Morning came quickly for Oliver. Normally it was rare for him to get a good nights' sleep but falling asleep with Felicity in his arms, he found himself being met by pleasurable dreams of her. Last night when Felicity had kissed him as cover to not get caught by the guards, a spark ignited a fire that had been extinguished when she had been taken from him, it still didn't help that waves of deep, dark feelings for her had crashed through his entire body. He couldn't stop thinking about it, the way their bodies fixed together like puzzle pieces. Ever since he found her Oliver found himself unable to stay away from her, even for a second because, honestly, he never wanted to spend any more time without her by his side. Those two years separated from her were truly worse than the island and to tell the truth, he was close to breaking point. When they had worked together as partners, he had taken that for granted. So the statement 'you never know what you had until it's gone' is true in every single way. Eyes fluttering open, taking in his surroundings, his gaze fell upon the empty space next to him where Felicity had occupied last night. Throwing himself forward he scanned the room for where she could've gone. The door to the landing was ajar; did she go to have breakfast?

Checking everywhere for her, Oliver finally heard noises coming from the basement. Following the trail, he found Felicity exercising on iron rings quite a few feet in the air. She was dressed in a purple sports bra and black running shorts, he noticed how her body had changed, her muscles being more toned and more visible than they did before.

"Felicity?" Oliver voiced, gaining her attention.

"Morning" she replied, not pausing in her training.

"How long have you been down here?"

"Since about five" replying while flipping over and landing perfectly and gracefully on her feet just in front of him. Looking at the clock on the monitors, which Aiden had running series of scans; it revealed the time to be just-turned six o'clock.

"Mind if I join you?"

"Sure"

"By any chance, do you have a Salmon Ladder?" he grinned, flashing the look that he normally gave her when he caught her staring at him working out.

"Turn around" and standing behind him, stood a Salmon Ladder facing Felicity's iron rings. Things were going to get interesting now.

"So have you spent the entire time on those rings?"

"Yep it's one of my favourite training exercises"

"Is it better than my favourite being the Salmon Ladder?"

"You tell me" she answered before taking a running start at the wall and propelling herself off and onto the rings.

"Show off" Oliver muttered under his breath

"Heard that, why you jealous?"

"Jealous…me? Pfft…no" he replied in an obvious I'm-so-jealous-right-now-but-I'm-too-Oliver-to-admit-it voice, positioning himself under the bar and working up a good momentum to the next level and so on. Focusing back on her training, she built up momentum to swing herself up into a handstand on the rings and started a series on press ups.

"Felicity?" Oliver asked, about half an hour later.

"Hmm"

"You know when we kissed last night…" the beginning of his question paused her in her training to glance at his upside down form hanging from the bar of the Salmon Ladder, "…did you feel anything towards it?"

"You mean was I affected by it?"

"Yeah"

"Then not exactly"

"What do you mean, not exactly?" his entire focus was training on Felicity still hanging from the rings, signing Felicity explained.

"I wasn't affected because when I'm on missions and things; I don't exactly have my emotions turned on" Felicity clarified, dropping from the rings once again and leaning on the stand with her arms crossed.

"What?"

"With me, every feelings, every emotion I feel can simply be turned off…it's like flicking a switch"

"So what if it happened again while you're emotions were turned on, would you be affected?" while he asked the question, Oliver had been edging closer to her and now stood right in front of her.

"Not quite sure"

Oliver leaned down and brushed her lips with his own. It started out as a gentle and sweet kiss but soon turned into one of passion. Oliver's tongue demanded entrance, which Felicity gladly gave. He wrapped his arms around her waist, one rising to the back of her neck to deepen the kiss, and hauled her against him, removing any gaps between the two. Felicity's arm banded themselves around his neck in the process. Breaking apart to drag in needed oxygen, he rested his forehead against hers.

"I've waited so long to do that" Oliver admitted, making Felicity laugh.

"You know I would've woken you up but you looked so peaceful just lying there, besides I know how rare sleep is now-a-days so I just left you…and you were supposed to stay there longer though"

"Well I would've if there had been a certain person beside me when I woke up"

"I don't usually get a lot of sleep and so when I wake up I generally come down here to train"

"Not anymore, you do realise that if I see you getting up without my approval, I'm dragging your ass straight back to bed" making Felicity lean back to look up at him she answered.

"Is that a threat?"

"Nope, that is a promise" he stated before diving in for another heated kiss, sliding both hands down to the backs of her thighs to pick her up and making Felicity wrap her legs around his waist, already feeling that he was getting excited, and walking her into the nearest wall. Breaking apart once again to breathe, Oliver gazed into Felicity's deep blue eyes.

