because hiro needs more fren
disclaimer: I don't own the copyrighted material within
Like the kinder things in Hiro's life, it starts out simple.
He walks through campus to first period like every day this past quarter, minding his own business and his thoughts generally pure, when Hiroshi Takachiho runs into him "accidentally" and gets Hiro's shirt covered in a rancid smelling chemistry sample.
Now don't get Hiro wrong, he doesn't exactly hate-hate Hiroshi. Hiro can count the number of SFIT students younger than 17 on one hand (himself, Marys, Hiroshi, and Marys's friend Priscilla Li) so of course he knows who Hiroshi is, and it's not like he necessarily wants to drop kick Hiroshi off a skyscraper. The guy doesn't cause trouble at the Lucky Cat Café, he sticks to his own friends, and so far he hasn't directly tried to murder Hiro, so by all means Hiroshi isn't the worst guy around.
But on the other hand, Hiroshi has the habit of always knocking into Hiro, stepping on his things, making obnoxious comments during shared lectures, and most of all looking at Marys like she's just some sort of claw machine prize to be snatched. Call Hiro possessive, but no one should ever be looking at Miss Marys Iosama like that.
Hiroshi doesn't even apologize for the nasty orange liquid soaking through Hiro's shirt, and it smells like rotten eggs and spoiled milk on a hot day in a dead man's dumpster, what the hell did he just spill on Hiro?! Hiroshi runs off to whatever class and Hiro gags and it's his only shirt, oh crap—
"Woah, party foul," Junichi covers his nose with the bag of fruit he must've gotten from the farmer's market downtown. Hiro grimaces and Junichi tugs on Hiro's wrist, "Come on, if we hurry you'll make it to first period."
And that's how Hiro ends up scrubbing his chest and arms in Nene's tiny master bathroom. He's never been upstairs before or in any girl's bedroom before, and the My Nuclear Romance posters contrasting against ukiyo-e prints and anatomical diagrams in Nene's bedroom is a bit more colorful than he expects from her. The gender neutral body soap is nice though, and the water pressure is enough to blastoff whatever Hiroshi spilled on Hiro.
Junichi leads Hiro into his room, politely averting his eyes as he hands Hiro a towel. His room is pretty much the same, just with the anatomical diagrams replaced with amateur photography shots. Junichi also makes little nothing comments, like about Nene's flat ("Your obasan also operates a café from your house, yes? Here's a little different though, since this is an old schoolhouse from SFIT's earliest days, which is why there's a trap door leading to what used to be a laboratory in the basement. We mostly use it for refrigerating now.") or the artwork ("I took some of these photos myself, when okaasan and I went to the Redwood Forest. Ms. Nene collects ukiyo-e paintings when she can, although she ends up selling most of them for upgrades to the bar. But the one downstairs by the register is her favorite, since it's about Ms. Nene and Ms. Nana; did you see the patterns in the models' kimono?) and
and it's nice. Hiro doesn't get to talk to the other underage students often, since he's always with the gang, and Marys is the only person around his age that he can be dumb with. Sure, he has to get going soon, first period is about to start and Prof. Sagawa is rather strict…but Junichi's here, making a face as rowdy freshman outside play kick the can by Nene's dumpsters, and in an instant all Hiro wants is to rant about Hiroshi and his homework and why his face keeps getting oilier.
So he does.
Nene goes back to home base around the end of second period to get her applied biomechanics homework, and she finds Hiro sprawled across the counter venting with Junichi about everything that a 14year old super genius and a 13 year old aspiring restaurateur find troublesome. Hiro's relaxed, expression open and hands illustrating freely, and Junichi laughs louder than Nene's ever heard him.
Xiaolan giggles as she restocks cups, "They've been like this for hours, did you know that Prof. Sullivan once threw a bottle at one of his TAs' heads?"
Nene didn't know that, and she feels mighty stupid for not knowing just how much Hiro and Junichi needed this. So instead of telling Hiro to go to class and Junichi to go do morning chores, Nene lets them be, and half-smiles at the sound of Hiro raving "And why do they insist on messing up my hair to turn me into a Tesla coil?! Fred has short hair too!"
