Chapter Text
Her day had officially gone to shit. And it wasn’t even 8am.
First, Felicity broke a heel off her brand new Jimmy Choo’s, then someone drove through a puddle and sprayed her entire legs and skirt with the remnants of last night’s downpour. So when she left her apartment for the third time that morning, she actually had to run to catch her subway and make it to work on time. When she even managed to grab a free seat, her shitty mood lifted a bit, giving her a chance to call in at work and let her assistant know she’ll be a few minutes late.
But just when the doors opened at her station and she got up to leave, someone rudely bumped into her, making her lose her footing and stumble to the ground.
Her bag skittered to the floor, the phone in her hand flew away and with a shriek, she went down to the ground. The man bumping into her didn’t even glance back and neither did anyone else leaving the subway with her.
But then two strong hands grabbed her arms and helped her up.
“Are you okay, Miss?” a male voice asked her. It took Felicity a moment to gather her thoughts before she looked into the baby blue eyes of the man crouched in front of her. She gulped and nodded once, then tried to wipe away the grease from her hands and knees and looked around. As soon as the subway closed its doors again and went on its route, the platform had cleared out almost completely, just a few people remaining. But still she couldn’t see her phone anywhere.
The man seemed to sense her distress and handed her her bag. Felicity gave him a weak smile and thanks, but still kept looking around the station.
“Are you looking for anything?”
“My phone,” she replied, “I had it in my hand when that idiot ran me over. I just hope I didn’t lose it in the subway.”
The man got up and started walking around her, looking down the subway tracks. Felicity straightened her clothes and wiped her butt when the man got down on his knees and reached into a small nook between the tracks. Felicity watched him while keeping a cautious eye on the tunnels. The next subway would only be minutes away and she really didn’t want to have this kind man getting hurt just because she couldn’t find her damn phone.
While he was still feeling around the tracks, Felicity got the chance to check him out for a moment. His clothes were worn and greasy in some areas and from the layers upon layers of clothing she guessed that he must spend quite a lot of nights outside, or in buildings that didn’t provide any form of heating. At a pillar behind her, a small white dog sat watching the man intently while also guarding a large backpack and some blankets on the ground.
“Think I got something,” the male voice snapped her out of her thoughts and made her turn around again. When the man got up and indeed held her phone up in his hand, Felicity didn’t even think about it but leaped forward and hugged him.
“Thank you SO much,” she spoke and slowly pulled back from him. His body had gone completely stiff the moment her arms wrapped around him, but she didn’t seem to notice. Her eyes focused on the phone in his hand while she kept rambling on.
“I have all my work stuff on there, not to mention my entire contact list. My boss would’ve killed me if I’d lost it - again.” The slight eye roll she made at the end of her speech almost forced a small chuckle out of him.
“Thank you, again. You have no idea how much you’ve just saved my day!” she smiled and quickly stuffed her phone into her bag. “I’d really like to thank you properly, but I was already running late when I entered that subway and my boss will probably have a coronary if I add up to that, today, of all days.” she hurried out and already took a few steps backwards to the stairs. He couldn’t help but stare at the blonde woman with the rambling mouth and the high heels that looked like they could do serious damage. It was kind of fascinating to see her so flustered and wound up, and not only because of the smile that covered her face.
But just as quickly as the interaction between them had begun, it ended. With an awkward wave, she turned around and almost stormed up the stairs and out of sight without a glance back towards him.
“Funny morning, isn’t it, buddy?” he asked once he sat back down next to his dog and covered them both under the thin blanket again. The moment he’d seen the woman stumble and fall out of the open subway doors, he’d rushed over to catch her, but with so many people stepping in his way, there was no chance he’d get to her before she hit the ground. Unsurprisingly, the man who’d bumped into her from behind didn’t even look up when she fell but kept his eyes on the phone in his hand, stepping around her as if nothing had happened. He knew these kind of people all too well. A few years ago, he probably had been one of them himself.
Thankfully, she didn’t seem hurt and when she wrapped her arms around him in a hug, she’d actually surprised the shit out of him. People usually kept their distance from him. He wasn’t sure if it was from his smell but rather from his worn and filthy clothes that clearly screamed ‘homeless’ to everyone who even looked at him. Not that they were wrong with that assumption.
People usually were polite, but not overly interested to touch him, not that he’d minded. But having the pretty blonde throwing her arms around him as if he was any other man and not a homeless waif really caught him by surprise. Her sweet perfume still hung in his nose when he sat down beside Lucky, his closest friend out on the street.
“And we didn’t even get her name,” he muttered and petted the dog’s ears.
