If you're following Seven Days, don't worry, I'll finish it! Just removing some writers block before I get started back into it.
I've incorporated some new spoilers from 3x05's promo pictures, but the timeline doesn't really add up so just let it slide! :P I may turn this into a series of soulmate fics because that's my all time favourite trope but for now you've just got this one. It follows majority of season 2 until it goes AU at the end of 2x14.
Summary: Oliver doesn't remember the moment he met his soul mate, probably lost in a drug or alcohol infused haze. Felicity does. SOULMATE AU
Read, review, favourite, whatever guys! :)
Disclaimer: I do not own Arrow, or the characters, or DC comics, etc.
If Felicity had a dollar for every time someone commented on her soul mate mark being unique or funny or sweet, she'd have no money. Because no one every saw her mark. Well, besides her mother, and her, assuming her father stayed long enough for when it appeared on her first birthday. That's what happens when you grow up with the name of one of the most prestigious families in America on your lower shoulder. Her mother made her wear clothes that always covered it, one of the only good things she did as a parent, which meant zero bikinis for Felicity, but she felt keeping her secret hidden was worth it.
No one really knew how it came around, soul mate markings obviously predate written history, so it's just considered one of life's great mysteries. Felicity doesn't like mysteries. She should be glad, she guesses, the mark shows you the first words your soul mate will ever say to you. Bright red before hand, then switching to black like a tattoo when the words are spoken. Some people have plain markings that they have to check the colour of every time they hear the words 'hi' or 'excuse me'. Some let them know on the path they will follow down; a boy she grew up with had 'good morning Dr Edson' tattooed across his forearm. Some were more ominous, her best friend had 'come with me if you want to live' painted across her right thigh, which no doubt caused her parents a lot of grief. Turns out she met the guy at comic-con - the words turning from a bright red to black in an instant - but hey, some markings are just bad omens from the start.
She'd known who her soul mate was since she could read, some would say it was a gift, but she felt that having the words 'Oliver Queen. Can I buy you a drink?' weren't confidence inspiring as she grew up. Sure, she spent several years fantasizing of when they would meet, Felicity Smoak, tied to the heir to a multibillion dollar company. But as the years went by, and Oliver Queen became a common person of interest in the tabloids, the temptation wore off. Playboy billionaire Oliver Queen, always getting what he wanted, his behavior reminded her too much of her mother's boyfriends, and she eventually lost hope, planning on leaving him behind, she didn't need a soulmate, she didn't need anyone. She could do this. So she kept her shoulder hidden, wore the tape specifically designed to cover marks over her shoulder when it was exposed, and she tried to move on.
On Oliver Queen's first birthday, the words '"I'm not here to help you tick something off your bucket list, Mr Queen." appeared on his upper left abdomen. Moira couldn't decide if she was anxious as to what would elect a response like that to her son, or amused at his soul mates confidence in the matter. She decided to just wait and see. When Oliver was 9 he met Laurel Lance, who's first words to him were 'are you my soul mate?'. The answer was a decided no, but the two hit off a friendship despite Laurel's obvious disappointment and Oliver's disinterest in the matter. It took another 7 years before she began to understand why his soul mate said the words printed on her sons stomach, and in the end she hoped that she would be able to tame the party animal her son was turning into.
Felicity was 18 when she met her soul mate, and she was celebrating with the few friends she'd made in Vegas before leaving for MIT the next day. Her friends were off dancing while she sat at the bar when it happened. A person folded themselves into the seat next to her.
"Oliver Queen. Can I buy you a drink?"
"I'm not here to help you tick something off your bucket list, Mr Queen."
Her reaction was instantaneous, something she'd rehearsed in the past few years since she'd undergone her not so quiet rebellion against her mother. It was the only reasonable explanation that she'd been able to find as to why Oliver Queen was asking her for a drink. Her being Felicity Smoak, black hair, black everything, more eyeliner than the Pharaohs of Egypt. It was a defensive maneuver she'd decided upon in case she found herself in this situation. But against all her rehearsal, that didn't stop her heart rate from picking up as she looked at his furrowed brow, and immediately she began babbling.
