Chapter 5

"Slowly." Felicity said, biting her lip. "careful."

Thor frowned. "I believe I am capable of performing this task, lady Felicity."

"Really?" Felicity put her hands on her hips, smirking. "Because there's burnt pan in my garbage that says otherwise."

Thor looked down at the pot of pasta. "I simply underestimated the power of the flame." He mumbled. Felicity giggled and turned her attention back to the salad she was making.

"Would it not be simpler to go to Big Belly Burger?" Thor said as he carried the pasta pot to the strainer in the sink.

"Yes, but we had it for breakfast…and lunch…and second lunch." Felicity frowned. "This is healthy…er."

Thor made a disappointed noise. Felicity shook her head, smiling. He was too adorable.

"It's not that we'll never eat it again." She said, looking back at him, "it's just too much of a good thing."

"It is a shame we do not have it on Asgard." Thor sighed.

Felicity giggled. "I'm guessing you also have less obesity."

Thor shrugged. "Our food is quite rich, but with the amount of training I do, it doesn't affect me much." He paused, his eyes going distant. "Our feasts are the stuff of legend."

"Literally," Felicity mumbled, Thor chuckled.

"The kitchens spend weeks, preparing for them. Once, on my name day we had a cake about the side of this room in width and twice its height." He was grinning, his eyes agleam with excitement. He spread his arms out as if he could show how big the cake was. "Of course Volstagg ate half of it."

"Volstagg?" Felicity asked. She'd put down her knife, leaving the salad. Thor's enthusiasm was infectious.

"Volstagg the Valiant." Thor said. "He is a friend and one of the Warriors 3. His skill in battle is only matched by his appetite at the feast table. Enemies fear his battle ax and pheasants fear his fork."

Felicity giggled. "Tell me about the other 2."

"Well, there's Hogun the Grim, so named because of his serious nature. He hails from Vanahiem, one of the other realms. He's loyal, just, and a determined fighter, though occasionally a bit of a bore. He's so…responsible." Thor shook his head in affectionate amusement. "Then there is Fandral." He smiled, "the Dashing, so named because of his popularity with the ladies of the court." He paused, looking away, embarrassed.

"He has a lot of sex." Felicity grinned as Thor's face snapped up to look at her in surprise. "What?" She said innocently. He broke into a grin.

"Apologies, besides Sif, I am unaccustomed to women speaking of these matters so openly." He explained. "I believe the two of you would like each other."

"Sif?" Felicity asked.

"The lady Sif is a formidable warrior and one of my dearest friends." Thor said.

"Women are warriors too?" Felicity asked.

"No…" Thor said slowly. "Women learn basic fighting skills, but mostly study sorcery and healing. Sif is unique in her dedication to Warcraft."

"She sounds badass," Felicity remarked. "Cool," she added when Thor looked at her in confusion. "Um, it means she's strong and doesn't let others tell her what to do."

"Ah," Thor nodded "that is Sif, she definitely didn't let others dictate her actions. She is quite…bad-ass?" he fumbled over the last word uncertainly. Felicity grinned.

"See, I'll have you talking like a lowly mortal in no time." She grabbed some plates and brought them to the table. Thor put the pasta in a bowl and grabbed the salad, then followed. He looked around the apartment as he put them on the table.

"Do you mind me asking your profession lady Felicity? I see no weapons or indications of sorcery."

Felicity snorted. "Should I be insulted that you just implied that I might be a witch?"

Thor crossed his arms. "My mother is a sorceress."

Felicity's eyes widened, "and I'm sure she's a lovely person." She said quickly. Thor chuckled.

"We don't have magic." Felicity said, "we have science. I work with computers." Thor gave her a blank look. "Here, I'll show you." She went into her room and grabbed her laptop. Putting it in front of Thor, she turned it on. "This is a laptop. It's a personal computer."

"What does it do?" Thor raised an eyebrow.

Felicity grinned. "The better question is, what can't it do." Her fingers danced over the keyboard. "My brains combined with this baby: anything is possible."

"Really?" Thor snorted.

"Want to know what type of weather it's going to be tomorrow? I can not only find that, I can hack the satellite where the weather channel got the information and show you…" She typed away a few seconds later she punched the air in triumph. Thor looked at the screen wide eyed.

"That's earth, seen from space." She smiled. "Hey, maybe I can find your planet! What part of the galaxy is it in?"

Thor shook his head. "It is not of this realm."

"So, it's not in the Milky Way?" Felicity looked at him in confusion.

