GAME CHANGER

"So, anyway...I finally agree to go see this movie with her. She said it was full of aliens and stuff, so I thought, ok, it must be cool-and guess what? There were barely any aliens in it!" Tip rolled her eyes. "It was just some dull love story and the aliens only came in at the last twenty minutes. Like, who even makes a movie like that? Who greenlighted that script?"

Hiro chuckled, listening to Tip ramble as they casually walked down the sidewalk. She was always so emotive when she talked, it was adorable.

"Honestly, I would like to see one alien movie that isn't full of stupid stuff," Tip sighed. "All of them are the same-and why do the aliens have to be gross and mean, anyway? Why can't they be cute and friendly?"

Hiro laughed. "Cute and friendly? And how do you envision that kind of alien?"

"I dunno...something small, and cute, and...maybe purple?"

"Purple?"

She giggled. "Yeah, with eight legs and a big smile. And they're not here to invade-they just want a huge party."

"I don't know, I don't think a real alien would travel to another planet just to have a party."

"How do you know? Have you met a real alien?"

Hiro smirked. "Hm. You got me there."

She grinned. "Heh...do you even believe in real aliens, Hiro?"

He shrugged. "Dunno. Maybe. I just don't think I believe in the cute and cuddly ones."

"Right, I forgot," Tip teased. "You're a manly man who prefers the big and scary aliens who would sneak up on you, and-attack!" At this, she smacked him on the back, causing Hiro to yelp in surprise.

"H-hey! No fair!"

She burst out laughing and gave him an affectionate shove. "You're a riot, Hiro."

Hiro rolled his eyes and rubbed his shoulders. "Yes, I know, I'm hilarious...but Tip, the pushing, remember?"

Tip stopped laughing. "O-oh, sorry, Hiro...i-it's just a bad habit, but...yeah, you don't like it, so…"

He chuckled. "It's ok, I know," he replied gently. "Anyway-what's that about an alien party? What would they even do?"

Tip giggled and continued talking, and Hiro just let her talk. He rubbed his shoulder again absentmindedly. Tip could be a little...much, sometimes, but she was just energetic, was all. He really didn't mind having to repeat some things to her over and over-she'd get it in time, right? And he still liked her a lot. It was never hard to talk to her, and she was always lots of fun. They'd been together for about a month or two now, and Hiro was enjoying it just as much as ever.

Tip stopped talking for a second, and Hiro heard her stomach growl a little.

"I'm kinda hungry," she admitted, looking over to Hiro sheepishly.

Hiro smiled. "We're pretty close to the Lucky Cat. Wanna stop there for lunch?"

"Sure! Your aunt makes the best food!"

Hiro chuckled as Tip grabbed his hand and pulled him in the direction of the cafe. He yelped a bit. "T-Tip! The pulling again!"

"Oh, sorry!"

The couple arrived at the cafe, where Hiro was surprised to see most of his friends hanging out without him. Huh. It looked like they'd been hanging out together for a while when he and Tip were together.

"Riley?" Tip asked in surprise, when she saw Riley hanging out with the college students as usual.

"Oh , hey Tip! Hi Hiro!"

"What are you doing here?" Tip asked.

"Uh, hanging out with my fam," Riley responded, gesturing to the older students at the table. "What are you doing here?"

"Uh, hanging out with my man."

"Ooooh!" everyone at the table erupted into a fit of snickers.

Hiro blushed a bit and looked downward as Tip held on to his arm. Smooth, Tip, real smooth. He looked back up at the table to glare at his teasing friends, and noticed that GoGo wasn't there.

...ah, it didn't matter. She was probably busy with something else, right?

"So, Hiro," Tip began again. "These are all your college buddies, right?"

"Uh, yeah," Hiro replied. "Guys, this is Tip. Tip, this is Honey Lemon, Wasabi, Fred, and...you've met Tadashi, right?"

Tip giggled and nodded. The others greeted her happily as the two of them sat at the table.

"Tip, huh?" Fred mused. "Looks like you're already part of the nickname squad."

"Yep!" said Tip.

"Nice. I was hoping to give you a super cool nickname, but Tip works good too."

"Fred, you don't have to give everyone a nickname," Wasabi groaned.

"It's fun, though. I've been trying to come up with a good nickname for Hiro. I was thinking Noodle."

Riley almost spit out her drink with laughter. "What? Noodle? Why?"

"You know," Fred gestured to his young friend. "Cause he's thin, and 'noodle' also means brain, so you know…"

"No," Hiro replied quickly, shutting him down.

"Awww, come on, Hiro! It took me forever to come up with that!"

"No."

"I'll call him Noodle," Tadashi snickered

"Me too!" said Riley.

Hiro turned to Tip. "You see what I have to deal with?"

"Your friends are awesome!" Tip giggled.

Aunt Cass then walked over with a grin. "Well, hey there, lovebirds. What can I get for you?"

"I'm not really hungry…" Hiro murmured.