All morning Felicity felt bad for rushing away from the helpful man like this, but she’d already been so late to the meeting, she really couldn’t afford to miss it entirely. And still she felt bad for not even thanking him properly. He did help her retrieve her 600$ phone, after all. But simply throwing him a 20$ bill would’ve been too disrespectful for her. And she didn’t even get his name.
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The next morning she made a quick stop at Double Coffee and bought two cups before entering the subway again. Bringing him coffee to thank him for his help was the least she could do. Excitement filled her. She had woken up with the plan to surprise him with a steaming cup of coffee, but once the doors opened and she stepped out, her saviour was nowhere to be seen. The spot his dog had guarded the day before was now occupied by someone else, and the rest of the large station looked completely empty of any other homeless people. Felicity waited for the crowds to clear out before she crossed the station and walked over to the homeless man occupying the space between the bench and pillar.
“Excuse me,” she began and only then the man paid her any attention and looked up. “I’m looking for someone who’d been sitting here yesterday morning. He had a little white dog with him.”
“Dunno,” the man shrugged, “spot was free this morning so I took it.”
Felicity frowned at his words. She had no idea there was some sort of competition of such spots out there between the homeless, but then again it only made sense. With a sigh, she held out one of her coffees to the man sitting in front of her.
“Coffee? Sorry I don’t have any sugar or creamer with me, but I figured it’s too good to be thrown away.” she smiled and watched the man sending her an incredulous look before eyeing the offered good in her hand.
With a small nod, he accepted it and took a small sip. “Thanks.” he muttered into the cup and Felicity watched him warm his hands on the paper cup for a moment before she turned and walked over to the exit. She had hoped this morning to turn out differently when she bought the coffee, but now she realized she maybe should’ve handed him a 20 in the first place instead of hoping to see him again the next day to say her thanks.
But Felicity wouldn’t be where she was in her life if she’d quitted after the first disappointment.
Which was why she found herself in the subway to work the next morning, once again loaded with two cups of coffee rather than only one for herself. When the doors opened and she stepped out, though, not even the strange old man from the day before greeted her in the spot near the pillar. No, this time, the spot was completely deserted, making her frown on sight. She looked around for a moment, but other than a few people waiting for the next subway, there was no one sitting on the ground.
“What am I going to do with you now, my little caffeine friend?” she mumbled to the paper cup in her hand. She was already up the stairs and making a beeline to the next trashcan when she spotted a homeless couple sitting down near the exit.
“Good morning,” she spoke with a smile in her tone that earned her two very surprised looks. “This is a plain black coffee and this,” she held out her own cup after handing the man the first one, “is a caramel macchiato with extra sugar.” she winked. Handing over her own cup wasn’t really what she’d planned to do this morning when she’d bought it, but she felt too bad giving the couple only one coffee to share. Besides, there was unlimited access to the coffee machine at the company for her.
“Thank you, Miss.” the woman spoke and accepted the cup, looking completely stunned by Felicity’s move.
With a smile she took a step away from the couple. “Have a good day.”
It was two days later that Felicity saw her rescuer again. By the time she stepped out of the train she’d already given up on finding him sitting in the place she’d first seen him, so when she left the subway that morning and saw the thick scruff and baby blue eyes sitting next to the cute white spotted dog, her face split into a wide grin. Thank god she’d taken the early train to work today.
“There you are!” she spoke loudly with a wide grin on her lips. Both the man and his dog looked up in surprise at the female voice aimed towards them, accompanied by the confident and strong click clack of her high heels. He didn’t have to look higher than up to her ankles to know exactly who was walking towards him. He already knew these heels by heart.
When she stopped right in front of him and plopped down on the bench next to his spot, he couldn’t help but stare at her for a moment. The way she smiled and looked so completely relaxed, not bothering she could stain her pristine clothes or maybe even be seen with him by anyone, really baffled him.
“I’ve been looking for you.”
And that completely rendered him speechless, not that he had said anything yet, anyway.
No one’s looking for you, especially not such a pretty woman, except for the cops when you’re a homeless man.
“And I’ve been pretty much feeding coffee to all the homeless people at the entire subway station in the last few days,” she added. And even though her words might have sounded accusing, the smile on her face was anything but. It surprised the hell out of him.
“So now here you are, and of course today I don’t have any coffee with me.”
For a split second, he thought about pointing towards the vending machine a few feet away, but then decided against it. He really didn’t want to appear rude, even though he had no idea what she was talking about. And besides, the coffee from that vending machine didn't really qualify as such. Not by a long shot.
“So what’s your plan for the next 30 minutes?”
