Chapter Text
It was wildly known in the Arrow Cave that Felicity was allergic to nuts. Ever since she revealed it to the guys early on in their partnership, they’ve been careful to keep any foodstuff with nuts in it far far away from her. Sometimes, though, they went a little overboard. And by they, she meant Oliver.
Felicity had only been with the team for a couple of months when she found the first hiding spot. She was trying to clear out a space for her on the shelves at the back of the foundry, where each member kept some of their things, like extra clothes and such. It was while she was doing that that she accidentally knocked over and dropped a translucent green box on the floor. Groaning at her clumsiness, she bent down to pick it up, only to see the lid had come off.
She picked up the lid, which had skittered a couple of feet away, but before she secured it back on the box, she noticed its contents.
EpiPens. As in plural.
Felicity stilled. With wide eyes, she picked one up and turned it over and over in her fingers. She noticed the production and expiry dates printed on the pen. Taking a closer look, she saw that the epinephrine auto-injector had only been produced recently, which meant it had been bought recently.
A fuzzy feeling bloomed in her chest and she stroked her fingers over the rest of the EpiPens in the box. She examined a few others and saw that two of the five had different production dates, meaning they were bought at different times. She knew that neither Diggle nor Oliver have any allergies. And considering the color of the box (Oliver really did have a thing for green), she deduced that it was Oliver’s stash. For her.
Oliver was so damn protective that it got frustrating at times. He rarely consented to letting her tag along in the field, growled out about the dangers of the mission to her on a frequent basis, and always, no matter how their night had gone, either walked her to her Mini Cooper or asked Diggle or Roy to escort her out.
But this was different. The presence of the EpiPens indicated a far more complex protective instinct. Felicity was very careful not to ingest any nuts and the guys were careful about what to bring down to the foundry. Not only that, but Felicity always kept an EpiPen in her purse, even though she hadn’t had an incident in years. And yet Oliver still felt the need to have this many – too many – backup EpiPens stashed around.
With an amused shake of her head, she put the medicine back in the box and gently secured the lid on top. She stood back up and placed the box in its original location, giving it one last fond pat before resuming her task.
That wasn’t the only time Felicity found EpiPens stashed around the foundry. Over the course of her time with Team Arrow, she found more and more in increasingly odd locations, including but not limited to: the back of the couch, behind some of the guns in the drawers, stuffed inside one of the training dummies, and the weirdest of them all, shoved in a tiny crack between the bricks in the back wall of the foundry.
She never broached the subject with Oliver, but every time she found one of those EpiPens, she felt safe.
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Felicity was sitting by her computer station, typing away as she did some research on the newest baddie. Oliver was in the training area, sparring with Digg, and she had heard Roy wander in a little while earlier. She had barely spared a glance at him because she was so focused on her task.
However, she did turn around when she heard Roy address her.
“Hey Blondie, are you any closer to figuring out where McAdams is hiding out?”
Felicity spun around on her seat, turning to face the source of the sound. She saw Roy slouched on the couch in the corner, holding what looked like an unopened chocolate bar in his hand.
She shook her head. “He’s deep in hiding, but I’ll get him. He’s bound to make a mistake and when he does, I’ll get an instant alert,”
Roy nodded and started to unwrap his chocolate bar. “Cool. You’re gonna have to show me some of these awesome technical tricks one day,”
Felicity opened her mouth to reply, but before she could get a sound out, she suddenly saw Oliver march in from the training area over to Roy. He loomed over the younger man and snatched the chocolate bar straight out of Roy’s hand.
“Hey,” Roy’s indignant voice rang out.
Felicity stifled a laugh, wondering if Oliver was that desperate for a chocolate bar. Come to think of it, she couldn’t remember the last time she saw Oliver eating any candy.
Roy looked up at Oliver with accusing eyes.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Oliver growled out.
The red archer gaped up at his mentor, hand still suspended in midair where he had been holding the chocolate bar. “I was about to eat that delicious bar of chocolate you are so rudely holding hostage,” Roy replied, sounding miffed.
Oliver looked scandalized. He sent a scathing look down at the chocolate bar in his hand then looked back up at Roy. “This is snickers,” he emphasized, sounding horrified.
Roy blinked up at him. “Yeees,” he responded slowly. “I know. It’s, like, my favorite chocolate,”
Felicity watched the scene unfold with fascinated eyes. She struggled to stifle her laughter. Behind them, she saw Digg leaning against a table with folded arms. His face showed barely concealed amusement.
Oliver shook his head at Roy and raised his arm up and away from the younger man when he tried to reach for his chocolate. “This has nuts in it,” he insisted.
Realization dawned on Felicity on what this was about. A warm feeling bloomed in her chest and she had to tamp down the intense urge to run up to Oliver and give him a big ol’ teddy bear hug.
Roy blinked owlishly up at Oliver. “I know. Like I said, it’s my favorite chocolate. I’m pretty sure I already knew it had nuts in it, but thanks for pointing it out. Now, can I have my candy bar back?”
Oliver shook his head vehemently. “Never. Don’t you remember one of the first things I told you when I brought you into the foundry? Felicity is allergic to nuts,”
Felicity saw Digg turn his head to look at her, eyebrow quirked. She sent him her most innocent look.
Roy too turned to glance at Felicity, before slowly standing up and facing Oliver head-on.
“I wasn’t going to, like, offer it to her!” he cried.
“No nuts down in the foundry!” Oliver announced.
“But it’s my favorite!” Roy whined.
Oliver’s eyes narrowed. “Will it be your favorite when Felicity has an allergic reaction and goes into anaphylactic shock?”
Felicity rolled her eyes. Oliver was taking this thing far too seriously. She had her allergy under control and she knew how to avoid anything with a nut component in it.
“I’m the one who’s going to be eating it, not her!” Roy exclaimed.
“No nuts!” Oliver countered.
Roy threw up his hands and rolled his eyes. “She won’t be exposed to it! It’s not like I’m going to kiss her or anything!”
Oliver narrowed his eyes and took a menacing step toward Roy. Felicity held her breath, watching the pair raptly and wondering if she would have to intervene.
Roy paled and his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down as he swallowed nervously. The green archer stared him down, until the younger man buckled under the pressure.
“Okay, okay. No nuts,”
Satisfied, Oliver nodded and turned around to walk away, but not before chucking the innocent Snickers bar towards the waste basket in the corner, where it landed inside with a quiet thud.