This is for sopercabeth on Tumblr, who wanted Waige fic for her birthday. The prompt I got wasn't really oneshot material, but I'm only posting the first chapter now because I am a busy bee. Once we get into hiatus I'll be updating this one more, making it a full-fledged college AU. I tweaked the prompt a little bit to show that the characters are all already friends.

My name is Walter O'Brien. I have the fourth highest I.Q. ever recorded – 197. Einstein's was 160. When I was eleven, I hacked NASA to get their blueprints for my bedroom wall, and the FBI came and arrested me. One of the agents noticed my genius and arranged for me to come to the United States to help out the government and, in exchange, they would pay for my higher education. My sister encouraged me to go to a public university in order to learn how to connect with the real world, and here I've found a couple friends. Happy is a mechanical prodigy. Toby is a behaviorist. And Paige.

Walter stopped writing. Paige certainly was important to their group, but her exact role in it was complicated, and not one that his fellow sophomore classmates were likely to understand. The three of them – Walter, Happy, Toby – had already worked on several successful research projects together. Paige helping them understand the average person was critical to their successes so far at the university, but his classmates wouldn't get it. His classmates would think her role was useless because she had more EQ than IQ. They probably hadn't even heard of EQ.

Walter tucked the paper into the back of his book and continued reading. He hated having to introduce himself at the beginning of semesters. They were a week in already, and the professor in this class was taking forever to get through the introductions. Walter had a feeling that class was going to bore him. He needed something with a pace.

"I found a way to get us some money."

Walter looked up from his book at the junior and freshman in front of him. "I'm not gambling, Toby."

"No no no!" The older boy dropped down on the grass across from his friend, the shade from the tree Walter was leaning against shielding both of them from the hot August sun. The girl scooted closer to Walter, away from the ant hill that Toby had unknowingly basically destroyed. "This is a scientific study. And the best part is they don't pay you until November, which is right before the conference we want to go to. So I won't be tempted to gamble it away."

"Didn't your girlfriend tell you she didn't want you to do that anymore?" Walter asked, raising an eyebrow and glancing at the girl.

Toby looked pleased that Walter was referring to Happy as his girlfriend. "I'm trying. I'm just saying it's good to have limited temptation."

"And limited temptation is a good foundation for breaking an addiction," Happy pointed out.

Walter closed the book and set it beside him, folding his arms. "So what's this study?"

"They're looking for people in monogamous relationships. Two month study. Everyone gets like five hundred bucks at the end of it."

"Five hundred bucks for two months' work?" Walter raised his eyebrows.

"It isn't really that much work, per se."

"But five hundred dollars."

"Fifteen hundred with all three of us," Toby pointed out. "More than enough to get to the conference and back."

"Just one, one slight issue with this," Walter said, raising a finger. "Only two of us are actually in a relationship."

"The study starts in two weeks," Toby said. "That's plenty of time to bring someone in for five hundred bucks."

"That would weaken the integrity of the study." Walter frowned. "The data wouldn't be valid.

"You don't even think it's a legitimate topic for a study," Toby said, "I can tell by the look on your face. But you can still think of this as being in the name of science – as it'll help us get to that conference, and that's what's really important here." He looked at his phone. "I gotta get to class, but get back to me, okay?" He handed Walter a copy of the application, which he tucked into the back of his book next to his presentation draft.

"Pssst," Happy said, leaning over and whispering as Toby walked away even though they were not in earshot of anyone else. "Ask Paige."

Walter coughed. "Whe-why-why?"

"Come on," Happy said. "Like you guys haven't been flirting up a storm all summer semester and now that we're all back in the dorms she's always just five minutes away." She raised her eyebrows. Walter was glad his complexion allowed for slight blushing without showing his hand. Sure, he and Paige had texted over the summer, but he was busy with the rocket project and she'd been taking a few classes at a community college while she got over her breakup. He wouldn't consider their conversations as anything up a storm.

"She, she doesn't have time to do this study," Walter said. "With all the...the stuff."

