Hey All! This is going to be a short filling chapter before an enermous one, so bare with it please. I still hope you're all going to enjoy it! Thank you for all the nice feedback, reviews, alerts/faves!
Huge thanks for Hip Karma, and special thanks for my boyfriend for helping me.
REPLY TO GUEST REVIEWS:
Valerie: Thank you for the feedback :)
Jane Southway: I'm so glad you find my story entertaining, and you never get bored with it, I always do my best to keep things going non-stop. As for your question, yes, Bruce has feelings for Felicity. He really does like her, and the feeling only grows in him over time. Oliver isn't exactly going to be happy the whole party but he'll have to suck it up. And yes, you'll have to wait and see for the bad guy, not long now and he/she is going to be exposed. Thank you so much for the nice feedback :)
Kal: Now, I don't think anyone could have said any nicer than that lol Thank you for the feedback!
Kim: Oh, well, I haven't decided yet who Felicity would end up with... maybe with both of them if I can't make up my mind lol Thank you for the feedback :)
Tori: As always thank you for the review :)
"1, 2, 3, come on, Felicity," I commanded her to punch repeatedly the bag. She needed to find her rhythm, and she also needed to find her centre. "You have to use your whole body, move from your hips, like you were dancing."
"Easy to say from behind the bag," she mumbled as her hands landed harder and harder on the solid surface of the leather bag. I couldn't help but smile. Even completely out of breath she couldn't hold her tongue.
I have been training Felicity for a month since she agreed to help me as Batman. We both had our own conditions for our secret agreement. Hers was to have her evenings, and nights untouchable because she still wanted to work with the Arrow. I respected that. I wasn't enthused about sharing her but it was good enough for the time being. I thought it was a big enough step that she agreed to help me at all. However, I wished the reasons for that hadn't been quite so tragic.
We agreed to swap information about the terrorists. We both believed with her knowledge, and my investigations hopefully, we'd be able to get closer to them. Of course, she was also allowed to use company gadgets. She was over the moon when she could start working on a new special arrow with Lucius.
My conditions were quite easy. I wanted to train her so she'd be able to defend herself if worse came to the worst. She sent me new information as soon as it was possible. Unfortunately, there was no need for the latest yet.
"Let's do some hand to hand so you can't accuse me of being lazy," I smiled at her, let go of the punching bag, and stepped in front of her, holding my hands up.
"With a body like that I don't think anyone could accuse you with being lazy," she panted slightly as she started to circle me. "I didn't say that out loud, did I?"
"Yes, you did," I laughed, throwing a punch towards her and stopping right a breath away. I saw her eyes widening then shutting close. "Concentrate."
"That was close," she mumbled and I laughed again as she peeked up at me from under her lashes.
"You're small, Felicity therefore you're fast, use that," I told her as we started to circle each other again. She was getting better gradually. I most certainly didn't expect her to turn into a martial arts expert in only a short time, so I was happy with the small improvements she showed. However, she had concentration problems, very easy to distract. "Have you decided what you're going to wear on the party?"
"Not yet. Why?" She cursed under her breath as I dodged the punch she tried to throw at me.
"I need to know so I could choose something fitting," I shook my head, supressing a laugh when I heard her cursing.
"You're gonna be in black anyway," she rolled her eyes and pulled her pony tail tighter so it wouldn't slip out from her hair.
"I could wear white," I shrugged, leaning away from another punch of hers. She really needed to improve her speed.
"You could but you won't just like you won't wear pink or red," she narrowed her eyes. I could tell she was up to something, I could practically see the wheels turning in her head.
"That reminds me. How did Oliver react when you told him you'd be my partner?" Her face darkened for a moment as I mentioned his name. I wasn't pushing the subject much, I could tell it was a sore point for her.
"I haven't told him yet," she said quietly, quickly spinning and thrusting her leg out backwards, aiming a kick towards my stomach. The only problem with this movement was that she lost her balance midway, and I could tell that she'd land on the floor if I didn't catch her. Plus, she was nowhere near to hit me.
I quickly reached towards her, and caught her by her waist. That stopped her from falling on her face but as I wrapped my arm around her she made a surprised jump and sent both of us to the hard ground. I was laying under her, and couldn't help but laugh as terror crossed her face for a moment. She must have thought I'd let her land on her face.
