"Okay, what's going on?" Thea asks him when she comes down the stairs and sees her brother up and ready to leave the house.

"Good morning to you too, Speedy."

"I don't have time for that right now." She waves his greeting off with a swift hand motion. "Where's the emergency?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Of course you do! It's saturday morning and you're already up. You're never up before me, and that's a good thing, actually, since you usually don't come home until the wee hours of the morning." He opens his mouth to say something, but he waves him off again. "Don't even try to deny it, I've seen you trying to sneak in at least a gazillion times already."

He doesn't answer her, grabbing his wallet and keys instead, kissing her head and heading to the door.

"Hey! You didn't answer me," she chuckles at his evasiveness, as if that alone was the answer she was looking for. "You're going to see her, aren't you?"

"Who?" He asks, even though it's pointless.

"The blond hurricane from last night." Thea answers with a smirk.

"She has a name, you know."

"Oh, I know!" She grins at him, having entirely too much fun grilling him. "Felicity Smoak. She's gorgeous, by the way." She states, as if he didn't know that already. "Smart too. Too smart for you, actually. How did you land that one?"

"I didn't. Can we not talk about this? I have to be somewhere." Oliver tells her, frustrated with his sisters antics.

"Great, me too. I'm meeting Roy at the club to help with the inventory in," she checks her watch, "exactly 23 minutes. You can give me a ride while you tell me everything about her."

Oliver rolls his eyes, knowing that there's no arguing with his sister when she puts something in her head.

He only speaks when they're already in the car, and he can see Thea itching to ask more questions. "We're not dating."

"That's not what she told th-"

"The bartender, I know, we discussed this already." Oliver interrupts her, but there's no annoyance in his tone, surprisingly for Thea.

"I know, silly, I'm just messing with you." She gives him a smile, and he can't help but smile back at her. "What I really want to know is why aren't you? Together, I mean."

"It's… complicated." Oliver answers somewhat stiffly. He can't exactly tell his sister all the reasons why being with Felicity isn't a good idea. He decides to go with a version of the truth. "We're… not exactly at the same place in our lives right now. Getting together would do us more harm than good."

"That sounds like bullshit." She tells him honestly.

"Thea." He warns her to drop it just by the tone of his voice, but Thea ignores it.

"No, it does sound like bullshit." She reaffirms. "Roy and I couldn't be at more different places in our lives but we made it work."

"I don't mean socially different places, Thea." He sighs.

"Me either." She says softly. "Roy's struggling with some stuff. Has been for a while, you know, and if you look from the outside it really seems like he's not ready to be in a relationship with anyone, but I make him better." She smiles. "And he makes me better too, even though I'm already in a good place." Oliver pulls over in front of Verdant and Thea puts a hand on his arm. "Don't make excuses not to pursue this thing between the two of you because you're scared it won't work. I see the way you look at each other, Ollie." Thea says softly. "She makes you smile, something I haven't seen you genuinely do for too long."

She gives his arm a squeeze and gets out of the car, leaving Oliver no time to respond and with a lot to think about.

Felicity woke to some smell coming from her kitchen, but before she could fully appreciate it, she realized that what really woke her was a sharp pain in her head. God, she hasn't been hungover in a while. She remembered then why she never drank anything other than a couple glasses of wine. Okay, maybe a little more than a couple, but definitely not as much as she had last night.

She stood up quickly, getting to the bathroom to take her contacts out so they wouldn't irritate even more her already irritate eyes, all the while cursing herself for not taking them off before bed the night before. Which reminded her, how in the name of hell did she get home?

She remembers tracking Laurel's phone, then Oliver coming home and then… great, yeah, there was definitely some dancing with the DJ at some point or another. Did Oliver drive her home? Yes, he must have.

Good night, angel.

Did he...? Was that Oliver?

There are about a million things that should worry her concerning the night before, but somehow the thought that glues itself into her mind is whether or not Oliver Queen is a pet name kind of person.

It shouldn't matter, but for the life of her she cannot picture the big bad Starling City vigilante calling his girlfriend angel or baby. And that's a problem! It's a problem because her stupid mind is playing a trick on her, making her call herself his girlfriend, which is stupid, so stupid, even if it's all inside her head.

