Safe in Brother's Wings Chapter 23: The Light at the End of the Road Trip, a DuckTales + Big Hero 6 Crossover fanfic

Chapter 23, everybody! Who's ready for some fooling around at the beach? Please stay off the dune grass and—what? It's totally Tuesday, right?

Okay yeah real talk our power got knocked out yesterday by Hurricane Isaias (which looks like it should be pronounced like "Isaiah" but with an S but go figure). We drove around a bit after the storm blew over and got pizza at the beach but the power didn't come back on until evening, the TV didn't come back until midnight, and the phone and internet didn't come back until this morning. Sorry about that, it was technical difficulties beyond my control. ^^;

In other news…hoo boy I've got a lot of notes on this chapter….Sashi's imagine spot comes from the Captain America PSAs from Spider-Man: Homecoming, to start off with, and I'm pretty sure I read that JK Rowling did indeed name the Death Eaters after her friends. Also Sashi gets to regale us with prepper stuff again. Good times.

A lot of the beach portrayal in this and the last chapter comes from my own personal experiences with the beach—there's something inherently terrifying and fascinating about the beach at night. None of this experience involved California, however, so this required a day of poking around the Internet and looking up the area around San Francisco. Port Reyes is an actual national park that you can visit (after the pandemic of course) and has a history of oyster harvesting. Also there really is a Muir Woods I don't know why that threw me especially after the Muirahara Woods in the show but there you are.

The seagull is inspired by my own experiences with seagulls—don't feed them, it ends up looking like that scene from Finding Nemo. D: Also, can't help but recall this one guy at this beach town we visit often, who was a jerk and threw his shoe at a seagull and injured it. Don't be that guy. :-(

Sand fleas, genus Emerita, are tiny crustaceans that you can dig up with your bare hands and use for fish bait. I looked it up because I was pretty sure the name we use was sort of a slang name (it is)—and 'Kase's right, they do eat these little guys as snacks in Thailand and India. In the US, not so much. :\ Regular crabs, in the meantime, have their lungs and what's called "mustard" inside that is actually poisonous to eat, so it's important to clean those out before eating them. Clams and oysters have to be cooked until they pop open. Crawdads are also known as crawfish or crayfish depending on where you live, and resemble tiny lobster. They're also most common in the American southeast, the exact opposite end of the country than our little group, but there's a genus that lives up in the Pacific Northwest, so…maybe I didn't fudge that hard? I don't know (also, love the fact that the nutritional value of these guys shows up in the Bing search XD). Also pretty much every single thing mentioned here needs to be cooked while it's still alive—I don't know why. *shrugs*

Also plastic and tobacco products cannot be digested by animals but they will try eating it anyway because the shape is similar to their usual diet—ergo, don't be a butt, don't litter. :-(

In bird news, birds do bathe in dirt, dust, ash, and/or sand in addition to water, despite Tadashi's protests. Bird feathers are made of keratin like human hair and nails and therefore don't have any sensory reactors, which means that yes, crabs can pinch the end without causing injury.

Cardinals are classically associated with departed loved ones, and if you see one it means one of your dead loved ones has come to visit. It's a lot nicer than ghosts. :) Speaking of spiritual matters, Nox really shouldn't be worrying about the world flooding that already happened once and we were guaranteed it'd be a one-and-done deal. The world burning to a crisp, on the other hand….

In other news, I rarely laugh at my own work, but I couldn't help snickering at Sashi's one line—Tadashi's following line was inspired by my Dad's response when he asked me what was so funny and I told him.

Also, please no one tell the kids what rotisserie chicken is made of.

Angelwings2002, thanks for the review! YES THEY ARE AAAAAAAH! It is. :D And I really enjoyed writing those two bonding so I'm glad you liked it. :D YESSS…it's the taste of success and the agony of angst….

Hexyah, thanks for the review! I'm not going to hate you for that—it's a really pretty movie! It just tried to cover six books at once—if you don't know the books then it's fine, it's when you do that you question it (I actually wrote an article for work about how Guardians of Ga'Hoole would work better as a TV show—someone make it happen, please). I still enjoy watching it though. :D It's because it hurt writing it too….

