Archive of Our Own

ONE

“I’m not delusional, right?” Shelby demanded, marching over to Wing and seating herself on the chair beside him with the kind of force usually associated with earthquakes and tsunamis. The look on her face was deadly, deadly frustration. Wing, a keen expert in self-preservation, kept his mouth shut. “They like each other.”
Shelby punctuated the end of her sentence by jerking her chin imperiously at the distant figures of Otto and Laura, who were leaning over one of the computers in Accommodation Block Seven’s common area, their shoulders just barely brushing against one another. Laura was explaining something, her hands making quick flurried movements as she talked, and Otto was watching her, expression rapt, as if she was the most fascinating thing he’d ever laid eyes on.

“Of course,” Wing said, with a frown. “They’re both talented hackers. It makes sense that they’re good friends.”

“Oh, don’t be dense ,” Shelby hissed, batting the tail end of her ponytail back over her shoulder as if to illustrate her point. She glanced around, and whispered, “Q-tip has a crush.”
Wing stared blankly at her.
“I’m talking about Otto,” Shelby clarified, seeing the confusion on his face. She seemed a little put-out that he hadn’t gotten her joke. “Look.”

Wing followed Shelby’s line of sight back over to their friends. Laura was typing lines of code into whatever program they were using, but Otto seemed far more fixated on the movement of her fingers across the keyboard than he did the actual commands that she was inputting. Wing felt his eyebrows shoot up to his hairline. “It’s rude to speculate on other people’s love lives.”

“Rude is my middle name,” Shelby snorted. “Right after Nicole, that is. It’s about time there was some drama, don’t you think? Maybe Nero will hold a school dance or something, and it’ll force them together. A nerd-based gravitational field.”
“Was the giant man-eating plant that nearly destroyed the whole school not enough drama for you?” Wing asked.
“Not really,” Shelby said. Her expression suddenly became contemplative, the signature teasing grin fading into something more distant. “You know, it’s weird to think that we’ve already met everyone in our potential dating pool at this place.”

“You don’t sound too happy about that,” Wing observed, with a note of concern. Shelby shrugged.

“I’m not, like, upset,” she said quickly. “I’m too good for all the guys here, anyway. Look at me. Way out of their league. It’s just a small pond, that’s all. Only so many potential combinations.” She shook her head, as if to dispel the thought, and crossed her arms tightly over her chest. “If he breaks her heart, I’ll snap his neck like a twig.”
“Can you do that?” Wing pressed, genuinely curious.

“Not yet,” Shelby said airily. “But Otto’s dumb. By the time he becomes self-aware enough to have heartbreaking potential, I’m sure I’ll have learned.”

Her confidence was unnerving. Wing watched Laura laugh at a joke Otto made, and decided to reserve his own judgement for now. Shelby was right, anyway. Otto could parrot back any list of numbers you gave him without any hesitation, but Wing suspected his roommate wasn’t exactly fond of self-reflection. This was a problem that wouldn’t need to be addressed for several months, minimum.

Shelby was terrifying, that much Wing knew. Still, she seemed like she had the best grip on the fickle prospect of teen romance out of any of them, and if she said they liked one another - well. So be it.

TWO

“It’s me,” Shelby said, opening the door without bothering to knock. All the evidence that Wing had collected during the eighteen months he’d known her seemed to suggest that Shelby had never heard of knocking, and if she had, she certainly didn’t believe in it. That sounded about right - Shelby, who had double the usual dose of cynicism that most fifteen-year-old girls possessed, didn’t believe in much beyond her seven-step skincare routine and also herself. “Where’s Bullet Magnet Malpense?”
“He gets sulky when you call him that,” Wing informed her, setting his Villainy Studies textbook down. There was a test in two days’ time, and it had never been a subject that Wing and his strong personal morals had particularly excelled in. 

“That’s the whole point,” Shelby said, peering at the disorganised chaos that was Otto’s desk. It was a good thing that H.I.V.E didn’t have room inspections, because Otto’s inability to file away his essays after they’d been graded had created a mountainous fire hazard. “Ugh, is there anything he doesn’t get a distinction in? Over-achiever.”

