Oliver parked his motorcycle in front of her complex and dismounted. By habit, he adjusted his black suit jacket and began to button it, but his hands stilled. Button, or unbutton? He strode over to the car in front of his bike to check his reflection, and for half a minute he buttoned and unbuttoned his jacket to compare. Deciding on leaving it open, he then focused on his black shirt. He had the top button open, and considered opening the second one, when his phone trilled with a text message.

He was pretty sure he knew who it was.

You're early! –fms

Oliver smiled and let out a little laugh. She always signed each and every text that way, even if they were texting for an hour. He suspected that she had set up a text signature and it was automatic, but he liked to imagine her taking the time to sign it as a sign of her affection for him.

I couldn't wait any longer, he texted back.

He tried to imagine the look on her face once she opened his reply. Would she smile sweetly? Would she tease him for being cheesy? Would she blush? He stared at his phone, willing it to do something.

It rang.

Oliver almost dropped his phone. He had been expecting a text, and the prospect of hearing her voice startled something awake in his heart. Recovering the use of his hands quickly, he answered the call.

"Hi!" he shouted breathlessly.

"H-hi," Felicity answered shakily. Oliver beamed. It seems he wasn't the only one affected by the other's voice.

"You know," she continued, seemingly recovered, "I had a witty line at the ready after your text and then you have to go and do this…"

"Do what?" he asked.

"Please don't make me spell it out," she pleaded.

"Come on, Felicity," he said with a grin. "Don't hold back on me now."

She sighed loudly. "You know," she tried to explain. He could picture her arm waving in front of her, palm up, as if he was standing right in front of her as she begged him to come to the right conclusion. "Sounding all breathless and everything, which is very distracting and way too early to think about that, not that I've been thinking about that! I mean, okay, I have, but only because I'm a human being and you're, you know, you, and please will you shut me up before I embarrass myself further?"

Oliver laughed out loud. She was incredibly disarming and she didn't even know it. He shook his head at the idea that he would ever silence her beautiful voice. "I will never do that to you, Felicity."

They both fell silent then, and he had a feeling they were both sensing the deeper implications of his words. Never was a very long time.

After a few more breaths, Felicity blurted, "Anyway! So, you're early."

Oliver smiled. "I couldn't wait any longer."

Felicity huffed. "Stop it, I can't function when you get all charming."

He laughed again. "I'll wait for you out here."

"Come inside," she protested. "You can get more comfortable, like on my couch."

He anticipated her reaction to her own words and waited. He wasn't disappointed.

"Just! You know, just sitting. I mean, you don't have to just sit, I have magazines and stuff, or you can play a game on your phone or something."

He knew what he wanted to spend his time on. "Well," he replied. "If you insist." Please, twist my arm.

He entered her building with a bounce in his step. He considered using the stairs, and he probably would if the elevator didn't open right away, but luck was with him and the elevator was on the ground floor. He rocked back and forth on his feet as he waited to reach her floor. Once the doors opened, he walked briskly toward her apartment. Just before he got to her door, his phone chirped with another text.

Door's open. –fms

He shook his head in mild annoyance, wishing she took her own safety more seriously. He opened her door and stepped inside. He was greeted with soft, bright lighting and the scent of lavender in the air, most likely from a candle. He closed the door behind him and walked through her home.

"I know, I know," he could hear her saying from another room down the hall. "I'm sure you have your frowny face on because I left the door open for you, and you're gonna say that you need me to be safe, but I swear I only just opened it because I don't want you to see me yet."

He got closer to her voice while she spoke and found himself in the doorway of the bathroom when she fell silent. She was dressed in a tank top and shorts and she had curlers in her hair. He threw his hands in his pockets and leaned against the doorway. "Too late," he teased, admiring her legs.

Felicity whirled around in surprise, cosmetics in hand. "Oliver!" she cried indignantly, blushing furiously. He froze this moment in his head, because he knew instantly that he would remember this for the rest of his life.

Her face was frozen in shock, surrounded by the halo of curlers. She had just started putting on her makeup, and he observed that she looked remarkably beautiful without it. His eyes crawled lower and noticed, eyes widening, that she wasn't wearing a bra. The moment he noticed this, he watched her nipples harden under her tank as her breath sped up. He continued tracing her body with his eyes, lingering on her legs again. He lifted his head to look back at her face, and found that her gaze had locked on his trousers, which he suddenly noticed had gotten a little bit tighter.

He cleared his throat and straightened his posture, trying to tuck in his hips. Felicity's eyes widened and fell on his, her blush deepening. "Sorry!" She whirled around and faced the mirror again, very obviously taking a deep breath.

He couldn't hold back his mirth. "It's only fair," he offered. "I'm not the only one who got harder." And with that, he turned on his heel and went to her living room to wait. He laughed out loud when the bathroom door slammed shut. It opened a second later with a quiet "Sorry" and then closed again, a little more softly.

He wandered around Felicity's home, taking in the details that illuminated her personality. Everything in her home was colorful. Her tan couch was artfully covered with various pillows from solid turquoise to orange and pink with polka dots and a patterned dark teal. She had a lime green armchair with a lemon yellow pillow with a hot pink trim. Her rug and walls were both a light, sandy color, and all this, combined with her sheer window treatments, gave the room an open, playful feeling.

One corner of the living room was dominated by an L-shaped desk with a hutch and two flat screen monitors. He noticed two audio speakers on top of the hutch, and set about putting on some music. His plan hit a snag when he couldn't find what he needed.

"Hey, Felicity?" he called out to her.

The bathroom door opened. "You called?"

"Yeah," he replied. "You don't have any CD's."

He heard her scoff. "Oliver," she started in a mock-patronizing tone. "No one uses CD's anymore. My Spotify should still be up on my computer, you can scroll through there."