Later on, Hiro enlists Junichi in crafting the perfect excuse for missing first period, and it fails because he smiles a bit too much for his "I was assaulted by a bosozoku idol gang" cover.
It's a given that after befriending Junichi, Hiro would be pulled into the general gang of six at Nene's. And even though half of them are former Fujitas and the whole lot are just in high school, Hiro couldn't be happier. He looks up as Ai accuses Xiaolan for stealing the last rice cake, and just smiles at the resulting mess.
Sonu throws Xiaolan under the bus, hiding a rice cake up his sleeve. He likes super spicy food just like Hiro and isn't afraid of mega wasabi-sriracha jelly shot challenges, and he's loud in the sort of way that allows Hiro to relax outside of the spotlight for once. When Hiro was trapped by a nosy wannabe-reporter wanting "an emotional follow-up on your brother's tragic death last year", Sonu stepped in and grabbed the reporter's attention with a profanity laced rant against the San Fransokyo Youth Detention Center system for their horrible treatment of one-time offenders from poor districts. Hiro escaped, the reporter got a click baity article, and Sonu laughed the rest of the day about how his cousin Rohini would shake him like an underpaid nanny for using such language.
Xiaolan retaliates by throwing a wet towel at Ai's face, smacking the back of Sonu's head in the process. She's a bit confrontational and conceited, but she knows the dirt on everyone—and that means everyone, Hiro doesn't know how Xiaolan discovered Hiroshi's terrifying phobia of turtles but this information is worth its metaphysical weight in gummy bears—and is always down for shenanigans. When Marys really wanted a sold out Baby Twin Stars T shirt and Hiro was out of legal options, Xiaolan was his winglady down in the depths of the botfighting backalleys. And her Taiwanese blood ran thick, Hiro nearly had an aneurysm holding his laughter in when Xiaolan haggled the pants off of a shady BTS vendor with all the energy she usually channeled into her makeup applying; she smiled primly, and helped Hiro wrap up the BTS T-shirt, socks, hair accessories and fairy purse for Marys.
Ai snarls and yanks Xiaolan into a headlock, raving about avenging her rice cracker cravings. Ai might be the oldest at 17 but she's not too far away from Hiro to disconnect, and her hands-on enthusiasm for life breathes in a stress outlet for Hiro. It's easy to be obnoxious and blow off steam when Ai's egging him on; once when Hiro got nothing but Bs on chapter tests across his classes and twisted his ankle during a robbery, Hiro and Ai watched a stupid failed comedy movie at the university-run cinema and ran a commentary even worse than the movie. Sure, they got thrown out and some grad students gave them dirty looks, but Ai just laughed and threw her arm (a strong arm, a Fujita arm once but now just an Ai arm) around Hiro and Hiro laughed right along with her.
Yue shakes her head and refills the drinks of a highly concerned group of girls. She's a bit high strung like Marys, a bit insecure like Junichi, and has the prettiest shade of brown skin that Hiro's ever seen; it almost matches how pretty her kindness is. When a group of asshole tagged the Lucky Cat Café and wrote disgusting crap about Aunt Cass, Yue came over the next day with a host of magic erasers, tea for Aunt Cass, and an open ear for Hiro's upset frustration. Aunt Cass nearly adopted her on the spot, with Yue helping clean up the spray paint and playing with Mochi, and when Hiro tried to thank her she just shrugged and said there was nothing to thank. When Hiro caught her helping out in some of Fred's charities later on, he understood that to her there really was nothing to it to be kind.
Chiyo looks back and forth between Ai and Xiaolan and grins, cheering both of them on. She's the shyest around Hiro, as he saved her brother Koji from a fire and Chiyo from a Fujita's downfall, but she's also cheerfulness incarnate and never fails to make him smile. It's almost like having a tiny pink haired cheerleader around, like the time when Hiro burned out hard on his independent study paper and she risked the ire of her juvenile center to stay up with Hiro. She knew nothing about the applications of smart skin but she knew everything about motivation that doesn't condescend, and by dawn Hiro was ahead of his paper goals and rubbing his cheeks, sore from grinning so much.
