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1.
Felicity lives for colors. Her outfits, lips and nails attest to that. Which is why Sara is so thrown by her demand that their bedroom be practically void of color. Felicity explains to her that this space should be theirs, no markings of the outside world or past memories to trip them up when they should only be wrapped in their own or each other’s presence.
The one amendment she adds to this demand, however, is the necessity of plants. Lots of them. Her old apartment had more than a scattering of herbs, flowers, or plants in each room, and she’s mentioned to Sara more than once that she’s been seriously considering transplanting a few of them to the foundry.
When she’s given the go ahead for their new apartment, she may go a little overboard in her attempt to fill the rooms with as much vitality as she can. Sara disapproves slightly at first, but relents with a small, sad smile when Felicity explains her reasoning. Why Felicity thinks that the apartment would be devoid of life when she’s the one populating it, Sara will never know, but still she gives into Felicity’s wishes, and their home quickly develops the feel of a greenhouse.
The overpopulation of nature in their loft apartment isn’t even the most peculiar part of the whole thing. That distinction goes to Felicity’s tendency to assign personalities to the individual plants, with entire storylines to rival daytime soap operas.
When Sara comes home to find Felicity at the tail end of completely rearranging the room they use as their joint office (the room that, without a doubt, has the most plants), she almost doesn’t want to ask.
“Who attempted murder this time?” Sara sighs, leaning against the doorway.
“Jack the Beanstalk was feeling threatened by Princess Guadalupe the Conqueror because she keeps spreading out further past her allotted two-thirds of their shelf, so I had to completely re-Feng Shui the whole room just to keep her from getting her vines around his neck. It’s better now because they’re in separate corners. I swear, it’s just like kindergarten with those two.”
Sara has known Felicity long enough to know not to overtly call her out on her babbling or quirks, just as Felicity knows when to push and when to let go about things from Sara’s past. However, this is one topic on which Sara thinks she has full rights to tease.
“Why don’t we just trade Jack the Beanstalk for some magic beans and we could go back to the functionality of the old office arrangement?” Sara asks, dryly.
Felicity shoots her a quick glare, but then turns back to the three small ferns sitting on the low table near the printer and tries to arrange them in a more geometric pattern.
“Jack has been with us for at least three months now. He is family, and family members do not trade one another for magic beans.” She pauses. “Do you think maybe we should bring one of the fern sisters down to the Foundry? Oliver’s been sleeping there a lot.”
Sara walks up behind Felicity, slides her arms around Felicity’s middle and places her chin on her shoulder. Without her heels on, Felicity is just slightly shorter than Sara, something that Sara finds surprisingly intimate.
“I’m worried about him,” Felicity admits, resting her hands on Sara’s.
Sara hums, tightening her arms around Felicity consolingly. She moves to place her lips against Felicity’s bare shoulder in a ghost of a kiss, before attempting to lighten Felicity’s mood again.
“Won’t Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup be upset if one of them is given to the Foundry? Weren’t you just telling me that family doesn’t trade each other away?” Sara teases her. Felicity leans back in the embrace a bit, before tapping Sara’s hands twice quickly and gently.
“Well, it’s not like we’re abandoning one of them. Just taking one to our other home. Whoever goes will still be a part of the family,” she responds matter of factly. She turns and presses a quick kiss to Sara’s cheek before walking out of the room.
Sara pauses and looks at the three plants placed in a perfectly equilateral triangle on the circular table.
“So which of you would be the least cry baby if you had to leave the office? Buttercup, right?” Sara asks the three.
“No way! Blossom is way more independent. She’ll be the one to volunteer,” Felicity calls from the hallway. Sara shakes her head, not even trying to fight the wide smile that only Felicity can manage to draw out of her.
2.
Sara is halfway down the stairs to the Foundry when she notices that Felicity has finally brought Blossom the Fern to Oliver. She watches in amusement as Oliver holds the plant gently in his hands, his confused but pleased half smile giving a pretty good indication that he doesn’t exactly know what this gift means from Felicity.
Sara stops a few steps shy of the landing, choosing to hang back and observe as the scene plays out. She and Felicity have had more than a few talks about the Oliver situation, and while they have never actually come to a solid decision, Sara knows it’s only a matter of time before the tension between the three of them requires action.
Oliver’s eyes keep moving steadily between the plant and Felicity, who is lecturing him on the importance of paying attention to a plant, her spiraled earrings swaying with every pointed shake of her head. She finally reaches the end of her plant care speech and moves in with one hand on his forearm to give him a soft kiss on his cheek, before heading over to her station. Sara takes this as her cue to make her way over to Oliver, grinning at his dazed look.
“If you saw our apartment, you would know that it was really only a matter of time before this happened,” Sara informs him, somewhat candidly.
