The gum popped every five minutes while she scrolled through her phone, only to raise her head and nod in apparent disappointment every time a couple of suspiciously close students came to the aisle she was in. "GoGo Tomago" kept repeating this action every couple of minutes for over half an hour.
It turned out that that particular library aisle was far enough from the "ever" vigilant eyes of the school librarians but still popular enough for some book searching that could take more than necessary. Most of those who came to the spot that day were unaware of the reason Dr Leiko Tanaka kept an eye on them.
She wasn't part of the library staff and mostly didn't care about the students business — except for the next month projects she was currently supervising — so the reason because she was right there for the next couple hours was because of a favor she owned to her colleague, and partner in crime-fighting, Dr Wasabi.
A quick chuckle was heard and a small smile appeared on her face. She remembered their commitment to Fred's idea of never say, or even think, Wasabi's name when adding the title he worked so hard to get. The reason? It was funny to say doctor and a type of spicy paste on the same sentence. This irritated him to no end. GoGo thought it sounded kind of cool.
If that kind of things bothered him to the point of making a big vein appear on his forehead then maybe said vein exploded the moment he heard the rumor that students used to sneak to the thesis section of the library to fool around. Somehow the thought of people doing things like that in front of his beloved doctoral dissertation made him even more neurotic.
When he asked for an explanation, and after almost accidentally making up a meeting with one of the librarians, they told him that even though they knew that the rumors were true there were not enough employees to keep an eye on every single person on one of the biggest school libraries of the country, and that they had just enough security cameras, but not a single one checking on that aisle. But that didn't stopped Wasabi. The first thing he did was yelling, when that didn't worked out he asked, with every single form available, for more resources for the library. And when they said no he took matters on his own hands, and almost got fired when someone called the police because of the painfully obvious non-official security camera on that section of the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology Library. Now he could only be checking on his thesis whenever he wasn't on his classes.
Anyway, the reason Wasabi asked her to take his turn was because he was forced to go to a meeting with the committee that was in charge of new applications to the university. And because she owned him a favor after filling in for her during a recent sick day there was no complaints from GoGo's part.
But she got bored very quickly.
Near finals and with all her projects being assigned, the only thing she did before the deadline was waiting. Even with the vigilante nights she kept doing with the team GoGo still wanted more from her job. She obviously loved teaching others, even though she wasn't the talkative type of teacher — 'That's Honey Lemon's area,' she thought sarcastically —, this time of the semester sometimes made her yearn for those days when she was the stressed one. Having a part-time job as a courier while doing her double masters degree always kept her busy and she liked that. Even when the situation that turned her into a superhero was faithfully tragic with any other known superhero background she still loved to satisfy her thirst for speed and being kept even busier.
But this wasn't helping her anxiety, and she would love to go and pester Fred for old time's sake or hang out with Honey Lemon over keeping students from having a presumably well-deserved "stress relief." She was about to leave and lie to Dr Spicy Paste when another steps dared to enter while she was leaving.
— I know you're all randy, people — GoGo said while taking a few last looks to the screen of her phone —, but, could you wait a minute while I go?
— How come a name could be used as a verb?
Even after five years of college education, and a current try on a master's degree, Hiro Hamada still asked questions with an irreverent tone. Even to one of the teachers on the institute. That obviously got him into some troubles.
Without a second thought, and while hiding her surprise, GoGo quickly replied:
— I'll tell you when you're older.
— Ha, ha, really funny.
Hiro replied dryly, quickly losing interest on the meaning behind the usage of a name on a sentence like that.
— I'm sure it was — GoGo decided to push him a bit, before asking him the obvious —. What are you doing here, Mr. Hamada? Looking for some didactic reading?
Even with the power that came with his friend's charge, Hiro haven't got used to the "professor position" the rest of the superhero team currently have. So he snorted when she added the Mr.
— No, but I needed some references for my own thesis.