Pirates of the Caribbean © Gore Verbinski; Disney

Tadashi was actually kind of sorry they hadn't stuck to waterways this whole time, if this is what beach living got them.

He wasn't lamenting not flying or walking as they waited for the girls to come back, and the kids were so focused on what Sashi was teaching them about finding food on the beach that he actually had very little to do except lay on his stomach, cushioning his head with his arms and laying in a shallow divot the kids had dug out for apparently no reason beyond because they could, wings spread and tail fanned, enjoying the contrast between cool sand and warm sun.

"Always loved the beach," Beth said, teaching Trisha and Mei how to dig with a clam shell.

"Mmm," Tadashi noised, not opening his eyes. "Are the girls back yet?"

"No, not yet, it's still early, stop worrying for five minutes and actually enjoy this."

"Working on it," he said, folding his wings in so he could roll onto his back. Crack his eyes open to scan the skies—clear blue with the occasional cloud drifting by. Very peaceful.

At least, until distressed squawking reached his ears.

"Oh no," he muttered, catapulting upright, looking around—"Della."

Della had apparently dug a hole she couldn't climb back out of, and when Dewey tried to help her out he ended up falling in with her. Grumble as he got up, crossed over, hauled them both out of the hole.

"Yeah, yeah," he said, as Dewey and Della cheered at their save, Dewey crawling up his back to shriek as Tadashi made his way back to the little bonfire they were keeping active. "Della, we need to talk about you trapping yourself like that."

Della shrieked and chirped in response—flopped down when he put her down in the divot and started flopping her wings around, sending sand everywhere.

"What—no, stop that," he said, picking her back up. "Trust me, sand everywhere is not a fun feeling."

"Especially when it gets places you can't address in public," Beth muttered, causing Tadashi to splutter for a few minutes.

"You know," Tadashi said to Della, when he could talk again. "I'd actually kind of like it if you were just—you know, just dial it back, just a little?"

"No!" Della shrieked, flailing around before sitting up with the intent of bolting—Tadashi caught her.

"Oh hey that was a word—can you say my name Della? Is my name Tadashi?"

"DAAAAH!" Dewey shrieked, too close to his ears to be comfortable, before diving at the sand again and rooting around.

"I wonder about you guys—just want you to know that."

"You'll get used to it," Beth assured him.

Ocean was big and vast and huge and scary—'Dashi had said that you could fly for ages and ages and ages and never see the other side, and no matter how high they flew they couldn't see the other side like they could with river or stream—it was too big, an impossibility to take in, and it scared Nox.

Beach was all right though—beach had things buried beneath the sand that Sashi actually said they could dig up, and they did with gusto. It felt good, their claws slicing through the sand, curling around objects and pulling them up—especially when Sashi said yes we can eat that. So far they had found lots of clam and one or two angry pinchy things that Sashi called crab that would scuttle sideways to get away and pinch at them when they tried to grab it—Webby, Della and Dewey were quick to challenge and harry pinchy-crabs, but Lena was the one who figured out that if you poked it with stick or wingtip it would pinch that and then you could take it over to fire and Sashi would flip it in and hold it in with stick until it crackled and steamed and turned tasty inside and showed them how to crack it open and what inside was good to eat and what was no don't eat that.

Beach-food was fun to eat—the others with beak could crack food open and slurp it out of crunchy-shell easily. Nox couldn't just crunch like that, Nox liked crab because he could crunch down on crunchy-shell and slurp it out, and he and Lena often used claws to pry food out instead. It was never a lot in one piece of food, but it felt different, being able to run up and down beach and dig food up—like they could do something about the hungry-gnawing feeling in their bellies instead of begging and hoping for food to come.

Lena was also currently sitting on a small hill, watching the waves—he padded over, whistled question.

Too-big, she told him. Too-big with no end maybe it was the end maybe if you flew too far that way you'd find where the sun nests at night maybe sun nested in ocean so its fiery feathers wouldn't catch the world on fire.

