A/N: This was actually a comment!fic that came out of nowhere, itsarrowbaby on Tumblr asked, "what do you think Oliver would have said to Felicity when he visited her at QC?" This is what resulted.

"Hey."

"Hey." Felicity's brow furrowed. "Is everything okay? Did Crazy Pants escape?"

Oliver smiled tightly. "No. She's with ARGUS now."

"Okay." She gestured to the seat in front of her desk. "What's up?"

He took a seat, an army of butterflies tearing apart his insides as he thought about her question. Diggle had told him he needed to tell her how he felt, before it was too late; but he wasn't ready to step off the cliff yet. And it was unfair to her to restate everything he already said before. But he needed her to know something, something he hadn't told her yet.

He felt his heart in his throat as he began. "Felicity…I want you to know…that, I'm…I'm trying." He looked into her eyes with trepidation, unsure of her reaction. She just stared back at him with an intense expression that he couldn't interpret, but he soldiered on. "I heard what you told me, the night Sara died, and…thinking of spending the rest of my life without you…that terrifies me more than anything that has scared me before. And I realized, that I don't want to spend my life waiting for death. Not if you're not in it. So, I've been trying. I'm trying to be Oliver Queen."

Felicity stared at him with a suspicious sheen in her eyes, but didn't say anything.

He sat forward in his seat. "I'm not saying that I'm ready right now, because I know I'm not. I'm…I'm so damaged…" He lowered his head into his hands briefly, rubbing his forehead. He looked back up with determination in his eyes. "But at some point, I want to try. With you."

Felicity's breath left in a huff. "Oliver," she started brokenly, "I can't…I can't do this if you're going to change your mind again. You can't keep playing with my heart like this."

"I know," Oliver interrupted quickly. "I'm not going to change my mind. If there's anything I have figured out these past few weeks, is that I am completely, irrevocably, in love with you, and nothing less than everything with you will ever be enough." He stopped to take a few shaky breaths, recovering his composure before continuing.

"I know I don't have any right to ask this of you, but…could you…" He ducked his head, ashamed of himself for being so selfish, but he couldn't help it. "Would you wait for me? Be patient with me?"

Felicity blinked, and two tears left a trail on each cheek. "You're dangling maybes again."

He shook his head. "Not maybe. Definitely. But…not yet."

Felicity took a shaky breath. She looked down at her desk for a minute, and then looked back up. "Can I think about it?"

At that, he felt like a dagger had pierced his gut, and his shoulders dropped with defeat. He closed his eyes against the pain. He might have deserved that. He had left her in limbo for far too long; it was only fair that he get a dose of his own medicine.

He opened his eyes and nodded. "Yeah." He got up from the seat and turned to leave, not having anything else to say.

"Oliver?"

He spun on his heels, a tiny spark of hope blooming in his chest.

She looked at him with a solemn expression. "I will think about it," she promised sincerely.

It was more than he deserved, and the weight in his chest lightened a bit. He smiled at her, and left to go back to the Foundry.