That actually snapped him out of his thoughts and made him look up again. Genuine interest covered her face, a warm smile playing on her lips. Her face didn’t give any indication that she was making fun of him, even though her words very much sounded like that to his ears.
Warily, he shrugged. It’s not exactly a tight timetable homeless people had to live by. Whenever he managed to snag a job as a day-laborer somewhere around the city, he didn’t have to think about finding a dry, warm spot to spend the day. But since the days where he actually found work were quite rare, he usually got up early, decided on a spot to sit in the city and hoped he was still early enough to find it free. The last few days he’d been working once and then been not so lucky in securing a nice spot for the day since his usual places were all occupied already.
Felicity didn’t seem one bit irritated by his wordless reply.
“Perfect,” she announced, got up from the bench and looked down at him expectantly. “then we can walk over to the Coffee House and I can finally treat you the coffee I wanted to give you days ago as a thanks for helping me get my phone back. And as a sorry for running out on you like I did.” she added and actually looked a little ashamed of herself. Oliver had no idea what to make of all that. He couldn’t remember the last time someone asked him to join them for coffee, especially not in the state he currently found himself in.
When he didn’t move, she merely raised an eyebrow at him.
“What is it? Don’t you want to have coffee with me?”
He was about to answer when her features suddenly fell. “Wait, do you even like coffee? I mean, it’s rare, but I’ve heard of people who don’t drink coffee. Not that I could understand that in the slightest because let me tell you -”
“I like coffee.” he replied for the first time since she walked up to them.
As soon as she heard his words, her face broke out in a huge smile. “Perfect, then get up and let’s have coffee together.”
He looked over at Lucky for a moment. The dog looked equally wary of the quirky blonde standing in front of them, but after a moment, he was almost sure the dog slightly shrugged his shoulder, got up from his sitting position and waggled his tail once, looking at his owner expectantly. It was all the confirmation Oliver needed to get up, too. The spot would probably be lost once he left it, but so what. He could easily find another one, especially since it was sunny outside. No need to sit on a wet bench in the rain today, but even if he had to, if it meant to have coffee with that beautiful blonde waiting for him, then it’d be well worth it.
Felicity watched him slowly folding up his blanket and stuffing everything into the huge backpack. The dog stood patiently beside him and waited until his owner had finished packing, hauled the large backpack over his shoulders and put a thin leash on his collar. Only then he jumped forward and excitedly waggled his tail.
“He’s cute,” Felicity told him with a warm smile. “What’s his name?”
“Lucky.”
He looked a little lost when she took him in, but then again, she felt equally lost at that moment. Only Lucky seemed to enjoy himself plenty.
“Shall we?”
He nodded and watched her turn and walk away. For a moment he contemplated on sitting back down, still unsure if she was messing around with him. When she stopped and turned her head to make sure he followed her though, he made up his mind and fell in step with her. So what if she was trying to fool him. He could turn around and walk away at any point, no harm done, other than his ego for trusting someone against his better judgement.
Silently, they walked out of the subway station and through the streets of Starling City towards the Coffee House. He wasn’t sure what to expect from this coffee date, or what the blonde beauty walking next to him might have expected, but he guessed agreeing on a cup to go was the least he could do, not that he wouldn’t welcome the first hot beverage in more than a week.
When she stopped in front of the glass doors though, sending him a smile before she proceeded to open one and motion for him to walk inside, he raised both hands and took a step back. There was no way he would walk inside there and sit down at one of their tables. Not in the way he looked, or worse - smelled. Even though he’d tried to take care of himself as good as possible, there was no chance for him to shower on a daily basis. And doing his daily catlick routine at a public restroom certainly didn’t help keeping his smell at bay, especially not since he barely had the chance to wash his clothes in the last weeks. No way in hell would he go inside that coffee shop with her, smelling like a week of sweat and filth and possibly be thrown out by the staff. That would not only embarrass him, but her as well and he had no intentions to humiliate her like that.
“Miss, I... I really can’t go in there. They don’t allow dogs inside.” The lie easily fell from his lips, but it was the only thing he felt comfortable saying.
Felicity studied him for a moment while other people left the shop through the door she still held open. And even if she detected the lie he’d told her to cover himself, she thankfully didn’t comment on it or pressed any further.
A small smile covered her lips. “I’ll be back in two minutes. What do you want?”
“Whatever you have.” he shrugged. “I’m not picky.”
