Hiro kept one eye peeled on Tadashi's bed, waiting for his brother to get down to the basement or either fall asleep. His older brother was humming under his breath, ear buds stuck in place and not paying attention to him.

For tonight, Hiro was glad that his attention was on something else.

Tadashi balanced some books in his arms, music player in the other hand as he made his way down the stairs, leaving the teen alone.

Hiro waited, counting down the minutes, and stood up from the bed when he confirmed that Tadashi wouldn't notice. He pulled on his hoodie and tiptoed to the window, bot in hand.

He pried open the window, putting one foot before the other, grabbing the gutter to steady himself. Hiro stuck Megabot in the waistband of his cargo pants, holding the metal between two hands and slid himself down.

Thankfully, he didn't fall and break his neck, the residual gym skills still sticking with him after all these years. The basement lights were on and he had little doubt that Tadashi may be there with Ayako, as evident by a random car parked outside of the cafe.

He wondered why Aunt Cass hadn't said something about the time girls could come over. Maybe Tadashi didn't tell her. Yeah, that seemed like a plausible reason.

Hiro made his way down the streets, the brightly lit shops giving way to dark alleys. He slipped down one, hearing muffled jeering from the other side.

A crowd came into a view, the sound of grinding gears heard over the cheers and boos. Hiro patted the wad of cash in his pocket and took a deep breath when the ring leader asked who would be next to challenge 'Little Yama'.

The young teen plastered on his most innocent and shy expression before calling out in a small tone, "may I try?"

The crowd parted and every eye was on him. Internally, he smirked.

It was show time for Megabot.

~~O~~O~~

"Are you sure that he would only activate with 'ow'?" Ayako asked, as she examined the finalized creation. Tadashi stood beside the red suitcase with pride written in his posture.

"Yes," he said. "Is there a problem with that?"

"I mean, what if there are more other sounds of distress than 'ow'? What about a scream of 'oh my god?'"

Tadashi pondered on that for a moment as he stared at his creation. "Hmm. Maybe I'll put that in his matrix when I have the time."

He would've said more when the sound of a distressed beep alerted him.

Ayako's head shot up, hair falling across her shoulder as she looked at the beeping computer.

"What's happening?"

Tadashi's eyes widened and he moved to the screen, with an alarming that she hadn't seen before.

"'Dashi? What's happening?" She asked again, this time much more forceful.

Tadashi looked back at her with wild eyes, rushing back to his creation and picking it up.

"Please, do me a favor."

Ayako could only stare at him in confusion as he handed Baymax over to her.

"What-"

"It's Hiro, he's in trouble."

"In trouble?" She repeated in disbelief. "How would you know?"

"The GPS systems – goddammit." He gritted his teeth against the pain when his toe rammed into the leg of the table. "Please take Baymax and wait for me in S.F.I.T car park... I need to help that wayward brother of mine."

"Wait, will you be returning there?"

"Yeah," he said, sobering up from the pain. "I decided to take your advice and let him have a look at the place."

Ayako nodded, understanding both his request and logic.

"Okay, I'll wait. Oh, and Tadashi?"

He stopped his frantic movement around the lab and turned to look at her.

"Stay safe, okay? I hope you get Hiro back safe too."

He nodded in acknowledgement and turned back to the stairs, leaving her alone with Baymax, looking more than a little lost.

~~O~~O~~

She got into her mother's car, putting Baymax in the backseat and setting the car in gear, heading down the road to the college. Ayako kept her eyes trained on the road, unused to driving her mother's small car, always relying on walking or taking the trams. She reached the outside compound where she was sure they wouldn't allow outsiders passed this point.

But surprisingly, the security guard let her through with nary a glance in her direction, the beam rising and letting her car go.

She kept to the minimal speed and parked in front of the steps, placing the car in neutral.

Taking a deep breath, she waited, listening to the static from the broken radio, trying not to seem too inconspicuous. The parking area was lit with street lights, casting a bright glow on the almost empty car park.

