Hilda isn't really one for change unless she's the one making it, new technology and advances in science are what she lives for. Being the driving force and final say behind the latest breakthroughs in the scientific world has been her dream since she was a little girl. So becoming CEO of Monarch Enterprises was like being told she had won the lottery for the rest of her life. When the job stuck her in an office shuffling paperwork most of the day she's pretty ashamed to admit she may have reacted poorly. Mad King was right when he said she was a girl playing dress up that day before the board when he swooped in with his hostile takeover.
Sure she, along with The Dweebs&Co. were able to put the asshole back in his place. And sure she is CEO again and actively trying to actually understand and do her job this time around and shit. But other than Rusty, and some people who owe Ash a favor, making almost daily visits to her new office to help her muddle through the hithertos and whyfors it just becomes a new part of the routine. And when the two idiots who call themselves heroes barge into her lab during the hour and a half she has free that day and declared that they've actually found themselves a place to call headquarters (not just the basement of X-Ray's mom's house) it worries her that it doesn't affect her schedule very much. What does affect her is that with the help of Monarchs Lab's recently too-eager-to-please-board they were able to fashion a wing entirely dedicated to her gadgety science stuff without her knowing. An entire wing that would be attached to her own room.
She is a little curious to see what they came up with, but hey, those idiots are going to have to work for it. So they drag her half-assedly kicking and screaming to a larger house on a side of town that has the sort of real estate she wouldn't have dared looking at before the first paycheck as CEO of Monarch Labs came in. It's painted a mix of green, blue, red, black, white and purple. It's hideous. Vav must see the look she makes because he chuckles with a goofy grin on his face.
"Yeah, looks bloody horrendous, but it's home." Hilda bites back the sarcastic remark on his stupid shit-eating grin or the way he sounded like a schoolgirl with a crush. X-Ray is going on about needing soundproof walls for entire house, especially the mother-in-law wing his mother was taking over, and possibly some questionable security measures; but he's got that same grin and the same look in his eyes and Hilda can't find it in herself to say no to them.
"Ugh, fine," she really does try her hardest to seem extremely put out and inconvenienced. "Where's my room? And I do expect my lab to not double as my bedroom." The next week, once they're all mostly moved in X-Ray and Vav reveal their secret identities to her. Gavin Free works as a video editor and special effects guy for a small production company along with Ray Narvaez Jr. who is a video and sound editor. The company they work for has really kicked off recently and throw in the money they've gotten as X-Ray and Vav from the city and various benefactors -Monarch Labs included- they had just been able to scrounge up the funds to rent the house. She's a little proud of how she doesn't make a single comment about what dorks they are in their civilian lives too.
A couple of weeks later and Hilda has more or less adapted to sharing a house with the dweebs, Ray's mother and Rusty's usually uninhabited room. Ash comes around more often than she is generally comfortable with at first, but after a month has practically moved in with how often she's pulled all-nighters with Rusty and crashed in the guest room to get up bright and early for a quick breakfast before heading back to her apartment to get ready to start the whole thing over again.
Hilda's finally the one to tell the girl to woman up and just move her stuff into the damned house over the ruckus of another fight about Vav escorting her home after breakfast. She punctuates her argument by draining the last of her coffee and slamming down a stack of papers -already signed and just needing to be mailed off- that detail a lease-to-own agreement for the house. Yeah it would take a few years, but the house would be all theirs. Not just a glorified renting arrangement with the city. Vav gets blubbery and teary eyed, Ash is cooing about what a softie Hilda is and Ray and Rusty are in the background grumbling about presumptuous inventors while holding back soft smiles.
And really it's not that bad having most of the second floor to herself most of the day. And actually kind of nice waking up to the slight hum of machinery in the next room and the sound of her idiots trying to make breakfast without burning down the house, wafting up from downstairs. She's gotten used to going down to the kitchen, grabbing the cup of hot coffee Ray has set out for her and searching the fridge for the special sugary creamer Gavin has concocted for her caffeine enhancement. It's routine to detach ORF from her charging dock by the pantry and sit down at the head of the table and watch as the boys muddle through their latest breakfast experiment as she reads Ash's latest article on her blog.
"Hilda, why haven't you installed any sort of robot breakfast machine in the kitchen or something?"
"Yeah, you're totally using us as slaves or some- ow, Vav! Do not throw the bacon into the pan, that's how you get grease burns!"
Hilda hides her smile behind her white mug with blue and purple atom models on it and shrugs. "I'll get round to it someday I guess." She pretends to not see them playfully stick their tongues in her general direction as she shifts her focus back to her tablet.
Most days Ash will come down a little while after her, dressed and ready to go. After maneuvering around Ray and Gavin she'll sit to the left and a couple of chairs down from Hilda with her own cup of coffee right as breakfast is placed on the table. ORF cleans up the kitchen, the boys head to work or out on patrol depending on the day, Ash heads to her apartment-turned-main office, notes and drafts for her blog sticking out of her laptop bag, and Hilda makes sure one of the housebots takes a tray to Mrs. Narvaez's room. If Rusty actually used his room the night before, he'll stumble down closer to noon and mumble something close to a thanks as Hilda presses a fresh mug of black coffee into his hands and maneuvers him to the table where hot plate of bacon and eggs is waiting for him.
Sometimes there will be a couple slices of French toast and a splash of Jack Daniels in his coffee if he was limping more than he was stumbling the night before. He doesn't mention it to the others or ever thank her out loud, and she doesn't hold him to any sort of extra favors or paybacks. But whenever there's a specific part or some new information she needs then Rusty just happens to know a guy… "-maybe, possibly, it was a long time ago… you know what? Forget it, I got nothin." And the next day she makes sure that there's extra syrup on his French toast and his bacon is extra crispy and there's more alcohol than caffeine in his coffee as she pats his back and heads up to her rooms to get to the package that she had found outside her door that morning.
