**A.N. So, was anyone else super worried when refused to let them log in yesterday?**

Kyouji was halfway back to his father's house when his cell phone started to ring, the tinny jingle feeding his desire to chuck the stupid thing across the street. At present, he strongly disliked the notion of speaking to either of the two people who could call him.

Checking the caller ID, Kyouji relented and brought the phone to his ear.

"Care to explain yourself, Himitsu?" The little stunt at the café had not only reawakened the persistent ache in his side and arm, but had also seemed completely pointless.

Light laughter was heard on the other side of the phone. "You're gonna have to be more specific than that."

"I'm pretty sure you know exactly what I'm talking about." Kyouji waited as Himitsu remained silent, and was about to hang up when he began to speak.

"I thought ya were better at this. D'you check your pockets?"

"Check my-?" Oh. Reaching down into his left pocket, ignoring the twinge in his arm, he pulled out a small black box that easily fit within his palm. On one side was an embedded switch and a small black circle Kyouji bet would light up if activated. "What, are we playing spies now?"

"Already bashing it, and ya don't even know what it is..."

Kyouji rolled his eyes, before looking both ways as he crossed 4th Street; he was not going to be hit again. "Let me guess, I flip the switch and something blows up."

"Hehe, no. Strike one."

"Himitsu, I'm not playing games with you. Why couldn't you just give... whatever it is, to me in person?"

"I did give-"

"That is not what I meant, and you know it." Kyouji was feeling particularly irritable, and if he let Himitsu take the conversation where he would, he might never get the answers he wanted. Turning the small box over in his hands, looking for any other distinguishing marks, Kyouji waited for Himitsu's laughter to stop.

"It's more fun my way. Besides, maybe I got ya some pity points from your new boss."

Kyouji felt his irritation flare again, but mentally tamped it down. There was no reason to make the situation into something it wasn't, just because he was grumpy. "I thought you didn't want anything to do with this... and you still haven't told me what it does."

"-take all the fun outta... fine. Y'know how I was saying a signal isn't that hard to set up? It isn't. Flip the switch and a couple of Fujitas will provide you with a quick getaway... if you get that far."

"I thought you didn't give anything for free?"

"I don't." Himitsu chuckled. "I'm just the messenger and creator. Yama commissioned it. He must really want this to go well if he's offering the assistance of the Fujitas."

Kyouji felt worry begin to gnaw at his stomach.

Yama doesn't have direct control on the Fujitas.

He might have at one point, but he lost that privilege when he got captured. The deadly and efficient group of women only answered to Yama's older brother now...

Which means that this job just got a lot more demanding.

"Yeah... guess so."

"Also, the two wanna meet you before the job. Ya know, to make sure you know it's them and they know it's you. Wouldn't want a mix up on something like this."

Kyouji felt like ice had been shot into his lungs. Those women were certifiably crazy. As in, if you weren't completely necessary for what they needed, your life amounted to less than an insect's, and was completely dependent on their whim.

Himitsu continued, oblivious to Kyouji's distress. "So, I wasn't sure how to set up a meeting for ya, so I just gave them your number."

No. No-no-no-no-no-no. Kyouji choked on air for a moment.

"You did what?"

"D'you need your hearing checked?" Himitsu laughed at his own joke.

This isn't funny!

"Anyway, I gotta go. Keep your phone on you!"

With that, Himitsu hung up, leaving Kyouji to stand with his phone still held to his ear for a couple of seconds. He felt panic creeping on the edge of his mind, but forcefully pushed it back. There was nothing he could do about it at that time, and he had other things that took precedence.

Shoving his phone back in his pocket, Kyouji picked up his pace. He fervently hoped they wouldn't call anytime soon.

Having made his way from the crowded streets of downtown to the less frequented neighborhoods, Kyouji quietly walked around the side of a rundown house and tried the latch on the back gate. Thankfully, it was still unlocked; Kyouji didn't want to deal with the hassle and pain of scaling it, and the front door was not an option.

After picking his way through the tiny, gravel-covered excuse of a backyard, Kyouji ran his fake driver's license along the bottom of his window, forcing the latch up. Easing his fingers under the edge of the pane, he opened the window as quietly as he could and climbed into his room. Slipping the card back in his pocket, he carefully lowered the glass back to its original position so that it would not fall shut.

He listened for sounds of movement in the house before determining that a confrontation was unlikely, and he allowed himself to relax. He hadn't exactly brought any funds in recently to pay the rent his father had imposed upon him when he turned eighteen. If this job went well, he'd be able to walk through the front door like a normal human, or even find a small place of his own.

