Be Kind, Rewind

By Bre (dust2dust34)

Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Arrow.
Rating: T
Author's Notes: Part of my You've Gotten Into My Bloodstream Olicity ficlet collection. Thank you for the support for this collection, every kudos, review, favorite and follow makes my world!
Author's Notes 2: I sat on this story for literally three months. I wrote this on February 22 (yeah, I date my work), and I think the reason I never posted it was because I felt like it wasn't in character. I think past-me was wrong.
Timeline: Set in the first half of Season 2 somewhere.

Summary: "Oliver," Felicity said, grabbing his arm and turning him. "Kiss me."

Her toes were dying a slow, agonizing death.

These shoes - these cute, sky-high shoes that she had found a mere three hours before the charity event tonight - were becoming the bane of her existence. And her existence included a lot of bane; she had a lot of bane to complain about.

For example, the fact that Oliver Queen - former billionaire playboy turned faux-CEO by day and hooded vigilante by night - could not get the damn security door relocked.

"What kind of security door doesn't just lock again when you close it?" Felicity whispered and Oliver grunted in response. "Is this how we're going to get caught, we're going to go to jail for relocking a door?"

"Felicity, now is not the time," Oliver whispered as he twisted the tools in hand, waiting for the click to sound.

Getting through the security door had been a breeze - it had given her false hope that they were going to have a 'wham, bam, thank you, Stan' sort of night, especially when she'd whipped out her phone, uploaded the trojan to the internal network and been out just as quickly.

It had been some of her best work, if she had to admit it; which she really did, because right now her work was far outshining that of Oliver's. She had made hers so easy and simple that it took a few keystrokes. His… was apparently more difficult.

His only job had been to break into the door - that was it, that was all. Of course it had been that simple before they realized the door didn't relock right away, and when it remained unlock for a total of eleven minutes - somebody needed to explain that time choice to her, stat - the alarm sounded.

Honestly, what kind of security door didn't automatically relock upon closing? It's like they were inviting people to break in.

Oliver cursed, and Felicity tapped a finger against her clutch. Her eyes were glued to the back of his head, but her ears were straining down the hallway, waiting for a guard to poke his head around and ask what the hell they were doing. She didn't have freakish sonar ears like Oliver, hers were more attuned to the subtle score changes in Fringe, not hearing the change in the air when someone walked through it or the near-silent steps of guards patrolling the hallways.

What she could hear was the music coming from the main floor two floors below, the tinkle of fake laughter and the chinking of champagne glasses.

They had already been gone too long.

She could just see Diggle where he waited for them, arms crossed, his jaw doing the clenching thing, eyes full of murder.

"This is taking too long, Oliver."

"Thank you, Felicity, I wasn't aware of that."

"Okay, mister, sarcasm does not sit well on you." Oliver sighed in exasperation. "Get relocking!"

"I'm trying!"

"Not very well, obviously."

Oliver held up a hand in aggravation, giving her a hard look over his shoulder. She met his stare head-on and he shook his head before pushing the tools back into the lock. Felicity fought the urge to tap her foot.

And then she heard something.

"Got it," Oliver said as the door locked again.

All her senses shot towards the head of the hall, ignoring the soft shuffle of Oliver's pants on the floor, the clicking of the metal tools and his gentle, even breaths.

Someone was coming.

"Crap," she whispered when she definitely heard footsteps.

Oliver stood, slipping the tools into their pouch before sliding it back into the breast pocket of his tux.

She glanced around, but the hallway was full of locked doors and at the opposite end was a bare wall with a water fountain. Nowhere to hide, not unless they unlocked the door he had just worked so hard to relock…

"Oliver," Felicity said, grabbing his arm and turning him. "Kiss me."

"What?" he asked, like she'd just told him to strip and streak down the hallway.

"Kiss me," Felicity hissed and she grabbed his face and yanked his head down to her level.

Felicity pressed her lips to his without preamble, clenching his face in a death grip between her hands.

The first thing she was aware of was that Oliver had amazing lips - they were full, very soft against hers, and she could still taste the few sips of the scotch he had ordered when they'd first arrived.

The second thing was that she was digging her nails into his skull and she immediately relaxed her hands.

The third thing was that Oliver was bent over her awkwardly, hands frozen at his sides like an uncomfortable tree.

And fourth, both of their eyes were wide open, and staring right at each other.

Felicity pulled back enough to snap, "At least put your arms around me," before shoving her lips against his again.

Oliver did as she said but they just rested on her waist, barely touching her bare back, as if her skin was covered in flesh-eating acid.

And then they just stood there.

