A/N: Well, this plot bunny has been hopping around ever since I watched the movie. Let's see how this goes over.

CHAPTER 1

WORD COUNT: 575

"What the-" Tadashi raised a questioning eyebrow as he lifted his foot, having felt something gooey compress beneath his shoe. "Fred..." He groaned, seeing an old slice of pizza, strings of cheese making it stick slightly to the bottom of the rubber sole. He wiggled his sneaker experimentally and the mozzarella stretched. The thing squelched slightly as it fell back to floor of the lab with a plop.

"Gross. That looks nasty." Wasabi suddenly appeared beside him. Shuddering, he carefully sidestepped the cheesy mess. "That guy really needs to learn to be more careful about where he leaves his snacks." He looked back at Tadashi who was balancing on one foot, trying to look around for something to help remove the stuff from his shoe.

"Here." His dark friend held out a disposable plastic glove and some tissues.

"Thanks." The Hamada said gratefully, taking the items. Trust Wasabi to always have these kinds of things on hand all the time. He suspected his OCD friend had an array of cleaning supplies stocked somewhere in one of the metal cabinets on his side of the lab.

"Just make sure to get all the cheese. That stuff is too close to my workspace." The applied physics major looked worriedly at the offending piece of pizza marring the pristine white of the lab floor.

"Sure sure." Tadashi chuckled slightly at his lab-mate's expression, before looking back to his shoe. He shook his head, groaning again as he began to scrape off what was left of the yellowish splotch.

Today was just not his day. This morning, he'd somehow slept through his alarm, and ended up waking up later than usual. That wouldn't have been much of a problem, being used to rushing at times, but Hiro wasn't. Being the big brother, it was his responsibility to bring his otouto to school in the morning. He'd ragged on his little brother the whole way to the boy's high school for moving so sluggishly when he got out of bed.

"Not my fault you slept in, Tadashi!" Hiro had laughed out at his older brother's panicky state, earning the twelve year old a head of ruffled hair along with a rushed wave and a "Take care of yourself, bonehead" from the elder Hamada.

A few blocks from the institute, Tadashi's moped had suddenly died. Being somewhat frazzled with his lateness, he couldn't effectively restart his ride. He ended up walking, pushing the vehicle all the way to the lab's student parking lot. If that wasn't bad enough, he was having some trouble with the assignment given in his Dynamics and Controls class.

Maybe it's the wiring... The nineteen-year old robotics student mused, letting out a sigh, mopping up the pizza grease from the floor. Or maybe a glitch-

A monster head collided with Tadashi when he stood and turned. Splat! The mauled slice of pizza slipped from his grip, falling back down... on top of his sneaker.

"Fred!" He snapped, his patience at its end. Reaching sharply for the top of the mascot costume, he didn't notice that the bulbous yellow eyes of the monster head were strangely several inches lower than usual. "You really need-"

When he flipped the mouth of the costume back, his anger immediately deflated when he was met with large stormy grey eyes and a mess of ginger hair.

"Hi..."

A/N: Thoughts?