**A.N.: Here it is! The next, long-awaited update to this fic. Thank you so much to those who reviewed, it's always nice to hear your input, and it truly brightens my day. Without further ado, here is Chapter 28!**

Despite the events of the previous night, Hiro found himself going through the tedious motions of setting up the cafe the next morning, waiting for Fred to arrive. His question had sparked a slew of others in response, some easier to answer than others. Fred had wanted to know everything. In fact, most of the phone call had consisted of Fred switching between asking rapid-fire questions, many of which Hiro had no answer to, and geeking out about not only knowing one, but two people with actual, real-life super powers. After an hour or so of babbling, he'd promised to get back to him with the results of his unique brand of research in the morning.

Hiro might as well have stayed on the phone with him for all the sleep he got. After multiple failed attempts to shut down his brain, he realized sleep was futile, and dedicated his waking hours to creating the initial design for a helmet for Tadashi. He didn't have all of the materials he wanted to use in the final product, and he'd made a mental note to grab them when he could. There wasn't much of a rush; Tadashi was not taking flight again anytime soon. There was no reason to have it high on the priority list with all of the insanity already occurring.

Yawning widely, Hiro unpacked the box that he'd missed sitting near the porch the night before. It contained the necessary memory chip for the register, and he quickly switched it out for the old one.

I need to just design a better register.

It wouldn't be difficult, but he'd wait a while to do so. Kyouji had just gotten used to using the original one, and with... Ara? Yeah, that was her name... coming in, it'd be best to leave things as they were.

Half-heartedly tossing the cardboard in the recycle bin, Hiro glanced around the mostly ready café, checking the time on the large clock above the register. It was odd that Kyouji hadn't arrived yet. He wasn't late, but he'd been coming in earlier than this most days.

Hiro shrugged, dropping down into one of the chairs to think. He'd had Baymax scan him in between brainstorming ideas for the helmet, which would need to be completely fireproof so it didn't melt to his brother, and his fourth attempt at sleep. Hiro mentally berated himself for ignoring the robot's words earlier; he'd thought it was just a cold. He rubbed at his throat, glad the itch was gone, even as he was wary of the results. But the mechanics of it all made sense-

Startling out of his thoughts at the sound of the café door opening, Hiro had to remind himself that people couldn't find out just because he was thinking about it. It was one thing with Tadashi, where his abilities had to be activated, and therefore could be concealed or suppressed. His situation was a bit different, and potentially more dangerous.

Kyouji made his way inside, movements sluggish as he shrugged a rather old looking backpack off his shoulders. He began to hang the bag on one of the pegs near the door, but hesitated. Hiro assumed he didn't want to leave it somewhere it could get easily picked up. There had been a couple items disappear from the café before, and some people were more careful about their things than others.

"Hey, you can leave it in the back, you know." Hiro gestured behind the counter, towards the supply room.

Kyouji looked up, nodding in acknowledgement as he made his way over in silence. The younger male watched as he disappeared from view, the pack hanging from his hand loosely, as he was barely holding onto it.

Hiro frowned lightly once the redhead was out of sight. Sure, it was in essence a Monday, even though the calendar said Sunday, but usually you greeted someone when you first walked in... not that he had either, but he'd been preoccupied. Whatever, it was early.

Hiro stretched, hearing a few pops. He pulled himself out of the chair, checking his phone to see if Fred was on his way. So far, no notice. Not that Hiro could leave until he'd at least started Ara on her task.

The first hour or so was borderline awkward. Once the single regular customer for early Sunday mornings had been served, there wasn't much to do. To make things worse, Kyouji responded only when spoken to, and even though he wasn't usually one to initiate chatter, conversations that Hiro started were stilted.

"So... you do anything fun yesterday?"

Kyouji folded his arms, leaning back on a counter. "Not really."

The response had been somewhat expected. He didn't seem the type to do anything particularly exciting in his spare time. When the question was returned out of politeness, Hiro had to quickly filter the day through the 'normal person' screen.

"Oh, we- uh, well, we went to visit Aunt Cass. She's doing better, a lot better, but they don't want to let her come home yet." Hiro shrugged. "Hospitals, you know? Anyway, we also went to the park- Teddy tried out his new bike and the rest of us just sorta chilled." He shrugged again, trying to appear nonchalant.

