A/N: Every Title will be homage to a song that is relevant to the chapter. Virtual cookies to anyone who guesses the song name.

He could blame his father for this – considering it was his idea for Oliver to assume the conveniently created position of Chief Operating Officer. The title may sound glamorous and powerful. It wasn't. In Oliver's head the title allowed him to be tied to the company in a non-shameful manner and managed to make it look like he was indeed contributing to society in a meaningful way. In the almighty Robert Queen's mind, it was a tile that would allow Oliver to attempt to grow up while learning the ropes of the Chief Executive Officer. The intentions were pure at one point. However, realistically, all the position allowed Oliver to do was hide away the shame of the Queen name during the day and keep his coveted trust fund. After all, Oliver did like to party and he very much appreciated food and shelter free of charge. So, that was how Oliver Queen found himself spinning in his oversized office chair in the middle of the day with solitaire on his computer screen.

"Mr. Queen," a sultry, feminine voice stopped Oliver in his handcrafted Teacup Ride. He looked up and meet eyes with his assistant, who was graciously appointed her position in attempt to keep him on task. So, really she was more like his babysitter. But once Oliver injected some of his reputable charm on her, she quickly turned tides and put another notch in the wall of hidden scandals of the Queen family.

"Mr. Walter Steele would like a word with you," she whispered.

"Umm…. Why?"

"I'm honestly not sure. His assistant called me and said he requested that you meet him in his office immediately."

"Who is he again?" Oliver asked.

"He would be the Chief Financial Officer and Vice President. He is taking the reigns of the company while your father is in Moscow," Janice answered.

"Right. Well, I guess I should go see what he wants," Oliver couldn't be more reluctant to go. In all honestly, he was going through his brain trying to figure out what he did wrong this time. It was odd, usually his father was the one to administer his reprimands. He figured maybe this was a message passed on down. Maybe, his father finally had enough of the useless lectures and was finally giving up trying to fix chronic scandal creator. Whatever, he had to go to the office anyway, might as well be now. He stood up from his blessed chair, grabbed his tie that had been thrown carelessly upon the couch, and attempted to tidy himself before making an appearance. Throwing an Oliver Queen worthy smile to his nervous looking assistant he made his way to Mr. Steele's office, taking a right out of his office.

"Ollie, his office is the other direction," his trusty assistant advised.

"Right. Thanks"

Was it him or were the hallways longer than usual? Maybe this was the business version of the walk of shame. Somehow he made it to the office, complete with the doe eyed assistant, flashing him a seductive smile motioning for him to walk right in.

"Ah, Oliver. I see that I was able to take you from your most busy day," the British voice was calming him yet unnerving all at the same time. One look at the man and Oliver was able to remember him being Robert Queen's right hand man.

"Well, you summoned me. I didn't see much of an alternative," Oliver threw himself into a guest chair that was positioned opposite of the calm CFO.

"Quite right. But, I'm pleased to see that you took the more favorable option." Walter continued his part without allowing the young executive to speak. "As you may have noticed, your father has been actively tying to get you more involved in the company. While you have neglected all of the previous attempts, Mr. Robert Queen was more than adamant that you personally attend to this engagement."

"I don't know…" Oliver started while never making eye contact with the most definite judging face of Walter.

"I believe there was talk of reducing your trust fund amount and taking away the allotted stipend."

"What does he need?"

Walter audibly chuckled at the younger man's antics. "There is this up and coming company – Palmer Technology. Its just starting, so we were surprised to learn of their new programs. We are interested in a new program of theirs. It would significantly help our networking here and quite frankly, it's needed. So, we need to broker a deal with them to contract out the program, along with their firewall program. I have a meeting set with their CEO at one. You'll attend it and work out a contact. His name is Ray Palmer. He's young and quite very ambitious. I do hope the two of you will get along."

Oliver stared blankly at Walter trying to figure out what had just been said.

"Oliver. I know you think you're being punished, but this isn't the case. Your father truly does care about you and wants you to succeed." Walter threw a sympathetic look to Oliver. When all he received was a blank stare, he continued, "Please do say something to acknowledge that you've comprehended a single word I've spoken."

"I get it. Dad wants me to grow up so he's trying to throw some responsibility my way. I don't like it, but I guess I can understand it," Oliver leaned back in his chair and audibly exhaled.

When a brief moment of silence passed, Walter decided to end the brief, yet necessary encounter. "Right, well, contract. Meeting. Dr. Ray Palmer. Palmer Technologies. one o'clock." With two significant head nods exchanged Oliver was dismissed to his own devices.