Nox sat there, tipping his head this way and that, wondering how it was that if the sun nested in the ocean in front of them, how was it that it flew back up into sky on the other side of the world? 'Dashi would know—bound over to him, tug and point and squeak and whistle question why why why—

"What is it?" 'Dashi asked. "You want to know more about the ocean?"

Yes yes yes what was it really it looked like water but tasted like salt and blech and it was too much too scary this had lots of food but it was bad-nest. Snuggle in close as 'Dashi told him how all sorts of things lived in ocean, things so huge and strange he couldn't begin to wrap his mind around them, that did nothing to assure him that ocean was anything but scary.

Della managed to wriggle free and bounce back along beach with Dewey, shrieking challenge—Nox hesitated, touching wing to 'Dashi—look at him and warble—

"They're not back yet," 'Dashi said. "Just stay within sight and don't go in the water, okay?"

"Okay," he chirped, bounding after Della and Dewey—staying out of ocean was easy because he had no desire to go into ocean ocean was noisy and scary and went roar and splashed up huge wet wings that sucked things back into it hungrily and made him wonder if ocean was eating land and if someday it would devour it all so they had nowhere to perch and land and nest until they too crashed into ocean from exhaustion and was eaten up as well.

It was a thought that made him shudder violently, and prompted him to shove it away—he didn't need a thought like that.

Webby bounced and shrieked for attention—Nox bounded over with several others, looked where she was bouncing and pointing and shreeing look-see-that-look!—

Bird.

They all fweed and watched, attentive—birds were important, birds were feathered like them and showed how to do things and dig for food and what to eat and how to fly would chee at danger and chatter about the area, all important things to know. Sometimes they would be blue jay that would shriek at anyone new in their territory, sometimes they were cardinal that talked of things and others and places far beyond even clouds, would sit on twig and tell them there were others that had passed on who were still watching and wanted only happiness for them. It was comforting to know, even if Nox still had only a vague grasp of what was not here to be seen now—he pictured it like an invisible cloud of 'Dashis that flitted around like the smaller birds and kept an eye on him, and felt like it confirmed that there was something up above clouds to see someday.

But this bird was not cardinal was not blue jay was not a bird they had seen before, gray and white with big long wings that twitched as it glided in a circle, folded in when it—

They all shrieked in dismay when it hit ocean, made 'Dashi jump up made Sashi spin around going what-what-what—they pointed, wondering what had made the bird fold up and crash maybe it had gone yeep like Brittany said like 'Kase said—

And then it came soaring back up, fish in its beak.

They chirped and shreed at that, impressed, wondered how the bird did that as it came in for a landing on the beach, bound over as it swallowed the fish, chittering question—

The bird lofted away, as birds did when they suddenly found themselves the source of interest, squawked what-you-strange-peoples?

"Hey come on, guys, leave the seagulls alone," Sashi called.

Nox's ears twitched—looked back at the bird and whistled question-peoples?

The bird, as birds did, seemed very confused at them talking, answered peoples-not bird-no feather. Bobbed its head at them as it realized that they did have feathers, looked at Webby and Huey when they pointed at ocean and chittered how-how-how?

Flap, flap again, say that fish made feathers stay not-wet, that one must eat lots of fish and other tasties that could be found on beach, padded away on webbed feet, pointed out that when ocean crashed forward and hissed back that bubbles in sand showed where tasties hid—ran forward and tugged something out of sand and ate it.

Food, it said, before padding to something on the beach that they had skittered away from because it smelled bad had seen it before where all the lights were and sharp-scary-BANG had been. Not food, it said, squawking that it had seen others like itself die from eating such things and had since then tried telling others because birds such as itself would often eat anything they found not always smart thing it counseled.

"Guys," 'Dashi said, padding up to them as the bird bounced away. "Stop bothering the seagulls—seagulls are not for eating, okay?"

They squawked at him because seagull had feathers like them that would be bad eating one—'Dashi waved it off when it circled around him, squawking confusion because has feathers but shaped like peoples peoples mean food but sometimes throw things what why how—

"Hey hey hey shoo we don't have French fries," Sashi said, waving at it too—Nox climbed on 'Dashi, tweeted and chirped their thanks as the seagull circled away to dive in ocean again.