"She has time," Happy said. "She's crazy about you! And you're crazy about her! Just tell her you guys have to spend more time together and answer some questions, you already know each other well, the team working the study won't know you're not actually a couple. And..." she shrugged suggestively, "I mean at the rate things are going, you guys might be before the thing's over. Which Toby and I both know is not an outcome you'd complain about."

"No," Walter said, "she's got so much going on, she...no."

Happy rolled her eyes. "Just bring it up, Walter."

"Next time I see her."

"Walter, I'm not an idiot, she's at the far end of the yard and you've been staring in that direction ever since she came into view."

Walter sighed, biting his lip. "This seems like a terribly devious way to address the potential for an emotional relationship."

"It's not devious if she knows it's for a study. It's not like you're not going to tell her they'll be thinking of you two as boyfriend and girlfriend I swear to God Walter go over there. If not for your own good, for mine, because all Toby talks about is how you guys need to figure it out."

"Why right now?"

Happy was not amused. "Because then it's the weekend and you know she's going to be at the health center Monday for her appointment and then the study applications are due."

Walter glanced back at the end of the yard. She was standing with a few others in her sorority, all of them looking at someone's cellphone and laughing.

He nodded to his friend and rose, his stride purposeful as he walked across the grass. She noticed him when he got about ten yards away, and she smiled. "Hey Walter!"

"Paige!" He stopped cold. "I, uh, didn't see you there." Attaboy, way to start this out with a lie.

"I'll catch up," she said to the other girls as they started to head off to the administration building. One of them waved. Another shouted a brief greeting to Walter. Paige smiled at them, then turned back to him. "What's up? How have I not seen you the past few days?"

"I was, uh...there's this rocket project at the..." he scratched the back of his neck, realizing the question was rhetorical. "You need money, right?"

"It's college," she said, "it's safe to assume most of us need money."

"Right, I just mean...you only get so many free appointments at the health center and..." his eyes briefly traveled to her waist. Her fitted sorority tank stop still fit her, but it wouldn't much longer. "And five hundred dollars, that'll really help with...good car seats aren't cheap." He mentally smacked himself on the forehead. She doesn't have a car.

"Walter." She looked both amused and confused. "What are you talking about?"

"There's this study, at the psychology building," he said. "They want to observe couples for two months. It pays five hundred dollars to each person now Happy and Toby are doing it and you and I, we know each other really well so it'd be easy to make them think..." he cleared his throat. "Five hundred dollars," he repeated, unable to think of a possible second selling point to this idea. This is so stupid. He remembered something Happy had said – the main selling point for him, but...

"We'd have to spend more time together," she said, as if she was reading his mind. She smiled. "We couldn't have a repeat of yesterday."

She was, of course, referring to their lack of contact the previous day. Walter had been disappointed about that and it seemed – maybe? – like she had been too. "We would...we would have to spend more time in each other's, uh, company," he said. "Yes. And we'd have to discuss our dynamic with the team involved in the study. So if that's something that you're gonna be...uncomfortable with...then...it was just a thought. I'm sorry."

He turned to go, then felt her hand on his arm. "Walter, hey!" She was smiling. "There's no way this will make me more uncomfortable than forty weeks is gonna make me and that's an inevitability."

"Thirty eight weeks."

"What?"

"Pregnancy isn't actually forty weeks. They calculate from the date of your last cycle, not from the date of conception, so with the forty week model, you're already two weeks pregnant when you conceive, which doesn't make any sense, so full gestation is actually thirty eight weeks."

"Interesting." She nodded. "Really though, Walter, this sounds like fun."

He brightened. "Yeah?"

"Yeah, I mean, like you said, we...we know each other really well, I need to work hard this semester since it'll probably be my last one for a while, and how better to do that than hang out with my genius friend?" She smiled. "It'll help me be more efficient with my time."

He grinned. "Okay. I'll bring you the application after your class." He had to make a copy of it first.

"Great. I gotta get going now, though." She flashed him another smile as she turned to head to the history building.

Walter glanced back across the yard at Happy. She gave him a thumbs up.

(In case it's not entirely clear - Toby is a junior, Walter and Paige are sophomores, Happy is a freshman, Quintis is a couple, more backstory will be revealed in future chapters, and yes, Sly will be in the fic too.)