Ships Ahoy!

The Barista

A/N My five-year-old cousin saw me about to post this chapter, and wanted to write a few words of her own. So below I included her lovely addition to the story. ;)
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Polly Graph didn't like to tell anyone, but she tended to get rather lonely at her hot cocoa/lemonade stand.

Granted, sitting outside all day, every day running a self-employed business wasn't exactly the best way to get a social life. Plus, whenever she had unemployed company, potential customers had this awful tendency to believe she was too busy serving someone else, and didn't come up to buy anything. So choosing the success of her business over her friends, Polly remained alone during her work hours.

Little did she know she was about to get that problem solved.

* * * * *

For as long as she could remember, Oz had always been a bit of a melancholy person.

But since ever since the early spring of 2014, Octavia thought, his melancholy had grown more and more into depression.

Puns aside, she almost never saw him anymore. Even when he wasn't on some long-term invisibility case, she could never seem to find him anywhere in headquarters. Not that the other agents were all that helpful. ("Have you seen my pa—?" "OH MY GOODNESS OCTAVIA. NO ONE HAS SEEN YOUR PARTNER IN MONTHS." "No, but you don't understand, I can't—" "JUST PLEASE QUIT ASKING.") As the weeks went by, her distress at his constant absence grew, but deep down Octavia knew it was all because she'd rejected him that spring, then taken an interest in Agent Oren the following November.

So one day, in early 2015, she told him about her concerns, though careful not to mention why she thought he was always gone. "Hmm, you might try talking to Agent Olive," Oren ventured after thinking about it a little. "She had some partner trouble with Oscar around the time we joined, maybe she could give you some advice."

"Oh yeah, I'd heard about that," Octavia said. Then she gave him a look. "That reminds me, how is your be-more-nice-and-less-lazy project going? Because I saw you and Olaf relaxing in the pool chairs the other day and—"

"That was working, I swear!" he insisted. "Ms. O suspected one of the chairs might've turned odd, so Olaf and I had to simulate a beach relaxation and hope one of us didn't get launched or anything!"

"—and being rude to Olive and Otto—"

"Because they thought we weren't working! And then they went on to scare us with our worst fears! Hey, what's so funny?"

Octavia was chortling. "Nothing. Just that I believe you. And thanks for helping me out today, it means a lot to me."

A hint of that arrogant grin came back. "Anything for you, sweetie," he said with a wink, making Octavia giggle even more.

The next day she took his suggestion and asked Olive for advice, this time telling her the entire story without leaving anything out. "The number one thing you need to do is call him and talk to him. Apologize for hurting his feelings and make it clear that you still want to be his friend and partner, and if he gets angry at you, just be patient."

So Octavia tried calling him. But all she got was the dial tone.

* * * * *

It was an uncharacteristically chilly morning in the spring of 2014 that made moping in the park too uncomfortable and brought Oz to Polly Graph's hot chocolate stand—and now lemonade stand, too—for the first time in his Odd Squad career.