Kyouji scoffed at this train of thought.

Yeah, keep dreaming.

Walking over to the dresser, he reached out and slid open the top drawer. It was mostly empty, except for the packet he had recently received and a small book of fairytales with a faded picture peeking out of the edges of the pages. Taking the packet, he pushed the drawer shut again, deciding that lingering to reminisce was not a choice he should make at the time.

Besides, he was too old to look at a picture of his mom and wonder what she was like; that was for children. He should probably just get rid of it, like his father had tried to do, years earlier. It wouldn't do him any good, anyway.

Packet in hand, he made his way out the window, letting the latch fall closed behind him. There were still a couple of hours before he needed to go to the café, so he debated the merits of his usual hangouts, finally deciding on the least frequented of them to hole up in until it was time to leave.

Hiro glanced up at the clock, noticing that it was nearing closing time; Kyouji would be back soon. Tadashi, Fred, and Honey Lemon had gone back upstairs, but had promised to return when Hiro texted them to announce Kyouji's arrival.

Tadashi had been very adamant to continue attempting to test his abilities, and Hiro had to wonder what he was planning. He seemed to be having issues actually forming the tears, and the sample that Honey Lemon had taken earlier was contaminated with what she had used to test its chemical composition.

The café finally emptied out as the two remaining customers paid and left; the door's bells jingled at their exit. Taking out a rag and wiping down the table they had vacated, Hiro let himself imagine what methods the people upstairs were using to make Tadashi cry.

"I can hear you thinking from over here." Wasabi had busied himself with the dishes in the back room, and was now standing behind the counter. He had decided to hang around until Kyouji showed up, if only to apologize to him.

"I'm just wondering what they're getting up to up there. I haven't heard any screaming, so I guess they must be okay."

"That's your standard for well-being?"

"Yup." Hiro tossed the rag into the sink and pulled out his phone. He might as well have them come down already, even if Kyouji hadn't yet shown up.

As soon as Hiro had put away his phone, message sent, the café door opened and Kyouji let himself inside. Hiro grinned; his timing was perfect.

"Welcome back!"

Kyouji looked a little surprised at the greeting, but he quickly recovered, smiling and approaching the counter with a packet in one hand. Hiro accepted the packet from him, looking it over, while Wasabi began to speak.

"Hey, I realized I never actually apologized to you for hitting you with my van. Terrible oversight, I know. So, I'm actually really sorry about that."

"Oh, uh... it's okay. I didn't actually notice you hadn't apologized. Your actions spoke for you." Kyouji pulled on the edges of his sleeve, tugging it further over the bandage.

Wasabi shrugged. "Still, it needed to be said, and—"

Whatever Wasabi was going to say was lost as Fred came bursting through the door of the back room. Turning the corner of the counter sharply, he came to a stop a short distance from Kyouji... or tried to anyway.

Fred did actually manage to avoid knocking him over when he lost his balance, but he grabbed Kyouji's arm in the process. Luckily, it was the uninjured one, but Kyouji flinched anyway, before a look of exasperated amusement came over his face.

"...and then there were four." Kyouji was apparently keeping track of the team members who had run into him. Hiro stifled a laugh as he skimmed through the papers; it seemed that the only innocent ones left were Baymax, Gogo, and himself.

"My bad, dude. You're Kyouji, right? I've heard so much about you! Well, only what the others said, but you survived being hit full on by a car! Dude! That's so cool! Did you do a flip? Do you have super strength? Maybe a healing factor?"

"...What?"

Hiro looked on in amusement, comparing the scene mentally with a puppy meeting an owl, since Fred was practically jumping around as per the norm, and Kyouji was standing there somewhat shell-shocked, looking to Wasabi for either assistance or clarification.

"Don't worry about it, he does this with everyone."

"Not everyone."

At this moment, Honey Lemon and Tadashi finally made their way through the door.

"Fred, are you terrorizing him already?" Honey Lemon sounded almost reproachful, causing Fred to take a step back, out of Kyouji's personal space, who visibly relaxed. She turned to Kyouji with a smile.

"I'm glad to see that you're alright. Hiro had said so, but he's been known to overlook things."

Hiro looked up, slightly affronted. "I resent that comment!"

Honey Lemon giggled. "Anyway, it's good to see you again, but I do need to get going. See you around." Waving, she made her way to the door.

"See you."

Hiro noticed Tadashi hanging back, and indicated with his head to talk to Kyouji. Tadashi twisted his fingers together and approached him.

