Chapter 4, everybody, and happy Valentine's Day! In which Obake does the meet-and-greet thing with the rest of the team….

Once again, if you follow me on Tumblr you've seen some of this beforehand. In other news, I would like to remind everyone that Callaghan was teaching at SFIT at the same time Granville was, and that by extension he was teaching Obake at the time. Please, I need you to picture this.

Also in a weird way I do miss cathode screens and the screensavers that came with them. And Fred's quoting Tuffnut from How to Train Your Dragon (the characters share a voice actor) and also Buck from Ice Age 3. Kinda. Gantt charts I know about from my Dad, you get familiar with them when you work on projects for companies.

James the apple, thanks for the review! Yeah but I've been hearing "it's a step in the right direction" for a while now and I'm just kind of numb to the whole idea, you know? :\ As to your questions, you'll get an answer to at least one this chapter. ;)

Big Hero 6 © 2014 Disney

Regrettably, things had not changed when he woke up the next morning.

Groan as this realization sank in, rolled upright…okay. Breakfast. Breakfast would be nice.

He knew just the place.

Freshen up and take care of personal business, reminded himself he'd be having to do some proper cleaning soon—debated on the drone, finally took it and a roll of the cash, stuffed the latter in a pocket as he tucked the former under his arm and headed out. Could shill it as bringing it over for himself and Hiro to 'play' with.

Of course, the main problem came when he was actually supposed to go in.

"Stupid stupid stupid I am not some child in high school afraid of someone's mother," he groused, pacing back and forth—had rehearsed the whole thing coming over, was currently having it all undermined by the part of his brain that was insisting that they discuss this insanity it was getting really tired of waiting—was interrupted by the aunt sticking her head out.

"Hey you can come in, you know," she told him—tugged him in before he could respond. "What's that?"

"Ah—I uh, it's a drone I made, thought I'd bring it over," he said, tripping a little over his cover story thanks silver tongue glad to know you're joining the sanity in jumping ship—

"Okay but no flying it in the house—mistakes were made. Here's something to start you with, I'll bring in more when I'm not so swamped, Hiro's in the garage," she said, handing him a plate before steering him through the café and into the living room, where he had to take a few beats to process what just happened.

"Oh…kay then," he muttered, heading for the garage—had to do some juggling to free a hand to get the door, managed to get through finally. "Your aunt is very strange," he announced to declare his presence.

Yes, he had to admit seeing the boy's face light up when he looked up and spotted him was infinitely preferable to the look of sheer abject terror shifting to loathing he had before…later…no we're not addressing this right now shush.

"Obake!" Hiro cheered, waving and pointing at the chair next to him. "I need your help."

"Of that I have no doubt," he said, sitting down and putting the plate and drone on the table. "Before we get too far though." Tug out the money. "I didn't want to risk bringing too much but this seems like most of your winnings from the other night?"

"Eh," Hiro noised, looking anywhere but at the money and knocking his knuckles together nervously.

"Oh don't tell me you've changed your mind."

"Well…so last night Tadashi—"

"I should have guessed," he sighed, tugging a drawer open and dropping the money in—the brother couldn't go up in smoke fast enough. "That's still the money you brought, so at least you're not out that. Now what did the golden boy do to you?"

Hiro snorted at that, lunged across the desk to retrieve a poster to show him.

Ah.

"So last night he took me to the nerd school under false pretenses but seriously you should have seen it it's awesome and if I blow everyone away at this expo I'm in."

Well the good news was the golden boy's days were numbered. "What happened to oh no school is terrible?"

"Yeah well—hey Tadashi brought up a good point though what's your phone number?"

Oi vey. "I don't have one."

"Seriously? You don't have a phone?"

"I lost it in the bay." Which wasn't a lie.

"Whatever, you're weird," Hiro declared, flopping back in his chair. "So anyway, I need something awesome to wow at this expo—suggestions?"

An energy amplifier came to mind—just skip straight to the interesting part, Hiro seemed in a mentality to go with that sort of thing, honestly….

