Felicity's hand was raised, fingers curled in to the creases of her palm but she punked on the knock.
Instead her hand came down to smooth her top, the one she now realized with a cringe she'd been wearing for almost two days. Immediately, both hands came up to check her ponytail, she tucked in a wayward strand, and adjust her glasses glad there was no shortage of lipstick choices in her center console. "You can do this. You can do this. No big deal. Just regular people. Extremely gorgeous people-"
"Look Blondie, if you're gonna wig out, can't I just stay with you and Harper?"
Felicity's head shot to the side, reawakened to the tiny black-haired refugee already trying to get away. Her pale pink nails closed around the lapel of Sin's leather jacket and yanked her back to her side. Hesitation gone, she knocked on the door. "No."
No. That option was never on the table, too many variables, the odd hours they kept and the quickly shrinking apartment just two of them. Though Felicity recognized a smart girl when she saw one and highly suspected Sin knew more than she would ever let on. She was quiet, almost withdrawn, when they found her, completely out of place on a Coast City beach in her jacket and boots, but the opportunity to hassle and heckle Roy had brought her back to life, well that and a very large stack of pancakes. Sin was lucky. There were so many people who wanted to look out for her. But Felicity knew there was one place she belonged. So, she was standing in the hallway of Laurel Lance's apartment building in basically her pajamas waiting with rising bile for the door to open.
By the time Felicity heard the tell-tale unlocking, it dawned on her that she had no idea what she was going to say. Her eyes averted to the floor but then she was staring at Laurel's bare feet. Looking up was no better, Felicity couldn't make the transition fast enough to avoid Gorgeous Laurel's stupid leggy legs. Even her hair fell over her shoulders in sun kissed, beachy waves enhancing her giant, sleepy, Bambi eyes. Frak me. Is that mascara? All in all, she looked like a damn Amazon in booty shorts. And Felicity's mouth was doing that thing where it opened and closed without producing any sounds.
"You got a bathroom?" Not waiting for a reply, Sin passed between them, pinching Felicity's arm hard as she went, and slipped past Laurel without resistance, disappearing.
"Owww-Wow. It's really early isn't it? I'm sorry. I should have brought coffee. Or bagels! You drink coffee, right? Of course, you do. But you're not one of those skinny vanilla latte girls. You're more like a venti Americano. Extra shot. Black. Oliver thinks he's black coffee but that man cannot handle his caffeine. I give him half-caff with like half a Raw-Sugar. He's high strung enough already. You'd think with that metabolism but he just gets more grrr with the chin-ups and the sweaty and the sex- Somebody usually stops me by now!" The last bit came out in mortified exasperation. The seconds of silence that followed seemed to Felicity to last longer than her entire spectacular tangent.
Laurel tried to recover from the morning non-candy gram but her eyes grew wider, defying laws of nature, as worst case scenarios flipped her heart and her stomach. Why else would Felicity Smoak be on her doorstep? "What's wrong? Is it my sister? Is she okay?" She checked her emotion, each question coming out slowly, deliberately not wanting to excite the witness and incite another diatribe on coffee or breakfast pastries.
"Oh," it hadn't occurred to Felicity that that was the first place Laurel's mind would go. She didn't know anything about Laurel's mind. Now she felt guilty not just for turning up so early but for making the other woman worry. "Oh no. Sara is fine. She's probably great even." Felicity stopped herself this time, counting down from ten in her head. She'd had to up the number recently.
"Then what are you doing here, Felicity?" Laurel interrupted at four, not with any cruelty subtle or otherwise, though Felicity's name fell uneasily from her lips and the oddness of the sound wasn't lost on either of them.
"Actually, it is about Sara. Sort of," the last bit came out with half a question mark at the end leaving Felicity feeling it would have been so much easier to drop the baby on the doorstep and run, easier if not entirely adult. "Yeah." Felicity continued answering her own question. "She kind of left you that loveable slightly curmudgeon-y street urchin."
