found this old draft in my laptop, polished it up a bit. had the urge to write, but nothing was coming out right, so edited this instead.

in which Dash can't ever let GoGo get hurt. not ever.

"So let me get this straight." GoGo is leaning against her bike, her helmet on the seat behind her, her face impassive as she chews on her bubble gum. Goddammit, Dash thinks, she's so damn beautiful. The sun is setting, and the light is fading, and she's so goddamn beautiful and no he cannot get distracted right now.

She is looking at him with an emotionless mask, and all he really wants to do is make her smile and kiss her senseless.

No.

"You're dumping me. Because it's complicated."

"Not dumping," he says, immediately, automatically, and he wants to take her hands but she's got her arms folded over her leather jacket, hands under her arms. "I'm breaking up with you. It's – it's better this way."

It's the only way I can keep you safe, he thinks, but he doesn't say it.

He's just gotten a call from Violet earlier that day, a long, frustrated, tear-filled call about how her boyfriend Wilbur (stupid name, but the guy isn't that bad) has nearly gotten killed because of her and her dual identity as a Superhero. He can still hear her voice in his ears, telling him how it's all her fault, how if she'd just pushed him away and not hung onto him so desperately because she needs him, he'd be okay, he wouldn't be in the hospital right now, and she has to break up with him, she can't be close to him because it's just a death sentence for him.

And it's gotten Dash thinking.

GoGo is probably the best thing that's happened to him in San Fransokyo since he moved here nearly ten months ago. He can still remember that first meeting at the park; he'd been seeing her around for weeks, the crazy short Korean girl zipping around San Fransokyo at ridiculous speeds on her bike, running around the park on Saturday mornings, bubble gum in her mouth.

It took him approximately three weeks to get up the courage to go talk to her.

The conversation ended up something like this:

"That's a – that's a really cool bike."

"School project. Who're you?"

"Uh – Dash. My name's – my name's Dash. I go to – uh – San Fran University. I've seen you – I've seen you, you know, ride around the city sometimes. And, uh, run around in the mornings. I mean, not in a stalker-ish, creepy kind of seeing-you way, but uh, you know, just around – you know what, I'll stop talking now. Uh, what about you?"

"GoGo. SFIT." Pop of bubble gum. "I've seen you running those suicide laps in the morning."

"You – you did?" Internal cheer of triumph. "That's – that's – I mean, that's cool. That's totally cool. I mean – yeah. I mean – I was thinking – do you want to – I mean, if you're free – if you've got nothing – I mean, I don't really have anything to do right now – but if you want – I mean – there's a coffee place nearby – "

"Okay." Another pop.

"Really? For real? I mean – great. Yeah. Great. Cool."

And now he is standing here with her in the park where he first talked to her for the first time, and he is saying words that will mean he will never be able to look at her the same way again, and all he can really think about right now is how much he wants to kiss her –

Focus, Dash!

"Using the phrase 'break-up' instead of 'dumping' isn't making much difference here, Parr." GoGo's voice is icy, and oh god he wants to drag her to him by her hips and kiss her senseless and tell her he loves her but he can't. "And you're doing this because it's better for who, exactly?"

For you, he wants to say. For both of us. Because I can't let you get hurt and I can't live with myself if something happened to you because of me.

"For both of us," Dash finds himself saying. "GoGo – " He reaches a hand out instinctively: "Please, I just – "

"Forget it." GoGo slides a leg over her bike, grabbing her helmet and slips it onto her head without glancing back at him. "I'll drop by your place tomorrow to get my stuff. Just leave it in a box outside your door."

"GoGo – "

She doesn't say goodbye before the engine roars into life and she's gone.

He can't stay away.

He's tried, of course he has. It's safer for her if he's not around, especially with so many of his old enemies breaking out of prisons and declaring revenge on the Incredibles. He has to stay away, because it's the only way he can keep her safe.

He can't do it.

Dash finds himself straying to SFIT in his free time, watching from rooftop buildings and following her as she speeds her way around the city. He watches her as she zips around on her bike, as she tests out her electromagnetic wheels, as she wanders around the city on the weekends or in the evenings with her friends.

He misses her.

Goddammit, he misses her so much.