“The Tactical Ed practicals,” Wing suggested, and Shelby’s mouth quirked in amusement as she backed away. “I don’t know where Otto is. He said he was meeting Laura.”
“I’m sure he did,” Shelby purred. She sat down on the edge of Otto’s bed, so she was facing Wing, and propped her chin up with one dainty, long-fingered hand. Piano player’s hands, Wing thought idly, recalling what his mother used to say. “That’s what I’m here for.”
“Laura isn’t here, either,” Wing felt the need to inform her. The look Shelby gave him could’ve melted stone.

“I’m shocked,” she drawled. “Appalled, even. Say, has Otto been acting strange to you? Blushing frequently? Losing his train of thought? Occasionally becoming deaf to the outside world?”

“Do you need to go to the infirmary?” Wing asked.

“Because that’s what I have to deal with from Brand,” Shelby finished, pressing her lips together in a way that suggested she was less than happy. “I think I liked it better when they were oblivious.”

Wing felt his jaw drop a little as realisation dawned, vaguely recalling a similar conversation from first year. “I’m sorry, Shelby, but I think this might be one-sided. I haven’t noticed any of those symptoms in Otto.”
“Nope,” Shelby said resolutely, standing up again for the sole purpose of pacing back and forth in front of Wing. With each loop, her gait got more and more irritated, her perfectly slicked-back ponytail bobbing furiously. “Think about it, big guy. It’s chess club tonight. Tahir Khan has that big speech and debate nerd gathering that Otto never misses, too. And where’s Otto?”

“With Laura?” Wing answered, somewhat hesitantly.

“Exactly!” Shelby said, a note of manic triumph in her voice. She spun on her heel and flung herself back onto Otto’s bed, a victory march. “He’s blowing off all of his kid-genius, honour roll-wannabe activities to hang out with Laura . Laura, who goes so pink whenever I so much as mention his name to her that I’m seriously considering launching a blusher company inspired by her when I graduate. And if they don’t pick up the pace and make things official in the next month, I’m going to go crazy. Serial killer crazy,” she clarified, fixing Wing with a serious look. “Because, and I’m keeping it real here, they’re driving me insane. I can’t imagine having feelings for someone and just not talking about it.”

At that, something unidentifiable passed across Shelby’s features even as she spoke the words into existence, like a storm cloud obscuring the sun, or light pollution blotting out the stars. But just as soon as it appeared, it was gone, and Wing felt a wave of helplessness crash over him. Shelby was utterly unknowable. As soon as he thought he was one step closer to deciphering her, she did something that pushed him two steps back in his confusion.

Yet she made a compelling case, more compelling than the one she’d presented around this time last year. Wing wasn’t quite sure if he could picture Otto with a girlfriend, but the evidence was irrefutable, and at least Laura and Otto seemed like a compatible pair. The thought of Otto and Shelby, for example...Wing shuddered just thinking about the potential arguments it might cause. If their blowout rows were this bad already, he didn’t much want to think about how they could be amplified by the added stress of a relationship with one another. Besides, the thought of Shelby with Otto made him feel a little nauseous. He wasn’t quite sure of why, but it certainly ran deeper than just the threat it’d pose to Otto and Shelby’s friendship, as large as that was in and of itself.

“You’ve convinced me,” Wing said at last. “I’ll keep an eye out for any of the, ah, signs you described.”
“You’re the best,” Shelby said sunnily, clasping her hands together. “I’m going to get them together if it kills me.”
Which, Wing thought wryly, considering all the trouble Otto had caused thus far into their school careers, it might.

THREE

Shelby stormed into Accommodation Block Seven, a look like thunder blighting her pretty face. Wing glanced up, and immediately wished he hadn’t. Now he felt like he had a duty to request answers.

“What is it?” he asked, somewhat regretting it when she turned to look at him. “Is-”
“They’re still not together!” Shelby complained, loud enough that the whole common area could hear.

“But they kissed,” Wing reminded her, perplexed. Shelby’s expression darkened even further.

“Oh, I know they kissed,” she said. Her voice was dangerously soft. “Do you think they’re doing this just to torture me? Because it’s working. It is absolutely working.”
“With all due respect, Shelby,” Wing cut off her tirade, “I don’t think their lives revolve around you to that extent.”
“Well, they should,” Shelby snapped. “I’m feeling targeted. Aren’t you feeling targeted? They kissed. I’m 90% sure neither of them have ever kissed anyone else in their lives. That’s relationship-sealing material, except apparently it isn’t !”