"I don't know, what do you think?" Sashi asked, watching the seagull dive too.

"I think I'd rather not," 'Dashi said, looking at Huey tugging Sashi over to point at the thing the seagull said was not good for eating and ask what why what—

"Oh yeah, we're back to civilization," Sashi sighed, picking up a stick and poking it. "Hate people that do this."

There was that peoples word again, this time in words instead of their language—they whistled question, Lena and Dewey and Della following the line of wet sand and fleeing back to dry whenever ocean tried to grab them—Nox chittered worry-no-don't at them—

Della shrieked in triumph, dug into wet sand and pulled out clam, Lena digging out something else and whistling confusion. Violet came over, Nox slid off 'Dashi to go see—

"Uh, no," Sashi said, taking the thing away from Lena before Violet could eat it. "We don't eat sand fleas."

"We don't eat what?" 'Dashi asked.

Sashi pinched the little thing between two claws to show 'Dashi. "Sand flea. Great fish bait…if we had some way to catch a fish."

That prompted a quick discussion because how they had been taught to fish wouldn't work with ocean and the way seagull fished wouldn't work because their wings didn't stay not-wet in water—Violet reminded them that seagull said that eating lots of fish and other tasties from the beach would let them swim to which Webby and Dewey and Della all shrieked that they needed to find ALL the tasties so they could get fish from ocean—

"Oh come on," 'Dashi moaned as they bolted in search of tasties.

"At least they'll sleep good tonight," Sashi said.

They herded the kids up to the treeline as the day wore on, trying to explain to the kids that you didn't want to be on the beach in the middle of the day. Nox was really the only kid in danger of getting sunburnt, but the rest were probably risking dehydration at this point.

Sashi led the way in following a stream until it ran fresh, filling up the canteens and heading back to the fire to boil it, watching the stream for anything that looked fish-shaped.

"Pretty sure the water's all right here," Sashi said.

Tadashi tried very hard to suppress the sigh at the kids diving into the water, rooting around for crabs and shrimp and clams and chasing after fish flickering away. "Or it used to be."

"The important thing is, we didn't get the muddy stuff," Sashi said, screwing the lid onto the canteen. "And that probably feels good after hot sand." Wade in—"Oh yeah, that feels good."

Tadashi huffed, stepped in to get the kids—okay yeah that did feel good. "Come on kids, let's get back to the girls—Della no don't get your leg wet—" Caught Della, haul her up—Dewey popped up with a shriek and a stick, something that looked like a little lobster clinging to the end. "Sashi! What is this?"

"Crawdad," Sashi said, looking at it. "They're good eating."

"So thus far the only thing that hasn't been good eating were those sand fleas."

"I'm sure someone somewhere was hungry enough, but we have options—come on Dewey, let's get that to the fire."

Dewey cheered and followed Sashi, leaving Tadashi to herd the rest—it got easier as some of them found clams and oysters and ran to follow Sashi, but he did have to grab Violet too.

"You kids are a mess," he said, hauling them back to the others.

The kids chittered at that, insisted on going back to the stream—Beth and Sue volunteered to go with them, and in short order there was a line of downtrodden dune grass leading between the stream and the fire, Sashi having to continually build the fire up to accommodate the new clams and crabs the kids brought. Tadashi went back to the stream once or twice to check in on everyone, found Beth and Sue teaching the kids how to weave things with the grass ("It's summer camp stuff" Beth had informed him) and keeping the kids from going too far up or downstream. Nox spotted him, dragged him upstream with a few of the others to investigate, protested when he made them turn around because oi that was some muddy ground.

They also protested being made to wash off, but after they had a few mats made the more exhausted kids didn't object to sprawling out in the sun and drying off as they took a nap. It was well into the afternoon when Tadashi was able to flop down against a tree and relax.

"Clam?" Sashi asked, holding one out. "This one cooled off."

