**A.N.: Thank you so much to Telemain's Daughter as we work through beta-ing these chapters!**
Kyouji pulled himself over the railing of the fire escape to Himitsu's agreed-on meeting place, wincing slightly as his bruised side complained from being used. He had to be very careful not to let the syringes fall out of his pocket, lest they shatter on the pavement beneath. They had thankfully remained unbroken when he'd been hit, as well as his ribs. He could be grateful for the small things.
Leaning against the railing once he'd reached the landing, Kyouji wondered if Himitsu couldn't have picked a more easily accessed area. He did remember he'd been hit by a van, right? Waiting until the ache dulled down again, Kyouji stared at the closed door.
While the building was technically one of the gang's official hideouts, it was rarely frequented due to the effort it took to get inside. The downstairs door had been welded shut, and the fire escape was missing its bottom ladder, requiring anyone who that wanted to climb it to use the window ledge (the window was also boarded shut) to boost themselves up.
Suffice to say Yama had never been inside, which was fine by Kyouji.
If it came down to it, Yama'd probably let himself get caught before trying to climb this.
Kyouji laughed at the mental image, before double-checking to make sure none of his bandages had shifted. Though they were completely unnecessary, they did a good job of covering up the scales under the pretense of a wound on his arm, which he should have sustained anyway.
Opening the door, Kyouji let his eyes adjust to the relative darkness, picking out what he hoped was Himitsu's heat signature before his eyes normalized to the level of light in the room. Himitsu was working at the sole computer in the decrepit apartment, cursing at the lack of internet, and using his phone to stream information. Leaning back in his chair with a sigh, Himitsu spotted Kyouji just as he shut the door behind him.
"You got here fast- thought ya said you'd been hit by a truck."
"It was a van."
Kyouji had called after escaping the group to ask where he wanted to meet to exchange the papers. Himitsu refused to text, and deleted all texts received before reading them, claiming they were too easy to trace and use as evidence.
Himitsu clearly hadn't finished yet, so Kyouji plopped himself onto the couch, biting back a groan when his injuries protested at the movement. Cuts, scrapes, burns, scratches, and the like were made null by the scales, but bruises or anything beneath the skin would have to heal normally.
"Why'd you get hit, anyway? You're fast enough to get out of the way."
Kyouji was not telling him about the couch; he'd never live it down.
"Wasn't paying attention. I did move a bit, otherwise it would have been worse."
"If you say so, Jadoku." Himitsu turned back to the screen, returning to the task at hand. "I'd say it's a string of bad luck, if ya ask me."
"I didn't." The last thing Kyouji needed was for any remaining luck he had to turn sour.
"Just saying, maybe we should start calling you 'Kyouji'."
"You're hilarious." Kyouji's deadpan voice drew a chuckle from Himitsu, who checked his phone again and inputted something else in the computer.
The room fell comfortably silent, except for the sounds of the computer, until Himitsu finally pushed away and moved to one of the other machines standing against the wall.
"If they'd just set up the internet here, my life would be so much easier." Himitsu griped as he finished up the paperwork. "I mean, I get the need to keep this place under the radar, but it isn't that hard to encrypt a signal."
He turned to Kyouji, as if expecting him to fix the problem.
"Don't look at me. I don't do tech, I just know what it's worth."
"Which is why your phone deeply saddens me." Himitsu put the finished documents into a packet, binding it shut.
"Then give me a new one."
"You know I don't do anything for free." Himitsu grinned as he dropped the packet on Kyouji. "This is officially out of my hands, I can't be held responsible when those guys actually kill you."
"It was an accident; they were actually pretty nice about it..." Kyouji trailed off, remembering how they'd tried to treat him. It was too bad he couldn't let them; they could have given him something for the pain, if nothing else.
"Oi."
Kyouji startled and then glared at Himitsu, having been poked in the forehead.
"Just keep your mind on the job. You still gotta pay me when this is all over, so try not to get yourself killed... by either side."
Gee, thanks for the reminder.
"I'm not an idiot, I was just thinking about how I got a look in the back room. Looks like they own whatever is upstairs, too, and it isn't open to the public."
Himitsu chuckled, raising his hands in mock surrender. "Okay, okay. I'll leave you to plot."
