A/N: This chapter was prompted by SuzzieSidle - the request was a bit open-ended, so I hope you liked where I went with it!
As always, more ideas/requests/prompts are always encouraged and appreciated. I'll keep writing this fic as long as I have requests =).
Enjoy!
A newspaper slammed down on the desk in front of Oliver. "You seen this?" Diggle demanded, putting his hands on his hips and looming impressively.
Oliver leaned back in his chair and massaged his temples. "No. But if it's what I think it is, I'm pretty sure I don't want to."
Diggle looked exasperated. "It's not something you can just ignore and it'll go away. You compromised the mission."
"I know, I know," Oliver broke in. "But I can fix it."
"You'd better, or else you and Felicity will become targets."
That made Oliver pause. He knew that his actions would have consequences, but he hadn't considered that Felicity might be put in danger because of him. Making her a target in the criminal world was not an option. Not when it was his fault.
"I'll fix it," Oliver said again. "I'll go back tonight as the Arrow and make my presence known."
Diggle just shook his head. "Okay. But what happened?"
"A lot."
...12 hours earlier…
"Remind me again why you couldn't do this as the Arrow?" Felicity yelled into Oliver's ear.
Smiling pleasantly, he took her elbow and led her through the swarm of paparazzi and onto the dance floor of the crowded club. People parted as he approached, probably just from his sheer size - he knew that he was considered intimidating.
When they had reached the edge of the dance floor as far away from the speakers as he could manage, he stopped and looked her in the eyes. "It's not too late to back out."
"No," she shook her head. "I want to do this. But seriously, why are you here as Oliver Queen and not as the Arrow?"
"The security on the club at night makes it impossible to get in without alerting someone or triggering some alarm," he explained over the pounding bass-line. "I could get in and get out, but I wouldn't have time to search the storeroom for what we need before the police arrived. I'd rather not hurt them if I didn't have to."
"Good plan." Taking a calming breath, Felicity smiled at him. "Let's do this. But I won't have to act or anything, will I? Because we both know that I'm not really that good under pressure and I don't want to panic and ruin the mission or anything."
Oliver put a comforting arm around her shoulder. "No acting. You do what you do best - hack."
She leaned into him for a second before he moved his arm and took her hand instead. "The storeroom is this way," he pointed to the back corner of the club. Her fingers tightened around his and he gently tugged her along behind him.
This mission was going to be simple. No need for the Arrow, even. All they had to do was get into the storeroom and find evidence that the club was dealing drugs to a group of 'special' customers. Felicity had already pulled up the club's plans and they had decided that the storeroom was the only logical place for the club owners to hide large amounts of the illegal substance. Besides, if they were wrong, they could always come back again. That was the beauty of their plan. With Oliver's reputation as a clubber, it wouldn't look suspicious for him to show up a couple times until he and Felicity were able to locate their proof.
Reaching the back edge of the club, Oliver pointed towards a large door hidden around the corner. "The storeroom's down there," he told Felicity as he reached into his jacket and pulled out a small black box. She had insisted that she needed it to hack the keypad on the door. "We don't have to worry about security as long as we're fast - the next round won't be by for 15 minutes."
It took Felicity under two minutes to get the door open. Oliver found it amazing what she could do with her technology skills, and once again, he thanked his lucky stars that she was on his side.
"What're we looking for?" she asked once they were both inside and the door was closed. The lights in the room were dim, but Oliver could see well enough. He noticed with relief that the club music was muted and he could finally hear himself think.
"Not sure exactly. Try tapping the floors and walls to see if anything is hollow, I'll check the shelves to see if they're hiding their stash in plain sight."
They split up and worked in quietly for a while; Felicity's tapping the only sound in the small room. Oliver scoured the shelves, but saw no sign of anything illicit. He was just about to conclude that they had been wrong and the drugs weren't there when he heard Felicity call his name.
"Uhh, Oliver? I think I found something."
Rushing to her side, Oliver experimentally tapped the wall in front of her, listening to the hollow echo. "Nice job," he shot her an appreciative grin.
"How does it open?"
"Well," he felt around the edges of the paneling, "I bet if I push here and here, it will just…" A piece of the wall swung open in response to the pressure, revealing a small, square hole about the size of a shoebox. In the hole was a stash of drugs and some large bills. "Jackpot."
"So, what now? Because we can't call the police and tell them that we just happened to be in a club's storeroom and accidentally found a secret stash of drugs hidden in the wall. I'm pretty sure breaking and entering is considered a crime."
"That won't be a problem," he reassured her as he closed the panel. "The Arrow will give Detective Lance a call with a tip, and the police can take it from there. Oliver Queen won't be involved."
She parted her lips and was about to reply when they both heard the unmistakable sound of voices outside the door. The words were indistinguishable over the music coming from the club, but the storeroom was the only reason for someone to be in this section of the club.
