Alright, I usually won't update so close together but I am super ahead of my writing schedule. So I am updating today, Wednesday and then Saturday before returning to a weekly Saturday schedule (unless I get way ahead again which is doubtful but possible).

This has to be one of my favorite chapters so far so I hope you guys enjoy! Please review!

~CWA

(Also so sorry for uploading the wrong chapter the first time, thank you for letting me know!)


CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE


Tadashi Hamada

Waffles aren't exactly a 'cure' to anger or any other extreme emotion or bad situation, but I have to admit that they do help. I'm not nearly as upset as I was before, but the anger is still there. In my defense, I have every right to be angry. I care about Danny. Enough that if he asks me out, I'd say yes. If he wants to go steady, I think I'd be interested in that too. But it's hard to think that I'll have a future with him- a steady, stable future, if he does this. Keeps secrets. Doesn't trust me. Sleeps with people if we have a fight. That's not how a relationship works.

Get your head together, Hamada, I shove a large bite of waffle into my mouth, wanting to just eat away the stress, you're not in a relationship with him. You haven't even made your feelings for him clear. He can do whatever he wants because we're not together. But man, oh man, do I want us to be together. But every time I even come close to maybe asking him out, I lose my nerve. Then he goes and does something, this time it was sleeping with A.D., and I begin to just doubt if he even has mutual feelings for me.

I continue shoving waffles into my mouth and I briefly wonder if the whole habit of stress eating comes from Aunt Cass. Hiro and Fred have already left in favor of going to see some new monster movie that came out. GoGo and A.D. (who had invited himself to our little waffle trip) left to go back to the gym and spar themselves- somehow, I'm not surprised to learn that GoGo is very serious about her workout routine. She can throw some serious punches so I suppose it makes sense that she has to learn it from someone- who I suspect is A.D. since they're just about the same size thus making it easier for him to teach her the stuff he does and the way he does it.

But this also means that I'm sitting here alone with Danny in the just-now-filling up waffle diner. Strangely enough, I don't see Danny eat anything. He never ordered any food- just a coffee and nothing else. I know he eats sometimes- I've seen him eat in the lab and he's ate a few things with Aunt Cass and us. But to be honest, it seems like he doesn't eat that often. He sips at his coffee absently as he raises an eyebrow at me, causing me to flush and continue eating.

"Slow down, 'Dashi," Danny laughs a bit, "You're going to choke at that rate."

"-Well according from A.D. you've probably choked on a few things that sure weren't waffles," I mutter under my breath a bit venomously.

Damn it. So much for trying to let that go. Danny huffs at my words, running his hands through his hair with a few muttered curses.

"Okay, fine, I deserved that. I slept with A.D., that was a dick move on my part to do it from spite. A.D. was pretty cool about it, considering, but that doesn't make an excuse. I'm sorry that my sex life is so troublesome for you, but it's not like we're together or something."

Yeah. We're not. At least not yet. I continue to eat my waffles in silence, a somberness consumes us as tension fills the air. Because damn it, I really want us to be something. Though a glance toward Danny tells me he's not exactly happy with what he's saying either. He crosses his arms across his chest with a dark expression on his face.

"….Or something," I can't help but mutter slightly, quiet enough that I'm almost sure he doesn't hear me.

God this tension is going to kill me, I swear. I want to just speak up and tell him what I'm feeling. How much I like him. How much I really want to kiss him. But I keep my mouth full of waffles to keep from saying or doing anything that may ruin what somewhat stable friendship we have.

Thankfully, the silence is at least broken by Danny's phone going off. He curses as he checks the caller ID, gives me an apologetic and slightly worried look, before he finally answers it.

"Hey Jazzy," Danny greets, "How's it going? Is everything okay?…. Uh-huh…. Uh-huh… Maybe, I think that sounds nice, but I wouldn't really want- no, of course I want to see you guys, I just think that- No, I didn't say that, Jazz, I just – okay fine. Look, I promise I'll catch up to date later and I'll do a video chat…. Yeah, of course, love you too."

He hangs up with a long, drawn out sigh before he gives me a tired smile. Huh. Never really noticed just how tired he looks sometimes- bags under the eyes, a veteran look in his eyes as if he's seen too much. He runs his fingers through his hair,

"Sorry, that was my sister, Jazz. Drives me nuts sometimes, but that's what older sisters do, isn't it?"

He gives me a nervous chuckle as he shoves his phone back into his pocket. I swallow my bite of waffle to give him a wry grin,

"I wouldn't know- I'm the oldest one, remember? But you haven't really said much about your sister… or your parents, for that matter. Aside from the ghost thing, obviously."