Stretching as he made his way to the door, Himitsu paused and turned back to Kyouji.
"Just..." He tapped his phone against his hand, considering his words. "Don't get too attached."
Kyouji rolled his eyes at him, and Himitsu waved with a quick "Ja ne," before he was out the door.
Kyouji didn't feel like going back out the fire escape anytime soon, as he felt the effects of adrenaline leaving his system. A wave of exhaustion hit him over the head and the ache in his side apparently decided it wasn't making itself known well enough. He looked to the exit debating if there might be a better place he could go to spend the night.
…not worth the effort.
He was cautious enough to consider the possibility, however slim, of someone a little less than friendly coming in, and he forced himself to stand with a groan, picking up the packet as he went. The exterior door's lock was broken, so he made his way downstairs, locking that door behind him, and settled into one of the couches there, figuring it was as safe as any place to catch up on some sleep.
The van pulled in front of the café and Gogo hopped out of the passenger seat, passing Tadashi's coat and scarf to Hiro, as well as his own winter regalia. Unlocking her bike, she pulled her recently returned helmet over her head, readjusting the strap that had been tightened to fit a child.
"Well, I've got to run. I do have a life outside of you guys."
"How could you?" Fred quipped.
Gogo rolled her eyes at him, popping a stick of gum in her mouth before speeding off.
Honey Lemon handed the keys back to Wasabi and climbed out herself, heading to the side door that didn't lead directly to the café. Hiro sat for a second with the pile of winter items in his lap, trying to figure out how he would pick up Tadashi without dropping anything, when said five year old stirred against him, waking up.
"Good morning, Teddy!" Fred said cheerfully.
"Fred?" Tadashi looked around, confused for a moment before yawning and sitting up straight, rubbing at his eyes. "Not morning... still afternoon."
Hiro laughed and mussed up Tadashi's hair before pushing on the back of his head to prompt him to get out the van. Tadashi batted at Hiro's hand and climbed out, allowing the others in the back seat the moving space to do likewise.
"I'm going to head out, too. It was cool hanging with you guys, but I'm going to call it a day." Wasabi spoke from the front seat, and it was obvious that he wasn't entirely comfortable being behind the wheel. The van pulled out, and Wasabi was clearly staying as close to the median of the roadway as possible.
Hiro pulled everything under one arm so that he could unlock the house door, and he let the other three in before shutting it behind him.
As they hung their coats on the rack, Honey Lemon brought up the idea of testing Tadashi's tears at her lab, seeing what they reacted with and other basic tests.
"Hey, Tadas-" Receiving a warning glare from Fred, Hiro paused, changing his words mid-sentence. "-Teddy, could you go get that vial from upstairs and give it to Honey Lemon? I've got to go reopen the café."
Tadashi nodded, having already removed his boots, and padded up the stairs in his socks with Fred following closely behind, asking if he still knew how to play video games.
Hiro laughed, shaking his head, and he and Honey went to the main of the café to open up. Honey started up the machines as Hiro went to unlock the door. Through the glass he saw an old woman, in clothing meant for women easily fifty years younger, hitting the glass repeatedly with her umbrella.
Wasabi is going to have a conniption if that left scratches.
As he unlocked the door, the lady put a hand on her hip, scowling at Hiro.
"If you are going to change your hours, you should post them."
"Oh, I'm sorry, Ms. Masuda, they haven't changed. Something came up."
"Well, I certainly hope it was important." She continued chastising him as she walked into the shop. "You run a business; there's no excuse for laziness. When Cass was running the place, we never had this sort of problem."
Well Aunt Cass isn't here.
Hiro bit the inside of his cheek to keep from retorting as they made their way to the counter, behind which Honey Lemon had just turned on the cash register.
"I certainly hope she didn't have anything to do with it."
As the old lady brushed past him to look at the pastries on display, Hiro had to remind himself that it wasn't okay to trip old people, no matter how much they asked for it. He traded places with Honey Lemon at the register and asked if she would refill Mochi's food bowl before she left, and she agreed.
Glancing through the back room, Hiro watched Tadashi pass the vial to Honey Lemon before receiving a quick goodbye hug. Hiro turned back to the café when he heard an impatient clearing of the throat, and hurried to fill the order.
