"Hiro, no tech at the table!" Aunt Cass smacked her nephew's hand with the serving spoon as she passed behind him, causing him to drop the headband he was tinkering with.

"Ow! Jeez!" he whined, rubbing the back of his hand, now turning a brilliant red, and Cass shook her head, placing the bowl of salad on the table. Aria sat across from Hiro, flanked by Honey Lemon and Fred. Wasabi was across from Fred, fussing over the placement of each fork and spoon in front of him, and Gogo was leaning in closer to Hiro on his other side as the two of them discussed the specifics of the headband's final design.

"You should really come to the lab sometime," Honey was saying, passing Aria the serving bowl of rice, "Everyone there would love to meet you!"

"I dunno," Aria shrugged, pursing her lips. "I'm not really into being everyone's science experiment. I mean, I came here so I could gain a little bit of normalcy in my life, not become more of a spectacle."

"Oh, no no! That's not what I meant! I mean, just to hang out with us and meet new people! While you're here in San Fransokyo!" Aria couldn't help but smile back as Honey beamed at her; the girl just had an infectious smile! She was just so sweet and cheerful, Aria had taken an instant liking to her.

"It's not against the rules?" she asked, passing wasabi the soysauce when he asked for it. "For a non student to be on campus?"

"No, or else I'd never get to hang out with these dudes!" Fred interrupted, dumping a huge spoonful of wasabi into his rice and mixing it in.

"Yeah, it might be nice having someone else who isn't totally crazy around," Wasabi chimed in, and Honey Lemon laughed that melodic laugh of hers.

"Oh, Wasabi, you're so silly!" she said, and the smile she threw at him was a bit different than her regular grin. It made Aria wonder if there was anything between the two.

"Hiro, please!" Cass shot him a pained look from the head of the table as she sat down. "Tables are for eating, NOT testing the integrity of internal magnetic servos; put. It. Away." The group broke into chuckles at this, as Hiro returned his Aunt's stern look, before getting up to leave it on the nearby end table.

"So whaddya say?" Fred asked, with his mouth full. "Gonna come hang out with us awesome dudes and dudettes?"

"Well, if it's alright, sure," she finally said, rather sheepishly. "I'm not very science-y, though, like you guys."

"Anyone can appreciate science, though," Wasabi said, "you don't have to be a brain surgeon to think it's cool."

"I guess that's true…okay, then. Sounds like a plan." Honey let out a squeal of happiness, giving Aria a side-hug, as Fred threw his arms up, nearly overturning every single dinnerware in front of him. 'Jeez, these guys are animated,' Aria thought, but it wasn't necessarily a bad thing. She wasn't all that popular back home, in fact, she'd been so unknown in her hometown, it was a wonder her parents even knew who she was. She was so introverted, most days she just spent in her room, reading or writing alone. But this was nice. These guys were nice. It was like having real friends, and she liked it. It was a great feeling!

Aria continually had trouble with her silverware sticking to her hands and refusing to be put down throughout the dinner, but the one thing that was really occupying her mind was how Gogo and Hiro were bent close, heads together, discussing the hardware for her magnetic radiation regulator. She didn't know why that bothered her so much. Maybe it was the familiarity between them; they were friends, obviously, had been through a lot together. Maybe it was their shared intellect; they both knew so much about mechanical science, it was alarming, and they could share and bond over that knowledge freely. Maybe it was simply how Gogo looked; she was like a taller, edgier, older version of Aria, who looked like she could be Gogo's skinny kid sister. Any of those was a good excuse for her unsettling feeling. But she tried to push that down. Mostly because it was causing the salt shaker to try and slide across the table towards her repeatedly.

"Hmm, need my .5 screwdriver," Hiro mused, turning the regulator over in his hands again. It was just him and Aria and Aunt Cass now (to Aria's relief) as the latter two were in the kitchen, finishing up the dinner dishes.

"You could help with the clean up, you know," Cass said sarcastically, though she knew Hiro wouldn't.

