Alive In New Light

Reflection

Hiro was inordinately hot. He'd been wearing his mechsuit armor all night and they were moving into summer. He peeled it off the second he dismounted from Baymax when they arrived at the secret base, which was an immaculate high-tech bunker disguised as an abandoned warehouse on the sea edge of San-Fransokyo. He loved the feel of air conditioning on his skin. But he needed the full relaxation treatment, or as close as he could get this late.

"Baymax, why don't you go to your charging room?" Hiro suggested. The charging room was unnecessary now that Hiro had upgraded Baymax's battery, but he was in no mood to be coddled right now. He dropped his helmet near the front door with the rest of his suit as Baymax hobbled off to his charging room. Wasabi would have his hide when he saw the carelessly discarded armor, but Hiro was too sore and tired to care.

He made his way to the conference room, where he knew the others would be. Fred had pushed for a full rec room, but Roderick Blair, their base's architect, had refused outright. So the team always convened and relaxed at the conference table.

Hiro was proved right as the mechanical doors slid open with a soft hiss. Fred was reclining in his chair with his feet kicked up on the table. Wasabi had a box of veggie pizza in front of him that GoGo was eyeing with unshielded interest. Honey Lemon sat next to her, posing to take a post-mission selfie. Hiro wasn't sure why she always did that- it wasn't as if she could ever post them- but he found the sight comforting. He associated it with success.

"Sooooo," Fred called as soon as Hiro stepped into the room, "How’d it go?" His voice dripped with tease and he had a big goofy grin on his face.

"Um, Fred... Why are you talking like that?"

Fred wiggled his eyebrows and winked. "Oh, it just seemed like you had a special interest in seeing Saryn home... By yourself."

Hiro rolled his eyes. He wouldn't even dignify Fred's insinuation with an answer. Ever since they had defeated Trina and neutralized the Buddy Guardians, Fred had taken to talking about 'Phase Three,' which he insisted was the 'romantic entanglement phase.' For the past two or three weeks he'd acted like Hiro was crushing on everyone he came in contact with. It had been funny at first, maybe even a little charming, but the joke was quickly overstaying its welcome.

"I dropped them off at their place," he said nonchalantly, settling into a comfy chair of his own at the table. "It wasn't really an inconvenience."

"So no sign of that gang?" GoGo asked as she reached out to snag one of Wasabi's pizza slices. He looked affronted for a moment, then shrugged it off.

"Nahh," Hiro snorted and waved a dismissive hand as GoGo swallowed down her first bite. "We put the scare in them. It was super easy, too."

"Well, it would be after fighting top of the line supervillains like Momakase and Trina and Sirque," Honey Lemon reasoned.

Hiro nodded, typing a quick code on the tabletop before him. A small hole opened up in it and a soda can popped up, chilled to perfection.

"Still, I'm glad we were able to help them." He ignored Fred's smirk and opened the can. "It really took me back. I mean, that... that used to be me. Some random tech whiz kid Bot-Fighting in dark alleys in the middle of the night, just for glory. Well, glory and a boatload of cash." Hiro smiled a little reminiscently.

"But I got saved by Tadashi, and now we've saved Saryn. It's small, but I like helping normal people with normal problems just as much as I like taking out the big bad guys. Well, almost as much." He slurped at his sugary pop.