He misses days holed up in coffeehouses and racing around the city on their bikes and curling up on the beanbag in his apartment and fighting and making up and falling for her all over again.

Their photos are still plastered over his walls, of course. He can't bring himself to take them down. Endless photos he's dragged her into, a smile on her face, his arm around her, him grabbing her around her waist, her dragging him down to ruffle his hair.

Dash thinks he might go crazy.

She can't work on her electromagnetic suspended wheels.

Every time she steps into the lab and moves over to her work station, every time she glances over at the wheels, at the hanging bike, every time she moves over to work on them – she can't. She can't, because every time she does she can remember him. She can remember days at the park, speeding around the city on crazy races no one else would dare, him asking her endlessly about her project, how fast the wheels could go, how fast she wants them to go.

So she ends up in Tadashi's workroom most of the time, clearing a space at a spare table and doing her work there instead.

Tadashi notices something is wrong, of course, and it's a week before he corners her.

"What's going on?" he wants to know, leaning against the table she's doing her work on and crossing his arms. "I know something's bothering you. You haven't been the same since the week started. You didn't even punch Fred when he nearly wrecked the blueprints and calculations that you made and didn't have a back-up of."

"Stuff on my mind."

"GoGo." Tadashi takes away her papers, her pens, makes her look up at him. "Does this have something to do with that blond guy whose photo you had on your wall? I saw that you tore it down."

Her fist clenches over empty air.

Of course Tadashi would notice that photo, and notice that it was gone.

"Stuff just happened, okay?" she snaps.

"GoGo." He slides nearer to her, places a hand on her shoulder. "You know I'm here for you, right? You don't have to tell me anything if you don't want to. But I'm here if you need to talk."

She doesn't say anything for a long moment.

Goddammit. She misses that no-good, annoying blond punk so much.

"Thanks," she says, finally. "But I'm okay."

She ends up telling him anyway.

He lets her have a box of donuts from the café for free.

It's late one Friday evening when Dash drags himself away from his Super identity, when he finds a pair of jeans and a crumpled shirt (that she has never worn before) and a pair of Converse sneakers. If he doesn't stop trailing after GoGo from the rooftops, he knows, he will never, ever stop.

He has to try.

But he can feel his fingers tapping on his jeans, he can feel that pull calling to him to get up on those rooftops because he needs to find her he needs to see her –

No!

He ends up outside some place called the Lucky Cat Café, and he forces himself in because if he doesn't he knows he will end up in his Supersuit watching out for her. He can't do this. He can't keep watching her from afar, watch her zip around the city at reckless, incredible speeds, watch her pop her bubble gum and give that crooked smile to someone who isn't him –

Like right now.

He freezes just inside the doorway because really out of all the places in San Fransokyo she is here.

She is sitting with a group of people around a circular table, leaning back on her chair, a half-smile on her face. He can recognise the people from the stories she's told him. The guy in the beanie is Fred. The big African-American guy is Wasabi. The tall, blond girl is Honey Lemon. The short kid is Hiro. And the guy in the baseball cap who is sitting far too close to GoGo is Tadashi.

His fist clenches because he can see Tadashi slide an arm around the back of GoGo's chair and no that is not right –

It's been so long since he saw her so close.

Goddammit, she's so beautiful. She is beautiful and she is wonderful and she is crazy and she is GoGo and he thinks he can stand here all night watching her.

But then Tadashi says something, and she lets out a chuckle, and she looks up.

He wants to march right over there and kiss her senseless, he really does.

Her eyes darken when they catch sight of him.

GoGo -

It's like he's frozen. He can see her mutter something to the others at the table, he can see her slide up from her chair, and he thinks the Tadashi guy is looking at him but he doesn't really care because all he can see is GoGo.

And then she is walking towards him, her bubble gum in her mouth –

No, not towards him.

Towards the door.

She is so close that he can reach out and grab her arm and he wants to tell her that he gives up because he can't do this he is no good at keeping away from her –

But he doesn't.

She marches right past him, and her shoulder brushes his arm and oh god GoGo -

But then she is out the door, and he is left standing there, and it's difficult to breathe.

The next time he sees her is at the SFIT showcase.

He is there because, goddammit, he can't keep away. He knows about this showcase, he knows she'll be there, he knows that he will be lost in the crowd and so this will probably be one of the few times he'll see her up close without being seen himself because she doesn't like crowds.

