Aria held the bottle of Gatorade in her hands. It was pretty cold, nearly full, except for the single drink she'd taken from it. It was a light pink sort of color, though she didn't really think it tasted like melon. To her, all Gatorade was just salty sugar water.

She'd asked Baymax if he could stop so she could buy one. She wasn't really sure what she'd been thinking, but in that moment, she'd just really wanted a Gatorade. The convenience store clerk had looked at her like she was an alien when she'd come up to the counter with it. Then again, she was still wearing her armor. And she was a bloodied mess.

"We should return home now," Baymax said, in his lovely monotone voice. He and Aria were standing on the sidewalk, drawing strange glances from early-morning pedestrians, as she sipped the sugary drink.

"…Let's not," she said, screwing the cap back on.

"But Hiro is waiting for us." Baymax turned to look in the direction of the Lucky Cat Café. Aria knew they were several blocks away; maybe that's why she'd wanted to stop? She didn't want to think about anything too hard right now. She'd almost just died, after all. "We should really get going."

"But…I'm still dehydrated," Aria said lamely, not feeling like moving from her spot. Maybe she'd grow roots, and grow into the sidewalk? She wished, anyway.

"You are not dehydrated," Baymax said, running a quick scan. "Your hydration levels are optimal. You do, however, have several lacerations to your head and body that require stitches. And your neurotransmitter levels have declined since my last scan, indicating mental function depression."

"Damn you and your scans," Aria mumbled, putting her helmet back on. From inside, she could see several small hairline cracks in the display. Hiro would have to fix that.

Hiro.

Oh, what would she tell him? She couldn't even decide if this had been a success or a failure! Hattingsfeild was no doubt being checked in at the emergency room right now, which meant he would live, which meant it was a success. But Ome was still at large, and now more pissed off than ever, which meant it was a failure. She couldn't decide if Hiro would be angry or happy with her, and if he was angry, well…she really couldn't take disappointing him anymore. She'd already broken ribs. She didn't want to hurt him anymore.

"Would you like to share what you're feeling?" Baymax asked, and when Aria looked up at him, confused, he continued. "Mood can be improved by sharing feelings and worries. Stress and anxiety can cause dips in mental capacity and function."

"I don't think you'd really understand, Baymax," she said, not feeling totally comfortable with pouring her feelings out to a robot. Especially one whose recordings Hiro had access to.

"I am a good listener," the robot said, which made Aria chuckle. Sighing, she moved to sit on the curb, tossing the Gatorade bottle between her hands. Baymax followed.

"I keep screwing things up," Aria said, her eyebrows coming together. "I'm afraid I've just made things worse by being here. Gogo says Hiro's been livelier lately, but…I just don't think I believe her. How can he be happier? I've brought nothing but trouble with me, I've broken his ribs, and now I've let Ome beat me and escape. I'm a royal screw-up; Hiro'd be better off without me." She wanted to curl up into a little ball; what was she even doing, telling Baymax this!? But he just looked on. Hiro was right, he was very non-intimidating.

"Hiro's neurotransmitter levels have been consistently higher than average since the day of your arrival," Baymax said, flipping through the recent records of Hiro's brain scans he kept. "Which does indeed indicate happiness. Chemical indicators in Hiro's brain suggest extreme attachment to you, Aria." He blinked his optical cameras twice, and Aria turned slowly to look at him. Extreme attachment? Did that mean… "And, you did not break Hiro's ribs. I did."

"You know what I mean, Baymax," Aria said, shaking her head. "If it wasn't for me, he wouldn't have been crushed by you. It's all my fault."

"Would you like to hear the recording from that day?" Baymax asked suddenly, throwing Aria off guard.

"A recording?" she asked, solidifying her suspicion that Baymax recorded just about everything. Great. Baymax nodded, and then looked into the distance briefly, searching for the correct audio file. Once he found it, he replayed it through his audio speakers.

"Aria!" Hiro's voice sprung from Baymax, startling Aria. It was slightly static-y, and there was a lot of auxiliary noise in the background, but it was obvious when this recording was taking place; just after she'd been thrown battling Ome for the first time. "Baymax, go! Catch her!"

"Such an action will likely result in you being pinned to the metal frame of the building-" Baymax started, but was cut off quickly.

"I don't care, just save her!" There was more auxiliary noise, followed by the sound of an impact, and then a second, probably when the three of them hit the ground. The recording cut off after that.

"Hiro urged me to catch you, even after I warned him of the likely outcome," Baymax said, back to his regular voice. "If blame should fall on anyone's shoulders, it should be his." Aria was stunned. She had known Hiro had wanted to catch her, but hearing him say it, even through a recording, really kind of touched her. Even at risk of bodily harm, he'd wanted to protect her. Gogo was right, he was like his brother. "Your neurotransmitter levels are rising," Baymax observed, "is your mood improving?"

"Yeah," she said after a pause, "It is. C'mon. Let's go home."

"Aria!" She felt pretty bad, seeing Hiro look so worried. He stood up from the couch in the garage workshop, and she knew he must still have been in pain, though he didn't show it. She smiled weakly at him as she approached, Baymax close in tow.

"Hey," she said quietly, stopping short about a foot and took off her helmet, not knowing what else to do or say. But Hiro did. Stepping forward, he encased her in his arms, holding her close and burying his face in her hair. Aria's helmet fell to the floor as she hugged him back. "I was fighting Ome," she said bluntly, and Hiro held her tighter.

