Title: Share and Share Alike
Pairing: Tomadashi/TadashixGogo
School had closed an hour ago, yet Tadashi remains seated in front of Baymax. His eyes are tired and maybe even more so than he first thought when he reaches for a wrench, missing it by a inch or so, knocking over a small pile of tools that had collected at the corner of his work desk. He groans audibly, thinking that if only calibrating the electric elements of robots were easy, then maybe he would have left over an hour ago and probably ate some delicious food at his aunt's cafe to fill his empty stomach. That idea certainly blew up in smoke. Running a hand through his hair, he calls it a night, quickly organizing the messy tabletop of his desk which had been previously hidden underneath a mound of paperwork and tools.
His messenger bag hangs heavily on his shoulder and as he trudges past the open lab area; it's utterly quiet and the vacancy of the room rings louder than blaring sirens. He figures he's the only person present until he spots the familiar outline of a certain adrenaline junkie; her head of black hair slumps over a metal tool chest settled on the floor. From the ceiling, her yellow and grey bike is hanging to his left. He sighs. Gogo. Always the workaholic.
If this were someone else, he'd probably walk over casually and tap them on the shoulder, bid them goodnight and be on his way. They might smile in return and wave politely before saying a curt goodbye in his direction. But doing that with her could possibly (most likely) result in a hurried brush off and brisk words along the lines of, "I'm busy" or "Just leave me alone." So he continues on his way, out the door and down into the cool night air.
He doesn't feel right about leaving her there by herself and the urge to go up and say something becomes necessity when he turns the key in his moped and it sputters a few times. Dark, thick smoke bellows out of the engine, then in one loud, crackling, mechanical spew it falls completely silent. With a silent curse, (Aunt Cass would have his head if she heard him) he withdraws his key from the engine. He looks up to where a light filters through a window and mutters a quiet thank you to the heavens, dismounting his bike to retrace his steps back up to the lab.
She sits with her back towards him, her light and slim frame hunched over the chest and black hair cascading over her face like a waterfall at night-time. He can't tell if she's actually awake or if she fell asleep in lieu of her persistence to work until her mind was numb. That is, until he notices the slow, meticulous scrawl of her handwriting gliding across a nearly blank sheet of paper underneath her arm. He waits with patience as not to interrupt her while she writes. She pauses momentarily, hand hovering over the paper and he clears his throat.
A moment passes before her hunched body straightens up, arms reaching up to the sky and head tossing left and right. She's spun around in her chair and he feels guilty for the sudden interruption he's made. It's late and he's sure she's exhausted and being an imposition burdened him, leaving his mouth dry and heart thumping fast inside his chest. "Hey, Gogo."
She rubs her eyes, yawning, only adding to his assumption that she's overworked herself. "What do you need, Tadashi?"
"I feel horrible having to ask this, but my moped died. Can I bum a ride home with you, please?"
She isn't sure if she should be angry or flattered and honestly they both should've left quite some time prior to this current dilemma. Then maybe Tadashi wouldn't be standing in front of her asking for a ride and looking like a lost puppy dog. "Seriously, Hamada?"
"Come on," he pleads. "You wouldn't leave me here by myself would you?"
Oh, but she would. "Of course I would. I'd up and leave this second if you didn't look so pathetic." His face falls and the humor of it all almost makes her laugh. Almost. "Fine, let me grab my bag."
"OK, take a left here," Tadashi says. He feels obligated to direct her only because he wants to be kind and she probably needs the distraction to keep awake. The radio is on, although it's just loud enough to make out the song being played. He can make out a heavy bass hidden within the melody and guesses on any normal occasion she'd be blasting it (inwardly he's surprised she isn't right at this moment).
Gogo nods discreetly tightening her grip on the steering wheel and calmly turning left with a fluid, practiced motion. She does, in fact, happen to know where she's going, although she knows too that if he kept quiet, she'd be worthless driving in her current state of exhaustion so she's thankful to hear his voice every few seconds.