Kyouji simply nodded quietly, pushing the hair that fell in front of his eyes out of his face. Hiro wondered if he could tell that he was keeping something from him, but couldn't do much to fix it. It wasn't like he had to tell Kyouji, either. Why was he worried?

The two fell into silence, Hiro checking his phone periodically for the message from Fred as Kyouji went through the basic tasks mechanically, hardly making a noise at all as he worked. It was a little unsettling, and Hiro wondered if it wasn't just fatigue or the fact that it was still earlier than most of the population considered getting up on the weekend.

Watching Kyouji's unchanging expression, Hiro weighed whether it was even a good idea to leave him there when Fred arrived. He hadn't exactly warned him... But Ara was supposed to come in, and Sundays were typically slow... Kyouji'd be fine...

"Hello, hello." Ara waved from the doorway, easily making her way over to the counter, smiling at the two. She glanced around the café. "I'm not late, am I?"

Hiro shook his head. "Nope. Little early, actually." He chuckled amiably at that. "Not that that's a problem. Oh, and I got your paperwork through the email, I just never got around to responding. Everything's good."

"Oh, good." The concern that had begun to grow on her face evaporated. "I wouldn't want to mess up on my first day."

"We wouldn't blame you," Hiro turned to Kyouji, who was staring at a space on the counter in front of him, arms tucked in front of himself. "Would we?"

"Hm?" Kyouji looked up. "Oh, no. Not at all."

Ara laughed lightly. "Welcome back, space cadet."

"Sorry." He let his arms fall to his sides, smiling wryly. "Didn't get a lot of sleep."

She waved away the apology. "No big. Just me trying to be funny."

"Right..."

Hiro looked between the two, before rubbing the back of his neck. "Anyway, we're gonna be trying something new today."

"Well, everything's new for me, so..." Ara shrugged, smiling gently.

Kyouji simply inclined his head, waiting for Hiro to speak.

"Okay, well the thing is, I've got things I need to do today, and as soon as Wasabi gets here to pick up Teddy, and Fred arrives, I've gotta go." Hiro let his words spill out in a rush, ignoring the small script he'd mentally pieced together before either had arrived. "I know this is very last minute and I know it's your first day, Ara, but like, Kyouji can help, and you learn best by teaching or something like that, so..."

Hiro trailed off, but when neither responded, surprised and waiting for him to continue, he cleared his throat and attempted to exude certainty, or at least confidence that things wouldn't go too badly. "Sundays normally are pretty slow until lunch time. The most important thing is getting things stocked before then, since most stuff can't carry over from Friday."

Ara looked a little nervous, but nodded, deciding she could work with that. Kyouji didn't appear as convinced.

"Are you sure? I mean, yeah, we can, but I mean..."

Hiro nodded. "Yeah, it'll be fine. I'll be back sometime this afternoon. Wasabi's got class at 3, so I gotta pick up Teddy by then- not that he'd mind sitting through it, but it's not the best idea."

"He's got more patience than most college students, then." Ara giggled, picturing a little five year old paying more attention than the actual students of the class. "Gogo's mentioned the kind of classes Wasabi takes, I don't think I could stand it."

This made Hiro chuckle. Grad school was an entirely different beast than undergraduate, and even Wasabi admitted to days of fuzz-brain, where nothing stuck.

"Oh! Before I forget." Hiro dug around in his jacket pocket and pulled out his phone. "Just in case something goes wrong, I'll give you guys my number, and I'll have yours in case I need to let you know anything."

Ara happily rattled hers off, quickly receiving the confirmation text from Hiro. Kyouji hesitated.

"I don't have my phone with me right now, and I don't know the number off the top of my head." Kyouji brushed his bangs out of his face, looking away. "Sorry- I didn't think I'd need it. A-and I hardly ever use it..."

"No, no, it's okay." Hiro tore a piece of paper off the notebook left by the register, scribbling down a string of digits. He folded it once and passed the paper to Kyouji. "We can just use Ara's to communicate for today, but here's mine in case it slips my mind later. I'm a little scatterbrained right now, if you haven't noticed."

"I'd never have guessed." Kyouji slipped the paper into his pocket with a small smile. "Thanks."