Maybe she's still drunk.

A knock on her door startles her and brings her out of her thoughts. "Are you up?" Oliver says quietly from outside her door and she freezes. What?

"Oliver?"

"Hey!" He greets her, coming into the room with a smile on his face, completely unfazed by the look of confusion in her face. "I made you Raisa's secret recipe for when I was hungover back in the day. It's probably not as good as hers but it'll help."

"Um, why?" She asks in characteristic bluntness. Oliver's smile falters a little and he has to clear his throat before answering.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I don't think I've ever seen you set foot in this house, much less to make me breakfast, so, um, why are you here?" She asks awkwardly. "Is something wrong? Where's Dig?"

"Dig's fine." He's quick to assure her, even though it takes him a little longer to answer her first question. "I wanted to check on you. You were pretty drunk last night."

"Oh, God, can we not talk about that? Like, ever?" Felicity groaned. "What time is it? I need coffee. And a shower. Possibly in that order."

"Nop," he tells her, popping the P and Felicity decides this version of Oliver is weird. Not that he usually isn't caring with her, he is, but this Oliver is acting like he left all of the weight he carries on his shoulders by the door, and it kind of freaks her out, not knowing how to deal with him. "Coffee will only make you dehydrated and it'll worsen your headache. So, why don't you go ahead and take that shower and I'll wait for you in the kitchen." He smiles at her, already heading out of her room and closing the door behind him.

What just happened?

Felicity came out of the shower 15 minutes or so later, feeling slightly better than she was when she woke up. The headache she had wasn't gone, but at least now she felt like she could move without having to look for a surface in which it would be less horrible for her to puke in.

"Eggs stewed in a spicy herb tomato sauce with grilled bread." Oliver smiled at her, putting a plate in front of her while she sat on a stool by the kitchen counter.

"Okay, this is ridiculous." Felicity tells him while he pours some orange juice in a glass for her. "When I'm hungover I stay in bed until noon with three cups of coffee trying to come up with a list of reasons why jumping out of a window and putting me out of my misery isn't a good idea."

Oliver chuckles and sits besides her. "I told you, coffee only makes it worse."

"I'm a genius," Felicity all but groans. "Why didn't I know that? I feel like I should have known that." She takes a bite of her food and, honestly, if this is what rich people eat for breakfast everyday, she might have to reconsider her opinion on people whose only goal in life is to marry rich. For food like this? She'd do that too. "This is too good! I'm in grease heaven, I could kiss you right now." She takes another bite before blood rushes to her cheeks and she sees a smirk crawl it's way to Oliver's lips. "I mean- you know what? This is so good I won't even apologize for that."

"So the only way I get to kiss you is earning it by cooking for you?" Oliver asks her without missing a beat and they both freeze when what he says fully registers with them.

The night before, Oliver told himself he'd get to know her better, pay more attention, just generally be a better friend. And that meant allowing himself to fully be in Felicity's presence. No work or worries or threats. But now, Oliver is reminded of why he chooses to always be in control of himself, even when he's around her. Especially when he's around her.

"Did you just... flirt with me?" Felicity asks him with wide eyes. Then she laughs. It's a weird, kind of hysterical laugh that makes him cringe, but she can't seem to stop. "That was awful! Even I can do better than that, and I have all the smoothness of a sharp rock." Her laughter comes to an end, and she brings her left hand to rub her head, while continuing to eat with the other. "Ouch, my head hurts."

"Maybe you should take the night off tonight." He tells her, hoping desperately to change the subject.

"Yeah, maybe I will. I don't think the alcohol is out of my system yet, because there's no way that just happened." She takes her last bite before standing up from the stool and putting her plate in the sink.

"Are you going to be okay by yourself?" He asks, suddenly in a hurry to leave. He needs to put some space between them, to figure out why his behaviour towards her changed so drastically when their situation clearly hasn't. Maybe getting to know her isn't a good idea. Maybe it'll make it harder for him not to have non-platonic thoughts about her if they're closer as friends.

