A/N: I've been assaulted by feelings and this ship has consumed me ok
The city never felt warm anymore.
San Fransokyo didn't exactly have a reputation for warm, sunny weather; residing by the bay, skies were usually gray and cold winds nipped at the general populace's cheeks. But like most things, there were exceptions.
...
The only sound that ever came from GoGo Tomago's mouth was usually her bubblegum, squishing or popping. She preferred it that way, since she had an excuse not to partake in unnecessarily long conversations. For the most part, she found them mundane, and the instigators more so.
"That's an interesting project," a low voice murmured.
GoGo paused mid-chew and glanced in the voice's direction. Tall kid. Baseball cap. He was staring at her bike, fingers covering his chin. Come think, she recalled him hurrying materials back and forth in lab sometimes. Rather than press it, she returned to screwing bolts in her wheel and chewing. Maybe if she didn't answer, he'd go away.
"What is it?" he asked.
Internally, she groaned. Hope this one's not as pretentious as he looks.
"Bike" was her single response. She focused on the bolt, refusing to look in his direction.
"Are those wheels-"
"Electromagnetic suspension."
"Really? What-"
"Look, I'm really busy."
"Oh. I'm sorry." Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him adjusting his cap and his cheeks turning the faintest shade of pink. "Sorry for bothering you," he repeated, turning away. "I'll just-"
"Name."
"Excuse me?"
She pulled the wrench away and turned to him. "What's your name?"
"Tadashi. Tadashi Hamada."
She blew a bubble, ending with a pop! "GoGo Tomago."
He grinned. "Well, good luck with your bike, GoGo!"
She resumed screwing.
...
"So what's up with the bike?"
GoGo was leaning against the counter, sipping coffee. Black and bitter, but coffee never tasted that great. She just needed to stay awake. Plus, it was pouring and freezing outside, and a hot drink helped.
"I like going fast," she said.
"Fast?" Tadashi repeated, leaning against the counter as well. He'd waited until she'd taken a break to start talking this time.
"Yeah."
"That explains it," he chuckled.
"Explains what?"
"Why you talk the way you do." He had a grin plastered on his face. "You like to get your point across fast, huh?"
She didn't answer, just took another sip of her coffee. "What about you? What's your project?"
"Me? I'm building a nursing robot," he explained. "I've had to start over a few times, but I think I've reconfigured enough things that it'll work this time. I want it to be a kind of healthcare companion, so it's always around in case you get sick or hurt. Give it features like rating pain and healing injuries and such."
"Oh. That's... Why do you want to build that?"
"Hmm." He looked up in thought, then shrugged. "I guess... I just really like helping people."
GoGo reconsidered her impression of this boy. Maybe he wasn't trying to be pretentious or invasive-he was genuinely just nice.
...
"You like coffee, GoGo?" Tadashi asked, holding his own steaming cup.
"It's okay," she answered, taking a sip. "Actually, it kind of sucks."
"Does it? Then why do you drink it?"
"I need to stay awake, okay? And it's cold out."
"Have you tried-"
"There's no good kind of coffee."
"My aunt runs a café, actually."
"Is that where yours is from?" she asks, gesturing the cup in his hands.
"Want a sip?"
He held the cup out, and hesitantly, she accepted and raised it to her lips. Somewhere in the back of her mind something nagged that his mouth had been on this exact spot. The thought caught her off guard and she took a larger gulp than intended and scorched her tongue.
"That bad?" Tadashi asked, catching her expression.
"No," she answered, cursing herself. "It's... good. Hot, though."
He grinned. "So you still think there's no good kind of coffee?"
"It's an exception," she mumbled, handing the cup back.
"You know," he said, "you could always... stop by the café. If you want. My aunt wouldn't mind more customers."
She crossed her arms. "And the location is..."
He laughed. "I could take you."
"Are you asking me to coffee?"
The color returned to his cheeks. "Well... maybe. That is, if you-"
"I'm in." GoGo retracted her opinion of him from nice to dork. She felt the corner of her lips tugging. Weird.
...
They went out for coffee a lot.
Tadashi asked GoGo about herself in the beginning, and she kept her answers short. She liked to go fast. She won a couple of racing competitions. She was bilingual. When she turned the conversation to him, he always managed to ramble about other people more than himself. He told her about his Aunt Cass and her stress eating, his cat Mochi always clawing the couch and eating the veggies his little brother didn't want. Mostly he talked about said brother, Hiro, and what a genius he was and how proud he made Tadashi, even if he was a "knucklehead." Sometimes he brought up his parents.
"I wish Hiro knew them," he mused. "They would've been so proud of him. Probably learn some Japanese so he wouldn't have to pull me over every time he didn't want to say something in front of Aunt Cass."
She popped her gum. "He sounds like a good kid."
"He is. What about you? You got family?"
GoGo usually didn't like conversation and two sentences were a mouthful for her. But talking to Tadashi... that was different. She looked into his shining brown eyes, curious and warm and welcoming. He wanted to know. Maybe he was just a nice guy, but he genuinely wanted to know about her. Despite the cold wind outside, something in her warmed.
So she made this one exception and told him more than she'd told anyone. Her words felt safe with him. At home.
...
GoGo started listing all the exceptions she'd made for Tadashi in her head. This included speed. Yes, speed.
Her bike had to be a million times faster than his moped-that thing was archaic. In the beginning she was the one giving rides, seeing as how they got places quicker. But quicker travel time meant shorter meetings. Which meant less time with him.
Oddly enough, Tadashi never questioned it when she told him her bike had "broken down" and he offered her a ride on his rusty moped. Not even asking why she hadn't bothered to fix the thing. She suspected he may be avoiding the question, since nobody would go out of their way to just give anyone rides at any time. But Tadashi. Always the nice guy.
Still, she liked it. She liked wrapping his arms around his waist, resting her head on his broad back as they took their time zooming through the streets and under the cherry trees. She decided she liked speed, except when it took away time her with Tadashi.
As another exception, she didn't particularly like the speed of time when his lips melded softly with hers. Everything was warm to her then.
...
There were no exceptions to his kindness. Or his concern for others or his selflessness. If there were, Tadashi wouldn't have run in for the professor, wouldn't have run into the fire.
GoGo would tell herself for days that it was her fault, she should've intervened when he didn't listen to Hiro, should've run faster and held him back. When she accepted she couldn't change the past, she came up with rationalizations. He wasn't such a great guy, remember how pretentious he looked the first time? But it was a lie. Such a lie. He'd left nothing but good memories.
She sat on the park bench uselessly, sinking her face in her hands. When she was little, she'd thought everybody was supposed to live a long time.
Clearly Tadashi was the exception.
And everything felt cold to her now.