*A.N. Now that mid-terms are over, I actually have time to write again! Thank you to those that reviewed!*

Hiro blearily fumbled for his phone, determined to stop the dub-step-esque sounds that it screeched out into the room before it woke the entire neighborhood. After finally pressing the puzzle pieces in the right order (what idiot decided that putting a puzzle lock on an alarm was a good idea?), Hiro slumped back against the mattress with a groan.

Note to self: two hours of sleep no longer cuts it.

He couldn't bring himself to regret staying up as late as he had, though he wished he could laze around in bed a bit longer. He glanced over at the materials strewn haphazardly across his workspace and mentally berated his past self for being lazy and not taking them back to the garage before falling into bed. At least now he had a couple of possible solutions for whatever was going on with Tadashi.

Yawning widely, Hiro checked his phone again. He still had an hour to get ready, and he struggled with motivating himself to get out of bed. A glimpse through the divider told him that Tadashi hadn't so much as stirred from the blaring noise, and was still curled up on his side, oblivious to the world around him. Hiro sighed as he rolled onto his back, holding the phone above his face and watching the minute counter on the digital clock slowly change digits. The smaller print below the time told him that it was Friday, November 19th.

But November just started... and now Thanksgiving's in less than a week... at least it's Friday. Day off tomorrow... yay...

Hiro didn't even have the energy to be mentally excited, and ran through the checklist in his head of things he still needed to tell people, ask people, do for people... In addition to everything involving Tadashi (which he was not stressed out about, not one little bit), the holidays were coming up, faster than he would like. Even without all of the recent insanity, trying to plan anything with everyone's busy schedules was like herding cats.

Hiro heard light scratching near the foot of his bed, and dropped his phone on his face in surprise. Wincing, he sat up and glared at Mochi as he stopped scratching and began to purr and rub along the wooden bedframe, asking Hiro for attention.

Think of the devil and he shall appear.

Hiro dragged himself out of bed and scooped Mochi up into his arms, before making his way over to the food bowl. He set the old cat down and opened a can of vile smelling slop that he still couldn't believe the cat actually liked. Once the cat food had been successfully transferred to the bowl, a task the sleep-deprived Hamada mentally congratulated himself for, Hiro began to prepare for the day.

When he came back upstairs after his shower, Hiro noticed that the scratchy feeling in the back of his throat hadn't gone away. He had chalked it up to having possibly slept with his mouth open, but it should have faded in the time he had been awake.

Maybe allergies are making a comeback. Why is it so cold in here?

Hiro shivered and checked the windows to make sure they weren't letting in any drafts, but found that they were all closed and latched, like they always were. Sighing, he activated Baymax, deciding that if Tadashi could sleep through the clamorous noise that barely passed as music from his phone, then Baymax wouldn't wake him up.

"Good morning, Hiro. What seems to be the trouble?"

"I dunno, probably nothing, but could you do a quick scan to make sure I don't have anything contagious?" Hiro didn't mind working while under the weather; some of his more... interesting ideas came from working while he wasn't feeling well. However, he didn't want to get anyone else sick if he could avoid it.

"Scan complete, no contagious diseases detected. However-"

"Yeah, yeah. I know I'm sleep-deprived. I'm aware I need to drink more fluids. I should probably eat healthier. I need to get out the winter bedding, and I should probably buy a space heater. Happy?"

Hiro was making his way over to his desk, trying to determine how much he could clean up before he was needed downstairs, when he heard Baymax make an odd noise behind him.

"...Did you just sigh at me?" Hiro glanced incredulously over his shoulder at the airbag with legs, wondering if he had simply imagined things.

"I am a robot. I do not breathe."

Hiro stared at it for a moment, struggling to find words, before clearing his throat to relieve the itchiness. It didn't help.

"Whatever, buddy." Hiro shoved a handful of tools into a cloth bag, clearing at least a little space on his desk. He made his way over to Baymax, satisfied with the cleaning job for the moment. "Can you pull up the patient file for Tadashi? Do a quick scan of him, while you're at it."

Hiro looked over it, pulling up the temperature chart from the night before and another from a previous scan. The temperatures were high in both, but it was only the more recent one that had specific concentrations of heat. When Baymax finished the scan, Hiro placed the newest chart alongside the other two. Tadashi was warmer than in the earliest scan, but there wasn't a significant difference in temperature between his shoulder blades anymore. Hiro shrugged and stretched his arms out above his head. Things seemed to be under control for the moment, and he had a possible back-up if it got bad again.