"Sure," she answers and he has a feeling she might have sensed his change in mood. "I'll just sleep through the day."

"If you're sure." He smiles at her, squeezing her shoulder when he passes her and heads out.

She doesn't realize what's happening, at first. Like she told Oliver, Felicity slept through most of the day, only waking up when the sun was about to set. She turned on her TV, hoping to catch up on some show and enjoy the rest of her day off, when she saw her bag and phone on the table at her living room. Oliver must have dropped them off this morning and she hadn't realized it.

Felicity promptly pulled out her phone, not being used to being away from it for so long. She unlocked it, with a frown of confusion in her face.

She had 37 text messages, along with 13 missed calls from Oliver, 4 from Diggle, 3 from unknown numbers and one from her mother.

One from her mother.

That's what immediately got her worried. Besides special occasions, her mother hardly called. Not because they weren't on speaking terms (which had happened for like, a month, when she was still at MIT), or because she was a bad mother or anything like that. Donna Smoak simply could not stand to talk on the phone. She argues that it's too impersonal. "You can't look someone in the eyes through the phone, dear," she used to say.

So yeah, if she had a missed call from her mother, something must be pretty wrong.

She decides to call Dig first, knowing that, to talk to her mother, she had to know what she was dealing with, and Oliver was awful at delivering bad news, and let's face it, there's no way this news are good.

"Hey, Felicity." John answers on the second ring, and the tone of his voice confirms it. Bad news. "Feeling better?"

"Much," she hesitates for a moment before asking, "What's going on? Do you guys need me at the lair? I can be there in fifteen."

"No, um, maybe leaving your apartment is not the best idea right now."

"John?" She can hear some noise in the background, followed by Oliver's voice asking "is that her?"

"I think you should see it for yourself." He tells her. "It's in every gossip blog out there."

Felicity puts her phone on speaker and is already fetching her tablet from her bag, typing quickly. She thought she might have trouble finding it, since she didn't know what she was looking for, but as soon as her eyes landed on the main headline of the most famous gossip blog in Starling City, she knew that was it.

Crap.

Starling City's most eligible bachelor finally settling down.

Is Oliver Queen ready to leave the party scene? Last night, Starling City's hottest castaway was spotted carrying his girlfriend and co-worker Felicity Smoak bridal style out of Verdant, a nightclub owned by his younger sister, Thea Queen.

A source close to the Queens confided in us that the couple has been inseparable for months now, which makes us wonder how exactly Miss Smoak managed to get the city's biggest playboy in a leash.

But there was more.

Oh, there was more.

There were pictures, not only from Verdant, but also from various events she had to attend as his assistant in the past months. Each one made to look romantic and intimate. And they must have worked their magic on that, because she knows for a fact that Oliver does not look at her like that.

"I'm five seconds away from having a massive freak out," she tells Dig, already wishing away the headache that she could feel coming back. "Please tell me Oliver already called the PR department of Queen Consolidated and had them deny everything."

"It's kind of not that simple, you know." Oliver's voice comes through the phone and Felicity realizes she's probably on speaker too.

"Yes, it is!" Felicity squeals, "It's super simple, see, you just have to pick up the phone and-"

"Felicity," Oliver always says her name with a purpose. He's always telling her something with just the tone he uses when he says it, and right now, combined with his sigh, his tone tells her she's frustrating the hell out of him. "There are already a bunch of paparazzi surrounding your house, so you have to promise me you won't try to leave without me or Dig there with you."

"I'm not a child, Oliver, I think I can handle leaving the house on my own if I have to." She tells him, annoyed that he thinks he can tell her what to do.

"These people are disrespectful and will do anything to get a reaction out of you, Felicity," Oliver all but groans on the other side of the line. "Anything, I mean it. You have to promise me."

"Fine, whatever, I promise." She agrees, mostly because she wants him to drop it so they can talk about more important issues they have at the moment.

"And about the story… well, I don't think we should try to kill it." Oliver tells her and the line goes dead silent for a few seconds.

