Disclaimer: Big Hero 6 The Series is owned by Disney Animation. I also don't own blimps, nanoreceptors, or whatever musical artist I'm pretending to portray in this chapter.

Oh, I also have a somewhat lengthy note at the end of the story, so I would probably recommend reading that. But onward.

Chapter 7 – Trust

Late nights at the Institute were becoming all too commonplace.

That's what happens when you're the youngest genius ever to be enrolled there.

Er...second youngest. Still had to remember that even after all this time.

Karmi had her purse by her side and her phone out, waiting for her bus to come to take her home. Normally, she would just walk home, music blaring in her ears, and enjoy the evening, but at this late hour, she knew her parents would want her at the house as soon as possible.

Thus, public transportation.

She was busy browsing through all of the photos she took at the statue ceremony. Everyone knows that collages don't make themselves. She needed some good pictures to complete her latest one.

Captain Cutie looking regal behind the podium. Captain Cutie deep in conversation with his team. Hiro watching his earthquake project crumble into a million-

Wait.

Karmi frowned as the classroom picture came up in her album. As always, whenever she needed some time to herself, that kid always seemed to show up at the most inopportune time. Her thumb hovered over the trashcan icon…

But she stopped herself.

Her mind went back to Christmas, when he was two seconds away from kissing her. Half of her wanted to throttle him for being so brazen, and the other half...well, she didn't want to pay attention to what the other half was thinking.

Ugh. She didn't need this right now. Between needing to hit her deadline with the next phase of her nanoreceptor project, her other projects at SFIT, and whatever was going on with Genius Boy, she didn't have the time to think about anything else.

Especially not the bus she needed to take passing her stop and going around the corner.

...Wait. Again.

Karmi's head snapped up as she stopped whatever song she was on. Yup, there was the bus, going straight down the hill. She swore under her breath as she checked the digital bus route on the stop.

Cue more swearing.

There's not another bus coming for a half hour, she thought to herself. Looks like I am going to have to walk.

"Problem?"

Karmi wheeled around to see a large man standing behind her, two other guys flanking his sides. The leather jackets each of them wore, as well as the looks of opportunity on their faces didn't symbolize anything good.

"Nope," she said, trying to keep her voice steady. "I'm fine, thanks."

"Aww, that's a shame," the main guy replied. "It looked like you were in a little pickle there. Maybe me and my boys could be of some assistance to you."

"I think I'm OK, but thanks for the offer." Karmi turned to leave, but one of the lackeys cut her off.

"I don't think you heard the man, girly. It isn't very womanly-like of you to say no to a man's help." He made a motion to grab her arm…

SLAP!

Her right hand came in contact with his head, making him stumble back a few steps. Regaining his composure, he dove forward...only to completely fall to the ground untouched.

"What?"

Karmi turned toward the other two, more nanoreceptors in her hand. "Today is really not my day, so do either one of you want some of what your buddy got? It'll make me feel a whole lot better—Hey!"

Apparently, in her efforts to properly modify the receptors for everyday use, she lowered the strength of the dosage too much, because the man on the ground was able to grab had her ankle. Karmi swiped at him to fasten another one on, but too late. The leader had her wrist in a tight grip.

"That's too bad, girly. You should really know when to accept our help." He wrenched her purse away from her and started to sort through it. "I wonder if you have anything good in here."

"Let her go."

The sudden outburst got the attention of the quartet. "Who's there?" the leader yelled out.

A shadow stretched out under the lone streetlamp until the tip reached the group. The mystery man stepped into the light…

Oh my God, Karmi thought. It's him. It's really him. It's-

"It's Captain Cutie! It's that guy from the newspapers. From Big Hero 6!"

Hiro shook his head slightly, an exasperated look on his face. "Of course it landed in the papers. Why would I expect anything else?" he whispered to himself. Raising his voice, he yelled out to the muggers. "I'm not going to say it again. Let her go."

"Oh yeah?" The leader tightened his grip on her wrist. "And what're you going to do about it?"

"Oh, I'm not going to do anything."

The man smiled.

"He will."

The sudden shaking of the ground caused the three men to turn on the spot. Now standing right next to them was Baymax, armored up and eyes glowing.

"Hello, gentlemen. I would suggest that you vacate the premises."

…

"AAAAHHH!"

The two men still standing ran off into the darkness, the purse thrown into the air. The man still on the ground also tried to make off, but his progress was stopped by Baymax. Hiro held out his hand, and the purse flawlessly fell into it. "Man, I wish it was always this easy."

"What should we do with this unlawful citizen?"

"Just take him to the police station," Hiro said, helping Karmi off of the ground. "They'll know what to do." As he flew off, he turned his attention toward his rescueé. "Hey."