"No, you and I do not exist in the same realm. There are different levels on Yggdrasil, the tree of life and this planet, in addition to your Milky Way, is Midgard. I come from Asgard."

"A parallel reality?" Felicity breathed. "That is so cool. Wait if it's not the same realm. How did you get here?"

"The BiFrost." Thor said, simply. Turning back to her computer he said, "so you are a woman of Knowledge. And you assist this Ollie, with pictures of your planet?"

"Huh?"

"One of the women we ran into at the mall of shopping, Laurel, said you were Ollie's assistant." Thor explained. Felicity huffed.

"That's temporary." She couldn't keep the bitterness out of her voice. "I used to work in IT, which is the computer department. I was in charge of making sure that all the company computers and websites worked properly. Ollie, is Laurel's icky nickname for my boss, Oliver Queen. He's a friend and when he took over the company after his mom got sent to jail, he was completely hopeless with computers or anything having to do with running a company so he decided to make me his assistant…without asking." She took a breath, trying to reign in her irritation, Thor's forehead creased with concern.

"An assistant is a bad thing?" He asked.

"It's not what I signed up for." Felicity said. "There's nothing wrong with being an assistant, but I went to school for computer programming. That's my specialty. I'm really, really good at it. Hell, when I left MIT I could have gone to any company in the country; Stark Industries, STAR labs, Wayne Enterprises, but I chose Queen Consolidated…and now, instead of working with computers, I'm smiling and making small talk to obnoxious board members while getting Oliver coffee and pretending that I can't hear the office gossips who say that I slept with him to get the job. Which is bullshit, because if I had slept with him, I would have had him make me head of the IT department or something more interesting than…" She broke off. "Sorry," she stepped back, her hands shaking. Turning away from Thor, she began trying to regulate her breathing. "3…2…1" A warm hand was placed gently on her shoulder, she turned slightly to see Thor looking down at her.

"I can see that this has really upset you, have you told this…Oliver of your feelings on the subject?" He asked.

"Yes." Felicity grumbled, "but he didn't listen." She looked at the ground. "He never listens." She added softly.

"He placed his needs above yours?" Thor growled. His hand on her shoulder, squeezed slightly.

"It's complicated." Felicity murmured, turning to face him. "What's a Bifrost?" She asked, desperate to change the subject away from Oliver. She didn't want to think about him.

"It is a device we use to travel from realm to realm." Thor said.

"So that's how you came here and became gods." Felicity tilted her head. "People just saw beings falling from the sky and decided to worship you. Are there other beings like you who did the same thing? Like Zeus or Osiris? How about Athena, does she exist?"

Thor shook his head. "I do not know the individuals of which you speak."

"Well maybe they live in another realm." Felicity suggested. Thor smiled, indulgently.

"I do not believe so."

"How would you know? Have you been to every one?" she stuck out her chin and gave him her best challenging look. "I mean, there's probably tons." Thor shook his head in amusement.

"There are 9, my lady, and while I admit I have not visited each one, I know enough to say that no other beings came down to Midgard besides the Asgardians. You see, we control the Bifrost, and are the keepers of order in the 9 realms."

"Order?" Felicity frowned. "Not to sound ungrateful, but things on earth haven't always been peachy. In fact, they're pretty much horrible all the time. We could have used some godly intervention with the Crusades, the Plague, the Inquisition, the holocaust, the Congo, the Rwandan genocide; we've just been killing each other left and right. Some order would have been nice."

Thor shifted uncomfortably. "My father ordered us not to interfere with the affairs of men." He explained. "We thought our presence was holding you back. With the Asgardians out of the way, Midgard could achieve their potential."

Felicity sighed. "I guess that makes…a weird kind of sense." She bit her lip thoughtfully. "Kind of like an Asgardian prime directive."

"Our role is order between realms. Rest assured; if Jotunheim had ever attacked Midgard, we would have interfered." Thor said solemnly.

"Thanks…I think." Felicity couldn't help but smile. "So tell me about the other realms."

"Well," Thor motioned to the couch. Felicity sat, crossed legged facing him as he sat next to her. "There is Vanaheim, the home of the Vanir. They are very similar to Asgardians, in fact my mother hails from there."

Felicity listened, rapt with attention as Thor explained the different realms that she didn't notice when someone looked into her window.

"Where's Felicity?" Digg said as he came into the lair. Oliver glanced away from his sparring session with Sara, who took his distraction as a chance to land a blow on his shoulder.

"Umf." He backed up. "She's…" He looked over at the computers and sure enough the chair was empty. "She was sick this morning." He frowned. "I thought she'd be better by now."

