Safe in Brother's Wings Chapter 28: The Morning After, a DuckTales + Big Hero 6 Crossover fanfic

Chapter 28, everybody! Again, chunks of this were written ahead and then tied together—didn't want to lose any good scenes. :D In this case, it was the scene written in Nox's point of view—poor boy needs a hug.

As always, about ninety percent of the next several chapters was written before I had even seen "Countdown to Catastrophe," let alone Season Two. I haven't watched "City of Monsters," either, so this is totally going to be AU and me feeling out everything from what I was able to piece together from spoilers I saw on Tumblr. Wish us luck, friends.

So watching BH6 has made me more interested in Japanese food and…dashi is a type of fish sauce. Sorry, Tadashi….Fred kind of quotes Iago from Aladdin, by the way (whenever I write that, just assume I'm hearing it the same way he says it). Tadashi, meanwhile, is referencing the movie Jungle 2 Jungle. And I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but when someone says a memory got swiss-cheesed? That's in reference to Quantum Leap—it just makes a perfect visual, honestly.

And in the bird-nerd department: yes, animals—ESPECIALLY birds—can get stressed if just dumped in a new environment and usually need a day or two to adjust. Birds especially because as prey animals, they're coded to treat anything new as a potential threat. It's also why if you wear glasses or have your hair a certain way they'll freak out if that changes.

Angelwings2002, thanks for the review! All right, it'll be processed in one to two business days. And YES! Of course Fred has the perfect space for them. :D Grump definitely does. UH…..

SilverPhoenix, thanks for the review! UH….Ooh…oh that's good, I like that theory, very tricky….I like happy endings so keep that in mind. :)

Hexyah, thanks for the review! I wasn't expecting it either, but here we are. Grump will probably complain because it's crowded but secretly love it. ;)

Hiro was awake well before dawn, laid there in bed, staring at the ceiling, wondering how early was too early to head over to Fred's.

He couldn't help but be excited though, be jittery—this was a bird-person, an actual person with wings and feathers and bird legs and a tail—this was obviously Sycorax, he could get her finally with this.

Her being Liv Amara.

Doctor Liv Amara, who had been excited about Baymax until she found out Hiro hadn't made him, who had donated to SFIT and was the darling of the genetic front and whom everybody loved or wanted to know, who had offered to help when Professor Orso Knox had shown up as a mutated monster—as Fred put it, like someone had taken a lizard, a whale, and a dinosaur, mixed it up, put it into a human-shaped mold, let it freeze, thaw a little bit, then took it out. As a geneticist—as the leading geneticist in the country, no less—no one had batted an eye at her offer. Heck, Hiro hadn't even batted an eye at her offer.

That was then though—that was several months ago, before monsters started showing up all over San Fransokyo, some matching Knox's appearance, others their own random mutations—like High Voltage.

Or bird-people.

At least two bird-people, the one at Fred's currently and the big orange one that had escaped—maybe it was a duo like High Voltage—no, three, Wasabi and Honey Lemon had said there was a blue one. Maybe he could pump the smaller one for information.

Yeah right—it was a kid, looked younger than him—and he was willing to bet it wasn't a genius kid either. He'd just…have to take this slow. Work with this. Try not to be too terribly excited and impatient—

Screw it—throw the covers off, scramble around, start getting dressed.

He had a bird-person to see.

Hiro had told Aunt Cass that he was heading over to Fred's to study, which wasn't a lie—she was all right with that, detained him long enough to eat breakfast and take a bento box she had made, tug him into another last hug that he wholeheartedly returned.

He was never taking those for granted again.

Now, though, he was pulling up to Fred's house—well, mansion—pretty certain he had broken every single traffic law he possibly could on a moped. Hop off, park it, dash up to the door and ring the bell.

Heathcliff answered it. "Master Hiro. Master Frederick is in the kitchen."

"Uh, okay, thanks?" he noised, unsure how to take the title. He followed the butler through the mansion, teased by some delicious smells before reaching the kitchen proper.

