Work Text:
Day 2
Fandom: Arrow
Ship: Your choice (so, naturally, this means Olicity)
Prompt: College AU - two college students meeting for a study date at the coffee shop who accidentally stay until closing
"I don't care how much he's paying me, if he's any later, I'm walking out of here," Felicity grumbled into her latte. It was bubblegum pink and tasted like cotton candy. She loved it for three reasons; the whimsy of it never failed to make her smile, there was a boatload of sugar and caffeine in it, and Sarah had given it to her for free when her friend still hadn't shown up after half an hour.
"I'm sorry," Sarah said sheepishly, leaning her hip again Felicity's table. "Olly's an ass, but he's not actually a bad person. I'm sure he has a good reason for being late."
"Look, Sarah, I only agreed to do this because you vouched for the guy and because I really need the money. But I can't just spend hours waiting f-" Felicity cut herself off as the bell over the door chimed and in walked-
"Oliver Queen?" she hissed, as quietly as she could, as she rounded on her friend. "Your friend 'Olly' is Oliver freaking Queen?"
Sarah feigned a look of innocence. "Did I not tell you?"
"You want me to tutor the most eligible bachelor, your ex-boyfriend, Oliver fucking Queen?"
"Hi," the boy said, strolling up to the table. He stuck out a hand in greeting. "Oliver fucking Queen, nice to meet you. You must be Felicity."
Oh, I hate my life. "Nope, not anymore, Felicity is not available right now, please leave a message. Sarah, I hate you," Felicity rambled in a single breath. God, she could die of mortification. Actually, that would be preferable to sitting here after Oliver fucking Queen heard her calling him Oliver fucking Queen!
Oliver grinned. "Okay, not-Felicity. Sorry I'm late. Lost track of time."
From the corner of her eye, Felicity saw Sarah narrow her eyes at Oliver, and she had to wonder what that was about. It's not like playboy and papparazzi magnet Oliver Queen was known for his punctuality.
"It's fine," Felicity managed to say. "It's okay, Sarah gave me a latte."
Oliver looked down at her horribly pink drink, and Felicity once again felt the blood rise to her cheeks.
Oliver sat down across from Felicity, and oh god, what if this looked like some kind of a date or something? The coffee shop they were in was almost across town, closer to where Sarah lived than the university, but now that she knew who it was she was meeting, that made sense. This wasn't exactly the kind of place you'd think Oliver Queen would frequent.
"Let me guess," he said, looking at the drink in amusement. "Essence of unicorn?"
Felicity grimaced. "If you're going to be making fun of my choice of drink, I'll happily go back to studying for my advanced programming class. I have a huge project to finish."
But Oliver held up his hands in surrender. "Sorry, force of habit." He shot her a little smile, and Felicity definitely did not melt a little.
"Okay," she said, suppressing a blush, and pulling out her notebooks. "Sarah said you needed help with your math class, right?"
Oliver grimaced. "It's a required class. And after getting kicked out of two other colleges, I'm pretty sure my parents aren't going to let me get away with it another time."
Yeah, a prodigy, Oliver Queen was not. "Well, let's try to avoid that this time."
/*/
"There is no way!" Oliver protested in between laughs. His cheeks were red from laughing, and his eyes - beauitiful, blue eyes - were locked on hers.
"No, I'm serious," Felicity continued, having some trouble suppressing her own laughter. "So there they were, buck naked, in the Dean's pool, and the lights spring on."
"No! He came home early?"
Felicity disolved into laughter as she recalled the scene. "We had no idea- no idea they were actually going to do it. And naked! Omg, we were wheezing from the bushes, trying to be quiet. So the guys scramble out of the pool, but they'd completely forgotten that they'd hacked the security system, so the minute they opened-" She had to pause there to wipe the tears from her eyes. Oliver was just looking at her with that adorably big grin on his face, completely into the story. "They op- opened the gat-" Oh god, this laughter was going to kill her. "They opened the gate just as the dean stepped outside, and 'celebration time' starts playing over the sound system."
Oliver laughed loudly at that. "Oh god, what kind of hell did they end up in for that stunt?"
"That's the best part. The Dean didn't really want to call the cops on a bunch of naked 19 year olds, so he just made them put on some clothes, fix his security system, and then had them come back to put in upgrades to make sure nothing like that could ever happen again," she explained, still grinning, but having mostly caught her breath. "And that's the story of how the university's Dean ended up with the best private security system outside of museums in the country."
"Oh man. And here I was thinking science was boring," Oliver said, taking a sip from his - probably cold now - coffee.
"Well, clearly you thought wrong. You think you frat guys have stories to tell, but I can assure you that any MIT graduate can top that story and then crank it up to 11," she said, leaning back in her chair. "It's the age of the geek, baby." She couldn't help slipping in that little reference.
Oliver snorted. "Okay, Hardison." This was their 5th study session at the coffee shop, but they'd met up a few times to watch Leverage together, since it was one of her favorite tv shows. Oliver had already made her promise to watch whatever terrible thing he claimed was his favorite, next.
They'd long since given up studying for the day, though. It was late, Felicity wasn't even sure exactly how late, since - miracle or miracles - she hadn't checked her phone in ages. But it was dark, and Sarah had already swept up the shop, and was currently behind the counter, cleaning up the machines.
When she noticed her looking, Sarah smirked at her. "Okay, lovebirds, I'm just about done here, so I'm kicking you guys out. Go find another cozy place to be adorable in."