"Yeah, no problem." Hiro turned to the door when it swung open wildly.

"Hey dudes! Oh, and dudette!" Fred made his way over with barely contained excitement. But his manner wasn't the most apparent thing about him.

"Way to send that message like you said you would." Hiro stifled a laugh once Fred got closer. "Dude, you look like a lobster!"

Fred had not been let off easily of his forgetfulness the day before. His visible skin was various shades of pink and red, splotching harshly on his cheeks to show where the sun had hit the hardest. He winced as he adjusted his beanie out of habit, the brim brushing against his irritated forehead. He laughed.

"My bad. And yeah, man, guess the sun just loves me too much. It's cool, I've had worse."

"Or hates you." Hiro shook his head. "Honey Lemon had sunscreen if you'd bothered to ask."

"You'll excuse me for forgetting." Fred attempted a haughty manner, but quickly dropped back into his more casual way of speaking. "Besides, I'd have had to apply it over and over, with how long I was in the sun. First the island, then the park, I'm surprised I'm not more toasted."

Hiro carefully avoided reacting to Fred's mention of the island, which he'd purposefully left out, but Kyouji didn't seem to notice... or react, at least.

"Did you at least put something on it? To help with swelling, that is." Ara chimed in, eyebrows drawn together in concern. "It looks pretty serious."

"Nah, it's not that bad." Fred shrugged it off. "One time, I turned purple. Now, that sounds cool, but trust me, you do not want to let it get that bad. I have permanent freckles from when I was eight."

"Aren't most freckles permanent?" Hiro checked his cell when a small, edited clip of 'Sail' played. Wasabi about to leave, and only lived a short distance away. He'd better make sure Tadashi was ready. "Just wait until it's time for that to peel. You're going to look like a lizard."

Fred laughed outright, following Hiro towards the back room. "I prefer the term 'Kaiju'. I shall become the mascot: Roar!"

"Wait, do lizards, er-Kaiju's even shed?" Hiro's voice was barely audible from the stairs.

"Wow, Hiro-" Fred's laughter drowned out any reply, and they could no longer be heard in the café.

Ara laughed at their banter, turning back towards the counter to start her first day. "Well, that-" She frowned when she caught sight of Kyouji. "What's wrong?"

"Hm?" Kyouji looked up, glancing over at Ara. "Nothing. This is my resting face."

"Okay..."

Tadashi fumbled with the seat belt, trying to get it to fit through the newly purchased booster seat properly. He just couldn't quite reach where he needed it to go.

Wasabi allowed him to try, but reached over when it became apparent that he wouldn't be able to get it buckled properly. "No shame, little man. You'll get there."

"You guys good?" Hiro called from where he and Fred were waiting with the car. The one Fred had bought himself, in order to blend in better, was far less extravagant than a limo would be, and allowed him to take longer trips on his own, without having to make sure the route was long board accessible. They could have left first, but Hiro wanted to see Tadashi off safely, and was glad that Wasabi was the one watching him today, with recent events still weighing on his mind.

"Yep, we got it!" Wasabi called back, slipping into the drivers seat after closing the side door to the van.

"Alright, see you later!" Hiro watched them pull out from in front of the café, laughing a little to himself. "I wonder how baby-proofed Wasabi's made his apartment."

"He is Wasabi." Fred looked through his keychain until he found the bright red key, which was more difficult than it sounded, as each key had its own color scheme, with various mixtures of black and red strewn throughout.

"True, you can always trust him to be extra cautious. I'll just have to ask Teddy later."

"Yeah, for sure."

All of the group's joking aside, Fred was an excellent driver, even if every now and then he took more risks than he probably should have, and was fond of messing with other drivers.

"Hey, wanna blast classical music out the window to confuse people?" Fred grinned, reaching for the radio.

Hiro chuckled, "Sure, why not?" The lightheartedness was a nice distraction from the thoughts that had been weighing on his mind.

"Alrighty, let's see..." He flipped through a couple similar sounding stations before settling on one with some fast-paced string sounds and amping up the volume. "Yeah, man! Paganini's my jam!"

"Paga-who now?" Hiro had to raise his voice over the music.

"So uncultured..." Fred ducked his head, shaking it in disappointment.

