I guess the real AU of Angel of Vengeance is pretending that everyone has always known Judy's name because damn it that's what she deserves.
"Sugar, I'm freaking out. I can't do this! I'm not ready…" Seth was pacing in their nicest slacks and button-up, clothes so nice that there wasn't even any cat hair anywhere on them.
Morgan let out a surprised laugh.
"I'm sorry, who are you? Because I'm pretty sure you're not the Seth Drake who's going to take over the city one day."
"Maybe I'm not," Seth said meekly, glancing away.
"Seth, you marched right up to Liv Amara at a banquet you were barely invited to and showed her why you deserved to work at Sycorax. Today's the day you get to prove that you're not all talk."
"Right! I'm not all talk, am I, Morgan?"
"What? Of course not! Think about all the cool shit you've done! Think about the wings and the suit you made me. Think of all the buddy guards you've personally dismantled. You're a king. You're my king. Go show everyone that." Morgan gave Seth a quick kiss on the cheek and Seth smiled to themself before heading off for their first day at Sycorax.
The first thing that Seth noticed at their new job was that it was overwhelmingly cool.
"You attended SFIT, right? Our newest intern attends there currently," Liv said as she gave Seth the tour.
"Oh, yeah, Karmi."
"So you already know her?"
"Uh…" Seth wasn't about to mention that they had been present for more than one of Hiro's Karmi rants.
"I'm friends with her friends." That was about as close to the truth as they could get.
"Well then, allow me to formally introduce you two before you meet the engineering team. You'll be primarily working with them, but it's good to know all of your coworkers. Speaking of, Chris!"
A blond man, who reminded Seth of a mix between Dalton (because all blond guys either looked like Dalton or Fred) and an action figure, popped up from nowhere.
"This is my assistant, Chris. If you ever need anything you can ask him and he'll make sure it's handled."
"Oh, thank you." Chris was grinning and Seth felt a little unnerved. Seth was glad when Liv kept walking and they arrived at Karmi's lab.
"Karmi, this is Seth, they're starting work here today as well, in the engineering department. Seth, this is Karmi. She's a biotech prodigy."
"I wouldn't say prodigy," Karmi said, with the false modesty that you'd expect from a sixteen-year-old.
"It's nice to meet another friend of Hiro's," Seth said, holding out their hand. Karmi frowned and ignored the handshake.
"You know Hiro?"
"Well, I'm friends with Fred and the gang, so, yes."
"Right, yeah, of course. Hiro's friends. I wouldn't exactly count myself as one of Hiro's friends, but it's nice to meet you, nevertheless. It's nice to know I already know someone in engineering."
"Right. Same to you. You never know when you'll need a biotech prodigy." Seth always felt slightly awkward interacting with people younger than them. They were honestly moments away from attempting to incorrectly use whatever slang was currently popular, but fortunately, Liv waved them along.
While Seth got settled into their new job, Morgan was barely paying attention to hers. It was Monday and Morgan was still obsessing over Saturday when Hiro had seen Morgan and Seth together. She'd been trying to reach him since then and just wasn't getting through. She'd even stopped by The Lucky Cat, but Hiro was clearly avoiding her. She just wanted the chance to clear the air but she would probably have to corner him before he gave her the opportunity.
"You know we can't pay you if you don't work," Ian said.
"What are you, a cop?"
"No, I'm just kidding. Waste the bastard's money. And if you have time, go upstairs and steal me some paper clips from the supply closet." Morgan had a lot of admiration for Ian. Part of her wanted to tell him about the buddy guard initiative that she and Seth had going on but- no. The fewer people in the know the better.
"I'll get to work," she promised, "and I'll get those paper clips…" But first, she had to figure out a way to make Hiro listen.
Morgan was still working on that problem when she and Seth had dinner that night, but she put it aside to hear Seth babble about their new job.
"The lab is amazing and the other engineers are so cool? I think I'm really going to learn a lot from them."
"I didn't know you had anything left to learn," Morgan laughed.
"What? Of course I do. Just because I'm brilliant doesn't mean I'm perfect. I'm no prodigy, like Liv or Karmi."
"Well, you're perfect to me."
"Have you figured out a way to get through to Hiro yet?"
"No," Morgan sighed, "he avoids me at school so I think I'm just going to have to corner him next time he's at Krei Tech."
"That could be forever from now, the whims of the city's criminals are random, at best."
"Well…" Morgan said thoughtfully.
"No."
"No, what? You haven't heard what I was going to say." Morgan crossed her arms.
"I just got my new job and you've been doing pretty well at yours, so we're not staging any level of crime against Krei Tech just so that you have the opportunity to talk to Hiro. It would only make him resent you more."
"He doesn't resent me," Morgan said, hoping desperately she was right about that. But Seth was also right. As easy as it would be to let one of the repurposed Buddy Guards loose in Krei's office, she didn't need to give Hiro any more reasons to be standoffish.
"Thank you." Seth tiptoed to kiss Morgan, satisfied with the result of this conversation. Morgan, in turn, was satisfied with the kiss.
"Don't worry, Morgan. You'll get a chance to talk to him, I promise."
But, in the end, Seth was the one who got a chance to talk to him first, when Hiro and the gang (minus Fred) came to tour Sycorax.
"I forgot you worked here," Hiro admitted when the tour reached the engineering lab.
"I just started. It's a good gig, so far. Sup, GoGo, Honey Lemon, Wasabi. Hello, Professor Granville."
"You're no longer a student, Mx. Drake. You may refer to me as Grace."
"Respectfully, I'm not going to do that."
"I understand." Professor Granville and the others drifted off to look around but Seth caught hold of Hiro's jacket.
"Hey, Hiro, can I ask you something?"
