(Not So) Hated By Life Itself Chapter 57: Contentment and Exits, a big hero 6 fanfic

Chapter 57, everybody! Hiro's got a secret…also this chapter's a little shorter but it was either that or one big chonker of a chapter and this breaks up nicely.

Unlike Karmi, Trina does technically have a last name according to canon…seriously, we're supposed to consider Karmi a contender for Hiro's affections and yet never learn her last name? We learn Sparkle's full name but not those of the team? We deserved a season 4, friends.

Callback to my other fic Obake Itoko with some of the bits about the restaurant there. Now on the topic that Obake's discussing…alterous attraction falls under emotional attraction according to WebMD, and falls between romantic and non-romantic attraction. Obake's description comes from the Tumblr post that first cottoned me on to this, and yeah I've felt it. And yeah, ace-aro, together and individually, make up one percent of the population and you don't usually hear about them because we just totally noped out of the whole romance thing. And yeah, those are my opinions of those particular ships (so. Much. Ew).

Juxshoa, thanks for the review! Yes! Hiro's middle name might as well be trouble for the shenanigans he gets into. X'D

Hiro packed up his tote bag full of supplies and ducked out of SFIT before Tadashi could quiz him more on anything—seriously he had been insufferable all day he was convinced that Hiro had snuck off to bot-fighting which, while true, hey. Certainly didn't need him teasing Hiro over a girl, peppering him with questions like is she cute, do you like her, does she have a last name…oh wait he probably should find out her last name at some point. Saw her through the window, tapped on it and waved, startling her, before coming inside.

"Been waiting long?" he asked her.

"Eh, ate while I waited," she said, glancing at the dirty dishes she had pushed to the side—reached under the booth and pulled her tote bag out. "So you were going to tell me about this."

"Eh, mostly through notes, I feel like having a fighting bot out in the open here would be in poor taste."

"Well if it's someplace subtle we need I know a place."

Hiro wrinkled his nose at that. "No offense, but it's a little quick to be taking me to your house. Buy me dinner first."

She laughed at that. "Nope, sorry, we're not doing the awkward meet the parents thing yet—different locale."

The different locale ended up being the abandoned restaurant that Obake had been living in.

"Be careful if you go upstairs, one of the steps is rotten," she said, pointing out the stairwell.

"You…don't live here do you?" Hiro had to ask. "Because I know someone who used to live here and my aunt says there's rats."

"Ew no," she said. "You wanted someplace where we wouldn't get busted—we're not getting busted here."

Okay this was fair. "All right then," Hiro said, sitting on the floor and dumping his pack. "Dump your bot here, because he's getting a total upgrade."

What followed was a pleasantly long session of robotics discussion and assembly like what he had before with Obake—stunned him by how much he missed that, missed the old Obake and not the sullen moody version he was dealing with now. It was a breath of fresh air that he had sorely missed.

"So," he gusted, finally sitting back and taking note of the time. "Hungry? My aunt runs a café not far from here."

"No offense, but it's a little quick to be taking me to your house," Trina said, nose wrinkling in amusement. "At least buy me dinner first."

"Actually my suggestion was like, either I run in and grab something or we go in separately. Reasonably certain my brother would mock me endlessly for being around a girl my age."

"Why, don't swing that way?"

"I don't swing either way." What had Obake called it? "Ace-aro, no gross dating for me."

"Huh, that's a pity. You'd be a cute boyfriend."

"What?"

Scrub at his arm nervously, suddenly finding the dusty walls very interesting. "So…I run in and grab something to eat, maybe Megabot too so we can test your robot?"

"Nah, I gotta be getting home," she said, checking her watch. "Dinnertime, Dad will be wanting to hear about my day. Hey," she said, sitting forward a little. "Maybe later we can head for the bot-fights—see how well the improvements work."

"What do you think?" Hiro asked the robot—had it shake its head. "I agree, two nights in a row is too risky, I'll end up being busted by my brother again."

"What is he, a cop?"

"Worse—he's a sibling."

"Again, so glad I'm an only child," she said, collecting her stuff. "So should we do this again tomorrow and I tell you how it went? Should we meet at Joe's or change locales to keep from having siblings interrupt?"

Huff. "Take notes on how the robot performs, we'll factor it into the next round of troubleshooting."

