you're the only one for me - t - olicity - oneshot [a]
title: I didn't know I was looking for you (but now I see, you're the only one for me)
verse: what does home look like? (I've only seen shadows of it in my dreams)
category: arrow
genre: romance/humor
ship: felicity/oliver
rating: teen/pg-13
word count: 8,909
summary: Oliver has spent his whole romantic history looking for the next beautiful girl to distract him, but when he meets Felicity Smoak in a coffee shop, that wandering eye suddenly stops.
I didn't know I was looking for you (but now I see, you're the only one for me)
-1/1-
Oliver Queen met his first girlfriend when he was 6 years old. She sat across from him in Mrs. Andrew's first grade class. Her name was Alyssa; she had bright red hair that she wore in two braids, freckles on her nose and the brightest green eyes he'd ever seen. His favorite thing about her was that when she smiled at him, she had dimples. Theirs was a puppy love that was built on little more than thinking the other was nice. They held hands over the aisle during class and played together during recess. She'd giggle every time she kissed his cheek and used to talk about how, when they were older, they'd be like their parents. They'd get married and have kids with her red hair and his blue eyes and he'd drink scotch and smoke cigars and she'd watch soaps all day and dress up every night for parties.
They were together exactly ten days before one bright, early Monday, he lifted his head up from his work book and, instead of turning to the left, to see Alyssa smiling at him, he turned to the right. On his right was a girl named Cherish. She was blonde and she wore pink every day. When she looked over at him and smiled, he decided he didn't mind pink so much.
Alyssa found out he had a new girlfriend at recess when he didn't join her by the swings, but instead played on the monkey bars with Cherish. Alyssa kicked dirt in his face at lunch and he decided girls were complicated.
This would be an on-going deduction of his, as Oliver never quite stopped turning in his head in the opposite direction of whomever his current girlfriend was, only to find someone new and interesting. He had a reputation for that, only helped by his good genes and his natural ability to flirt with any- and everybody. In all honesty, this was something he learned early on and used to his advantage often. He was kind of proud of it, in fact. Who wouldn't be proud of the fact that he could get just about any woman he wanted? 'Just about' was being kind, actually. Oliver couldn't think of a time when he'd been interested in a girl and she hadn't been interested back. It was a collection of things, he was sure, not solely that he was attractive. His father always said that anybody could be won over. Flattery, money, charm; it was a trifecta that worked for most. A person didn't just have to be attractive, but it definitely helped.
Unfortunately, learning he could get anything he wanted early on didn't exactly encourage a sense of appreciation in Oliver. Everything came easy to him, in part because of his family name. If he was failing a class, his parents put in a call. Maybe they donated money to the school or maybe they pulled in a favor, but Oliver knew that, if he wanted to, he could just skate by in life. Women came easy to him; he hardly had to try by the time he made it into high school. Occasionally, a girl played hard to get, and sometimes he bit, sometimes he didn't. There wasn't much of a challenge if he knew they were just trying to be different, to stand out. At some point during middle school, he realized that he was the challenge. The challenge wasn't getting him; that was easy. But keeping him, now that was a real challenge. Oliver's roaming eye was notorious and he made no secret of it. Why have one girl when he could have all of them?
Now, sure, that didn't seem like someone anyone would want to invest in, especially in a long-term relationship, but it never worked against him. Tommy used to joke that one day he was going to fall in love with a girl and they'd never take him seriously, but Oliver doubted it. He just wasn't the type. He had an idea of what he wanted to do with his life, and it was simple. Get through high school, live it up in college, frat parties every night, retire young on his trust fund, happily wasting away on sandy white beaches for the foreseeable future, trading one exotic beauty out for the next, week by week. What wasn't to love about that future?
When he was seventeen, that dream hit a wall, and never recovered.
A blonde wall with glasses and a smile that grabbed him and held on.
He'd been watching her for five minutes. That was exactly five minutes longer than it usually took a girl to notice him.