Digg crossed his arms. "What aren't you telling me?" He demanded.

"I talked to her this morning." Oliver said, "I asked her to cover for me in a meeting," he ignored Digg's groan of exasperation. "She said she couldn't do it because she wasn't feeling well."

"That girl is a saint." Digg muttered.

"I went to the meeting." Oliver said defensively.

"You're the CEO, it's your job." Digg retorted. "What was your excuse this time?"

"I had a lead in the weird glade deaths." Oliver retorted.

"Oh really?" Digg said. "And you couldn't have sent me to check it? Or Sara?"

Oliver frowned and stayed silent. Digg shook his head. "And what was this amazing, so urgent lead, because nothing we've turned up has panned out."

"It doesn't matter now." Oliver muttered, turning back to Sara. "How about we take this from the beginning, and this time use staffs?" He could feel Digg watching the two of them.

"I talked to Felicity around lunch time." Sara said, looking over at Digg. "She's still not feeling well so she's taking the night off." She smiled. "I think it's girl stuff."

"Uh huh." Digg was clearly not convinced.

"We can just do a simple patrol tonight." Oliver suggested. "Nothing too dangerous, we'll handle it fine without her." Sara came to stand next to him and nodded her agreement.

Digg looked from Oliver to Sara, then understanding dawned on his face. "Oliver can I talk to you alone for a second?" He asked.

Sara nodded "I'm having dinner with my dad anyway." then she left the lair.

Digg waited for the door to close before asking, "How long?"

Oliver felt a twinge of panic but kept his expression neutral. "What?"

"How long have you been sleeping with Sara?" Digg said.

"I don't see how that's any of your business."

"If it affects your decisions and your ability to function as a member of this team, then it does affect me and Felicity." Digg growled. "There was no lead today, you wanted to spend time with Sara, and you lied to Felicity to try to get it."

"She didn't- "

"She always knows." Digg cut him off. "You're the world's worst liar Oliver, and while everyone else seems to believe you there are 2 people in this world who you can't and shouldn't be lying to and you just lied to both of us." He frowned.

"I didn't want her to find out about Sara like this." Oliver sighed. "She…" He made an annoyed motion towards the computer chair. "She wouldn't take it well."

"You're dead wrong." Digg frowned. "That girl could handle whatever crap you throw at her and still walk out of here, her head high. There's just going to be a day when she wises up and decides not to put up with your bullshit anymore." He looked back at the computer chair. "I'm not telling you how to handle your personal life –"

"Then don't." Oliver cut him off.

"She deserves an apology and the truth about you skipping the meeting." Digg said. "It's the least you can do."

Oliver sighed. "Fine, I'll go to her house and apologize."

"Good." Digg said.

Oliver grabbed his jacket and helmet and went out to his bike. He drove to Felicity's apartment. Pulling up outside, he took a moment to gather himself. He'd never been to Felicity's before, he'd driven past it before to make sure she was safe, but he'd never officially been inside. She lived on the ground floor of a large house and her living room lights were on, so she was home. He was about to walk up the stairs to her door when an older woman from the house across the street called out to him.

"Are you here to see Felicity?"

"Yeah." He said uncomfortable.

"Lucky girl." The woman grinned. "She's been alone for too long."

Oliver wasn't sure what to say.

"Though between you and me, 2 in one weekend is a bit much." She smiled and went back inside her house. Oliver gaped at the closed door. What could she have meant by 2?

Bracing himself for the uncomfortable conversation he was going to have to have, he walked up the stairs and peeked into the living room to see if he could see her sleeping. If she was, he'd leave her be and have this conversation later. What he saw made his blood freeze. Felicity was sitting on the couch, facing sideways, her entire body turned to the man next to her. Oliver could see that the man was tall and strong with long blonde hair. He was talking animatedly to her, using big hand gestures. She was rapt with attention, her eyes wide, pausing him now and then to ask questions and grinning when he replied or frowning and demanding more information. They were sitting so close. Then Felicity put her hand on the other man's arm, giggling as he leaned close to say something. Oliver reeled back. She hadn't been sick; she'd lied to him, to be with this man.

I wanted this for her. A voice in the back of his head reminded him as he walked back to his bike. I wanted her to have a normal life safe from the dangers of the Arrow. But, he reflected as he turned on the bike and drove away, I wasn't expecting her to find it so soon. He called Sara, "can we meet?" He asked.

"Of course, Ollie." She said.

He hung up, speeding through Starling and desperately trying to get the image of Felicity's almost worshipful expression as she leaned in to touch the other man's arm.