But the lights in the college were still switched on and even the classes seemed occupied. Did they have classes even at night?

Ayako quickly got bored, resulting in picking her nails for entertainment. She looked down at past her lap, trying to decide whether she needed a manicure when a sharp rap on the window made her look up.

It was one of Tadashi's friends. Fred.

He grinned and waved, gesturing for her to roll down her window.

"Hey, Ayako," he said enthusiastically once the windows rolled down. "What're you doing here? Tadashi isn't in college."

"I know," she said, pointing to the red suitcase behind. "He wanted me to drop this off at his lab cause he had to do something important."

Fred took a good look at the suitcase and she could see him thinking.

"Those aren't explosives, are they?"

Despite the serious question, she couldn't help her snort of disbelief. "Please, as if Tadashi would want me to bring explosives into the college."

Fred grinned at her words, shaking his head.

"That's great. Say, what if I go with you down the lab and we can put it in Tadashi's personal studio?"

The idea held a certain appeal to her, but she was nervous, thinking that people would start staring.

"Am I even allowed to be in the lab in the first place?" Ayako inquired, skeptical.

Fred shrugged. "I guess so. They let anyone in as long as you don't disturb the other nerds with their projects."

Ayako thought it over, glancing over at the dash clock. She had already been here for five minutes and Tadashi hadn't even called her to update on his and Hiro's situation. Was he expecting her to sit in a car and wait for god knows how long?

"Okay, sure."

She switched off the engine and headed to the back seat, struggling with the suit case.

"Here, let me help."

Before she could decline Fred's offer, he ambled over and supported the other side, the stress in her arms reducing.

Fred grunted, wincing. "What did the dude put in here? Tons of bricks?"

"Lithium batteries," she replied in a strained voice, shuffling with half of the weight towards the stairs. Her arms started to hurt and she was genuinely terrified that she might drop the suit case and ruin his project.

But mercifully, her arms held, helped by Fred and they made it up the long steps to the front doors of S.F.I.T.

They placed the suitcase down and Fred took a moment to wipe his brow.

"Man, I've got to stop eating all those pizzas – I'm way too out of shape."

Ayako huffed a laugh and gestured towards the huge lobby where students were gathered, hanging out in the sitting hall. "Come on, we're almost there."

The blonde male huffed and picked up his side of the suit case, directing her towards the elevators.

The doors closed shut on them, opening up a few moments later.

Fred led her down a corridor where an adjoining room to the left came into view, this one looking more sterile and professional. So this was the affectionately nicknamed 'Nerd Lab' that Tadashi had told her about.

He strolled in as if he did this every day (as she suspected he did), passing by various students who were busy with their projects and didn't even spare them a glance.

Ayako couldn't help but take in the place, stunned by the sheer activity. This was the direct antithesis of S.F.A.I's huge art common room but still held the same feel: the concentration of students, the bustling activity, the overflowing creativity.

It made her look around in wonder.

"Hey, watch out for the flying drone!" Fred called out and she ducked, just in time before the thing could come sailing into her head. A short girl with cropped hair stopped to give her a sheepish apology before running to catch the escaped drone.

Ayako huffed a breathless laugh. "This is amazing."

"It – ugh – is, right?" Fred said, moving the weight to his other arm while he stretched the other, disturbing the weight. Baymax nearly slipped out of her arms, much to her horror but he reacted, catching the other side before it could topple to the ground.

"Okay, tour later, getting this thing in Tadashi's lab now."

"Got it."

Fred led her out of another door, this time leading towards another set of elevators.

The elevators brought them up three flights before dinging to a stop. The school mascot led her down another corridor, stopping outside an unassuming set of sliding doors.

Fred placed Baymax on the ground and proceeded to type in the password in a key pad beside the door. The light turned green and the doors swung open. She heaved a sigh of relief and put all her energy into carrying Baymax, the doors sliding shut behind them.