She was cute. In that girl-next-door kind of way. Blonde hair tied away in a braid down her back and a loose, two-tone, grey sweater that hung off one sun-kissed shoulder. Her glasses kept sliding down the slope of her nose, but she merely reached up to push them back into place, barely taking her eyes off what she was typing. Every once in a while, she'd start chewing her lip, bright pink lipstick making her mouth pop. He'd be lying if he said he didn't imagine how she'd look, staring up at him from her knees, those pretty pink lips wrapped around him.
But she wasn't giving him the time of day, so that fantasy didn't look any closer to coming true.
The coffee shop he was sitting in wasn't his usual, but he had an overdue essay for English that needed all of his attention, and home was too distracting. Either because he'd heard his parents arguing again or because it was too easy to get talked into playing with Thea. More often than not, though, he'd end up hanging out with Raisa in the kitchen while she asked him how his day was and tried to curb the 'devil in him' that she said was always too quick to turn his good heart sideways. As far as Raisa was concerned, he was a good boy who couldn't help but prove otherwise. If there was one person in his life who believed he was better than he acted, it was her. Well, her and Thea, but his little sister was young, naïve, and pretty sure the sun shone out of his ass.
After six minutes of not so much as a glance- actually, no, she looked up briefly from where she'd been frowning at her laptop, and then looked right past him toward the front counter, waving an empty cup at the barista to let them know she'd like that refill now- he decided to take action.
His laptop was exactly three weeks old. It was top of the line and didn't come cheap by a longshot. He didn't even hesitate when he knocked his still full latte onto it. It was half his fault for not realizing that his latte was actually still really hot. So, leaping out of his seat, shouting obscenities while he dabbed at his jeans with a napkin was all genuine. Christ, but that stung!
He expected her to hurry over to help, blushing and stammering and asking him if he was okay. What he didn't expect was for her to go for the laptop instead.
That… was definitely a first. There were a few times that a girl looked past him to Tommy, but those were occasions that he didn't count as losses so much as a gain for his best friend. But being overlooked for a computer? Now that was a bit of a blow to his ego. Did she even see him? He'd just burned his junk for her. That was billion-dollar junk, too. The sacrifice he'd just made was kind of huge (and he didn't just mean metaphorically, thank you very much), but there she was, cooing over a laptop.
Oliver was nothing if not an opportunist, however.
"Poor thing," she murmured, dabbing at the keyboard with a napkin.
"Me or the computer?"
When she looked up, her brows were hiked. She glanced down to where he was wiping coffee from the front of his jeans before her gaze met his. "I said that out loud?"
His mouth twitched. Okay, so, she was cute. "Yeah. Question still stands. Which one's the poor baby?"
She pointed at the computer before readjusting her glasses. "Although I feel bad for your lap, too. That couldn't've been pretty." She cringed. "That came out wrong. I mean, it could've come out worse, but it was bad enough."
He cocked his head, grinning to himself. Usually when he caught a girl's attention, their reaction was a little more focused on him. "Oliver Queen," he introduced himself, holding out a hand for her to shake.
She didn't so much at blink at the familiar name. Taking his hand, she gave it a quick shake and replied, "Felicity Smoak, or you could just call me the girl who is going to save your laptop, because that's exactly what I'd like to do now that you've drowned it." She stretched her fingers out before looking back down at the laptop with that same expression of complete concentration that she'd had before he'd interrupted her with his poorly thought out plan to get her attention.
He chuckled under his breath. "Felicity's less of a mouthful."
"I've always been considered more of a handful." She paused. "Pretend I didn't say that."
A surprised laugh left him. "I'd rather pretend you did."
Forget cute, she was… unexpected.
He'd met confident women. Women who could twist anything into a sexual innuendo and follow through with it. But he didn't think Felicity was doing that. In fact, he thought she was trying really hard not to make anything she said an innuendo. Which was… new, to say the least.
