No, my turtles, there will be no romance in this story- at least none at the main focus. Perhaps a few background characters will have feely feels but none of that will happen between all the characters we know from the movie. (u/u)

-Chapter 4-

-Learning To Adapt-

[4:35 PM]

[London]

The rainclouds overhead cast the hall in grey shadow, the students that passed under the glass sun roof overhead like ghosts of themselves hardly able to look up from the floor.

Hiro felt himself deflate just a bit when he got his test back at the end of Bio Tech 204. His teacher, Mr. Rusk, hadn't seemed very supportive of the riots recently but until the past few days it hadn't been clear what side he stood on. Now though, due to unfair grading, offensive mannerisms, and clear favoritism, ginkos in his class had begun dropping out like flies. Looking through the midterm he'd "failed" as he stood outside his class, Hiro bit his lip. He couldn't understand what he'd done wrong on all these questions- or if he'd done anything wrong at all. At this point he was willing to bet his entire quarter salary granted by SFIT that his teacher was trying to make him fail.

Sighing he folded the sheet of paper up and slipped it into his backpack. He had an F in the class but he'd be damned before he stopped attending. Mr. Rusk wasn't going to be able to chase him off that easily. Shrugging his bag farther along his shoulder he began walking out of the building. Today was Tuesday, that meant his classes ended at 4:30 and he had the rest of the day to work on his three online courses.

But first he'd have to get back to the dorms.

A burning sensation across his neck made him turn, meeting the shadowed eyes of a group of older men crowded around the elevator a few meters to his left. A few lit cigarettes filled the area with the smell of smoke and tobacco. Some wore their hoods up and others covered their hair with beanies. It was difficult to make out specific features of their faces and a shorter individual even wore a bandana around his jaw. Their postures were easy, laid back, but nonetheless prepared for the next ginko who dared to come out of the elevator.

Unwaveringly, Hiro met their gazes and stood firmly. His head was raised, hood down, and posture confident. One of the men, a student with a brown beard curling over his face in disorderly patches like it had caught fire at some point, fondled a size 6 hunting knife. Another- a young man with thick glasses and a scarf around his neck- shifted beside him. From the stiffness of the way the fabric of his left pant leg moved it became obvious to Hiro that he carried something a little bigger than a switchblade on him. From this distance it was too difficult to tell, however, so he turned on his heel and carried off down the hall.

He felt their eyes follow him to the stairs but he never looked back to acknowledge them. The college was an old one with Victorian style architecture for certain buildings and 21st century comforts- that Hiro decided he could not live without- for others around the various campuses. What you saw depended on what part of the district you were on.

He was in the biochemistry building on the South Kensington Campus so the architecture around him was more often modern and that was something he appreciated. Pushing down the wide, curling, glass and metal staircase he passed lingering students and ignored the glares he received along the way.

On the occasion that he saw a spare ginko here or there he'd provide a quick nod of acknowledgement and they would return it- rarely with a smile. It was as he was exiting the building on ground floor, headed for the bus stop off Queen's Gate Road, that he noticed a familiar backpack abandoned by the girls bathrooms.

Gabby's familiar, flamboyant bag was on the ground but the Chinese woman herself was no-where to be found. If times had been different Hiro probably wouldn't have thought much about seeing her green, flower speckled book bag leaning up against the wall but these weren't regular times. Worry swirled inside him for the girl and he reverted his course.

She was a thin but very intelligent girl in her early twenties and- at least to him- very obviously Chinese. Gabby was highly invested in biological engineering and would fly off energetically on the subject whenever she got the opportunity. The thought of open cadaver surgery didn't even deter her- in fact it only seemed to excite her. The bubbly foreign student actually reminded Hiro a great deal of Honey Lemon, though Gabby was a little more dependent on her friends and a little shier.

He didn't know her that well but she was a nice, spunky acquaintance in class and he wasn't going to carry about his day if something was wrong.

Upon reaching the floral printed back pack he leaned down and looked around. Unable to locate his classmate anywhere he turned his attention to the object in front of him. After a bit of rifling his fingers closed around her phone and with disappointment in his heart he pulled it from the front pocket of her bag. A few charms dangled about, rolling along his fingers and tickling his flesh but he ignored them and turned pressed the menu button on her cell. Her last text had been sent to Maggie about 13 minutes ago but it didn't supply him with much.

Hauling the bag up off the ground he looked around for her again.

Maybe she's in the bathroom?

"Hiro!" the familiar pitch caught his attention and he turned, relief soaring through him at the sight of his missing classmate racing towards him, "xiāo dì!"*

At the honorific he blushed and immediately shushed her, "Gabby, what are you doing? You'll attract attention!"

