Skinny Love, an arrow fanfic

Title: Skinny Love

Summary: Getting over someone is never easy...especially when you spend almost every minute of the day and night by his side working together as a team. But Felicity is more determined than ever to get over her little crush on Oliver and move on with her life... [Set directly after Episode 2x06 as both Oliver and Felicity deal with their feelings for each other] Will be M for later chapters

Genre: Romance/Angst

Disclaimer/Note from the author: Hey there, so this is my FIRST ever Olicity fic! I've never written anything for Arrow either, so please be nice to me ;) I just love this pairing so much and this week's episode totally broke my heart in a million pieces! This is set directly after this week's episode [2x06] Please leave me a review, so I know HOW I went? Thank you xx

Date Published: 17 November 2013

Chapter One: Skinny Love

Skinny Love

[noun]

1. When two people love each other but are too shy to admit it, but they still show it in subtle ways.

-x-

"Because of the life I lead, I think it's best to not be with someone I could really care about."

Oliver's words hung in the air for what seemed like an eternity, before Felicity could muster up any kind of strength to respond.

It took all of her will power to not reply sarcastically to his remark.

He had to be joking, right? She thought bitterly, as she fought back the tears that were slowly starting to sting her tired eyes.

She wanted to applaud him for making this look so difficult and painful for him to express. And had she been like any other girl, she would have read into his meaning as a somewhat romantic gesture. But she was not someone that he could fool that easily. She was sharp. Sharp enough to know that he was only lying to her to make her feel better. Sharp enough to know that he was letting her down gently because somewhere between their days at Queen Consolidated and their nights brainstorming in the lair, he had caught on to her obvious crush on him.

So as sweet or thoughtful or whatever else he had thought he was accomplishing by saying those 'romantic' words, Felicity Smoak was not buying them at all. Not one bit.

"Because of the life I lead, I think it's best to not be with someone I could really care about."

She felt her blood begin to boil as she repeated his 'rejection' excuse to herself mentally in her head.

This coming from the guy who had dated laurel Lance his ex girlfriend slash high school sweetheart slash possibly his soulmate and love of his life.

Felicity found it hard to believe that Laurel, who he had dated twice she might painfully add, fell into the category of 'someone he could really care about'.

But who was she kidding? This was the same man who had fallen for Helena Bertinelli's seductive ways, until he had seen her full psychotic killer side.

The same guy who had dated sweet Mckenna, the police officer slash aspiring detective that had been assigned to tracking his alter ego The Hood. Despite all her best efforts to hate the girl at the time for obvious jealousy reasons; Felicity had found out the hard way that she was actually quite fond of her. McKenna was genuinely a really nice person and so far she had been her favourite of all Oliver's girlfriends.

The same could not be said for Isabel Rochev, who she was sure that she most certainly hated in the same capacity that she did Laurel and Helena.

Felicity turned to leave. For a second there she thought it would be best to act in a dignified manner, rather than expressing her resentment at what lie he had come up with to let her down easy. Despite her head urging her to walk out the door and to forget about the heartbreaking rejection; her heart had other plans and before she could stop herself from saying anything, she spoke. Her voice was a little shaky and only just above a whisper.

"Well I think...I think you deserve better than her."

And with that she turned on her heel and quickly headed out the door before he even had a chance to reply.

By the time it had taken her to reach the elevators she was crying. The tears she had so bravely managed to supress while talking to Oliver were flooding out of her so uncontrollably.

Felicity hated the way she was feeling right now. A part of her brain was doing the best that it could to remind her that Oliver was not her boyfriend, so she really had no reason to be hurt from learning about his fling with Isabel. Yet, a somewhat bigger, more dominant part of her knew that what she was feeling was jealousy. She had experienced it before with all of Oliver's girlfriends because they had all been so... beautiful. Then there was her, plain, socially awkward, geeky Felicity, who wasn't at all model material like McKenna or Isabel, who wasn't one ounce seductive like Helena and who certainly was not blessed with having Laurel's pretty face.

Everything that she had done since Oliver had returned to Starling City after Tommy's death a few months ago was to catch his attention. She actually woke up in the mornings and styled her hair, instead of keeping it in a neat ponytail like she had been so used to doing in the past. With the help of one of her MIT friends she had gone clothes shopping to pick out some more sexy. feminine outfits in the hope to catch his eye. But nothing. Even the heels, the high heels that she absolutely loathed with a passion, were something that she thought was bound to get his attention. But boy was she wrong. Things that she could not have been bothered to do for any other guy before him seemed almost effortless now, in the chance, even in the off chance that he might one day see her in another light. That one day he would see past their friendship and realise that she was as beautiful as the other girls he had dated in the past.