Wing was, admittedly, feeling a little targeted.

Shelby pulled her Blackbox out of her bag as if she were brandishing a particularly deadly weapon, and turned it on, her fingers flying across the screen at a pace Wing normally associated with Otto or Laura, two names he would not be mentioning to Shelby right now.

“What are you doing?” he frowned. He peered over at the display.

“Searching for a list of slurs used against British people,” Shelby informed him. She sounded calmer now, but for Shelby, that was worse than white-hot rage. ‘Calm’ meant that she was planning something.
“For...?”
“I’m going to send it to both of them,” Shelby said, and with one final tap, she turned the Blackbox off, looking incredibly self-satisfied. “They’ll get the meaning behind it. As they should.”

Wing failed to see the logic behind this decision. But he also failed to understand how Otto and Laura could possibly keep living in denial after everything that had gone down with H.O.P.E and Number One, so, just this once, he decided to take Shelby’s side over his best friend’s.

Ten seconds later, Laura marched down the stairs from her and Shelby’s shared room, a mixture of shock and anger playing on her features. “Shel!” she yelled, and if people hadn’t heard before, they were definitely listening now. “Did you just call me a Scotch?”
“And I’ll do it again!” Shelby hollered back. She patted Wing’s arm. “Thanks for the moral support, big guy.”

FOUR

“How’s Laura taking it?” Wing asked, already knowing what the answer would be. Shelby snorted, and examined her hand of cards in lieu of answering the question. After a long moment, her eyes met Wing’s, and she sighed heavily.

“She’s not exactly thrilled ,” she said, and her gaze flickered back to the cards. She trapped her bottom lip between her teeth as she added, “I think she’s more hurt that he didn’t have the grace to tell her himself.”

“Because before all of this, they were friends,” Wing said, and Shelby nodded.

“Exactly,” she confirmed, releasing her lip and setting the cards on the floor, face-down so that Wing couldn’t see them. “Not that I think she’s aware of that. Or maybe she is. I don’t know, she’s not been real chatty ever since I told her.”

Things had been off-kilter ever since - well, ever since Lucy arrived, but it wasn’t entirely her fault. It wasn’t her fault that Wing could never quite get a feel for what Shelby was thinking, or whether or not she returned his feelings, or if there was a point in trying to start a romantic relationship in H.I.V.E at all. Otto kept telling him to confess his crush and be done with it, but as recent events had shown, Otto wasn’t exactly a paragon of romantic success and sensitivity.

Wing didn’t blame Lucy for liking Otto, or for acting on it. Hell, a part of him admired her for having the guts to do what, so far, nobody else in their friendship group had managed in confessing her feelings. But it didn’t change the fact that everything was now twice as complicated. And if Otto found out Wing was having this conversation with Shelby, especially after he’d been sworn to secrecy, things would only get worse. This was incredibly messy, and nobody was going to come out smelling entirely of roses, apart from possibly Nigel.

“Otto is very intelligent,” Wing began, “but he’s also-”
“An idiot, I know,” Shelby finished gloomily. She seemed genuinely upset, he realised. “I want him to be happy. If he’s happy with Lucy, cool, she’s great. But he doesn’t have to stomp all over Laura’s heart while he does it.”
“I distinctly remember you saying you’d snap his neck like a twig,” Wing recalled.

“At this point, I’m leaving that up to Laura,” Shelby said, and slid off the sofa and onto the floor into a heap of despair. “But you see where I’m coming from - where she’s coming from, yeah?”

He did.

“I know we’ve been rooting for the two of them,” Wing said, “and I’m going to try to help Otto realise that he might’ve, uh-”
“Royally screwed up?” Shelby raised her eyebrows.

“Given some mixed signals,” Wing corrected, and Shelby snorted. “I’m hoping he’ll come to the conclusion that he’s missed something on his own. But please don’t give him too much grief. He’s not exactly having an easy time as of late.”
“I know,” Shelby said. She sat up, and picked at a loose thread on the cuff of her uniform, her eyes suddenly soft. “I wish we could help him. I’d do anything to take a pickaxe to all of the problems Overlord caused and smash the shit out of them. He didn’t sign up for this. Destiny sucks.”
“I agree,” Wing swallowed. “Maybe this will be good for him. I think he and Lucy understand each other.”
“Maybe.” Shelby didn’t sound too convinced. “I hope him and Laura patch things up, anyway. They’ve always been so close. It’s going to be awkward if they don’t.”

