Felicity

A/N: This is an Olicity AU that takes off from the classic movie "Sabrina" which was remade in the 1990s starring Harrison Ford and Julia Ormond. But this fic takes on a life and plot of its own. It's another WIP that I hope to finish as the series comes to a close in January.

Disclaimer: I do not own Arrow and Sabrina, just the idea for this fic.

Chapter 1

"It's perfectly fine, Noah," Oliver hears his mother say to their trusted butler, as he walks down the hallway and passes by the door of her study. What stops him dead in his tracks is what Moira Queen says next. "We'd be delighted to have your daughter come and stay with us during the holidays. Felicity is always welcome at Queen Manor. You know that."

Felicity.

The mention of her name causes his feet to refuse to keep moving forward. He turns and backtracks a few steps, stopping just outside the door, hidden from sight. He listens in to the conversation his mother seems to be having with their trusted and ever-loyal butler, Noah Kuttler, but he is disappointed that his eavesdropping can't yield more information, as Noah is already thanking his mother for her hospitality and generosity.

The butler passes him by as he steps out of the study, and greets him, "Good morning, Mr. Oliver." He nods to acknowledge the older man's greeting, and immediately he enters the room where he finds Moira seated behind her desk, smiling.

"Good morning, Oliver!" she greets her son fondly. "I have some wonderful news."

Oliver comes around her desk and stops to stand by his mother's left side, leaning against the side of the antique, sold oak desk. "Yes, I overheard a little bit of your conversation with Noah as I was passing by." He frowns and purses his lips, which Moira takes to mean that her son is trying to figure out if he had heard her and their butler correctly just moments ago.

"You remember his daughter Felicity, right?" Moira asks.

"How could I forget?" Oliver replies with a hint of sarcasm.

Moira shakes her head once. "Oliver… That girl may have been… different… and quite a handful, I admit. But she'd always been… nice."

"Yeah, right. Nice. Among other things," he murmurs in annoyance.

"Oh, come on, son. You only say that because you could never outsmart that young lady. Your father and I have always been impressed by her wit. You know, I've always thought that beneath that… that…"

Oliver is quick to supply the rest of the apt description for his mother. "…that awful Goth exterior, you mean."

"Yes, yes. I truly think that behind that façade is a charming young lady. Thea adores her. Your sister will be thrilled to see Felicity again! Maybe that can convince her to come home for Christmas a little bit earlier this year," Moira says excitedly.

Oliver has never shared his younger sister's fascination for Felicity Smoak, nor has he joined the bandwagon that the entire household, beginning with his parents, shared about how brilliant and impressive girl the girl was. He had always regarded her as his midsummer's nightmare.

From middle school to high school, their butler's only child had spent the summer every year in Queen Manor. Oliver and Felicity had rarely gotten along. They always bickered (although his best friend Tommy Merlyn had much rather referred to it as "bantered in a cute kind of way"). For some reason, the black-haired-with-purple-streaks girl wearing silver chains around her neck, industrial piercings, and an exclusively black leather and fish nets get-up every single day, had always known how to push the right buttons and irritate him to death. She'd correct his grammar mid-sentence and use highfalutin vocabulary that was much too advanced for her age (and probably his, as well) – something that he had always considered hypocritical when she herself had constantly spoken in sentence fragments.

But since his parents had always reminded him about his manners and good breeding, he had tried his best not to cross the line and retaliate – not physically, even though on several occasions he had wanted to. Whenever his temper had gotten the better of him, he had returned her smart aleck remarks with his own snarky ones, and quite a few times he had succeeded in making the girl cry, making him feel guilty that he had stooped down to that level.

Felicity was undeniably brilliant. He had never doubted that. But he'd always thought that the girl was too smart for her own good. Truth be told, he had always felt that she was way too smart for his liking. Felicity was kryptonite to him. She somehow had a way of making him take a good look at himself, underneath the cool, popular guy and girl-magnet image he'd always sported in high school. He hated that that image had never impressed her. In sheer frustration and irritation, he had once told Tommy that when Felicity finally gets over her man-hating phase, she would be hard-pressed to find a guy that would be the least bit interested in her if she keeps up with her stubbornness and headstrong attitude. She had overheard that conversation, and he knew he had hurt her deeply, but he'd been much too proud to apologize then.