When she looked up at him, a faint blush stained her cheeks, and he felt something tug in his chest. What was he saying about girl-next-door earlier? Maybe she was a lot closer to trouble than he expected, just not in the usual way women were in his life. He would need both hands to count how many times he'd been caught in his room with a girl, either by his mother or Raisa. He'd need twice as many to count how many times he was reprimanded at school for 'acting indecently' in the halls with a variety of different girls. Was it his fault they were so interested in staking a public claim? Well, maybe…
The kind of tugging Oliver usually got around girls wasn't anywhere near his chest. The kind of trouble he'd usually be up to was flirting with a girl until she gave him the cue she was interested in something more, and then they'd put the coffee shop bathroom to good use. Did they have stalls or would the sink counter be better…?
Felicity cleared her throat. "Is there anything on here that you don't want me to see?" she wondered, glancing down at the computer. "Because I'm probably going to have to take a look around to see what kind of damage you did."
He tugged the sleeves of his shirt up his arms and defended himself, "Accidentally."
She ignored that. "So, if there's anything, especially of the porny variety, warn a girl now."
Her candor stole a laugh from him. "I think you're safe… Now, if we were talking about my home computer… that'd be something else."
She pursed her lips to hide a smile, but she was helpless to it, which he was glad for.
With a shake of her head, she told him, "Your honesty is refreshing."
"Your smile is infectious."
She let out a breathless laugh that made his stomach twist up in a really good way.
Waving at the seat across from her, she suggested, "Since you probably don't want to leave your computer with a complete stranger, why don't you try another latte while I take a look at this?"
Oliver rested his elbows on the table and leaned forward, searching her eyes. Blue. Really bright blue. "Or I could spend some time getting to know you… Twenty questions?"
"Do you always flirt with people after damaging extremely expensive laptops?"
Oliver shrugged, waving a dismissive hand. "No, this is the first time I've damaged a laptop, extremely expensive or otherwise. I do flirt a lot though, especially with cute girls I meet in coffee shops. That was your first question. Nineteen to go."
Her mouth twitched.
"My turn." He tipped his head curiously. "Do you live around here?"
"'Live' is a broad term," she answered after a moment's pause. "I'm technically visiting, my mom and the step… half…? family, to be simultaneously vague and specific. But no, home is in Coast City."
He knocked his knuckles on the table. "Ah, so you're gonna break my heart by leaving in the end. Good to know."
She laughed, a quick, surprised noise that made him grin. He liked it, surprising her, and how breathless her laughter was. He wanted to make her do it again.
"Your go," he told her.
She hummed. "All right, friends. Who's your best friend?"
He nodded. That was easy. "Tommy. I've known him…" He shook his head, blowing out a breath. "My whole life, basically. Grew up together, sat together in every class since kindergarten, partners in crime, you know?"
"Just you and Tommy, nobody else to round out a Three Musketeers situation?"
He ducked his head as he laughed. "That's another question, but I'll give it to you anyway… No. There's other friends. Lots of them. But nobody as close to me as Tommy. He…" He sobered for a moment, his brow furrowed. "He's not just my friend; he's my brother."
Felicity's face softened.
Oliver cleared his throat, reaching up to rub his neck at the uncharacteristic honesty. "What about you? Who're your friends back home?"
"Jennifer and Kelsey," she told him proudly, perking up in her seat. "We met in third grade and we've been attached at the hip since." She grinned, shrugging one shoulder, reaching over to slide her sweater back up the slope of her arm. "Kelsey is… I don't think there's a better word than 'wild.' She's a little crazy and a lot extroverted. She's big on fashion and chaos and she'll probably drive you crazy, but… it's worth it. She's kind of insanely awesome in equal parts. And Jenn is… She's my rock. She's solid and dependable and the sweetest person you will ever meet." Felicity waved a hand through the air, smiling to herself. "She the eldest from a big family and, I don't know, I guess she's kind of like a mom to everyone. Which is good; I think we all kind of need that…" She paused then, frowning, and shook her head. Looking up at him, she wondered, "Oh, uh… Siblings?"
