#2: met while jumping into the same pile of freshly raked leaves in a park (alternatively, one jumps in and they met when no 2 kicks said pile of leaves)


In which Tadashi's inner child gets beat up.


It's the textbook definition of a perfect autumn day in San Fransokyo, with the air crisp and biting but warm enough to only need a coat and a light scarf. The sun is bright overhead, lighting up the brilliant display of reds and oranges and yellows on the trees and carpeting the ground.

Tadashi strolls leisurely through Kinmon Park, observing happy couples and families enjoying the weather. Two small kids are happily bouncing through leaves that have been raked into gigantic piles on the side of the paths, and Tadashi is reminded of doing the same with Hiro when they were younger - looking for the biggest piles and racing to see who could jump in first (he let Hiro win, more often than not). They would play until Aunt Cass found them, hands on her hips and smiling with her eyes when she saw the leaves in their clothes and hair.

A wave of nostalgia comes over him then, and he wonders if he's too old to be doing that now. The leaves look absolutely perfect – dry and piled as high as his waist. He's so tempted. And nobody is really paying attention to him at the moment – what would it hurt? He turns around to scan the park one more time, positions himself in front of the pile, and jumps backwards.

Tadashi lets out a little oof as he lands, leaves cascading around his vision. Then he starts laughing – whether from the rush or the disbelief he actually did it, he doesn't know. He feels like a little kid again and he's glad he jumped in.

Eventually his laughter dies down, and he's left staring up at the sky and branches from the surrounding trees. The sunlight that filters through makes the leaves glow prettily, and the little leaf-cocoon he's lying in is nice and cozy. Tadashi decides to stay there for a bit before getting on his way. His leaf pile is so tall around him he's sure nobody can see him right now, anyways.

So he's feeling quite relaxed and content when something connects painfully with his side. There's suddenly a lot of swearing and movement as Tadashi, making an anguished sound, clutches his ribs and rolls over while his assailant curses her mouth off and crouches down to his level, looking unsure of what to do with her hands.

Gingerly, he presses his hand down. His ribcage is rather sore, but still feels intact. Tadashi coughs. "Ouch."

"Hey. You alright?"

Tadashi looks over his shoulder to see his attacker bending over him. Against the sunlight and the short, dark hair framing her face, he can only dimly make out her features. Her mouth is twisted into something bordering concern and annoyance.

"I think – I think so. I need a minute." So she gives him one.

When he feels recovered enough to attempt sitting up, she reaches down to help, slinging his arm over her shoulders to lift him, and Tadashi finally gets a good look at her. She has purple streaks in her choppy hair, and her eyes are a dark brown. She's also quite tiny, and he marvels at how much damage her foot has dealt him despite that.

"Thanks." He automatically says, then "but, well, no thanks for earlier." She's scowling at him now.

"Sorry for kicking you, but what were you doing sleeping in a leaf pile? I thought I'd found a dead body!"

Tadashi finds himself getting a little embarrassed as he retorts "I wasn't sleeping! I'd just…jumped in, and hadn't gotten out yet." It sounds stupid even to his own ears, and he can tell she thinks so too by the look on her face.

"Why were you going around kicking piles of leaves, anyways?" He adds quickly, because he can tell she's about to comment on his last remark. She arches her eyebrow at him.

"It's more normal than jumping in and then deciding to hibernate there. Unless you're a gigantic child, or a dog, or something." Tadashi can't disagree, but finds himself trying to defend his last bit of dignity.

"But sometimes it's good to let loose once in a while, don't you think?" She gives him an unimpressed look in return. "Oh, come on. Didn't you ever jump in leaves when you were younger?"

"I kicked leaf piles as a kid." She smirks a little, and he thinks he should have seen that coming.

"You should try it sometime. It's really refreshing. Gives you a new perspective on things."

"Even if I did try it, I definitely wouldn't keep lying there. You're probably covered in bugs right now." She looks pointedly at his arm, which Tadashi hadn't noticed was still slung around her shoulders. He's about to remove it when out of nowhere he gets a wonderful, terrible idea.

"You know, you should really learn to live a little."

She's able to look slightly offended and confused for all of two seconds before he's tightening his grip and they're falling back onto the pile of leaves. Her squawk of surprise is worth it, he thinks, and can't help himself from laughing again.

She struggles to sit up. "You're insane!" she spits out incredulously. He grins up at her.

"Nah, I'm just a gigantic child at heart."

She pauses and considers this for a second, then turns to her side, picks up a handful of leaves, and neatly dumps them on his face. He's sputtering and laughing now, reaching over to pick up his own handful and toss them in her direction. He gets her pretty good; there's a lot sticking to her hair.

What follows is a good fifteen minutes of leaf fighting, though Tadashi is losing because his mobility is limited thanks to his sore ribs.

They eventually call truce, equally exhausted, and lay back side-by-side on the pile with a respectful distance between them. Tadashi's side hurts again, but he doesn't really care at the moment. Staring up at the sky and tree branches, he waits until their breathing returns to normal before speaking.

"So. How does it feel, letting loose?" He turns his head to look at her. She's facing upwards, the sun highlighting the purple in her hair, face relaxed into a neutral expression. She doesn't say anything at first, and Tadashi is left admiring the slope of her nose until she suddenly speaks.

"Refreshing." She turns his way and he's staring right into those dark brown eyes. Tadashi can feel the heat that creeps up on his face, and hopes it's not as visible as it feels. He holds out his hand.

"My name's Tadashi, Tadashi Hamada."

She gives him a look that says really? Are we really doing this right here? But her mouth is pulling up at the ends and she meets his hand with her own.

"GoGo Tomago." They shake hands, lying down on a leaf pile in the middle of a public park.

"So, GoGo." Tadashi hasn't let go of her hand yet. "My ribs are killing me. I don't think they're broken but they're probably gonna be black and blue tomorrow." He says all this while grinning broadly.

GoGo purses her lips. "Oh? And what would you have me do about that?" There's a knowing gleam in her eye.

"A couple of bruised ribs don't need much compensation. Maybe – say – about the price of a few cups of coffee? There's actually a café the next street over, now that I think about it."

"Imagine that." GoGo says dryly. "Well, we'd better get going then. I'm probably covered in bugs."

She moves to help him up, the same way as before, except they make it to their feet this time. They take a few moments to brush the leaves off of them before Tadashi places his arm back around her shoulders.

"Just in case." He grins down at her head. Now that they're standing he can see how much taller he actually is than her. "My ribs, you know."

GoGo pokes the side pressed against her gently. "I think you're faking it."

But she lets him keep his arm around her the whole way there.


A/N: So far these stories have involved someone getting hurt, oh dear.

As an aside, I imagine that besides jumping in, Tadashi would have lifted Hiro up like in Lion King and then tossed him into the big piles too.