The next summer, Felicity did not come. And the summer after that. A year later, Noah told the Queen family that his daughter had gotten a scholarship and had gone off to college in Boston.

That was the last he'd heard of Felicity Smoak until now. Needless to say, the thought of having the girl over for a few weeks for the holidays isn't something that he is particularly excited about or pleased with. What Oliver fails to realize at the moment is that, after five years, the girl in question is no longer a girl.

"Oliver," Moira begins to speak more calmly, "I know that you and Felicity hadn't gotten along that well in the past. But, people change. You, of all people, should know that." She pauses, gazing lovingly at her beautiful boy who has grown into a handsome man. "I'm so proud of how much you've changed. I'm sure your father would be, too, if he were still with us. Please, try your hardest to be nice to Noah's daughter. I'm sure she's also grown into a wonderful young woman. I hear she graduated at the top of her class and completed double master's degrees in computer science and cyber-security record time. Isn't that wonderful?"

"Guess so," Oliver answers with a shrug. "We always knew she was smart." In all honesty, although he'd always known that Felicity would succeed in her studies, he really did not expect such awesome news of her impressive accomplishments. Oliver is intrigued.

Moira goes on to say, "Noah tells me that she is much sought after by the biggest tech companies in the country… which reminds me… perhaps you should look into that. Maybe Walter and HR ought to see if they've considered Felicity Smoak on the shortlist of new hires. As the new CEO, you should have a say, son. Felicity would surely be an asset to Queen Consolidated. Your father would agree."

Oliver still does not like it every time his mother tells him what to do, especially when it comes to the company. He knows that barely finishing his business degree with a passing mark because of his vices and party-going days had weighed heavily on his parents. Yet after two years of being Walter Steele's understudy after Robert Queen passed away due to a heart attack, he had proven his knack for business, which he must have inherited from his dad. He thinks that his mother sometimes does not give him enough credit for all the effort he has put into their family's company.

Moira senses his son's unease at her assertiveness, so she tells him, "Oliver, it's a suggestion." She smiles. "But the request that you treat Felicity like a decent human being when she arrives after Thanksgiving is not," she adds with a wink. And Moira Queen hardly ever winks.

Oliver wonders what is up with her mother, so he decides to go the way of acquiescence this time around. "Yes, mother," he replies. "And I will think about looking into the HR matter as well. I will let you know what I decide."

Moira smiles at her son, and Oliver knows that his mother is indeed proud of the man he has become.

Speaking with Noah, Oliver learns the reason why Felicity is spending the holiday season with them. Apparently, she hasn't decided which job offer to accept yet, and she needed some time away to carefully consider her future. And since her mother Donna, with whom Noah had shared custody after their divorce when Felicity was seven, had passed away recently towards the end of summer, Noah thought that coming to the Manor would help his daughter find comfort from the grief and consider her career options now that she no longer has a very sick mother to take care of. Oliver is dumbfounded; he finds himself admiring her for the inner strength that brought her through her graduating year in MIT, knowing that her mom was terminally ill.

The admiration, however, is nothing compared to his reaction when he finds Felicity speaking with Moira in the living room of the mansion in the first week of December.

She is not only blonde. She is a beautiful blonde woman with an elegance that almost matches his mother's. In place of black suede boots and black leather attire, she wears strappy high heels and a flowing, sleeveless pink dress that ended just above her knees. Her blonde hair is swept up to a ponytail, and she wears dark-rimmed glasses that accentuate her sparkling blue eyes. He didn't even realize that she is naturally blue-eyed because she'd always worn dark contact lenses to go with her Goth get-up years ago.

"Hello, Oliver," she greets him with an uncharacteristically winsome smile that he doesn't recall seeing on her face before.

"Hi," Oliver responds. He is lost for words. He doesn't even realize that he is smiling back at her, with a faint blush on his cheeks.

Felicity is breathtakingly gorgeous, Oliver admits to himself.

Later that night, after he, his mother, and his sister catches up with Felicity over dinner, he finds it almost impossible to sleep. All he can think of is how much she has changed and how much trouble he is in for the holidays.

A/N: I hope this is something you're interested in reading further and following?

There won't be a regular posting schedule for this one, just like my other WIPs. RL usually gets in the way, so I won't make promises I can't keep.