well. who can say no to Tomadashi? couldn't help myself. oh man.
figured i should finally write a non-crossover story for BH6. heh.
(think 'mine' by taylor swift. okay, so maybe it's not original, but love that song. and, you know, why not? it was fun to write.)
/the moment I could see it – yes, yes; I can see it now/
When they meet for the first time, she's not very impressed.
He's one of Wasabi's friends. She's not very interested in meeting him – she's no good with new people, it's why she only hangs out with Wasabi and Honey Lemon and Fred – but the neatnik insists that Tadashi Hamada is really a great guy.
So, fine. GoGo goes to meet this 'great guy'.
When she pulls up at the kerb with her bike letting out a large roar, she sees them – Wasabi and Fred and Honey Lemon, and a guy staring at her and her bike with a disbelieving face.
Yeah, because she's small and a girl so she can't ride a bike. Thanks.
She slides off, takes off her helmet and snaps her bubblegum. He stares at her.
"Um," he finally says, swallowing nervously. "Hi."
She raises an eyebrow. "Yeah. Leiko, but call me that and you'll never have children. Call me GoGo."
"GoGo," he says. "GoGo. I can do that. Yeah."
She rolls her eyes, catches Fred and Wasabi nudging each other, Honey Lemon trying to hide a giggle. What's wrong with them?
He's still stammering incoherently. She snaps her bubblegum again with a resounding pop.
"So, what, don't you have a name?"
It's strange. She's never the one dominating a conversation.
"Uh – uh, yeah!" He stands up a little straighter, grins at her sheepishly. The first sign of betrayal – something flips in her stomach, just then, when he smiles. "Uh, I'm – I'm Ta – Tada – Tadashi." He clears his throat. "Tadashi Hamada."
"Are you always this articulate, or am I just catching you on a good day?" she deadpans, and Tadashi Hamada gapes at her before she turns to Wasabi and Fred and Honey Lemon: "Are we going to get coffee, or what?"
(She thinks he needs to learn how to woman up.)
/you said I remember how we felt sitting by the water/
"Hey, GoGo."
"Hamada." She nods, once, turns her attention back to her work.
"What are you working on?" he wants to know, as he slides into the seat opposite her in the library.
"That – essay – thing." GoGo glares at the paper in front of her, her words a messy scrawl. "That industrial design class."
"You mean the one due in two days and was given out last week?"
"That's the one."
"Kind of late, don't you think?"
"Not in the mood, Pretty Boy. Honey Lemon's already trying to make me use her pink flower-patterned planners so I'll get my work done early."
Tadashi laughs at that, but immediately quietens down with a threatening look from the librarian. "I could help you, if you want."
"Save it. I can handle this."
She's vaguely aware of him grinning down at her. "Mind if I sit here?"
"Yes."
"Thanks, GoGo." He grins at her and he takes out his work, and GoGo can't help but roll her eyes and smile slightly.
...
"Hey, GoGo."
She doesn't look up from her bike. "Hamada."
"Working on your bike pretty late, huh?"
It's then that she puts down the wrench, glances up at him in his stupid baseball cap, grinning sheepishly at her. "Do you need something?"
"I was thinking – " he reaches a hand up, scratches the back of his head " – you wanna grab a bite or something?"
"It's nearly midnight."
"There are places that sell food twenty-four hours." Tadashi grins. "I'll even pay."
GoGo considers this.
"Okay."
...
He brings her to a place by the harbour.
"Seriously?" she asks, as she gets off his scooter and gazes out over the water. "Here?"
"Hey. It's a nice place, and it's good food."
He goes in and buys, of all things, two slices of pizza and two sodas. GoGo is wondering if this guy's just a little knocked up mentally, but hey – pizza. She supposes he has good taste.
"I thought we were eating here," she says, as he passes her a slice.
"We are. Just not here here."
Yes, because that makes so much sense. Still, she's interested as she follows him down a few rocky steps to the beach, and he perches on a large rock and looks over at her inquisitively, raising an eyebrow.
"On the beach. Eating pizza. At midnight." She sits down onto the rock next to him, crosses her legs.
He grins. "Hey, it's kind of cool, don't you think? I bet you've never done this before."
GoGo supposes it is kind of cool. She decides not to tell him that.
It's not so bad, eating pizza at midnight and sitting by the water with Tadashi Hamada.
...