Danny snorts slightly,

"Yeah that's because my parents were really obsessed with ghosts and to be perfectly honest, I didn't believe them at first either."

"You're kidding?"

I can't help but gape at him. This guy has been nothing but ghosts the whole time he's even been at the college. Every other sentence out of his mouth is about ghosts. He's even building a ghost portal and he's saying he used to not believe in ghosts. My expression causes him to wave his hands a bit defensively,

"I know, I know, it's hard to believe, but trust me, my sister and I grew up wanting nothing to do with ghosts. Just like every else in town, we thought our parents were kooks. I actually used to want to be an astronaut- some part of me still does, actually, and I can still point out every damn constellation in the sky as well as tell you what the latest news in NASA is. My sister took a more psychological route, but either way, we didn't believe in ghosts until I was about Hiro's age..."

He trails off slightly with a reminiscing look in his eyes.

"….When they were in college, they tried to build a portal. It was small, but it managed to hospitalize an… old friend… of theirs for a while. And when I was fourteen, they built another one. A larger one, like the one I'm building, and… it didn't work, at first… I… I tweaked it and the next thing I know, it's up and running. A fully functional portal to the Ghost Zone- a place my parents had been theorizing about for years and now they had proof. Except they didn't really want to share too much with the outside world and kept it rather secret because of how dangerous it was. The world may not have known what they did, what they were capable of, but the town knew. My sister knew. They knew. I knew…"

He doesn't look me in the eyes. Instead, he's rather focused on his coffee as he talks. I stay silent, processing it all as he speaks. It's easy to tell this is something he's been needing to get off his chest for a while. But it's hard for me to believe that they built a portal like that themselves and didn't really want it to be known. The fact that it was functional at all is hard enough to swallow.

He looks like he wants to say more about the portal, but holds himself back.

"...The portal worked a bit too well," Danny continues softly, "Ghosts came through. Attacked the town a lot. My parents were great inventors, but when it came to the field work, they weren't as good- Mom was decent though, she was a black belt and not afraid to bring someone down, but Dad had such horrible aim and they both had horrible driving skills it was hard to be progressive.

So I did it myself. Protected the town. Made a few friends with some of the friendlier ghosts that accidentally stumbled through the portal, talked to ghosts that just needed to move on, fought the ghosts that wanted to hurt people. Contrary to what my parents believed, ghosts were just as capable of feelings things like we are- they had emotions, pain, love, sadness, everything. But just like people, some were evil and it wasn't easy either. My grades dropped. I didn't get enough sleep. I broke bones- ribs, arms, legs, the whole thing. Had internal bleeding. Stitched myself up more than once and I have the scars to prove it."

My heart twists uneasily. He says it so easily. As if it's easy to go through all that. But I've done a lot of research on all sorts of injuries- those things don't go away easily and they hurt like hell. Knowing he went through that causes pain in my chest, a pain I can't really describe. At the mentions of scars, I eye him closely. I never really noticed it before, but I can see a few of them. Poking from the collar of his shirt and shirt along his collar bone faintly. A small nick on his eyebrow. A dent on his neck that vaguely resembles scars from a bite. I can only imagine what sort of scars are being covered by his jacket and shirt and what horrors he went through to get them.

"My parents had no clue what I was doing because I protected the town as a sort of… ghost hunter superhero. Disguise and all, if you can believe it- so I often got lectures about missing curfews and slacking off."

I'd like to say that it's hard to believe he was some sort of ghost hunter superhero. But to be honest, it's not. Danny may be strange. May crack some jokes and puns. But I can see him being a superhero- as strange as that is to say, I know there are some real superheroes out there. Like that guy- what's his name… Captain America. Maybe Danny's like him. A normal guy fighting the big, bad guys. Someone for people to look up to, admire, and learn from. Danny certainly has that sort of protective aura around him- something about him just screams that he's not going to let anything hurt anyone.

"-You shouldn't tell Fred that," I say dryly, "If he finds out you're a superhero, he's never going to leave you alone."

Danny opens his mouth to say something before deciding against it. He furrows his brows, flushes, before he finally continues on with his little story.

"- the ghosts got worse, though," his voice gets softer, "….You could even say it was a… war… between humans and ghosts. Some of my ghost friends helped us. Protected us. But it didn't work…."

