A/N: You guys are wonderful. I hope you enjoy this!

Chapter Ten

Oliver and Tommy sat at one of their club's bars, idly drinking beer as they settled down from the action of the night. There was no official word on the source of the fire yet, but the fire chief suspected it came from someone smoking a cigarette in the back of the club. There was some wiring nearby for the sound equipment that had caught fire, and they found a charred cigarette butt a few feet from it. Luckily, Tuesday was not a crowded night for Verdant, and the modest crowd was able to get out safely. The damage wasn't too extensive, either, but Tommy suspected they'd have to replace their sound system.

"Fucking smokers," Tommy grumbled. "You know, it's bad enough that they're giving all of us cancer with their second hand smoke, but then they have to go and ruin our sound systems."

Oliver shook his head, taking a sip of his beer.

"We should have a strict no smoker policy. If you smoke, find another club to go burn down."

"I'm pretty sure we can't discriminate based on smoking preference," Oliver said. "But nice try."

Tommy grumbled something under his breath and took a long pull off of the beer bottle.

"Hey, at least no one was hurt," Oliver said. "That's what matters."

"Yeah sure," Tommy said, sounding unconvinced. "But that sound system was a work of art. I had to look everywhere to get those Gemini Xtr-500s. You can't just get those anywhere, you know."

Oliver smirked. "I know, Tommy."

Tommy sensed his friend's bemusement and straightened a bit as he said, "But, of course, I'm also happy people aren't dead."

"Right."

"Because dead people are bad. So are the subsequent law suits."

Oliver could just imagine the headlines if people had been injured at the club. The press would have a field day with that.

Tommy put his beer down on the counter and stretched his arms out in front of him. He tilted his head side to side as he stretched, gaze falling on the collar of Oliver's shirt as he settled back down on his seat and reached for his beer.

"Oliver, is that lipstick on your collar?" Tommy said, eyes narrowed as he leaned forward and examined the collar. Oliver immediately shook his head and stammered, "No…I, uh, cut myself shaving this morning."

Tommy raised an eyebrow. "And you bleed pink?"

Oliver winced, remembering that Felicity had been wearing pink lipstick. It had been red yesterday. He remembered she was talking to him on the elevator up to IT, and he'd been so distracted by the movement of those cherry-red lips that he missed almost the entirety of the conversation.

"Okay, it's not blood," Oliver said.

"Obviously. Were you with some girl?"

Oliver bristled at the wording. No, he wasn't with some girl. Felicity wasn't just some girl. But he understood that Tommy didn't mean anything by the wording and nodded. Tommy grinned wide, clapping him on the back.

"It's about time you got back on the saddle. Wait, it's not Laurel again, is it? Because I don't know if I can handle another cycle of that."

Oliver shook his head. "It's not Laurel."

"Okay," Tommy said slowly. "Then who was it? It's a Tuesday night, so I'm guessing it's not a bar pickup."

"No, it's someone from work," Oliver said.

"Someone from work," Tommy repeated, nodding his head approvingly. "Is it one of your secretaries? Please tell me it's one of your secretaries."

Oliver smirked at his friend's eagerness and told him, "She's not my secretary. She's not even in my department. She works for IT."

Tommy stared at him. "IT? IT…as in Information Technology, IT?"

"What other IT is there?"

"Fair enough," Tommy said. "Wow. So…that's happening. Why again is that happening?"

"What do you mean?" Oliver said.

"I get wanting something different after Laurel. But, buddy, you didn't have to do a full 180."

Oliver sensed where Tommy was going with this particular line of conversation and he shook his head.

"Tommy, you have no idea what you're talking about."

"That may be true," Tommy agreed, splaying his hands out on the bar in front of him. "But…come on. An IT girl? So, is this a continuing thing? One time thing?" He lowered his voice and added, "Pity thing?"

Oliver let out an affronted guffaw at that last part and said, "Why am I friends with you again?"

"Because I provide much needed comic relief."

"Oh right," Oliver said drily. "I forgot."

"So, come on, tell me. What is it?"

"I don't know," Oliver said honestly. "It just happened tonight. But…" he trailed off, picking at the label on his beer bottle. "…she's different, Tommy. I've never met someone like her."

Tommy blinked. "Well, I'll be damned. It looks like you've actually gone and caught feelings for IT girl."

Oliver's thoughts drifted back to her bedroom when they'd been looking through her scrapbook, and how he'd felt this strange sense of contentment with her pressed against him and chin resting on his arm. He remembered how as they flipped through the pictures, he couldn't think of a single place he'd rather be. Not at Verdant with his friends. Not at home with his family. Nowhere but in her bedroom with her, wrapped in her bubblegum pink sheets.

"Well, I'm happy for you," Tommy said definitively. "You're a good guy, and you deserve something good after the shit show known as you and Laurel."