"Eh, I'll wait," he muttered, tugging his cap down lower over his eyes and wondering when was too soon to get up and check everyone again. Most certainly shouldn't check north again, it had been five minutes since he had done so and while he should be worrying about the girls they had said a day or two but still.

Silence but for the splashing from the stream and the crashing of the waves and the crackling of the fire. With the dappled shade on him and the cool breeze, it was very tempting to drift off.

"This isn't so bad," Sashi said finally. "I guess…if things don't work out, we could do this."

"What?" Tadashi asked, pushing his cap back up.

Sashi hesitated. "I…it's stupid."

"No, tell me."

"Just…." Sashi poked a finger in the sand, swirled it around, not looking at him. "I…you know, the gene cleansers…I was thinking worst-case scenario was…if they didn't work."

That made Tadashi's heart thud painfully in his chest. "They'll work." Unless you're a clone, in which case you're SOL—

Sashi held up his hands. "I know, I know! I just—it's a prepper thing. Hope for the best and prepare for the worst." Shrug, still not looking at Tadashi. "Honestly, I've been going through the whole 'so you're a bird-person now what' list since waking up like this."

Considering that might be Tadashi's future…."What's on the list?"

"Find someplace without a lot of people but with a good source of food and water, preferably someplace without strong weather or season flux…part of me was seriously debating about going to our Montana place and hiding there. Except, you know…bears."

Tadashi almost laughed at the way Sashi automatically checked the skies for 'Kase at that.

"So," Sashi sighed, looking back down. "My stepdad taught me that you're supposed to think through everything, run down the list of essentials over and over again in your head so when you have to get out of dodge, you can. I think…I was doing that, before you got us out of there—it kind of kept me sane, gave me something else to think about."

Tadashi couldn't imagine. No, wait, maybe he could. "Like me focusing on my family."

"Kinda? Strong focus on what you want." Look around, down at the waves crashing onto the shore. "I've…kind of been entertaining this notion—like that Maximum Ride book Brittany was talking about? Like, doomsday happened while we were in the labs, or we were snatched because it was happening, like with Maze Runner—and this is…whoever those people are, they're trying to make like…this super race that'd survive whatever…or maybe they just saw an opportunity to do awful tests and took it. Maybe we're working so hard to avoid populated areas and there's nothing to avoid."

Silence reigned between them for an age, it felt like.

"Wow," Tadashi said finally. "That is both terrifying and awesome."

"Nah," Sashi said, scratching his neck. "Everyone thinks surviving doomsday is cool until they learn about all the nitty-gritty stuff that goes into it. Like digging latrines."

"That does sound gross," Tadashi agreed. Consider. "Well, if you're right, I want to get my family out of San Fransokyo—not sure what the general populace would think of bird-people."

"Would probably shoot you because you're a weird mutation and you might be contagious."

"Gee thanks. Check to see if anyone else has family in the area and then…I don't know. What's the prepper opinion on settling near the ocean?"

"That water is nothing to mess with, be careful because while the gas lasts we might be having to deal with pirates—"

"Excuse me? Like Captain Jack Sparrow, those pirates?"

"More like Barbossa but with machine guns. And because of big storms and flooding you'd have to be careful, because we wouldn't have a means to predict it coming in advance…so if you settle near water, make sure you're on high ground and deep in shore."

"We really should do that anyway, but there's no fixing stupid."

"Hi Beth," Tadashi greeted. Nodded at the two kids she had. "Casualties of war?"

"The good news is, they sleep as hard as they play," she said, lowering Della into his arms. "So what are we talking about?"

"Sashi's got this working theory that we slept through doomsday."

"I know my husband would," Beth said, adjusting her hold on Violet as she sat down.

"It's not a working theory," Sashi said. "It's sort of like…oh wow that's such a stupid idea let's think about that instead of our current problems."

"I like that—fill me in."

Tadashi brushed some sand off of Della as Sashi went back over his theory, less hesitant now that he knew he wouldn't be laughed off the beach. Adjust her little aviator hat and try to scrub some of the salt air from the goggles—they weren't exactly working goggles, stitched to the hat as they were, but that was to be expected from something he had found in the kids' section. They held up well though—with the way the kids played and roughhoused, he kept expecting the glass to break. Maybe it was plastic. That could be it.

