A/N: soooo... this is my first fanfic and this is the first time I've really written anything that didn't have to do with school so hopefully it won't be too shitty. the finally had me so hyped up that i had to write something about it. Okay, so this takes places roughly a few weeks/months after the team returns home from the island. Starling city is in the process of being rebuilt (once again).

this isn't beta-d so any mistakes are my own, sorry!

title: I Don't Need a Man (But I Need You)

summary: "He thought he could finally stop worrying once Slade was gone, but he couldn't have been more wrong." Oliver is increasingly paranoid about Felicity's safety after the downfall of Slade. Or the five times that Oliver worried about Felicity's safety and the one time she noticed it. Post-finale.

pairing: Oliver/Felicity

rating: T

It wasn't until she went into anaphylactic shock that she first noticed it.

And by 'she first noticed it', she meant Diggle.

Diggle noticed it first.

Felicity realized that it had been happening since they returned from dropping off Slade at Lian Yu.

"Felicity!"

Felicity blinked and jerked up in shock from where she was working at her new computers. After they had returned from the island, they had moved their base of operations from Verdant into what she had called in her head 'Oliver's Secret Lair'.

After Oliver was finally able to regain control of Queen Consolidated, all of his assets had been unfrozen and Felicity had been able to completely revamp their new lair, making it look almost exactly like the old foundry under the club. The same club that Oliver was now back to managing on top of his CEO and arrow duties due to the fact that Thea had left town.

"O-Oliver!" She gasped in surprise before briefly glaring up at him and Diggle from where they stood by the door. He was fully dressed up as Oliver Queen the CEO in what looked like to be an overly expensive Armani suit. Felicity tried not to think about how good Oliver looked in suits. Particularly that one.

"You need to make noise when you walk, you know, like an actual human being does. Not that you're not human. Or that you walk weird or anything. I mean of course you don't walk weird. What I'm trying to say is-"

"Felicity!" Oliver cut her off mid-ramble as Diggle chuckled softly from across the room. Her pink-painted lips snapped shut as he swiftly moved across the lair to stand right behind her computer screens. His jaw was set, and his lips pressed together tightly as he frowned down at her.

"Yes, Oliver?" She questioned finally, gnawing on her bottom lip nervously at the look he was directing towards her. A look like that can't mean anything good.

"Where have you been? My meeting ended two hours ago but I couldn't find you at QC. I called you, too."

Felicity glanced down at her cell phone and sure enough there were 18 missed calls from Oliver Queen. Plus two from Diggle.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I left Queen Consolidated early to try to get some of my systems back online and I must have been so in to it that I didn't feel my phone buzz."

Oliver took that moment to turn his steely glare down to where her cell phone lay innocently on the desk. With an exasperated huff Oliver snatched up the phone and, ignoring Felicity's protests, switched on the ringer and turned the volume all the way up.

"Oliver!" Felicity was objecting loudly as she watched the man fiddle with her phone. "Listen here mister, I know you're practically royalty around here but that doesn't mean you can just go around taking other people's things without asking."

She had planned on reprimanding Oliver on his poor people skills until he returned her cell phone, or at least until she was blue in the face, but she froze when a large hand clasped down on her arm.

All of a sudden she was standing on her feet, having been hauled up from her chair by Oliver in the span of a few seconds. The next moment her phone was shoved into her hands that had unconsciously risen up between them to grasp at Oliver's shirt for balance.

Felicity knew what he was trying to do. She knew he was trying to use his immense height and overall giganticness in an attempt to intimidate her. Oliver could never intimidate Felicity, but she would be lying if she said that the utter magnitude of their height difference didn't send shivers down her spine.

As Felicity peered down at her phone that he had thrust into her arms, Oliver's other hand came to rest on her upper arm so that he was now gripping both of her shoulders.

"Felicity" He repeated for what seemed like the thousandth time that night. "You need to keep your phone on full volume, we've talked about this."

"I know Oliver, it's just that it distracts me at work and-"

"I don't care, Felicity!" His grip on her arms tightened with his words as she stared up at him. "What matters is that you're safe. I need to know that I can get in contact with you need be it. And you shouldn't have left QC without Diggle, either. Starling City is still being rebuilt, it isn't safe."

"Hey man," Diggle said from the training mats where he was eyeing the two of them talk. "Don't pull me into this."

"Exactly Oliver, don't pull John into this, I don't need a babysitter."

"I'm already the black driver, I don't need babysitter added to my job title, too. Felicity can look after herself."

"That's not the point, Diggle!" Oliver grated out, before grabbing Felicity's chin with his right hand and repositioning it so that she was no longer looking at Digg but at him instead. She gaped up at him in shock. This was the most he had touched her since the night. The night they had brought down Slade and Oliver had falsely declared his love for her. Probably the most he had touched her ever that she hadn't instigated herself.

"Listen, Felicity. Promise me you'll keep your ringer on from now on and that you will tell me or Diggle where you're going."

"Oliver I-"

"Promise me, Felicity!" He cut her off once again, and because she saw the beginnings of something unusual in his eyes, (panic maybe? but no, it couldn't be), she quickly agreed. "Alright, I promise, Oliver, I promise."

He visibly relaxed after that, his hands slipping from their tight hold on her shoulders to slide softly down the sides of her arms. His eyes fluttered shut for just a moment as he exhaled and to Felicity it seemed like he couldn't believe that she had agreed.

Felicity gazed on at this scene in worry. Sure, Oliver hadn't been completely the same as from before the whole Slade debacle, but he had never acted this out of character before.

Oliver held her close for a couple more seconds, breathing in deeply while Felicity frowned on in confusion. In a few moments however, Felicity was back to typing away at her computers and Oliver was in workout clothes, already beating the life out of a punching back. It was like nothing that had transpired moments before had ever happened.

Diggle watched on as the two went their separate ways. Felicity to get their systems back in order, and Oliver to train. Now, he may be seen by others only as Oliver's 'Black Driver', but Diggle sure wasn't stupid. He saw the back and forth thing that Oliver had been doing since his third return from the island.

Oliver thought that Diggle didn't notice that the CEO was keeping his distance from Felicity intimate-wise. Sure, he would still lay a friendly (or what Oliver thought was friendly) hand on either the IT-girl's back or shoulder. But other than that, he refrained from touching her.

But that didn't stop Oliver from calling or texting Felicity almost every hour for what he said was work issues, when Diggle knew he was just trying to check up on her.

Whenever the blonde walked into the room, Oliver's focus was immediately on her. He would then somehow unnoticeably maneuver himself until he was next to her. These days it seemed like Oliver Queen was going to become a permanent fixture to Felicity Smoak's side. He was always a steady presence at her shoulder.

Diggle saw how Oliver's eyes would constantly flicker between his team, the door, and the windows, no matter where they were. He continuously stood tense and prepared, and he seemed to gravitate towards Felicity at any sudden or loud noise.

Yet, at the end of the day, Oliver Queen was still Oliver Queen. And Arrow or not, if there was one thing Oliver Queen couldn't do to safe his life, it was handle his relationships.

Diggle only wondered when Felicity would catch on.

A/N: wow this turned out to be longer than I thought it would be. Anyways, hopefully the next chapter will be up within the next two weeks but I can't promise when because junior year is kicking my ass.

thanks for reading!

~ smoakingsalvatore | avery