A/N: So this was made after I read a prompt, and I hope it's not too bad.

It's been a long time since I've written fanfiction and it's also the first time I've written an Arrow fic, so it might be slightly OOC,

but let's try and make the best of it.

I hope you like it!

Disclaimer: I do not own Arrow and have had no part in creating the comic or tv series except for being an especially erratic fan.

Chapter One

x

It had started a few days ago. Maybe a bit longer, but Oliver did not want to think about that now. Best not think about those things too much.

He jumped from the police station building onto the flat next to it, staying close to the edge of the building to observe what was happening in the street. A young woman walked the pavement with a brisk pace, stopping to smell flowers when she passed a flower stall. She stood there for a bit, hopping from one foot onto the other, chatting with the man next to her. Oliver waited as the scene played out in front of him. It was a scene he had already seen a few times, but it still made him smile. She would buy the flowers, though she was always visibly wondering if it was bad to pamper herself that much. Oliver knew, because she would always walk away shaking her head at herself. He watched as she bought a single lily and got it wrapped. She walked away, shaking her head as always. As she walked away from the stall, however, she kept glancing at the lily and smiling. Oliver rolled his eyes at her antics.

The petite blonde walked on and Oliver followed her silently.

Yes, it had definitely started more than a few days ago. Maybe a week, he thought. But then, he hadn't known before then. If he'd known, it might have been longer. But it was not like he and Felicity exchanged walking routes daily, so it came as a surprise when she mentioned a certain rough part of the Glades. Dig had been explaining why he disliked his route to Verdant and she had reacted by mentioning her new walking route to the foundry. Apparently "the other way was so much longer". Oliver furrowed his eyebrows as he thought back to how he, Roy and Diggle had convinced her to come to the foundry via another road. They had made her promise she would take the other road and he had to admit that she did go as far as to do that. Only to give them peace of mind, apparently.

It was a good thing he had thought to patrol that side of the Glades that very same night. Oliver shook his head, pursing his lips. Stubborn woman. Sometimes she took on way more than she would be able to handle.

He glanced in the direction she was heading. It was a quiet street she was in now, but there would be more people in her own street. The question was not whether those two streets were crowded, however, but if the streets in-between were.

Felicity looked around at the corner of an alleyway and went inside, making sure nobody was following her. Good. At least she had the common sense to be concerned about her route. The cream-colored heels she was wearing clicked on the cobblestones as she made her way through the alley with a determined step. Oliver followed, crouching lower to keep a good eye on the road in front of her. It was a rough part of the Glades, but somehow Felicity always seemed to cross it unharmed. Or so she thought.

He had been patrolling the area frequently now that he knew she passed through it every night, not always opting to follow her, but mostly dropping by during the day to make sure the shady people in the area had been removed before she would walk through it.

Oliver ran ahead of her, checking adjoining alleys for unwanted guests on her way home. The alley was long and winding, and it took him some time to check it completely. When he did not spot any threats, he ran back. He walked alongside her, watched her stroll through the dodgy street. At the end of the alleyway she turned left, took another right and followed that for a long time before passing through another small alley. At the end of the alley, she stood still for a second, appreciating the view. She followed the long road to the right, where she, like always, waved to someone who was inside an IT-shop and then looked for her keys in front of a large red brick building. Oliver rolled his eyes as she stumbled a bit whilst looking for them. For such a strong-headed woman she surely was weak-balanced. Or maybe she was just clumsy.

Probably the latter, Oliver decided, when he saw her walk up the steps to the front door of her flat building and dropped her keys. She grabbed her keys and Oliver was just enjoying the view, when she abruptly jumped up and looked his way. He fell down on the rooftop of the building he was on and waited a few minutes. When he lifted his head, she was looking at other buildings. After she had looked her fill (Oliver was getting uncomfortable on the cold concrete), she turned her keys in the lock of the big black doors and opened it. She stepped inside her flat building and made the trek upstairs.

Oliver knew this was where he had to leave her be, he had to go meet Sara back at the lair. Sara had said something about cooking for him and some nice desert after, which had made his head swim with possibilities. He took a few more minutes, however, to make sure she got upstairs alright. The lights in her flat flicked on. He could see her put the lily into a vase, put it on the windowsill and then take off her coat. That was it then, he realized, as she disappeared out of view. She was safe.

He just turned to walk away when a person approaching the building caught his eye. A figure with a blue vest was making his way up to the door, jumping up the stairs.

Oliver frowned when the man rung the bell to Felicity's apartment and was let in immediately, almost as if Felicity was expecting the man to come by. Oliver leaned over the edge of his building, opposite of Felicity's flat, a bit. A faint suspicion started to grow in his mind when he saw Felicity open the front door for the man and offer him one of the glasses of red wine that were already in her hands when he came in.