"Uh, sure." While Seth had wormed their way into the hearts of most of Big Hero 6, Hiro had always remained understandably skeptical.
"You need to talk to Morgan."
"That's not a question," Hiro pointed out.
"Right. Why are you avoiding Morgan?"
"She knows why. I have a feeling you probably know, too."
Seth opened their mouth and then remembered they were talking to a fourteen-year-old (or wait, was he fifteen now? Seth didn't know) and chose a different approach. Hiro and Karmi were made of the same stuff, both a little proud, a little stubborn, both confident from being called a prodigy all their lives. Seth didn't want to add to Hiro's struggles so they decided to phrase this in the nicest way possible.
"Please just remember that Morgan really cares about you, okay? It would be nice if you gave her a chance to explain her side."
"I think I saw enough."
Seth tapped their glasses, "The human eye isn't always perfect, Hiro. Neither is the human heart. I don't fully understand what you're going through, and neither does Morgan. But the only way you can come to understand each other is by talking it out."
"Fine… I'll talk to her eventually."
"Sooner is better than later."
"The tour's leaving, I've got to go." Seth knew they probably wouldn't win Hiro over anytime soon, especially now that they were dating Morgan, but they had a feeling that Hiro would take their advice. Maybe talking to teenagers wasn't that terrible.
Seth didn't tell Morgan that they'd talked to Hiro but their advice must have worked because later that same day Hiro showed up at Krei Tech. Granted, he wasn't there to talk to Morgan, but after he'd secured an internship (by playing Krei's ego like a video game), he asked Judy if she had any idea where Morgan was.
"I don't keep tabs on her, but Ian does. He's a couple flights down." Hiro weighed his options and decided it was worth it to just get everything out in the open, at least for Tadashi's sake. So he trekked downstairs and after a few more minutes of searching, finally found Morgan.
"Hiro! What are you doing here?" Morgan was both stunned and worried that there had been a crisis. She shouldn't have gotten noise-canceling headphones so that she could listen to DJ Parasite remixes while she worked, now she couldn't hear all of the crisises. Crises?
"I came here to ask Krei for an internship. I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone. Uh. Metaphorically."
"I didn't think you were going to kill me," Morgan said.
Hiro squatted next to where Morgan was sitting on the ground, "Does Krei really have you working on the floor?"
"No, I could have a chair if I wanted. Technically I'm supposed to be working in Ian's office so he can keep an eye on me, but Ian trusts me, and I get my work done, so I can go anywhere. On nice days I work outside, and when I'm feeling a little overwhelmed I sit on the back stairwell that no one ever uses."
"Oh. I guess that sounds kind of nice."
"But I'm sure he'll hook you up with something nice, as his intern. Maybe not a full lab, like Karmi has-"
Hiro soured, "You heard about that?"
"Seth told me."
"Ah, yeah, Seth…"
"Listen, I know why you came to talk to me. I appreciate you giving me a chance, and I know what you saw on Saturday-"
"Don't you dare say it wasn't what it looks like. I'm not a little kid, Morgan, I know what I saw."
"It is what it looked like. I'm dating Seth. They make me really happy, and I'm not ashamed to admit that."
"But Tadashi-"
"I know, Hiro. I miss him too. I do, every day. And I'm not replacing him, I could never replace him. The love I have with Seth is different. Not better or worse, just different."
"It sure as hell looked the same to me." Morgan was graciously not going to tell Aunt Cass that Hiro was using swears.
"Hiro, I loved Tadashi and I care about you, I don't expect you to understand the love I had with Tadashi because you're not me. You don't have to understand how much I loved your brother, I just want you to trust and respect me. It's romantic love, still, but it's a different love because Seth is a different person. And I'm a different person now."
Hiro could almost understand, but he was still angry. And so, against his better judgment, he lashed out.
"I don't know if Tadashi would even love who you are now."
Morgan cringed and Hiro immediately regretted the words.
"Morgan, I'm sorry."
"I know you are, Hiro. People say things they don't mean all the time and I'm not mad at you. To be honest, I think about that a lot. I don't know if Tadashi would love me like this either. But I think he'd trust and respect me, and that's all I'm asking from you."
Hiro swallowed hard, "Okay, yeah."
Morgan put a hand on his shoulder and smiled at him, "I really do care about you, Hiro. We both work here now, you can reach out to me anytime, even if it's just to escape Krei's bullshit for a while."
Hiro laughed a little, still feeling bad about what he'd said and for making such a big deal about Seth and Morgan dating.
"I don't want things to be bad between us, Hiro. I'm willing to move forward on your terms but I'm hoping we can be friends."
Hiro glanced away again.
"Hiro?"
"I'm only upset because I care about you too. We're not friends, Morgan. You're part of our family."
"Oh, uh…"
"So if you really like Seth and stuff then I can't judge your relationship and there's no reason not to trust you. But. Um. No more crime, okay?"
"Hiro, I love you, I can't make any promises."
"Ugh, fine. Just be careful then, okay? Big Hero 6 has stuff covered."
"Of course they do. I hope they take care of themselves, too."
"They will. And they won't be afraid to arrest any angels they catch committing crimes."
"I would expect nothing less from San Fransokyo's greatest heroes."
"It's been pretty quiet lately, anyway. Fred says we're in phase two now, but real life isn't like that."
"I really hope you're right."
Question Of The Week- What kind of date should Morgan and Seth go on next?
Okay, that question is a little different than the normal ones but I wanted to have fun this time lol. I'm just proud of me for writing this entire chapter in one day. Don't worry, I am procrastinating studying for midterms! But next week is Spring Break so there's a good chance I'll have chapter 18 out soon too! Maybe 19 as well, but let's not get too ambitious.