#jedichick04

They both settled in at the counter, talking about everything and nothing as they sipped at their wine. Oliver went back to cooking, trying not to look up too often at his little sister and his wife interacting. He still felt like the last month was something out of a dream, from his sister waking up from her coma to Barry and Iris’s wedding (and all that entailed) to Felicity asking him to marry her right there in the park to celebrating it with their friends and family. There had been plenty of negatives, too--his arrest and the team breaking up being the two major negatives--but overall, for the first time in a very long time, Oliver had everything that he wanted in his life.

He could really get used to this foreign feeling of contentment.

He was good to his promise to teach William how to mash the perfect potatoes. Oliver had been worried that both Christmas and his sudden elopement would cause William to return to the brooding boy he’d been those first five months after his mother’s death. But William absolutely adored Felicity, and once Felicity had encouraged Oliver to just talk with William about any Christmassy things he used to do with his mom that he wanted to keep doing, Oliver had felt a lot better about the whole situation. And while William had been unsure about doing some Christmas activities without his mom, he had offered up a few things that Oliver had been more than happy to incorporate into their Christmas season.

Oliver had also promised to introduce William to two Christmas traditions that Oliver kept. Those would be happening after dinner. William asked about them again as they were bringing the food to the table, while Felicity and Thea joined them and set their wine glasses down. Thea jumped right in with a story about how both the traditions had started before Oliver even had a chance to open his mouth. He didn’t mind at all; he was grateful for how easily Thea had taken to the role of aunt to his son.

Oliver went to get the last dish of food, and he caught Felicity standing back a little and smiling at nothing. He stepped closer to her and raised an eyebrow in question. She laughed softly. “I was just remembering what happened that time I asked you about your holiday traditions.”

He frowned for a moment, trying to recall what she was talking about--these days, so much of what had happened in those first months and years after the island felt like it had happened to someone else entirely. But as he remembered exactly what had happened, he grinned in response. “I thought you were insane. Adorable, but insane.”

“You mean determined,” she corrected, leaning up for a kiss. Oliver happily gave her one. She wrapped her arms around his neck as she pulled away. “I wanted you to see that you could have happy memories again.”

“I should have realized even then that you were my happy story,” Oliver said softly. Felicity rewarded him with another kiss, which was interrupted only when Thea cleared her throat loudly.

“Save it for after dinner, newlyweds. I’m starving.”

Both Oliver and Felicity smiled and broke apart. Oliver went to get the last dish of food, Felicity poured him a glass of wine, and before long they were all digging into their Christmas Eve dinner.

Five years earlier

Felicity was right.

Nobody was paying any attention to Oliver Queen, CEO of Queen Consolidated, or why he was having drinks with his bodyguard and his personal assistant. Nobody was paying attention to much of anything beyond themselves in the restaurant; the Christmas music was cranked up and there were several Christmas dinner parties going on. Nobody noticed the three of them dressed casually and seated in the bar area.

It was a nice restaurant, but not one he typically frequented. The reason he even knew about it was because he'd come here with John and Felicity after the first mission she'd worked out in the field with them. The Dodger case. Felicity had been visibly shaken up after having a bomb collar around her neck and joked about going out for margaritas. At the time, John and Oliver had exchanged a quick look and agreed to a drink, mostly to keep an eye on her and make sure she was really okay. So tonight, when they had wrapped things up in the Foundry and Felicity had cajoled the two of them into drinks to celebrate Oliver's safe return from facing Cyrus Gold, they ended up back at that same spot.

Felicity was two margaritas in when the conversation took a turn Oliver hadn’t expected.

"What are your favorite holiday traditions?" she asked, looking between John and Oliver.

John already had his beer to his mouth, which left Oliver wide open to answer. But even as he took a breath to speak, he found a warm finger pressed against his lips, and the scent of Felicity filling his personal space. He had grown very familiar with that scent in the last few months, working with her as his personal assistant, and warning bells were going off in his brain as he struggled not to focus on how nice her finger felt against his lips--or how very blue her eyes looked behind her glasses right now.

