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“Oliver, for the last time, I’m really not comfortable with this!” Felicity insists as they sit facing one another at the bakery across the street from Queen Consolidated.
“Felicity, you’re uncomfortable in those shoes you wear to work every day, but you wear them don’t you?” he chides with a small laugh.
She has a good mind to smack him over the head for that shit-eating grin, but she has to concede (because she makes a point of throwing that little fact in his face any time she feels he isn’t appreciating her job ethic enough). “Yeah, but this is different and you know it.”
Oliver sighs, sitting back and leaning against his seat. He has only taken two measly little bites out of his éclair that is just teasing her at this point, so she snatches it up and casually pops into her mouth. He watches her with narrowed eyes, mouth hanging open, for a moment before responding.
“Look, you know I won’t make you go out in the field if you really don’t want to. But there is no danger here! And Digg and I will be watching your every move, guiding you through the comms. And you know that; I think you just don’t want to have to train—“
Felicity cuts him off there, scowling at that dumb gorgeous playful grin he’s sporting. “It’s not training, Oliver. It’s just you sitting in a bakery teaching me how to flirt.”
“’Seduce’, and no, it’s more than that. I’m going to teach you how to manipulate your target by using his weakness against him.”
“And in this case, his weakness is my femininity and my ability to seem interested. Pretty sure that’s the actual definition of flirting.”
Oliver’s face breaks at that, and he can’t help but grin at her. She lets a small smile slip, just because seeing him so happy is actually literally melting her brain and impulse control. She feels herself slide forward on the table, elbows feeling like butter. He responds by stretching his legs into her space under the table and moving so that he’s resting his forearms on the table.
“So, what do you say? Will you do it?”
Felicity hates this. She hates some dirty charity robber for blowing into town and having an affinity for blondes. She hates her dumb gorgeous playboy boss for being so charming that she is actually willing to flirt with said dirty charity robber in order to distract him long enough to keep his bid open, but most of all, she hates that she will always, always say yes to him. And not because of his god-sent abs or his beautiful smile or his fear-of-god-stricken Arrow voice, but because as much as she doesn’t always believe in his methods, she believes in the man before her, and she believes in his cause. He’s a great person and all he wants to do is help people. He’s a hero, and who would say no to a hero?
“Fine, but there is no way I’m letting him kiss me.”
Oliver frowns, “Don’t worry, it will not get that far. I don’t even want him to touch you. We only need you to distract him long enough for your program to break into his bank account.”
“Yeah, well, if you and Digg are running it, how could anything go wrong?” she asks sardonically.
“Ha ha, let’s just get started,” he murmurs, glancing around the room.
She follows his gaze to a group of guys in their late twenties, all laughing lightly at some shared joke. She turns back to Oliver, expression aloof.
“Well?” he asks expectantly. “Any prospects?”
“Huh?”
“Felicity,” Oliver says slowly, “We’re practicing your seduction skills, we need someone for you to practice on.”
“’Practice on’?” she repeats self-consciously. “But I thought I’d just do it with you?”
“No, we need a stranger,” he states, glancing back at the men in the corner. “Someone unbiased.”
Felicity frowns.
“Okay, now go over there and talk to that guy in the blue shirt—“
“Oliver, what do you mean ‘someone unbiased’?” Felicity demands suddenly, unaware of the attention she’s caused.
“Huh?”
“You said you couldn’t be the person I practice on because it has to be someone unbiased, now you are going to explain that sentence to me and you’re going to do it right now! I mean, what, you just can’t be bothered to see me in a romantic light, because you already know how much of a nerd I am? Well, I’ll tell you one thing, pal. You would be lucky to have me try to seduce you, you hear me, LUCKY!!!”
“Felicity!” Oliver shouts over her, eyes wide, arms reaching out in her direction. “Come down! That is not at all what I meant. Believe me, not even close.”
The now slightly huffy Felicity sniffs. “I’m listening.”
“I meant someone unbiased, whom you haven’t already charmed,” he mutters, a small smile playing at his lips.
“Oh,” Felicity huffs, shock coloring her face and voice. “Okay.”
“Now, lesson number one: try to get the guy to talk about himself, then you can pretend to be really interested in whatever it is he likes. Alright, go seduce Blue Shirt!”
~
Felicity was right, Oliver notes, as he and Diggle attempt to figure out her program—thought he’ll never admit it. They have absolutely no idea what they’re doing, as far as computers are concerned. They might as well be two monkeys playing with the keyboards, though that may be a little too complementary of them.
“Okay, I see the target,” Felicity’s voice sounds over the comms, tone hushed as they watch her weave through the crowd from the security cameras. “Milton Barge, nasty jewel thief, here I come.”
Oliver and Diggle share an amused look before turning back to the comms.
“Uh, Felicity? We are having a little bit of trouble with the program…”
“Oh! I’m so sorry, I’m such a klutz. A very blonde klutz—“
“Felicity!”
He hears her clear her throat meaningfully, and glances over to the monitor with the security feed up. “Well, let me at least buy you a drink! After all, bidding will be starting soon and I came prepared for any and all screw-ups.”
Oliver glances up at Digg again, frowning. The man nods back at the screen in relief. When Oliver glances back, he sees Felicity smiling prettily up at the older man that is their target. Behind her back she is innocuously holding up her phone. He frowns, still confused. But when Milton turns to chat with another guest, Felicity turns and speaks into the comms.
“Don’t worry, I anticipated ‘trouble’. I transferred a version of the program onto my phone, so that I can activate it from here.”
