I.
Rivulets of rain cascaded down the bank of windows as Krei looked out upon the city; in the background, sizzling and spices filled the air as Cassandra danced about his giant kitchen, spritzing flavoring, diced and minced onions and peppers, anything he might have stored away...humming.
He sent her back a look as though he thought she might be a little crazy.
"Smells divine," the man complimented, then turned back to the ceiling-high window.
Cassandra frowned a little. "Torrenting, huh?" she mused, then brightened. "Perfect time for jo!"
He cleared his throat. "Um, who?"
"Coffee...ya know? Hey! You like beat poetry? Jazz?" she prompted, spinning with a flourish.
Without looking up, Krei made a quick motion with his finger and smooth jazz filled the crackling air.
His dinner guest and visitor was giving him a look of disbelief as delicious, sauted food was simmering in the kitchen, fine wine glistened on the table, gentle music was soothing the storm.
"I like the tulips," Cassandra said thoughtfully.
"Yes, very rare," He said distractedly.
"Alistair," she walked right up to him, "Let's spare this over the dining room table. What's going on?"
A small smile dispelled his gloominess a bit, than he shrugged a little.
"I suppose everyone but me is putting in an effort tonight," He straightened his lapels.
Instead of waiting for an invitation, she walked over, took his hand and actually guided him over to his wrap-around couch. He gave her an odd look as she sat down across from him and looked him in the eyes. The man was unsure a minute by the way she looked at him, not quite sure what to say.
"What do you want me to say?" He asked.
Cassandra smiled. "What do you want to say?"
She took a deep breath and laid against the couch. Krei, to his wakeful surprise, found her laying against his chest; he felt like the lowest creature on the face of the Earth as she lay there not saying anything... just breathing softly, thoughtfully looking over at the wonderfully done spread she was preparing. Alistair smiled down at her, laying his cheek against her hair. He felt her take his hand.
"Let's have dinner and enjoy our evening," Cassandra decided for him.
The man couldn't remember a time someone just wanted to be with him...
For his company.
"Let's," He agreed.
...
By the time they had crossed over the sub desert border, Hiro and Baymax had hit forest again. They arrived at where an auto guidance system had taken them and Hiro knew they couldn't be seen through the tall trees, "Yeah," he sighed, swooping and circling with his large buddy happily, "this is definitely where I-"
Before he could finish, Baymaxine reverted off of him and Baymax. Trying to reach him just as they were deposited back into the car, it sped purposefully down a cutting fork in the road. Hiro almost screamed but Baymax grabbing him made him stop just short of it; when they arrived at a tiny cabin, both belted in, and then Hiro looked up from inside Baymax's arms, very nearly panting now.
"That was abrupt," his best friend said monotonously.
Hiro sent him a surprised look but Baymax only stroked his bangs back. Hiro grinned.
Baymaxine parked suddenly and opened; two sets of hands pulled both him and Baymax out. This attempt to pull apart instinctively made them try to reconnect. Hiro was alone, then Honey's arms had him and he hugged her back. Wasabi had Baymax by the arm as he and Honey tried herding them inside. Making a disgruntled noise, Hiro tried to get back to Baymaxine only to watch her go into auto reverse, peel back like he had anti-mag gloves on and then wheel around to shoot away.
"Guys?!"
"We'll talk more inside," Wasabi told him quickly.
"Honey?" Baymax prompted her.
"We'll talk inside," she promised them both.
It seemed for a moment Wasabi was fighting the urge to do something he couldn't... Hiro sighed and he was sure he just wanted to get them to safety while at the same time hug them but there was something else... Rather than argue, he and Baymax let themselves be guided into the cabin.
...
"Like a river out there," Gogo said as she pulled back the curtains to watch the rain from the apartment Ji-Min was renting out, "glad you didn't say anything else to him just yet," she saw him blankly flip the channels one by one; it was definitely not a luxurious apartment but was pretty high by city standards. "Hey," the girl came around to face him, "about how we're going to handle this..."
He didn't meet her eyes.
"Ha-Jun," she went fluidly to eye-level, staying gentle.
He twisted around the couch and faced away, tucking his arms under his chest.
"You know, cousin, we do have to address the rest of the RRC... " She steadied. "Go over details."
"When is the date?" he has faintly.
Gogo pretended to study the ceiling, trying to keep her voice neutral,
"Not sure yet," she told him, "we're going to have to coordinate with Ji and the rest of the RRC."
There was a sharpening of breath, a drawn pause, then heavy noises came from between his face and the couch. Gogo came over and placed a hand on his arm - immediately Ha-Jun pulled away, sprung off the couch and marched straight for the door, Gogo right on his heels trying to stop him.
