Hiro made his way up the stairs after closing the café at the end of the day and found Fred laughing hysterically on the couch while Tadashi stood in the center of the room, pouting and wiping very clear tears out of his eyes. Hiro paused at the top of the stairs, sniffing the air.
"Do I smell onions?"
"...maybe." Tadashi was still wiping at his profusely watering eyes. "Apparently, irritating the eyes doesn't produce the right type of tears."
"Well, we know tickling wor-"
"Don't you dare." Tadashi glared up at Hiro, crossing his arms.
Hiro tried, he really did, but he couldn't stop the bubble of laughter from escaping him in response to Tadashi's petulant face.
If he stomps his foot, so help me...
When the laughing died down, Fred stood up and stretched, checking the time on his phone.
"Well, we can't test what we don't have, so guess I'll be headed out."
"You sure you don't want to stay for dinner?"
"Tempting, but my mom decided to institute a family dinner night. Heathcliff's making a feast!" Fred started towards the stairs, picking up his bag as he went. "I'd invite you guys, but family meals are sacred, or something like that."
"It's cool. Later, Fred!"
"Later, Hiro! Bye, Teddy!" Dispensing a quick hug to Hiro before picking Tadashi up and swinging him around in a small circle, before setting him down and dashing down the stairs. The front door closed behind him, leaving the two brothers alone in the café.
"I don't think I will ever get used to that." Tadashi held his head to stop the room's spinning, while Hiro just laughed.
"I'm pretty sure it won't end any time soon. You're not exactly difficult to lift."
As if to demonstrate, Hiro picked him up and set him on one of the stools at the kitchen counter. With the constant presence of the group at each other's houses over the years, everyone (except for Fred) had invested in additional seating so that no one had to sit on the floor, or, as Fred once tried, on each other.
Hiro glanced at the cutting board on the counter with part of the onion in pieces, wondering if it was worth actually cooking something or if they should just grab some pastries from downstairs. Though, to be completely honest, the thought of the smell of a pastry was enough to make Hiro slightly nauseous. Working around something all day most days of the week would be enough to make anyone sick of it. Even coffee had become a necessity rather than something he enjoyed.
It didn't help that he was starting to subconsciously associate the café's food with rude people. He had gotten multiple comments, even after Ms. Masuda had left, about closing the café. The comments themselves had ranged from worried to irritated, but no one had responded positively when he failed to provide a good enough reason (in their opinion) of closing early. It was understandable to be a bit upset, but seriously?
Tadashi took note of Hiro's silence, watching as his eyebrows drew together in thought as he stared vacantly at the cutting board on the counter.
"I'm pretty sure an onion isn't that interesting."
When Hiro only responded with a small hum of acknowledgement, not so much as glancing at him, he knew something was up.
"What's wrong?"
Hiro pinched the bridge of his nose, as if he had a slight headache, before looking up with a wan smile. "Don't worry about it, it's not a big deal."
"I'm already worried, just tell me." Tadashi set his head down on his folded arms, looking up at Hiro as he waited for a proper response.
"It'll sort itself out eventually. It's just the craziness of dealing with the café on top of all this..." Hiro vaguely gestured, leaving Tadashi uncertain how to reply, so he fell back on his habitual reply.
"I'm sorr-"
Hiro cut him off.
"Don't. Don't even apologize. I much prefer this to what it was like before."
Tadashi clenched his teeth, giving a small hum in reply to prevent another apology from slipping out, since he considered that as his fault, too.
"So... what do you want for dinner?" Hiro opened the fridge and fished around, finding eggs, some celery, butter... and not much else. Hiro mentally added grocery shopping to the list of things he needed to get done that he had put off.
"Dunno."
"That's very helpful." Considering the dried foodstuffs in the pantry, Hiro decided to go with something easy. "Stir-fry it is, then."
Tadashi hopped down from his stool to dig some chicken out of the freezer, putting some in a bowl of water to thaw quickly. It took some creative maneuvering, but he managed to keep everything in the bowl and get it situated on the counter. Hopefully the chicken would be an appropriate temperature by the time Hiro needed to cut it up.
Hiro started boiling some water to cook the rice, and sliced the unused part of the onion and the recently washed celery into thin strips. When the rice was about half way done, Hiro took the meat from the bowl... only to find that it was still mostly frozen.
"And this is why we need a microwave upstairs."
While Hiro was checking the other piece of chicken, Tadashi got an idea. Since the issue was that the meat wasn't warm enough, maybe he could do something about it. He'd channeled heat before, if unintentionally. He winced as he remembered what he had done to Callaghan, and decided he needed more practice in order to possibly control it.