The elevator doors chimed open and she stepped inside quickly. Dabbing her cheeks dry with the back of her cardigan sleeve she inhaled and exhaled deeply, before hitting her desired floor.

Felicity knew there was only one way to get over the hurt she was now feeling. Oliver had essentially crushed her hopes and dreams of them ever being together in one sentence.

He didn't feel the same way. In his eyes they were only friends and that's all he wanted them to ever be. She would need to get over her silly crush now before it did her more emotional damage.

Closing her eyes tightly for a second, she made a promise to herself to get over Oliver Queen once and for good.

-x-

If Oliver could describe how he was feeling right now in one word, it would be: guilt.

He had so much to feel guilty about! He thought, sighing heavily as he leaned back into his office chair.

First there was sleeping with Isabel. Which had proven to be a dick move… Especially when he not only did not have any feelings for her.

Without thinking rationally beforehand about what a potential fling with Isabel could do, he had also managed to hurt the woman that he loved in the process as well.

Then there was the lie that he had told Felicity about dating someone he didn't care about. There was no denying that watching her heartbroken face react to his painful words had a shattering effect on her, as well as himself.

It had taken him awhile to see it, because he had honestly put Felicity into the friend-zone so quickly after meeting her; but with the help of Diggle he had come to learn that Felicity had a major crush on him.

At first he had dismissed it.

"We are just friends, Dig, plus I still have feelings for Laurel."

Then there was denial.

"Why are you bringing this up again, man? I'm with McKenna. Felicity doesn't see me like that. It's all in your head, Dig!"

Then it was like a light bulb had switched on in his brain and suddenly everything became clear. He started to notice how her eyes lingered on him a little longer than they should have. He saw the way she babbled quickly when she was shy or whenever he was standing a little too close to her. He saw the jealously she felt whenever he brought up Laurel's name or whenever McKenna would stop by the club. He saw her gazes from the corner of his eyes when he was training in the lair, the way her eyes stole quick looks at his shirtless body when he walked past. Then there were the obvious things like way that she blushed when he smiled at her or thanked her for something. The way she shivered a little whenever he touched her.

Somewhere along the way of her being so damn adorable she had managed to capture his heart and he had found himself to reciprocate her feelings as well. The only difference was he was too guarded to show it.

What he had said to her, in her office this morning wasn't all necessarily a lie. There was some truth to it. Tommy's death had affected him hard and since then he was forced to rethink some very important matters. His feelings for Felicity being one of them.

It scared Oliver how much he liked this girl and how much he depended on her in his everyday life. Not only did she make work at Queen Consolidated fun by being his adorable, shy yet slightly more confident personal assistant; she was also the brains behind his Arrow work at the Lair. The thought of dating her publicly... of putting her into the limelight that could potentially pose as a target on her back to anyone seeking to get back at him was too high a risk to take. She was too important to him and he would rather be her friend and be miserable than put her life in anymore danger than she already was.

-x-

"Miss Rochev…" Felicity asked knocking loudly on her open door.

"Come in Felicity," she said smiling quickly from behind a sheet of paper. "and please call me Isabel."

Felicity forced a fake smile. "Mr Queen said to give you this." She said extending the big yellow envelope towards her.

"Oh." she said slowly taking it out of her hands. "Is there any reason why he would not bring it down to me, himself?"

"I don't know…I don't think he is avoiding you after the…you know...ummm...never mind." Felicity said awkwardly clicking her fingers together to stop herself from embarrassing herself anymore. She cleared her throat loudly and started again. This time for confidently and assertively. "I'm his personal assistant, so I think that's why."

"A personal assistant that runs errands, huh? Doesn't really sound appealing to me. I'm sure there has to be some kind of other incentive for you to continue to work for a company that has drastically lost its creditability after the whole Glades incident."

"I'm just happy to work for Mr Queen. I was happy in the IT department and I'm equally as happy now. I also don't think Mr Queen should be held responsible for what happened in the Glades."

"You speak very fondly of Oliver. Are you by any chance interested in him?"

Felicity scoffed loudly, praying that a gesture like this would come across as somewhat convincing. "We are just co-workers. That is all."

"The only reason I ask is because I saw the way you reacted last night…the look on your face when you saw me leaving Oliver's hotel room-"

"I'm fine with it." she lied quickly. "And frankly it's none of my business. I should be going now. Mr Queen has a busy schedule today."

"Felicity, before you go…" Isabel called out. "Please tell Oliver that the answer is 'yes' to dinner tonight. I would love to join him."

Felicity bit down onto her tongue to resist the urge to tell her to text him herself. But she had a feeling that Isabel was already getting so much satisfaction from this already.