"Not now, Aunt Cass, gatta fix this!" he called over his shoulder, as he vaulted over the back of the couch, and over towards the staircase. "Aria, c'mon, I gatta try something!"

"Uh, well, I'm still doing dishes-" Aria turned, only to see Hiro had disappeared up the stairs, and her lips formed a thin line across her face. Cass wore a similar expression.

"That boy," the older woman sighed, dunking the plate she held in the soapy water. Aria cracked a small smile. "Well, go on. I can finish up here."

"Are you sure?" she asked, but Cass just smiled kindly.

"Yeah, go on. I'm sure whatever he's got to show you is something big. Besides, we're almost done here, and I can get the rest. You've already been a big enough help as it is." Aria smiled gratefully at her, before following Hiro towards the stairs. That boy did not appreciate his Aunt enough, she thought.

"Okay, what's so importa-aaAAAHH whoa what!?" Aria nearly fell backwards down the stairs when she reached the top. Hiro was pulling his SFT sweatshirt off, and his tshirt under it had gotten stuck to it, and gotten pulled up as well. This, understandably, took Aria by surprise, and as she stumbled backwards, nearly tumbling down the stairs, the metal immediately around her jerked to life, and whizzed through the air. Not towards her, though. No, this time, she'd sent metal objects flying away from her, and a set of keys flew from their hook on the wall, and smacked Hiro right in the chest. This caused him to fall backwards, still caught up in his sweatshirt, into his rolling desk chair, which sent him careening backwards into his bookshelf. Several of his fighting bot prototypes fell down then from the top of said bookshelf, onto Hiro's head, causing him to shout out in pain. Finally, hearing Hiro, Baymax started to inflate, from where he was charging at his station, and make his way over.

"I heard a cry of distress. Please rate your pain from 1 to 10." He said, in his signature, non-intimidating voice.

"What…the heck was that!?" Hiro said, wrestling his way out of his sweatshirt, and pulling his tshirt back down. He hadn't meant to sound so angry, he was mostly just winded, but Aria physically flinched away from his hostile tone.

"I…I don't know! I'm sorry! That's never happened before!" she stuttered, surprised at herself for doing that. She'd never repelled objects before! Hiro bent to pick up the set of keys, and looked incredulously at Aria.

"You can repel objects!?" he asked, one corner of his mouth pulling up. "I didn't know you could…I thought…jeez, this changes everything!" He tossed the keys onto his bed, and went over to his desk, pulling out a notepad and a pencil. He scribbled some calculations down, and let out a short, curt laugh.

"I'm sorry, I'm not following," Aria said, walking up behind him. "Are you mad? Or…happy? I can't tell."

"I'm in awe of your abilities," Hiro said, casting a smile back at her. "Okay. Tomorrow, more tests. We've got to fix a few bugs in this regulator, but…oh man, do I have plans for this!"

Somehow, this did not soothe Aria's nerves.

"How many?"

"Just two, sir."

"And they're both missing?"

"Yes sir." The older man sat hunched over his desk, holding the sides of his head in his hands. He was graying, perhaps prematurely, and wore thick glasses that turned his usually small eyes into fun-house mirror versions of themselves. His assistant stood nervously nearby in the cramped, dark office.

"This isn't good, Hattingfeild," the older man sighed, casting an angry glance at the younger physician. "This isn't just some clerical error. This isn't a botched rhinoplasty. This isn't even a wrongful amputation. This is big."

"It won't happen again, sir," Hattingfeild said, a small quiver in his voice.

"You're right. This won't happen again. None of it." The older man stood up then. "Cut the program. Refund the grant. Destroy files on the patients. I don't care how you do it, burn the hospital down if you need to."

"Sir?"

"Miss Tsukino and Mr. Ome were never treated here, do you understand me?" His eyes looked tired, just so tired. Like he'd seen too much. "This tech? It never existed. Deny the treatment, discredit the side effects. None of this can come to light, do you hear me? It would ruin me."

"Yes sir. I understand completely."