Chapter 14, everybody, and happy Spring! It's moving day! And again, if you've been following me on Tumblr you've seen a bit of this already.

Tadashi probably is 100% a morning person while Obake is more of a night owl. Also Obake did use to live in Gogo's neighborhood/apartment in one of my other fics so oblique reference here. And more on that ripple effect that comes from time-travel stories…and Globby! Er, Dibs. Obake's quoting Hobbes from Calvin and Hobbes there, by the way. Also Baymax is right about what a lack of sleep does to you.

James the apple, thanks for the review! 1) all the meta, 2) Obake's logic is that Fred would be obliging while still thinking this in the realm of fiction (it goes places, trust me XD), 3) hmm, that would be interesting….

Big Hero 6 © 2014 Disney

As it turned out, they were both very, very wrong.

"Oh wow you guys look like garbage," Tadashi said at breakfast the next morning. "What were you even doing?"

"Honey Lemon snores," Hiro said.

"I told you they'd make unbased claims," Tadashi said to Honey Lemon.

"Unbased claims she snores WORSE than you do," Obake snapped. "I got NO SLEEP because of you and YOU," he added, jabbing a finger at Tadashi. "Parked that stupid healthcare robot in front of the garage so I couldn't even make my sleepless night PRODUCTIVE so THANK YOU for that."

"No problem," Tadashi said, flashing them a thumbs up. "You guys are ready to help with moving, right?"

"Anything to avoid a repeat of last night," Hiro muttered.

Gogo drove the moving truck with Wasabi carting the rest of them in his car, most of which Obake and Hiro missed by dint of being konked out in the back and not waking up until Tadashi opened the back and shook them awake.

"Rise and shine, sleeping beauties, moving day!" he said brightly.

"I hate him," Obake muttered as soon as Tadashi had moved off. "I hate him with a passion WHY is he so PERKY in the morning."

"I don't know," Hiro muttered, sliding out of the back of the car and trudging around, Obake grousing and following a few moments later. He'd rather be infiltrating SFAI, to be honest.

"Okay, so once again I need to reiterate that this is a sketchy neighborhood, someone should be keeping an eye on the truck at all times, any questions?" Gogo asked, gesturing a bit with a hand holding a to-go cup of coffee.

"Yes—can I see that?" Obake asked, pointing at the cup—took it and chugged it before she could give a response. "Thank you."

"That was my coffee."

"I'll make it up to you."

"You're not kidding about the neighborhood," Wasabi said, looking around. "Look at all the jaywalkers!"

Oh good gravy talk about sweet summer children—if it wasn't Wasabi and Fred totally missing the point it was Honey Lemon trying to befriend the neighbors. At least the massive biker actually liked the pink glitter bike.

Fortunately, eventually, forward momentum commenced and he could focus on moving boxes and not on the bone-dead tiredness and exhaustion that felt like it wasn't just physical. It took a while for everything to get running smoothly again, and when it did it had the unfortunate side effect of leaving him with too much time to think on his situation, which he'd rather not.

At least Hiro was being mildly obliging on the matter.

"I don't know, what do you think?" Hiro asked him as they put a couple of boxes down in the kitchen—waved off a butterfly that had come out of a box marked caterpillars.

Currently he was thinking he might have stayed here once, obviously before it was converted into apartments and sold to college students with thin funds. Was this one of the places where he had an emergency stash? He didn't remember.

Had to take a beat when he realized Hiro was still waiting for an answer. "Well," he started—quick puff of air at a butterfly that was getting ready to land on his head. "It's Honey Lemon. And Gogo."

"And?" Hiro asked, probably confused.

"And in this small space the conflicting aesthetic becomes very clear."

"It's not that bad."

"For people to get along properly, they need their own spaces to retreat to when they need time to themselves. This will not be that."

"Oh really?" Hiro asked, leaning on the counter. "You, me and Tadashi seem to do fine."

"That's because you and he go to school for several hours a day—understand that we would do better but for the fact that your brother won't let me sleep on the couch anymore."

"Yeah that's lame."

Considering Tadashi lugged him upstairs every night like a sack of potatoes, he was inclined to agree. "Honey Lemon is all soft edges and Gogo is a razor blade," Obake elaborated, gesturing at the butterflies settling around the spartan kitchenette. "This will not end well."

"You don't know that."

You know what, fair, the two did become good roommates in the original timeline ('canon,' as Fred referred to it, although he had no idea what naval weaponry had to do with anything), but here at ground zero Obake wasn't convinced. And what about what Fred was mentioning, how the ripple effect could change things? His own presence here and now could cause something to go wrong and dangit maybe he shouldn't have been using Fred to field his 'fic' through he was having more of a headache now than when he first realized what sort of situation he was in.

