Okay, so this is going to be, like, three chapters? Maybe two. I've got it planned out and so it shouldn't be longer than I think its going to be.
Anyway, this has been sitting on my computer since, wait for it, August last year. Seriously. I kept going back to it and then leaving it and now it's seven months later and I've decided what I'm going to do with it. A lot of that time was simply writers block and how it occurred while writing this particular story.
But, whatever, I know what I'm doing with it and I think it's sweet.
I hope you guys enjoy it!
(Title's from James Bay's 'Need the Sun to Break' off the Chaos & Calm album.)
Part I: The Beginning
Felicity doesn't mean to begin a relationship with her boss, it honestly just happens.
She's twenty-four and fresh out of MIT, eager to put her degree to good use and the disaster of her college relationship behind her. He's nearly ten years older, a man with a playboy past and a firm grip on the company his family built.
They're not supposed to meet.
She is so far below him in the corporate food chain that they should never have met in any way, shape or form. He is literally a giant in her world, someone who people who know people who know other people talk about because they had a meeting with him once.
It doesn't bother Felicity, really.
Oliver Queen wasn't the one who hired her; he's just the person whose name is on the building.
At least, that's how Felicity thinks of him when she starts her new job.
It starts on a Tuesday.
It's late at night and she's down in the IT department, rewriting code that has too many discrepancies for her to feel comfortable showing her supervisor. It's past nine o'clock and the empty container of her take away Italian is sitting at her elbow when her desk phone rings.
Felicity snatches it up automatically, "hello, IT department."
"I need someone to come up and look at my computer. I've lost some files and it's refusing to let me recover them." The voice is brusque and commanding and just on the wrong side of rude.
It sets Felicity teeth on edge only a little. She doesn't appreciate the tone, the fact that he's interrupted her work and she's maybe just a little tired. Felicity's sure that those factors are the only reason for what pops out of her mouth in reply.
"Only if you say please."
There's a pause, as if the person on the end isn't sure what to say in response, and it suddenly occurs to Felicity that she isn't sure who she's speaking to. She's turning to glance at the phone to see which line it is when he suddenly speaks again.
"Please. I'm on the 50th floor."
He hangs up.
It only takes Felicity thirty seconds to process that not only had he added a please but that the 50th floor was where the office of the CEO is and that she had, more than likely, just asked the CEO of Queen's Consolidated to say please.
She's hoping that she's wrong.
It turns out that she's not wrong.
When she reaches the 50th floor, Felicity's heart sinks when she realizes she's most definitely said something that might get her fired.
She can see the lights on and the man hunched over the desk through the glass walls of the CEO's office and is absolutely sure that Oliver Queen is waiting for her. There would be no other reason for someone else to be in his office, at this time of night.
Felicity finds herself running a hand over her hair, smoothing down the tumble of blond that she's pulled into a messy bun earlier and trying to straighten the navy pencil skirt that she's been wearing for way too long.
Felicity finds she's grateful that she wore her one pair of really good heels today and so, with confidence she doesn't actually feel, she taps on the glass door before walking in, totally not prepared for whatever's going to happen.
Nothing could prepare her for the second Oliver Queen glances up and his intense gaze catches hers.
Felicity is stunned by the heat that suddenly slams into her as she watches him unfold himself from his seat, his six-foot-something frame straightening and Felicity's breath catches as she takes him in.
He's a delightfully rumpled wall of solid muscle dressed in steel grey pants and a white button down that's unbuttoned at the throat, loosened navy tie and sleeves rolled to his elbows. His eyes are intensely blue, his blond hair cropped closely to his head and his jaw shadowed by stubble that makes him just a little dangerous.
He is so unbelievably gorgeous and Felicity can only stand there and hold his gaze because she's stunned by how attracted to him she is.
"Hello." He says, taking a step towards her and tilting his head slightly.
"Hello."
It's literally the only thing Felicity can say as he takes another step towards her, his eyes darkening with curiosity as his eyes rove over her, taking her in and cataloging everything about her.
The look he's giving her is sucking words from her brain and Felicity can only stare at him as his eyes return to hers.
Because, maybe, this sudden attraction isn't one sided.
