The Queen Diaries

Chapter 1: Bird Poop & Baby Wipes

A/N: I originally planned to start writing this collection when Season 5 begins, but the last few days have given the hopeless romantic in me the inspiration to write again. (Two friends of mine got engaged, separately. Yey! Congratulations!) So here goes...

This Arrow AU family fic collection of drabbles and one-shots will be written in the form of a diary/journal entries, each one taking off from an event in the timeline of the two chapter books I've published here - "MY MOM & MY DAD" and "THE QUEENS," but not necessarily in chronological order. Some entries will be set in the future, beyond the timeline, when the Queens are older. Each entry will be written from the POV of either Felicity or Oliver, or one of their children.

This first chapter is written by Felicity. She writes about how she came to a realization that she had already fallen in love with her friend Oliver.

Felicity's Diary

August 15, 2011

I'm feeling quite "under the weather" today. I just woke up from a really nice nap actually. My fever is down and the throbbing headache is almost gone. I guess the Tylenol that Oliver made me take before they left has kicked in. There's still a bit of congestion, so I'm glad I'm writing down everything I want to say instead of having to speak, because right now, I sound more like a man in an underwater aquarium.

I was in Oliver's arms today. That's right! He was down on one knee, cradling me in his strong, muscular arms. He had an arm underneath me, and even if I was wearing a sweater on top of this gray tank top, I could still feel the warmth of his skin across my back. His hand held my nape; they were a bit rough, but that didn't matter. His tender touch gave me the tingles all over, especially when his other hand brushed away a stray strand of hair from my face as he looked into my eyes. Our faces were just a few inches apart. I couldn't breathe, I had forgotten how to speak, and I felt like I'd literally melt under the intense gaze of his amazingly dreamy blue eyes. For a moment there I thought for sure that he was going to kiss me. And then I just had to sneeze! Ugh! Talk about ruining the moment.

Well, it wasn't all fluffy and romantic as I would have wanted it to be anyway. I wasn't really in his arms because he wanted me to be – like if he had embraced me on purpose. It was more because he had to. You see, I had lost my balance and fallen backwards, and Oliver caught me just in time before I hit the back of my head against the corner of the dresser and completely landed on the floor. I'd been feeling so dizzy and woozy all day because of the colds and headache, and when you combine that with my natural clumsiness and the nervous electricity in the air due to having a really handsome hunk inside my bedroom, then... I think you get the picture.

But you know, something tells me that I will always remember that as one of our "moments." Embarrassing, yes. But special, too. The huge and largely unexpected sneeze sent us both crashing on the floor and then rolling over the carpet, laughing our hearts out. As soon as I recovered from the sniggering and the giggling, I had decided that there's really nothing in this world quite like being in Oliver Queen's arms.

There's just something about the way we touch, which has been becoming more frequent in the past couple of weeks. I can feel sincerity. I can also feel respect. And if I'm really being honest, I'd say I can sense... deep emotion. That's all I'm ready to call it, for now. His actions seem to tell me that he has feelings for me now, but he hasn't actually said anything concrete so far, so... I don't think it's fair to him for me to conclude that he feels the same way about me. I also don't think it's right for me to assume.

As far as I'm concerned, I'd be lying if say that I haven't started to have feelings for Oliver. It's really hard not to. He's so kind and gentle and thoughtful and sweet. I can't even picture him as the broody and serious type of guy that Stephen teases him for every once in a while. And he's so good with Emily! Sometimes – okay, I admit, several times – I imagine what it would be like for him to be her Dad, which would lead to me imagining what it would be like for him to be my... Oh! Sometimes I feel like I'm such a pathetic wishful thinker. But I can't help it. He's just so wonderful! I'm sure he's not perfect, but duh? Who is? He's shared stories of how he'd made mistakes in his sordid past – too many to mention, so he admits – but this changed version of him is really impossible for me not to fall in love with.