"Eyes on the road!"

"Relax, it's fine." Fred resumed normal driving practices. He had to speak louder to be heard over the strings as they started up again. "I'm surprised Teddy didn't insist on coming! How'd you manage that?"

"Well..." Hiro rubbed the back of his head. "I... may have failed to mention what we were doing... or anything we talked about last night."

"Dude!"

Hiro held up his hands imploringly. "I will eventually. I'd like to have a handle on things before I answer a ton of questions."

"Okay, man." Fred shrugged. "It's about you this time, so your choice, I guess."

Hiro nodded, turning to watch out the window for the remainder of the trip.

Fred had changed into his super suit, the most fire-resistant thing he owned, and was in the process of physically bouncing off the walls as he lead Hiro to the area the team had practiced their new tech five years before.

"Too bad we couldn't use this place for Teddy." Fred remarked, launching higher with each jump once they were outside.

"It's a good thing we didn't, he could have hit something on the way down." Hiro crossed his arms, looking around at the pillars and statues that made up Fred's yard.

"True." Fred turned towards Hiro. "Okay, so I've got some theories, but I need more info, so spill. You did get Baymax to scan you, right?"

"Yeah..." He rubbed the back of his neck, thinking of where to start. "Well, let's see... You know about the fire thing, duh, that's why we're here, um... The temperature thing is different from Teddy's, at least for now."

Hiro folded his arms, leaning against one of the pillars. "It's centered in my chest, you know, near my heart and lungs. Baymax thinks I'll be resistant to heat too, but it's just a guess. I don't want to test that out right now, but it'd be something good to know down the road... and, um..."

Why was the next part harder to get out? It didn't make sense, the other things, both with Tadashi and himself were just as strange, if not stranger, but Hiro guessed it was because it wasn't so much an ability as it was something permanent... possibly.

"Well, you know how my throat was bothering me? Or maybe you didn't, I don't know how obvious I made it, but anyway- uh. Like you can't really see them super well, since they're a dark red like the back of your throat should be, but they're there, and I think they are supposed to shield my throat from the fire itself, or maybe just give it something to bounce off of-"

"Hiro, slow down." Fred held up a hand, chuckling lightly. "You're rambling, dude. What are you talking about? C'mon, man, I'm not psychic."

"Um-" Hiro laughed, partially at himself and partly from nerves. "Why is this so hard? It's you, you're not going to be weirded out or anything. Or maybe you will be, but that's a good thing for you. Anyway, uh- so, the entirety of my inner throat is coated in scales." He lifted his hands, doing unenthusiastic jazz hands. "Ta-da."

"Wait, really?" Fred lifted his uniform's helmet, moving closer. "Let me see, let me see! How the-"

"Any closer and I will breathe on you." Hiro moved his hands in front of him to stop Fred's ignorance of personal boundaries.

Fred laughed, taking a small step back. "Means something different when you can breathe fire. But dude, that's sick!"

"Yeah, well like I said, they'd be hard to see. Especially without a light or something."

"Okay, man. But you've got to send me a pic or something. Do you think it'll spread elsewhere?"

"Hell, I hope not." Hiro crossed his arms, considering the possibility.

Fred continued on, not addressing Hiro's statement. "Well, I guess that rules out the Khalkotauroi and the Chimera, although Chimera are primarily female, but so are Phoenixes in Japanese mythology, so I mean-"

"The what?" Hiro knew the word Chimera, but the first one was Greek to him.

"The Khalkotauroi? Giant bronze-lined bulls that breathe fire." Fred nodded to himself, certain of his conclusion and fighting to keep his grin from splitting his face. "You know what this leaves, right?"

"Um..." Hiro's brain was lagging with the lack of sleep, and the billion other things he had to mentally juggle in the past weeks.

"Oh, come on, Hiro!" Fred was practically jumping up and down at this point. "You're looking at a representation of one! Fire-breathing creature with scales? You're part dragon!"

"Um! Is it supposed to be doing this?"

Kyouji looked over from where he was taking the order of a rather impatient customer to see Ara struggling to stop what he'd mentally dubbed 'Satan the Unreliable Piece of Trash' or 'Stupot' for short... he had too much time to think on his hands. The machine had decided the off button was a suggestion, and that the customer needed far more of their beverage than they'd asked for.

