#instead they seem to take deep offense to the idea that witches should not serve

[arbitrarygreay]

More evidence that Alder would have done gangbusters focusing on espionage: Petra notes in 2x4 that "Intelligence does often have a hard time keeping track of the General's comings and goings." Literally the person in charge of keeping track of information and shit says that Alder and her Biddies were giving them the slip all of the time over the decades. It's like the inverse of the Marshal being able to hunt anyone down, Alder is able to slip the leash when she wants. Which kind of goes against the popular fanon of Alder being stuck in meetings and in the unavoidable public eye all of the time, and finding it a burden. It turns out, Alder not only made a habit of getting around surveillance, but the other side of that coin is that what publicity/propaganda/speeching/posters/etc. she did do was of her own desire. If she didn't want to be a public face, she could choose to avoid it all. (To where when Nicte forced her into the Warding Circle and Petra appeared to make announcements with Silver instead, it was notable by everyone, a duty that Alder relinquished reluctantly.)

[smkkbert]

I see the light

Summary: After being grounded for dyeing her hair pink, Felicity cannot to go the the fair and see the fireworks at the annual fair in Starling City. For Sara Diggle it’s a clear case! Magic hair that got her locked up and doesn’t allow her to see the lights? - That’s the story of Rapunzel, and someone has to free her from the witch’s tower.

Rating: General Audience

A second Olicity Disney AU with little Sara Diggle as a matchmaker. I hope there will be more in the future. Also check out True Love’s Kiss.

The moment the doors of the bus opened in front of her and she caught sight of her best friend, Felicity rolled her eyes. Why did life always have to seem like a photoshoot for him?

All Oliver did was leaning against the streetlight at the bus stop, carrying his backpack casually over one shoulder and looking at his phone. Everyone else would just look bored and plain doing so. Oliver looked like he had just arisen from the cover of a fashion magazine, and it seemed like Felicity wasn’t the only one thinking that way because several girls turned their heads to look at him when they walked past him.

There were always girl turning their head to look at him, no matter what he did. Felicity had noticed that during the long time she had been friends with Oliver now, and it was annoying. Of course she got that he was handsome and everything, but couldn’t these girls just even walk by without staring at him like he was Ryan Gosling or Ryan Reynolds, whoever was the more handsome one?

Taking in a deep breath, Felicity moved her fingers through her hair almost a little bit nervously before she dismounted the bus. From the corner of her eyes, she could see several faces turning in her direction. The way they looked at her made her smile because it was exactly the reaction Felicity had hoped for. Only Oliver, whose reaction she was looking forward to the most, was still looking at his phone.

“Hey, can I crib your English homework?” he asked, still not looking up. “I didn’t have time to finish it yesterday. I just need the end for my essay.”

“Sure,” Felicity replied. “Always.”

“Thanks. You’re the best friend I could possibly have.”

Felicity nodded, waiting for him to finally look at her, but he was still busy texting. She counted to five in her head which she felt was a fair time to give him before she rolled her eyes in annoyance.

“You on the other hand are a crappy friend, my friend.”

“Hey, I just need to- Whoa.”

Starting to excuse his inattentive behavior, Oliver had looked at her briefly. His eyes had already turned back to the display of his phone when the sight he had been met with seemed to have caught up with him. He looked at her with wide eyes, pushing his phone into the pocket of his pants and tugging at some of her curly strands of hair.

“Your hair is pink.”

“My hair is pink,” Felicity replied with a chuckle. “On a scale from one to ten, how crazy and yet cool is this? What do you say?”

“A definite ten.” Oliver’s smile widened. “It’s really cool.”

“Thank you.”

Felicity smiled proudly. She had always dreamed of coloring her hair in a crazy color, crazier than going from her natural brown hair to first black and then to blonde. During her visit at the hairdresser’s yesterday, she had finally decided to finally do it. Her hair had been long enough, so if the pink ends looked terrible, she could have just cut them off. She was more than happy with the result though.

“I still can’t believe it.” Oliver chuckled, combing his fingers through her hair and shaking his head. “The craziest thing you've ever done was adding a braided strand to your ponytail and now this. Why did you do this? How did you get the idea?”

“I figured that sometimes it’s good trying something new.” Felicity shrugged her shoulders before she nodded towards the school building. “Let’s go to class, so you can still crib my homework.”

Side by side, they walked through the hallway to their classroom. From the corner of her eyes, Felicity could see that Oliver was still staring at her, and she played with a strand of her hair almost nervously. She wasn’t used to Oliver staring at her like that.

“What did your mother say about your hair?” Oliver asked eventually. “She loved that you dyed it blonde because it makes you look more like her. And pink?”

“She hates it.”

Felicity sighed. Before they had moved to Starling, her mother had had quite the exaggerated style. Her private fashion choices had been inspired by what she had worn during her working hours in a Las Vegas Casino. Since they had moved to Starling and her mother had accepted a job in a café, her taste in fashion had changed though. She looked a lot more like other mothers did now. Usually, Felicity was relieved about that, but not this time around.

“In that case your mother is crazier than I thought she is.”

“Right?” Felicity rolled her eyes and shook her head. “I am pretty sure she tried to convince me to dye my hair red when I was ten, but dying the ends of my hair pink now that I am seventeen is completely exaggerated and just too much.”

They stepped into their classroom and went to their tables. While she was getting everything that she needed for the English class from her backpack, she pressed her lips together. She loved her new hair and she could deal with her mother’s anger, but unfortunately there were other consequences that came quite unhandy right now.

