Happy Valentine's Day to you all! Because I'm a nerd and will be spending today with my books, chocolate, and coffee instead of with my significant other (because I don't have a significant other), I wrote this story for everyone else out there like me. After all, if I'm not going to have a breath-taking Valentine's Day at least Olympia and Otis will.   

This was it. The day of pink hearts, heart-shaped candies, and red roses had arrived at last. Valentine's Day had to be my favorite holiday. Wait, I take that back. Christmas is pretty awesome. But there's Thanksgiving too...oh and Halloween! Let me rephrase that, Valentine's Day is one of my many favorite holidays.

As I whooshed joyfully through the tubes I didn't fail to notice the nervous excitement that was swelling inside me like a giant pink balloon. With a distant yell of "In coming!" I felt my traveling pod un-clench and I stepped out of the tube slot. With a nod to the tube operator I walked nervously through the double sliding doors into the trophy room. Once the doors slid shut behind me and I halted in front of the many spotless trophies. One in particular was quite large, flat, and in the shape of a hexagon. It was a cool looking trophy and also a perfect mirror. Whenever I needed to give myself a confidence boost this was the perfect place to do it.

The familiar face of myself looked back at me as it reflected off the trophy's bronze-clad surface.

"Hi self. Are you ready for this?"

The bronze girl nodded back at me but I didn't think she looked very ready. I decided to give a little pep talk. Those always seemed to help.

"Today is just like any other day, only today has an unusually large amount of pink hearts involved. But that's all. You'll confidently give the Valentines you made to everyone; including Otis, and if you don't get anything from him in return...well...that doesn't matter. Who I am I kidding? It totally matters." I saw the reflection of my face droop and hastily tried to cheer myself back up. "Don't worry, stay calm, I'm sure he'll get you something."

The girl in the trophy looked slightly more like the Olympia I was used to seeing and I managed a smile. "Great! You're cool, you're amazing, and pandas are awesome!" And with a energetic fist pump in the air for a dramatic finish I said goodbye to my bronze-reflection self and headed into the main body of headquarters ready to face whatever this pink-filled day had to throw at me.

The first thing I noticed was the decorations. Who ever was in charge of decorating for holidays had decided to hold nothing back. It felt like I had walked into a literal forest of pink and red. Some people (cough, Otis, cough) might find this a bit overwhelming but I thought it was awesome!!!!

Honestly, when else do you get to see headquarters flooded with pink hearts? Only today!

I skipped over to my desk; my feet felt light as if buoyed by the fluffy atmosphere. I glanced at Otis who was already seated at his desk and had refused to acknowledge my presence. I cleared my throat. He did nothing but sit there, focusing completely on whatever was on his computer screen. Well if he wasn't going to notice me then I was going to have to say something.

"Hey Otis!"

Otis practically jumped out of his chair in surprise. "H-hey..Hi Olympia."

"Happy Valentine's Day!" I smiled at him.

"Happy Valentine's Day to you too." He replied glancing distractedly down at his computer screen.

"What are you doing?" I leaned over to look at his computer. However, before I could see anything, Otis hit two keys and deleted whatever had previously been on the screen.

"I was just doing some...work...you know, work...nothing special." He nodded overenthusiastically at me.

"Right, work." I was not convinced. Otis was hiding something and the curious side of me was dying to know what.

"Soooo Ms. O given us anything to do yet today?" I asked casually sitting down at my desk.

"Nope. Not since I got here." Otis also took his seat again.

"Would it be cool if I left to go give some home-made Valentines to my friends and other random strangers that work here?" I asked excitedly. I had worked for weeks on all the Valentines.

"Sure. Just don't scare anyone."

"Scare anyone? Why would I scare anyone?"

"When you're too excited about something you get this crazy look in your eyes that some people could possibly find disturbing." Otis shrugged mater-a-factly.

"Oookkk..." I wasn't quite sure what he meant but I'd try me best. "See you later partner!" A sudden thought struck me and I spun around quickly. "There wasn't anything you wanted to tell me or, say, give me before I go is there?"

To be honest I was really hoping for a Valentine from him. Like REALLY hoping for one.

Otis remained utterly un-phased. "No...You know I'm not really a fan of hearts, or pink stuff, or Valentine's Day in general. It's just not my kind of holiday."

"Right...that's what I thought, just wanted to be sure." I felt my real heart sink a few inches. Or at least it would have if that was physically possible. I picked up the large cardboard box from under my desk and threw off the lid to reveal hundreds of pink cards and paper heart chains all sprinkled with generous amounts of glitter.

And so, I spent half of the morning handing out my Valentines to anyone and everyone until I had only three personalized cards left. One for Oona, one for Ms. O, and one for Otis. I decided to deliver Oona's first.

I sauntered into the more pink than green lab and cheerily greeted Oona. "Hey Oona! I've got a home-made card delivery."

