Work Text:
“I can’t do it, I can’t do it,” Felicity’s voice echoed in the Foundry as she paused, the barbell at her knees, “Roy, I can’t do it, I’m going to drop it.”
“C’mon Felicity,” Roy hopped around her like a cheerleader, “Just get your back straight. It’s only eighteen more inches.”
Felicity took a deep breath and yelled, low and animalistic and so embarrasing as she forced her body up. The shock at getting the barbell all the way up numbed her hands, and she dropped the weight with a loud clang. Then it was just a second of her heavy panting before Roy’s cheers filled the Foundry and he hugged her.
“Oh wow, yeah, you’re really sweaty,” he said, letting her go immediately. Felicity laughed, the adrenaline and excitement making her muscles shake uncontrollably, and she plopped down on the mat, grabbing her water bottle.
“That’s a new PR,” she heard Roy say as he was walking back to her workout notebook, “155 pounds is a huge improvement. I wish I improved this fast.”
“This fast?” Felicity protested, “You’re deadlifting over three hundred pounds! That’s twice as much as I am!” She fell backwards, covering her eyes with her arms, “My puny little muscles can’t even compare.” She pouted her lips at Roy’s laugh, but it just made him laugh harder, until they were both giggling uncontrollably from the endorphin rush.
Eventually they began their stretches. Oliver had drilled into them a Chinese technique that felt a little too much like yoga for Roy to be comfortable. By the time it had all ended, they were both lying on the ground in a mass of tired muscles.
The computer beeped and Felicity murmured a protest, slow to get up. The beeps became louder and more frequent until both persons were rushing towards the monitor to see what was happening.
“Someone triggered the panic button at Starling City Bank,” Felicity murmured, her fingers flying on the keyboard to access the security cameras, “Roy, get my phone, we need to call Oliver.”
And with that, the gym session was over.
-----
Laurel made a weird gasp when she landed on the ground, the air knocked out of her. Felicity fluttered around, worried.
“Oh my God, oh my God, I’m so sorry, are you okay?”
“Yeah, no, it’s okay. Just give me a second,” Laurel wheezed, taking a few deep breaths and then taking Felicity’s offered hand to stand up, “You are much stronger than you look.”
“Well really it was just leverage which is a bit of basic math. My strength had very little to do with it. I’m probably not much stronger than you. Not saying that you’re not strong or anything because I’ve seen your biceps and they are,” Felicity exploded her hands, “like, wow! You must do like, a lot of push-ups. Not to say you’re too muscular or anything. You look quite feminine and stuff so..” she trailed off when Laurel crossed her arms, “Three, two, one.”
“Well it was a good sparring session,” Laurel said, smiling, and grabbed a towel hanging off a nearby table.
“I’ll say,” Roy said, clapping, “Love seeing girls fight.”
“Shut up, Roy,” Felicity said, throwing her towel in his direction. It floated down anticlimactically a few feet away from his face, to which she huffed in frustration.
Laurel and Roy both just laughed.
------
“How much longer?” Felicity whimpered. Her abs hurt so much, her thighs were shaking, her shoulders were burning, and she regretted nothing more than joining Team Arrow. How many times would she have to do planks?
She must’ve said something out loud, because Diggle chuckled. She looked up at him, and he was solid as stone, his body doing no sort of uncontrollable spasms or anything. Moving her neck just a little caused her abs to shake, so she looked back down on the floor.
“Forty-five more seconds, Felicity.”
She let out another whimper and closed her eyes. She started counting, getting to eighty-two before Diggle finally said, “And down.”
Felicity collapsed and grabbed her stomach, groaning, “John, I can’t do this anymore.”
He chuckled, like he always did when she acted like a huge weanie, “We have two more sets. Next one in fifteen more seconds.”
Gritting her teeth, Felicity planted her forearms on the floor, glaring at a small tear in the mat while Diggle did the countdown.
-----
“Just try it,” Oliver said, and Felicity shook her head, her ponytail flinging wildly.
“Absolutely not. I’ve seen you and Diggle do that thing and even you have some difficulty with it. There’s no way I could do that thing.”
The salmon ladder stood forebodingly, eyeing Felicity down until she felt like just a speck of dust of the ground.
“Sara could do the salmon ladder, Felicity,” Oliver said, leaning up against the equipment.
“Yeah, and you know how ripped she was?” Felicity protested, pulling up her shirt to show her midriff, “Do you see this tummy? You know how many Big Belly burgers I’ve had this week? This month? There’s a huge foundation of hamburger and french fries in my gut weighing me down. Plus, I’m not even close to the physique of Sara Lance.”
Oliver rolled his eyes at her, exasperated. He opened his mouth to say something back when the door to the Foundry beeped and Roy walked in.
He only walked a few steps in before he stopped, looking at the couple who were staring at him.
“I don’t want to get into it,” he said, taking a half-step back, but Oliver started talking.
“Roy, you’ve been training with Felicity, tell her she can do the salmon ladder.”
“Roy, you’ve been training with me, tell him I can’t do the salmon ladder.”
Oliver threw his hands up, “Felicity, you’ve been lifting heavy and sparring and training for a good couple months now. You can probably get three rungs up by now.”
“Three?” Felicity screeched and flailed her hands wildly, “Three? Sara could only get up two on most days! And she looked like a fitness model!”
“Sara was-” Oliver began to argue, but Roy cleared his throat, and both Felicity and Oliver looked at him expectantly.
“I think you should try it, Cissy,” Roy said, shrugging his shoulders.
Felicity wrinkled her nose, “Cissy? What happened to calling me Barbie? At least that implies I’m pretty. Hey!” she exclaimed, as Oliver grabbed her arm and pulled her underneath the ladder. She glared at him, before looking up and glaring at the bar.
“Just try it, Felicity,” Oliver said, tired, “Try it and we’ll leave you alone.”
Roy nodded encouragingly, and Felicity bit her lip. The bar wasn’t high up enough that her feet touched the ground, so she bent her elbows until she was hanging off the bar. Then she began to swing, building up momentum and courage for the next step.
It took a couple seconds, but she eventually found the bravery to jump to the next rung. She looked at the placement of the bar, and went for it.
And she saw stars.
-----
Felicity groaned and opened her eyes to both Oliver and Roy sitting around her, calling her name. They looked worried. Her forehead throbbed painfully, and the overhead lights shone so bright she had to squint her eyes.
“Ugh, what happened?”
Oliver winced and looked across at Roy, “Roy, can you get an ice pack?”
The young man nodded and hopped up on his feet, going towards the first aid supplies in the freezer. Oliver looked back at her, his blue eyes filled with concern.
“Felicity, do you know where you are? What was the last thing you remember?”
“Um,” Felicity mumbled, rubbing her eyes, “I’m in the Foundry. I was trying the salmon ladder. Did I make it?”
Oliver grimaced, “You misjudged the right side of the bar and it swung down and hit you in the head.”
She groaned and covered her eyes with her arms, “Of course I did.”
“Here,” Roy said, holding an ice pack up to the side of her forehead, “You whacked yourself pretty hard there.”
“Oh wow, this is so embarrassing,” Felicity whimpered, taking the ice pack and holding it firmly against her head, “I bet this is going to make such a big bruise. What am I going to tell the people at work?”
“You ran into a door?” Roy offered, shrugging his shoulders. Oliver and Felicity rolled their eyes.
“Yeah, maybe if I want my coworkers to think I’m being battered at home. Which is kind of what this feels like.” Felicity turned her attention to Oliver, “I told you I wasn’t ready.”
Oliver shrugged, “You made it halfway. I was at least half right.
Oliver and Roy laughed and Felicity told them both to shut up.