So if you are here for the smut and the smut only, chapter four is where you go.
However if you would like to stay for the story, please do not skip this chapter, I guess it's inevitably gonna be the most boring of them all, in fact I'm slightly dosed writing it, but bare with, the next one's better! Promise.
I'll make it a short one, since this is pretty unimportant in the grand scheme of things.
Just FYI, I don't know when you are reading this but as I'm writing it the Felicity Smoak Origin episode has not aired yet.
"Tell me a bit about your childhood," Ray speaks softly as the waiter tops up his glass of red wine, then turning his attention to Felicity's glass before backing away.
Felicity smiles to him over the candlelit table in the corner of a classy, hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant, "What do you want to know?"
"Anything..." Ray replies, taking a sip from his glass and leaning over the table to the blonde before him, lowering his tone as he corrects himself, "...Everything."
She sighs, lowering her glass to the table, "There's not much to say. Born and bred in Las Vegas, my mother was a cocktail waitress in the strip club we rented the flat above of, she wanted better for me... as in she wanted me to be a stripper since she never had the knack for it. My dad left when I was young, I remember very little of him, my mom said he was in the Navy, a job he loved more than me and my mother. I got a full scholarship to MIT at eighteen, which I worked really hard for, graduated top of my class and fell into a job at Queen Consolidated. And that's about it... Oh and I broke my arm when I was seven, trying to copy one of the pole dancers in the club. Guess I didn't have the knack for it either."
As Felicity confesses this, she see's Ray watch her intently, giving her his full attention as she quickly admits to him more than she's ever mentioned to anyone, "What about you, Mr Boy Genius?"
Ray smiles at the endearment and takes a nervous sip of his wine before answering, "My mother was a judge, my father was a brain surgeon. I have an older brother who always wanted to be a politician, which he currently is. I never really wanted any of it, the big house in the countryside, home schooling by our personal tutor, cared for by our underpaid nanny, meals made by the housekeeper, parents always in the city working. I barely saw them, and me and my brother Will never got along. It was lonely, I didn't get to socialise because of the home-schooling, I didn't have any friends. My parents always wanted me to be something big, and I guess I resented that. But still, I worked hard and got a scholarship to Harvard business school, merely so I could get away from my parents. Graduated first in my class and moved to the furthest place from them as possible, Gotham City. But I soon found myself drawn to Starling, after the undertaking I guess. I wanted to help, that's all I've ever wanted."
Felicity returns his confession with a warm smile, "You're doing a really good job at that helping business. I'm really proud to say that I've worked alongside you."
There conversation is cut off by their mains being served, turning them back onto the subject of small talk until they finish and they delve deep again.
"So what made you go into IT?" Ray asks, folding his napkin and placing it alongside his glass as their plates are removed from the table.
"When my dad left, I was about four or five, and he left his old computer in his and my mother's room. She chucked out everything of his but I managed to save this laptop. I wanted to remember him and at the time I didn't know what exactly it was that I was holding onto. But as I got older, I'd try to hack into it, guess the password, and I got obsessed in trying to find out what was on this laptop, that's when I found out I was pretty good at hacking."
"What was on the laptop?" Ray asks, intrigued.
Felicity laughs bitterly before replying, "Government secrets."
"Really?" The brunette asks, leaning over the table towards her, interest spiked.
"No," she laughs more heartedly now, "There was nothing on it. I questioned my mother about it before I left for MIT and she said it was brand new, he had put a series of almost unbeatable codes to secure the damn thing but left before he used it for anything."
"Shit," Ray chuckles lightly, "You had me going for a second there."
And that's when desert comes, distracting them once more until they finish, wash it down with another bottle of wine and end up being the only ones left in the restaurant except the owner.
"I have one more question," Ray speaks up, "Or well, it's more of a query, maybe a little too deep for a first date..."
Felicity's face portrays a broad smile as she laughs, "just spit it out Palmer, you can't scare me away now."
"The Arrow..." he whispers, deadly serious and Felicity's smile is wiped off of her face.
A fake one is plastered on instead, "That wasn't a question."
"I heard he saved your life from Count Vertigo."
She sighs, "that wasn't a question either Ray."
"Okay," he leans backwards in his chair, "do you know him? I looked into it when I hired you and not only did he save you, he also killed to save you, the only death in his non-killing spree was for you. Not to mention that Captain Lance took you in for questioning over suspected involvement with him back when he was just an officer. Oh, and your industrial piercing, was sporting a very classy arrow when you took the job with me."
Felicity scratches behind her ear uneasily and laughs without humour, "You were right, this isn't a conversation for a first date."
"But you will tell me at some point?" He asks, grabbing for his wine, "I trust you, and I trust your judgement. But if this relationship of ours progresses further than you will tell me, right? The whole truth?"
Felicity hesitates, unable to bring herself to tell him everything, but she knows that one day she will, so when she answers "Of course," she knows it's not a lie.
And in six months time, in this very restaurant after closing hours when the owner has agreed to keep it open late for them, she does tell him everything, about the Arrow, the Canary, both versions and Roy's job as Arsenal. But it's not until two years later when the Arrow shows up injured in their shared apartment that his identity is revealed to Ray and everything becomes a little clearer.
But then, she doesn't hesitate to tell him. Everything.
Like I said, I know this is a bit jumpy and well, poorly written for my standards but please read on, the next chapter will go back to my usual prose writing style.