The previous night Hiro had designed a patch that could cover the marks, while still channeling the temperature to prevent a build-up of heat. It was something of a gel-covered fabric coolant that could be attached easily, but wouldn't pull at the skin when removed.

Hiro sighed as he pushed a hand through his hair. If he was wrong about what was going on, and the raised temperature became uncontrollable everywhere... well, that could be a problem. He could design a closer-fit fabric lining for him to wear, but if the issue with his back was that something was pressing against it, none of what he'd come up with so far would help.

Whatever, he was a genius; he'd figure something out eventually. For the moment, he'd just let his brother sleep.

"Hey, Baymax. Make Tadashi your primary patient and watch him while I'm downstairs, okay? I'll be back around lunch time to check on him."

Baymax plopped itself down at the foot of the bed, and Mochi made his way over to curl up on it's lap. When the robot began petting the cat, murmuring about a "hairy baby," Hiro rolled his eyes and made his way downstairs.

Spoiled cat.

The cup of coffee Hiro had downed was doing nothing for his energy levels, and only briefly helped his throat. He unlocked the café door, but left the closed sign up, since the café wasn't due to open for another twenty minutes. Still feeling like he was trying to move through molasses, Hiro made and consumed another cup of coffee, before giving up on caffeine and starting a batch of hot cocoa. He didn't bother putting more than a couple of batches of pastries in the ovens, since Fridays were for clearing out the week's merchandise and making room for what would be made early on Sunday.

Leaning heavily against the counter, Hiro lifted his head towards the door when the jingling sound reached his ears. Kyouji stepped into the café, and hung a black umbrella on one of the hooks by the door.

Hiro addressed him as he made his way to the counter. "Could you flip the sign on the door to 'open'? I don't want to walk all the way over there."

Kyouji hummed in acknowledgement before fixing the sign.

Hiro yawned and rested his head against his arms, wondering if he could just take a nap. "It looks like we won't be too busy today, since the weather report says it's going to storm. Though, I guess you already knew that." Hiro nodded towards the umbrella.

"Haha, yeah." Kyouji adjusted the sleeve of his light jacket. "It's so cloudy out there that it's like nighttime, so I borrowed it from... a friend."

Hiro noticed the slight pause, but chose not to comment on it, especially since his throat decided to remind him that it felt like he had swallowed sandpaper. He gave a couple of dry coughs before burying his head in his arms again.

"I guess it would be kind of dumb to ask if you were feeling okay." Kyouji made his way behind the counter and pulled one of the sheets of cooked pastries from the oven when the timer went off.

Hiro chuckled, wincing slightly at the pull on his throat. "Agreed. I'm fighting it with sugar and caffeine, but I don't think it's working. I promise it's nothing contagious."

Kyouji shook his head. "I wasn't worried about that. I don't get sick."

Hiro turned to look at him incredulously. "Ever?"

He broke eye contact, and his eyebrows furrowed in concentration as he tried to remember a time he'd ever been sick outside of food poisoning. Eventually, Kyouji shook his head.

"Lucky."

Kyouji let out something between laughter and a scoff, as if he was in on some joke Hiro didn't know about.

"What?" Hiro asked. "Being sick sucks."

"I'm sure it does." Kyouji grinned in amusement.

"Don't patronize me." Hiro buried his face in his arms again.

"Your drink's ready."

Hiro moved faster than he had all morning, taking the hot cocoa from underneath the machine and downing half of it in a quick series of gulps. Kyouji just stared.

"That was boiling water a couple of seconds ago."

"And now the machine has made it wonderful hot cocoa for me to enjoy. You're starting to catch on." Sarcasm was so much fun.

Kyouji rolled his eyes, though he reluctantly grinned. "I meant that you should be writhing in pain, since you probably managed to scald yourself all the way to your stomach."

Hiro shrugged. "I didn't, though. The machine probably hasn't warmed up all the way." He finished the rest of his drink, before setting the machine for another. His throat was soothed for the moment, but he didn't know how long it would last.

Roughly an hour after the two opened the shop, Hiro's prediction came true when the skies opened up and rain began to beat the concrete into submission. They'd only had a couple of customers come in to get their morning coffee, and it didn't look like there were going to be any more for a while.