Ayako placed the robot down and stretched her sore arms, taking in the space.

If a room could have a direct representation of Tadashi, this one did.

The walls were bare except for schemes taped to them. A holographic computer hummed to life when she walked past it and light streamed in from the large, rounded window sill that dominated one wall.

Fred walked past her and flipped a switch, instant light brightening the lab.

She squinted and gazed around once more.

"He's a little bit of a clean freak, am I right?"

"What? Oh, yeah. Kinda looks like the lab he had back home too."

Fred wiggled his brows. "So, are you saying you've been into Tadashi Hamada's secret lair?"

She scoffed and – although she had only met the guy once – felt comfortable enough to punch his arm, earning an indignant yelp from the boy.

"Shush you."

Fred grinned and rubbed the spot where she had punched him. "Yeesh, calm down, I was just joking."

Ayako busied herself moving Baymax and placing him under the window sill. She looked out, twinkling lights reflected on the surface of a huge man made lake with a bridge that connected two halves of the campus together catching her attention. The lake was fringed with cherry blossom trees that were barren of flowers, the scenery an outlet of stress for he college students.

Sighing in longing, she recalled that all her college had was a traditional Japanese garden that was off limits for socializing.

Great, maybe she could pitch that idea to the faculty if they ever had an annual meeting again.

"Come on, don't you want to see the rest of the nerd lab?" Fred offered.

"Yeah, sure," she said, following him out of Tadashi's lab. Fishing her phone from out of her pocket, she saw no messages. Worry and dread filled her chest.

What had happened to both boys? Why did she have a feeling that his silence meant something bad had happened?

Tadashi would never let something bad happen to Hiro, she reasoned, feeling a little better with that thought.

Ayako put that thought behind as she trailed after Fred, the last thing she saw was the key pad of his lab doors blinking red once more.

~~O~~O~~

"When are you going to use that big brain of yours for something?" Tadashi hadn't meant to yell at his younger brother, but Hiro's nonchalant attitude about breaking the law was making him see red.

The younger brother shrugged, clasping onto his robot with a stubborn scowl.

They had been arrested – arrested! – for tonight's actions and Tadashi was more than ready to rip Hiro for his stupidity. He had went down to a place that was dangerous for kids like him and gave Aunt Cass a near heart attack when she had to bail them out of prison.

The word still felt foreign in his mind. He had been to prison. Tadashi Hamada, self proclaimed nerd and non confronting softie had actually been to prison.

Somehow, that did sound cool but that was something for later.

"Come on, nobody got hurt," Hiro said, again with that breezy callousness. "There's a fight around town and if I can book it, I can make it in time."

He realized that Hiro wouldn't take 'no' for an answer and would head back to the seedy alleyways of bot fighters and thugs alike, despite his brother's well meaning advice. He had to do something, change his brother's mind before it was too late.

A hint of a smirk pulled his lips but Hiro was too busy to notice.

"Okay."

He gave his brother a confused stare. "Huh? Okay for what, Tadashi?"

"If I can't stop you, I might as well send you there, huh?"

Hiro looked at him in disbelief. "You're serious?"

Tadashi lifted up the helmet and placed it on his brother's head.

"Yup. Now let's go."

~~O~~O~~

"What are we doing at your nerd school?" Hiro asked in a groan. "I thought you said we were going bot fighting?"

"Oops," Tadashi said in mock contrition. "I must've taken the wrong way. Huh, fancy that, getting here because I forgot to take something. Wanna follow me in and pick up the stuff before we leave?"

Hiro rolled his eyes. "I know what you're doing. Not subtle at all, bro."

Tadashi faked ignorance. "I don't know what you're saying."

"Ha. Ha."

"Come on, or are you gonna sit here the whole night?"

The teen debated his choices. He could sulk and groan all he wanted, but Tadashi was well known for his stubbornness. He decided to follow his dork of a brother, if only to appease him so that he would hurry up and get back to the bot fighting schedule.