Felicity gave Oliver her English homework. He took it with a smile. When he noticed the hesitant expression on her face, he frowned. With a wordless nod, he asked her to tell him what was going on.

“So remember the fair that’s in Starling?”

Oliver shot her an incredulous look, and Felicity scratched her forehead in response, releasing a slightly nervous chuckle. Of course Oliver remembered the fair. There was always a fair in Starling, every first weekend in May. Since he had been living in Starling for quite some time longer than she had, of course he remembered.

“We are still going there today, right?”

“That’s the thing,” Felicity said and sighed. “My mom grounded me.”

Oliver’s eyes widened. “She what?”

“Yup.”

“You have never been grounded before. In your entire life you have never been grounded, even when the police showed up at your doorstep for hacking some store’s served to find out when the newest version of the game you wanted to have was going to be released.”

“Nope.” Felicity puckered her lips. “It’s still a sore spot that I didn’t manage to hack it without being caught by the way. I mean I was only eight years old, but it is still a sore spot. I should have known better.”

“The fair is in the city only for the weekend,” ignoring her little rant of anger on herself. “That’s just not fair.”

“I know.”

Oliver looked at her for a moment longer, completely speechless, before he said, “Come on, it’s just pink hair.”

Felicity nodded. “Yes, but she grounded me for a week. I am only allowed to go to school. After the last class, I have to take the bus home and stay in the house until the next morning when I have to take the bus back to school which is ironic because, when I was a child, she always tried to force me out of the house when I did something wrong. She wanted me to socialize more instead of staying at home and work at my computers.”

“Maybe I can charm her.”

“I doubt it.” Felicity sighed and shrugged her shoulders. “You can still go to the fair. Just ask Tommy, Iris or McKenna to go with you or ask Helena Bertinelli. I know she is crazy to go with you.”

“I don’t want to go with Helena. I want to go with you.”

“Right,” Felicity replied with a chuckle, “because it’s easier to watch the cheerleaders’ performance with me next to you without getting caught looking at their naked legs for too long. Who’s your favorite cheerleader of the week? Is it one of the Lance Sisters because I could swear that I heard them talking about you when I was in the ladies’ room earlier this week? Or is it Isabel Rochev? Just please promise me it’s not Susan Williams. That girl is terrible. Isabel Rochev would already be hard to accept, but Susan William is just so… stupid.”

Oliver didn’t answer. He just smiled sadly, lowering his eyes. He looked disappointed that they wouldn’t go to the fair together. They had agreed on spending this evening together weeks ago after Oliver had finally convinced her to go. He had actually reminded her about it regularly since they had agreed on it.

Before Felicity could say anything more, their teacher, Dr. Stein, came in. She sat down on the chair next to Oliver, pushing her material for class into place on her table. She always had a neat order for her stuff.

“I can’t believe you will miss this,” Oliver whispered. “You are an excellent student and have barely ever done anything wrong. Why can’t she just overlook this, especially because it’s just pink hair. It will outgrow anyway.”

Felicity shrugged her shoulders. “No offense, but I wasn’t too fond of the idea about going to the fair with all these people anyway. I only wanted to go for the fireworks.”

* * * * *

“Uncle Oliver?”

“Hm?”

“Will you take a ride on the Ferris wheel with me?”

Oliver turned his head to look at Sara. The six years old daughter of his mother’s bodyguard was sitting on the couch next to him and coloring a drawing of a prince and a princess. She only looked up occasionally to follow the Disney movie they were watching.

“I don’t think I will go to the fair,” he told her. “Sorry.”

“But you promised me you’d go today.”

“Yeah.”

Oliver knew he wasn’t the best company for Sara today. He hadn’t been good company for anyone since his conversation with Felicity earlier this morning. This would have been the first time he went to the fair with Felicity. It would be the first time she was going. Last year, Felicity had been busy with some school project and hadn’t gone. The year before, she had been new to Starling, and they hadn’t been so close yet. He had looked forward to going with her today.

His disappointment sat so deep that he had meant to spend the rest of his day alone and brood over his anger that he wasn’t able to go with her.

When Sara had walked into his room, asking if he wanted to watch a movie, he hadn’t been able to turn her down though. Since she had been born and whenever John had brought her with him to work, he had played with Sara or kept her busy otherwise. Lately, watching Disney movies had been their favorite activity. Sara was very much into fairy tales and princesses right now, so she wanted to watch all the Disney adaptations of the famous fairy tales her parents read her as a goodnight story.

“Why don’t you go, Uncle Ollie?” she asked him. “You always went to the fair.”

“Because the person I wanted to go with can’t go.”

Sara frowned and put her pen down. She leaned back on the couch and glanced at the TV briefly before she looked at him more thoroughly. Oliver perked up his eyebrows, knowing Sara would interrogate him now. She was her father’s daughter with all her heart after all.

“Why can’t she go?”

Oliver puckered his lips. He glanced at the TV briefly like Sara had done before too. Today, Sara had insisted on watching Lady and the Tramp though they had watched it a thousand times before already. That and 101 Dalmatians were her favorite movies right now though they were neither real fairytales nor included a princess. Oliver was pretty sure it was because she still tried to convince her parents to get her a dog.

Anyway, following the movie for fifteen seconds, Oliver wondered how he was going to tell Sara what had happened with his plans to take Felicity to the fair this weekend. Sometimes, he treated her like an adult friend only to be remembered that she was actually just a tiny kid. He quickly got an idea how to tell her though though. If there was a way Sara would understand this, it was if he created a fairytale around the events.

“The person I wanted to go with,” he said and felt a loving smile spread on his lips even before he said it, “is a princess.”

