Diggle and Felicity had both been on board with his crusade together for a week when they finally found out that Oliver was a vampire.
When he said vampire, he didn't mean a vampire vampire, as in a vampire that drained humans dry of blood. Oliver was an energy vampire; during his second year on the island, with Anthony Ivo, the man had subjected him to extensive, intense experimentation and somehow had changed his genetic make-up so that the only way he could survive was by drawing energy from others.
He hated his ability. It meant that he had to actively avoid touching people skin-to-skin when he arrived back from Lian Yu, and try and hold back his instinct to pull the energy into himself to feed. By fighting against that need, he often found himself lethargic and light-headed; he only fed when he absolutely had to, when he knew that his health would suffer if he didn't and even then, he only took miniscule amounts of energy from people; but he made do, because taking small amounts from a lot of people eventually added up. He knew that he was causing his family pain and confusion by avoiding them, but he didn't want to find himself accidentally feeding on their energy when hugging or brushing up against them. He saw the effects from his feeding on people, and he knew, he just knew, that one day, he would lose control, he wouldn't be able to stop, and that he would most probably kill that person.
When Diggle had joined him on his mission and began training with him, Oliver had started wearing leather gloves all the time, but he still couldn't help occasionally taking a bite or two. All energies had a specific taste, a specific feel to them, and Diggle's tasted like a mixture of curry, gun oil and musky sweat. He knew that his bodyguard was curious about why he wore gloves when sparring with him, about how after a training session Oliver would try to stay away from him and avoid touching him, but Oliver didn't want to admit why. The truth was that since Diggle was one of the people he drew energy from the most, he was beginning to gravitate towards him to feed, and whatever happened, he didn't want to become addicted or reliant on Dig for energy.
Then Felicity had joined. He hadn't touched her before, and when he drew energy from her for the first time, by placing a hand gently on her elbow when leaning over her to glance at her computer screen, he inhaled sharply and suddenly, his eyes growing wide as a tiny amount of her energy trickled into his system up his arm, sending tingles all the way down his spine. Her energy was… delicious. She tasted like rich honey, succulent fruit and silky-smooth cream all at once. He immediately wanted more, sucking up little by little, but hours later, when Felicity looked exhausted and tired, when she couldn't walk without swaying and struggled to even type out code, he guility swore to himself never again.
Except on the day both Felicity and Diggle found out about him being an energy vampire, he was bleeding out from a stab wound in the stomach and he was desperate for energy, starving for it, because energy could heal him and he couldn't stop himself from grabbing Felicity's hand as his two partners worked on his wound above him and yanking on her energy, dragging it into himself ravenously, panting with his eyes squeezed shut in agony. His subtlety was extinguished and he didn't care if secrecy flew out the window. He needed energy if he wanted to survive, and it didn't matter who from at that moment.
Felicity gave a low gasp and flinched away, pulling her hand out of his instantly. She looked scared as she questioned shakily, "Oliver...what…?"
A low whine escaped his throat as his feeding source was cut off. "Please," he choked out, blinding reaching out for her again and whimpering in pain and fear when he did't even have the strength to hold up his arm. "Felicity, please..."
"What's going on?" Dig asked, eyes narrowing as he paused, gauze in one hand and medical alcohol in the other.
"I think," Felicity answered slowly, seemingly shocked by his revelation. "That Oliver's trying to steal my energy somehow."
"... What? How?"
"... Felicity…" He exhaled pleadingly, voice shaking and laced with pain. A full-body shudder shook him as he croaked, "I won't take much, please, I promise; just enough to get through the night. Felicity, please…"
She seemed hesitant at first, exchanging a glance with Diggle, who was looking down at him suspiciously, with some confusion still apparent, but then after a silent moment, she braced herself to take his hand. "This is so weird…" She muttered, before slipping her hand into his.
As soon as they made skin-to-skin contact, their energies connected, and Oliver gasped heavily, eyes slamming shut. An explosion of sweetness and rich flavours burst in his mouth as her energy began flowing through him, making him feel alive; he could actually feel his strength returning, her energy healing him and he sobbed in relief, clutching to her hand like it was his lifeline. His wound was beginning to heal; he could feel the skin knitting together, new cells forming, blood replenishing. Her energy was a drug, and he was an addict.
"Oliver, you need to stop," Diggle's voice cut through his euphoria after a number of minutes. He caught a glimpse of Felicity's face: she was pale, gaunt and looked like she was about to be sick, unsteady on her feet, but her energy was just incredible and he couldn't stop. "Oliver, STOP."
He couldn't pull away. He just sucked, and sucked on Felicity's energy, feeding off of her, unable to stop. After a few seconds, when Diggle seemed to realise that Oliver wasn't listening, that he wasn't going to let go of her, he darted forwards, grabbed his wrist and yanked him physically away from her, very careful not to touch him on bare skin, but breaking his connection to Felicity.
