A/N: I'd like to make it clear I DO NOT SHIP HIROGO ROMANTICALLY. I'm so iffy on age differences, to be honest. :/
That being said, Hiro's closest to GoGo of the four (human) companions in my head. The way she hugged him and how she was the one talking to him at the end of the movie is just so urla;dfasafklasd. I really wish I got to see a big sister/little brother relationship develop between them, DAMMIT MOVIE I WANT MORE EXPANSION ON THEM.
But if there's anything romantic I strictly like the idea of Hiro having a cute little kiddy crush on her as a kid. hehehee
GoGo could be nice when she wanted to be, Hiro decided.
Now that everything had calmed down and he wasn't so consumed by grief anymore, he could see it more clearly. It'd been there before, too. When she and the rest of the gang sent a video asking how he was doing. When she announced Tadashi Hamada was their best friend and would join Hiro in his mission. When she refused to kill Callaghan. The first time she held him, reassuring him everything would be all right.
The first time she stopped by the café herself, she said she'd forgotten something earlier and might as well buy a drink while she was there. That was when the cat pounced and rubbed himself against her legs, purring softly.
"Mochi," Hiro explained, preparing a frappuccino. He was used to helping his aunt out with the orders. "Our cat."
"Ah," was all she said.
"Tadashi named him."
She just popped her gum. Hiro expected her to get up and leave as soon as he brought over her drink, but she remained hunched over the table, sipping her frap silently. His impression of her had changed over time, but she was still a bit intimidating. He thought back to their first meeting at the lab, what he thought she was like-a little bit fearful, a little bit fascinating.
Tadashi had been there, too. His expression... Hiro frowned. There was fascination, yes, but now that he thought about it, it'd been a bit more than that. Admiration, even endearment, almost.
"How long have you had him?" GoGo finally asked, breaking the silence. "Mochi, I mean."
"Um," he mumbled, "I don't know. As long as I can remember."
"I see." She wasn't really drinking anymore, just swirling the straw.
"Um, do you like cats?"
"Don't really have the time for pets." But as Mochi nuzzled his head against her leg, Hiro could swear he saw the corner of her lips turn up. Just a little. "Besides, I don't know if they'd let you bring pets in the lab."
Hiro nodded. "Probably. I tried building rockets to make him fly once."
She laughed for real this time. It wasn't a little dainty laugh like Honey Lemon's; GoGo's laughs burst with energy. "Did you really?"
"Yeah! I had a rocket attached to each leg..."
Oddly enough, out of the four of them, GoGo felt the easiest to talk to.
...
"This is a very bad idea!" Wasabi insisted anxiously as GoGo tossed the keys to her bike at Hiro.
"Relax, I learned when I was about his age," GoGo dismissed. "Maybe younger."
"I'm just saying-"
"Look, if I can go through a portal and back and defeat an evil mastermind at age fourteen, I think I can handle riding a motorbike," Hiro assured the group. In his mind, Tadashi nagged that his arrogance is getting in the way of his safety, and he felt a twinge of guilt. He brushed it off with the thought that Tadashi was always a worrywart, and GoGo would probably look down on him for wimping out.
"I do not think riding a motorbike would be best for your safety," Baymax declared in his monotone voice.
Wasabi threw his hands in Baymax's direction as if to say, You see?
"Not without a helmet."
He groaned in exasperation as GoGo adjusted a (slightly oversized) helmet on Hiro's head. It made his bushy hair feel static-y.
Climbing onto the motorbike (his short legs barely managing to touch the pedals), he revved it up just as GoGo'd instructed and felt it roar with life. As it started moving, a panic rose in him. Oh no oh no maybe Wasabi was right. But he heard GoGo shout-something-and decided there was no turning back. He pushed faster until his heartbeat accelerated and his jacket flapped wildly behind him. He let out a whoop of triumph. So this must be what GoGo loved so much about racing-he should've asked sooner, or taken out Tadashi's moped once in a while.
He also should've made sure there were no trees in his path.
...
"Come here! Sign, sign!" Honey Lemon squealed, pulling a pink marker out of her purse.
"No, don't sign," Hiro groaned. It was embarrassing enough to be wearing a cast; having his buddies sign it like they were in middle school felt so childish.
"We're signing it anyway, so woman up," GoGo said, borrowing one of Honey's purple markers. Her face pulls in closer to his, and he notes how brown and pretty her eyes are. He feels his cheeks warm up just a little.
