"He made me know what happiness felt like."

Hiro turned his head towards her. "Oh?"

It wasn't often that she stayed over, and when she did, she made sure to leave before he woke up. Hiro stopped counting the number of times he had woken up to cold sheets and the scent of her skin lingering in the air, teasing him.

Look. She was here.

Key emphasis on was.

She might be with him physically, but Hiro began to wonder if her mind drifted somewhere else. When she looked at him, was it really him or another?

Invisible jealousy crawls in his spine.

He would never ask her, and he thinks that's part of the reason she chose him in the first place.

In the lab, nothing has changed. She has become the lab manager, close to finishing her PhD. Her days consist of writing grants to get more money so that the rest of them can pursue their research. To Hiro, there is nothing nobler.

One night, he got so caught up in programming that he didn't notice the skies grow dark outside his office. He had just picked up his backpack when he heard a loud clang. A million scenarios ran through his head—another intruder, he had to call the rest of the group to gear up—but when he heard a faint curse, he relaxed.

"Up this late, GoGo?"

She looked up at him, startled but trying desperately not to show it.

He spoke for her. "I didn't know you still worked on your electromag bike."

She scoffed. "It hasn't been taken out for a test ride in a while. Besides, I usually get around with the skates anyways."

Although things had calmed down ever since they took down Yokai, every couple of months there would be a new problem in San Franskyo that required the Big Hero 6's attention.

But it is clear that they are growing up. He had been one of the groomsmen for Fred's wedding just the weekend prior. Although he was on the same intellectual level as them—he was also working on his PhD thesis project—it still felt painfully obvious how much younger he was than most of his friends.

He crouched down on the floor so that they were level with one another. She looked up, a bit apprehensive, and he was afraid for a moment that she would tell him to go home. Luckily, her mouth stayed shut.

Flopping back onto the lab floor, he noticed how his shirt had ridden up. A consequence of his most recent growth spurt.

"I need to go buy new clothes."

"Mmm-hmm." She was absorbed in her work now. Something about her concentrated face fascinated Hiro. It was so straight-forward. No walls. Easy to see what she was thinking about.

He wished she looked at him like that.

"Do you think I've grown up since I met you guys?"

He hears GoGo's bubblegum snap. There is silence for a bit, before he dares to look over.

She is staring at him, with those unrelenting eyes. A challenge he cannot help but meet.

After a pause, she answers him. "Of course. Or else we wouldn't do what we've been doing for the past six months."

His surprise is tangible. They, well rather she, rarely talked about what was going on between them. He knew it wasn't a relationship, per say. But he also knew that he was the only one she was with. And visa versa, for that matter. He couldn't even think of anyone else he desired as much as he did her.

Just her.

That first night, in his garage, she had ridden him into the cushions. It was not fast, but it was hard. There was no softness in the way she looked at him, nipped at his skin, tore off his clothing.

He was surprised, because he had imagined this scenario in his head more times than he was willing to admit. She was beautiful. Head strong, wickedly smart, but just plain beautiful. Not only when they were tangled up in one another. Even now, grease staining her hands, hair half up, bags under her eyes from the stress of work, she was more beautiful than any other.

His own feelings were nothing new. He knew exactly how he felt about her, but nothing of what she felt in return (if anything at all).

So he smiled when she asked him if he wanted to take a spin, dropping her helmet beside his head. After all, GoGo wasn't the only one who could wear masks.

"How do we understand the human mind?" asked the lecturer.

Hiro was listening, but he had mastered the art of multitasking in class long, long ago. His ears picked up on the professor's nuances as his hands sketched a design for a new engine.

"As grad students at San Franskyo University, it is imperative…" Hiro grimaced. He hated that word—"…that you get a feel for what it means to truly connect with another person."

His hands slowed down, attention suddenly piqued.

"As the old adage says, 'Birds of a feather flock together.' We are attracted to those in which we see ourselves."

He shook his head, hands returning to the task he had set them to. He didn't need an old man's words to remind him of what he already knew.

When Tadashi went, everyone grieved with him. His Aunt. His friends. The professors at the university that all wrote emails to him, mourning the loss of such a bright young mind.

But he didn't eat meals with Aunt Cass. He ignored the texts of his friends. He deleted emails without reading them.

Only GoGo seemed to understand him, right after Baymax, who wasn't human but understood exactly how Hiro felt by reading his vitals.

After they put Callaghan in prison, everyone congratulated him outside the courtroom. Krei especially thanked him for his testimonial, offering him his personal business card for one special favor. The rest of the gang swept him away as they went to Fred's mansion for a small celebratory dinner.

