Work Text:
"Barry, are you sure this is safe?" Oliver asked, furrowing his brow as he zipped up his suit. He could see Felicity struggling also, and once he got himself zipped up, he reached over and offered her a helping hand.
"Thanks," she replied with a smile, combing a hand nervously through her hair as her eyes flitted between Oliver and Barry. The serious looks on each of their faces brought a frown to her face. She knew this idea was risky, but it was the only way she could think of to make Oliver smile again at Christmas time.
They hadn't seen Thea since the day she and Roy left Star City. Every time Felicity reached out to invite her home for the holidays, she was met with a laundry list of excuses as to why Thea couldn't come home. It seemed like no matter who asked her to come visit the response was always the same. This year, Felicity decided to take Oliver to the past to revisit a Christmas where the whole family was together. That was when she decided to contact their friends in Central City for some help.
"Of course it's safe," Barry replied, a smirk beaming from his face. "I do this kind of stuff all the time."
"Well I know you run around all the time, but I wasn't sure how often you time travel and I'd rather make it back in one piece," Oliver said, chuckling to himself quietly.
Barry rolled his eyes as he made a few more modifications to the treadmill. Looking over his work briefly, he smiled and turned to Oliver and Felicity. "Everything's set. All you have to do is hold onto one another as you run on the treadmill. The date is set to what Felicity asked for and you'll be there for about an hour before you'll be forced back to our time. Any questions?"
"You're sure this is safe?" Felicity asked, furrowing her brow as she worried her lip.
"As safe as time travel can be," Barry replied with a shrug.
Oliver reached over and pulled Felicity tight against him, wrapping his arms around her waist as he placed a kiss on the top of her head. "I love you," he mumbled into her hair.
"I love you too," she said, resting her head against his chest.
"Let's do this," Oliver announced, taking Felicity's hand in his as he stepped onto the treadmill.
Nervously, Felicity stepped up behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist, holding on for dear life as the treadmill started to run and the pair attempted to keep up with it. It only took a matter of seconds before they were no longer running in Barry's lab, but crash landing into the backyard of the Queen family mansion.
Pushing himself up off the ground, Oliver looked around at their surroundings and found himself puzzled. This wasn't where they were supposed to end up. The plan was to only go back in time a year to the last Christmas celebrated at the bunker before they all said goodbye to Thea and Roy. They certainly hadn't landed in the bunker, but why were the at his childhood home?
"Where are we?" Felicity asked, dusting off the dirt from her pants. "This doesn't look like the bunker."
"It's the Queen Mansion," Oliver replied, scrubbing a hand over the top of his head. "What year did you tell Barry to send us to?"
"Last year," Felicity insisted. Looking around the yard, Felicity noticed that there weren't any tombstones in the ground. "What year did your father die?"
"2007, why?" Oliver asked, furrowing his brow as he looked around the yard. "Wait. Where are the tombstones?"
Felicity rolled her eyes and started walking towards the house. She only made it a few steps forward before she felt Oliver's hand on her shoulder, stopping her from going anywhere.
"Where do you think you're going?" he hissed, trying to keep his voice down in case someone was out walking the property. He remembered that for the majority of his childhood they had security guards keeping watch over the entire property and at least one or two of them walked the premises for a chunk of time.
"I'm going to see if anyone is inside so that we can try and figure out what year it is. And it's cold out here," she whispered, pulling her shoulder away from his hand. "So I'm going to see if I can find a way to sneak inside."
"How are you going to sneak in if the house is guarded by a security system?" Oliver asked, chasing after her as she made her way towards the house.
"I'm a tech genius," Felicity replied shaking her head.
"And that's going to help against armed guards?" Oliver replied with a laugh.
Felicity stopped dead in her tracks. She hadn't thought about that as a possibility at all. That was going to put an end to her plan to get inside the house and get warmed up before they returned.
Not realizing that Felicity had stopped, Oliver ran straight into her, almost knocking her to the ground. He wrapped his arms around her waist to catch her from falling as he apologized profusely to her.
"I'm fine," Felicity insisted, smiling at him and pressing up on her tiptoes to place a gentle kiss on his cheek. "We've got some time. Let's see what we can see in one of the windows. What room did you celebrate the holidays when you were little?"
Oliver thought about it for a few moments and then took Felicity by the hand, leading them both around the corner of the house where the sitting room was. There were floor to ceiling windows that they would be able to peek through to see what was going on inside. As they rounded the corner, they were met with the brilliant shining lights of the Christmas tree glistening through the window.
A broad smile pulled at the corners of Felicity's lips when she spotted a young Oliver and a much younger Thea sitting on the floor near the tree, waiting impatiently to start unwrapping the large pile of presents around the bottom of the tree.
"How young were you here?" Felicity whispered, wrapping an arm around his waist as she rested her head against his shoulder.
Oliver looked inside and squinted as he looked at himself and his sister. "I'd say I was at least thirteen and Thea looks to be three."
"You two look so cute!" she whispered excitedly.
"Yeah, I guess we were kind of cute," Oliver replied, wrapping his arm around Felicity's shoulder, pulling her into his chest. Looking down at her, he smiled. "Thank you."
"For what?" Felicity asked, tilting her head to the side as she looked up at him.
"For making this Christmas the best Christmas ever," he replied, leaning down and pressing his lips to hers.
As the two pulled apart, Felicity and Oliver smiled at one another briefly. Then all of the sudden, it felt as though they were being pulled through a hole in the space-time continuum. A feeling that Oliver was oddly familiar after a few of his adventures with Barry.
"Well, how was it?" Barry asked, a smile beaming brightly from his face.
"We didn't end up at the right Christmas," Oliver replied, furrowing his brow at the smile on Barry's face. "But you knew that, didn't you?"
Barry tossed his head back with a laugh and ducked out of the way when he saw Oliver's hand swinging in his general direction.
"Thanks, Barry," Felicity replied, wrapping her arms around Oliver's waist and pulling him away from Barry with a large smile on her face. "That was the best Christmas present ever."