The corner the cafe is settled on, normally lit up by the stores lights, is now flooded in darkness which makes it rather eerie and cold. She stops at the curb and turns towards him. Her eyes are surprisingly awake and alert with expectancy.
He's fishing around in his bag and she's noticed his features are hard and he's looking more than intently - almost manically - for what she guesses are his keys. When he sighs, the sudden gasp causes her to jump.
"You're not going to believe this," says Tadashi, looking at his bag woefully.
"What's wrong?"
"I think I left my keys at the school. Ugh, I'm such an idiot."
She doesn't react immediately and her lips purse as it occurs to her that he can't enter the cafe and him being Tadashi wouldn't have it in his heart to wake up Aunt Cass nor Hiro to let him. This current situation doesn't help either since she recalls him mentioning that Cass is away at some Entrepreneur's Convention and Hiro's sleeping over with a friend so regardless this whole mess has turned into a much larger pickle than first anticipated. Her fingers tap against the steering wheel until he finally speaks.
"So, not to be an imposition but-"
"You can stay at my place," she says easily, as if she knew the question was coming.
He blinks because her offer is just so unexpected. Now she's pulling away from the curb before he can even answer and he thinks this whole night is a bad dream. His keys are at the school - which is now closed - on top of which his moped is sitting dead in the parking lot and now he's got to crash at her place and be more than an imposition and Tadashi Hamada hates being an imposition.
He mumbles, "Thanks," since nothing else seems worthy or adequate enough to say
She stares straight ahead but allows a small grunt to rumble up from her throat and when she turns onto a street he isn't familiar with, he looks left and right subconsciously.
"This is it," Gogo says before turning the key, quieting the car's engine.
Tadashi steps out of the car and in taking in her apartment, notices how small it looks from the outside. "You don't live far from the cafe," he notes, shrugging his bag further up on his shoulder.
She shuts the door to her car and gives another grunt. He's right. She's actually timed the trek from her stay to the cafe - since she spends so much time there (but not really) - and is proud to say, going the legal limit, she can make it to the cafe in about five minutes. If she's feeling gutsy, she can get there in about three.
"Yeah, if I was into coffee, I'd probably be there every day," she quips and goes ahead of him up the stairs and to the door.
A few moments after getting up the stairs, she's unlocked the door, thrown her jacket carelessly on the floor and he takes care not to be the bad house guest by hanging his cardigan neatly on the back of the couch. She's left to go find something and he glances around. He hadn't pegged her for being a tidy person, yet around him the floors are barren of unnecessary clutter - save for her jacket - and the furniture too is free of clutter and the small kitchen straight ahead looks like the countertop looks like he could eat off of it.
Her footsteps padding across the hardwood floor bring him out of his musings and he's met with her holding out a brown and white comforter to him. "Here."
"Thank you. You have a blanket to use, right?" He asks because contrary to popular belief, Gogo isn't all skulls and crossbones, so he wouldn't put it passed her to have given him the only blanket she probably owns.
Gogo gulps silently and tosses the blanket to him. "I'll be fine with my jacket, so don't you even think about forcing me to use it. You're my guest so be grateful, got it?"
He shoves the blanket back in her arms. "No way. You've driven me around everywhere and you're letting me crash here. I am not using the comforter, Gogo."
"Just use it, Hamada. I'm not wanting to fight about this, ok?"
"I'm not using it, Gogo."
"Well, neither am I. Take the blanket and be happy."
This is when she turns around and begins striding away. She doesn't get far before Tadashi reaches out and grabs her wrist. "How about we share it then since we're both being stubborn?"
She squints up at him looking like she wants to punch his face before eventually saying, "Fine."
Their sleeping arrangement looks something like this:
Gogo's head rests at the foot of the bed with her feet resting comfortably in the middle.
