"Your coffee is amazing as ever Cass."
"Oh thank you Detective Rosemary! I try to do my best!"
A usual morning in the Lucky Cat Cafe, it was past the morning rush and a handful of customers were in the cafe. One of those customers was the famous detective Elio Rosemary, enjoying a nice cup of french vanilla coffee.
"I must be honest, my daughter Rachel encouraged me to go to this cafe," Elio takes a sip of his coffee, "she told me that your pastries were delightful, and of course they were rather addicting back at the Bro-Tillion. Personally I liked the party being hosted here rather than at a stuffy ball, a tuxedo is not as comfortable as it looks and I think the bro of the hour liked a more casual party as well."
"Well I try to give good customer service," Cass smiles.
"By the way," Elio looks around the cafe, "I noted that your little helper isn't on staff today, my daughter is friends with her and she mentioned them a few times."
"Oh you mean Ariel?" Cass raised an eyebrow, "Oh, she's a real sweetheart! I told her she didn't have to help me in the cafe but she insists!"
"So I assume she's living at your place?" Elio notes.
"Well, yeah," Cass gives a nod, "where else would she go? My nephew brought her in one night, poor dear couldn't remember a thing and thought of herself as a burden, I couldn't just do nothing."
Elio narrows his eyes, as if he's thinking of something. "That was kind of you, most adults wouldn't care about a child's suffering, has miss Ariel remembered anything yet? If not then it is a problem."
"A few things," Cass explains, "I'm rather worried for her, there hasn't been any news of a missing girl with Ari's description."
"Oh?" Elio raised an eyebrow.
"She told me that she remembers a little bit of her parents, not who they are but mostly family activities," Cass has a look of sadness, "I'm worried that maybe..the reason her parents haven't gone looking is.."
"That they've either abandoned her or they're dead," Elio finishes, as well as swallowing the rest of his french vanilla.
"Do you think since you're a detective you could look into it?" Cass requests, "I've started to care for Ariel a lot and it would be wonderful if there was some good news for her."
"Hmm, well I'll try," he tells her, "it's not an official case so I'd only be able to do it when I'm able, however my daughter is a little detective herself so maybe she'd be able to pick out some clues."
"Well thank you for at least trying," Cass smiles, "would you like more coffee?"
"Sure," Elio smiles, "and could I have it to go? I have to get going soon, oh and maybe add a blueberry muffin, for Sarah."
"Of course," she goes over to fulfill the order, refilling him a cup of coffee to go and getting him a blueberry muffin in a paper bag.
"Oh and Cass?" She glances over, as he's about to leave. "You're a very good person for looking after Ariel like that, if worse-case scenario the news about her parents is bad, at least she has you to look after her."
Cass smiles at the compliment, "thank you, and have a good day Detective Rosemary!"
He smirks as he leaves, "you can just call me Elio," and he exits the cafe.
"Well, that was nice of him." Cass notes, "I wonder where Ari is anyways, Mikan picked her up about an hour ago, maybe they're shopping or something."
At SFIT (where Mikan and Ari weren't), was David and Sara, the former standing by a door as Sara stands a few feet away.
"Oh, would you stop hesitating," Sara tells him, "you were bad, now accept the consequences and just knock already?!"
"I'm reciting what I'm gonna say," David excuses, he was actually nervous but he didn't let it show, "I'm going to knock, you can go now."
"No way!" Sara exclaims, "I'm keeping watch so I know you don't bolt a corner the second I go out of sight."
"You mean out of hearing."
"Same thing!"
David chuckles, he hears Sara move a couple footsteps away, perhaps the hallway corner so she's out of sight but not out of hearing range. He takes a deep breath, and knocks on the lab door.
As the door opens, he hears the lab owner's tired breathing, and silence.
"Hey, Karmi." David greets first, "I um..wanted to apologize."
"Oh," she replies, "go on."
"I'm sorry for snapping at you in class the other day, I shouldn't have taken my anger out on you, and I'm sorry." He's sincere as he speaks, because he truly was sorry for yelling at her and Hiro and saying those hurtful things.
"I accept your apology," was Karmi's response.
"Anyways, now that that's done," David fiddles with his hands, "do you want to join me and Sara at Noodle Burger for further apology? Our treat."
"No thanks, I'm busy," he hears the door beginning to close and adds on.
"Hold on! They got this cool robot at the establishment that's also a customer service-"
The lab door shuts close.