"Hiro, my main man! How'd you sleep?" Fred asked.

"Uh, fine," Hiro noised, eyeing Fred's mom—now currently locked in a good-natured argument with Heathcliff over whose job it was to cook pancakes. "Hey, Fred, it's such a nice day today—maybe we can have our study group outside?"

"Love that idea," Fred said, gesturing a little with his fork. "By the way dude, gonna have a stack of pancakes free for the little dude too—you didn't see him eat last night, the dude is like starving."

Well at least he didn't say anything incriminating like bird-kid. "Uh, fine. I'm going to go check on Baymax, okay?"

"Sounds like a plan, my man!"

"Hiro, did you want any?" Fred's mom asked, indicating the pan.

"Uh, not right now, had breakfast at home—smells great though!" Hiro said, walking backwards out the kitchen before bolting for the patio. Hesitate at the doors…tug open the curtain a little to peek out before opening the door and sticking his head through.

"Baymax?" he asked quietly, glancing at the little bundle of feathers on the pile of blankets.

Baymax looked up. "Hiro."

Okay, that was good—slip out and over to Baymax, still keeping an eye on the bird-kid. "Everything all right?"

"The: bird-kid, has been asleep since late last night." Blink, return the hug. "There, there."

Hiro slipped off, looked the bird-kid over—yes, definitely asleep. "Okay. Fred will be out in a minute, but in the meantime we can get you out of that armor—I don't know, you think he'll be reasonable?"

"That is uncertain."

Hmph. "Well…not sure about leaving the armor on in the daytime when Fred's mom can see it, but those claws could rip through your vinyl, I'd think—"

"You have reinforced my vinyl after the last time it was torn," Baymax reminded him. "And my default huggable, nonthreatening appearance may be of more use in this situation."

"Fair point." Hiro turned, pulled out his phone, summoned Baymax's Skymax, started taking the armor off. "Now's as good a time as any to test it, I guess."

And hopefully the little guy would be waking up soon—Hiro had way too many questions boiling up.

Nox was flying through the air, through the gleaming sparkling city, noises and lights and action buffeting him up further, him beating his wings to keep up with 'Dashi 'Dashi was pulling ahead and Nox wanted to squawk to get him to slow down but he wasn't slowing down 'Dashi wait 'Dashi please—

The air was suddenly alive with nasty dark things darting and attacking him, one slamming into him—the memory of pain-crack-bend-WRONG screeched across his mind again as he plummeted to the ground—

Dark—dark dark dark so dark he couldn't see—squawk weakly, breathlessly for 'Dashi—'Dashi please—

'Dashi showed up, holding a box leeching poison.

"It takes your wings," 'Dashi told him—except this wasn't 'Dashi, 'Dashi was melting and something else was taking his place—Nox backed away, trying to scream—his throat was too tight, not wanting to work no—

He fell down again, tumbling into a place now lit with green screens flashing all sorts of information—scramble upright, fall again because his balance was wrong—look up to see the place collapsing no—

Manage to worm his way out of the debris—the dream changed and now he was struggling to swim—everything hurt everything hurt his lungs burned and nothing was right with his body his tail and wings weren't wanting to work—

Deep gasp when he broke the surface, weakly paddle to the beach, thrown off balance again by the change from wet to dry—clothes hanging heavily off of him—just clothes—just clothes—

Pat himself desperately—no feathers—no tail—legs were all wrong—

No wings.

No—no no no—

It takes your wings.

We'll be normal—no more feathers no more tail no more wings—

No—no no no this wasn't right he hadn't wanted and 'Dashi wouldn't make him no—

He wished for the pain in his wing, because that pain meant it was still there but now it wasn't there please he needed it no no no—

Something struck him hard, rolling him—

"Careful now—we don't want to hurt him."

No.