So he goes there, and he watches her.

He goes there and he watches her cheer on Hiro Hamada, he watches her throughout the whole showcase as he follows at a distance around the hall because he can't keep away. It is wrong, and he broke up with her for a reason, but he misses her so damn much.

He can't stay away.

He is there when the alarm sounds, he is the one who dashes in and drags out that idiot Tadashi Hamada because he is a Super and that is what he does. The building explodes before he can run back inside to get Callaghan, and something breaks in him slightly because he is a Super and he is not supposed to fail.

But he does, anyway.

He fails, but all he can see is GoGo as she watches as her friend is carried into an ambulance, as he is thanked by Cass Hamada and Tadashi's younger brother who is being dragged into an ambulance of his own, as he is assaulted by Fred because he is just so grateful his best friend got saved by a famous superhero.

All he can see is GoGo.

And, goddammit, he wants to go over there and tell her that he's sorry and that he loves her.

He packs up and takes a trip to visit his parents and Jack-Jack in Metroville. He can't visit Violet, because he knows that she will know that something is wrong, so he takes a couple of weeks off from school and he buries himself with his family because he needs to stay away from GoGo or he knows she will get hurt because of him.

Jack-Jack figures there's something up, but he's too excited his big brother came back to visit than to wonder what it is, and he spends days showing Dash just how much he's improved with his powers. His dad figures there's something wrong, but he respects his older son's privacy and doesn't ask questions.

Helen Parr is another thing entirely. She sits him down at the kitchen table and demands to know what is going on.

"Dash," she says, and her brown hair is streaked with grey and her eyes are tired but understanding and she is smiling sadly, "what is going on?"

And his defences break. Just like that.

And he tells her about this amazing girl he met in the park at San Fransokyo nearly a year ago, he tells his mother all about GoGo and he tells her how much he cares for her goddammit and he tells her that he can't do it anymore because he doesn't want her to get hurt.

"Honey," she says. "Remember when you were ten and that incident with Syndrome happened?"

Of course he remembers. How can he not?

"Your father thought he was trying to protect us too," she reminds him. "But he needed us. If you're all the way back in Metroville just because of a girl, I think you may need her a lot more than you realise. I know your past relationships haven't turned out so fantastic, but I've never heard you talk about a girl the same way you talk about this GoGo."

"What are you saying?" he wants to know.

"I want you to trust her," she says. "And more importantly, trust yourself." And she smiles at him. "When the time comes, you'll know what to do."

When he finally heads back to San Fransokyo, he tells his mum he'll bring along his girlfriend the next time round: "If she forgives me."

Helen Parr just smiles.

When he gets back to San Fransokyo, it's to find the whole city buzzing with news about Big Hero 6, a group of superheroes who've saved them all from Robert Callaghan, who set the fire at the showcase to steal microbots. They're new, they're awesome, they're totally cool, and they're now the protectors of San Fransokyo.

For a moment, Dash is stunned.

He'd be an idiot not to recognise the figure in yellow, the reports of the electromagnetic wheels that the yellow speedster uses.

It is GoGo.

It is GoGo.

It is GoGo, and she is a goddamn superhero.

Why did he leave San Fransokyo?

He hears about everything she's been up against, and he can only think of how he should've been here to help her.

For a moment, for one wonderful moment, he remembers his mother back in Metroville and he thinks of GoGo and surely now everything will be okay?

But it's selfish. Now she's a superhero, for sure, but she's new to the job. She doesn't have enemies, not like how Dash has. And now she's a superhero, she'll be an even bigger target.

Now she's a superhero, and she's only got her electromag wheels to rely on, and he can't lose her.

He stays away.

Dash is alerted to Octo-man's escape from Jack-Jack, and Jack-Jack tells him that the stupid moron who goes around in a mechanised octopus suit has sworn revenge on Quickspeed for putting him in jail nearly three years ago.

It's two weeks before Octo-man's appearance is made known to him somewhere, wreaking havoc on the outskirts of the city and screaming revenge on Quickspeed and how he will destroy his new home and how Octo-man's powers of evil are now far greater than Quickspeed could ever imagine and he will take everything away from him.

These supervillains really only know how to say the same thing over and over again.

