San Fransokyo Art Exhibit

The letters flowed in curly script on a sign above the door to San Fransokyo's Museum of Modern Art. GoGo's mouth twisted in a frown. "This is too swanky for my taste, Hamada."

Tadashi grinned at his girlfriend, who was currently in a spaghetti-strapped black dress that passed her knees and clung to her curves.

(*)

"Wait, let me get this straight. For Plan A to work, she has to be wearing a-"

"I've thought this out very well," Tadashi said, interrupting his brother. "And she already has that dress. She just hasn't worn it yet."

Hiro snorted. "Fine, fine. Continue." He wrote something on three pieces of paper, and lay them out in front of him.

(*)

"You look iridescent tonight, Leiko," he smiled as a way of placating her, and pecked her on the cheek. "And you know we're only attending this because Hiro invited us, right?"

A small smile appeared on her face. "You don't look bad yourself," she murmured, eyes on him, starting from his un-capped head, down to his suit and bow tie and Converse sneakers. "I am so jealous that you guys can pull that off," she made a face at his shoes.

"You know if my feet were as tiny as yours, I'd let you wear my sneakers, and I'd be prancing around in heels," he told her seriously.

GoGo had just a hint of pink on her cheeks. "Come on, pretty boy. Let's go look at some paintings so we can go home, already." She tugged on his arm, and they entered the exhibit.

It was a pretty standard exhibit; well-dressed people milling around absent-mindedly, looking at modern art and making comments about said artwork under their breath. "You said the rest of the gang would be here," GoGo sighed, as both of them looked at a tall canvas that seemed to be painted in all possible shades of red.

"Yeah, but you know we're the only people in our small group of friends that actually respect time, so expect them to show up thirty minutes from now," he whispered back, leading her gently by the elbow to the next canvas.

"People make a fortune just by drawing lines on a canvas, these days?" GoGo looked curiously at a straight black line on a white canvas. "Maybe I should just quit my job."

"If you could make the same amount of money they did, we'd have enough to buy a house and finance all three of our children," Tadashi commented, making GoGo blush - again.

"But we don't have three children," she pointed out, moving to the next canvas.

He shrugged. "Am I not allowed to think of our future?" She ignored him, and continued walking.

"Oh, come on," she muttered, looking up at the giant canvas. This was bigger than the violent looking red painting, and stood a good eight feet tall. What irritated GoGo was that it was just a four letter word in purple paint, with letters that stretched from the top of the canvas down to the very bottom.

Will.

"The artist must have been very empowered when he wrote that. I'm sorry; painted that," Tadashi snickered. She punched him in the shoulder.

"Lame," she hissed. "Couldn't you have brought me to a Renaissance Art fair?"

"But there are no Renaissance Art fairs," Tadashi replied, and she shook her head.

The next canvas was the same size, and most probably from the same artist. This time, the word in yellow paint was in three letters. GoGo groaned.

You.

"Yep, totally empowered," Tadashi said enthusiastically. "You can be the change you want to be in the world. You can be the next American Idol!"

"You're very talkative today," GoGo noticed, looking up at her boyfriend suspiciously. "Did you do anything wrong?"

"What? No," he said, making her think that, of course, he had done something.

"You broke my worktable again, didn't you?"

"No."

"Burned the rest of the chicken?"

"... No."

"You hesitated!"

Tadashi grinned sheepishly. "I already replaced it."

GoGo sighed, shaking her head. "I have to enroll you in cooking classes, don't I?"

Their banter continues as they walk to the next canvas. GoGo's eyes shot up at the same, eight-foot-tall canvas, and rolled her eyes. "What's this empowering message going to be? Maybe just 'power'?" she quipped, and read the next word.

Marry.

"Wait a second," she said in a low voice, retracing her steps.

Will.

You.

Marry.

"Ha-Hamada, this guy isn't empowered, he's proposing!" she said in surprise. She realized too late that her companion is missing. "Where the hell did he go off to now..." she pondered, looking around her. She gave up; he obviously had to use the little boy's room, or something else. She did practically run away from him to read what was on the first canvas.

She decided to move on; they were bound to find each other again in this medium sized hall anyway. GoGo couldn't help but smile at the obvious word on the next canvas, a 'Me' painted in vivid cerulean.

But what she hadn't expected was the last canvas. She had expected it to end there, obviously, and with a question mark. So what was on the last canvas? Maybe a name? Or some word that would change the idea entirely? A 'not' would be cruel, but probably the artist's way of expressing his bitter look towards relationships.

She reached the final canvas, and her heart stared racing.

Leiko.

Someone behind her cleared his throat, and she whirled around to find Tadashi on one knee. Behind him are the rest of the gang, and she's mildly suspicious that they were here the entire time, but it's not time to think about that now, not when he's about to propose.

"I-I didn't take you for an artist," she stammered, looking at him.

Tadashi chuckled. "Neither did I, but... I think it was time to start something new."

GoGo's speechless for the third time in her life (the first and second times all had something to do with Tadashi), until something clicks. "Wait, aren't you supposed to say your speech before you kneel down?"

(*)

Tadashi buried his face in his hands, as Hiro took the piece of paper Plan A was written on, crumpled it into a ball, and placed it in front of a piece of paper that had the words 'Complete, absolute fail' written on it in Hiro's messy scrawl. Besides that paper were two others; one that had the word 'Maybe', and the last one said, 'Might Work'.

Hiro was very optimistic about his brother's plans.

"It wouldn't have worked anyway, because we don't have a San Fransokyo Museum of Modern Art," Hiro pointed out. "The one that the city's been thinking of building won't start construction until four years from now."

"I know, I know," Tadashi grumbled. "I guess I got excited when I heard the news."

"Another thing - don't bring GoGo to a place where she might get bored. Heck, the line across the white canvas was boring already. Do you really think she might have made it to the Will You Marry Me, Leiko canvases?"

"Again, point to you," the older Hamada sighed. "Fine. Plan A doesn't work, but there are still other plans."

"What's Plan B, then?" Hiro asked, snickering. "Baboons?"

"Balloons, actually."

(*)

Plan A - done!

I'm finding these cute and easy to write. Wow, I can imagine myself finishing these.

Remember, you can request prompts for letters I haven't done yet! I can't promise to do all of them, but I will do some (assuming there are any).

Thanks for clicking this story!

/disappears behind a hidden door inside a bookshelf