No no no—struggle when the monsters grabbed him, flailing and struggling and trying to scream, trying to force his way away from the awful awful person who was in charge of the bad-place no no no—

The monsters had him pinned though, his feet couldn't get traction on the sand, ending uselessly no claws no wings and tail to beat against his captors—his body wasn't wanting to work—it hurt—it hurt all over, a dull pulsing ache—he was tired, he was so tired—

She grabbed his face, forced him to look up at her—he wanted to bare his teeth, hiss in defiance or fear—wanted to run, wanted to flee, wanted to be anywhere but here—

"No," she said, smiling. "Not when there's so much to do."

The monsters dragged him away—no—no—try to wrench himself free, flailing—weaker and weaker—no—nononono—his throat wasn't working nothing was working darkness was pressing in on him he didn't want to go back he didn't want to be in the dark again please no before 'Dashi saved him it was awful no 'Dashi please 'Dashi—

"Hey—hey—"

"Hey, wake up!"

Nox suddenly snapped into the realization that he was free, his limbs weren't pinned—

Claws dug into the ground and shot him away and under a tree before he realized this wasn't woods this wasn't forest or hills or cabin or desert 'Dashi where was 'Dashi—throat was tight no no no she was here because if 'Dashi wasn't here she was no no no—ache—pain—

One singular throbbing ache, travelling down his shoulder and through his ribs, originating from his—

Wing—

Glance over his shoulder, collapsing in relief and sobbing yes yes he still had his wings he still had his feathers he still had his tail and his legs were all right it was all a bad dream bad-bad-no good-bad he was—

…not safe.

Not safe not safe where was 'Dashi 'Dashi was good and safe and older-brother and—

Sobbing sharpened into keening, a pointed jagged resonating crescendo of pain no no no no he wasn't hearing anyone else usually one starting caused the others to go because what affected one affected all no no no where was 'Dashi where was 'Dashi 'Dashi never let this go this long 'DASHI—

Throbbing—reminding him of Della telling how her leg felt after the snap-white-pain-bend-WRONG—the same sensation, shortly after…after….

I'll find you, okay? I'LL FIND YOU!

'Dashi had left—had flown away, taking the bad-bad-no good-bads with him, the mean flying things—but there were more, they had chased him—and he had fallen—

And his wing—his wing his wing his wing no no no no try to flex it—

Bound—pain—

He had broken his wing.

No….

He knew—he knew as instinctively as breathing that he needed his wings to fly and if they were broken he couldn't fly for who knew how long Della's leg had been broken for ages and ages and ages and it was still broken she couldn't use it but you needed both wings for flying he couldn't go that long without flying no no no no where was 'Dashi he needed 'Dashi PLEASE—

"Hey. Hey—hey. It's all right—calm down."

That wasn't 'Dashi—it kind of sounded like 'Dashi but it wasn't the voice was all wrong but the tone was right—his muscles had all cramped up tight from him curling up so much but he managed to force his eyes open they were wet and itchy he wanted 'Dashi he needed 'Dashi not someone who sounded like him but wasn't—

This was not 'Dashi. It looked like 'Dashi, a tiny bit, but it wasn't—dark messy hair everywhere, eyes the same shape and color but not 'Dashi's eyes, didn't seem any bigger than Nox or the blue-violet thing last night with the weird orange stripes and no feathers—

This didn't have any feathers either.

"Hi," the not-Dashi said. "Remember me? From last night? Hiro."

This was not Hiro Hiro had had hard skin on his shoulders and head and hands and feet and ears that poked up like Nox's and 'Dashi's and the others' and had been blue-violet with orange stripes and a black chest but it sounded the same and maybe that had been clothes except now he had different clothes on he wanted 'Dashi where was 'Dashi this wasn't 'Dashi—

"It's okay," the not-Dashi-not-Hiro said, sinking lower to the ground to be on eye level and acting and sounding like 'Dashi. "It's okay—you're safe now. You're at Fred's place, remember?"

