I'm so sorry for taking so long to update. I got busy with school, then I got sick and writing had to be on the sidelines for a while. I'm good now, though, so it shouldn't take me that long to post another chapter.

This is a little longer as promised, and I really hope you enjoy it (: let me know what you think.

The first thing Oliver notices when he comes into the room is her.

It's ridiculous, really, that in a room with over a hundred people, the first thing that catches his attention is this blond woman in a coral dress standing in the back of the room by herself.

He gives himself a moment to take her in. From the braided messy bun on her head to the dark red lipstick on her lips and the high heels on her feet that make her taller than he's used to.

Then an older, bald man snaps him out of his thoughts. "Mr. Queen, good to see you."

"Um, yes," Oliver turns to the man momentarily, before his eyes return to his partner again. "Good to see you too. Excuse me." He can worry about being rude later, apologize. Right now there's something pulling him to her, and he doesn't want to fight it just yet.

When Oliver reaches her, she has her back turned to him. He rests his hand on her lower back and let's her name roll out of his tongue softly, and hearing his voice, surprisingly, startles her, like she was waiting for someone else.

"Oliver!" She forces out his name, making him frown. Is there something wrong? "I didn't know you had arrived already."

"Already?" He asks amused, "Aren't you the one always grilling me about being late?"

"Yup, that's me." She chuckles, but it sounds fake and Oliver decides that yes, there's something definitely wrong.

"You look beautiful, by the way." He tells her, making her soften immediately, a shy smile gracing her gorgeous features.

She thanks him, and before he has time to say anything else, a guy appears with a couple of champagne flutes in his hands, stopping besides Felicity and just lingering there. They all stand in silence for a moment, and Oliver is the first one to break it.

"Sorry, can I help you?" He asks the guys, who frowns in confusion and looks from him to Felicity, like he's expecting her to do something.

"Right, um," she takes a deep breath, like she's about to give him some really, really bad news, making him even more confused. There really is something wrong then. "Oliv- I mean, Mr. Queen, this is Jake. He works in the IT department at Queen Consolidated."

"Nice to meet you." He goes to shake the other man's hand, but they're occupied by the champagne flutes. Jake quickly hands one over to Felicity, who accepts it with a silent "thank you," and shakes Oliver's hand. Still confused, Oliver looks at Felicity expectantly, and she seems even more uncomfortable than before.

"Um, Jake is my date for tonight," she blurts out, and Oliver blanks for a moment because her having a date was not part of the plan! "I hope that's okay?" It's not really a question, since she doesn't give him any time to answer it. Instead, she does that Felicity thing, where she talks and talks with absolutely no focus on what she's saying. "I mean, I hope it's okay that I brought him here, not the part about me dating. Not that Jake and I are dating or anything, I just meant- I just meant that this is a work thing and I'm here as your assistant and you might need me for assistant related things and I have a date, but I figured you'd want to leave pretty early and we wouldn't be doing much work so–"

"Felicity, breathe." Oliver brings his hand to her elbow and manages to cut off her ramble. Her cheeks are flushed and she has that look on her face in which she seems to want to be absolutely anywhere else but right there. Meanwhile, Jake just looks thoroughly amused, smiling down at the blonde. "Can I talk to you for a minute?" He nods with his head to the side and she drinks the entire contents of her flute in one go, giving the empty flute back to Jake and following Oliver to a more private spot. "A date?"

"Yes. Weren't you paying attention? I just said Jake's my date. I know I talk a lot, but it was in there somewhere."

"And why exactly do you have a date?" Oliver says in a voice that reminds her of the one he usually uses when arrowing bad guys. "I thought we agreed that the being-seen-with-other-people route was out of the question."

"Oh, no, we agreed you wouldn't do it." Felicity quickly replies, making Oliver sigh. "We never said anything about me. Plus, Jake's really nice and has been asking me out for months and I couldn't accept because you, mister, overwork me every single night!" She finishes with a note of hysteria in her voice before she groans. "Oh, God, why do I say things like that?"

Oliver looks at her pointedly and sighs, but before he can say anything, someone approaches him, forcing him to go back into CEO persona, allowing Felicity to avoid the rest of this conversation and go back to her date.

Oliver has to force himself to pay attention to whatever the person's saying instead of his friend slipping away.

It's going to be a long night.

Turns out it wasn't just long. It was awful.

Oliver had no idea what was going on, but he was quickly realizing that watching Felicity smiling and flirting – and probably saying inappropriate things without actually meaning to – with someone else was torture.

