Chapter 1: Reminiscence

A.N

The Arrow panel at comic con discussed probable friendship about Laurel and Felicity and I thought this is begging to be fanfic-ed. When more prolific writers of the fandom did not take it up, I thought I should try my hands at it. Let me know how I fared. I have no beta so mistakes are all mine.

Oh, and I also do not own anything although the idea of owning Oliver Queen is delicious.

Summary:

This story is AU. Oliver is still a vigilante in Starling City and Diggle and Felicity are still part of his team but there is a twist; Felicity and Laurel are friends here. They both went to the same high school and have reconnected in the present because Tommy and Felicity have kind of become best friends and Laurel is his girlfriend. This triumvirate of friends makes one vigilante billionaire suspicious. Yes, Tommy is alive and kicking and this is a happy fic.

The minute Felicity entered the basement at Verdant, she regretted coming in. For past four nights, she was going home after 2.00 am and reporting to work at QC at 8.30 am which left her with not enough hours to sleep. She could have taken the day off from the hood duties as it was a slow day at Arrow lair – Oliver had to go attend some social shindig and Diggle was out living a life, something that Felicity was severely lacking since – well since one Oliver Queen was found bleeding in her car, but her sense of responsibility over ruled the protests of her tired body. She dropped by to quickly check upon the progress of a search she was running and to update a couple of things and wanted to leave as early as she could because the basement was just not the same without her team – and her DVR is full of TV programs that she badly needed to catch up on. She performed her checks and was about to leave around 6.30 when Tommy sent her a text.

Where are you when I need you when I need you the most, Tommy.

Felicity laughed at the dramatic tone and responded with "Cut it out Merlyn, if you are still this melodramatic, you know you are not dying"

It is strange how Tommy and Felicity became crazy fast friends. The first time she met him when she ran into him in Verdant one day; she thought he was world's biggest jerk ever. Tommy thought she was one of Oliver's castoff blondes and she was stalking his best friend after she got dumped. Tommy basically tried to get her to leave the club and when she refused to do that without telling him what she was doing in there, he called in security. Just when Felicity was about the throw the loudest tantrum of her life, Oliver and Diggle walked in and saved the situation. She vowed to ruin his life but only relented after Tommy apologized profusely and offered to have her favorite food delivered to her for a week. She accepted his apology but made him deliver gourmet food for a month – not a week. After Tommy found out about Oliver's vigilante identity and was finding it difficult to communicate, Felicity worked as a bridge between the two friends before she lost her cool, made them sit together and basically ordered them to get their shit together; the rest as they say is history.

"Come on Blondie, you are coming up with me. I need reinforcement," Tommy was standing on the steps leading to basement gesturing towards the main floor of the club.

Though Tommy has gradually accepted Oliver's vigilante persona, he is still not too comfortable coming down to the basement, so when Felicity saw him down there, she raised her eyes and asked, "Why, what do you need reinforcement against, you do realize that I only weigh 115 pounds and would be quite useless in a bar fight."

"Not what, whom do I need reinforcement against and it is Laurel," Tommy replied.

"Why, what have you done now? I am not playing referee between you guys. You know I hate picking sides," Felicity eyed him suspiciously.

"Why do you automatically assume that I would be at fault in here, she is no angel you know," Tommy whined.

"It does not matter whether she is the devil or the angel, she is your girl friend and would always be right in an argument, it's like a universal truth," Felicity picked up her purse and decided to follow Tommy into his office.

Laurel was sitting on Tommy's seat in his office.

Felicity loved Tommy's office. It had cream walls and carpet and dark wooden furniture, but her favorite piece was a dark green leather upholstered sofa next to the glass window overlooking the club. If she had her way, she would steal that sofa and drag it downstairs to the lair.

She entered the office, plopped herself and her bag on his desk and asked, "What has he done now? You can do whatever you want with him, I won't say a thing, you know."

"What the hell Felicity," Tommy protested as he followed her into his office and sat down on the chair facing Laurel, "I thought you were my friend."

