Chapter Text
Oliver gets in about ten shots when he notices the sounds. It was a wailing tune, something akin to what a stray cat would howl at night and it repeated over and over again. He looks over to the other side of the rink and to his great offence realizes that half of the ice rink at Starling Crystal Skating Club has been claimed by a small girl who was skating around to the god awful music that seemed louder to his ears by the minute.
Dammit Coach Diggle had booked out this rink for his exclusive practice from 6 am to noon every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Oliver couldn’t think why or how this little interloper with her horrible music was infringing on his practice time.
Smashing the puck into the net with more force than necessary Oliver speed skates to the other end of the rink where a slim figure with all the right curves in the right places was prancing around on the ice, oblivious to Oliver and his rage.
“Hey,” Oliver calls. The girl didn’t appear to hear him and was now spinning while contorting her body into what looked like a circle. If Oliver wasn’t so busy being annoyed at his practice time being disrupted he would be impressed. Damn she was flexible. He’d never seen anyone who could bend like that.
As if reading his thoughts the girl change positions, this time spinning like crazy with one leg straight up in the air.
“Hey!” Oliver calls again, remembering why he had marched up to her. Impressive spins or not he was here to claim his rink back.
Still completely oblivious to him the girl moves on from spinning and launches herself into the air to do some sort of jump.
So she’s a figure skater of some sort Oliver thinks to himself. Come to think of it she did look slightly familiar. He didn’t have the foggiest idea who she was but there was definitely something familiar about her. Then again most figure skaters he’d seen on TV were pretty and this one was no exception. Aside from their skills they all seemed to look like shorter little models most of the time from what Oliver could gather whenever he saw one on TV while Thea and his mother swooned over them.
Oliver briefly wondered if Thea and his mom would know who this girl was. They had become obsessed with figure skating after cheering him on during the Winter Olympics.
Getting annoyed at himself for being side tracked and slightly fascinated by the blonde who was now doing jump after jump, still completely unaware of his presence Oliver decides to call out again. This time louder.
“Hey you! You’re not supposed to be here! I have this rink booked at this time today.”
That did it. He was definitely loud enough this time. To Oliver’s horror and guilt the girl looses her balance mid jump and crashes onto the ice. For a moment Oliver freezes in horror, afraid that she’d broken something but to his surprise and awe she merely picks herself up and skates angrily towards him.
“What the frack do you think you’re doing shouting at me mid jump like that? What is wrong with you?”
She’s right up in his face, all five foot four of her, looking so furious her little body is shaking as her bright blue eyes flash angrily while her cheeks and lips are a rosy red, exactly the way one would describe a beautiful, angry Disney princess.
Oliver slides back a bit and blinks.
“Do you know I could have broken something all thanks to you carrying on like a brute?” she snaps at him. “So what is this all about that you feel you have to scream at me mid jump?”
She’s rolling her eyes and tapping her foot on the ice. Oliver can’t help but notice how pretty she is.
“I didn’t scream at you,” he blurts out defensively. “I called a few times but you didn’t hear me above all that caterwauling music you have on.”
“Next time have the decency to wait until I am not mid jump before screaming at me,” she says as she casts him a withering look.
“I…I…er I’m supposed to have this rink to myself at this time.” He doesn’t know why he’s backed down from his previous angry stance but there’s something about the way she’s rubbing her thigh and wincing that makes him feel a bit guilty. He did cause her to fall after all.
“Oh yeah, you must be the other guy who has the other end of the rink. My coach pulled some strings and had Coach Diggle surrender half of the rink so I can practice. Did no one tell you?”
She looks slightly less terse and Oliver doesn’t understand why but he feels glad for it. He was also curious to find out who her coach was. Coach Diggle was not the type of man to surrender anything to anyone.
“Your coach got Coach Diggle to give up half the rink? That’s impressive.”
“Oh if you ever met her you’d understand why,” Felicity shrugs. “Look are you good here? All your questions answered? Because I really have to get back to practice.”
That was it? That’s all there is? Oliver wants to ask her but he refrains himself from doing so because he’d like to think he’s a guy with some self-respect. Clearly she had no idea who he was, just like he had no idea who she was. However there was something about her that made their interaction feel unresolved.
Oliver didn’t like to admit it but being Centre for the Starling Banks Ice Hocky Team afforded him a certain reputation with the opposite gender and to have her look at him with such impatience was a blow to his ego. He understood well enough he had no right to feel like this but still it stung.
