be us against the world - t - olicity - part 6 [b]
title: we keep all our promises (be us against the world)
category: arrow
genre: drama/romance
chapter rating: pg-13/teen
overall rating: nc-17/explicit
inspiration: gif (source)
word count: 12,189
summary: [au - no island] Oliver Queen has no idea what he's doing with his life, but when his father gives him an ultimatum, he has to figure it out. After meeting Felicity Smoak, he finds himself on a new path and his eyes are opened to what happiness really means and how finding it takes more courage than he ever thought he had.
[Return.]
Oliver smiled when he spotted her, sitting in the grass with a golden retriever resting their head in her lap. She was reading a book, her fingers absently scratching the dog's ears.
"Who is this?" Oliver asked when he was in reach.
Felicity looked up, smiling in greeting. "This is Mario." She patted his blond head and then held a hand out. "Hey, Jasper…"
Trotting forward, Jasper nuzzled Felicity's hand and then dropped her head to sniff at Mario, who sleepily regarded the smaller dog with disinterest.
Still excited to play, Jasper yapped for attention and bumped her snout against Mario's, but he merely burrowed deeper into Felicity's lap.
She chuckled. "I'm afraid this guy is all tuckered out." She dug a hand into her pocket and came up with a treat, holding it out for Jasper to take. "Did you guys run here?"
Oliver took a seat next to her and pulled his shirt off his sweaty chest, waving it to get some cool air flowing. "What gave me away?"
She looked over at him, brow raised. "You're very sweaty."
He leaned toward her. "Come here…"
She waved a finger, shifting back from him. "Ew, Oliver, no…"
"Come on. Gimme a hug." He slipped an arm around her waist and tugged her to his side, rubbing his sweaty cheek against hers.
"Oliver!" she cried, but her laughter gave her away.
Excited, Jasper ran around them, stepping on Oliver as she tried to get in between them, licking their faces.
Felicity giggled, hugging Jasper's neck. "Save me, Jasper!" she cried dramatically.
But Jasper hopped off her and barked, bending her body forward and wagging her tail, eager to play.
Oliver grinned at her and nodded. "All right." He stood up, digging the ball out of his pocket and bouncing it on the ground once before he threw it for her to chase.
It was a few minutes of back and forth before reality interrupted.
"Have you thought about what's going to happen when she gets adopted?" Felicity wondered as he picked up the sticky ball Jasper dropped at his feet.
He threw it again. "You think she will? It's already been a while."
"She's a good dog. Energetic, well-trained, a good family dog…" She nodded. "Somebody will adopt her."
He frowned.
"It'll be good for her," Felicity encouraged. "She's stuck in those kennels all day. I mean, it doesn't make her time with you any less fun, but dogs shouldn't be cooped up like that all day. It's not fair to them."
He nodded, but the idea of going to the shelter and not picking up Jasper made a special part of his heart hurt.
He felt a hand on his leg and looked down to see Felicity looking up at him gently. "It's hard, but she'll have a family, and they'll love her just as much as you do."
He knew she was right, and Jasper deserved that, but… He wasn't sure anybody could love her as much as he did.
When Jasper finally plopped down on the grass, Oliver sat down beside Felicity, his arms stretched out behind him to lean on. "How's work?"
She inhaled deeply to tell him just how work was, and Oliver listened to every word, watching her hands wave around as she complained about one of the executives spilling his coffee all over his desk, which leaked down into the tower of his computer and destroyed it. Or so he thought. Felicity was able to get it up and working again and retrieve just about everything he needed. She segued into talking about her supervisor and how she was pretty sure he spent more time on porn sites than he did actually supervising, but as long as he kept that confined to his office, she really didn't care.
She was animated. He liked that about her. He liked how she went off on tangents and nearly smacked both him and the dogs in the face with her gesticulating. It was cute.
It wasn't until the sun started to go down that they decided to leave. He helped her up from the grass, holding onto her hand a little longer than necessary and, as they stepped onto the path, simply let that same hand drift to the small of her back. They walked the dogs back through the park and followed the familiar route to the shelter.
Felicity asked him about Tommy and how things were going with each proposal they made to family friends and business owners they'd met over the years. He didn't gloss over the details or try to make it sound any better than it was. If he'd found out anything, it was that telling Felicity what was going on didn't lead to disappointment, only encouragement and understanding. She didn't lie to him, either, though.
After they dropped the dogs off in their kennels, they walked over to the Big Belly Burger on the corner.
"Do you ever get discouraged?" she wondered, tugging the sleeves of her shirt up to her palms and resting her chin on her fists as she leaned forward in her seat, elbows balanced on the tabletop.