"Fine, fine," Hiro grumbled, completely missing Tadashi's smirk.

~~O~~O~~

So. His plan did work.

He let Hiro absorb all the sights of the robotics lab, even got him to meet Professor Callaghan, the man who invented Callaghan's Theory of Robotics.

Safe to say, Hiro was star-struck.

But there was one more thing that he hadn't seen.

Tadashi brought Hiro into his personal lab, happy to note that the red suit case was there. With a little jolt of guilt, he realized he hadn't called her yet and chose to remedy that while Hiro was admiring Baymax. The bot blinked down at him, entertaining his whimsical questions.

"Can you shoot lasers?"

"No," Baymax replied in a pleasant, neutral voice.

"How about rocket boosters?"

Tadashi shook his head in amusement and dialed in her number. She answered after the third ring.

"Hey, where are you? Is everything all right?"

"Whoa, whoa, slow down babe," he said, grinning. "I'm fine. I'm here with Hiro in the personal lab. Wanna come up here and meet us?"

"Sure. Cool. Wait, let me tell Fred to cancel our pizza order." He crinkled his brow at her words.

"You're ordering pizza?"

"I got hungry," she replied in defense. Her indignant tone was so adorable that Tadashi had to huff a laugh.

"Okay, then we'll meet up with you downstairs," he replied, ending the call.

"Hey, genius," Tadashi called his brother who was busy studying the robot's carbon fiber skeleton.

Hiro looked up, curious. "What?"

"Want some pizza? Fred and Ayako ordered some."

Hiro didn't give it a second thought as he nodded enthusiastically, attention diverted from Baymax.

"Hiro, I cannot deactivate until you have said you are satisfied with your care," the robot said, blinking.

The teen followed the robot's moves, blinking in surprise.

"Uh, sure. I am satisfied with my care."

"Thank you," Baymax said and the two brothers watched as the robot ambled over to the red power dock and deflated.

"Amazing," Hiro muttered under his breath.

Tadashi grinned, teasing, "what was that, little bro?"

Hiro caught himself and shrugged. "Nothing. Said I was hungry."

He made his way to the door, turning back to look at his brother.

"Are you coming or what? I hate to be the one to say it but if it's pizza, I rather disown you as a brother than be late for a slice."

Tadashi snorted, following his brother as he walked out of the lab, switching the lights off.

"Fine. Be that way. As if pizza is going to save your butt when you get in trouble with bot fighting."

~~O~~O~~

He found her down in the nerd lab, looking rather comfortable as she hovered near Fred's chair. The comic book fan had donned his mascot suit and Tadashi wondered how he didn't get a heat stroke from all those layers.

The young man went to stand beside her, and she startled, looking up at him with wide eyes.

She relaxed once she saw who it was and even offered him a small smile.

"So, what happened?"

Tadashi leaned down so that they couldn't be overhead, not willing to let anyone but her know the true reason why they were late.

"We... got arrested."

The disbelief on her face was priceless. "A-Arrested? What happened?"

"Bot fighting," Tadashi replied, gesturing to his brother who had busied himself in a serious conversation with Fred on how producing fire for a monster suit wasn't 'real science'.

"Oh, come on," Fred groaned, trying his hardest to change Hiro's mind.

A few of his other friends had also gathered around, each one of them greeting him and her in their own way.

Honey gave Ayako a small wave, turned to Tadashi and gestured at his brother. "Is this Hiro?"

Tadashi nodded. "Yeah. Everyone meet Hiro, Hiro meet everyone."

The teen gave them all a shy smile and Tadashi felt like he was looking into the reflection of a mirror.

That had been his exact same reaction two years ago when Honey had introduced him to GoGo, Wasabi and Fred. A rush of affection welled up in his heart and he wished he could bend down and ruffle the top of his brother's head. Although, Hiro would not appreciate him embarrassing the teen in front of his other friends.

"Hey, we ordered some pizza cause Fred got hungry," Ayako announced, much to Fred's cheers. "So, who wants a slice?"

