by Qzeebrella

Geordi had always been the kid who watched everything from the sidelines. He had always been the kid to be picked last for every team. He had been the teenager who stood in the corner at a dance, trying desperately to blend in with the wall. He had always hovered on the edges of the in crowd, not quite shunned, but never really included.

Though he had shared his tale of being the odd man out with a lot of people, there had only been one person who asked him, “Why, Geordi?” All the others had assumed that they knew why. But they hadn’t. The others had gotten it wrong.

They had assumed it had to do with his blindness making him "different", but it was never that which had kept him on the sidelines. It was other things. Such as the oppressive shyness that he had to work hard to overcome. A shyness born of always being the new kid, a shyness fostered by the constant moving from one place to another. His seclusion also had a lot to do with his tendency to withdraw into the written word until he was hiding in the world the author had created for him.

He had also been a very awkward geek when he was a teenager, which hadn't helped matters much. He had been so used to spending all his time with adults that he had little to no experience associating with people his own age - other than his sister, who didn't count because she was his sister. He had been, and still was, an engineering nerd who could lose himself in a new experiment and forget the world around him.

He had always been the naive kid, the quiet, but friendly geek that very few people noticed. All through the academy and through his early years in the fleet, people just didn't really notice him. All that changed when he met Data. For the first time in his life, he had someone who looked up to him. Someone who asked for his advice on human behaviour, who had looked beyond the slightly awkward exterior and saw a man he could admire.

For some reason Data had seen him as the person to go to for the answers to his many questions. Even in the beginning, Data had valued his opinion highly, and that had meant a lot to Geordi, and was still capable of giving the engineer a sense of pride.

But the one thing that had gained Data a friend for life was the fact that he had thought to ask, “Why Geordi? Why were you the last to be picked for the team?" Data had always listened to his answers, accepting him at his word, never arguing with Geordi's interpretation of what had happened.

Data respected him.

He accepted Geordi for who he was as a man, a colleague and a friend. This meant the world to Geordi.

Data's complete and unconditional acceptance of him had led Geordi to being able to completely accept himself, and there was no way he would ever be able to pay the android back for that priceless gift. It was why he would do his best to defend his friend, should he ever need help. It was why he was willing to try to answer even the hardest questions that the android came up with. Like: do I have a soul? What is a soul? Is there life after death? Why did the woodchuck chuck wood in the first place?

It was even why he was sitting here right now, listening as patiently as he could, as Data recited his poetry to him. For Data was his best friend and was one of the most decent men Geordi had ever known. Which was why Geordi would do anything for him, even sit through god-awful poetry.