Nope. Nah.
No, no, no, this was not happening.
She chuckled, and his head snapped up in terror. She knows.
"Your brother had the same accident the first time he tried to ride a moped," she remarked, somewhat distantly.
Of course he did.
...
She came over herself a little more frequently. Mostly to order drinks, or so she said. Of course she didn't like him that way. She was his brother's age for crying out loud. But he couldn't help feeling, maybe in a few years, when they were both adults and he'd finally hit his growth spurt...
"Want to come up to my room?" he asked after exactly the seventh visit. He'd kept a tally in his head.
"Whatever," she responded, which he took as a yes.
Hiro thanked his genius self for planning this out and cleaning the room ahead of time. And then his mind went blank. She was in his room. Now what? He hadn't planned beyond this.
"Well, uh," he said, "this is it." He sat upright on the bed.
"You wear your shoes in the house," she commented.
"Oh, that-well, Tadashi used to take them off, but Aunt... Do you want to take your shoes off?"
She shook her head and popped her gum. "Don't care." She remained silent, and Hiro mentally smacked himself for not thinking up conversation topics or anything. Maybe she regretted coming in here, too. Maybe she... That's when he noticed she wasn't silent. Not intentionally, anyway. She was on Tadashi's side of the room, eyeing something on the bed.
The hat.
Hiro swallowed, and the guilt came flooding back. The guilt of forgetting his brother for a moment, the guilt of just keeping the hat out there and making the two of them upset again.
"He got me out of trouble from bot-fighting," he said slowly, "the day he brought me to the lab."
GoGo broke out of her reverie and turned her head toward him. "Huh?" She seemed to collect herself within seconds. "Oh. Bot-fighting. You used to do that, didn't you?"
"I still have the robot. Want to see?"
...
She came up to his room out of nowhere sometimes. Most of the time they talked. Sometimes they didn't need to. Sometimes she'd lay on Tadashi's bed, clutching the hat, and Hiro let her.
"Me too," he whispered the one time she just couldn't speak. "I do it every day."
...
It was GoGo who taught him about grave visiting. His parents weren't alive and Aunt Cass never learned. They made Tadashi's favorite-Cass's hot wings-and bought flowers. Hiro was pretty interested in what they were going to do with the hot wings, but decided against talking to GoGo until they reached the cemetery. She'd nearly pummeled the florist.
"'Korean cheeks,'" she grumbled. "'Almond eyes.' Tell me, what kind of disgusting idiot says that?"
"Offensive disgusting idiots, I'm guessing." He'd be lying if he said didn't think those descriptions were the least bit off-putting. He'd also be lying if he said he didn't feel a little gleeful about her lack of interest in other guys. (That one specific guy, but who was counting?)
She taught him about cleaning the graves, then leaving the food for Tadashi and lighting the incense. The smoke sent a shudder through him. He'd never forget about smoke, about the fire. He wondered if she was thinking the same.
After sticking the incense in the ground, they sat together in silence.
"Was this enough?" GoGo asked in a small voice.
Memories of the empty, lonely nights he spent lifeless in his own room came back to him. The emptiness didn't always leave. He knew there were days he could be happy again, that he could move on with his life. But he knew neither of them would ever stop missing Tadashi.
"He'd be thankful," he answered.
"He'd probably tell us to lighten up, the nerd."
Hiro laughed. "Tadashi is here."
...
He knew. He probably knew all along, but he asked anyway.
"Did you love my brother?" he asked, pointlessly rolling his pencils across his desk.
GoGo lay on Tadashi's bed. The absence of an answer was confirmation enough.
"Were you together?"
"A few months," she mumbled. "I loved him longer than that, though. I think."
"It was probably you. I figured he'd bought a moped to show off to somebody. I just wasn't sure who."
"Dork."
He walked over and slid to the floor. He didn't see a classmate or a crush or whatever. She was his friend first and foremost. Who happened to be his brother's girlfriend. Maybe she would've been a sister-in-law...
"You're family to me anyway," he said, sitting cross-legged. "Even if Tadashi's not here... you're my sister, too. You, Wasabi... you're all family to me."
GoGo turned to face him and ruffled his hair. "Don't get mushy on me, little bro."
"Sorry, 'little bro'? What was that, now?" A pillow struck him in the face, and Hiro sputtered as she burst into peals of laughter.
"Tadashi is here."