He nodded. "Sometimes in the middle of pitching the job, I think I see my dad there, shaking his head, just waiting for me to finish so he can tell me no." He smiled bitterly. "It throws me off. And Tommy has to step in and pick up where I left off."
Felicity paused for a moment, biting her lip, her brow furrowed.
He frowned. "Are you okay?"
"Hm?" She looked up abruptly, her eyes a little wide. "Yeah, I just…" She sighed. "Actually, I need to tell you something."
Oliver went still. Those weren't good words. Weren't they basically the same as 'we need to talk?' Of course, he and Felicity weren't technically in a relationship, so it wasn't as if she could break up with him. Weird, but that's exactly what he felt she might do. He tried to go over a mental list of what he might've done that would make her upset, but he couldn't think of anything specific. Actually, the last time he'd say he really messed up was the night he got black out drunk, and even then he'd had enough foresight to call Felicity for help rather than trek out on his own and get into even more trouble.
"Oliver?"
"What? Sorry?" He shook his head, blinking quickly before he focused on her.
She half-smiled. "I think you zoned out on me."
He winced. "I did. Sorry. I… What did you want to talk about?"
"Um, well, your dad, actually…" She knotted her fingers together and pulled on them in an awkward gesture of hers he'd come to relate to her being uncomfortable with or worried about something.
"My dad," he repeated, his confusion evident. "Okay… What about him?"
"I… That is, a while ago…" She waved a dismissive hand. "Wait, I should start at the beginning."
His mouth twitched. "That'd help, yeah."
She sighed. "Okay, I just want to start this by saying that I had good intentions… Misguided, maybe, and, well, I might've overstepped some serious boundaries. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if you were mad at me, and that's okay, really, you have every right. I just… I want you to know that when I decided to do this it was after a build-up of seeing you so upset and beaten down and I'm really terrible - awful, really - with seeing people I care about get hurt, so, well, I kind of talked myself into it. That's not an excuse, because I probably should have talked to you first, but sometimes I get really headstrong, which, I'm sure you've figured out, and then I do things, and they're a little impetuous, which most wouldn't really think was a very 'me' style of doing things, but, well, when emotions are high…" She held her hands up in a 'what can you do' fashion. "Anyway, I just hope you'll remember that."
He blinked at her. "Okay…" he said slowly, still unsure about where she was going with this.
"Right, um, okay, so I went to your dad's office a few weeks ago because, well, I was worried about you. You'd mentioned a few times how upset you were and how you felt like your dad never really noticed or cared about you. And that kind of guided you throughout most of your life, which is why a lot of your decisions have been kind of…" She made a whistling noise and stuck her thumb down. "So, well, I'd been thinking about it, a lot, and I knew you weren't going to say anything to him about how you felt. Maybe because you're guy and feelings can be hard to talk about, or maybe because you're, well, you, but I got worked up and I was mad that he'd turned you down and then Mr. Merlyn had too, and you were feeling really disappointed, and I just… I mean, I don't want to say I snapped, I just kind of came to this decision to say something, so…"
She drummed her hands on the table top awkwardly. "I went to your dad and I told him that he was missing out on what a good person you were. And I might've, kind of, implied that he had numerous illegitimate children, too, but that's kind of beside the point. Anyway, I told him that the person you are now isn't who you were then and that he was wasting his chance to really get to know you and support you if he was going to focus on some of the mistakes you made before. I think I also told him about Jasper and the homeless shelter and how hard you've been working on the business proposal and that it was something you were really proud of and so he should be too."
Raising her hands, she covered her eyes and sighed. "And I'm really sorry. I should've told you earlier, or not done it at all. I just… My mom always said I was nosy, and maybe in a way I am. But when I decided to do it, it was just because I… I was angry. I was really just mad that your own father couldn't see how far you'd come and how hard you were trying and I just wanted him to see that. So, I know it was a mistake and it probably didn't help anything and you might be really, really upset with me, and I'll totally understand that. But… you needed to know and I'm really sorry."
There was a long pause as Oliver sat back in his booth and tried to absorb what she'd said.
Slowly, Felicity lowered her hands from her eyes. She watched him curiously, her eyes darting over his face, while she picked apart a napkin nervously.
He took a deep breath, opening his mouth to say something, and then let it out on a sigh.
She frowned. "Oliver?" she asked, brows hiked. "On a scale of 1 to your favorite show being cancelled, how upset are you right now?"
"I… don't know." He shook his head, leaning forward and rubbing his hands over his face. "You confronted my dad…"
"I did."
"Without telling me."
"Yes."
"And you told him some pretty personal things, some of which I didn't want him to know…"
She winced, but nodded.