"The hell, man?!" Diggle shouted, immediately jumping forwards to support Felicity, sweeping her up into his arms, and it was only then that Oliver saw how drained she was; she couldn't even stand, couldn't keep her eyes open. He had done that to her. Oliver could've killed her. Guilt flooded through him and Diggle looked as horrified and angry at him as Oliver felt, growling, "Why didn't you stop?!"
Wrapping his arm around his wounded stomach and forcing himself into a sitting position, ignoring the small stabs of pain, he tried to reach out to pull Diggle's closer so he could check on Felicity worriedly, but Diggle pulled away and before Oliver even knew what was happening, Diggle was pointing a hand gun at his head, standing over Felicity protectively from where he had gently set her down in her chair. Freezing, tensing up and preparing himself for the shot, to feel even more pain, Oliver gazed at him unflinchingly, allowing the man to see his self-blame and self-loathing in his expression.
Diggle didn't lower his gun. "Stay away from her, Oliver. I'm not going to let you hurt her."
"Okay," he murmured, lowering his eyes, trying to hide the tears brimming there. "Okay, I'll stay away. You should - you should take her home. Get her something to eat. Let her rest." He took a shuddering breath. "I - I understand if you don't want to come back anymore, if both of you want to leave."
Diggle's face remained a mask. "I think you owe both of us explanations before we decide that, Oliver." He examined the archer carefully, and his eyes settled on the half-healed stab wound. "You gonna be able to deal with that on your own?"
He nodded, swallowing. Diggle gently picked up Felicity in his arms and exited the Foundry without another word, leaving Oliver alone on the med table, covered in blood and feeling like he deserved to die for what had just happened, for what he just inflicted on Felicity. He had sworn to himself not to feed off of her, and he had just broken that promise.
The next day, after offering Diggle and Felicity explanations, telling them vaguely about the experimentation and how in order to survive he had to take other people's energy, they agreed to stay onboard. At first, Oliver didn't understand why, and voiced that sentiment aloud, wondering why they would want to stay and help him with his crusade when he was a monster. Felicity looked upset at that, and very pitying. Even Diggle's blank mask cracked at that comment.
He thought that they were going to take their leave for the night to process the information when Felicity came forwards and tried to take hold of his arm. Immediately, he leapt away, rushing to the back wall to try and stop her from touching him, but Diggle was standing behind him and obstructed him; Felicity caught his bare elbow and that euphoria overtook him again with a sharp gasp, but before he could allow the delicious energy to overtake him, he flinched and pulled away, shrinking from her until he ended up against the back wall.
"Oliver, I'm trying to help," Felicity said softly.
"I don't want to hurt you," he whispered. "Felicity, I almost killed you before."
"I know you didn't mean to," she responded. She paused, before her voice took on a commanding and more dominant tone as she ordered, "Take off your gloves."
He glanced down at the leather gloves covering his hands before glancing back up at her. "What? No."
"That wasn't a request, Oliver," Felicity said warningly. "You heard me. Take. Them. Off."
"Felicity…" Diggle said in a quiet voice, looking clearly at her and not at Oliver. "Think about what you're doing, what the consequences may be -"
"I know perfectly well what I'm doing, Dig," Felicity interrupted calmly. "Oliver, I'm not going to ask again. Take off your gloves, please."
"What are you going to do?" the archer asked suspiciously, slowly pulling them off and pocketing them. When he caught sight of her expression, he immediately knew what she was planning. Shaking his head in horror, he protested, "No, Felicity. No, I can't let you do that. Please, no."
"Stop pushing me away," Felicity said, a lot more gently this time. She began very slowly approaching him from where he was pressed up against the wall. "You need to feed, Oliver. You're letting yourself starve on a weekly basis. You need the energy, and if you feed more regularly -"
"Don't touch me," he hissed, interrupting her when Felicity tried to reach to take his hands, his breath stuttering in his throat. "Don't - don't touch me."
"Okay." She pulled away again. "Okay, calm down, Oliver. Your breathing is getting a little fast there." She glanced back towards Dig, who was watching cautiously, arms crossed tightly across his chest. "Would it make you feel better if Dig stood a little further away? So you don't feel so surrounded?"
"Yeah," he croaked.
Diggle moved without her even asking, backing away so he was on the other side of the room, distracting himself by taking inventory of their medical supplies. Oliver managed somehow to get his breathing back under control and stop his hands from trembling after a few minutes.
"Are you okay, now?" she questioned gently. When he gave a small nod in response, she took a tiny step forwards; he tensed and she waited until he relaxed again before taking another step. "I'm going to take your hands," she said.
"No," he replied instantly.
"You can take some energy from me. You're allowed to, Oliver, okay?" Felicity reassured him, standing quite close to him then, still not touching him, but placing her hands out so they were mere centimetres away from Oliver's own hands. "Nobody is going to get mad at you, not when I'm giving you permission."
Her hand twitched towards him, and instinctively he pulled his hands away.
She stilled her hands and steadied her gaze on him, so his cerulean eyes met her ocean blue ones. "You're not going to hurt me, Oliver," she whispered. "I trust you."
