"Ah, hey, sorry. I didn't mean to make you wait on me."
"No worries, I'm just studying. Not anything really important."
"I hate to keep you waiting, though."
"Seriously, forget about it. You're the one with an actual life; I'm just here, stagnating until I can get my associates degree and transfer."
"Ha, well, there might not be anything left for you to transfer to." Aria was tapping her pen against her textbook as she videochatted with Hiro, but let it drop when he pressed his palms to his eyes and slumped over on his desk.
"What do you mean?" she asked, her eyebrows knitting together.
"We were broken into this weekend," Hiro said, looking up at her through the webcam. Aria covered her mouth with her hand as she gasped, shocked. Someone had broken into SFIT?
"Not the lab…?" she asked, but Hiro nodded, affirming her fear. "Oh, Hiro, what was stolen?"
"A lot." He looked absolutely rundown. "Spent the whole day with the cops, cataloguing everything that was missing. Tons of undergrad projects, most of Honey's supply of chemicals, a bunch of Gogo's spare maglev wheels, and my hard drive, among much more." He pinched the bridge of his nose.
"No…not the Beta Series data?" He nodded silently, and Aria felt her stomach drop. "You have it backed up, right?"
"Yeah, but if someone's running around with my unlicensed data, they can mod it all they want and publish it as their own." He shook his head, black hair falling in his eyes. "The best we can hope for is to track any knockoffs that pop up at expos and cons, that might lead us to the culprits."
"Hiro, I'm so sorry," Aria whispered, knocked off guard by this sudden development. She and Hiro had videochatted just yesterday and everything was just perfect, but now… "I wish I could be there to help. Are you and Big Hero 6 gonna try and track anything?"
"Yeah, but the trail's pretty cold. Not much for us to go off of." He looked up, the faintest hint of a smile on his lips. "Wish you could help us, too. Big Hero 6 could use it's 'plus one' again." Smiling back, Aria sighed heavily. She hadn't donned her hero suit in over a year, since she'd moved back to Los AngelOsaka. She was enrolled in her local community college, working towards her associate's degree, in hopes of one day making it to SFIT, to be closer to Hiro and the gang. She was no computer genius, but her experiences with botched biomedical testing has given her a thirst for improving the systems. She hoped to one day graduate with a degree in biomedical engineering, though that day was far, far in the future. Right now, she needed to just pass 100 level chemistry.
"I'd be rusty," she said, leaning her cheek in one hand. "I haven't really used my powers in a while; I think the last time was to keep a soda can from tipping off the coffee table."
"You'd have plenty of time to practice here," Hiro said, cracking the first grin of the night. "How far along are you in your classes? You're not gonne keep my waiting too much longer, right?"
"Two more quarters," Aria said, chuckling slightly. "One more if I qualify for SFIT's summer program."
"Yeah, I don't think the girlfriend of Hiro Hamada is gonna have to worry about being accepted into the SFIT summer program." He gave her a sarcastic look, and she wished she could punch him in the shoulder.
"I don't wanna get in just because I'm your girlfriend," she said. "I want to get in because I'm good enough."
"Well, you are good enough," he reassured her. "And even if they reject you, I still want you to move to San Fransokyo. Its torture here without you. I never realized just how insufferable it is to be around Honey and Wasabi when I can't be around my own girlfriend!" This caused her to laugh out loud, but Hiro looked serious. "I'm not joking," he said, pouting, "it's terrible!"
"Well, if I can't get into SFIT, there are other options for school there, I guess. I dunno. We'll see." Falling silent, the two sat there, somewhat awkwardly. Aria and Hiro had only just begun to be comfortable referring to each other as boyfriend/girlfriend, but things could still get awkward between them. Aria was still technically a teenager, after all, at 19. She hadn't matured too much in the year they'd been long-distance dating.
"Hey," Hiro said, finally breaking the silence.
"What?"
"I love you." Surprised by the bluntness of the statement, but not the content, Aria blushed, and started fumbling her words.
"Oh…Hiro, you know I love you too…" Looking away, Hiro laughed from the other end of the call, and she blushed harder. Damn him for being so cute! "Go to bed, boy-genius, you're getting delirious!"
"I'm always delirious," he countered, "deliriously in love-"
"Stooop!" She couldn't handle how cheesy he was being, and she knew he was doing it on purpose to get under her skin. They continued teasing each other for a while back and forth, until Aria forced Hiro to hang up after the fourteenth yawn in a five minute span. Closing her laptop, she tried to wipe the giddy smile off her face, but found it impossible.
"One more quarter," she mumbled to herself, as she climbed into bed. "One more quarter, and then I get to move…"