"Of course you are my friend but I have known Laurel since I was a kid, she has seen me with my braces and frizzy hair, she can put those pictures online and destroy my carefully crafted persona, it's just a matter of self preservation," she gestured at her crisp white shirt, her grey vest and at her glasses when she mentioned her carefully crafted persona. She also made herself more comfortable by sitting Indian style cross legged on Tommy's desk between Laurel and Tommy and looked ready to dispense justice.

"Jesus! He is acting like I asked him to cut off his arm. All I want is him to stand by me at my high school reunion. I want to have a good time and show off my handsome boyfriend. Is that too much to ask?" Laurel asked.

"Absolutely not. And dude, you run a club which basically means you party everyday so what's your excuse." Felicity looked between the two of them.

"I don't want every one of your class mates to come and ask if I am the same douche who ruined your high school prom. I don't want to be that guy, you know," Timmy complained.

"Wait what? You ruined her high school prom? That was a good ten years ago and I thought you guys were dating for just over a year!" Felicity asked.

"Well she had to kiss many a toads before she realized that I am her prince but yeah, we kinda knew each other back then," Tommy laughed.

"No we did not know each other back then. I only punched you in the face and if you don't come to thae party with me, I will have no compunction in punching you yet again," Laurel threatened.

"I was not the only one you punched that night, the first one to get his ass whooped was Oliver and seeing him getting his comeuppance was so worth that punch," Tommy had a gleeful look in his eyes as he remembered that time.

"What happened? Why don't I know anything worth knowing in life? How come you have punched these alpha males in one night and that too when you were a teenager and I am hearing about it for the first time? Why don't I know this story? I need the whole story and I need you to spill it NOW," Felicity went on with taking a breath.

"Honestly, there is not much to this story. You graduated a few months earlier than the rest of us right? Laurel asked. When Felicity said, "In February," she continued.

"Remember Carter, my boyfriend back in high school," when Felicity nodded, Laurel said, "He and I broke up that spring, so I was single back then. And I met Oliver at the hospital where I was volunteering and we dated a bit before I asked if he would be my date to my school prom. I knew he went to a different school but going solo soon after breaking up with your boyfriend of 3 years was not something I was willing to do, so I decided to take the matters in my head and went ahead … " Laurel could have gone but Felicity interrupted her.

"You dated Oliver? Oliver Queen! Our Oliver!" She looked at Tommy wide eyed and then back at Laurel, "and he was volunteering at a hospital?"

"Well, Tommy and I knew Oliver before you, so technically he is our Oliver, but I digress," Laurel laughed, "and he was not voluntarily "volunteering" at the hospital, it was part of the community service he had to do to avoid jail sentence for a public misdemeanor, so yeah, we met at that hospital, dated for a month before I asked him for the prom." Laurel went on.

"For the first time in my life I wish that I had not missed the prom to attend advance mathematics camp, I mean I missed all this drama and only get to hear about it ten years later," Felicity was literally rubbing her hands in regret.

"Ah, I always forget that the two of you were together in school," Tommy reacted – for the umpteenth time – to the news that Felicity and Laurel were in school together.

"Yeah we were in school together but that is not important, what is important that you got punched, by a girl and I want to know all the dirty details so don't interrupt," Felicity almost chided Tommy and turned to Laurel, "Okay, so you were dating Oliver back then and it makes sense but how did you end up punching Tommy in the face?"

"Oh God, I so don't want to relive that memory," Laurel shuddered, "Anyways, to cut an embarrassing story short, Tommy and Oliver had some sort of prank war going back then and if I know anything about them, I would assume that they still have it going. Apparently Oliver had shaved half his head after lacing his drink and he wanted to get even so he put sparkly silver dust with some kind of chemical on Oliver's car seats the night of the prom. When we got to the prom, both our asses were silver and sparkling."

" .God! You were the devil Tommy" Felicity was still wide eyed.

"A suicidal devil because I actually crashed her prom to see how it turned out for Oliver." Tommy shook his head at his own stupidity.

"Oh he was a suicidal devil with a buzz cut, remember Oliver had shaved half his head a fortnight before," Laurel reminded.

