It should have been a relatively easy mission, a simple recon sweep and a chance to gather some hopefully damaging information on the very corrupt owner of the sleazy strip club that had recently opened in the Glades. Oliver had had a bad feeling about him from the second he first heard his name, but it wasn't until he'd asked Felicity to do a little digging that his hunch had been confirmed. Although there was nothing concrete or any evidence they could simply turn over to the cops, Ian O'Connor had ties to almost every organized crime family in Starling City. This guy wasn't just connected, he literally knew everyone.

Since he was a relatively new target, and one that veered off the familiar names on the list. Felicity had suggested he hold off charging in, arrows whirling, with the usual 'you have failed this city' spiel. Diggle had agreed with her, reluctant to find himself on the wrong side of Starling City's very own mafia.

Felicity's idea had been relatively simple. She and Oliver go in undercover and stay long enough for her to assess the security systems, and try to get her hands on a computer or two. There was no doubt that O'Connor had an office of some sort in the establishment, and Felicity was confident that she could glean some useful information relatively easily if given access to it.

Oliver had of course been reluctant to agree to the plan, as concerned as ever about taking her out into the field. But his consternation only grew after she had revealed how exactly they were going to get in. While the easiest way for her to gain access would have been to pretend to be one of the dancers, Felicity drew the line at actually stripping for an undercover mission, much to both Oliver and Diggle's relief. But the waitresses didn't have to strip, they merely had to dress in what could only be described as a naughty maid uniform and swan around serving drinks. Felicity had insisted that she was ok with dressing a little provocatively as long as she didn't have to actually do anything compromising. Oliver would simply saunter in as himself, Oliver Queen the eternal playboy checking out the merchandise. He'd grimaced a little as she explained his role but had admitted that it was unlikely that anyone would really question his motives for going. They would assume he was either there for the women, or to check out the competition from the new place just a couple of blocks away from his own.

And so, eighteen hours later, here they were. In an abandoned parking lot in the most dangerous and deserted area of the city, surrounded but eight armed henchmen. Oliver had easily fought them off when they first approached them in the back of the bar, but one of the thugs had been smart enough to grab Felicity and hold her in an unbreakable chokehold, with a gun pressed firmly to her temple. Oliver had settled down immediately, raising his hands slowly and allowing himself to be lead from the building without a fight.

He looked around, assessing the situation. If Felicity wasn't there, he could probably take them. Or at least manage to escape relatively unharmed. But there was no chance he'd be able to make a quick enough move before one of them hurt Felicity, they'd figured out pretty fast that it was a lot easier to merely threaten the pretty little blonde than to actually attempt to physically coerce Oliver.

His mind was racing a mile a minute, as he stood tense, waiting for their next move. They still had their comms in at least, so Dig would know that they'd been made. That was small comfort though, as he watched one of the masked men snake an arm around Felicity's scantily clad body, pulling her back into his body with a sneer. Oliver grit his teeth and felt his hands clenching and unclenching at his sides.

Ian O'Connor himself walked out into his line of sight slowly, a slimy expression on his face.

"Mr. Queen. Or should I say… Green Arrow? Isn't that what you're going by these days?"

He felt rather than saw Felicity's eyes fly to his in shock. He managed to disguise his own surprise, but couldn't hide the flash of uncertainty that crossed his face as he considered how this new enemy knew of his other life.

"Don't worry, we're going to get much better acquainted." O'Connor said with a sinister smile.

Oliver heard Felicity's breathing quicken with fear and looked at her, trying to silently tell her that she was going to be fine. He wouldn't let anything happen to her. Although it seemed a little like an empty promise in this situation.

"Take them."

It was the sharp order that drew his attention off Felicity's frightened face and back to the greasy red one of the little man in front of him. He resisted the urge to just overpower the smarmy little perv, knowing that it would take him all of two seconds to render the guy helpless on the ground. He stopped himself by looking back across at Felicity and to where the henchman holding her was now pressing his pistol against her side instead of her head. He couldn't risk it.

