A/N: This one is a little short compared to my usual chapters but at this point, any update is better than nothing. Sorry for the wait
Oliver was a little surprised to find Felicity already up and wide awake in the kitchen, looking completely put together. He was sure she should have been suffering from a hangover. "Morning!" he greeted.
"Morning, I just made coffee," Felicity pulled two coffee mugs from the cabinet. "Do you want a cup?"
"Yes." he moved to stand across from her, watching as she flitted about his kitchen. "How are you feeling?"
"I'm fine." Felicity poured Oliver a cup and set it on the counter in front of him. She took a seat in front of her laptop a stack of folders next to her.
"How long have you've been up?" Oliver asked, taking a drink from his coffee, enjoying the hot liquid.
"I'm not sure. I was feeling restless, and I needed to be doing something. I've been up for a while figuring I could get a few hours in."
It was hard to get back to sleep when she woke up drench in sweat after having a nightmare about Cooper breaking into her apartment and killing her, after beating her half to death.
"Why didn't you wake me?" Oliver questioned. "Maybe I could've helped."
"There's nothing you could have done to help besides I like keeping busy. It's a good distraction."
"That's the thing though," said Oliver as he moved around the kitchen preparing to make some breakfast. "You're working yourself to the bone, and I get it, but I am not going to let anything happen to you."
"This isn't about me." Felicity waved her hand at her computer. "With everything that's going on I've been falling behind on my freelance work. Without it, I don't have the funding to keep the shelter up and running. Not to mention, we need to relocate and soon. It's like every week we get a new girl, and the place is becoming overcrowded. We could use all the money we can get."
"I could make a few calls if you want? See what I can find?" Oliver offered.
"No, I'll handle it." Felicity needed to be doing something. Even if it was something as simple as finding a place for them to relocate, she really just needed to feel like she had some kind of control in her life because right now Felicity didn't feel like she was in control of anything let alone her own life.
"Felicity, I want to help." Oliver set his mug down and walked toward her. "Let me and please just stop and take a minute for yourself."
Felicity moved her fingers over the keys of her laptop, typing away. "I did. Last night."
Oliver sighed. "Working yourself into the ground day after day is not going to do anyone any good."
"Well, neither is doing nothing." Felicity didn't look away from her computer screen.
Oliver shook his head and reached out, pulling her computer out of her reach, shutting it down. "Stop carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders."
Felicity stood feeling frustrated and stuck, and like Oliver was keeping her from moving forward. "It is on my shoulders. These women come to me, they are looking to me to help them to escape to start over. They're looking to me to show them that they can be strong, that they can survive and how can I do that if I can't even fight for them, huh?"
"It's not all on you. You are not alone in this." Oliver argued his frustration growing.
Sometimes it felt like his and Felicity's arguments went in circles, arguing again and again about the same thing. It was exhausting and frustrating.
She was the most stubborn person he ever met. He never thought he would ever meet someone more stubborn than he was, but she proved him wrong.
And she wasn't just stubborn, she was also brilliant, resilient, beautiful, and strong. Oliver respected everything about her, especially how independent she was but damn it, he wishes she would rely on him a bit more. He wanted to be there, and he wanted to help her. She didn't have to do this on her own. She wasn't alone. She had him no matter what and he wanted to show her that, but she wouldn't let him. It was like every time they took a step forward, Felicity had this default setting that made them take two steps backward.
It was beyond frustrating, and in moments like this, he felt like just grabbing her and either shake some sense into her or kiss her senseless until he forgot his own name.
"Of course. It's on me!" Felicity exclaimed. "I promised every single one of them I would protect them. I promised them I would keep them safe. And I won't fail them, I can't! So please stop distracting me and stop getting in the way of me doing my damn job!"
Oliver jaw clenched, staring down her, her skin had flushed with her anger, and he was so tempted to find out how far down her body it went, her eyes were dark with the same frustration he felt and even though she was frustrating him, he wanted nothing more than to kiss her.
His eyes flickered down to her mouth and knew she noticed because her lips part on an almost silent gasp. Her hand landed on his side, and he felt the heat of her palm through his shirt.