She looks back just in time for Milton to grin nastily down at her. She plasters a smile to her face and says, “As you were saying?”
The screen to their right beeps, a red icon popping up and indicating that the program has been activated and is currently hacking through the banks firewalls to get into Milton’s account. Oliver grins, proudly.
“Good work, Felicity. Now you’re going to need to hold his attention for a little bit longer. The program’s working through the banks firewalls.”
“Really? You know, that is so interesting, because I used to have a pair of diamond earrings and once I wore them to a bar-be-cue and one of them fell out and landed in my plate and I tried everything to get the sauce off—Lysol, Dawn, I even tried dish detergent—but I couldn’t get it clean with anything…”
Oliver winces as Milton’s eyes seem to glaze over and he glances down towards his phone. He jumps forward, voice urgent. “Felicity, talk about something other than food and cleaning! Get his attention back!”
“With what? All my stories somehow involve food and/or cleaning!” she hisses from the side her voice, covering her voice with a cough.
Oliver whines, feeling frustration as he glances back at the other monitor to see that the program isn’t even halfway through. “I don’t know, try to think of something that would catch a man’s attention—even if you have to make it up!”
Felicity scowls up at the security cam as if she can actually see him through the screen. “Milton, did I ever tell you about the time I went skinny-dipping with my girlfriend?”
Oliver’s eyebrows shoot up at the words as he watches Felicity sidle up next to the graying man and murmurs huskily into his ear. His brows furrow as he worries his bottom lip between his teeth.
“Oh, and put a hand on his arm!” Diggle encourages excitedly from beside him.
Oliver’s frown deepens as he turns and scowls at the man, who just glances over at him indifferently. Felicity obediently lifts her hand to Milton’s arm and leans into him, as the man absently drops his phone back into his pocket.
“Yeah, it was in college. My roommate and I had been at this party on the Lake, and we snuck away to the water! It was the most fun night of my life; that, I guess, is when I had what people call the college experience—it was with my roommate, we just kissed in the water, but she was so pretty…”
Oliver felt his face actually heating at the thought of Felicity delving into such an intimate story with this man.
“Okay, that’s enough, Felicity. You can stop doing that now—“
“And then by the time we got back to our dorm, we were so tired—I just fell asleep before I could even think about putting on any pajamas—“
“Felicity, stop—“
“It was actually funny, the next morning I woke up and my friend made us sundaes and we got whipped cream all over ourselves—I ended up letting her lick it off my—“
“FELICITY! THAT. IS. ENOUGH! STOP FLIRTING, WE GOT HIS ACCOUNT. WE’RE ALL GOOD!”
“Anyway, well. Bye, now.”
As Felicity walks out of the security cam’s shot, she glances up to send him a shit-eating grin. His blood is boiling over as he narrows his eyes at the screen that she can’t actually see him through. Oh, she knows what she was doing. And he’s going to teach her a new lesson in Seduction.
~
“Nice work tonight, Felicity. See you in the morning,” Diggle murmurs to her with an amused grin, as he passes her at the base of the stairs.
She smiles up at him before tracing his steps up into the heart of the Foundry. Oliver is waiting for her there by her desk with his arms crossed. Her smile widens into a full-fledged smirk when she catches his expression. She doesn’t come to him immediately, stopping at the table next to wear he keeps his Hood suit to take out her earwig—and thinks that they really ought to get a case or something to hang that smelly thing in.
When she does walk over to him finally, she looks up to see that he is not pleased. “So, you got his account?—“
“There’s one more lesson in Seduction you still need to learn,” he says softly, bending his head so that their faces are even closer.
“What’s that?” Felicity asks, eyes locked on Oliver’s, legs trembling still in her super high strappy model shoes.
Electricity sparks across their skin as Oliver reaches up and holds Felicity’s chin in his hands. He tilts her face up even higher—letting his thumb lightly graze her bottom lip—and bends so that their lips just barely brush as he whispers, “Don’t try to play the teacher.”
He pulls back with a grin, letting her go so that her face falls without his support. The subtle yearn deep within her aches as she watches him pull back and away. She ignores the sharp stab of embarrassment and rejection at the realization of being tricked by reaching out without a second thought and grabbing Oliver by the collar. She yanks him back to her, giving him no room to negotiate space between them, and mutters, “Get back over here and finish what you started.”
Without waiting for a response, she presses her lips against his surprised ones in a bruising kiss. She sighs into it, relaxing into him after so long of wanting and holding back. Oliver reacts immediately, wrapping his arms around her waist where she’s still wearing the tight evening gown for the event, and pulling her even closer into him. He licks his way into her mouth, nibbling at her bottom lip, tongue. She groans at that and the kisses turn more passionate, heated and desperate.
He pulls back for air, gasps out, “I’ve wanted this, wanted you—for so long—“
She cuts him off with her mouth, moaning happily as his hands trailing up and down her body. They relax into each other and she lets him pick her up and carry her over to the cot he uses for nights he doesn’t want to go home. He lays her down and lets his hands rove her body, exploring and getting in tune with every inch. They spend all night getting to know each other’s bodies, soft spots and happy places.
The morning finds Felicity lying face down on Oliver’s chest, drool pooling on him. She gasps and quickly wipes it away, before glancing up to make sure he didn’t see. To her dismay, Oliver is staring amusedly at her. She reaches up and gives him a lingering kiss, before pulling up and moving to head toward the bathroom. But she’s stopped when he reaches out and grabs her arm, pulling her back down onto his lap.
He cups her face then, smiling genuinely, and growls, “Get back over here and finish what you started.”
<3