Summary: High-school wallflower Felicity decides to participate in an online game that involves completing challenges and dares throughout Starling City. Although she is initially thrilled by the game's antics - and the fact that it asks her to partner with a handsome stranger for some of the tasks - the experience eventually escalates into a life-or-death struggle.
Disclaimer: I do not own Arrow, Nerve, or any of its characters. This is an adaptation of the movie with the same name.
A/N: Hi guys! Happy holidays! Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, or whatever you celebrate! I apologize for taking so long to update, but this chapter has more scenes that I made up and everything, and like I told you before, it's really hard to write an adaptation of a movie, that plus the last couple of weeks at school, and a lot more other things. But anyways, here it is! Hope you guys enjoy it, thank you so much for reviewing, favoriting and following this story! It's the best gift of all!
"What happens if I bail?" she asked fidgeting with her hands.
"You lose everything you've already made." Oliver answered, leaning casually to her side.
"My mom would kill me…" muttered Felicity, biting her bottom lip. She looked at the huge neon sign on Saint Mark's in front of them and tried to decide whether to bail or carry on with her new dare.
"What do you want to do?" he looked down at her through his long eyelashes.
She turned to look at the building again. The neon lights made the place appear gorgeous, full of light and life. She knew this was almost nothing compared to running half-naked through a whole store full of wealthy people and their judgmental eyes. Plus, she felt like she could honestly trust Oliver, and she also knew he wouldn't do anything to humiliate her or make her do something she would regret forever. He was still staring at her, probably noticing her internal struggle, she guessed by the way his eyes swept over every single detail in of her face. The exhilarating feeling was still alive and running through her body and mind; releasing her lip from between her teeth slowly, she let out a sigh and took a step forward.
Oliver smiled at her, she noticed through the corner of her eye, and followed her, guiding her under the countless lights and counters with pipes, keeping his hand hovering against her lower back.
The actual tattoo parlor was a complete opposite compared with its bright entrance; it had dim red lights on the top of every showcase with designs and tools, but clear normal lights in every tattooing station where two artists were inking another person's body. Honestly, she didn't quite believe that she was there, preparing herself to get a tattoo.
LET OLIVER CHOOSE YOUR TATTOO
|$5,000|
/ACCEPT/ /REJECT/
They went to one of the tables with designs and Oliver started eyeing each page, his eyes focused in deep thought and contemplation.
"Okay, just please no fire breathing dragons or knives, no clowns, no snakes, no skeletons…" she babbled nervously. He nodded along, still looking at the pages.
"What about panthers and tornadoes?" he pointed at one design with a huge panther head poking out of a horrible tornado.
"No!" Felicity looked at him in disbelief and he laughed under his breath.
"No?" he pouted at her repressing a smile.
"Whoa! What about this?" one of the artists called out. He had a long beard and a huge frizzy ponytail on the very top of his head. He pointed to his left bicep. "Just a tattoo of my dad. He's gorgeous, honestly, he's a nice looking guy," it did the trick, and Felicity relaxed a little bit in a soft laugh.
"Okay, I got a better idea…" Oliver grabbed a stack of sticky notes and took the nearest pencil. He started drawing with a frown.
"You're gonna draw it? No!" she went to stop him but he raised his free hand.
"Shh! Be quiet, I gotta concentrate. Back off." Felicity sighed and watched him suck his upper lip into his mouth. When he was satisfied enough, he went to the artist's station and showed it to him. "Can you do something like this but less shitty?"
"Yes!" he cheered and laughed. Then he looked at Felicity's panicked face. "I'm laughing cause it's good!"
"You guys, come on," she pouted.
"Hey, you have to trust us, that's the whole thing!" Oliver reminded her.
"You gotta trust me," the hairy artist said.
"And dirt beard…" remarked her partner.
She looked helplessly to both of them, and then she sigh. Dirt-Beard and Oliver hi-fived in victory. "The dare says it just has to be bigger than a quarter."
"Don't worry," Oliver reassured her walking towards her while the artist finished the tattoo he had in progress. "You'll be just fine."
"We'll, I'm nervous, like really nervous, I don't like being nervous," she let out in a rush. Oliver took a hold of her shoulders and bent a little bit to be at eye level with her. She noticed one more time how handsome he was, and with the dim light, his eyes seemed to be ever deeper than before, boring into her and staring into her very soul.
He smiled softly and that small dimple appeared on his cheek. "You'll be okay. But if you're really not up to it, you can bail. I mean, a tattoo it's going to be forever on your skin."
"I can do it, I know I can," she said convinced. "I'm just really nervous. This is the first time I've done something like this."
"Then if you're sure, you don't have to worry about anything. Just live in the moment. Besides, I'm gonna be with you the whole time." Oliver stated letting his hands travel down her arms to take hers in a reassuring act. "You can do this, Felicity. I believe in you."