"Do you have a menu, Ms. Hamada?" Tip asked.

"Of course sweetie. Pick whatever you want, this one's on the house."

While Tip eagerly looked over her menu, the bell at the door suddenly rang, and everyone turned to see who it was.

GoGo had entered the cafe, ruffling her hair a bit from the helmet she'd been wearing, and chewing her bubble gum cooly as usual. Hiro gulped and turned away.

Tip, however, continued to stare. "Whoa. Who's that?"

"That's...GoGo," Hiro muttered. "She's another friend of ours…"

GoGo walked slowly over to the table and nodded to her friends, then took a moment to study Tip. "Who's the new girl?"

"Hi! I'm Tip," Tip replied with a grin. "I'm...Hiro's girlfriend."

GoGo gave her half a grin. "Oh yeah, Tip Tucci. I've heard about you. Nice to meet you, I'm GoGo."

Tip shook the older girl's hand as if she were a celebrity. GoGo popped a bubble with her gum and went to sit with the rest of her friends, across from Hiro.

Tip looked over at Riley with a smile. "She's so cool!"

"I know, right?" Riley replied. "And wait till you see her cool bike...GoGo, can I show Tip your bike?"

GoGo shrugged. "Sure. It's parked right outside. Just don't touch it."

The two young girls got up excitedly as Riley led Tip over to the window. "She tricked it out," Riley said to her friend. "And it looks badass…"

Hiro rolled his eyes and turned to GoGo. "Looks like you've got a couple of fans."

GoGo merely smirked. "Eh. Just comes with being me, I guess. Anyway, how are you doing, Noodle?"

Hiro groaned. "Don't call me Noodle…"

GoGo laughed, but obliged.

The lazy atmosphere of the weekend afternoon seemed to settle in right then. Hiro had always liked these days. His friends would always show up to relax, and there weren't many people at the cafe. Before he'd gotten together with Tip, Hiro used to hang out with his friends like this all the time. He loved being with Tip, of course, but he often found himself missing this and was more than happy to enjoy it now.

As they lazily lounged around in the cafe, the group paired off into their own conversations. Riley and Tip had taken seats at a different table, eating while they happily discussed something from and Fred were arguing loudly about something, and Tadashi and Honey were ignoring them all, talking amongst each other in hushed voices.

This just left Hiro and GoGo, who were mainly just sitting around and watching the antics of their friends.

Just then, GoGo yawned, and Hiro looked over at her with a grin.

"You sleepy already?" he asked cheekily.

"I pulled an all-nighter," GoGo explained nonchalantly. "I had to finish an essay due this morning."

Hiro frowned. "Really? Well, it's not like you had to come here...you could have stayed home to sleep…"

She smiled at him. "Nah, it's fine. I like having lunch here. Gives me something to look forward to."

Hiro felt himself grin. How sweet. GoGo was looking forward to hanging out with him-er, well, with all of them.

She sighed. "Anyway, what have you been up to?"

He shrugged. "Stuff."

She smirked. "You been working on that circuitry project for McAllister's class?"

He groaned. "Ugh, why do you have to bring that up?"

"Ok, I'll talk about something else-" GoGo snickered. "Where's that supersuit upgrade you've been promising me?"

"The circuitry project is going well, thanks for asking."

"Hey!"

Hiro chuckled, amused at her annoyed face. "I'm kidding-I'll get to it soon, GoGo, I promise. I just need you to, you know, actually help me."

"I can come over tomorrow if you want."

Hiro felt his heart skip a beat. "Sure, if you want-oh, uh, you've got something in your face, by the way."

GoGo frowned and rubbed her face. "Uh, is it gone?"

"No, it's-" Hiro frowned as he watched her try to find the peice of food on her cheek again. "It's right there-here, I got it." He leaned over and gingerly wiped the crumbs off her face, feeling a slight jolt when his finger made contact with her skin.

GoGo didn't seem to notice. "Thanks."

She said something else, too, but Hiro didn't really hear it. He was too focused on how soft her cheek had been, and how nice it looked when her hair framed her face, glistening in the afternoon sunlight-wait, what?

"Anyway!" Fred slammed his hand down on the the table, snapping Hiro out of his trance. "We may as well get everyone else to help us settle this-guys, we need your opinion. Would the Jedi from Star Wars technically count as empaths or not?"

GoGo scrunched her nose. "You mean you've been yelling all this time about Star Wars?"

"Answer the question."

GoGo rolled her eyes. "I don't give a shit."

Fred was about to pry her more, but instead thought better of it and turned to Hiro. "What do you think, little Noodle?"

"Quit trying to make Noodle happen or I'll take Wasabi's side," Hiro snapped. "Anyway, are we talking prequels or originals?"

"Both."

"Uhhhh, then I don't know."

GoGo snickered.

Fred rolled his eyes. "Hey Tadashi, Honey! What do you guys think?"

The couple on question wasn't paying attention. Tadashi was too focused on the kisses that Honey was giving him on the cheek.

