"That's… not a pretty bruise."
Everyone in the lab cringed, seeing the bright red mark on Hiro's head as Baymax tended to him.
"Kokoro?" Honey asked.
"Yep… he hates me right now." Hiro mumbled, leaning his head back. "Uuuuggghh…"
Tadashi shook his head. "Remind me what that bot is supposed to do again?"
"..." Hiro put his head in his hands. "I barely even remember!"
"Ouch." Tadashi cringed.
"I agree with Immortal 7." Gogo shook her head. "Maybe you should drop this one."
"I can't… It's a matter of pride!" Hiro looked up. "I. Can't. Let. It. Beat. Me."
"I'm getting flashbacks of Tadashi's time with Baymax." Fred muttered.
Tadashi cringed again.
Fred, I'd whack you right now, but then I'd give myself away and then crack goes the Anchor Gear.
"Just don't get yourself killed." Wasabi commented. "Maybe fall back and regroup so you can remember what the heck Kokoro is supposed to do."
"Probably should…" Hiro sighed rubbing the back of his neck. "I had it, I had it in my head, it was gonna be AWESOME…. And then that little incident with trying to throw me out the window happened and I blocked it all out."
"Maybe you take a walk or something Hiro, you need to get your head cleared." Gogo went over to him, squeezing his shoulder. "Been a little too cooped up."
The boy nodded giving a sigh. "Yeah, I think my brain's gonna go melting out of my ear at this rate-Baymax don't even start on how illogical that is."
"Understood, here is your ice." the nurse bot said, handing the bag to Hiro.
Hiro thanked him before putting it to his head. "Once this bruise dies down a bit then I'll take that walk. Last thing I need is for everyone to know me as "Ice bag boy" while I'm on campus."
"Good plan."
"Yeah don't give Fred ideas." Everyone who had a nickname looked over to the mascot. "We all know how that ends."
"Wasabi on my shirt one time people… One. Time."
"It was three." Tadashi whispered to Hiro as he tried to hide a smirk.
"All are subject to nicknames eventually." Fred laughed maniacally.
"And all are thus unable to reject them." Gogo shook her head. "Get out now kid while we still call you by your name."
"Heh you can't beat the name Hiro." Hiro smirked. "It has all those meanings."
"True… I'll think of something eventually… though that Nerd Prince title still holds."
"It's my kingdom." Hiro gave a dramatic gesture to the rest of the lab. "This is my castle, you all are just working in it."
"I'm King of the Lab and you guys are just working here."
He really does sound like his brother.
Tadashi chuckled shaking his head. Takes after me…
After a few more minutes of chatting, Baymax checked the bruise once more. "There… All better…"
"Thanks Baymax… I'm gonna take that walk. Make sure no one gets impaled by Gogo-"
WHACK!
"OW!"
"That's for being a little twerp."
"Love you too." He rolled his eyes and walked out, shoving his hands in his pockets as he tried to think of how to get Kokoro to function.
I got the basic human appearance…. Well human ish. I can't add all the extra details without getting it to work…
Now function, function….
What was it?
Another med bot? No… That'd be copying Tada-nii…
Maid bot? Aunt Cass'd kill me….
Cook?
… Baymax would hug me….
Hiro grimaced he knew it was none of those things. It was something… Something he had thought of when he had started constructing Kokoro. It was just lost in the minutiae of all the errors.
He had his head down so he didn't see where he was walking…
THUD!
"OW!"
"OOF!"
He fell back grimacing as he collided with the concrete. The girl he had bumped into hissed as she rubbed her knee where it had collided with the stone. "S-Sorry-Wait…"
The girl looked up. "Tryin' to kill me Hiro?"
Hiro put his hand to his face as he realized it was Kathleen who he had bumped into and blushed a bit. Smooth Hiro… SMOOTH.
"Wow that's one for the books… And me without my phone." Tadashi whispered grinning a bit as Hiro was forced to bite his tongue unable to give a come back.
Screw you Tada-nii…. He thought as he got up, offering Kathleen a hand. "I'm sorry about that Kat, no harm was intended."
"It's okay, my fault too." She took his hand pulling herself up. She looked around them at the books and papers that were scattered. "Oh no…"
"Here I'll help."
Hiro knelt with her as they gathered up the items. "Where's your backpack?"
