Archive of Our Own ^beta

"Huh."

Oliver fought his lips and managed to not smile. "Huh, what?"

He felt Felicity move in the dark. Her fingers flexed and slid against the backs of his hands.

"Well," she chuckled nervously and he could hear the fear just under the surface. "It's just funny."

"This, THIS is funny to you?" He tried loosening the ropes again. He really wished he could see her face.

Her ponytail rubbed up and down the back of his head and he shivered. "Ok, not the being tied up, locked up, in the dark where no one knows to find us...no, that's not funny..."

"So...?"

He felt her shoulders tense, probably straightened her back because he hadn't noticed her shoulders before.

"Um, I may have," she sighed, groaned and suddenly her head was smacking into his. "Ow!"

"Shit! Felicity?!"

"Sorry! I forgot how close we are! That is, I forgot how closely they tied us together, on these chairs, tied us."

Oliver closed his eyes. "What was funny."

"Oh! Yeah, I might have said something just yesterday to Digg about..."

Oliver could sense her holding back, he could feel her mind churning, trying to make a decision. He knew even without looking at her that she was probably biting her lip or making her "thinky" face--oh jeeze, now he was naming facial expressions. Great.

"Felicity, just tell me. I could use a laugh."

"It's not haha funny, more ironic."

"Felicity."

"Ok! I was just talking with Digg about wishing I had more alone time...with...you..." She sighed and fidgeted against their ropes. "And tada! I'm alone with you!"

God he wished he could see her face. He took a slow, deep breath. "You're right, that is sort of funny." He remained quiet, not quite sure what he needed to say now. So he focused on trying to escape.

The ropes were expertly tied and the chairs seemed sturdy. If it was just him, he'd probably have done something like smash apart the chair and/or dislocate some joint in his body.

But Felicity was there, too, so his plan had to change.

"I mean, sure, we are actually alone a lot of the time, together, but we are usually both doing something, like working out or research or planning or--"

"I get it, I think I know what you meant," he sighed. How could she even be thinking about all that when their lives were at stake?

Stake, knife...he had a knife in his boot. He shifted his leg but it was no use, each leg was tied separately and also together to the chair. Figures the first time he encounters intelligent captors he would have Felicity with him...

"Oliver? Did you pass out? Ohmygosh are you hurt?! Oliver! Oliver!"

"Shh! What? Stop yelling my name!"

"Then don't go all silent on me, I was talking to you and you just ignore me?" She was pulling the ropes and they were getting tighter with every wiggle.

"Stop it."

"You stop it! What is wrong with you?!"

"No, Felicity," he growled. "Stop wiggling, you're making the ropes tighter!"

She froze. "Oh. Right." She sighed and slumped, he could tell because her shoulders stopped touching his. He frowned when he noticed he missed her warmth.

He went back to figuring an escape but it was hard to concentrate when Felicity kept reaching her fingers to his. At first he was sure it was just her stretching. But then he heard, very faintly, heard her suck in a small sob and her fingers were clenching around his.

He swallowed his own emotions and squeezed back. "We'll be ok, Felicity."

"Sure." They both knew he really had no reason to think that. Until their captors returned and perhaps untied them for transport, they seemed stuck.

So he focused on his breathing and sort of went into a trance to conserve his energy. It was some sort of yoga thing Shado had taught him and sometimes it actually worked.

Apparently this was one of those times. He felt movement. Air being disturbed. He heard creaks and groans. He opened his eyes. It was still dark, but...

"Felicity?!" Was he really looking into her face?!

She nodded and moved closer. What little light there was glinted off her lenses and her teeth as she grinned.

"Hiya hero, need a hand?" She leaned in, holding out her hands.

He jumped when she touched his knee. She didn't remove her hand though; instead, she moved it up along the leather's outer seam until it got to his waist. He sucked in a gasp as her gentle fingers felt the ropes.

"Are you ok?" she breathed into his face, inches from his face. "They used a lot more rope on you, wow!"

