"This isn't going to shock me or anything, right?" Aria held the regulator at arm's length, peering at it apprehensively. It had shocked Hiro not five minutes ago as he was 'puttin on the final touches', and she certainly didn't want to get shocked in the head. Though, if a shock to the head was what it took to get unmagnetized…

"I swear," Hiro promised, leaning back in his swivel chair. The two of them had gone back down to the garage to work on it, as Hiro had wanted to add a few more features in light of Aria's newly discovered powers of magnetic repulsion. Aria stared at the device a few more seconds, before slowly setting it on top of her head. It fit snugly around her temples, wrapping across her forehead, and a wave of relief washed over her as she felt no electricity coursing through her brain. "See? Told you."

"How's the shock burn?" she asked wryly, reaching out to look at his hand, and his slightly singed fingertips.

"Just fine, thanks for asking." Sticking his tongue out playfully, he swiveled around, and went back to typing something into his program. "Now that we've got the regulator out of the way, we can get to the fun part."

"Fun part?" she said, confused as to what he meant by that. "What do you mean, 'fun part'. This IS the fun part; not being magnetized any more."

"Weeeeell…" He clicked a few things on the monitor, before pushing off and rolling across the room to the 3D display on the other side. He pulled up a file, which contained something that looked like a glove, and started to manipulate it. "Y'see, I've been thinking. This is…well, this is beyond amazing! This is like, superhero stuff. Do you know how much Fred would very literally kill for this opportunity?" Hiro said this with a laugh, but it was no joke; Fred would kill to have legitimate super powers. "And I mean, yeah, we've got to control it. But why stop there?"

"Hiro," Aria said, a warning in her tone, but he ignored her.

"I could definitely build something like this, to channel the regulated power through. So instead of attracting and repelling things at random based on your mood, you'd be able to control it better, through specialized ports built into things like shoes or gloves. Look!" He waved her over, and she honestly didn't know if she wanted to humor him by coming to look. But she did anyway, wary of what he had to show her. "I don't know if you'd ever be able to control it on your own, you know, naturally," he continued, enlarging the 3D map of the gauntlet on the display, "But maybe. And in that case, these would be like training wheels. Teaching your cells how to keep the radiation channeled through specific parts of your body. So maybe, in the future, you wouldn't have to wear a regulator at all."

Now that; that appealed to Aria. Getting to walk around like a normal human being again, not having to worry about crying and pulling a car off the road or something. It was all she really wanted, the only thing really, and if these gloves or whatever were the only thing that would help her get back to that, then so be it.

"Okay, well, I like the sound of that…but why are they so clunky? Couldn't they be slim or discreet like the regulator?"

"Uh, haha, well…that's the other thing." He looked sideways at her, sheepishly, and pulled up another file, this one containing the make up of a whole suit. Just like the rest of Big Hero 6's.

"No." It was quick, and it was definite. She was not going to be some crime fighting superhero. She just wasn't.

"Aria, you didn't even have to hear what I was gonna-"

"I'm not joining Big Hero 6 as Magno-girl, the electro-magnetic freak," she said bluntly, and Hiro scrambled to show her the specifics of the suit, in an effort to persuade her.

"But just look! The helmet's got the regulator built in, plus it syncs up to the rest of ours, so we can communicate wirelessly. The chanellers are built into the gauntlets and sleeves, you've got regulatory circuiting throughout the suit…and c'mon, think of how cool it would be!?" He looked so excited and eager, there was something inside Aria that was telling her to just say yes, if only to make him happy. But that wasn't really what she wanted. She wanted to be normal, not some super-powered outcast.

"Hiro," she said, rubbing the back of her neck uncomfortably, "I just don't know. I'm not looking for fame, or renound, or glory or whatever. I just want to be normal. That's…not exactly normal."

"Just think about it, okay?" he asked, taking her hand briefly. Her cheeks instantly flared up red, and she looked away, pouting. How dare he fluster her so easy! Damn him and his goofy smile, and genuine laugh and honest eyes…

"Fine. I'll think about it. In the meantime…let's just practice with the chanellers." Hiro nodded, complacent with that answer. It was a maybe. And a maybe could easily turn into a yes.

"Perfect, that's just fine with me," he smiled, reaching back to send the design to the 3D printer. Aria watched the machine in the corner snap to life, and begin the intricate process of weaving the exterior of the gauntlets out. They'd be sitting there a while, waiting. That was never good. "Soooo…why'd your parents stay in Los Angelosaka?" Hiro asked, and Aria instantly regretted telling him he had permission to ask her an awkward or painful question the other night.

"Umm…just, you know. Work and stuff," she said, trying to dodge the question.

"So they just sent you out alone? Man, Cass would never do that." He tried to imagine his over-protective Aunt allowing him to waltz off across Japanifornia all on his lonesome, and he nearly laughed out loud! That would never happen.

"Ah, well, you know. You're big news, Hiro. Child genius and all that. They knew you could help." Her lie sounded seamless enough, and she was relieved that Hiro was actually buying it.

"I'm no child genius," he said, in what Aria assumed was false modesty, though he cracked one of his wide, off-center grins. "I'm a man genius, actually."

"Oh…whatever!" Again with the blushing, Aria didn't know why this boy made her feel all flustered! This hadn't really ever happened to her before! Not that she was babyish, I was just that, for 18 years of her life, she'd just locked herself up in her room full of books. She'd never had a crush before; well, that wasn't true. She'd had crushes, but mostly on fictional characters. This was the first flesh-and-blood guy whom she wasn't related to that she'd spent so much time around. She couldn't help but feel nervous and flustered. Didn't help that Hiro was a real gem of a guy.

"You know," he said, breaking into her thoughts and pulling her back out into the world of the living. "When I was younger, I was kind of…well, a handful. I guess I still am. I didn't have a whole lot of friends, just my inventions. And Tadashi. And other bot fighters. But they weren't really my friends. I was leagues ahead of other kids my age, and people who could match me in smarts didn't usually want to hang out with a young kid like I was. So I was alone a lot. And then, after everything that happened, me and Gogo, Honey, Wasabi, Fred, we all just meshed so well together, but I always attributed it to all the stuff we went through together. How could you not grow close to people in that situation?" He paused, shaking his head minutely. "I guess I'd always been wondering, if Tadashi hadn't…well, if everything that happened, didn't happen, would I have been friends with them? I kinda think not. I was feeling a little down, to be honest, that I didn't know if I could make a friend on my own merit. And while I know you sought me out to get my help with a problem…I sort of feel like we're becoming friends, you know, organically? Like, maybe I am friend material." He looked sideways at Aria, gauging her reaction; he didn't want that to freak her out or make her think he was weird; it was just something he'd been thinking about recently. They'd known each other for only three days, and already, he felt so comfortable with her. It felt easy being around Aria. He didn't have to compete with her in knowledge, she wasn't the 'prodigy' type, and he didn't have to dumb himself down to be around her, she wasn't stupid. She was quiet, but sarcastic, wry, but warm. He really liked her. And he really liked that he was growing close to her. He liked friends.

"I felt kinda the same," she said, totally pink in the face, but not trying to hide it this time. "I'm not really very social on my own. Only when I'm forced to be. So, I'm not really glad I was magnetized, but…I'm sorta glad I had an excuse to meet you. If that doesn't sound cheesy or anything."

"Not at all." They both sat there, smiling at one another for a moment, but the calm comradery was shattered once the 3D printer had finished the first gauntlet, and made a rather abrupt 'It's ready' warning sound. "Sweet, it's finished! Time to thread and program this baby, and then we can test it out!"