Huffing she smiled apologetically at him and held out a hand for her bag, braids falling past her face, "sorry, it just slipped out." She was out of breath and her cheeks were pink, appearance scuffed. When he returned her backpack to her she stumbled as though she hadn't been prepared for the weight.

"Hey," his brow furrowed with concern, "are you okay?"

She nodded a little too frantically for his liking, accent coming a bit thicker in her distress, "Yes- yes, I am fine. Just fine. Thank you."

Hiro obviously wasn't convinced by this and eyed her up and down; Now that she was closer he could see her face was pale, there was a scrape along her cheek, and bruises flickered into view under her orange yoke-waist skirt when she turned and began hurrying away.

Alarmed, he chased after her, noticing the dirt pattered across her back, "o-oi, Gabriella!" Hiro reached out and grabbed her wrist firmly just before she reached to double doors.

"Do not touch me!" she gasped and shook him off. His eyes widened and they both froze, Gabby with her wrist against her chest, eyes wide, and shoulders quivering.

It was at that point that Hiro recognized what must have happened and his own eyes narrowed. He turned and searched the area for her attackers, savage gaze tearing through the crowd just daring them to come out. Of course he caught sight of no one appropriately suspicious on this floor or what he could see of the upper ones.

"Where are you hurt?" he asked and carefully moved closer, using his body to shield her from view as he started gingerly ushering her towards the doors. She opened her mouth to reply but he was in command-mode now and had already started asking his next question, "do you want to go to the hospital? I'll take you-"

Opening the door she hurried through but interrupted him as he navigated himself onto the steps behind her.

"I am fine," she stated just loud enough to be heard. She looked a little like a startled stoat but he shut his mouth, not wanting to overwhelm her. He glanced back again and then began making his way down the steps with her.

"Alright, but I'm taking you back to the dorms with me, ok? We live on the same floor, after all, so it's no trouble." Keeping her in the corner of his peripheral vision he started leading the way to the bus stop but this time she reached out and grabbed his wrist. Confusion pulled through him, tightened the features of his face, and he looked back at her.

Gabby swallowed and was unable to meet his gaze, "I am fine. Please." There was something more in her eyes that made him pause, a look of desperate guilt and warning. Her fingers trailed down his wrist and confusion turned to skepticism and caution until a thin piece of paper was pressed into his palm. Her accent thickened again, voice hurried and quiet, "I must visit mail post before going to the dorms. You must go ahead of me."

His mouth went dry as she breezed by him, whispering a mournful, "bào qiàn," as she passed.

Sorry? What for…?

He watched her go, waiting for his classmate to turn the corner before investigating what she'd put in his palm.

It was a small piece of paper not much bigger than a 1 dollar coin. Scrawled in thick sharpie across it was a word that made his heart plummet into his stomach.

RUN.

[8:28 AM]

[San Fransokyo]

Tadashi leaned back, biting his lip as he read through the virtual paper on his ipad. It was about 8:30 in the morning and all his friends were in class with Aunt Cass probably kept busy in the café. He didn't mind too much, however, caught up as he was trying to come to terms with everything he'd missed in the two years he'd been comatose.

Among the ever growing list of things he was focused on, Tadashi found a growing intrigue in San Fransokyo's Big Hero 6 group. The people who'd found him and brought justice to Professor Callaghan had been pretty busy since they had first appeared. From stopping speeding trams to destroying enormous blob monsters they'd become known as the city's superheroes since.

He had to admit, though, that the figures were all very, suspiciously, intensely familiar. It became pretty obvious when he saw Baymax decked out in red Hiro-ish armor and he'd been unable to resist the habit of smacking his head and muttering under breath when he'd realized:

Of course his little brother would gather up his friends and turn them into a bunch of superheroes while he was gone.

Ultimately Tadashi had decided to educate himself on what they'd been doing, where their connections lay, etc, etc. He wouldn't confront them about it. Oh no, Tadashi wanted them to tell him. He'd wait as long as needed too.

He scrolled through stumbl, observing various comments about the team and smiling at the support they had*. There weren't a whole lot of clear pictures of them but he encountered a few videos that made him somewhat nervous. One of such being a catastrophic, terrifying, shaky clip of an enormous biological experiment gone wrong. It was startlingly human looking with lizard scales and a web cartilage splayed around its face. In the video Hiro was caught freefalling towards the monster's open jaws with Baymax rushing to grab him from behind. Shortly before the video cut out he thrust his left arm forward and a sonic boom destroyed the video's sound. A white light then interrupted the vision. Catastrophe cleanup photos showed a crater where the monster had been and people described the heat like it was magma, the smell like sulfur. He wasn't very happy about the 6th month absence of the local "Big Hero 6 leader" thereafter, images only of the others being spotted here and there as they helped with petty crimes.