Oliver smirked. "Tommy, please, don't hold back."

"Hey, I had to hear her crying about you guys to Sara almost every other night," Tommy said. "How would you feel if all you wanted to do was get laid by your girlfriend, but instead you're stuck watching SUV reruns while your girlfriend has the umpteenth heart to heart with her sister about a relationship that was fucked from the start?"

"I would not feel great," Oliver relented.

"No, you would not," Tommy agreed. He finished his beer and then stood up, walking around the bar to throw away the bottle in the trashcan beneath the bar. He gestured for Oliver's and Oliver nodded, pushing the bottle toward him.

"So, first club fire," Tommy said, nodding his head. "I think we handled it pretty well, yeah? No hysterics. Minimal swearing."

"We did well, Tommy."

"Yes, we did. And with a little bit of luck and copious no-smoking signs, hopefully we can avoid ever being in this situation again."

Felicity took special care getting ready the next morning, anticipation coiling in her stomach tightly as she stood in front of her mirror and applied makeup. She kept telling herself this morning was just like any other morning. There wasn't some cataclysmic change in the universe because her and Oliver slept together.

Still, she felt like things were different. Sure, he'd seen her in the morning lots of times, but this morning he'd be seeing her for the first time with the distinct knowledge of what she looked like naked. For Felicity, that was a marked difference.

She rifled through her lipstick tubes, trying to decide on a color. Her outfit, a cream shift dress, could accommodate any number of shades – really, any shade for that matter – but she settled on a sunny red. She'd spied a spattering of clouds outside her bedroom window earlier and thought maybe she could bring a little sunshine with her lip color.

Her and Oliver hadn't exactly settled on the pick-up-protocol the night before, but she assumed he would just call her when he was outside. Instead, he came to her door, knocking when she was halfway through her bagel. It was only around 8:00, but for a panicked moment Felicity thought it was later and she'd missed his call.

"I know I'm a little early," he said, stepping into her apartment. "But I've been wide awake since all the Verdant stuff. I figured I'd just head over here instead of sitting in my house for an extra thirty minutes."

"Yeah, that's fine," she said, leading him to the kitchen table. He sat down opposite her bagel and cup of coffee, and she noticed the dark circles under his eyes. "Did you get any sleep last night?"

He shook his head. "I was too wound up."

"So, what happened?" she asked, pouring him a cup of coffee and setting it in front of him. He took it gratefully and downed a large gulp. She sat across from him, biting into her bagel half.

"We don't know specifics yet, but they think someone was smoking in the back, and he dropped a still lit cigarette butt. It caused part of our sound system to catch on fire."

Felicity swallowed and then said, "Was anyone hurt?"

"No, thankfully not," Oliver said. "The club was pretty empty. Believe it or not, Tuesday is not a big night for the club scene."

She smiled softly. "I would have never guessed."

"Anyway, I really am sorry I had to leave last night," he said, reaching forward and covering her hand with his. "It was just about the last thing I wanted to do."

"Fires are a valid reason to leave post-coital-snuggle-sessions," she told him with a remarkably straight face. Oliver had less success and laughed lightly, shaking his head as he said, "I appreciate you being so understanding."

"Of course."

"Speaking of last night," Oliver said after a moment, clearing his throat a bit. "I wanted to be sure that I was clear about something."

Felicity felt her stomach drop. What did he have to be clear about? It seemed pretty crystal clear what they had done, so what remained was what it meant, and she wasn't sure she was ready to have that conversation at eight in the morning. Not without a second cup of coffee in her, at least.

But apparently Oliver wanted to talk about it – or potentially it – right then and there, and she was along for the ride.

"About what?" she asked gingerly.

"I know everything happened a little fast," he began. "But it wasn't just a hookup to me….at least I don't want it to be."

Felicity let out a shaky breath and leaned across the table, gently taking a hold of his face and kissing him. She pulled away slightly and murmured, "I was really afraid you were going to say something else."

He held her gaze and told her, "Believe me, there was never any chance of that."

She sat back, feeling just about as giddy as a kid on Christmas morning. Not only had her and Oliver done the deed the night before, but they appeared to be dating. All this day needed was for Joss Whedon to finally respond to one of her tweets, and it would be absolutely perfect.

"So, what's next for the club?" she asked, pushing her plate of a half-eaten bagel toward Oliver. He happily took the last bit and popped it in his mouth.

"We're going to have to check for structural damage," he said. "They did a pretty cursory examination last night, but we'll have to have someone actually come in and do it. And then Tommy thinks we need to replace the sound system."

"Will it be expensive?"

"Probably," Oliver said. "Everything with that club has been expensive."

"But you guys are doing well, right? I mean, you said you were getting a good number of people."