"I so wanted to gloat so I walked up to Oliver and asked how his sparkly ass is doing, being the Oliver we all know, he said that his ass was just fine and it will be even better in next five minutes because of all the attention its gonna get. He then went up to the DJ, asked him to play 'Old Time Rock & Roll', took off his shoes, jacket and trousers and pulled a Tom Cruise from Risky Business by dancing in his underwear," Tommy was in his element when he regaled the whole story.

Felicity was laughing hard and had tears coming out of her eyes. "Now I know for sure – missing the prom is the single biggest regret of my life. What I would not give to see a video of that happening."

"Thank God it all happened ten years ago when people were not ready with their smart phones to record everything for posterity's sake. I am sure there were photos posted on MySpace back then but mercifully that too died after facebook and twitter took over. Otherwise my career would have in jeopardy," Laurel came around and sat on the table with Felicity.

"How can that incident jeopardize your career as Assistant District Attorney, it was Oliver who was dancing in his briefs?" Felicity was still laughing hard.

"I attacked two boys; I don't think DA's office would look kindly to that, even though I had every reason to do that. When Oliver started channeling his inner Tom Cruise and took off his clothes and started prancing in his socks and underwear, I watched him in utter horror for a couple of minutes then I was galvanized in action. I walked up to him and punched him square in the face. Oliver slipped on the floor, DJ stopped playing and there was this one loud collective gasp. Everyone was quiet except Tommy, he was clapping and laughing his head off." Laurel told Felicity.

"Like I said I was suicidal that night so I went up to Laurel, bowed down and told her that even if had orchestrated every move that evening, it couldn't have turned out any better than it did." Tommy added.

"I did not even know that Tommy was responsible for all that fiasco, I was just mad because too many people tried to touch my sparkly bottom that evening so I took a swing at his chest and then another when he asked why did I punch him. I looked around at all the people, took my shoes off and walked six blocks home in my stockinged feet. Needless to say, that was my last date with Oliver. " Laurel concluded.

"Holy crap, that has got to be the single most entertaining story I have heard recently – or ever," Felicity tried to take a mock swing at Tommy which he ducked. "I am sorry about you ruining your dress but those were some serious kick ass moves you pulled out. You go girl," Felicity hi-fived Laurel.

Someone knocked on the door and brought a bottle of wine with three glasses. Felicity's eyes popped up when she saw it was a bottle of 2003 Quinta do Noval Nacional Vintage Port. "I don't think I have ever had Portuguese wine."

"And I got it especially for you, now you have got to take my side and veto the whole idea of this reunion thing," Tommy dangled the glass of wine in front of her.

"She does not get to veto this and as it is her high school reunion as well, she is coming with us as well," Laurel said it with finality.

Tommy started laughing at that.

"No, I cannot go, you know I barely had any friends apart from you, Leena and Sanjeev and Sanjeev was friends with me because I was captain of the Math club and Leena tolerated me because you basically commandeered her to do so." Felicity pleaded.

"Why would you not have any friends? You are delightful; she is delightful, isn't she?" Tommy asked Laurel.

"No, I am awkward and say the most inappropriate things when flustered which is basically most of the time," Felicity put down her glass and beseeched Laurel who refused to entertain her pleading.

"Stop looking for sympathy, you know Tommy would want more familiar faces around him," Laurel said to Felicity and then turned to Tommy, "She is just being overly dramatic, the reason she had very few friends was because she was over two years younger than the rest of the class. We were teenage girls who discussed boys, make up and sex – not necessarily in that order – and she was a younger brainier person who made everyone uncomfortable. It was like having your kid sister under your foot all the time. Add the fact that she was smarter than most of us but was stupid enough to flaunt it in front of the teachers did not bode well for her. Even I thought she was irritating but one day, Jason, the school bully took her glasses and broke them and the protective instinct in me kicked in and I went to help her up and sort of took her under my wings. We actually stayed friends throughout the high school but lost touch later on because she went to Connecticut for college and I went to California."