If anything, Felicity suddenly looked offended by his last comment. “Well, I am! This is coffee we’re discussing here!” she spoke, her face looking at him in mocked outrage. It almost made him smile. “Besides, I’m going to order the girliest drink they serve and I’m not so sure you’re going to appreciate the sugar overload I call a good coffee. So, what do you want?”
No point arguing with a woman who’d just offered to buy him coffee.
“Black coffee. One sugar and a little cream.” he replied. Felicity couldn’t help but snicker at his almost defeated look.
“So you like your coffee sweet and blonde? Coming right up.” she winked and rushed inside before Oliver could blink.
He watched her intently through the glass doors while Lucky sat close beside him. He knew he stood out like a sore thumb in that fancy part of town, with all the suits and dresses rushing along the sidewalk. But it wasn’t that he wasn’t used to it by now. After almost 4 years of living on the streets he’d learned not to care for disapproving looks of other people. Actually, he’d stopped paying attention to other people all together. All, except of the blonde woman he was watching through the glass doors of the coffee shop right now. The way she was gesturing around he could only imagine what kind of girly monstrosity of a coffee she must be ordering for herself. Before he could think any further, she turned and walked out of the shop, awkwardly waving her stuffed hand towards the barista.
“A tall sweet blondie for you.” she smiled happily and handed Oliver one of the two coffee cups. It was the first time in more than 6 days that his hands touched something warmer than his own body. He was about to thank her, when she offered him a brown paper bag as well.
“Double chocolate muffin,” she explained at his confused look. “I forgot to ask you what kind of muffin you want, so I figured I’d go with the safest route. Everyone likes chocolate, right?”
Even if she would’ve told him there was a vegan, gluten free, almost tasteless rice cookie inside that bag, he would’ve been happy. It meant the first real meal in more than 30 hours for him. He’d just taken the paper bag from her delicate hand and was about to thank her for her kindness when his stomach let out a loud grumble at the smell of the muffin.
He was so embarrassed he wanted to run away, but Felicity seemed amused at best. “Well, that sounds as if your stomach agrees with my choice of breakfast for you.” she chuckled.
He blushed so profusely, he couldn’t even look her in the eyes when he rasped out a ‘thank you’, hiding most of his face under the hood of his sweater.
“Do you want to head over to the park and see if we can find a free bench? My feet are killing me already and if I want to survive this day, I really need to sit down at some point.” she groaned and slowly twisted her ankle. It made him wonder for a moment if she’d maybe hurt herself during the fall a few days ago. He’d never asked her about any injuries before she rushed off.
“Did you hurt yourself when you fell?”
Felicity looked seriously surprised by his question for a moment.
“Oh, only my ego. The rest is just fine.” she waved him off with a laugh and motioned for the park down the street. He took a step forward and Lucky immediately followed him.
Together they found a bench under a tree, a little secluded from the large walkways where joggers and cyclists would rush along. He sat down, heaved the heavy backpack off his shoulders and took the leash off the dog’s collar.
“Don’t run too far, buddy. We don’t want you to get caught.” he murmured to the dog before he watched him dash away to hunt some pigeons on the greenery.
“What’s your name?”
Her voice broke the silence between them after a few minutes. They both kept watching Lucky enjoying himself on the greenery while sipping on their coffees. He had yet to touch the muffin and even though his stomach almost screamed at him to eat it, he didn’t want to appear rude and start eating before she did.
“Oliver.” he rasped out. It wasn’t that he had to use his voice that often lately and all the people that usually talked to him already knew his name. But somehow it felt good telling her who he was because for a moment it gave him the feeling of being a little closer to her. Closer than just sitting on the ground and watching her walk past him every few mornings when she stepped out of subway line 12 at 7.43am. Not that he stalked her. She was just the prettiest thing he saw every morning and sometimes the only pretty thing all day.
She smiled at him before answering. “I’m Felicity.”
Felicity. Even her name sounded beautiful. And fitting.
“That means happiness in latin.” he replied.
Felicity’s head whipped around in surprise at that. It wasn’t that she didn’t know that, because she did. It was because never before someone had known the meaning of her name. Most people only asked her where it came from and who gave it to her since it sounded so different.
“Are you from Starling City?”
There were a ton of other questions she wanted to ask, but since he was so on edge already, even looking a bit uncomfortable sitting with her, she really didn’t want to appear pushy and kept her questions light.
At her question, his body froze for a moment. But since she clearly had no idea who he was, he willed himself to relax and replied.
“Born and raised.” he nodded and took a sip of his coffee, never taking his eyes off the dog running around the pastures. It seemed to Felicity that he was more concerned about the safety of his dog than actually getting any food into his stomach. A stomach that only minutes ago loudly protested to be fed.