Leaning on the counter from his stool, he reached out a couple of fingers to the meat on the cutting board. Concentrating on tensing his arm and trying to imagine warming up, (and feeling slightly ridiculous while doing so), Tadashi lightly touched the piece of meat.
The effect was instantaneous: a loud 'pop' filled the kitchen, similar to the sound of shattering ice, and Tadashi cried out in surprise, jerking backwards. Unfortunately, he had been balanced precariously on the stool, and the movement caused him to topple off of it. He landed with a thud on the hardwood floor.
"Ow!" The collision was more surprising than actually painful; he had landed on his back and rolled to his side, his head not even hitting the floor.
"Tadashi!" Hiro came around the side of the counter, crouching down to inspect the (nonexistent) damage, just as Baymax finished inflating from his crate. "You okay?"
"Mhmm." Tadashi nodded, more embarrassed than anything.
"You have fallen." Baymax displayed the pain chart on his front. "On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?"
"Maybe a 1." Tadashi stood up with a hand of assistance from Hiro. He hadn't hit the ground particularly hard; he'd be surprised if he were even bruised the next day. "No medical attention required."
Baymax immediately backed down.
"Wait. That's all you have to say to make him stop?"
"...yeah?"
"Are you serious? I've had to shut him down so. many. times."
"The phrase I taught you is only for when the treatment is complete. Baymax was meant to stick around until the patient was completely cured, so I made something to stop him trying to treat a non-injury." Tadashi tilted his head, looking up at his brother. "Wasn't it obvious?"
"Well, yeah. Now that I know what it is." Hiro thought back to his first couple of interactions with Baymax, admitting that asking him to shrink probably wasn't the best method to start out with.
"You had him for five years and you never thought of that? Not once?"
"Hush."
"The food on the stove is reaching unsafe temperatures." Baymax interrupted the brothers and pointed into the kitchen.
"Ah! Crud!" Hiro pulled the rice off of the burner, scooping off the top portion into a bowl before checking the damage to the rest.
There was a firm layer stuck to the bottom and sides of the pot, but it didn't seem burnt. Scooping out what he could and putting it in a separate bowl, Hiro turned back to the meat and vegetables. It looked like this was going to be a two-course meal. Looking at the meat, Hiro noticed that the piece Tadashi had touched had a single charred dot about the width of a fingerprint with a circle of decreasing degrees of brownness expanding from it, until just the tips were still pink.
Hiro let out a low whistle as he quickly prepared the other (now mostly thawed) piece and put it in the skillet with some oil and the vegetables.
"Dang, you really let it have it."
"Sorry... I wasn't thinking. I'll eat what's edible of that piece." Tadashi reached out to take it, but his hand was batted away by Hiro, who began to separate the cooked part from the raw with a fresh knife.
"Nah. We'll split it... the cooked part anyway. Then I can say that I've eaten something cooked with your bare hands."
Tadashi laughed at that. "You're so weird."
"Look who's talking." Hiro passed him the bowl of rice that he had taken from the top of the pot. "Eat up, before it gets cold."
"With what? I mean, I understand your eating habits, but I'm not ready to just stick my face in-"
"If you'd give me half a second..." Hiro passed a fork over to Tadashi, who looked at it like it was an alien contraption before looked pointedly at the rice and then at Hiro.
"This is an atrocity."
"Just eat your food."
Tadashi did, but as soon as Hiro's attention was back on the contents of the stove, he turned to Baymax, gesturing at Hiro as if saying: 'See what I have to deal with?' If he was expecting some sort of expression of solidarity, he was to be disappointed. Baymax simply blinked before walking over to Hiro and warning him of the danger of cooking meat that wasn't completely thawed.
Tadashi sighed. It wasn't quite what he had meant, but it was a good point. The chicken could pop and scald Hiro with the released grease.
Tadashi let his mind wander until Hiro placed the plate of soy-sauce drenched meat and vegetables on the counter in front of him. As he pulled some into the bowl, he noticed Hiro make the face that indicated that he was going to say something that he thought Tadashi probably wouldn't like.
"So, with the way things have been lately, I was thinking of bringing in some help to run the café."
Tadashi looked up at Hiro, surprised. Sure, Hiro had complained about the difficulties of managing the café, but Hiro was someone who rarely asked for help, especially from someone he didn't know. There'd never been someone outside of their close friends and family working at the café. It was part of their home.
Hiro continued hurriedly, even though Tadashi hadn't yet shown signs of disapproval. "It'd be useful to have someone to watch the shop if I need to leave, or even just want to leave sometime. I can't always have Wasabi cover for me, either. I still don't know how he's managing doctorate level courses and still being around whenever I need him. I guess that's just Wasabi, though. Um, anyway, I thought I should get your opinion before I started looking."
