Disclaimer: Big Hero 6 The Series is owned by Disney Animation. The concept of waking up at 3 in the morning should be patented by me for all of the times I've done it before.

Chapter 4 – Haunted

It was a sight that was becoming all too familiar.

The brown eyes.

The black hair.

That hat he wore all the time.

She would be surrounded by fire. So much pain. So much destruction.

After Obake's defeat, she thought that it would go away. Her mind would be at peace. No such luck.

They just kept on coming.

He walked up to her, seemingly impervious to the flames. That stare. It got her every time.

"You said you'd take care of him."

"I am." She would always reply.

"Like you said you'd take care of me?"

She would never have a response to that question.

And then, almost as if time was slowing down, he would back away into the fire. He would be out of focus until he could only see his eyes.

Those eyes.

"Tadashi, wait!"

Now the eyes were beginning to glow red.

This was different.

"Tadashi..."

He came forward again, but he was no longer the same. His skin, his outline, everything was entirely black. The kind that nothing could escape from.

But his eyes...his eyes were still that blood red.

And he was coming right at her.

"Tadashi!"

Honey Lemon sprang up in her bed, her brow in a cold sweat. She had to take a few deep breaths to steady herself.

It was just a dream. But it was that dream.

She glanced at her alarm clock. 2:15 AM. Yeah, this was definitely not going to work. She had to try to get back to sleep.

But what if he showed up again?

"Honey Lemon."

The pillow slammed right into Go Go's face, but thankfully it only landed on the ground with a small thud. Honey Lemon sheepishly grinned at her roommate. "Sorry, Go Go. Did I wake you up?"

"I think you woke the whole block up." She stretched her arms out as she stifled a yawn. "You had the dream again, didn't you?"

"What are you talking about?"

The very act of pretending to be obtuse did not have the desired effect on Go Go. "Honey Lemon, I'm not stupid."

She pulled the covers over her head and turned away from her. "Don't worry about it, Go Go. I'm sorry for waking you up. Just go back to sleep."

Her stubborn demeanor was shuttered by Go Go grabbing her wrist, practically, then literally pulling her out of bed. "Yeah, we're not going back to bed until we talk." She pulled her over to the table and pushed her down into her chair. "Sit. I'll make some tea."

A few moments later, a steaming mug was in front of Honey Lemon, who instinctively clasped it between her hands. "I didn't know you drank my tea."

"I don't." Go Go took her seat, her own cup in front of her. "But I'm not drinking coffee at this hour. I'd go crazy." She leaned forward in her chair. "Now, spill."

"There's nothing to talk about." She looked down at her reflection in the liquid. "I just had a bad dream."

"You said his name."

...Well, that was unexpected. "How did you-"

"Did you forget that you talk in your sleep?" Go Go tapped her finger on her cup. "You've been having the same dream from the sounds of it for the past few weeks. Ever since Halloween."

Honey Lemon didn't response, choosing instead to continue her staredown with her tea.

"Hey." Go Go dragged her chair closer, straddling it in her trademark style. "C'mon. Talk to me. It's not like you've ever had trouble with that before."

"Leiko..."

Go Go's eyebrows was in danger of shooting through the roof. "Wow. In all the years I've known you, I don't think you've ever called me by my actual name. This must be serious."

"Ever since we had those lenses in us and Hiro ran into that fake Tadashi, I've been having…nightmares. More often than usual. They've always been there, ever since he died, but it's just been worse recently. I thought that after we beat Professor Callaghan that they would go away, but..."

Go Go stayed quiet, not sure what to say.

"I just keep thinking to myself...if I had just been there..."

"Don't."

Honey Lemon looked up to see her friend's stern face. "Don't do this to yourself. You're better than that."

There was a solid minute where the two roommates were lost in their own thoughts. Go Go knew she had to tread very carefully here; besides Hiro (for obvious reasons), Honey Lemon had been the one hit the hardest with Tadashi's death.