He blinked a few times. "Your mom was right, you're nosy."
She nodded. "Guilty."
"And you overstepped, a lot."
"I know. I did…" She sighed, clasping her hands together. "You can yell. You should yell!"
He stared at her a long moment. "What'd he say? After, I mean."
"Oh, uh…" Her brow furrowed. "He thanked me."
"Thanked you?"
"Yeah, he thanked me for being there for you and he said that he might not say it, but he has noticed that you were making progress."
Slowly, his mouth curved up a little. "Yeah?"
She nodded, smiling faintly. "Yeah."
He hummed, turning his gaze down to the tabletop.
"Are you mad at me?" she asked.
He looked up. The funny thing was, despite knowing what'd she done, it never occurred to him to be mad at her. Was it a breach of trust? Yeah, a little. It was also a little awesome, though. That she was so upset for him that she'd stood up to her own boss, the CEO of the company she worked for, to tell him that Oliver didn't deserve how he was treated. And that stood out a lot more than the other part.
Sighing, he reached for her, taking her hands in his and squeezing. "I appreciate that you wanted to stand up for me, I do." He looked over at her, her teeth chewing at her lip. "I don't recommend doing it again and, maybe next time, just talk to me, but… thank you."
She blinked. "You're thanking me?"
"I…" He blew out a breath. "I can't remember the last time I had anyone care enough to stand up for me."
Felicity's face softened. She shook her head, squeezing his hands tighter. "Oliver, you are worth standing up for." She stared at him searchingly. "I wish you could see yourself the way I see you."
"How do you see me?"
"You mean outside the whole handsome and charming thing?" she teased with a grin.
"No, you can add those in too."
She laughed, shaking her head. "You're smart, smarter than you give yourself credit for. You're bright and funny and loyal. You've got a big heart. One of the biggest I've ever seen. And you try so hard, to be a good son and friend and person. When you're with Jasper and when you talk about Thea…" She smiled softly. "And when you take care of me when I'm sick, and paint my nails, and remember that cherry is my favorite flavor for like, everything… There is so much good in you that I don't think you even realize you have." Her thumbs stroked over his knuckles. "You deserve this club. You deserve to be happy and loved and to have your father and everyone see that you're a lot more than they ever thought. And more than all of that, you should want it for yourself, and get it, and know that you deserve it."
Oliver's throat burned hollow for a moment as her words hit home. He pulled her hands up and over and kissed them. "You're a good friend, Felicity…"
"I have my moments." She grinned then. "And hey, when you're having one of those weird 'my dad does not approve' problems in the board room, you could always go the clichéd route and think of him in his underwear. It's hard to take even a disapproving dad seriously when he's in his underwear."
Oliver laughed, shaking his head. "I'll have to try that sometime."
"Let me know how it works."
Dinner arrived then and they each sat back, their hands untangling as burgers and fries were put in front of them.
"Thanks," Felicity said before she plucked the toothpick out of her sandwich and started with the pickle it had pinned to the top.
"So, what do you think I should do?" he wondered, mouthful of burger.
She raised an eyebrow. "About the club?"
He nodded.
"Keep trying."
He swallowed his bite and licked his teeth clean. "And if it doesn't work?"
"Make it work."
His lips curled up. "That easy?"
She shook her head. "No. That hard." Her brows hiked. "That's the problem with dreams, Oliver. They're called dreams because they're usually harder to make happen. But if you really want it, if you really think this is what you want to do, you have to keep trying until you get it."
"Felicity Smoak wisdom."
"And it's free, too." She winked at him.
He dusted his hands off and nodded. "Okay."
"Okay?"
He licked his lips. "I'll keep trying."
She smiled up at him. "You'll get it one day, you know?"
"Yeah?"
She stared at him a long moment, completely serious. "You're going to do great things, Oliver Queen."
He met her steady gaze and let those words sink into his bones.
That Friday, Oliver sat down for dinner at his parents' house. Thea was bouncing all over the place, talking over herself to fill him in on all the details of what she'd been doing since the last time he saw her, which was only yesterday, since she'd been all too eager to see Jasper. He was starting to think she only came by for the dog. Somehow, in less than 24 hours, Thea had stories to share from fights with her best friends to marks in her classes to cute boys that so much as glanced in her direction. Oliver absorbed all of it with a grin, letting her hang off of him, idolizing him despite the fact that he was currently a homeless, jobless, dream chaser.
"So? How is everything with the club going?" his mother asked enthusiastically. "You had a meeting with Charles Henry, didn't you?"
He nodded. "We haven't heard back from him. But Tommy and I have another meeting with a possible investor on Sunday."