“Well, why don’t we eat?” she suggested, hoping to steer his attention toward the paper bag in his lap. “The barista told me they’re fresh out of the oven.”
Oliver nodded, but didn’t seem in a rush to dive in. In fact, he seemed hesitant to eat, always keeping an eye on her, even though he tried to mask it under his hood. When it dawned on Felicity that he didn’t want to eat without her, she couldn’t help but smile.
Not wanting to keep him waiting, she made quick work of unwrapping her raspberry vanilla muffin and took a huge bite off it. She could see Oliver studying her out of the corner of his eye before he carefully unfolded the bag, pulled out the chocolate muffin and stared down at it for a moment as if it was the most precious thing he ever held.
“You make me look bad if you don’t start eating soon.” Felicity muffled with a full mouth, some raspberry frosting covering the corner of her lip. Right at that moment she couldn’t care less about etiquettes and manners. The sugary overload was just what she needed and besides, Oliver didn’t really seem like caring too much for table manners anyway.
With the smallest tug of his lips, he started peeling the wrapper off and split the muffin in two, placing one half back on the paper bag. The other he ate in slow, small bites, as if devouring the whole thing as much as he could - a total difference to the way Felicity almost ravished hers.
By the time she had finished off her muffin, Oliver had eaten the half in his hand but didn’t make any move to eat the other one, too. She could only imagine that the small cake barely filled his stomach for half an hour.
“Storing the other half for later?”
“No,” he replied, wiped his hands and took another sip of his coffee. “That’s Lucky’s half.”
At his words, her heart melted a little more. This sweet and helpful man even shared the little food that he got with his dog. When she entered the coffee shop and ordered the muffins along with their coffees, she didn’t even think about Oliver’s dog. Now she felt incredibly shameful for having eaten her own muffin so quickly.
They didn’t talk much after that, but neither seemed uncomfortable with the silence between them. Oliver kept watching Lucky, who came running towards them every now and then for a quick pat on his head before storming off to chase some more pigeons. Felicity kept studying Oliver, as discreetly as she could, while trying to figure out things about him she didn’t feel comfortable asking yet.
He didn’t look much older than her, probably 28 or 29 and under his layers of clothing she could see that he somehow managed to keep a little muscle on himself, even though it was clearly visible on his face that he lacked a few pounds. It made her wonder how long he must be living on the street and how he ended up there, not that she’d ask him that. At least not now. That was something to ask at a later date.
An incoming text message pulled her out of her thoughts and made her realize that she was actually running late again, not that she bothered too much about that. Ray Palmer, her boss, was fully capable of running the company without her manning the desk in front of his office. But still she had to leave soon for an important meeting that still needed some preparation.
“I need to leave,” she reluctantly told Oliver with a small frown and for a moment, he looked equally frustrated as her, even though he quickly masked it again. It gave her an idea.
“What do you do around noon tomorrow?”
Oliver looked surprised by her question, even at a loss for words for a moment.
“Don’t know yet,” he shrugged. “Depends on the spot I can secure for the day.”
That dampened Felicity’s enthusiasm a bit. She had hoped to meet up at a regular spot with him, but at his words she remembered the old man sitting on the spot Oliver had occupied the day he helped her. Of course he didn’t have a regular spot to sit.
“Would you meet me for lunch here? I’ll bring the food as long as you bring Lucky.” she grinned at him.
He had no idea what to make of her offer and he really had didn’t know why she seemed so interested to spend time with him, no matter how alluring her offer of lunch sounded.
“Look,” he began and as soon as he saw her face fall slightly, he regretted speaking up already. “thank you for the coffee and the muffin. I really appreciate that. But you don’t have to bring me any more food or spend time with me to thank me. Really, it was no big deal.”
“Oh. Okay.”
With a frown, she grabbed her purse, threw her muffin wrapper into the trash and got up from the bench. As soon as Lucky saw the movement, the dog stormed over to them and excitedly waggled his tail, eager to play with Felicity.
“I have to leave, little man,” she spoke softly and scratched the dog’s ears. “Take good care of your owner, will you?”
She took an awkward step back from Oliver.
“It was nice meeting you, Oliver. Maybe I’ll see you around somewhere.”
He nodded politely, unsure what to say to her.
“Thank you again… for the coffee and muffin.”
With another small smile, she turned and walked off, leaving Oliver and his dog alone at the bench. He watched her go, feeling bad for brushing her off like that. But there was no point for him to accept any more treats from her as a thanks. The coffee and nice morning she had given him was already payment enough for something he would do all over again, even if she wouldn't have thanked him at all.