"Representative.." David sighed, then walked over to where his sister was idling by, he could tell from her sighs that she heard the whole conversation.
"You tried David, you tried." Sara patted him on the shoulder.
"I know," he swallowed a ball of saliva down his throat, "I was just hoping that this time..she'd let us in."
"Maybe one day Karmi will open up to us," Sara wraps him into a hug, the warmth comforting him. "But until then, at least Mika is keeping an eye out for the little germ."
"Y'know you calling her a germ is the reason she doesn't like you or Mika," David frowns.
"It's a nickname! Look it up!" she chuckled, "you doing okay?"
"Yeah, I'm good," David exhaled, they both were walking down the hallway to their next class, "speaking of Mika, where is she?"
"Dunno, took Ari somewhere…" Sara paused, "Mika's been acting odd, she's not one to take days off like that."
"Well you know Mika, she's an oddball but she's our oddball," David chuckled, "I'm pretty sure it's harmless."
"So let me get this straight..you watch this fantasy show..and everyone else who watches this show is currently freaking out over this..new character?"
"Yeah I keep hearing people talk about how attractive he is, I just don't get it."
"You and me both Ari, you and me both."
She chuckled, "well at least someone gets it." Ari was at the San Fransokyo prison yet again visiting High Voltage. Though technically it was just Juniper she was visiting, she didn't have time to talk to both.
"Anyways, it's nice to see you again," Juniper gave her a smile that just melted Ari, "It's sooo boring here! You visiting definitely brightens up my day!"
Ari beams, "why thank you. I try to visit when I can, but it's hard keeping it a secret from my other friends, they just wouldn't get it. Well except one but I couldn't ask them to keep it a secret that long."
"Really?" Juniper raised an eyebrow, "weird."
"I know! I love my friends but at the same time they drive me crazy!" She throws her hands up in the air in exclamation, "and I'm still mad at Hiro for following me!" Juniper gives her a puzzled look, "oh uh..Hiro is one of my friends..and he followed me into the woods one time and it was a rude thing for him to do."
"Well, he might have done that because he cares for you." her friend tells her, "while I am still mad at my mom..I still love her, if she would admit what she did!"
Ari chuckles, "is this supposed to be a 'you' thing?"
Juniper shook her head, "oh sorry, the point I'm trying to make is that I think the reason your friend was nosy was because he was worried."
"Or he was nosy and forgot boundaries for a moment," Ari grumbles.
"That works too."
Ari chuckles, then looks at the time, "rats, time's up, sorry June.."
"Jeez that's quicker than you usually leave," Juniper notes, a frown on her face, Ari didn't like seeing that sad expression.
"I know..I'm sorry, but I have to take the bus to get home, and there's one leaving around this time." She explains, "I'll try to visit sooner."
"It's fine," Juniper waves it off, "as fun as you visiting is, I don't want to be the reason you're having a disagreement with your friend."
"Thanks," Ari smiles, "maybe I'll send a letter." she goes to grab her bag then has a realization, "wait...can I do that?"
Juniper facepalms, "of course you can write a letter! I'd write you a dozen if I knew where to send it to,"
"Noted," Ari then grabs a piece of paper and a pencil, "one second.." she writes down her address, "if you want to send me a letter, here you go." And she hands the slip of paper to Juniper, who sticks it in her pocket.
"Thanks! I'll send one asap!" she smiled, "also can I ask why you're taking the bus to leave? Doesn't a friend drop you off then pick you up?"
"Yeah, but my friend Mikan said she had something to do for her dad." Ari explains, "but told me to tell everyone that she dropped me off somewhere..kind of weird but she's an odd one."
"Yeah that's weird, probably her thing..hope your friends don't follow her too."
"Oh my god."
Where Mikan was, however, was the last place anyone expected. She was carrying several machine parts over to her dad's "workstation" as she liked to call it. But she had to be secret about it, which is why asking Ari to cover her was a great idea. The girl trusted her without doubts, since she was the only reason she'd get to talk to her little crush and her mom. Mikan chuckled, people did weird things when they were in love, not that she ever felt such an emotion.
"Hope my dad likes this, and this." In Mikan's other hand was a box of pastries, from the Lucky Cat Cafe, her dad usually excuses her tardiness when she brought him his favorite treat. A love of blueberry scones did run in the family after all.
