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Ok. He admits it. He's gone out of his mind.
Hiro Hamada has officially gone crazy. Has lost it. Has lost his marbles. Has gone round the bend. Has gone mad. Whatever synonym or expression that means the same thing as having gone insane, Hiro is it.
Simply put, there's no other explanation.
Because Karmi Khan is absolutely breathtaking. He means that metaphorically and literally. She came up to him to hug him tightly, he didn't do anything to warrant it. Well him being Captain Cutie could. And after saving the city from another villain going rampant while Karmi being present without missing a single mission.
Just a few minutes ago, he along with the gang were fighting another villain, but they dealt with it with ease. Then out of nowhere came Karmi and hugged him. He felt his life almost leave him, she was really strong when she wanted to be. She lets go reluctantly, then something unexpected happens. He just can't take his eyes off of her.
It's not like Karmi is wearing anything different, but when he looks down he realizes that yeah, she is wearing something different than her normal attire. She was wearing a dress, a red and purple one, coincidentally the colors of his suit. She goes on talking about how great he is but he's not listening to a word she's saying. He's transfixed by Karmi.
He raises his hand and tries to press it to his forehead to see if he has a fever. All he hits is plastic from his helmet. He must be coming down with something, if he's having these kinds of thoughts.
He's tempted to ask Baymax to do a full body scan of him to pinpoint the exact illness that has rendered him into this state.
He's completely speechless. And he's noticed that Karmi is really the only person that has the power to do that to him. He's completely baffled by the sort of power she has over him. This was never supposed to happen.
When he got accepted into SFIT never, in his 14 years of life, would he have ever thought to meet anyone like Karmi. Karmi, the biotech major, was thrust into his life because of Granville. Even though she pushed them together under the guise of Hiro needing help to 'socialize' and 'get out of his shell.' Him, needing help with making friends? Puhlease. He's not the one who needs help.
But he went along with it because he didn't need to get in trouble with Professor Granville, and Karmi was not making it easy at all.
He managed it though. Making Karmi look good and getting a good grade. She was actually surprised he praised her instead of throwing her under the bus. Hiro was surprised too. There was just something about Karmi that he couldn't quite place that made him want to know more about her.
Unfortunately, that led her to believe that he has a crush on her. Which he does not. He doesn't know why she thinks that. But no matter how many times he denies it she doesn't believe a word he says. And it's not like it matters what she thinks, she can think whatever she wants to think.
Only when it has anything to do with his alter ego, that's when he cares. And Captain Cutie is not a good name for anyone anywhere. Believe him he's checked. There couldn't have been a worse name, she could've picked. Everyone else in the group got a cooler name than him.
But the way she describes Captain Cutie in her fanfiction is. . . A bit off-putting, at least to him. Because everyone is absolutely taken with her story 'The Fires of Love.' It has taken the whole school by storm, literally he couldn't take a step where someone wasn't reading it.
He himself read it of course, just to see what the whole fuss was about. If he skipped the romantic parts, which was a lot, it was somewhat decent. He only focused on the action parts. And it does not affect him in any way when he does go back and read the romantic parts later one night at 3 in the morning (because he needed something to help his insomnia).
If Karmi only knew who Captain Cutie really was she wouldn't be writing such flowery and romantic things about him.
Hiro blushes at the part where he, actually Captain Cutie and Karmi kiss. He doesn't try to imagine what that would be like because that would be weird. And he certainly doesn't get butterflies thinking about it.
He can't look her in the eye the next day because he had a dream about her. And it's not that she notices anyways. She never wants him to be looking at her. It's better for him because the less he sees her the less dreams he's going to have of her.
Notice how he said dreams, plural. Yeah turns out once one reads fanfiction of a certain superhero and a biotech genius one has more than one dream about them. And they're not good. Like at all.
The first dream went something like this:
Hiro was in his Superhero costume, don't ask him why but he was riding on Baymax high up in the sky with Karmi right behind him. Hugging him tightly from behind, she had laid her head against his back. Then Baymax landed safely on the ground in front of her house.
"Thanks for the ride Captain Cutie," Karmi said as he got down and helped her by wrapping his arms around her waist to help her. She had her hands on his shoulders. They were really close together. She was looking at him with such adoration, he started to lean in, only to remember he had his helmet on.
She giggled. "You're going to need to take off your helmet, Hiro."
What? He looked up in alarm, his eyes going wide..
"What, Genius Boy? You didn't think I would figure it out?" She said with a smirk. "Well you underestimate me."
She raised her hands to take off his helmet before he could do anything. Then she drops his helmet on the ground and grabs his face to kiss him but just before their lips touch he wakes up.
He can say with all sincerity if she ever got a glimpse of what they get up to in his dreams she would probably kill him.
Ugh. After another few days the dreams start fading. So Hiro finally thinks he's in the clear. Until he sees her in the red and purple dress.
He'd seen Karmi in a dress before, so this shouldn't be a big deal. Like it also wasn't a big deal that she told him she loved him that one time, when she was wearing a dress. Well, technically the 'I love you' was for Captain Cutie and not him. But it still caught him off guard, so much so that his superhero mask fogged up and he crashed right into Baymax. The fogging up off his mask and the love declaration have no correlation whatsoever. It's just a coincidence that they happened relatively close to each other.
