Oliver knew he wasn't paying full attention to his surroundings on patrol tonight, but he was still engaged in a little bit of an internal struggle. On the one hand, he knew he shouldn't have asked Felicity out on a date- hell, he shouldn't have even talked to her in the first place. It was too dangerous- his identity as Oliver Queen would place her in the spotlight of the media if he was caught associating with her, and if the people he targeted as the Green Arrow figured out that she was linked with him, her life would literally be in danger. Additionally, since she worked at Queen Consolidated, there could be legal or other types of issues.
But despite all of that, Felicity was...Felicity. She was smart and funny and cute and babbled endearingly and she made him smile (he couldn't think of the last time he'd smiled genuinely) and unlike anyone else in his life, she didn't treat him like he was Ollie Queen (even Digg, for all that he was Oliver's partner, had gotten a little bit of exposure to who he'd been before the Gambit sank). He was 28 years old, and she was the first person who didn't have any expectations when it came to him.
And there was also the fact that he thought he was already starting to develop feelings for her, even though they'd known each other for less than a week. He enjoyed the sound of her laugh (and the warm feeling in his chest when he was the one who inspired it). He thought she was really cute when she babbled (and then when she blushed after she realized that she was babbling). He felt a swooping sensation whenever she smiled, and he really just wanted to keep on making her smile.
Except for Thea (which, for him, had been love at first sight), he'd never fallen this hard or fast before. Not with any of the women he'd slept with- not even with Laurel, even though everyone had thought they'd end up together. Somehow, in between tripping over Felicity's cat and now, he'd managed to fall halfway in love with her.
Digg had noticed- how could he not? He'd spent months fighting crime with Oliver, and now all of a sudden he was smiling constantly- it wasn't that hard to figure out. Thea had noticed too, but then again, he'd literally told her. When he'd gotten home after their coffee not-date (Felicity's words), she hadn't stopped pestering him with questions. At least she was happy- she'd been trying to get him to open up for months, and he'd told her that that was what he was planning on doing with Felicity (he wouldn't- he refused to drag anyone, especially Felicity, into the darkness that surrounded him).
Oliver was startled out of his thoughts by a woman yelling "Get away from me!" He raced over to where he heard the scream, then froze in shock at the sight of Felicity being backed into an alley by three guys. To her credit, she was holding what was probably a can of pepper spray, but she wasn't exactly dressed to fight or run, and two of the guys were holding knives.
Without any hesitation, Oliver nocked and fired an arrow into the shoulder of one of the knife-wielding guys. As the guy went down with a shout of pain, Oliver jumped onto the ground, and the two other guys turned away from Felicity to face him.
"You heard what she said- get away from her," Oliver growled.
"Or what?" said the non-knife guy as he pulled out a gun and aimed it at Oliver.
Oliver didn't speak- before the man could even fire, Oliver had shot the gun out of his hand. He heard Felicity gasp, but forced himself to file that away- he'd just engaged in fighting off the two currently uninjured guys.
The guy with the gun went down in a few seconds, courtesy of a few well-placed punches, but the guy with the knife proved himself to be more of a challenge- unlike most street thugs, he actually seemed to know how to fight with a knife. It was kind of annoying, but the situation became a lot more infuriating when Felicity cried out.
Oliver risked a glance at her to see that the other guy with a knife- the one he'd shot in the shoulder- had picked himself up and was advancing on Felicity, who had backed herself up against a wall. Oliver felt a surge of emotions- rage, protectiveness, concern- and quickly knocked out the guy he was fighting. When he looked up again, he saw that the guy was standing less than three feet away from Felicity, who looked terrified.
Oliver threw himself at the guy, which took him by surprise. His momentum knocked the guy down, onto his non-injured side. The guy struggled, which only pissed off Oliver even more, and he found himself punching the guy over and over and over.
"Wait, stop!" he heard Felicity say, then felt her grab one of his arms, and Oliver slowly realized that he was kicking a dead horse- or, to be more accurate, punching an unconscious guy. He swiftly stood up and stepped away from the would-be mugger, pulling his arm away from Felicity's hands. He pulled out a few zip-cuffs and tied the guy up.
"I'm sorry," he said. And he was- even though she didn't know it was him, he hadn't wanted her to see how dark he was.
"Um, for what? You just saved my life- in case you didn't notice. I certainly did, but personally, it'd be hard not to notice a handsome vigilante beating up some muggers who were trying to attack me," Felicity said, and Oliver felt his lips quirk up at her babbling. He turned to the other two guys and zip-cuffed them.
"What makes you say that I'm handsome?" he asked, and yep, there was that really cute blush when she realized what she'd said.
"Oh, well- I mean, obviously I've never seen your face-" Oliver smirked internally at that- "but you've been fighting crime in Starling City for months, and I'd like to think that the universe wouldn't make someone as heroic as you not handsome. It just wouldn't be fair, and besides, you've got a really magnificent body anyways. Well, not that I'd know, because I also haven't seen your body, but you do look really hot in that outfit. And I...y'know what? Let's just forget I even said anything, and I'll just get back to my apartment and you can do- whatever vigilante stuff you were doing before you helped me."
"I'll walk you back," Oliver said, and took a second to curse internally. Felicity looked like she was about to speak, so Oliver continued, "It's clearly not too safe for you to walk back alone, and I don't have anything better to do."
Over the earpiece, Oliver heard Diggle snort- he didn't have any set targets tonight, but he was barely halfway through his patrol- but Oliver ignored him. He could get back to patrolling once he knew that Felicity was safe at home. Besides, if he timed things right, he could get a policeman to swing by and round up the zip-cuffed men before they even woke up.
Oliver almost started walking towards her home before he remembered that the Green Arrow didn't know where Felicity lived- or, for that matter, even knew her name. Instead, he waited a few seconds for Felicity to gather herself, then started following her when she started walking.
The walk was short, and mostly silent on his end. Felicity talked a lot- apparently, she'd had to make a run to the local grocery store to get something for dinner, and since she lived in a low-crime neighborhood, she hadn't really thought that it was too dangerous to walk there and back alone, and she definitely hadn't thought that she'd run into the three muggers. Oliver had to work to keep his expression blank- Felicity really had no idea how adorable she was when she babbled, let alone how much it affected Oliver.
"Well, here I am," Felicity said once she got to her apartment. "Thanks for making sure I got home safe."
"You're welcome," Oliver replied, and started to turn away.
"Um- hey," Felicity said, and Oliver turned back to see that Felicity was looking at him with a slightly nervous expression. "If there's- anything I can ever do to help…"
"You can help by staying away from me," Oliver replied. "I'm not going to drag anyone else down with me."
"Drag down?" Felicity asked incredulously. "You save people- that's basically the complete opposite of dragging people down. And I know I can't help you in the field, but I'm pretty good with computers- and, just between you and me, I've done some less-than-legal stuff with them, so if you ever have- tech issues, you know where I live now."
"I'll keep that in mind," Oliver replied. Truthfully, when he'd confronted Deadshot, he'd intended to bring the shot-up laptop to her- he'd asked Walter for his recommendation for technical help, and Walter had pointed him towards Felicity- but he'd recognized her from his morning jogging route, and he hadn't wanted to switch to another jogging route because she would recognize him. Instead, he'd gone to Kord Enterprises and had an IT guy there decrypt the laptop at arrowpoint.
"Anyway, I'm gonna- go inside now," Felicity said, gesturing towards her door. "And, stay safe? For what that's worth."
"I'll try," Oliver said as Felicity went inside. And he would- after all, he still hasn't gone on a date with Felicity yet.