Author's Note: Thanks for the initial feedback, y'all. I'm going to do my best here.

Also, had to edit part of the last chapter because I forgot to describe Tadashi putting clothes. Try to get the image of Healthcliff offering a naked Tadashi tea out of your head now. XD

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A red-haired girl with pigtails exited the car and slung her purple backpack over her shoulder. If one looked closely, they could see two red antennae-ears at the top and the back was a pale-pink clear plastic. Several Chibi head keychains dangled; a blue lizard creature with big yellow eyes, a girl with a purple visor and yellow helmet, and a dark-skinned man with a green visor and black dreadlocks.

As the girl walked towards her friends, the car behind her honked. The window rolled down,

"Have a good day at school, Julie!" Magnus Rogers called out with a bright smile, "I'm picking you up later!"

The girl, Julie, waved back, "Bye, Magnus!"

As the car drove off, one of her friends whispered, "Is he a friend to your dad?"

"No," Julie shook her head, "He's my dad, too!"

"Stepdad?"

"Nope."

The friend looked bewildered, "Are they married to each other?"

Julie shrugged, "Yeah, and I love them both."

"They're guys!" The friend repeated loudly.

"I heard you the first time," Julie dashed ahead as though she didn't hear the last comment, "We're gonna be late!"

The friend stayed where they were, still trying to process the information. The bell rang and they came to their senses, running into SanFransokyo Elementary as fast as they could.

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Hiro didn't consider himself a morning person. He also didn't consider himself a morning person if he didn't get at least 8 hours of sleep minimum – though he would admit that it was mostly his fault for staying up late. That was why he had Baymax act as his alarm clock ever since he was rebuilt.

Best decision he ever made, no arguments there.

"Hiro?" A gentle nudge on his shoulder.

He pulled the blanket over his head and groaned.

Baymax tried again, "Hiro, you must wake up. Your first class will begin in at least two hours. And your assignment for Engineering 101 course is due this afternoon."

"Percentage of completion?" Hiro grumbled underneath the blanket.

"75%."

Hiro rolled out of bed now, rubbing his sore eyes and stretching. He was used to being dragged out of bed by Tadashi in the past, usually by the ankles. When Hiro graduated high school, that "tradition" stopped for the most part.

"Baymax, estimated time of assignment completion," he ordered.

"Approximately 35.45 minutes if lunch is skipped."

That was an acceptable price. He didn't want to deal with a Tardy on his assignment again, not after the fiasco with the building project in Granville's class. If Karmi took a picture of him screwing up one more time…

He pushed those thoughts aside and gathered his things into his backpack before making his way downstairs, wincing as he heard Baymax tumble down the steps after him.

"Oh no," Baymax said calmly.

Aunt Cass ignored Baymax's collapsed body and greeted her nephew, "Hey Hiro, can I get you anything before you head out?"

"Maybe some toast?" Hiro suggested half-heartedly, though he was already making his way to the door.

"Hiro, at your age, you should be more aware of your nutrition and vitamin intake," Baymax interjected as he got up, his chest lighting up with a food pyramid. Baymax blinked and looked at Aunt Cass, "I would suggest a glass of orange juice with a serving of oatmeal, and a small cup of gold raisins for protein."

"Coming right up," Aunt Cass nodded and headed over towards the counter.

Hiro fought down his first instinct to protest, because he knew Baymax was right, even if it was frustrating to listen to his friend sometimes. So, he kept his mouth shut for once and ate what Aunt Cass brought out a few minutes later, even if he wasn't in the mood for oatmeal that morning. He hugged Aunt Cass when he was done and exited the café with Baymax following close behind.

The walk to SFIT, or SanFransokyo Institute of Technology, was a slow but pleasant one. It was quicker by car or the moped, but Hiro didn't want to use the latter without Tadashi's permission. The look on his face when Hiro told him how he used it when he was sick, though…

Hiro chuckled and continued, looking back every so often to make sure Baymax was still behind him. When SFIT came into view, just past the small bridge that he and Tadashi talked that night of the Showcase, Hiro couldn't help but admire the sight. It wasn't like the Emerald City, that was certain, but the grassy walkway with the cherry blossoms made it feel comforting, like there was more to life than staying cooped up in a lab all day making inventions.

When did I start thinking like this? Hiro thought suddenly, Was there something in the oatmeal? Nah, Aunt Cass wouldn't poison me…on purpose.

At least an hour and a half to kill before the first class of the day, that was always nice. Hiro knew he could work on his homework in his private lab until Engineering 101 began and decided to head over there.

When he entered into the main lab area that was a shared space for everyone, though, he stared.

It was as if Christmas had come early and had forgotten to include green in the decorations. Banners covered the walls with SFIT's logo on them. A small pile of empty boxes was littered to Hiro's left. Red balloons were floating up towards the ceiling. Whoever oversaw this mess should have done it somewhere else, not in an area where experiments were performed daily, and accidents could happen at any moment.

Hiro barely had a moment to react when he heard Fred cry out,

"DUDE! CATCH!"

He held his arms up and felt something thrown against him. Hiro looked at it and unfurled the object to reveal a dark blue sweatshirt with red fins on top trailing down the hood. The front bared the SFIT logo surrounded by a burgundy gear.

"Put it on!" Fred jumped out of nowhere and looked at Hiro excitedly.

Hiro pulled it over his head, feeling ridiculous as the other students in the lab looked on with amusement. When he finished, two foam fingers were roughly shoved onto his hands.

