A/N: This started out as a really quick drabble idea, and then this happened. Thecoolcheryl pretty much deserves all of the awards in the entire world for not only helping me with this, helping make it so much better, and having to deal with my insecure emails. She did all of this with amazing grace, and she is really just amazing. Any mistakes in this are all mine, I hope everyone likes it!
Disclaimer: If you recognize it, chances are pretty high I do not own it.
The door to Oliver's office flew open and immediately his muscles began to tighten, preparing for a fight. While his brain told him that whoever was coming in had already cleared security and, really when was the last time a bad guy just walked through a door, his body still relied on instinct. And his instinct told him to never let his guard down. Which was why he missed the entire first part of what he assumed was a very angry tirade from his very angry looking girlfriend.
"What?" Oliver asked, slightly dumbfounded as the adrenaline started dissolving and his muscles began to relax again.
"A business meeting came up?" Felicity was definitely using her loud voice.
Oliver's jaw tightened, he knew this conversation was going to happen, but he had been hoping it would happen later, at home, not at the office. He stood and walked over to the window, thinking about how exactly he was going to handle this. He knew normally Felicity would have no problem waiting for whatever excuse he came up with, but this time she was obviously impatient. He could hear her taping her foot and, when he turned back around to look at her, her arms were still crossed over her chest, and her eyes were slightly slanted. He knew this time he wasn't getting out of what he did without telling her the truth.
So, naturally, he tried to lie.
"Yes, Felicity, a business meeting."
"Really? You're actually sticking to that excuse."
"I am sort of an important person at the company, meetings happen."
"Uh huh. Well aware of that Mr. Queen."
"I hate when you call me that."
"And I hate when you lie to me for no reason."
"I'm not lying, a business meeting came up. I have to meet with some executives from Luther Corp. Couldn't be rescheduled."
"Oliver, you do know I receive all of your e-mail right? So I know you set up the meeting, and I also know that you were very, very firm on this being the only time you would be available."
Oliver sighed, he had forgotten that. "I probably could have thought that one through more."
"You could have just said you didn't want to go Oliver. Believe it or not, being stuck on an island for five years is a pretty okay reason to never go to another island. You didn't have to lie to me, and you really didn't have to lie to Thea. I've been on the phone with her for an hour. She thinks you don't want to spend time with her. That your business meetings mean more to you than the very important plans she has been making for the last three months, plans you agreed to by the way. You could have just told her that islands weren't really your thing, and she would have found another place. But no, you Oliver Queen, had to try to be all strong willed and—"
Oliver closed his eyes, leaning against the wall as she began to ramble in front of him. Sometimes he really hated how easy it was for her to read him. He slowly sank to the floor, leaned his head back, and closed his eyes letting her words sink in. It wasn't until she stopped talking that he opened them again and noticed her looking down at him with concern. Which at least meant she wasn't as mad as she was when she first walked in. Her mouth may have been spewing out angry words still, but Felicity's expressions always gave away her real feelings. And right now her face was worried, slightly annoyed, impatient even, but not angry. He knew she just wanted him to tell her the truth, and she had a point. His excuses had been bad before she really knew him, he didn't know why he bothered even attempting to lie to her now.
"I'm sorry," he started. "I know I could have told Thea. I do. I know that. I wanted to go though. When she first brought it up, I thought I would be fine. I mean, it's been three years, I should be fine right? But the closer it got, I started realizing that I wasn't okay with it. What if being on an island caused me to snap? What if I hurt someone? What if I hurt Thea or you? And I just… I couldn't risk that. I won't risk that."
"I was going to tell Thea, but all I could think about was how happy she seemed. The first time we went to the beach, Thea was five and all she wanted was to build the most perfect sandcastle for her mermaids. I spent six hours building a sandcastle for her. And she was so happy. And I miss that Felicity, I miss seeing the people I love relaxed and happy. I miss feeling like that. I miss building sandcastles, being carefree. I want that again. I feel like I'm holding everyone back."
