Chapter 1 (The Announcement)

She's sitting in the basement of Verdant doing some hood work. She hears the clacking of bamboo sticks from the training area where Oliver and Diggle are. And she's constantly checking the clock every few minutes. She has a date tonight with this really nice, not to mention hot, guy she met at a bookstore. It's been a while since she went on a date. Between work at QC and work for the vigilante she hasn't had the time. Not to mention she tends to get awkward around guys. Even when she's just around Oliver and Diggle. She needed some time for just herself.

Finally it was time for her to leave so she packed her stuff and grabbed her jacket. Then she went over to the training mat to say goodbye and let the guys know she was leaving.

"Bye guys. I'm heading off for the night." She said.

"Okay have a good night Felicity." Oliver said, but not stopping to face her.

"Leaving so soon?" Diggle said.

"Um yeah. I sort of have date tonight, so-" The sound of bamboo hitting skin cut her off.

"I thought Oliver never let his guard down when in the middle of a fight." Diggle said jokingly.

"Yeah sorry I got distracted." He replied tightly. "So, a date huh?"

"Yeah no need to act so surprised. I go on date all the time." Felicity said a little offended.

"No that's not what I meant. It's just you never mentioned it before." He came back defensively.

"Yeah. Why not?"

"Because I know you guys. The last thing I wanted was for you guys to go all big brother protective on me."

"We're just looking out for you Felicity." Diggle told her honestly.

"Well thanks but I'm a big girl. Plus, I am, after all capable of doing my own background checks. Which I of course did. Even though I would of never thought of doing that before I started working with you guys, but you know. And no need to worry, from the looks of it he's clean, not to mention hot."

She tried to ignore Olivers frown when she was done talking. She had no idea why he was acting this way. It was actually kind of hurtful that he didn't think she could land a hot date.

"Where did you say your date was again?"

"Oh, We're meeting at the,-, Nice try Oliver, but I'm not telling you where my date is taking place. I don't plan on needing you to arrow him or anything like that."

"I wouldn't arrow him." He innocently told her.

"Yeah. uh huh. So I better get going." And with that she turned on her feet and left to get ready for her date

So, Felicity had a date. He didn't know why he started acting like that when she said she was leaving early because she had a date. He figured it was because Felicity was important and he cared about her safety, which was true. But there was something else there that he was feeling. It couldn't be jealousy that he was feeling, because he didn't think of her that way.

After Felicity left he went onto the computer. Felicity didn't give them much about her date, so he had a lot of work to do in not a lot of time.

"What are you doing?" Diggle asked Oliver as he sat down in the computer chair.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Clearly Diggle had to at least want to know where her date was, or know whom with.

"I know, but I mean why? You heard her. She said she didn't want us to do anything to ruin her date."

"Yes. She did say that. But we should know. For safety reasons."

"Right, huh, safety reasons." He said knowingly. "Something tells me this is for more than just safety reasons." Oliver ignored Diggles comment and just kept on typing.

"I'm telling you this is a bad idea." Diggle said shaking his head from side to side.