He arrives just in time to see Octo-man (seriously, what kind of stupid names do supervillains come up with?) raise one large, mechanical tentacle and strike a yellow-and-black blur with it, sending her slamming into the abandoned building with so much force that it starts to crumble around her.

GoGo.

No.

NoNoNoNoNo

GoGo is supposed to be safe

GoGo is not supposed to get hurt

This is not GoGo's fight because Octo-man is here for him because he and Vi put him in jail the last time

This is not GoGo's fight and GoGo is hurt

GoGo is supposed to be safe GoGo is supposed to stay away

No.

"HEY!"

All he can see is red, and the next thing he knows he is pummelling that goddamn octopus-man's face because this is his fight and he is going to send this idiot criminal back to jail –

"You – "

He lands a punch on the moron's face –

" – don't – ever – touch – her – again!"

It is one thing to be superheroes in action on a daily basis.

It is another thing to see an ultra-famous superhero repeatedly punch the octopus guy so many times in the face and screaming that he will never touch her again.

Fred is concerned for GoGo. Of course she is. The reckless speedster that she is, she's darted in headfirst into the battle with this Octo-guy, and she's been smashed into a building with the walls tumbling around her, and Wasabi is panicking and Baymax is lifting up the cracked walls and Hiro is freaking out and Honey Lemon is gushing and through the earpieces Fred can hear Tadashi's worried voice screeching for details.

But this is Quickspeed, returned to the city after who-knows-how-many weeks of absence, and while Fred has heard that the guy is reckless and fast, this is beyond anything he's ever imagined.

He thinks that the her Quickspeed is screaming about must be GoGo, though he can't imagine why the Incredible guy is so freaked out over her.

It takes maybe thirty seconds, tops, for Octo-guy to be wrapped up in his own tentacles which have all been yanked out of his mechanised suit, with his face completely purple and blue and black for Quickspeed's punches.

It takes another two seconds for Quickspeed to burrow himself into the middle of them, shoving off rubble and bricks from GoGo's body with just about as much strength as Baymax.

"GoGo," he can hear Quickspeed whisper, and his voice sounds broken and it is like a jolt because how the hell does Quickspeed know who she is? "GoGo."

God, no. This isn't happening.

He is vaguely aware of her friends in their bright suits crowding around him, but he can't bring himself to care because goddammit GoGo is hurt. He yanks off her helmet and he cradles her head in his hands on his lap, and all he can think is GoGo because she can't be hurt she can't be.

She is breathing, but she is breathing slowly, painfully, and he can only crouch over her because this is not right.

His vision is blurry and it feels like something wet is sliding down his cheeks.

"You can't do this to me," he says, and his voice is hoarse but he doesn't care and all he can see is her: "You can't do this to me, I need to apologise for being such a dick and I need you to tell me what an idiot I am and we still need to go and race around the city and we need to go and try those donuts you're always telling me about and we need more Sundays at your place doing nothing and GoGo you can't do this to me you can't – "

Her eyelids flicker.

"Dash?" she whispers, and her voice sounds so small but he wants to cry in relief because she is okay she is breathing and she is saying his name –

"Yeah," he says, and his voice comes out all strangled. "Yeah, speedo, it's me. You're gonna be okay, okay?"

"I'm always okay," she mutters, almost stubbornly.

"You're gonna be better than okay," Dash says automatically. "Stay with me, speedo, okay?"

"Thought you didn't wanna stay with me."

"I always want to stay with you," he says. "I never want to leave you. I want to stay with you, and race with you, and laugh with you, and eat loads of good food with you, and I want to kiss you senseless and I never ever want to leave you. I just wanted you to be safe, but – " He manages a smile, somehow " – seems like you end up getting into problems anyway."

"Yeah. That Octopus guy hurt." Her voice is low, raspy, slow. "And don't be sappy." She winces. "You're – you're Quickspeed."

"Yeah, speedo."

"You thought I'd get – I'd get hurt for being with a superhero?" She wants to know. "That's - that's why you broke up with me?"

"Well. Yeah."

"You're an idiot, Parr."

"I'm your idiot. I'll always be your idiot." Dash pauses. "If you'll have me back."

A small smile twitches onto her face. "I missed you too, Parr."

umm...any comments? haha