"I just… don't like touching people," he muttered. "I could kill them so easilt. I could kill you, Felicity."
"Alright," she said after a moment, frowning. She turned around, flicking her blonde hair behind her ears and dragged two metal chairs over to the wall for the both of them, urging him to take a seat in one of them while she settled in the other. Straightening her glasses and licking her lips, she said, "I'm going to take one of your hands, Oliver -"
" - Felicity -"
"And we're going to talk, alright?" she continued, ignoring his protest. "You can feed, you can take my energy, but we're going to have a conversation while you do it."
"I don't like this, Felicity," Diggle called from the other side of the room suddenly, making them both jump. "How'd you know he won't drain you dry like he tried to before?"
"I didn't mean to before!" Oliver erupted in a snarl, eyes flashing over towards his bodyguard.
"Dig, maybe you should go," Felicity suggested.
Diggle scoffed. "No way am I leaving you alone here with him, not after what happened -"
"Okay," Felicity interrupted sharply. "Let's set something straight. Oliver is not dangerous. His ability has the capability to be dangerous, but how he uses it, that's up to him. We know that Oliver has to feed and take other people's energy to survive. If you and I -" she motioned between herself and Diggle, "- provide him with enough energy to get by, then he won't need to go stealing energy from others." She turned to Oliver. "And you, you need to stop being so afraid of touching people. We can get this under control."
And she took his hands.
Flavour exploded once again. The honey, fruit and cream taste made his mouth water and he almost lost himself in that dream-song, falling into that delightful elation where he was floating along on the wave of her delicious energy. His fingers tightened around her wrist where they were braced and he wanted to draw her closer, bury his face and head under his neck near her collarbone to get another one of those beautiful, addictive energy outbursts, surging into his body.
"What does it feel like, Oliver?" came the faint, muffled voice through the intoxication.
"What?" he responded distractedly.
"What does it feel like to feed on energy, Oliver? Focus on my voice. What does it feel like?"
'It's - it's great," he replied fuzzily, lifting his head to meet her eyes, knowing his own were unfocused and probably alive with energy and light. "It's like adrenalin but - really good adenalin, you know?"
"Yeah," Felicity chuckled weakly, already looking visibly more tired. "You look high. Like you're on the good stuff. Not that drugs are good, I mean; recreational drugs are bad, they mess up your health. Your pupils are massive though."
"Hmm… you taste amazing…" As soon as he said it, he internally whacked himself over the head, because it sounded creepy as hell, but Felicity gave a soft laugh.
"Yeah? What do I taste like?"
"Like… the sweetest honey and juicy fruits and sickly whipped cream."
"That's very specific."
"Hmm, yeah… way better than Diggle…"
Felicity laughed again, drawing his attention from where his hands were gripping her wrists to her face. She looked exhausted now, but there was still life dancing in her eyes, happiness. "What does Diggle taste like?" she asked teasingly, glancing towards where the man was standing with his eyebrows raised.
Oliver screwed up his face in distaste of the remembered taste, still floating on Felicity's energy, but feeling a lot more grounded. He could focus on her a lot more. "Curry and gun oil and sweat."
"Well that can't be very pleasant," Felicity chuckled.
"Hmm, no, not really."
Felicity inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly, and then Oliver caught sight of her face, properly, and realised that she was exhausted. Her hands were trembling slightly in his grip. Almost immediately, the euphoria of the feed vanished and he released her wrists, stepping away from her in horror that he had done it again.
"I'm so sorry -" he tried to apologise, whispering, but then Felicity reached out and gripped his his hand again.
"No, Oliver, it's fine," Felicity smiled, and it was a geniune smile, despite her exhaustion. "You stopped feeding by yourself. That's great. See, you've already got more control over it."
"You're exhausted," he murmured, brushing his hands over her pale cheek, just under the frame of her glasses, but then he realised that he was touching her skin-to-skin and he drew back again.
"No, Oliver, wait -" She held his hand in place. "Look."
A brief moment of silence. Realisation hit him. He was touching her, skin-to-skin and he wasn't drawing her energy. Usually any sort of skin-on-skin touch automatically pulled some energy, but he wasn't pulling from Felicity, despite the contact. Amazed and astonished, his eyes shot upwards to meet hers, and her beautiful blue eyes were filled with tears of joy and happiness at the shock on his face. Diggle strode forwards, unfolding his arms to join them, and even he managed a smile.
"I'm - I'm not... " He was stunned. He pulled his hand away from her cheek to brush against her hand and once again, nothing happened. No pull to feed, no stealing of her energy. "I'm not feeding from you." He inhaled shakily. "Felicity, I'm not feeding from you. You - you did it. I'm not feeding unconsciously anymore. You taught me how to stop myself."
"No, we taught you how to stop yourself," she corrected gently, her blue eyes glittering. "And I knew we would, Oliver. You're a lot stronger than you think."
Oliver swore in that moment that he'd never been so in love with her in his whole life.