And Junichi just laughs, first into his palm then with his arms around his stomach. He's not quite as quiet as Nene but he keeps Hiro's secrets to himself, and that alone makes him invaluable to Hiro. Because Hiro loves Abigail, loves Aunt Cass, trusts all of his adult friends and Marys… but there's some things you can tell your aunt or neesan or girlfriend or guys who haven't been teenagers for a while. Junichi was there to listen when Hiro had to let out his petty frustrations at Marys stressing him out, and his baseless resentment of his friends that got to know a side of Tadashi that Hiro wasn't around for, and his low-key restlessness at staying at home with his auntie like a baby when everyone else at SFIT was an independent adult, and that one horrible night when Callaghan invaded Hiro's thoughts and he wondered
he wondered why Tadashi had to die when Abigail was here
and Junichi understood. Junichi isn't a super genius like Hiro, none of Hiro's new friends are, yet they all know the struggles of pimples and hormones and growth spurts and people either treating them like useless babies or giving them too much responsibilities. And Junichi, half orphaned traumatized dysphoric Junichi, he just listened and extended his tiny safe spot to Hiro, and only asked for Lucky Cat Café macarons in return.
Abigail did the same, didn't she? Hiro hopes that Nene is to Junichi what Abigail is to Hiro, he hopes that she's all of the gang's neesan because they all deserve that unconditional comfort.
Hiro looks at his friends, then looks at Marys holding in her laughter right beside him. Whatever friendships he's made with the gang Marys has as well, Marys more than happy to make girlfriends her age around SFIT as her only friend her age is Priscilla. Hiro likes Priscilla too, since she's Marys's venting partner and every now and then flat out tells Hiro when to apologize to Marys for things he'd forgotten about; it's a godsend sometimes, when his useless teenage brain forgets how to romance. Priscilla comes back from the bathroom, and points out that Sonu has a rice cracker up his sleeve. Everyone blinks, Xiaolan trills a war cry as she and Ai fall upon a doomed Sonu, and the rest laugh right along with Junichi, until the whole bar rings with the sound of joy.
Everyone notices Hiro changing from generally genki robotics prodigy to exceptionally genki and well-adjusted robotics prodigy, and Aunt Cass in particular is happy. Her baby never got to make real friends in high school, as he graduated at the age when freshman started, and when he decided to forgo the San Fransokyo tradition of a 1-3 employment gap year before college, she worried that he wouldn't make friends his age.
Now he's goofing off with those nice kids from that underground dessert bar on SFIT campus, and Cass can't help but stick her maternal nose in deeper. When Fred comes over to pick up a host of pastries for his Ainu Studies class, Cass asks, "How is your Brothers From Other Mothers work going, Fred?"
"Going great Ms. C," Fred stuffs his face with a croissant but is enthusiastic about his charity work, "We're helping a few at-risk juvenile offenders ever since that interview with my main mackerel Sonu went viral." Sonu? Oh, one of Hiro's friends, Cass can't help but smirk at that; ah to be young again and be able to use fifteen swears in one noun description. And Cass heard Honey swearing up a storm last week over her final assignment, Hiro picks them out well, doesn't he?
"So you're helping kids around Sonu's age, and Hiro's?"
Fred nods, "A lot of kids around that age end up in juvie once or twice, but thanks to various programs we've been getting them away from gang stuff and into structured places like school or sports or sewing circles." Fred taps his backpack, "I got a few profiles here, I actually know two of the kids from SFST so I'm heading out to go see them today."
"Is that so?" And Cass isn't like Mae, she wasn't born to twist around people for her common good. And maybe convincing Fred to send those two kids over Hiro's way is irresponsible as a parent figure, since those kids are at-risk for ending up fighting in the warehouse districts.