He brings her home, that night. He doesn't let her argue.
("I can get home fine, Hamada."
"It's nearly one am!"
"Still fine."
"Not a chance. I'm taking you back.")
When they end up at her door, GoGo doesn't really know what to say. So she clears her throat and says, "Thanks. For – tonight."
Tadashi smiles at her. "Hey. No problem." He hesitates, for a moment, and then asks, "You wanna do it again sometime?"
"Eat pizza by the water at midnight?"
"I like the by the water part," Tadashi says, unexpectedly. "The pizza and the midnight part – guess we could always be flexible."
She looks at him for a long moment, and she wonders if he's messing with her. She decides that he isn't.
So GoGo shrugs. "Maybe."
He doesn't leave until he watches her through the door.
...
They end up sitting by the water a lot.
(She supposes it's not so bad.)
/and every time I look at you, it's like the first time/
He has this annoying habit of staring at her.
"What?" she snaps, for what feels like the forty-third time, as she looks up from the hastily-sketched diagrams for her electromag wheels. He's looking at her again.
She knows she's not imagining it. She's sure she isn't.
"Nothing," he says to her, innocently.
She points the pencil in his direction. "Don't mess with me, Hamada."
"I wouldn't dream of it," he tells her, and he grins again, that sheepish grin which makes him look so annoyingly attractive.
Traitor.
She just glares at him, until he holds his hands up defensively.
"Okay, okay," Tadashi says. "It's just that every time I see you, you know, it reminds me of that very first time we met. Remember?"
"I remember you being hopelessly inarticulate."
"Exactly," he says. "I've worked on that."
"What do you mean, exactly?" She puts down the pencil. "Worked on what?"
"Being articulate whenever I look at you," he grins, and before she can process what he's said he takes a quick bow and he's out the door.
GoGo grinds her teeth in frustration.
Stupid Hamada.
...
Sometimes, to her annoyance, she finds herself looking over at him too.
When he catches her, he sends her that half smile, imitates her salute.
She'll bend her head down again. It totally has nothing to do with Tadashi that her heart's pounding so fast. Nothing at all.
...
One night, he gets drunk while they're all out, the two of them and Fred and Wasabi and Honey Lemon. GoGo doesn't drink much – contrary to what people think – but she's amused to see Good Boy Tadashi Hamada stumbling as he tries to get to his feet, blabbering and incoherent.
"Thank God I'm not the only sober one," Wasabi says as they clamber into his car: "Man, he's wasted."
"Yeah, you're telling me," GoGo grunts as she shoves Tadashi into the back seat with a drunk Fred and Honey Lemon.
When they reach the Lucky Cat Café, it's GoGo who drags out the completely-drunk Tadashi and across the pavement.
"Come on, Pretty Boy," she mutters, hauling him up. "You're not collapsing here on the pavement."
"Pretty," he slurs, ruffling her hair with his hand. She nearly freezes, but she grinds her teeth and drags him to the door. "So pretty."
"What are you on about, Hamada?"
"You," he mutters, his head lolling slightly as he blinks at her, grins at her. "Beautiful. Like first time I saw you."
If it were any other guy, she'd have punched his face in by now. But this is Tadashi. GoGo is grateful it's dark as she leans again the doorbell, because she's pretty sure her face is turning red.
"Shut up, Hamada," she says. "You're drunk."
"Can I – " he slurs, nearly topples over: "Can I kiss you?"
Thank God his little brother opens the door.
GoGo doesn't mention that night again. Neither does Tadashi.
(No one's ever called her beautiful before.)
/I fell in love with a careless man's careful daughter/
If there is one thing that GoGo is, apart from her need for speed and her bubblegum, it is that she's careful.
Well, apart from the crazy rides where she pushes herself over the limit and cause people to scream. But still, she's careful. She's careful, and she's precise. She makes sure she knows what she's doing. She doesn't fall, and nobody gets injured. Ever.
"Why are you always so careful?" Tadashi asks her, one day. It's another late night in the lab, and even though he's finished what he's wanted to do for Baymax for the day, he's still leaning against a table as she works, occasionally passing her a tool or a wrench.
"What?" she grunts as she glances over her diagrams again.
"You know. You're always so careful. Never expected it from someone like you."
"Huh." She doesn't really answer, just continues working.
"So?"
"So what?"
"Why are you always so careful?"