"I can do this," she repeated and nodded to herself. She closed her eyes a couple of seconds and when she opened them, he was still there looking down at her, her hands were still wrapped by his long calloused fingers, his thumb tracing soothing patterns on the back of her hands. She smiled at him. "Thank you."
"We're partners in this, Felicity. I trust you." Oliver winked at her and she blushed, feeling much more relaxed.
"Okay, guys. I'm done here!" called out dirt-beard from his station, where the guy he had been tattooing was arranging his clothes. "You can come now, princess."
Felicity let out a sigh and took a step forward, sitting on the chair next to the funny artist. "Where is it going to be, Oliver?" she asked him when she was settled.
"Let's go for the shoulder," he suggested. She went to grab the zipper to expose her skin, but Oliver beat her to it and slid it down, putting the dress aside, and pointing to her left shoulder blade. "Right here."
A shiver ran down her spine and she felt his whole palm against her soft skin. She immediately felt reassured by the contact.
"Okay, let's get started," dirt-beard said and the machine came to life with that constant buzzing that the movies always showed. From the corner of her eye, she saw his hand approaching with the needle, and as soon as it touched her skin, she felt like a bee sting. She flinched but kept herself from saying anything by biting her lower lip. She felt the adrenaline going through her veins as she tried to relax.
After 10 minutes, her skin felt scalding hot and as if a laser was burning her whole shoulder blade area.
"Okay, okay. You can stop. I think we're good. We're good. The dare said it just had to be bigger than a quarter. This definitely feels bigger than a quarter." Felicity babbled grabbing the edge of the tattooing chair as hard as she could.
"You're doing great. It's almost done." Oliver said recording her with her phone.
"Okay, no. I think wherever we are at, we can stop– Ow!"
"Hold on, I'm just doing the "Y" in daddy..." dirt-beard said.
"What?!" she exclaimed horrified.
"He's kidding. Don't listen to him!" said Oliver pointing the artist accusingly. He disappeared of her line of sight towards a computer.
"I really don't like that noise at all!" she continued with her word vomit. "Ow! Where the hell are my endorphins!"
The background music, an old track by Iron Maiden, changed and a familiar song started. Her chest ached for a completely different reason and she actually turned to look at Oliver, who was staring at her intensely trying to figure out her reaction. Even the artist stopped what he was doing to nod approvingly to Oliver, who lifted up the camera again. C.R.E.A.M. by Wu-Tang Clan was one of Roy's favorites, and she remembered with clarity how loud they would both rap it on his room, making their mother laugh all the way from the kitchen.
Another wave of hotness went by her shoulder, making her express her pain again. She knew exactly what Oliver was trying to do, and she appreciated it a lot. She looked at the ceiling forcing her muscles to relax.
"Dolla dolla bill y'all!" she sang along. "I grew up on the crime side of New York Times side, staying alive was no jive. At second hands, moms bounced on old men, so then we moved to Shaolin land. A young youth, yo rockin' the gold tooth, 'lo goose, only way, I begin to gee off— I forgot the rest." Felicity laughed.
"Rocking that gold tooth!" Oliver mocked at her.
"Stop— Ow!" she grimaced again. He laughed, his nose wrinkling, and sat on the couch in front of her, being just a couple of inches away from her.
"Wu-Tang fan, huh?" he asked her with a bright smile.
"My brother used to listen to them all the time." Felicity replied giving him a smile of his own.
"Oh, yeah? You have a brother?"
Her smile faltered and she suddenly felt completely numb. It killed her every time that she stopped to think about Roy and his death. He was her greatest weakness, because of how much it hurt, but at the same time, he was her greatest strength. There was no way she could have become who she was without that constant reminder of the good times with him and his smile and his gut. He was her guardian angel.
Even though he wasn't her blood brother, DNA was the only thing that separated them. Her mother had taken him in when his parents left him in a casino and never came back. Roy had been three years old back then. And her mother, as a worker there, saw him and instantly felt compassion, guarding him under her wing and raising him as her own. He was family, and the fact that he had changed his last name from Harper to Smoak at the age of fifteen proved that. He had been one of Felicity's best friends and the best brother anyone could have ever wished.
"Had a brother," she answered looking at her hands. "He died right before starting college."
Oliver's whole demeanor changed. "I'm sorry," then he hesitated, as if he didn't know if he was allowed to push further. "How long ago was that?"
"Two years ago, he was eighteen." Felicity said. "This July, I'll be older than him. Older than my older brother— Ow!" a new wave of pain rushed through her skin and she flinched.
"Hey, hey, come on," Oliver grabbed her hand that was grabbing the edge of the chair and ran his thumb over her knuckles. "Stay with me."
