That which was Lost
"….ed…. F….red…. Come on Fred, talk to me!" Fred groaned absently swatting away the cool lean hands running over his face. Bright light filtered through his eye lids, causing his headache to flare back up again. It had only just begun to settle too. He opened his eyes staring up at the sky and the slowly drifting Sakura blossoms.
"How many fingers am I holding up?" One of the lean hands was back, directly above his face, holding the first two fingers up.
Fred reached up to brush the hand away, simultaneously moving to sit up. "Hey, Tadashi, my man, I'm ok." He said ignoring the dull throbbing in the back of his skull. He reached up to run his fingers through his hair, wincing when his fingers encountered a solid bump. He gingerly traced the injury, absently cataloguing its location when it hit him. He froze, pale blue eyes wide before gingerly turning to face the person kneeling beside him, tentatively reaching out towards him, concern etched on all too familiar features.
"Yo! My MAN! TADASHI!" Fred exclaimed and threw himself into Tadashi's arms without hesitation. He pulled the confused man into an enthusiastic hug. "I was right! We traveled through time! It's a classic plot twist but does anyone every believe me? No. The little guy is going to be so happy to see you! We have so much catching up to do! How have you been? Oh wait, never mind, the fire…"
"Fred! Hold up would you?!" The rambling would have continued on if Tadashi had not interrupted.
Fred fell silent. He withdrew from the rather awkward one sided embrace and looked at Tadashi, watching the play of emotion on the other man's face. Tadashi, understandably, looked lost and confused. Tadashi reached up and cupped the back of his own neck looking away from Fred for a moment before bringing his wide brown gaze back. "The fire… Callaghan… What's going on?" There was a trace of fear in those large brown orbs.
Fred sighed. "Man, have we got a lot of explaining to do." He said sheepishly standing up. "I think we should call the others and go somewhere more comfortable, don't you agree?" He asked looking for Wasabi. Wasabi was lying a few feet away, propped up against a tree.
"He passed out." Tadashi explained, noticing the direction of Fred's gaze.
Fred nodded pulling out a cell phone. "I'll call Heathcliff to come get us." He dialed a number, exchanged a few soft phrases before hanging up and walking back towards Tadashi. He circled him, carefully peering at him from all directions, his Kaiju mask flopping about like a hood as he walked. "You look good."
Tadashi chuckled lightly, shaking his head. "I'd say the same for you but you're wearing a Kaiju costume…" Fred stumbled, panic flickering through him. The identity of Big Hero 6 was supposed to be a secret, "…and Wasabi looks like some kind of modern day ninja. Am I missing a comic convention or something?" Relief followed the panic as Tadashi handed him the perfect explanation.
"Yeah, dude. It was awesome! I was like GRR! And RAWR!" Fred struck random Godzilla poses to fit the sound effects, "and Wasabi was all Kyaa and Hi-Yah!" He repeated his bad impersonation of Karate moves.
Tadashi raised a silent eyebrow in disbelief. "How did you get Wasabi to agree to go with you?" He asked. Fred would need some powerful blackmail material to get the usually quiet withdrawn man to agree to go to a comic convention.
Fred grinned. "I hid some of his tools and threatened to throw them away if he didn't agree to go with me."
That would do it. Satisfied with the explanation Tadashi glanced at Wasabi, still passed out beneath the Sakura tree. "What are you guys doing here?"
"I had to make good on my promise to return his tools." The lie flowed easily, making Fred uncomfortable. Tadashi was one of his closest mates and he didn't like lying to his friends. "We just got back from California and I figured I should give them back to him before we went home. You know what he's like. He wouldn't have gotten any rest knowing his tools are not all 'perfectly lined' up on his table in the lab." Fred, drew air quotes as he spoke to emphasize his point.
Tadashi shook his head smiling as he looked at Wasabi. His friend was a little OCD to put it mildly but it was one of the things he liked about the rather large gentle African man. He turned back to Fred, his smile slipping a little. "What am I doing here?"
"Well… uh… " Fred suddenly looked very uncomfortable, unable to meet Tadashi's gaze.
"Have I been suffering from Amnesia? Perhaps, following an injury at the Showcase Fire?" Tadashi asked, his logical mind accessing all his medical knowledge in an attempt to explain the strange situation he found himself in.
"Not exactly." Fred replied looking awkwardly around.
Silence enveloped them for a moment as Tadashi waited for a further explanation. One moment turned into two and might have continued on into three if not for the smooth purr of an engine.
"Oh look! Heathcliff is here!" Fred exclaimed as a large limousine pulled onto the campus grounds. He bounced over to Wasabi and pulled the large man up by one arm. Draping the arm over his shoulder he began to march towards the limousine, unceremoniously dragging Wasabi along beside him.
Tadashi sighed softly, stood and followed after, hoping he'd be able to get a better explanation once they got somewhere more comfortable, as Fred had put it.
The limousine stopped and Heathcliff got out, bowing ever so slightly as he opened the door for his hyperactive, rather eccentric master. He appeared to be completely unfazed as Fred slipped into the back seat still wearing his ridiculous Fire Lizard Costume while dragging Wasabi's unconscious body in after him. Heathcliff had, after all, seen it all before. That is until…
Heathcliff's eyes went rather wide and his entire body stiffened the moment he spotted Tadashi. Tadashi frowned in confusion as he slipped into the car after Fred and Wasabi, all the while watching the manservant, silently cataloging Heathcliff's strange reaction.
The door to the limo was softly closed behind him and the car started a few moments later, smoothly pulling out of campus.