“I…uh…I,” Oliver stutters not quite sure what he’s going to say next when a pair of crunching heels storming over rink side disrupts him from his thoughts.
“FELICITY,” the voice bellows, booming loudly across the ice. “FELICITY SMOAK, I ASKED YOU TO PRACTICE SO WHAT ARE YOU DOING CHATTING UP SOME PRETTY BOY. YOU’RE LAZY. THAT’S WHAT YOUR PROBLEM IS. LAZY. THAT’S WHY YOU CAN’T JUMP.”
For a brief moment Oliver expects Felicity to stand up for herself the way she had stood up to him but nothing. Her shoulders merely slump as she sighs quietly and begins to make her way to her coach, a scrawny, sneering woman who looks like she hadn’t smiled in a decade.
He gently grasps Felicity’s wrist before she could skate away.
“What the hell?” Oliver asks, eyes wide with incredulity at first and then the offense he feels on Felicity’s behalf kicks in. “That’s how she talks to you?”
“Look I appreciate the concern but it’s nothing new. Coach Waller’s always talks to me like that.” Felicity shrugs her shoulders and he’s expecting another brush off but to his surprise he’s on the receiving end of a smile instead. A beautiful, luminous smile with a spark that evidently this horrible Waller woman hasn’t quite managed to quash yet.
“The horrified look on your face right now confirms that I’m not the crazy one and that she is indeed a dreadful woman,” Felicity grins at him. “Sometimes I worry she’ll brainwash me into submission and I’ll start thinking her treatment of me is normal and deserved.”
“No one deserves to be spoken to like that,” Oliver assures her leaning closer and placing a hand on her shoulder.
They both glance at his hand and then each other. Felicity smiles another smile, this time blushing a little. Not knowing what to do Oliver gives her shoulder a squeeze before removing his hand.
“Err sorry for making you fall. I hope you didn’t hurt yourself. I guess I’ll see you around rink buddy?” He gazes at her hopefully after the last comment.
“Rink buddy, I like that,” Felicity chuckles. “I’m gonna go before Coach Waller has an aneurism. Just a heads up she yells a lot so don’t let that get to you. And I’ll turn the music down a bit.”
“Thanks,” Oliver beams at her pleased that they’d somehow managed to recover from their rocky start.
“By the way Felicity my name is Oliver Queen.” He offers a hand, which she takes and shakes firmly while smiling at him.
“FELICITY,” the aggressive woman bellows again, this time looking like she is going to bust a vein. “ARE YOU PLANNING TO GET YOUR JUMPS BACK OR DO YOU WANT TO BE A FAILURE?”
“You going to be ok?” Oliver asks looking worried.
“You’re sweet but I’ll be fine,” Felicity assures him, patting him quickly on the chest. Oliver decides he likes this and puffs up his chest with pride. “I’ve put up with her since I was 13. I’m a survivor trust me.”
She gives him another pat on the chest and skates away as Oliver stands and watches her.
***
“Speedy what do you know about Felicity Smoak?” Oliver asks as he settles himself down at brunch and is about to take a bite from his stack of ten pancakes (he needed the energy for practice). “I’ve just found out that I’m sharing the rink with her three days a week…”
He’s interrupted mid sentence by a series of high pitched squeals from Thea, squeals that are so loud they actually startled him. Across the table his mother, who is usually dignified and immovable appears to be choking on a piece of fruit as she squirms in her seat.
“Are you guys okay?” he asks glancing at them curiously. Thea and her theatrics he could understand. His mother was a whole other matter.
“Ollie you do not, before mom and I, casually announce that you breath the same air as Felicity Smoak,” Thea tells him, giving what appears to be a full body shiver, causing Oliver to shake his head in confusion.
“Mom what’s she talking about?”
“Remember when we went to support you at the Olympic Games dear? We went for you but we saw Felicity Smoak’s gold medal winning Don Quixote performance live.” Moira Queen didn’t explain any further but merely beamed at him like that comment was supposed to explain everything.
“Where she triple lutzed – triple looped her way to Olympic gold,” Thea chimes in. “And we’ve been obsessed with her ever since. We’ve been to see every ice show she’s participated in, in the US Ollie. This is serious business. Now you’re telling us you share the rink with her. You get to see her every day. OMG have you seen Carmen live?”