She focused on finishing her story and looked at his conflicted face. "He was just one of those people that wasn't afraid of anything. He always said yes. He would laugh so hard if he saw me getting a tattoo right now."
"Boom!" dirt-beard interrupted. "I am done! Go to that mirror and you celebrate my work."
"Come on, let's go." Oliver said with a new look in his eyes, like he was watching her in a different way.
"Do I want to see?" she asked nervously, and grateful that it was finally over.
"Yes, yes and yes," he got up and offered her his hand, and both of them walked towards the mirror on the back of the store.
Felicity moved the dress again to see her shoulder and what she saw there almost brought tears to her eyes. A huge smile started to spread slowly in her face as she looked back to Oliver, who was recording her reaction.
"A lighthouse? I love it. Thank you."
Oliver lowered the phone and took a step forward. "Well, a very wise person once said, and this was earlier today…" he sent her a sideways look and she rolled her eyes. "They said that the lighthouse represents the thing that you want the most. So, whatever that is, I hope you get it."
She just stared at him for a long moment and then muttered again, "Thank you."
"What's up, young Jedi?" John heard through the phone.
"Yeah, hi," he said distracted while pressing the screen of his tablet.
"We miss you down here at the club!" Lyla exclaimed with a happy voice.
"You're watching Nerve, right?" he asked going straight to the point.
"Yeah, man. We all are," she answered.
John leaned against the hood of the car and continued his petition. "Alright, I'm trying to find out more about this Oliver guy."
"Oliver, my dude!" Lyla cheered. "He's playing with your little friend, Felicity, right?"
"Yeah, but I'm looking on his profile and there's just nothing on the guy."
"Well, did you try Google?"
"Yeah, I tried Google," he sighed frustrated.
"I guess he's a ghost then."
"Look," John said, knowing that there was no way she was going to like his request. "I need a ticket to Aruba."
Lyla stayed silent for a couple of seconds and the background noise stopped. "What? No."
"Yes, come on."
"No way! You're not ready for that shit. You're gonna mess up my rating!" she argued getting annoyed.
"I'm not gonna mess up your rating! I'm not gonna buy guns or something, man!" he tried to convince her.
"Digg, no. Not happening."
"Look, I'm just worried about my friend, please." Lyla stayed silent, and he took that as a good sign. "Come on, please."
"Alright. I'll send you a passkey."
"Okay, thank you so much, Lyla."
"Just be careful, Digg."
John hanged up the phone and went inside his car. The radio was blasting with a pop song that Felicity liked, and he let out a deep breath. He was only trying to protect his best friend, was that a sin? If not, why was he feeling like she wouldn't approve what he was doing? His phoned beeped with a new message from Lyla.
Don't do anything dumb, dummy…
The text was followed with a series of number and letters combined. He quickly answered with a thankful message and the promise of him paying dinner, and entered to the navigator. Typing the link to the dark web Aruba, he pasted Lyla's referred key and the page let him in.
"God, I love the internet…" he muttered.
The home page was full of different banners offering drugs, guns, blank bullets, porn and other illegal things. He went to the bottom of the page, to the searcher in forum and typed: oliver nerve dare motorcycle.
The browser opened and millions of forum entrees showed up on the screen of his tablet, many appraising this year's competition so far and commenting about Oliver and his previous dares. There was a particular gif animation of him stealing the bike he was now riding with Felicity. He rolled his eyes at some comments about his looked but stopped dead on his tracks when certain comment showed: I can't believe he's playing again... after Seattle last year...
"What?" John whispered dumbfounded. He continued scrolling down and bumped into a short video on loop where Oliver appeared with a green hoodie on top of a crane with another guy hanging from it.
"You don't have to do this!" Oliver shouted on the video to the guy.
"I can do this!" the guy answered and then the video continued to repeat on a loop.
"Oliver has played before?" Digg said still surprised. He quickly grabbed his phone and dialed Felicity's number, going straight to voice mail. With a frustrated sigh, he started the car to go and find Sara.
"Okay, they're asking if I can trust you… Can I?" Oliver looked back at her with a cocky smile. Felicity grabbed his arm and pushed him back towards the entrance of the tattoo parlor.
"I have the perfect tattoo picked out for you," she said and he scrunched his nose, but then stopped when his phone made another sound.
"Wait, wait… No, okay, it's not a tattoo dare." Oliver touched the screen a couple of times.
"What is it?"
"Just says go to Park and 25th…" he shrugged and then tugged at her hand for her to follow him towards the motorcycle.
"What do you think it's going to be?" she asked him putting on the helmet he offered.
He draped one leg over the bike and waited for her to get on, adjusting his phone in a device on the steering wheel. "I don't really know. There's been all kind of dares, all different for each Player, and I don't think there's another couple of Players partnered up. So, honestly, it could be anything."