"So we get everybody gathered up—then what?" Beth asked, when Sashi finished. "The beach is off limits, obviously."

Sashi shrugged. "Not sure—my plan would be to head for Montana—my parents would head for the safe house when things hit the fan, and even with me missing they'd bank on me doing the same thing." Tip his head, thinking. "I'm…not sure how long they'd give me, or if after a while they'd give up, or if they'd come looking."

Beth reached over and squeezed his wrist. "They'd trust that you'd come to them."

Sashi nodded, like he wasn't entirely sure.

"Hey Sashi," Tadashi said, leaning forward a little. "How would your parents react to a bunch of bird-people on their doorstep anyway?"

"I…don't know," Sashi said, considering. "I think they might be understanding? I don't know, genetic mutations were only during the way-out-there prepper meetings. Usually when someone brought really sugary desserts."

"Now wait a minute, you never told me there was dessert at these things—now I want in."

"I'll think about vouching for you," Sashi said, looking over at a snort. "Maybe not Grump."

Grump huffed at Sashi as he padded up, flopping down near the fire and apparently ignoring them all.

"What, don't like the beach?" Tadashi asked—looked down when he felt Della stretching. "Mornin', Della."

"Mrrfff," Della noised, yawning and rubbing at her eyes. Blink up at him—start nibbling on his coat.

"Hey Della no," Tadashi said, tugging his coat out of her mouth. "I still need to wear that!"

"Maybe you taste good," Beth suggested.

Sashi hesitated—lifted a corner of his shirt and sucked on it.

"I taste extra-salty," he announced.

"You should be salty after this trip," Beth said, not missing a beat—looked up at them. "What? I have grandkids."

"Tell you what," Tadashi said, snickering. "Whatever theory's true, I think we might turn out all right."

Now it was his turn to get a wrist-squeeze from Beth. "I think we will too."

"Is it cheesy if I say me three?" Sashi wondered.

Grump's rumble suggested he thought so.

Beth eventually handed Violet off to Sashi, came back with Sue and the rest of the kids, all varying levels of tuckered—Nox padded over to Tadashi and crawled into his lap, squawking with Della until they came to an agreement about seating arrangements.

Tadashi spent the squawkfest pretending he was deaf. It didn't help.

"You know, for now I wouldn't mind hanging around the beach," Sashi mulled, stretched out on his back with his hands behind his head—it was a questioning level of comfortable in Tadashi's experience, but since he had Huey and Drew stretched across him he was going to have to live with that choice. "I know my parents have the place in Montana, but we didn't have wing logistics to consider—we could be within flying distance of a beach and then fly inland every evening."

"Did we give up in favor of the beach life?" Sue asked.

Sashi filled her in on his now-working theory, which Beth had helped him iron out. Sue nodded, had her own suggestions to add. Tadashi ended up leaning against the tree with three kids in his lap (Webby had apparently decided Tadashi was the place to be to nap).

"You should write a book," Sue suggested when he finished.

"Hmm…My Life as a Teenage Bird-Person," Sashi mused. "No one would ever believe it was autobiographical."

"You could tell everyone it was with dead seriousness and they'd all think you were pulling their legs."

"I'm liking this idea—you guys want me to change your names or no?"

"I want my name in there and I want royalties," Beth said.

Sue considered. "You know, I was going to say that if J.K. Rowling's friends still talked to her after she made them all Death Eaters I could handle that, but I'm liking the royalties."

"We'll have to work out a percentage," Sashi decided. "'Dashi, what about you?"

"Well gee, guys, I was just planning on suing the lady and being done with it," Tadashi said, only half-joking.

"Nah," Beth said. "She probably has a big company backing her, big companies like that like to declare bankruptcy and liquidate so they don't have to pay out. The tell-all book works better."

Grump rumbled something, eyes closed.

"What was that?" Tadashi asked.

"He said you'd get killed for that one."