Wasabi rolled his eyes. "Hey, you two! Cool it with the PDA, we're right here!"

Tadashi and Honey finally looked up at this, blinking in confusion. "Uhhhh, sorry, were you saying something?"

"Important Star Wars discussion!" Fred informed them.

Tadashi frowned. "You interrupted us for Star Wars?"

While Fred and Wasabi interrogated them, GoGo turned back to Hiro. Rolling her eyes, she made a subtle puking motion at her mouth. "Frickin PDA."

Hiro chuckled. God, she was adorable. "Heh, yeah, they do that all the time."

"Don't they bug you?"

"Uh-huh. I don't get how they do it all the time, in front of everyone like that."

"Me neither," GoGo rolled her eyes. "I sure as hell wouldn't want anyone doing that with me."

"Wellllll, if I had a girlfriend, I wouldn't do that with her, that's for sure."

GoGo looked confused. "If you had a girlfriend?"

Hiro was still staring at her dreamily. "Yeah..."

GoGo narrowed her eyes at him. "Hiro, wake up. You have a girlfriend, remember? She's right over there with Riley."

At these words, Hiro sat up straight, the full weight of what he's just said suddenly dawning on him. He glanced over at Tip, who thankfully hadn't heard him, and turned back to GoGo.

"Oh, u-uh...of course. J-just a force of habit, heh."

GoGo's suspicious look didn't leave her face.

And why would she? He was a terrible liar. "Force of habit"? He'd been with Tip for almost two months. He knew exactly what had happened just then. For a moment, for just a brief moment, he'd actually forgotten about Tip. GoGo made him forget about Tip.

Why.

Why did GoGo make him forget about Tip?

"Uh, anyway, l just remembered," Hiro got up haphazardly out of his chair. "Ummmm...I've got...something I need to check on...upstairs. See you later."

He stumbled upon his own feet as he hurried out of there. GoGo's eyes never left him, and as he ran away he heard the others calling his name in confusion. But it didn't matter. He had to get out of there right now.

Retreating as fast as he could to his room, Hiro slammed the door behind him and huddled into a ball on the floor, trying to clear his thoughts.

Why? That was the one word that plagued his mind as the sinking feeling in his stomach grew ever deeper. Why? Why was GoGo still making him feel this way? He'd gotten over her already, hadn't he? So why was she still numbing his brain and making him forget things?

Tip...oh, poor Tip. What would she think if she found out? Would she think Hiro didn't care about her? But of course he did. Hiro liked Tip a lot.

But...if Tip gave him butterflies, then the feelings GoGo gave him would be akin to a swarm of bees flying around in his brain. Painful, numbing, all-consuming...

Hiro shook his head. No, he couldn't let this get to him again. He had Tip! Tip was all he needed. He just needed to put forth more effort. Nothing came easy, right? He took a few deep breaths, trying to calm down, trying to figure out a solution. He just needed to spend more time with Tip, was all...

"Hiro?"

Hiro looked up at the concerned sound of his brother's voice. Tadashi had just opened the door and, at the sight of Hiro huddled up on the floor, had immediately rushed to his side.

"Are you ok?" Tadashi asked, urgency in his voice.

"I..." Hiro replied slowly. "I'm fine." He stood up, took another breath to steady himself, and headed toward the door.

But Tadashi stopped him. "What happened down there?"

"Nothing."

"Hiro-"

"I'm fine!" Hiro snapped. He pushed Tadashi away and stomped out of his room. Tadashi made no effort to follow him, which was fine. Hiro already had the answer to his problem, he didn't want to address it in front of his brother and make his panicking worse.

When he reached the cafe, he noticed that GoGo was gone. Also fine with him. The others were looking to him in concern, but Hiro paid them no heed and marched right over to Tip.

He mustered as much of a smile as he could. "Hey, Tip."

"Hiro," Tip replied, also seeming worried. "You okay?"

"I'm fine, don't worry-anyway, if you're done, you wanna get out of here?"

"Oh, um...I actually have to start heading home..."

"Oh." Hiro frowned. "Well, I can walk you home, if you'd like."

She smiled. "S-sure, I'd like that."

Tip happily waved goodbye to her and Hiro's friends, before taking his hand and letting him lead her outside. Hiro had to gulp a few times, trying not to let his guilt from what happened just now be noticed by Tip. Tip was chatting away as usual, with an occasional worried glance at Hiro but nothing more.

When they stopped in front of Tip's home, she gave him a quick goodbye hug. "Thanks for the walk, Hiro. See you soon?"

"Sure," Hiro replied with his forced smile. "I'll call you, okay?"

"Ok! Bye!"

As soon as she was gone, Hiro took a few more deep breaths and began to head back. It wasn't so bad now. He could get home, get started on his work, and let all his romantic worries slide away. Then he'd go on another date with Tip, remember how much he enjoyed being with her, and his mistake would be forgotten forever. Not too big of a deal. He was fine. H-he was...just fine...