He was fifteen, at the time. The court proceedings had taken a long time. Despite his age, everyone had casually drank sake and therefore offered him a cup. He had taken it, but was in serious regret when the world started spinning.

They all ended up in Fred's massive media room, playing Super Street Smash Fighter Bros. The lights were dimmed, and everyone was bundled near the front of the room.

He was in the back, trying hard to cry without making any noise. The whole trial, the wounds of Tadashi's death were re-opening. When he sat there, it felt numb. But now?

He could hardly believe it had been two years. Sometimes, it still felt like Tadashi might walk through the door of the café, his room, the lab office, and laugh about how he took a spontaneous trip around the world.

But no. He was gone.

"Hey."

Hiro looked up. GoGo was there, holding onto two steaming mugs of hot chocolate. She offered one to him.

She was staring at him for a long time, even after they had both drunken half of their cups. Somewhere in that time frame, she had gotten onto the floor with him, sitting cross legged.

Eventually, Hiro couldn't take it anymore. "Aren't you going to tell me not to cry?" He snapped.

"No. Cry. But I'll tell you this…" she wrapped one arm around him, than the other. Hiro kept his grasp on the mug.

"Cry all you want. But then tell yourself—this is the last time. Tadashi would want rather want you to laugh and smile when you think about him."

He closes his eyes and remembers his brother, his idol. How he always knew how to make him feel better, even if it was just a pat on the head. The same warmth is present whenever GoGo hugs him. He is reminded of the last time she did this, when he first came to accept Tadashi's passing and let go of the hatred of his heart.

She was always the first to give him what he needed.

He fell asleep in her arms.

When he wakes up the next morning, it is with a slight hangover and a strange pang in the heart that he couldn't quite name.

Four years later, and he knows what the pang is.

It's present whenever she smiles at him, when she screams in frustration, whenever she is beneath him, squirming and ever so slightly panting his name.

He wants to make love to her, but she doesn't let him. Sure, they've had sex. She's been to his bed so many times it is almost routine: it starts with her spontaneously coming over to work on a project or watch a movie or whatever, and ends with them grasping at each other's hair, choking for air between rough kisses.

After he turned eighteen, he had told Aunt Cass that he wanted to get his own apartment. She was a bit disappointed at first, but he was sure that if she knew of their happenings his aunt would appreciate being able to sleep well. Because well, they were loud. Two forces of nature colliding against one another. His hardened torso against her soft one. He would often trace the curve of her spine with his eyes, hands, or lips, just amazed at how she would expose herself like that to him, physically vulnerable.

But they did not make love.

Each time when he wakes up to empty, mussed sheets he stares at the ceiling tiles and tells himself that this would be the last time. That the next time she came over with her electromagnetic skates he would really help her fine tune them instead of grabbing her by the shoulders, covering her mouth with his, and then...

He shakes his head.

It's almost scary, how much he loses control around her. He's spent his entire life with a clear plan in mind. Logic was always his forte, and machines an extension of that gift ever since he fixed a microwave at age seven. But no one had ever prepared him for this. Tadashi had never been there to give him "the talk," to warn him about girls and to share his personal experiences.

So really, romance was something he couldn't grasp. Especially with a woman he's had a crush on since he was fifteen.

Every time he would try to slow down, her feet would hook behind him to speed him back up. If he kissed her tenderly, she would harden her face. It was incredibly frustrating, to hold someone with their defenses so high. So he would return her shutting him out by letting himself be possessive. His teeth would mar her neck to claim her as his. If she was begging him to take her harder, he would not do so until she had called out his name in need to his satisfaction. Over time, he felt himself become dominant, slip into this routine where she would become putty in his hands.

And yet, his heart was not satisfied, for he owned GoGo's body but not her.

She had asked him once, after a rare time when neither of them fell asleep after, if she was his first kiss.

He bit his lip. "No."

Of course, she had poked him for answers—literally, with a finger lightly jabbing his arm. It was amazing how after the fact they could easily return to their casual friendship while still being completely naked.

After the fifth poke, he gave in. "There was this girl at my sixteenth party. Remember, the one from my Japanese diction class? Anyways, she kissed me after the party. Said something like 'it's a part of your present.'"

GoGo snickers. "That's so…cheesy."

"Yeah, I know. Japanese diction was really awkward after that."

They rest like this, content in the silence. Hiro knows that this will only last a little longer until she decides whether to go home or sleep beside him. He hopes it is the latter, if only to wait until her breathing evens out to curl up beside her, not quite wrapped in her warmth but close to it.

Shit. He has it bad.

"And you?" he asks, hoping to steer the conversation away from him.