"It's such a hassle to enter when your two main hands are full of things," she muttered, opening the door was hard for her this time. But luckily she could just place one box down and open with her spare hand.
"Man I should talk to him about the lighting," she felt unnerved by the eerie green lighting of his "lair" it felt like a horror movie setting to her. When checking to see if her dad was in his room, she noted he wasn't there, but she found him in his usual spot. Staring at his giant computer monitors poking through Big Hero 6 news, articles, and social media sightings like a creep.
"Hey Pops I got your delivery," she speaks up, he turns around, the left side of his face glowing purple with annoyance.
"I thought I'd told you not to call me 'pops' ever again," Obake narrows his eyes, then notices the pastry box in her hand, "I see you've also brought a treat."
"Yep," Mikan places the box of scones on the side, then handed him the box of parts, "next time you need me to bring you supplies in the day, don't do it when it's a school day."
"The other two and your friends aren't aware of your current whereabouts correct?" he questioned.
Mikan shook her head, "nah, Ari's got me covered. She owes me anyways for all the times I take her to visit High Voltage, her pining is so obvious I can't believe her crush can't notice, probably just likes the attention to be honest." she shrugs, "people who are in love act so weird.."
"True, love can blind a person to the truth," her dad nods, "we're both kindred spirits, not falling victim to the distractions of romance."
"Sure sure," Mikan shrugs, "so, do you still want me to keep an eyeball on Ariel?"
"No," Obake continues to stare at an article of Big Hero 6 he pulled up on screen, "she's not a thorn in any of my plans, however there is something interesting about that girl."
"Like?" Mikan raised an eyebrow, she didn't think there was anything super special in Ari, she seemed like an average girl, well an average girl with amnesia but still-
"You may continue to observe her if you wish, however in the grand scheme of things, any strange quirk that she has won't be anything beneficial to my plans."
She nodded in understanding, she may keep an eye on Ari just in case, if she ever became a threat to his plans in the future…
"Sorry I'm late!" Mikan turned her head at the voice, and saw a purple glob swing in, and hit the wall, "darn it! Still getting used to this place."
"You good Globby?" she walked up to him, as he unstuck himself from the wall, he stared at her with his artificial green eyes.
"Huh? Oh yeah I'm fine," Globby brushed himself off, as much as a glob monster could brush his sticky body, "just not used to all the walls!"
She smirks, "well maybe I'll teach you how to get used to the walls in our next lesson," Mikan turned to Obake, "that's why you called him again, correct?"
"Yes," her dad nodded, then turned to Globby. "Before I send you on your next task, you need to learn as much as possible, calling you for a lesson is starting to become a hassle."
"So….?" Globby frowned, not understanding what he was getting at.
"Translation, you might wanna pack your things and move here," Mikan explained, "now you can do that after the lesson."
"Ohhhh," the glob monster realized, "well, as long as staying here comes with free room service I don't mind moving in."
"Do not refer to me as room service.."
"Sorry Mikan."
"If you two are done bantering," they both turn to Obake, "I need to do some work, alone," the left side of his face glowed with irritation.
"Okay, okay fine dad," Mikan rolled her eyes, then gestured for Globby to follow here, "c'mon, today's lesson will allow you to do a powerful trick."
"Say Mikan," Globby questioned, "what do you mean by powerful?"
Mikan flashed a grin that showed her sharp teeth, "by powerful I mean..it's something that I've learned myself, as long as you keep this info to yourself of course.."
"But it's nice to not be a lone wolf anymore in terms of..uniqueness, heh, that was a bit of a pun."
AN: How do you guys feel about Mikan now?! Dun dun dunn..
A few of you guessed it around Food Fight (and the other theory that came out of that ep will be answered soon), but it's confirmed.
And I'm gonna say this now: No this doesn't mean Mikan's a robot bc Obake's her dad. But she's not blood-related to him btw. Just saying that now.
Now for the fun part: answering questions!
Angelxoxo8: Why was Karmi concerned about David?
It's not much of a spoiler, but Karmi secretly does want to be David's friend but due to past experiences she's a lil' distrustful. Plus I hc Karmi as an introvert and the extroverted Fern kiddos can be too much for her.
Guest: Who is David's father?
Steven.
It's Steven. Blood-relations don't matter, Steven's his dad now.
Hope you guys enjoyed this original chapter. I might do more of these when I get to phase 2.