"What flavor is this?" Hiro inspected the cake Honey Lemon had presented him with, eyebrows drawing together.

"Lemon, just like you asked," Honey chirped, setting the intricately decorated cake on the cake stand in the middle of the Hamada dining table. Hiro followed, staring nervously at it.

"It's pink," he said, distrusting such a fancy-looking cake. He was always startled by Honey Lemon's talents; it was easy to forget how girly she was, what with all the volatile chemicals she worked with, but she really was quite good at making things fancy and girly. It seemed cake decorating fell into her wide repertoire of talents.

"It's 'frosted' pink, Hiro," she corrected, taking her cross body bag off and tossing it onto the couch. He didn't look like he believed her, and she rolled her eyes. "Trust me, it's lemon."

"That's her favorite flavor, is all," Hiro continued, still eying the cake warily, but deciding Honey was right. "I just want everything to be perfect."

"Sweety, I love you," Aunt Cass said, carrying in a tray of her famous 'burn-your-tongue-off' hot wings, "but you're going a little crazy with the micromanaging. No offense."

"Cass is right," Wasabi called over his shoulder, as he and Fred struggled to tack up a 'welcome home' banner. "This is, what, the fifth time you've made me re-hang this!?" Fred nearly wobbled off the ladder he was on as Wasabi spoke. "I'm usually the one freaking out about this stuff, but, c'mon man, it's not crooked anymore!"

"Wasabi, you were the last person I thought would turn against me," Hiro said, a hint of sarcasm in his voice. "Anyway, where's Gogo? She was supposed to be here an hour ago!" Hiro had been stressing out about this little get together for nearly a week now, and now that the day was finally here, he couldn't stop feeling nervous. He'd been looking forward to Aria's homecoming for months, but now that it was here, he couldn't help but feel jittery and shaky.

"Keep your shirt on, Loverboy, I'm here." Speak of the devil, and the devil shall appear; just then, Gogo appeared, taking the staircase two steps at a time. Hiro felt so frazzled, he didn't even notice the second set of footsteps ascending the staircase, and immediately took hold of Gogo's wrist.

"Good, cuz I need you to wrap these." She was stunned as he immediately shoved an armful of things at her. Just little things, most of them branded with SFIT's logo, for Aria as a 'welcome to the best school in Japanifornia' gift. Leaving her to stand there, he began fussing about how Aunt Cass was setting things up. Wasabi was in the process of catching Fred as he toppled from the ladder, and Honey Lemon was fetching a roll of wrapping paper. Gogo looked back, shrugging at Aria as she climbed the last step.

"Ahem." Aria cleared her throat, rather loudly, but it didn't seem to grab any attention. Watching as the ladder started tipping, Aria flicked her wrist lazily, and righted the device easily. Fred and Wasabi looked up then, stunned, and Fred let out a shout.

"Aria!" he said, barreling forward, and nearly knocking Aria back down the stairs with one of his patented full-body hugs. Hiro's head whipped around just as Honey Lemon squealed, and suddenly, Aria was the center of the commotion.

"Welcome back!" Honey Lemon sang, snapping a party hat on Aria's head before she could protest. Wasabi clapped her on the back, nearly sending her flying forward, and even though Gogo had met her on the way in, she threw in a 'I sort of missed you' shoulder punch, just to get in the spirit of things.

"Okay, can you guys stop physically assaulting her?" Hiro said, shoving his way through, and Aria laughed. She'd missed these guys, and definitely forgotten how strong they all were! "I'm sorry for our violent friends, Aria." Pulling her out of the tiny crowd, he pulled her right into his arms, encasing her in a hug. Accepting whole-heartedly, she hugged back. Another thing she'd forgotten; how fantastic Hiro smelled.

"Oh, my brood's all back!" Aunt Cass sang, crashing their hug and wrapping her arms around them both. "How have you been, sweetheart? Mochi and I have missed you at our late-night scary-movie-thon!"

