Still sorting through the fic folder! I have no idea which fic this convo was gonna end up in, but oh well. It’s canon so I must have written in some time in 2014.

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“You being able to defend yourself is good. But don’t punish yourself like this. Strength comes from within, Felicity.”

She raises an eyebrow skeptically and he smiles, casting his eyes to the ceiling with a mixture of amusement and exasperation.

“I know it’s a cliché but… If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my life, it’s that what you can do, the things you can face, it all comes down to who you are as a person. Not muscle or-”

She cuts him off with a scoff. “So you’re telling me, that you’ve survived everything you’ve been through because of strength of character, not…” She gestures to his torso, hidden only by a thin gray t-shirt.

“No I’m not saying that. I learned to fight so I could survive, I’m not denying that. But physically surviving isn’t everything. I lost something on that island that you… You have a strength that I’ve never had, Felicity. When you come out the other side of something traumatic, you’re still you. You don’t let the world tarnish your soul. That strength, it’s a lot more important than being able to fight.”

“But it won’t keep me alive.”

“Yes it will. Because you want to survive, you believe in the good of what we do. And that means you’ll find a way.”

So I was going through my fic folder (I have so many half formed ideas and half written nonsense in there!) and I came across this. It’s a musician/dancer au that I started almost a year ago and completely forgot about. I have about 5k of it written, and I’m trying to figure out whether to continue it or ditch it..

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The moment Oliver Queen lays eyes on her, he knows he’s fucked. His heart aches from simply watching her. Her joy, her animation, her beauty. It hits him right in the chest in the best way and he can’t tear his eyes from her.

He’s roughened and cynical and all he really lives for these days is music. A product of heartbreak and destruction, his songs have made him famous even as they tear at his soul. He’s an unshaven singer with fingers calloused from strings, and a messy history in every aspect imaginable.

She’s a dancer. A blonde vision of light and happiness who casts her whole body into every movement as she does with her heart in life.

He knows they’ll wreck each other. He knows he needs to walk away the second he hears her laugh, and feels that tug in his chest that can only mean trouble. But he doesn’t. Because he’s always been a selfish bastard.

A Million Pieces 1/4

Note: So in this AU Felicity’s kind of like the version of Thea we saw in season 1; disillusioned with the world she lives in and struggling to find her purpose. And Oliver hasn't suffered as much as he has in canon, so he's a little lighter than we're used to. And as far as I know, we have no name for Felicity's father yet. So I named him Richard because he's a dick.

Also this was written super quickly... So please forgive the vaguely clunky writing and random transitions. It's a story that popped into my head out of nowhere, and was written while I was sick in bed on some rather strong cold medicine! So it's probably terrible.

Unlike most you don’t miss a thing,  You see the truth,  I walk the halls invisibly,  I climb the walls, no one sees me,  No one but you.

Felicity hates him at first. Well, she thinks he’s beautiful. So utterly handsome that it almost hurts to look directly at him. But she still hates him. She hates a lot of things these days. Her family name for getting her into this mess, her father for never bothering to so much as look at her, her mother for drowning her sorrows at the bottom of a bottle. Herself for losing who she was meant to be.

Standing in her father’s office staring at the man who’s about to become her shadow, she’s reminded of all the reasons her life has become something she so dislikes. Richard barely looks at her. He was always a cold man, never the sort of father who made her feel safe or loved, but in the past few years he’s gone from distant to barely acknowledging her existence. Except in cases like this. When there’s something he wants from her, or something he wants her to do.

He controls his household with an iron fist, an issue that her mother stopped complaining about long ago. Too tired and sad to continue fighting him at every turn.

No one tells her much about what’s going on in their family, everything she learns comes from overheard conversations or in an ironic twist, the press. But she has heard rumors about the threats that have been made, angry ninety-nine percenters tired of the Smoak family acting like they can get away with anything. Felicity doesn’t blame them. She’s sick of it too. But as a result she’s not altogether surprised when Richard calls her into his study, to inform her that she’ll be accompanied everywhere she goes by an ex special forces bodyguard. She is surprised however, when her eyes drift from the harsh lines of her father’s face, to the man standing beside him.

a little sneak peak from the bratva/soulmate au...

He sees her on a Wednesday. A streak of color, and for some reason, he stops. She’s beautiful, but that’s not what stops him. Many women are beautiful. It’s her vibrancy that catches his eye. Small hands are gesturing wildly with every movement from her bright pink lips. And he just… stops.

It’s a Tech Village of all places. He’s there to pick up a new laptop, his last one having succumbed to a rather violent end, and then there she is.

He sees her.

Not as a threat.

Not as an ally.

Not as a passing fancy.

But as a person.

He sees her.

His eyes linger as he makes his purchase, phone buzzing unnoticed in his pocket. He wonders who she is, what her name is, what her favorite color is, what her dreams are for the future. And it’s completely ridiculous because they’re all things he’ll never know. Can never know. But he wonders anyway. Because he sees her, and it changes everything.

So now I'm writing two of the tropeyest (is that a word???) things I've ever written in my life. We've got a soulmate/bratva/forbidden love AU bc why do one when you can mix them all together? And a bodyguard/age difference/semi role reversal thing that's already 10k words and counting!!! And all this bc my stupid wifi isn't working properly and I'm in bed with the flu. Sneak peeks upcoming :)