"Not that I think you have a bucket list! I mean, of course you probably do, you're Oliver Queen. But I wasn't insinuating that you had 'get with a goth' on your bucket list. Oh god I shouldn't have had that last drink please shut me up."
Queen continued to stare at her, his brow furrowing further like he was trying to solve a complex math problem, it was then Felicity noticed that the guy was completely smashed, which was then further proved when his entire posture changed into surprise and enthusiasm.
"That's my soul mark! That's what my mark says! That means you're my soul mate! Wow!"
Felicity blushed as he stared at her, his eyes were glazed and she found herself wondering just how much he'd had to drink. "Yeah I guess it does."
"Hey can I ask you something?" Felicity shifted uncomfortably. She'd rather he not but there wasn't a lot she could do about the situation. "Can I kiss you?"
"Wait, what?" Her heart began jack-hammering as she stared, wide-eyed at the man in front of her.
"Well, yeah! You're my soul mate! I can kiss you, right?" This could not be happening, she thought. She meets her soul mate and all he seems to be focused on is the physical side. He grinned cockily at her and she couldn't help the swell of anger in her.
"No, no you can't kiss me, but I have to be somewhere, so goodbye, Mr Queen." And with that she turned on her heel and all but ran for the exit. She'd made her choice, she wanted to be an individual, she didn't need her soulmate, but still his voice calling after her echoed in ehr head.
"Call me Oliver. Hey, hey where are you going! You can't leave I'm your soul mate!"
She went to MIT, and she moved quickly to top of her class, creating programs and hacking her way into secure data bases. But the formerly red mark, now black as coal on her back still made her question her decision. Should she have given him a chance?
Of course, a year later when the Queen's Gambit when missing, it didn't matter either way. She didn't cry, no she didn't have a right to. But she flew to Starling City during her holidays to visit the memorial at Queen Consolidated. It only took her 3 hours there to decide that Starling City and Queen Consolidated were where she wanted to be. She tried to think it had nothing to do with the fact that this is where Oliver grew up, his home, but she couldn't help mourning over her lost chance. She knew it was her fault - well, partly, Oliver had a part to play - but the realization that she no longer had anyone that she would be able to completely rely on shattered her resolve. She didn't want to live her life with nobody, she missed her friends, and she missed her mum.
So she cleaned up her act. She died her hair - again - blonde this time, she found new clothes; new, brighter clothes. And she changed for the better.
Then, of course, he came back.
Oliver doesn't remember the night he met his soul mate. Well, not fully, he remembers shots in the limo on the way to the club with Tommy, he remembers waking up the next day with a splitting headache in bed with a girl and looking down to find that his soul mark had changed colour. It only takes one proper glance at the girl sprawled on the other side of the bed to know that she isn't his soul mate. The only feature he remembers is dyed black hair with purple streaked through an image of that hair walking away from him.
He didn't even find out her name.
Oliver groaned, and threw himself back onto the pillow. One girl, and he screwed it up.
Of course, the Gambit capsizes, and then Oliver finds he has limited time to think of his soul mate. The few times Slade, Yao Fei or Shado commented on the writing on his abdomen, the time Ivo told him he could take him back to the mainland and return him to his soul mate, the time Amanda Waller told him that she was capable of finding her if Oliver didn't do what she asked.
Oliver avoided thinking about her, but if one thing became clear over the five years that he was away, it was that he was glad she left that night. She deserved better.
You could say that when Felicity returned to her apartment one night to find all local news stations showing the same news item - 'Oliver Queen is alive." - that she was a little bit shocked. She cleaned out her ice cream supply, then cleaned out the new tub from her impromptu shopping trip.
She stress eats.
Eventually, she succumbed to the food coma awaiting her, deciding that she won't approach him, if he wants anything to do with her, he'll find her.
Which he does.
Just not under the circumstances she expects. Initially she's too shocked to string a fully functioning sentence together, which, of course, leads to her babbling her way through the fact that his dad is dead. But her shock runs out after two things become clear:
He doesn't remember her.
He is a terrible liar. He spilled a latte? Seriously?