Sara gasped for breath. “A real princess?”

“Absolutely.” Oliver nodded and he didn’t even feel like he way lying because Felicity was like a princess. She had all the important attributes. “She is beautiful and it’s not just because of the beautiful dresses she wears. She is also smart and incredibly strong. Oh, and she has magic hair.”

“Really?”

Again, Oliver nodded. Just thinking back to her pink hair made his smile widen. He had barely believed his eyes when he had seen it this morning. It was wild and prominent, but it had looked so great on her, and it really did hold some magic. Just thinking about it, it seemed to enchant him.

The Felicity Smoak he had known tried to be as plain as personal when it came to the way she looked. He knew it was her way of isolating herself of the person she had used to be in Vegas. He had once found a photo of her and knew that she had been a Goth back in Vegas. Now, with her blonde hair that was usually tied to a low ponytail, she looked a lot more mainstream like she didn’t want anyone to notice her.

Of course, Oliver noticed her nonetheless.

“Yeah,” Oliver told Sara. “Unfortunately, her magic hair got her in trouble with her mother. She is mad at her for having this hair. The princess is not quite sure why her mother is angry with her, but she tried to find out. Anyway, the mother locked her into a tower. She has to stay there for as long as her mother says.”

“And she can’t go to the fair?”

“Exactly,” Oliver replied, nodding his head. “She can’t go anywhere though she really wanted to see the lights tonight. They are only there once a year, so she has to wait another year if she misses them tonight.”

“The lights?”

Oliver nodded. “The lights at the fair.”

Sara looked at him with her eyes wide and her lips slightly parted. She almost looked like she had had a stroke. Chuckling, Oliver tickled the back of her neck to make sure she was still here with him. Sara giggled, hunching her shoulders and slapping his fingers away to make him stop.

“She’s Rapunzel.”

Oliver looked from Sara to the TV and back at Sara. “What?”

“She’s Rapunzel,” Sara just repeated like it was all the knowledge he needed. Only when Oliver’s frown deepened, she sighed with annoyance and explained, “She’s Rapunzel, the princess in Tangled. We watched it last week.”

Oliver nodded slightly. He remembered the movie, and he remembered that name. Admittedly, he had been texting with Felicity most of the time though. Hence, he didn’t remember much of the movie.

“Rapunzel had magic hair too,” Sara told him. “The witch needed her magic hair though. She wanted to stay young forever. So she locked the princess into a tower and forbid her to see the lights. All Rapunzel wanted was to see those lights though.”

The movie was starting to ring a bell to Oliver.

“That was the movie with the funny horse, right?”

“Maximus.”

“Right.” Oliver nodded. “Maximus.”

The only reason he remembered the horse was because Felicity had told him that the horse was funny. She had texted him to pay close attention to the scene at the morning of Rapunzel’s birthday because the horse behaved like a dog. She had been right about it, and it had really been funny.

“What happened to the princess?” Oliver asked. “I don’t remember.”

“She got to see the lights.” Sara smiled happily. “Flynn Rider broke her out of the tower and took her to see the lights. It was her dream come true.”

Oliver pursed his lips, thinking about it thoroughly. He was pretty sure that Donna would go to the fair tonight too. Felicity had mentioned that she would meet some friends to spend the evening with. Even if Donna was there, maybe he could break Felicity out of her home to show her the fireworks without her mother noticing.

“Oliver, are you going to save your Rapunzel?”

Oliver nodded slowly. “I think I might.”

“Cool.” Sara grinned. “You know, Flynn Rider got married to Rapunzel later.”

Oliver snorted. “Felicity’s just a friend, Sara.”

“Sure.” Sara rolled her eyes. “And Flynn Rider just wanted that tiara back.”

Oliver had no idea what Sara was talking about, but he guessed it was better to just ignore this. He had other things than a six-year-old’s romantic fantasies to think about anyway.

Even if he broke Felicity out of her home, where would they watch the fireworks? He couldn’t just take her to the fair, especially when Donna was there. He needed a better plan, and he would make a better plan.

Felicity would see the lights no matter what.

* * * * *

Felicity had just made herself comfortable in bed and had already reached out her hand to switch off the light on her nightstand when a quiet sound made her frown. Her hand faltered in the middle of the air before she pulled it back and looked around with a frown. She couldn’t possibly make out where the nose had come from though.

Only when the noise sounded through the quiet dark of her bedroom again, she realized that it was coming from the window. For a second, she considered just lying back down, assuming it might be a bird or something. When the noise was there again, her nosiness took over though. She switched on her light, grabbed her glasses and kicked back her blanket. She went to the window.

She frowned when she saw Oliver standing in the garden, throwing little rocks at the window. When he saw her, he waved at her. Felicity opened the window and was already about to ask what was going on, but he was quicker.

“Rapunzel, Rapunzel let your hair down.”

Felicity chuckled. “What?”

Oliver grinned. “I told Sara that your magic hair caused the witch to lock you away in the tower, and you couldn’t go to see the lights. She said you might need a prince to save you.”

“Oh, really?” Felicity asked. She cocked her head, but she couldn’t prevent a smile to spread on her lips. “I need saving?”

“Well, I told her the princess is incredibly strong and-”

When the neighbors dog started barking at the other side of the fence, Oliver stopped. He shot a brief look back over his shoulder before he looked back at Felicity.

“I come upstairs.”

“I’ll let you in through the terrace door. Just give me-”

“Doors are for the loser of the princes, the ones that don’t really have to do anything to get the princess,” Oliver told her. “I climb this thing.”