"I'm great, much better now that I'm back." Finally released from everyone's grasp, and allowed space to breath, she smiled. "I barely made it into the summer program by the skin of my teeth, but I made it!"

"I knew you would," Hiro said, nudging her slightly.

"So you'll be in the biomedical department?" Wasabi asked, and Aria nodded.

"Yup. I won't be in the same department as Gogo and Hiro." Hiro had really pushed for her to go into a robotics major, but she'd always known it was just because he liked the idea of working in the same lab as her. In reality, Aria had no robotic aptitude whatsoever; she barely had an aptitude for biomedical engineering. She'd have to put in a lot of hard work these next two years if she wanted to be able to be accepted into SFIT's graduate program.

"Probably a good thing," Gogo said, ruffling Hiro's hair. "He'd never get any work done if you were." The others chuckled and nodded, and Hiro flinched away from her.

"C'mon, Gogo, you're like a whole head shorter than me, you can't keep ruffling my hair like I'm 12…" he whined. Taking off her jacket and slinging it over the back of the couch, Aria was relieved it was so easy to jump right back in with these guys. She'd been so worried it'd be awkward and they'd have nothing to talk about; they were her friends, but it'd been so long since she'd been in San Fransokyo. She was happy her worries had proven false.

"Hey, here you are." Pushing open the door, Hiro poked his head out, and found Aria inspecting Aunt Cass' garden. "Everyone was wondering where you'd gone."

"Sorry," Aria said, touching the petals of one of the chrysanthemums gently. "I had to call my mom and tell her I made it okay, so I went searching for a quiet place, and remembered you guys had this garden up here." Hiro walked up beside her as she turned and looked out over the edge of the roof. He was so close, their shoulders pressed together. Aria liked that, just being close. After so long doing long-distance, just being in the same house as Hiro felt like a victory. "Aunt Cass is certainly a talented green-thumb."

"Ha, yeah, you'd never guess, huh?" Hiro grinned, wrapping an arm around Aria's waist. "It's actually thanks to Tadashi that she ever found out she liked to garden. He brought home a bean plant from school when we were really young. It was his science experiment, really kiddy stuff, you know. He had to make it grow a bean pod so he could show the class." He chuckled slightly, shaking his head. "And from there it just took off. The house was filled with plants, until Cass realized there was perfectly usable space up here."

"I always wanted to grow flowers," Aria said, admiring the various colored blooms around them, "but I kill everything I touch." This caused Hiro to let out a laugh, and he hugged her close.

"I doubt that." Bending slightly, he touched his forehead to hers, and heat began to rise in Aria's cheeks. "I forgot how cute you are close up."

"Yeah, well..." Aria was always so flustered when he said things like that, out of the blue! Hiro was the type to blurt things out without thinking much about them. "You'll have plenty of time to remember. Two years of time, at least."

"It better me more than two years," he said, toying with a piece of Aria's hair.

"Hopefully."

"Yeah, hopefully." Leaning down further, Aria momentarily panicked; she hadn't kissed him in over a year! Did she still remember how!? But he didn't give her much time to worry, his lips were on hers in an instant. And all her worry was for naught, there was nothing in the world that came as natural to her as kissing this boy. She felt every anxiety slip away as they stood intertwined, on the rooftop garden, as the sun was beginning to set. It couldn't have been more cliché, right?

Wrong.

"Oh my-!" Shoving away from Hiro suddenly, Aria's eyes began to water, and her mouth hung open as she tried to fan off her tongue. "It's those freaking hot wings!"

"Oh my god!" Hiro's face went from pale to fire-truck red in an instant, and he covered her face with his hands. "Aria, I'm so sorry!"

"Why does Cass make them so spicy!?" She honestly felt like she was dying; she'd eaten those hot wings only once, back during the first week of her stay, and she'd sworn never to try them again. She couldn't handle them! But Hiro was far more used to the degree of spiciness than she was, and had thought nothing of it. "I think I'm actually dying!"

And that was their first reunion kiss. Not exactly storybook perfect.