Chapter Text
"First rule is ‘pay attention’." She rolled her eyes. He’d told her that before.
"To start, stand like this", Oliver instructed, taking his fighting stance and waiting for Felicity to match it.
"This will create an anchoring to the ground, that’ll make it hard for someone to throw you off balance."
He made sure her stance was correct, then pushed against her shoulder.
"Ow!", she exclaimed, surprised. But she didn’t move. "Hey. That’s pretty cool."
Oliver nodded. “Now I’m going to show you how to throw someone over your shoulder.”
She laughed. “No”, she protested, shaking her head.
"You need to know how to-"
"Okay, but can’t I learn in a class? No offense, but I don’t really want to throw you over my shoulder."
Oliver sighed, long suffering. “Fine, let’s try another fight stance.” He placed his hand lightly on her side to move her abdomen, and was surprised when she started giggling. She was ticklish.
She reacted suddenly, twisting around and pushing back on his chest. He fell to the ground in surprise, even more surprised to find Felicity following him to the ground. She fell on top of him with an “oof” and her head landed on his shoulder.
He felt her body tighten up as she realized what happened. She raised her head to look at him, her eyes wide. His breath hitched at the spark he saw in her eyes, and before he knew what he was doing, his lips were meeting hers.
She melted in to it for just a second, an exhilarating second of connection, before pulling back and scrambling off of him.
"I’m so sorry!", she exclaimed, as she fumbled around for her purse and clothes. "I’m just going to-"
Before Oliver could process what had happened, Felicity was up the stairs and out the door. He stood up in shock and raised his hand to his lips to ghost his fingers over the remains of their kiss.
Our first kiss, Oliver thought. He kicked himself internally for the thought, and the action that had caused it. I’m in so much trouble.
Oliver went home early that night, unable to get the thought of Felicity out of his head. He stripped off his clothes and made his way to the shower, trying to process the events of the evening.
There had been moments in the past when he'd noticed how beautiful Felicity was; how intelligent; how remarkable. He'd never considered anything more than a partnership with her though. His fixation with Laurel, in addition to the few other relationships he'd tried since being home, had occupied his mind and left him emotionally drained.
He turned on the shower, and let the water warm.
He didn't know why he'd kissed her. When he thought about it, is wasn't an actual choice. He just looked at her and had to kiss her, so he did. If he was honest, part of it was purely physical. He'd had her body, warm and soft, flush against him and the heat that passed between them was electric. The spark he'd seen flash in her eyes was a confirmation that she felt it to.
She'd, of course, made comments about his looks before. She was well known for verbal gaffes. He never truly minded the remarks, and often took amusement in them and the blush that graced her cheeks afterwards.
He stepped into the warm shower water and let it wash over him.
The other part was... Well, it was comfort and honesty. Two things he got from Felicity that he didn't really get from anyone else. Digg was his brother-in-arms. He trusted him, with his life, but he wasn't there to be a comfort. Thea and his mother didn't know the truth about his life, what had happened to him on the island. Laurel didn't know either, and although Tommy did and had made peace with it, they were now happy together and Oliver didn't have any desire to bring either of them into the darkness.
Felicity though, she already lived there. He pulled her in without really thinking about it, and she'd adapted to it without losing her light. She filled the darkness with light, actually. She was a constant lightening presence to both Digg and himself. He couldn't imagine being The Hood without her. She was in his ear, and on his mind, on missions. She made him rethink his decision to shoot first, ask questions later, and he was grateful for it.
He sunk to the floor of the shower and curled his knees up to meet his head as it dropped.
He had kissed her and she'd run away. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe she didn't want to kiss me.
He went to bed with a knot of worry in his stomach and an overwhelming desire to drive to Felicity's apartment. He resisted the urge, wanting to give her space and time to process all the things he had. She was important to him, and if she decided their kiss was a one time thing, he would respect that. He just hoped that she wouldn't.