Felicity hopped on the back seat, moving her dress to cover as much as her legs as possible, even though it was a warm night. She got herself comfortable and brought her arms up to wrap them around Oliver's waist. They hooked themselves of the lapels of his suit jacket, the buttons of his shirt making her hands tickle. Her chest went to curve over his back and her head rested nicely between his shoulder blades.
"I'm sorry." Oliver blurted out turning his head to the side lightly to see her through the corner of his eye. "About your brother I mean. But I just want you to know that whatever experiences you had to go through, I'm glad that you did. They shaped the person you are today…" he moved again to see her better and she separated from him to meet his eyes, his deep blue eyes. "And I really like that person."
And just like that, he looked ahead again, and made the engine roar back to life. Felicity, so silently, went back to her previous position, but this time, her hands flat on his stomach, the only thing separating their skins being the thin shirt he had on. The drive to the place that the Watchers had indicated was silent, just the sound of the alive and vibrant people of Starling City surrounding them.
It only took them twelve minutes to get to the location, a corner with an old church, a nice coffee shop and a jewelry shop. Oliver hopped off the bike and helped her to get off as well.
"How's the tattoo feeling?" he asked her, as she leaned on the motorcycle.
"It feels hot. Like a constant feeling of my skin burning, but that's it." Felicity said feeling the bandage that covered the raw skin from the fabric of the dress.
Then, his phone beeped with the new dare. "Here we go…" he said and stepped closer to her to show her the screen. "Get to 60 miles per hour… That's it."
"Okay," she laughed.
"Alright? Easy one, okay. Let's do this."
Another sound interrupted them and he quickly read the message on his phone, his face slightly paling. He looked at her with wide eyes and a cautious expression. "What did that just say?"
He just showed her the screen and the yellow words on the black background.
GET TO 60MPH BLINDFOLDED
/$10,000/
|ACCEPT| |REJECT|
"Blindfolded? On the motorcycle?" she exclaimed.
"Yeah…" Oliver answered still with that careful look on his face.
"You're on your own with that one." Felicity made an attempt to go but didn't make it far enough before he caught up with her.
"W-wait, I can't do this alone. Come on, I need you to help me navigate," he begged.
"There's no way in hell I'm doing that!" she tried to reason with him. "I'm sorry. I'm out," he gave her a disbelieving look, like he couldn't understand that after all she had done during the night, she was bailing on him. "Thank you for tonight. I had a lot of fun, got a new dress. But I'm… I'm good."
She raised her hand for him to shake, which he did really sloppily. "Stay, let's see what else happens." Oliver smiled at her charmingly trying to convince her. She opened her mouth to say her final goodbyes, when a huge truck stopped right next to them with a loud noise, and an equally huge guy hopped down from it. Felicity recognized him as one of the other Players that was on the top 10 chart the last time she checked.
"Yo! What's up guys?" he greeted them. Beside her, Oliver rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Felicity, love your wardrobe," he gave her a folded paper and raised his phone with a blinding flash straight to her face. "Could you hold that for me? Hold it up."
Felicity did as the guy asked and unfolded the piece of paper. It was actually a sticker that read: STARLING FUCKING CITY. Another sound came out from his phone, and he finally turned off the flash, leaving her with little white spots each time she blinked.
"Great," the guy said. He climbed again on his truck and as he drove away, he shouted, "Oliver, see you in the finals!" and then he was gone.
"Who was that guy?" she asked him with a deep frown.
"I don't know, just another Player." Oliver shrugged, but she could see certain level of apprehension, making her think he wasn't being entirely truthful with her. "Felicity, come on, do this with me. Please, I need you," she stayed silent, just looking at his hopeful eyes. He apparently took that as a good sign and continued to sweet talk. "Look, you'd be in control. Say yes, just say yes."
He was doing that thing he did with his eyebrows, that expression that could only be described as puppy eyes. Half of his bottom lip was being bitten, and he just couldn't stop looking at her like that, sweet Jesus. She sighed and forced herself to look away, her eyes falling on the coffee shop, where many people where sharing a cup of coffee either alone or with their couples. If she did it, she was running the risk of getting hurt or even killed if it was really bad, and not only that, but dragging down Oliver with her as well. But if she didn't, she was probably going to regret it, besides, she would be the one controlling everything, and since Oliver clearly didn't have any intention to bail, it was better to try and ensure his safety by going with him.
And she could even believe that she was getting convinced at doing something like this.
Felicity looked at him again, and the answer must have shown in her eyes, because his entire demeanor changed, and a bright smile broke in his face.
"Yes!" he whispered in triumph. "Thank you so much, Felicity."
"Just hop on the bike," she muttered.
God helped them, because they would need to find a way to make it through and not get themselves killed in the process.