He made note to ask Hiro about it sometime. (Though a part of him wondered if he'd ever get the chance.)

Flicking his long index finger along the pad's surface he found something that caught him off guard. There were two pictures; one was a grainy, blurry photo of Hiro riding on Baymax's back taken by an old camera phone and the other was an even foggier photo of his brother from two days ago facing off against the British military. He read the comments below it and wasn't too sure what to feel.

AmmyBtop: Does anybody else notice a similarity here?

FiddleLEE: Omg, what, what, what?! #screaming.

littleriddleE: Holy shit, these are clearly two different people. Just look at the size difference!

Tadashi read through speculative comments trying to determine who his brother was and came across some absurd things along the way. Interested despite himself he followed the thread. Then he found a post of butchered pictures taken of Hiro's bravery against the platoons of soldiers. Each of them was obviously taken with cameras from residents along the street and some were better than others. A few of the higher quality ones had his brother's face blurred and looked like they'd been cropped but it didn't stop Tadashi from taking in every detail he could.

He hadn't really been able to see from the news reports but now he could tell that Hiro had grown quite well. He was several inches taller than he had been when he'd last seen him and he didn't wear his khakis anymore. Instead he wore jeans, red sneakers, and a baggie gray hoodie with a bigger black jacket clothed over it to help preserve warmth. The rain kept his hair splattered to his head so it was hard to see if his style had changed. Tadashi read the comments.

Mahoumasterdonosensei: Here's more pics of that kid, yall. Blurred his face 'cause reasons, sorry. :P

FlipFlopSlopMop: What the fuck does this kid think he's fucking doing? Someone identify this runt before he gets people hurt!

IgnorentMediaoutlet: Hey, lay off him. This kid is obviously a million times braver than you and dealing with some serious shit right now. If he gets identified, think of what people in London will do to him! Are you trying to get him killed? Guys, signal boost this! I want this kid to know he's got support! #stoprascism #GinkoRiots

A grateful smile tugged at his lips as he continued reading, glad to see that while his brother might not be in the most Japanese supportive city right now he had others cheering him on.

narniac4aslan: Wow, brave guy to keep back an army... I wonder if it will inspire others, though maybe that's not a good thing cause others might not be so lucky or smart

Dreaming2Write: Now that kid has some serious courage! I could probably never do anything like that! Now that is something Rosa Parks or Malala Yousafazi would do and that takes a lot of guts and bravery to do! But why for an empty church... was somebody in their?

YamamotoHam11: No-one's really sure yet. Some people are saying yeah but the media isn't being clear. Obviously they're hiding details from the public and as a journalist myself I have to say how unacceptable this is. This isn't what we do, this isn't what journalism is about. If anyone can find some pictures of the full situation, please don't be afraid to post them! This kid is the bravest person I've ever seen in my life and I don't want his actions to be mutilated by the media. Signal boost!

Redhairedbimbo42: reblogging because this is important! #Ginkosforever

The comments went on and on, people trying to unmask his brother while others tried to protect him. He saw pictures of a few twitter accounts from people living in London describing what it was like trying to sleep with police and rioters shouting outside. He saw pictures of dumpsters and cars being overturned, lit on fire, etc. And he found comments that attacked his brother too, things that made his blood boil and his face burn with rage.

clementineme: Are you people serious? Whoever is supporting this stupid Ginko kid doesn't have half a brain! People like him are responsible for tons of deaths, and he's getting respect for openly mocking the authorities! Oh, and then there are the idiots moaning about the 'poor children' that DON'T EVEN EXIST! They weren't even in the official footage and all your conspiracy theories are getting annoying! These stupid Ginkos deserve every last thing that's coming to them, kids without any common sense are no different!

Just as he was about to shut his ipad off, disturbed by the things he was seeing, Tadashi found a video. It was encrypted, much to the irritation of multiple people, but the label took a firm hold of his determination; BONEHEAD. With the outdated tech in his lap it took a while but he was eventually able to crack the code and watch the video. It was short but that didn't matter to him.

The face of a man somewhere in his mid-twenties filled the screen, bushy orange hair curling this way and that as though it hadn't been brushed for days. He had a somewhat chubby pale, Irish, face, and a shell necklace. He had turquoise size 0 gages in each ear and a few piercings cut through his left eyebrow.