"I'm Oliver Queen." He says, his voice a little low and a lot less commanding than on the phone.
He then pauses and looks at her expectantly.
It takes Felicity a moment to realize he's asking for her name and she finds herself blushing as she realizes she hasn't offered it yet.
"Oh, I'm Felicity. Felicity Smoak. I work in the IT department. Way below the 50th floor. But you already knew that. Because you called it earlier and I answered." Felicity snaps her mouth shut because his presence hasn't managed to suck all the words out of her head.
Oliver's lips tilt slightly as Felicity counts to five in her head and hopes that she hasn't somehow managed to get herself fired in the last five seconds. He doesn't say anything for a moment, continuing to watch her intently before he gestures towards his desk and the computer sitting on it.
"I did say please, Miss Smoak."
Just like that, Felicity is reminded of why she's actually in the CEO's office on a Tuesday night and it's not to discover a striking attraction to the man.
So, she nods and moves towards his computer, choosing to ignore the way he follows closely behind.
She's here to fix his computer.
That's all.
Felicity convinces herself the next morning that she'd imagined the whole thing.
Men like Oliver Queen aren't interested in women like her. It's…like a law of nature or something. Felicity knows this and is completely okay with it. She knows that it is what it is and that whatever it was that had snapped between them was probably half imagined.
He would have forgotten about her by the time the door had clicked shut behind her last night, Felicity's sure about of this.
Knowing this is not quite enough to explain the fact that he lingers in her mind, long after she's left work that night.
But it still doesn't stop her from convincing herself that it was nothing. Like a trick of light, Felicity's sure the attraction she'd felt was something that flashed and would be gone if she ever ran into him again.
By the time she walks into work the next day, Felicity's convinced of this.
Felicity finds she's proven wrong when her supervisor steps into her cubicle.
"Felicity, Mr. Queen has requested you in his office. Something about losing his files?"
Her supervisor, Don, is looking at her curiously, obviously wondering why the CEO has requested her and not one of the more senior techs. Felicity pauses in her email and stares right back at her supervisor.
She isn't entirely sure what she's supposed to do right now but she does have some vague notion that saying no to the CEO is a bad idea.
"Oh. Okay. Does he want me to go up now?" Felicity asks and Don nods.
"Yes. Take your time. He's our priority."
Felicity has no choice but to obey her supervisor. Standing in the elevator heading towards the 50th floor, Felicity reminds herself of her decision that morning.
CEO's aren't interested in IT grunts and that attraction? That was a figment of her imagination.
Felicity stays firm in this decision right up until she steps out the elevator and comes face to face with Oliver Queen.
The attraction from the night before springs to life and Felicity swallows because his eyes darken almost immediately and his mouth tick upwards when he sees her.
"Hello again."
"Hi."
Felicity realizes that maybe she's wrong about her imagination.
He catches her as she's leaving that night.
Felicity's standing in the lobby of Queen's Consolidated and trying to figure out if she wants to cook or if she wants to get take out when the elevator doors slide open and he steps out, his phone pressed to his ear.
Felicity had turned when she'd heard the elevator and freezes the moment she spots him. She can tell the second he spots her because he murmurs something into his phone and he hangs up.
"Miss Smoak, you're here late again." He says, slipping his phone into the pocket of his suit and eying her.
Felicity isn't sure what she's supposed to say to that so she shrugs, "our deadline doesn't really sleep, Mr. Queen."
He huffs out a laugh at her words. "Neither do stock markets."
It flusters Felicity a little that he's laughed and she tries to not fiddle with the strap of her bag. She's silent for perhaps a moment too long because he glances at his watch and then back at her again.
"Are you hungry?"
Felicity jolts at the question. "I'm sorry?"
"Are you hungry? I know a great place that does burgers. I was heading there now, if you'd like to join me."
Felicity doesn't know what to say to that. Because CEO's aren't interested in IT girls and she met him two nights ago and she should say no to this because he's the CEO and her boss. It's not right for her to say yes and Felicity knows all of this.
She also knows she's attracted to him in a way she's never been before but that doesn't disrupt the fact that she doesn't actually know him.
It's all those reasons why she stumbles over her answer.
"Um, I – I'm not really sure that it's," Felicity stutters and then she sees the small flare of hope in his eyes and she's done for. "Burgers sound really good, right now."