Shelby scooped up her cards from the floor. “Alright,” she said, voice suddenly bright again. “Ready to lose?”

FIVE

“You know,” Shelby started, almost conversational in tone, “I thought this’d be over when Brand went through the blushing awkward phase. And then I thought it’d be over when they kissed. And then I well and truly, absolutely, thought it’d be over when Lucy came into the picture. So why am I, a legal adult of eighteen years old, still having this discussion?”
“Because they’re incapable,” Wing told his girlfriend. His ability to snark on Otto and Laura’s apparent obliviousness had improved by miles once he and Shelby made things official; he no longer felt like a hypocrite for sharing in Shelby’s frustration at the lack of resolution between the pair. “If this lasts another six months, I’m going to lock them in a room together until they work something out. I can’t deal with this for much longer.”
“God, why do we have to wait six months?” Shelby complained. She moved Wing’s arm so she could reposition herself closer towards his chest. “I’ve been waiting five years. I’ve been on this train since day one and I’m getting impatient.”

“Lucy,” Wing reminded her. Shelby stewed on this point for a minute, clearly considering.

“Yeah, okay,” she acquiesced. “That complicates things. Grief always does. But Otto’s never going to take the time to unpack all of his emotions, at least not until graduation, so that’s not flying with me.”
“It could be a first,” Wing said.

“Oh, don’t make me laugh,” Shelby cackled. “He’s stubborn. Maybe that’s why she won’t give up on him, I don’t know.”

Wing wasn’t sure where Laura and Otto were. They were together, that much he could guess, but they’d always been able to carve out a private spot for themselves even amongst the hustle and bustle of H.I.V.E and its many students. Perhaps that was why, after all these years, neither of them had taken the plunge. If you could keep things the same without risking what you had, why wouldn’t you? Wing knew that appealed to Otto, who’d never had a family. It appealed to Laura, who had one but missed it too much. There was nothing nudging either of them towards taking a risk, not now that Lucy was buried under a pile of nuclear waste and any catalyst for change long-gone with her.

Otto could talk a big game about his idealism when it came to Echelon and politics, but Wing privately thought that maybe his best friend needed to start making changes closer to home first before trying to save the world.

“Nothing’s going to be the same again,” Wing said out loud. “Not for any of us. And if they don’t come to that conclusion themselves, it’s going to hurt a lot more on the outside.”
“Right,” Shelby nodded. Then she added, “But is it too much to hope for a happy ending? For the two of them? For all of us?”

“No,” Wing decided. “That’s why they’ve got another six months before I step in myself.”

Shelby twisted over to beam at him. “Can’t wait.”

PLUS ONE

“This feels wrong,” Wing said, for the third time in as many minutes.

“Your objection has been noted,” Shelby said, crouching behind a bookshelf, “for the sole purpose of ignoring it. So help me God, Wing, I deserve this.”

Anyway, Shelby thought, she’d arranged this meeting in the first place. As soon as she found Laura walking back from Nero’s office, she’d accosted her, grabbed her by the shoulders, and offered her best friend a strongly worded ultimatum. Which Wing had also had objections to - something about blackmail and forcing Laura’s hand and blah blah blah, he’d been down for locking Laura and Otto in a room together eight months ago, Shelby wasn’t going to let a petty thing like morality get in her way now - but luckily Laura had complied with Shelby’s demands without Wing’s support on the matter being needed. Perhaps Laura was just as sick of waiting as Shelby was. Which was impossible, really, seeing as Laura hadn’t even known she was waiting for Otto to get his head out of his ass half the time, but whatever-

Laura stepped into view, and Shelby felt herself clench her fists subconsciously. She hadn’t missed the way Laura had changed in the time she’d been at the Glasshouse, of course she hadn’t, but now, under the soft library lighting and with her back to Shelby, it was almost as if the past few months hadn’t happened. It was an alternate universe, where there was no Anastasia Furan and no Glasshouse and everything was the same but also different.