— No way! Hiro Hamada- THE Hiro Hamada, Mr. "I don't need any help to figure out how to isolate incredibly destructive unstable molecules on school ground," is looking for some kind of help?
—You see, Professor Tana-
— ¡Hey, Hamada! I didn't spend two years working my brains off just to still being called a professor.
— All right… — Hiro rolled his eyes playfully — Dr GoGo.
Hiro stressed her nickname trying to level out the title with something informal. GoGo didn't care about the hidden meaning.
— I'm not that great of a writer — he started to explain —. I mean, sure, I can explain things easily but I can't write something eligibly even if my life depended on it.
His hands fondled with the nearest book on his left. The hardcover was oddly covered with a thin plastic and it barely had any dust on it. Checking for the author's name, Hiro immediately discovered the reasons behind such a perfectly neat book.
— Hey, this is Wasabi's thesis!
GoGo just cracked a small smile for how convenient that was.
— That's the reason why I'm here.
— How come? — Hiro asked while taking a look at the pages of "Laser bioeffects associated with ultrafast lasers: Role of multiphoton absorption."
— Oh you know, because people come here too often.
— And? — Hiro asked without taking his eyes from the gray literature book, not noticing the emphasis made by his former teacher — Wasabi feared that they will touch, destroy or infect his book?
—… No. Ya know… this place in particular is very, very popular.
— How could not be? It's one of the biggest libraries in the country!
GoGo wanted to know how long it would take for the hero to take the hint.
— This area — she used her arms to add some visuals to the explanation —, this area, is far enough from the entrance and too private, and people use to come here for some of that.
Now Hiro was looking at something he wouldn't see every day: a well dressed and good looking SFIT doctor, one of the brightest minds the schools have produced, flailing her arms doing a parallel pattern to mark the aisle they were currently in. He still didn't get why.
— I-I guess that'll be perfect to read in peace…
GoGo Tomago, Dr Leiko Tanaka, she usually kept calm — something to do with her brash and blunt attitude. The students admired her but still they used to complain about her lack of patience. So when Hiro gave her that response she blinked more than needed and her face had a hard time trying to process her friend's poor deductive skills. She took a deep breath before continuing.
— Listen, Hiro, and listen carefully… — she tried to sound calm but there was some irritation on her words —. We're on a very, very private place of the library. On a part that nobody actually cares about, but because of said privacy, people like this place… a lot. They usually come in pairs and since nobody else is watching, they can do whatever they want.
A fake smile didn't help the prodigy to calm down. Even when fighting against the flashy and colorful villains they got accustomed to — weird thing that they somehow began to pop up now that there was established superhero team — she never seemed to lose her cool, and now he was really scared. He took a time to think of a response that wouldn't get him hospitalized. After a while he could feel a bright and ethereal incandescent bulb floating over his head. And he made the jump.
— People come here to steal the books!
Now it was GoGo's forehead vein that exploded.
— THEY COME HERE TO MAKE OUT!
Hiro face reddened for the not so unexpected yelling and answer. He mentally slapped himself with an iron tire before checking through the corners of the bookshelves that no one heard that. That was apparently the case.
— You can't possibly be this dense! — Even though GoGo released her anger that was hardly the whisper Hiro asked her while holding one finger in front of his lips.
— I-I don't come here too often… — Hiro hushed, trying to defend himself —. How did you expected for me to know?!
— Don't you have a girlfriend?
— Had — he corrected —, and she didn't studied here.
— Well, in that case let me explain it to you. When two persons like each other very, very much-
— I know how it works!
Now he yelled, but didn't care enough to check if someone came to look on them.
— Oh, who would've thought that the biggest nerd on the Nerd Lab knew about these kinds of things — she didn't try to be insulting, just haughty —. I just hope that Baymax gave you the talk.
Hiro sighed at the statement, and that was the only thing she needed to figure things out.
— No…
— GoGo, please do-
— Baymax explained you the birds and the bees?!
