Work Text:
You Drove Me Wild (and you wouldn’t let me lose control)
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The sound of metal on metal fills the cavernous basement. For some it would just be considered a loud and somewhat annoying noise, disrupting the calm atmosphere of the room. But it has come to haunt Felicity.
With every loud bang that sounds, several unwanted and seriously distracting images of a certain vigilante make their way into her mind. Images that show toned muscles contract as said vigilante makes his way up the Salmon Ladder; the stupidly distracting, and torturous piece of training equipment that has resulted in many wasted hours of ogling the perfectly sculpted body.
Now, many women might argue that being able to watch the Greek God that is Oliver Queen work out, night and day, would be a gift. But Felicity Smoak was not most women.
Of course she enjoyed watching him go through his work out routine, and sure she was impressed, not every man could spend hours working out and making it look like one of the easiest things in the world. Most of the guys she knows could barely do ten sit ups without breaking a sweat.
So, the problem was not that she didn’t like to watch him train; it was actually that she liked it too much. You see Felicity had been in love with her ruggedly handsome, billionaire for months now; but not just any love, a head over heels, heart skips a beat, go weak in the knees, unrequited love. The kind of love love that leaves her fantasising about the day he jumps down from the rooftops and declares his undying love for his nerdy IT girl and crying herself to sleep every night it doesn’t happen.
But unfortunately that’s not going to be changing anytime soon. You see, Oliver himself said that they can never be together; that “because of the life I lead, its better to not with someone I could really care about” and that they should just stay friends.
So, you see the problem.
Not only is she in love with her tall, dark and handsome best friend but she is also in love with the worlds most stubborn man, which totally sucks no matter how devilishly charming he may be sometimes.
And listening to him Clang! Clang! Clang! every day and night is not doing anything to help her move on with her life. It is certainly not helping her to try to forget about Oliver Queen, because as much as she tries to ignore him and what she knows he is doing not ten feet behind her, there is only so much a girl can take.
And that is why today, unlike every other day where she sits at her computers and tries in vain to block out the metal and the grunts and the images in her head, she snaps and uses her loud voice against a very confused Vigilante.
****
“Will you just SHUT UP!!”
The sound of her voice echoes through the basement and every pair of eyes turn to her with a look of confusion and shock plastered on all of their faces.
She is now standing in front of her desk facing towards the occupants of the room; her hand covering her mouth, unable to believe that she just used her loud voice. And evidently, she is not alone in that.
“It is really hard to concentrate with all that noise.” she says a minute later, no longer using her loud voice but an uncharacteristically timid one.
Oliver is the first to speak after he drops down from the Salmon Ladder and starts walking over to her. The rest of the team, which includes Dig, Roy, Sara, Thea and Laurel, are still staring at her from their scattered positions around the basement.
“Is everything okay, Felicity?” says Oliver, almost hesitantly.
“Uhh, of course it is, you’re just making a lot of noise and it’s hard to concentrate on finding this weeks bad guys super secret, evil lair.”
“The noise has never bothered you before.” He says with a smirk on his face. Unfortunately for Oliver, that was the wrong thing to say to an already wound up Felicity.
“Oh, so just because I don’t complain all the time, it automatically means that I’m not allowed to complain ever.” Her loud voice returning as she stares him down.
Taken back again, Oliver pauses before responding; “No, of course not! That’s not what I meant. I’m just confused since you’ve never complained about the noise before. I’m sorry, I’ll try to keep the noise down.”
“Good.” Felicity says flatly before turning and sitting back at her desk; letting out a huff of breath before she begins typing again.
Frowning, Oliver turned to the rest of his team, searching their faces for any sign of an explanation. However, all he finds are the same frowns of confusion that appears on his own face. Sighing, he moves towards the mats to spar with Dig or Sara.
****
An hour later everyone was packing up their stuff and getting changed to go home. Meanwhile, Felicity sat quietly at her computers as they all talked about heading to Big Belly Burger for a late diner.