Her saying she loves him too did nothing to him. Okay. Nothing. He didn't think about it after that night. And he can say that he didn't spend half the night replaying those words over and over again. No matter if Baymax said he didn't get his 8 hours of sleep. He slept just fine, thank you very much.
Back to the present, Hiro decided to jump on Baymax and get away, but not before Karmi could get a kiss in. He was caught off guard that he let out an undignified squeak. It was appalling. And the worst part was that she heard him. She giggled pretty pleased with herself.
He hightailed it out of there as fast as Baymax could fly. But he knew that the whole gang had seen what had happened and he knew they were going to tease him about that for a while. Even Baymax had to say something too after they got back to his house.
'Hiro, your heart rate seems to be really high. This can be caused by many reasons such as-'
Hiro didn't want to hear what Baymax had to say because he knew why his heart was beating so fast and he really didn't want a health lecture right now.
"Not now Baymax." He cut him off and went to his room.
His face wouldn't stop burning for hours. Even though she kissed his mask and not him.
Unfortunately, his dreams start going into a much different territory now. He's not sure how to feel about it. At first it was just innocent, just a kiss is as far as it went, but now he can say, they are far more than just a kiss.
It starts like this:
He's at SFIT and he finds himself in an empty hallway just walking until an arm comes out of the janitor's closet and pulls him in.
Hiro's about to scream until he finds a hand covering his mouth, and he can't see anything since it's pitch black. He's disoriented for a second until he smells coconut, which he knows that's what Karmi smells like.
"It's me, Genius Boy," she says.
Until she's sure that he isn't going to scream she lowers her hand.
"Karmi, are you crazy?" He asks frantically.
"No, but I know you are," she answers seductively, running her finger up and down his chest. "I saw the way you've been looking at me recently."
"Umm."
"And I know you've been thinking about me." Her hand went up to his face cupping his cheek. He could feel her bend down pulling her face closer to him. She started to rub her nose along his cheek, her breath washing over his face.
Hiro accepted his fate. He was a goner. There was absolutely no way he was getting out of this, without kissing Karmi first.
He tried to close the distance between their lips. She pulled back. "Not just yet, Genius Boy. I'm just getting started with you."
She kissed his neck, he let out a surprised gasp. He felt her warm lips against him for a few more seconds before she started heading down lower, to his chest to his stomach until she was down on her knees. Yup, definitely gone. He couldn't see her but he knew he had died and gone to heaven. Or hell. Because with this dream he wasn't sure where he was going.
Before anything else could happen he woke up, drenched in sweat. Yup, he certainly is out of his goddamn mind. He puts his face in his hands. A cold shower is what he needs to end his suffering.
Hiro thinks he's just about hit his limit of bouts of craziness but of course he's wrong, where Karmi is concerned.
After having worked together on a project they had been getting into a sort of friendship. And it was nice. So nice that she hugged him. They were both surprised at that particular development. It was a bit awkward after that. But it was a start.
Shortly thereafter, he realized he started to develop feelings for Karmi. He couldn't just excuse this as just attraction or puberty as he had been blaming on all his weird dreams, this was something else.
It was not good. Not good at all. He tried to get over these feelings. Even after the events of her almost being turned into a monster, (she believed him about Liv Amara, well after he managed to get the chip in her neck off in the nick of time and they had to fight the clone who's now in jail).
He saved her. He was her hero. He smiled as he hugged her. They were ok. When she backed up from the hug, Karmi was looking at him in a way that he's never seen before. Hiro's heart leaped in his chest when he saw her eyes dart down to his lips. Was she going to. . .
Nope, she seemed to snap out of the trance she was in, breaking the moment by clearing her throat and looking away from him, putting some distance between them. He was disappointed. He really wanted to kiss her.
It was something that he knew he wanted even when he didn't know it yet. The dreams were a huge indication of his feelings on the matter, but of course she didn't feel the same. And that made him even more upset because it was something he could never have, no matter how much he wanted it.
That night after making sure Karmi made it home safely, and her parents never finding out about what happened, he went home. He was in bed trying to fall asleep. No matter how much he twisted and turned in his bed, sleep kept eluding him. All his thoughts were on Karmi.
As if he had summoned her, his phone pinged with a text.
Karmi: You awake?
He smiled.
Hiro: Yeah. Can't sleep.
Karmi: Me neither. Can't stop thinking about what happened today.
Hiro's heart sped up, she wasn't talking about the almost kiss, he knew that. She was obviously talking about her almost becoming a monster.
Hiro: Yeah, I'm glad you didn't turn into a monster and that you're safe.
He didn't even want to imagine what would've happened if she didn't let him take off the nano receptor.
Karmi: If it wasn't for you I probably would've been who knows where.
Karmi: I never did thank you for everything.
Hiro: You're welcome Karmi. I'm just happy you believed me.
Karmi: Yeah, well sometimes it's hard to take your word for it.
He laughed softly.
Hiro: I'm very trustworthy. You should listen to me more.
Karmi: In your dreams, Genius Boy.
Ah yes, the nickname she gave him. She really has a tendency to do that. It doesn't bother him as much as it should. He knows that it's supposed to be patronizing but he's come to like it.
And to like her.
After they say their goodnight to each other, Hiro's face hurts from grinning so much, he might even look like a crazy person.
So yeah, Hiro has completely lost his mind because he's head over heels in love with Karmi Khan. And you know what, he doesn't really mind being out of his mind.