Felicity slid down the wall sitting next to Oliver, intertwining her fingers with his. "You aren't holding us back Oliver. I didn't know you before, and if we're being honest that's probably a good thing cause you were pretty much barely a step above douche on a good day," Oliver snorted, playfully glaring at Felicity, "It's true. I've heard stories. But that's not the point. The point is, Oliver Queen, you are a good person. A person with more issues than a newspaper company, but a good person. And the people who love you don't care about having to modify plans to help you deal with those issues. Got it?"
Oliver's lips turned up in a small smile, "Got it."
"Good." Felicity kissed the tip of his nose and rested her forehead against his. They sat there in silence until the intercom on Oliver's desk came to life informing him that the executives were there and waiting.
Oliver stood and reached down to help Felicity up. She leaned against him, wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her lips against his, "Meet me at the club after the meeting" she murmured.
"Of course."
She smiled up at him before turning around to walk out of the office. He watched as she walked away, slightly apprehensive. That smile was definitely her 'I'm up to something' smile.
Oliver stared at the new message light blinking on his phone. On then off. The executive from Luther Corp was talking about… something. Numbers maybe? He should be paying more attention, but this meeting was getting close to the three hour mark and it was getting harder to pretend he cared. The longer he was stuck, the more he was starting to think that maybe he should have just told Thea the truth. Felicity was probably fist pumping somewhere, fully aware of the win. That's probably what this new text message was actually. Her gloating.
He cleared it without opening it. Her last one had made him laugh, and while he apologized, he knew better than to risk doing it again. The new and improved CEO Oliver Queen was attentive during meetings. He didn't laugh during them. Besides this meeting was going to be over in fifteen minutes whether the executive was done talking or not.
The first text message she sent him was about him needing to do some patrolling in the Glades. Her answer to why Roy wasn't doing the patrolling was one he saw coming, but it didn't seem to stop the over protective brother emotions he was currently battling. His sister was not a child and if he was honest Roy had started growing on him long ago. Logically, he knew this, but even so, he had a feeling Roy's training sessions when he and Thea came home were going to be slightly more brutal than they had been for a while.
Her next message contained three locations that had been particularly busy that night, followed by instructions to do what needed to be done, but that she had plans for them, and if he stayed out all night patrolling or came back hurt, she would be joining Thea and Roy and he could have fun all by himself over the next week and that maybe he should just invite executives from all the big name companies over for dinner since he's such an important person. That was the first message that he had to stop himself from laughing at. In person, Felicity didn't babble in front of him as much as she used to, but in her messages it still happened often. When he asked her about the plans, she sent him a picture of a card with his name written in her fancy handwriting hanging from the door to the basement.
That was two hours ago and since then every fifteen minutes on the dot Felicity had been sending him different pictures of what was waiting for him. Most of them were pictures zoomed in so far he could only make out a few colors. A bright purple something, a dark blue square, what looked like a cut off sun, a square of something beige.
The last picture he had opened, the one that had made him laugh, was of Felicity point to her watch with a disapproving look on her face. That was almost forty five minutes ago. He had two more messages from her, and if she kept up her pace another one would be coming in soon.
As if she could read his mind, his phone lit up signaling a new message and serving as his reminder to end the meeting.
"Gentleman, while I know that this conversation is not finished, it is getting late and I'm sure we're all getting tired. Why don't we find a time to meet again this week to continue?" He stood up as he was speaking to make it clear, he wasn't asking. After a few moments acknowledging their general nods of agreement and talk of having their people talk to his people, he smiled politely and headed back to his office calling Felicity on the way.
"I'm getting ready to head out, those locations still the ones I should hit," he asked when she answered the call.
"From the sounds of the scanner, yes. There's a little bit of activity that seems to be stirring up a couple of miles south of the last location if you want to maybe just swing by and be seen. Should hopefully do the trick."
"We can hope. Really just those areas though?"
