Chapter Text
Oliver skated down the campus sidewalk in his wolf onesie. To nearly everyone, he looked ridiculous but he didn’t care. The onesie was a gift from his best friend, Tommy. What was meant to be a cruel joke was now one of his most treasured items. The onesie was soft and comfortable. It made him feel covered and warm when he couldn’t be… his other self.
His sneaker hit the pavement, kicking off to gain more speed. The skateboard whirred down the sidewalk. He heard whispers and giggles as he passed. Nothing he wasn’t used to. He focused on the feeling of the wind in his face and the rare sunshine beating down on him. More often than not it was raining on the University of Washington (Starling City) campus. Those were the worst days. Half the time he made it to class and was accused of smelling like a wet dog.
He rolled his eyes. It wasn’t his fault.
Maybe he should have gone to school someplace sunnier. No, too warm of weather and it made him want to peel his own skin off. His temperature was a lot higher than most people’s.
He made a turn and heard the click of the camera on someone’s phone. Oliver instinctively pulled the hood further down on his onesie. He rolled a little further until he hit stairs. Oliver popped off of his skateboard, flipping it into the air and catching it with ease. He jogged up the stairs and found himself in the cafeteria. His stomach growled unhappily.
He spotted Tommy staring at his phone. But more importantly, there was a pile of cheeseburgers waiting for him. He could smell them all the way from the entrance. Truthfully, he could smell a lot of things in the cafeteria. Someone had brought curry from home, there was something burning in the kitchen, and someone else was eating eggs. Who eats eggs at two o’clock in the afternoon? He wriggled his nose and turned towards Tommy.
He ignored the abundance of smells and sounds. All he cared about was feeding himself.
“You know my dad is starting to wonder why I spend so much money on lunch every other day.”
“I pay you back,” Oliver muttered as he sat down.
He wasted no time in unwrapping a cheeseburger. The noise in the cafeteria turned into a dull hum as he took his first bite. Nothing else mattered but the savory meat and cheese on his tongue. He closed his eyes and enjoyed every single bite.
“Oh my god.” Tommy laughed.
Oliver peered over at him. “What?”
“You.”
“What about me?”
He leaned over showing Oliver his phone. Oliver swallowed a large bite of burger and peered down at the screen.
@itssmoak Godspeed, good man.
He narrowed his eyes at the caption and then flicked his gaze over the picture. It was him, in his onesie, skateboarding down the sidewalk.
“This is a fantastic picture of you.”
“Shut up.” He shoved another bite into his mouth.
“It’s going to be all over the school.”
Oliver growled but continued to shovel burger into his mouth. He didn’t care about what people thought of him but that didn’t mean he wanted to get made fun of by the entire school. His wolf onesie was comforting dammit.
“Do you know who posted it?”
“No, but I can probably find out… as long as you know… you’re not going to eat them or something.”
Oliver narrowed his eyes at Tommy. “I make no such promises.”
By the time he had eaten his way through all six cheeseburgers, Tommy had an answer for him.
“Okay so, I talked to Dinah who talked to Digg who didn’t know anything, so she talked to Laurel who talked to Sara-”
Oliver glared at him.
“I was getting to the good part. Sara knows the girl who posted the picture because they have an English class together.”
“And?”
“And her name is Felicity and she can usually be found in the computer labs.”
Oliver stood up leaving all the trash for Tommy to clean up. He left the cafeteria and bolted out the doors. After throwing down his skateboard, he jumped on it and rolled down the sidewalk towards the other side of the campus. He hated this maze of buildings but there was a reason he was always on his skateboard.
Oliver moved with increased speed this time. He weaved through people as if they weren’t even there. When he arrived at the tech building he skidded to a halt and ran inside. This building was much quieter than the last. He could hear the computers. The little buzzes and beeps they made. The whirrs of the fans on the inside. The clicks of keyboards and the soft breathing of the humans using them. Someone was listening to Panic! At the Disco through a pair of headphones in one of the labs. It was just slightly muffled.
Oliver entered one of the rooms. He realized he didn’t know what the girl looked like. Just that her name was Felicity.
He tapped on the shoulder of some random person in the room. They startled and looked up at him.
“I’m looking for someone named Felicity.”
“Nice onesie.”
Oliver glared.
The boy cleared his throat. “She’s over there.” He pointed.
“Which one?”
“Blonde. Glasses.”
Without saying anything else, he moved in her direction. He was fully intent on being angry with her but the closer he got the less angry he felt. A warm scent filled his nose and he knew it was her. Her body wash smelled of vanilla but there was something underneath that smell that was completely her. It wrapped around him like a warm embrace.
He pushed the thought from his mind and shook the feeling away. His eyes moved over her but instead of really taking in her looks he focused on the task at hand.
“Felicity,” he forced a growl.
She looked up with wide eyes. “I uh… I see you saw your picture,” she stammered.
“Take it down.”
“It was a good picture, though. Really caught the highlights in your onesie.” She smiled up at him.
His heart thudded in his chest. “That…. that doesn’t matter. Take it down.”
“You are no fun.”
Felicity pulled out her phone. He moved closer, so he could watch her delete the post.
“Oh, I guess a lot of people have seen it already.”
His anger reemerged. “Great.”
“It was just a joke.”
“Yeah well, now I’m a laughing stock.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t wear a onesie to school.”
“Maybe you should mind your own business,” he snapped loud enough to make everyone look up.
With the room staring at both of them, Felicity deleted the post and slipped her phone away back into her pocket.
“The post is gone. You can go now.”
“Fan-fucking-tastic.”
Oliver’s emotions were volatile at best. He couldn’t help it. But never had he been so all over the place. Angry. Then not. Then angry again. And this anger. It was boiling over until he thought he was seeing red. He just wanted to be left alone and this girl was ruining that for him. Oliver knew other people didn’t matter. They just didn’t. He had his close friends and that was nice but other people didn’t matter.
He left the lab and dropped his board to the ground again.
“Godspeed, man!” someone shouted at him.
“Fuck.” He decided to skip his next class and go back to his dorm.
It wasn’t good for him to be out when he was this angry anyway. He could hurt someone or expose himself.
“Hey, my good man!” someone else yelled as he passed.
He growled lowly. All he wanted to do was get home. Too many people. Too many noises. It was all too overwhelming. He hated this. Sometimes he wondered why he even went to school. Because his parents wanted him to. But they didn’t even know. He was just their weird son who randomly started waking up in the backyard naked once a month.
It didn’t matter. It didn’t matter. It didn’t matter.
Oliver skated towards the dorm rooms. As he neared, he flipped his skateboard into his arms and jogged the rest of the way. He made sure not to go too fast but it was a damned effort to do so. He was relieved to find the dorm room empty. No roommate. He could relax for a couple of hours without loud noises and too many people or smells.
He liked his roommate, John Diggle, they had an agreement about the way things should be, but at that moment he just needed to be alone.
Oliver flopped back on his twin bed. It was barely big enough for him but he managed. He held onto an oversized pillow and hugged it tightly. Why did that girl have to take his picture? Why couldn’t he be left alone? He managed just fine when people left him alone. He didn’t have to worry about what they thought of him, he moved through his day without any problem. But now? It felt the everything was coming at him.
But that girl. That girl. Her smell. There was something about it that was so intoxicating. He could have wrapped himself in her scent and relaxed. Until she opened her mouth.
He lifted his pillow and covered his face, growling into it.
Because of her, he didn’t want to face the rest of the day. Because of her, he didn’t want to face tomorrow. Who the hell thought it was a good idea to turn the boy with anxiety into a werewolf?