(Odd Squad Otis and Olympia Fanfic) The Perfect Partner

The Painful Truth

Otis had one hand clamped firmly over my wrist as I sullenly followed him up the many stairs to the main body of headquarters. I was slightly annoyed that he hadn't let me finish my I-won-agent-of-the-month-award-speech. I still had an entire ten pages to go when he cut me off.

Oh well. Otis wasn't one for flowery speeches and apparently winning the agent of the month award was no exception.

I glanced sideways at him as we continued up the stairs toward our desks (the file room was a long way down). Even though Otis was trying not to show it, I could tell he was extremely pleased to have won the award. It was pretty obvious by the way he kept starting to smile, then would catch himself and stop.

We finally reached the top of the stairs and made our way through the sliding double doors into the main body of headquarters. Otis still had a hold of my wrist, only his grip had become less firm and more gentle. Why didn't he let go? It wasn't like I was going to run away or anything.

But then again, if he would slide his hand down just a tiny bit more we'd be holding hands. If only. 

Cue large internal sigh.

We had just about reached our desks and he still hadn't let go of my wrist. There were two possible things I could do; I could either say something and have him let go or I could say nothing and see how long this lasted. I decided to go with the say nothing approach.

We were ten feet away from our desks and I had started mentally planning how I was going to display our beautiful award. I was thinking something with lots of lights and maybe some loud victory music.

Suddenly a friendly voice interrupted my planning.

"Howdy do agents!" Oona smiled broadly and sauntered over to us. "I just heard that you two won the agent of the month award and I wanted to congratulate you. So, congratulations!" She stuck out her hand.

"Thanks Oona." I smiled and shook her hand. Otis did so as well but he seemed to be avoiding eye contact and, maybe I didn't see correctly, but I thought his cheeks turned a light shade of pink. Maybe I was imagining things. Yeah, that's it. Ha! Me and my imagination.

Oona looked puzzled and glanced at Otis, "Um, why are you holding Olympia's wrist? Is she an escaped convict or something? I played a game like that once. It didn't go well."

Otis, blushing furiously, hastily let go of my wrist. He tried, unsuccessfully to mumble an explanation, "I was just...you see...we were..."

I came to the rescue and answered for him, "I was lost downstairs and Otis was showing me the way back to our desks."

Oona nodded in understanding, "I get lost all the time. Only I never have someone to show me the way back to my lab so I made this gadget called the way-back-inator. It works pretty well, except for this one time when it took me to the center of the volcano room. Let's just say I had to get a new pair of shoes."

Having no reply for this, I simply nodded and began to move things around on my desk to make room for the award. Otis hadn't moved from where he was standing in front of Oona.

"If you ever get lost again, you could call me and I could help you find your way back to the lab. Only if you want help that is."

Oona looked slightly surprised. "Thanks. That'd be great. No more burning my shoes off in the volcano room." She smiled broadly at Otis.

This time I was positive that his cheeks turned a dark shade of pink as he grinned back at her. A long silence stretched our between them until Oona hesitantly clear her throat.

"Well, I suppose I better get back to the lab. Lost of sciencey stuff to do you know."

"What? Oh yeah. Of course." Otis looked flustered as he watched Oona leave. After she was out of sight, Otis took a seat at his desk and buried his face in his hands as if embarrassed about something. 

I narrowed my eyes. Something definitely wasn't right. And this time I was sure I wasn't imagining things. My imagination wasn't crazy enough to turn on me like that. The blushing, the offer to help her, the avoiding eye contact, the awkwardness that had never been there before, it all fit. I had come to one conclusion and I sure didn't like the conclusion one bit.

I felt my insides wilt and then completely evaporate at the thought of what lay before me. Why did this have to happen? 

There was no denying it. I liked Otis. I mean I really really liked him. I had even thought there was a chance that he ever so slightly liked me too.

But the cold, painful truth lay in front of me and there was no denying it.

Otis had a crush on Oona.