A/N: If I'm allowed to like my own chapters - I like this one. It has everything I love - Oliver being Oliver, Papa Lance, Roy saying something ridiculous, with just a hiiiiiint of the drama to follow. Keep an eye out for the For Darker Days chapter that is coming next though! I hope you guys like this one as much as I do. :)!

Oliver and Felicity had settled into a routine. The weekend had been fun, with them hanging out and playing games together, much to her surprise. She wasn't one for video games ever, really, and certainly not the type she figured Oliver would be into, all shoot-'em-up and battlefield type games, but he had surprised her once more. On Saturday afternoon he had shown up with an X-Box One, plugging it in and setting it up over her questions and refusals.

"Why are you doing this? Are you that bored here, Oliver?"

"No, but you are."

She spluttered at that, trying to deny it, but it was true. She was reading up a storm every evening, but reading required a lot of attention and she was so hyper aware of Oliver's presence, she was getting frustrated every time she read outside of her room. Instead she was watching hours and hours of TV, blowing through most major series' on Netflix. Oliver had drawn the line at daytime soap operas when she had been in the hospital and that rule carried over to now, so between that and the headache that she now got from staring at her computer or tablet too long and she was going a little crazy.

"I'm not bored, I'm just...I don't know what to do."

"Well, now you know."

"I'm not good at video games," she hedged.

"They didn't exactly have X-Box on Lian Yu, so I think we might be on even footing here."

She sighed. She was going to be bad at this, no doubt, but she thought that there might be a chance Oliver wasn't great either and that was always an interesting thing to see. Not to mention the fact that she knew she wasn't going to get out of this, so she might as well make the most of sitting so close to him on the couch that his thigh was burning into her's.

"What games did you buy?" She asked resignedly.

He didn't respond, just emptied a bag on her coffee table. She looked up at him, not entirely surprised but a little taken aback.

"Did you buy every game they have for this console?"

"There's really not that many out yet." She wasn't sure if that was a response unto itself, but just rolled her eyes as he continued. "I didn't know what you'd be interested in playing, so I thought we could just try and see which ones you like."

"You're an insane person with way too much money, you realize that, right?"

"Choose one."

"Alright, fine. This one," she tapped a cover, figuring it couldn't be that hard and it should appeal to both her and Oliver.

And that was how Roy found them Sunday evening at 7pm. Pizza boxes scattered on the coffee table in front of them, an empty 2 liter bottle of Mountain Dew on its side, and Felicity giggling at the screen.

"Looks like nerd heaven in here," Roy laughed as he slipped off his shoes.

"Hey," Felicity spoke without taking her eyes from the screen. "As a nerd, I resent that tone."

"Since when do you play video games, Blondie?"

"Since Oliver makes really poor financial decisions when it comes to toys and I'm the lucky recipient," she grinned happily at him.

"These games are great though, I've played a few of them." That got Felicity's attention.

"You have?"

"With Thea!" He defended quickly.

"How is my sister these days?" Oliver pinned him with a searching look.

"She's...okay? I told her I was coming over here tonight but she said she had something to do at home, I don't know."

"Well, invite her to come play video games with us. We are both absolutely horrible but it turns out, these games are for kids, so you can never die. Definitely my kind of video game." Felicity didn't want to harp on about Thea's missing presence, but she wanted Roy to make sure she knew that she was always welcome at her place, brother staying there or not. She thought perhaps she felt like Felicity was stealing Oliver away from her somehow, but she didn't know how she could right that misconception until she saw the girl face to face.

Roy nodded, scooping up a forgotten piece of pizza and folding half of it in his mouth.

"I'm going to go put on my pajamas since I'm practically falling asleep. Then you can take over for this guy," she jerked her thumb at Oliver, "while he goes out and patrols."

She disappeared down the hall and Roy cocked his eyebrows at Oliver. "Pizza and Mountain Dew?" He asked over the mouthful of cheese and sauce.

"The guy at the store said that this is what you eat when you play video games." Oliver shook his head a little, smiling. "I'm going to need to work out for a month to get rid of all that."

"Dig's at the lair if you want a sparring partner. Everything was quiet this afternoon but we think there might be something brewing with the Triad."

"Sounds good. And thanks for being here with her tonight."

"No need to thank me. I'm doing this for her."

Oliver nodded once, standing and stretching as Felicity padded back down the hall.

"I'm back," she announced, as if they hadn't just watched her enter. "You ready to get your ass kicked at Lego Superheroes?"

"Always," Roy said, sliding into Oliver's vacated seat.

"I'll see you later, okay?" Oliver waited for Felicity to meet his eyes and agree.