But wasn't Hiro once at-risk too? Isn't everyone at some point? The sullen pictures of Claudio Yamaguchi and Sana Song stare up at her with the same unhappiness that her baby used to have even when Tadashi was alive, and Cass decides to stock up on more crowd pleasers like cronuts and macadamia macarons. The younger customers seem to like them, what with Hiro sneaking off handfuls between shifts on Thursday and his sweet little friend Junichi serving as an ambassador from Nene's in a "please share with us your macaron making technique and we'll share our shu cream style" exchange program.
Later that week, Hiro pulls a snarking Claudio and curious Sana into the Lucky Cat Café and Claudio melts over Mochi while Sana signs her general pleasure at the coffee selection. Hiro teases Claudio over his black skinny jeans being covered in Mochi hair, which prompts Sana to…Cass doesn't know Japanese Sign Language well enough to understand the details of what Sana signs, but she knows enough that she just insulted both Hiro and Claudio's fashion senses while exulting her own.
"Not everyone has a soul made of flannel, Sana," Claudio perches in an arm chair while Mochi purrs in his lap, taking off those ridiculous sun glasses and letting Cass see his wide brown eyes. He talks as he signs, English and Japanese, and Cass wonders what he weird exotic things he studies at SFST (hey, don't blame her for being so surrounded by roboticists that humanities majors are like aliens).
Hiro grabs a coffee pot and brings it to the immediately relaxing duo, "But we've all got souls of caffeine. To collective finals studies!"
"That better be decaf," Cass sings as she brushes by, messing up Hiro's hair and smiling when he doesn't swat her hand away.
It's mostly decaf, and eventually Hiro's adult friends—and it's strange calling Abigail and Wasabi and Honey and Gogo and Fred that, after nearly a year of them being Hiro's only friends—tumble into the café to groan about upcoming finals and cappuccino addictions. Hiro's first summer vacation, Cass catches herself tearing up like an old ninny because Hiro has plans with all of his friends all over the state and a small dark part of her once thought him sooner in jail than arcade jumping.
Marys comes in last with Priscilla to sit herself on Hiro's lap, both of them negging each other in the cheerful annoying way that teen lovers neg each other, and Sana jokes to Claudio and Fred on how she's so glad she doesn't have to hear that. Priscilla shrugs, half-defeated when she sighs, "After a while it just becomes the background noise to your miserable 3rd wheel life." They laugh which sets Marys and Hiro off and they all play-argue about nothing at all
and it's life, it's the life Cass wants for her boy, and she has to wipe a few tears away. When Nene's gang crashes through the doors, Nene with a large box of white chocolate sea salt pretzels as a treaty gift for the upcoming Lucky Cat Café-Nene's alliance, Hiro is surrounded by friends. He laughs, happy, and Cass laughs along with him.
like the kinder things in Hiro's life, it starts out simple
just like the kinder things in Hiro's life, it starts to hurt rather quickly.
Very ominous ending bit lmaO
But anyway, this is me getting about…three chapter arcs off the ground before I disappear into Thailand/the magical land of awesome food and no internet. Here's an OC body count:
Hiroshi Takachiho (SEE WHAT I DID HERE), 16 year old SFIT student
Sonu Wallis, 15 year old Black-Indian high schooler
Xiaolan Chen, 15 year old Taiwanese high schooler
Ai Kurosawa, 17 year old Japanese juvie convict-high schooler
Chiyo Yokota, 14 year old Okinawan juvie convict-high schooler
Yue Mangubat, 16 year old Chinese-Filipina juvie convict-high schooler
Junichi Degawa, 13 year old Japanese online high schooler
Claudio Yamaguchi, 14 year old Brazilian-Japanese SFST student
Sana Song, 15 year old Japanese-Korean SFST student
Priscilla Li, 15 year old Chinese-Indonesian SFIT student
What does the last bit mean for this OC trash baby horde? Who knows! But if you review really nicely and beg for spoilers I might give you a hint or two lol