"People are starting to notice, man." Diggle smirks from behind him when he goes to grab himself a drink.

"What?" Oliver asks confused.

"You, glaring daggers at the poor guy. People are starting to talk, you know."

"She shouldn't have brought him, it brings even more attention than before." Oliver says resigned, downing the contents of his glass in one go and ordering another.

"Actually, the only thing people are paying attention to is the fact that you're clearly jealous of your executive assistant's new boyfriend." John tells him, a smile never leaving his lips. He's too amused with this situation for Oliver's taste.

"He's not her boyfriend." Oliver says promptly, which only makes John smirk. "And I'm not jealous."

"Sure you're not." John pats his shoulder before his expression turns serious. "Don't you go ruining her night, okay? She's doesn't get to stop everything and have fun often, and she seems pretty into this guy." He gives Oliver a pointed look, and Oliver sighs, knowing his friend's right.

Diggle turns to the bartender and orders himself a drink too. "Plus, she'll be pissed and will use her loud voice on you, which I really don't want to witness."

"I won't ruin anything, because I am not jealous," Oliver tells him, taking the glass from his friend's hand and drinking it in one go too. "And you're working." He says, nodding his head towards the now empty glass, then stalks off to to talk to some other boring investor in hopes it'll keep him from thinking about where Jake's hand is in Felicity waist while they dance.

"So, I've been meaning to ask you this all night…" Jake says with a smile on his face while they continue to dance.

"Yes?"

"Is Oliver Queen able to shoot lasers from his eyes? And if not, why is he trying?" Jake jokes, but to Felicity it's not a joke at all.

"What?" She so mad, but decides to play dumb, because what else is she supposed to do?

"I don't think he likes me." He observes. "Or maybe he just really likes you."

"No, he doesn't!" Felicity says abruptly, regretting it when he takes one of his hands from hers to make a surrendering gesture. "He's just… We're really good friends and he's ridiculously protective."

"So he doesn't like you?" He asks, and oddly, he still sounds amused.

"I thought we went over this in the car?"

"No, we established you two weren't together in the car, but that doesn't mean he doesn't want to be."

"Why are you pushing this?" She asks, knowing there a big chance Oliver's already ruined her date without even trying (too hard), so she stops dancing and pulls him from the ballroom to the bar so they can at least sit while they talk.

"Because even though I'm having a really great time with you, I'm sensing you like him too." He says simply, and when she tries to object he stops her. "It's okay," he says, amused smile still gracing his lips. "I guess this," he motions between the two of them, "just not the right time. You should have taken me up on that dinner invitation months ago."

She laughs. "I really should have."

"Okay, so, how do you wanna go about it?" He asks her, and she just stares at him confused for a moment. "Making him jealous? How do you wanna go about it?"

"What?" Felicity can't help the note of panic in her voice. "We're not doing that." She glances around the room, looking for Oliver, and finds him talking to a brunette on the other side of the room, drink in hand. Weird. Oliver doesn't usually drink in events like this.

"Come on, it's going to be fun," he winks at her and she smiles because yes, it would be pretty fun to mess with Oliver. "He seems like an easy guy to rattle."

"Trust me, you do not want to see Oliver Queen's bad side."

"What's the worse that can happen?" He asks her before coming to a conclusion and frowning. "He could fire me. Do you think he'll fire me?"

"Please," she rolls her eyes, "I wouldn't let him. But he's still not a guy you would want to piss off." She tells him, but her resolve is already crumbling because she's sure Oliver won't care, but what if he does?

"I'd say let's take that chance, but it's up to you."

"I'm not even his type, see?" she argues, pointing subtly to the beautiful woman Oliver's taking to, but Jake just laughs it off.

"That's ridiculous. You're gorgeous and he can't take his eyes off of you."

She's trying to talk herself out of doing it, she is, but Jake makes very good and flattering points, it's just too tempting. "What the hell, fine, let's do it." She caves, knowing there's a good chance she'll regret this tomorrow, but then again what the hell right? "What do you have in mind?"

The situation changes all of a sudden. At first, Oliver's doing a damn good job of blocking it out, blocking them out. But then they're everywhere. At the bar when he goes grab himself his millionth drink, at the center of the room dancing closely when Oliver has to cross it. Somehow, Oliver even finds them at the balcony when he needs to get some air.

And that moment, really, is when Oliver realizes the night went from bad to absolutely terrible.

He's staying at one end of the balcony, taking some time from the party, Diggle's annoying remarks and the couple's suffocating presence, when he notices them coming to stand on the other end.