His lips tilt and Felicity finds that the half smile is just as attractive as the first time she saw it and she offers one in return.
"Great." He says and Felicity finds herself smiling shyly back at him. They stand there like that for a moment, smiling at each other and it's actually kind of amazing. "Please call me Oliver."
Felicity tries not to blush at his words. "Sure. Felicity." She says it softly and he nods.
Felicity doesn't entirely know if this is a good idea or not but right now, with him smiling at her, she doesn't really care.
For all that Felicity doesn't know about him, she is surprised by where he takes her.
The burger place he takes her to is in the Glades, a suburb of Starling City that Felicity hasn't ventured into yet, and is in no way the restaurant she's expecting to go with him. It's a faded homage to the 1950s and Felicity finds that it's actually charming.
The waitress appears to know him and the other patrons ignore him and Felicity notices that he made a point of turning his phone on silent as they walked into the restaurant. He's left his jacket and tie in the car and Felicity finds that the relaxed look suits him just as well as the rumpled look.
The waitress takes her order but doesn't bother to take his and Felicity eyes him curiously.
"How often do you come here?"
He shrugs. "Often enough for them to not be bothered by me."
Felicity nods and then glances around the restaurant. The waitress who'd served them is chatting to the cook, there's a group of teenagers a few booths down, whispering loudly and holding hands under the table and an the elderly man sitting at the counter, sipping coffee and reading the newspaper.
This place is very different from anything she'd expect him to frequent and Felicity glances back at him to find him watching her, his expression guarded.
"Why did you bring me here? Or ask me to dinner, at all?"
The questions tumble out of her mouth and Felicity finds herself surprised by them. She hadn't really figured she'd thought past that spark of attraction and the hope she thinks she saw in his eyes but he doesn't look that surprised that she's asked these questions.
He doesn't answer right away. If anything, he seems to be considering her question and how to answer it and Felicity finds herself wondering what he's going to say with baited breath. There are a million ways he can answer her question, a million ways for him to say anything really and Felicity suddenly wonders if she really wants to know the answer.
Right up until he rests his elbows on the table and leans on the, eyes trained on her face and a soft smile pulling at his lips.
"It's been a long time since someone asked me to say please."
Felicity blushes but doesn't look away from him.
Oliver Queen is interesting.
Felicity doesn't know why this information surprises her. But it does. It's almost as shocking as discovering that he finds her just as interesting as Felicity finds him.
He is all the things Felicity thought he would be, worldly, charming, with a wealth of experience – some good, some bad – behind him. He is accustomed to people jumping when he snaps his fingers, is select in what he does and doesn't say and carries the privileges that have been bestowed upon him since birth like a noose around his neck.
He is also thoughtful, in possession of a dry sense of humor and intelligent. He listens when she talks and Felicity delights in the fact that he's happy to offer his opinion on a variety of television shows that she devours weekly.
It's amazing; really, how quickly time flies as they sit in the restaurant and talk. Their food arriving interrupts them only briefly and, even as they eat their meal, they snatch conversation between bites.
By the time he walks her to her car, Felicity finds that the first snap of attraction she felt in his office is nothing compared to the butterflies in her stomach as he bids her goodnight.
Nothing at all.
He calls just before her lunch break the next day.
"Hello, IT department."
"Felicity?"
Felicity is absolutely sure she goes red as soon as he says her name and she turns her back to the entrance to her cubicle, as if someone might overhear her conversation with him.
"Is there anything wrong with your computer?"
Oliver pauses and Felicity closes her eyes in embarrassment at what falls from her mouth. Because she somehow doubts the reason he's calling her is for tech support. Before she can take it back or make it worse, Oliver lets out a breathy chuckle.
"No. I just wanted to thank you for joining me last night." Oliver says and a ghost of a smile touches her lips. "It's been a long time since I've…enjoyed a dinner like that."
"Oh, well," Felicity nibbles on her bottom lip for a second as her stomach does a strangely exhilarating swoop at his words. "Well, thank you. I had a great time as well. Thank you for inviting me."
Felicity isn't sure how she knows Oliver's smiling at her words but she knows that he most definitely is.