Felicity watched Oliver climbing the trellis that let up the wall to her room. Her smile was so wide that her face almost hurt from it. She knew that Oliver, at least as long as he wasn’t on his phone, was probably the best friend she could have. He didn’t belittle her for being a nerd with the tendency to behave awkwardly in social settings. He never teased her with her past in Las Vegas, neither the Goth style nor her mother’s job as a barely dressed cocktail waitress. He just accepted her for who he was. Still, this felt like a lot.

When Oliver reached her windowsill, she stepped aside to let him in. Oliver climbed into her room easily. The moment he stood upright, he looked her up and down. Felicity followed his gaze and felt a blush spreading on her cheeks when she remembered that she didn’t wear a bra under her thin top.

She cleared her throat and crossed her arms in front of her chest. Oliver looked away quickly, lowering his eyes for a moment and scratching the back of his head.

“Now what are you doing here?” Felicity asked. “I thought you wanted to go to the fair with Tommy or Helena or someone else.”

Oliver shrugged his shoulders. “I didn’t want to go without you.”

Felicity smiled and lowered her eyes for a moment. Why did he have to be so sweet? Best friends, especially male best friends, were probably not supposed to be that sweet, right?

“I am still grounded.”

“Yeah, but your mother isn’t home,” Oliver replied, “so why don’t we just escape the tower and enjoy a little time outside?”

“But I am grounded.”

“Shocking,” Oliver whispered and chuckled. “Come on, Felicity, you have never been grounded before. Let’s savor the joy of crossing a boundary and go out to see the light. Let’s be as crazy as you were when you dyed your hair pink which is still so cool by the way.”

Felicity bit down on her tongue, trying to suppress her smile. She knew that Oliver, who loved to break every rule his parents or school or anyone imposed on him, must think that she was quite boring when it came to rules. She had always used to follow rules, most of them at least, because her mother had never really imposed any on her and she had always liked school. The only rules she had broken were the laws about hacking, but that was a completely different story.

Anyway, Oliver had never tried to pull her onto the dark side. He had teased her that she seemed to withstand the bad influence he was said to have on people, especially girls, around him. He had never really tried to make her do anything she felt uncomfortable with though.

To Felicity’s surprise, she didn’t feel uncomfortable with his suggestions now either.

“And where are we going?”

Oliver smiled widely, knowing he had won. “I am here with my motorcycle.”

“Oh, the motorcycle?” Felicity asked teasingly. “What about a carriage or a horse?”

Oliver chuckled. “Carriages and horses are out, Princess. Sorry.”

Felicity smiled. She wasn’t exactly one of those girls who was into horses anyway. She remembered that in elementary school, more than half of girls in her class had loved riding. She hadn’t seen anything remotely interesting in that.

“While I cannot offer a carriage or a horse, I can offer a magic key though,” Oliver told her. “I borrowed my father’s badge that will open us every door at Queen Consolidated, so-”

“I can sneak into the laboratory and check what they are working on without being told not to touch anything because it can break.”

Felicity had already reached out her hand to snatch the badge from Oliver’s fingers, but he held it out of her reach quickly. When Felicity frowned, he chuckled.

“Yeah, no,” he said. “What we are going to do is sitting down on the roof of the building and watch the fireworks. I am not saving the princess, so she can dedicate herself to this hellish stuff of the modern world. It’s soulless and will lead her on the way of sins. I am saving her to see the lights.”

“For the records, computers are not hellish and they do have souls,” Felicity told him, “and even if they were, it would be much more romantic if you took me to see the computers given how much I love them. I mean not that this is supposed to be romantic. It’s not. I just… you know… it would be… I mean if this was a fairy tale and... I will get dressed.”

She felt like her face was on fire with the warmth spreading on her skin along with a deep blush.

“O-okay.” Oliver nodded, but he just continued looking at her. Only when Felicity pressed her lips together and rolled them into her mouth, he added, “I will wait outside.”

“Or you just wait downstairs,” Felicity suggested, “because there is no way I am going to climb out of the window and down that thing.”

“That’s not true to the fairytale though.”

“Neither is the motorcycle.”

Oliver chuckled. “Okay. I will wait downstairs then.”

Felicity nodded, and so did Oliver. They looked at each other for a moment before he went past her and left the room. Felicity took in a deep breath and released the air through her lips slowly. With a brief look at the door, sucked her bottom lip between her front teeth, but it couldn’t stop a wide smile to spread on her lips.

Humming happily, she turned to her wardrobe. What did today’s princess wear for a night getaway with a prince?

* * * * *

From the roof of the Queen Consolidated Tower, everything looked incredibly small and everything was quiet which was even more important. Life was way too loud most of the times. Oliver had always enjoyed if everything around him was loud and busy. Quiet had scared him or at least felt terribly awkward.

With Felicity, it was different. He could just sit here with her in the quiet on the roof of his father’s company, leaning back against the chimney and waiting for the fireworks, and it felt completely comfortable. He wouldn’t even want the silence to be broken if it wasn’t for how much he loved to talk to her.

“I cannot believe I am on the rooftop of this building when there are impressive innovations only a couple of floors under me.”

Oliver chuckled. “You and your computers.”

“Hey, at least I have something I love,” Felicity replied and nudged his shoulder. “I don’t think you can say the same thing about yourself.”