"Hello."

Kyouji looked down at him, pausing momentarily before addressing him. "Hey, you're... um... it begins with a 'T'..."

Before he could continue, Fred interrupted him. "It's okay, he has a new name now. You have to call him 'Teddy.' It's practically the law."

Tadashi sighed, crossing his arms around his middle.

Kyouji just laughed softly. "Yeah, okay, sure. I can remember that."

Hiro had finished looking through the papers and was satisfied. He quickly filed them away, not knowing when he might need them. Gesturing to Kyouji, he led him to the separate machines, explaining each of their functions.

"You don't have to pick up everything at once, since one of the two of us," Hiro indicated to himself and Wasabi, "is going to be with you at first, but there may come days where I have to leave you here on your own, so you need to know how to run everything."

Kyouji simply nodded as Hiro began to explain the different settings on the coffee machine that was most likely to work well.

Tadashi watched his brother as he showed Kyouji around and explained various aspects of the job, with interjections from Fred or Wasabi every now and then.

Thinking back to the first time he had run into Kyouji, he tried to remember what had made him seem... off. However, try as he might, Tadashi couldn't figure out what had made him wary in the first place, and he wasn't being fair to Kyouji by continuing to treat him a certain way based on a split-second judgment.

Besides, he had more pressing matters on his mind than his brother's employment choices. Try as he might, he couldn't get his eyes to do more than water, and if he couldn't get some tears he couldn't test them. If he couldn't test them... then he wouldn't find out if he could use them. If he could... maybe...

He felt like he was brimming with frustration, and he just needed something to push him over the edge, and he would have what he needed.

But... He looked back over to Kyouji. Would it even be okay to start crying now? Fred's antics were bad enough; it wouldn't do to add more freakiness to the mix.

Tadashi found a seat and laid his head on his arms to more comfortably view the on goings of the café, and didn't move until Hiro had said goodbye to the other three and had shown them out the door.

As Hiro was locking the door, Tadashi walked over and lifted his arms in the universal sign for 'up.' It was comforting to have someone carry him, when he was willing, and he figured he should take advantage of it while he still could.

Hiro looked slightly surprised, but complied, easily lifting Tadashi into his arms before making his way up the stairs. Tadashi curled slightly, resting his head on his brother's shoulder. Purposefully being on the verge of tears all day was exhausting.

Hiro dropped him off on the couch in the living room, claiming that it was too early to go to sleep yet.

"So, what's up? How are the 'tests' coming along?"

Tadashi scrunched up his face, bringing his knees up to rest his chin on them.

"Terribly. Every time I think I'm close to crying, Fred will say something, or my mind will try and negate what I was thinking to cause it, and the tears won't come."

"Hey, don't worry. There's no rush."

Tadashi looked up at Hiro, sharply, adopting an expression that was almost a glare. "How can you say that?"

Hiro's brow lowered in confusion. "What d-?"

"What do you mean there's no rush? Of course there's a rush! I have to know how this works, or I can't- I might..." Tadashi bit his lower lip and started to tremble.

Hiro was torn between comforting his brother and just letting him ride out the emotions in order to get the tears that were causing the issue in the first place. Grimacing slightly, he reached for a vial, uncapping it and passing it to Tadashi, who merely took it and rolled it between his hands. He was upset, but he wasn't crying... not yet.

"I-I just... I don't want to make it worse."

"Make what worse?" Hiro was a genius, but there were different types of intelligence, and whatever Tadashi was referring to, he was at a loss.

"Aunt Cass, you bonehead!" Tadashi's voice broke on the last syllable, and tears were in his eyes. "It's just... with my tears, I might be able to help her. I could fix her. But I can't get it wrong! I don't even know if it can help someone in a coma! What if her body rejects it? I might hurt her!"

Tadashi had reached the tipping point, and was crying in earnest, catching the orange tears as they fell as best he could through his sobs.

Hiro felt sick at the sight.

Moving over to sit next to him, Hiro gently took the vial from his hands and capped it, setting it aside before he gathered Tadashi into his arms and began to run his fingers through his hair in a soothing gesture. This misery was unnecessary; he'd already proven he could get the tears through laughter. There was no reason to let Tadashi continue like this.

"It's going to be okay. I promise. We'll figure something out."

Hiro sat there holding him until he finally cried himself to sleep.

**A.N. For those who aren't aware, the Fujitas were a scrapped character design for BH6, and their function was basically what was detailed here (though a bit more kid friendly).**