"'Kase!" Tadashi yelped, pivoting as best he could to see her coming in for a landing, Brittany close behind—the latter jumped over Grump, ignored his dark growling—

"I know where we are!" she blurted, practically vibrating with excitement. "We flew around a bit to make sure—we're in Point Reyes National Park. San Fransokyo is straight down the coast from here."

The only sound for the next few moments were the bird-kids happily greeting the two girls.

"That's—" Tadashi breathed—that was great that was excellent news that meant….

That meant do or die, it would all be over soon.

His stomach suddenly tied itself in knots, suggesting that maybe—suggest staying at the beach for a bit longer, anything to delay finding out for sure, finding out that he wasn't the real Tadashi, anything to avoid that potential disappointment—glance at 'Kase….

'Kase wasn't looking at anyone. 'Kase was looking sour, and if looks could kill she would have blighted the tree Tadashi was leaning against. Right. He…needed to talk to her.

In the meantime—direct his attention to where Brittany was excitedly relaying everything to the others, Sashi nudging some clams over that had been baked in the coals, everyone vibrating with excitement. It wasn't fair to them to delay this final hope in the face of normalcy returning.

"So when do we leave?" he asked when Brittany had finally exhausted herself, glancing at her and 'Kase. "You girls haven't been lazing around on a beach stuffing yourselves silly—now's a good chance to do it."

"What have you been eating without us?" 'Kase asked, tone lightly accusing as she sat down next to him, seeming to sense his offer of a minor delay.

"Oh not much, just crabs, clams, oysters—some weird lobster-thing called a crawdad. Sashi wouldn't let us eat sand fleas though."

"Those are actually edible," she told Sashi.

"Yeah, but we had other options," Sashi said.

"Who cares about eating right now we're like a day away from eating at home with our families let's go!" Brittany protested, popping back up—Tadashi shot a desperate look at Beth and Sue—

Sue was in a better position, handed Trisha off to Beth so she could stand and put her hands on Brittany's shoulders.

"Brittany, breathe," she ordered. "I'm excited too, but we're not flying until night, right?" she asked, glancing at Tadashi. He nodded. "So there's still a few hours—get at least a little something to eat and take a nap so you don't fall out of the sky later."

Brittany looked like she wanted to protest—finally relented, sagging against Sue as she pulled her into a hug. "I just want to go home."

"We all do, honey."

Tadashi glanced at 'Kase—poked at the kids on him. "Hey kids, you want to show 'Kase how we find things at the beach?"

Webby cheered, tugging on 'Kase's arm and pointing at the beach. "Yes 'Kase yes sshhen no sand yes crab-ow yes—"

"Yeah sure," 'Kase said, getting up. "I didn't lounge around on the beach all day eating seafood platters."

"We also had the drinks with the little umbrellas," Sashi put in.

"Okay and now we're moving so Sashi doesn't get murdered," Tadashi said, finally working his way free and ushering 'Kase away. "Come on kids—one more dig for dinner and then we nap the rest of the day."

Nox cheered, bounded after him, Della hobbling after as best she could until Tadashi shooed her back to the others. "Okay maybe you should nap a little more—"

"NO!" Della shrieked.

"I hate to tempt fate, but what trouble can she get into on a beach?" 'Kase asked, gesturing.

"She dug herself into a hole earlier," Tadashi supplied.

"Shame on you," 'Kase said to Della as she hobbled back over. "Only dig holes you can get out of."

"Feh," Della noised, before pursuing after Webby.

Tadashi waited until they were out of easy earshot before addressing 'Kase. "Are you okay?"

"Sure," she said, sounding a little brittle. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Stress?" Tadashi guessed. "I'm pretty sure I have gray hairs now."

"Well that's you—I'm fine." Look down at Webby tugging on her feathers—accept the clam she handed to her before running off again.

She and Tadashi were quiet for a few long moments, her looking anywhere but at him.

"We could stay here," she suggested finally, tone almost desperate, begging. "It's nice enough here. And there's food," she added, looking at the clam in her hand, absently dusting sand off of it.

"We could," Tadashi agreed. "But would that be fair to everyone?"