Tadashi didn't answer right away; he rarely did if it was something important. Finally shrugging, he turned again to Hiro.
"It makes sense, we'd just have to be careful, what with the café being connected to the house so openly."
Hiro relaxed. He probably would have hired someone anyway, but it was good to have Tadashi on his side.
"We'll be fine. Seriously, what's the worst that could happen?"
The next day, Honey Lemon and Fred stopped by and hung out upstairs with Tadashi and Baymax. Stuck working downstairs in the café, Hiro dreaded to think what they were getting up to. Luckily, he was kept busy enough that he didn't have the time to dwell on it.
Hiro didn't remember Tuesdays being this busy, but he guessed that he was probably just feeling the effects of not having someone to hang out with while working.
Wasabi's absence was mainly due to the need to get a handle on his assignments again, after letting them slip slightly at Tadashi's reappearance. Of course, Wasabi's 'slacking' was usually much more effort than most people put into their schoolwork, so his grades hadn't even been affected. Still, it was the principle of the thing.
Hiro was filling orders for the heavy lunch crowd when a familiar shock of red hair caught his attention as he returned to the counter.
"Oi, Kyouji!" The redhead startled a bit, before finally approaching the counter, grinning slightly as he pushed his hair out of his face. Hiro noticed the bandages under his sleeve, guessing he had gotten medical care on his own. "I suppose I got your name right, I wasn't totally sure. How's your arm?"
"It's fine. Like I said, it was just a scrape."
"I'm glad. I can tell Wasabi that you didn't retreat to a corner and die. He was freaking out after you left."
Kyouji chuckled at that.
"That seems to be a specialty of his."
A machine behind Hiro dinged, and Hiro paired the drink with a certain bag before calling out for order number 48, before quickly resetting the machine for the next order.
"Where is he, anyway? It's packed in here."
It took Hiro a second to realize Kyouji was still talking about Wasabi.
"Oh," Hiro checked his watch. "He's probably in class at this point. He only helps out when he can."
Kyouji moved out of the way of the brunette who came to collect his meal. On his way out, he brushed by Kyouji a little harshly, jarring his injured arm. Kyouji spared him a slight glare, ignoring him for the most part, but Hiro was bothered by the occurrence.
"Hey!" But Hiro went ignored. "I can't believe him."
"It's fine." Kyouji just shrugged, lightly holding his arm. "It's not like he could have known."
"Still. Ugh, It's people like that that make me want to dump their coffee on them. Accidentally, of course." Hiro popped the top onto another drink, setting it aside as part of a larger order.
"How are you still in business, again?"
"Hey, I said want to. I wouldn't actually. This place means too much to my aunt to let something happen to it because I couldn't keep my temper."
"Just so long as I don't have to worry about coffee induced burns."
Hiro laughed. "Nah, you're safe. Well... as safe as you can be around here. My friends can be a bit crazy."
"I gathered as much." Kyouji indicated slightly with his injured arm, prompting another chuckle on Hiro's part. He pointed behind Hiro, a slightly worried look on his face. "Speaking of crazy, I think your machine's lost it."
"What?" Hiro turned and of course the devil machine would act up when it was most busy.
The area behind the counter wasn't easily accessible, so Kyouji just passed a stack of napkins over to Hiro as he tried to contain the mess of boiling liquid without scalding himself.
"Could you change the output to water? At least then the mess won't be as bad."
"Um, maybe?" Hiro hit the hot water button, and the machine began running clear, and then responded appropriately when he hit the 'off' button for the fifth time since the mess started. "Oh my gosh, that worked."
Hiro sighed at the pile of damp napkins, tossing them into the trash under the counter. When one of the other machines opened up, he entered the destroyed order, hoping that none of his good machines would decide to go berserk anytime soon. Passing a completed order to a slightly annoyed teen, who had noticed when her order had been finished, Hiro leaned against the counter, feeling a stress headache coming on.
"This is insane." Hiro checked his watch again, estimating how long it would be until Wasabi could possibly arrive, though that wasn't really fair to him. "This was not meant to be a one-person job. I don't know how my aunt did it."
Kyouji made a small noise in agreement.
Hiro called up another order, before again turning to Kyouji. "I'm actually looking to hire someone; I've reached the limit of what I can do on my own. I'd post a sign or something, but..." Hiro shrugged. "I don't want to deal with a bunch of people at once, or with a bunch of high school kids looking for an easy job."
Nodding in agreement, Kyouji shifted his weight to his other leg and crossed his arms before speaking. "So, what would it take to get hired?"
"Wait, you're interested?" Hiro looked slightly surprised, but quickly recovered when Kyouji nodded again. "Oh, um..." Hiro wracked his brain for what employers usually asked for. "I guess just some I.D. and proof that you're not some mass murderer or something."