"I heard. Tom Jenkins, is that right?" Robert asked as he cut off a bite of his roast. "I'm surprised you got a meeting with him."
"He was… surprisingly welcoming," Oliver offered. "Tommy's a good people person. He gets people to give us a chance even when they wouldn't usually give us the time of day."
"He is charming," Moira agreed, smiling lightly. "You picked a good business partner."
Oliver grinned. "It helps that we've padded our business proposal a little more. Felicity helped us mock up a commercial for the club She's… been very supportive."
"A commercial?" Robert tipped his head curiously. "I'd like to see it."
The eager little boy inside him sat up straight and took notice of his words, eager for any sign of praise. "Sure. I'll drop it by QC sometime."
Moira looked between them before settling on her son once more. "I keep hearing so much about Felicity, but I've yet to meet her. You should bring her to brunch some time…"
"Uh, yeah, I could ask her," he hedged. "I think you'd like her, mom."
She hummed, nodding, and turned back to her husband. "Robert, do you know Felicity?"
His mouth tilted slightly as he stared at Oliver. "I do. In fact, the last time I saw her she was telling me how much Oliver's grown up… which is especially funny since I believe the first time she met Oliver, she was telling him that was exactly what he needed to do."
Oliver laughed a little awkwardly. "She wasn't wrong…" He shrugged. "She rarely is."
Moira turned back to him, a curious expression on her face. "You never mentioned that… How exactly did a first meeting lead to her telling you to grow up?"
"Uh… I was, well, rude to her. I had her pretend to be my girlfriend to… throw somebody else off. It wasn't one of my brighter moments."
"Ah…" Moira's brows hiked.
"Anyway, Felicity didn't appreciate being used and she made sure I knew that. After that… I don't know. We kept running into each other and, one thing led to another. Before I knew it, we were friends."
"They used to eat lunch together every day when Oliver was still working with me," Robert shared, picking up his wine glass. "I have to admit, I was… surprised that Miss Smoak gave him another chance. Not discouraged though. She's a good egg."
"Really? Every day…" Moira eyed him for a moment. "Do she and Laurel get along…? I was disappointed she couldn't come to dinner tonight."
Oliver cleared his throat. "Laurel's been busy with school. She sends her apologies."
His mother hummed, but her question was still hanging in the air.
"Felicity hasn't met Laurel," he said succinctly. "But she knows about her. And if you're asking me if I'm sleeping with her behind Laurel's back, I'm not."
Moira frowned, briefly canting her head toward Thea. "Oliver, I'm not trying to accuse you of anything. I just… I remember when you first told me about Felicity, how excited you were… You already have so much on your plate, I don't want you to add even more…" She stared at him searchingly. "Just be sure that you know what you're doing, that's all I ask."
Oliver offered a thin smile. "You know, I'm not feeling hungry anymore."
"Oliver…" his mother sighed.
"It's fine, really. Dad, I'll have the commercial sent to you. Mom, it was nice seeing you. I'll pick you up on Sunday." He winked over at Thea, who looked disappointed he was leaving. "You can come by tomorrow, if you want, all right?" He stopped to kiss the top of Thea's head before he grabbed up his jacket and walked out of the room.
That heavy weight of both parental expectation and his mother's warning landed on his shoulders, no matter how many times he tried to shrug it off.
He drove back into town, wandering aimlessly for a while before eventually pulling up in front of a familiar apartment building.
When the door opened, he smiled tiredly.
Felicity grinned back. "Hey… I just ordered Chinese. Hungry?"
"Starved," he told her.
She nodded her head for him to come in and he stepped over the threshold.
Taking a deep breath, he followed her into the living room, and felt the worst of his day begin to drain out of him.
Felicity took a seat in the corner of her couch, a pillow in her lap. "Talk, or movie?"
He took a moment to consider it before saying, "Movie… We can talk after."
"Sure." She pointed a thumb at her entertainment stand of DVDs. "Your pick."
He pushed himself up from the couch and circled around to the stand, bending to read the many titles. "I'm thinking a comedy, what about you?"
"I'm up for that." She walked to the kitchen, asking, "Wine? Or beer?"
"Beer," he said, before plucking a case from the shelf and reading the back. "Do I need to see the first two to get Return of the King?"
She paused. "You haven't seen the Lord of the Rings movies?"
He shook his head, eyes darting away for a moment and then back. "Are they good?" When she didn't answer, he looked over to find her staring at him blankly. "That good, huh?"
"Bring me Fellowship of the Ring," she ordered, before adding, "I'm going to educate you."
He laughed under his breath and plucked all three from their place on the shelf.
[Continue.]