Everyone raised their hands and – although they were weren't suppose to bring food into the lab – it was a nice change from laboring the whole day with their projects.

~~O~~O~~

"I can't believe you got arrested today," she said, standing by the car and watching as Hiro talked to the rest of the gang by the steps. Tadashi shrugged, turning to her with a smirk.

"Why? Happy that I'm now ten times more cooler?"

She snorted a laugh, drawing a stare from GoGo.

"Please, I've met poodles who did double in the pet pound."

Tadashi pretended to look affronted as he placed a hand on his heart. "My love, why do you hurt me so?"

"Because you're too dang adorable," she said with a wink.

He grinned, poking her side.

"Admit it, me going to prison is kinda hot."

Ayako pressed her lips together to keep from smiling. "Yeah, yeah street thug. It's extremely titillating to know you shared a cell with sweaty, old men."

"Somehow, I think you're just being sarcastic."

"I wonder why," the young woman replied as she tapped the roof of her car. "Okay, this is officially too much for me to handle in a single night. I should get going."

Tadashi nodded. "Sure. And thank you for sending Baymax to the lab, I really did appreciate that."

"Welcome," she said brightly. She turned her eyes to Hiro. "So, did the brain washing plan work?"

He followed her gaze, looking smug.

"Like a champ. He bought it and actually asked me how to get in and so I said he would have to take part in the showcase."

Ayako hummed, smiling slightly. "Well, he's a genius just like his brother, I doubt he wouldn't think of something."

"Aw, see? I knew you would break down and compliment me soon," Tadashi teased.

She scoffed and rolled her eyes. "So, does that mean lab romancing is officially out?"

"Unless you like spewing cute-sy words with Hiro in the same room," the inventor replied, smirking.

"Thought so."

"We'll make other plans, okay?"

She smiled at the eagerness in his tone, his bashfulness contagious. "Yeah, okay."

"And hey, if everything goes well, would you like to come for his showcase?"

He looked at her expectantly, and with those wide, brown eyes, how could she say no?

"Sure."

"Cool, I'll pick you up from your home?"

"Ha, have fun trying to explain to my mom that you're not a thug... oh, wait."

"Your mom's not in the secret service, right?"

"Considering I don't know what she works as, it might be plausible," she replied carefully.

Tadashi gave an exaggerated sigh, "I guess she would know that my reputation precedes me, being in prison and all that."

Ayako scoffed and bumped his shoulder with hers, bringing a smile to his face.

"It was just a lock-up. Even puppies need to get locked up sometimes." She didn't let him ruminate long on her words and stood on tiptoe, kissing his cheek.

"Gotta go. See you when I see you?"

He grinned, hand drifting up to graze his cheek, unaware of the action. "Yeah. See you when I see you."

She could hear someone cough in the background and turned to find the whole gang facing away, blatantly ignoring them.

"Hey, guys, I heading home," she called to the rest of the gang.

They turned around then as if they had just noticed her, various expressions of smugness and innocence written on their face.

"Cool, bye," Wasabi said.

"See you, Ayako," Honey Lemon retorted warmly.

GoGo popped her gum in her own form of goodbye.

Hiro and Fred both gave small waves and she returned them, stepping into the car and starting the engine a moment later. She reversed and waved at Tadashi who still wore that silly grin.

She blushed and was thankful that he couldn't see it, before stepping on the gas and driving out of the campus.

From her rear view mirror, she could see Tadashi ambling up the steps, and the indignant scowl on his face as Fred punched his arm teasingly and Honey cooed at something he said.

She shook her head, resisting the urge to laugh on her own and continued, making sure to check both ways before turning down the street.


A/N: Just to let you guys know, I managed to watch the first LOTR movie for half an hour before my computer crashed. Sigh, what is life?

Thank you all for your sweet reviews! More reviews are like pop-tarts, they fill me up with luuurve.

Next chapter is something laugh-aloud and is a must read.