He took the elevator down to the lobby, and with a brief look at the clock he learned it was already noon. It was one of the rare days he had shown up to the building before one. So, figuring he had earned a lunch break, Oliver stalked off to the parking garage to his BMW. Throwing a quick text to Tommy, which had been replied to instantaneously, he took off to Table Salt.

The place was quite empty so, finding a seat wasn't a problem. Not that it would ever be a problem with him being a Queen and Tommy being a Merlyn. He sat down, and ordered a beer from the unapologetic flirting waitress, who he hadn't ever bothered to get the name from. He sat playing with his steak knife cutting the napkin with distinct harshness.

"Whoa buddy, what did the paper ever do to you?" His best friend slide into the chair across from him. The ever present playboy smile droning his face.

"My dad's an asshole," Oliver stated with no preamble and without bothering to look at Tommy.

"So, the napkin refused to what? Suffocate him?"

"Ha. Ha. No, this is serious dude. The old man wants me to meet with some corporate guy to do something with."

"Well that's stupid."

"Exactly! I mean, how can he expect me to make a contact? I'm like 23. I shouldn't have to make that sort of crap. How can he expect me to do any of this?"

"Right? How dare he make you do your job," Tommy laughed.

"Your dad isn't making you do shit, man. Until you have to do crap, you don't get to make jokes."

"Fine bro," Tommy held up his arms in mock surrender, "I guess you just have to suffer through the shit-meeting and pretend to know what you're doing. The other guy is sure to figure out you still don't even know the corporate hierarchy and will probably do most of the work anyway. Can we talk about something important now? Like, what's with Laurel?"

Oliver visibly relaxed at the change of topic.

"I don't know what's wrong with her. She's acting even more clingy than usual. It got worse when she found out I slept with Janice."

"Dude. You can't do that. Girls don't like that. At least do yourself a favor and don't get caught. Or at least screw someone who is worth it. The name Janice, not worth it," Tommy laughed. Their waitress returned with a noticeable change in her neckline of her shirt – showing more cleavage than should be acceptable in a restaurant. "Do you boys know what you'd like to eat?" She leaned over the table giving both guys a chance to fully appreciate everything.

"I'll have the steak, medium-rare, with a side of steamed potatoes and broccoli," Tommy flashed yet another smile.

"Make that two," Oliver also threw a charming smile along with some eyebrow movement.

"Coming right up," She leaned over the table once again purposely giving both boys a full show when collecting their menus.

"See? Her? She's worth it." Tommy threw out while both boys were clearly eyeballing her ass as she walked away.

"How's that McKenna girl you were checking out at the club the other night?" Oliver effectively changed the spotlight off of him.

"After several pleasurable evenings, we went our separate ways. But, I wouldn't mind a repeat."

The conversation continued and after the food had come and been fully enjoyed, Oliver finally managed to look at the time. Damn, it was one thirty.

"Damn."

"What?" Tommy inquired while simultaneously checking out a group of girls across the room.

"The meeting was at one."

"Oh. Well, that sucks."

"Yeah." Oliver paid for their meal and stood up.

"You should get going then."

"Well, we could get ice cream at the new parlor down the street," Oliver suggested.

"But you're thirty minutes late."

"Might as well make it an hour," Oliver laughed and grabbed his keys out of his pocket.

"Ms. Smoak, I'm just reminding you that it's one and you still haven't eaten."

Felicity jumped at her name being called, but relaxed once she realized it belonged to her ever faithful assistant Gerry. The blessed man stood by her side through everything, including the sleepless nights before a project was due. He fetched her coffee, scheduled her plans, and more often than not reminded her of the most basic necessities like food and sleep. Today had been such a jammed pack day and she seemed to be late for everything.

"Thank you Gerry. I have a granola bar. So, I'm set," she threw him what she hoped was a reassuring smile. Apparently it wasn't because he gave her a pointed look in return.

"Fine, fine. I'll go downstairs to get lunch," Felicity conceded. The report on the new software that tracked the company's financial database could wait an hour. Or thirty minutes. Maybe fifteen. She closed her eyes, and rubbed her forehead while releasing what was intended to be a relaxing breath. It wasn't. If anything it just emphasized all of the tight muscles that were ever present in her body. Maybe the lunch downstairs would do her good. Right as she was about to head out, none other than the infamous Sara Lance walked into her office. "Lis! How are you doing?"

Sara visited Felicity frequently at her work. The two had been friends for quite a while. So, it wasn't unusual to see the other Lance sister follow the young Vice President of Technology on a normal day.

"Sara! Hi-" and that would be the direct line to her office interrupting her.