"All right," she said—glanced at him as they left. "You know, you really know your stuff—why'd you stop bot-fighting?"

"What makes you think I stopped?"

"Fine, why the long sabbatical."

"Eh," Hiro noised, shrugging. "Got into nerd school—SFIT. Youngest ever to attend—you should swing by sometime. Tadashi has an eleven-o-clock class, we should be able to sneak you in and out without him noticing and teasing me about finally looking beyond cooties."

"Ew," she noised, nose wrinkling again in amusement. "We'll see."

"Well—hey no wait I got an idea do you have a phone?"

She did, was more than willing to exchange numbers.

"This way, I can let you know if there's any annoying brothers hovering around," he said, handing her phone back to her.

"So long as he doesn't check your phone and see a girl's number there," she said, handing his back.

"Yeah, that would suck," he agreed, pocketing it. "See you tomorrow?"

"Sure," she said, side-hugging him. "I'll spring for lunch when I totally make bank tonight."

Laugh, was smiling as he waved goodbye, side buzzing pleasantly—oh wait—

Uh-oh.

"Do ace-aro people still get attracted to people?"

Obake was still picking at the computer, as he had been Hiro was pretty sure he hadn't even bothered going to sleep last night—blinked, looked up at him, taking a painfully long time to process him…started leaning back, disgust and horror evident on his face.

"Not you," Hiro said, rolling his eyes. "That'd be super-gross—like dating Tadashi."

"Well I'm glad you feel that way," Obake said, shivering.

"Good. Now is that a thing, me being attracted to someone even though I'm pretty sure I'm usually not attracted to anyone?"

"Asexual aromantics make up maybe one percent of the population, Hiro—it could just be that hormones kicked in. Annoyingly."

"Say they didn't."

Huff. "Alterous attraction. It's not quite platonic or stronger, you would theoretically be fine with a relationship should it happen, but you most likely won't be actively pursuing it."

"So…this is normal."

"Most likely you just have a crush." Look at him with a little confusion. "So who is it?"

"Still not you," Hiro said, heading for the door. "Besides, I can't tell you—it's a secret."

"Hiro."

"What? Can't risk you bringing the information back to Tadashi, now can I?"

"It's not that Megan girl, is it?"

"You'll never know," Hiro said, ducking back into the garage long enough to give him a smug look.

"I'm telling Tadashi!"

"No you're not!"

"What are you guys talking about?" Tadashi asked, looking up from his homework in the café.

"Nothing," Hiro said, waving at him before running up the stairs and flopping on his bed. Lesse, after dinner technically…tug out his phone.

Zero2Hiro: Hi :)

Watch the screen for a minute, huff before putting it aside and pulling some of his books out—dove for it again when it chimed.

Trinatron2000: Hey

Trinatron2000: Couldn't stay away huh?

Trinatron2000: What's with the handle? XD

Cough on a laugh, text back.

Zero2Hiro: Really? U mocking MY name? With that handle?

Trinatron2000: It's to keep me incognito during the robot uprising

Trinatron2000: They'll never suspect

Snort, flop back on his bed.

Zero2Hiro: So how's bot-fighting? U win?

Trinatron2000: Haven't been out yet

Trinatron2000: Dad's testing me to make sure I'm not slacking on homework :(

Zero2Hiro: Eee

Trinatron2000: Same

Trinatron2000: Oop he's coming back text u when I do go out ok?

Smile, send her a thumb's up before putting his phone aside and pulling out his homework.

It took him a while to be able to focus, still occasionally glancing at the phone while he worked.

She tucked the phone away before he came back in—not fast enough to evade notice, if the raised eyebrow was any indication. "That is not why you have that."

"You don't even know what I was using it for," she pointed out.

"Enlighten me then."

Oog. Er…ah. "That kid's a kid—stands to reason that other guy would hang out with someone his age, right? I get close to him, I eventually get a shot at the other guy."

He didn't seem impressed by that logic. "I'm still working on it," she said. "It's better to have multiple plans, right?"

Huff, glance away. "So long as you don't get distracted."

"Sure thing—can I go now?"

"If you must," he said—stiff confusion when she hugged him, which kept him from commenting as she hustled out the door. Good news: she wasn't Hiro-less yet.

Because honestly, she thought, texting him as she headed for the bot-fighting ring—honestly she was starting to really enjoy herself.