Oliver’s eyebrows draw together. “She told me its name is Blossom. Do ferns … blossom? Is it some kind of irony thing?”
Sara huffs a laugh, dropping her chin a bit before looking back at Oliver with a slight tilt of her head, the corner of her mouth twitching upwards.
“You know why she’s doing this, right?” she asks. Sara is not one to be anything other than blunt with him, not after everything they’ve been through together.
“I …” Oliver looks over to where Felicity is running her routine checks and upgrades, then back to Sara. “I thought you two were …”
“We are. But Ollie,” she says softly, stepping closer and putting her hand on his cheek, “you and I, we always manage to find a way back to one another. And as for Felicity, well, is it really that impossible to believe that she could love both of us, tragic backstories and all?”
She holds Oliver’s gaze, trying to communicate beyond just words. “Believe me, you can have happiness in your life, but only if you let yourself have it.”
Sara lets her smirk grow bigger as Oliver gapes at her, only now starting to understand the extent of the situation. He’s still holding Blossom, so Sara reaches to take the plant out of his hands as Felicity, having noticed the quiet but intense conversation taking place, approaches the two.
“What’s going on over here?” Felicity asks, arms crossed over her midriff. She sounds somewhat unsure of herself, as though she’s nervous from being excluded from their conversation. Sara smiles at her, and grabs one of Felicity’s hands with her own that is not holding Blossom.
“I was just telling Ollie how it’s unfair of us to separate Blossom from her sisters when the obvious solution to this whole thing is for him to join us in our apartment,” she says pointedly, squeezing Felicity’s hand. “Don’t you think?”
Felicity’s eyes widen and her mouth falls open a bit. She looks to Oliver in a direct, sure stare that proves she can go toe to toe with any of the heroes that call the Foundry home.
“I think it’s perfect.” She raises her eyebrows at Oliver.
“Perfect,” he agrees.
3.
Sara leads Oliver out of Queen Consolidated’s executive elevator, moving a little slower tonight, if only because they’ve had a long couple of nights and, now that things have finally settled down, they’ve decided to hand the city over to their protégés for tonight. It’s becoming less of a novelty for them both, having a night off of protecting the city, since Roy, Laurel, and Diggle have proven themselves to be an unlikely cohesive team many times over now. Neither Sara nor Oliver are particularly worried about handing the reins over while they go to collect Felicity.
Felicity, who is still currently working in her executive office, pouring over specs for new technologies to incorporate into Queen Consolidated’s experimental tech program. Having regained his company earlier that year, Oliver had quickly moved to place Felicity in a position suited to her abilities, a move that was widely regarded as nepotism until the board had the pleasure of experiencing a highly detailed, full-fledged plan of action by the new executive. There were still some murmurs here and there about the whole power shift, but the rising figures of investments and the regard that Queen Consolidated was gaining among the technological community quieted the complaints after some time.
Now Felicity works double time, multitasking her duties as executive and tech genius for crime fighting heroes from her high rise office until either Oliver or Sara (sometimes both) convince her to go home.
Oliver follows Sara into Felicity’s office, not quite touching her but walking close enough that she can feel his body heat right behind her. Both notice the object hanging in the doorway and they share a quick amused glance between the two of them, before walking closer to Felicity’s desk.
“I see you have a new friend in your office,” Sara says, moving some papers off the corner of Felicity’s desk and perching there, a foot coming to rest on the edge of Felicity’s seat.
“Hmm?” Felicity hums, eyes still looking at her screen, but head turning towards her girlfriend in anticipation of a greeting kiss.
Sara scrunches her face together in amusement at Felicity’s distractedness, but still bends to give her a quick peck on the lips, then says, “The mistletoe? In the doorway?”
Oliver moves behind the chair and lightly massages Felicity’s shoulders. She tilts her head as he works on a particularly tight spot near her shoulder blade, before settling back in her chair with a small sigh.
“Oh,” she says with realization. “You mean Chad. Yeah, Jerry thought it would be a show of good spirits to decorate parts of the office for the holiday season.” Her voice communicates her disapproval of her assistant’s decision.
“Chad?” Oliver asks, and Sara knows they’re both ready for whatever story she might have come up with this time.
But Felicity surprises them both. “Chad was an ex-boyfriend from high school who didn’t quite realize that no means no. Which makes it the perfect name for a plant that is associated with a tradition of shaky consent and forced physical contact due to social pressures. Honestly, I would have taken it down hours ago, except you know,” she gestures to herself vaguely, “short.”
Sara and Oliver share a quick look, before Oliver starts moving towards the door.
“Well, we have come to take you home since we’ve been given the night off,” Sara says, pulling Felicity out of her chair. She looks around for Felicity’s coat and purse, which could have been placed anywhere in the course of the morning. Felicity’s mind tends to go straight to the nitty gritty part of her job, and lets miniscule details, like putting her coat in a certain spot each day, fall to the wayside more often than not.