He trials off again with a sorrowful look on his face. Taking out his phone again, he searches through it briefly before sliding it to me. I can see it's an online news article about a town called Amity Park. It mentions how a freak gas leak had destroyed an entire town in Illinois with only three survivors whose names aren't listed. My heart aches as the article lists every single name of every person that died. A 'promising high-school football star' Dash Baxter. Two 'energetic, friendly cheerleaders' Paulina Sanchez and some girl named Star. Samantha Manson. Tucker Foley. Valerie Gray….. Jack Fenton… Madeline Fenton…

My eyes gloss over as my stomach turns, the realization hits me at just who two of those three survivors are. Looking up at him, I can see how lost he's becoming in his memories as they overtake him.

"It wasn't a gas leak," Danny mutters, his eyes getting watery, "… The ghosts did it, but how can a news station really report that? I tried my best to fight them and it wasn't enough. They killed… They killed everyone, 'Dashi. Every. Single. Person. My family. My friends. My boyfriend, Dash. My ex-girlfriend and best friend, Sam. My other best friend, Tucker. My history teacher, Mr. Lancer. My parents. Everyone. And… that's why I want to make the portal. So that their work is acknowledged and because of my own interests in ghosts, of course. But it's also why I want to protect you and Hiro and everyone- giving ghost hunting lessons could save you, even if you don't realize it yet."

Danny's voice gets hoarse and cracks slightly as he speaks. The emotions just pour from his voice in such a raw passion that it's hard to keep crying myself. It's still hard to believe that ghosts did all of that, but if he believes it, then… I trust him enough to believe him. Even if it's hard to accept. My hand goes to his and I grasp it tightly in a comforting manner, causing him to give me a small, thankful smile as he squeezes back.

"-But I suppose it all worked for the better," Danny continues, "Jazz is a famous psychologist back in New York, making more than enough money, and I'm here doing something I'm passionate about, which is working on ghost inventions."

He sighs a bit tiredly, but never lets go of my hand. I feel horrible for asking about his parents since it's obvious that it's still really effecting him. Unlike me, his parents died recently. Hell, the newspaper article was only dated a few years ago. But he did open up. He opened up, told me about himself, about his parents. It's only fair if I return the favor.

"...My parents died a while back ago," I admit, "they were good people. Honest people. And they worked hard. Despite being very busy as doctors, they always made time for Hiro and I. Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to do what they did. I wanted to help people, but I wanted to help people in a way that didn't make it impossible to be with my family. My parents did a good job at juggling their job and home life, but we still didn't see them that often. But every time they got time off, we used to take these crazy road trips to different parts of the country. I saw things like the Grand Canyon. Yellowstone park. Hiro doesn't remember it, but I still have the pictures to prove it if he ever doubts my stories…."

I can feel him squeeze my hand a bit and it's almost like there's a calming presence in the air as I speak. For a moment, it's like I can hear my mom's voice whispering in the wind, singing a soft lullaby. I close my eyes briefly to treasure that faint memory before I finally manage to open them again to look at Danny. But even with my eyes open, I can still feel her. Feel them. Standing with me. Comforting me.

I like to think that wherever they are now that they're looking down at me with pride…. I also like to think that they would have liked Danny.

"-But when I was about eleven and Hiro was three, there was an accident. Aunt Cass had taken us to her home here in San Fransokyo for a visit while our parents were doing a week long conference in New York. They called us every night to make sure we were okay. But when then it came for the day for their return. Aunt Cass took us back to our normal house and we got ready to have a big welcome home party. She even let Hiro and I decorate a cake for them. They called us that they were almost home so we waited… and waited… But they never came."

I take a few shaky breaths. It's been so long since I've even talked about my parents like this, but the memory is still fresh in my mind.

"….Eventually Aunt Cas got a phone call. Apparently on their way home, they got into a car accident. Paramedics got there, couldn't really help so they rushed them to the hospital. By then, it was too late…."

I trail off slightly, my voice softening. That's partly why I want to create Baymax. To keep future families together. To help people.

"...Hiro doesn't even remember them. Not what they look like. Not their voices. Not even the lullaby that Mom used to sing to him… He was only a kid, Danny. He was three years old. Aunt Cass was great, and she did the best she could, but I ended up raising Hiro myself. It didn't take long for him to forget them. Aunt Cass thinks it's because he repressed a lot of those memories at first… But one time, it was only once, back when I was about fifteen, he called me Dad. Hiro… Hiro actually called me Dad. I had to explain things to him and he apologized and he never slipped up again but I just… God, that was..."

I can't help the emotions that pour over me as I tear up. Danny seems to understand and lets go of my hand to move to the other side of the booth and sit next to me. Wordlessly, he brings me into a tight embrace, pulling me close. He rubs my back soothingly and doesn't seem to care about the few other patrons in the diner that look our way.

He whispers comforting words into my ears and despite me being taller than him, it seems like I fit into his arms a bit too well.