"Don't you have somewhere else to be?!" he accused her.
She paused. He waited, not breathing.
Ha-Jun shuddered.
"Well..." Gogo started. "I think I am where I need to be."
Jun turned to look at her a moment, considered, then as he lifted hand...
" ' SOARIN' so high on wings of Crimson!" a text pinged his phone.
"Ji!" he said excitedly, slipping it off his hip.
"Bro, I'm really sorry. I-I know you guys have found out some important news today, but right now I'm swamped. I'm doing everything I can to get off tonight; heard about what's going on in San Fransokyo," Slowly, a blush of fury swept over Ha-Jun's face. "I'm doing everything I can with the Robotic Regimists to keep Baymax and Hiro safe... They can't even stay-" Disdain filled Ji's face.
Though it was a text vid that Ji-Min couldn't see, Ha-Jun anger was stifling.
Even Gogo was a little terrified.
"Jun... Jun, he doesn't-"
"Yeah, yeah I'll see you," he pocketed his phone and left.
Gogo felt like a part of herself had left with him.
She took a slow breath.
I'm coming, the girl texted, locked up and left.
...
"There you are."
Ji-Min looked up from where he was sitting on the steps watching the rain pour off an overhang when Lin-Jon and several RRC agents approached the man. As he was slick with rare rainfall, Ji had to fold up his bangs to get a good look at them as he clutched away vital papers behind his back.
"Where did you think you were going to find me?" he grinned, storing them in his black briefcase.
It was almost comical to see them in their black suits and umbrellas; Ji-Min thought he'd sold out.
"No, really, FBI hire you now?"
His cousin's eyes narrowed on him. "You were trying to pass another raid revoke, weren't you?"
Shaking his head promptly as he stood, Ji-Min held up what was in his hand.
"Actually, I didn't get to do anything," he said energetically, "the entire hearing was cancelled, so I can't do anything right now to protect my little brother and his best friend, who is also my friend."
Lin-Jon brushed at his arms, "I'm assuming you don't know why it was cancelled?" he said with the faintest hint that he was concerned. Three to one, Ji shook head again but still stood his ground.
"No," he looked him right in the eye, "no, but I'm betting you're still looking at all those charges of false imprisonment from, I don't know, what is the population of San Fransokyo? They're still looking at that, I heard," the men before him had faces of stone, "my brother and cousin got off because they were coerced, I got off because I implicated you, so nothing left to talk about..."
He waited for a Baymax rebuttal; none came.
"All right, no business with you, then." Ji wiped at his best and sidled away.
"You three were being held against your will and apparently your home life was debatable as well."
He was ignored.
"There's always tomorrow," Ji said as he walked over to some of his new colleagues.
"JI-MIN." Lin-Jon said sharply.
The man turned.
"Look, no hard-"
"They were recovered," Lin-Jon said flatly, "both in the ocean."
The bleakest expression came to the man's eyes...
Their formal clothing makes sense now.
"I'm sorry," he was told but Ji-Min barely heard or saw anything else.
Gripping his case, he dashed past the two others and hurried down the steps the San Beijingdino Hall of Technology, thoughts of mediation of a different kind on his mind as he raced to his car and tried to get a hold of his brother, however, he only got an empty inbox as he fumbled to get inside.
...
"So!" Fred said as he bounced around the large foyer, "it's been awhile since we've had a Big Hero Sleepover, but, you can plainly see I got the blow-up beds out, the popcorn bowls full and I'm thinking about having Heathcliff air-lift us the 50-foot, K4 TV down here," he eyed the fireplace.
"Fred," Wasabi was reasonably fighting a smile, "how are you going to get air clearance?"
"Uh..."
"And space in here, Freddie?" Honey said kindly.
"You got a-"
"And not lead the RRC after us?" Hiro elbowed Baymax.
The nineteen-year-old rubbed his stubbly chin, "Hmm. What do you think of a giant, invisible robot?"
The younger teen laughed. "I think you're insane," but he did look up appreciatively at the vaulted log ceiling and felt Max's curious eyes on him; Hiro patted his tummy, "So where's Ji-Min and Go-"
"Here," Gogo suddenly came in, removing her helmet, "sorry, I'm late."
"Late?! We just walked in," Hiro made a face.
"Well, you know what I mean," she smiled at him as she came over, ruffled his head-height hair and the two watched Wasabi help pull the colorful air beds into a circle. Gogo cleared her throat as he started to walk outside; he touched his fist to his palm before heading out to the back. Right before Hiro could throw out a question Gogo and Honey helped them carry in a couple duffles of clothes.