“You know, the folklore in many cultures actually attribute peace between enemies to mistletoe, and hanging it symbolises a sign of peace and goodwill. Too bad our society has completely manipulated it because of commercialism and whatnot,” Felicity says, still focused on her issue with Chad as Sara helps her put her coat on. “Maybe we should move Chad down to the Foundry.”
Sara eyes Oliver moving back towards the two of him, and notices the mischievous look he has while Felicity is searching around her desk for her clutch. Sara’s ready when Oliver hangs the plant over Felicity’s head, and they both lean in to quickly kiss at the corners of her mouth.
Felicity gasps quietly, and then Sara is moving to cover Felicity’s lips more fully as Oliver lowers his head to leave open mouthed kisses down her jawline to her neck, letting the now forgotten mistletoe fall to the floor.
“Felicity,” Oliver murmurs, his mouth against Felicity’s skin. “Let’s go home.”
“Mmhmm, home. Yeah, sounds good,” Felicity says distractedly between Sara’s deepening kisses.
4.
Sara walks into the kitchen and hops up onto the counter, letting her feet knock gently into the cabinets below. She observes Oliver watering the many herbs above the kitchen sink, before he moves onto the hanging plants closer to the little nook in the corner.
“You know, it’s a good thing you got back in the board’s good graces when you got your company back. There’s no way we’d be able to afford the water bill in this place otherwise,” she jokes.
Oliver shakes his head a little, moving to put the watering can back in its spot near the sink, before walking over to Sara and stepping in between her legs. She lets her knees fall open a bit, enjoying the feel of his hands inching their way up her thighs. She puts her hands on the counter behind her and leans back as far as the cabinet behind her will let her. Oliver opens his mouth to finally reply, but is distracted by the sound of a dull thump against the front door, which signals Felicity’s return from shopping with probably too much in her hands to successfully turn the door knob on the first try.
“I got it! Don’t worry!” Felicity’s voice calls out, slightly muffled by the door.
Oliver leans forward, forehead to Sara’s ribcage, and Sara smiles.
Finally the front door opens and, sure enough, they can both hear multiple bags dropping to the floor.
“Guess who’s going to have twins?!”
Sara’s pulse picks up and Oliver’s hands tighten on her thighs before their eyes meet in half panic, half anticipation. Their conversations have been more serious lately about starting a family between the three of them, but Felicity wouldn’t drop such big news on them like this.
There’s no way to know this early if it’d be twins, Sara thinks, and her posture relaxes. She sees Oliver come to a similar conclusion, his grip loosening, shoulders dropping in slight disappointment. Felicity walks in then holding two small plants, one in each hand.
“Twins!” she exclaims happily, holding both plants up for them to see.
“Who was it this time?” Sara asks fondly, letting her head fall back against the cabinet behind her. Oliver turns, still between Sara’s legs, and looks at Felicity.
“Well, Odette and Esteban having been looking a little too cozy in the living room lately, and so here we are! Besides, I thought we might benefit from some more vitality around here,” Felicity says, turning to place the plants on the kitchen table. Her voice seems a little off, wobbling a bit at the end of her sentences.
“We have enough life in the apartment, Felicity,” Oliver says kindly, but a bit exasperatedly. When she turns and takes a shaky step closer to both of them, he smiles at her curiously.
Felicity’s hands tremble a bit, before dropping to rest on her stomach.
“Really? Because I was thinking we could maybe do with a little more life. And I’ve been reading up on mint,” she says, gesturing back to the two plants on the table, “and how it helps curb symptoms of nausea and I was thinking that it would probably be a good idea to keep around in the upcoming months, just in case. I mean I know every woman’s body is different, but nausea tends to be a typical symptom, right? Ugh, is that TMI?”
She abruptly cuts herself off after her question, forcing her eyes shut before chancing a glance quickly between the two. Less than a beat later, Oliver is in front of Felicity cupping her face in his hands and Sara is grabbing one of Felicity’s hands in both of hers.
“You’re sure?” Oliver asks intently. Felicity nods slowly, first looking at Oliver and then Sara to take in both their reactions. Sara watches as Oliver lifts Felicity’s face and presses his lips against hers firmly, and then she’s nudging him aside and stepping in front of Felicity. Oliver moves behind Felicity and envelops her, his hands coming to rest on her lower belly, as Sara covers Felicity’s face with light kisses.
“Pregnant lady’s gotta breathe!” Felicity laughs, but doesn’t attempt to untangle herself from either of them.
When Sara speaks, she can’t help letting the giddiness she’s feeling seep into her voice.
“Well, there should be more than enough oxygen in this apartment for you, so that shouldn’t be an issue.”
Felicity laughs again, and Sara only feels happiness.