"The strap broke!"
"Geeze…" Hiro shook his head picking up his share of the items. "Where did it break at?"
"Four blocks ago!"
"Yikes…"
Kathleen nodded as she got the last of her items together. "I think that's all of it…"
"I got a good chunk of it too…. C'mon we'll get ya a spare from SFIT." Hiro started to walk back looking back at her when she didn't follow. "What?"
"But I'm not…"
"We got students who frequently carry acid literal acid like the kind that melts through wood on a regular basis in their backpacks so we just got a surplus of extra. It's no trouble." Hiro smiled gesturing for her to follow.
She fell in step behind him face burning red. This is so humiliating…
"You okay?"
"E-Eh?"
"You hit the ground hard."
"Just a scrape or two. I'm fine."
"Alright…" He shook his head. Her luck is just bad sometimes…
Everyone perked up as Hiro came in, their eyes all getting a curious look when they saw Kathleen. Kathleen took notice right away, cowering a little bit behind Hiro, her hand on one of his arms.
"It's okay." He gave her a reassuring look. "They don't bite."
Baymax looked over to her, his scans picking up her injury.
"She has sustained a mild epidermal abrasion on her knee. May I examine her and treat her?"
Hiro looked to Kathleen. "You okay with that while I get you a back pack?"
Kathleen nodded. "Y-Yeah… I know Baymax… I'm fine with that."
Hiro nodded, hurrying off as Baymax went over to her, treating her. Everyone looked at each other, all curious about her.
"Never seen her before." Wasabi whispered. "Have you?"
"Nope." Gogo murmured. "I would remember if Hiro had a girl."
"My question is why didn't he tell us!?" Fred whisper/yelled.
Honey made her way over to Kathleen, sitting down to her level.
"Hello there."
Kathleen jumped a little. "H-Hello…" She murmured shyly.
Honey giggled. "It's okay, don't need to be jumpy. I'm Honey Lemon. What's your name?"
"Kathleen… C-Coleman." She replied looking her over. She seems familiar…
"That's a beautiful name, matches you." Honey smiled gently. "May I ask how you know Hiro?"
Kathleen smiled. "I've known him since I was a kid… His aunt and my mother are friends… We just sort of clicked when we met and we were friends ever since… I go to the cafe every day too…"
"I see… He's never mentioned you before so I was just curious."
"G-Got it… He's just always been there…" She shrugged a bit. "I can see why…. I don't really mention him to my friends either… I like having something that's just for me to know…"
"I hear ya… well it's nice to meet you Kathleen." Honey looked to the others who all came forward to have a look at her. "And these are my other friends and Hiro's. Wasabi, Gogo, Fred and our odd but good guest, Immortal 7."
"Hey."
"Welcome to the nerd lab."
Tadashi nodded to her.
Kathleen looked at them all surprised. "N-Nice to meet you all…" She lowered her head a little. Curse this shyness…
Wasabi took notice. "Okay let's give the poor girl some space, I think we're overloading her."
"She is showing small signs of discomfort." Baymax chimed in, patting her head. "It is alright Kathleen."
She relaxed a little. "Thanks… Sorry just a little overload… Lot of new things at once…"
"We can understand, college is always full of surprises." Honey gave her shoulder a squeeze. "Are you in high school Kathleen?"
She nodded. "Yep. Second year, been just trying my best... It can get really stressful… Usually those days I wind up eating a ton of chocolate…" She got a sheepish look. "Ms. Cass can make a killer chocolate cake."
"Oh I can agree." Fred's mouth was watering a little. "Oh that sounds good."
"Yeah but we're not off the hook for a few more hours." Gogo shoved him a little. "So deal."
Kathleen giggled a bit. "Sounds like my sister…"
"Well, if you ever need help with anything you can talk to us. We've been through the course" Wasabi gave a gentle look. "and a friend of Hiro's is a friend of ours."
"Yeah just come to us. No need to suffer."
Kathleen smiled a bit giving a nod. "I'd like that… Thank you."
"I'm back~"
Hiro came in, a back back similar to Kathleen's in tow except in a blue color.
Kathleen's eyes lit up as she jumped up. "You found one! Thank you Hiro!"
Hiro smiled, handing it to her. "No problem Kat. What are friends for right?"