"Fred," Hiro began slowly, tempted to pull off the foam fingers, "What is this?"

"IT'S RIVALRY WEEK!" Fred shouted with glee. Hiro winced and took a few steps back.

"And that is…?" Hiro began.

Karmi came to the rescue with a manic expression on her face, "SFIT does battle with our rival school, SanFransokyo Art Institute or SFAI! That darn school of subjectivists and irrationality, feeling and acting on instinctive. THEY WILL FEEL OUR SCIENTIFIC WRATH!"

She ended her speech with a dramatic finger in the air as her mouth frothed.

"Okay…" Hiro wiped the spittle off his face and looked between Karmi coming down from her dramatic rant and Fred, who had just pulled out a dartboard with the picture of a mascot dressed as a snail. He was having a hard time decided which was the lesser extreme when Wasabi came in-between the two.

"No one told you about Rivalry Week?" He asked.

Hiro grinned nervously.

Karmi smirked, "Oooh, I think this is the start of something wonderful. Breaking in the fresh meat."

"Wasabi," Hiro slowly backed away from her, "Help me…"

"Karmi," Wasabi came to her and placed a hand on her shoulder, "I know you love this time in the semester, but would you please take it down to a 3?"

Karmi huffed like a little child, "Fine, I won't scar him. Much."

"Scar me?" Hiro squeaked.

Wasabi smiled serenely, "Thank you. Now be gentle with him, it's his first time."

Hiro's eyes widened, "Wait, you're not actually leaving me with her, are you?!"

"Sorry, bud," Wasabi shrugged, "Fred and I have to talk strategy."

"Let me talk strategy with you, too!" Hiro frantically begged, "I'll even dress up as the mascot and do cheers!"

"Position's filled, I'm afraid," Fred smiled and walked out of the room with Wasabi.

Hiro backed away from Karmi, who looked at him with a menacing grin. He bumped into Baymax from behind and turned to his friend pleadingly.

"Baymax, help me!"

"I suggest taking deep breaths as your heartrate is: increasing."

"Not what I meant!"

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"Okay, Fred," Wasabi closed the door behind them and looked at Fred and crossed arms, "What is it you wanted to talk about?"

"Dude, you don't remember?" Fred asked incredulously, "I need your help with Tadashi's powers –"

"Shh!" Wasabi shushed loudly, "We're at school, now! If you want to talk hero stuff, talk about it quietly."

Fred covered his mouth and whispered loudly, "We need to figure out how to get Tadashi's powers under control."

"Quieter!"

"Sorry," Fred lowered his voice, "I said that Tada –"

"Fred, I'm not deaf," Wasabi said drily, "And shouldn't this be a group discussion with the others?"

"First off," Fred looked stern, "We just got everyone talking to each other again. Hiro's starting to use his medication less, and something like this would make him take a few steps backwards. Go Go and Tadashi are trying to get back to 'Best Friends' status. And Honey Lemon…"

Fred stopped and put a finger to his chin,

"Actually, maybe Honey Lemon would be really helpful with this part."

Wasabi sighed but didn't say anything. As much as he hated to say it, Fred did have good points. Who knew what would happen if the others got involved in this too quickly? What if seeing his brother on fire sent Hiro into another panic attack? And Go Go was still feeling really guilty about how she handled the situation in the beginning and must have seen any chance at talking to Tadashi like skating on thin ice.

But what could Wasabi do to help? He was good at cutting things up, but…

He remembered being captured by Baron von Steamer and not being able to help the others when they fought him. He remembered how his OCD caused friction between himself and Hiro. And the last time they fought Globby, Wasabi freaked out and fainted like a little girl. What good was he on the team?

"You okay, man?" Fred's voice snapped Wasabi out of his thoughts.

"Maybe Honey Lemon would be better for this," Wasabi said quietly, "I'd probably just get in the way –"

"NO!"

Wasabi jumped a little, and stared at Fred, who was now glaring at him.

"I need you, Wasabi," Fred pointed his finger at him, "I need your help. You're the only on the team who can help. You're great with precision, you're awesome at keeping us – mostly me – in line."

"Hiro's good at thinking outside the box," Wasabi began, but Fred interrupted him.

"So are you," he added, "Remember when we fought Callaghan? You were the first person to suggest using the low gravity to our advantage. You. And it probably saved Hiro and Baymax in the end. Honey Lemon might have the knowledge and Go Go might have the thick skin and Hiro might be able to think outside the box like Tadashi, but you can keep your eyes on the prize."

Wasabi felt his face grow warm with each word Fred said. Him? The neat-freak? The guy with lasers?

"What can I do, then?" Wasabi asked finally.

Fred smiled, "Tadashi needs to figure out how to control his powers and I need someone to keep me from doing dangerous ideas and keeping it safe. You in or what?"

Finally, Wasabi smiled, "Yeah, I'm in. "

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Author's Note: To anyone who's wondering, yup, Magnus Rogers, my OC from the previous installment, is going to be a major character here. He just stood out to me in my opinion and I felt that he deserved to be fleshed out more. I also want him interacting with other characters other than Hiro.

And I felt that I owed Wasabi for not giving him enough POV's in Shock and decided to give him his own little subplot with his confidence. I really hate how he didn't get much of an opportunity to shine in the show and was turned into a comic relief character. He's more than that.

Thank you all again for your reviews so quickly in the first chapter, I wasn't expecting 5 when I first published it. Some of you said some pretty interesting things that I think would work in the story if I handle this properly.

Just keep doing what you've been doing and shower me with reviews! :)