Chapter Text
banner by: Arienhod
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To say Felicity was nervous was an understatement. She was nervous, she was anxious, she was stressed, she was excited, she was vaguely nauseated...okay, she was more than vaguely nauseated. She kinda wished she had one of those convenient sick bags they kept in hospitals...the ones with the plastic bag connected to the hard plastic circle that fit right over your mouth...
Riley Finn smiled and shook his head as he leaned closer to her. “Felicity, breathe. You're going to be fine.”
They were standing in front of the headquarters of the Council of Slayers and Watchers. The building looked old and regal and historic. Of course, Felicity knew it couldn't be that old. The old Watcher's Council headquarters had been bombed back in 2002 by minions of the First Evil. And that wasn't intimidating at all! She was here to meet several of the warriors who actually fought back the Armies of the First Evil!
“Sure,” Felicity nodded, “right. This is going be awesome. Really!” She took a shaky breath. “I can't wait to meet legendary heroes and scores of super-powered teenage girls who all have years and years more experience than me. I'm sure I'll fit right in.”
Oliver's presence at her back was a warm comfort. He wrapped his arm around her waist and leaned forward to rest his chin on her shoulder. “No, you won't fit in. You'll stand out because you're remarkable.”
She huffed and smiled lightly at the familiar compliment. “I've got your vote, at least?” She turned her head and smacked a kiss on his cheek.
“Always.”
Facing the front again, looking back up at that imposing building, Felicity's nerves quickly returned. “If I can only get them to overlook the fact that I had a defective gene and got called super late and...”
Thea scoffed from Felicity's other side. “That's just because you're so awesome the world wasn't ready to handle you yet. It needed time to prepare.” She grinned and bumped against the blonde's shoulder. “You're looking at this situation all wrong, Felicity. The world could only handle so much awesomeness at once. It's also why I just found out I'm a witch. They needed to make room for us. They should be grateful. We've arrived.”
Felicity blinked and turned her head to look at the younger Queen. “Did they breed the arrogance into you or was it something they fed you?” she teased.
Thea smirked. “I'm a Queen. We're perfect from birth.”
“Excuse the lack of red carpet, Miss Queen,” Riley told her. He lifted a brow at Felicity. “You ready?”
“As I'll ever be,” Felicity nodded. She sucked up her courage and forced herself to climb the steps and open one of the huge ornate doors. Here went nothing.
Riley led them to the reception desk. It was situated in an unassuming if lavish entrance hall. The tile floors and walls in complimenting shades of warm beige gave the appearance of understated elegance and sophistication. A blonde woman, who appeared to be in her early twenties, wearing a loose bohemian style purple dress, sat behind the desk playing on her cell phone. It was alarmingly normal.
Personally, Felicity had been expecting something a little more...nondescript elevator deep into the earth a la Section One, but that could just be because all the lairs she'd visited lately were underground. The Slayer's Council, it seemed, were much too civilized for that. Which made sense as they were in jolly old England with all the very civilized, very British people, who would inevitably find an underground compound of slayer training awesomeness to be utterly crass and vulgar.
“You're babbling in a British accent in your head right now, aren't you?” Oliver whispered.
“Shut up,” she whispered back.
Riley cleared his throat to gain the receptionist's attention. She rolled her eyes before sitting down her phone and painting a wide fake smile across her lips. She glanced up at Riley. “Welcome to CSW. How may I help you?”
Her accent was American. That caught Felicity's attention and she examined the other woman more closely. Then she gulped. The stranger was a slayer. Felicity knew it, could feel it deep inside her bones. She was staring at one of her slayer sisters. This was actually happening!
Riley frowned. “We have an appointment with the Council, but I was told to ask for Rona if Buffy wasn't available.”
The slayer pursed her lips and tilted her head to the side. “Aren't you Buffy's ex?” Then her gaze slid to land on Felicity. A flash of instinctive aggression flared, predator recognizing predator, but her smile quickly turned genuine and curious. “Hi, I'm Maria, who are you?”
“I'm Felicity.” “Where's Macey?” Felicity and Riley spoke at once.
“Nice to meet you,” Maria nodded, then her expression soured and she rolled her eyes back to Riley. “Macey's on lunch. I'm covering for her.”
“Great,” Riley grumbled. He glared at the woman's borderline disrespectful attitude, “is Buffy available?”
