Big Hero 6: After a Beating
Whoo! Long thingy to read, but I'm sure you guys have either read something longer or of equal length. It's the longest I've written here.
Aaaaaanyway, here's the thing. This was actually a dream with modifications. To me, it's a oneshot, but it also looks like the beginning of a series, considering the title and possible curiousity of what will become of Hiro and Dori (my OC returns).
Well, just let me know if you think I should continue this. For now, it will be labeled as complete in the description. Let the reader's mind work out the end or something. I don't know.
There are some errors in here. Will fix them later if I spot them, though I've re-read this so many times...
Cover image might change. But Hiro scared sh*tless looks adorable, am I right? -cricket sounds-
Enjoy ^ w ^
A quiet chime from Dori's phone turned her attention away from her drawing, her only light being a small desk lamp a few feet away. She sat up on her bed and turned on her phone, the new bright light hurting her eyes a bit. The time was close to midnight. About fifteen minutes till. She swiped the lock and saw the new message notification next to a profile picture of Hiro Hamada, a picture he did not want the girl to use.
Let's get going
Dori texted back a quick confirmation and stood up. Gathering her essentials- sketchbook, goggles, her rag of a backpack, money- she turned off her desk lamp, locked her door, and climbed out the window. Like a ninja in the night, or as Dori puts it, she hung off the edge of the window and closed it, leaving it a nickel-width ajar. She carefully skidded herself along the brick wall of her house and finally landed on the triangle awning on top of her front door. The jump wasn't too far from the sidewalk. Only ten feet. Dori jumped and landed, and she winced at the sharp pain running along her ankle.
"Ow, dammit, dammit, dammit, dammit," she hissed repeatedly while jumping in circles and holding her foot. After the pain cooled down, she made her way towards Hiro's part of San Fransokyo. After walking a couple of miles, she managed to catch the bus that ran this time of night.
"What are you doing out this late at night, little girl?" the driver asked with concern as Dori deposited her bus fare. She sat behind the driver.
"Going to a friend's house for a sleepover. It was last minute, and my parents' car is in the shop," she said, though she was lying, but her oddly colored eyes were that of a puppy's and showed innocence. The driver nodded and continued his route to where she needed to be. As the ride went along, Dori took notice of the trio of men in the back. They all seemed to be college students, one of them wearing a hoodie from the Institute of Technology. He gave a curt nod when he noticed Dori looking at them, who gave him one in return. The bus picked a couple more passengers until Dori's destination arrived. She sent Hiro a message saying she was almost there.
"Be careful," the driver said as Dori skipped down the tiny stairs. Dori looked back and gave a smile showing she'll be okay before the doors closed. As the bus drove off, the SFIT-hoodie wearing man glanced out the back window at Dori, who she waved to before turning her back and started walking.
Dori approached a corner pharmacy store to find someone sitting on the bench, his hood pulled over and his hair covering his eyes. When he heard footsteps, he looked up and smiled, revealing the (adorable) trademark gap at the center of his upper set of teeth.
"Hey Hiro," Dori waved slightly. Hiro stood up and grabbed a small backpack he was sitting next to.
"Hey, Dori. You ready?" he asked as he pulled his hood back. Dori nodded and the two started walking through the night. The temperature was cool. It was mostly cloudy with a thin curtain of fog covering the area Hiro and Dori were entering. As they approached a certain alley, the volume of yelling and commotion increased. The duo of fourteen-year-olds knew they were in the right place when a tiny robot followed by man were tossed out of the opening, the robot shattering. The man picked up the pieces and stomped away cursing, not noticing the kids.
"Something tells me he lost," Dori said as Hiro chuckled. He reached into his bag and pulled out an old, modified NES game controller and handed it to Dori. He then took out what seemed to be a poorly handmade cat plushie with a large zipper separating the waist of the toy and a closed zipper for a smile. It was less than a foot long and looked like it came out of a horror movie, but it still looked like a piece of crap. Of course, it was just the design, courtesy of Dori's sewing skills and questionable liking to things that looked like it came from a dumpster. All together, however, it looked cute.
"Are you sure you want to use Toshi tonight?" Dori asked one more time after asking it for the entire day. "This is her first actual bot fight..."