"Hey."

The staring contest continued for a moment before Hiro remembered he had her purse still. "Oh!" She held the purse toward her. "I believe this is yours."

"Thanks." Now that the craziness of the situation was dying down, her nervousness around her hero was boiling over. "How did you know I was here?"

He tapped the side of his helmet. "Red Panda's got a crime scanner on him. We were in close proximity anyway." He looked back at the direction where his robot flew off. "You think that guy will be able to feel his face in the morning?"

"Maybe."

"...Are you OK? No offense, but you're not acting like your normal hyper self around me. You're breathing normally, at the very least. I didn't do anything, did I?"

"No, it's not you. I just need to relax for a little bit. I...have had a lot on my mind. And this obviously didn't help." Karmi slung her purse over her shoulder. "I need to go. Maybe I'll see you around." She turned to walk away…

And felt the weight of the padded glove on her shoulder.

"It wasn't that long ago that someone told me that they would be there if I ever needed to talk. I might just take them up on that offer. That is," Hiro added with a small smirk, "If you're up for it."

Karmi blushed. "You really mean that?"

"I do. I even have a place where we can go. If you're interested."

Nowhere in the conversation did the place infer they had to fly.

Karmi was grasping Hiro by the waist, desperately handing on for dear life. Red Panda was making his way toward one of the advert blimps strewn high above the town. Yes, the view was amazing and she was with her self-proclaimed love of her life, but the terror of being several hundred feet up in the air was not lost on her.

"How do you do this on a regular basis?"

"The Mag-Locks definitely help," he said as they landed on the large purple blimp. "Oh, and also not looking down too much."

He helped her down off of Baymax's back and motioned to his companion. "Hey, Red Panda, do you mind running a scan around the city?"

"Would you like me to do it from here?"

"I was thinking more along the lines of..." He twirled his finger in the air.

"An aerial route? I will comply." The robot launched off of the blimp, and with a spiral, went speeding off downtown.

Karmi sat down, folding her legs, Hiro taking a spot next to her. "I like coming up here sometimes. It's away from the city, it's quiet, and I can clear my head. Hopefully that can be something you can do-"

He heard the faint sound of a phone and turned to Karmi, who was busy looking at something.

"What are you doing?"

"Oh." She didn't notice that her actions had garnered his attention. "I just thought that...it would be nice if...we had some music going."

He raised an eyebrow at her. "That's a little...odd, but OK. What were you thinking?"

She hit the start button, and the song began playing.

Hold on. This was one he recognized. Wasabi would play it on the way to school. Normally, Hiro would have his own music playing, but he would catch the artist every once in a while. Hiro bent over to take a look at her phone…

"I wasn't aware that I was special enough to have my name on an entire playlist."

Karmi looked up at him, a blush on her cheeks. "I have...a few."

He scanned down the remainder of the songs. "Also with so many...what's his stage name? The Weekday or whatever?"

"Something like that."

Trying desperately to put that out of his mind, Hiro decided to switch gears. "So I haven't seen you since a few days ago. What's been going on?"

For the next few minutes, all of her anxieties came pouring out. Hiro, to his credit, stayed silent and listened. Nothing was particularly groundbreaking; after all, he was aware of most of it.

But not what was coming next.

"Is there anyone that can help you on this project of yours?" he had just asked. "There has to be someone at your school that can do something for you."

Karmi rested her hand on her fist. "There's this one person I know, but..."

Uh oh.

"Who is he?"

"Some young kid named Hiro. He's some genius who joined a few months ago. Robotics. He came in on his white horse and was all like (she grabbed her phone and started tapping it aggressively) 'Look at me, I'm the best' and all that. It's just...Grr."

Karmi stayed quiet for a moment, and Hiro was hesitant to jump in. Surely that wasn't everything she took away from the semester.

"And then he got better, I guess. I wouldn't exactly call us friends, but..."

Hiro frowned.

"I know he means well, but sometimes he can just be so..."

"Annoying."

"Yes."

"Egotistical."

"Yes!"

"Cracked?"

"Oh my goodness, it's like you're reading my mind!"

She didn't need to know there was a reason why it seemed like he was psychic. He had heard her say all of those words to his face. But enough semantics. "I'm sure he doesn't mean to be like that. Maybe he just...likes you."

Karmi scoffed. "Duh. Of course he likes me. It's not exactly a secret."

"OK, calm down now."

"What?"

"I mean..." Hiro had to catch himself. "He wouldn't want to be around you if he didn't want to be friends, right?"

"I'm not very good at having friends."