He admired how well she was holding herself together, considering. She must have been terrified and freezing, dressed the way she was, and yet she was standing there looking at him trustingly with nothing more than a slightly elevated breathing rate to show for her situation. He felt a surge of pride for his smart, beautiful IT girl.

It wasn't until they were being shoved towards the back of a truck and she took in what was awaiting them, that she began to freak out. The back of the open moving van was stacked high with large wooden storage crates, Oliver had seen boxes like this used before to transfer weapons and found himself wondering what exactly they'd stumbled onto. The immediate problem though, was that one of the crates had been opened and emptied, as though preparing for new cargo.

Oliver cursed under his breath as he realized what was about to happen. He glanced around him again, thinking through every eventuality that him going on the attack right then might have, before he dismissed them all with another muffled curse. Statistically the chances of Felicity being shot before he got to her were way too high. He wasn't going to take that risk, he would get them out of this, but for right now it seemed that the only way to keep them both alive was to comply. The very thought, let alone act, of being cooperative and letting himself be controlled like this, set his teeth on edge.

He felt the hard muzzle of a gun pressed against his lower back as someone shoved him towards the container. He ran through in his head all the ways he could get pistol out of the guy's hand and into his own, but Felicity's sharp cry of pain had the thoughts fleeing his mind as he quickly looked across at her. It seemed they had realized what he was thinking, and now the gun was being held under her chin, her head pulled back by roughly by her hair. He made a show of moving his hands a little higher, in a clear albeit a little passive aggressive, message that he conceded.

"Get in." The man at his back shoved him with the gun until he began to walk towards the van. The crates were about 3ft by 6ft, so while the two of them would just about fit inside, it was going to be a tight fit.

A muscle ticked in his jaw as he looked at the coffin-esque crate that awaited him. This went against every instinct he had, his body was crying out to fight his way out of this, not idly lay down in the box his captors were forcing him towards. But he realized, it wasn't every instinct, because there was a much stronger one which was overriding all the rest. Protect Felicity.

He nodded to himself absently and took a deep breath before climbing up and squeezing himself into the small space. It was uncomfortable but not insufferable and he managed to find a bearable position lying on his back. Felicity was shoved forwards, her eyes wide with fear as she was manhandled up into the back of the truck before being unceremoniously shoved in on top of him.

He suddenly found himself with a face full of blonde hair and an arm full of barely covered, soft, warm Felicity. He berated himself for that last thought almost as soon as he'd had it.

He caught her quickly as she began to struggle, calming her by tucking her head carefully against his chest and wrapping his arms around her back, providing her with what little protection he could in that moment. The lid of the crate was slammed down on top of them and he closed his eyes for a second, breathing deeply through his nose to calm the sudden sense of claustrophobic panic that raced through him. He quelled the island images that this situation conjured up in his mind and instead focused on the girl on top of him, her breathing labored as she tried not to cry.

But the second he began to focus on her, he realized all of a sudden that now he couldn't focus on anything else. Her costume, which by the way had gotten her through the door with no questions asked, consisted of a very short black and white skirt and a cropped top which was really better suited to being called a bra than a top, and very high heels which were now resting against his shins. Her skirt had ridden up as she was hustled into the crate and Oliver was very aware of the long bare legs pressed down against the length of his own. The hand he had instinctively wrapped around her curled into a fist to avoid the soft skin of her exposed back. She shifted slightly as he tried to get his thoughts under control, and oh sweet Jesus, one of her legs was pushed between his as she tried to wriggle into a more comfortable position. Of course he'd noticed how attractive Felicity was the moment he first laid eyes on her, but with the exception of a few times when she'd shown up to parties and rendered him momentarily speechless, it hadn't really been something he'd paid a lot of attention to. She was a friend and a colleague, and they had a mission, it wouldn't help anyone if he spent his days thinking about how good his assistant looked in the little pencil skirts she wore to work. He almost rolled his eyes at himself then and brought his focus back to the present. Where his current predicament was. He grit his teeth and tried to think about how serious their situation was and not how soft and tempting her breasts felt pressed into his chest.