Hmm, but there was still the issue of the brother. The brother, who died in the SFIT fire that Callaghan theoretically started to cover his theft of the microbots. If there were no microbots to steal, then there was no reason to start the fire, and Tadashi would still be around to put a cramp in his fun and boot him out the door whenever he got Hiro spun around to his way of thinking. So long as the both of them were tugging on Hiro, neither one of them got what they wanted.

Tadashi, simply put, was a problem—one he planned to excise.

But it wouldn't take much to nudge Hiro along on the already-intended path—pick up Megabot and start fiddling with it as Hiro brainstormed. "I'm not sure why you're bothering with this anyway—what happened to I'm done with school it's SOOO lame?"

"Okay firstly I do not sound like that—"

"You do but continue."

"Secondly…this one is actually really cool Robert Callaghan teaches there—you know, the guy who did Callaghan's three laws of robotics?"

"I'm aware." Mostly because he had been teaching when Obake went, and Obake had delighted in breaking every single one of those rules.

"And Tadashi's friends are actually pretty cool—"

"Hold that thought—how many people does that make?"

"Huh?"

"His friends—how many?"

"Uh…Honey Lemon, Fred, Gogo, Wasabi…actually I'm not sure if Fred goes there or not."

"So that's five people. Five people out of five thousand. You really think that's going to make a dramatic difference in how things were before?"

"I'd like to," Hiro grumbled, glaring at him. "I mean, I want to go to this nerd school, it looks awesome. Trust me, you'd feel the same way if you went, it's got a ton of cool stuff."

Uh-huh. Once again, we were going to have to dance around the annoying part of explaining that he had already gone, have done not fun don't blow up a lab on your way out the door. Callaghan, as he recalled, was the one who had advocated for him not returning, and since Granville left in disgrace right after that, even if he did want to go back to 'the nerd school'….

Okay consider the fact that Granville wasn't there yet to make him—that still left Callaghan to recognize him, and that was actually an entertaining thought, the idea of the old professor paling considerably at his erstwhile student, appearing twenty years later and not aging a day. Petty, but serviceable.

Okay back to business.

"So what plans do you have so far?" he asked, taking one of Megabot's sections apart and rolling it between his hand and the table—usually he used a bottle for this, but he got the same results and getting Hiro to think about how to shrink it down to the microbots was the end goal here.

"I don't know—that's the problem," Hiro groaned, collapsing against the desk and sending a ton of balled-up paper scattering off across the floor. "I have no ideas, no plans, stupid. Useless. Brain!" This being punctuated by him banging his head against the table.

"Wow," Obake drawled, picking up the piece of Megabot and fiddling with the servos, trying to keep his amusement at least somewhat tamped down. "Washed up at twelve."

"Fourteen," Hiro corrected, rubbing his forehead. "So. Any ideas?"

"Hmm, seeing as how you're trying to talk me into going, wouldn't any ideas I have be ones I end up using?"

"You're not helping."

"I do have that effect," he admitted, putting the piece of Megabot on the table. "What, you're telling me you have nothing you could improve for the purpose of this expo?" That had seemed to be Hiro's area of expertise in the original timeline stopthat—Hiro's ability to take an existing design and twist it into something new and improved had intrigued him, been part of what prompted him to trick Hiro into fixing Krei's amplifier in the original timeline STOP THAT—

"What's the point of improving something?" Hiro asked, gesturing as he glared at nothing. "Dr. Callaghan said they push boundaries, you don't get that with just—improving something that already exists!"

"Mmm, right, you're absolutely right. I positively adore the ENIAC and the Model T, so glad no one came along and said I can fix that and make it better. Cathode screens are so charming, after all."

Hiro glared at him. "Stop that."

"Stop what? Being right?" Gesture at the computers in front of them. "Part of pushing the boundaries is creating something new, yes—but another greater part is taking what's already there and making it better. Without improvements, new technology is but a plaything for the rich, nowhere near practical enough for the average person to utilize. Before computers were improved, the only people who ever saw them were military and university workers. Now thanks to improvements they're so commonplace you hardly think about them. So I'll ask again," he said, looking at Hiro. "Is there nothing you've worked with that you couldn't improve?" Flick the piece of Megabot along the desk to punctuate his point—

Hiro caught it, turned it over….