"Felicity Smoak," she answered. With a few nods and a couple notes on a handy post-it note deck on her desk, the phone call abruptly ended. "Follow me," she commanded Sara.

She didn't appreciate calls down to department for incidents. However, since it was a smaller facility and her boss, Dr. Ray Palmer, was often engrossed in a project, she found herself taking on the tedious role of reporting said incident. The poor blonde was stretched thin lately. With her new software program in its works, the corporate leadership team duties, and having to put up with Sara's latest infatuations, Felicity found herself in the weeds. Sara hot on her heels, the blonde quickly grabbed a pile of blank incident report forms and strode down the stairwell to the first floor.

"Where are we going Lis? I'm all for adventure, but I'd like to at least talk a little," Sara half joked.

"Research and Development. It's always Research and Development," Felicity didn't even look up while she was filling out the preliminary report.

"Wait, isn't that where you were telling me all the hot guys live? Including Billy."

"We still two more flights of stairs to climb, please don't make them more painful than they already are," Felicity clicked her pen and shoved it into her pocket while maintaining her swift pace.

Upon entering the Research and Development department Sara was surprised to find that there were five to seven firefighters in the lab that Felicity had taken her to. They were talking to older gentlemen who were dressed in lab coats. There were also a group of much younger men and women standing off to the side talking amongst themselves.

"See, why do you get all the hot people?" Sara complained.

"Who? Those guys?" Felicity pointed to the group of guys, who were now shoving each other effectively causing a beaker to fall off the counter, shattering into a million pieces along with spilling its most probable hazardous contents onto the floor. She pulled out another incident report.

"Sure, might not be the brightest bunch, but they are definitely hot," Sara continued.

"I don't have time for this, I need to talk to the fire department. Feel free to talk to the hot guys," Felicity sulked off to find the fire captain.

While in deep discussion with the man, her cell phone went off.

"Hey, Felicity?" Ray had called her.

"Yes," she politely excused herself from the conversation with the fire chief.

"Anna stopped by and wants to go to lunch. My one o'clock meeting hasn't shown up, but in the off chance he does, would you be able to take it over?"

"Of course. But, what do you want me to do if he does? What's the meeting about?"

"It's the possible firewall and employee infrastructure software program contract. I trust your judgment."

"All right. Well, I'll take care of it. Enjoy your lunch with Anna," Felicity ended the conversation. Anna was Ray's high school sweetheart and current fiancé. She couldn't fault the guy for actually remembering to take a break. It seemed as though the world was against her eating. So, she decided to return to her office figuring she should stay there in the off chance the man did show up. With a final look in Sara's direction finding the other blonde to be flirting with all of the Palmer Tech employees, she hung her head in defeat.

"This is turning out to be such a crap day," she muttered to herself.

Oliver stood in front of the well sized building of Palmer Technologies. It wasn't by any standards a skyscraper, but it was decently sized for how small the company was. With a deep breath and a reminder that he wanted his trust fund, he opened the doors and walked up to the receptionist.

"Hello there. I'm Oliver Queen," he flashed his ever famous smile while learning over the desk. The receptionist didn't seem to fall for his tactics as her face kept its perma-bitchface position.

"I'm well aware of who you are," she turned the page her magazine.

"Right. Well, I have a meeting with a Palmer guy at one," Oliver tried another smile.

"You do realized it's three o'clock, right? And Dr. Palmer is out of the office now."

"I bet a pretty lady such as yourself could help me out."

"I'm not in charge of Dr. Palmer's schedule. Perhaps if you would've arrived on time," she pushed her glassed on the bridge of her nose.

"An emergency popped up," he was well aware of his smile fading. She stared at him for a prolonged period of time. Was it just him or was she staring into his soul?

"As I said, Dr. Palmer is not available. However, our Vice President has taken charge of your meeting. Ms. Felicity Smoak is in her office. You're free to go up to meet with her." She went to work to get his visitor's badge and motioned for his to sign the visitor's log.

"You could've started with that," Oliver grumbled, taking the badge and heading in the direction she vaguely gestured to. Yes, today was turning out to be bad day for almost everyone.

A/N: Hello everyone. I'll try to post once a week. Each chapter will probably be around this length. I'm going to aim for every Sunday. But to kickstart this work, I'll be posting multiple chapters this week. Any and all responses are appreciated. If there's a Beta out there who would like to help me out, I'd be forever grateful. Until then, it's just me. Sorry.

Most importantly, feel free to inbox me with anything suggestions or requests. (That includes tags, ratings, warnings, format, prompts, etc.)

**XPosted on AO3