No—maybe—after the panic of pain-white-bend-snap-WRONG there had been more panic, blinding—the Hiro that wasn't this Hiro and the big red thing that had felt like 'Dashi but wasn't—

Wiff-wiff-wiff-wiff-wiff—

He jumped, scrambled back, hissing and feathers bristling as something big and white with beady black eyes and no feathers came over at a slow waddle—big and soft-looking and maybe not scary after the first shock—

"No no no it's all right—this is Baymax," maybe-Hiro said, sitting up on his knees and waving his hands a little like 'Dashi did before indicating the big-white-maybe-soft-thing. "Remember Baymax?"

Yes maybe but Baymax had been big and red this was not that Baymax or maybe it was like this Hiro was that Hiro and it was making the same little circular wave and didn't seem to be wearing clothes so—

"Hello," the big-white-maybe-soft-maybe-Baymax said. "We heard signs of: distress." He looked down—something changed on his chest. "On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?"

"He means how's your wing?" maybe-Hiro said, pointing at Nox.

His wing—his wing it was still broken no no no no—

"Hey hey hey no don't—don't cry, okay?" maybe-Hiro said, hands out. "You just—let Baymax fix it, okay? He bandaged it up he can fix it."

The big-white-maybe-soft-maybe-Baymax waddled a bit closer and Nox arched his back, trying to spread his wings but only getting the one loose and the other one hurt no—

"Is the: broken bone, causing you any distress?" Baymax asked.

Yes yes yes he hated it make it stop fix it please he couldn't not have a wing like Della didn't have a leg her leg had been broken for ages and ages and ages he couldn't stand not having his wing no please no where was 'Dashi he wanted 'Dashi—

The big-white-maybe-soft-maybe-Baymax extended a paw with blunt fingers and no claws. "I will apply a: local anesthetic, to stop the pain." Touch—poke—he flinched he hadn't seen any claws—

Stiffened when he started losing feeling starting from the poke and radiating outwards it was eating the pain yes but it was eating his wing no no no no he needed his wing no—

"Hey! It's okay! Hey!" maybe-Hiro barked, as Nox kept flailing and twisting trying to keep his wings in sight no no no he couldn't lose them he needed his wings he needed to be able to fly flying was as important as breathing NO—

"You are distressed," the big-white-maybe-dangerous-maybe-Baymax said—

Nox flinched away from him reaching for Nox, scrambled away—have to get away have to get away have to get to 'Dashi—

Slammed into something huge and flat and cold before he could even get any speed—fell backwards, keening anew—no no no please he needed to get away he needed to get to 'Dashi—

Wiff-wiff-wiff-wiff—

No—no not that—not the thing trying to steal his wings no—

"Hey," maybe-Hiro said, scurrying in front of him, arms out. "Don't run like that again—Baymax is just trying to help—he's trying to make you feel better, okay?"

Nox didn't care, this wasn't good this wasn't right he wanted 'Dashi please 'Dashi please he was supposed to come find Nox PLEASE—

I'll find you, okay? I'LL FIND YOU!

Ginger tapping alerted him to being curled up tight and breathing fast and shallow—no no no don't be not-Dashi's-Hiro because that wasn't 'Dashi's Hiro 'Dashi's Hiro would have looked like them 'Dashi's Hiro would have had feathers and wings and a tail because I ever tell you how much you remind me of my little brother Hiro? And there was no way 'Dashi would ever confuse this with Nox so this was NOT 'Dashi's Hiro.

"Hey," Not-Dashi's-Hiro said. "Listen, Baymax isn't going to hurt you—he's just trying to make you feel better, okay? It's okay."

No—no it wasn't okay 'Dashi wasn't here 'Dashi needed to be here—

"Want 'Dashi."

It had come out as a pained wheeze and Nox had to cut it off to keep a keen from following he hadn't been this miserable since the bad-place but that meant 'Dashi was coming to save him right? It had to mean 'Dashi was coming—

Not-Dashi's-Hiro sounded confused. "You want fish sauce?"

Fish sounded good except he didn't want to eat his stomach was too tight he'd never be able to eat never ever again—"Want 'Dashi."

"I'm—I'm sorry, I don't understand."

Yes that was the problem.