"I will probably be asleep but yes. You will see me later. Not that you watch me sleep or anything. I mean, I don't think you do, but that's not really something that you would tell someone, right? But I sleep pretty hard these days, so I really wouldn't have any idea what you do. At night. Here. With me." She swallowed thickly, very aware of the words that had just come out of her mouth. "Be safe!"

To his credit, Oliver just nodded and disappeared silently out the door.

"'Oh Oliver, please watch me while I sleep, it's so romantic! That's what they do in Twilight!'" Roy's pitiful high-pitched imitation of her earned him a swift smack to his ribs.

"Shut up. And how do you even know about Twilight? And don't you even think about saying Thea because I know for a fact she hates that stuff."

And then both her and Roy were pink in the face, sitting on the couch side by side. He broke the silence first, grabbing a controller. "So am I Captain America or…?"

Detective Lance had stopped by Tuesday afternoon with the promise to be there bright and early the next morning with coffee for their standing date. He also made her promise that Oliver would be no where to be seen, which was easier said than done. He was being pretty good at giving her her space when she needed it and being the fun, relaxed Oliver that played video games with her at other times, but while he understood she needed him to give her and Lance privacy that morning, it still didn't mean that he liked it.

"Get out."

She was pushing him with all of her might, two hands planted firmly on his chest, and her socked feet sliding helplessly on her wood floors.

"What if Detective Lance needs me?" He questioned innocently.

"He doesn't, I promise. Get out."

"What if you need me?"

"I have your cell phone number and so does Lance. Get out."

"What if the fern needs me?"

"Oliver!" Her exasperation made way for a reluctant smile. She reached around him and opened the door to the hallway before resuming her futile pushing. "Get out!"

"Somebody call the police?"

"Detective! Hi!"

In one fell swoop, Oliver had somehow shifted his body so that he was standing slightly in front of Felicity with her wrists in one hand and his other hand hovering over the back of his waist where he always kept a switchblade. Detective Lance took one look at how he was positioned and figured that while the kid was certainly weirder after coming back from that island, so long as he was using his newfound skills to protect Felicity, it wouldn't be all bad.

"You want me to arrest him?"

"Him? Oliver? No, he was just leaving."

Oliver turned to Felicity, grabbing his jacket from the nearby coat rack.

"Call me if you need me."

"I will."

"Even if its something small."

"I will."

"If you even feel the slightest bit off-"

"Oliver."

"I'm leaving. Have a good day, Detective."

"Yeah, you too, kid."

Felicity shut the door after Oliver and led Lance to her couch, gratefully taking his proffered coffee cup.

"How's married life?"

"It's goooooo- we are not married."

"Mmhmm," he smirked. "Obviously."

"It's not that bad, having him around."

"Are you sure? I distinctly remember a stage in my life where he ate everything in my fridge and slept on my couch and it certainly was bad."

"I never knew that Oliver," she reminded him. "This Oliver buys all the food and plays video games with me and lets me fall asleep on him and drool."

"Sounds even worse," Lance muttered, but she didn't take him seriously. For all his gruffness, she knew that he appreciated everyone in her life simply because of that one fact - they were in her life. They supported her and cared for her and he felt better knowing that she wasn't alone every time he left her, which was a distinct contrast to a few weeks prior, when guilt gnawed at him every time he would step out of that coffee shop or out of her apartment.

"How's Laurel?" Felicity didn't particularly harbor any feelings good or bad towards Laurel, at least none that she'd like to examine too closely. She asked out of her caring for Detective Lance and even for Oliver in some sense, but she didn't have an investment in the woman herself.

"She's good. Busy. She keeps herself so busy in this new job that...I don't know," he shrugged. "Seems like she's trying to forget about everything that happened in the Glades, but we all know that's not possible."

"Someone wise once told me that the faster you try to outrun your problems, the faster they catch up to you." She smiled as she watched the familiar tinge of pink crest over his ears. "I'm paraphrasing, obviously, because you also said a lot of other stuff that wouldn't really work in any other conversation and didn't really serve the purpose that I was going for."

"Yeah, yeah, I got that. Thanks." He took a look around, noticing the subtle way Oliver Queen seemed to have slid into her life. His bags were in the corner. A shirt was hanging up off her coatrack. His briefcase was on the kitchen table. "You're doing okay here? Really? Things with Queen are...okay?"

"Things are good," she corrected. They were more than okay and she didn't want him to have any doubts. "It's nice, having him here. And I know that it's going to get a lot less nice because I've only had one round of chemo and I still feel and act and look the same for now and it can't last but I just - it's nice."