He could tell—he had something.

Hiro looked at him, a spark in his eyes. "So what if…."

To say Tadashi was excited was an understatement.

Finally he had his brother talked into trying SFIT, promised him that he'd have all the help he could ever hope for in whatever he was planning, talked his friends' ears off about it and finally talked them into coming over—partially because it was pizza night at the Lucky Cat, mostly to help Hiro brainstorm and put his stuff together.

Wasn't banking on Obake already being there.

"Tadashi!" Hiro greeted, excitement steamrolling the wrinkle of irritation the other kid gave him—held up several sheets of paper and part of Megabot, practically waving both around. "Tadashi—what if we did like, Megabot but smaller? He can already pick stuff up but what if—"

Tadashi listened, nodding, grinning as Hiro's description sank in. "So should I bring in the cheap labor?"

"The what?" Hiro asked, blinking—which was when Tadashi pulled the door open so the others could come in, already loaded down with pizza (Aunt Cass was excited as well and she emoted with food).

"You tell us what to do, we'll help you get it and put it together. Sort of like your lab assistants."

"You were wise to come to the city's greatest science nerd," Fred announced, gesturing dramatically with a slice of pizza. "That's me, by the way—"

"Fred," Gogo said flatly.

"Okay maybe it's Gogo but I'm like way up there."

"Oh hi," Honey Lemon said, spotting Obake. "What's your name?"

Obake looked like he was severely regretting his current location but knew he couldn't get out of it. "Obake," he said, waving a little.

"Fred, we gotta talk about you naming everyone you meet," Wasabi said to Fred.

"My dude I am not responsible for every cool name out there but I am flattered you think so," Fred said, juggling his pizza and soda a little so he could shake Obake's hand, to the latter's consternation. "So hi my dude I am Fred that's short for Fredrick and long for Ed."

"It's…not, actually," Honey Lemon said gently as Obake examined his now greasy hand with disgust—Wasabi handed him a napkin, which he accepted gratefully.

"Seriously?" Hiro hissed at Tadashi.

"What?" Tadashi asked, shrugging. "Think about it—my friends, your friend, all of us together, getting to know each other, bonding over science…sounds fun, right?"

Hiro didn't seem convinced—fair, he was having to convince himself that he could tolerate Obake around, considering how severely he buried his BS meter.

"So uh, anyway—project," Wasabi offered. "Do you have an idea yet? I can do a Gantt chart real quick trust me, scheduling is important."

"First we're actually going to have to break the idea down," Hiro said, taking a moment of silence and savoring his pizza before continuing. "So…everyone ready?" When the answer to that was a resounding yes (and a less enthusiastic one from Obake): "Then let's get started."

Obake collapsed on the thin bed, a little sorry he couldn't sink any further as he groaned. Oh good night people were draining no wonder he stayed in his lair all the time.

And draining was how he'd identify the past several days. Tadashi had insisted on bringing the nerd herd along so no matter how much work he did with Hiro, it was all watered down from being around five people questioning him and trying to get to know him better, blech. Was very much reminded why he had been so blasé about killing them all before no don't think about it—

Okay back to current issues…helping Hiro with the microbots was important, it was ingratiating himself to Hiro and making it so that Hiro was counting him as a friend, making later efforts not so time-consuming. Heck, if we really did buy into either cockamamy concept then once Tadashi was gone Hiro would be in such an emotionally vulnerable place that Obake would be able to talk him into his corner with no issue. Feeling emotionally crushed? Make a star machine and make that everyone's problem.

The problem was the other four. The ones who would go on to make Big Hero Six, who cushioned the blow of losing Tadashi and kept Hiro on the path of annoying goody-goodiness. If he was to have any sort of fun with his future protégé, he needed these people gone.