"Uh, guys!" Wasabi called. "Back to box-moving breaktime isn't for another fifteen minutes and if we want optimum unpacking we have a schedule to keep, people!"

Obake rolled his eyes, waved at Hiro when he got a box dumped on him and directions on where to put it—slipped outside to grab a different box—

Ah. Right. In the original timeline, this was where 'Globby' had stolen Honey Lemon's chem purse and then accidentally exploded it on himself. Seeing as how the chem purse was now absent, it was just a failed thief picking up a box and freezing when he realized he was caught in the act.

Obake glanced back, made sure no one else was close—looked back at the man who would not be Globby and let his face flare. "As if life isn't short enough."

As he expected, that was enough to make the man squeak, drop the box, and take off.

"Hey what's up?" Tadashi asked, coming out.

"Some jogger bumped into this stack," Obake said, picking up the box that 'Globby' had dropped. "No reason for concern."

"Mmm," Tadashi noised, looking around as he grabbed another box and headed in. "Gogo you're sure you're all right with this neighborhood."

"Oh good grief Tadashi stop being such a mother hen!" Gogo barked.

Cough a laugh at that exchange, get ready to go back in—paused as he thought of what he had said.

As if life isn't short enough.

Sigh—did he really have the room to talk, honestly? Ever since that crushing breakdown he realized more and more what a stupid mistake he had made…was this his punishment for that? If so, it was an odd one.

Or maybe it wasn't—he was now forced to fight against himself. He had been given a taste of what life could be like and then had this as the stipulation, that he had to thwart himself in order to keep it. And of course, he couldn't make things easy, getting rid of Big Hero Six—

And Globby, he realized, glancing where the man had run off to. Globby had enabled Hiro's escape and helped to neutralize the aftermath of the star machine. One change had caused another and if he wasn't careful the whole thing could cascade out of his control.

Failure, pure and simple, wasn't an option.

The Monday morning meeting of the nerd herd very quickly outlined that this was not a roommate match made in Heaven.

"SHE SNORES," Gogo announced.

"You know, the funny thing is, my old roommate used to say that," Honey Lemon said. "I always figured she was being mean."

"We told you that too," Hiro protested.

"Which reminds me—one moment," Obake said, scurrying off.

Tadashi watched him go, looked back at the rest of them. "Ten bucks says he takes off and isn't seen again until dinner."

"Can I join him?" Gogo asked, looking dead on her feet. "It's either that or taking a flamethrower to Honey Lemon's old dorm we are not compatible."

"Okay, hold it, before we get going too hard—is it because you two really don't get along in an enclosed space, or is it because you're sleep-deprived and therefore angry?"

"Sleep deprivation: can lead to anger, irritation, hallucinations," Baymax started.

"SHUT. UP," Gogo barked at him.

"So yeah maybe we get you a good night's sleep first," Tadashi offered.

"I'm back," Obake announced, coming back into the café.

Hiro hit Tadashi's arm. "You owe me ten bucks."

"Nope, you didn't take me up on it," Tadashi countered.

"I have to have verbal confirmation now?"

"This is for you, consider it payment for the coffee," Obake said, handing Gogo a set of headphones.

"What are they?" she asked, turning them over.

"Noise-cancelling headphones."

Gogo had to take a beat to register this…probably needed that second beat because as Baymax said, she was tired.

Pretty much no one at the table was expecting her to tackle Obake in a hug though.

"Thankyouthankyouthankyou I needed this desperately," she said, letting go of the stunned teen to try them on. "Someone say something."

Tadashi was tempted to just mouth something, decided against it as he was in hitting range. "Can you hear me now?"

"If he's just mouthing at me, someone hit him."

Obake took the opportunity.

"HEY! Liar!" Tadashi shot, rubbing his arm.

"Consider it revenge for the various times you've carted me off," Obake said.

Baymax adjusted his volume. "Gogo, I am at the upper end of recommended decibel levels. Can you hear me?"

Considering he was behind her and Gogo didn't react—Tadashi reached over and lifted one of the ears. "I have good news."

"Good," she gusted, flopping down in her chair. "You," she added, pointing at Obake. "I owe you one."

"Do I get a set?" Hiro asked. "Because Tadashi still snores."

"Yes, we do," Obake said, sitting down and ducking the swipe Tadashi took at him.

"Okay, back to brass tacks—was that the whole issue?" Tadashi asked—had to lift one of the headset ears. "Gogo?"

"Gogo: is asleep," Baymax announced.

"Okay so we'll discuss this later."