"Oliver?" Her voice was soft and shaky, but her breath was hot against his neck and all he could manage was a half strangled "Mmhm?" In response.

"Do you have a plan?" She asked.

Good, something else to think about. He did actually have a plan, and he was really looking forward to putting it into action, he hadn't enjoyed the feeling of powerlessness he'd felt this evening at all.

"Yes." He said quickly, he had felt her body tense at his hesitation after her question and was quick to reassure her.

"Good, because I'm just trying really hard not to think about how much this feels like being in a coffin. Not the lying on top of you part obviously- but the rest of it with the box and the dark…" She trailed off and took a deep breath.

"We're going to be fine." He said gently, running a comforting hand down her back without thinking. He didn't miss the goosebumps that arose on her skin as he touched it and before he knew it, his thoughts were right back where they shouldn't have been.

The plan. Right.

"I'm going to see if I can force the lid open." He said, his voice came out rougher than expected it to, and from the involuntary shiver she gave, she'd noticed it too. "There are probably weapons in the other boxes, if we can get a hold of some we should be able fight our way out." What he meant by that of course was that he'd keep her safely tucked behind him while he took out as many of their enemies as he could. It wasn't a perfect plan, but it was all he could come up with at the moment.

She nodded, her hair tickling his chin. "Ok. Do you think you're strong enough to break the locks?"

"Not the locks, the wood." The boxes were made of pine, a substance a lot easier to break than the steel locks holding it closed.

"Oh. How…?" She began to shift around again, obviously wondering how he was going to manage that with her in between him and the lid. She began to wriggle even more, trying to see if there was a way they could coexist in this tiny space without her hindering his ability to get them out. He froze when her thigh brushed against his crotch as she arched into him to try and further explore their cage with her outstretched hands. Oliver began to grind his teeth, very aware of how obvious his arousal would be to her if he didn't put a lid on it soon. She moved again, her body sliding against his in such a way that if the situation were different, would have had him flipping them around and pressing her down into the ground, running his hands through her hair, down her sides, across her smooth stomach, his mouth leaving lingering, wet kisses down her neck, across her delicate collar bone and down… He cut himself off there, realizing with slight horror that he'd really just been having an adolescent fantasy about her.

"Maybe if I moved here and you…" He heard her say, he wondered if she'd been talking the whole time and he'd only just noticed.

He grabbed her waist quickly, halting her incessant wriggling as a stab of almost dizzying desire flushed through him.

"Felicity, please stay still." He ground out. She stopped moving but whispered a confused and breathy "Why?" In his ear. He just caught himself before he groaned out loud.

"Maybe I should start naming saints." He muttered under his breath, he hadn't meant for her to hear, but her quick "Huh?" told him instantly that she had. For once he was the one accidentally saying inappropriate things instead of her.

He waited for it to sink in, she was a smart girl and he was not spelling this one out for her. It took her a second but then her body stiffened against his as realization washed over her.

"Oh. Oh."

Oliver wasn't somebody who really experienced embarrassment, probably because he'd never really cared what anyone thought, which meant there was no reason to be embarrassed But as understanding settled over Felicity he felt something which he guessed could be akin to mild embarrassment wash over him. Even though it was dark, he knew she was blushing prettily and that really didn't help anything.

"Sorry." She murmured. He wondered if it was his imagination, but she didn't sound sorry at all.

"Let's just get out of here." He said.

She stifled a snort of laughter and he mumbled a slightly irritated "what?"

"Nothing, sorry. I was just thinking that's probably what you say to girls all the time when you're having similar…" Her thigh brushed against his crotch again in a gesture that could not have been an accident. "Problems." He glared at her through the darkness. "I mean like when you meet a girl in a bar or something, obviously not when you're locked in a storage container, because I doubt that happens a lot… Although considering…"

"Felicity." He cut her off mid ramble; because god help him even the sound of her adorable verbal gaffes was turning him on.

"Right. Sorry. Let's get out of here."

