Work Text:
I don’t like olives, so it’s a good thing you do.
•••
Olive didn’t like olives. Ironic, wasn’t it? Her partner Otto, on the other hand, loved olives.
That was why whenever she had olives in her food, she would give them to him who would take them with no complaint.
She was teased now and then for having Otto as her personal olive-trashcan, but she and Otto didn’t mind. Olives were the worst food to ever exist, and if he was willing to take them, she would give him all of them.
Olive watched a show recently called How I Met Your Mother. It included something called “The Olive Theory”, where one person in the couple liked olives while the other person didn’t. It was their way of showing that two halves of a whole came together and made a perfect balance.
She knew she didn’t like olives but Otto did. Did they fit into the Olive Theory? Probably. So were they “soulmates”?
Eww no, she thought. Me and Otto are friends. There’s no romantic thoughts between us.
And that was how it should be.
. . .
That was how it was.
When Otto and Olive became Mister and Miss O, she remembered him asking if that meant they would have to be married. She said no since that would make everything weird, but looking back on it now, she wouldn’t have minded that.
Olive still didn’t like olives and Otto still liked them. They were still two different people with opposite views on how things should be ran—a comment made by multiple of their agents—but they made things work.
And the Olive Theory was two opposites coming together to form one whole—a theory Olive started to like more and more as each day went by.
And as each day went by, she noticed things about both herself and Otto. How he would try to view each case from an agent’s perspective, and how she would subconsciously do it too after seeing him. How he would try to do her part of the work along with his so she would have less things to do, and how she would be tempted to do some of his. How he would take the olives from her food before she even looked at it and noticed them, and how she would feel her heart beat a little faster every time for him remembering—though after so long working together, that was only to be expected.
How she felt like she could smile more around him and be more relaxed. Feel sad whenever Otto had to miss work because he was sick. Check herself in the mirror every day before work to see if she was presentable for him. Inch her chair ever-so slightly closer to his. Feel her face warm up a tad bit whenever she realized how close they were.
Did she have a crush on Otto?
No, she concluded. I don’t have a crush on him. We’re not romantically interested in each other. End of story.
But as each day went on, she was questioning more and more if she did have a crush on him. It was weird all right. The oddest of odd cases, and nothing in all her years of experience could tell her what to do. Couldn’t there be something like an un-crush-innator?
Otto started noticing her trying to distance herself away from him to avoid those feelings. He wondered if she was mad at him, and when she told him she wasn’t mad but just busy, he told her she could tell him anything. But “anything” didn’t include “I have a crush on you”.
That would ruin their work experience together, their work ethic, how their Odd Squad was ran, and their agents wouldn’t have leaders to rely on if their leaders wouldn’t talk to each other. So Olive would keep those feelings to herself until one day when they were gone. Then she could joke about it like it was nothing.
For now, she would give Otto her olives. If he wanted to eat demonic food made by the Devil himself then fine by her; she wasn’t touching them anytime soon.