Chapter 40, everybody! Time for the bois to process some TRAUMA! *jazz hands*

No seriously the number of situations Hiro throws himself into in canon suggests he has no self-preservation and/or is completely feral I mean at one point he was willing to throw hands with Monster!Ned in season 2 so…this is why in one (unpublished) fic of mine Hiro ends up giving Obake gray hairs the boy hasn't come to the conclusion that yes death is more than a social construct that affects brothers named Tadashi. *bricked* And yeah, obviously canon Tadashi has/d no self-preservation either.

Moving on, Jurassic Park reference from a different angle, and the result of me asking is there a Shakespeare quote that would fit here. The answer is yes: Orso is quoting King Lear, Act 1 Scene 2 there.

Let's be real, safest place when you were scared at night is the parents' bed. And Obake is still processing his feelings about Baymax, give him time. Also…I kept postponing watching "Countdown to Catastrophe" for a long while, but the events near the end of "Obake Yashiki" combined with the teaser at the end had me convinced that Obake lured Hiro away from Baymax so he could put the chip in himself. Considering Hiro left the garage wide open, I felt that was feasible and I still prefer it over somehow they never considered keeping Baymax's chip bay locked during missions.

Moving on…more Cass and Obake bonding, yay! :D And some discussions about those mentioned: Aunt Jemima, real name Nancy Green, was the first African American millionaire thanks to selling her recipe to the Pearl Milling Company (so removing her from her own product is a level of scummy that has made that company persona non grata in our house); Abraham Lincoln, meantime, was actually reported to hate the moniker "Honest Abe." Don't know why that was. Also statistically pennies are the coins most frequently saved, which keeps them from being returned to the US Mint and melted down for the next batch of coins. This has been another useless fact.

Moving on…I've done that before where I've blamed one of the pets for something they can't possibly do. Lacking thumbs is usually what absolves them. XD And having tried to make souffle pancakes before, they're fluffy but time-consuming. Professor Kakalios is a physics professor who uses superheroes to explain physics to his students and at one point was a consultant for the Watchmen movie—you can find some of his lectures on YouTube.

Also…recently I was looking up something else and came across information on The Tempest by Shakespeare—the witch in that play was called Sycorax. Understand that I was screaming at the computer when I discovered this.

Juxshoa, thanks for the review! Yes, they lived! And poor Hiro. X'D

Big Hero 6 © 2014 Disney

They made it back to the Lucky Cat without incident, Obake tucking the cloak back in Cass's sock drawer before resigning to his pallet without comment. This evening had been draining, he did not need Hiro nearly dying what was this a Hamada brother failing in them having absolutely no self-preservation whatsoever he was too young for heart events even before factoring in don'tthinkaboutit—

Unfortunately, his mind decided to review the tapes for the night, how everything had gone sideways at the monster showing up—

Running to hide Hiro before the monster got to him, both of them quaking under the invisibility cloak, him unable to hide or control the side of his face flashing erratically, Hiro clinging to him and Obake trying vainly to protect him—the invisibility cloak being blown off—

Him being ripped away, thrown, landing so hard that it drove the wind out of him—struggling upright—

To see that everyone was dead, monster roaring its bloody triumph to the sky.

No—no this wasn't right this wasn't how it went—

Hands clamped down on his shoulders, squelching from rotting in the bay—

"See what a waste of time this was? But that's enough dallying with foolish children."

The monster grabbed him, held him up, his struggles making no impact—

"Make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and stars![KW1] " it barked as a ghastly green sun began to glow on the western side of the city.

A flash—

Obake startled awake in a cold sweat—clapped a hand to his face when the SK started flickering erratically again. Right, no, strong emotion triggered it—glance at Hiro's bed to see if he had been noticed—

Hiro's bed was empty.

Stare, trying to process this…no, he didn't want to still be dreaming wake up—

Pinching hurt and didn't change anything—gingerly get up, look in on Tadashi…bed empty, but it had been slept in tonight. Consider this, gingerly mince downstairs, scan the empty café before heading for the garage—pause when he heard familiar snores echoing from Cass's room.

Easing the door open and peering in showed that the Hamada brothers had crawled into bed with Cass, which she evidently had no problem with—she was sandwiched between the two with Mochi curled up by her feet, arms wrapped around them and sleeping like a log. She had known something was amiss right away, had ferreted it out of them quickly from what he had heard…had still been aware enough, in that weird moment between waking and sleeping, to know that she had come upstairs to tuck the brothers in bed and check on him as well. And yet now, here they all were, a cozy little family.