She hesitated. "No," she admitted. "But I told you, about looking out for number one."

He hesitated…laid his hand on her arm.

"Hey," he said softly. "You can stay with us as long as you need to. I already told you my aunt won't mind. She—" Hesitate—a moment where an old memory had snapped to the fore. "She has a good track record with…."

"With lost causes?" 'Kase guessed.

"If you'd call her two orphan nephews that, yeah."

She looked at him, and it occurred to him then that he had never shared that little part of his life—little! Like having the two most important people in your childhood ripped away from you was a little thing. Hiro was too young to even remember what happened.

'Kase's eyes were flicking, like she wasn't sure how to respond to that information; Tadashi decided to give her an out. "Be prepared to eat ice cream for breakfast for a while though."

That did get 'Kase focused on him. "I'm sorry, what?"

Tadashi shrugged. "Hey, it works. No sugar for these guys though," he added, indicating where Nox and Della were busy digging a trench and then screeching when the ocean washed it full of water and sand.

'Kase looked calculating. "Now see, you say that, but now all that makes me want to do is see what happens."

"'Kase, no."

"'Kase yes. I'm hitting up the first vending machine I find."

"I created a monster," Tadashi sighed.

Everyone did manage to get an hour or two of sleeping in and at least one or two bites to eat before Sashi doused their fire at nightfall. Some of them took a running start at getting airborne along the beach, but Brittany practically shot into the air this time—everyone did, almost. This was it. This was the final destination they had been angling for.

San Fransokyo. Any time now and it'd be appearing on the horizon.

Tadashi tried to ignore the butterflies getting chased by angry snakes in his stomach—this was it, this was it this was totally it come tomorrow or the day after he'd know for sure and then….

And then it'd be either heartache or heartbreak. He'd either be back home, hugging his family tight, or flying away, with the horrible truth that they had never been his family to begin with.

Despair made his wingbeats sluggish, made him want to dive down into the forest they were angling over, trying to avoid the wind increasing from the ocean. He had to know—he had to know so he could stop worrying like this.

That didn't make it better, though.

He started at a wingtip being layered over his, glanced over to see that it was Grump, of all people, giving him a look that could have almost been sympathetic.

The gene cleansers won't work on clones.

Grump had made this whole trip knowing that for him, it was probably all for naught.

"Sorry," Tadashi said, glancing at 'Kase, almost expecting her to comment—she had slid out of point for this, letting Brittany lead with the excuse that well you've got to learn sometime and it's not like we can get lost right now. "Just…thinking. We'll still fix this, it just might…take a bit more."

Grump's expression suggested he found Tadashi's persistent insistence on grabbing onto hope amusing. Not advisable, but amusing.

"Hey, if we don't figure it out, who will?" Tadashi asked, trying to shrug around an armful of Violet and wings keeping him aloft. "Darn, I should have been buddies with someone from the biology department…."

Grump chuffed at that.

"Was that—was that a laugh? Guys! I've finally reached success!"

"One of the kids added the Tah to 'Dashi!" Sashi guessed.

"No, but that's a goal—I made Grump laugh!"

"Wow," 'Kase said, glancing back. "You must be exhausted for that to happen."

Grump rumbled something.

"Hmm, he says you're hallucinating, Tadashi."

"I am not, I heard it," Tadashi insisted, glancing at Violet. "You heard it too, right?"

"Meh," Violet noised, still mostly asleep.

"My witness fell asleep on me."

"That'll never hold up in court," Beth said.

"Hey!" Brittany yelped, redirecting their attention forward—

To the glowing horizon to the south.

"Refresh my memory, just so we're clear," 'Kase said. "The sun goes east to west, right?"

"Right," Sashi confirmed. "So that would make that…."

"Light pollution," Beth said.

"From a city," Sue added.

"And not just any city!" Brittany cheered.

Tadashi nearly fell out of the sky in relief. "San Fransokyo!"

Everyone's pace picked up at that, relief thrumming through Tadashi so hard that something snapped inside—

And then the kids started falling out of the sky, screaming.