There were fingers running through her hair.
That was the first thing Felicity noticed as she began to wake up.
The second thing she noticed was that she was pressed up against a very warm, very male body and her head was pillowed on his chest.
She sighed in contentment, feeling warm and safe.
At least until her brain remembered where she was and how she'd come to be there.
Felicity sat up suddenly, startling Oliver.
"Good morning," he greeted her.
"'Morning," Felicity acknowledged. "Sorry, I didn't mean to end up using you for a pillow."
"I didn't mind," Oliver said, sitting up himself.
"You, um, wouldn't happen to have a little girl's bush tucked away somewhere, would you?" Felicity nervously asked. "And I assume a shower would be too much to hope for?"
Oliver forced himself not to laugh at how adorable she was to ask. He thought about it and as much as he hated the place, he knew where he had to take her.
"That military camp I mentioned had some showers and outhouses. We can go there, if you think you can wait," he offered.
"How long will it take to get there?"
"An hour, maybe," Oliver said.
Felicity thought about it. She wasn't sure if she could wait that long, but an outhouse sounded much better than squatting in the woods.
"Okay, let's go there. What about my stuff?" she asked. She found her glasses and slipped them on as she got up.
"Your call. We can either leave it here or move on to a different site tonight."
She didn't really want to move the tablet and phone while they were disassembled, but if she could be near some semblance of a bathroom, she'd do it. "Couldn't we just stay in the camp?"
Oliver clenched his jaw. That camp meant nothing but pain and death to him. He generally avoided it as much as possible.
One glance at the hopeful look on Felicity's face told him he'd be spending more time there than he ever imagined.
"Fine," he bit out. "Pack up all your stuff and bring it with us."
"Can you bring The Odyssey too?" she asked, hoping she wasn't pushing him too far. She could see that he wasn't happy with the idea of staying in this camp for some reason. Did he have something against the military? "I know it's one of the books you read here, but I'd like us to continue reading it."
"You fell asleep after the first part," Oliver pointed out.
"Maybe so, but I still liked hearing you read it to me."
"Alright, we'll bring the book, too," Oliver agreed.
Felicity hurried over to where she had her tech dismantled and tried to figure out the best way to transport them. They really should have a least another day of drying out before she reassembled them.
Turning to Oliver, she asked, "I suppose it's too much to hope for a couple of Ziplock bags?"
"Fresh out," Oliver responded.
"I figured," Felicity sighed. "All right then." She carefully began to gather the components and set them back inside the casings and then folded both the phone and tablet securely into the towel. Once she was satisfied with her packaging, she slipped the bundle into her bag. She grabbed her dress and sweater from where they had been drying; frowning at how stiff they were from the salt water.
"I suppose laundry facilities are too much to hope for too?" she asked, holding the dress awkwardly away from her.
"Machines, yes. But there's soap and wash basins at the camp. They'll have to air dry again, but it'll be better than what you've got there."
"A man who can cook and do laundry," Felicity commented, "be still my heart."
Picking up his bow and quiver, Oliver asked, "You ready?"
"Lead on," Felicity said with one last look around the cave. She hoped the camp would be a little more comfortable, even if this place had been pretty cozy.
Felicity stumbled along behind Oliver, keeping an eye out for landmines for what felt like much more than an hour, but that was probably because she wasn't used to trekking through the woods like this. She preferred her exercise in a nice, well-lit, landmine-free gym.
They didn't talk much on the long walk, Oliver on high alert, although she didn't know for what if they were alone.
"Are there dangerous animals here or something?" she finally asked him.
"No, why would you think that?"
"Well, you're like, super-vigilant right now. Like you're expecting to be attacked at any moment. I wanted to know what you thought could attack us."
Oliver tried to force himself to relax, but his reflexes had a mind of their own. "Old habit," he apologized. "There's nothing that can harm us, now."
"But there used to be?" Felicity pressed.
"Yeah. The military base we're going to, they hunted me and my friends my first year on this island. I guess I got used to always being on the lookout for an attack from them."
"Wait a minute, we're going to the base of people who hunted you?" Felicity exclaimed.
"You can understand my reluctance to go there, now," Oliver replied.
"Then why are we going there?"
"Because you wanted a bathroom and a shower and to do laundry," Oliver huffed. "Unfortunately, the base is the only place on the island with things for that."
"But, it has bad memories for you," Felicity said, knowingly.
"It does," Oliver agreed. "Look, I've gotten used to roughing it, but I'm sure it would be harder for you. No offense. I can deal with being there for a while if it'll make being here easier for you."
"So, you'll stay with me?" Felicity asked, embarrassed by how relieved she was that he would.
"I'm certainly not going to leave you to fend for yourself. Even without any other people here, this is a dangerous place."
"Thank you." No sooner than the words were uttered, they came into a clearing with the remains of the base laid out before them. "Oh, thank you!" Felicity groaned as she saw what was clearly the outhouse and began to run for it.