It's not long before he's left and she can appropriately hyperventilate over the fact that her soul mate has not only come back from the dead, but was in her office, with obviously no memory of her. She wonders, briefly, if he actually is a good liar, and he somehow found her, then decided to make up ridiculous reasons to go see her.
Of course, that's not how it works out.
No, instead she's given a notebook, and then her boss is abducted, and she's scared she will be to, yet she finds herself going to Oliver and asking him if she can trust him. She can, apparently, and then he returns the favor. By passing out in the backseat of her car because he's been shot.
When she manages to take him to his base of operations/secret lair, she'll be honest and say she stares a lot when she sees her mark on his abdomen, along with the giant scar that runs diagonally through it, ruining her words. But then the fact that he's dying registers and she doesn't have time to think for a while.
After Oliver wakes up, she contemplates asking him, seeing what he knows, but then she chickens out and lets herself become a part of their vigilante team.
Nothing changes for a while, she eventually finds a friend in both Oliver and Diggle, keeps her innuendos to Oliver at a bare minimum. Soul mates are only brought up once, sitting in Big Belly Burger with Diggle and Oliver, they're discussing Olivers plans to ask McKenna out, and she finds herself unable to stop herself from blurting out -
"What about your soul mate"
Oliver tenses, before looking up, "what about them?"
"It's just... I mean... I've seen your mark, it's black. That means you've already met them, and I'm assuming McKenna isn't your soul mate or it would have taken a much shorter time for you two to reconnect, so I was just wondering..."
Oliver laughs softly, it's a forced laugh, so Felicity doesn't smile in return, just watches and waits, her heart thumping in her chest. "I met her, but... I don't remember. She met Oliver Queen from before the island, I don't blame her for not wanting anything to do with me."
"What about now? Don't you want to look for her?"
"No. She deserves better then me." Felicity mulls this over, unable to stop the squeeze in her chest. "What about your soul mate Felicity? Have you met them?"
She smiles sadly as she looks down at the plate in front of her. "I met him, he just wasn't ready."
When the Glades fall, Felicity finds herself unable to move on from the past 7 months, she decides that the city needs her, or at least that's what she tells herself when she jumps out of a plane and onto an almost deserted island.
Time passes again, Sara returns, Roy is injected with mirakuru, and then joins Team Arrow.
Then Oliver and Sara get together.
She knows Sara's already met her soul mate, Nyssa's marking present on her hipbone. But apparently her and Oliver have decided that they can still be together despite not being soul mates. Felicity tries to act like it doesn't hurt, like it doesn't feel like her heart has been ripped open watching them. It's ridiculous, they may be soul mates but it isn't romantic. You can have platonic soul mates, that's what this is. Except it isn't, not for her at least. But Oliver is happy, and he doesn't need her like that, so she just tries to smile and continue doing what she does best.
When she gets shot saving Sara from a bullet, she doesn't expect the repercussions.
First there's Sara, thanking her for saving her life. Then there's Oliver and Diggle, charging into the room and freezing when they see Sara crouched on the ground beside Felicity, who is slightly shocked that a bullet can hurt that much. Then she's being carried by Oliver back to the car, and they sit in silence while he scowls at her from the seat beside her. She's not surprised he's angry, she went behind his back and now she's injured and he no doubt blames himself.
It isn't until she''s dosed up on 'asprin' and Sara's stitching up her shoulder that she realizes. She hears Sara's sharp intake of breath as she pulls down the shirt and she can feel the light touch of her fingers as she traces the words.
"Felicity, is this your soul mark?"
"Hmm?" She replies, swaying in her seat. "Oh yeah, my mark, my soul mate! Isn't it - oh my god! Don't tell him!" Felicity twists in the table, gripping Sara's wrist who's wide eyed and staring. "You can't tell him! Please! He's happy! He doesn't need me!"
"Felicity?" Felicity whips back around at Oliver's voice. He's half turned towards them, face furrowed in concern. "Is everything alright?"
"Yes!" She answers quickly, all but yells. "It's fine! No biggie. We're okay."
She can feel Sara tense behind her, before she sighs and relaxes, "yeah, we're okay."
Sara breaks up with Oliver. He's surprised, but not particularly hurt. He knew it would happen, he just doesn't know what triggered it.