The two clinked their glasses together after the dark haired guy had moved out of view to put away his coat and they leaned in closer as they started talking. Before long, they had moved to the couch next to the window. They were sitting close, too close for Oliver's liking. Not that he had the right to worry about it. Felicity was old enough to make her own choices and if she wanted to date men and not tell him or Dig about it, that was fine. It made no sense whatsoever that he did not want them sitting this close. He should let the two of them be. Besides, he had a date with Sara to get to.

Instead of turning around, however, he watched the two like a hawk. He followed every movement and every look that they shared. His jaw clenched when Felicity put her hand on the man's chest and laughed about some joke he had made. When the stranger grabbed her hand and held it, however, Oliver was suddenly subjected to a strong spark of anger. He shook his head whilst the two of them finished their wine, willing the emotion away. There was not enough time for him to worry about Felicity's activities outside of work. Besides, asking her about it would cause an awkward situation with him admitting he followed her home sometimes. And he sure as hell did not have time for awkwardness in his team. Yes. That was it. The cause of his irritation. That had to be it. It was agitation at the timing of this sudden discovery. And nobody could convince him otherwise. A bit scared by the overwhelming urge to punch something after seeing Felicity so close with a man, he turned away and ran back to the foundry,

Time for dinner.

When Oliver donned his hood in the foundry the next afternoon, Diggle came up to help him with putting away his bow. With a grateful nod of his head, he gave his bow and quiver to John and moved to the back of the foundry to change into normal clothing. When he returned, Diggle was looking at the news on the computer screen. Oliver suddenly noted Felicity's absence and commented upon it.

"She mentioned something about shopping for a dress. Left in a hurry. She has a formal thing tonight, something to do with a friend graduating."

Oliver nodded.

"She's been out of it a bit lately, hasn't she," he noted. Diggle turned around in his chair, arched eyebrows and bewildered look and all. "I mean, dreaming a bit?"

"If you mean distracted, then yeah. But she's still with it enough to focus."

"Is something going on with her? Have you heard anything?"

Diggle looked around the foundry. He stood and put off the computer screen.

"It's called conversation, Oliver. You should try it sometime. It consist of you two talking, asking questions and you replying with more than a grunt or a one-syllable

word."

Oliver glared at Diggle.

"Nice, Dig. I'll try it sometime, but in the meantime, fill me in."

Diggle looked at the wall and sighed.

"Her friend has decided to hook her up with some guy. I don't know how it went, we haven't spoken much the last few days. Bit busy saving your ass. But my guess is, it went well."

"Some guy?"

Diggle chuckled.

"Well, you know Felicity. By the time she'd checked him out completely, police record and all, he was probably not 'some guy' anymore."

Oliver chuckled as well.

"You can say a lot about Felicity, but you can't say she isn't thorough," Diggle said.

"No," Oliver agreed. "But she is naïve if she thinks looking up any information about a person is enough to know they are a safe bet to be alone with."

Pursing his lips in an obvious attempt to disguise his grin, Diggle nodded.

"Maybe you should try telling her that."

Oliver rolled his eyes and walked towards their coats, throwing Diggle his coat before shrugging on his own.

"Will you stop," he snapped. "I can talk with Felicity just fine!"

Diggle coughed, trying to cover up his answer as he put on his black coat.

"Doesn't really show."

Oliver walked up the stairs to Verdant, pretending to have not heard any of it. Diggle hastened to join him after sniggering for a few seconds.

After a particularly long phone call with Sara, Oliver put down his phone on the desk and sighed. They had agreed to have dinner at Laurel's, but Oliver still felt like he was pushing their relationship a bit too much. Laurel should get time to get used to the situation, to be able to act normal around them. They had disagreed on how to go about it, just now, with the sour aftertaste of Sara uninviting him. Naturally, she was irritated that she couldn't parade him around, but Oliver thought there might be more to it. He didn't have time to worry, though, because Felicity and Diggle walked into the foundry. Oliver grabbed his towel and finally got to toweling off some of the sweat that had formed during his intense workout. Felicity saw him, glanced at his torso a bit too long and then ran towards her computer and started tapping on her keyboard quickly.

"Hi Oliver," she mindlessly threw his way and was completely absorbed by the computer within seconds.

"Hi… you," Oliver answered, looking from Felicity to Diggle, frowning at her behavior. It irked him, because he had seen how familiar she could be with Diggle and her mystery man, and he had known her longer than both of them. He gave Diggle a questioning look. Diggle shrugged.

"She's thought of a way to track where Slade may possibly be operating from. Hi, by the way."