It's a smile that matches hers.
They keep having dinner after that first night.
The first few times it's been a tentative meeting in the lobby or the car park, where she's caught him or he's caught her and dinner comes up because they're both leaving late. Then it slowly morphs into him calling her, asking if she was staying late and would she like to go to dinner, maybe?
It grows into a silent agreement where, at least twice a week, she'll meet him in the lobby of Queen's Consolidated and they'll go to dinner together.
Their dinners are actually fun. He turns his phone of silent and Felicity leaves hers in her bag and they make a point of actually connecting with one another. She tells him about her childhood as the genius daughter of a single mother, he mentions the epic tantrum he had at ten, when his sister arrived into the world.
They talk; they bond over experiences that are in no way shared, at all. Felicity knows that somewhere, in the recesses of her mind, that she's laughing over her mother finding eight year old Felicity with her dismantled cell phone with Oliver Queen, the CEO of Queen's Consolidated.
She knows in the recesses of her mind that he's worth more than she can ever imagine being worth, that his life growing up was as far away from the child of cocktail waitress in Las Vegas, that his late teens and early twenties were filled with misdeeds that filtered through the entertainment news.
Felicity knows she had an opinion on Oliver Queen when she started at her job, she knows that she probably had a misconceived notion of him as well. Somehow, all of that doesn't matter when he's sitting across the table from her, smiling at whatever it is she's just said.
It doesn't matter at all.
"You know, you never told me why you chose to come to Starling City."
They've graduated to coffee on the days they can't have dinner and Felicity's tentatively blowing on her latte when Oliver asks the question.
They're sitting in a coffee shop down the street from Queen's Consolidated, a little after three and it's mostly empty. There are a few people dotted around the cozy space and the baristas are dutifully frothing milk, everyone's involved in their own little world and it makes it easy for Oliver and Felicity to keep to each other.
Felicity glances up at him, over her dark frames and he quirks an eyebrow at her look. As if asking her why she's surprised that he would ask. She's not entirely surprised; he'd asked something vaguely similar the other night at Indian and she'd dodged it.
"I thought we didn't have a lot of time this afternoon." She tries and takes a sip of her latte when he tilts his head.
He's wearing a black suit today and the blazer's pulling across his shoulders as he leans forward on folded arms, resting on the table. He's heading to an out of office meeting after this and Felicity tried very hard to not blush when she realized he'd made time for coffee with her.
"Felicity."
She meets his gaze because his tone isn't demanding but indulgent even though she knows he probably won't let it go.
"You made me the best offer. Well, not you personally, but your company. It made me the best offer. I liked the idea of living in Starling City and," he's smiling at her a little now and Felicity shrugs slightly. "A relationship ended badly. Really badly. Getting a fresh start after having it hang over me my final year? Seemed like a really good idea."
Oliver considers her words, examining her closely and Felicity tries really hard to not fidget under his gaze. He looks like he's trying to figure something out and Felicity has no idea what up until he offers her small smile.
"I'm glad you decided to come to Starling City."
Felicity asks him about his job when they're strolling to the Italian restaurant down the street from Queen's Consolidated one night.
"Why did you become CEO?"
It pops out of her mouth because she'd overheard two of her older coworkers discussing how surprised they were by how long he'd lasted in the job and how well the company was doing with him at the helm. Felicity hadn't really meant to listen but it was hard not to when they were praising the man she had dinner with almost nightly.
Oliver pauses for a second at her question. "Because my father died and my mother's way of coping was disappearing into herself for months. I was too young to be a CEO but a Queen needed to be at the helm."
Felicity nods like she understands when, truly, the enormity of what he's saying is beyond her scope of experience.
It's most likely beyond anyone else's scope of experience.
"Did you – " She starts, not entirely sure what she's going to ask when Oliver interrupts her suddenly.
"I hated it. I was young, irresponsible and suddenly in the line of fire if my family and my family's company fell apart. I hated it but I wasn't about to let my family implode. So I learned. I learned and here I am."
They've stopped walking and he's turned to face her, an imposing man dressed in an impeccable suit with a wrenching expression on his face. It makes Felicity reach for his hand because she wants to offer some sort of comfort to him. Oliver almost seems surprised by what's escaped and Felicity knows its because he's naturally more reticent than most people.