He was enough caught up in his struggle that he almost didn't hear her command. " Don't say mistletoe. We already know all about the beautiful island girls on fantasy island."

Oliver blinked in confusion, not at all helped by John's snort of laughter. He pulled back from her finger, narrowing his eyes as he tried to figure out what she just said. "What?"

She waved her hand, as if physically brushing off her comment. "If it's all about kissing, I don't want to hear about it. That's all. So what are your favorite holiday traditions, that don't include kissing?"

John was still chuckling, which left Oliver no less confused about her fantasy island comment. But he pushed aside that concern for now--writing it off as the tequila talking--and answered how he had originally meant to answer. "Candy canes."

"What do you mean, candy canes?" Felicity asked, squinting her eyes at him in concentration. "That doesn't even make sense."

Oliver shrugged. He wasn't used to opening up, and just a few weeks ago he'd already had to tell John and Felicity about Sara Lance surviving the shipwreck. But it wasn't just anybody asking. The determined blonde who, just a few hours ago had told him he "looked like a hero" when he put on a mask, was staring him down.

"My sister and I, we always would race each other to see who could finish the candy canes first," Oliver explained. He felt himself relaxing a little into the topic as he spoke. Felicity had a way of bringing that out in him, without even trying. “And then we would watch It’s a Wonderful Life until we’d both fall asleep. I think we both finally made it to the end the year she turned twelve.” That was the last Christmas they’d had together, before the island. Oliver didn’t mention that part out loud, knowing it would instantly dampen the mood.

Felicity stared at him for a long moment, long enough that Oliver found himself shifting nervously in his seat. Without comment, she finished the rest of her margarita and waved for their waitress. "We're ready for our checks," she said without asking John or Oliver.  “We have someplace else to be.”

The two men exchanged a glance as they drained the rest of their beers. “Where are we going?” Oliver ventured to ask.

“You’ll see,” she replied with a pleased smile. She refused to say anymore as they paid their bills.

As they were leaving the restaurant, John muttered, “I’m glad I didn’t mention any of my holiday traditions.”

Five stops later and Felicity was clearly losing her tequila buzz. Her determination had only intensified.

“Does nobody in Starling City carry regular candy canes anymore?” she lamented as the three of them got back into the car after a quick trip through the Christmas treat section at the drug store. “How hard can it be? Candy canes seem to be a pretty basic part of the Christmas culture. Is there really a need for trendy flavors like tropical punch and Jelly Belly candy canes?”

“You did almost buy the chocolate mint ones,” John pointed out as he started the car.

Felicity ignored his comment. “There’s nothing else for it,” she said. “We’re going to have to steal them.”

“Felicity--” Oliver had been amused when this had all started--and in a way, deeply flattered that Felicity’s single minded mission since they had left the restaurant was to find a box of peppermint candy canes. But there was a line between ‘fun’ and ‘doing what the bad guys do’, and Felicity was announcing that she was crossing it.

Unfortunately, she ignored Oliver as easily as she’d ignored John’s comment moments before. “John, can you take us to QC?”

“Forget something at the office?” he asked as he made the turn back towards the city center.

“Every year since I was hired at QC, somebody brings in a stack of candy cane boxes and puts them in the break room on the IT floor. So we’re going to help ourselves to a few of those boxes,” she said with a nod, her long ponytail swishing back and forth.

Oliver relaxed a little at the explanation of their destination. “Is it really stealing if we’re taking it from work?”

“Technically, I don’t work for the IT department anymore,” Felicity pointed out. A familiar look came into her eyes, and Oliver could sense another (well-deserved) rant was about to come his way for putting her in as his personal assistant if he didn’t divert it quickly.

“Let’s hope they have the right flavor,” he said. He smiled slightly. “Or we may end up stuck with those green apple ones we just saw.”

“No, if we’re going green, we’re getting the chocolate mint ones,” she said before her eyes widened. “Oh. Did you want green ones?”