"Yeah, we're doing okay," Oliver said. "But this'll definitely set us back a bit. It's not a cost we really factored in."

"Won't your insurance cover it?"

He nodded. "Part. But we're going to be shut down for at least a week, probably more. We'll be losing money for all that time."

She frowned. "I'm sorry. This really sucks. I mean, you guys put in all this work and then one stupid smoker goes and ruins it."

Oliver smirked. " You sound like Tommy. But with a lot less swearing."

"I'm going to take that as a compliment."

Oliver laughed and popped the last bit of bagel into his mouth. He spotted a folded up newspaper on the edge of the table and asked, "Is that today's?"

"Yep. Fresh from the presses. Or, you know, fresh from my doorstep."

"Do you mind?" he asked, reaching for the paper. She shook her head and he picked up the paper, leafing through it before pulling out a section. "I didn't get to check the business page this morning."

She grinned at the image of Oliver sitting with the business section every morning, idly sipping his coffee as he flipped through the stories.

While he set into reading an article Felicity took the rest of the paper and leafed through it, pulling out the Arts & Entertainment section. She put it down on the table, flattening the seam with her hand. They read leisurely for the rest of their pre-work morning, casually sipping coffee and remarking on particularly interesting stories, both of them secretly thinking just how strangely familiar the entire scene felt.

BBBBB

"Roger Moore. It has to be Roger Moore. He's just so cool. When I see him I think, 'That man could kill me and he'd look phenomenal doing it'."

"Sorry, but you're completely wrong," Felicity said, her and Oliver coming to a halt at a stop light, the flashing yellow hand warning them stop. "You have to go with Sean Connery. He's the original, and the original is always the best."

"Really?"

Felicity nodded resolutely. "Yes, really. So, Sean Connery is the best James Bond, case closed. He originated the character. He originated the cool!"

"Technically Ian Fleming originated the character," Oliver pointed out.

"But Sean Connery brought him to life!" Felicity argued fervently. "He took the written character and turned him into an icon. Do you know how difficult that is to do?"

Oliver smirked. "I don't know, do you?"

Undeterred, Felicity continued with, "Sean Connery and his portrayal of James Bond is the reason all the other Bonds could even exist. If he had been a dud they wouldn't have made more movies."

"That still doesn't rule out one of the later ones being better."

Felicity sighed, shaking her head. "This is very disappointing."

"It's not a deal breaker, is it?" Oliver teased.

She glanced up at him. "Roger Moore? No. But if you had said Timothy Dalton – or even worse – Pierce Brosnan? I would have had to reconsider some things."

The light changed and they walked forward, their interlocked hands swinging lightly between them. Felicity spotted Queen Consolidated down the street and she slowed down, looking down at their interlocked hands and then up at Oliver. He noticed her slow down and gave her a questioning look.

"Oliver, I need to talk to you about something," she said. "Before we get to Queen Consolidated."

"Okay."

She tugged him over to the side of the street so that they wouldn't block any of the foot traffic.

"So, I'm obviously happy this is happening," she said, gesturing between them. "Really happy, actually."

He grinned. "Me too."

"So, please don't take this the wrong way, but I was hoping we could keep it sort of under the radar at work. Actually, I was hoping we could keep it completely under the radar."

"You don't want people to know," Oliver clarified.

She bit her lip and nodded sheepishly. "It's just…I really value my work. It means a lot to me, and I don't want people to think, I don't know, that I'm just there because of you. I want them to think I'm there because I deserve it."

"But you are there because you deserve it," he told her. "Besides, I hired you before any of this started."

"But they don't know that," she pressed. "I'm still pretty new, and…" she trailed off, noticing the frustrated crease between his eyebrows. "And you're upset."

"No," he said immediately, shaking his head. "I'm not upset."

"You look upset."

"I'm not," he said definitively, taking her hands in his. "I'm just thinking about all the places I won't get to make out with you at work now."

Relief flooded her chest and she asked, "Like where?"

"Well, my office for starters," he said. "I have some very good blinds."

"Oh, of course."

"Elevators. Stairwells."

Felicity smiled a bit and told him, "My stairwell is pretty sparsely used."

He raised an eyebrow. "Is that so?"

She nodded, finding the idea of her and Oliver going at it in a stairwell surprisingly appealing.

"Are you saying you wouldn't be opposed to making out in your stairwell?" Oliver said slowly. "Because, that's what I'm getting from this conversation."

She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing and then told him, "We should get to work. We don't want to be late."

She started off toward Queen Consolidated and he followed her, asking, "But, seriously? Is that a yes to stairwell?"

A/N: And the relationship is off and running! I have some fun stuff coming in the future. The big DRAMA is still on the horizon, and a few familiar faces will be popping up. Hope you enjoyed this! Also, I really, really hope you guys enjoyed Tommy in this. I had a blast writing him!