"Felicity, Oliver? You down here?" Digg's voice broke them out of their trance. Smirking at the growl that he released at being interrupted, Felicity stole the bar to the Salmon Ladder and completed a set and a series of pull ups at the top of the ladder while everyone else piled into the basement but not before he gave her one last passionate kiss and hidden underneath lay a promise. Felicity knew exactly what the promise was.

"Roy you're losing focus!" Oliver sounded angry but a hint of pride that he still put his ass on the mat in less than 5 seconds. Glancing down, Felicity saw Oliver and Roy sparring on the mats while Sara, Digg and Laurel watched on. Instantly she saw where he was going wrong and helped out, to Oliver's dismay.

"Roy spread your feet, it'll even your stance and you'll have more power and security behind it" Felicity supplied, still hanging from the bar.

"How did you become so good?" Roy questioned when Oliver pulled them into a five minute break.

"I didn't really have a choice in the matter but I've got advantages that others don't" she explained while dropping down from the bar.

"So you believe you're all that then" Laurel snided from her position beside Sara with a clear view of Oliver.

"Doesn't matter what I believe as long as you survive your next fight and not get your ass handed to you then you could convince yourself whatever you want" Felicity shot at her and she closed her mouth, clearly not expecting that response.

"What advantages?" Sara asked

"My body reacts quicker than the average person does, instinct kicks in whether I want it to or not" focusing back on her training.

"Okay then, prove it" Laurel interjected, obviously not knowing when to butt out.

"If it gets you to shut up then fine, whatever" Felicity replied with a slight bit of spite in her tone, not going unnoticed by the rest of the team. Making her way over to a training room, Felicity shut the glass door and put on the blindfold.

"What is she doing?" Laurel wondered out loud

"You wanted her to prove it, so she's proving it in a way you can see how keen her reactions truly are" Aiden chirped in, "you ready Liz?"

"Yep" Felicity said while positioning herself in a stance with a staff in hand. From the walls shot thousands of arrows, definitely getting the attention of the team who shouted 'what the hell is she thinking', and easily defended herself from the attacks using a range of various actions. It didn't even look humanly possible, like she could see through the blindfold. Removing the blindfold and replacing it where she found it, she exited the room and into the main training room with her team member's jaws dropping almost to the floor.

"How-How did you do that?" Roy stuttered out, looking from the room to Felicity again.

"Like I said my body reacts quicker than a normal person…it's both a curse and a gift" Felicity admitted.

"Someone likes showing off" Laurel annoying voice registered once again, cracking her control more and more.

"What the hell is your problem?" Felicity turned to her, crossing her arms.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me, what is it?"

"I have no idea what you're on about" flipping her hair over her shoulder like she's so 'perfect', pfft…that's a load of bull.

"How long did it take you to train for that?" Oliver asked curiously.

"I didn't" grabbing a bottle of water from her desk, "I don't train to improve myself, I train to control myself"

"Why?"

"Well everything is heightened and that includes my anger, I use most of this equipment to take my anger out on"

"Makes sense"

"She's come a long way from how she first was, before Liz didn't come anywhere close to the amount of control she has now" Aiden chirped in, pride in his voice and gaining a smile out of Felicity.

"How bad was it at the beginning?" Digg came over to stand beside Felicity.

"You see that big dent over there on the wall..." Aiden guided their lines of sight towards the wall where a huge dent was located, "...take a wild guess who did that when they lost their cool"

"Got to admit, wasn't my best hour"

"Jesus christ Felicity, how mad where you exactly?" Oliver was shocked.

"You know when Oliver gets really mad at something, times that by like a thousand...that much"

"Hey Ollie…could you give me my lesson now please?" Laurel sweet-talked, battering her eyelashes and bringing the attention back to her again.

"I guess so" replying, getting himself a bottle of water beside Felicity. Re-emerging in very tight gym clothes that showed quite a lot of skin, Laurel got herself ready at the mat, waiting for Oliver. Needing something to do, Felicity made her way back up the Salmon Ladder and secured the bar on the backs of her thighs then hung upside down then swung back and grabbed her ankles.

"Alright you need to focus on your attacker, follow his movements and adapt yourself to the fight" Oliver stated to Laurel, who was looking at him quite intently, while making his stance wider, getting a smile out of Felicity that he followed her suggestion.

"Now what?"

"Come at me"

"What?"

"Come at me Laurel"

"Okay" she came at him with moves that they'd taught her but Oliver moved quicker and swept her legs, causing her to fall back on the mats, with an 'oomph'.