"Family issues," she says, shortly. She thinks of her parents, of her father, and she attacks the bike with greater ferocity. "Don't ask."
"Okay," he says, quietly. He pauses, looks away hesitantly, and then he says: "If you ever need to talk, I'm here, you know. I'm not going anywhere. Not anytime soon."
This time, she looks up. He is looking at her so earnestly that she lets herself smile. Just a bit. "Thanks."
Then he beams at her, with that stupid smile: "You this careful in your relationships too?"
"No, I make out with every guy who bats his eyelashes at me," GoGo says, dryly.
She snaps her bubblegum. Tadashi just grins.
...
The next day, they're by the water again.
"This place isn't so bad, is it?" he wants to know, still grinning that half smile of his.
GoGo shrugs. "S'okay."
Tadashi just smiles at her, like he knows that she really likes it but she'll never say it. After all, if she didn't like it, she wouldn't be here half the time with him.
When she finally glances down at her watch, it's nearly one in the morning. Just like the first night they were out here.
"We should go," she says, and she gets to her feet, off the rock she's claimed as her own.
Something flickers across Tadashi's face as he slides off the rock, but then he smiles. "I guess so."
For a moment they just stand like that, looking at each other, the silvery moonlight above them, the waves against the beach. Somehow it feels like the world has shrunk – it's shrunken so it's just the two of them, GoGo and Tadashi, and it's silent and it's quiet and it's just them and the sandy ground of the beach and the waves lapping the sand.
There's something in the air she can't quite explain.
She tries to speak: "Tadashi – "
It's the first time she thinks she's actually said his name.
He doesn't really give her a chance to continue. He steps forward and kisses her.
In that one second, it feels like everything is whirling around her.
She kisses him back.
(She thinks maybe she should re-think being so careful all the time.)
/she is the best thing that's ever been mine/
GoGo does not consider herself the property of anyone. She prides herself on her independence and her ability to take care of herself, thank you very much.
But if there's one thing that she's sure she is, it's that she's Tadashi's.
(Somehow, in between days in the library and late nights at the lab and hours by the water, she thinks she may have fallen for Tadashi Hamada. Hard.)
They go out for coffee. They go out for food. They go on either his scooter or his bike around town, going faster than they probably should be going. Days together, nights together, a tangled mess of smiles and kisses and sharp retorts and warm hugs.
He tells her he'll never leave her alone.
She tells him he'd better not.
Yeah. She's pretty sure she's Tadashi's.
And she's pretty sure he's hers, too.
No questions asked.
...
So when she sees him run into the flames, throwing himself inside the burning fire –
A little part of her dies.
(She should've known there would be a goodbye.)
/do you believe it? – we're gonna make it now./
"I came as fast as I could."
She skids into the hospital, right to a halt in front of Hiro and his Aunt Cass and Baymax, the rest of them behind her, scrambling in their panic to reach the right ward, the right room, the right person.
There is something hammering in her chest, thud-thud-thud.
"He said you would." Hiro's lips twist into a smile as he looks up at her, as he glances over her at Fred and Wasabi and Honey Lemon. "He said you'd be the first."
"He's – he's awake?"
Something cracks in her voice.
Hiro nods. "We all talked to him already. Actually – " he hesitates, and then continues: "He's asking for you."
...
It's like being caught in a dream, when she walks through the doorway and sees him propped up on the bed.
He's swathed in bandages, his skin is red and blistering and scarred. GoGo doesn't know how he's done it, how he's just been found miles away from the wreckage that was the burning building. It's been a month. A month without him, and her heart has broken into so many little pieces she finds it's near damn impossible to put it back together.
But now she thinks the pieces are picking themselves back together.
"Hamada," she croaks, and she sinks into the chair next to him.
He manages half a smile. "Hey, GoGo. Long time no see."
She doesn't say anything, just: "You're okay. You're okay."
"Are you always this articulate, or am I just catching you on a good day?" he quips, and she sees that half a smile grow even wider, sees the bright light in his eyes that she thought she'd never see again.
"Tadashi," she whispers, and she doesn't know what to say because he is here and he is alive. "Tadashi."
His face softens, and his hand, wrapped in white bandages, find hers. "Told you I'd never leave you alone."
"You did," she agrees.
He smiles at her. "I'm holding onto that. I'm not letting you go."
She thinks that everything will be okay.