Oona glanced at the card and smiled up at me. "Thanks, Olympia, but it's not Christmas anymore."

I was confused, "Uh, I know it's not Christmas anymore. It's Valentine's Day."

"If you know it's Valentine's Day then why did you draw a Christmas tree on the front of this card?" Oona held up the card and pointed questioningly at the large pink heart on the front.

"Um, Oona that's a heart not a tree."

Oona examined the card again and her eyes widened in surprise. "It is a heart! I always get those two shapes mixed up. Once I celebrated Christmas twice and Valentine's Day twice all in one day because—well it's a long story that nobody has time to hear at the moment...but anywho, thanks!"

"No problem." Before I could leave, however, Ohlm stumbled into the lab. His face was scrunched in concentration as he spoke to Oona.

"Um Oona, Karol was wondering if the eagle with the hearts or the fish has landed, or maybe flown, the message wasn't very clear." Ohlm spoke to Oona in a lowered voice.

"Ohlm not now. Wait until she leaves then tell me." Oona whispered urgently.

"Oh, ok Carol."

"Don't call me Carol."

"But before you said—

"It doesn't matter. Just talk to me later." Oona interrupted him. With a confused nod Ohlm left the lab glancing at me all the while and leaving me just as confused as him.

"What was that all about?"

"Oh you know Ohlm always mixing things up. Sometimes he calls me Dianne, Carol, or Richard; it depends on the day."

"Ok.....I guess I'll see you later."

"Yep, see you later." She gave a strange smile and a wink before turning back to her work.

After some careful deliberation I decided to deliver Ms. O's card next. I held it out in front of me; examining it to make sure each detail was perfect. I had been extra thoughtful when choosing the design for this card. It was in the shape of a large heart but it was made out of paper patterned with juice boxes. I had gotten Oona to make me some glowing juice-box-shaped stickers which I had stuck all over the card making it extremely bright and flashy. For the finishing touch I had made sure that it played a selection of over thirty different Soundcheck songs whenever you opened it. There was no way Ms. O wouldn't like it!

"No, it has to be little. Just leave it where I told you to leave it!"

Ms. O's slightly frustrated voice rang out as I approached her office. She was on the phone with someone and she hastily slammed down the receiver as I walked in.

"H-hey Ms. O. Is now a bad time?" I didn't want to interrupt her if she was in the middle of something important.

"It depends on how you look at it."

I wasn't quite sure if that meant I should leave or stay so I just stood there looking confused.

"Now's fine as long as you're quick." Ms. O explained to me.

"Ok" I smiled at her and pulled out the card. "I was making Valentines for everyone and I wanted to give you one too. I mean, even though you're the boss doesn't mean you don't deserve a Valentine or two. Possibly more then two because you're so amazing. Maybe eight would be better. I could always make you some more I'd just have to go to this one store in the middle of no where to get the right kind of paper and—

"Olympia!" Ms. O silenced me with a stern glare before her face softened. "Thanks for the thought but you only need to give me one card."

"Ok." A happily laid the card on Ms. O's desk. She opened it and promptly, Take Away Four, began playing. Ms. O was so into opening and closing the card to make different songs play that she seemed to have forgotten the fact that I was there.

I took that as my cue to leave.

"Olympia."

I spun around at the sound of my name. "Yeah Ms. O?" Had I done something wrong?

"Did you make a card for Otis?"

"Of course I did. I'm going to give it to him right now."

"Ok." Ms. O nodded her approval. "I was just curious." She re-opened the card again and Shake it Like a Blender blared out its tune.

Since when was Ms. O "curious" about who got Valentine's or not? I puzzled over this as I made my way down the stairs. All thoughts of what had happened in her office were blown away as I approached my desk. There sat Otis his face screwed up in concentration as he worked on cataloging a case file.

I always loved the way his eyebrows would knot together whenever he was focusing extra hard on something and the way his mouth would turn down slightly at the corners, not in a frown but in what I liked to think of as a determined smile. As I stood there, staring dreamily across the room at him like some sort of star struck fool, and because moments like this are never perfect, he happened to choose that exact moment to glance up at me.

In desperation I turned away and try to act like I had not just been staring at him even though I had clearly just been staring at him.

Deep breaths. Ok, I was going to walk over there and pretend the last few minutes never happened. So what if he had caught me staring at him? Maybe he didn't even know I was staring at him. Maybe he would think I had been staring at whatever had been behind him at the moment. Yeah, right.

But I couldn't just avoid him. I had his Valentine to give him after all. Why did the idea of giving Otis a Valentine suddenly seem so terrifying? He was just Otis! I had to pull myself together. With a final, confident nod I spun around and walked brightly over to him.

"Hey Otis. How's it going?"

Otis glanced up at me and seemed to hesitate a second before speaking, "Why were you staring at me?"

So he had noticed.

"Um...what..no reason." I felt my face flushing. "I just happened to look around and there was a really interesting picture behind you and it was totally worth staring at."

