A/N: You didn't think GoGo would escape completely unscathed did you? I don't know, I love writing about her and hair dying. Probably because it reflects my own experiences/disasters in hair coloring. This was supposed to be short…and look where we are.A sorta sequel to "Purple."
Why GoGo let herself be the guinea pig for one of Honey's experiments was so utterly beyond her at this moment.
"I'm so sorryyyyyy," she heard the other whine, though it was a little hard to hear as GoGo kept her head bent into the sick, running water over her hair.
She whipped her head back up, just to take a look at her reflection and to see if anything had changed.
No use. Her bangs were still a disgustingly bright shade of pink. A color she only wore if her gum managed to get stuck to her face.
"GoGo I told you. The hair dye is supposed to be practically permanent. No washing is going to get rid of it. And you can't bleach it or dye over it, because it will result in a negative reaction and probably destroy your hair." She reached out to put locks of wet hair back in place, in some kind of attempt to fix the mess before her. GoGo just brushed her hand away.
"You also told me it would be purple."
"Ah, yes," Honey said with a cringe. "I must have gotten the colors mixed up. Or maybe I just instinctively made the mix to be more pink…"
"And you have nothing that could wash this out."
Honey blinked slowly behind her large pink frames. "Well…not yet."
GoGo sighed. "I guess I'll have to cut it then. I was just growing my hair to see what it looked like but now's a good a time as any to-"
"No!" her friend suddenly yelled. "You can't cut it!"
GoGo rolled her eyes. "Honey, it's just hair. I know you have a thing about cutting yours but—"
"It's not that!" And suddenly the blonde was pouting, her lower lip protruding so far you'd think it was going to fall off. "You said you'd help me test this. Can't you just keep it for a little while, long enough to help me study it? I could even find a way to reverse the effects without cutting it. Please? Pretty pretty please? I really want to see how it works!"
The dark haired girl mulled it over in her head: yes, she said she'd test out Honey's new hair dye. Yes, she owed her roommate a couple of favors which was mostly why she agreed, as well as genuine curiosity for the invention (a permanent hair dye would certainly free up all the time she spent on own her bangs and GoGo would try out almost anything that promised to cut time). Yes, of all the effects that could have happened, this certainly was not the worst.
But…did it have to be pink? Not just any pink, but Barbie-doll-Pepto-puke pink? She had no problem with her friend's favorite hue, but never remotely enjoyed it on herself. Once she was old enough to dress herself, there was not any shade of the hue in sight—maybe the aversion had started off as a childish attempt to cement her tomboy status by rejecting anything "girly" because she used to think being seen as girl was awful. But even when she returned to the color years later, whether it was a laundry accident or just trying on a random outfit while shopping, she still couldn't bring herself to keep it on.
It just looked wrong on her. It brought out the color in her cheeks in a weird way, making her look too flushed, and contrasted so much with her other dark features. It was a color made for other people—people who were more open, more light, more bubbly. Certainly not her.
What's more, is that everyone would be sure to notice the change. And probably give her tons of crap for it. Especially Tadashi, who had just managed to get his hair color back to normal.
But looking back at Honey Lemon's apologetic smile, she realized she couldn't back out now, regardless of her own weird hang-ups about a color.
She sighed. "…How long will you want to study it?"
Honey's squeal was deafening, and she wasted no time in almost toppling GoGo over in a hug. She started blathering on about the chemical makeup of the product, what tweaks she could make, what tests she would have to run…all while GoGo looked over her shoulder back into the bathroom mirror.
The other girl seemed to notice, her chatter fading and instead following the other's gaze.
"If it helps…" she began slowly. "I think it actually looks rather nice on you. A change wouldn't hurt."
GoGo grunted, not caring how bratty it made her sound.
It's just a color. It doesn't mean anything. No need to act weird about it…and if anyone else acts weird, just clock them.
This was GoGo's pep talk to herself. It wasn't very peppy.
Ok, maybe don't punch them. No one (probably) deserves that today. Unless Fred says something stupid. He ALWAYS says something stupid.