Turning his head slowly, he looked at Felicity. Not the first time tonight, he noticed how beautiful she was. The moonlight made her blue eyes almost shine in the dark, and it made her alabaster skin look even paler. Her blonde hair with the pink ends made her look like…

Oliver wasn’t sure what it made her look like to be honest. He just knew that she looked as beautiful as ever, and not for the first time since he knew her, he felt drawn to her lips. He felt his lips prickling with the feeling of nosiness what her lips felt like against his and longing to find out.

Before Oliver could say anything, the firework started. He heard the banging sound when the first firecrackers exploded, and he could see the light in Felicity’s eyes. Her smile widened, amazement filling her eyes. Here they were, just watching a firework, and yet the expression on Felicity’s face was as joyful as if she was seeing a unicorn.

Oliver felt his heart skip a beat. It wasn’t the first time it happened. For the past few months, he had felt his heart skip a beat or two whenever he had thought that Felicity looked particularly breathtaking or was even just there more often than he was ready to admit. Something had happened in the last months that had changed things for him. It had changed the way he looked at her.

When Felicity had moved to Starling City a couple of years ago, they had instantly become friends. Oliver couldn’t even say why that had happened because they were as different as two people from different planets. Still, they had found each other and become friends. They had mostly hung out with Tommy, Iris and McKenna.

At some point during the last months, Oliver had felt annoyed whenever someone else was around them. He had enjoyed his time alone with Felicity much more. They were still spending a lot of time together with the others, but he and Felicity were also spending a lot more time together alone now. It was his favorite time every day.

While he might have been blind to what all of this meant at first, he knew quite well what this meant now. Right now, he knew exactly what he was feeling for her. After all these months, he finally understood it.

He knew what he felt for her, but there was nothing he could do about it. If he told her what he was feeling and she didn’t feel the same for him, their friendship would be over. He couldn’t be friends with her as long as she knew that he was in love with her, and he actually doubted that Felicity would even still want to be friends with him. She would probably feel awkward around him, and he couldn’t hold it against her.

Right now, in the dark of the night and with only the firework there with him, he felt like it was now or never though. If he didn’t manage to tell her what he felt for her now, he would never do it.

“Can I tell you a secret?”

With perked up eyebrows, Felicity looked at him. “What? Are you finally going to tell me which of the cheerleaders you have a thing for?”

Oliver frowned slightly despite the smile on his lips. “I am not into anyone of the cheerleaders?”

“Oh, really?” Felicity asked, perking up her eyebrows even more. “Then why did you want to see their performance at the fair? I thought that was the reason you wanted to go.”

“Yeah, I know you believe that.”

Felicity cocked her head slightly. “But?”

“But the truth is that I wanted to go to the fair because I wanted to spend time with you.”

The words were out there, not as explicit as he probably should have worded them, but they were there. If the way Felicity looked at him, not understanding what was going on right now, was any indication, she knew there was a deeper meaning to them though. She took in a breath to say something, but just closed her mouth again for any sound came out.

“We always spend time together.”

She said it with a chuckle like she tried to push past the moment of tension there had been between them. Oliver noticed that she was looking at him thoroughly though. She tried to ready his reaction, wanting to know if he would backtrack or go on to the offensive.

Not breaking eye contact, Oliver took Felicity’s hand and laced his fingers through hers. He could see Felicity swallowing once before her breath got caught in her throat. With held breath she waited for him to say or do anything.

Oliver knew he had to say something now before the chance was over. It took him a moment more before he could finally find the right words though.

“All those days I was chasing down a daydream. All those years it seems I was living in a blur. All that time, I was never truly seeing things the way they were. Now you’re shining here in the starlight and suddenly I know. I mean it’s crystal clear that I’m where I am meant to be.”

Felicity looked at him without seeing a word. There was a small furrow between her eyebrows, the same furrow he had seen dozens of times before when Felicity had tried to solve a problem at her computers. It showed that she still hadn’t completely put the pieces together. She still tried to understand.

Oliver waited for the furrow to disappear and for a real reaction to cross her face. Instead, the furrow only deepened.

“Did you just quote a Disney song to me?”

“Yes?”

Felicity’s frown deepened even more. Her hand was still in his, but Oliver could almost feel it pulling away. He quickly squeezed her fingers.

“I never admitted my love to anyone before, okay?” he asked. “I never felt for anyone what I am feeling for you. I didn’t know how to say it and after all this talk about Tangled, that was the first I could think about and, to my defense, it’s a great movie with great songs. I think there are worse ways to confess your love than through Disney.”

Felicity nodded slowly, still staring at him without saying anything. Oliver had no idea what was going through her head. It could be literally anything.

The longer the silence took, the more convinced he became that this wasn’t good. He lowered his eyes, feeling his stomach sink. He guessed he had put himself and his feelings out there, and all it was going to achieve was the loss of his best friend.

“What are we going to do now?”

Felicity’s question made his heart only clench in his chest even more painfully. He had no idea what they were going to do now. Was he just going to take her home and they would avoid each other at school for the rest of the year until everything had calmed down? Or were they-

“I mean does my mother has to stab you, so that I can try heal your wound and give you the chance to cut off my hair or can we just skip that and go right over to the part where the princess kisses her prince?”

Oliver lifted his gaze, looking at Felicity with surprise. For a second, he tried to find any hint that she was just teasing him. She was just biting down on her bottom lip nervously, waiting for his answer. A thousand butterflies were fluttering around in his stomach at her words and at the way she looked at him.

“I’d be in for the kissing part,” he said. He tried to sound casual, but his breaking voice betrayed him. “I mean if you want to.”

“Yeah.” Felicity nodded slowly. “Okay.”

