Prompt: Oliver is at a low point. Feels like he can do no right and he's messing up the lives of those around him. He think maybe it would be better if he had never returned to Starling City. Never met Dig, Roy and Felicity. ( Olicity tones please)

Even a man like Oliver Queen had his limits. No matter how much he hid himself beneath the dark green leather and the foreboding hood, he was nothing more than a human being.

He returned to Starling City to save it, but instead he offered it death and destruction.

He had failed everyone here just like he had failed his friends on Lian Yu.

So many people had already died, his mother among them. How many more had to perish before he realized the glaring truth. He should have never returned to Starling City in the first place.

If he hadn't then perhaps his mother would still be alive. Thea would be a normal college girl. Roy would still be the trouble maker he always was, but at least he wouldn't have the blood of those police officers he killed on his hands. Diggle would probably be married to Lyla already. Oliver dreaded taking Diggle on missions with him now. He was going to be a father soon and Oliver did not want to be the reason his godchild had to grow up without a father.

"Then there's you," Oliver whispered to himself as he stared at Felicity's window.

It was a rare off night for Team Arrow and Oliver had become restless. He tried training and even relaxing, but he couldn't.

He decided to take his bike for a ride and before he knew it, Oliver ended up across the street from Felicity's house.

Of all the things he feared, nothing compared to his fear of losing the feisty blonde.

Despite that, Oliver found himself wondering what it would be like not to see Felicity on a daily basis. She was ingrained in every facet of his life that his day no longer seemed complete without seeing or speaking to her.

Oliver closed his eyes and leaned his head on the handles of his bike. He knew his relationship with Felicity was growing.

It may have been part of a ruse to defeat Slade, but they both knew what he had told her in the mansion was true. She was always the one person who could see right through him.

Felicity was smart, courageous, and had a bigger heart than any one he knew. Oliver, on the other hand, was damaged. She deserved someone better than a guilt-ridden man who spent his nights chasing criminals.

Oliver sighed into his hands. There was just too much too risk. "I should just disappear."

"Oliver?"

He nearly jumped at the sound of his name. It was rare that anyone surprised him. He must have been so deep in thought that he didn't even hear her approach.

He looked up to see Felicity standing right next to his bike in her pajamas. In her hand was a cup of hot chocolate, complete with marshmallows.

He tried to smile, the mask he wore on a daily basis sliding into place.

But as soon as he saw Felicity's face, he knew it was too late.

The tear that rolled down her cheek from beneath her glasses told him that she had heard what he had just said.

They stared at each other in silence for a few moments. She looked up at him, anxiously. It was as if she was waiting for him to take back what he had just said. Oliver wanted to say something, anything really but the words would not come.

Finally, Felicity could not keep silent any longer.

"A-are you leaving?"

Oliver's refusal to speak was answer of enough for Felicity. No one else knew him the way she did.

"Oliver, you can't," her voice was trembling with emotion.

Still Oliver didn't say a word.

"What were you planning to do!? Just disappear without telling anyone?!"

His eyes snapped up when her voice started rising.

"Felicity-"

She didn't let him finish. "So that's it? After everything we've been through, you're just going to run away?"

"It's better for everyone," Oliver's voice was barely a whisper.

Felicity was not the type to lose her temper, but what she heard leave Oliver's mouth angered her.

"How?!" Felicity screamed at him so loudly that she wouldn't have been surprised if some of her neighbors had heard her.

She lowered her voice when she saw the dejected look on his face. She did not want to make him feel worse than he already did, but she had to make him see reason.

"Oliver, you carry so much on your shoulders but you aren't on an island anymore. You have people to help you. People who care about you, people who love you."

"That's what I'm afraid of. I don't think I could live with myself if you- any of you dies because of me."

"But that's not your choice is it? It's my life, my choice. Don't you respect me enough to accept my decisions?"

Oliver stuttered as he listened to her. Of course, he respected her. She was one of the strongest women he had ever me met. He relied on her more than anyone else in his life.

"Don't you think I feel the same way?" She asked, suddenly.

Oliver looked up, confused.

"Haven't you ever considered what I feel every time I watch you put on that hood? Don't you realize how terrified I am that you throw yourself into battle after battle regardless of your injuries?"

Felicity had to wipe the free flowing tears. She had kept this to herself for so long.

"Every time you leave I have to wonder if it's the last time I'm ever going to see you. What if you die before I work up the courage to tell you that-"

Oliver's eyes went wide at the same time Felicity's did. He doubted that she had meant to say so much.

They were similar in that way. Both were afraid to take the final step over the cliff.

"Tell me what?"

Felicity let out a breath that she hadn't realized she was holding.

"You promised me once that I would never lose you. Are you going to keep that promise?" She said instead of answering his question.

Without another word she turned from him and walked back to her house, her robe billowing behind her.

She stopped at her door and looked behind her. She smiled slightly when she found Oliver had made no attempt to leave.

She stepped through the threshold but left the door open in a silent invitation.