When she wrote her memoirs, this moment right here was going to go down as the most horrifying and awkward moment of her entire life.

She was kissing Oliver Queen, and he was doing nothing but standing before her like a piece of stiff cardboard.

She didn't let herself take the time to appreciate how he felt against her - how much more broad his shoulders were now that they were right there or how large his hands really were or that she was kissing him at all.

She'd thought about kissing Oliver, a lot - before he'd ever come into her office and definitely throughout all the time they had worked together, but it had become most prevalent since he'd come back from Lian Yu, since she'd felt the subtle shift between them.

She hadn't known what it was - she still didn't know what it was - but she thought it might have been… something.

Clearly - clearly - she had been imagining it the entire time judging by how he was acting and now she was going to have to go bury her head in the ground and never come up for air again.

What was she doing, why had her brain immediately jumped to kissing him?

Felicity wasn't even aware of the guard at the top of the hall until Oliver pulled away, too consumed with the thought that Oliver had kissed literally hundreds of women, and he could barely scrounge up a measly ten percent of effort to kiss her back. Something dark and ugly settled in her chest, a ball of uncertainty and self-consciousness rising in her throat.

When she'd thought about a first kiss with him, this hadn't been it.

"Felicity, let go," he whispered, his hands circling her wrists gently but firmly.

"Right," she stuttered, immediately releasing her clawed hold on him. She avoided his eyes where they still rested on her face, and turned in a daze to look at the man waving a flashlight at them.

"Let's awkwardly kiss our boss another time, huh?" the guy said and humiliation and embarrassment rushed across Felicity like a tidal wave. He knew who Oliver was, who she was, and that she was there that night acting as his EA and nothing more… and it looked like she'd just attacked him and made a fool of herself.

Which she had.

"You guys aren't supposed to be up here, come on."

Felicity closed her eyes, pinching her lips and nodded. The flashlight felt like a spotlight made of fire on her face as she hugged her clutch to her chest and walked towards the guard, eyes on the floor.

Oliver was right behind her, eyes burning little holes into the back of her head.

"Sorry about that," Oliver smoothly to the man, barely a hitch in his voice, sounding for all the world like this was a common occurrence for him.

Which it probably was.

Just not with her.

Felicity should be feeling a bit of triumph. It had worked. Oliver had gotten the door locked, she'd gotten her foot in the door - as it were - and the distraction for the guard had obviously achieved its goal since he wasn't calling for backup of any kind, but she wasn't. No, all she felt was horror, humiliation, embarrassment, and… rejection. She'd just kissed Oliver and it had been nothing like she'd expected. The distraction had worked just like in the movies, but the kiss wasn't supposed to be so incredibly…

Awful.

So awful.

Oh god.

She was never going to be able to look him in the eye again.

Ever.

The guard smirked at them when they reached the stairs to go back downstairs, clearly amused, and the silence was deafening as they descended. The flashlight followed them for a moment before the guard clicked it off and continued on his rounds.

She was hyperaware of the fact that Oliver was right behind her, and she really needed to go find that glass of champagne she'd had earlier.

Or, like, three of them.

The glow of the party rose to meet them as they reached the main level and she sped up, eager to get to the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel in the form of the lighted fountain that was sprouting alcohol.

"Felicity," Oliver said behind her and she waved her hand without looking back.

"I really think we should go find John and make sure he knows we're not dead. Or worse, in jail," she said, nodding her head as she spoke. "He'll want to know that, because being dead is bad, and being in a jail cell in these shoes is bad - even worse I would wager because these shoes are not easy to stand in and I'm not sitting on those benches in this dress. We should tell him we're okay so he can at least stop doing that bicep thing he does because he's not exactly an unscary looking guy - he's very scary, in that big muscly way, and he can give glares like the best of-"

"Felicity," Oliver interrupted, dragging her name out in a way that made her stomach clench. Oliver cupped her elbow - making her stomach drop - and pulled her to a stop. "Hang on a second."

"I'd rather not," Felicity said, letting him pull her around so they were facing each other, but she didn't look at him, keeping her head turned so she could stare at the party, listening intently to the distinct sound of the champagne glasses leaving trays. Where was her glass? She wasn't a drinker, she didn't spend a lot of time drinking very much of anything, which made the sound of gulping down an entire glass a whole lot better. "We should get back, Oliver."

His hand came up to her shoulder and she closed her eyes, ready to hear the 'let's talk about better distractions' speech when his thumb rubbed across her collarbone.

Felicity's eyes snapped up to his.

He was looking at her; the shadows had to be playing tricks on her, because his eyes looked darker, more intense, more… Arrow-y.