He watched for a moment. There was a wistful appreciation for her friends and he briefly wondered how long she'd been away from them. Aside from a few trips with his dad out of country, Oliver couldn't really remember a time when he and Tommy were separated for too long. Generally, Tommy went everywhere with him. Even when they had family vacations, it wasn't unusual for Tommy to tag along.
"Oliver?"
"Hmm?" He turned back to her, tuning back in. "Sorry. Yeah, yes, I have one sister. Thea. She's…" He grinned then. "She's a hurricane. All arms and legs, never sits still, talks more than any other seven year old alive." He chuckled to himself, crossing his arms on the tabletop and leaning on them. "She's a good kid. Smart and funny and…" He shook his head.
"Worships the ground you walk on?" Felicity asked knowingly.
He laughed, giving a quick nod. "Yeah. Yeah, I call her Speedy. She's always chasing me all over the place."
"Not the worst thing, though?"
"No." He smiled lightly. "No, there's definitely worse things." He looked over at her then. "You're getting ahead of me, though. That's three questions instead of one."
Felicity held her hands up in surrender and folded her lips in a sign that she'd stop asking.
He grinned. "What about you? You said you had half-sisters?"
Nodding, she said, "Mm-hmm. Two. I think I spend more time with Sara though. She's kind of enacted this girl's night on Sundays. I'm pretty sure it's just an excuse for me to paint her nails while she tells me about all the cute boys in her grade." She shrugged. "It's nice though. We don't get to spend much time together outside of summers or holidays. We talk. I mean, well, she calls once a week and I talk. Once you get me started it's kind of hard for me to stop, but Sara's used to that. Usually she'll just laugh to let me know I'm babbling." She rolled her eyes. "Anyway, since I'm two ahead of you, why don't you play catch up…" She wagged a finger. "That was a suggestion, not a question."
He licked his lips as he smiled. "Parents?"
Felicity went a little stiff then, her shoulders tightening up and her eyes darting away. "My mom lives here, with my step-dad and my sisters, and I live with my dad. He's…" Chewing her lip a moment, she frowned down at the table and then shrugged. "He's just my dad, you know? My mom is different. Like I said, I only really get to see her in the summer or on holidays. But she's… She's nice. She calls me all the time, so we usually keep up that way." Her face softened. "You know how grandparents always kind of smell like mothballs and medicine? Like, they just kind of have one of those smells. My mom always smells like lilacs. She's got this perfume, probably really expensive, and I remember she used to put it on my neck when I was a little girl because I wanted to smell pretty like her…"
Her expression was soft, full of melancholy.
With a quick shake of her head, she added, "My step-dad is a police officer here. He's… friendly and funny and just… a really good dad, you know?"
He nodded. "Yeah… Well, I mean, my dad works a lot. He's a CEO, so he's got a lot on his plate, but… When he's there, he's all there. We take a vacation every summer, go up to a cabin our family owns, and he takes me and Tommy fly-fishing. Asks us how life is, what we're gonna do when we grow up, that kind of thing…" He shrugged. "My mom's pretty busy, too. She runs a lot of charities and stuff. She's always got something on the go…" Clearing his throat, he shook his head. "Raisa was mostly there when I was growing up. She's part of the house staff, but, I don't know, she's always been more of a mother-figure." He screwed up his mouth. "That probably sounds weird. I don't… I don't really talk about my family a lot."
"Me either." Felicity smiled at him across the table. "Tell me about Raisa," she encouraged, tucking her hands under her chin as she leaned forward, elbows balanced on the table.