Felicity threw up her hand, waving it around.

"Shouldn't take long, just give me a minute."

Oliver nodded and patted Dig's shoulder, then gestured to his phone.

"Hey. I was actually just thinking of ordering some sushi from that new place that Felicity was talking about. Who's in?"

"Me," Felicity called, without looking up from her computer.

"What about Roy," Oliver wondered aloud.

Diggle shook his head, zipping up his coat again.

"He's out helping this campaign in the Glades. Not me, either. I just popped in to tell you I put up those extra cameras near the back entrance. Have to go to that engagement party tonight."

"Oh, that's tonight," Felicity mumbled absentmindedly.

Oliver was struck by her ability to remember things. Sure, Diggle had mentioned his cousin being engaged and a party once, but he would never have connected the dots as fast as Felicity did.

"You looking forward to it," he asked.

Diggle grimaced.

"Not really, the rest of the family is a bit weird. My uncle is into some voodoo shit, so I try to stay away from that most the time. It's just that I quite like this cousin."

Oliver nodded, patting Dig's shoulder again. He swept away the sweat from his forehead, afterwards waving at Diggle, who was walking towards the stairway already.

"Tell me how it went tomorrow, Dig," Felicity called.

"Have fun," Oliver called.

He watched Diggle walk up the stairs two at a time as he was thinking about what Diggle had said earlier. Oliver wondered if now was as good a time as any to start practicing that conversation-thing Diggle had mentioned with Felicity. Might as well.

He grabbed his phone, deciding to order a large variety of sushi to be brought to Verdant. When the door had closed behind Diggle, he consulted Felicity.

"Felicity, I'm thinking a bit of everything. What do you think?"

That made Felicity look up from the screen and gaze at him for a second. She tilted her head and thought about the question for a second, only to realize she had been staring straight at Oliver's abs. Not that that was not normal for her, but she wanted to at least keep up the pretense that she could handle all the nakedness and so she looked away. A blush adorned her face, she knew, because her face was too warm for it to remain its' normal peachy color.

"I'm down," she agreed.

Oliver nodded and he was ringing the company within a few seconds.

She went back to her computer, trying hopelessly to ignore the shirtless man beside her desk. It was not that she could not handle men being shirtless. Not at all. It was just the fact that this particular man was ridiculously handsome, man-candy even, and chiseled beyond anything she had seen in her life. Those abs were drool-worthy and judging by Oliver's total amount of conquests, she was not the only one who thought so.

Gah, there is a time and place for thinking about these things, she reprimanded herself. This was neither and it was definitely not helping her in getting over this ridiculous infatuation with the millionaire playboy slash vigilante. God, she had thought that taking her friend's advice and hooking up with someone would help her get rid of it. If only! It had made it worse! Her mind had gone into overdrive, thinking about things she had not ever thought about beforehand. Every time she was around him, she was assaulted by her mind, wondering how he would kiss, what he would taste like…

She wondered if it would ever end. It was irritating, because it not only created awkward situations for her, but it also made her feel guilty. Guilty for thinking things about someone who had been nothing but good to her. But she couldn't help it, the thoughts popped up out of nowhere. Like how it would be to eat sushi off of his ridiculously attractive stomach and how it would feel to be licking down a trail from his chest to-

Wait. Stop. Abort operation. God, this had to stop.

"So, Felicity. How have you been?"

The question made Felicity's fingers stop tapping the keyboard and look in his direction guiltily, eyes wide. Had he been able to read from her face the thoughts she'd been having? She drowned in his eyes for a bit before she remembered he had asked a question. Oh, right. He had probably not noticed, then.

"Oh, you know. I've been hacking federal agencies, trying to defeat enemies whilst staying ahead of any hackers on the good side. Life is peachy," she replied. This was good. This area of conversation she could deal with.

Oliver grinned and looked at the computer in front of her. Her heart did a little jump at the amused look he seemed to have reserved only for her.

"Next to that, though. Diggle said something about you dating a new guy?"

Felicity looked at her screen and nodded slowly. There was no need to hide it from him, necessarily.

"Yes… there's someone," she cautiously answered. This was not really something she wanted to get into too deep, though. It wasn't anything serious and she might
break it off soon, anyway. It wasn't helping at all. If anything, it was rather distracting at work and especially when lives were at stake, she had to focus. Yup, it might be best to stop.

"Is he… safe? Did anyone vouch for him before you dated?"

Felicity glared at Oliver and pursed her lips before answering.

"Are you implying I didn't do enough of a background check?"

Oliver laughed, then. Felicity did not join him, though, still giving him bitchface number one when he stopped laughing.