"Hold on." Kyouji walked away from the customer, doing his best to ignore the irate response it earned him. Good. Maybe he'll leave now.

Actively avoiding the boiling liquid, Kyouji switched the machine's output to water and turned the temperature knob as low as it would go, before attempting to get the machine to stop again. There was a slight delay as the machine processed the changes, but once again it ended up listening, giving only a few more spurts of water before shutting off.

Relief was clearly visible on Ara's face. "Thanks, I don't know what happened. It just started-" She gestured to the entire machine.

"It's fine, I'm pretty sure it's possessed." Kyouji was trying to figure out how to clean up the extremely hot water and coffee combination without getting scalded, and all he was coming up with was just letting it sit for a little bit, but that might stain. "Hiro's had trouble before, too. What were you making?"

Ara chuckled. "Possessed is probably right. I was making…" She looked down at the small notebook in her hand. "A whole milk white chocolate mocha with whipped cream."

"Alright, I think that can be made on the machine at the other end. Um…" Kyouji looked at the size cup that had been used, debating on whether it could be moved safely, as it was too large to easily dump into another cup. "Someone wanted that much of that?"

"It's what they asked for." Ara shrugged. 20 oz didn't seem like that much to her. "I guess I'll-"

"Excuse me." The male customer, who looked somewhere in his late forties, seemed ready to do something drastic, pressing a single curled fist into the counter. "If you don't mind, some of us have important things to do."

"Just a minute, sir." Kyouji used one of the coffee sleeves to hold the cup steady while getting a lid on it to transport the majority of the unspilled liquid to the small drain. He could feel the biting heat through the small piece of cardboard, and felt no small measure of relief when the scalding liquid disappeared down the drain.

Double checking his hands quickly, Kyouji returned to the counter, keeping a semi-safe distance between the angry customer and himself. "Okay, what was it you-"

"No. You know what? This is unacceptable, I want to speak to the manager." The man folded his arms, leaning back and managing to look both smug and angry at the same time. "You kids are wasting my time."

Kid?

"He's not in right now." And you're wasting more time than I am. "If you'll-"

"I. Demand. To see. The manager. Now. Un-der-stand?"

Is this guy real? What is he trying to imply?

"Wakaru." Okay brain, I know you're tired, but maybe don't antagonize the guy-

"What did you just call me?"

Kyouji took a step back from the counter, wishing the guy would just storm out and get it over with. "Didn't call you anything."

"Now you listen here, I'm not about to let some punk ruin my Thanksgiving vacation, and I demand to see-"

"Actually," Ara stepped towards the counter, putting the previous customer's finished order in the pick-up area, pupils thinned to slits. "Kyouji here is acting manager until Hiro returns, so any issues would need to be resolved through him. Unless you want to wait until Hiro gets back, in, oh… another three or four hours…"

Oh. Right.

The man's face contorted, and he pushed away from the counter, making his way to the door as he muttered about wasting his time.

"Have a nice day!" Ara called out to him in a friendly tone.

The man failed to slam the door behind him due to the hydraulic hinge, and he spared it a glare before continuing down the street in a huff.

No laughing. Sleep deprivation does not give you an excuse to be totally unprofessional.

Ara turned her back towards the shop, rolling her eyes, which had returned to normal, with a grin. Kyouji had to cover a laugh with a small cough.

Professional. I can do that.

The café was fairly quiet after that, with only a couple customers working on laptops or reading. The person who'd ordered the large mocha was practically shaking from the sugar intake. After cleaning up the then room temperature coffee, Kyouji and Ara worked in relative silence, doing minor tasks as Kyouji's energy levels dropped again when the adrenalin wore off from the confrontation.

When there was pretty much nothing left to do, with the pastries cooking in the oven, Ara spoke up.

"So, tell me a little more about yourself." She leaned against the countertop, fiddling with her wristbands. "I remember some things from high school, but you were always a little… reserved."

"I really don't remember much of high school." Kyouji avoided the question as well as he could, brushing his bangs out of his face. "It was mostly a blur, and a waste of time anyway."

"I could tell you were definitely invested in the classes."

It took Kyouji a second to register her sarcasm, but when it did, he smiled wryly. "Why invest in something that's not going to help in the long run?"