Right on cue, Sin crossed into view holding an open cereal box in one hand while the other shoved sugary, rainbow hoops into her mouth. Hearing the crunch, Laurel turned, Felicity left only to imagine the look on the lawyer's face. With her cheeks nearly bursting, Sin managed a, "Sorry." She kicked off her sandy boots, leaving them in the middle of the entryway, revealing rather shockingly girly striped socks, and then she was out of sight again, making herself at home Felicity assumed with a smirk.
Laurel turned back to Felicity with an understandably puzzled expression. As far as she knew, her sister had left her with a leather jacket and the knowledge that she was alive and safe. Laurel hadn't expected or needed anything else. Not now.
Felicity kept her voice low now. "I don't know the whole story. What I do know is that Sara cared about her. They took care of each other when they had no one else. So, she's kind of in the market for a big sister."
All Laurel could think of was the disastrous year she'd had, all the havoc of her own creation that she had barely survived. Being properly responsible for herself had just become normal again. "I don't think-"
"I think," Felicity cut in, trying hard to soften her eyes and her words, "Sara would want you to have each other." It wasn't a line. Felicity knew. Sara would want her sisters together. They deserved a chance to not be alone.
Fighting hard against her nature, Felicity kept quiet letting Laurel digest, hoping she had put the right amount of weight behind her words, hoping Sara had given her sister at least a tiny reason to trust her. Shifting from one foot to the other, then back, Felicity waited for some look of acceptance to grace Laurel's face. She was sinking her teeth into her own tongue, rather aggressively, when something like a smile started on Laurel's lips. Something was all Felicity needed. She smiled lightly herself.
"She'll probably give you more than one unflattering nickname. And she'll bust your chops over just about anything. So be prepared. But she's actually kind of sweet. Also, she says she's eighteen but it's a lie. I can whip something up in the way of guardianship papers if you want? Back date it, slip it into the public records. This is something I should not have just said to the brand new DA, a government appointed official for truth and justice."
Laurel's arm was half raised on its way to place a reassuring touch to Felicity's shoulder. She caught it, still sticking out in front of her, fingers spread, her very own stop sign. "No, Felicity. It's okay. My world," she gave a sigh that was akin to a laugh, "is not as black and white as it used to be."
Felicity believed her but quickly changed the subject to one she knew they could agree on. "I'm glad your father is doing better. I tried to visit."
"I know. I'm sorry. All the visitors had to be approved and the hospital was crawling with SCPD the whole time. I didn't want to risk exposing you or Oliver." Laurel said it and his name landed heavily between them. They had successfully avoided him this long. They could ignore him a little longer. But then, there wasn't much left to say.
Felicity shook her head, trying to keep her brain in this almost comfortable place they had found and hoping without reason that she could walk away without plunging them into awkwardness again. It seemed pretty unlikely and her mind was drifting to her apartment, her bed, her pillow and now Oliver. "I'm going to go now."
Laurel gave her a nod of agreement before they both turned away. It was the thought of Sara – small, skinned knees, dirt under her finger nails- bringing home even smaller, abandoned, helpless creatures that had Laurel smiling and consenting. And, even Felicity Smoak. She had spent time with Sara; saw behind her leather armor seeing something of that girl too. She turned back around. Felicity hadn't made it to the elevator yet. Laurel jogged after her.
"Felicity?"
She turned without hesitation, "Yeah?"
Laurel's brow creased lightly, wanting to convey something with her determined gaze. "Thank you."
"For what?" Felicity replied innocently, taking a step toward her.
"For," Laurel started with one thing in mind but chose another, worried she might embarrass Felicity. "Being my sister's friend."
It's nothing. That's what Felicity wanted to say. But it wasn't nothing. "It's my pleasure."
Laurel smiled at the curiosity before her, and then started back to her apartment, thinking of grocery lists, linens, and house rules.
Felicity got on the elevator smiling as much at her personal victory as the one she achieved for Sin, until she remembered Roy probably no longer just feigning sleep in her back seat. And then her smile grew at the thought of payback and turning the radio to full volume before starting the car.