lar_laughs | tv_universe BBI #2 (200-500 words)

Title: On the Mat
Fandom: Arrow (TV)
Characters: Felicity, Diggle, Oliver (sort of a pre-F/D or, possibly, pre-F/D/O)
Prompt: Well damn, this is going to be interesting from

meridian_rose

tv_universe Prompt: Dare to be Stupid
Word Count (not counting the prompt) 412
Rating: PG-13
Author's Note: This idea originally came to me from a manip that someone did on Tumblr a thousand years ago. Okay, not that long ago but long enough that I can't possibly find it. It may be responsible for my original Felicity/Diggle love, actually.
Summary: He wants her to know how to protect herself. It's one thing to let Oliver loose out into the world alone but another altogether to let Felicity out from behind the security of the computer monitors. Yes, Diggle worries.

Felicity had always thought she understood what it meant to be fearless. The feeling was, at it’s very essence, everything that she was not. As she hit the mat for what felt like the twentieth time in so many minutes, she wondered why it was that she put herself through these paces. She wasn’t the type of person to go looking for excitement but the direction her life was taking seemed to be begging for excitement to find her.

The real reason she was here was staring her in the face. Quite literally, in fact. She waited for Diggle to jump up and bully her until she was upright again but he stayed where he was, his body inches from hers as he’d gone down to the mat in the take down she’d fallen for yet again. It amazed her that he could hold himself above her like this, without a quiver from his muscles. He didn’t appear to be breathing but that might have been her own projection onto him, her own breath caught in her lungs as she struggled not to do anything to ruin the moment.

Well damn, this is going to be interesting, she thought to herself as she tried to break away from his intense glance.

It was finally too much. She had to say something or she would reach up to wipe away the bead of sweat making the way down his cheek. What would keep her from following that gesture with a slide of the back of her hand over his ebony skin?

The metal door sliding open would keep her from attempting anything. She figured Diggle would jump up but he stayed where he was.

“You two need some alone time?” Oliver asked, oh so casually, as he walked into the room, already shedding the jacket of the business suit Felicity knew he despised.

Without taking his eyes off her, Diggle answered, “She’s still missing the right sweep.”

“And you want to kiss her without any interference. Don’t worry. I get it.”

She pushed at the firm chest above her, wishing she knew something that would get her out of this situation. Her mind was blank, full of brain matter that was nothing but fried circuits and custard. There was one thing she could do, so she did it. She levered herself up and kissed him.

When she fell back to the mat, her smile was unsteady. “Beat you to it,” she murmured.

Oliver’s chuckle echoed through the cavernous room.