Hiro was relieved that the doctor dropped the theme of him and his ex, but he kept blushing when he remember how awkward was that time Baymax came up with the talk out of nowhere.
— Oh please, tell me he gave you condoms with his face on them!
How could she tell him that stuff so easily? He didn't know.
She gave him an expecting look that he rarely saw. On perspective, he remembered that that ended up being funny.
— I still wonder how he even engraves them… — he half chuckled at the memory of the big marshmallow giving him every modern anti-conceptive on the books.
GoGo erupted in full laughter and she infected Hiro with it. Because of the school and the night patrol, both of them didn't interact on a personal level too often, which was a shame because it often relieved them of almost any worry or issue they had.
— Oh, I needed that…
GoGo's comment didn't faze through Hiro, who still laughed his ass off. She took a moment to look at him, that scrawny little kid that one day was brought by her friend Tadashi to meet the Nerd Lab was now "scrawny-ish" young adult that befriended her and other four nerds to build a superhero team that saved the town on a daily basis. Then again, she saw him grow up and actually liked spending time with him, yeah, he was irreverent, cocky, sassy, and stubborn but she learned that he could also be a lovable goof and overall good companion.
— Hiro!
That barely registered on his brain, which remembered the not so funny time that Baymax interrupted one of his dates with tips of "how to kiss your partner."
— Ha, ha-ha, ha, ha…Yeah?
— Woman up!
Even with some laugh still in on the tank, Hiro hold them and stood straight, pretending to be a soldier being yelled by his commanding officer.
— Yeah… that wasn't funny — she added some negative nods to remark that.
— Hey, not everyone is going to be gold.
There was a now small moment of silence; both of them still snickered and were doing small tasks until the comfort was set to eventually break up. Hiro was still holding onto Wasabi's book and started to pick up a few more, GoGo gave him and up and down look and for the first time since she have known him she thought long and hard about what she was going to say.
— Well, I guess I'll use these. You were just about to leave, right? Wanna come?
The adrenaline junkie rarely hesitated and that moment could now be interpreted as her taking another extra second to shoot the words.
— Hey, Hiro.
He easily complied and only muttered a barely audible "Wha." And that was all the confirmation she needed to keep on going.
— Did I… ever told you about the time I went backpacking to Euro-Artica?
He of course haven't heard it but he was interested nonetheless.
The secretive hero had his hair even messier and his pants had to be put back on their place on a rush, and sported some lipstick that wasn't his. While GoGo's makeup, specially her eye shadow, was ruined, her blouse lost a button, and her skirt was accidentally torn apart on the sides.
Hiro was having big trouble trying to express himself, and didn't helped the least the fact that he was holding GoGo's jacket along with the books he needed, while at the same time she held onto the student's dress shirt all while both of them had to withstand the judgmental gaze of the "main" librarian of the place, the one who had to put up with Wasabi's initial neurotic break.
GoGo remained quiet most of the time and waited more than accustomed for Hiro to explain the situation — not that it was necessary since they were discovered because of several complains of some "strange and loud noises" —, but since there's been more than three minutes of stuttering and mean looks she decided to speak.
— You know what? I'm not even sorry.
With that said she simply walked heading towards the main entrance. Hiro was even more dumbfounded than before and the librarian was just slightly taken aback by the sudden commentary. Of course the younger hero didn't want to stay there any longer but he also didn't want some serious thing like this to remain unresolved, so he did the only thing his brilliant brain could think on such a short notice:
— These two hundred bucks say that we ARE very sorry.
The old man's hand only held up to the money paper because it was offered to him, so when he intended to say something back it was too late because Hiro immediately took off and joined an expecting GoGo on the other side of the exit. Once he arrived he grabbed her hand and rushed far away from the place; too afraid to even look back.
After that, the librarian took the money to the donation box next to the 'Check-in' box, and added:
— I guess I'll have to give him a sanction for leaving with those books.