Wow, the positive response I get for this story is amazing! I cannot thank you enough for adding this as a favorite or following this story. And there are no words for what your amazing reviews mean to me. I know I say it every time, but I really, really mean it every time: You guys are amazing. The biggest hug to: sakura-blossom62, darklou, NorthernLights25, farmgirl1964, Horsebot3000 (times two!), Lady Paine, JLC, LachesisBenton and the guest taking the time to leave me a message. All my love.

Okay, so I think we all need to take a deep breath and give Oliver and Felicity a moment to rest, before shit is getting real again. ;-)

4. Old emotions, new thoughts

The cave may be perfect from a strategic point of view, but it was still a hole surrounded by rock, climate-wise. The sun, which was starting to set, had managed to heat the air outside up a little, but the slight warmth had never entered the cave. The rock was emanating cold which combined with a certain dampness, and both made you feel chilled to the bone. It was a good thing that Oliver had taken the blanket. Felicity was cocooned in it as she slept with her head placed on his legs. He could feel her warmth radiating to him, taking some of the chill.

Compared to last night's tactic to share body heat their current position was very chaste, but Oliver actually preferred this to their semi-naked embrace from the night before. It was less awkward, and it strangely felt equally intimate. Before waking up here in this forest Oliver and Felicity had rarely touched, but that had changed quickly and drastically in the last few days. Feeling her close was comforting, her touch was calming. It was reassuring to know she was there, close by and well. He sat there with her head in his lap for about four hours; his legs had fallen asleep hours ago, but he didn't care. Feeling her this close to him was something he could really get used to permanently, he wished it could always be like this – minus the danger of being found and killed and minus the damp cave, of course. If they survived this, he should finally dare to tell her the truth again and own up to everything he was feeling. He needed to do that, because he knew that after all this, he couldn't go back and limit touching to her shoulder.

That was the moment Oliver realized that he was subconsciously playing with her hair, twirling it around his finger as he was thinking. He had lit a small fire, which was now only smoldering after four hours of being unattended, but the gleam was enough to cast a soft light so that he could make out Felicity's features. She looked so relaxed, sleeping in his lap. She was beautiful. He had realized that before, of course, but right now as he dared to really look at her, take her in without the fear of being caught staring, her beauty really hit him. Because she looked even better there in his lap, close to him, like she belonged there, with him.

Thoughts like these were new. For more than a year Oliver had fought to suppress all feelings that caused him to think like this. But then Slade Wilson had terrorized his city, and he had risked to unlock the place where he had stored all of those emotions, all the longing and wishing. It hadn't been exactly thought through. It had been a mistake. He had believed he would be able to just open up the tiniest bit and then close back up.

He had been wrong.

He hadn't lasted one minute before telling her that he loved her.

And he did. And he knew that she knew that he did. And he knew that she loved him, too. But all this knowledge didn't help them at all, because he was convinced that he couldn't have a normal relationship with a normal girl.

The fact that they had been kidnapped and dumped only God knew where so guys with guns could chase them was more proof than he had ever needed.

Still, he was sitting here, thinking about telling her again and living up to it. After all, even when they weren't together she was in danger because of him.

That was literally the truth. They hadn't been together when they had been grabbed. Oliver had been at the Foundry, changing, when he had felt a stinging pain in his neck. Somebody must have drugged him. Felicity had told him that she had been on her way to her Pilates class. So, whoever had brought them to this place wanted them here, together. Whoever had brought them to this place without electricity wanted Felicity to have her tablet. Oliver had spent the last hours trying to think of an explanation for this, but it just made absolutely no sense.

Suddenly, Felicity moved in his lap. She had been laying on her side and now turned onto her back. She blinked up at him in the next moment. He tried a small smile. "Hey," he whispered.

"Hey," she answered, her voice thick with sleep, and rubbed her eyes. Her glasses were safely stored in the backpack together with the useless tablet. She took another moment before she pushed herself up into a sitting position. "Your turn. I'll watch."

He ignored her offer and instead got up to get the blood circulating in his legs. He moved around the cave in a circle, before he crouched down next to the fire. They had to keep it small, but if they did, neither the light would give away their position nor would they suffocate from the smoke.

"What are you thinking?"

Felicity's question surprised him. He looked at her from his position by the fire. "I'm trying to make sense of what's happening." It was true and adequately vague. He wasn't ready yet to talk about all the things he was trying to make sense of regarding her. "But it just makes no sense. Somebody brought us here. And it can't be the guys with the guns, because they would have never left us unattended." Unless they are hunting us for sport, he thought, but didn't dare to actually say it out loud to not unnecessarily alarm her.

Felicity looked at him. Sleep was still visible in her features, she looked exhausted and just so very tired, but then a certain hint of understanding showed up in her face. "You want to go back to the camp tomorrow to find out more." It was a statement, not a question. She knew him, so she just knew. "Do you think that's smart? The guy whose backpack and blanket you took must miss it by now. If he doesn't believe one of his friends to be a thief, they must have realized that the fall off the cliff didn't kill us."

"They will never expect me to be stupid enough to go there a second time."

"But you want to prove to them you really are that stupid."

"We need a map, some kind of hint where we are and who they are, who brought us here, why we are here. I'm sure they have some kind of communication device, maybe a satellite phone. Apparently we're too far away from Starling City for the tracker in my shoe to be working, so we need to find another way to contact Diggle. That camp is the best way to get us out of here." He looked at her with determination on his face. "Don't ask me not to do it, because I can't follow your request."

She sank back against the rock and sighed. "What about me? You expect me to just wait here?"

"Felicity-"

"Fine," she stopped him right there, sounding annoyed. "Do what you have to, I cannot stop you anyway. But you really have to sleep, you need to be rested when you try to sneak up on guys with guns."

"Felicity-"

She cut him off again. "Oliver, let's not talk about it anymore. Let's not do this right now."

"Felicity-"

"What's your favorite music?"

"Fe-" he frowned as he really registered what she had just asked him. "What?"

"I just realized that I don't know. That's like a basic thing to know, isn't it? That kinda proves how weird our friendship is."

"I don't have much time to listen to music." He got up and moved back toward her. "I never cared much about it. Before the island I just listened to whatever the DJ played." He sank down next to her, wordlessly signaling her that he was willing to accept her try to distract herself. "Same with movies. I just let the girls pick them. I think I saw every rom-com made from 2000 to 2006."

"Did you really see them? Or did you make out with your date in the back of the theatre?"

He smirked. "That was the only way to deal with those movies."

"So, you're telling me that you haven't seen a movie since you came back?"

"I haven't. I failed to catch up on those things. In my world Justin Timberlake is still bringing the sexy back, and it's okay to like Chris Brown."

"Oh, the sweet oblivion of the year 2006," she actually smiled at him, "but I see you heard of the decent of Chris Brown."

"I did. I also heard of Twilight. Justin Bieber. The death of Michael Jackson. The ending of Lost. I could have gone my whole life without knowing any of these things."

"When we're back in Starling, we'll go see a movie together."

He really appreciated her sounding so sure they'd get back home. And he liked the idea of going to the movies together. He smiled and chose his next words deliberately. "You've got yourself a date."

What happened next, Oliver had anticipated it; Felicity instantly sat up a little straighter. "I didn't mean it like a date date. Just like two friends going-"

Now it was him cutting her off. "Felicity. I mean it like a date date. If you're interested, I am too."

She stared at him for a moment, before a smile spread over her face. It was one of those smiles that Oliver loved so much, the kind that really lit up her face. It was this smile that confirmed both her interest and that her next words were meant as light teasing, "Now I'll be really pissed, if you go and get yourself killed tomorrow."