"Hmm." Ara frowned, crossing her arms. "It might've."

Kyouji shook his head tiredly. He didn't want to argue the point, since there were key factors she couldn't know. "Some things were interesting to learn, but it was mostly useless information. Just something to do to pass the time. Success was suspicious, and it wasn't worth it, really."

"Suspicious?" She tilted her head. "How do you mean?"

"Um? Unbelievable? I mean, probably my fault, but after a bit of not trying, er, years really, I got it in my head that it might be worth it?" He shrugged, pulling at the sleeve of his jacket. "I was wrong. The material wasn't that hard, but the sudden change in my score clearly meant cheating. And that- came with its own problems, so I mean... why bother?"

"I- don't agree. I think I get it, but..." Ara adjusted the wristband on her arm, lifting it slightly away from the skin and letting the elastic snap it back. "If you could, I think you still should have tried."

"Maybe, but it's a little late now." Kyouji turned to move a couple of pastries from the pan in the oven to the cooling rack, unconvinced.

She laughed lightly. "Little bit."

"Yeah-" Kyouji cut himself off, looking over at the door when the bells jingled. After a second of processing, his eyes widened in surprise.

...What? Why is he-

"Um, hey Ara, could you take this to the back?" Kyouji held up the then empty pan, glancing at the approaching figure. He might not want her present for this. "Please?"

"O-kay?" Ara took the pan and a couple of recently returned dirty mugs, making her way towards the wash station in the back, looking over her shoulder curiously before disappearing.

"Hey, Kyou!" Himitsu greeted him, leaning against the counter.

The hell did you just call me?

"What are you doing here?" Kyouji looked around the café, checking the possible audience for the conversation. He had no idea where this was going to go, but he didn't think Himitsu was stupid. Then again, discreteness wasn't his concern. He could pretty much do as he pleased, and Kyouji would have to cover anything out of place. Thankfully, the café had emptied out for the most part, save for the sole customer listening to headphones in the corner, typing away on a small laptop.

"Don't be so cold, damn." Himitsu chuckled, shaking his head. "Ya go on break anytime soon?"

"No." Kyouji started to take apart the pen he'd picked up, before realizing what he was doing and put it back together. He quietly placed it back on the barrier between them, not knowing what to do with his hands.

"Don't ya need to stop for lunch or somethin'?"

"Already did." Answered that too quickly... Kyouji barely kept from outwardly wincing. In truth, he hadn't eaten yet that day, and it wasn't helping him maintain his brain-to-mouth filters.

Himitsu paused for a moment, looking at him carefully before grinning slightly. "No ya haven't. You're shakin', and just so ya know, ya suck at lyin'. Maybe you should stick ta half-truths."

"I'm not shak-" Kyouji looked at his hand, and sure enough, it was shaking ever so slightly. He clenched it into a fist, letting it fall to his side as he looked down and away. "...doesn't mean I have a break."

"Well, ya need ta eat somethin', why don't ya just-" Himitsu cut off when another person entered the café, checking to see who it was before turning back to the counter. "Anyway-"

"Um, you're going to need to order something, or get out of the way." Kyouji folded his arms. At least he had store policy to fall back on.

Himitsu raised his eyebrows at that, but went to sit at one of the tables by the window without a fuss, pulling out his phone and beginning to work on it.

After filling the relatively simple order, Kyouji took the dishes of the previous customer to the back. Ara was leaning against the sink area, drying a cup and facing the doorway when he came in.

"So, who was that?" Ara asked teasingly.

"No one..." Kyouji deposited the dishes in the sink, before realizing the water was too deep to retrieve them from without rolling up his sleeves or getting them wet. Great.

Ara hummed, nodding sagely. She made her way out the door, patting Kyouji's shoulder on the way out. Kyouji rolled up his right sleeve first, giving her time to leave completely, before starting on the other. He was so focused on keeping the state of his left arm hidden that it took him until she was completely gone to register the strangeness of what had just happened.

Wait, what?

"Okay, Fred, tone it down a bit, there's obviously an explanation." Hiro tried to reason, but he couldn't come up with anything logical. There was also the mystery of his brother's own changes, but it was a lot easier to write it off when it was someone else. Why was this showing up now, anyway?

