Work Text:
Welcome To The Arcade
He has never understood girls. Currently, it’s his little sister, Thea, who is driving him crazy. Why she just HAD to have a Berry Blast smoothie, from the smoothie store on the other side of the mall, 5 minutes before the movie started he has no idea.
He’s practically jogging through the mall, attracting several curious looks from fellow shoppers, hoping he makes it back in time. His rush to get there and back as soon as possible is not because he wants to see the start of the movie. He really has no interest in seeing the latest Nicholas Sparks film; where the guy meets the girl, then they fall in love and live happily ever after.
No, his haste is not because he wants to see the movie. It’s actually so he doesn't have to face his sister’s wrath for not making it back in time. For a girl so small she really can be scary when she’s angry. Not that he would ever admit that to anyone, but he learnt the hard way never to underestimate that small brunette.
When he could see the smoothie store at the end of the corridor he slowed to a walk and as he neared the store he could see the it was packed with people and then stretched out the door and into the corridor. Sighing he took out his phone to find some form of entertainment; anything that could take his mind off of the mind numbing, snails pace the line was moving at.
Too busy on his phone checking messages, he didn't notice that the line had stopped moving and he walked straight into the blonde girl waiting in the line in front of him. He heard a mumbled string of curses and looked up from his phone in time to see her bag fall to the ground and spill out onto the ground around them.
“Shit! I'm sorry, I wasn't looking. Here let me help you with that.” He said, instinctively dropping to the floor to help gather the now scattered contents of her bag.
He could hear what he assumed was her scoff at his apology before going silent all of a sudden. It wasn't until his hands were full of bright pink lipstick, a couple of red pens and what he thought might be computer parts of some sort, that he looked up and saw who he just walked into.
As he reached over to return everything in his hands to her bag he studied the girl in front of him and realised that he knew her. He hadn't recognised her when he got there was because she had changed so much since he last saw her. Having dyed her previously black hair blonde, exchanging her dark eye-liner and lipstick for a bright pink and her traditional all-black wardrobe for a more varied, lighter coloured blouse and pencil skirt. She was so different; but she was still the same girl.
“Ahh thanks but you really don't have to do that.” She said hesitantly, quickly glancing at him in between grabbing items from the floor and shoving them back in the now half full bag.
“Really, it's no problem Felicity. It was my fault; I wasn't looking.”
Felicity paused in collecting the contents of her bag and looked up at him with a shocked look on her face.
“You remember me!?”
He couldn't help but smile at her shock, “Of course I remember you, Felicity.”
At this she just looked more shocked, “But how…”
“We went to school together.”
“Yeah, but you were only at Starling Academy for a semester before you were kicked out. And you rarely showed up to any classes and only hung out with the popular crowed who were mostly millionaires or billionaires even. I didn't exactly fit in with those kinds of people.” After a minute her eyebrows shot as Felicity processed what she had said. Before she could say anything else, like he knew she would, he interrupted her.
“You also worked at the Tech Village next to the arcade. Me and Tommy used to hang out there..”
Felicity just stared at him as if trying to solve some sort of puzzle before she spoke again. “Yeah but how…” getting caught in her thoughts she trailed off as she studied him.
“Whenever one of the game consoles would break the manager would always call Tech Village and ask for you to come fix it. He would always say that you were the best they had.”
He was pleased when she smiled; the memory of the countless visits to the arcade and the constantly glitchy and broken game consoles she would be tasked with fixing clearly a good one.
“Obviously not, I mean they kept breaking.” She said with a short laugh.
“Nah, It wasn't because of you, it just…” He trailed off, fidgeting with his phone he looked down at his hands before replying “Well it wasn't always an accident...”
“What does that mean?”
“Well, I mean, they didn't always break by themselves. Sometimes they had help with the whole ‘not working’ thing.” He would have guessed that she would be confused or shocked at his confession but her reaction was almost the opposite of surprised.