She stiffens, which makes him curious. GoGo, while guarded about her feelings, shares nearly everything else with him. Her demanding parents, her worries about deadlines. She was his closest human friend after all of these years.

"Apparently, I kissed a boy when I was five." The answer is curt.

"And after that?" he prods.

"After that…there was just the one."

His heart drops. "The one…what?" He knew she had past lovers. They had discussed it before, if only in passing and only when she felt like it. But this was different. This was selective.

Her arms have come to wrap around themselves, an added barricade to his onslaught. Her mouth opens, then shuts. Finally, she exhales.

"The one guy I loved."

He is about to ask her "who" out of pure shock but then notices how her eyes follow to his dresser. To the baseball cap that is sitting there, like a sentinel on watch.

He no longer needs to ask.

What comes out of his mouth instead is "I think we should stop this."

Hiro always had a feeling in the back of his head that they were using each other as Tadashi's replacement. After all, if you had asked the others they acted like siblings in all but in name. The wise, curt older sister. The snarky, intelligent younger brother.

Who were fucking each other. Not that anyone knew.

He was mad. In rage. He thought that he was an emotional replacement for the older Hamada, and he was alright with that. After all, wasn't that part of the reason he was attracted to her as well? But Tadashi. Tadashi had made love to GoGo. It almost made him want to curse the dead.

He feels childish and shameful. How could he get jealous when it had already been five years, if not more? But still. GoGo was his. Her rare laugh. Her warm thighs. The way she looked at him sometimes, late on Friday nights, when he thought maybe, just maybe, she lov—

There is banging on his door. He glances up from the Netflix show he doesn't even remember watching.

He half-expects it to be her, so he is surprised when he opens the door to Fred, Wasabi, and a twelve-pack of beer.

"Hey tiny Hamada. We hope you like 'Robots vs. Aliens II.'"

Several alcoholic beverages later, he asks them how they knew he was down lately. The two guys laugh and say they have noticed the Cold War between him and GoGo in the lab lately. "We know how close you guys are. Were. And we just wanted to, I don't know…" Fred drunkenly trails off, but Hiro understands.

They watch the action movie for a few more minutes before a thought occurs to him.

"Wait. Did everyone in lab notice that we had a falling out?"

Wasabi winces and looks like he's about to say something, but is cut off by Fred.

"More like had a falling in amirite?"

Hiro flushes. "You knew."

"Yeah, the looks you guys were shooting each other over lunch was not very subtle. Plus the fact that she always lets you go easy on cleaning duties. We might be busy in lab but we go to San Franskyo University—we're not dumb."

Wasabi, while looking horrified adds in, "Well, to be fair Fred doesn't go here, but yeah. You guys had a thing, right?"

Hiro swirls the beer around in his cup. "I don't know. I mean, I guess I do, but we never…quite established the parameters…in our relationship." The last word feels forced, but what better word does he have to use?

"I just," he's rambling now, "I thought that she was interested in me. Somewhat. And then I find out, she's still hung up on someone else, and I don't know, I want all of her, not just the outside but the inside too, you know?" He rubs the spot on his chest, right next to his left ribcage.

The three men sit in silence, the movie forgotten.

Wasabi clears his throat first. "If you're talking about Tadashi, she's over him."

Hiro nearly spills his drink.

His two friends are silent, the mood suddenly sobered. Wasabi offers a weak smile, echoing Fred's words.

"We're not stupid, you know."

What to do now.

He wakes up to the second illegal hangover of his teenage years. Making his way to the kitchen, he spots the two older men passed out on his couch. Baymax has already activated, and quickly scans Hiro when he enters the room.

"I am detecting significant dehydration due to alcohol consumption. I recommend: an aspirin and water." Baymax quickly conjures an aspirin packet from the cabinet and has a glass of water filled before Hiro can even sit down.

"Thanks Baymax." He gratefully gulps down the water as he waits for his friends to rouse.

What to do now. Well, Hiro had always been a logical kind of guy, so he starts with the facts.

GoGo and Tadashi had a thing going on. Probably similar to their thing.

She said he was the only man she had ever loved.

That annoying pang is at his heart again, squeezing it. He decides this is a good time to take the aspirin.

If only he could get over her. There were plenty of girls at the university. Prettier ones. Funnier ones.

But it didn't matter. He knew there were others but to him, there had always been just her. Always. Since the moment she told him it was okay to cry.

Maybe he really is fucked up.

The next week was Hell. The new information he had garnered plus the continued abstinence of her made concentrating nearly impossible. On Tuesday, he had realized that he had been re-reading the same paragraph nearly five times on his holo-textbook.