The heat in Felicity's cheeks was definitely not due to laughing now. She might have developped a tiny crush on Oliver, and Sarah was well aware of that. 'I hate you,' she mouthed at her friend, who just winked and blew her a kiss.
"Sorry, Sarah, we'll get out of your hair," Oliver said, still smiling a little as he started gathering his things.
Quietly, Felicity did the same, and then followed him out after calling out a goodbye to the other blonde.
"So... I have my first test tomorrow," Oliver admitted as they stepped out into the cold.
"Wait, tomorrow? Already? We didn't even do all that much today! I'm so sorry, I got distracted, and what if you're not prepared enough? Or what if they ask something we haven't-"
Oliver took her hand, which shut her right up, and smiled at her. "I'm sure I'll be fine. I'm more prepared than I've ever been before, so I'm sure I'll shock the prof with my non-failing grade."
Felicity glared at him. "You better do more than not fail, mister," she said, poking a finger into his chest. "I have not spent hours going over math I have no more need for myself just to have you barely pass."
He chuckled. "Noted. I promise I'll do my best. Can't promise an A, but I'm aiming for a B+. Which would be the highest grade I've ever gotten in math."
Smiling right back, Felicity couldn't help but squeeze the hand that was still holding hers. "I've no doubt you'll be great."
They stood like that for a minute longer, before Felicity's awkward need to fill every silence reared its head. But she didn't really know what to say. "Uhm... I should probably... let you go. Good night's sleep is half the test! Or something like that. Anyway. Goodnight."
"Goodnight, Felicity."
/*/
Maybe this was a weird thing to do. But what if the test hadn't gone as well as they'd hoped? Or what if it did?
Felicity chewed on her lip, ruining her lipstick, as she waited outside the auditorium where Oliver was taking his test. A handful of students had come outside already, but there was no sign of Oliver just yet.
Felicity checked her phone again. Not because she was expecting anything, but it was something to pass the time. Sarah had sent her half a dozen winking emojis. Felicity sent back a gif of a duckling brandishing a knife. That ought to be a clear enough message.
"Bit harsh, isn't it?"
"Jesus Christ!" Felicity shrieked, and jumped about a foot in the air. Oliver just grinned at her. She hadn't even heard him come up, let alone noticed him leaning over her shoulder. Not that he needed to do much leaning, freakishly tall as he was.
"I thought you were Jewish?"
"Only technically, and that doesn't mean I can't use someone else's prophet's name in vain." She pressed her hand to her chest, willing her heartbeat to go back to normal. Kind of a pointless endeavor when someone of Oliver's level of hotness was standing far too close to her, but a girl could hope. "Oh, wait, how did it go?"
The grin got wider. "Well, I don't have the results yet, obviously, but... I filled in every question, and I think I might actually do pretty well."
Felicity squealed and impulsively threw her arms around his neck. "I knew you could do it!" She pulled back a little so she could look at him. "You're going to ace this!"
Oliver didn't say anything, but his eyes were soft, staring into hers, and oh god, our faces are so close together! Mayday, mayday!
And then his eyes flicked down to her lips and Felicity's brain shorted out. Which was probably a good thing, because it allowed her to lean in and kiss him. His arms were around her waist, holding her close. Felicity hoped he'd never let go.
Oh no. Wait, what was she doing? She couldn't just go around kissing Oliver fucking Queen?? She pulled back quickly, but his strong arms kept her close. "Shit," she breathed.
"Hmm, not usually what people say after I kiss them," he joked, still smiling at her.
"Oh Shit, no, I- I just meant. I didn't actually mean to do that, but you were so close, and you smell nice, and is that new shampoo or something? And then you kissed me back, and you are so strong, holy shit, I just-"
He cut her off with a kiss. Honestly, not a bad way to be shut up. Effective, too, since it, once again, shorted out her brain. "Huh?" she said, intelligently when he pulled back.
"I've been wanting to do that for a while," Oliver said, his voice barely above a whisper. There was a blush on his face, though that might have just been the cold wind. He seemed... almost nervous though.
"Me too," she admitted, just as quietly.
The smile was back in full force, and holy shit, if she could bottle that, she'd be richer than Oliver's family.
"Felicity Smoak. Would you go out on a date with me?" he asked, all smooth, while her brain was still rebooting.
Luckily, her body was a little more aware, as she quickly nodded. "Yes!"
A chuckle. "Okay." He let her stand back down, putting a tiny amount of distance between their bodies. It felt colder than it should, even considering the weather. "Maybe not a coffee, though. Would you like to have lunch with me?"
"I don't know, I think coffee's kind of our thing by now," she said, a lot more flirty than she usually managed around Oliver. But whatever, she was going to take very smooth comment she could make.
"Those pink monstrosities don't count as coffee," he teased.
She narrowed her eyes at him and swatted his arm. "What did I say about making fun of my coffee order?"
"That it's delightful, and it makes me look charming?"
"Exactly, except the exact word I used was 'don't'," she said, but was unable to keep from smiling at him. Her face was going to get stuck like that if he kept making her smile this much.
He laughed, which was probably her favorite sound in the world. "Okay, fair enough. No more making fun of the essence of unicorn. But I am actually starving, so, lunch?"
Yup, her face was definitely stuck like that. "Okay. It's a date."
Best. Day. Ever.