"Where we reconnected after that disastrous prom night which I want to erase from my memory but you are making me relive it by going to this party," Tommy said.

Laurel went to lie down on the sofa next to window and told Tommy off, "You are going and that is the end of it all. Felicity is also coming and I won't hear any excuses."

"Forget the party; tell me how you guys reconnected? Did you recognize him when you first saw him as the douche from prom?" Felicity tried to change the topic of conversation.

"Of course not, he had the buzz cut back then and I barely saw his face, I only punched him. I saw him three years later with long flowing hair and a beard, he was going for a rockstar look perhaps. I saw him making out on our sofa with my roommate at USC, screamed and threw a book at him to get him off her." Laurel remembered, "And then he went on to date almost all the girls in our building so he was always around. I think I once threw a shoe at him as well because he was having sex on the stairs and I wanted to get past him and his girl."

"See, she was always after me that is why she kept punching me or throwing things at me. She knew I was a catch since that prom day," Tommy winked at Laurel.

"You were a total slut back in the day and you know it Tommy Merlyn," Laurel winked back.

"So basically Tommy dated half the girls you knew back in college, or may be more and you dated his best friend albeit briefly in high school and now the two of you are an item. Whoa! You guys certainly like to keep it within your own little circle, don't you?" Felicity tried to trail the whole circle of who dated whom in a sequence.

"Yes, we like to keep it in the family, and now that you are one of us, you too will end up dating one of us," Tommy got up and hugged Felicity from behind.

Felicity was alarmed, she knew she had a massive empire state building sized crush on Oliver but Tommy is the last person she wanted to let in on, so she feigned indifference, "Seriously, so which one of your idle rich friends you are trying to set me up with?"

"Who said anything about setting you up with any of my idle rich friends, you can always end up with extremely hard working Laurel," he smirked.

"Gawd Tommy, you are incorrigible," Felicity tried to shake him off her shoulders but he clung on.

Laurel was laughing lying on the sofa, "Tommy, it was no random idea that popped up in your mind. I am willing to bet that you have had thoughts about us before."

Tommy went to the sofa that Laurel was lying on and kissed her. "You know me so well, that is why you are my girl."

Felicity looked at her friends and smiled. No matter how much they squabble, their love for each other was there for everyone to see. She decided to leave so that they can get some privacy and told them that her DVR beckons her presence.

Laurel who has had a long day like her waved her off from her sofa while Tommy got up and helped her off his table. He gave her the rest of the bottle of wine so that she can enjoy it in her evening in and went to see her off.

Oliver had forgotten his phone in the lair and stopped by at the Verdant to pick it up. While he was on his way out he heard Felicity's giggles and turned towards Tommy's office wondering what she was doing there. He saw her sitting cross legged on top of Tommy's table with a glass of wine in her hand and a wide smile on her face and a happy Tommy hugging her from behind. That image hit him so hard that he retreated back in the alley. He loved Tommy like a brother but he also knew that Tommy has been around and then some. He didn't like Tommy's easy proximity with Felicity and the way felicity was responding to it. He decided that he must go and check up on her but when he came out of that alley, he saw Tommy escorting Felicity to the back door that the employees used, handing her what seems to be a bottle of wine and kissing her on the cheeks. They chatted some more followed by a loud laugh from both. Tommy was humming when he was heading back to his office and Oliver felt like punching his best friend.

He left the club soon after Tommy went inside his office and closed the door and kept thinking about Felicity on his way to the charity gala he was supposed to attend. He thought Tommy was solid with that lawyer girl Laurel he briefly dated in high school. He met her a quite a few times and she seemed more like a girl who can handle Tommy, not Felicity who is awkward, and quirky and funny and smart and beautiful.

Oliver was so startled with his train of thoughts that he actually hit the brakes – the car brakes. As he restarted the car, he wondered since when he started thinking of his IT girl as beautiful.

So how was it. Please leave a message, comment, criticism or a suggestion, they are all welcome.

PS: Those who have not seen Tom Cruise's dance moves in underwear from Risky Business should totally check it on you tube, so much fun.