They're very close to each other, talking silently about something Oliver can't hear, even though the balcony is a lot quieter than the loud party music and chatter, and significantly smaller.

There's are only four people between them, talking in a circle (or should it be a square? All those drinks are already having an effect on him) and he hopes they're enough of an obstacle for him to slip away without Felicity or Jake seeing him.

He realizes he's too late when Jakes looks up from their conversation, stares right into his eyes for a second, then lowers his face towards Felicity until their lips meet.

Oliver freezes. There goes his chance with her. Not that he was waiting for a chance with Felicity, or hoping for one. Wasn't he the one to say a solid no before they even got close to that? He was! And he did that for a reason. One that was very hard to remember when her mouth was glued to someone else's. Or when he had had to much to drink. And in this case, both.

God, he even sounds like Felicity in his head. When did that happen?

He turns away from them, even though they have already parted lips, but he can't tune them out. He hears Jake chuckle, and sees them both smiling from his perimetral vision, which he's not thankful for at all at the moment.

He also can't help but think about how he wouldn't be chuckling right now if he was in Jake's place. Hell, he wouldn't even have come up for air yet.

Deciding enough is enough, Oliver regretfully walks towards the couple, not even having to say a word to get their attention, since they're already turning towards him.

He doesn't bother asking to speak with Felicity privately, wanting to get it over with as soon as possible. "If I leave now, will anyone bite my head off at work tomorrow? Namely, Rochev or, you know, you."

Felicity opens her mouth to answer, then suddenly closes it, stepping away from Jake and turning to him. "Are you…" she starts, then frowns, stepping closer to him and putting a hand on his chest while the other lifts up to touch his jaw, angling his face the way she had done many times before, even though it never happened out of the foundry while checking him for injuries. "Are you drunk?"

"What? No." He answers, annoyed, taking a step back. Being this close to her right now is an awful idea for so many reasons.

"Yes, you are, your eyes are glassy."

"I had a drink," he says dismissively, "which doesn't necessarily mean I'm drunk."

She sends him a pointed look, but let's it go, focusing on his question instead. "It should be okay for you to leave, as long as you take Dig and don't go to the club tonight." He scowls at her, but she's not having any of it. "No, no, no, no, no, Verdant business can wait for a time when you're not intoxicated." He rolls his eyes and turns to leave, but she grabs his arm, keeping him in place. "Promise me."

"Fine, no Verdant business tonight, got it."

Finally, Oliver turns and leaves in search of Dig. He may have promised not to suit up, but right now he very much feels like breaking one or two training dummies.

"Are you sure you two aren't married already?" Jake asks her after Oliver leaves.

"Pretty sure, yeah." Felicity answers. "I think I'd remember if I ever got married."

"Anyway, now you can admit that my plan was genius and it worked wonders. So, you're welcome." Jake tells her, putting a little bit more space between them now that they weren't putting on a show for Oliver anymore.

"Why? Because he left with his angry face?" She asks. "I'll let you in on a secret… Oliver has angry face like 90% of the time."

"Come on, he was practically green with jealousy." Jake laughs.

"Well, he's green a lot of the time too, so." Felicity mutters under her breath and Jake laughs again, probably thinking she's referring to him being jealous of her most of the time and not, you know, dressing in green and hunting bad guys.

"Okay, so he coincidentally decided to leave right after we fake-kissed. You're right, that doesn't sound like bullshit at all."

"Shut up." Felicity tells him, but she has a smile on her face. "Do you wanna grab a burger? This party sucks."

Oliver never fully appreciated the fact that his base of operations was located right under one of the best bars in the city until now.

After leaving the gala, he had Dig drop him off at Verdant, and after agreeing for the seventh time not to go out on patrol by himself, the man left.

Why did anyone think he was drunk anyway? A few drinks does not equal drunk, specially if you used to be a partying playboy as a permanent occupation. He's also part of the Russian mob, and if they think the russians go easy on their drinks, they're very much mistaken.

So no, he's not drunk.

Yet.

That's why he's sitting on a stool by the bar, in a slow week night, watching as people danced to whatever song the new DJ Thea had hired was playing instead of beating up training dummies like he previously planned on.

He got his wish about an hour or so and many scotches later.

He was so drunk he didn't even notice her coming in his direction until she rested her hand on his arm. "Hello, handsome, can I buy you a drink?" She mocks him, and it takes him a moment to realize it's actually Felicity standing beside him.