"Mmmhmm," he agreed. "Uh, how, how did you get free?" Her hand skimmed over his crotch to follow the rope and if it weren't for the tight leather pants, he knew she would have noticed him responding....

"Oh, they must have just tied me up as an after thought, using your leftover rope," her lips were so close... "I just pulled and wiggled and rope burned one hand but I got my hands and the my feet free."

Now she was kneeling at his feet, heaven help him. "Ok , I think it's two ropes, one for your upper and one for your lower, but these knots are wicked tight!"

He was just about to mention the knife when she suddenly squeaked and launched herself into his lap, knocking them both backwards. He managed to keep his head from banging onto the floor but he could do little to keep Felicity off him.

For a moment, neither spoke. Felicity was laying, well, sitting, on Oliver's stomach, his thighs acting as a backrest. Her knees were in his armpits and his hands were painfully still tied behind the chair, under them both now.

"Sorry!" She put out her hands and started to attempt to rise. Her skirt was trapped under part of the chair, so all she was accomplishing was making his pants tighter as she moved against him...

"Fel-ic-it-tyyy!" he growled.

"I didn't mean to tip you over, I just slipped trying to undo that knot and the force just propelled--"

"Knife! I have a knife. In my boot."

"Ah, good!" Then she snickered. " 'There's a knife in my boot!' " When he stared blankly up into her face, she frowned. "You know, Woody from Toy Story? 'There's a snake in my boot!' "

And she giggled. He smiled. Only Felicity. "Ok, ok," he chuckled. "Outside, left boot."

"Right. I mean, left, correct, whatever," she mumbled as her fingers pulled her skirt free and she climbed off him. "Why did I wear a skirt? That was stupid..." She continued to mumble to herself as she traced his leg down to his boot.

Oliver squeezed his eyes shut as her touch sent a couple shivers through his body. And then her warm hand was inside his boot and, fuck, it made him think about her hand sliding down inside--

"Ah ha! Got it!" She held it up. "I never knew you carried a boot knife. Is there a special name for a boot knife? There should be."

She quickly, and a bit scarily, sliced through the ropes and Oliver was able to stand. He moaned as he stretched, and then quickly took back his knife when Felicity almost dropped it on her toes.

"Let's get out of here," he said in his Arrow voice, taking her hand. But when she didn't move to follow, he turned quickly to her, worried.

"It might not have been what I had been thinking," she searched his eyes in the dark and he couldn't look away. "But...this time alone with you has been...nice?"

He smiled and shook his head. "Right, nice."

"No, I mean, just me and you, well, what I, humph. Never mind, let's go."

But this time he didn't move. He pulled her back and made her face him, even though he knew they just needed to get away. He rested one hand on her waist, the other still holding her hand, and then pressed his forehead onto hers.

They both closed their eyes and took deep breathes.

"I think I could get used to more time alone with you, Felicity..."

He felt her exhale and sag into him slightly and he almost, ALMOST began to panic about what he had just said, out loud, when a bright light suddenly shone on them.

"Well, guess you didn't need the calvary after all, did you?" Diggle stepped past the light, motioning for Roy to lower it. "You guys want a ride, or should we let the bad guys come back first?"

"Depends," Felicity shrugged. She squeezed Oliver's hand before dropping it and stepping over to Digg. "Are you, or is Roy, driving?

"Hey!" Roy grumbled. "You're lucky we don't just leave you two here in the middle of nowhere. Even the gps doesn't want to work out here. Then you'd really be all alone, huh?"

Oliver glanced at Felicity. She was starting to blush, and when she caught Digg's eye, she turned red instantly.

"Yeah, alone with me," Oliver teased as they started for the car. "Horrible, terrible, idea. Truly."

Diggle chuckled at Roy's confused face. Felicity glanced at Oliver walking beside her. Oliver glanced back and their eyes met.

"Completely awful idea," she smiled. "Alone with you..."