“So what your saying is someone or multiple someone's would tamper with the game consoles so I would have to come and fix them!? Now why would they do that?” She said, sarcasm evident in her voice. The way she tilted her head and tried to hide a smile caught him off guard, and he couldn't help but smile himself.
“You knew!?” He said incredulously.
“I have a genius level IQ, built my first computer when I was seven and when I was 19, I was ranked 2nd in the National Information Technology competition. Do you really think I wouldn't notice that the game consoles I was constantly fixing weren't tampered with?”
He stared at her, and he was speechless. Obviously noticing his confusion and taking pity on him Felicity continued to explain.
“The way the consoles were ‘broken’ wouldn't have happened naturally or by kids playing them too much. It was clear that someone had been tampering with them.” She said, emphasising the word broken.
“Why didn't up you ever say anything?”
“Why did you keep doing it?”
Again he was speechless, not because he didn't know the answer but because he was didn't want her to know the answer. He had clearly underestimated Felicity Smoak.
He was saved from answering her question when she was called up to the counter to order. He hadn't even noticed that she had finished re-packing her bag and that they had continued moving up the line.
He watched as she turned and smiled at the young girl behind the counter and ordered a Strawberry Swirl smoothie. After receiving her drink, she thanked the girl and stepped to the side for him to order.
When the smoothie girl handed him Thea’s must have Berry Blast smoothie he turned around to find her waiting just outside of the store, casually sipping her drink.
“If you knew what we were doing why didn't you rat is out to the manager?” He asked when he reached her.
“I didn't know.” She replied.
“But you just said…” he trailed off, really confused by her statement.
“Well I knew, but I didn't know, know.” She paused and frowned, realising that what she said probably didn't make any sense.
“I knew that someone was tampering with the consoles but I didn't know who it was. And as to why I didn't say anything; I really didn't see the harm in it. I mean I managed to get them working again and it was fun seeing how you would try to make it harder to fix each time. There was one week where it took me forever to figure out what you had done to the console.”
He tilted his head and gave her a doubtful expression.
“Really!? It took you forever?.”
“Okay, so maybe not forever, it was more like a couple of minutes. But that's still longer than most of the other times.” She was trying not to smile or look too proud of herself before her smile turned into a frown as she thought of something.
“Why did you keep breaking the games. I always thought it was just some kids who had nothing better to do than mess around with unsuspecting game consoles, but you could do anything you wanted, you didn't have to tamper with the arcades games for fun.”
“At first it was just a silly prank, but then…” He trailed off.
“Then what?” Felicity encouraged him to keep going.
“Well, then it was because you were the one who came to fix the consoles when they were, ahh, ‘broken’.”
Felicity's eyes went wide as she stared at him. Clearly that was the last thing she had expected to hear. And to be honest he hadn't expected to say that, he definitely hadn't intended to.
“I ahh…” But she was cut of by her phones ringtone going off.
Saved by the bell yet again, or ringtone as it were.
Both of them looked towards the offending object before returning their gazes to each other.
“I should let you get that. I really have to go meet my sister.” He said and he was sure he saw the shocked expression on her face turn to one of disappointment.
“Oh, right, of course. It was, ahh, nice to see you again.”
He couldn't help but smile, “Yeah, it was nice to see you too Felicity. And, again, I'm sorry for, you know, walking into you.”
“You can walk into me anytime.” She laughed before her face dropped and she realised what she had said.
He let out a deep chuckle, “See you around, Felicity Smoak” he replied and before she could stutter out any form of explanation for her comment he was already turning around, smoothie in hand, and walking back down the corridor towards the movie theatre.
Felicity stood there, watching his retreating figure disappear into the crowed, and wondering what everything he had just said to her could mean. She was broken out of her thoughts by her phones nagging ringtone and finally answered the call.
“You are never going to believe who I just bumped into… Literally!” She said with a smile on her face. On the other end of the line she could hear her friend make some silly remark before finally giving up and asking who it was.
Still not really believing it herself Felicity replied with two words, “Oliver Queen.”
The End.