For a long moment, they just looked at each other. Neither of them moved. Neither of them spoke. They just looked each other in the eyes like they couldn’t believe this was really happening. At least for Oliver, it was true. He couldn’t believe this was happening. It felt unreal. It was too good to be true.

Letting his tongue wet the seam between his lips, he straightened up slightly and turned more around to Felicity. His fingers were trembling when he rested his hands against her cheeks, cupping them gently. Her skin felt soft against his calloused fingertips, so soft that he was almost scared that just touching her would leave scratches. He looked at her for a moment, taking in her face.

Then he closes the distance and his world feels like it is standing still.

Felicity’s lips feel even softer against his than her cheek feel against his fingertips. The kiss is perfectly chaste, that the touch of their lips. There are no teeth and no tongue involved, and yet Oliver can feel everything inside of him tingle. He could hear Felicity taking in a deep breath.

Soon, much sooner than he actually wanted, Oliver pulled away. He stayed close at first, so close that he could feel her lips brushing against his whenever they took in a breath at the same time. He brushed his lips against hers once more before he pulled away completely.

He watched Felicity as her eyes was still close. Even before she opened her eyes, he could already see the smile spreading on her lips. It sparked in her eyes when she finally opened them and looked at him.

“I have wanted to do that for months,” she whispered. “And my imagination wasn’t even close to this.”

“I imagined this for too long already too,” Oliver replied, “so I guess we should go back to kissing.”

“Absolutely.”

They both moved at the same time. They both leaned in, kissing the other with passion. Their lips opened to one another. Their tongues stroked together gently. The kiss was much more hearted than the first, but it was still slow and tender. It was just as perfect at the first one.

Oliver pulled Felicity closer. He pulled both of her legs onto his lap and wrapped his arms around her chest tightly, so Felicity was snuggled up to his side. He could feel her heartbeat against his ribs and the fact that her heart raced just as quickly as his made him smile into the kiss.

He would have to thank Sara for reminding him of Tangled. From now on, it would be his favorite movie.

* * * * *

A long sigh escaped Felicity’s lips the moment the motorcycle came to a stop and she lifted her head off Oliver’s shoulder. The light shining through the kitchen window and the car in the driveway told her that her mother was back home and she couldn’t just steal herself back into her room. She guessed her grounding would be prolonged after all.

Felicity got off the motorcycle carefully and took off the helmet. She handed it to Oliver when he had descended from the motorcycle and taken off his helmet too. Resting her helmet on the handlebar, he put his own helmet on the floor, so he had both hands free to tug her close against him.

Chuckling, Felicity leaned against his chest and angled her head back to look at him. A wide smile seemed to be plastered on Oliver’s face, and she was sure that it wasn’t any different for her. The happiness she felt in every cell of her body made her lose her feeling for her body. She had no idea if she was really smiling, but she was pretty sure that she did.

“So it’s been a while since I last watched that movie,” Felicity said, puckering her lips, “How exactly do they escape from the witch at the end?”

“She trips over Rapunzel's hair, falls out of the tower and bursts into dust.”

When Felicity screwed up her nose, Oliver chuckled. He tightened his arms around her and kissed the tip of her nose. Felicity laughed as it tickled her a little and nuzzled Oliver’s chest for a moment.

“I think chances are low that this will happen to my mother,” Felicity said with a sigh. “I guess I will have to live with the prolonged grounding.”

Oliver sighed, swaying her from side to side a little like they were dancing to a slow song only he could hear. He puckered her lips and nodded to himself before he looked back at her and smiled again.

“We will see each other at school then,” Oliver said with a sigh, “and I am going to text and call you the entire time between our last class one day and our first one the next day.”

Felicity smiled. “You are going to be one of those boyfriends?”

“Who wants to spend every minute of every day together?” Oliver asked and grinned. “Absolutely.”

Smiling, he leaned down and captured her lips in a gentle kiss. Felicity sighed against his lips, feeling her body starting to tingle. Whenever Oliver had kissed her today, her body had tingled today. It almost felt the same like right before waking up like her body wanted to wake her up and tell her it was just a dream. She didn’t wake up though because this wasn’t a dream.

When their lips parted, Felicity sighed.

“I guess I will go back to my tower and comb my magic hair,” she said and moved her fingers through some strands of her hair. “We don’t want the magic to get lost.”

“No, we don’t.” Oliver tugged at a strand of her hair. “Whether your hair is pink or blonde doesn’t really matter to me anyway though. It stays just as magical as it is.”

Oliver leaned in and kissed her once more. Their lips brushed together gently. When Felicity pulled back slightly, knowing it would only get harder the longer they stood there, Oliver chased her lips and kissed her once more.

“I really gotta go now.”

She whispered the words against his lips. Then she kissed him once more before she finally pulled away. At the disappointed look on her face, Felicity chuckled.

“See you Monday in school.”

Oliver groaned, and Felicity was so tempted to just stay here with him. She knew it would only get her grounded for longer and hence separate them for longer. Squeezing his hand, she took a step back, still looking at him and still holding his hand.

Just when she took another step back, the step that would cause their fingers to lose contact, Oliver tugged at her hand. Chuckling, Felicity bumped back against his chest. His lips captured hers once more.

“Now, here we are again,” she said with a chuckle, “and we have to say goodbye again.”

“Not goodbye,” Oliver said, shaking his head with a smile. ��Just goodnight.”

Angling his head forward, he rested his forehead against hers. His lips were only a breath away, but he didn’t close the distance. Felicity did instead, knowing he just wanted to give her an out in case she really just wanted to go inside. She couldn’t resist to steal one more kiss from Oliver before they would have to spend the rest of their weekend separated.