"Don't worry, I got you," I smiled up to her, pushing a lock of hair out of her face that escaped during her comedy moment. She was beautiful with her face flushed, her eyes bigger and brighter than usual, her lips parted slightly so invitingly as she panted quietly.
"This is one of those heated awkward moments that training partners have, and both of them stare at each others lips, waiting for the other to make that move," she said quietly, her eyes indeed moving between my lips and my eyes. "Not that I'm waiting for you to..."
She couldn't finish the sentence. I didn't let her. I might have a high degree of self control but even someone like me had limits and a beautiful young woman like her laying on the top of me was one of those. I had wanted to taste her lips for such a long time, since the moment I saw her for the first time. She made a surprised little noise but didn't try to move away. I smiled against her strawberry tasting soft lips, deepening our kiss.
"Bruce," she mumbled against my lips, her small hands pushing against my chest. I sighed, moving my gaze to her. She looked like a scared little deer, her face showing confusion and maybe guilt. "I have to go."
She stood up quickly, biting her bottom lip anxiously as she walked to her bag with quick steps. I stood up as well, and watched every move she made.
"Felicity," I called after her but it was easy to tell I could say nothing to keep her there. She was running from me.
"I'll see you tomorrow," she muttered under her breath, starting towards the door in a quick pace. "Oh, Alfred, hi and bye... I mean, good evening, or night," she rambled, her whole face coloured to red as she bumped into the old man when she opened the door.
"Good afternoon, Miss Felicity," Alfred raised an eyebrow, and stared after her curiously as she stepped around him and rushed away.
"May I ask what happened, Master Bruce?" He asked quietly, and closed the door behind him.
"If only I knew, Alfred," I answered and walked to the punching bag. Training always helped to clear my mind.
"Hey all," Felicity said quietly as she entered the lair. I moved my gaze to her, watched her sit down at her desk in an uncharacteristically silent way. I glanced at Dig but all he could offer was a shrug.
Felicity was often strange lately. She looked more tired than ever before, and there was something else that I noticed last week. Her body seemed a little bit more toned. It wasn't something incredibly outstanding but I did notice the small changes in her arms and legs, and in the way she held herself. I asked Dig if he trained her but he said no. I had this niggling feeling that she was hiding something. It was bothering me that there was this undeniable wall building between us. I didn't like her getting distant with me, also couldn't figure out what the reason for that was. We had no arguments, no fights, I agreed to the whole Bruce insanity.
He must have been the reason for what was happening with her. I didn't see anything else that could cause her to act this strange around me. Most would think everything was alright but I could feel the underlying tension, that there was something going on that she didn't tell me about.
"Are you alright?" I asked, stepping to her. I didn't mean to intimidate her but I wanted to see her body language.
"She's coming to the party with Bruce. Of course she's alright," Laurel walked down the stairs. I hadn't noticed she'd arrived. I couldn't believe what she'd just said.
"Is this true, Felicity?" I kept my voice low though I felt like yelling at her. Why hadn't she told me? Why was she going with him at the first place?
"Look, I wanted to tell you that this was Bruce's condition to help you," she started as she stood up from her chair so she could face me. So she'd agreed to this almost a month ago, and never told me. "Before you say anything, I wanted to tell you today because I have a surprise… Not that I'm going with Bruce but to make that less of an outrage for you... I made a new arrow for you, the tip contains tear gas," she rambled as she reached into her bag and handed me the proto type of the arrow she made for me. It was a great idea I had to give her that.
"And you're going with Bruce to the party..." I said, taking the arrow from her hands.
"I'm doing this for you, Oliver," she narrowed her eyes, her face turned even more red, her voice shaking with anger and something else what I couldn't put my finger on. "I don't want to talk about this anymore. Say thank you, and get over it finally," she growled, and sat back in her chair, turning her back to me.
I was taken a back by her outburst. I glanced at Diggle to see if he found it odd as well. He gave me a look that let me know I wasn't the only one who was suspicious about her behaviour. There was something else. She had no reason to get this outraged, I wasn't yelling at her, even if I wanted to; I wanted to tell her that I wanted her to quit and tell Bruce what he could do with his help but I didn't.
"Thank you," I nodded as I watched her close. She let her hair fall around her face like a protective shield.
"You're welcome," she mumbled quietly as she started to work on her laptop. So this is how it was going to be from now on, I sighed not sure anymore what I was supposed to do to save our relationship, not sure if there was a way to save it at all.