“That caterwauling music?” Oliver asks looking confused. He was hoping for some reliable information about Felicity as he recalled Thea was into figure skating. He hadn’t expected his sister and mother to be too obsessed to actually tell him anything useful.
“It’s not her best program but I blame it on her coach Waller and her choreographer Slade,” Thea tells him bouncing on her chair excitedly. “Her skating at the ice shows is so much better without them breathing down her neck.”
“About that coach,” Oliver interrupts hoping to get on track again.
“Her coach is a witch. She trained Iris West and everyone thought Iris would get the gold. Iris was Waller’s darling, well as darling as anyone can be to someone like Waller. Waller brought Felicity along to the Olympics as a spare but Felicity had the better tech content and back loaded all her jumps so she got the gold. Waller hates her for it.”
“That explains a lot of things,” Oliver says quietly.
“Oh God did you witness one of their training sessions?” Thea asks looking like she was engaging in a particularly juicy bit of gossip. “There are videos of her yelling at Felicity constantly during practice. Poor Felicity. She only puts up with it because she’s got something to prove.”
“What do you mean by that?” Oliver asks. Thea was finally over her gushing and was actually giving him useful information.
“Iris West retired at the grand old age of 18 after she lost the gold to Felicity. Word is that Waller loves Iris as much as her cold dead heart can love anyone but she’s only got Felicity now as her star pupil so she resents her. Felicity stays with her because she doesn’t want to be known as a one hit wonder. Why she thinks that is ridiculous since she won everything and beat Iris constantly leading up to the Olympics. I mean she had a meltdown at Worlds the same year but that was understandable given how much skating she’d been doing and how much pressure she was under. Felicity wants to keep competing to prove she’s not just another teenage jumping bean. The fandom wars are really nasty and the Iris West stans just won’t give Felicity a break. It’s been two years so I say she’s proven herself enough but she keeps at it the stubborn girl. I really wish she’d drop Waller as a coach though.”
“I didn’t know you were such an avid figure skating fan Speedy,” Oliver says impressed by all the useful information his sister had given him on Felicity.
“She is what the young people call a Felicity Smoak Stan I believe,” Moira says, smiling an amused smile at her daughter.
“Mom you took the jet to California one weekend to see her at Four Continents so don’t talk to me about being obsessed,” Thea huffs.
“Speedy can you show me some videos of Felicity’s programs later?” Oliver tries to sound as casual as possible.
“Oh my god do you have a crush on her?” Thea squeals, clapping her hands together. “She’s a bit young for you but totally legal Ollie. She turned 19 in spring.”
“I’m just getting to know someone I share a rink with,” Oliver says tersely. There was definitely an age difference. It wasn’t huge to the point of being eyebrow raising but he was acutely aware of how young Felicity looked despite her 19 years. Anyway this was all nonsense on Thea’s part. He wasn’t planning to chase Felicity around on ice or anything. Good lord that was harassment. He just wanted a better understanding of the person he was going to run into each day.
“You have to let me meet her. You HAVE to Ollie! You can’t deny Mom and me this experience.” Thea is grabbing his arm and shaking it furiously.
“Didn’t you say Felicity has enough problems with her evil coach without you two accosting her as well?”
Oliver is thinking there is no way he’s going to have Thea squeal and pass out in front of Felicity. He’d already made a bad impression the other day when he caused her to fall.
“She is renowned to be very nice to her fans Oliver,” his mom says with a smile from across the table. Oliver shakes his head in disbelief. Apparently the figure skating fandom was a whole new world on it’s own.
“Let me have a few more conversations with her first before I introduce her to my crazy family.”
***
Oliver knows he’s supposed to do a few laps and work on his shooting however he can’t help but be mesmerized as Felicity skates. The music is choppy and frantic but there is a gracefulness about her. Not to mention those amazing spins and the way she is able to contort her body so easily. Felicity was on amazing athlete. Her speed across the ice rivaled his and Oliver could not imagine zooming across the ice at these speeds while looking polished and beautiful at the same time. That was before taking into account the number of jumps and falls he’d seen Felicity do during a practice.
They were on friendly terms now. Oliver always greeted her with a smile and wave to which Felicity responded with an equally enthusiastic smile that made his day. As a show of goodwill and a sign of their burgeoning acquaintance, Oliver notices that Felicity plays her music at a much lower volume these days.
He really didn’t mind the music anymore. Her beautiful movement on ice made up for any faults he found with the music.
