Disclaimer: I don't own Arrow or DC Comics. It's fanfiction.

A/N: A Selina Kyle is Felicity's mother series. All one-shots because long stories tend to die on me. Plus, I know this type of "who is Felicity's mother" scenario has been done before. This is just my take on it. Olicity will be in the future as this one is written like a prologue. I wish I could apologize for how rough it is but if I spend any longer on trying to fix it, it'll never get posted.

Feedback is nice. It's good to know if there's interest.

Title: Felicity's Backstory

For all her words and candidness, Felicity Smoak rarely talked about her family.

It was complicated. Ambiguous. Rocky. Even taxing. But most of all, it was private.

She had a father who bailed on her mom before she was even born. When she was old enough to be curious, a quick net search revealed that he had died in a prison altercation four years after her birth.

Yeah.

It was hard to say whether or not she was disappointed. She had rather mixed feelings about him.

And her mother?

Well, she was her mother.

Selina Kyle was orphaned at a young age, living on the street as a street urchin with quick hands in the slums of Gotham, and had gotten pregnant by her boyfriend at sixteen. She raised her the best way a mother could during trying times; making the most of what she had and ensuring her child was priority number one.

But Selina was also cold, calculating, and callous. She never pampered Felicity and she was strict, having Felicity adhere to a set of rules which left no question as to the consequences if broken. She enforced propriety and a rigorous education, leaving little time to play and explore. She wasn't overly affectionate and had no qualms about critiquing qualities she was not fond of.

It was just unfortunate that Felicity didn't grow up the way she wanted.

She was a good child, yes, but she was too soft and too gentle. She cried too easily. A reprimand from her mother or a cuss word from a peer could prompt tears to well in her big blue eyes. She lacked grace and was extremely clumsy, with both her body and her mind. Despite all of her mother's offensive and defensive lessons, Felicity could never get anywhere more than mediocre, and her social etiquette was trying. She was notoriously bad at following rules—if her mother was a Slytherin, then she was a Ravenclaw with the worst parts of Gryffindor because she was impulsive and thought of her own well-being last. It drove her mother nuts. And yeah, she was also the worst liar. Her mother tried her best but Felicity was too earnest and was a terrible actress.

However, Felicity was smart.

Crazy smart. She excelled academically and was a genius with computers. She could be witty if she slowed herself down and sly if she focused. She had a fondness for acrobatics even if she wasn't very good at it but it made for a good party trick. She also had a thing for speeds and thrills. Don't ask why. There was a reason why she joined the superhero business with ease and she loved it when Oliver flew her out of danger. Maybe it had something to do with growing up in the dark parts of a city like Gotham. Or maybe it had something to do motorcycle her mother tried to hide from her.

Yet for all her curiosity, Felicity never questioned her mother's odd range of expertise.

She never questioned why they were able to move out of the slums to a nice house before she hit puberty.

She assumed it was a new job.

Or why felines zoned in on her mother like catnip.

She certainly wasn't going to the first to call her a cat lady.

She never questioned why her mother stayed out all night long or why in a blue moon, she came home with scrapes and bruises.

She was concerned but her mother getting into a fight wasn't exactly shocking.

Or why her mother seemed unsettled in the presence of Batman, Gotham's own crime-fighting vigilante.

Granted, that one time, she and a bunch of other girls had been saved by the Bat from trafficking thugs and she was too rattled to think about anything else.

However, when two crazy psychos, infamously known as supervillains Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn from the papers, broke into her house demanding goods from a heist, it was time to pull the blinders and question what the fuck kind of crap her mother was into.

Well, her mother wasn't home but she was.

It was to this day she had her odd fashion sense to thank when it came to saving her behind. With a frumpy outfit on, coupled with a tight hair bun, square glasses, and a horrible accent, she masqueraded as a cleaning maid, who after much lengthy and strained conversation, was kicked out of the house.

The two found nothing of course. Selina was nothing if meticulous in her ways but she had been furious. Something had led them here and while the two supervillains assumed they had the wrong lead, it was a huge wake up call. Their safety was not guaranteed, especially in light of her mother's nightly activities. So she sold the house, grabbed Felicity, and went on a year-long trip around the world.

Can you blame her if Felicity, at seventeen, was an angry, indignant bundle of hormones?

All the weird things happening in the past six years? Yeah, that was her mom, thieving and causing mayhem as the Catwoman. No wonder she was worried about Batman, she was the bad guy! Felicity was technically the child of a supervillain! And she hated cats.

Cats were horrible little demons.

And like her mother, had kept this horrible secret from her.

As soon as she turned 18, she applied for college, got into MIT, and proceeded to dorm there on a financial plan because she wanted no part in the stolen money. It was rough but she had skills and had little trouble securing a decent job. Her mother however, had been torn between pride and hurt. Felicity was making her way through life without all the struggles she had but the burned bridge between them had a long ways to go before repair.

It took a long time for Felicity to understand her.

Everything in Selina's life had been gray, her morals and decisions; life on the streets had done that to her; but Felicity was an innocent babe thrust into her arms. She tried her best to make Felicity tough and independent but Felicity was too idealistic and hopeful for a child born in a rough neighborhood. She had been weak and awkward and her mother never knew what to do with her.

It was through an email that Selina revealed the Batman had inspired her to become a vigilante.

Felicity knew her mother obsessed over jewels and all things priceless but with the wealth, she could have brought all the comforts and security a girl like Felicity could need. That revelation brought her a lot of guilt. Her mother had to break the law to ensure Felicity didn't run into trouble every day after school or keep a gun in the drawer when she was home alone.

Slowly, they started correspondence again, through letters, emails, and eventually phone calls. Selina had showed up for her graduation, looking happier than before, and Felicity was relieved to discover that much of her hard feelings had disappeared with time. Felicity had landed a job at Queen Consolidated; she had always wanted to see the west coast, but it took a while to convince her mother that she was not moving away because of her. Selina had moved back to Gotham a year ago, still moonlighting as Catwoman, but stealing from the bad and occasionally helping the good.

A semi-pseudo Robin Hood.

Felicity could live with that.

But she never did understand the reason why her mother continued the vigilante business. Well, until she joined Team Arrow.

Maybe she was her mother's daughter after all.