And here he was. The interloper.

Shiver, recalling his dream, how close everything had gotten to disaster tonight…if something had happened to Hiro, would he still stop the second Great Catastrophe? Or would that have been the death of his motivation as well, him willing to lay down and accept whatever death came for him?

…I am satisfied with my care.

It all really depended on Hiro—the loss of him would have shattered this family, broken them beyond repair, and what use was Obake then? None, that's what.

Slip away from the door, skulk into the garage, pausing at the sight of a trashed Baymax standing in his charger, eyes closed. His actions had resulted in a weaker Baymax, he realized, one that couldn't effectively protect this family.

Stand in front of the robot for a long time, considering. He could fix this robot, make it more effective, make it so that even that monster couldn't touch the brothers again…Tadashi would complain, he was sure, right up until his improvements saved their lives.

And yet at the same time….

Himself, taller, in a similar position, looking at an inert robot in this very garage as he lured the boy away with the ghost of his brother, slipping in the purple chip with his decal—just a little something to make this robot more entertaining.

He couldn't do it. He couldn't touch this robot, not again. Not after that last time—

Tugging that same chip out, ordering the robot to go save Hiro over himself—

Deep, shuddering breath, feeling his face flicker…no. No he still couldn't bring himself to do anything with this robot, the one he had manipulated and used, the one he still linked with his greatest failure…he was going to have to try something else.

Working in the garage wasn't doing it, though, not with the robot standing inert behind him and making the back of his neck prickle—felt much too similar to his last few hours, of when he had the robot standing in the same room as him to prevent its theft—

Hadn't quite smothered its usual personality, seeing as how it scanned him and was wanting to discuss his health, pointing out the injury he was well aware of and suggesting he get it treated—

"Why?" he asked, genuinely baffled. "I find that it's more fun this way."

And then watching everything fall apart, taking his chip out, telling the robot to go to the boy, save him—

"Tell him…tell him I still think we would have been brilliant together."

Start badly at that, nearly scoring a hit on himself with a soldering iron—turn it off and put it down, sat like that a while before turning to look at the inert robot again, staring at it for the longest time.

He couldn't work like this.

Drag himself upright, go back into the house, gently close the door…hesitate a little before locking it, like that would keep those memories in the other room. Walk by Cass's room again, pausing a little to listen to them sleeping soundly (how they managed with Tadashi snoring hard enough to deforest the state, he didn't know)…started to walk through the dark café to head back upstairs when he stopped.

He couldn't stand the solitude, the silence, not even the thought of it. Not right now.

Retreat back to the living room, not wanting to intrude on a family that wasn't his…grabbed a blanket and a pillow and curled up on the couch, smiling a little bit at the knowledge that this would annoy Tadashi…sobered when he realized just how close he had gotten to losing one or both of the brothers.

No more screw-ups, he told himself, scrunching his eyes shut. No more screw-ups, there's no point in stopping him if one of the brothers die from a trolley or something.

I can't let them die.

Cass wasn't too terribly surprised at two boys in bed with her the next morning, considering the story they came home with last night was enough to have her stress-eating through a dozen donuts. They had ranged from vaguely traumatized to borderline catatonic when they had come back, so she wasn't surprised at them crawling in bed with her like they used to when they had nightmares.

What did surprise her was Obake on the couch just outside her room.

Tip her head at that, considering…well yeah it made sense that he'd be affected too and also that he wasn't too sold on crawling into bed with other people, but…this felt like progress, maybe, that instead of staying in a room all by himself he came down here. Would be nice if 'progress' wasn't triggered by traumatic experiences, but what can you do. Go into the café, make coffee as she got everything prepped and baking, savored a cup, considering….

Came back into the living room with a cup of coffee like how she noticed Obake liked, gently shake his shoulder. "Hey," she said quietly. "Wake up."

"Mmfh…Trina, go away," he muttered.

Oh, what's this? "Who's Trina, your girlfriend?"

Obake snorted awake, startled—blinked owlishly at her standing there.

"Coffee?" she asked, turning the mug so he could grab the handle. More blinking, face rubbing—pushed himself upright to take the cup. "Did you sleep out here all night?"

"Most of it," he muttered, still looking drowsy as she sat next to him. "Tried to be productive, it didn't work."

"Yeah most people aren't productive at midnight."

"Those people are strange."

"I'm hoping you mean the people burning the midnight oil, but I get the feeling you're talking about the rest of us."

"I'm a night owl by nature," he said, finally taking a swig of coffee.