Baymax watched Wasabi go, patted Hiro's shoulder assuringly, then went to meet up with him.
"Need your help, Big B," Fred grabbed his arm, grinning phonily.
His friend blinked.
"You are trying to distract me."
Fred's grin dropped. "Uhh...yeah."
...
Before Gogo and Honey could stop him, Hiro had slipped out to follow Wasabi down down a steep ravine as he only just glanced the hot tub and the outdoor showers, seeming a bit ironic for his hygiene-obsessed friend of his when a giant plasma wall spanning out caused him to yelp out.
"I was kind of hoping you would stay inside," Wasabi started to tinker with a small device on the ground, but then he grinned back, "if you're here, I guess you can give me your opinion on the grid."
"Don't know, I can't tell you where anything is out here," Hiro tried to make a small joke.
Wasabi's smile turned apologetic and, recognizing that look right away, Hiro turned around and walked back up to the porch; Ever since his friends had got back into town from San Ben, the two had not talked as much as it seemed like only yesterday they had celebrated Hiro's 16th birthday, but ever since that confrontation in the forest of the Resistance Encampment, Wasabi hadn't spoken much to Hiro. Now, at the prospect of working this out, Hiro waited for him to come back.
He tinkered a little more and then after a few moments, Hiro had almost sat down on a spider and Wasabi watched as he gingerly tried to finger it on his hand and, with a look of withheld disgust, gently took it over and set it down on another log rail. Not a fan of spiders himself, Bi came to sit down on a long, wooden bench, then patted the side next to him for Hiro to come sit down and talk.
"Oh, somebody said you forgot this," he placed a green knit cap on the boy's shaggy head.
"Oh! Hah, thanks," Hiro laughed, pulling it off.
They watched as mist filled the atmosphere, rain sliding off in a lessening cascade.
"Look, I know you're not too happy about how things went when you were gone."
Wasabi just kept staring out, not looking but listening.
"And I know we haven't really talked since you got back..."
For some reason, Hiro saw the muscles in Wasabi's hands contort.
"You're not happy with the way I handled the team," Hiro surmised; it wasn't easy to say.
His friend's brows, thicker then his, went down.
"How I treated our friends," Hiro braved.
"No, I'm not." Wasabi said.
A strange anger emitted from him as he leered away and Hiro felt a need to-
"So, this is Ji's place?" Hiro asked suddenly, feeling like he didn't want to be here.
"My parents," Wasabi recovered quickly, "we came out here sometimes when I was younger."
"Oh." He said quietly.
The two were miserable a moment; they really did care about-
"We can make amends," Hiro offered, looking at him.
"That's not the main problem I have with you, Hiro."
"What?" He said in surprise.
"Friendships can be mended if we want them to be," Wasabi finally met his eyes as he stood up, barely paying attention to his confusion, "no, there's something else I want to talk to you about."
"Yeah?" Hiro didn't know why his defenses were going up. "Yeah, what kind of things?"
"You..." Bi shook his head slowly, his dreads moving, "you can't have the kind of what relationship... Hiro, I mean this in the kindest of ways, you can't have the kind of relationship you and Max have."
Pluto was a colonized planet now.
"Sorry, what?" Hiro answered, surprisingly calm, "I'm sorry?"
"What you guys are doing," Wasabi was still shaking his head again in disbelief that he had to rationalize this, "I mean, I guess you think that it's cute or something. Of course, you were completely right about things being different during the Occupation but, Hiro, things are going to go back to normal now," the teen tried to interrupt but Bi continued, almost running over his own words, "Reality, Hiro, you can see how weird this is and, look, I know things with other girls didn't pan out."
Reality did return to Hiro.
"Well, if you count one turning to villainy and the other turning out to be my cousin."
"Hiro!" he focused his brown eyes on him and suddenly clarity was a villian as well, "I'm saying this as a friend; you cannot keep doing the kinds of things that you're doing with Baymax. Dude, it's not something that people are just going to be okay with. Heck, a whole organization is dedicated to-"
"To killing my best friend?" Hiro was deadly calm.
Wasabi was horror-struck.
"You, you know I-"
"Convo over," Gogo suddenly came out to the porch, "c'mon, we're making s'mores."
Without a second glance back, Hiro went right back into the house.
Somebody had cut the thorns off of roses sitting on the table; this caught Hiro's eye and he smiled.
They were red and white and he pocketed one before they all went to inure themselves to listen to one of Fred's reenactments of there heroics; Hiro tried hard not to look at Wasabi and Wasabi was definitely not looking his way, Honey and Gogo planeted themselves between everybody and Baymax's arm was always around Hiro making him feel like nothing could ever harm him. He didn't see, however, that Baymax would look over at Wasabi and Wasabi would always concentrate more.
