiled.

"Okay."

The rest of the night moved quickly now that she had someone to talk to and make paper airplanes with. There was even a little portion of time that Oliver told her he'd watch the counter and that she needed to try to sleep for a little. She eventually agreed, but instead of waking up an hour or two later she woke to Oliver gently shaking her awake.

"Come on." He spoke softly. "We have to get up. You clock out in 15 minutes." Felicity jumped up.

"What? You let me sleep all night?" She was about to keep going when he covered her mouth with his hand.

"Yes. You needed it. Besides no one came through anyway. Now let's get ready so we can leave at 6am on the dot and head back to my house. Breakfast won't be for a couple hours, so I thought we might sleep some."

At first Felicity was unsure of how sleeping in his bed would work, but as soon as she saw it nothing mattered. The bed had a thick duvet and a comforter so within two minutes, she'd flung herself onto the bed. A few minutes later she was all snuggled up in the blankets when Oliver slid in next to her. He could tell she was awake, but only partially. The last thing she heard him say was something along the lines of him telling her that he'd take care of her and that she just needed to relax. She couldn't bring herself to care enough and instead turned to snuggle into Oliver's body. The last thing she remembered was Oliver wrapping his arms around her and pressing a kiss to her head just as she let herself fade into sleep.