I'm Fine (An Arrow Fanfiction)

Chapter Fifteen

Once in the car, Oliver turned to look at Felicity's hard expression. She was obviously trying hard not to get upset with him.

"Hey, Felicity, I'm sorry. Thank you for being so patient with me." He coughed a little into his fist, trying to clear his throat. "You know, I'm not feeling my best right now. I've probably been kind of selfish, I should've realised I was being rude." Oliver was a bit surprised with himself, he usually didn't feel guilty about snapping at people.

"It's okay, I understand. When I'm sick, I don't feel like being very nice either. I just want you to feel better."

"Thanks. I really-" his voice gave out and he coughed a couple of times, trying to get it back. "Sorry."

Felicity set her hand on Oliver's shoulder, rubbing it a little. She tried to glance over, but needed to keep her eyes on the road. "Does your throat hurt?" she questioned, her eyebrows pulling together.

"Yeah, a little. I mean, not too bad," he lied.

"I have some cough drops, if you look in the cup holder, there's probably a couple."

"Thanks."

"No problem."

After a couple seconds of silence--except for heavy sniffing from Oliver--he spoke again. "Do you mind if I blow my nose? It's just my head is so stuffy, it's kind of hard to breathe in here."

"Of course, Oliver," she paused for a second, stopping at a light. "You don't have to be sorry, though."

"Thanks," he replied, but hesitated, feeling uncomfortable with Felicity sitting right next to him. But he was surprised at how sweet she was. If it were anyone else he knew, with the exception of Diggle, they would be literally scrubbing their car while he sat in it. Even when he and Laurel were together, she kept her distance when he was ill. Even if his allergies were acting up, she would make sure everything was decontaminated before she came within five feet of him. But here was Felicity with her hand resting on his shoulder.

"You don't need to thank me for common courtesy, if you have to blow your nose then it's not like I would say 'no, wait till you're out of my car.' I just want you to feel comfortable. I know how hard it is to be comfortable when you're sick."

He glanced at her and offered a slight smile before turning away and blowing his nose in one of the tissues he had grabbed from the lair. Right after, he sneezed into another tissue.

"Sorry," he muttered, embarrassed.

"Oliver! It's okay!" she slipped her hand down to his wrist. "I don't care if you get germs in the car. I want you to feel better. You don't have to apologise for sneezing, everybody sneezes."

Oliver was shocked by both her kindness and her hand so close to his. A hand on a shoulder was one thing, but she was nearly touching his own hand now. He just sat, not moving, not speaking for a few seconds, until his cold reminded him that he still needed to sneeze. He took a few shivering breaths, trying to prevent it, but he sneezed anyway. This time he managed to catch it with his wrist.

"You probably shouldn't touch me," he said to Felicity. "I don't want you to get sick."

Felicity's face flushed pink, but she replied with, "I don't care," as she slipped her hand, finger by finger, into Oliver's. She was scared by what his reaction might be, but didn't back down.

Oliver wondered if he was hallucinating. But he could feel her cold hand against his warm one just as well as he could feel the leather of the seat beneath him. But he was sure she was just being friendly.

Hearing him start to sniffle, Felicity told him once again that he could use a tissue if he needed to, happy to escape the silence.

For the third time, Oliver blew his nose, desperately hoping to clear the congestion. He wished he hadn't fallen asleep in the middle of the day. Sitting for so long made the stuffiness much worse. Though he was glad for his headache and cough to be gone at the time, the sneezing and constant sniffing was making up for it.

"Your nose feel better?" Felicity asked, genuinely concerned.

"Um, yeah, I'm fine," he lied, squeezing Felicity's hand.

"Your voice tells me otherwise. Please, please stop giving me the 'I'm fine,' I mean, Oliver, you can't go one day without having a sneezing attack. I just wanna know how you are. How hard is that?"

Oliver sighed. "I really do feel better, I don't have that bad of a headache, and I don't really have to cough. My sinuses are bothering me right now. Just itchy and stuffy though, it doesn't really hurt." Oliver felt slightly embarrassed admitting so much, but Felicity smiled and squeezed his hand back.

"I'm glad you're feeling better." Then after a few seconds of silence: "Wait, did I go past-" she halted as Oliver sneezed, his head jerking foreword.

"Sorry, what were you saying?"

"I'm pretty sure that I passed your passed your house."

Sneeze. "Sorry. God damn" sneeze "cold." He sniffed, raising his eyebrows. "Um, yeah, sorry, I should've noticed. Just turn up there and circle back." He pulled his hand out of Felicity's and cupped both of his hands around his nose and mouth and covered another loud sneeze. He grabbed another tissue to blow his nose, but it seemed to make it worse instead of better. Once he got home, he was going to have to take some NyQuil. He usually would avoid medication, but he didn't want to be sneezing every other second at his mother's gala.

"Hey, we're here. Sorry about the mess up." Felicity smiled "I hope you feel better, Oliver."

"Thanks, Felicity," he said, hopping out of her car and walking into his house.