Kyouji laughed along with Hiro. "Sure, I can do that."
"Cool." Hiro paused before face palming. "Wow, I'm terrible. I haven't even asked what you wanted to order. Here I am, talking your ear off..." Hiro laughed slightly. "What can I get you?"
Kyouji ordered a sandwich and some water, and promised to stop by around closing time to sort things out. When he had left, Hiro let out a sigh of relief. If he'd known it'd be that easy, he wouldn't have worried so much.
Around 3:00, Honey Lemon, Tadashi, and Fred finally came down the stairs for a late lunch. The only customers in the café had already been served and had paid, so Hiro grabbed a sandwich for himself and joined the small group at a table from which he could still keep an eye on the door. Wasabi's class let out at 2:50, so he'd probably arrive soon if Hiro needed someone to cover for him.
When Hiro sat at the table, he noticed something odd.
"Uh, why are Fred's finger's wrapped in bandages?"
"Because Teddy doesn't care about me!"
"I tried! You kept making me laugh!"
"You see? He admits to laughing at my pain."
"Cracking sleeping beauty jokes really wasn't a good method for getting yourself healed." Honey Lemon passed her phone over to Hiro, and he saw a picture of Fred dramatically posing with his pricked finger, while Tadashi was clearly trying to hold in his laughter.
"Honey! You're supposed to be on my side!"
Tadashi spoke up again, desperately trying to clear his name. "It's just a pinprick, it's probably already closed on its own, anyway. The bandages were completely unnecessary. Even Baymax said so."
Fred let out a loud sigh, mock cradling his 'injured' hand. "I guess I'll just have to wait to get superpowers."
"Fred. I already told you the tears aren't likely to do anything other than heal you." Tadashi had clearly had this conversation with him multiple times throughout the day.
"Nope. I'm getting powers. Just watch."
Hiro laughed. "It sounds like you guys had quite the day."
"Mhmm." Tadashi reached for his glass, trying to pick it up with one hand out of habit, but it slipped from his grip. It landed back on the table and Tadashi rushed to steady it with both his hands, but a little was spilt. "Oops."
Hiro passed him a napkin, and he started to clean up the spill.
"Do I need to get you a lid?"
"No." Tadashi glared at his brother, embarrassed by the idea.
"Just asking. Maybe I could grab you a smaller cup."
"It's fine, Hiro. It just slipped. I can do this." Tadashi then picked up the cup with both hands and easily took a sip.
"Okay, okay." Hiro lifted his hands slightly in surrender. "Changing the subject, I think I found someone to help out at the café."
Tadashi abruptly turned his head to his brother. "Already?"
"I didn't know you were looking to hire someone." Honey Lemon looked confused, like she was trying to recall a conversation it would have come up in.
"I only just talked to Tadas-Teddy about it last night."
"Oh, okay." Honey's smile returned, lighting up her features again. "So, who is it?"
"You remember Kyouji, right?"
"The guy Wasabi hit with his van?" Fred hadn't actually had the chance to meet him yet, but it looked like he would soon.
"Oh, you spoke with him? Is he okay?" Honey Lemon's eyebrows furrowed in concern.
"Yeah, he's fine. His arm was wrapped pretty well, and he moved easily enough."
"That's good." Honey Lemon smiled again. "So you're hiring him?"
"Most likely, he's just got to bring me some papers and I can show him how to run the machines, though he seemed to know what to do when the devil machine acted up."
"Again?"
"Yeah..." Hiro detailed the important parts of the day, mentioning everything from the machine to his own lack of customer service in reference to taking Kyouji's order. When he mentioned the guy who shoved past Kyouji, Honey Lemon reacted angrily.
"That jerk!"
"I know, right? And he didn't even turn when I called after him. I can't believe people like him exist."
"I can't wait to meet him!" After receiving some strange looks, Fred realized his mistake. "Kyouji, not the other dude."
"Yeah, just try not to scare him off."
"Won't he need to deal with people on the job? If he can deal with Fred, he can deal with anybody."
Tadashi made a valid point, causing Hiro to laugh while picturing his reaction to Fred's antics.
"That laugh worries me!" Wasabi had just walked through the front door, but paused upon hearing Hiro's cackle.
"Don't worry, you're safe."
"Somehow, that really doesn't make me feel any better."
Hiro just grinned, settling back into his chair as Honey Lemon started talking further about their work upstairs.
**A.N. So, I'm posting this a little later than I normally would, but I wanted to get it right. The last chapter was a little lazy, but school's been catching up to me. *Shrugs* I can't wait to start writing more about Kyouji :).**