He instinctively took a step toward her, their bodies brushing.
"Ollie!"
Both Oliver and Felicity jerked back startled at the sound of Thea's voice just seconds before she was rounding the kitchen.
"Morning." Thea paused, eyes flickering between them. "Okay is it just me or did I just interrupt something because the sexual tension I'm sensing right now you can cut with a knife."
"No," Felicity answered as Oliver answered. "Yes."
Felicity shot him a glare before focusing. "Good Morning, Thea, I assume you're here to see you're brother, so I just going to go back to the guest room and leave you two to-"
"I wanted to get breakfast." Thea interrupted. "With both of you."
"You do know I gave you the keys to my apartment for emergencies, right?" Oliver asked his sister. "Not so you can just walk in whenever you feel like it."
Thea raised one perfect eyebrow at her brother. "And what crawled up your ass, grumpy pants?"
"Nothing," Oliver said. "Felicity and I were discussing work."
"What exactly is it that you guys do?" Thea took a seat at the counter.
Felicity looked at Oliver. "You're sister doesn't know what you do?"
"I know he's a security guard or something like that," said Thea. "But he doesn't tell me anything beyond that. What or who do you have him guarding?"
"I didn't tell her because I'm not supposed to. I didn't want to jeopardize what we're doing." Oliver said when Felicity looked at him questioningly.
"I doubt your sister knowing is going to jeopardize everything we do," Felicity replied, focusing back on Thea. "Women."
"Women?" Thea repeated.
"I hired your brother to protect women."
"Oh my God," Thea's eyes went wide with shock. "You run an escort service or something. Are you a pimp? I've never met a female pimp before or do they call you headmistress or something?"
"What! No!" Felicity exclaimed as Oliver laughed. "I do not run an escort service."
"You don't?" asked Thea.
"No, not that there's anything wrong with that. It's just not something that I would do."
"Then what is it that you do?" Thea asked curiously.
Felicity was silent as she thought about the pros and cons of telling Thea. Thea would know what her brother did, and it wasn't like Felicity had to say the location or anything. A little information couldn't hurt.
"I help women in bad situations who just need a little help."
"Oh," Surprise filtered across Thea's features. "I never would have guessed." she looked at her brother. "From one fight to another, huh?"
Oliver nodded. "Protecting women and children is a lot better than protecting dirty politicians."
"How did you get into something like this?" Thea wondered, looking back to Felicity.
"I have horrible taste in men," Felicity answered.
"I think it's gotten better," Thea said, sending a grin her brother's way.
Felicity felt her skin flush. Was it that obvious that she liked Oliver? She hoped not.
"Thea, how's you're week been going?" Oliver asked, sending her a look as he got started on making pancakes.
Thea knew he was changing the subject but decided to let him. "Same old, same old. Mom and dad are actually having a get together next week. Mom wanted me to tell you to be there. She's left messages on your phone, but she said you haven't gotten back to her."
"Yeah, I haven't talked to her for a few days. I've been busy with work, and I just had other things on my mind." Oliver glanced at Felicity to see her focus was back on her computer, working.
Thea looked between the pair and sent her brother a sympathetic look. She couldn't imagine it was easy, pining after your boss.
"Felicity, I was under the impression that you worked in Computers, I never would have guessed what you really do. Oliver mentioned once that you graduated from MIT," said Thea, wanting to get to know Felicity more and cutting her brother a break on her meddling.
"I do work on computers. I work in Cyber Security on freelance bases." Felicity answered, turning her focus onto Thea.
Thea usually wouldn't care about this kind of thing, but she wanted to get to know Felicity more.
Oliver was thankful for Thea being there. Her presence was a distraction from the growing attraction between him and Felicity.
He finished up cooking them breakfast while listening to Felicity and Thea talk. It was nice hearing them talk, first it was about Felicity's work then, Thea's school and moving on to the latest fashion.
It brought a smile to his face as they ate breakfast, hearing Thea and Felicity making shopping plans. Felicity fit into his life so easily. It was like she was always meant to be there.