Tadashi faces the head of the bed and he's trying hard not to brush his feet against hers for fear of ruining this small truce they have going. "Hey," he murmurs. "Thanks again for letting me stay here for the night."
In a quick motion that startles him, she knocks her foot against his calf, followed by a short, "Think nothing of it."
She's too modest. "No, I owe you one, seriously. Just let me know, alright?"
"I hear you, Hamada. Go to sleep."
He chuckles at her words. "Goodnight, Gogo."
And the only thing he hears before closing his eyes is a quiet, "Night."
The morning comes like a roaring lion with the sun shining annoyingly bright through the window. Tadashi vaguely remembers falling asleep last night and he wakes up only to find Gogo snuggled up against his chest and the blanket they had fought over discarded on the floor.
To think a blanket could cause such discord it's trivial. He loathes over the blanket a moment before he feels her stirring under his arm and there's a small part inside him that hopes she actually enjoys being cuddled up next to him because he'd be lying if he said he didn't.
"Gogo?" says Tadashi quietly, lightly shaking her arm.
Again she stirs, yet remaining unaware of his quiet and gentle calls for her. He wonders for a moment if she's a light or heavy sleeper, seeing as he's never been around her during this particular activity, which he determines might just end up in a bad way if he does happen to wake her. So he lets her sleep a while longer, only to be nice, he tells himself.
Her eyes flutter open in short, sweet flits in time and Tadashi feels a rush of heat flood his cheeks and then instantly fade away.
She's quick to turn over, looking at him with furrowed brows and lips turned down. "The heck, Hamada?"
He glances down at his arm still draped over her shoulder and quickly withdraws it and turns over so she doesn't think he actually enjoyed having his arm wrapped around her shoulders. And yet he does - but she doesn't need to know that.
"Erm, sorry," he says weakly. "You kinda woke up like that, I swear."
She snorts, poking his shoulder to keep him on his toes. "You can just keep telling yourself that. Don't lie to yourself."
"You can think what you will, Gogo. I woke up and for lack of better terms, you were snuggled up to me. So I would say it was you who should not lie to yourself here."
Sass, she notices. Tadashi never sasses and yet here he is, lying with his back to her and giving her as much sass as she gives on the daily. She likes this Tadashi. "Aren't we a little snarky today? Do you always wake up like that?"
"And you think I would know?"
"See what I mean?"
With a small huff, he turns over and their eyes meet. Her eyes are a beautiful chocolate brown and maybe the closeness has his brain going haywire, but he can see every fleck, every glisten that hits her eyes and they're the most beautiful thing he's ever seen. A single strand of hair hangs in front of her face, enticing him to break down and brush it back behind her ear. As enticing as it is, he holds back and just stares.
"What?" asks Gogo, her hips shift away from him and she's worried he's going to try something.
"It's nothing," says Tadashi. "Thanks again for letting me stay here, but we probably should get going here soon too." He points towards the wall clock on the adjacent wall. "It's almost nine and class starts at ten and I would appreciate if you'd take a quick look over the moped for me?"
Unfortunately, he has a point and Gogo sighs and stands, shooing him from her room to change.
There's a lot of people at the school today, leaving Gogo to resort to one of the back lots behind the school building.
Whether it was by fate or mere circumstance, the moment she steps out of the car simultaneously with Tadashi is when she sees Honey, Fred, and Wasabi stop dead, frozen in their tracks, looking at her and Tadashi like they grew cat ears overnight.
She isn't sure if they're more baffled by the pair of them exiting out of the same car (at the same time for that matter) or if it's because they exited out of the same car at all.
She cranes her neck over her shoulder and catches Tadashi's cynical expression. He's obviously noticed they have three pairs of eyes boring into their souls.
Oh well. Let them think what they will. The day isn't standing still and she has a moped to fix.
Thanks for reading! Hope this was enjoyable to read :) Many thanks to icearoundthemoon and popdiva24 for betaing for me!
Please drop a review if you feel so inclined!-SF15