Felicity laughed. "Oliver, Starling City can survive one night with you only patrolling a small section of the Glades. I promise. But if things get bad somewhere else, you'll be the first to know. Well, not the first, since obviously I'll have to know before you to tell you—"
"Got it." Oliver laughed as Felicity let her sentence trail off. "You want to tell me what exactly you are planning that has you this eager to let the city protect itself?"
"The city will be fine. It's not like I'm telling you to not go out, and if some big bad decides that tonight is the night to play then I'm not going to stop you from going all super hero on them, but things seem quiet and I would like to take advantage of that and have a night with my boyfriend that doesn't begin with me sewing you up or utilizing my computer skills for the greater good."
"Still didn't tell me what you are planning."
"And I'm not going to. You can just hurry up and find out."
"On it."
The first thing Oliver did when he made his way to the basement was look around for any clues as to what Felicity's mysterious plans may be. Unfortunately, he didn't see anything except for the envelope that he already knew would be waiting for him on the door. He pulled the note down flipping it around his fingers before entering the code and heading down the stairs.
Nothing looked different and Felicity was nowhere to be seen. Oliver placed the envelope near Felicity's computers before making quick work of removing his hood make up and putting all of the equipment back where it belonged.
He kept looking around, waiting for Felicity to show up. Her car was parked outside and he had talked to her right before he had headed to Verdant, so he wasn't sure why she wasn't down here. He grabbed the envelope off of the desk flipping it around his fingers, not knowing where Felicity was had him slightly on edge.
He opened the envelope, surprised by the small piece of paper that fell out with only two words: supply closet.
When he opened the supply closet, the confused look on his face was quickly replaced by one of laughter once a pair of swim trunks and a bottle of sunscreen came into his view. He pulled the note off of the sunscreen: put these on and meet me on the roof. Oliver wasted no time following the note's instructions and making his way upstairs.
Oliver opened the door to the roof and found himself greeted by water being sprayed into his face. Salt water, he discovered after he licked his lips. He opened his eyes to be greeted by a smiling Felicity standing in front him in a deep purple bikini.
"Surprise."
Oliver looked around the rooftop taking in everything that Felicity had setup. There was a small, kiddie pool set up to the right of her. From what he could tell, it was filled with water and different types of toy sharks and fish. Candles were lined up along the edges of the building, he assumed in every scent that might remind someone of the ocean. He could hear the sound of waves crashing coming from her phone. Two beach chairs were placed next to the sandbox that was directly behind her. The sandbox was filled with different sized buckets and pails, seashells, and how did she even manage to do this?
"What—" He began to ask but Felicity wrapped her arms around his waist and smiled.
"I figured if you weren't comfortable going to an island, then maybe I could bring the ocean to us at least. We can build sandcastles, or lounge around in the totally awesome body of water I created. Your choice."
"Felicity?"
"Mmhmm?"
"It's January."
"Well aware of that."
"You built me a beach on a rooftop, you are wearing a bikini, and it's January."
"Waiting for a point here."
Oliver smiled, "You are truly remarkable Felicity Smoak."
Felicity smiled back at him, placing a kiss against his neck, "Where would you like to start? Cause you've probably got another fifteen minutes before a jacket is going over this bikini. I didn't really think the weather part through."
Oliver looked around the roof before spotting the jacket hidden behind one of the chairs. He pulled her over to the chairs gently, grabbing the jacket, and wrapping it around her. "There."
"Kind of ruins the visual I was going for."
"Watching you shiver ruins it. Besides, Thea is already pissed about today, I can only imagine the wrath if she were to find out I let you freeze on a roof doing this." Oliver looked down at her, "How did you do this exactly?"
Felicity raised her eyebrow, "Nice try, Queen." Felicity laughed at the expression on Oliver's face, grabbing on to his hand and pulling him into the sandbox.
"So, I hear you got mad sandcastle building skills?"
"Once upon a time. Might be a bit rusty." Oliver replied, sliding his hands into her jacket to hold onto her hips.
"Better get started then," Felicity whispered, wrapping her arms around his neck placing a gentle kiss against his lips, "Because I have some mad seashell decorating skills that I've been dying to show off."
Oliver laughed, "Let's get started then."