The day the boys sit her down at her usual spot, ORF already off her dock, Ash and Rusty sitting down with the remnants of a hasty breakfast pushed to the side and place her coffee in front of her just the way she likes it she already knows what her answer is.
"No."
"But Hilda, you don't even know what we're going to ask yet." Gavin squawks as he sits next to Ash.
Hilda lets out a long suffering sigh and takes her glasses off to rub her temples. "You're going to ask if you can keep some wild animal or random –possibly dangerous- toy that happened to 'follow you home'."
"Well joke's on you cause it's neither of those things!" Ray exclaims from his spot across from Ash.
"I mean, technically there are wild animals involved." Rusty pipes up from his place to her right.
"Animals? Plural?" She grinds out. Ray and Gavin shrink into their seats as Ash perks up.
""We're not dealing with any wild animals here. Well, I guess his mother is but if she raised a human she must be sentient and-"
Hilda holds up a hand, cutting her off as she takes a long drag from her cup. She lowers it as she holds the empty cup out to the kitchen. Gavin is up in a flash to refill it, Ray bolting after him and grabbing a plate off the counter. "I am going to assume that you're talking about Mogar and his mother." There's some sound of confirmation as the coffee and food are placed in front of her and they take their seats again. "Then," she says around a mouthful of toast slathered in butter and mashed avocado, "What exactly have you numbskulls come up with now?"
"Autumn is nearly over-"
"And all the forecasts and shit keep saying that this winter is going to be really bad."
"Like worse than bloody England, mate."
"And I know that bear dude is all off the grid and everything,"
"But what about his poor mum?"
"Guys," Hilda shouts, "What are you getting at?"
"Well…"
"We want to ask if Mogar and his mum can move in with us!"
"Vav!"
"Wha? It was your idea, Ray."
Hilda smirked as the tips of Ray's ears turned a bright shade of pink. "So is someone getting a soft spot for our favorite furry?"
"Can we get back to the point?" Rusty grumbles.
"Right." She leans back and takes off her glasses, pinching the bridge of her nose. "So you want my permission?"
"Well, it is your house Hilda." Ash says as she stands, dirty plates in hand and Hilda doesn't bother correcting her. "Your house, your rules. But having Mogar, X-Ray and Vav all under the same roof as the CEO of Monarch Labs… That would be front page gold."
She rolled her eyes. "Tempting Samaya, real tempting." But damn did the other woman have a point. The men leaned in as she tapped an off-beat cadence on the table. "Fine."
"Whoo!" Ray shot up from his seat, arms raised in victory. Then looked at Gavin's wide smile and the others' smirks. "I mean, cool."
Hilda smiled and shook her head. "I can have something set up for them in about a week."
"Great, that means we have a week to find them and get them ready to move in." Gavin rushes from his seat, pulling Ash with him to the door. Hilda zones out, going over calculations in her head and sending ORF after them to get the specs on wherever Mogar and his mother had been planning on spending the winter. It takes a little over a week but soon there's a dugout cave leading into the house with a back tunnel leading down into Ray's and Gavin's rooms. And a few days later Hilda finds herself coordinating the transplant of a bear man and a magical cow from the middle of the woods into their newest addition to the basement. The day of the move she notices that Mogar seems a little more clueless than normal as he looks around the house and the artificial cave.
"I tried my best to make it as close to the real thing as possible." She chuckles when he jumps at her voice.
"You made this," he gestures to the cave, "For Mogar and his mother?"
"Well, yeah, the dweebs burned your house down and did a shit job of rebuilding it so someone had to clean up their mess." She frowns a little and shrugs. There wasn't much more she could say. "And I guess you guys are friends too, almost one of the family." She gives him a small smile and a wink. "Almost." Mogar just stares at her until she frowns again and sighs. "What?"
"Why do you take care of them so much? Are they your cubs?" It takes a moment for the question to sink in before she's bent over laughing, clutching at her sides.
""Oh this is going to be interesting," she wheezes out. "I cannot wait until Gavin decides its safe to ask you shit."
"Oi, Mogar!" She looks up and any air going into her lungs is cut off by a sharp gasp at the aforementioned blue idiot. Wobbling in place with Mogar's sword in one hand and one of his daggers in the other Gavin looks like he's a stiff breeze away from cutting his own nose off. "Do you think I could throw the sword like a knife and like, pin into the wall? 'Ave you ever done anythin' like that? Can you show us?"
Yeah, this was obviously a dangerous situation that the manchild should have known better than to put himself into. And maybe she should have shown more concern than just laughing her ass off at him and the concerned bearman looking at him like he was regretting every life choice that brought him to this moment. But she really couldn't find it in herself at the moment.
Mogar turned to look at her, his eyes wide and voice a little worried. "Is it too late for Mogar to return to the forest?"
"Yep," She says as she swings her arm up to rest on his shoulder. It's a little awkward with the height difference, but it's too late to back out now. "You're stuck with us for the next four to five months."
"Mogar is not sure-" He's cut off with a loud crash and a very distinct squawk from the direction of a certain blue idiot.
"I swear to god Gavin Free, if you hit anything with that fucking glorified meat cleaver, so help me!" And she's storming off after the disastrous duo, Ray having come in to help out his friend. But there's a smile on her face and no real bite to her words because yeah, these assholes were idiots, but they were her idiots.