She has changed her long coral dress for a pair of skinny jeans and a red turtleneck sweater while brown boots now graced her feet. Somehow she looked even more gorgeous than she did at the gala, and that thought drove Oliver to take another sip before addressing her. "I already own all of these drinks," he motions for the bottles on display on the wall shelves, "didn't you know?" He shout whispers to her, like it's a secret he wants her to know even with the loud music. "I could buy you a drink though." He sends her his most flirtatious smile, making her laugh and he frowns.

"I admit, I was wrong before. Now you're drunk." She tells him as she takes a sit beside him and he turns to her.

"Why are you here?" He asks, annoyed that she didn't play along with him.

"Because Dig might have mentioned you didn't go straight to the mansion like we agreed you would."

"No," he sends her his charming smile, the one he used throw at woman all the time back when the club scene was his playground, but it doesn't seem to faze her. "We agreed to no Verdant business tonight. I'm just getting drunk." He tells her. "So I'll ask again, can I get you a drink?" He lets his hand trail down the length of her arm and a shiver follow his fingers on her skin. She gulps down and he smirks, but she quickly covers up her reaction.

"Promised myself I wouldn't get drunk for another 47 years, and I think it's kind of too early to break that promise already. I should probably wait at least another week, just to be safe." She smiles at him, and he can't help but smile back, genuinely this time. "Plus, we're still dealing with the aftermath of the last time I got drunk in your club."

"We can get drunk downstairs then."

"How about a raincheck on that idea, and I take you home instead?" She smiles sweetly at him, but he responds with a devilish grin – one Felicity's sure many women have dropped their panties for.

"Felicity Smoak, are you trying to get inside my pants?" He asks her, and his grin widens at the mortified look on her face when she realizes what she said.

"You know what I meant." She rolls her eyes at him, but she's still blushing.

"Yes," he says with a straight face. "You want to take advantage of me."

Felicity laughs, a whole hearted laugh that makes Oliver frown. He's flirting with her, she's not supposed to laugh, she's supposed to be charmed. "Why are you laughing at me?"

"Sorry, I'm not," she tells him as her laughter dies down with one last chuckle. "It's just– it's weird seeing you like this. Also, you're a terrible flirt when you're drunk." She let's out another chuckle. "Not only drunk, I mean, you could be a bad sober flirt too, but that's very unlikely, if not impossible, considering the amount of women who'd drop to their knees for you on a daily basis." Oliver's frown deepens as she talks, and she can't help but think he resembles a sad puppy right now.

"Where's your boyfriend anyway? Seemed like you two were having loads of fun at the gala." He changes the subject, not enjoying the feeling he got when she said he's not a good flirt and dismissed him so easily. When she just raises an eyebrow, he clarifies. "Josh? No, sorry, Jason."

"Jake. And he's not my boyfriend."

"Do you go around kissing people who are not your boyfriend?"

"Being drunk doesn't give you the right to be an ass." She remarks, but doesn't seem too bothered by it, so he assumes he's on the safe side.

"You didn't answer my question."

"We got Big Belly Burgers, he went home, so now I'm on babysitting duties." She tells him, half annoyed and half amused.

"I've always had a thing for Thea's babysitters." He gives her another charming smile, not knowing what he was trying to accomplish with it anymore.

"Of course you did," she chuckles, "that doesn't even surprise me." She easily dismisses his comment and he can't help but wish he was a little bit more sober (or less drunk, same thing) because maybe he'd be able to come up with a line she wouldn't be able to ignore.

Before he can say anything else, though, Thea approaches them, throwing an arm over his shoulder, and one over Felicity's. "Hey, lovebirds," she shout whispers at them, then laughs, letting go of the two and taking a step back.

"What is it, Thea?" Oliver asks her with a scowl on his face.

"I thought you two wanted the rumors about your relationship status to go away as soon as possible?" Felicity tenses and nods, catching on to what Thea meant. "Then maybe you should stop making heart eyes in public, little bro."

"I don't make heart eyes." Oliver's scowl deepens, making Thea laugh again.

"You kind of do," Thea looks at Felicity, who has a sheepish look on her face. Probably because she knows it too, Thea realizes. "Even when you're not crazy drunk like you are right now." Oliver rolls his eyes, taking another sip of his drink and Thea frowns. "I thought you didn't like to drink anymore. What happened?"

"Just had a really bad night." He rolls his eyes again and Thea smirks.

"And did that have anything to do with the guy Felicity brought with her to the gala thingy?"