“No, I really do prefer the peppermint,” he assured her. “I don’t need everything to be green.” He looked out the window for a moment to see the QC building getting closer. “What’s the plan when we get there?”

He saw Felicity’s confusion written across her face. “Plan?”

“Yes, plan,” he said, turning to face her more. “Your mission. So you get to make the plan.”

“Oliver Queen, are you learning to share?” she asked. She looked very pleased with this turn of events.

He smiled slightly before he said, “Don’t get used to it.”

She laughed and worked on laying out a simple, straightforward plan by the time they reached the Queen Consolidated building.

Oliver waited uneasily outside the IT break room for Felicity. She had insisted that she go in alone. “It will take me two minutes, Oliver,” she told him with a roll of her eyes. “I can handle it.”

So since he had agreed to let her be in charge of “the plan”, here he was, feeling out of place and exposed in the company he technically ran.

He was just about to go in after Felicity--she had been in there for nearly five minutes and he could here her muttering under her breath--when he heard a male voice.

“What are you doing?”

Oliver was on high alert and already moving to the door.

“I’m taking the last box of regular candy canes,” came Felicity’s matter of fact reply. “There are still plenty of other flavors. Though why anybody would want root beer candy canes--”

“These are for the IT department, from the IT managers. And your badge says you’re a personal assistant, not from IT.”

Oliver stepped into the room and tried for his most charming smile. “Is there a problem here? Ms. Smoak, did you find the candy canes I needed?”

The man Felicity had been talking to had turned to face Oliver, and his eyes widened as he recognized him. “Mr. Queen. What brings you down to IT this late at night?”

“I needed a box of regular candy canes. Ms. Smoak--my personal assistant--recalled that there are typically too many boxes of candy canes left in the IT break room, and offered to retrieve them for me. I see that she’s been successful. Thank you,” Oliver said to Felicity, then turned back to the IT employee. “Don’t let us keep you from anything you’re working on.”

“No, Mr. Queen. I was just getting my lunch. I’m the IT staffer on call tonight.” The man seemed embarrassed now that he recognized the CEO of the company was in the same room as him. “Enjoy your candy canes, sir.”

“Thank you,” Oliver said, keeping his smile. He gestured for Felicity to go ahead of him, then said, “Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas, Mr. Queen. And Ms. Smoak.”

Oliver and Felicity made it all the way inside the elevator, where John was waiting, before Felicity started laughing. Oliver dropped the fake smile and cracked a real one before asking Felicity, “Maybe you should have gone for the green ones after all.”

John just looked at both of them, shook his head, and pressed the button for the parking garage.

“So why are we back here with our stolen candy canes?” John asked as Felicity set down her purse and coat.

“Because now that we have the candy canes...we have a movie to watch,” she said. She looked around the Foundry, then nodded towards the mats. “See if you can make some comfortable seating. I’ll work on the tech setup.”

John obediently started towards them, piling up some mats for the three of them to lean against, then going to find blankets and pillows Oliver had stashed in the Foundry. Oliver hung back with Felicity, who was muttering under her breath as she poked at her tablet.

“This whole thing--looking for candy canes and coming back here--it’s because of what I said at the restaurant?” Oliver asked.

Felicity looked up from her tablet, and for the first time all night looked uncertain. She was biting her lip in a very distracting way. “I don’t celebrate Christmas,” she said. “Hanukkah ended last week. But I thought--well, we deserve a little break. And you deserve a happier Christmas than you had last year.” She frowned. “You did say you do this with your sister. We can pick a different movie. I don’t want to step on your toes--”

“Fe-li-ci-ty.”

He said her name softly, but it did the trick. She stopped babbling and looked at him, waiting for his response.

“Thank you,” Oliver said. She blinked in surprise--had he ever told her that before? This particular occasion warranted it. Wanting to cut the tension of the moment--and the urge he had to just lean in and kiss her--he took the box of candy canes from the table where she had set it. “But I’m not taking it easy on you for the contest.”