...
"Buddy," Hiro said later on when they were all asleep.
"Are you all right?" he heard his best friend's voice asking in concern.
"Just thinking... Hey, there's a place up near the top of the cabin..."
"The others are sleeping. Traditionally, we are all supposed to sleep together at a sleepover."
Hiro sighed raggedly and immediately Baymax seemed to realize what was wrong as he suddenly felt his best friends chest next to his; he sighed in relief. Cuddling his head close to Hiro's, Baymax carried him up the steps quietly as possible and Hiro grinned in his chest, thinking of small spaces. Inside of a little loft, he squeezed himself and motioned for Baymax to follow in close behind him.
Hiro was squished as Baymax tried to compensate by sucking in his gut.
"Maxie, oof, we've talked a-booof, sucking it in."
Baymax looked at him a moment, then positioned him so that he was down on his back.
"Buddy?" Hiro said in surprise and then he felt Baymax's accessport against his chest.
He gasped, feeling his best friend touch his heart.
"I've got you," Baymax told him gently, then he settled down and gave a small, whirring sigh.
He muffled another loud noise and Baymax snuggled his head.
"I know things are difficult right now," his best friend told him, "but this is your home," he settked his accessport down and Hiro whined, "and I will not allow anything to separate us," Hiro whimpered.
"Hiro's happy noises," Baymax determined in a hush
Hiro shyly tried to wiggle away but Baymax snuggled his head close with his hand, enveloping him.
"I know, Maxie," he gasped,and Baymax met his eyes, "sorry."
"Are you all right?"
" Mm-hmm."
"Do you need to talk?"
"Mm-hmm."
Baymax's port moved on his heart.
"MMMMM!"
Hiro broke through his pants, " 'Night, buddy..."
"Good night," There was a slight pause, "My buddy," he squished him as close as possible.
Hiro sighed loudly into his vinyl, muffling a laugh.
"We are so connected," Baymax murmured.
The shaggy-haired teen made a noise of agreement, then slid off into a peaceful sleep.
"There is nothing to be afraid of," He felt fingers stroke his hair back, "when you are in my arms."
Hiro vaguely wondered if Baymax could feel fear, how much he felt...
Then he imagined red strings connecting their chips together and fell asleep together.
ll.
Sixteen years earlier...
"Your scans are excellent," Dr. Hamada said to his patient.
"Thanks...I think," Keio Tanaka replied haltingly, her eyes never leaving him.
It was no secret the fallout between father and son at San Fransokyo Tech...
In fact, their social circle sometimes still brought it up.
"All fractures are healed," he went over the light board that changed of its own accord whenever he gestured to it, "even the scarring tissue has been-" he paused for a momen, avoiding looking at the parts where metal embedded into her skin, "anyways, as usual, you have a clean bill of health, Keio."
"I have my life back," she corrected him, placing her purse over her shoulder.
"Of course," he smiled at her now like her own husband always forced a professional smile, then Dr. Hamada walked out the door before she could see the real tension on his face, "Have a safe day."
"You have a grandson," Keio mentioned before he closed the door.
The man was frozen. He thought, then muttered, "What's one more?"
"Excuse me?" She said vocally.
Gripping the handle securely, he looked her right in the eye, "Yes, you'll be needing to go to the front desk and schedule a time to be examined for that," he said with double meaning, then whisked out.
For a moment, she thought that he knew and then Keio pushed herself up off the examination bed, walked out the front glass into chilly, mid-Febuary. Keeping her head down, Keio almost collided with someone head on and then gripped her wrist at the last moment from striking out with her gloved hand when a familiar grip took her wrist; she stood and saw Taku for the first time in weeks.
"Hi," he said, his friendly smile always welcomed.
"Hi yourself," she tried to hide her own.
"Anyways," he went on like like they had been talking for minutes, "I've gotta get inside on time."
"For what?" The thin woman definitely smiled and he was very quick to make for the glass doors.
"The usual." He tried ducking, "it's great seeing you, but I've got a grant to get new supplies."
"Do you think..." she touched his cheek, finally garnering his attention, "we can meet up later?"
There was a click.
He gaged her questioningly and she nodded subtly.
Rather than the excitement she wanted to see, Taku nodded and ignored the flash of disappointment he saw in her eyes before he gathered his things and went into the hospital.
"You haven't forgotten, have you? The promise you made five years ago?"
He sighed gravely.
"I haven't forgotten," Taku told her, not turning, "but I have a family now."
He was almost to the hospital door when he heard her call, "What's one more?"
To be continued...