"Will do." she said smiling fakely and storming out of her office quickly. As soon as she hit the hallway corridor she rolled her eyes. She really hated that woman.

-x-

"Woah! Watch it honey!" A man said bending down to pick up a pile of paperwork that he fallen to the ground upon his collision with Felicity.

"Ummm you walked into me." She said frowning a little.

"I clearly could not see." He said holding up a bunch of files in the air.

"Do you want me to press your floor?"

"Hey, sweetheart I didn't mean to make you cry." The man said stepping into the lift.

"Don't sweat it. I'm not crying over you." she said avoiding his eyes.

"Bad day?" he asked.

"Yeah, you can say that."

"So did you get fired or something?"

"What? No. Why would you say that?"

"It's just your eyes are really red." He said shrugging his shoulders.

"Well, I'm not getting fired." She said hotly.

"So it must be a guy then? Boyfriend?"

"I don't have one."

What the hell was this guy's deal anyways?

"Good. So you can come out to dinner with me tonight."

Felicity laughed loudly. "I don't think so."

"Why not? Your single. I'm single…"

"This is my floor." Felicity said quickly, feeling relief wash over her as the doors opened.

"Come on...have dinner with me tonight.

"I have to go."

"Hey," he called out quickly, making her turn around in her tracks.

"What's your name sweetheart?"

"Felicity." She said sighing heavily. She highly doubted whether she would ever see him again; so what was the harm in him knowing her name?

"I'm Jeremy…I hope to see you around sometime." He said before the doors closed quickly.

"Cya." She mumbled quietly to herself, as she headed in the direction of Oliver's office.

She was really dreading having to talk to him again. Maybe she could fake the flu and ask for the rest of the day off for a personal day?

She sighed heavily. There was no way that he would ever believe that lame excuse.

-x-

"I gave Isabel the envelope…" Felicity said walking into Oliver's office, trying to seem as professional as possible and resisting the urge to yell at him about their earlier conversation.

"Great. Did she say when she would be signing off on the documents?"

"No."

"Okay, I'll have you send her a memo later with the deadline. Did she say anything else?" Oliver asked.

"Yeah…" she said clenching her fists into tight balls. "She said yes to dinner tonight."

"What?"

"Oliver, I am not your messenger…so in future, if you want to do non-work related things with…whoever you chose, just keep me out of it."

"Felicity, I-"

"I'm sorry to interrupt." A man's voice asked knocking loudly on the door to Oliver's office. "Mr Queen…I was hoping to have a word."

"I'll leave you guys be." Felicity said heading towards the door, before stopping dead in her tracks. "You! What are you doing here?"

"Felicity?!" Jeremy asked excitedly. "See, I told you that I would be seeing you again! Two times in one day, I'm really starting to feel blessed!"

"Are you stalking me? Its kind of illegal in all places in the world." she said folding her hands across her chest quickly.

"I'm sorry…do you know each other?" Oliver asked quickly.

"We just met." Felicity said faking a smile at Jeremy.

"We met in the lifts and I've been trying to ask her out on a date! She's quite stubborn. Have you given it any more thought now that you've seen me again? Come on this has to be like a sign or something, right?"

Oliver laughed loudly and Felicity and Jeremy both turned around to face him.

"What's so funny?" she asked frowning a little.

"Nothing…" he said, his laughter dying out quickly. "…its just..he's not your type, Felicity."

"And you know my type, how?" she asked raising a perfectly arched eyebrow at him.

"I just know." Oliver said shrugging.

Felicity felt her cheeks flame red as hatred started to spread across her body. She turned to Jeremy quickly. "I would love to go to dinner with you tonight, Jeremy. When you finish with Mr Queen come and find me in my office and we can exchange numbers."

"Okay, I'll come and find you." he said smiling. "Looking forward to it, sweetheart."

And with a quick smile at Jeremy, she was gone. Out of his office and walking down the hall without another word. All that was left was the sound of her heels clicking away on the Marble hallway in the distance.

Oliver felt like he had just been punched hard in the gut and he had the sudden urge to do the same to Jeremy. For some reason he did not like this guy one bit. But it could just be the jealousy consuming him…

"So...what can I help you with…Jeremy, was it?" Oliver asked faking a smile and extending out his hand towards him.

xXx

Author's Note:

** Okay so I originally had planned for Jeremy to be Barry Allen... but based on the responses in the reviews and some PMs that I received, I decided to change that. I didn't realise that a lot of people on here are HUGE Barry fans and I wasn't too sure how I was going to write his character... So rather than write him badly and upset his fans, I decided to make up my own character instead. **

Pretty please leave me a review?

Thank you,

Paris xx