"I guessed as much," he said, his voice muffled against her hair. "God, I was so worried. I woke up and Baymax said you were gone. At first, I thought you'd run off because you were upset about yesterday. But then I realized why you had taken your suit and helmet."

"I'm sorry," she whispered against his chest, pressing her face against his shoulder, before she started to feel tears brimming. "I felt so bad about what happened yesterday. I just thought, if I could stop him by myself, no one else had to get hurt." She could hear Hiro's heart beating much too fast. Even beating rapidly, it calmed her. "But I couldn't. I had to let him get away."

"What happened?" Holding her at arm's length, the boy inspected the cuts on her face, the nastiest of which run from her temple up through her hairline. It would definitely need stitches, and was still bleeding slightly. "God, you're so beat up!"

"I…uh….I…" Biting her lower lip, she tried to keep her emotions down. Why was she feeling weepy all of a sudden!? She hadn't cried during, and she hadn't cried immediately after, but now she felt like having a good sob, at the most inopportune time! "I was able to save Hattingsfeild," she said weakly, her voice wavering. But Hiro didn't care about that.

"What did he do to you?" he asked, taking her head in both his hands and forcing her to look at him. She was startled by the intense look in his eye; worried, but determined. His hands felt so comforting against her skin.

"…He threw me," she started.

"That's not all, I know it's not." She bit her lip again.

"I couldn't…couldn't stop him. I don't know how he does it, but it was like…h-he was pushing me down…the v-velocity was t-too much…" Tears began to spill from her eyes, and the first sob wracked through her body. Hiro began wiping her tears from her cheeks with his thumbs. "I d-don't think I would h-have m-made it if Baym-max hadn't save me," she choked out between sobs, both embarrassed and relieved to be crying. If she could cry through this, she'd feel better afterwards. Hiro didn't seem to care, though, and held her close again.

"Thank God for Baymax," he whispered, half joking, half serious. Aria hiccupped in his arms, too emotional to say any more. She didn't know why she was crying, really. She was alive, but it almost felt like residual emotion. Like her mind had needed time to catch up with her body. And now that it had, it was making up for the numbness she'd felt earlier.

"I-I'm sorry, I'm a m-m-mess," she stuttered, pulling away and trying to dry her eyes with the back of her hand. It came back bloody, from the gash on her temple, and she wondered just how badly she looked right now. It couldn't have been pretty.

But again, Hiro surprised her. He didn't give her much time to think, really. He just grabbed her face in his hands, leaned forward, and kissed her. It was a shock, and at first, Aria froze up. What was he doing!? She'd just said how much of a mess she was! But she slowly melted against him, defrosting from her stupor, and kissed back. It said everything that she was too afraid to say in words; her fear, her loneliness, her desperation, her joy, comfort, trepidation, and longing. She kissed him back with everything she was worth, leaving nothing unspoken between them. And when they pulled away from each other, all that was left were a few left over tears, and her incredulous smile.

"…This is not the situation that I imagined my first kiss would happen in," she admitted, and Hiro laughed.

"Mine neither." He reached up, brushing her hair away from her face. "But I'm glad it was." Aria flushed, looking away, and realizing once again that Baymax was standing right there. Flinching when she saw him, her face got even redder.

"Baymax! Couldn't you have turned away!?" she gasped, which caused Hiro to laugh louder.

"He's a robot, not a priest," he said, and Aria scowled slightly.

"...But…he's so sentient…I feel weird that he watched that." Baymax showed no sign that he really even truly understood what had happened, but still. It unnerved Aria.

"You sort of get used to that," Hiro said, smiling down at her. He flopped back on the couch, breathing a bit heavier, and Aria once again realized that his ribcage was probably hurting him.

"Are you okay?" she asked, and he nodded.

"Fine. It'll be like this for a while, I guess. I'll need to get used to this, too." Aria wished there was something she could do to help him, but nothing much could be done for broken ribs other than the treatment he'd already received. She frowned. "Hey. Don't worry about it. You should be worrying about that." He motioned to her head. "Baymax can stitch you up, can't you buddy?" Baymax perked up at being mentioned, and waddled over, nodding.

"Oh, yes," he affirmed, "I just need to remove the armor." He started to detach parts of the heavy red armor he wore, and Aria touched her wound lightly. It stung when she did, and she winced slightly.

"It was stupid of you to go alone," Hiro said, reaching behind the couch for a box of tissues. He plucked one out, and started dabbing at her temple. "You're not a burden to us. None of us are in this alone, we all have each other's backs. If I'd have known this was what you were planning on doing, I would have had Baymax ducttape you to the wall."

"This was sort of a spur of the moment decision," Aria admitted, which made Hiro's frown deepen.

"…well, that's just great," he said sarcastically, and sighed. "Promise me, Aria. Promise me you won't go off alone like that again."

"…I promise," she said quietly, allowing him to continue to clean up her face.

"Good. Because if I'd lost you today…." He looked away briefly, a truly troubled look crossing his face. It was the look of someone who'd experienced deep personal loss before. "…I wouldn't have been able to forgive myself." Aria knew that he meant it, and she touched his cheek, coaxing him to look back to her.

"I promise. I really do."