"All I remember is waking up in a cold room with one door. Sometimes someone would bring food, but it wasn't very good. I still ate it to prevent starvation, I don't know how long I was in there. I think a few days, sometimes I'd just try to sleep, sometimes I'd curl into a ball and cry, and sometimes I'd bang on the door for hours for someone to let me out. Yama came in once and threatened me to shut up, so I stopped."
Hiro just stared in horror at her story, of what she only remembered. Poor Ari.
"Then what happened a while ago happened." Ari sniffled, wiping away the tears. "I don't know why I was in there or what that guy wanted, but some of the minions mentioned a boss… I really don't want to know what would've happened if you didn't show up."
Hiro gulped the dry air in his mouth. He didn't know how to comfort the crying girl, but tried giving her a pat on the shoulder.
"Yama isn't going to get his hands on you again." Hiro told her. "You're safe now."
"Thanks." Ari dried the last of her tears. "Can you give me a moment? I need to think, and you probably want to talk to your friend."
"Alright." Hiro began walking towards the school. "I'll be back soon."
"Okay." Ari sighed, he felt bad for leaving her there. But he had to talk to the rest of his friends, who were probably angry at him.
He wasn't wrong.
Gogo, Wasabi, and Honey Lemon were glaring at him. Fred was just standing there idle.
"So I'm sensing you're angry?" Hiro questioned, the computer behind him beeped.
"Without my scanning capabilities, I am unable to detect non-verbal signs of anger." Baymax was up, Hiro looked at the robot inside the computer and back at his friends.
"Are they glaring? Are their eyebrows down and together?" Now Fred was glaring at him as well. "Do you see narrowing of their lips?"
"I got this Baymax." Hiro raised his hand to quiet the robot. "Guys, I'm sorry I didn't tell you what I was doing." He felt guilty for making them worried.
"You could've gotten hurt." Honey Lemon frowned, her green eyes were full of concern.
"And I can't believe you stole something from Professor Granville's desk." Wasabi turned to Fred, who was grabbing a slice of pizza from the box. "And you helped him, and now Yama has it!"
"Well..." Hiro went to his jacket pocket and pulled something out.
The paperweight from Granville's desk.
All three of his friends looked at it, not saying a word.
"Double steal!" Of course Fred broke the silence.
"As promised." Hiro held it with one hand, the paperweight weighing down a little heavy.
"I'm impressed." Gogo walked towards him and punched him lightly on the shoulder. "But don't ever do that again."
"I won't." He gestured. "But there's still one problem." He pointed to the broken window in the lab, when Baymax's skeleton malfunctioned and broke out.
"How am I gonna explain that to Professor Granville?"
"Don't worry, I'll take care of it." Honey Lemon got a chem ball from her purse to fix the glass, "Just this once."
Hiro beamed. "Thanks Honey Lemon, I should probably get this back to Professor Granvile's desk and check on Ari."
"Ari?" Wasabi raised an eyebrow, confused about who he was talking about.
"The girl that was with us when you rescued us?"
"Ohhh, wait why was she there in the first place?" Wasabi questioned.
"And who is she?" Gogo demanded.
"I don't know." Hiro shook his head. "When I asked her, she couldn't remember. She has amnesia."
All of them gasped in shock. "That's awful!" Honey Lemon exclaimed. "That poor girl!"
"Amnesia can be caused by damage to areas of the brain that are vital for memory processing. It can be permanent." Baymax brought up information on amnesia from the computer. "Memory enhancing techniques can be used as a treatment, I will update my healthcare database on amnesia."
"That's a good idea." Hiro nodded. "Memory loss or not, Yama had her locked up for a reason. It's probably not a good reason, so we should make sure he doesn't get his hands on her."
"Can we even trust this girl?" Gogo argued. "She could've been lying."
"I saw the fear in her eyes, Gogo." Hiro gave her a determined glare, "Someone has to help, it's the right thing to do."
"Fine." She waved it off. "Just be careful."
"I'm always careful!"
The gang gave him looks.
Hiro tiptoed to Professor Granville's office and carefully placed the paperweight on the desk, adjusting it a little to the left. Once he was done placing it back where it should be, he went back to where Ari was sitting.
Ari was sitting on a bench, her hands to her head as she hummed.
"Ari?" She jumped in surprise but calmed down as she recognized Hiro.
"You scared me!" Ari brought a hand to her chest. "How was it?"
"It went alright." Hiro replied. "My friends were just worried about me."
"Can I ask what was going on?" She questioned. "Why were you dealing with Yama in the first place?"
"Long story short, Yama stole my robot's skeleton and I had to make a deal. He double-crossed me so I double-crossed him by stealing back the item he had me steal and my friends were waiting for me at the lab worried." He exhaled after that windy explanation, and he didn't even give her all the details.