When their lips parted this time, Felicity was the one to peck his lips once more. Then she pulled back, taking two quick steps to be out of Oliver’s reach. She cocked her head and, looking at Oliver, she sucked in a deep breath. She could stare at him all night long, but she knew it would only make it harder to part. The later she went inside, the harder her punishment would be at the end.

With a little noise of frustration falling from her lips, Felicity turned around and walked away. She forced herself to look at the front door of her home instead of looking back at Oliver. She knew she would only run back to him and kiss him once more because after months of imaging how it felt to kiss him, she couldn’t get enough of actually kissing him.

Only when she had pushed the key into the keyhole of the door, she looked back at him once more. He was still standing at his motorcycle, looking at her with a dorky smile on his face. Felicity felt her lips tingling with the need to kiss him again. She knew she couldn’t though, so she just waved at him and entered her home.

A heavy smile escaped her lips when she closed the door behind her and leaned back against it.

She couldn’t believe what had happened tonight. It felt incredibly unreal. Maybe it was because she had dreamed of it for so long or maybe it was because she had told herself that it would never happen for so long. Either way, she was sure that she would need a few days or maybe weeks to realize that this was indeed all real.

Felicity walked past the open kitchen door, almost hoping that the conversation with her mother could wait for another day. Her wishes were not fulfilled though, and she couldn’t even hold it against fate. She had already gotten so much tonight.

“Where have you been?”

Biting down on her bottom lip, Felicity turned to her mother. She sat at the kitchen table, a glass or red wine in front of her.

“I have seen the firework with Oliver.”

“Despite being grounded?”

Felicity nodded slowly. “Yes.”

Donna perked up her eyebrows, waiting for Felicity to expand on this. She actually considered to tell her mother because she knew how much she liked Oliver. Felicity decided against it though. For just a few hours, she wanted to keep this just for her.

“Your punishment will be two weeks then.”

Again, Felicity just nodded. “Okay.”

She bit down on her bottom lip to contain her smile. While being grounded surely wasn’t fun just thinking of how she had spent this night definitely was. She gestured towards the stairs. When her mother nodded, Felicity turned around and walked to the stairs. She had already put her foot on the bottommost step when her mother held her back.

“Felicity?”

Felicity stopped, turning around to her mother. “Yes?”

“What you did tonight, was it worth it?” she asked. “Was it worth to get another week?”

Felicity didn’t hesitate because there was no doubt about the right answer.

“Absolutely,” she replied, “Now I gotta go upstairs.”

To comb her magic hair, Felicity added to herself. Given the way this day had gone, she guessed her hair really was magical.

Closing the door to her room behind her and seeing Oliver’s name blinking on the display of her screen with a receiving call, she also guessed that Tangled would forever be her favorite movie now.

She had left the tower. She had seen the lights. She had gotten the prince.

Today had been the perfect fairytale.

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[exileseverafter]

The Exiles Ever After: Chapter One

This is the story of a giant baker down on his luck and kicked out of his home, a would-be Prince Charming with a pet bear, a curious scientist princess and a good-hearted liar in a world that’s a bit like our fairy tales, but also very much not. It also features toads, wolves, cakes, violent plants, commerce, trauma, and an uplifted moth. 

New chapters crossposted Tuesdays and Wednesdays. If you like it, please RT.

For Ezra’s 18th birthday, he treated himself to fresh pecan rolls and listened to a flute concert in the village square. For his 19th birthday he was exiled.

