Chapter Text
Oliver was running through the thick undergrowth, sweat sliding along his bare chest, when a sound caught his attention, suddenly.
He raised his head and looked at the sky.
A plane was approaching the island of Lian Yu, where he had sort of retired some months ago, leaving Starling City and his family and friends and the destruction his mother had helped creating and he had not been able to prevent. Nobody had even once tried to bother him in that Godforsaken place during those months – mainly, because nobody knew where he was. But there was also another good reason: that island had been his “prison” for five years, had taken him away from his family and friends against his will and had deeply changed him – not necessarily in a good way. So it was easy to believe that he would never come back there for any reason any time soon.
Yet, there he was, there he had been for the last few months, all alone.
Now, somebody was getting closer – he could clearly hear the noise made by an old aircraft engine – and he had an intense sensation that, whoever it was that had bothered to come all the way to the island, they were coming for him.
Oliver Queen grabbed his bow and ran faster into the well-known forest.
** **
Diggle had somehow managed to land on the beach of Lian Yu and free Felicity and himself from the belts of the parachutes they had used to get there. That had been a very traumatic experience for the poor girl that was now throwing up not far from him. Fortunately, she had managed to make it to the beach. He really was grateful for it and thanked her.
“My pleasure!” was Felicity's sarcastic response.
She clearly wasn't pleased after he had forced her to try such an experience. Diggle couldn't help but chuckle a little. He didn't know the IT girl was so afraid of height, otherwise he would probably have left her in the hotel and would have come to the island alone. But he knew she would never agree with this idea – she wanted to be there, too. For Oliver. For their common friend.
Once Diggle had folded up the parachute again and put it in his backpack, he stood up and for the first time looked at his surroundings. From the beach, all he could see was a forest and the top of mountains, nothing out of the ordinary. There was no movement nor any sign of civilization apparently; it looked like nobody was there, but he knew the truth was the exact opposite.
The only peculiar thing that caught his eye was a mask, impaled on a dry branch not far from them. It was painted in black and white, and the colors were now fading a bit due to the sunbeams. It was evident that it had been there for quite a long time, probably years. Although nobody was wearing it right now, it had something, like an aura that surrounded it and made it look scary and evil. Diggle could feel it. The fact that an arrow was trespassing it through one of the eyes, then, spoke volumes.
He adjusted his backpack and signed Felicity to follow him.
The girl couldn't help herself but shiver a bit looking at the mask and the clear message it sent.
Back away.
She silently walked after her friend.
** **
Diggle and Felicity walked together into the forest following an old path that ran between short bushes and big trees, not really knowing where to go. They were trying to orientate and were fairly sure they could make it back to the beach if they needed it – after all, Dig had been a soldier previously and knew how to orientate in the wild wilderness.
However, about an hour and no signs of Oliver later, Felicity loudly sighed in exasperation.
“Why isn't here such a thing like road directions, here? Then, on the other hand, why should something like that be in a place like this? I mean, obviously there is no tourists coming here for vacations and relax – I know it. And the only person living in this forest is also the one that had already been there for, like, a fifth of his whole life! Why should there be any road direction, then? But they would be so useful right now and - ”
“Felicity – stop, please. Take a deep breath and a sip of water; we could even sit down and rest for some minutes if you want. I know you are frustrated”
She sighed again and motioned Diggle not to stop.
“I'm not tired. It's just... I don't know. All these places looks just identical and we've not seen any sign of him, yet. And it's so silent! No noise at all. Except for the birds, obviously. Can you hear them?” She saw the look he threw her and his half smile. “No, of course you can't, 'cause I've started babbling again, so I'll stop it right now” she said and shut her mouth.
Diggle laughed and squeezed her shoulder. He knew it wasn't exactly going like Felicity had planned – she had been sure she would have found Oliver in the exact moment when they land and would just convince him to come back home in a blink of the eye. But he had been fairly sure that was not how things were going to go. They would have to find him in this thick forest in the first place, and then he surely won't be easy to convince to come back.
He had been right.
He started walking on a slight slope when he heard something and lifted is closed fist in the air, silently telling Felicity to stop and not make a move. He also grabbed his gun – just in case.
They stayed still for a very long minutes scanning their surroundings and not seeing anything out of the ordinary, before they began walking again. Only, this time, it was Felicity that stopped him.
“Dig?”
She simply pronounced his name, but the way she did it, and the panic he could hear in her voice, made his skin crawl. The look on her face when he turned, then, was of pure fear. And he immediately understood why. His blood ran cold instantly, a sheen of sweat covering his back.
He had already seen a landmine before, so he knelt and tried to examine it. The only thing that came to him mind to try and save Felicity was to disarm the device. He knew it would not be easy, but that was the only option they had. That was their only chance.
“It's a land mine”, he explained. “I'm gonna try and disarm this”, he told her in what he hoped was a confident and reassuring voice.
Then, another voice, one the both of them had not heard in a long time, shouted, “You can't”.
They felt a wave on relief and knew they had finally found Oliver.
** **
Diggle raised his head and spotted his friend on the branch of a high tree, not far from them. He was shirtless and had his bow in his hand. Felicity too saw him, following Diggle's gaze. Her poor heart skipped far more than a beat, noticing how high Oliver had somehow managed to climb.