She had reached just outside the lab building, and glanced at her reflection in the shiny, tinted glass. The pink was still (unfortunately) there, as cotton-candy looking as ever.
How badly she wanted to wear a hat today. Why didn't she wear a hat today?
And don't you dare try to cover it up! I need to see how it reacts to different kinds of lighting! It could damage the results! She heard Honey's voice in her head.
Oh right, that's why.
GoGo took a deep sigh and walked inside.
To her surprise, the first person to respond was Wasabi, who seemed to be the first of their group to be in the lab that day.
"Hey GoGo," he had greeted, barely glancing up. But soon he did a double take, his eyes bulging.
"What happened?"
"I'm helping Honey out okay?" she snapped. "And it wasn't supposed to be THIS pink but it is and let's not act like it's a big deal alright?"
Wasabi stared at her for a bit, before breaking into a soft chuckle.
"What's the problem GoGo? Afraid people are going to think you're 'pretty in pink'?"
"Ha, so funny," was her monotone response. "Oh, by the way; I still have your screwdriver."
"Oh! Thanks! I could really use—"
She then chucked it across the (thankfully empty) room.
"Whoops, I lost it." She gave another solid deadpan stare, before turning back into her own station. She heard Wasabi mumbling about how "he should have known better" and "one time I make a joke" as he trudged across to retrieve his needed tool.
Fred had been the second to make a comment as he wandered in around lunch time, taking a break from his mascot duties.
Or more like, he attempted to make a comment before GoGo gave him a withering stare half way through his surprised gasp. When she saw him cowering, she sighed.
"It's a favor for Honey," she explained. "An invention for permanent hair dye. But, as you can see, there was a little mishap."
"Oh come on, it's not like I was going to say anything bad!I think it's healthy to switch things up."
"Then why don't you get Honey to change your hair," was her retort. A strand from the offending shade fell in her line of sight, and she blew it off her face with more force than was probably necessary.
"Oh man I wish. How rad would permanently green hair be?"
"Great, then you can be her next guinea pig."
"Awesome."
She rolled her eyes and focused her attention back to readjusting the magnets on her wheels.
"So…" she heard Fred say, sliding up on the table of her workstation. "Have you debuted your new style to the your gentleman caller?"
God, she could practically hear him waggle his eyebrows.
"Why do you call him that? You know how weird it is when you talk like that."
"Oh I'm sorry then. Allow me to rephrase: Has your manfriend seen your new locks yet?"
GoGo turned and leaned against her table. "Not much better. And no. No, he hasn't."
She then straightened up. "And hopefully he won't at all."
"What are you going to do?" came the incredulous voice from the corner of the room. "Avoid him until you get rid of it? Sure, that's practical."
"Did I ask your opinion Wasabi? Because I'm pretty sure you didn't ask for a disc to the face but you're about to get one real soon."
This time, the large man hid behind his laser wall, though he still managed to mumble "can't keep my damn mouth shut."
Tadashi had classes until the late afternoon that day, and GoGo was sure she could sneak off before he would come into the lab.
Too bad Honey made her sit down for an extra 10 minutes so that she could "observe" her experiment and write down notes on laptop (a cute little thing the same shade that GoGo so desperately wished was not on her person).
"First full day and no adverse side effects. Exposure to sunlight and fluorescent light have yielded nothing out of the ordinary."
GoGo rolled her eyes. "Ok ok, nothing bad happened today. Can I go now?"
Honey pouted. "I wish you'd have a better attitude about this."
"I wish my hair wasn't pink," came the response through gritted teeth.
With a sigh and a close of laptop, Honey waved her hand, indicating that GoGo was free to leave.
But despite flinging her supplies into her bag and grabbing her bike as quickly as possible, she still managed to bump directly into Tadashi in the hallway, just outside his own lab.
"Whoa there what's the rush?" he laughed, readjusting his cap. However, his eyes quickly fell to the pink strands.
"GoGo what—"
"Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo."