"Oliver?" Felicity asked nervously, looking to him desperately for a plan.
Hiding wasn't an option. The room was small and they would be caught immediately.
An idea came to him, an idea that was risky, but it was the only plan he could think of in the seconds he had before the door opened.
"I'm sorry," he whispered, and pushed her against the wall, flicking off the lights in one smooth motion. Then, he lowered his head and met her lips with his. He kissed her gently at first, but then with more and more urgency as he realized just how much he had been dying to kiss her like this.
She responded just as he had always dreamed that she would. Her hands found their way onto his chest; he could feel the heat of her touch even through his shirt. His left arm snaked around her waist, securing her even more tightly to him as he leaned into the kiss. With his free hand, he found the tie of her ponytail and pulled it out, feeling her soft hair fall over his fingers.
A part of him reminded him that this was all part of the mission and that he should pull back a little so that he could think more clearly, but he ignored it and instead focused on the passionate need flowing through his veins.
The lights sprang to life, but Oliver didn't notice. Not until he heard someone clearing their throat behind him. With great reluctance, he pulled away from, but didn't remove his arm from her waist as he turned around.
"This is a restricted area. How did you get in here?" one of the two angry men behind him demanded. Oliver recognized their uniforms – they were club employees. "Give me one reason not to call security."
Deliberately slurring his words, Oliver replied, "Sorry, man. Just needed some privacy, you know?"
The man wasn't impressed. His hand went to the radio on his belt. "I asked you how you got in here."
Felicity spoke up, her voice breathy. "IT expert. I can hack anything."
"And we're just leaving. No need for things to get ugly," Oliver added.
Hesitating, the man looked at his silent companion before finally making his decision. "Get outta here," he waved them towards the door. "Before I change my mind."
"Thanks, man," Oliver drawled, pulling Felicity towards the door.
Flashing lights and loud voices assaulted him as he exited the storeroom, blinding him momentarily.
"Mr. Queen, who is that girl with…?"
"Is that your personal assistant?"
"Mr. Queen, can I get a statement on what you were doing…?"
"No comment," Oliver yelled over the sound of the paparazzi's question. He held Felicity even more tightly to his side as he barged through the crowd of reporters, his heart sinking. So much for not getting caught.
"I can see the headline now," he muttered into Felicity's ear as they exited the club, photographers just taking pictures. "Oliver Queen gets personal with his personal assistant."
Teasingly, Felicity commented, "That's not a very catchy headline. If I were you, I'd stick to vigilante-ism."
Oliver was grateful that she was taking this so well. She knew the consequences of publicity as well as he did, and they weren't fun. Rumours about them had already been going around; this was just going to make matters worse.
"Morning," Felicity greeted them, walking in just as Oliver was finishing his story, a cup of coffee in her hand. "How bad is it?"
Oliver winced. "Don't know yet." Gesturing to the untouched newspaper in front of him, he added, "I haven't been able to bring myself to look yet."
Felicity walked past him and picked of the paper. Oliver caught a glimpse of the picture on the front page - it featured him holding Felicity possessively at his side, desire still vivid in his eyes. There were traces of her fuchsia lipstick smeared across his lips and her hair was mussed, clear indications of what they had been up to in the small room. He groaned and closed his eyes. "Well?"
"Oliver Queen, CEO of Queen Consolidated, was caught sneaking off with his personal assistant last night," she read. "The two were enjoying the club scene when they decided to…" she trailed off. "Yeah, it's bad. And those guys that caught us? They interviewed them as well."
"Great."
"How could you guys let this happen?" Diggle demanded. "How can we give the police an anonymous tip if the entire city knows that you were both in that storage room earlier today? That'll arouse suspicions."
"I told you already that I'll go back tonight and break in as the Arrow, take pictures, and confiscate their stash. Then I'll call Detective Lance in to arrest them."
"Suit yourself," Diggle shook his head. "Just be more careful next time, okay?"
Felicity made a face, still reading the paper. "This article is ridiculous. Half this stuff is made up."
"Publicity thrives on stretching the facts." Oliver's tone was slightly bitter.
"There's one bright point to all of this, though," Felicity added with a twinkle in her eye.
"What?"
"Maybe you do have a career in tabloid journalism after all." She tossed the newspaper at him and walked over to her desk.
He picked it up gingerly, scared to see the article for himself. The headline read, "Queen Consolidated CEO's secret love affair made public."
Oliver surprised himself - he laughed. Somehow, Felicity had an ability to make even the worst situations better. Besides, he certainly didn't regret that kiss.
With a sigh, he dropped the paper and started thinking about how he was going to break back into the club as the Arrow.
However, he couldn't shake the thought of their passionate kiss, of the softness of her lips as she kissed him back.
It was going to be a long day.
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