“And here I thought you were a gentleman,” she replied. She smiled up at him, and he felt that urge to kiss her again. Luckily, the sound of John stacking another few mats up made Oliver look away, and the moment was gone. He headed over and settled next to John. Felicity joined them a few moments later, barefoot and with her hair down. She sat down on the other side of Oliver, then pressed a few buttons on her tablet and got the movie to start playing.

They went through the box of candy canes fairly quickly, and watched the movie with minimal commentary. Oliver felt the week catching up with him, his eyes growing heavy as he concentrated on the black and white movie. Both John and Felicity were settled in and quiet now as the movie played on.

The next thing Oliver became aware of were tingles from his left arm, and a soft warm weight pressed up against his left side. He blinked his eyes open, catching that George Bailey was staring down at the river, contemplating ending it all to make things better for his family. He heard soft snores from his right--John was fast asleep.

And so was Felicity, tucked up against Oliver and using him for a pillow.

He remained still, just looking at her. Her glasses were slightly askew, where she was pressed up against him; her hair was down, surrounding her face in soft waves. She looked peaceful, almost angelic as she slept on.

She deserved someone good, like the kid Barry Allen. She didn’t need to waste her time on someone broken like him, to spend a whole evening racing around the city trying to find the right kind of candy canes because he’d said it was his Christmas tradition.

She deserved better, and she shouldn’t waste time on him, but Oliver allowed himself these few minutes to memorize how easily she fit against him, how pleased she was on the ride back to the Foundry, how determined she had been to get the candy canes and the movie set up.

It was Christmas. He was allowed a few happy hours.

When he could no longer ignore the pins and needles in his left arm, he gently shifted her away from him, placing her head on his folded up grey sweatshirt. He carefully removed her glasses and set them in the empty box of candy canes, so they wouldn’t get broken. Then he shifted away, putting a little bit of space between them before he settled back down and watched the rest of the movie.

December 24, 2017

“I think he’s finally asleep,” Felicity murmured, her voice reverberating against Oliver’s chest. After dinner, they had all moved into the living room to watch It’s a Wonderful Life --which was only briefly interrupted by the annual candy cane eating contest. Felicity was snuggled up against him now, a warm spot on the cold night. He didn’t feel like shifting much, but all it took was a slight turn of his head and he could see that William’s eyes were indeed shut tightly as George Bailey made a mad dash to the library to see what had become of Mary in the world without George.

“He’s not the only one,” Oliver replied, nodding to where his sister had tucked herself into an armchair and was fast asleep. “I thought they’d never come down from their sugar highs.”

“You make it sound like we have two children in the house,” Felicity said with a sleepy laugh. “But you were participating just as diligently in that candy cane eating contest, mister.”

“A tradition is a tradition,” he said. He lightly brushed his fingers down Felicity’s arm. “That first Christmas I was back, Thea brought a box of candy canes to the hospital. It was an olive branch. For the first time since I returned from the island, I felt like an old part of me was back. But a good old part of me. Not the foolish irresponsible kid I was. But a big brother, sharing a tradition with his little sister.” He smiled softly. “And this year, I’m sharing it with my son and my wife.”

Felicity found his left hand, gently tracing along the cool metal ring that Oliver was still hyper aware of, after a little less than a month wearing it. “Talk about unthinkable. You and me.”

“You changed my life from the moment I walked into your office and you told me you knew who I was,” Oliver countered, taking her hand and wrapping his fingers through it. “It was never an easy road. But we made it here.”

“A quiet family Christmas,” she said with a smile before yawning and snuggling back into his chest. “I love you, Mr. Smoak.”

A wide grin came across Oliver’s face, a deep contentment and peace filling his soul. When he’d returned from Lian Yu, he never would have been able to imagine anything like this. He never thought he would deserve anything like this. But bit by bit, hard learned lesson by hard learned lesson, he’d moved from the broken man who left the island to the man he was today. Brother. Father. And husband to the incomparable Felicity Smoak. “I love you, Mrs. Queen.”