Right, the computer, he remembered. It still surprised him sometimes how quickly technology advanced in 5 years. She had shown him how to do this, once, in the office of Queen Consolidated, one day when he was in a particularly good mood. He laughed out loud when he saw a playlist labeled "Oliver." She had apparently saved his music choices that day at QC. He clicked on it now, and the smooth tones of Frank Sinatra filled Felicity's home.

I've got you under my skin
I've got you deep in the heart of me
So deep in my heart that you're really a part of me
I've got you under my skin

Truer words have never been spoken, Oliver thought. He thought about Felicity as he swayed a little to the music. He was determined to show her a really good time tonight. No ghosts from the past would haunt their date. No fears would be borrowed from the future. Tonight he was going to let go and just be Felicity's Oliver.

I tried so not to give in
I've said to myself, this affair, it never will go so well
But why should I try to resist when baby, I know damn well
That I've got you under my skin

He was done fighting his feelings for her. After two years of working together, fighting together, going through the fire for each other, this night, being together, it was inevitable. He knew this night was coming since the beginning, since the moment he introduced himself and she disarmed him with her babbling. It was the first time he didn't have to force a smile; the smile was pulled helplessly out of him by her charm.

He wandered to the wall that was covered with photos. It took him only moments before realizing that besides Felicity, he had no idea who any of these people were. He really was as self-involved as she said, almost a year ago. That he could have known Felicity all this time and know nothing about her life outside of what she did for him…well, he would fix that tonight. He wanted to ask why she didn't have any pictures of him or Diggle, but deduced that she probably didn't want any possible evidence of their less than legal connection.

He took a seat on her couch and pondered the collection of magazines on her coffee table. It was an eclectic mix of tech reviews, Sci-fi entertainment, fashion, and pop culture. He picked up the pop culture magazine, hearing both her voice and Thea's voice in his head every time they referenced something they felt he needed to know about.

His stomach dropped thinking about Thea. She had seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth, and even Felicity couldn't find her. That told him that someone who knew how to hide was helping her, or god forbid, had taken her. He didn't think that was the case, however; she did leave a note for Roy, the contents of which Roy eventually disclosed after a particularly tense fight with Oliver. She was driven away by all the lies; there were times when he knew it was vital to maintain secrecy, but there were other times when he felt that the cost of such secrecy was too high.

He quickly shook off his morbid thoughts. Tonight was not a night for angst, he promised himself. He distracted himself by flipping through the magazine in his hands, determined to read about such-and-such celebrity who was in rehab and another who was getting a divorce. He didn't understand why it was important for him to know these details of people he would never meet, but he continued regardless.

On second thought, he realized it was only Thea who talked to him about celebrity gossip, while Felicity tended to reference other things, like books, movies, and TV shows. He dropped the magazine in his hand back onto the coffee table, and picked up the one on Sci-Fi entertainment.

He was halfway through the magazine when he heard the bathroom door open and Felicity's little feet pattered in the hall, and he heard another door close, presumably her bedroom. He sighed a little as he looked at his watch…6:45. He had no right to complain; he was early, after all. He was just anxious to see what Felicity would be wearing, and he wanted to see her face again.

He got up from the couch, sighing again, and started pacing in Felicity's apartment. He wandered to the kitchen to get a glass of water. He looked at his watch again. Only three minutes had passed. He opened her refrigerator, noticing the contents half-heartedly. He closed it again, and paced back into the living room. Another glance at his watch…6:50. He took a couple of deep breaths and tried to settle his anxiousness. He listened with half an ear as another Sinatra favorite came on over the air.

Someday, when I'm awfully low
When the world is cold
I will feel a glow just thinking of you
And the way you look tonight

With one final glance at his watch, he walked into the hallway with every intention of knocking on her bedroom door to check on her. It was just then that her door opened, and the world around him seemed to slow down as he saw Felicity walk out of her room.

His heart constricted almost in pain at the vision of loveliness before him. He brought both hands up to his chest and his knees buckled just a little. She laughed shyly at his reaction. He took in her whole appearance, stunned by her beauty, and then started noticing the details of her ensemble.

She had on a black and gold dress, gold underneath with a patterned black lace overlay. There was a thin strap over one shoulder, leaving her other shoulder bare. It had an asymmetrical neckline, which started high on her torso on one side and dipped temptingly close to her breast on the other. There was a wide black band around her waist, accentuating her figure, and the skirt flared out adorably to mid-thigh. Her gorgeous legs, easily his favorite feature on her, were on full display with this dress. On her feet were playful black and gold platform heels, with a thin black strap around each ankle. There was something incredibly sexy about her ankles being essentially leashed, and he suddenly pictured those beautiful legs wrapped around him, with the heels still on, her body writhing with pleasure underneath him.

Forcefully dragging his eyes upward before his thoughts could get him into more trouble, he took in her face. Her face and her hair were most responsible for his stunned reaction. She had curled all of her hair, which gave her a completely different look than he was used to. It framed her face like a halo. She had gone subtle with her makeup, except for her eyes. She had lined her eyes completely in black, making them pop as he'd never seen before. Looking at her was like looking at an angel, or a goddess.

The final words to Sinatra's song registered in his consciousness just then.

'Cause I love you
Just the way you look tonight

"Felicity," he whispered, unable to say anything else. All other words flew out of his head. But she seemed to understand.

"Thank you," she whispered back.

He pulled himself together, and offered up his elbow. "Shall we?"

She walked up to him and slipped her hand into the crook of his arm. "Let's."

xoxoxoxo

A/N

There is a link to Felicity and Oliver's First Date outfits on AO3. Being a FF newbie author I don't know how to fix the issue I'm having with including the link here. Feel free to message me if you know what I'm doing wrong. Thanks.