Title: Self...
Author: Cassandra
Rated: T
Classification: Arrow; Oliver/Felicity; angst; romance
Spoilers: City of Blood (2x21), takes place during episode
Summary: Takes place during "City of Blood". When Oliver is finally found, how can he and Felicity accept everything they're about to lose?
Disclaimer: I own nothing, I just like to play in the Arrow sandbox now and again.
A/N: This came to me after "City of Blood", and THAT scene between Oliver and Felicity as he is going off to his death and she is begging him not to. This is Oliver's POV, with Felicity's to follow. I hope you enjoy, and if so, feedback is love. :)

Selfless

She says there has to be another way, and he wants to believe her. She can make him believe just about anything, because he can see the way she believes in him. He looks at her and wishes that he could have that kind of faith in himself; that he could do what she thinks he can do.

But the only way he sees out of this personal hell is to give himself up. If he ends it with himself, then no one else he loves will have to die. At least he hopes that Slade will be satisfied with his revenge.

She doesn't want him to go, but Felicity isn't one to make a melodramatic scene. He reaches for her, both of her hands enveloping his, and she's so close that all he can do is stare into her eyes like he has so many times before. It would be so easy to stay and take her down with him, but she deserves better than that.

She deserves better than him, and while he knows that losing him will hurt her badly, he hopes that she finds what she needs because he knows it can't be him. In another life he knows what a gift it would be to be with her, to love her the way he can't allow himself to in this life, but this is the one they have.

He holds her hand, and he unconsciously makes the tiniest move forward, because he knows the one regret in his recent past will be never having kissed her. As he looks from her eyes to her lips and back again, he knows he can't do that to her. She is worth more than a moment of desperation on his last day on earth, because he should have opened himself to the truth and been with her when it counted. It was too late now, and he couldn't make this harder on her than it already was.

He walks away from her for the last time, grasping her hand as far as she can reach before her fingers finally slip from his.

He thinks he picked a hell of a time to finally be selfless.

(1/2)