A/N: Fun fact: This is one of the first OS stories I ever wrote! (The very second, if I remember correctly. The first was a drabble about Oz feeling invisible that I wrote at some unearthly hour of the morning, so it wasn't very good. xP) It's also one of the latest I've finished, so here you guys go!

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Blob Counting: Blobsylvania, as it turned out, wasn't too bad of a place after all. Sure, it was a little sticky, but being there with a friend? That made it all worth it.

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"Great work. Now, I need two volunteers to go on a blob-counting trip to Blobsylvania."

Otto may have been new, and not known exactly what Blobsylvania was, but he was sure of one thing: he'd been slimed enough for today. And Olive, although she didn't go out of her way to research obscure semi-mythological places, knew enough about blobs to know that wherever they came from, she probably didn't want to go.

And so they were well prepared to look at their respective partners uncertainly—but they never quite got the chance.

"Olive'll do it," announced Oksana flatly, no readable expression on her face. Olive stared at nothing for a moment, processing this statement, and then quickly did a double take.

"Otto'll do it," Owen added with a nod, pointing to his partner, who turned to stare at him.

Oscar, Teleportinator in hand, merely blinked in surprise.

"Well; okay!" the scientist replied with a shrug, aiming his device and sending a sweeping yellow beam across the two very startled agents.

"WAIT, WHAT?!"

A bright flash of light and they were gone.

Ms. O was still for a moment, then turned to stare at the remaining agents with a less than impressed expression.

"Wow. I have never seen anyone turn on their partner like that," she announced. Her eyebrows lowered, her mouth pursing into a tight line as she gave the two a hard look. "Not cool."

"It's nothing personal—I just can't go." Owen, rubbing his arm sheepishly, tried to make amends. "I have a dentist appointment!" he explained quickly, glancing at the floor under Ms. O's displeased gaze.

Oksana was considerably less concerned. "I don't have a dentist appointment."

There was a beat of silence, and Owen stared up at the taller agent, wide-eyed.

Ms. O shook her head, a tired sigh escaping her teeth. She was really getting too young for this.

_

"AHH!"

Simultaneous shouting echoed through the dark, moonlit clearing. A flash of light faded away, and two very frightened agents stood in its place.

"I would never do that to my partner in a bazillion years!" Otto lamented, jumping to dodge a leaping blob that narrowly missed him as it sailed through the air. The ground was absolutely crawling with them—he was pretty tall, and he was still knee-deep in the slimy creatures.

Squirming blue masses wriggled over and through each other, their gelatinous bodies glistening slick in the moonlight. Olive quickly decided to blame any and all queasy feelings in her stomach on her vast disappointment in their coworkers back home.

She grimaced mournfully as she ducked to avoid a flying blob. She could already feel that one had slimed her pant leg. "If you and I ever become partners, I will never do this to you," she agreed, equally disturbed and shaking her head emphatically.

"Deal," Otto replied quickly with a nod. He glanced over and grinned apologetically at her, offering his fist for a fistbump-handshake of truce.

Bump-bump-bump-bump, clap-clap-clap bump. Neither could help but smile at how smoothly that went, and Olive, almost by instinct, joined in a "BOOM-handshaka-lotta!" with him. It was weird how normal that felt.

Something about a combination of the crisp, unpolluted night air of obscure mountain countries; along with the actual sight of a blob—chunky, blubbery body with tiny face and tail and all—soaring through the air in front of them (not to mention the slow dawn of realization of the amount of utter absurdity in their situation) made for a great recipe for the giggles.

Olive was very serious and no-nonsense most of the time. She could keep a straight face with Oksana most days. But somehow, once she cracked a grin at the sheer silliness of their situation, it wouldn't go away. In fact, at seeing Otto repeatedly slimed as the definitely not aerodynamic shapes of blobs sailed freely past him, her grin turned to a mix of chuckles and giggles.

A blob sailed by her and slimed her in the shoulder, while another on the ground got her knee. Otto, also chuckling at this point, shot her a playful glare for her laughter. "That one got you good!" he announced with an air of victory, though his indignance quickly turned to a grin.

Olive laughed, pointing as a particularly large blob attacked his arm with a particularly large amount of slime. "That one got you better!" she threw back, ducking as he tried to toss some of the bluish ooze at her. She couldn't help it—she burst into hysterical giggles.

"Oh yeah?" challenged Otto, snickering as his new friend's laughter worked its contagious effect. Olive, perhaps feeling a little bit too silly, merely giggled back and slung a blob at him.

The full moon rose higher in the sky, the sounds of ecstatic laughter and splattered slime echoing always throughout the clearing. Blobs squirmed and splurted their slime, their slithering forms obscuring the ground itself from view, but they were already messy, so they didn't mind. (Besides, it just made the area smell distinctly of lemons—and it was hard to feel too gross when you smelled like laundry detergent.) A wolf howled eerily in the distance; and a dark tree clawed with its twisted branches—but the shapes and sounds no longer seemed creepy. Instead, it almost seemed as if they were at play, gallivanting out in the cool nightly air with them, without a care in the world.

