A Frank Conversation

"Mr Lance," Oliver started. The two of them were making their way slowly down the hall corridor, towards the stairs – Lance was still in awe that Oliver was managing to move at all, and he was attempting to slow their speed.

"Hell, you might as well call me Quentin," Lance said, slightly reluctantly, "Since I'm about to half drag you up some stairs and all."

"Quentin," Oliver said with a small smile. "I was just going to thank you. For helping me out." Both of them knew that he wasn't just talking about the help with the stairs.

"You're welcome," Lance replied after a short pause. He and Oliver had a lot of history, most of it unpleasant. But Lance figured he and the arrow had pretty good history to make up for that. And even without the hood, Oliver wasn't a bad guy. In fact, he was pretty remarkable. Lance still couldn't equate this Oliver, quiet but fierce, with the old one. "You've had a hell of a few days," he carried on, not wanting a silence to arise between them.

Oliver gave a half shrug, stopping with a wince when his ribs complained at the movement. "So have you," he pointed out. From the way his team had seemed, things hadn't been easy. Felicity in particular had been... different.

"I still have all my fingernails," Lance retaliated, not letting Oliver change the subject.

"It wasn't... I don't know. I've started to lose track of trauma," Oliver said honestly. "Sometimes everything just blurs together and starts to seem normal."

"You call this normal?" Lance raised an eyebrow. Oliver smiled weakly. It was slightly unsettling talking to Lance without the hood. "Anyway," Lance continued, "What's up with you and Felicity?"

"What do you mean?" Oliver frowned. Lance just gave him a look.

"It's complicated," Oliver said shortly, after a long silence.

"Love is always complicated, as far as I can tell," Lance said with a sigh.

"I don't want to hurt her," Oliver said resolutely, stiff. Lance gave a small laugh.

"I can tell you one thing. You're already doing that. You're both hurting," Lance said, gruffly but gently. Then he carried on. "Plus you just admitted to me that you love her." When Oliver didn't say anything Lance felt a wave of frustration. "Alright this is ridiculous. Will you just go and repeat what you said when you were drooling and tell Felicity you love her."

"What?" Oliver stopped still. "I told her I loved her?" Even as he asked he could feel the memory slipping back like a forgotten dream. But this was so much more than a dream; it was the most real thing he had ever said. He had been raw, and every word he had spoken had been the absolute truth. In that moment he realised he was terrified at what could be.

"Why do you think she's so heartbroken? I've had enough of this messing around. Either tell her you want to be with her or stop messing her around. I care for that girl, and this pain you're causing her is unnecessary," Lance snapped. "Now should I help you back to the living room?" But Oliver had pushed away from Lance, a strange expression on his face. With surprising speed, driven by something much more than pain, Oliver purposefully returned to the room he had just left.

"Felicity." He said, and there was so much love and hurt in the way he said her name. She looked up at him, her eyes slightly pink (she had been crying, he had done that), hair pulled back in a messy pony tail, eye make-up smudged. She looked beautiful. "I love you. I'm sorry. I love you," Oliver stumbled over the words; he had so much to say but his mouth and his brain seemed to be unconnected. "Just marry me," He finally pushed out, and the words were a complete shock but at the same time a perfect fit. He could feel everyone's eyes on him, but he only cared about the one pair. Tears were leaking out of the corner of her eyes, but she had a slight smile. For once she didn't say anything, just let the silence hang for what seemed like forever but couldn't have been more than a minute.

"I'm not taking your last name or anything. But you can have mine," Felicity finally said. Then she let her smile fill her face, "I love you too, Oliver."

And this is the end. I really hope you enjoyed the ride. Thank you so much to everybody who supported me and reviewed, please leave one to let me know what you thought of this story overall! I might try to write a sequel, not sure. Anyway, thank you so much for reading!