Felicity and Laurel 11
They'd agreed to meet up after work for a chat over coffee and a light snack before heading into Verdant; light and casual they could do, no problem, they were both smart, committed, beautiful and independent women, they didn't need a guy to validate them or their worth, nor to define who they were, yep, they could do this.
Despite their best efforts however the conversation finally made its way round to discuss the elephant in the room. It was a conversation that'd been a long time coming.
"Look Felicity, I get where you're coming from, but Oliver and I, neither of us are who we used to be. He spent years away, when he came back he'd changed. I didn't want to see those changes, pretended they weren't there, but I was fooling myself" Felicity tilted her head to regard Laurel.
"I didn't know the pre-island Oliver, but from all I've seen he's nothing like the man he is now" Laurel snorted.
"That's an understatement; he was a boy, an irresponsible spoiled brat to be honest, skating through life on his looks, charm and the family name and money" The hacker nodded slowly.
"I haven't seen much of that" She gave a little shrug. "A little when he first came to me, peddling some BS story about why he needed my help, not much since I joined up"
"No, not since he got back. The few times I've seen any of it, it's been a cover" Laurel frowned. "I see that now, even if I couldn't then" An 'aha' expression appeared on Felicity's face.
"Oh yeah, that whole prison party thing" Laurel nodded.
"Amongst others" She sighed a little. "When he got back, I hated him, for Sara, for dying, for leaving me, for coming back from the dead when she didn't, everything" Felicity paused just before taking a sip of her coffee.
"I sense a but though" Laurel nodded slowly.
"I hated him but I also needed him, or thought I did, but I realised he didn't need me" Felicity placed her cup down a little harder than intended, the porcelain making a sharp sound, loud in the quiet café, before she spoke.
"No, he needed people; he just didn't think he did" Felicity shook her head at Oliver's stupidity, Laurel shaking her head as well.
"It's like I didn't know him, not at all" Felicity tilted her head to look at her friend.
"I think you knew Ollie, the guy he was, your boyfriend, Tommy's best friend, but that person died on the island, now he's just Oliver, a man" She frowned. "A very messed up, very damaged man" Laurel stared off into the distance for a while, before coming back to the conversation.
"You're right there, there's very little left of the Ollie I knew"
"I think what little of Ollie remained, that survived the island, didn't survive the last year, Tommy and Moira's death, Thea's disappearance, Helena's betrayal. Slade, Isabel, all of it" Laurel looked down into her cup, her words coming softly.
"You're right, Ollie's gone, I'm still learning about the Oliver we have now" Felicity gnawed on her lip for a moment, then dived in.
"Do you think you two have a future?" Laurel looked up at the question, she wasn't surprised, nor blind, she could see the connection that underpinned Felicity's question.
"Honestly? No, not really, we're really not good for each other, we're like magnets, we get pulled together, then the polarity shifts and we repel each other, rinse and repeat, over and over" Felicity gave her a twisted half smile.
"Sounds tiring" Laurel raised an eyebrow.
"You have no idea, when it's good it's good, but when it's bad it's poisonous" She saw Felicity's grimace and shrugged. "Partly I think some of the attraction was because I thought it'd go back to the way it was before he left, but that's never going to happen" Felicity bobbed her head.
"No, he's changed, from all I've seen and heard, Oliver's not the person he was before the island, I can't see him ever going back" Laurel shook her head decisively.
"Me neither" She sighed, mentally consigning Oliver to the drawer marked 'over' and closing it firmly. She looked up to see Felicity's compassionate gaze on her. "What"
"Just because you and he aren't going to get together, not like that anyway, doesn't mean he doesn't care for you' Laurel sighed.
"I know what you mean, I love him but I'm not in love with him"
"That sums it up" Felicity smiled sadly. "I'm sorry" Laurel gave a small shrug.
"It's OK, there are worse things than having a good friend named Oliver Queen" Felicity nodded.
"I know" They shared a rueful smile for a moment, blue and green eyes sharing words, emotions, friendship, before Laurel pointedly changed the subject.
"So, know any decent men out there, nice ones who aren't criminal psychopaths, drug dealers, jewel thieves, assassins or super villains?" Felicity pulled a face.
"Not too many, not like I get too many chances to meet new guys. When I'm not at work I'm at our night job"
"I hear you; it's either Ollie…" Laurel paused and pulled a face. "Oliver" she corrected herself. "John or Roy and while all the muscles are nice…" Felicity sniggered.
"Yeah, Lyla's a mite possessive, not to mention the whole deadly secret agent in the middle of pregnancy hormone mood swings thing, so just…no" Laurel grinned.
"I feel for John" Felicity snorted.
"Me too, I love him like a brother, the man's a saint, after all he puts up with all our shit" Laurel took a sip of her coffee, cradling it as she spoke.
"And Roy's nice, don't get me wrong but just too young" Felicity nodded.
"He's a pretty boy, but every time I find myself admiring that whole package a little voice in the back of my head starts screaming 'Cougar!' so he's definitely off limits"
"Yeah, it's the same with me, I don't want to go down that path" She looked across the table at her friend. "What about that guy, the one in Central City I heard you liked?"
"Barry" Felicity shook her head. "I was interested, but that was before he went and origin-ed on me, now he's the Flash; 'the fastest man alive', at least according to the papers" She shook her head. "Besides, there's another woman there, Iris. I saw it when I went to visit, he says they're just friends, but I can see he carries a torch for her" Felicity grimaced. "I know what that's like and I'm not going anywhere near that mess"
Laurel could hear a touch of melancholy in her friend's voice and tried to lighten the mood.
"Probably a good thing really, I'm not sure if I'd really want the world's fastest man in bed with me, if you get my drift" She waggled her eyebrows and was rewarded with an honest laugh from across the table.
"Thank you for that mental image Miss Lance" Laurel grinned in return, knowing that whatever happened, they were good.
"Any time Miss Smoak"