The moon rose overhead and began to sink again, but if they noticed the time, it didn't show. After a few blob-counting attempts that inevitably ended in some sort of playful distraction, the pair seemed to come to an unspoken agreement.

They had an entire month. What was one night if they thought they should take a little while getting to know each other?

There would be plenty of time to count later. Right now the adrenaline rush they were getting from the crisp night air was putting one intriguing idea into their heads.

What all else is here, outside the Valley of Blobs?

Laughing and stumbling, the two agents stepped high to walk through the layers of squishy blueness beneath them. Finally, having made their way up the nearest embankment, they collapsed under a twisted, dead tree, thoroughly out of breath, but happy.

"Do you have that much fun with your partner?" Olive asked through a giggle, panting for breath.

Otto shook his head, grinning back at her. "Video games are fun, but not this fun," he replied, chuckling. "What about you?"

Olive snorted, laughing softly at the idea. "Oksana is fun to talk to—she has a great sense of humor, believe it or not—but she's not so great to play with." She glanced up at him from where she was sprawled out in the thick grass, eyes sparkling. "I don't think I've ever had this much fun."

His eyes lit up also, and he grinned at her. "Me neither. Hey, I wonder if—"

Olive, expecting him to finish his sentence, blinked in confusion when he balked, trailed off and looked away. "...You wonder if what?" she asked, not catching his suddenly uncertain expression.

"Oh! Uh... never mind," he replied, ruffling some grass back and forth with his hand. She couldn't see him very well in the dark, but his tone nearly sounded guilty. "I, uh—I'm still pretty new to Odd Squad, actually; I still don't know all the etiquette. N—never mind."

"Oh... okay," she answered, curious but not wanting to ruin the moment. As much as she hated to admit it, she was having more fun just hanging out here than she could ever remember having back home.

Whatever Otto was trying to keep to himself, however, wasn't seeming to be staying there for long.

"...Okay fine, never mind! I'll tell you!" he finally burst out, as if he'd had to hold his very breath to keep what he was thinking a secret. Olive grinned at this—having a friend who was open about their feelings was a nice change of pace. The boy next to her shifted and sat up a bit, propping himself on one long arm.

"Okay, so I know we like hardly know each other or anything," he began quickly, and Olive raised an eyebrow in curiosity. He continued, turning to grin at her. "...But didn't Ms. O say that our partners were temporary till she could find a better match?"

Olive's gaze drifted away from him, her eyebrows furrowed in thought. Slowly, she smiled and looked back at him, eyes lit up.

"She did," she acknowledged, raising an eyebrow for him to continue. Her grin was clear to see, however.

Otto seemed encouraged by this, and grinned even more broadly. "Wouldn't it be cool if we were partners?" he suggested, sounding excited by even the idea.

Olive thought about this for a moment, gazing off at the navy sky. Space seemed so close here, what with the stars crowding the dark canopy all the way to the horizon, which seemed lower than they were. It almost seemed like they were in a snow globe, but instead of snowflakes, there were stars.

Olive always tried to be sensible about things. Most of the time because she wanted to, and sometimes because she had to. If she wasn't thinking practically about the situation, then who would be? It was in her nature to think about things seriously.

But at the moment, all she felt was that the crisp breeze was ruffling her hair, she was covered in drying slime, and she had a brand new friend sprawled out next to her with an excited grin on his face. The very world seemed electric—the ground, trees, and even sky glowed vividly, overcoming the darkness with an energy Olive had never felt before.

The mountains were far, far below, and the sky was so close she could reach out and touch it.

So she stretched her hand out and tried.

"That'd be really cool," she answered him, eyes sparkling in earnest.

She met Otto's gaze, and they grinned brighter than the stars.

_

A/N: You guys have no idea how much I wanted to put the sentence "Everything smelled like lemons." somewhere at the end. Noooo idea. But I refrained, and have a better story for it. #accomplishment

What did you guys think? Too fluffy? Not fluffy enough? Sorry, for health and safety reasons, I try not to post anything that exceeds 43,000,000 on the fluffometer. xD Not that I mind the slightest bit, I just don't want people to get fluff overload from my going into Maximum Overfluff. It's like cotton candy, right? Flufftastic, yet only awesome if you don't have too-too much? Maybe? No?

Nah, you're right. I should post more fluff. XD

Well, anyway; thanks for reading! Like I said, this was one of the first OS fics I ever started (in November of last year, maybe? OH YIKES, I'VE BEEN IN THE FANDOM FOR ALMOST A YEAR AND HAVE ACCOMPLISHED NOTHING OF IMPORTANCE. SORRY GUYS.), so it felt awesome to finally finish it. Even though it maaay just require a sequel one-shot to cover their adventure in the run-down castle that I've been wanting to write ever since I started this. XD Hope you enjoyed!

Thoughts, ideas, constructive criticism, happy noises, taco salad, and suggestions for new chapters are all welcome in that little comment section down there! ;D

Especially the taco salad! C'mon guys; all this writing makes a gal hungry...