"Do you...think about him?"

The answer came out almost immediately. "There's not a day that goes by that I don't think about him."

More silence. Go Go sighed.

"Look, Aina..."

Honey Lemon's eyes narrowed.

"Hey, you first-name'd me. I get to first-name you. Equivalent exchange." Seeing her friend's soft smile, she turned serious. "Look, I'm going to say something, and just keep in mind that I'm saying this as your friend, OK?"

She set her mug to the side as she turned to face her roommate. "What happened to Tadashi was a tragedy. And it was heartbreaking. And it was every bad adjective that you can think of. But...it doesn't change the fact that it happened. Your brain is so caught up with your guilt that you're not letting yourself move on. It's only been a few months; I get it. But you can't let this control you."

"I can't," Honey Lemon whispered. "I can't just turn it off. I'm not like-"

"Me?"

"I...didn't...mean that."

"No, I get it." Go Go smiled at her. "It's not like one of us had a crush on him or anything."

"What!?"

"Honey Lemon, you are by far the most obvious person I know. You didn't think that I would figure it out?" She started counting up on her fingers. "All the times he would come visit us in our labs and you would be the one to immediately go over to him and talk about your latest chemical concoction? When we went out to eat and you would specifically want to sit next to him? Those weird...googly eyes you would give him when he talked to you?"

The Hispanic girl slunk in her seat. "I was that transparent, huh?"

"Yeah." Go Go took a sip of tea. "Just like you were to Tadashi."

Honey Lemon's eyes grew double the size. "Oh no."

Go Go put a finger to her mouth, trying to jog her memory. "He came to me in the lab one day. I don't know where you were; I think Wasabi and Fred had dragged you off somewhere. He was asking me about you and how weird you were acting. He straight up asked me if you liked him."

"Go Go, please don't tell me you told him."

"No, I didn't." She pointed to herself. "I may be cruel, but I'm not an animal. I told him if he wanted to know, he should ask you himself."

"How long ago was this?"

Go Go took a deep breath. "I don't know. Like six months ago? It was almost right before Hiro showed up."

Honey Lemon's face went more downtrodden. "Well, he never said anything to me."

Not hearing a response, she looked up at her roommate, who was pointedly looking at the far wall. "Go Go. What did he say about it?"

Nothing.

"Go Go, you have to tell me what he said."

She pinched the bridge of her nose, annoyed. "Oh man. You are just like Hiro. Always have to know everything."

"What do you mean?"

"After Hiro showed us that video in the garage, I stayed behind and had a chat with him. I asked him the same thing I'm going to ask you: would it change anything? Is me telling you what he said going to change any of the things that happened? And I think you already know the answer and you just don't want to admit it."

"That's it, then?" Honey Lemon said. "You want me to just forget about it? To forget him?"

"No," Go Go replied. "I want you to remember him."

"What? I...don't understand."

The Korean girl took one last swig of her tea before she rested her cup on the table. "Remember him for what he was, not what he could have been. I know that's a tough thing to do, but you can't look at the past and think of every possible outcome that could have happened. He was your friend. He was a friend to all of us. There are days where even I can't go to sleep because he's on my mind. But...I think of what he is to me and...it makes things better.

"And you may call that being cold or heartless, and I guess I can see that on some level, but I prefer to call it being realistic. I would go crazy otherwise. And I don't want to see you go crazy. I really don't."

Honey Lemon wiped a tear away from her eye, her tea long forgotten at this point. "I just...I miss him so much."

"I know. I do too. But you don't have to look far to get a reminder of him."

Go Go pointed to the fridge, and the blonde craned her head to see what was on the front: a group picture of the six of them with Hiro at the front, smiling for the camera.

Err...five. Baymax literally couldn't. But Hiro's grin was big enough for the two of them.

"That kid," Go Go continued, "is probably the smartest one out of all of us. And he's going to do great things. What did we say to each other after Tadashi's funeral? The four of us swore that we would do everything we could to keep him safe. And we're not going to stop that now."