"You need to concentrate on what your attacker is doing at all times because otherwise you'll lose the fight and probably your life"

"How do I do that?"

"You can't get taught everything in life Laurel, you need to find a way to figure out his pattern…at the end it's either fight or die"

"Why does this have to be so hard?" Laurel whined and Felicity had to hold in a scoff at her words.

"Not everything in life can be handed to you easily; you have to fight for it…besides I didn't have it easy, it was live or die for me so consider yourself lucky"

"Lucky, how? Lucky as in I get to fall on the mat within ten seconds of a fight, how am I going to survive an actual fight if ever it happens?"

"You'll have to find a way; you know what the strongest instinct is?" Felicity asked while still upside down.

"What?" the fact that Laurel actually seemed interested shocked Felicity to the core.

"The instinct to survive so never doubt it" returning to her starting position of just hanging there upside down by her legs.

"How did you do it?" this made her freeze in her tracks and look down at Laurel, "So?"

"My choice was ripped out from under me so I didn't really have a choice in the matter"

"What do you mean 'ripped out from under you'?"

"Laurel, just leave it" Oliver growled, stepping in front of Laurel.

"Why do you always stand with her? Always protect her when clearly she doesn't need it?" jealousy was rising in her voice.

"Because I love her, I always have" he admitted, causing Laurel to gasp and tears begin to brim in her eyes.

"I thought you loved me Ollie"

"So did I but it turns out that I haven't loved you for a long time"

"Does she love you?" she asked just as Felicity changed her position to hanging from her hands and dropped down to stand behind Oliver, "Well do you?"

"Not that it's any of your business...but yes I do, I always have and I always will", this made Oliver spin around to face her and looked at her with such emotion also a question lay hidden beneath his gaze, 'really?'.

"Hey I've got an idea what about Oliver vs. Felicity in a sparring match?" Roy chimed in, looking pretty pleased with himself for coming up with the idea.

"Challenge accepted" he agreed, looking back at Felicity.

"Game on"

Positioning themselves at either sides of the mat, they began circling each other. Oliver made the first attack but didn't land a blow; Felicity followed his attack with her own and landed a punch to his stomach. He lunged forward but she twirled around last second and flipped herself over his back and before he registered what just happened, sweeping his legs he landed back on the mat with an oomph but he wasn't done yet. Sweeping her legs they landed with him atop her on the mats breathing heavily and he was pinning her arms down above her head. Her instincts roared to life but she controlled it, waiting for the perfect moment to act.

"Give up?" he asked, pretty proud with himself. That was his mistake but he didn't seem to realise that.

"You'd think so would you" she retorted, using momentum from her legs and pushing up to flip them over head-first so she was on top of him, silencing him with a smirk. Leaning down she mused "You were saying?" Trying to find an escape route out of their current position, he rolled them over but it just allowed Felicity to put him in a headlock and wrap her legs tightly around his waist from behind. Lowering her mouth to the shell of his ear, she whispered, which also sent a spark of electricity through Oliver's body, shuddering, "Give up now?" Wrestling to get out of her headlock, it proved useless because whenever he was close to figuring it out, she tightened his grip around his throat.

"Fine" he admitted reluctantly. As soon as she loosened her grip around her throat, he replied with another move that had them in quite an intimate position with her legs still wrapped around his waist and his body solid hovering above her. When he looked down, she saw his eyes had darkened but he was met by a smirk.

"Did you let me have the upper hand?" Oliver questioned with a slight bit of anger, which didn't stay long as it was overrun by something that he barely had control of in their current position.

"I have no idea what you're on about" she teased while shoving him onto his back and rising onto her feet, "By the way never lose focus, even if your opponent is a woman" offering her hand to help him up.

"I didn't lose my focus" he whined, accepting her hand.

"Sure you didn't" Digg chimed in, a twinkle of amusement in his eyes. Sending a glare his way, Oliver joined Felicity in a five minute break, grabbing his bottle of water that he had started earlier.

"Hmm…the big, bad, scary vigilante gets his ass handed to him by a woman" Sara teased him.

"Are you two done making out yet?" Roy cut in with a wide smirk at Oliver. While everyone was smiling, Oliver had his game face on.

"You think you can beat me Harper?" he dared him. That got him to shut up.

"You're on"

"This isn't going to end well" she muttered, jumping up onto the table behind her. Believe it or not, five minutes later Roy was pinned to the mat. Oliver was behind him with Roy's right arm twisted behind his back.