It also makes her sad.
Because Felicity can't imagine the hell that he must have gone through finding himself in a job where the one wrong move could mean the loss of millions and the redundancy of hundreds at an age where he should have been figuring out who he was and what he wanted from life.
She really, truly can't.
So, she squeezes his hand and tilts her head slightly to smile up at him softly. Oliver looks down at her, the wrenching expression in his eyes fading slightly at her smile.
It still surprises Felicity, even now, after spending all this time with Oliver, how attracted to him she is.
"That's…pretty incredible, Oliver."
Oliver doesn't say anything for a second and Felicity thinks it might be because he's still surprised by what he's said. Right up until he laces their fingers together and his lips turn up in a half smile.
"Thank you. Shall we?"
Felicity nods vaguely and they resume walking towards the restaurant, Oliver shortening his stride to match hers and Felicity leaning into him a little bit more, her hand securely held in his.
He doesn't let go of her hand until they're seated.
Felicity thinks that it might mean something.
Oliver walks her down to her car that night, as usual.
He'd taken her hand again the moment they'd left the restaurant and Felicity had tried to ignore the butterflies that exploded the second he had taken her hand. They're still flapping as Felicity slips her hand from his to find her keys when they stop in front of her red Mini-Cooper.
"Felicity?"
Felicity looks up from her search through her handbag and Oliver's looking at her intently, his eyes dark as they roam over her face. He looks unbelievably serious as he looks down at her and the grip she has on her keys loosens as he reaches to take her hand again.
"Yes?"
Oliver strokes his thumb over the back of her hand for a moment and Felicity tries to ignore the pleasant little jolts that shoot up her arm as he does so. The silence stretches out for so long, Felicity begins to wonder if he's going to say anything.
"When I became CEO, I taught myself to stop wanting anything that didn't have something to with the business. I couldn't be distracted when I had so much to learn and so I trained myself to stop wanting things, anything. My life had to revolve around the company, so it did, it has. For seven years." Oliver says, his eyes intense. Felicity isn't sure where he's going with this and waits for him to continue.
Oliver is silent for a beat and his eyes darken as his thumb continues to stroke over the back of her hand and Felicity finds that the butterflies have turned into bats, beating against her stomach.
Felicity isn't sure what's happening right up until Oliver speaks again.
"I taught myself to stop wanting things and then I met you."
His admission rocks her to Felicity to her core, for so many reasons that don't really make sense and can't be sorted; no matter how much time she spends trying to figure them out.
It had occurred to her, vaguely, that she and Oliver had fallen into a pattern that was almost like dating except Felicity isn't entirely sure that's what she'd call it. She isn't sure what it is, exactly, expect that slowly, ever since that first phone call, Oliver had gradually infiltrated her life until he was her last thought when she went to sleep and her first when she woke up.
It would be terrifying except Felicity's sure that she's not alone in this experience or the feelings that have grown from burgeoning into something much more than she ever expected to feel for someone.
Least of all, someone like Oliver Queen.
Felicity isn't sure when she began to fall in love with Oliver Queen – because she has no doubt what this more is – but she knows that it was before his last admission.
The words had echoed in her head since he'd said them, leaving her breathless and warm from the intent behind them and with the unsteady notion that this was more than she'd ever thought it could be.
That in moving to Starling City and beginning to work at Queen's Consolidated, she'd opened herself up to a relationship that was potentially life changing.
These realizations all occur in the days following what he'd said, leaving Felicity off balance and unsure about what to do with the feelings they'd inspired as those feelings mingled with the ones that she already had.
Oliver was interesting and funny and smart and different and all the things Felicity had never realized she'd wanted until it was put in front of her. He made time for her in a way no one ever had before, calling her when they couldn't go to dinner and never letting on how he'd rearranged his schedule just for a fifteen-minute coffee break at two in the afternoon.
Felicity knows she probably started to fall when he'd called her after their first dinner, knows that she's been slowly drifting towards it every time she sees him.
But it's the first time she realizes this is the beginning of something much more permanent than the tentative beginnings of an office romance.
Well, that's chapter one down. Phew. I hope you guys liked it!
