Partly inspired by Hiro's Journal… and science.
Minus Green
by jules
"Gross," is the first word that comes out of his mouth. At five foot four and sixteen years old, Hiro Hamada is, as his friend GoGo Tomago aptly puts it, 'kind of a little shit.'
Petite but deadly, GoGo throws him a glare that somehow strikes him like a punch to the gut. "Don't be such a jerk!" she snaps, setting her jaw in a scowl and flicking an electromag wheel in a wide arc. It whirls through the room, spinning just inches from Hiro's face before landing back in her outstretched hand. It's a warning of pain to come if he doesn't smarten up.
Man. Hiro sometimes gets the feeling that GoGo will never let him enter the super best friendship level of allowing him to call her Leiko (and if she ever does, he'll probably have to tack on fourteen Korean honorifics just to appease her). She's scary.
Fred, wholly unconcerned, flips a page in the magical girl manga he's reading. A single tear rolls down the brunet's cheek as he gets to an especially emotional scene, and Hiro vaguely wonders how Fred even managed to find such a sparkly series about fighting kaiju.
Meanwhile, he sees Wasabi just back away slowly, smart enough to not get involved in a fight based on aesthetics. He's known this dude for two years and he still doesn't know what his real name is. Was he just destined to be referred to as a condiment for his entire life? The plasma laser setup shuts off quietly and its owner scuttles out of the lab with a hurried, "Yeah, nope, not getting tied up in this crap today, guys!"
Honey Lemon, the person he's actually dissing, simply giggles and twirls on her four-inch platform heels, more or less oblivious to what has just transpired. Her new ruffle skirt flares out around her in a big, pink circle.
"It's cute, right?" she raves, striking a pose and flashing the peace sign. Honey takes a few selfies and smiles brightly at him. He feels a jolt in his stomach but tries to ignore it.
"Well, it's pink," Hiro says, blankly. Very pink.
It would probably be cute, if Hiro could get past the shiny pink sequins and the neon pink fabric and the pastel pink iron-ons. Honey is cute, though, indubitably and unequivocally so. Honey has bright green eyes and pretty blonde hair and a beautiful smile. And she is so sweet, like gummy bears wrapped in rainbow belts, encased in ice cream and topped with caramel. She's also tall as hell with those heels on. They definitely suit her, but it sucks that she has to constantly lean down to talk to him.
"You afraid 'cause it's a girl colour, Hiro?" Fred chimes in knowledgably. The brunet leans back in his chair, holding the manga to his chest as if it's a bible. "Magical girls use pink all the time and they're totally wicked, little man. Nothing to be scared of."
Hiro doesn't hate pink because he thinks it's girly or effeminate - it's not. Colours don't have genders, so that's kind of a dumb argument in the first place. Sorry, Fred. Hiro despises pink for a vastly more scientific reason.
"Pink is not a real colour," he insists, through gritted teeth. "The light spectrum doesn't allow it. It's a gross anomaly and I don't believe in it. Pink is just the negative of green, and it doesn't have a real wavelength!"
"You put way too much thought into that," GoGo says scornfully, popping her gum - which is also pink, damn it. "Calm down, woman up, and finish your lab report." She jumps up from her seat in the lab, gives him a playful (if it can be considered that) shove that sends him sprawling face-first into the floor, and speeds out for a test run on her latest motorbike.
"Wait up, GoGo!" Fred shouts, leaping from his chair. "Can you take me to get more snacks?!"
Hiro picks himself up from the floor and tries to resume his work without any further incident. Sometimes it might be better to keep his mouth shut, he muses. The lab is practically empty now; it's just Hiro coding robot systems and Honey causing various chemical explosions.
"You really don't like pink, huh?" Honey asks, peering at him over the top of a test tube rack.
He shakes his head, with a little chuckle. "But I guess," he says quietly, out of the side of his mouth, "it looks okay on you."
Honey beams and laughs maniacally, bounding forward to plant a kiss on his cheek. He flushes bright red and decides that it might be okay to accept minus green as a colour if it means he can feel his heart pound like that again.
/fin/
