Disclaimer: I don't own HIVE or its lovely characters. They belong to Mark Walden.
Summary: Oneshot. Shelby and Wing spar after Tactical Education. After seeing Otto and Laura, the fighting duo has some commentary- but they don't seem to realize how they feel for each other. They're a bit oblivious. Wing x Shelby Wingelby. A little Laura x Otto too
Please read and review! This is currently a oneshot but enough feedback might encourage a continuation. I appreciate all faves and follows, too.
Shelby all but ran out of the Tactical Education training room, and she would have done a backflip had the ceilings been high enough. Not that that had been much of a deterrent in her earlier years at the school, but after the 5th time Nero had sent Raven to chat with her about destroying the school had proved to be enough of an incentive for the world-famous thief.
"That! Was! So! Fun!" she shouted, punctuating each word with a high kick. Her hair swished in its ponytail but held in place.
She heard the soft chuckle of Wing, who was walking beside her but was less openly enthusiastic about their latest training session. They both loved that sort of thing- pushing yourself to your limit, pushing yourself beyond your limit, seeing just how far the human body would go. And winning. Wing and Shelby both loved winning, which was a bit of a problem.
Shelby stopped bouncing all at once, almost hitting Wing in the face with her ponytail. The Asian steadfastly avoided her swishing golden hair.
"Where are Laura and Otto?" she wondered out loud. Wing simply chuckled again.
"What are you laughing about?" Shelby huffed, before moving to put Wing in a chokehold. She had him by his neck, her toned muscles able to be felt even though her black Alpha uniform. Upon noticing this, Wing felt frozen for a few moments, which was uncharacteristic of him. He frowned, and managed to extricate himself from her vice-like grip. He dropped to the floor and rolled, landing on his shoulder painlessly, hand darting out so quickly it was nearly invisible. His hand closed around Shelby's ankle, taking her down to the floor.
Wing was not prepared for Shelby's body to come down on top of his. Her bony elbow found its way right to his diaphragm, leaving him winded, and a few strands of her long golden hair found their way into his mouth. He spit them out as Shelby tried to roll away to freedom.
Not so fast.
Shelby almost squealed as she felt Wing's buff arms close around her. She hadn't been expecting her friend to react so quickly to the elbow jabbed into his torso, but she really should have known. She squirmed, but her male friend was extremely strong and she couldn't get away.
Wing almost let go when Shelby started trying to wiggle her way out of his grasp. He had endured years of mental conditioning, was considered more than halfway to Raven's level in that department. It seemed that was not enough to combat his teenage hormones. Wing started to feel blood rush downward. He took that opportunity to release Shelby and spring to his feet, doing his best to wipe the blush that was on his face away.
He offered his hand to Shelby as the Tactical Education doors began to open. They almost shuddered, and in the end only swung forwards a tiny amount, leaving a crack just big enough for a person to slip through.
Otto and Laura, groaning, made their way through the small opening of the doorway. Both students had beads of sweat on their foreheads, and their faces were red, similar to cherry tomatoes. They labored to breathe as they dragged their legs forward, before coming to the wall and leaning against it.
Shelby smirked at Wing. "Victory," she gloated, doing a little dance to commemorate the occasion. Wing shook his head, not quite able to set his pride aside enough to give her the win.
"I let you go at the end there," he argued. Shelby stopped her dancing, eyebrow raised. She wasn't going to give up this win, no matter how small, easily. It wasn't every day you beat the fabled Wing Fanchu, best martial artist in HIVE. Actually, since you guys spar so often..., said a small voice in her head, contradicting her. She shook it off.
"Oh yeah? Convince me why you did that."
Wing was glad he'd had all the interrogation training, because it allowed him to keep his face calm. Cool as a cucumber, Laura had said once about his countenance. Well, he did try.
He wracked his brain for a reason he could tell Shelby. You didn't exactly tell one of your best friends that "I have zero control over my hormones, sorry you only see me as a friend!"
"Lunch," Wing answered shortly. Shelby nodded, convinced. With all the physical exertion they subjected themselves to, they worked up quite the appetite. Not quite on Franz's level, but fairly close. Shelby honestly didn't believe that anyone could have more love for food than Franz.
Down the hall, Laura and Otto had slipped down the wall and were sitting with their backs pressed against it. They had cooled off a little and their complexions had recovered, but they were still exhausted.
"Worst Tactical class ever," groaned Laura, reaching out to stretch her hamstrings and then wincing. She was extremely sore.
"Tell me about it," Otto agreed. With his power, there were probably a lot of ways he could have simplified the workout for himself, but Coach Francisco would never stand for it. Probably would go on a tangent about lazy hackers. And you can stick with Laura that way.
Otto blushed, but fortunately his whole face was still pink from the exercise and Laura didn't notice. Normally due to his almost albino coloring, blushing was extremely pronounced, which led to the occasional awkward situation.
"I can't wait to go grab some lunch… once I can move again," Laura sighed. Otto nodded in agreement, fighting his way to a standing position. He offered his (slightly clammy) hand to Laura, and she took it quickly, pulling herself up to a standing position. They shuffled their way down the hall, waving at Wing and Shelby, who were talking quite intently.
"Tie," Wing insisted.
"Victory," Shelby returned.
"Tie," Wing pressed.
"Victory," Shelby demanded.
"Tie," Wing declared, pinning Shelby to the wall with his arms. Their faces were quite close to one another. Wing could feel the thief's breath tickle his nose. The two just stared into each other's eyes for a while, neither saying anything.
"Fine," Shelby conceded. "Let's go get some food."
The pair moved down the hallway together, strides long, footsteps echoing in the empty corridors. They were synchronised in their movements, as this was a well-practiced routine, seeing as they were the only students in the school who used their extracurricular time to practice the more physical aspects of their education.
Shelby and Wing easily made their way to behind Otto and Laura, who were still holding hands, both a little flushed, and were talking. Something about coding, mind, but they were both clearly invested in the topic and the conversation.
"Man, Otto and Laura are so into each other!" Shelby whispered. "How can they not see it?"
Wing nodded in agreement but made a noncommittal grunt instead of trying to answer a rhetorical question.
"If I ever like someone, I'm sure I'd know," Shelby asserted.
Wing and Shelby continued to walk along the hallway, not noticing that their pace had slowed as they conversed and they were now late for lunch.
a/n: remember to R&R, and please fave or follow if you enjoyed. I loooove feedback