She noted that Wing had stopped complaining.

“Oh no,” Shelby murmured. “She’s looking at the floor. Why is she looking at the floor? Eye contact is sexy.”
“Shelby-”
“I was wrong,” Shelby said quickly. “Eye contact is apparently not sexy.”

She nudged Wing with her elbow to draw his attention back to the couple at the table, who were now kissing in plain sight. “They’re really going at it, huh?” she whispered.

“Five years is a long time,” came Wing’s prim response.

A few minutes later, when Shelby was done with her obligatory Otto teasing (which had not lasted half as long as it should’ve, in her opinion), she found herself slowly drifting away from the rest of the group, Laura in tow. For Laura’s part, she was doing a very good job of pretending like she was interested in the quantum mechanics textbooks shelved in front of them. Shelby found it near-admirable, although not quite as admirable as the shade of red that Laura had turned once Shelby had made her presence known.

“It’s not going to be like last time, is it?” Shelby asked, keeping her voice low so as not to alert any eavesdroppers.

“No,” Laura said, after a pause of consideration. “I don’t think so. I’ve grown up since then.”
“We all have,” Shelby agreed. “It doesn’t feel like three years.”

“Time works differently here,” Laura said. She reached out as if to touch the spine of one of the books, and then her hand suddenly fell away. It was scarred, the knuckles still tender with fading bruises. “Sometimes I think I’m going to be here forever. And then sometimes it feels like everything’s going way too fast. Maybe that’s just growing up.”
“Maybe,” Shelby said. “But you’re back with us now. That’s what matters. We’ll figure the rest out together, the four of us. We’re always going to be tied to one another, y’know: you and me and Otto and Wing.”

“That sounds dangerously close to heartfelt, Shel,” Laura grinned.

“Don’t go spreading rumours,” Shelby declared with mock indignation, slipping her arm through Laura’s and leading her up and out of the library. “Rumours you can spread, however, do include telling me all about that kiss…”

*

“Be honest,” Otto said. “How long did you know?”

Wing winced. “You’re not going to like the answer,” he warned.

“God,” Otto groaned. He collapsed onto his bed in a way that suggested great defeat. “It was years, wasn’t it? Shel said three, but I bet it’s longer.”

“You did have other things going on,” Wing said generously. “Overlord. Animus. Lucy. We didn’t want to push you too hard.”
“Been there, done that, got the t-shirt,” Otto huffed. “You are allowed to tell me when I’m being an idiot, you know.”
“I tend to save that privilege for Shelby,” Wing said. “You came to your senses eventually. That’s what matters.”
“Yeah, only took her literally being kidnapped for me to figure it out,” Otto said, and closed his eyes. “I can’t wait to try and unpack that during therapy.”

Wing tried to suppress the surprise in his voice. “You’re going?”
“Not like I have much of a choice,” Otto said. “I’ve missed so many lessons thanks to Animus, and now this Disciples mess, that Nero made it a condition of me graduating on time. A very transparent move on his part, but Raven told me the psych department aren’t entirely incompetent, so I’ll humour him.”
“It might be for the best,” Wing suggested. “H.I.V.E.mind did say that your nightmares were a brain problem and not an Overlord one. Think of it as a lifeline and not a punishment.”
“I’ll try,” Otto said. He opened his eyes again, and Wing noticed that, underneath all the snark, he looked bone-tired. As if simply existing put him under immense pressure. “I really, really don’t want to mess things up with Laura.”

“You won’t,” Wing assured him. “Between me and you, most of the messing-up occurred before you got anywhere near the kissing stage.”
“Okay, that sounds about right,” Otto laughed half-heartedly. “We’re both so different now. I don’t know if things can be the way they could’ve been before the Hunt.”

“Can I give you some advice, Otto?” Wing offered. He didn’t wait for a response before he continued. “Dwelling on what-ifs never does much good. It’s what my father did, and you saw what Cypher became. You just have to work with what you’ve got, instead of planning something with what you’ve lost.”

“Yeah, I understand,” Otto said at last. He scrubbed a hand over his face, and yawned. “Now what?”
“Now,” Wing said, repressing his glee, “you listen to my ten minute lecture on how long Shelby and I had to third-wheel with you two.”