Carlos considered it his responsibility to remain calm and composed, even under pressure. He was the face of the Integration Institute, after all. Now more than ever, working temporarily for the Company meant that he not only had to represent the Institute, but be a stable presence for Himiko and Jonas. The latter would certainly deny that he needed any such thing from him, but Carlos knew Jonas. He talked big and acted like nothing bothered him, but the facade would be wearing on him by now. Jonas was a lot more sensitive than he let on.

Carlos knew that putting on his own brave face would help him to cope as well. He would never admit it, but their work sickened him. All he could think about was the people from previous seasons who'd done this same work preparing to kill children, year after year. None of those people had ever really cared what happened to their 'creations' after the season was over. That had been his job. Every season a group of highly paid smug writers in suits would create interesting children to kill, and every year the Initiative had to tidy up the mess left behind.

It was better than it had been when he'd come out, traumatized and confused. Back then, the Company provided contestants with free transport back to their old lives, and not much else. Even that hadn't been an option for him. Someone doing the very same work he was doing now had decided that Carlos Hernandez, the Ultimate Firefighter, didn't need to know Spanish. His background had him growing up in America, and either someone had decided adding a third language would be too much or someone had forgotten to include it, but he could not return to his original home in Mexico without any knowledge of the language.

That was why he'd started the Institute, to prevent anyone else from having to go through what he'd dealt with, ending up awkwardly settling down in Tokyo all alone and struggling to find a place in the world. Now, after Shuichi, Maki, Himiko, and Nakamura had turned the world upside down, he often wondered if he could have or should have done more. At the time, it had been enough to take care of those left behind. He had worked hard to be a solid, dependable guy. He knew that being impulsive or prone to pie in the sky dreams that were bound to fail could leave people worse off than they would have been, without any help at all. The Ultimate Firefighter was a hotheaded, impulsive, passionate man who wore his heart on his sleeve and got people killed as a result. Carlos had to be better than that.

This time he was the one in charge of going through fabricated histories, entire personalities, and the Talents and abilities given to each new Ultimate, and he was determined to do better than the Company had done for him. It was a daunting task. They were creating entirely new people, and if they made even one infinitesimal mistake, it could be devastating.

Jonas and Himiko came and went, working with Nezumi and Kobayashi on the opening of the season and the performances for Monokuma and the strange group they were calling the MonoCrew. The two of them were performers, it made sense for them to work with their strengths. Carlos didn't begrudge them that. He, however, was not a performer. His ability was to be resolved and tough and to do the brutal work others couldn't.

That was why he spent every minute since his arrival at the Company going over the files for every new Ultimate with a fine toothed comb. With no one else to worry about, he grew more and more focused, skipping lunch and staying later every day to ensure that not even the smallest error or problem avoided his notice.

Two days before launch, Carlos was interrupted by Jonas while in the process of scouring one such file.

"Carlos, what are you doing?" He demanded, tugging the file out of his hand. "The day was over two hours ago."

"Being thorough." Carlos replied, reaching for the file. "Give it back."

"Absolutely not. You need to go home, eat, and rest. You're scaring people."

"Who am I scaring?" he asked, rolling his eyes. "There's no one here."

"Himiko, Shuichi, Yume, Kaoru, Nakamura…" Jonas frowned. "Hikari's talking about making you stop and taking her job back."

"That's ridiculous. I'm fine." Carlos insisted.

"If you were fine, you'd be eating, at least." Jonas replied firmly.

"How do you even know I'm not?"

Jonas smirked. Carlos hated that smirk almost as much as he loved it. "No one has seen you in the cafeteria for the past week, and no one's brought you food, either. I know you're eating at home, but not here."

"I could have brought lunch from home." Carlos argued.

"But you didn't. Yume's been keeping an eye out."

"Seriously, I'm fine, Jonas. This is just… important. I don't trust them to do it right, not after how badly they've messed up in the past."

Jonas frowned worriedly. "If you wear yourself out, you might miss something too. You can finish up tomorrow."

"It has to be tonight." Carlos sighed. "They said they'd need to know at least by tomorrow if there was anything that needed to be fixed."

"... How many files do you have left to go through?" Jonas asked thoughtfully.

Carlos glanced around. "I'm halfway through that one, and there are three more that need final checks."

"Okay, here's what we're going to do." Jonas told him firmly. "I am going to stay and help until this is done. But for right now, I'm going to order us some take out, and you're going to spend the time it takes to get here to rest and relax, alright? Once we've eaten, we'll both get to work."

Carlos frowned and considered arguing, but eventually decided things would go more quickly if he simply gave in, and so he nodded. "Fine, fine, but don't slack off once we're going at it. This is crucial work."

"That's better." Jonas sat down on the desk in front of Carlos and pulled out his phone. "I know how important all of this work is, you don't have to remind me, Carlos. And you don't have to do all this shit alone. You should know that by now."

Carlos groaned, leaning forward and letting his head rest against Jonas' chest. "You were busy."

"Sure, but I don't mind telling the Company to go fuck themselves if you need me." He hesitantly ran his fingers through Carlos' hair. "Though, to be honest, I don't mind telling the Company to go fuck themselves...period."

"Is that so? You seem pretty cozy here to me." Carlos replied, but any anger he was holding onto seemed to be fading in the light of his fatigue, not to mention the warmth of being close to Jonas.

"Well, sure. That's what I wanted them to think. I'm sure as hell not going to let them see how much I hate this."

"What was that about not needing to do everything on your own?" Carlos teased him.

"I've been talking it over with Hikari. You're the stubborn dumbass who won't let anyone in." Jonas told him, letting fondness slip into his voice.

"It's better that way." Carlos insisted. "They need someone steady and unflappable."

"You and your damn pride. We don't all need you to be an anchor. And you don't have to be responsible for them all on your own."

Before Carlos could reply, Jonas bent down to kiss him. Carlos had to admit that Jonas was good in a crisis, especially when the crisis involved needing someone to yank him out of his own head for a bit. He tugged Jonas down off of the desk and onto his lap to kiss him more thoroughly, and the two of them kept each other occupied until their food arrived. By the time he and Jonas got back to the files, Carlos did in fact feel much sharper and ready to work.

A/N: One more chapter until the killing game starts! See you next week!