His best bet was to kick at the lid, using sheer force to break it open. The problem was managing to do that without kicking Felicity in the process.

"Ok I need you to come up as close to my head as possible and make yourself as small as you can." He said, wrapping a hand around her upper arm to help haul her further up. He searched around quickly for something to think about as she began to slide up him, a tangle of long limbs and long hair. His thoughts settled on Dig and he found with amused satisfaction, that the idea of being in this situation with Diggle calmed his body down enough to allow him to focus on the task at hand.

Felicity had managed to compact herself down to half the size she was before and her body was now resting solely against his torso. He wrapped one arm around her shoulders and covered her head protectively with his hand. He didn't want any wood to splinter and dig into her eye or anything.

Using all the strength he had, and drawing off his sheer frustration at not being able to fight earlier, he began to violently kick at the wood above them. The first creak of it breaking was like music to his ears. He only hoped they managed to get out before someone heard them. He kicked again and again, listening in satisfaction as more wood splintered beneath his persistent feet. And then with one final blow, the wood bowed and broke, allowing him to push the rest of it away with his hands. Felicity was still curled against his chest, but she sat up quickly when she felt the light hit her face.

"Wow. You're really strong." She said, glancing around at the broken wood on the floor. She clambered out quickly and he berated himself for the sudden loss he felt as she moved out of his arms. She turned and offered him her hand to help him out, he found the gesture inexplicably sweet and gave her a gentle smile before taking it and climbing out after her.

She opened her mouth to say something but was cut off when the van screeched to a halt, throwing her against one of the stacks of containers before he could catch her, he stumbled but just managed to keep his balance, quickly rushing to where Felicity was leaning against the crates rubbing her head and looking dazed. He crouched down in front of her and brought his hand to rest against her cheek, turning her face up to look at him.

"You ok?" He asked. He could hear some sort of commotion coming from the front of the truck and knew they needed to move quickly. She nodded and scrambled to her feet, taking his proffered hand in a nice turnabout from just a few minutes earlier.

He grabbed one of the planks of wood that had made up the lid of their crate knowing that he didn't have time to break into the other boxes in the hope of finding a more efficient weapon. He saw Felicity copy him and pick up another, slightly smaller piece and he quickly positioned himself between her and the door. He raised the plank above his head as the door began to open.

"Dig?" Felicity exclaimed from behind him.

He stared in surprise as he realized that it was indeed Diggle standing there. He dropped his makeshift weapon and jumped down onto the road beside him. Clapping him on his shoulder with a sincere "Good to see you man."

Diggle just nodded and watched as Oliver turned to help Felicity out of the van; she was struggling in her high heels.

"I knocked the two guys in the front out, but the cops are probably going to be here any minute. We should go." Dig said, gesturing to the van where it had stopped in the middle of the road causing a slight traffic jam.

"Way to be subtle Dig." Oliver said as he took in the scene.

"How about, thank you for saving us Diggle." He shot back, leading them around the front of the van to where his car was stopped.

The scene had drawn a few onlookers, and while they were far enough away not to be able to clearly see their faces, Oliver could tell that Felicity was suddenly feeling exposed. He watched as she wrapped her arms around her middle before he shrugged out of his jacket and draped it across her shoulders. She started at the unexpected touch, but her face melted into a grateful smile when she looked up at him. She slipped her arms into the sleeves and pulled it across her front. Oliver watched as she walked to the car, his jacket reached lower on her thighs than her skirt did, covering it completely, it looked like she was wearing nothing but his jacket and her stilettos.

"Damn it." He muttered under his breath. He was really going to need a cold shower when he got home.

This is just a silly idea that popped into my head and wouldn't leave. While Felicity's attraction to Oliver often makes itself known with her stumbling over her words and blushing etc. I thought it would be fun to twist that on it's head and see Ollie being the one struggling with it! Anyway these two are my latest obsession and this was a lot of fun to write, so I hope you like it! Reviews are gold y'all ;)

Also I have a few other ideas for oneshots of this sort so I might turn this into a prompt thing if anyone's interested?