"Yes. After the practice runs, I'm sure she'll do fine," Hiro said and gave Dori a reassuring pat on the shoulder. When things were finalized, Dori and Hiro entered the alley to a bot fight. It was a new spot neither of the kids have tampered with. Hiro was pretty sure he became old news about his gambling ways and how he hustled the opponent the first time around. For Dori, this was one of her first bot fights. She's not very good with robotics herself. She could only do so much, like make tiny gadgets and robots that make her toys walk around and stuff like that. The crowd was considered big, maybe a little more than fifty people. The youngest, not counting Hiro and Dori, is probably about twenty. Most of them looked pretty intimidating, but the duo could handle the levels.
Let the act begin, the two thought together. They entered the crowd like tiny, weak children. Both stayed close together to create the image of them probably being weak apart, and they held the look of baby faces. A few whispers were heard here and there.
"Are these kids lost?"
"Is that boy holding a dolly?"
"Tech wannabe." The last statement was mostly towards Dori. She was used to hearing that phrase. She was a girl who sucked at robotics and wore goggles like she was an expert- of course the name would be given to her. The goggles were given by her father however. They were close enough to the fighting circle, and they managed to see the duelers battling their bots. There was a man with black and purple frosted hair versus another guy who was dressed like a motorcyclist with a small trio of similarly dress men behind him. It was obvious whose robot was whose. The biker's was heavily wheel based while the other looked like a Bionicle with the same color scheme as the boy's frosted hair. With one swoop, the boy's robot was kaput. The crowd cheered, yelled and booed as everyone exchange their money. After the boy gathered the bits his fallen warrior, the biker collected his winnings.
"Who else dares to challenge tonight's champion," a rather voluptuous woman asked with a hand on her hips and a hand holding a flat bowl for money. Of course, there were hesitant people.
"Ha! Cowards!" the biker shouted with triumph.
When no one stepped up, Dori and Hiro eyed each other that it was good to go.
"Um, excuse me?" Dori said shyly with a childish voice while raising her hand. A couple of people moved, but she wasn't noticed. "Ex-Excuse me?" she said louder and jumped so the biker could see her. The crowd quieted down as she and Hiro stepped into the clearing.
"What kid?" the biker said sternly.
"Um, we would like to fight," Hiro said, the toy loosely hanging off of his arms. The biker darted the toy and the kids with his eyes. Laughing in three, two, one...
The crowd laughed. As scripted, the kids looked around with frowns.
"How much you got. Both of you, since you said we," the biker, whose name was Bruce as they just heard. The two kids dug their hands into their pocket, and each pulled out a small amount of money, totaling around 3000 yen together. Bruce crossed him arms.
"Alright then. I guess we have a fight."
"Not much of a fight," one of his men said, a few people laughing. Hiro and Dori placed their crinkled money in the bowl as Bruce threw in a roll of money that people would mistake as a roll of greenish toilet paper, and the woman covered the top with a lid. The kids sat down crisscrossed next to each other. Hiro placed the toy in the battle ring, which said on its rear like any old ragdoll, and they took out their identical controls. Dori controlled the top and Hiro controlled the bottom. The biker prepared his bot. A bit over the top and threatening looking, but Hiro's and Dori's practice runs had them ready.
The woman stepped into the ring, her leather boots shining by the lights of the alley. "A kitty dolly versus Skid-Mark, the night's champion. Who will win?" she said in a heavenly voice opposite of her appearance. A dramatic pause for people to whisper and place bets. With a glare at the crowd, she held her hand up. "We'll find out." She stepped out of the ring. On her counting, she brought her hand down like a sword and shouted "Fight!"
Skid-Mark whirred as its weapons were displayed. With a staged gulp, Dori and Hiro worked Toshi. Its eyes lit up a faint yellow and began to stand. It wobbled a bit as it approached Skid-Mark. By the spectator's eyes, they kids had a hard time working the robot together. It was a good idea, they had to admit, but it's super complicated as a few of them had tried. The battle didn't even last a minute. With an equipped sword protruding from Skid-Mark's arm, it cut the limbs off of Toshi, which sparked at the stubs.
Dori and Hiro lost just like that as the crowd laughed. There were only a couple of guys who waged against Bruce, but that was just a few bucks for kicks. Dori had a look of shock. She dropped her controller and leaned forward on her hands.
"Hey! That wasn't fair! You barely gave us a chance!" she yelled, her voice cracking accidentally, making her blush but added more to the act.
"C'mon, this was our first fight," Hiro whimpered. He switched his looks at the woman and Bruce. "Can we try again?" The woman scoffed as she opened the bowl to Bruce.
"Sorry, kid," he said sarcastically. "That's what you get for going up against-"
"Wait!" Dori shouted, making Bruce stop and have his hand hovering over his winnings. Dori sat back and took off her bag. She ruffled her hand inside and took out a small drawstring bag with a creepy/cute smile on it. She opened it and took out a roll of money. The roll was slightly smaller in diameter than Bruce's. "I have more money!" Dori held up the money with a look of plead in her eyes. A rustling sound was heard as Hiro fished out his roll of money from the pocket of his hoodie.
"I do too. Please, can we go again? This is all we have left..."
Bruce bit his lip. He stared at the kids for a minute and smiled, showing...ew, his teeth were yellow... "Put the money in." Hiro took Dori's money and place it in the bowl as Dori did a 'thank you' smile. The man just scoffed and held his controller. The duo retrieved their controls. After eying each other again, people swore they saw a demonic twinkle in their eyes. The two smirked and pressed a button on their controllers. Their panels expanded to reveal more high tech machinery. The woman didn't even need to announce. The battle already started.
Wait...Toshi was limbless. It was just a torso with a head. Well, that wasn't a problem. They will be good to have, but in this situation, Hiro and Dori didn't need them. Hiro flipped a switch and the zipper on Toshi's waist opened up to have six sharp, robotic tentacles come out and stand Toshi up. Dori turned a knob and arms with Edwards Scissorhand-like hands came out. As the eyes switched into an ominous red glow, the mouth unzipped. Razor sharp teeth smiled wickedly at Skid-Mark and Bruce, the mouth opening and closing to show that Toshi bites. It exceeded two feet in height, slightly shorter than Skid-Mark, but it was more deadly looking, again, design courtesy of Dori. Bruce looked at the kids in surprise, as did the crowd. Bets are placing and an uproar of commotion started.
"Get 'em Toshi!" Hiro and Dori said in unison and both worked the mutated robot like their minds were connected. Hiro was able to avoid Skid-Mark's attacks with quicker maneuvering of the legs. Bruce was able to tear off three of the tentacles, but due to the rotational design of the pelvis, Toshi was able to balance on three legs. Even so, if all legs were gone, all Dori had to do is lengthen the arms with a push of a button. Hiro made Toshi jump over Skid-Mark to avoid another sword attack. With a sharp turn, Skid-Mark grabbed another tentacle. Before Bruce could even react, the razor fingers of Toshi's hands struck through Skid-Mark's arm and "ripped" it to tiny chunks while pulling the bot towards Toshi's mouth. It opened up at 90 degrees and repeatedly chomped down on Skid-Mark's little head with the same force as an alligator at full rage. As Toshi's arms wrapped around Skid-Mark for support, the remaining tentacles continuously pierced Skid-Mark's torso and began ripping out wires. Bruce was trying to shake the nightmare-cat off, but it proved useless. It began malfunctioning as Toshi pried the head right off. Dori and Hiro released Bruce's robot from Toshi's wrath and watched smoke rising from the scrap metal that was Skid-Mark.
Bruce lost. Hiro and Dori fist bumped.
The crowd did the usual- yell, cheer, give money. Toshi returned to its limbless form as the zippers closed. With the help of magnetic guiding, the chopped off limbs attached themselves back to Toshi's body. Now it looks like a harmless toy. Hiro and Dori put their controls away and stood up to slip on their bags. Like a little girl, Dori scooped up Toshi and hugged it and collected the fallen tentacles to be reattached. The woman handed Hiro the money bowl with a look of being impressed and shocked, and the boy happily took the money. Bruce stood up and walked up to Hiro with his biker men behind. He was obviously pissed.
"You son of a bitch, YOU HUSTLED ME!" he boomed, his breath smelling like feces and tobacco. His voice made the crowd die down.
"I'm surprised you didn't see it coming. Hustlers are pretty famous in the bidding world," Hiro shrugged as he placed the last roll in his bag. A large hand grabbed his shirt and pulled him closer to Bruce's face.
"I don't fucking care kid. No one hustles me and you are gonna PAY!" Hiro glanced at Bruce's crew.
Where did the brass knuckles come from? Hiro thought as he spotted the shining weapons sported on the wrists of the other men. Dori budded in by stepping in between her friend and Bruce, making him let go of Hiro's shirt.
"Hey, were just kids," Dori said in her close-to-normal harsh tone of voice. Bruce leaned forward and pointed at his eyes with two fingers.
"Does it look like I give a damn, girlie?" he hissed. Dori scowled at his breath.
"Wanna know what it looks like? A big pussy who doesn't have the balls to take a loss of money," Dori answered with a cold look in her eyes. With a growl of fury, Bruce punched Dori in the stomach. She fell back but was caught by Hiro. Dori clutched her stomach with Toshi close to comfort the pain.
"Are you okay?" Hiro asked as he helped Dori stand up.
"Yeah. Just- GAH!" Dori yelped as she dodged a punch from one of Bruce's men. He was about to swing again, but a member of the crowd jumped in and took the hit and fell to the ground. Dori's eyes widened as she recognized the fellow- the hooded guy from the bus. Did he follow her here or was he just passing by.
"Th-There just kids, guy. Get over it!" he snarled. He looked at Dori and gave a short nod of the head. Before anyone did a thing, one of Bruce's men kicked down the hooded man. Then someone else hit the guy who kicked the hooded man. One punch led to another and the crowd was having a bar fight. Just like that, police sirens were heard.
"Run!" Hiro shouted. He took hold of Dori's arm, and both quickly zig-zagged through the crowd and out into the street with the biker gang behind them. Unfortunately, they left just as the police came, not a cop seeing them. It's a good thing they didn't have any motorcycles, but they were still right behind the kids. Both were surprised by the gang's speed.
"C'mon, we can lose them at the next block," Hiro said as the gang yelled curses. Dori looked behind her for a split second.
"Weren't there four chasing us?" Dori shouted. Before Hiro could answer, one of the guys rode out of an alley a few buildings ahead. Hiro and Dori stopped in their tracks to avoid crashing into the vehicle. The kids were soon surrounded by the men.
"You two got a lot of nerve doing that to me," Bruce said as he slipped on his brass knuckles and cracked his neck. The wall of men backed the kids into a wall. Dori huddled close to Hiro. Though she was scared, her eyes still showed the glare she had when the real bot fight started. Hiro raised an arm to shield off Dori.
"You guys are insane!" Hiro barked. "You're gonna beat up two little kids for money?"
"It's what we gotta do," one of the guys said.
"No you don't!" Dori yelled. "It's stupid like Shit Mouth is!" Hiro glared at Dori to make her stop making the situation worse with words, but then again, neither of them could make it any better.
"You can take half of our winnings back," Hiro said, hoping it would do something. Bruce grumbled.
"We take 75% and that creepy robot of yours," Bruce said. Hiro immediately shook his head as Dori held the doll closer.
"65% and that's it. Toshi stays with us," Hiro growled. After a moment of silence, Bruce nodded. Hiro quickly took off his bag and moved some things around to look for the money. In less than a minute, he divided the money into the deal and handed it to Bruce. He took the money and scowled.
"All right, get to it boys," Bruce smiled wickedly.
"What?!" Dori shouted in shock. The trio of bikers grabbed Hiro and Dori and dragged them to the alley where motorcycle-man came from as Bruce collected the rest of the money. The teens were thrashing and tried to throw punches. Both were strong, but not compared to these guys. One of them pushed Hiro's back against the brick wall and kneed him in his stomach. He slumped down in pain. Whenever he tried to get up, the brute would just kick him down again. And again. And again. Toshi was ripped out of Dori's arms and was thrown on the ground as the girl was getting the same treatment as Hiro. Tears were streaming from both of their eyes. When Dori was given a break, she rubbed the blood from her bleeding nose.
"You guys are fucking-" Dori was silenced by a foot to the stomach, which was now a pile of mush. She felt like throwing up, but the bubbling gunk stayed in her body out of unlucky punishment and burned her insides.
"We better not see you guys here again, you hear me?!" Bruce shouted at Hiro's face. Hiro looked at Bruce with his one good eye, the other one blackened and swollen shut.
This brought back memories to the prodigy. There were multiple times when Hiro was stuck in a physical fight after beating some big shot. Sure, he got a few good hits. He even had to go to the ER. But he was always saved by Tadashi. Hiro went to a couple of bot fights after he mostly got over Tadashi's death, but it wasn't the same knowing that he didn't have a brother to come home to. He even missed the scoldings. He knew he couldn't always count on Tadashi to save his behind. Hiro spat blood in Bruce's face, catching the attention of Dori and the other men. Bruce backed up and spat out the blood that got in his mouth.
The man just scowled and smiled cruelly. Bruce grabbed a handful of Hiro's hair. The boy screeched in pain as he was pulled up, turned around, and was slammed face first into the wall. A small amount of blood splattered along the bricks and Hiro's face. He collapsed on his side and Bruce kicked him one more time in the back. He looked at Dori's broken face and snorted. He left and the rest followed, the motorcycle revving and leaving a cloud of dirt. As soon as he left, Dori limp-crawled to Hiro and turned his body so she could see his once pure face. His breathing was raspy and short. His left eye was purple and swollen as hell. The rest of his face was covered in small cuts, bruises, and coated with old blood as a waterfall of the liquid ran from his nose and down his cheeks and neck.
"Hiro?" Dori teared up as she brushed his face with her dirty hand. His eyes flickered but he couldn't say anything. "Hiro, talk, please...Are you okay?" Hiro grimaced and spat out more blood to the side. He opened his eyes slightly (yes, both of them) and managed to give a smile. He then frowned when he saw Dori's face.
"Are you okay?" he said more clearly. Dori nodded.
"You're seriously hurt. Can you stand?" Dori asked. Hiro nodded and managed to sit up, a head rush hitting him.
"We...We need to get going...fast," he said. He stood all the way up, Dori doing the same.
"Yeah. We need to fix you up as soon as possible," Dori said as she quickly grabbed Toshi and Hiro's bag.
"Not only that," he said as he took his bag. He reached inside and unzipped a secret inside pocket. He took out a roll of money. The money he and Dori won, the rest in the pocket. Dori stared with wide eyes.
"Is that-"
"Yep," Hiro answered with a smile. He placed the roll back in his bag and slung it over his back. "I came with counterfeits, which is what I gave Poop-Breath. That's why we need to go before they find out." Like that, they started running to the closest home- Hiro's. They decided not to go to the police, considering that any talk could have them put in jail. Along the way, Dori "borrowed" a hanging washcloth from a clothes line and gave it to Hiro for his nose.
It only took half an hour to reach the Lucky Cat Cafe where Hiro lived above. "The spare key should be in its secondary spot. I can't climb with this mess in my nose," Hiro said as he held the blood-soaked cloth to his still bleeding nose. Dori lifted up a small statue of a lucky cat and opened up a small hatch. A small key fell out, and Dori used it to unlock the front doors of the café before putting it back in its place. The two entered and headed upstairs, Dori making sure to lock the doors. After entering the small home, the two went upstairs to Hiro's room. As soon as Dori closed the door, Hiro said 'ow' to activate his robotic friend. Baymax quickly inflated and did his automatic greeting.
"Hiro, Dori, you both look unwell," Baymax said with his soft, concerned voice.
"Baymax can you please scan Hiro?" The nurse-bot nodded. With a quiet hum, the scanning was complete.
"Hiro has sustained damage to his abdomen and has multiple bruises and cuts on his body. He has a black eye and a damaged and severely bleeding nose, though not broken. No bones are fractured and no internal bleeding is present. Hospitalization is not needed, unless bleeding as not stopped. Recommended treatment: Ice, proper medicine, and rest," Baymax finalized with a raised finger.
"Good. That's what I thought...," Dori muttered. "You stay here, I'll get some ice and fresh towels." Dori turned only to have Hiro take hold of her shoulder.
"What about you?" Hiro asked. Dori shook Hiro's hand of her shoulder.
"I didn't almost get beaten to death. Besides, I'm fine."
"You sure, because you were limping the whole way here..." Dori's lower leg did hurt a lot, but her pain tolerance was high enough to shrug it off. She was a bit worried herself. The worst she could have received was a sprain, she thought.
"I'm sure it's fine, whatever it is," Dori said. She exited Hiro's room and went downstairs quietly to the kitchen. She grabbed a proper pouch and filled it with ice. She stopped by the bathroom and dampened a couple of hand towels with warm water. She also grabbed bandages, rubbing alcohol, and some medicine, like painkillers and a small tube of triple antibiotic ointment. Would've been a lot easier if they just had a first aid kit instead of having the materials scattered about. Thankful she didn't wake Aunt Cass, she made her way back to Hiro's room. As soon as she did, Hiro had Baymax scan her.
"Dori has multiple cuts and bruises on her body. Her right foot has a minor sprain. Recommended treatment is ice and a brace. Hospitalization is an option. Would you like me to notify the medical authorities?" Baymax asked as a red cross faintly shone on his chest.
"No, thank you Baymax," Dori said politely, and the cross disappeared.
"Would you like me to assist in any treatment?" Bayamx asked. Both kids shook their head.
"We got this Baymax. Thank you," Hiro smiled. "I think we're good. We just needed to be sure about our injuries."
"I understand. I cannot deactivate until you both say 'I am satisfied with my care'."
"I am satisfied with my care," Hiro said. Baymax looked over to Dori.
"I am satisfied with my care," Dori smiled. Baymax nodded and waddled back to his station where he deflated and folded the red suitcase over himself. "Come on, let's get you fixed up." The two went over to Hiro's bed and sat down with medical materials at hand. Dori first cleaned up the large cuts and patched them up with Hello Kitty Band-Aids (because Aunt Cass prefers them rather than the boring beige ones). Hiro would place the ice bag on his eye occasionally. Once that was done, Dori began cleaning the blood and dirt off of Hiro's face. He looked a lot better once the grime was gone. The only thing that was noticeable was his black eye, which was less swollen, and a bruise on his forehead. Dori frowned.
"Everything okay?" Hiro asked.
"Yeah. Here, has the bleeding stopped?" Dori asked as she slowly lowered the cloth with her and Hiro's hands. As soon as the cloth was lowered, more blood dripped from his slightly swollen and bruised nose. The blood trickled down his chin and landed on his pants. "You're still bleeding!" Dori exclaimed. Hiro just smiled.
"But does it look cool?" he said. Dori gave a look of confusion and raised a brow.
"What?" she chuckled before pressing the cloth against Hiro's nose.
"Do I look cool?"
…
"Yeah, you lost enough blood to lose it," Dori said as she had Hiro continue applying pressure to his nose as she cleaned her cuts up.
"I'm serious, Dori," Hiro said. The girl looked at him. With his messy hair and the tired and banged up face he sported, he didn't look too bad. He looked more like a school nerd who just got bullied, but he did look older. Dori bit her lip and sighed.
"It...You do look cool, Hiro," she smirked. You look really cute, Hiro. I'm so sorry... "How about me? How do I look?" Hiro squinted his eyes.
"Normal."
"Good." The two chuckled as Hiro removed the cloth and sighed when he felt the blood coming. It died down a lot, but it wasn't a happy sight for Dori, and Hiro was feeling a bit light headed. Dori frowned in anger and looked down.
"I'm sorry this happened to you...This is all my fault," she said sadly. Hiro wiped the blood and tilted his head.
"It's okay Dori, but why is this your fault?" Dori looked at Hiro and scaled his beaten body and filthy clothes.
"Because I dragged you into bot fighting tonight. You didn't want to, but I pushed you into it." Hiro's expression changed into that of shocked.
"Dori, none of this was your fault."
"You nearly gotten beaten to death, Hiro" Dori immediately barked.
"It's okay! I'm fine now, so calm down."
"But what are people going to say- your friends and your Aunt Cass- what will they say about your bruised face. Cass is going to kill me," Dori panicked. "My parents are gonna kill me!" She leaned forward with elbows on knees and hands covering her face. "I'm so sorry…" Making sure to be careful of her state, Hiro pulled Dori into a hug.
"Dori, everything will be okay. Your parents won't do a thing, and I can live with anything Aunt Cass throws at me. If anyone needs to be blamed on, it's those bikers. They just overreacted because they're stupid." Hiro continued with excuses to make Dori feel less guilty. She softly sobbed as he did. The male patted her back to have her calm down.
"Hiro…," Dori finally said when she stopped soft sobbing. She pulled away and looked at Hiro's face. The swelling was reduced, so his left eye was more open, but she still blamed it on herself. She sighed and looked down. "Let's just leave this as it is, okay?"
…
"Okay," Hiro said. Dori looked up at him and gave her soft smile as he smiled back. Dori squinted her eyes and took out her phone.
It was close to 2:00am. Dori sighed.
"Well, I think I should go. My parents don't check me at night, but I think it's best if I'm home." Hiro twitched his mouth and nodded.
"Okay." There was a little silence.
"Well, good night." Dori stood up from the bed and limped over to pick up her bag. Hiro quickly stood up and took hold of Dori's wrist. She flinched and looked at him.
"Wait…Maybe you should stay tonight," Hiro said quickly.
"Why?" Dori half smiled, and Hiro released her hand.
"Those guys could still be out there, and it's really late. I don't think any of us should be out there right now," Hiro said with concerned, glistening eyes.
"Hiro, I've been out even later. I'll be fi-"
"Dori, please, just stay." Hiro interrupted. The two just stood there. After a while, Dori gave in.
"Okay. Um, thank you," she said as she placed her bag back down. She slowly went over to Hiro's bed and grabbed a pillow to toss it on the floor. Hiro raised a brow.
"You're not sleeping on the floor again, Dori," Hiro said sternly, recalling the many sleepovers where Dori preferred to sleep on the ground. And he knew damn well Dori didn't want to sleep in Tadashi's bed. Dori can't take the couch in the living room. Aunt Cass might find her and question, even though she enjoys the young girl's company. Hiro walked over to Dori and tossed the pillow back on the bed. "Just sleep on this side," Hiro said casually as he gestured the left side of his queen-sized bed. Dori looked at him for a bit until she shrugged and stood up. She sat on the edge as Hiro climbed over to the other side after both removed their dirty shoes.
"I'm gonna set an alarm. I'll leave at…," Dori droned as she pressed the dials on her phone, "six. I'll be home and they won't even know I left." Hiro nodded. They lied down and looked at the ceiling at the many robot-themed posters.
"Well, I don't know about you," Hiro said and turned his head to Dori, "but I had a great time." Dori chuckled and smiled.
"I did too," she said. They returned to look at the ceiling. "Well, good night." Dori turned her back to Hiro.
"Good night, Dori," Hiro said, and he turned away as well. Both were so tired. Dori fell asleep in an instant. Hiro stayed up for a few minutes longer. His eye still hurt a bit, but the pain didn't bother him much now. By now, he was used to it. He was more worried about Dori. She blamed everything on herself, and they left it at that like she wanted. He saw the guilt in her. He slowly turned to Dori. Her side was slowly rising and falling, and her breathing was clear. Hiro frowned. The teen supported his upper body on his elbows and leaned to hover over Dori's head. With a gulp, Hiro leaned down and lightly kissed one of her bruises and lied back down closer to her.
I care about you. I wanted you to stay so you can be safe. Hiro was soon asleep.
Dori woke up before her alarm. She got up from the bed, waking Hiro up, who was just about to fall over his side of the bed. Dori noticed him stretching. They both said their 'good mornings', and Dori deactivated her alarm. Dori threw on her shoes, grabbed her stuff, and stood facing the large window behind Hiro's bed- the one he normally climbed through during the night.
"I should be heading home," Dori said. When Hiro looked at her, Dori was relieved that his bruises and his black eye has healed for the most part, along with her own beatings, but the wrath of their guardians have yet to come. Hiro stood and opened the window.
"You're gonna be okay? How's your leg?" Dori completely forgot about her ankle. She moved it in circles and winced a bit. It felt more like a cramp, like when she jumped from her window.
"It's fine. I'll take the bus home and stay off it for a while," Dori assured.
"What about coming down from here?"
"I'll be fine, Hiro," Dori said, but the boy still worried. He'd seen her do worse in any state of health however.
"Okay then…"
Dori was about to go out, but she stopped and turned to Hiro.
"Hey, if Aunt Cass asks, just tell her it was my fault, okay? It'll make things a whole lot easier for you." Hiro didn't want to have an argument.
"I'll do whatever it takes." Dori nodded and was about to go, but was stopped by Hiro again.
"What?" Dori asked. Hiro went to his closet and took out an old sweater. It was a dark grey with lighter grey sleeves. He gave it to Dori.
"It's cold," he said. Dori looked at him and smiled. She took the article and put it on. It was a little big, but it was snug.
"Pfft, thanks," she sputtered. "I'll see you later." Finally, she climbed out and skidded down along the rain pipe. Once she landed, she waved goodbye to the boy and went off. The day seemed to start as soon as she was out of his sight. Cars, people, and the time passed by.
"Everything will be okay," Hiro said to himself. He closed the window and went downstairs to get some breakfast. While munching on his cereal in the dining room, he checked his phone and watched the coordinates of the tracker in the jacket he gave to Dori change- a way his brother used to find him. He wanted to make sure she got home safely. He didn't care if he got a scolding from anyone about his broken appearance. Again, he's used to it. As long as Dori was safe, he was happy.
Cliffhanger or not?
The choice is yours. Let me know if I should continue.
Kthxbai~