She knew that she should either join them or head home; and neither options sounded very appealing. If she went out with the team, then she would have to sit in the awkwardness that had become the atmosphere of the Foundry since her outburst. Whereas, if she went home she would be heading to an empty apartment to spend the night alone, and she definitely didn’t want to think about that at the moment.
Felicity was broken out of her reverie by a large, warm hand being placed on her shoulder. She didn’t have to look to know who it belonged to; the constant touches were another way that Oliver was constantly torturing her.
Thanks to the eerily quiet that had descended upon the Foundry since her loud voice echoed through the basement, Felicity was still incredibly wound up from the tension that ensued, causing her to snap a “What” at Oliver whilst simultaneously shrugging off his hand.
“I… ahh… I tried calling your name and you didn’t respond so I… well we’re all going to Big Belly and we wanted to know if you were coming? I didn’t mean to scare you.” he said apologetically.
“You didn’t. And no, I’m not coming. I still have heaps to do here.” She said more harshly than she intended.
“You need to eat.” Oliver’s voice was sweet, a tone he only used when talking to her when he was concerned about her. And like everything else, it was the just the wrong thing to do right now.
“Look, Oliver, I’m fine. I’ll eat later. You guys just go. I’ll.. I’ll see you tomorrow. Goodnight.”
With that she turned back to her computers and started fiercely typing and getting frustrated when she repeated the last line of code she had just written.
As Oliver was walking over to the foot of the stairs where everyone was waiting he could here the mutterings of curses escaping the blondes mouth.
“Is she okay? What did you do this time, Ollie?” asked Thea.
“What? Me? I didn’t do anything” Oliver said incredulously.
“Maybe that’s the problem.” said Dig under his breath so no one was able to hear what he said.
“What did you say John?” asked Oliver with a frown.
“I said maybe you should talk to her.” Oliver frowned knowing that that was not what he had said.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea? I mean it doesn’t exactly look like she wants to talk.” Asked Laurel.
“Yeah, you should fix this before it gets worse, Ollie.” Said Sara to which she received a glare from Oliver.
“Ollie will be able to make her talk, right big brother? If not you can always use your ‘grrr’ voice” said Thea with a smug look on her face.
“Speedy! I don’t want to make Felicity do anything.” Oliver replied sharply.
“Sure you don’t.”
“Come on man, you know she’s right. If there is something going on with blondie, then you’re the one she’s gonna tell.” Said Roy with an almost identical look on his face to Thea’s, as well as a hint of concern for his surrogate sister.
“Yeah, okay. I’ll talk to her. Meet you guys at Big Belly.” Oliver sighed whilst running a hand across the back of his neck.
“See you later, Ollie.”
“Good luck with Blondie.”
“If you need back up, give us a call.”
“I so wish I could stay to see this.”
After the chorus of goodbyes from his so-called friends followed them up the stairs and out of the basement he turned to the beautiful blonde sitting with slumped shoulders in front of her computers.
“Felicity?” he said hesitantly as he made is way over to her.
“What do you want, Oliver?” she said and Oliver stopped mid-stride at the sound of her voice. He had never heard her sound so… broken. It broke his heart to hear his Felicity sound like that.
“Talk to me, Felicity. What’s wrong?” She let out a sound that was probably supposed to be a laugh before turning in her chair to face him.
“What’s wrong?” she repeated his question at him to which he nodded in response.
“You! Your what’s wrong!” she said in her loud voice.
Oliver flinched at her words.
“I’m sorry.”
“OMG Oliver!!” she said as she stood up.
“Stop saying your sorry! The whole world doesn’t rest on your shoulders. Stop taking responsibility for everything! And everyone! We can make our own choices, Oliver, we should be ALLOWED to make our own choices!”
“I’ve never stopped you from making your own choices.” Said Oliver, his voice so quiet compared to Felicity’s.
“Are you kidding?” she asked incredulously.
