This was totally inspired by the picture of Felicity's apartment that Marc Guggenheim posted on Twitter last week... I just needed to explain that poster! This is set during season two and up to the beginning of season three.

Merch Wars

Digg started it.

Well, according to Felicity anyway. If you asked Digg, he would say that shedid. It was certainly Felicity who discovered the first Arrow merchandise on Etsy, and she did joke about how they needed some 'merch' to brighten the lair up.

But really, it was Digg who started it.

The first thing was the mug. It was forest green, with a black arrow wrapped all the way around it. Oliver arrived at the Foundry one Saturday morning to find Felicity drinking peppermint tea from it, and his eyebrows shot up.

"What?" She asked him curiously.

"Nice mug," he said with a smirk.

She frowned and then actually looked at the mug properly for the first time. "I… I didn't… Digg!"

Digg was sitting at a table cleaning his guns, drinking coffee from an entirely plain mug.

He gave her an innocent look. "Something wrong with the tea?"

Oliver snorted, and Felicity turned pink from embarrassment. However, after a moment her eyes narrowed, and she picked up her mug to take a sip of her tea, her eyes never leaving Digg's.

"Oh no," she said, "it's perfect."

Nothing happened for a couple of weeks, in which time the mug had become a feature of the Foundry. Felicity was no longer embarrassed to be seen using it, and it was understood that it was hermug.

So it came as something of a surprise when she struck back.

It was late afternoon, and they'd just arrived at the Foundry from the office. Felicity went straight to her computers, Oliver started prepping arrows for patrolling later that night, and Digg went to change into his workout clothes.

He came out of the bathroom a few minutes later wearing sweatpants and a grey wifebeater shirt.

Oliver froze with an arrow in hand. Felicity saw his reaction and looked over her shoulder at Digg - and grinned.

Digg was wearing an Arrow shirt. And not just an arrow, like the mug - Arrow, with a capital A. It was light grey, which was a fairly usual colour for Digg, and it had a stylised silhouette of the Arrow on the front in dark grey. Oliver recognised it - someone had taken a photo of him in an alleyway the month before; he'd been in profile, and with a light behind him and early morning mist around it had been a very atmospheric photo and gone viral online.

Felicity called it his Album Cover Photo.

Anyway, the silhouette on Digg's shirt was clearly manipulated from that photo, but a close up of just his head and shoulders in the hood.

Oliver opened his mouth to say something, but Felicity shook her head frantically, still grinning. "Wait to see how long it takes him to notice," she murmured quietly, her grin turning wicked.

Oliver shook his head but obediently went back to his arrows. Felicity moved round the other side of her desk, pretending to be doing something to the back of one of the monitors but really just watching Digg workout.

It took Digg about twenty minutes to realise. He stopped at the end of a long rep and lifted up the shirt to wipe his face. He froze, staring in confusion down at the shirt, before tearing it off over his head and holding it in front of him for a better look.

"Felicity!"

Felicity's shoulders were shaking with silent laughter, but she managed to keep her voice fairly steady as she answered. "Something wrong, Digg?"

Digg tried to stare her down for a few moments, and she stared right back. Then, still looking straight at her, he slowly and deliberately put the shirt back on.

"No, nothing at all," he replied.

Oliver wasn't all that surprised when the Album Cover Photo was revealed to be Felicity's computer wallpaper at the office the next day. Felicity laughed about it, but there was a glint in her eye as she looked at Digg.

He'd messed with her hardware. This meant war.

A couple of days later, Digg couldn't find his phone. GPS showed it was somewhere in the Foundry, so Oliver rang it for him.

A buzzing sound filled the air, along with the unmistakable sound of Pat Benatar.

Hit me with your best shot

Why don't you hit me with your best shot

Hit me with your best shot

Fire away

Digg scowled as he retrieved his phone from where it was wedged between the training mats, and then glared at Felicity's back. She was staring straight at her computer, pretending to ignore the two of them; it was clearly pretence, as she was holding herself so stiff from trying not to laugh that she was basically frozen.

"Oh, it is on," Digg said quietly.

Oliver had managed to keep a straight face up until that moment, but he couldn't help but snort at the look of determined outrage on Digg's face. "Let it go, Digg," he said, also speaking quietly.

"Nope."

"This is Felicity we're talking about," Oliver said, "she will beat you."

Digg just set to work correcting his phone's settings and didn't say a word.

For the next few days, Oliver noticed that Felicity seemed to be guarding her belongings, and that she and Digg were being overly, formally polite with each other. However as the days and eventually the weeks went by, things went back to normal, and Oliver assumed that Digg had taken his words to heart.

What an idiot.

Felicity's birthday came around. General practice at Queen Consolidated was to break for cake and gifts within teams, and for Felicity that meant the assistants and interns on the executive floor, and whoever out of their bosses felt like coming along in between meetings.

Oliver knew she missed her friends down in IT, though, so he made sure to invite some of her old team up for cake as well, so there were a couple of dozen people gathered round as Felicity opened her cards and presents.