"I figured," she said, taking a sip of her own. "Are you okay?"

"In the grand scheme of things, or…."

"After last night, I mean. Like, was it a monster-monster, or was it just some guy in a costume like off of Scooby-Doo?"

"It was a real monster that used to be a person until it was mutated, it was big and had sharp teeth and it really wasn't an enjoyable experience."

Oh wow that sounded bad. "Which means you don't want to talk about it."

"Which means I don't want to talk about it," he confirmed, taking another sip of coffee and leaving her to consider her options. Look around the living room a bit before looking back at him.

"Do you want to learn the difference between a crepe and a pancake?" she offered.

"Crepes are thinner, aren't they?" he asked.

"Yeah, but there's some skill to it so you don't end up with this ultra-thin piece of charcoal. And then we can go the other way and make those souffle pancakes." He perked up a little at that. "Those are fun once you figure them out—like yeah Aunt Jemima still makes the best pancakes but sometimes you gotta get in there with the eggs and flour yourself and just make it."

He made a sort of short laugh deep in his throat, like something about this struck him as funny. "You have to prove that you're just as good if not better than a woman from the last century."

"Sometimes," she admitted. "So…what do you say? Interested?"

"Intrigued," he said, fingering the mug. "All right."

She smiled, led him into the kitchen and parked him on a stool, talking him through everything and occasionally taking a break to address an early-morning customer. Eventually, when he started seeming more there, she tasked him with filling the crepes up and rolling them, giving him something to do that felt like it accomplished something and kept his hands busy. He seemed to generally react to that sort of thing well.

Although she was starting to think that he had suddenly had it driven home how much he was enjoying life here, if the way he kept shooting glances at Tadashi and Hiro when they came in for breakfast was any indication—like he had to make sure they were still here, still living…the boys felt the same way, evidently, were more than willing to give her a few extra rounds of last hugs before finally heading to school, Hiro joking that he had a souped-up taser in case of monsters this time (at least she hoped he was joking) as he waved bye.

Couldn't help but notice how bereft Obake looked when they left, like he wanted to run after them but couldn't think of a reason beyond I need to make sure you're safe and I can't with you out there. She knew that worry, knew it ten times over, figured he needed a distraction.

"So," she said, handing him another stack of crepes to fill. "Who do I blame for the invisibility cloak being snitched?"

He blinked at her. "It was missing?"

Oh he was good—nothing incriminating, just feigning innocence until he couldn't anymore. "See, I figured one of you would try to snitch it, so I've been keeping a penny pinched in between the drawer and the cabinet. So if someone took it and then put it back, Honest Abe would still rat you out."

Another blink, eyes flicking away, processing this. "That's…actually very clever."

"Thank you, I've been having to step up my game to outsmart teenage boys. So who's been riffling through my sock drawer?"

"I feel like we could rule out Tadashi," he said, mouth working like he was struggling to keep a neutral face as he filled in another crepe. "Although, perhaps the golden boy routine is a double-blind, so we'd never suspect him."

"Mmm, no, see, I feel like Tadashi checks out," she said. "Hiro, maybe, except he was at SFIT and at the gala he was invited to. Which leaves…."

"Mochi."

"I'd believe that, but Mochi doesn't have thumbs. Besides, I've seen how you keep your clothes, you're the only one fastidious enough to actually refold my socks when you were done."

"Are you blaming me for this based on the fact that I fold laundry?"

"Well…yeah, pretty much. Also process of elimination."

"You haven't ruled out Baymax yet."

Wince at the memory of how Baymax looked when the boys had brought him home, knowing that the teeth marks could have been in one of them instead. "Pretty sure it wasn't Baymax."

Silence as he focused on the crepes, leaving her to handle a few customers before coming back. "Technically, I wasn't invited to the gala," he said finally.

"So you decided to sneak in."

"Also technically it was Hiro's idea."

"Well if it's not you it's usually him," she admitted. "The two of you together is just—compounded mayhem, you know this?"

So that expression looked like two warring emotions coupled with well YEAH. Wasn't sure what to make of his thought processes, honestly. "It's not dull."

"It's not," she agreed, ruffling his hair—he ducked that, annoyed, but he needed to be jostled out of his funk. This too would pass, hopefully. Obake was all sharp edges, but she was starting to see some softness in there somewhere, some part of him that remembered that he was too young to be so dour.

And hopefully, one day he wouldn't look so stunned at having a good turn done to him, she reflected as she handed him his breakfast. As it was, he stared blankly at the stack of souffle pancakes before flicking a glance up at her, like he wasn't sure how to process this.