Annoyingly, Tadashi seemed to suspect this. Of course he couldn't possibly guess the whole of it, that was beyond him, but he was guessing that Obake's intentions with Hiro weren't kosher. Tadashi was doing his best to surround Hiro with positive influences to negate Obake's efforts, and since Hiro was too focused on the SFIT expo, he didn't notice.

Huff, roll a bit so he wasn't aggravating old injuries. Fine, he could tolerate this for a few more weeks. The important thing was, once this was over Tadashi would be gone and Hiro would be in an emotionally vulnerable state. No matter what, he'd be getting what he wanted.

He just had to keep reminding himself of that, focusing on that and not the horrible echoing emptiness left behind once he got away and back to the old restaurant. Another reason he couldn't stand the group: they made his own isolation much more pointed. Yes he couldn't stand large groups for long lengths of time…but dangit right now the silence was deafening, wanting to ruin him—

Not being distracting enough for his thoughts to stay away from wanting to address what had happened to him.

No. No no no we weren't thinking about that tonight, despite part of him picking at that festering wound—we weren't thinking about that tonight put a pin in it and shelve it we're not going to unpack all that right now his sanity demanded it we were not thinking about it we were not.

Except there was no choice but to think about it, he reflected as he curled his body up trying to get at least a little warmth—had always been cold ever since the SFIT explosion, that was nothing new, but it was a much smaller frame trying to keep warm, nothing like he had been…was it even a week ago? Being surrounded by Hiro Hamada and company desperately trying to make what they perceived as a weird kid feel like a part of a group was weird and annoying and aggravating and yet when they did it that partially erased the awkwardness even while playing up a different awkward aspect, that corner of his mind shrieking I am an adult I am twice your age STOP THIS!

Sigh. There was no explaining it. Even if he himself could come to grips with whatever this was (unlikely), there was no way to explain it to someone else without being committed. No, he was stuck, ladies and gentlemen, with no real way out of it.

No, he only had a handful of options left to him, chief among them being getting rid of future aggravations. He could burn the rest of those bridges when he got to them, but for now he had two things he wanted out of his way: Big Hero Six and Tadashi Hamada.

Hopefully that wouldn't take much more effort.

Okay, this was obviously going to take more effort than he first thought.

So Tadashi wasn't entirely convinced that this Obake kid was kosher, every little thing he did just cemented that, this guy was bad news and he was really putting a cramp in Tadashi's whole plan of getting Hiro out of bot-fighting and potentially getting killed at a young age.

It was worse because he was pretty sure this kid was aware of how needling he was, seemed to totally relish picking and prodding at Tadashi and doing it in such a way that he couldn't comment without looking like a jerk. This kid was talented, he'd give him that.

This kid also had to go.

The fact that they knew nothing about this kid didn't help matters. A week of pestering and digging and he knew about as much as he did when they started. Matter of fact, he suspected he knew less. Obake didn't talk or act like a teenager, and he didn't feel like he was playing at being an adult. This kid was smart, cunning, and annoying, and at the end of the day he really needed to get Hiro away from him.

But in order to do that, he needed more information, some dirt he could throw at him to make him scurry on back home and stay there. Probably starting with where home actually was for Obake.

Hence why he was tailing the kid once he left the Lucky Cat that night, employing every bit of subterfuge honed by years of tailing after little brothers. Over a couple of blocks, down the street and…there.

Give him a few minutes, he didn't doubt there was a chance Obake knew he was being tailed, saunter like he was heading for the corner store—okay getting close getting close this was…right here.

Blink, blink again as he tried to process this.

Okay yes Obake had turned here but…this was that one old abandoned restaurant, no one lived here it was condemned—and yet he could still see a light in the window, like someone had a phone or laptop on. Sneak close, peer in…yes, very much abandoned and run-down. Back up, stare at the window…blink when the light winked out.

Oh. Oh no don't tell him….

No wonder he showed up at breakfast and never went 'home' until after dinner. No wonder he always evaded questions about himself. No wonder he seemed more mature than he looked. Orphan, runaway…any way you sliced it, Obake had no one else.

This was so not good.