Hiro woke to hushed voices whispering around him. Groggily, he moved to stretch and yawn, wincing as he was forcibly reminded of his earlier adventures. "Ow," he uttered under his breath as he wrapped one arm around his torso.
"Sorry." Honey Lemon's voice filtered through the fog in Hiro's brain. "Did we wake you?"
When Hiro opened his eyes again, he saw the Latino staring worriedly at him, her knees bent so she was at his level.
"Hey, Tadashi," Fred called out, "your little bro's awake."
Looking rather like a deer in headlights, Hiro stared in shock, feeling more than a little disoriented. "What? Where am I?" He wrapped his other arm around his middle to try and control his suddenly accelerated breathing.
Tadashi came into view, along with Wasabi and GoGo. "Morning, sleepyhead. You're still at my lab at school. You just dozed off for a while. Need a hand up?" He held out his hand for Hiro to grab.
Various timelines tried to align inside Hiro's head as he stared at the familiar faces around him. It made his head hurt. Even after talking to Baymax about them, he was still having a hard time reconciling everything. He was no closer to understanding how to make things work out to the desired end than he had been before. And his dreams didn't help any either.
Without thinking, Hiro took his brother's hand and slowly stood up, wincing as his muscles protested. It took him a moment to realize he'd been sleeping on the floor. "I need to stop doing that," he said as he turned to look back at the robot behind him. "Definitely not the best place for a nap."
Baymax wobbled to his feet, then stood to attention. "I can deactivate if you say you are satisfied with your care," he said.
That announcement brought a moment of panic for Hiro. He stared at Baymax like he'd gone crazy, but the robot merely blinked at him. It was a subtle reminder that the others didn't need to know he retained memories from other lifetimes. At least not just yet. With some misgivings, he said the words necessary to deactivate the robot. "I am satisfied with my care."
"These are my friends I was talking about," Tadashi said, diverting Hiro's attention from watching the giant marshmallow return to its case. "Everyone, this is my brother, Hiro."
Hiro gave an almost pained smile and a shy little wave as Tadashi's friends all chimed in with a "hello" all at the same time. "Uh, hi." Not sure what else to do, he located the stool from before and sat down. Sitting was easier than standing, especially with his muscles protesting. At least he had his breathing under control once more.
Honey Lemon was the closest to him and started things off. "I'm Honey Lemon," she introduced. "I was hoping to show you some of my experiments but I guess that will have to wait until later, but I know you'll love them!"
GoGo stepped forward next, popping her gum loudly. "Name's GoGo." She had her arms folded. She didn't offer to shake hands. Instead, she gave him a somewhat curious but detached look, which was just fine with Hiro.
Fred moved closer. "I'm Fred," he began.
"School mascot, right?" Hiro interrupted, feeling it was time to have a little fun with this whole time travel thing.
Fred seemed totally floored Hiro knew that. "Whoa! How'd you know that? You psychic or something, little dude?"
Hiro resisted the urge to laugh. Laughing was not a good idea. Instead, he tried to keep a straight face. "You just seem the type. You know, dressing up in a cool costume, maybe a lizard or something similar."
"That's totally right!" Fred was almost jumping up and down in excitement. "I've always wanted to become a fire-breathing lizard that can transform at will. I've asked Honey Lemon if she could make me a formula to do just that but she keeps telling me that it's "not science"." He let out a wistful sigh.
"It's really not," Honey put in. Hiro could hear in her voice that this was already a long standing argument she was more than ready to be done with.
Tadashi steered Wasabi forward, which didn't surprise Hiro. The physicist wasn't one for confrontation. "And this is Wasabi."
"Hello, Hiro," Wasabi greeted. He seemed less confident without his laser-induced plasma to show off. But Hiro knew the man was always more in his element when he could show something he knew would work out or when he really knew the person. That, of course, had changed once they'd become superheroes.
Hiro waved. "Hi." His expression, however, changed to more wistful, just like Fred's. Was it possible for them to still go down that road? To become superheroes? He wasn't sure. And the idea they might not be able to tore something even more deeply inside his chest.
Realizing something was amiss, Tadashi placed a hand on Hiro's shoulder. "Hey, you okay?" He looked at his brother with big worried eyes.
"Something wrong, little man?" Fred piped up, almost bending double, hands on his knees as he stared at Hiro.
When everyone else seemed to do the same, minus GoGo, Hiro felt more than a little overwhelmed. He tried to take a deep breath, immediately regretting it. "Ow," he managed, massaging his ribs again. "It just hurts."