She kept in her personal office, far away from the rest of the lab. While everyone was concerned, Honey Lemon was the only one who dared to enter, usually with coffee or lunch in hand. Hiro remembered how, just a few weeks ago, it was easy to cross that threshold, easy to sit there for hours absent-mindedly chatting while working alongside each other. He missed her companionship.

The physical craving was also something he didn't expect. They had settled into a routine that flared but satisfied both of their needs. They never spoke of it, but both knew that GoGo was his first experience with the female body. He would find himself nearly driven mad with want, even at little things like catching a whiff of her in his apartment.

He wants her. He always had.

He always will.

And it scares him. Everyone he has ever gotten close to has been torn away from him. He was only able to save Baymax, but you can't rebuild humans from steel and hard work.

When they buried Tadashi, he had promised himself never again to get attached to someone he could lose. And yet. She snuck under his defenses. Repelled his attacks. Climbed over his walls.

He can only hope he had done the same for her.

Maybe it's sneaky, hiding in his office until she feels safe enough to leave her woman-cave.

Hiro would try to reason that just turning off your lights and being quiet wasn't creepy, but he didn't know any other way to see her alone.

When he finally hears her curses and tinkering, he opens the office door in one sound swoop.

Her hair is up. That is the first thing he notices, before seeing her raised eyebrows and slightly agape mouth. It only lasts for a quick second, before her face hardens and she tucks a purple strand behind her ear.

"What do you want?" Her bubblegum pops.

He wonders what he looks right now. Nervous? Yes. Disheveled? Most definitely. She has probably noticed the flowers he has in his hand, half hidden by his pants. Purple is her favorite color.

"Can I sit down? With you?"

Her eyes roll. "Do I look like I own this lab?" He winces, but at least they're talking, which is more than he can say for the past two weeks.

He sits.

GoGo is many things. Bad-ass, stubborn, incredibly smart.

But there was one more word that only Hiro would use about her.

Cautious.

He sees it in the way she chews on the edge of her lip, the rest of her face stoic. The silence between them burns Hiro's ears.

For once, he has to be the blunt one here.

"What happened between Tadashi and you?"

The world pauses. GoGo grips her screwdriver like a lifeline.

After a while, she speaks. "We fucked around for a bit. It ended because he fell for Honey. The end."

His brows knit. "Wait, Honey and Tadashi were dating?"

"Yeah. Secretly. Or whatever. I wouldn't know, but it was obvious that they were in love," GoGo's eyes soften. "Honey's still wrecked, poor girl."

"You're not jealous," he states. Not questions, he knows her better than that.

Her smile is somber. "Yeah. I'm not. Got over your spineless brother a long time ago."

Hiro nods, suddenly nervous all over again. His heartrate kicks up two notches. "That's good. Uh, these are for you."

He hands her the flowers, already half-wilted from when he got them at lunch.

She laughs and it fills his heart because he hasn't seen her face light up like that in a while. "Aw, you shouldn't have." The plastic crinkles in her hands when he passes it to her.

"Purple is my favorite color."

"I know."

His hands linger. Her eyes meet his, the air suddenly charged.

Her lips open softly. Close. Open again.

"I missed this," she breathes.

His face is centimeters away from hers. His sigh of relief ruffles the hairs hanging by her chin.

"Me too."

Finally, their wavelengths connect. He was always chasing her, always waiting for the day she would fall in step with him so they could move on together. But they always passed one another by, close enough to remember but not enough to know.

He tastes the sugar lacing her lips.

Like every time, she is addictive.

Maybe she can sense that this time will be different, that it will mean something, because she is stiff.

He breaks apart from her, eyes still closed.

"I'm not going to leave you."

Brown eyes search his, looking for a lie. She finds only Hiro.

Her voice is quiet, meek. Like she's the younger one here.

"Okay."

She leans back and he lets himself fall into her, in a position that is oh-so-familiar and new at the same time.

The floor is cold on his forearms, but he hopes it's his mouth that makes her shiver when he dips into her neck.

Hiro's head is spinning. Slow, slow, slow.

Zippers are pulled. Buttons undone. All done with a languid pace that doesn't manage to quench the fire consuming his body.

He wants. He needs.

Their bare chests slide together, and it is almost not enough. He wants to feel all of her, every crook of her body a masterpiece. He slowly licks his way down her chest, then to her navel. Her scent is strong at the crux of her thighs, and he slowly makes his way up to it.

She can't retain a cry when his tongue finally circles her clit. Her heart beats fast under his palm, which has found a home within hers.

Every moan an encouragement, he closes his eyes and lets himself take his time with her. They had all night, and a lifetime if she would let him. He finds a rhythm that has her breathe uncontrollably, gripping his hand until it turns white.