"—happened?" he managed to finish.
"Ugghhhh it's all Honey's fault. Well, maybe it's my fault for agreeing to help with her experiment but she didn't say it would be pink and I think she did this on purpose but I can't get rid of it and I hate it." It all came out in one breath, ending with her clutching at her hair, as if that would hide it somehow.
Tadashi raised a hand to his mouth, but his smirk and laugh were quite apparent behind it. "You must be having such a tough day."
"You think this is funny don't you?" she snapped. "Of course you would. You and everyone else."
"Well…kinda?" he shrugged and gave a crooked smile. This was met with narrowed eyes and a tightened mouth.
"I'm leaving."
"No no no come on GoGo," he said, grabbing her arm before she turned completely. "Come in my lab and let's talk about this."
She gave a quick glance and crook of eyebrow before yanking her arm away, but walking inside ahead of him anyway.
Inside, they leaned against opposite tables.
"So…" he began. "What's the real problem here?"
She sighed and crossed her arms. "I don't like pink."
Tadashi snorted. "That's it?"
"What's worst everyone knows I don't like pink, and yet here I am, looking like an idiot."
"You do realize you're saying this to the boyfriend that you made have matching hair with you after losing a bet, right?"
"That's different," she said defensively.
"Really?" he said with a smirk."How so?"
"Ok yeah, it wasn't your regular style to have dyed hair but it didn't look bad on you. And besides, you could just say you lost a bet and that was that."
"Uh huh."
"But this…" and she gestured to her bangs. "This is clearly an accident. I never wear pink. At all. It's fine if other people do. It looks good on them, like Honey. Her personality is practically pink. Even you look rather nice in it."
"Aww thank you."
"But me…it doesn't work. It looks bad, out of place. People even give me strange looks when they see I have pink stinkers on my bike. Once people came to know me as this tough chick, pink just didn't seem to make sense. Pink is for girls who liked princess stuff and Barbies and care about being cute. Not that there is anything wrong with that, it just isn't me."
Tadashi studied her for a moment, his dark eyes boring into her. As if she was some sort of puzzle to be figured out.
Then, slowly he walked over to her side, until he was in front of her, his height looming over her. He brought a hand to her face, his fingertips grazing upwards on her cheek, before reaching her forehead and pushing her bangs out of the way. He leaned down and placed a soft kiss.
"What I see," he breathed against her forehead, "is a cool, tough chick who is incredibly cute and looks perfectly adorable in pink, regardless if she liked princess stuff or not."
He tilted GoGo's face upwards now so he could look directly at her widened eyes. "I hate to break it to you sweetie, but pink looks good on you."
She herself flush, and Tadashi chuckled.
"Your face matches your hair now. Is that all it takes to get you to blush? Or am I just special?" he said with a grin.
"Shut up you smooth talker," and with that, she grabbed him into a kiss. It was hard and fast, she pulling him down, and he taking the cue to lift her onto the table the two had previously propped themselves against. After a few minutes of their mouths wetly moving against one another, she broke them apart with a smirk.
"Oh look, your face matches my hair now too. Is that all it takes?" she said teasingly.
He laughed softly. "I guess it is."
The gap between their giggling mouths was once against bridged and neither of them left the lab for the next hour.
After GoGo had left (with a bit of skip in her step), Tadashi sauntered in to the lab of his friends' with a rather big grin. He went directly over to Honey Lemon's station, sliding a 50 dollar bill on her work table.
"I honestly didn't think you would do it, but it is worth every penny."
"I should have made this reward larger," she huffed. "I thought she was going to kill me right in the bathroom when it happened!"
"Hey, the terms of the wager were agreed upon. No changes now."
Honey rolled her eyes with a smile. "Of course not. Getting to witness this payback has been pretty rewarding in itself. Ever think you'll manage to win one where she does have to dress up?"
Tadashi grinned again. "Only time will tell."
A/N: Comments are super appreciated! Also, I know I say this every time, but I am working on "Point A to B" and hope to have a chapter up soon.