When Oliver woke up that morning, it was like a thousand fantasies come true. He was lying, naked, on the cot in the foundry, the one Felicity bought for him a lifetime ago, and she was with him, equally naked, and asleep. The number of times he had wanted this to happen were uncountable, but because of one big reason it never did. He had decided he couldn't be with her, and then she left him to be with someone else.
But then yesterday, she came back. And every wall he had built up around his feeling for her collapsed. How exactly they had ended up in bed together was a bit of a blur, because as soon as she started kissing him, touching him, he was lost. They came together and it was explosive, it was mind blowing. And it probably shouldn't have happened.
Oliver wasn't exactly sure what to expect when Felicity woke up, but he knew, that like so many other facets of his life, that it was bound to be complicated. He was right.
She woke up with a bit of a start, unsure of where she was. She put one hand into her hair as she looked around, and Oliver could tell that the pieces of last night were falling back into place in her head. When her gaze flitted over him, he held his breath.
The first thing she said was "I have to get to work."
And then she was up, gathering clothes that were strewn on the floor. Oliver sat up, blanket pooled around his waist, unable to keep himself from watching her. He knew he should say something, knew they should talk. He had a hundred thoughts swarming around in his head, but all he managed to come out with was "Felicity..."
She only shook her head, pulled her dress on and said again, "I have to go." Then her heels were clicking against the foundry steps as she made her way to the door, and all Oliver could bring himself to do was watch her go.
He's not sure how long he stayed there, naked on the cot that had once been his only bed. But eventually, he got up, pulled on his own clothes and headed home.
Home for Oliver was a one bedroom apartment in a moderately respectable neighbourhood in the South End. It was a far cry from the Queen mansion or Thea's luxury loft, but he earned it on his own and he was proud of that. As much as he loved Thea, seeing, and sometimes hearing, her with Roy was getting awkward. Oliver liked Roy, and he had nothing against their relationship, but as a big brother, he just didn't want to think about his sister like that. Ever. So, for the first time in his life, he chose his own place to live. It was small but comfortable, and arguably a little sparse (interior decorating had never been his thing). It suited Oliver just fine, and he was the only one who really spent any time there. Sometimes Digg would come over for a beer, or his sister would come by to pick him up, but that was it. Laurel had never spent the night. They might be having sex but they didn't stay together afterwards. Last night had been the first time in a long time he had slept next to someone. Last night had been the first time in a long time that he'd even wanted to.
It should have been weird or distracting, hearing Felicity's voice come through the comms again. But it wasn't. Instead, it just felt...right. It grounded him, gave him sharper focus, and a sense of what could almost be described as peace, as if everything was now right in the world with her in his ear again. The day she left, an ache had erupted in Oliver's chest and for the entire year that she had been gone, it didn't ebb, he'd just learned to live with it, like he lived with the dull pain in his once broken knee. But last night, when he'd come back to the foundry and she'd hugged him and he felt her hair against his cheek, when they'd talked and laughed and eaten salty fast food, when they'd kissed and touched and made love, that ache, it disappeared. Watching her leave this morning, her eyes avoiding him as she scurried away as fast as she could, that brought some of the ache back. He wondered if she regretted their night together. He knew that he never would.
Lying across his couch with the television on for distraction, he tried to fall asleep again. He still had a few more hours before he had to meet Thea at the club. But he was torn between wanting to drift off and wanting to remember every moment of his night with Felicity while the memories were still fresh and vivid. In the end he did a little of both. Then he got up, showered and changed and went to start his work day at Verdant. When he got there, he was holding two take out cups. One black coffee for him, one chai latte for Thea. He found her at the bar, tallying up last night's takings.
"Are we still in the black?" he said in a teasing tone.
"Yup," Thea said, reaching out to take the cup he offered her, "though not as black as last month. We might need to host an event or a theme party or something, get people talking about us again."
"Whatever you think," Oliver answered. "You're the brains of this operation."
"That's right," she replied with a smirk. "And you're the brawn. So if you could bring out the heavy boxes of liquor to restock the bar, that would be great."
"Sure," he said, moving around to the back of the bar. He started to make note of what was there and what wasn't. They worked in silence for a few moments before Thea said "Roy tells me Felicity is back in town."
Oliver started a little at the mention of her name. He tried to sound nonchalant when he answered. "Yeah," he said, purposefully not looking at Thea when he did. "She's overseeing some project at Palmer Tech. She stopped by the basement last night."
"It must have been nice to see her again," Thea said. Her tone was innocent enough, but Oliver got the distinct impression he was being baited.
"Yeah we all had a good time," he answered
"Is she still with that other guy?"
This time, Oliver knew he didn't keep the tension out of his voice when he answered, "Yes."
"Hmm," was all Thea said in response.
Oliver waited for a moment, to see if Thea was done goading him with questions, before he returned to his task. Well, more correctly, he started over again. Somewhere, in the midst of Thea's questioning, he'd gotten distracted.
He worked the rest of his time upstairs at Verdant before heading downstairs, where he sharpened arrows and impaled tennis balls and otherwise kept himself distracted until, one by one, the rest of his team filed in for the night. He didn't figure she would show up again tonight, but he couldn't stop himself from hoping with every person down the stairs that he'd see glasses and a blond ponytail. But Felicity didn't come, and he suited up and went out with Diggle's voice on the comms instead of hers and he couldn't deny how disappointed he felt. In some ways, it felt like losing her all over again.
But this time, she wasn't gone. She was still here, in his city, and with a few quick searches from Team Arrow's computer system, he knew he could find her. So that's what he did and before he could talk himself out of it, he was standing outside her hotel room door in the middle of the night.
He wanted to talk with her. He didn't want to leave things the way they had that morning. That was, at least, the logical explanation that his brain came up with as to why he needed to see her. He knocked, unsure that she would hear him and even less sure that she would let him in if she did. But she opened the door with sleep tossed hair and cupcake pajama pants. She blinked when she saw him said a confused "Oliver?"
His heart filled when he saw her and part of him still couldn't believe that, after all this time, she was really in front of him again.
"I needed to see you," he confessed.
She didn't balk at him, or shut the door in his face. She didn't point out that it was the middle of the night and she had been asleep and he could have waited until the morning. Instead, she quietly stepped aside and let him come in.
In his mind, there were so many things he wanted to say. He wanted to tell her what it felt like to hear her voice again, to hear her laugh. He wanted to tell her how the foundry had never felt quite the same since she left, but that last night, it felt alive in a way that it hadn't in some time. He wanted to tell her that he couldn't stop thinking about them being together, that it had been even more amazing than he imagined it would be, and he wanted to know what it meant.
He wanted to say all of those things and, maybe, in some ways he did, when he gently cupped her face in his hands and kissed her. And when instead of pushing him away Felicity kissed him back, he thought that, just maybe, in some ways, she understood.