"Here you go, come back soon." As Hiro exchanged the food for money, he received nothing but a mumbled "young people these days" in return before the old lady walked out the door.
When she was gone, Hiro sighed and leaned forward onto the counter, running a hand through his hair. Before Tadashi had come back, he'd been able to run the café easily on his own, with minimal help from Wasabi. He'd even had time to dedicate to designing or improving his prosthetics, but now...
Hiro sighed again, turning and brewing himself a cup of coffee. The past few days had been insane, and it didn't look like things were going to be letting up anytime soon. Hiro didn't want to miss any moment that could be spent with his returned brother, but he did have responsibilities that he'd been frankly ignoring. He hadn't even spared much time for Baymax, and that was just... wrong. It was easy to turn him off and ignore him for a while, but he had become part of the family and he shouldn't just be thought of in emergencies. Hiro decided he'd activate him at closing time, and see what Tadashi and Fred were getting up to.
Letting the coffee cool, Hiro returned to the problem at hand. He couldn't easily run the café on his own, not if he wanted to spend any quality time with Tadashi. He wouldn't put the responsibility on Wasabi, either; he still had classes to attend, and he'd want to spend his free time with the group as well.
The money wasn't the issue, Hiro just didn't want something Aunt Cass had worked so hard to build up to fall apart in her absence. She'd be crushed when she found out. And she would find out. One of these days, she was going to wake up and come back, and everything could go back to the way it was. Hiro just had to believe that with enough conviction, and it would be true.
Finally taking a sip of the coffee, Hiro considered another option that he had rejected before, thinking he could handle everything himself. He could always try hiring someone. Granted, he'd have to get to know them pretty well, and he couldn't leave them on their own at first, the place was connected to his house after all. There were always preventative measures he could take.
How does one even go about hiring someone? Hiro remembered seeing 'help wanted' signs in stores before, but he really didn't want to deal with a crowd of potential applicants. Just one, maybe two people would do.
As another customer entered the store, Hiro decided he'd give it more thought later.
Upstairs, Fred and Tadashi had started up the Wii, since it was the only game system that Tadashi could comfortably hold the controller for, and were currently trying to destroy each other in Super Smash Bros Brawl.
Fred was making wild movements, claiming they made a real difference to the gameplay, while Tadashi was almost completely still, heavily focused on the game. Every now and then, Tadashi's fingers would slip up and Fred would get a good hit in, but Tadashi was still able to beat him like he always had in the end.
The victory screen came up, and Link celebrated as Bowser clapped in the background.
"Let's go again. I know I can beat you with Pokémon Trainer!"
As it turned out, he couldn't.
Four rounds later, and Fred finally admitted defeat.
"I give up, Teddy. I surrender." Fred flopped back in the beanbag before getting up to change the disk.
"You just have a very predictable move set. If you varied it a little—"
"I'll just crush you in Mario Kart." Fred clearly wasn't up for taking advice.
"You can try."
It was more even at the end of that round of gaming; Fred was actually able to win the tiebreaker game for the victory.
"Yes! Sweet victory!"
Tadashi just laughed at Fred's reaction, unclipping the controller and putting it away.
"How does it feel to win against a five year old?"
"Don't spoil this for me, Teddy. You aren't just a normal five year old; I can officially say I beat a phoenix at video games!" Fred did an impromptu victory dance that left Tadashi laughing.
When both guys had calmed down, Fred plopped back into his beanbag before turning to Tadashi.
"So, do you want to go see what Hiro's up to?"
Tadashi shook his head in response.
"He's probably busy, I don't want to bother him."
"He wouldn't be upset, dude. Trust me. But, you know, your choice."
Tadashi's message alert went off, -'Hey, listen!'-, and he opened it up, checking the text from Honey Lemon.
"What's up?"
"Honey sent some preliminary test results to my phone." Tadashi stood up and started pacing, absentmindedly running the hand that wasn't holding the phone along the back of his neck. "It's just basic stuff, but I can work with this!"
Tadashi stopped pacing and turned to Fred, looking like he was considering something.
"Would you like to be a test subject?"
**A.N.: So, I found some really cool fan art for this story on tumblr, by furaill. It is always super cool to see others create things for my story. If you've done something you want me to see, let me know! I want to see it! You can shoot me a message at amalgamoffaces**