A/N: Short but sweet, people. No warnings apply.

OLIVER QUEEN

It had been a long day after an even longer night, Oliver thought as he sat back from his desk at Queen Consolidated and stretched. He winced as his abused ribs protested the movement and quickly checked that Felicity hadn't been looking his way and noticed.

While he didn't like getting injured the worst part was the look on Felicity's face when she found out, and she always found out. His own pain was something Oliver was well acquainted with, but every time Felicity reached out to help him, wanting to take all the pain away, it shook him. But nothing could compare to the look in her eyes when she realised it wasn't something physical that he would heal from in a few days or weeks, that she couldn't make him better. For all of Felicity's quirks, that was the one Oliver couldn't comprehend.

And despite all that, she never tried to fix him, never tried to get him to talk about his problems or past, and never treated him like he was broken or fragile. She was simply just there for him; sometime with a witty comment, sometimes with an awkward ramble, often with a genius solution, but always there.

Movement caught his attention and Oliver realised that he had been staring at Felicity as she typed at her desk outside his office. Just like she occasionally looked up from her computers to watch him train in the basement at Verdant, he was watching her work with her precious computers here.

She look on her face while she was concentrating was something Oliver equated with sheer determination. It didn't matter if the task Oliver gave her was impossible she would find a way. And when she did her whole face brightened as she smiled. Her smiles were contagious, and Oliver found that he was always smiling around her. He often had to school his features when she did something small that amused him, like her choice of lipstick, her most recent ramble, comments about how she saw the world and how when she was angry at him she tried to intimidate him even though he could quite literally pick her up and move her out of his way.

Oliver paused in his thoughts and came to a sudden realisation.

"I'm an idiot."

"What did you do now?" Felicity demanded.

Oliver looked at her in surprise having missed her moving from her desk and into his office. "Nothing new," he assured her as he took the file she passed him.

"Good, because things finally seem to be going smoothly around here. Sign that please."

Oliver got a pen and signed the bottom of the document absently. "What do you say about calling it a night and going to dinner?" he asked Felicity.

"Sure. There's a new Italian place around the corner that I've been dying to try."

"Great. It's a date."

Felicity laughed, "You mean it's not a date."

"No, I asked you out to dinner and you said yes. I believe that is considered a date."

Felicity was silent for so long that Oliver got worried.

Standing from his desk Oliver strode over to Felicity and gently placed his hands on her upper arms and ducked down slightly so they were face to face. "Felicity, is that okay?"

"Yes, yes it is. I just…I'm a little surprised."

"That I would ask you or that it took me so long?"

Felicity grinned up at him impishly. "A little of both."

"You have always believed in me Felicity and I don't want to lose that. You make me a better person."

Felicity rolled her eyes. "You are a good person, Oliver. You don't need me for that."

"See, that's my point. You make me laugh, you keep me from being overwhelmed by everything, you force me to consider opinions other than my own and that makes me someone better, someone that I want to be. It's all you."

"No," Felicity said firmly. "It is all you."

"I'll never deserve you, Felicity Smoak."

"Too bad."

Oliver chuckled and smiled down at the amazing woman in front of him.

"And Oliver," she added, "you make me a better person as well. Don't forget that."

Stepping back Oliver offered his hand and Felicity only hesitated slightly before she slipped her hand in his and held on tight.

A/N: Thanks for reading.