Her heart swooped, her muscles tightening at the sight.

"Oliver?"

He didn't respond and her heart swooped for a different reason, a less fun reason.

"What?" she asked. "Was the kiss that bad?" An involuntary chuckle escaped him at that and her embarrassment came back tenfold, a heated blush sweeping across skin. She looked away again. "Okay, obviously it was. I'm sorry I did that, we need to come up with a better contingency plan for things like this than the ones that pop into my head."

Oliver stopped her, cupping her cheek with his free hand to force her to look back at him.

Time stopped and sped up at the exact same time.

"I don't think so," he said.

Oliver tipped her head back and then his lips were on hers.

Felicity inhaled sharply.

He kissed her, his lips pressed firmly to hers in a way that made her insides turn molten. And then he angled his head, his tongue slipping out and running across her lips, and she melted. Felicity moaned, opening her mouth in invitation and he took it, the hand on her shoulder slipping down to wrap around her waist, pulling her in.

This.

This is what she had thought would happen.

She vaguely heard her clutch fall to the floor as she grappled for something to hold onto before she wound her arms around his waist and pressed up against him, standing on her toes to get closer, no longer feeling the tight shoes or the awkwardness or anything but the sensation of… Oliver.

Oliver.

Was kissing her.

He was kissing her.

His warm hand pressed fully to the bare skin of her back, making her shiver in a way that had her chest pressing more fully to his, goosebumps erupting under his touch. He pulled her closer, the hand on her face tightening, angling her to match him perfectly as he controlled every inch of the kiss, a fire burning to life in her core.

She held on to him, kissing him back, her hand slipping up under his tux jacket and pressing to his warm back through the dress shirt.

It was his turn to shiver and something shattered in her chest at the sensation.

Felicity whimpered, nails digging into his spine and his kiss grew more heated, demanding more. His hand slid around to cup her open neck as he pushed her backwards and she met him step-for-step. She didn't have to think or wonder what was happening, she realized, because she trusted him implicitly.

He could take her anywhere and she would go.

A chorus of laughter from the party broke the moment.

Oliver stopped them short before they hit the wall, and Felicity whimpered her disappointment. Oliver gave her a tremulous breath against her lips, before he took another kiss, and another, not quite done. His tongue teased hers, his stubble scraping against her delicate skin…

She so, so wished they were anywhere else but there.

He slowly pulled away.

Her breathing was erratic and stilted and her heart tripped over itself when his nose nuzzled hers, his forehead pressing to hers, creating a little cocoon where nothing existed but them.

Oh-kay, she was clearly not as crazy as she thought… right?

Because that… that had been…

Neither of them moved for a long moment before Oliver licked his lips.

It was stunningly sensual.

It was literally stunning what that simple act did to her.

"I wasn't going to let that be our first kiss," he said, his voice rough, but laughter still laced his words.

Felicity froze. "What?"

First kiss? Like… he'd thought about there being a first kiss?

He nodded before stepping away. He adjusted his jacket and pressed some of her hair off her face before picking up her clutch. She could only stare at him, not reacting to the rampant amusement in his eyes or the half-smile curling his lips. He handed the clutch to her and she numbly took it in both hands, still staring at him.

His hand lingered, his thumb brushing against her knuckles, and her lips parted in a gasp as that tiny touch alone sent sparks dancing across her nerves.

"Come on," he said, tugging her hand slightly before letting it go. Right. Boss. Executive Assistant. "Let's go find Diggle."

Felicity didn't move to follow him.

He realized that after about ten steps.

"Felicity," Oliver said as he came back, shaking his head with a smile. He grabbed the clutch from her hand, holding it for her before wrapping her hand in his. "Come on."

She let him tow her blindly before she stopped him right as they were about to enter the main room again. The room had a decidedly different glow than it had a few minutes ago and everyone was very hazy, but Oliver was crystal clear when she looked up at him.

He was still holding her hand.

"First kiss…" she said, repeating his words. "Did we just do a 'be kind, rewind' thing there? Did we just Blockbuster a kiss? Not that I'm complaining, because I think it was definitely worth the Blockbustering, it was definitely one of the best rewind kisses ever, if that's even a thing… and I just compared our kiss to a VHS… I don't even think anyone owns a VCR anymore."

Oliver smiled, and it was a full-blown, Oliver Queen smile that left her knees feeling weak.

"Yeah," he said. "I think we did."

"Oh." Wow. Wow. "Okay."

When they found Diggle, he only had to take one look at them.

"Blockbuster," Felicity blurted.

Diggle quirked an eyebrow. "Haven't heard anyone call it that before."

The End

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