Work Text:
16 May 2015
somewhere along the US west coast
Felicity approached the car with one hand behind her back, a weighty plastic bag dangling from the other, and a playful smile tugging at her lips. The bright sunlight shone on her hair. A soft breeze tossed the curls across her shoulders and wafted the fumes from the gas pumps into his nose. The reality of the situation slammed into him again. Last week, last month, last year, all of this had seemed impossible. Unthinkable. Something he didn’t deserve and could never have. Something he hadn’t let himself realize he wanted so badly until it was almost taken away.
Oliver closed the cover over the gas cap and stepped forward to meet her. He took the bag when she held it out to him. The drinks she’d gone inside to procure sloshed gently as he settled their provisions on the back seat for later.
Felicity’s other hand emerged from hiding. In it she held an unwrapped two-pack of mass-produced cupcakes with a single small candle stuck into the middle of each. The candles were the kind usually found in larger quantities on full-sized cakes at parties. Both were green. Oliver watched with adoration as Felicity pulled a lighter from her jeans pocket and carefully lit the wicks.
“Happy birthday,” she said.
“Thank you.” Damn if he wasn’t actually getting a little choked up over this. It was such a small gesture, but so perfectly her.
“Make a wish before the wax melts all over the frosting that might as well be wax,” she prompted. Oliver took a quick breath and blew out the flames.
“I don’t need to wish. I have everything I could ask for.”
She shifted the snack cakes off to the side so she could reward his sentimentality with a brief kiss. He returned it eagerly, tasting the whisper of mint in the lip balm she’d started using to counteract the effects of the wind in the convertible.
“We gonna eat these things or what?” she murmured against his lips.
“Sure.”
Felicity lifted the container between them, plucked out one of the candles, and popped the bottom into her mouth to suck off the sticky icing. Oliver followed suit, then took her candle to free up her fingers for the real goal. They each extracted a cupcake from its brown plastic well.
“You know, there were a lot of days when I didn’t expect to make it this far,” he told her. She nodded solemnly.
“I know.” She raised her cupcake in a toast and waited for him to do the same. “To thirty. Here’s hoping for thirty more, and thirty more after that.”
Unable to find the words to answer, Oliver tapped his cake against hers in a silent clink then bit it in half. Felicity grinned at him as she took a daintier bite of her own. The chocolate was fake and had a weirdly oily texture. The frosting clung to the roofs of their mouths. Crumbs scattered on their shirts and the ground between their feet.
It was perfect.
“These things are not nearly as good as they were when I was a kid,” Felicity said, smiling around a mouthful of artificial flavoring. Oliver quirked an eyebrow at her as he shoved the rest of his own cupcake into his mouth and reached for hers. She pulled it out of his reach. “I didn’t say I didn’t want it. It still has the nostalgia factor going for it.”
He swallowed and grinned at her as she took another bite. He’d never had a particularly refined palate, despite his mother's best efforts, but when you had to survive on whatever you could scrounge or hunt, you learned to ignore bad tastes in favor of sustenance. Industrial snacks were practically gourmet compared to week-old, unrefrigerated boar, and these had the added benefit of coming from the woman he loved.
Oliver redirected his hand, resting it on Felicity’s hip. He leaned down for another kiss, which she happily returned, humming softly. God, he loved that sound. He rested his forehead against hers, basking in her warmth a moment longer. Straightening to his full height, he took a deep breath and asked, “Ready to go?”
“Yeah.”
He disposed of the empty plastic packaging and cooled candles while she finished off her cupcake, licking a smear of gooey filling from the pad of her finger. They climbed back into the car and pulled out of the gas station onto the winding coastal road.
“So where to now?” Felicity asked.
“Let’s find out,” he answered. Oliver wasn’t sure exactly where they were going yet. Eventually, they would go home, back to Starling. For now? A little wandering sounded just right. This time he wasn’t running away, and he wasn’t alone. Felicity smiled approvingly and laid her hand on his arm.
“Onward.”