“What about when you refuse to let me go undercover or even into the field, huh? Or when you refused to train Laurel? Or when Thea joined the team and you refused to let them do anything in the field except watch from the sidelines? Or when Roy wanted to tell Thea and you threatened him to keep it a secret? Or I don’t know, when you made the decision to not give us a chance and told me that we could never be together. Did you really think it was my choice to sit quietly by and watch the man I love with other completely beautiful women and be completely jealous that I’ll never be that girl for you, huh?”
By now tears were streaming down Felicity’s face and all Oliver could do is stand across from her, staring while she poured her heart out to him.
“Do you really think that I want to be in love with my best friend, who is determined to push me away any and every chance he gets but then pulls me back and dangles maybes in front of me whenever he feels like it? Do you really think that this is what I want? To be stuck in a basement with you all shirtless and being a hero and making it impossible to move on with my pathetic life, when all I really want is you?”
She stops to catch he breath, and it’s only then that she processes everything she has just confessed. But knowing it’s too late to take it back now Felicity stands up straighter and squares her shoulders; ready for whatever excuse Oliver is about to give her.
Only it never comes.
Oliver doesn’t know what to say. He can’t stop replaying her words in his head – “the man I love” and “all I really want is you”. He can’t believe how desperately he has wanted to hear her say those words for so long. Can’t believe that he has been such an idiot to have constantly pushed her away. Or how angry he is is at himself for all the pain he has caused her whilst he was trying to keep her from getting hurt. And how all he wants is her too.
With all of these revelations rushing through his head he doesn’t realise that his frozen and dumbfounded expression is killing the girl standing in front of him, who thinks that his lack of response is because he can’t believe how ridiculous she is and that he he just doesn’t know how to tell her to get over her foolish infatuation. When in reality, its because he can’t figure out how to make his legs work so that he can walk over to her and wrap her in his arms and tell her how much he loves her.
It’s not until he hears her release a strangled sob as she moves to walk past him that his body springs to life. His hand shoots out to grab her wrist before she can get away, he is then pulling her into his chest and wrapping her small frame in his arms.
The looks on her face, a mixture of confusion and pain at being so close to him, springs him to words.
“I’m so sorry, Felicity. I’m an idiot. Oh God! am I an idiot. I thought I was protecting you; saving you from being hurt by me. I didn’t realise that I was hurting you anyway. I’m so sorry. I’m not going to do it anymore, I promise.”
“Do what, Oliver?” She asks in little more than a whisper.
“Pretend I don’t love you.” He says calmly, with no room for her to doubt the sincerity of his words.
Felicity closes her eyes and a single tear escapes as she tries desperately not to get her hopes up in case this is all a dream and she wakes up tomorrow and none of it was real.
The feeling of Oliver’s thumb brushing away the tear is what draws her back to reality to see the absolute and undeniable love in his clear blue eyes. Its only then, looking into his eyes and the honesty she can see in them that allows her to truly believe him and collapse into his embrace, so that the only thing holding her up are his strong arms.
“I love you, Felicity.” He says, and she can’t believe the weight that is lifted off her heart at finally hearing those three little words.
Thinking that this moment could not be any more perfect, Oliver proves her wrong as he leans down and kisses her. A kiss that promises this is real and that he will never push her away again. A kiss that finally lets both of them lose control and finally give into their feelings for each other.
****
“They’re completely hopeless.”
“Can they seriously not see it?.”
“Hey, you guys can’t complain, you haven’t been here since the beginning, when he would come up with the worst excuses just to see her when…”
Dig was cut off by his phone going off; signalling that he has a message. Opening the message he smiles as he reads the brief line.
“What’s up Dig?”
“Is that from Ollie?”
“Is he on his way?”
“Did he and Felicity make up?”
After everyone had finished asking questions, he cleared his throat and read the text aloud: ‘Dig, all good. Taking Felicity home. See you tomorrow. Oliver.”
There was silence at the table until Thea spoke up; “Well, I guess they kissed and made up.” It was then that everyone at their small, over-crowded booth burst into laughter thinking about how finally their two friends had seen what they had all known for years.
The End.