"I uh, told them about your amnesia." Ari looked away. "They were mostly concerned for you."
Ari rubbed her head speaking of the devil. "When I try to remember something, my mind draws a blank. I get a few flashes, then a headache." She got up from the bench and started walking away.
"Wait!" Hiro called out. "Where are you going?"
"Somewhere." Ari sighed. "I don't want to bother you anymore, so I'll just go." Hiro frowned, his conscience screaming at him to stop her. He couldn't just leave her like that.
His brother would've wanted him to help, and so he did.
"You can stay at my house." Ari whipped her head around to stare with shocked eyes. "There's plenty of room in the house, and my aunt wouldn't let a kid out on the streets."
"Are you sure?" She looked skeptical. "I don't want to be a bother to you or your aunt."
"You won't." Hiro insisted, grabbing one of her hands. "It's getting late, so we should get going before my aunt starts stress eating in the cafe, that would be a bad first impression."
She looked down at his hands, before looking back up. "And… that's okay?"
"That's okay." He reassured her.
Ari wasn't sure what to think, Hiro (the boy who had saved her life from the terrifying Yama) had insisted on letting her stay at his house. She was sitting in the passenger seat of his moped, starting at the sights of the city as Hiro drove. The city of San Fransokyo was beautiful, a mix of American and Japanese architecture. Ari had fun taking in the sights until Hiro stopped the moped at a cat-shaped cafe.
"This is it." Hiro parked the moped in the garage next to the cafe and led Ari towards the door, "Sidenote, don't mention the whole thing with Yama. My aunt wouldn't let me out of the house until I was thirty if she found out."
"Okay." Ari nodded, and Hiro opened the door. The cafe was small, but it smelled like sugar. She noticed a calico cat curled up atop the counter and a woman with brown hair and green eyes was cleaning up the place.
"Aunt Cass I'm home." Hiro waved to the lady.
"Hiro! Welcome back." She gave him a hug, then noticed Ari standing awkwardly by the door. "Who's this?"
"Hi ma'am." Ari said. "I'm Ariel… but you can call me Ari I guess."
"And is it okay if she stays here for a while, Aunt Cass?" Hiro asked his aunt, who raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"Why? Is there something going on?" Cass questioned.
"I can't remember anything." Ari spoke up before Hiro did. "I don't know where to go or where I'm from. Hiro offered for me to stay here, but you don't have to. I don't want to be a burden to you and your nephew."
"Oh no, you wouldn't be a burden." Cass shook her head. "You can stay for as long as you like."
Ari blinked in surprise, just like that? "But-"
"Ooookay, it's late and I have school tomorrow." Hiro was shoving Ari up the stairs before she could finish her sentence. "Goodnight Aunt Cass!"
"Goodnight!" Cass waved. "We'll talk tomorrow!"
As they walked up the stairs, Hiro explained a little about each room until they got to the upstairs.
"And this is my room, please mind the mess." Hiro pointed to his room, which had clothes and other junk lying everywhere. "You can sleep on the other bed." He hesitantly pointed to the other bed, but shook it off. She's not gonna sleep on the couch, he would be okay with this.
"Thanks." Ari went to the other side of the room, where there was another bed. The bed was neatly tucked, unused. She curiously looked around her surroundings.
"What's that?" Ari pointed to a charger-like device plugged in the wall.
"Baymax's charging station." Hiro answered, He looked a little sad when he said that.
"Who?"
"My brother's healthcare robot." He explained. "He was... broken awhile ago, I managed to rebuild his skeleton and then,, y'know." Oh. Wait, Hiro has a sibling?
"You have a brother?" Ari questioned, she then noticed some of the pictures of the wall. In one of them, Hiro was getting noogied by an older boy. The guy had short black hair, a cap on his head and dark green clothing.
"Yeah, Tadashi." Hiro stared at the picture with watery eyes. "There was a fire, and now he's gone..." OH. The pain of loss wasn't foreign to her.
Ari walked over and gave him a hug. "I'm very sorry for your loss." Hiro didn't respond, but he returned the hug.
"Goodnight Ari." Hiro pulled the covers of his bed over him. "My aunt will probably talk to you tomorrow about things."
"Oh jeez." Ari sighed. "Don't remind me, goodnight Hiro!" She tucked herself under the covers, reveling in the softness of the bedsheets. She had been sleeping on a hard floor for days, so it felt like sleeping on a cloud. Her eyes grew heavy with exhaustion, and she yawned as she fell into dreamland.
For the first time since waking up in that cold room, Ari felt at peace.
AN: Hope you enjoyed this chapter! It was a little sad at the end but I tried making it end on a happier note.