Likely nobody realized the significance of the day he was sentenced to gather as many of his belongings as could fit on his back, climb onto the back of a saddled roc and let the roc driver carry him away from the Cloud Island of Mielle. No one was that intentionally cruel. Even the judge seemed to sympathize even as she ignored his pleas and protests. The elderly lawyer arguing on his behalf had set a bony hand on his shoulder and sighed, shaking his wig-clad head. “It’s just how people are, Mr. Kettle. This sort of thing doesn’t happen here. People need someone to blame.” Ezra was prone to travel sickness and promised himself he would not mingle it with spite as the enormous, red-feathered bird sailed through the atmosphere. He would rise above this. It was nothing but a setback, one of many the brilliant and misunderstood were likely to face in their lives. The more he reflected on how gracious it was of him to forgive the angry citizens in the jury, the better he felt about himself. Anything was a comfort in a time like this, when the cold, thin air stung his face and left him shivering in his too-light coat. “Didn’t bring a parka with you, laddie?” The roc driver was far too jovial and friendly to have ended up in the position she had, Ezra thought. Sammie, as the woman called herself, wore the heavy leathers and hooded mask of one used to braving the chilly winds; only her eyes were visible. She had a rather deep and throaty laugh. “Lucky for you the spring’s coming down there. Wouldn’t want you to freeze.” “Wouldn’t want me to freeze, would they? No, they’re just content to let me rot.” Ezra imagined he had nothing to lose by talking with this woman; he certainly couldn’t make a break for it on the back of a bird soaring over a valley. “S’not so bad! Not so bad at all. I’ve driven exiles in far worse states than you’re in, and they always make it. Usually, anyway. Weather’s a bit harsh, what with the rains. Oh, and you’ll have to get your land legs; that’ll take a bit. And plants take much longer to grow. And then there’s the humans…” “I know! I know. Thank you, ma’am. I did my research on the Center of the Universe in the time I had.” It was, Ezra thought, kind of them to give him a few days to prepare before he was banished. Considering the charges, he knew they didn’t even have to offer him that. Perhaps the judge was more merciful than she revealed. “My husband’s brother had a friend whose grandfather traveled to the Center of the Universe. Willingly! Old Kentammenon just hopped off onto a mountain peak and made his way down from there. Drank from the streams and ate the creatures he could catch.” Ezra blew on his hands to warm them better than his gloves were doing, and looked back up at the driver. “Did he? Was he a humanologist?” “Nay, he was up to his ears in debts!” Sammie laughed again, steering the roc into a sharper turn than Ezra cared for. “Read about diamond mines in the Center and thought he could make his fortune that way. Funny thing about diamond mines; dragons love ‘em. One bit his hand right off.” Ezra paled, covering his mouth. “Was that meant to be encouraging, ma’am?!” “You didn’t let me finish, laddie! He knocked that dragon upside the head and took it down with one blow. The little human folk were so impressed, one of ‘em gave him a job with a traveling show. Kent made his fortune that way, and he didn’t have the sense The Sun gave a baby buzzard.” Sammie looked over her shoulder briefly, and he thought he saw her wink. “With all those books, I’d guess you to be a scholar. Am I right, laddie?” Ezra tugged the pack of books, jars and cooking pots tighter over his shoulder, even if it strained his back. “I’m a cook, actually.” “Then those are recipes?!” “They’re family heirlooms. The recipes, I mean.” Ezra now felt rather foolish having brought them instead of more important necessities, but he couldn’t abide leaving his pride behind with what was left of his family home. “It’s a way to make a living.” The pilot just shrugged. “Long as the humans know you don’t want to cook any of them. They get strange ideas in their heads about we Sky Folk. Comes from living so far from the sun. Makes the body puny and the brain odd.” She tapped the side of her head, and then whistled. “Alright, girl! We’re almost there, so time to bring her in!” The descent was far too quick for Ezra’s stomach; he barely realized what had happened until the bird reared back and landed in a cluster of great tall fir trees that towered far over his head and brought to mind thick hair brushes. They were standing at the bottom of a rocky cliff covered with lichens and green moss. Ezra wondered at first if Sammie had stopped here in order to let the bird rest and drink from a stream, but she looked expectantly at him over her shoulder. “Well, laddie? This is it!” “This…what? What do you mean, this is it?” “The Center of the Universe. We’re standing on it. It’s quite big, you know! A huge marble covered with things. You need help getting that down? Noticed you’re a little on the short side…” Ezra shook his head, dumbfounded. “No, I can get down just fine.” Despite his reassurances, he had to take a few false steps and then more tumbled than dismounted from the roc. His bag followed after, spilling cookbooks and pots all over the too-hard, too-damp surface of the forest. He scrambled to recover his belongings and save them from the mud before he continued, gesturing all around him. “I know it’s the Center of the Universe! I read about it, remember? So I know this is a forest. But I was told I’d be sent to somewhere I could make a living. Like a town, perhaps.” “A town? Full of humans? Can’t believe you’d take that kind of chance after what happened when you trusted one of them.” The memory stung, and Ezra sucked in a breath. Sammie continued, oblivious, as she dismounted the roc and landed with far more grace. “Doesn’t help that some of the Folk down here feel the need to throw their weight around and give us a bad name. You know what sorts get exiled and all. No offense meant to present company,” she added while ignoring Ezra’s glower. “Word of advice, stay away from the wee humans. They won’t trust you and you’d best not return the favor. Cook for yourself from what you can hunt and forage. Maybe sell some cakes to the local witches in exchange for charms and chicken eggs. They’re not afraid of anyone.” The last of the line of Kettle, chefs who shaped custards out of lightning and soups littered with stardust, and he was to spend the rest of his life in oblivion in the woods eating nettle stew because of some overgrown beanstalk. “Where am I to live, then?” he asked, no longer attempting to hide the defeat in his voice. “I was told I’d be given a place to live.” “And thankful you should be for that! Usually they just send you on your way with your belongings and let you do as you will. But I suppose you’re not yet two decades old so they had some mercy. You’re to live right there.” Sammie pointed to a path through the crooked trees. The canopy of the forest dimmed the sunlight even at high noon; what escaped fell upon a dilapidated, one-floor cabin with a tiled roof staying on apparently through willpower alone. The tiny shapes of birds nested in the windowsills, and an overgrown mess that might once have been a garden crowded around a stone well. “…Oh.” Ezra wondered if he shouldn’t be thankful it wasn’t a cave. “This used to belong to a fellow by the name of Chulainn the Great. Bit of a cranky sort as he got older, and the humans started calling him a wicked giant. Get used to hearing that, by the way. Humans think they’re normal-sized. Anyway, it’s got furniture and a stove; ought to serve you just fine, though I’d get it fixed up some before winter. Suppose you could find yourself another place if you wanted. The Center of the Universe is your prison, not that house. Well! I suppose this is goodbye…” Sammie moved to slap Ezra on the back, but then seemed to notice the way he was staring at the lonely little cottage. Her eyes creased in sympathy, and she gave him a pat on the shoulder instead. “You’re younger than my daughter. I think it is unfair what they did decide for you, laddie. But…” “It’s for the best, I know. Public good. People feel safer when there’s someone to blame.” Ezra sighed and started walking towards the cottage. “Thank you for the transport, ma’am.” “You’ll be fine. The young always thrive better. Just…do be careful who you open your door to, won’t you?” He looked over his shoulder with a rueful smile. “Oh, no worries. I intend to be very careful about that from now on.”

(Author’s note: If you’re enjoying, please RT! You can find the full story linked on the main tumblr page if you don’t want to wait for the Tumblr posts.