"Everything okay, Little Hamada?" GoGo asked from her position several meters back. She'd moved out of the way once she'd introduced herself.
Tadashi straightened up. "Hiro had a bit of an accident the other night so he's not up to his usual self," he explained.
Boy was that an understatement! Hiro thought. Things were going to continue to suck, especially since he had to deal with this for at least three to six more weeks. He'd asked Baymax for a general idea of how long it would take for his body to heal and the robot had been more than happy to answer.
"Oh!" Honey Lemon exclaimed, looking rather like she might give Hiro a big hug.
Sensing the impending physical contact, Hiro put out a hand. "No touching! I'm already sore enough without that. Thanks though. The sentiment is appreciated."
Honey Lemon stopped mid-step, her expression filled with compassion and concern. "It must have been pretty bad," she commented instead.
Despite his nap, Hiro was just tired, and that was a bad combination when it came to telling the truth. "If you consider five cracked ribs bad, then yeah," he quipped before thinking. Then he mentally pulled back. Crap! That had come out of nowhere!
The Latino's eyes went even wider at that announcement before she turned to Tadashi. "That's a lot more than just an accident," she said, her eyes saying she was trying to figure out just what had happened.
Hiro knew Tadashi would try to come up with an excuse to cover for him but he was too worn down to care. "It could have been worse. But that's what I get for participating in illegal bot fighting." He said the last bitterly. "Not only did they take my fighter bot, but they beat me to a pulp."
That seemed to elicit expressions of shock and dismay from everyone in the gang. It almost made Hiro feel empowered, but he simply didn't care. What he'd said was the truth and if they didn't like it, well, that was too bad. GoGo did look mildly impressed.
"I wouldn't have put it quite that harshly," Tadashi commented. "I got there in time to prevent something that drastic from happening."
Hiro merely tried to shrug but stopped when it made his ribs hurt. "I just told it how I saw it. Yes, it could have been much worse. It also could have been much better."
Tadashi frowned, rubbing his hand over his face, effectively muffling his words. "Are you trying to punish me? It's not like I haven't been beating myself up because of last night, wondering if there wasn't something more I could have done to prevent this."
Honey Lemon moved to put a comforting arm around Tadashi's shoulders. "You shouldn't blame yourself for what happened to Hiro," she soothed. "You couldn't have known-"
But Tadashi shook his head. "Protecting Hiro is my job."
"I never asked you to do that," Hiro interjected.
Out of the corner of his eye, Hiro saw Wasabi edge towards the exit. "I think I'm just going to let you guys work this out," the non-confrontational student said as he opened the lab door.
Hiro instantly felt bad. "No," he protested mildly. "Don't go. I shouldn't have said that, okay? I'm sorry." He hung his head.
His apology seemed to make Tadashi do a double-take, but he smiled. "Hey, it's okay, bonehead," he said as he ruffled his brother's hair. "Just try to remember to keep those kinds of things where they belong, okay?"
"Yeah," Hiro agreed, looking up in time to see Wasabi take his hand off the door handle, mirroring the sigh of relief he heard coming from Honey Lemon.
GoGo took up residence on the swivel chair near the computer, her arms resting on the back as she sat in it backwards. "So, now what, genius?" She popped her gum.
"I don't know about you," Fred spoke up, "but food sounds really good about now. It is lunch time after all."
Almost as if in response to the otaku's suggestion, Hiro's stomach growled. He gave a nervous sort of laugh as all eyes turned to him and the really loud noise his tummy had made. "Uh, hi." He gave a hesitant wave.
"I could go for some food," GoGo announced.
Feeling more comfortable, Wasabi moved closer to the group. "How about pizza? I know this really great place."
"Great idea!"
"Who's paying?"
"Maybe we should go Dutch?"
All the chatter left Hiro feeling overwhelmed. He only managed a weak grin when Tadashi looked his way. He slipped off the stool and went to get his notebook, realizing he'd left it open to the TARDIS sketch. It wasn't in the exact same place he'd left it in either.
"Sounds good to me," Tadashi agreed as he got his jacket and headed towards the door. "Coming, Hiro?" He turned back to make sure his brother was following.
Hiro closed the notebook. "Coming!" he called as he followed his brother out. It might mean nothing that the notebook had moved. Then again, maybe not. He rather thought Tadashi might have snuck a peak but wasn't sure. Either way, he vowed to keep a better eye on his belongings in the future.