“Diggle, back away! Felicity, don't move!” he said in a loud peremptory tone.
Diggle did as he was told, although he was a little reluctant leaving Felicity, even if he knew Oliver had some plan in mind to save her life.
They heard the sound of an arrow piercing a branch and the next thing they knew Oliver had grabbed felicity and they had landed together on the hard ground while the landmine exploded right behind them. For an awkward moment the two of them stayed there, their bodies pressed together.
“You're...God, you're sweaty”, she said.
He fixed his blue eyes in hers and Felicity did not miss the hint of his typical half-grin, the one he always gave her when she said something funny and absolutely inappropriate – which is something that happened a lot. She just stared back at him, 'till Diggle broke the silence.
“You're a hard man to find”, he stated, matter of fact.
Oliver turned his head to face the former soldier rapidly, than turned it again and Felicity could hear him saying something in a low, cold tone.
You should not have come here.
** **
Oliver got up and helped Felicity getting on her feet again, then he shook Diggle's hand.
“Are you ok?”, Diggle asked her.
“Yeah.... yeah, I'm ok, I just – you know, I did not expect to be landmines here”, she answered, curiosity evident.
Oliver did not answer her unspoken question about the fact that there were landmines on an island that everybody thought was desert and always had been, before Oliver got there. He completely avoided her gaze, his eyes fixed on the trees behind her. Then he shook his head and told them to follow him.
“Are we going to your house? I mean, not a real house. I know you don't have something like it here, don't you? I mean-” she trailed off, noticing his half-grin and realizing she had started babbling again. Diggle also was smiling. For a moment, it was like they were back together in the Arrow-cave.
Diggle and Felicity walked behind Oliver, following him wherever he was going to take them.
Diggle was lost in his thoughts. He was wondering why had Oliver decided to come back to this island. And, more important, why hadn't he shown himself before the landmine accident? It was pretty eident that he had already spotted them walking in the forest and he was also following them before Felicity put her feet on that explosive device. Why had he decided not to show himself, then?
Felicity was also lost in similar thoughts. She was wondering how could Oliver bear to stay in that place all alone, day after day, nobody to talk to. She had not missed how his voice sounded strange, his tone low. Like he was not used to use his voice, like he had not spoken at all even at himself for a very long time. It sounded a bit gruff and scratchy.
It was only when Oliver cleared his throat that they realized they had finally reached their destination. Felicity let out a quiet “Wow” in surprise.
They had arrived to a clearing, there were many short bushes and only a few tall trees left there. And in the middle of those, there was the wreckage of a plane reflecting the sun's rays, that, judging on the leaves and the ivy and musk covering it, had been there for quite a long time. It was an unusual but non the less breathtaking sight.
** **
Oliver cleared his throat, silently telling his friends they had reached their destination – the plane he was currently using as his residence.
He had walked all the way from the place in the forest he had found them, to the wreckage of the plane, barely saying anything. He had used the long way to get there, partly because he knew they would not be able to follow him if he took one of the others, the shorter ones he was used to, partly because he needed some time to clear his mind a bit.
He was still quite shocked.
They had found him. They had come all the way to the island – to his island – just to see him. He didn't even know how they had managed to find him, he had been very careful to leave no trace Felicity could find. And he probably would jut have stayed hidden in the trees if the I.T. girl had not put her foot on the landmine. He could not let something happen to her. Not to Felicity. Not on this damn island that had already taken away from him so many people during the last five years. So he had shown himself and saved her.
And he had felt such an emotion seeing them again. Feeling Felicity's body against his. Shaking Diggle's hand. It's not like he felt lonely, not at all – he was used to be alone in those well-known surroundings. He had voluntarily decided to stay there, also. But non the less during some nights he felt something, like a strange kind of nostalgia for the people he had used to spend most of his nights with in the last seven months.
He shook his head and got into the plane and rested his bow on one of the green, gray and black boxes that were the only furniture there. His friends followed him inside.
Diggle made a joke about the non civilization he was living in, while Felicity looked at the place – there wasn't much to see honestly – and asked him if he had lived there, the first time he had been on the island. He said that, yes, he had stayed there for some of those five years, which was true. He did not however add anything else about all the other inhabited places that were on Lian Yu, nor tell them all the memories related to that shitty place in particular, old images of friends long gone now, of days and nights spent inside that plane, the jokes and the trainings and the talking that took place there. It was too much to explain. He did not even think he would be able to properly tell all that.
Probably Felicity thought however that his poor response was due to the fact that he was not happy to see them, 'cause she started blabbing again about how they had managed to come there by plane flown by a Chinese man that did not even talk English and it was such a bad experience she had actually felt relieved when they had landed and she was so thirsty right now that “you could at least offer us some water, you know? Or coconut”
He smiled a little – that was typical Felicity – and grabbed a bottle of water from one of the boxes.
“I'm fresh out of coconut, sorry. And I'm happy to see you”, he reassured her with a soft smile.
Her smile back was so bright it almost hurt. But he knew that what was to come would not be a funny conversation. He inhaled deeply before speaking again.