"Why, Sara? I'm not asking you to stay, I'm just... what caused this? Is this..." He swallows, trying to keep everything under the surface. "Is this about Felicity?"
Her eyes snap up to his and she looks shocked for a second. "What about her?"
"About my... about my feelings for her. Because you should know that nothings ever going to happen between us, I can't do that to her, she deserves better. She deserves to find her soul mate." It sounds strangled coming out and he can't stop the rise of jealousy in his stomach at knowing that she's already met hers, and one day she may leave the team, leave him for that person.
She walks back over to him and he can feel her hand on his abdomen. He tenses, not from the touch, but the location, she's tracing his soul mark. "Don't you ever want to look for her, Ollie? Doesn't it hurt you?"
Oliver swallows, staring straight ahead, trying to ignore the pain in his chest. "Everyday. I want to find her, but she chose to not be with me, and I'll respect that choice. She deserves better." So does Felicity, they both deserve better.
Sara smiles sadly. "You don't know that Oliver, maybe she's waiting for you."
She leaves before he can comment, and Oliver sighs.
Life continues for them, mirakuru returns, and they continue to try to find the culprit. Everything comes to a head one night when it's just Felicity and Oliver in the foundry. She's sitting in her chair, trying to decode the new security system Iron Heights put up and Oliver is behind her on the salmon ladder. She's watching as the input code attempts to get through their firewall and absentmindedly scratching her shoulder when she hears him stop.
She's so absorbed in her work that she doesn't notice Oliver until he places a hand on her shoulder and she jumps in surprise, letting loose a little shriek.
"Oliver! You scared the crap out of me!"
He's frowning down at her, eyes focused on her shoulder. "Felicity, is your shoulder alright?"
She stiffens, her heartbeat automatically picking up a mile a minute. "Yeah, yeah, its fine."
"You keep scratching it. Is it hurting? I could check-"
"No! No it's-it's fine. Nothings wrong. Don't worry about it Oliver."
"Felicity just let me check, okay! I don't want it to get infected."
"Oliver-"
"Felicity." Felicity closes her eyes, trying to keep her heart rate under control. This is it, she can't hide it any more, he's going to see. "Felicity, I'm just going to check your injury okay? I won't sneak a peek." He adds on, amused by his own joke and Felicity forces a weak smile.
She nods, then closes her eyes and tries to breathe deeply as he unzips the back of her dress and pulls it back to look at her shoulder.
Silence reigns in the foundry.
All Felicity can hear is the thump of her own heart as Oliver stands immobile behind her. Not a word is spoken, until she hears Oliver let out a breath, and she can feel his fingers tracing over her mark, the wound from the Clock King left forgotten.
Nobody speaks for a moment and Felicity keeps her eyes closed as she waits for the reaction. She doesn't know what to expect, will he be angry?
"Felicity..." His voice breaks slightly, so soft and full of emotion that Felicity can feel her eyes begin to burn. "Is this... is this your soul mark?"
"Yes."
"Why didn't you say anything?" His voice is still soft, like he's too awed to talk louder, in case he breaks the moment or wakes up. Felicity opens her eyes and turns to face him. His eyes move from her mark to her face, eyes flitting around before setting on her eyes.
"Because you weren't ready. When I met you or when I met you the second time. And... and then Sara happened and I didn't want to-"
"Felicity." His voice cuts her off as he stares down at her and his hand moves to cup her face, thumb stroking her cheek almost absently. "It's you. I... I never recognized you, but you knew. I mean-" Oliver laughs softly, looking up at the ceiling. "You have my name tattooed on your shoulder."
"Yeah, yeah I do." Felicity replies and can't help the smile that spreads over her face. Oliver grins in reply, looking down at her.
"Of course it's you, it had to be you." Felicity's breath hitches in her throat at the look on Oliver's face. It's a look of pure love and adoration. "I'm going to kiss you now." He whispers to her, his face approaching hers.
"Okay." Felicity responds, staring at him, his face is inches from hers and her eyes shutter closed as he presses is lips soft, but firmly to hers.
Let me know guys, I know it isn't top quality but my writers block was killing me and I just love soul-mate fics and I had to get it out!