"No, Felicity, far from it. I was just thinking that background checks and actual behavior in real life are something different. I wondered if you two have a friend in common or something."

Felicity nodded.

"We have quite a few friends in common. He is… not known for any weird behavior," she answered. It was true. They had plenty other things in common as well. Just not enough to base a relationship on, thankfully.

Oliver seemed to mull over that information in his thoughts and Felicity went on tapping on her keyboard. She was almost finished and she would be busy giving the system an update later, so it was of vital importance that this was done soon. If she didn't, she might be there the whole night, which was not her idea of 'living the life'.

"Have you met up with him a lot, already?"

She considered that question, but not for long.

"Once," she answered. She saw Oliver's eyebrows arching and he seemed a bit shocked. She hastened to explain. "But we really clicked so I think it might be something. Not that I have, you know, planned a whole wedding ceremony and vows and everything, but it is just good to be in the dating circuit for a while and blow off some steam. I mean, not blow off that kind of steam, just… to relax."

Oh no, there it was. The classic word waterfall she did when she got self-conscious. She snapped her mouth shut and looked at the keyboard in front of her, grimacing at her own behavior. Oliver was still looking at her in surprise, but then his look of surprise turned to something else. He stared at her intensely and she squirmed in her seat. His jaw clenched for a few seconds, but then he seemed to think better of it and let go. He sighed.

"Make sure that he is a decent guy, okay? Weird stuff can happen these days. It might be smart to tell someone when and where you've got a date, beforehand."

Felicity nodded.

"I'm being safe," she said. Then she blushed, realizing what she had just said. "No, no, err, I mean that I've got this friend I text with details so someone knows where I am and with whom. That's what I mean with being safe. Naturally, I also used protection but that is probably a bit too much of an overshare-"

She stopped her rambling by putting her hand in front of her mouth. Wide-eyed, she looked at her screen. No. No, she had not just said that. She glanced at Oliver's face, who was clenching his jaw now, probably trying to contain his laughter, and was looking at the wall to his side. Shit.

An awkward silence ensued, which Felicity refused to break because it would result in even more overshare, and Oliver couldn't break because he had to control himself. Just the thought of Felicity having sex with this man had him clenching the desk beneath him in a vice-like grip. After a little while, though, he managed to get his feelings in check. He chuckled, as if it was a funny thing what she had said.

"That kind of date, huh," he growled.

Felicity coughed and looked at her screen, ashamed of her actions. She nodded.

"He's very attractive," she offered in a high-pitched voice, shrugging. "And he has cool pajamas."

Oliver laughed at that. It was a weird kind of laugh, though. It wasn't anything like his normal laugh and he was clenching the desk way too tightly when he doubled over. Nevertheless, she joined him to get rid of the anxious feeling inside and to hide the blush that was coming up.

"Sorry, just… I hadn't expected that from you. You seem such a relationship kind of girl."

"I am," she answered with a clipped voice. "Just not all the time."

Oliver nodded.

"Make sure you don't get hurt, okay?"

Felicity looked him in the eyes and saw the worry radiating from them. She nodded and stood when the backdoor cameras that Diggle had put up showed a man bringing their take-out sushi.

"I will. But first… sushi," she exclaimed.

She ran towards the back door, but before she could open it, she was stopped.

"Felicity?"

She spun around happily, only to spin into a wall behind her and lose her balance. She was steadied by two arms and when she was standing on two feet again, she opened her eyes slowly. She was surprised to see Oliver standing only a few inches in front of her. The proximity of his body to hers took her breath away for a second. His eyes were so near she could count his lashes and look deep into his green eyes if she wanted to. His smell was all around her.

"Yeah," she breathed.

Oliver looked at her lips and put a step forward. Felicity felt the electricity spark between them and she struggled to take a step back. She had to keep a clear mind, had to keep some sort of sanity going. The pull his body was having on hers was something she had not yet encountered before, however, and she found herself entranced by his eyes. She was drowning in their color and had no idea how to save herself this time.

"For the record, I think it's cool that you judge men on their pajamas."

He was smirking now, looking at her reaction. When she realized what he had said, she felt her cheeks heat up and rolled her eyes at his comment. She wrecked her brain for a fitting reaction to his statement.

"Yeah yeah, I- I'm sure your pajamas are really nice as well."

That made Oliver smirk even wider, shaking his face when he took a step back, eyes never leaving hers. She almost leaned forward to keep that small distance intact. Almost.

"Oh no. I sleep in the nude."

Felicity gasped and Oliver walked away, chuckling to himself.

DunDunDunnn,

There's more to come, obviously.

For now, if you liked it or have any points you think need improvement, please tell me via a review or PM~