"I'm sorry," Felicity clears her throat, readying herself to get worked up. "For a moment there I thought you said we shouldn't deny anything," she forces out a fake laugh, "my mistake, right? You can't have possibly said anything like that."

Felicity can her Diggle say "I told you she wouldn't take it well," in the background but Oliver simply ignores him. "From experience? It's better to let them think whatever they want to and not acknowledge it. That way they'll just get bored and move on to the next story."

"No! No, no, no, no, I'm not okay with letting everyone think we're sleeping together!" Oliver's being so extremely frustrating she has to use her loud voice on him. "Do you even realize how ridiculous that sounds? I can't think of a universe in which this, us could happen. I'm so not your type, don't they know that? They should, I mean, your sex life has been pretty out there since, like, forever. They should know you have a pattern. Tall, leggy, gorgeous and, you know, not me!" She laughs nervously and Oliver takes pity on her, apparently, because he cuts her off.

"I'm not a fan of the idea either, Felicity, but if we deny it, they'll just follow us around all the time trying to get proof that we actually are together."

"Which they will not find, so we should be good!" Felicity retorts immediately

"I know this is not really my place to say," Dig starts to say, and Felicity feels guilty that she kind of forgot he was on the line too. "But the last thing the two of you need is someone following you around 24/7. Eventually, someone will find out about our nightly activities, and a bunch of gossip sites saying you two are having sex will feel like a piece of cake in comparison. "

"Diggle's right. We can't afford to have all that extra attention." Oliver sighs.

"Well, if you look outside my window right now you will realize we already have all that extra attention, Oliver." Felicity argues, but she knows it's futile. They're both right, they can't risk it. She sighs loudly. "But fine. Keep quiet, got it."

The line goes quiet for a moment and Oliver breaks the silence with a soft voice. For some reason, she doesn't think Diggle is taking part in this conversation anymore. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm just dandy!"

"I'm sorry about this," Oliver tells her, and she can just imagine the frown on his face when he says it. "I should have known not to do that in public. This is my fault."

"Oliver, it's not your fault." Felicity smiles sadly because of course he's blaming himself. "You were just being a good friend and keeping my drunk ass from embarrassing myself any further."

"How's your head?" Oliver changes the subject, but Felicity swears she can hear the hint of a smile in his voice.

"It's better," She can't help but smile too, momentarily forgetting that this is not how they act with each other. Forgetting that he's closed off and overprotective, not caring, sweet and thoughtful. "Thank you for this morning. And last night too."

"Don't mention it," he shrugs it off, "I just wanted to make sure you were safe and okay."

"Yes, and you didn't have to go out of your way to do that, so I just wanted you to know that I really appreciate it."

"Maybe you shouldn't come to the foundry tomorrow either." He suggests, expecting her to say "no, there's work to do" but she agrees.

"As long as you don't do anything out of the ordinary. I can guide you through patrolling from home for one night." She tells him, "but we still have to talk about how we're going to deal with these people as soon as possible. Remember I'm not the only one they'll be following."

"I think I'm pretty good at losing a tail, just ask Diggle." Oliver jokes and oh my God, Oliver's making jokes too.

"Hey, I'm serious!" She laughs and hears him chuckle too. "Be careful."

"I will. And we can talk about it at QC on monday. I'll send a car to pick you up." He tells her, and before she can answer he tells her goodnight and hangs up.

Felicity throws herself on her sofa and scrolls through her contacts, bracing herself for what sure is going to be a hard conversation, one she's not at all thrilled to be having. When she finds the number she's looking for, she calls and presses the phone to her ear. The person answers on the second ring.

"Hey, mom."

Soooo, multichapter it is, then. Sorry it took me a while, but I was debating on whether or not to continue the story, and when I finally made up my mind, I had a ton of finals and then I was out of town for a week and only got around to writting this now.

You should know that I don't plan on making this a crazy long fic, mostly because I'm terrible at updating things regularly (you noticed, right? One month for a new chapter?). I can manage for a month or two with weekly updates, but that's as far as I go.

Anyway, let me know what you think and thank you very much for the great reviews this story has gotten so far (: