All I Have Left
By, SilentTaboo
Disclaimer (For entire story): Big Hero 6 is AMAZING, BBUUTT I don't own it. I just own Amaya.
Chapter 1: Call it a Night
Amaya Sasaki was getting a headache. She'd been working on her nanobot project since her last class. She glanced at her watch leaning her sore back against the chair. If it was 9:15 PM now, that would make it seven hours straight. Tadashi wouldn't be very happy with her if he found out. He had told her to make sure she wrapped up soon when he left at five, usually by "wrap up" he meant "go home now".
Well, there wasn't anyone at home waiting for her, unless her social worker had decided to drop in early anyway, and if she was there, good. Let the woman wait. Her social worker didn't seem to get that "emancipated" meant "I can get home any time I want to". She'd been trying to get Amaya to forgo her emancipation rights and go back to foster care since she had gone behind Ms. Lee's back and found a judge that would grant her the right to live on her own.
She flat out refused to go back to foster care. Ever. Everyone else seemed to accept that answer. Ms. Lee still thought that she had some sort of "right" over Amaya's life and disapproved over any and all decision she made without the uptight hag. These decisions included but were not limited to: her emancipation, joining SFIT, spending more time in the lab than the rundown apartment the government was providing, her clothing choices, her friend choices ("Can't you find friends your own age? This is why you should have said no when they asked you to skip grades, and still be attending high school."), and even her food choices.
She had to stop thinking about that woman; it was just making her headache worse. She was a fifteen year old genius. She could take care of herself. She snorted. Now if only she could get these nanobots to stop spontaneously combusting every time they came in contact with white blood cells, she'd be able to call it a night. She leaned back over her microscope and added a drop of solution containing five nanobots to the slide before adding one drop of blood. After a moment she let out a curse. Nope, still getting micro-explosions.
Her hand froze on the focus knob at the sound of an all too familiar voice. "Wasabi, do you know if Night Rain has left yet? She shouldn't still be here after what I told her when I left, but…"
Please say I left already. Please say I left already. "Actually, I'm not entirely sure. Her light's still on in her personal lab, but I haven't seen her come out at all since she went in there at around two this afternoon." She was so in trouble.
Out of all the people she could handle yelling at her and telling off, Ms. Lee, her old foster parents, the teachers, Professor Callaghan, the others in the lab, Tadashi was probably the only one that could make her feel guilty and ashamed of herself. He was like an older brother to her, and the only one that seemed to notice she was around besides Gogo, Fred, Wasabi, and Honey Lemon. The others in the lab, on the other hand, treated her more like a close friend – in other words they stayed out of her business. Tadashi however—
"You're still here, Rain? Seriously? And what's this I hear about you not even leaving here since you came in? I thought we talked about this." She turned her chair around slowly, her eyes closed, letting out a resigned sigh.
When she opened her eyes Amaya witnessed Tadashi in proper Mother Hen stance with a younger version of himself peeking curiously out from behind him. She gave a guilty smile and a small laugh. "I, uh, I promised myself I wouldn't leave until I got them to stop exploding. Plus it's not like I have someone waiting for me to get home." She conveniently skipped over the part about her not leaving for breaks or food. Maybe, if she was careful, he'd forget about it.
He looked down shaking his head. "We'll talk about it tomorrow, Rain, but you are leaving when I do." She nodded vigorously hoping to avoid too long a lecture. "Well, since you are here, I want you to meet my brother Hiro. Hiro, meet Amaya Sasaki, or as we call her in the lab, Night Rain."
Amaya perked up, completely forgetting for a moment her project as she stood to walk a little closer to Tadashi's brother. After the immediate curiosity waned her shy nature kicked into full gear. "H-hi. It's n-nice to meet you." She was proud to at least get three words out without a stutter.
Tadashi chuckled. He remembered when she first joined the lab and understanding what she said was rather hard with her scared stuttering. He was glad that when she finally got to know him and some of the others, she wasn't so afraid to speak around them. Now it only came out when she met someone knew to the lab, or one of the teachers were around.
He wasn't at all surprised with Hiro's reaction. "Wow, you don't look any older than me."
"Actually, Hiro, she's a year older than you. She's fifteen, but she started her a year ago. She's the best bioengineer this school has ever seen, and the first person in science history to make a working nanobot." Tadashi said proudly, while Amaya looked down at her feet, blushing at the praise.
"I'm not that good." She mumbled. Looking up at him she said louder in frustration. "I can't even get them to quite spontaneous combusting when they come in contact with white blood cells. No matter what I try!"
He gave a small smile glad to see that she wasn't stuttering. He assumed she had forgotten Hiro was even in the room. "I'm sure it's something you just aren't seeing. You've been at it for seven hours, without a break from what I hear. It's time you call it a night."
Amaya pouted. She really wanted to figure this out tonight. "Just two more trials? Please, pleasepleasepleasepleeeeaaassseee!"
Tadashi sighed as Hiro laughed. Now Tadashi knew she was tired. It wasn't often she begged. She liked to pretend that she wasn't fifteen years old. In fact, she tried to prove it on a daily basis. So for her to be begging like that, she had to really be tired. He ran a hand down his face.
"Fine, but only if you come with us to Hiro's bot fight and then let me drive you home, or at least spend the night at my house. I don't want you walking home this late at night if you are tired enough to beg."
Amaya hesitated. It wasn't unusual for the last one in the lab to give this offer. It was an unspoken rule between the friends that if she stayed late enough, the last one with her would take care of the "baby" of the group. She always flat out refused to let them drive her home. If they saw where she lived, they would never let her walk home again. Often she ended up spending the night at either Gogo's, Wasabi's, or Honey Lemon's apartment, but Tadashi had people waiting for him at home. He always left before seven, so she had never spent the night at his house. There was more than just him at his home. He lived with his Aunt and his little brother who, now that she remembered, was fiddling with her microscope looking at her latest exploded nanobots.
She'd have to meet new people… ugh this was a hard one. Spend the night with Tadashi and people she didn't know, or not get to try out her last ten nanobots of today's batch.
"Where—where would I sleep if I spent the night with you?" Tadashi seemed happy she was at least considering it.
"Well, you could either sleep on the couch, or you could make a pallet in our bedroom. I really don't care so long as you sleep." Well, Amaya knew that if she slept near Tadashi, he wouldn't let anyone hurt her, even if they were family. Plus she had been having those nightmares again as her parent's death dates came closer. Maybe spending the night at Tadashi's wasn't such a bad idea.
"Are you sure your aunt won't mind?"
"Aunt Cass? No she wouldn't mind. Probably be super excited to have you actually. She's always wanted a 'niece of her own'." Amaya nodded still thinking.
Well, she really did want to test those last ten. "Fine. I'll spend the night at your house, but just this once."
"Good. Now hurry up and test those last few. I promised Hiro I'd take him bot fighting if he still wanted to go after this. He met Professor Callaghan a few minutes ago, and I think he might have changed his mind."
Amaya nodded before turning around looking at Hiro who was still studying her bots in fascination. "How do these work?" He asked as she removed the slide, stored it and prepared a new one.
"W-well, each nanobot has to be preprogrammed with a specific purpose. They also have to be programmed to match a s-specific person's DNA. If it doesn't r-recognize the materials around it, it can't work p-properly. This," She held up a vial of red liquid, "is a-actually Tadashi's b-blood. He let me try and program some that would work in his b-body after I had m-mastered my own." She added a drop of blood to the slide. "These," she held up two droppers full of clear liquid. "A-are actually preservative solutions containing exactly five nanob-bots each that I programmed to mimic the behavior of Tadashi's white blood cells. Or at least, that's w-what they are supposed t-to do. Instead, they k-keep attaching themselves to the white blood cells and e-exploding. I have to get that figured out if these things are ever supposed to be introduced into his s-system."
Hiro nodded in understanding as she looked through the microscope and adjusted the focus again picking up her pen ready to write down her observations as she added the solution. Once again, the nanobots looked for and located white blood cells, attached themselves, and—exploded. Amaya growled.
"Still not working?" Tadashi asked.
"No." She said miserably.
"Try the last one and then let's get out of here. You've been in this lab too long. Have you even eaten today?"
"…No…" She added slightly more miserable than before. Yes, tomorrow's lecture was going to be long.
"That's not good Night Rain." Tadashi said frustrated.
"I know." Amaya said in a huff.
"If you know then why do you do it?" he asked.
"Can we save the lecture for tomorrow please?"
"Fine, but you are eating when we get to my house." She nodded in resignation. She wasn't really hungry.
The last slide turned out just like all the others. Explosions and failure, and they left the building after she had everything cleaned up. Maybe spending the night at Tadashi's wouldn't be as bad as she thought it would. After all, how late can his aunt stay up really? And they had to be at school at seven surly she wouldn't even really have to meet anyone very new. Plus, Amaya was sure Hiro liked to sleep in, perhaps she wouldn't have to deal with him much.
Then of course there was the issue of her nightmares. They'd stay away if Tadashi was there, she convinced herself. They had to.
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