Gingerly roll to his paws, glance at Not-Dashi's-Hiro and maybe-Baymax before scurrying away into the brush, keeping the tall sheerness that might have been cliff but was too smooth to one side.

'Dashi was coming—'Dashi had to be coming.

But in the meantime—maybe Nox could come to 'Dashi.

Well that had gone just about as well as he had expected.

Baymax blinked, looked at him. "The: bird-kid, is highly distressed."

"Yeah, I noticed," Hiro sighed, heading back to the patio—and on top of highly distressed, highly flighty, panicked, and about as feral as everyone had thought it might be. Great.

Fred stuck his head out. "So? How'd it go."

"So everyone's right, he's totally feral," Hiro said, flapping his arms. "Well, maybe not totally feral, but like ninety-percent—pretty sure he asked for fish sauce."

"Huh," Fred said, coming the rest of the way out, carrying a dish with him. "Will he take pancakes instead?"

"I doubt it." Scrub at his hair, thinking…. "I don't know—maybe he's just terrified—new place, people he doesn't know…or maybe it's just animal logic and he doesn't know anything."

"Ooor, maybe he's just hungry," Fred suggested, waggling the dish a little. "I got some leftover pancakes from breakfast—Mom made them, so they're like THE best, just saying."

Hiro sighed, tapped a toe against the deck, considering the backyard before looking at Fred. "Okay, full honesty: was this a dumb idea?"

"Nah," Fred said immediately. "Little dude was hurt and sad, and you guys did your thing and helped. I mean sure he's still hurt and sad and all, but that's because he hasn't had any of Mom's pancakes yet I'm telling you you can't have these pancakes and be sad they've got superpowers or something."

Hiro huffed—not exactly helpful. "Just wish I knew what was going on in that head."

"Lots of comic book stuff, my dude."

"I meant the bird-kid's."

"I have been downloading information relating to: animal behavior," Baymax said, a finger up. "New environments can have multiple stimuli that need to be absorbed at a slow pace. Trying to rush things will only result in more stress."

Hiro sighed—yeah, that did sound right. Didn't mean he liked it, but it sounded about right.

"So we just give little dude some time to process everything—sounds cool," Fred said. "So we give him some space…and dude, you can come in and have some pancakes I'm telling you they're awesome."

"All right," Hiro sighed, looking the backyard over again. "And you're sure he can't get out."

"Like, ninety-percent sure. Just give him a little time, and then we can come back out and win him over with the power of friendship. And pancakes."

Well if that didn't work Hiro always had the bento box Aunt Cass had packed for him—sigh, roll his shoulders, smile at Fred. "All right—let's just see how impressive these pancakes are."

"They're life-changing, my man," Fred said, leading them back in. "Trust me, Mom's pancakes fix everything."

Somehow, Hiro doubted it, but he was willing to humor Fred on this one. Glance back at the backyard…finally follow him in.

They'd make this work.

Tadashi felt sick—this was worse, this was so much worse than when Della had broken her leg—at least when she had been injured he had been right there—

It had taken all night to lose those Sycorax goons, didn't need whatever colorful cast of characters had come swooping down and in—by the time they were able to safely circle back, the sun was rising, and 'Kase had had to bodily tackle him into a hiding spot, pointing out that alerting the city to a bunch of flying bird-people would do more harm than good.

Tadashi didn't rightly care—he had screwed up, he had screwed up so royally—

Nox flying away screaming—he didn't know if Nox had listened to him or not, the only thing that mattered had been getting those goons off of Nox's tail—

"I'll find you, okay? I'LL FIND YOU!"

And now here he was, not looking, having to hide while Nox was out there scared half to death—please, Nox, please have gone back to the river mouth—please don't be flying around looking for him—

"Hey," 'Kase said, nudging him, nudging him again with more force, until he finally looked up from where he was curled up. "He'll be fine, he's a smart kid—and Grump got away with the gene cleansers, I'm sure—hey, we'll finally know what he looks like under all that fluff."

She was trying to make him feel better, he knew—but it wasn't working, all he could think about was that pure shriek of terror—Nox was out there, by himself, in an environment he knew nothing about.