"No, dude, it makes sense!" Fred hopped in place, clapping his hands together. "Not that I know where it comes from, but you can't deny it works!"

"That-" Hiro crossed his arms, recalling what his aunt had told him in the hospital. Could the alterations have been strong enough to pass to him? "But if what I know about why Teddy's the way he is is true, why would mine be so different?"

Fred shrugged, having to use his arms as well to convey the gesture through the giant suit. "I'm sure there's a way to find out, but come on, I want to see some fire breathing!"

"Yeah, yeah." Hiro glanced around, looking for a target of some kind. Not that he really knew how to aim, but he could at least point his mouth at it?

Fred flipped his mask portion back down, following Hiro until he stopped in front of a pillar with vines crawling up the side.

"This'll do."

Hiro tried to think of what had triggered the feeling before, and the anxiety and protectiveness that came to mind were dangerously easy to dredge up again. He felt a low burn and tightness in his chest, but he was uncertain of how to release it. Hiro breathed in as deeply as he could, forcing too much air into his lungs so that he was forced to cough reflexively.

He heard a small click he hadn't noticed before following the cough, and flames erupted from his mouth, continuing for as long as he was able to breathe out. The fire ate up the green vines, leaving a gaping hole in the design they'd made growing up the pillar, and the white rock was left with discernable scorch marks. Hiro panted to catch his breath as Fred applauded from the side.

"Dude! Dude! Did you see that? Of course you did, you did it, but ah!" Fred did a little dance of excitement. "That was so cool! How did you do it?"

Hiro's tongue felt a little numb, but there were seemingly no negative effects from spewing fire hot enough to scorch stone out of his mouth. He cleared his throat, looking at the damage he'd caused just by breathing.

"I just... did? It's just breathing, but under pressure." Hiro frowned. "And if that's the case... there's not really a way to block it."

Fred tilted back the mask again, letting it hang loosely. "Well, no I guess not, unless you don't need to breathe anymore. Do you?"

After a couple of seconds of not breathing in, Hiro felt the call for air, but was careful when fulfilling it, not wanting to set off another spark. "Nope. Still need it. Guess that means I need to learn to control it."

"Careful not to pour in too much." Wasabi caught the edge of the bag of mulch, tugging on it so that Tadashi didn't overfill the planter again.

"Sorry." Tadashi still overestimated his strength at times, and even with a mostly empty bag, he struggled to keep it steady. Wasabi wasn't quite as picky about his garden as he was about, say for instance, his work station. That didn't mean he wasn't still particular.

"Alright, little man, that's the last one." Wasabi brushed off his hands, rolling up the top of the bag and placing a clip on it before sliding it into the garden supplies' designated space. "With colder weather coming, this should keep them from getting too stressed when left out on the balcony."

"Hmm." Tadashi looked at the plants, healthy from what he knew about how they should look, but he couldn't be completely sure. He'd never been a plant expert. "Hey, Wasabi."

"What's up?"

"I was wondering if the tears would have an effect on plants..." Tadashi tilted his head, peering closer at the green shoots. "Or animals. Any organic being, really."

"I don't know, sounds like something to be tested out, to me." Wasabi settled in a chair, straightening his back after being stooped over so long to work on the planters.

"Yeah. Maybe I can talk to Hiro about it when he and Fred finish... whatever they're doing."

"Yeah, what's up with that? Not that I mind hanging out with you, not at all, I just wasn't expecting Hiro to let you out of his sight any time soon." Wasabi chuckled.

"I mean... they left in a hurry… And Fred seemed really excited, um, more than normal..." Tadashi trailed off, trying to piece his thoughts together into something coherent, but failed to understand what was going on. He shrugged. "Who knows?"

"Well, I dunno, buddy. I'm sure you can ask when you get back." Wasabi checked the clock. "I don't have class until three, so what do you want to do in the hour or so before Hiro comes to get you?"

"Is Mythbusters still on Netflix?"

"You bet it is." Wasabi began to set up the tv area, flipping to the Netflix menu and selecting it from Recently Watched. "You can never get enough of this."

"Ugh, I've had enough of this for one day." Hiro was sitting on the ground, exhausted and feeling the hunger pangs tear through his stomach.