She smiled as she started to put her books in it. "Yeah, got each others backs… Still appreciate it…"
"Well this one should hold better than your old one but if you need another you know where to look… and I see you've met my friends."
"Yeah… They've been talking with me while I was waiting for you. They're nice." She nodded to them.
"Yeah, you didn't tell us you had a girlfriend." Gogo smirked.
Both teens turned bright red.
"P-PARDON!?" Kathleen squeaked.
"G-Gogo! It's nothing like that! We've been friends since childhood!"
"Ahuh… Suuuure… Nothing like that…"
"He's right! I-I mean he-he's awesome of course but he's my friend!" And I'm so plain… He's amazing…
"Hey Baymax." Fred snickered. "Diagnosis?"
Baymax held up a finger. "Diagnosis: embarrassment!"
"HEY!" They both yelled.
"Alright alright let's lay off the poor kids." Tadashi said, giving a wave of his hand. Doing this because I love you bro.
"Thank you, Immortal 7." Hiro put his face in his right hand shaking his head. "Geeze you guys are as bad as my Aunt." And my brother.
Kathleen fidgeted trying to hide how much she was blushing. I'm gonna be red as a pepper for the rest of the day! I need to get outta here.
"I-I need… I need to go." Kathleen picked up her bag, giving a bow. "Sorry just…. homework… bye!" she hurried out.
"Aww…. And without a nickname too."
"Fred she's off limits!" Hiro shook his head. "Great… Now it's awkward."
"You two have really known each other for that long?" Honey asked, curious.
Hiro nodded. "Yep. I think we first met when I was… Lessee… Three and a half. I was figuring out stuff pretty fast so one day me and Tadashi were just goofing around with one of his robot kits making mods to it and she just went over and sat down with us watching… Then we got to talking… I showed her the spider walk and freaked Tadashi out… And it's just been like that ever since... " He shrugged. "We went to the same elementary school for a bit but then I started jumping grades so we didn't have much time at school to hang out. So it was always the cafe or her house."
"I see."
On top of that I was friends with her two siblings. Tadashi thought. Ah… childhood, seems so long ago.
Hiro nodded. "Yeah. She has two older siblings too. Her older brother's twenty one and her sister's nineteen. Tadashi hung out with them and Kat hung around me… She kept me out of some trouble but…" He smirked. "Come on do you guys believe for five seconds I wasn't finding SOMETHING?"
"Eh we're not too shocked." Wasabi chuckled. "I think the only thing we're shocked about is we've never heard of this Kathleen or her family from either you or Tadashi."
"Yeah where were you hiding her?" Fred asked ruffling Hiro's hair a bit. "I mean I know your room was a disaster but-"
"Hey!" Hiro tried to smooth his hair down. "I guess we just never thought of it. They were around us all the time and Tadashi was of course worried about college classes and Baymax probably gave him a concussion a few times… So we just never thought of it." He shrugged. "And well… They've been around for so long I guess I thought I brought her up…"
"Makes sense…. still though, cute girl, I like her hair." Honey giggled. "It's all nice and wavy."
Hiro chuckled. "You should see her stress 'do. Tight bun when she's freaking out since she can't stand having it in her face. Her sister and mom like playing with her hair."
"Well they do a good job." Gogo chuckled. "Ah stress of high school I do not miss it. College life is the real life."
"Heck yeah. It wasn't a challenge." Hiro shrugged. "High school was easy."
All of them looked at Hiro with an unimpressed look before grinning, looking to each other before saying in unison.
"NERD!"
"HEY!" Hiro yelled… Before smirking. "I resemble that remark."
"Eh, can't win… but still…" Fred rubbed his hands together. "Dark brown hair, pale blue eyes, she's a keeper."
Hiro blushed. "Guys… C'mon it's not like that!"
"Alright enough with Hiro's love life, I think last I checked you all got projects you need to do." Tadashi crossed his arms. "Right?"
"Fiiine. We'll torment him later." Fred said as he went back to his couch, the others going back to their stations.
"Thank you." Hiro sighed in relief as he made his way back to his own lab looking at Kokoro who was standing on it's base warily. "One of these days bub… You are gonna work and you are gonna be awesome… And you're gonna be NICE to me."
As if to mock him it fell right over.
"... Aw come on!"
Tadashi shook his head.
Like older brother like younger brother…