'Kase lowered her head, shuffled a little so she was leaning against him.

"Beating yourself up isn't going to help him right now," she told him. "Get some sleep—we can look for him tonight—check the river mouth first, and if he's there I get to tease you about all the gray hair you give yourself."

"Will you let me suck in peace?" Tadashi muttered.

"No—you have better things to do."

He did, maybe—getting some sleep, getting back to the others, following the river up please let Nox be at the river mouth please—

Sleep was a long time coming, and wasn't even remotely restful when it did, dropping him into nightmares about Nox getting torn to shreds, Hiro sometimes flashing in his place, screaming for him as his failure battered him and drove him into the ground—

I told you hon—monsters don't have families.

He wasn't able to get back to sleep after waking up from that nightmare—sat there staring out at the bit of the city he could see from their hiding place, squeezed where two buildings met with no windows looking down on them, 'Kase sleeping and twitching like she was having bad dreams too. He hesitated, put a hand on her shoulder—she stilled after a while, sleeping a bit more soundly. Well, someone had to get a restful sleep, he figured.

Look back out over the city—after who knew how long out in the wilderness, he thought he would be happier to see the structures of buildings and streets, the certainty of food on the next corner and a home waiting for him. And he had been, last night—gushing over his city and telling it how beautiful it was and how much he missed it, the ache of homesickness going from a dull throb to a sharp pain that had filled him clear to his wingtips—it had taken everything to not zoom ahead like he knew what he was doing, to rip one of those gene cleansers out of the box and use it—to get back to normal and run back to the Lucky Cat Café, burst through the doors and hug Hiro and Aunt Cass so hard he'd hurt himself—there were still people he owed his help to, that needed his help—

And now the city was suddenly something horrible, a great behemoth that had swallowed Nox up—Nox, who apparently had never seen such a place before and had been overwhelmed—Tadashi had been mentally filing away the tour they'd be taking once everything was back to normal, trying to keep Nox focused on following him and not darting away at every single shiny thing he saw—having to tell him almost, not yet and brace himself for the squawk each time—

And right before things had gone sideways, when he had been explaining the gene cleansers to Nox—that look of sheer terror—of course having what he considered normal ripped from him would be horrifying, he should have thought of that, stupid stupid stupid.

And now Nox was lost somewhere in San Fransokyo, in a city that would take one look at him and recoil in horror—he had to find him. He had to find Nox before someone else did—

Before she did.

The sun was taking forever to crawl across the sky, made him simultaneously wish for a watch and be glad he didn't have one on him—maybe by nightfall they'd be able to look—Nox, please be at the river mouth, please—

At least 'Kase was right—at least Grump had gotten away with the gene cleansers, would be back to the others by now—they wouldn't be getting an explanation from him though, they'd be wondering where he and 'Kase was, possibly Nox as well—

Day one, he thought, looking up at the sky. We've got until sunset tomorrow—if we're not back by then, they'll be following the river out.

And what if they weren't back after that? They hadn't planned that far ahead. What if those Sycorax guards were looking for everyone, now that they knew they were within reach?

What if he had just endangered everyone?

She knows.

Rub at his face, thinking—think. Plan. Nox would hopefully be at the river mouth—or maybe he'd have followed Grump back to the camp. Right. And maybe the moon was made of green cheese and maybe there was a Sasquatch in Muirahara Woods and maybe those costumed kooks were busy helping them escape Sycorax. Right.

Now that was something he didn't remember from before—and he was pretty sure he couldn't even blame clone-induced amnesia either. What had 'Kase called them when they were flailing away?

She was murmuring again—poke her awake. "Hey—hey! 'Kase, Grammercy wants you on his show!"

"Gppfhwhah?" she noised, sitting upright, blinking owlishly as she looked around, yawned. "Ugh…how long was I asleep?"

"Longer than I was. Listen, those guys from last night—not the Sycorax goons, the other ones—what did you call them?"

"Is this what you woke me up for?" she demanded, trying to smack the nasty taste out of her mouth.