Noticing that Waller seems to have vanished today, Oliver skates up to Felicity just as she reaches the end of her run through.
“Want to pack up early and grab some brunch with me?” he asks shyly. “My treat. To make up for causing your fall the first time we met.”
“Oh goodness you still remember that,” Felicity laughs, shaking her head. “I’ve forgotten it long ago.”
“You forgot our first meeting?” Oliver clutches his heart in horror. “I’m hurt. Especially since I thought we were going to be rink buddies.”
“I didn’t forget that you tried to make a valiant attempt to save me from Amanda Waller,” Felicity teases as she skates one loop around him before stopping right in front of his face. “Speaking of the dragon lady, I can’t go with you lest she show up. She has a habit of doing that. Showing up to scream at me on some days but not other days. Keeps me guessing.”
“It’s not like she can do anything to you even if you leave practice early,” Oliver says, feeling confident.
Based on the information Thea had dropped on him, he’d done a lot of research on Felicity and saw the situation between her and Waller for exactly what it was. “You’re her only star pupil for the next few seasons. What can she do to you really?”
“You know what you’re right. I’m hungry and I need to eat.” She gives him a sunny smile as she does the most adorable head bobble to affirm her reasoning.
“And get to know your rink buddy,” Oliver adds feeling a little braver as he grabs her hand.
Felicity merely smiles while her pink-gloved hand grips onto his and together they skate towards the exit.
***
“So that’s why some days I see you fall all the time and some days you jump just fine,” Oliver says with an expression that is akin to a light bulb going off in his head.
“Just how often do you watch me jump?” Felicity teases taking a sip of her strawberry milkshake. Oliver had been so excited to take her to Big Belly Burger, citing that this place had the best curly fries and burgers in the business. If Amanda caught her anywhere near this food she would probably beat her over the head with an ice skate. Still Felicity hadn’t felt so relaxed in a long time. It was fun to go out with someone and just eat a meal like a regular person. Even better that the person in question happened to be tall, handsome with piercing blue eyes and a killer smile.
He seemed sweet too despite his reputation with ice hockey groupies. Felicity wasn’t above doing a bit of googling. She reasoned it was all part of friendly research. Just like Oliver admitted he’d seen her Don Quixote program quite a few times.
“You’re fascinating,” Oliver says at once without any shame. “And remarkable. It’s hard not to watch you. I worry when I see you crash onto the ice though.”
He didn’t add that it was hard for him to fight his instincts to skate right over every time she has a bad fall. That would be a bit…intense given their new found friendship. Still he reasoned to himself that it was perfectly normal for him to feel worried when he sees someone as small as her come crashing onto the ice.
“I’m trying to add a quad salchow and quad toe loop to my repertoire. A few of the younger Russian prodigies are going senior next year and they all have quads. Pretty soon my technical content will not be good enough and I can’t rely on my reputation for PCS any longer,” Felicity answers looking wistful. A shadow casts over her face and Oliver sees something, almost akin to dread.
“Do you…do you need to do that?” he asks, impulsively covering her small hand on the table with his. “You won the Olympic gold medal, two Grand Prix finals, a world title. Do you need to keep going and killing yourself over this?”
It was ridiculous really. She was just like him. A tough athlete. A professional. And yet for some reason all he wanted to do was protect her.
“I want to make the next Olympic team,” Felicity confesses. “And to do that I need to keep upping my technical content. Did you know the year after the Olympics I so badly wanted to quit? I grew three inches and my technique started falling apart. Amanda was…well Amanda was Amanda. I sometimes wonder if it would have been better for me to quit and accept that scholarship at MIT. Maybe life would have been very different.” She looks a little wistful as she seemingly ponders what life could have been. Oliver notices she hasn’t pulled her hand away from under his. He gives it another gentle, reassuring squeeze.
“You’re smart as well? I’ve seen your rotation speed in the air Felicity and now you’re telling me you were offered a scholarship to MIT?” He tilts his head to get a good look at her. Stunning. Soft blonde curls, big blue eyes, the face of an angel really. An unbelievably cute one. No wonder she was America’s little darling even if she didn’t believe it herself.
“170 IQ,” Felicity says matter of factly. “But that has nothing to do with my skating and certainly doesn’t stop people from saying the gold medal was a fluke and that I’m nothing but a back loader.”
“You were a badass. You did eight jumping passes in like 2 minutes,” Oliver protests indignantly. “I’d like to see your haters do the same.”