The look on Oliver's face is murderous by this point, but Felicity saves him from having to give his sister an answer. "How do you know about that?"

"I have an alert on my phone for all Queen related gossip articles, and apparently, "Oliver Queen's alleged girlfriend going out with some other guy" fits that criteria."

"Great!" Felicity says excitedly, to which Thea raises an eyebrow. "That means they'll stop breathing down our necks, right?"

"Maybe," Thea shrugs, "or maybe they'll just talk about Ollie being cheated on for a change or something, who knows?"

"God, how do you guys deal with this shit your whole lives?" Oliver looks at Felicity in surprise, never having heard her swear before. The invaded privacy must really be getting to her.

"You'll get used to it eventually."

"I won't have to," Felicity stares at Thea with a confused expression, "this will go away in no time." She sends Oliver a look, as if she's expecting him to confirm it for her, but he just takes another sip of his drink.

"Right," Thea smirks, "because you two are not actually together. I keep forgetting that."

"Don't you have work to do?" Oliver glares at his sister, who just shrugs.

"Slow night."

"Fine, can you spend your slow night over there?" Thea huffs, but says goodbye to Felicity and walks off mumbling something about Oliver being an even bigger pain in the ass when he's drunk.

"You two are the personification of the brother and sister cliche." She tells Oliver, focusing her attention back on his brooding form. "She teases and annoys you while you grump and pretends not to like being around her, and you're like, crazy overprotective." Oliver only rolls his eyes to that, and it annoys the hell out of Felicity that even when he's drunk he can't seem to lighten up. "You know, the whole point of getting drunk is to have fun," she takes the glass from him and pushes it towards the bartender.

"Hey!" Oliver shouts, clearly more upset than he should be over alcohol. "I was drinking that."

"What's gotten into you today? I don't think I've ever seen you drink more than one glass of champagne before."

"Like I said, I had a terrible night." He tells her, frowning, but a smirk downs on his features a second later. "And you won't let me flirt with you to make it better, so really, you're the one who's no fun."

"Feel free to flirt," she replies without missing a beat, "as long as you up your game." She doesn't blush as he expected her to, and it seriously makes him want to do better, to at least know how she'll respond to it. "And don't try to distract me, why was your night that bad?" Her tone is hesitant as she voices her question, wavering slightly. Something tells him she knows what his answer will be, or at least expects him to answer in some way, and Oliver needs a moment to figure out exactly what to say.

"It just was." That's what he decides to go with? Well, he never really knew how to lie to her anyway.

She doesn't let it slide, though. Of course she doesn't. She just keeps looking at him expectantly, and when it's clear he won't expand on that, she presses. "And was it because of Jake by any chance?" She asks, and seems to instantly regret it. He can see the babble coming before it even begins and he has to fight a grin that threatens to fall on his lips. "I mean, I know you hate surprises, and there's the fact that I was busy all night and couldn't save you from boring conversations with investors, even though I shouldn't really do that anyway, and…"

She trails off, and Oliver ignores everything she just said in favor of something else that crosses his mind. Maybe she wants him to be jealous. She wants him to tell her Jake ruined his night because he stole her attention.

Suddenly, he doesn't feel like sitting at the bar anymore. He wants to go downstairs and take her challenge. He will up his game and do what she wants. He'll make her like him better than that damn IT guy.

He stands, startling her. He loses his balance slightly and she stands up, putting a hand on his arm to steady him. "Wow, I am drunk."

"No kidding!"

He sends her a look, but it's more playful than stern. "I should go downstairs, sleep it off."

"No way, you're not sleeping in lair." She shakes her head and starts pulling him towards the door. "It's all damp and cold and depressing. I mean, it's better after all the renovations I made, but it's still not living material. I'm driving you home."

"But I don't want to go home. Too much of a deja vu sneaking in late at night. I'm not that guy anymore." He frowns at her, clearly upset, and Felicity thinks it's pretty adorable. "I'm not, am I? You know I'm not."

"No, you aren't," Felicity assures him, squeezing his hand, "but I still won't let you sleep in the lair." They arrive at her car, and she climbs in the driver's seat while he rounds the car, taking the passenger seat. "You can crash at my place and I can keep an eye on you." She says casually, too casually, like him sleeping at her place is a totally normal occurrence.

A grin takes over his lips and he has to tease her. "Got me to go home with you after all, huh?"

She breathes out an exasperated huff, but he sees her blush anyway, and his grin widens. "You still need to work on the whole flirting thing."

"Oh, I most definitely will."