She was beaming as she opened the cards from her co-workers, and thanked them all for the gift vouchers and novelty desk items and other little things she was given, and she laughed out loud when Digg handed her a giant, flat package wrapped in pink paper with a green bow.

"Digg! What on earth…"

"Happy birthday, Felicity."

Felicity tore the paper away, still beaming, and then her eyes widened and her smile became rather fixed. Oliver looked at Digg - he was watching Felicity with a very smug expression - and his heart sank.

Several people demanded to know what it was, and so Felicity hitched her smile back into place and turned it round so they could see.

It was a framed poster of Errol Flynn in The Adventures of Robin Hood.

There was laughter and confusion. "Felicity's a big fan," Digg said over the noise.

Felicity was staring him down, an evil smile already lurking around her lips. "That's right, I loveErrol Flynn," she said, "thanks, Digg."

It escalated from there, really.

Every now and then, they would buy each other a themed present, usually timed to be opened in front of a crowd or at least in front of Oliver, for maximum embarrassment, but they both steadfastly pretended to love their presents - Felicity hung the Errol Flynn poster in her apartment and used the Arrow mug almost every day; Digg still wore the Arrow shirt every now and then when he was working out.

More and more Arrow merchandise started to appear in the lair. There were Arrow cushion covers on the couch. Three more Arrow mugs in the kitchen. They had so many things from Etsy that Oliver was sure they were single-handedly keeping certain vendors in business. The Album Cover Photo cropped up as wallpaper backgrounds on computers and phones so often that in the end they both stopped bothering to change it back.

Roy tried to ask about it once - Oliver told him to stay out of it, and he took his advice. This was between Felicity and Digg.

It stopped in the weeks leading up to Moira's death. There was just too much going on, too much fear and pain and worry to think about things like Robin Hood: Men in Tights DVDs (Felicity to Digg) and magnetic arrow bookends (Digg to Felicity).

Oliver had too much to think about to really notice how the gifts were drying up, but once they were out the other side and Slade was locked away on Lian Yu, he realised what had happened. And within a month or so, he also realised he missed their crazy competition.

It had become a feature of the team - it was stupid, yes, but it had been going on so long by that point that it was normal. The death of the competition was an indication of how much had changed in so short a time.

For a start, Team Arrow was a bigger - a lot bigger. Their number had grown from three to at least six, depending on who you counted (an argument could be made for ten). They had lost Verdant, and the Foundry lair with it, and the new place was a lot more utilitarian by necessity.

Digg was about to become a father for the first time, so had better things to think about than what embarrassing Arrow-themed piece to buy Felicity next. And as for Felicity - well, on the outside she acted the same as ever, but Oliver knew his ruse with Slade had got to her. It wasn't as easy between them as it had been before, and Oliver had a feeling that Digg knew better than to buy her an 'I 3 Arrows' t-shirt now (even if they were everywhere).

It was all just so awkward… and as more time went by and Oliver thought more and more seriously about a relationship with Felicity and how 'unthinkable' it would really be, he grew more and more sad that the gifts had stopped - it was almost like the end of the competition marked the end of any chance he'd had. He couldn't make a move until Felicity felt comfortable around him again.

And if she didn't feel comfortable drinking from a mug with an arrow on it, then she definitely wasn't comfortable around him.

The months went by. Oliver threw himself into getting his company back by day and making Starling's streets safe by night. Felicity helped him with both, though she had to work round her new job. Lyla took a new consultancy job with ARGUS and she and Digg moved to a new, bigger place.

The day after Lyla's baby shower, Oliver was working out in the new lair and, somehow, it was just the three of them for the first time in weeks. Digg and Felicity were happily discussing the shower - the cake and the games and the crazy amount of gifts.

"Actually, I got you something - I forgot to give it to you yesterday," Felicity said, reaching under her desk and bringing out a white gift bag with a cartoon pacifier on it and green tissue paper poking out the top.

"Felicity, you gave us a gift already," Digg said.

"I know, but the monitors are super practical - this is something for you and the baby to enjoy."

Digg smiled and took the bag. He pulled out the tissue paper, reached into the bag and brought out a teddy bear. Oliver was halfway up the salmon ladder, but he could see that the bear was brown, had clothes and a hat on, and he also saw Digg froze when he looked at it.

"How… thoughtful," he said carefully.

Felicity was smiling a smug, evil smile that Oliver hadn't seen in months. "I'm glad you like it."

"I love it."

"Good."

"Thanks."

"You're welcome."

Nothing else was said, and a little while later Oliver went to have a look at the bear and see why Digg had acted so weird about it. Up close it looked vaguely familiar, but he wasn't sure where he'd seen it before until he spotted the Disney Store tag attached to its paw. The tag read - 'Disney's Robin Hood - Little John'.

Oliver laughed out loud, unable to stop his reaction, and earned himself a scowl from Digg and a wink from Felicity.

A wink.

Oliver grinned as he put the bear back down, and his grin widened when he saw Felicity was using the arrow mug again.

Maybe he hadn't missed his chance after all.

THE END