"Okay," he said, "So, Hido goes ou', yah?" the young man looked up, camera shaking beneath him as he walked through a doorway, "an' af'er, like, an hour 'e comes bock. All drenched an' soakin' an' shit an' dere's blood comin' out 'is hand."

The door clicked just behind him and a familiar voice called to the man from the background, "Marcus, what the bloody hell are you doing?"

He turned his head, the clatter of objects sounding among various other noises in the distance, "Ah, hol' on Mag!" Then Marcus kept walking, "So, anyway, we's all wonderin' woh 'e was up to, yeh?" Then, quite abruptly the camera flipped around and displayed a small kitchenette with a familiar figure digging through a cupboard. He looked to be about 5'5, maybe 5'7- it was hard to tell. A white towel was draped around his shoulders and his hair stuck out a little wildly, evidence of being towel-dried. He wore a baggy white T-shirt with a small ninjogo logo on the back that Tadashi almost immediately recognized as his own and dark gray sweat pants with the SFIT logo draped down the side of the right leg. "'n 'e tells us 'e was protetin' some kids!"

At the sound of Marcus' voice the figure turned around and Tadashi had to do a double take, replay, and pause it on his little brother's face because woah. A pang of loneliness was struck within him as he absorbed every detail. Hiro's face had grown out, the chub in his cheeks mostly gone to reveal a sharper jaw line and more defined cheekbones- though it was still clear he had some growing left to do. His nose and mouth didn't seem quite so large in accordance to the rest of his face anymore and his big eyes had thinned too. There was the faintest trace of order to his hair as it swept to the side with a rebellious lock sticking straight up on the right side of his head and it wasn't so long that he couldn't see his ears anymore either. In fact, because Hiro's head wasn't mostly thick, mused, chaotic locks of disheveled hair Tadashi was able to see the piercings in his ear. A scowl came across his face as he examined the two rings stuck through the upper cartilage of Hiro's ear but he was at least relieved to see his brother had no other jewelry stuck in his head. His Adams apple had become more defined as well.

Tadashi's little brother casually observed Marcus with a piece of buttered toast sticking out of his mouth, eyes half lidded and a bandage wound around his hand as it kept the bread steady as he chewed.

"Now 'e's just in 'a kitchen," the Irishman continued, "M'akin' 'imself some bread!"

Hiro blinked and reached for a steaming mug as he swallowed his first bite, "What?"- oh geeze, his voice was lower too- "I'm hungry."

"Wot kin' of person almost ge's shot 'n then makes 'imself some bread?!"

"Well, me, for starters," his younger brother stated, "besides, I wasn't going to let those kinds get hurt." A part of Tadashi burned for more solid information on what happened two days prior- ached to call his little brother and demand an explanation. By this point, however, it was becoming clearer that someone had been in the church behind him and he'd been protecting them. Hiro wouldn't just stand in front of any random building and risk death for no reason, right?

Right?

Tadashi bit his lip and tried not to think how little he really knew about his brother now.

A hand suddenly swept before the camera, tearing it away from Marcus' grip, "alright, that's enough, you cinephile. Let's turn this off-"

"No, wa-" then the video ended and Tadashi was left in silence.

For a long moment he stared at the dark screen, contemplating. Then he pulled up the calendar and read the date;

November, 18.

Thanksgiving was 9 days away.

A small smile tugged at his lips, what if…?

*xiāo dì: Basically the Chinese honorific for younger brother. (Thank you, Fonlover, for your help!)

*stumbl = pretty much tumblr.

Thank you to: narniac4aslan, Dreaming3Write, and clementineme for your contributions to this chapter's internet ramblings. If you have sent me comments that are not shown in this story that means they will show up later. (No, sweeties, not a story, just a quick comment on how you think about what's going on. If you're still confused send me a PM.)

My computer's gone and done something weird, if you guys notice anything strange let me know.

Cheers!

Update: *whispers* hey, hey, guys, guess what?

I don't know a lick of: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, etc. I've got a bit of Spanish and various African languages (Kidogo tu!) but other than that I'm about as fluent as you may expect a rock to be. I understand everyone is trying to help but if you want to give me a review based entirely on the inaccuracy of my language use PLEASE just PM me!

You wanna know something else? (This is why I had that warning put in at the start of chapter one that you were supposed to read.)

I have never: a) visited London. b) ever even been in England. c) taken a political science class. d) never actually been in a riot. Please go easy on me here, I'm learning everything through research and we all know how reliable the internet can be sometimes!

Ok, good, you read it. Thanks. :)