"You say that a lot."

"That things are nice? It's just a good way to describe stuff and it's generic enough that I'm not being too graphic but pleasant enough that no one really-"

"No, not nice," he cut her off, surprised at how he could still get baffled at how her mind worked, even after all the time they spent together. "You say that everything is going to change. And yeah, you might not feel the same and you might not look the same, and those things might affect the way you act, but it's still the same you underneath this. You get that, right?"

Her eyes were curious and he thought maybe she really didn't get it. He placed his coffee cup on the table and turned to look at her more fully.

"This cancer, this chemotherapy, it doesn't change you. You are still you, underneath the needles and the wires and the-the-the chemo stuff or whatever. Yeah, you might come out of it a little different, a little bruised and a little stronger, but that doesn't change anything. This disease can take your spleen, it can - it can take your hair, or even your blood cells, but it can't take you. It can't take who you are underneath it all."

It wasn't a revolutionary idea, which is maybe why no one thought to tell her something like that before, but hearing the words from Detective Lance's mouth gave Felicity pause. Was it true? Was that what she was really worried about? She realized yes and no.

"What if...what if I don't know who I am anymore? What if after all of this, I have no idea who is even underneath all of it?"

He took her hand in his, and she immediately noticed all the stark differences between his hand and Oliver's, her only comparison as of late. They weren't bad, just different. His had different callouses, built up from years of shooting guns and working on his house. They weren't the same warmth as Oliver, but they weren't cold or off putting. The creases and wrinkles were thicker, more pronounced with age and stress, and they stroked a fast, almost frantic pattern into her own hand. Oliver always maintained a steady beat, almost to the rhythm of his own heartbeat if she had to guess, but Lance was less practiced, and she realized he also wasn't in the business of trying to calm her down. He was using this as a way to get her attention, not the usual communication-laden embraces that Oliver was prone to.

His eyes were dark and fierce as she dragged her own away from their clasped hands on the cushion between them.

"Then I will remind you. You are Felicity Smoak, and you are more than your blonde hair and your insanely bubbly personality. You might lose your hair and you might feel like shit more often than not. But you will never lose who you are, which is a beautiful, smart, compassionate woman who fights for those that can't and who does the right thing. That's who you are underneath all this and that's what is never going to change."

"Dinner?" Felicity stared at Oliver, her jaw hanging open. "Here? Tonight? Everyone?"

"I'm pretty sure that's what I meant when I just told you 'everyone is doing dinner here tonight.'" Oliver watched a myriad of emotions run across Felicity's face as he stood over the stove, stirring sauce.

"Why?"

"Because we wanted to see you."

"You see me everyday," she protested.

"We all spent a lot of time together in the hospital and despite the accommodations, it wasn't the happiest place to be. So tonight, we are having everyone over for dinner. It will be happy. It will be not take out. And you can just sit back and relax."

"How am I supposed to relax? I just...oh, man," she sank onto the couch, rubbing her forehead with her hands, trying to wrap her head around it. Instantly, Oliver was in front of her.

"Do you feel okay? Is anything wrong?"

A part of her wanted to tell him that she was feeling a bit sick, knowing that he would cancel the dinner in an instant if he thought her health would suffer because of it, but they had made a promise to each other before her treatment had started to always be honest when it came to how they were feeling healthwise. She couldn't risk jeopardizing that trust between the two of them just because she was feeling overwhelmed at the moment.

"No, I feel fine, it's just...it's a lot."

"It's not. It'll be fine. Go get ready."

"What do I wear?"

"What you're wearing right now is fine," he told her as he made his way back to the kitchen.

"Oliver, I am wearing yoga pants and an MIT t-shirt."

"And you look fantastic."

She cursed her body's betrayal when she blushed at his words as they warmed her to her core.

"Do you want me to text Thea and ask her what she's wearing?"

"Thea's coming?" Whatever reservations she had about having the gang over in her tiny apartment flew out the window at the prospect of seeing Thea and not being the only female for once. "Who else? Who else is everyone?"

Oliver gave her a true smile at that, seeing her light up. "Well, not Lance because I'm pretty sure he'd arrest one of us, but oh!" He pointed the spoon he was using to stir at her, sauce splattering on the floor. "Dig is bringing Lyla."

"You got him to bring Lyla? I have to wear a dress!" She whirled away towards her bedroom, finally getting ready like he had asked her to twenty minutes prior.

"How did you get that from that?" Oliver muttered as he tested the sauce. Tasted delicious and homemade which was good, considering he was just thawing out some that Raisa had frozen for him.

