Author's note: Hiro X Rachel one-shot

Hiro's POV

Hiro had never thought of Rachel as beautiful before. That had never been the thing he would notice about her. Besides, beautiful was a word reserved for, well, closer relationships than just friends.

If he were asked to describe her, he would use words like smart, sarcastic, and loyal. Certainly not pretty or beautiful. He just didn't feel... that way about her. Despite Honey's insistence that they were the 'perfect pair', and were 'meant for each other', he and Rachel knew they weren't anything special.

Until the day of the school dance.

Nobody knew why there was a dance. The only reason Hiro knew about it was because of Honey lemon. The bubbly, enthusiastic girl came bursting into Hiro's lab holding some flyer.

"What's up Honey?" Hiro asked.

"They're having a dance here!" she squealed, thrusting the flyer at him.

Hiro didn't even bother to look at it. "What?!"

Honey was beside herself with excitement. "Yeah!"

Hiro shrugged, and went back to his project. He had originally been surprised, but it's not like he was going to this dance anyways.

He should have known Honey wasn't going to let him get off that easily.

"You know," she commented in a conversational tone, "Rachel is expecting you to take her to the dance."

That got Hiro's attention. "She is?!" Somehow the thought of taking the red-haired girl to a dance filled Hiro with horror- and excitement, for some reason.

"Yeah," Honey shrugged. "I told her you'd go with her, so..."

"Honey!" Hiro protested, with a growing feeling of dread. "You set me up a date with her?!"

"Not a date," Honey corrected smoothly. "If you ever want to get anywhere with her, you have to start taking her to things like that."

"I'm not trying to get anywhere with Rachel!" Hiro protested. He could feel himself blushing fiercely even as he said it.

"Yes you are," Honey said evenly. "The dance is at 6:00, on Friday. It's a fancy-dress dance, so wear something nice. See you there." Then she walked out of his lab, closing the door smoothly behind her, and leaving a stunned Hiro staring blankly after her.

Now Hiro wasn't sure who to be mad at- the school system, Honey Lemon, or Baymax.

He decided he was sort of mad at all of them. After all, the school system had been the one to decide there was going to be a dance at SFIT. That would have been okay- it wasn't required- but Honey had basically acted against him, and scheduled him a date with one of his best friends, Rachel. Honey always insisted that Rachel was his 'perfect match' and that they were 'meant for each other', despite the two's protesting. Sure, they were both the only fourteen year old geniuses in San Fransoko- and probably the whole world- but that didn't mean they couldn't just be friends.

He fidgeted slightly in the outfit that Aunt Cass had picked for him. He didn't like wearing anything other than his usual style- as in his blue sweatshirt. He sighed, looking around for Rachel. It was 6- she had promised to show up then.

A minute later, he saw Gogo pull up on her bike. She was wearing a slightly nicer than usual outfit- which was Gogo's equivalent of dressing up for something like this.

"Hey Hamada. Looking for your date?" she smirked.

"Oh shut up..." he muttered, flushing red.

"She's coming," Gogo rolled her eyes.

"Why did you even come?" Hiro demanded. "You have a date you didn't tell us about?"

He ducked as her fist whistled over his head.

"Honey threatened me," she snapped, before walking off.

Hiro kept waiting.

6:10... Why is she late?

"HI HIRO!"

Hiro turned, hearing Honey Lemon's enthusiastic voice. She was hurrying towards him. He smiled and waved.

She was wearing a gold dress, and her hair was up in a bun. Somehow, even with her glasses, she still managed to look... not ridiculous.

Then Hiro glanced behind her, and caught his breath.

Whoa... is that seriously Rachel?!

The blue dress she was wearing definitely matched her eyes- and her super-long red hair provided a pretty good contrast to the dress.

In short- she was absolutely beautiful.

Hiro had never used that term to apply to Rachel before. But now-

"What are you staring at, Hamada?" she said sarcastically. "Never seen a girl before?"

Hiro blinked a few times, before he realized she was talking to him.

"I've never seen you in a dress before."

"Obviously not, judging by the idiotic way you're looking at me. You look like a sheep."

Hiro blushed, looking down.

"Come on, let's go inside," Rachel rolled her eyes, then walked past her. After an embarrassed minute, Hiro walked after her.

Rachel's POV

Rachel's face burned as she walked past Hiro. She did her best to hide it- above all she had resolved to stay calm, and keep a hold on herself. But when she glanced back at Hiro, her heart did a rebellious flip-flop. Despite how she felt- she constantly reminded herself that Hiro was a friend and nothing more. He didn't return any of the feelings she had for him, so she should just forget about it altogether.

Fortunately, the dance room distracted her well enough. The decorations were amazing. Already there were a lot of people there, several of them in couples. She turned to find Hiro, already preparing herself for the heart flip-flop again. As soon as she saw him, her heart turned over, and she was sure she was blushing. Hiro's face was an adorable shade of red- so he had been blushing too- and some effort apparently had been made to straighten his messy hair. He saw Rachel looking at him, and gave her a nervous smile, that always made her wonder if he really was so clueless about how she felt about him.

The second she started thinking like that, her face began to flush bright red again. Remember, Hiro has no interest in you. He's just doing this because Honey asked him to.