The tone was such a departure from five seconds ago that Hiro was immediately concerned. Karmi's shoulders were slouched down in defeat. "Every time I try, something goes wrong. I'm just going to end up alone again."

"Hey. Don't be so hard on yourself. You're friends with me, right?"

Even his words of encouragement didn't seem to cheer her up. "I don't even know you."

Uh oh.

"But maybe..."

Oh dear.

"Hold on, Karmi," he interrupted, holding his hand up. "I already know where you're going with this. I can't tell you who I am."

"Why can't you?"

She scooted her body over to Hiro, who was now internally panicking.

"Don't you trust me?"

She was now entirely way too close, her hand now coming to rest on the side of his helmet. She was so near, he could see his reflection in her eyes.

Those dark brown eyes...glistening in the starlight…

OK, this has to stop.

Hiro brought his gloved hand up to hers, gently grabbing it and bringing it down. "It's...not that I don't trust you. I do. It's just that..."

"Just what?"

It was getting progressively harder for him to maintain his superhero voice. "You've already been kidnapped once by Momakase. And that was because you were writing stuff about the team. Imagine what would happen if people, especially bad ones, find out you know who I am. That would put you in a lot of danger."

"I can handle it. Do you remember earlier? With those guys? You were there for me."

"That's different. Three random thugs is different than a professional assassin coming after you. Imagine something worse."

"But you're always there for me."

Hiro heard the slight shake in her voice and squeezed her hand in response. "Karmi, I can't be everywhere you are. We were lucky when you got kidnapped. Also tonight. But what if we're too late? What if…?"

Oh boy. This was going to get awkward very quickly. Not that it already wasn't, but still. He had to avoid that. "I'm not going to put you through that. I won't put you through that. Maybe, one day, when all of this is over...but not now."

Karmi's look softened, and for a moment he thought he had broke her. But her voice was steady as she responded.

"You're right." She withdrew her hand and pulled her legs to her chest. "You're absolutely right. I don't know what I was thinking. It would put both of us in a bad situation. And I don't want to do that to you either."

Hiro gently laid his hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry."

She looked at him again with a smile. "You don't have to apologize. I understand; I really do."

He felt like he had to add something. "But hey! Just because you don't know who I am doesn't mean we're not friends. We are. And that guy from your school is too. I'm sure he just has his own way of showing it."

A beep rang through the air, and Hiro pressed the comm on his helmet. "Yeah, I'm here." He nodded his head in response to the unknown statement. "OK, I'm on my way now. Be there in a minute." He ended the comm as he stood up. "I have to go. Duty calls. Is there any place I can drop you off?"

"There's a little coffee place near my house. You can put me there."

"What? You don't want me to see where you live?" Hiro joked.

Karmi's smile was the biggest one all night. "Hey, everyone has their secrets. Not even the fabled Captain Cutie had earned that yet."

"Fair enough."

As Baymax came rocketing back from his patrol, Karmi was anxious again, but on the happy side now. Maybe at some point in time she could continue to get to know her Captain without getting lightheaded.

"I do, by the way."

She turned to him, his eyes affixed to the sky. "Hmm?"

"I do trust you." He held up an armored hand toward her, palm up. "Do you trust me?"

Karmi looked at his offering and then to his eyes. Through his visor, she could see the sincerity in his eyes. It made her like him even more. She took his hand and grinned.

"Always."

AUTHOR'S NOTE: (Yes, the Weeknd exists in this Marvel Universe. So sue me. But don't actually sue me, Mr. Tesfaye.)

Hoo boy, this one was a doozy. Serves me right to leave most of the writing for this at the last minute. I personally don't feel that this is my best writing, but I wanted to get something out. Maybe I'll go back and redo a couple of things. Speaking of which...

I do hope that I didn't write these two too much out of character. I know that Karmi (at least in terms of Season 1) can barely be in his company without declaring her love for Captain Cutie. Likewise, Hiro can't deal with it without plugging his ears or running into giant armored robots. But, I like the situation that might arise from what I've written before, so maybe they can mutually come to an understanding.

That, and I love writing superbly awkward situations.

This is the last chapter of Clean Up. These little look-ins dealt with the direct aftermath of Obake's defeat. Moving forward, the stories that I plan on doing will build off of this stuff. I do know that Season 2 might drop in the summer, so it'll probably mess my fan-tinuity anyways, but oh well.

I would like to thank everyone who has reviewed and read this story on all three platforms I have it on (this site, DevArt, & AO3). This was the story that got me back into the swing of things after a very difficult year (and in some ways a very difficult present), so I'm glad you decided to stay along for the ride. I hope you'll be just as enthused with what I have coming up.

Read and review, if you like. Ladies and gents...until next time.