The Saturday after Oliver and Felicity moved into their beach cottage in Coast City, they woke to find the world swallowed up by a thick wall of fog. It pressed against the windows, making everything in the house feel slightly damp and bringing with it a sneaking chill, the kind you don't notice until it's already worked its way deep into your bones, at which point it's almost impossible to get rid of.

Not exactly beach weather.

"We could go into town," Felicity said, setting a cup of coffee in front of Oliver before sliding onto his lap. Oliver wrapped his arms around her waist and she leaned back into him, nibbling on a piece of toast. He still got a little thrill every time she brought him coffee. It was like a nod to their entire journey up to this point, a reminder of how far they'd come.

For her part, Felicity still got a thrill every time she touched Oliver and didn't find herself thrown back by an invisible wall of tension four feet thick. Sometimes she still pulled away from him, afraid of being too present, of scaring him off. But every time she did, he pulled her back, holding her a little closer, determined to convince her that this was real, that this closeness was how things were between them now.

Despite Felicity's halfhearted suggestion, neither of them really felt like going out. Felicity puttered around the house in her underwear and one of Oliver's shirts with the sleeves rolled up six times, making the bed, picking up dirty clothes from the floor, and humming the cheery pop song that'd been all over the radio for the past few weeks. Meanwhile, Oliver sat in the kitchen, riffling through the day's paper.

Eventually Felicity ran out of things to clean. She plopped down on the chair across

from Oliver and dropped her chin into her hands. "Fog sucks. I'm bored."

"Wanna try that mug cake recipe I found on Pinterest?"

Felicity cocked her head to the side. "You have a Pinterest account?"

He looked at her over the top of the newspaper. "Is that judgement I'm hearing?"

She shook her head, smiling. "Pride."

He relaxed. "Good. Cause I found this great lamb recipe I've been wanting to try-"

"And I want to hear all about it," Felicity interrupted, laying her hands on top of his. "Truly. But Oliver, chocolate first. Lamb later. Now, what were you saying about mug cakes?"

Oliver pulled down the ingredients and laid them out on the countertop, along with Felicity's favorite Doctor Who mug.

"You know, I saw packages of premade mug cake mix in the store the other day," Felicity said, leaning up against the counter and watching him measure out ¼ teaspoon of baking powder. "Isn't that weird?"

Oliver shrugged. "I guess?"

"I think so. It's like, if you had the forethought to buy these little mug cake packets, you wouldn't be making mug cake to begin with, right?"

"I didn't know you spent this much time thinking about mug cake," Oliver said, placing the mug in the microwave and setting the timer for a minute.

"Mug cake is very important to me, Oliver," Felicity said seriously. "I have a list. It goes computers, my mom, mug cake, my Jimmy Choos, you-"

Oliver raised an eyebrow. "Keep going and I'll eat this whole thing myself."

Felicity mimed zipping her lips shut, her eyes twinkling.

The microwave beeped. Oliver blew on the cake before offering a spoonful to Felicity.

"Mm. Thank you." She licked the spoon clean before handing it back to him. "Ugh. So goo-"

Oliver tugged her flush against him, cutting her off with a kiss, his tongue running hot and wet over her bottom lip, his hands ghosting over her hips before finding purchase on her enviable backside. God, he loved her ass. When he pulled back they were both a little breathless. "You had chocolate on your lips," he said. "It's gone now."

"Chocolate's an aphrodisiac, you know," Felicity said giddily, righting her glasses. "If I didn't know better, I'd think you were trying to seduce me, Mr. Queen."

Smirking, Oliver smoothed her hair away from her flushed cheeks. The skin around her mouth was already pink from beard burn. "I was under the impression I'd done that already."

"Oh, no. No, no, no." Felicity walked her fingers up the buttons on his shirt. That needed to go. Immediately. "See, up till now it was definitely me seducing you. But I think you might've flipped the tables on me with this mug cake thing."

"Speaking of tables"-Oliver cocked his head toward the old wooden table in the middle of the kitchen-"how sturdy do you think that is?"

Felicity considered it. "Well the scientific method states that the best way to acquiring knowledge is to experiment-"

She yelped as Oliver picked her up and deposited on her the table. He settled himself between her legs, burrowing his face in the sensitive spot at the crook of her neck. "Scientific method, mhm. Let's do that."

All Felicity could do was moan.

The table proved to be very study indeed.

Wide swathes of buttery sunlight were sliding across their bed when they woke up the next morning, the fog burnt off entirely while they slept. Secretly, both of them couldn't help feeling a little disappointed.

But not for long.

Felicity brought toast and orange juice into the little white walled bedroom and set the plates down on the small table beneath the window. "So I was thinking," she said brightly, "beach today?"

Oliver smiled at her from the bed. "What else?"

Hopping onto the mattress, she crawled to Oliver on all fours, and nuzzled him under the chin. "Guess what."

"What?"

Felicity sat back on her ankles. Oliver couldn't help noticing that the hickey on her neck had expanded overnight. It was now deep purple and approximately the size of a baseball. Oops.

"Remember that bikini we saw in the store on the boardwalk? The pink one with all the unnecessary straps?

Of course he did. He'd had very fond daydreams of Felicity in that bikini. "The one you said you would never be able to get into, much less out of?"

"That's the one." Felicity wiggled her eyebrows. "I went back for it." She ran her hands along muscled planes of his shoulders, her head cocked to the side, eyes following the path of her hands. "So I was thinking I'd wear it today." She looked up at him, smiling. "Only, you're going to have to help me get it off later. Do you think you can manage that?"

Oliver fell back against pillows, smiling up at her lazily. "If it's you asking-"

Her eyes softened. "You'll do it. I know."

The sunshine wove a fine net of gold from her mussed hair, gilding her edges with soft light. She looked like divine intervention, which was fitting considering the role she had played in his life; taking him by the hand and leading him out of the darkness when he'd been utterly convinced the darkness had no end.

Sometimes the best thing in life was discovering how very wrong you were.

Oliver pulled Felicity to him, smiling against her lips as he kissed her.

After a minute Felicity pushed him back. "Oh and by the way, I've sort of decided that you're making me that mug cake every night for the rest of our lives. Hope that's okay."

Oliver couldn't think of anything he'd rather do.