Hiro stretched as he looked up at the clock. After two additional cups of hot cocoa (followed by a quick bathroom break), his throat was feeling much better, and the sugar was keeping him semi-coherent. He decided that it was too early for the lunch crowd, which in addition to the downpour outside, meant that he probably could spare a moment to go check on Tadashi.

"Hey, Kyouji. I'm going to go check on my brother. I'll be back in a bit." Hiro made his way into the backroom. "Try not to destroy anything while I'm gone."

"Take all the fun out of everything, why don't you?"

"I do my best."

Once Hiro had made his way up the stairs, he saw that Tadashi had indeed woken up. He was still sitting on the bed, with his white teddy bear clutched in his arms. He was still in his pseudo-pajamas, and he was being very careful not to let the bear touch his skin. Baymax was hovering nearby.

"Hey, buddy. How'd you sleep?"

Tadashi shrugged, but didn't relax his rigid posture. Hiro had been afraid this would happen.

"It's going to be okay, you know." Hiro started rifling through the materials he had left around his workstation. "We'll figure something out. I may have already come up with something that could help, so if you'll pick out what you are going to wear toda-"

"I'm not moving."

Hiro looked over at Tadashi, surprised at the response. Tadashi took it as a cue to continue.

"Until we are sure that I won't burn something or someone, I'm staying right here."

Hiro crossed his arms over his chest. "Don't be ridiculous, you've got this. Besides, what if you have to use the bathroom?"

Tadashi paused to think. "... I'll use the one in here, but you can't make me go downstairs."

Okay, he's agreed to leave his bed. Step two.

"And if you get hungry?" Hiro leaned against the desk, focusing on his brother instead of what he was looking for.

Tadashi looked up at him like he'd just asked the dumbest question in the world. "You'll bring me food."

"What if I don't?" Hiro knew he would probably cave once actually asked, but he really wanted his brother to stop these attempts at self-isolation. It wasn't healthy... he would know.

His brother just looked over at the inflatable marshmallow. "Then I'll have Baymax get me some."

"I could stop him." Again, he wouldn't actually, but he was going to help Tadashi, even if he had to bully him to do it.

Tadashi squeezed the bear tighter, looking up at his brother in exasperation that was bordering on anger. "Why are you doing this?"

"Because it's too easy to make this a habit." Hiro crossed the room, so that he came to stand in front of his brother. "You can't just shut yourself away. What about our friends? Are you going to shut them out completely? What about Aunt Cass? We don't know when she'll come home, but are you going to ignore her until then?"

Tadashi rested his chin on the bear's head, before quickly straightening again, in order to avoid contact. He finally shook his head, setting the bear on the nightstand to avoid accidently scorching it. "Just until we fix this."

"And when would you consider this 'fixed', huh? When you're so suffocated that you explode? You didn't react this badly yesterday-"

"But it's getting worse!" Tadashi buried his head in his hands. "I kept waking up last night whenever I accidentally rolled on my back, and it took longer and longer for the pain to go away, which means each time it happened, more heat built up, and it was already over 300 degrees last night, when it was just a shirt pressing against it, and do you understand how bad that is?"

Hiro had no idea how to respond to that, but his focus shifted abruptly, and his eyes widened. He began to think that his original idea wasn't going to cut it.

"Baymax, can you scan him real quick? And take a picture while you're at it."

Tadashi looked up at his brother in fury, before he realized that the lighting in the room was remarkably different. "...Hiro?"

"Well, congratulations, Tadashi. I think you are officially Fred's new favorite." Hiro's semi-hesitant smirk, as well as his own suspicions, caused Tadashi to glance behind himself.

From where the charcoal stripes had peeked out of the cuts in the back of his shirt, flames grew outward and away from his body in two distinct forms. Though they we nearly insubstantial around the edges, they looked solid at the center, as if something could rest on the bright orange and gold masses that flickered with crimson.

Tadashi felt like his brain had short-circuited. Wings. He had wings.

He had giant. Flaming. Dangerous. Wings.

*A.N. Hiro's not actually sick. Just some food for thought :). I have recognized some of your usernames on tumblr, and I welcome you. For the moment, that has also been put on the back-burners so I can focus on school, but when things calm down, I should be able to dedicate more time to everything. My goal at the moment is one of these chapters a week, posted sometime on the weekend. Thank you all for the support!*