Otis glanced over his shoulder. "There's no picture behind me."

"It must have moved. It's probably to famous to stay in the same place for long."

I could tell Otis wasn't buying it but he mercifully decided not to press the matter.

"Did you deliver all your cards?"

"Yep. Oh, except for yours." I pulled it out from behind my back. "Here you go."

Whether Otis liked it or not I could clearly see his face flush. "You didn't have—

"Of course I had to. We're partners I would never forget to give you a Valentine's Day card." I smiled at him and handed over the card. It was much simpler then Ms. O's. The card was in the shape of a heart but instead of juice boxes it was covered in pictures. The pictures were mostly of cases we had solved in the past. Since Otis wasn't a huge fan of pictures it had taken me a while to find most of them but the finished project was totally worth it.

As Otis examined it a deep flush entered his cheeks and a smile crept along his face. After a few moments he looked up at me. "Thanks Olympia." His voice was soft and sincere.

"Anytime." Now that I had delivered Otis's card I was expecting something in return. I know it was a little pushy of me to expect something from him but hey, if he could remember our Halfiversary he could remember Valentine's Day.

Maybe he would get the point if I glared expectantly at him long enough.

"Um...is there something else you wanted to tell me?" Otis asked uncertainly.

"Hm? Oh, no, I just thought you would have something else to say." I stared pointedly at him. Why wasn't he getting it? Maybe he had forgotten. Maybe he hadn't gotten me anything after all. I felt my face droop.

"Are you ok?" Otis was concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be fine?" I answered in the best I'm-not-fine-voice I could muster and sat glumly down at my computer. No wonder so many people set their sights low on Valentine's Day. If their hopes were low to begin with then they never had far to fall when crushed. Unfortunately my hopes had been sailing up near the moon somewhere and were now falling with a sickening speed.

They were still falling as I made my way home that evening. Because of my melancholy mood I chose to walk home instead of taking the tubes. The weather was usually warm for February and snow was scattered about the sidewalk in mushy piles. The quickly darkening sky seemed to reflect my mood.

Otis had severely disappointed me. I mean, not only had he not given me a Valentine but he hadn't even been around to say goodbye to me when I left.

As I cut through the park trail I noticed a flicker of lights coming from the white picnic pavilion near the center of the park. They almost looked like Christmas lights but not exactly. There also seemed to be someone over there. Maybe a party was happening? That might cheer me up. I went to investigate.

And there he was.

Surrounded by dazzling pink and red heart-shaped lights. He looked exactly as I had always imagined he would look. Soft, perfectly combed hair and large, loving eyes. He was perfect.

I threw my arms around the baby panda on the picnic table with a squeal of joy. I had no idea who had put the panda here or why a baby panda surrounded by lights had randomly appeared in the park all I knew was that pandas were my life and nothing else mattered.

Nothing in the entire world could have torn me away from the adorable ball of fluff in front of me.

Then I caught sight of Otis.

He approached me and smiled shyly. "Do you like him?"

"Do I like him? Do I like him?!"

"Well, do you?" Otis was uncertain.

"I haven't been this happy since I was first made an Odd Squad agent. Honestly, this is the best thing ever!" I continued to run my fingers through the fur of the baby panda and was startled to notice for the first time it was pink.

"A pink panda? Wow! Those must be really rare. How did you get one?"

"Well, I had some help." Otis shrugged. "Ms. O got the panda for me and Oona turned it pink with one of her gadgets, she also helped me put all these lights up."

"You did all of this just for me?" I was flattered beyond belief.

Otis nodded solemnly.

Although a baby panda is my dream come true I abandoned it for a moment to throw my arms around Otis in a hug. I felt him stiffen for half a second before relaxing and hugging me back. As I drew back I noticed that Otis's face was a bright, adorable, red. The twinkling red and pink lights that surrounded us probably had something to do with it too.

Then I glanced down at our hands. Somehow, without my knowledge, our fingers had become intertwined. Otis glanced down too and I'm sure his face was a mess of red by now although mine probably matched.

We seemed to be doomed to awkward moments like this.

We couldn't just stand here forever. Also, the baby panda might escape and that would be horrible. I slowly let go Otis's hand and without making eye contact with him I turned back to the panda.

"Olympia." Otis's voice cracked on the end of my name.

"Yeah?" I turned back to face him.

"I....I...." He swallowed and tried to start over, but for some reason the words didn't seem to want to come out. I decided to save him.

"Happy Valentine's Day, Otis."

He seemed to relax a little and smiled at me. His smile said more then a thousand words ever could. "Happy Valentine's Day, Olympia."

And with that we stayed under the white pavilion late into the night. Petting a panda, talking about nothing in particular, and simply enjoying the company of one another. After all, as truly incredible as pandas are, getting to simply spend time with my best friend was better then a whole forest of pink pandas put together.