I don't own Arrow or any of its contents

~Unshod Black Tears

"I could have handled it all by myself dad." Thea said as she unlocked the front door to her loft, neither she nor Malcolm noticed Oliver and his crew sitting in the living room.

"I'm sure you could have, but I'm your father and it's my duty to protect you, from everything." Malcolm replied smoothly, his left eye was rather swollen and his lower lip was cut in the middle. His right hand was slightly bloody with the few cuts on it.

"I feel guilty now." His daughter stopped in front of him, still not noticing the guests.

"You shouldn't." Malcolm squeezed her hand with his left one. And only then he realized they were not alone in the room. "Hello."

"What happened?" Felicity asked with concern in her eyes.

"We went to Verdant and I decided to dance a little while he drank his vodka." Thea gestured towards her father. "One guy came over to me and asked me to dance, I said no but he insisted. When I refused again, he grabbed me and dad came to my rescue. But he called his other 5 buddies and chaos was formed when one of them tried to attack dad. You got lucky you only got a swollen eye and a cut lip." She directed her last sentence to Malcolm." Anyway, what are you all doing here?"

"We were just leaving." Laurel said as she, Diggle and Roy got up to leave. She looked down at Felicity. "You coming?"

"You guys can go ahead, I'll just grab my purse. It's in the kitchen." The blonde informed and the other three nodded. Oliver and Thea climbed up the stairs whilst Felicity went to the kitchen.

After checking everything was inside her purse, Felicity turned around only to almost have a heart attack as she almost hit her head with Malcolm's. "What are you doing here?" She asked with wide eyes. The man smirked before answering.

"I came here to grab an icepack." He gestured to the fridge behind her and she closed her eyes momentarily as his warm breath with basically no scent of vodka hit her in the face.

"Right. Icepack. Swollen eye. Got it." She said a little embarrassed but made no move to get out of the way. Malcolm also made no move to reach behind her, he just stood there in front of her, smirking.

Felicity would never admit it, at least not out loud, that she always kind of had a crush on Malcolm Merlyn. Yeah, he was the bad guy, but that fact only added to the list of things she liked about him, alongside his good looks and sexiness. No one could deny that Merlyn was sexy as hell. His hair that always seemed to be made of silk made her want to run her fingers through it, his cold dark eyes sent both good and bad shivers down her spine, sometimes they almost made her melt with the intensity of his stare. One thing she loved about him was his smirk. It gave him an almost adorable dimple and it had its own cold charm.

Malcolm Merlyn was a mystery, and one that Felicity would like to solve. He destroyed the Glades just because his wife was killed there and he did nothing to stop it, he basically abandoned his own so to become a cold blooded assassin but still showed regret and sorrow as soon as he learned Tommy was dead. He manipulated his own daughter to kill her friend but still showed he cared for her in his own twisted way. Merlyn hated Oliver's guts but still saved his ass time and time again if not only for his daughter's sake. Felicity had no doubt that their lives would be entirely different had Rebecca Merlyn lived.

She was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't notice Malcolm trap her between his body and the fridge as he put his arms in each side of her, neither did she notice him leaning closer and closer until their mouths were only inches apart, she only came back to her senses when their foreheads touched. Their eyes locked and suddenly, Felicity couldn't move even if she wanted to. But that was the problem, wasn't it? She knew what was about to come and she didn't want to move, even with her boyfriend upstairs.

Merlyn seemed to have found what he was looking for in her eyes and the next thing she knew, their lips were pressed tightly against each other as were their bodies. Malcolm's hands came to rest on her waist as her arms wrapped themselves around his neck, unconsciously making her fingers roam through the silky brown hair, she could only focus on his tongue begging for entrance. Felicity parted her lips slightly and soon their tongues were battling each other for power. God she was in heaven, between Malcolm's own masculine scent aand the wonderful taste of coffee and mint on his breath, she couldn't even focus on thinking how the hell his breath tasted like that, Felicity felt herself getting lost in the almost never ending paradise. But of curse it had to end when their lungs begged for oxygen and they had to separate.

Malcolm panted slightly as he smirked yet again, but this one almost seemed like a genuine smile. He pulled himself away suddenly and Felicity looked at him confused until she heard footsteps heading to the kitchen.

"What's going on here?" Oliver half eyed the two of them suspiciously, half glared at Merlyn as he stood in the doorway.

"Felicity and I were just talking. She cooed and said that I actually have a heart." Malcolm lied smoothly with a fake, annoying tone voice as if he hadn't been kissing Oliver's precious girlfriend just a few moments ago. And what a kiss that was. He already had an icepack over his eye.

"Wha?" The arrow asked gobsmacked, Malcolm closed his eyes, trying to focus so he wouldn't smirk, and Felicity just stood next to him with her arms wrapped around her torso, feeling very uncomfortable.

"Don't be so hard on him. But we'll talk about it tomorrow. I have to go now. Bye." Felicity dodged Oliver's attempt at kissing her, Malcolm hid another smirk at that, and hugged him instead, looking at Malcolm over Oliver's shoulder and blushing at the man's wink, and then left the loft.

"I'm going to sleep now. Good night Oliver." Malcolm nodded at the younger man and left the kitchen, still thinking about the kiss he shared with the blonde.

Not even Rebecca managed to take my breath away with one kiss.