Oliver continued walking, slowing his pace, knowing he'd have to wait for her anyway. His eyes scanned over the remains of the base. He hadn't been here since he'd been back on the island. It looked much the same as it had the last time he'd been here. Some of the tents were still standing, including the one that had belonged to Fyers.
He found himself standing at the opening to Fyers' tent, remembering the last time he'd been here. He could see Yao Fei standing there in his military uniform spewing the lies Fyers had fed him before he fell from a bullet between the eyes. Oliver felt the rage he'd felt then, the helplessness.
Would he have been able to stop it if all that had happened now? He was stronger now; a better fighter. Could he have gotten out of his bindings and stopped Fyers from killing the first friend he'd made here? His first mentor. Shado's father.
He supposed it didn't matter. It was the past and he couldn't go back and fix it.
He was pulled out of his memories by Felicity popping up behind him.
"Is this where we're staying?" she asked, trying to see over his shoulder.
"No," Oliver snapped. "Not this tent. I c-can't… No." He took a deep breath and turned around. Something in his eyes must have conveyed his struggles because Felicity didn't ask why. "Any other tent should be fine."
Without a word, Felicity turned and started to examine the other tents that were still intact. She found one with a cot, blanket, footlocker and table. She supposed it wouldn't get homier than this.
"Found one," she called out, poking her head out the flap to see where Oliver had got to.
"I'm over here," he said from the other side of the tent, so she looked out the flap on that side.
"Oh good, you found one nearby," Felicity said. She was glad that he wouldn't be too far away if she had another nightmare. Another bad memory. "Come on in," she offered, heading back inside her tent.
Once Oliver had joined her, Felicity began to unwrap the tablet and phone on the table. She separated everything out again to continue to dry. "After I finish this, I'd really love to find that shower and wash my dress." She spun to face him. "Are there any provisions here? Like, food?"
"I can show you where the shower is and how to operate it. Although I'm not sure if you'll be able to find a clean towel. Maybe we should do some scavenging first, then laundry, and if we find anything to eat along the way, we can do that. You can shower once the towels are dry, if we find any."
"Sounds like a plan," Felicity agreed. "We can start in here."
She crossed to the foot locker and opened it. It was empty.
"Or, we can start with yours," she suggested, gesturing for Oliver to go to his tent.
There was nothing of interest in his tent either. "I doubt we're going to find much of anything around here," he said. "We went through this stuff pretty thoroughly and removed most of the useful stuff already."
"Even the food?" Felicity asked, forlornly.
"Especially the food," Oliver confirmed.
"Well then, where do you keep most of your food stores? I'm guessing you don't just eat things you've killed."
"I mainly live in this cargo plane fuselage that crashed here several years ago. It's on the north end of the island," Oliver admitted. "I never come here and the other dens are for if I get caught out after dark."
"Oh," Felicity sounded disappointed. "It was silly of me to think there would be all this stuff still here for us to use."
"There was, it's just been a few years since this place was abandoned and we've pretty much picked it clean."
Felicity sank onto the cot, resting her face in her hands. "I don't know what I'm doing here," she moaned.
"You're stranded, just like me," Oliver said, coming to sit next to her. "It took me a long time to get used to life on this island. A very long time." He chuckled to himself. "You should have seen me the first time I had to kill a bird for my dinner. I was pathetic. I had never killed anything in my life but I learned that survival was most important. So I adapted."
Felicity turned to face him, tears wetting her eyes but refusing to fall. "I don't want to learn these things. I want to go back to my nice comfortable apartment and my nice comfortable IT job. I don't want to have to learn how to survive on less than nothing."
"Neither did I," Oliver said, no censure in his voice. "What choice is there, though?"
Slapping his thighs, Oliver stood. "C'mon, let's go check out the mess tent. Maybe there's something there we missed before."
"You think there will be anything there?" Felicity asked, hopefully.
"Only one way to know for sure."
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Mood: excited
Fic: Maybe Purgatory Isn't Such a Bad Place to Be 5/15 (Oliver/Felicity) Mature
Title: Maybe Purgatory Isn't Such a Bad Place to Be
Author: Elisabeth / dragonydreams
Rating: Mature
Pairing: Oliver Queen/Felicity Smoak
Fandom: Arrow
Summary: Felicity ends up on Lian Yu after escaping from the Triad.
Spoilers/Timeline: Pre-Series/Post-Season 3 Flashbacks
Word Count: 21,850 story / 1,890 this chapter
Disclaimer: I claim no ownership over these characters. I am merely borrowing them from Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, and Andrew Kreisberg.
Feedback: Yes please! It makes me happy and keeps me writing.
Thanks to angelskuuipo and apckrfan for beta'ing this and for all of the hand holding as I found myself rushing head first into a new fandom.
Author's Note 1: This story was inspired by watching Romancing the Stone.
Author's Note 2: This is my maiden voyage into the Arrow fandom, so please be kind.
Catch up on AO3.
Tags: arrow fic, fic:maybe purgatory isn't such a bad pla, olicity, oliver queen/felicity smoak