What do you get when you throw OlivexOscar, OprahxO'Donahue, OttoxDr.O, OrenxOctavia, OzxPolly, OrchidxOri, and more all together into one story? Basically a fan-made (and slight AU) history of Odd Squad! Both the prequel and sequel to my first stor...
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A/N OMG guys this chapter won for Best Character Development on @Raquellaana's 2017 Odd Squad Awards! Woo-hoo! :D
"O'Donahue, we need to have a talk."
O'Donahue closed his eyes. Those words. He had dreaded hearing those words for a long time, knowing it was only a matter of time before they came. "What do you want, Oprah?"
"Now don't give me that!" she said, pulling her chair over to sit beside him at his desk. "I'm not mad. I'm—I'm worried about you."
He opened his eyes. "Worried about what? There's nothing wrong with me."
"You know very well that's not true!" she countered angrily. "What's today's date?"
"August 4, 1946."
"How long have we been partners?"
"Seventy-six years today."
"And how long has it been since you had Olga as a partner?"
He winced. Yep, this was it. "Seventy-six years, two months, one week, and four days. And yes, we were only partners for about five years."
"That was my next question. See, you know exactly what I'm getting at here!" Oprah sighed, took both of his hands in hers, and looked him straight in the eye. "What did she do to you, O'Donahue? What could she do in five years that you can't recover from in seventy-six?"
For several long minutes, O'Donahue didn't utter a word. Finally he looked away. "First tell me what you know," was all he could bring himself to say.
Oprah reached up and turned his chin so he was looking at her again. "You shouldn't be an insecure person. You never have been around me or Yucks, not since we met you in '68. Yet for seventy-six years, all I've seen is you acting timid around everyone else. Speaking of Yucks, did you know she's a very perceptive person?"
"Hm? No, I don't think so."
"Well, she is, and she's hardly ever wrong. It's no wonder she's a business tycoon now, Mr. Carnegie would have been proud of her. But she's very good at reading people, and even she says you shouldn't be so insecure. I told her about the night at the square dance, and she told me what you would've done if you didn't insist on being so shy. You'd have smoothly ignored all your dance mistakes like they were nothing, made a game of calling the wrong commands, and smirked at anyone who yelled at you for stepping on their toes."
O'Donahue stared at her. How would Yucks know that's exactly what I wanted to do? he wondered. "Yeah. She's right, I wish I could've. But that's not who I—"
"But it is!" Oprah insisted. "Deep down, that's who you are! You have attitude, you make sarcastic jokes, you like being modern…so why aren't you that way all the time? Why do I only see bits of you here and there?"
"Oprah. It's 1946. The whole world's been through over fifteen years of Hades and it still isn't fixed yet. You think I shouldn't be bothered even a tiny bit by depression and war?"