"We're probably going to have to get moving soon anyway. So who was the costume squad?"

"Big Hero Six, I told you," she muttered, rubbing her eyes. "They're some…vigilante group…it's just a bunch of kids running around and being idiots."

Tadashi considered this, was pretty sure he'd remember if they had been a thing before. "I'm guessing this was after the SFIT fire."

"I have no idea—there was a…something at Krei Tech—I heard they were involved. They started popping up again after that…the one kid's a kid, like actual kid—don't remember his name."

Tadashi quirked an eyebrow at that. "Don't remember, or don't want to? He has some dumb superhero handle, doesn't he?"

"No, he's just lousy at keeping secret identities," she muttered, scratching her shoulder. "Superhero handle is Captain-something…I don't know, they crossed paths with my original a couple of times and I guess that's part of what got swiss-cheesed. Big Red is a robot, though, I remember that."

Okay, that was different—and honestly sounded like the sort of thing Hiro would just nerd over. "Well Fred will be happy at local superheroes," Tadashi figured. "But I'm not sure about being caught by them—I feel like it'd just complicate things."

"Probably. Now can I go back to bed?"

"Sure," he muttered, looking back over the city. "I just…I just really hope everyone's okay."

She grunted, grabbed his shoulders—

Tadashi found himself on his side with one of her wings draped over him.

"Now shut up and go to sleep," she groaned. "You're going to be an absolute wreck and I'm not saving your stupid bacon when you run into the side of a building."

"Aw, she does care," he said, trying for a teasing tone—it came out as a weak croak instead. "But—I can't, 'Kase, I can't stop thinking about it—I—I told him I'd keep him safe and I failed…I'm—"

She put a couple of fingers on his mouth, eyes still shut. "You really don't understand the concept of shut up, do you?"

"You're going to have to be more supportive than this, 'Kase."

"I will after I get more sleep. You too—you'll feel better if you do."

"I doubt it."

"Humor me."

He sighed, long and through the nose…curled up a little tighter, leading edge of her wing cutting out the sun. She snuggled in closer, muttering finally….

Curled up next to someone else, wing blocking him from the rest of the world, he could understand why the kids were always after this—it felt good, it felt safe, like there was a full barrier between him and all the dangers and stresses of the world, like he was hidden from it all, at least temporarily.

No wonder Nox was always desperately after this, wouldn't even think of falling asleep unless it was curled up on or against Tadashi.

And there we went again—hand to his face, trying to block out the downward spiral of guilt—it had been one job, one job, and he had failed miserably. He should have gone with his instincts, should have marched Nox back to camp, tied him to a tree if he had to—it was Della breaking her leg all over again, but worse, a thousand times worse—

"I can hear you not going to sleep," 'Kase muttered.

"Sorry," he muttered, pulling his hand away. "Talking about it would help."

"No it wouldn't," she told him, not opening her eyes. "Because all you're going to say is how it's your fault Nox is missing, because obviously you should have predicted those goons coming after us and Nox panicking and everything going sideways and we still would have had to draw them away and Nox would have most likely snuck away by now coming to find you. It's not always about you, not everything is your fault."

"Some of it could be—I could have changed something—"

"Me not getting any sleep is your fault."

Tadashi sighed—glanced up when she tugged his hat up and rested her forehead against his.

"I'll help you look," she told him. "You know I will—I'll help you scour this city from top to bottom if we have to. But get some sleep first—you won't be any use to anyone if you don't."

Scrub at his arms, look up—sun still high in the sky; it'd be a long time before they could start looking. He had to concede her point.

"Fine," he said finally. "But as soon as we can, we start looking."

"Sure," she murmured. "Now please, go to sleep."

Sleep was still a long time coming, and he still felt sick at himself—her wing covering him was making him relax despite himself though, made him start noticing the exhaustion underneath everything else.

Please, he begged skywards, as he finally succumbed to unconsciousness. Please, keep Nox safe.

Please, let him be waiting for me someplace safe.