He’s looking so angry and down right vicious, Felicity can’t help but burst out laughing.
“Thank you Oliver. I was pretty pissed when you yelled at me mid jump but I’m glad we share a rink.” He smile fades a little as she adds quietly, “I…I don’t have many friends. This life I lead, it’s not really conducive to socializing.”
“Do you want to go to MIT?” Oliver asks her suddenly. “Is there anything you want to study there? Anything else you want to do with your life besides skating?”
“Computers,” Felicity replies at once. “Computers are my escape when skating gets too much. I’ve dabbled in programming and part of me feels like there’s a whole new world out there I haven’t explored because of figure skating.”
“You should tell Waller to go skate into a wall and reapply for MIT,” Oliver says. “You are one of the greatest skaters of this generation. You delivered one of the most difficult programs of all time and made history. Nothing, no one, can ever take that away from you.”
Impulsively he picks up her hand and threads his fingers through hers. Felicity glances at their hands and raises an eyebrow but doesn’t say anything. Neither does she pull her hand away.
“Thank your for the pep talk Mr. Queen. I hope I am just as comforting as you are if you ever need my support.” She smiles and slowly extracts her hand, her face now a bright crimson as the awkwardness starts to set in.
Her crazy schedule meant that the only boys she’d ever chatted to were her training mates, also under the tutelage of Amanda. It suddenly dawned on her that she was out sharing a meal and sort of holding hands with a grown man. Oliver Queen who dated more models than the amount of times she fell trying to land her quad toeloop.
“Look I know it’s scary, leaving something you love and excel at. But maybe this is a start of a whole new chapter for you.” He doesn’t know why he keeps pushing her into this. If the MIT thing is serious it would mean that she’d leave. No more morning practices. No more watching mesmerised as she spun around like a sunbeam dancing on ice.
“Sometimes I think I stay and keep at it with Amanda because it’s the devil I know,” Felicity confesses. “I fear so many things. I fear being labeled a one hit wonder, I fear losing, being stagnant and falling behind on technical content. I stay despite being plagued with doubt and yet I don’t leave because I don’t know who I am if I don’t compete. I’m scared of Amanda Waller. My fans think I’m fearless on ice but I feel like such a coward.”
Felicity’s shoulders are slumped and she’s looking so small and beaten Oliver simply can’t help himself. He grabs both of her hands and squeezes them, looking her in the eye earnestly.
“You’re young, you’ve had this unnatural upbringing in a vacuum. I know what it’s like to be a professional athlete Felicity but I’ve always been able to live life, to make stupid mistakes and for the most part I’ve gotten away with some crazy shit. No one has ever held me to the standards that have been expected from you. You’ve had to be perfect in this perfect little bubble. You’re growing up and you know you can’t stay in this bubble forever. It’s normal to be scared.”
Impulsively Felicity gets out of her chair and throws her arms around Oliver. He’s completely and utterly surprised by the hug but merely smiles and rubs her back in return.
“Thank you Oliver. I needed this brunch. Needed our talk. Sorry it all got so intense. Bet you didn’t think some crazy girl was going to unburden all her fears on you during brunch.” She looks a little sheepish as she tries to pull away from the hug, however Oliver holds onto her and hugs her back this time.
“You never have to thank me. I will always listen to anything you have to say.”
“My hero,” Felicity swoons exaggeratedly as she extracts herself from him. She’s blushing profusely but there is a huge smile on her face.
“Want to start facing your fear of Amanda Waller by ditching training to go see a movie with me?” Oliver asks, holding out a hand, giving her his best coaxing but completely sincere smile.
“She’s going to blow her top,” Felicity chuckles nervously. She does however take his outstretched hand, “Oh the yelling.”
“Turn off your phone,” Oliver urges her with a rogue smile.
“I can hack into her phone to make it play porcupine fart noises every time she dials me. I know how to do that.”
“See I’m corrupting you already.”
Amidst all the giggles they pause and gaze at each other, both suddenly feeling a little breathless and giddy at the same time despite neither having done any laps on the ice.
Wordlessly Oliver moves closer to Felicity’s side and drapes a hand over her shoulder. His nose brushes the top of her head ever so softly as she smiles at him and together they walk out of Big Belly Burger.
Felicity Smoak had conquered the Olympics and Figure Skating. She was set to conquer life next and this time she wasn’t going to do it alone.