Moments later, she is bucking against his mouth. With one final guttural cry, she breaks like a wave on the shore.

He pulls away with a breathless chuckle, but his face falls when he sees her covering her face with her arms.

"Everything okay?"

GoGo sighs dreamily. "Yeah, everything's okay…more than okay. It's just embarrassing."

He lies next to her, adjusting his boxers. "How?"

"It's just, I feel like a virgin. It's never been like that, I've never been…"

She trails off. Words left unsaid echo in the room.

Hiro smiles and kisses her wrist, right at the pulse. "You're so beautiful."

She peeks an eye out from her fingers. She was right—he didn't know she could turn that shade of red. His heart swells and the fire within him renews.

He gently pulls her arms away from her head and pounces on her, mouth everywhere, adoring her goosebumps. Her hands also wrap around him, nails trailing his chest, his back, fingertips shuffling him out of the remainder of his clothing. Finally, they are both naked and together and it just feels so right.

So right.

They align. Just as he sits at her entrance, the heat making him lose his mind, he looks back at her face to make sure it's alright.

The look of warmth stuns him. She is perfection, all he ever wanted. The unspoken words from before spill out.

"Please. Please let me love you." Her eyes widen. He can't stop now. His hand shakes as he lifts a piece of hair out of her face as he lowers himself into her.

"I am a man who has loved you for the last five years."

With this, he thrusts in suddenly. Her moan is immediate, with a tinge of longing. This would usually be the part where he moves like a man dying, fast and hurried.

Not this time.

Instead, he takes care to draw out almost all the way to the hilt, before sinking into her again.

Tears appear on the edges of her eyes. He kisses them away.

"I love you," he murmurs into the crook of her skin, continuing his sweet torture. Now that he's let it out, he can't stop saying the words to back his feelings. She doesn't say anything in reply save for gasping breaths and his name repeated like a prayer. Her legs wrap around his hips, heels like a vice.

"Don't stop," she manages before succumbing to another moan. Hiro feels teeth on his collarbone and it causes something primal to snap within him.

He continues deeper inside of her, but hastens his pace just ever so slightly. Her volume increases. The back of his mind worries about late night custodial staff until he decides he doesn't care.

She's close, he can feel it in the way her walls constrict his length. As for him, he is hard and also seeking release, but this is all about making her feel good. To show in body what words can only hint at:

He loves her, he loves her, he loves her.

Suddenly she goes quiet, quivers, and all of the sudden she comes crashing down, coming hard around his cock. She's still heaving in his grasp when he picks up speed without knowing it, thrusting into her once, twice, thrice and then finding his own release.

Hiro is sure he has traveled between planets before coming down to her again, holding her in his arms. It feels natural and warm and safe.

He gets captured by those big eyes all soon enough. She is radiant, but her eyebrows knit and she opens her mouth.

"Hiro…I…I wanted to say that I…" she looks unsure, suddenly. He swoops in to kiss her.

"It's okay. You don't need to say it yet."

A hint of worry flits across her face, but her whole demeanor relaxes.

She kisses him back.

"Thank you."

Things are the same as before.

GoGo gets her PhD in Mechanical Engineering. The plaque rests next to her desk, protected by a small electrical field in case things start flying in the lab.

Hiro advances his thesis project in turn, and both of their achievements are celebrated in a big party at Aunt Cass's café, complete with a cake made out of doughnuts.

Baymax cheerfully reminds the two afterwards of how many hours of exercise it will take to burn off the calories.

GoGo deadpans and tells Baymax to go charge again.

Like any poor grad students, GoGo and Hiro move in together to save some cash. Their friends make plenty of newlywed jokes until GoGo threatens them with never fixing their cars for free again.

The title "boyfriend and girlfriend" don't quite fit, but neither does "friends." They contemplate it in bed one night, before they both settle on the word "partner." The eldest seals it with a kiss, only to pull him in for round two.

(The baseball cap still sits on the dresser, undisturbed but not foreboding.)

Sometimes, when the weather is nice and no one needs saving, they get on her bike and ride the streets of San Franskyo. Hiro enjoys sitting in the back, saying it reminds him of when he was young.

They're overlooking the skyline one night when she finally says it.

GoGo has to wipe away his tears with her sleeve, smiling at the absurdity of it all.

He doesn't care.

"I love you too."

Fin.

A/N: And there goes the longest sequel I've ever done…a year in the making. Many thanks to all the people who commented or favorited the last part. This is also probably one of the fluffiest smut scenes I've ever written. I really wanted to get across the complex emotions between these two; they're not just in it to warm each other's beds. The best relationships come when you fall for your best friend and visa versa.

Really, thank you all.