The slayer snorted. “Yea, that would be a no. The General stays busy.” She turned back to Felicity. “Buffy and Dawn are at a lunch meet with some members of the Witches' Council. Something about a late bloomer witch coming in for training. I'm sorry you missed her, but I'm sure she'll catch you later.” She lifted her brows. “I don't recognize you. First time here?”
Felicity nodded nervously. She could practically feel Riley fuming. She sent him an apologetic look. “Is Rona available?”
“Sure thing,” Maria picked up the landline and hit a number. She waited for an answer before speaking into the receiver. “Hey Mace, you guys about done? Rona has an appointment out here. Finn, a slayer named Felicity, and...” the blonde leaned to the side to look beside Felicity and focus on Thea. Then her gaze slid up to the brunette's face and her mouth gaped open. “HOLY SHIT! You're Thea Queen!”
Thea grinned at Riley smugly. “I told you, I was born perfect.”
“She's the new witch,” Felicity filled in, carefully avoiding looking in Riley's direction.
“I would kill for your wardrobe,” the slayer told Thea still obviously stunned by her presence and the revelation of her supernatural status. Then she rethought her statement and edited herself, “or just your net worth.” She frowned. “I drive a Jetta.”
Thea snickered. “Noted.”
“I'm dead serious,” Maria said. She leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest. “Also? Your brother is like SMOKING...” both Thea and Felicity stepped to the side to reveal Oliver standing behind them. The girl fell back forward and her face twisted in horror. “...hot.” Her voice trailed off to an embarrassed squeak.
Oliver smirked. “I'm flattered.”
The door behind the reception desk swung open to reveal another blonde, this one with long curly hair, big blue eyes, and wearing a pink dress. Felicity recognized immediately that she was staring at another slayer.
The new arrival scrambled to stand opposite the desk from Riley. “I am so sorry, Riley. I meant to be back by now. I know, it wasn't cute.” She spun to glare hard at Maria. “You should have notified me! I was expecting them.”
Maria's eyebrows shot up. “You were expecting Thea and Oliver QUEEN?”
The other slayer froze. Her head jerked around and she goggled at the Queen siblings. “WHAT?”
Felicity cleared her throat and tried to salvage the situation. “Hi, I'm Felicity Smoak. Riley was kind enough to escort us here. This is my...boyfriend?” she looked back at Oliver.
Oliver cut his eyes at her. “Partner.”
Felicity nodded and warmth filled her chest. She smiled at him. “Partner.” She turned back to the front. “This is my partner Oliver and his sister Thea. Thea's here for witch training.”
The new girl was still stunned. She nodded dazed and pointed toward Felicity. “You, I was expecting. You, I spoke with on the phone.” She held out her hand for Felicity to shake. “I'm Macey.”
“The first call I made?” Felicity realized.
Macey nodded. “When you thought we were all dead. It wasn't cute. I decided to let Rona handle it.” She turned a glare on Riley. “The infamous Queen siblings I was NOT expecting! That is also not cute!”
“I told Buffy,” Riley said.
Macey closed her eyes and huffed. “Of course, you did. And Buffy didn't bother to tell anyone else because she's Buffy!” She opened her eyes and stared exasperated at Felicity. “What did she think? He'd wear a hat and mask and no one would recognize him?”
Felicity winced and bit her lip. “You'd honestly be surprised.” Oliver poked her in the side.
Macey rubbed her hands over her face. “Do you have any idea how many sex-starved teen and twenty-somethings we have back there?” She hooked her thumb toward the door. “He's going to need a bodyguard to keep them from humping his leg. We're just lucky Faith's in Cleveland.”
Riley snorted. “True that.”
Felicity ground her teeth and narrowed her eyes at the two slayers. “Oliver's taken. He's mine.” Realizing how bad and possessive that sounded, she scrunched up her forehead and nose turning to Oliver. “Sorry.”
Oliver shrugged. “Tell Dare that.” Thea cackled out loud.
“Just be ready to defend your territory,” Maria advised, speaking back up as she pushed to her feet and walked toward the door. “Slayers be bitches.”
Macey nodded. “We're the nice ones.” Then she put back on a professional smile. “But welcome to CSW! Our home is your home! Please follow me and I'll escort you to Rona.” She waved toward the door and turned to lead the way. Riley, Felicity, Oliver, and Thea fell in behind her.