"Do you like the decorations?" she asked Hiro.

"Yeah..." he nodded distractedly.

"You're going to dance with me, right?"

He stared at Rachel as if she had just appeared from another planet. "Dance?"

"It's a dance, you half-brained idiot. That's what you do."

"I don't know how to dance."

Rachel groaned. "The curse of the male. Come on, I'll show you how."

She took his hand, then almost dropped it as she felt something that she could only describe as a shock from touching his hand. As soon as she registered it, she felt a small glow light up in her chest. She felt so alive all of a sudden...

Cut the stupid romantic thoughts, Rachel! She thought firmly. Get a hold of yourself!

She desperately tried to hide it. "So you put your hand here," she explained, placing his hand on her shoulder, "and here." She sighed. "Now come on."

With that, she slowly began to teach him the dance.

Hiro's POV

Hiro could barely focus on the dance itself. He was too busy looking at Rachel. How had he not registered how beautiful she really was? He did his best to pay attention to the dance step. Rachel, of course, already knew it, and was practically gliding across the dance floor. Hiro, in comparison, was a small elephant.

A very small elephant.

He stepped on her toes, distracting both of them.

"Ow!" Rachel sighed. "Hiro, you have no idea what you're doing, do you?"

"What? Yes- I mean, no- wait, what?" Hiro completely embarrassed himself, then blushed and looked away. Very smooth, Hamada. What would Tadashi say about you?

Hiro knew exactly what he would say. What are you doing making out with somebody without my permission, bonehead?!

When had he thought of this as making out? He was just dancing with Rachel. That was all.

And I'm making such a good impression on her right now...

Rachel's POV

Rachel was doing the best to keep tingles from running down her spine. She was dancing with Hiro, and he was being a total idiot, and it was adorable.

But he was also driving her crazy by stepping on her toes every five seconds.

"Alright, that's enough. Let's go sit down," she said, very deliberately letting go of Hiro's hand. The electricity she had felt faded some, but it was still there. She sat on a bench, and he sat next to her. She did her best not to look at him, because each time she did, her heart flipped again.

You are not allowed to have a crush on him, Rachel. He doesn't feel that way about you, so why should you feel that about him?!

Hiro's POV

Hiro was trying to get up the nerve to do what Baymax and Honey had suggested- tell Rachel. He had doubted she still had a crush on him- he had plainly told her he just wanted to be friends- but now he wasn't so sure.

"R-Rachel?" he stammered. Mentally, he slapped himself. Good job. You're not doing so well, so far.

"Yes?" she turned to look at him.

Hiro immediately found somewhere to look that wasn't her eyes. Somehow, whenever he looked at them his mind blanked and he lost focus.

"I guess..." he started. "Remember how Baymax said you had... well... you know..."

"A crush on you?"

"Yes..." Hiro said nervously. Her tone was slightly warning, but so far there didn't seem to be too much of a danger of her beating him up. "A-anyways, I guess I..." he took a deep breath, and then blurted, "IfeelthesamewayaboutyouandIdon'tknowifyoustill..."

She cut him off. "Wait a minute."

Hiro felt his heart sink. He had messed this up so badly. She was going to walk away now- any minute...

"You're saying that you feel the same way about me, and Honey is right that we are meant to be together."

Hiro looked back up at her, for once focusing on her eyes. "Yes."

Her eyes widened, then filled with joy. "That is so sweet, Hiro!"

She leaned over and kissed him.

It wasn't much- just a gentle kiss on the cheek. Right after that, she jumped up, face burning, and walked away.

Hiro couldn't help but smile. He had a girlfriend.

Rachel's POV

Rachel put a hand to her face, which was burning. What had she been thinking, kissing him like that?! They had just been declared girlfriend and boyfriend today, and already she was-

Rachel shook her head, a giddy smile spreading across her face. It had felt amazing to hear Hiro say those words in his mixed-up awkwardness. He couldn't have known, but she had been waiting to hear those since she realized she first had feelings for him.

What would my family think... she laughed to herself. Me, dating a Hamada- especially Hiro...

They'd probably disown me.

Her smile was gone in an instant.

Not like they haven't done that already...

"Rachel?"

Rachel turned, and he was right behind her, with his adorable slightly apologetic smile.

"Hey Hiro."

"You okay?"

She laughed. "Of course I am."

"Good..." he blushed. "I wouldn't want this to ruin the night. You want to dance again?"

"No way, elephant boy!" she laughed. "Find somebody else to step on."

"Honey gave me a few pointers while you were thinking."

"Oh fine."

Hiro was right, he actually had gotten a lot better- enough to not step on Rachel's toes. She couldn't help but smile as the two danced together.

I have a boyfriend.

Hiro's POV

Hiro was thinking much the same thing. When the dance was over, this time it was him who kissed Rachel on the cheek- feeling a slight shock of excitement when he did. Then he went to Aunt Cass's truck, and got in.

"So how was it?" she asked excitedly. "Did I see you kissing a girl out there? Was that Rachel? She looked absolutely beautiful tonight!"

Hiro smiled, remembering dancing with the girl- who'd finally become his girlfriend. "Yeah, she did."

"So how was the dance?"

Hiro thought about it for a good three seconds. "Oh, it was fine."