So, he did. He told her about his childhood, racing around the house with Raisa hot on his heels, either to force him into a bath after he spent the morning getting dirty outside, or chasing him simply because it made him laugh when she was just a few short steps from catching him. He told her about afternoons spent sitting on the counters, watching her cook, asking her why she was adding every ingredient, eagerly sampling everything she cooked, listening to her tell stories about her home country. And then there were the injuries that came along with childhood, sitting on a stool while she blew cool air on skinned knees and kissed away his tears as she smoothed Band-Aids over each scrape and told him what a strong boy he was.
"You must really love her," Felicity said.
He paused for a moment. "I do. She… Raisa is family." With a shake of his head, he cleared his throat. "Tell me more about you. What grade are you in?"
"I'm a junior. Next year's my last year."
"Yeah? And then what?"
She brightened then, perking up in her seat. "MIT," she said proudly. "It's going to be pretty different from Coast City, but I'm looking forward to it. I want to do something with computers. That's where my passion's always been."
He glanced down at the laptop in front of her. "Hadn't noticed."
With a soft laugh, she shrugged. "Have you ever just felt like you found something that you were really good at and you loved it just as much? That's how I feel about computers. I love picking them apart. I love knowing that I can put them back together and they'll be better and faster and it's all because of me."
"Talented hands…" he mused.
"Talented in general," she boasted with a grin.
He let out a quick laugh and shook his head. Someone else might've played down their abilities, but not her. He could appreciate that.
Reaching up, she tucked her hair behind her ear, showing off a pink rose earring. She played with the back of it in a nervous gesture and wondered, "What about you? Do you like school?"
He blew out a sigh and leaned back in his chair. "I don't know if I like it… Some things I like." He shrugged. "I like building things. I think my favorite was an engineering class I took last year. I don't know if I'll be making the next fleet of robots, but it was fun. Probably the only thing I have patience for…" His brow furrowed. "Actually, that was the first class I got an A+ in… Which hopefully balanced out the D I got in algebra last year."
"So, what kind of engineering schools are there out there?" she wondered. "Have you looked into college?"
He shook his head. "My parents will figure out which Ivy League school they want me to go to and that's where I'll end up."
Felicity frowned a little. "You don't get a say?"
"It's probably going to be their money getting me in. I've got a solid B-average."
"Except for math."
His mouth twitched. "Except for math. But I don't think a B is generally what the Ivy's are looking for… So, my dad'll cut a check for a new wing somewhere and they'll name it after our family. Then I'll get a pass into their school and, I don't know, see what happens, I guess."
Humming, she twisted the cap on her coffee. "What if they don't have anything you like, though?"
Oliver shrugged. "I'll figure something out." In all honesty, when he thought about college, he thought about partying with Tommy and skirting around deadlines. Finding a college with a good engineering program hadn't occurred to him until… right now.
"Why do I get the impression that's something you say a lot?" she asked, brow raised.
"It is… Plans get broken. They don't work out. Why get your hopes up? I'll just deal with things as they happen."
"What happens if you really want something but you haven't prepared for it at all? Then what?" She held a hand up. "And don't say your dad can buy it, because, hate to break it to you, money doesn't buy everything."
"Maybe not," he agreed. "But I've never found something I wanted and didn't get."
"Hmm…" She eyed him a moment and lifted her coffee for a sip, watching him over the lid.
He stared at her. "You're not seeing anyone."
Dropping her cup back to the table, she narrowed her eyes and wondered, "Was that a question?"
His mouth turned up on one side as he chuckled under his breath. "Maybe more of a hope. If you don't answer, I get to pretend you're single."
Felicity shook her head slowly. "I'm not seeing anyone."
"Would you like to be?" He grinned then. "That was a question."
She stared at him, searching his face, and for the first time in his life, Oliver wondered if someone might not like what they saw.
And then she smiled.
His heart thumped in his chest. Oh, she was going to be trouble.
"If that's you asking me out on a date, the answer is yes."
Oliver liked trouble.
[continue.]