"Thank you," he said finally, still thrown.

She patted him on the shoulder. "Thank you for helping. Now go eat."

Shooting glances at him the rest of the morning, she reflected that yes, he had had a tough life, but that was over now. Yes, he was obviously broken, but they could fix it.

They just had to show him that he didn't have to go through life like shattered glass.

Tadashi had fortunately taken Baymax with him to school (so rattled he didn't even lecture him about it) which made it much easier to work in the garage, souping up the percussiveness of his drones in case of emergencies—would probably need to have two tailing the brothers from now on and some monitoring the café, preferably with the invisitech and the scan jammers so it didn't tip him off that this family was important…hmm, should he bother with the nerd herd, or wouldn't they have an impact on anything?

Was debating on the merits of a Fred-free world when Cass came out, lunch balanced on a piece of folded fabric. Nodded when she put his lunch down.

Blinked and looked when she put the bundle of fabric down and sat in the other chair, blinked again when he realized he recognized it as the invisibility cloak.

"I think you should sneak into SFIT more often," she said, startling him—attention focused on him with one hand on the cloak. "I think you should do it for as often as it makes you feel comfortable. Maybe you'll like it enough that you decide to attend. But…no shenanigans. I hear about you misbehaving with this, then I take it back and I store it in my underwear drawer this time. Are we clear?"

He couldn't help the consternated expression at that, doing his best to control his amusement. "If you didn't want it stolen to begin with, you would have stored it there from the start," he pointed out.

"Well, yeah," she said, looking away and shrugging. "But sometimes kids have to think they're getting away with something. So do we have a deal?"

Look at the cloak. It would be much easier to keep tabs on the brothers, he couldn't deny this. But Cass trusting him like this…it wasn't something he had earned. It was her wanting to go out on a limb for someone who prior to this insanity would have let her and then sawed the limb off the tree. It was…not something he was expecting, honestly. Bowed his head, considering.

"Yes," he said finally. "We have a deal." Smirk at her. "So I suppose I have to make sure the thing I lose it over is a doozy."

"Oh no you don't—we've already discussed no shenanigans," she said, pointing at him.

"At some point we're going to have to discuss the boundaries of these shenanigans—right now that seems to be just a catch-all term."

"Well you can't give specifics—otherwise then there's loopholes and good night do teenagers find those in a hurry," she said, waving her hands a little. "Anyway, I have to get back to work—behave yourself, okay?"

"I'll make an effort."

"I suppose that's all I can really ask," she said—startled him with a hug, ruffled his hair before going back in the house.

It was honestly baffling enough that he was still staring at the garage door when Fred came in.

"Obake, my dude! Oh wait the bros are at SFIT by now want to come with?" he asked. "Pretty sure we're monster-free. For now."

Congratulations, Fred, you had out-baffled Cass. "Excuse me?" Obake demanded.

"Well this could be like, X-Men stuff or something else…or this is that one-time special exemption like Professor Kakalios talks about in which case I feel special for being able to witness it," Fred mused, sitting in the chair Cass had vacated. "Kinda bummed that he then loses this but then again Knox was more Hulk and less Beast-Man, you get me?"

"Do I ever?" Obake sighed, going back to the computer. "And no, I have no issue with that Shakespeare-spewing monster being that witch's problem at—"

"Ooh, dramatic cut-off," Fred observed. "C'mon man, spill it."

"Sycorax," Obake breathed. "The witch in The Tempest—the name of the witch was Sycorax."

"This feels important," Fred said, nodding. "Not sure what it means, though."

"It means that if this story of mine ever gets a sequel, we'll be seeing her again—whatever her story is…it's not over. Not by a long shot."

So rooting around in Sycorax was interesting. Not necessarily productive, his specialty wasn't in bio-engineering, but interesting. Especially when she brought in that monster that used to be a man.

Now how did that happen.

He could hazard some guesses, what he could put together and dig up suggested the man had started off there before the company acted as its namesake and transformed him. Fascinating. And potentially problematic—hopefully they'd be wiped out with the rest of the city.

Ah right, his current project.

He was fairly certain he had narrowed everything down, definitely needed to start working towards ferreting out the journal—going to have to start looking into things, the miscreant seemed quiet enough now that he could make a move.

As for some of that bio-tech….

Copy those files, put them in the folder labeled Trina. She'd be seeing fruition sooner or later, and when she did…well, he supposed he could thank Dr. Amara for adding a bit of life to her.

Not that there'd be anything left to thank when he was done.