She stopped, now realizing that Honey Lemon had rested her head on her shoulder, pulling her into a half hug. "You know, I've already met my hug quota for the week."

"Make an exception."

Go Go patted her opposite shoulder. "There, happy?"

"Now I am."

As Go Go took their cups to the sink, Honey Lemon made her way over to her bed. The night (morning?) had been an emotional one, but thankfully with everything that was said to her, maybe she could get some shuteye knowing her mind was a little more at ease.

"Aina."

Honey Lemon looked up at her roommate, who was now leaning against the counter facing her.

"He didn't want to ruin what the two of you had," Go Go said slowly. "He wanted to take his time and see what happened between you guys before going forward. I think it was his way of troubleshooting the situation. Whether he actually liked you...I don't know. Honestly. But I think he valued your friendship too much to do anything more." She cocked her head slightly. "Does that help at all?"

"Yeah, it...really does. Thank you."

Go Go nodded, making her way back up the stairs.

"You're like that guy on TV, who tries to solve people's problems. McGoo or whatever? You'd be good at it, Go Go."

Her head peaked out from over the banister. "I just read a lot. My dad's a psychologist and has a weird habit of looking at the ten thousand layers of everything underneath the sun. Guess I picked up a few things."

"I can see it now." Honey Lemon stretched her arms out over her body. "Coming up next: Dr. Leiko Tanaka on how to live a better life!"

"Yeah, right. Like people would want to watch that." Go Go turned to go back upstairs, but stopped. "But thank you for using my real name for the commercial instead of my actual real name."

"What?" The Hispanic girl smirked. "You mean E-"

"Every time you use that name, you owe me a hundred bucks. Remember that." Mirroring her grin, she disappeared to her room. ""Now, let's get some sleep. We got that statue commencement in Fish Town tomorrow, and it wouldn't look good for a third of Big Hero 6 to nod off during the ceremony. G'night."

"Night."

Honey Lemon fluffed her pillow, laying her head on top of it. Almost immediately she could feel her eyes getting heavy. Her hands instinctively went on her stomach, coming to rest on the soft kitten laying on her body. Sleep was just about here-

Her eyes snapped open.

Wait a minute.

"Go Go?"

There was the sound of her bed creaking and a deep sigh. "What?" she said, a little exasperated.

"Since when do we have a cat?"

...Followed by a moment of silence, two feet hitting the floor, and the steps creaking as Go Go's head reappeared. "Star! How'd you get downstairs?"

Now she was more confused. "Since when does the cat that I didn't know we had have a name?"

And then she saw the three little faces poking from below her roommate's feet. She could feel the sparkles erupting from her eyes.

"And since when have we had several adorable kittens?" she squealed.

Go Go scratched the back of her head, looking sheepish. "Yeah...looks like Tadashi's not the only thing I didn't tell you about tonight..."

AUTHOR'S NOTE: About the name...Honey Lemon's real name in the comics is Aiko. As she was given a race lift in the cartoon, I didn't think that name was good enough for her here, but I wanted to keep it something similar. Thus...Aina. Plus it means love or affection in Japanese. Seems somewhat appropriate.

Also, I like both names for Go Go (Leiko and Ethel), so the head-canon that I have had Leiko as her "wanted" name and Ethel as her actual name. Blame her mother.

This took a very long time. This is a story that was suppose to come out after "Obake Yashiki" and reference the episode a little more, but it became somewhat different in the process.

Let's just say...I have a little experience with talking about relationships with people at three o'clock in the morning.

Next chapter will have the ceremony I've been mentioning in a couple of the chapter before: the commencement ceremony in Fish Town. Will someone surprising show up? Will Hiro trip over his words? Will I ever figure out that asking questions in the author's note gets me nowhere? Tune in to find out!

Read and review, if you like. Until next time.