"You really do look amazing," Thea told her for what had to be the hundredth time that night. Oliver tensed beside her but Felicity just put her hand on his leg, sensing that he was about to say something to his little sister. She knew Thea was just being nice and meant nothing by her words, and ever since her conversation with Lance the day before, she was trying not to hold her appearance in such high esteem. After all, it was underneath that would stay the same.

Dinner had gone so much better than she ever could have imagined. Lyla and Dig had left shortly after finishing the meal, but she was happy to finally have had met the woman that had recaptured Dig's heart. She was charming and pleasant but also had that same undercurrent of seriousness and business that ran through Dig. She could see why they would be drawn together and was happy that they were giving things another try. Not only that but Lyla had not once mentioned Felicity's diagnosis that had been keeping Dig by her side for the last few weeks, even though it had to have meant that she saw less of him. That ranked her even higher in Felicity's books, if that was possible.

Now her, Oliver, Thea, and Roy had retired to her living room with a bottle of red wine and some soft acoustic music playing lowly in the background. Felicity was nursing her glass, despite being told that she could continue to drink while on chemotherapy. She had never thought the day would come that her appetite for expensive red wine (this bottle was brought from the Queen's very own wine cellar) would be virtually non-existent. She might have been sad about that fact if not for the wonderful company she currently kept.

"Thank you. Although between the steroids and your brother shoving pizza down my throat, I'm probably the only cancer patient that has gained weight while undergoing chemotherapy."

Thea let out a deep chuckle before seemingly catching herself, her eyes darting between the men in the room.

"You can laugh, Thea," Oliver reassured her from his spot next to Felicity on the couch, his arm draped over the back of the couch behind her. "Her jokes are absolutely terrible, but you can laugh."

Her eyes went to Roy, who nodded. "Her jokes really are pretty bad. You don't have to laugh, but you can."

"You all just wait," Felicity accused. "In a few months from now, I won't have any hair and you'll all be laughing." She paused, evaluating her words. "Not because I won't have hair. That's not why you'll be laughing. But because I have cancer and you feel bad and then you will laugh out of pity and oh my god, my jokes really are terrible, aren't they?"

That drew a snicker out of everyone, most of which were nodding in agreeance.

"So when do you...go back? To the hospital, I mean."

"I have the next week free! And I finally feel good and not like I'm gonna ralph everywhere, so there's that. I have an appointment tomorrow morning to get my blood checked to make sure I can go out and be where the people are."

"Ah," Thea nodded. "Wanna go to Verdant? See 'em dancing? Walking?"

"I just want to go where they walk, where they run. Where they stay all day in the sun."

"Wandering free, you mean."

"I just wish I could be - part of your world." Thea and Felicity finished together, peals of laughter bouncing off the walls in her small apartment.

"What just happened?" Roy asked Oliver.

"I have no idea but I think it was good."

"Oh, I'm so glad you came, Thea. The other day I quoted 'The Colors of the Wind' and no one even gave me a second look."

"Ah!" Roy snapped his fingers, the proverbial lightbulb going off. "I knew that sounded familiar! And you don't even own land!"

"I'm glad I came too," she told her with a small smile that was definitely a Queen family trait.

They hung out for a little while longer until it became noticeable that Felicity was fighting fatigue pretty hard. Her head had sunk to Oliver's shoulder and her eyes were staying closed longer than they were staying open with every blink. She was too tired to even move when her guests got up to leave and she assumed Oliver was too committed to being her personal pillow, as he just had Roy lock up for them.

He asked if she wanted to move to her bedroom but she didn't, wanting to relish the night with her friends for as long as she could. He wasn't too mad at her for taking up residence on his newly claimed bed, and he allowed himself the luxury of his arm slipping over her shoulders, holding her tightly to him.

He started languidly running his fingers through her hair, savoring this brief moment of happiness. He was so pleased that the dinner had gone well, and even more so that Felicity was now taking an active role in getting herself outside of these four walls. Barring any unforeseen complications at the hospital, she could spend the next night at the Foundry, doing what she loved and helping the city.

Which was why he couldn't control the soft swear that left his mouth when he looked down at his hand, now completely covered in the thin blonde strands of Felicity's hair.

A/N2: Had to happen at some point in time, unfortunately. I hope everyone is happy that Thea is finally making an appearance! I love her character. Don't worry, of course - Sara still is coming back and there's Donna Smoak too, but for the next little bit, Thea really has a starring role in this story. If you're wondering where Oliver went when Felicity kicked him out of the apartment - a new chapter of For Darker Days will be up probably tomorrow night! Thank you all!