They were led down a long series of hallways. Maria peeled away at some point, waved goodbye, and disappeared through a side door. Macey turned them again, found the door she wanted, knocked and pushed it open. There was a pretty black woman who looked around thirty with long hair standing behind an office desk. She was wearing yoga pants and a t-shirt. She was also glaring down at her cell phone. “I swear, Buffy Summers is going to hell. Do you know what she just texted me? 'Running behind. Handle it. BTW a wild Oliver and Thea Queen might appear. Prep your Master Ball.'” She shook her head. “That's a direct quote.”
Macey made a cute huffy noise. “That's not Buffy. Dawn sent that text. Buffy doesn't know a Pikachu from a Gyarados. She still gets confused by Candy Crush. Pokemon is beyond our fearless leader.”
“Figures,” the woman rolled her eyes and tossed down her phone. She looked up and zeroed in on Felicity. She smiled genuinely and stepped forward to offer her hand. “Felicity? Nice to meet you in person. I'm Rona Jordan.”
Felicity shook her hand and smiled. “Nice to meet you, too. Thanks for helping me out before. I know I was a mess on that phone call.”
“Understandable,” Rona shook her head. “You got thrown into the deep end with no swimming lessons. From what I've heard, you've handled it better than most.”
“I had a lot of help,” Felicity told her. She turned and motioned to her companions. “I'm assuming you know Riley, but this is my partner Oliver and his sister Thea. Thea just found out she's a witch.”
Rona winced and reached out to shake Thea's outstretched hand. “You have my sympathy. I promise, Willow should be back soon.” Thea was deeply confused.
“Dawn will be overseeing your training,” Macey explained, “and she's...temperamental.”
“And you?” Rona looked Oliver up and down. “Damn, you really are that hot. That is just not fair.” She pointed to Felicity. “You better be ready to...”
“Piss all over him?” Felicity said. “I've heard.”
“The Bitchettes are in residence,” Rona warned. “They live for American tabloids and I'm almost positive at least a few of them have pictures of him tacked up on their wall.”
“There might be a shrine,” Macey muttered. “It's not cute.” Then she turned to smile widely up at Oliver. “But YOU are!”
“You are going to be fun to look at,” Rona agreed.
Felicity snorted. “Wait until you see him working out shirtless.” She looked from Rona to Macey. “Tell me you have a salmon ladder around here somewhere.”
“We have an everything around here somewhere,” Rona said.
“He comes in shirtless?” Macey sounded breathless.
Felicity smirked at her irritated partner. “Oliver comes with all kinds of surprises.”
“Yep,” Thea nodded. Her expression was sly. “And he makes excellent bait, don't you, Ollie?”
His expression was dark and unamused. Felicity threaded her arm through his and leaned against him. “Oliver's an archer. He can hold his own.”
Rona nodded consideringly. “We can work with that. Formal lessons? Contests? Do you have any experience with moving targets?”
“I get by,” Oliver said. Felicity winced at his tone, Thea snickered loudly, and Riley grinned from ear to ear.
“He could train with the Watchers,” Macey said. “They can start on basic defense. Humans aren't completely defenseless.”
Rona nodded. “We also have ranged weapon specialists and an enchanted shooting range. They can evaluate your form and accuracy with both stationary and moving targets.”
Thea's eyebrows shot up. “Do they have tennis balls?”
Riley lost his fight with his laughter at that. He shook his head and looked to Oliver. “Now you know how Cross and Case felt when you wanted a rundown of her resume and training qualifications.”
“Eat it up,” Oliver glared at the other man.
Felicity was just trying to decide the best way to calm Oliver down and sooth his wounded pride when her ringtone went off. She pulled her phone from her pocket and checked the message.
Meredith: Can I come yet? Tell them I'm friendly!
Felicity snorted and sent back her own text.
Felicity: You want me to lie?
Felicity received back a string of poop emojis from her temperamental cousin. She took in a deep breath and blew it out.
When she tuned back into the conversation she found that Rona and Macey were still discussing the best possible training programs for Oliver and his new life of danger. She figured a change in subject before Oliver completely exploded couldn't hurt. She thought they could hide the fact that he was an asshole for at least the first day. First impressions and all that. She cleared her throat to draw their attention. “SO...what exactly is the Slayers' Council's protocol on dealing with Traditional half-vampires?”
That definitely got their attention. Both slayers stared at her slack-jawed. Rona recovered first. “Explain?”
Felicity winced and reached up to pinch the bridge of her nose. “You see, I have this cousin named Meredith...”
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