As they had continued into the afternoon, the fires he could produce had been getting smaller and smaller, as if he was running out of fuel. He'd also put off lunch for far too long.

"I'm hungry."

"Hey, man. You were the one that didn't want to take a break when I suggested stopping to eat." Fred laughed, shedding his suit so that he was left only in his day clothes. "You worked right through lunch."

"Food." Hiro flopped back, lying in the grass, and not wanting to get up.

"Yeah, yeah come on. Heathcliff has sandwiches and stuff already made."

"What time is it?" Hiro rolled over onto his stomach, forcing himself to stand from there.

"Almost two?" Fred checked his watch. "Yep. Five 'til two."

"Right. Quick meal, then we go pick up Teddy."

"Sounds like a plan."

Hiro waved goodbye to Fred, leading Tadashi through the doors of the café. He'd gotten to Wasabi's with thirty minutes to spare before three, but he probably should have shown up earlier, if only to allow Wasabi more time to get to class. Oh well, he'd make it.

"Go ahead and find something to do upstairs, Teddy." Hiro ruffled his brother's hair, ignoring the eye-roll as Tadashi pulled away and made his way towards the back room and to the main of the house.

Nothing seemed destroyed at Hiro's first glance, and Ara and Kyouji were talking quietly as he approached the counter. Kyouji didn't look any livelier than he had that morning, and Hiro empathized. He was ready to just shoo everyone out and hibernate, himself.

"So, how'd everything go?" Hiro rested his hands on the counter, able to see from this distance that things were well stocked and there weren't a large number of stray dishes waiting to be taken to the back. Seemed pretty okay to him.

Kyouji looked over from shaking his head at something Ara'd said before Hiro had entered the range at which he could hear them. "Okay, I guess. A couple of issues, but nothing major."

"I thought I'd broken the possessed machine." Ara laughed guiltily, pointing at the particular troublemaker.

Hiro shook his head. "It would pick today to act up."

"Of course." Kyouji's attention was drawn to an approaching customer, who was returning a small coffee cup unnecessarily. Customers could, and usually did, leave them on the tables to be collected later. Hiro was about to say something when the customer spoke up.

"This mean ya can go on lunch break now?" The young man casually addressed Kyouji, making it fairly obvious he knew him. Hiro's thoughts, however, caught more on what he said.

"You didn't take one?" Hiro asked Kyouji, astonished to hear this. He rapidly tried to recall if he'd told either of them that they could take a break. He hadn't. Oops.

"Um..." Kyouji had suddenly become very interested in the floor in front of him, the answer more than a little obvious.

Hiro pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling terrible for forgetting to tell them. "Geez, yeah. Go ahead. You can grab something from the back, or-"

"Nah, I got it." The man who'd approached the counter smiled easily. "C'mon, Kyou."

Kyouji hesitated momentarily, but nodded, making his way from behind the counter to leave with him.

"Don't be gone too long, or at least check back in before closing." Hiro called out to him before he reached the door. Kyouji nodded again, waving behind him.

When the café door swung closed, Hiro turned to Ara. "You too, obviously. I can hold down the fort long enough for you to get something, if you want."

"I packed a sandwich that I ate earlier during a lull, but think I'll grab something here, if you don't mind." She smiled, pointing at one of the treats in the display. "I've been wanting to try one of those since they came out of the oven."
"Yeah, of course, go ahead."

While Ara was sampling the pastry, Hiro cleaned up a little, glad that things had gone so well that day. Things really were easier when you had someone you could trust to watch things in your place. He should have hired some people before.

"Oh, that reminds me." Hiro muttered to himself as he dug around in the back for a small black book that he'd set aside for recording work times. He might as well start the pay periods for Ara and Kyouji on the same day, so he'd just go ahead and pay Kyouji what he'd already earned. It'd make it easier than trying to deal with it later.

Besides. Hiro felt slightly guilty at the thought, even though he meant no harm by it. He probably needs the money.

**A.N.: Wakaru: I understand. Pretty informal from what I've gathered.

Also, thank you to those who have been patient with me, I've been stretched rather thin, and the issues with my previous beta killed my motivation and wasted a lot of time. I've got a new and much better one now, so I can't wait to continue!

(3)**