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HIRO

I wake up to an earsplitting shriek and shoot up, remembering that we crashed on Honey's couch for the night and thinking that her mother must have found us. But it's not her mom who stands in front of me—it's a rather short, pudgy man in his early thirties with dark curly hair. My first reaction is to be impressed by how high he can scream, and the second is that we're in his living room and he has no idea why.

I wave sheepishly. "Hi."

"Wh-who…what…?" he stutters, pointing a shaky finger at me.

"I'm Hiro." I point to Tadashi. "That's my brother. Honey Lemon's friend."

He glances from me to Tadashi and back again. "Why are you…?"

"Crashed on your couch?"

He nods mutely.

I shrug. "We ran away from our foster home and Honey said we could crash for the night."

"Oh," he says, the first coherent word he's managed since I woke up.

"Yeah." I stick out a hand for him to shake. "I assume you're Honey's dad?"

"Yep." He reaches out and shakes my hand tentatively, more at ease now.

Tadashi yawns and starts to sit up behind me. Both mine and Mr. Rivera's heads turn toward him, suddenly silent.

He sees us both staring at him and pauses mid-yawn.

"Hi," he says after a moment.

I wave. Mr. Rivera steps forward to shake his hand.

"Hello!" he says jovially, much more energetic than he was with me. "You must be Honey's boyfriend!"

Tadashi blushes to the roots of his hair.

"I'm not her boyfriend," he mumbles.

"Of course not," Mr. Rivera says matter-of-factly. "You know her from school, then?"

Tadashi nods. "We have a couple classes together."

"Ah! You like chemistry?"

"I like it." Tadashi shrugs. "I'm a robotics major, though."

"Robotics," Mr. Rivera muses, stroking his chin thoughtfully. "I proclaim you somewhat worthy of my daughter."

Tadashi raises an eyebrow. "Somewhat?"

"Well, no one quite makes the cut, but I suppose you'll do."

All of us laugh. I hear footsteps on the stairs and turn to see Honey Lemon, still in her pajamas. Tadashi blushes again. I can see why—the shorts are very short and she has extremely long legs. Tadashi keeps denying his crush on her, but I don't believe him.

Honey stares at Tadashi for a second before saying, "So you weren't a dream?"

Tadashi grins and shakes his head.

Honey hugs both of us and kisses Tadashi on the cheek. Her dad raises an eyebrow suspiciously but doesn't comment. Honey flops down on the couch and casually rests her legs across Tadashi's lap. Tadashi's face flames red.

I exchange a glance with Mr. Rivera and almost laugh at how indignant he looks. His face is redder than Tadashi's, his jaw slightly dropped at the sight of his daughter seducing my brother.

Mr. Rivera tightens his bathrobe and walks back up the stairs, muttering, "I guess you can stay."

One week later

"Good news, Hiro!"

I spew hot chocolate all over my physics homework, startled by Tadashi's voice. Tadashi laughs hysterically as I angrily wipe my mouth and try in vain to salvage my paper.

"What's your news," I grumble.

"I rented a place for us! It's got two floors of apartment and room for a small business on ground level."

I sit up straight. "Really?"

"What business would we even run, though?" Tadashi muses.

I shrug. "We could sell robots."

"The website said it used to be a café, but the woman who owned it died," Tadashi says. "We could keep the café going—you can cook. And it's a cat café, and you love cats. And—"

"What about—" I cough. I've had this cold for a week and it isn't getting any better. "What about you, though?"

He stares at me. "What about me?"

"You're talking about all the stuff I would love and I can do, but what about you? You're sixteen—old enough to be my legal guardian. You're the one that needs a job."

Tadashi doesn't respond for a few minutes. Technically—legally, at least—he's an adult, ever since they lowered the legal guardianship age a few years ago. The Malthusian Catastrophe wiped out three-quarters of the population, including our parents, and they lowered the age so teenagers could take care of little kids like me. Tadashi was thirteen. I was nine.

Finally Tadashi says, "I can work a café. We just can't let me near any ovens."

I start to laugh and descend into a coughing fit, my head starting to swim at the same time. Tadashi eyes me warily. I can practically see his protective big brother instincts kicking in.

"Are you okay, Hiro?" he asks, rather predictably.

"I'm—" cough "—fine?"

I think it must be my asthma, because I can't stop coughing. My chest tightens, and I suddenly can't breathe at all. I feel Tadashi's hands on my shoulders, telling me that it's just a small attack, that I've beaten this before, that everything's gonna be fine. I used to have attacks all the time when I was little until I got an inhaler. Tadashi was the only one who could calm me down during one.

The attack is over after a few minutes and I clutch at my chest, gasping. Tadashi gently rubs my back, trying to help restore my breath.

"You okay?" he murmurs after a moment.

"Yeah." I take a shaky breath and am relieved when it doesn't turn into another cough. I don't think I could take any more of that.

"I'm checking it out tomorrow morning," Tadashi says. "The café, I mean. You wanna come?"

I wrinkle my nose. "Morning?"

He laughs and ruffles my hair. "You big baby."

—

The café isn't fancy, but it's cozy. Definitely warm. It seems warmer when we move in than when we first checked it out. It has enough bedrooms—not hard when there's only two of us—but Tadashi's considering sharing the upstairs one and renting out the other. We need as much money as we can, so I think he'll go through with it. The only problem is that there would be strange people sleeping in our house, and we're both kind of vulnerable.

I try my first batch of donuts the day before Tadashi opens up the café, just to make sure I can do it. They turn out kind of terrible.

I'm definitely better at cooking than Tadashi is, but I'm not so sure about baking. I learned online how to make basic meals, but he took baking classes. I bet he could make desserts without burning them, if nothing else.

The café is suddenly much warmer than it should be, my head starting to swim. I put a hand to my forehead, trying to keep my balance as the world sways around me.

The tray of donuts clatters to the floor. I hear it as if from far away.

The swirls of color blend into each other and then go dark.