At some point Thea got around to telling Felicity embarrassing stories about him and his best friend Tommy, like the time they were twelve and tried to convince their tutor to teach them to make out by making out with them, it didn't work, one she was a lesbian and two she was a hardass despite being a senior in junior high. Instead, she suggested, for Tommy and Oliver to practice on each other and just maybe they might find they like both boys and girls.
"Did you?" Felicity asked. "Practice with Tommy?"
Oliver felt his face flushing. "Just once and we agreed never to talk about it again. Suffice to say we both came to the conclusion we only liked girls." his eyes narrowed on Thea. "How do you even know that story?"
Thea grinned. "Tommy lost a bet and had to tell me something juicy about you in case I ever needed blackmail material against you?"
"And I'm just now finding out about it. Why?"
Thea shrugged. "I had no reason to bring it up until now."
"I'm going to kill him," Oliver muttered under his breath, making Felicity and Thea laugh.
"When I turned eighteen, my mother got us into this bar to go dancing, she wanted to celebrate the milestone." Felicity decided to take pity on Oliver and offer up her own embarrassing story. "Except back then I was going through this goth faze. When we walked into this club, we turned heads. My mom, she always dresses to impress, she's blonde, and beautiful and draws attention, and I had black hair with purple streaks and dark makeup. Anyway, there was this one guy who approached us, and he thought we were out for a night of role-playing naughty and nice and wanted to join in."
"Do you have pictures of your goth phase?" Thea asked with interest.
"No comment," Felicity told her.
"No, I agree with Thea." Oliver said, "We need to see the pictures. I'm trying to picture it, and I just can't see it."
"Those pictures will never see the light of day," Felicity stated vehemently.
Thea stood up, grabbing her discarded jacket. "It will. Just you wait I'll get it out of you eventually. I'm meeting up with some friends, so I'm gonna go. This was good. We'll do this again soon. "
"You always get your way, huh?" Felicity asked at her determination.
"Always," Thea smirked and headed out, calling over her shoulder. "Later, Ollie."
The door sounded behind her as she left, and Felicity turned back to Oliver. "Ollie is a horrible nickname."
"It is," Oliver agreed with a laugh. "I call her speedy. What about you? Do you have any embarrassing nicknames?"
"When I was younger, I had this childhood friend, Jenny and she used to call me, Flick," Felicity admitted.
Oliver laughed. "Sounds like something you would name a pet."
"I know," Felicity said. "Personally I think it's better than Ollie."
Oliver tilted his head in agreement before gathering their dishes and placing them in the sink to wash.
Felicity watched Oliver silently, sometimes the mornings were so domestic, and it felt like she knew him for years but hearing about Oliver's childhood friend Tommy for the first time, spending time with his sister, it just made her realize how much she didn't know about him and how much he didn't know about her.
She never really inquired about his family than what was necessary, she didn't try to learn more about his family or his personal life beyond what she already knew. She hadn't tried to get to know him on a deeper level.
It wasn't that Felicity didn't care or that she didn't want to because she did, however, she was hesitant to cross those boundaries. She was reluctant to make their relationship more personal than it already was.
Felicity couldn't do relationships. She was not good at them. The last relationship Felicity had was with Cooper, and when she was with him, she had let herself become someone she couldn't recognize in the mirror. She hadn't like that person, and she didn't want to become that person again.
She knew Oliver was nothing like Cooper, but there was this voice in her head telling her, all relationships soured. At least all of her relationships did. Felicity didn't want to risk that happening with her again. She didn't want to ruin her budding friendship with Oliver. She didn't want to complicate a good thing.
However, that didn't stop her from feeling guilty for being aware of his family and friends more, of his life outside of the shelter, for not knowing more about someone she was learning she cared a lot about.
The truth was she wanted to know more about him, more than she already did. Despite her reservations about getting too close she wanted to know everything about him.
It scared Felicity to realize what she was feeling for Oliver, scared to be hurt again. Not physically, she knew Oliver would never harm her like Cooper. Still, she was afraid to put her heart on the line again, and she didn't know how to handle it.
She didn't know how to let go of the fear. She didn't know how to move forward.
A/N: Thanks for reading!