Disclaimer: Big Hero 6 is owned by Disney Animation. This story is rated M, just to be safe, for some rather mature themes. Reader discretion is advised.

Alone

The mind is a terrible thing to waste.

He had heard that phrase before. He couldn't remember the context, but he liked the words, so he kept it logged away in the back of his brain.

The brain that he so desperately wanted to tear out of his skull right now.

He had been blessed with a lot of things in his life. Friends that cared about him, the opportunities to pursue further education, the thrill of saving the city on multiple occasions...

But he didn't care about any of that right now. The only desire he had at this moment was to be as far away from everyone and everything as possible.

Along with all of those blessings were curses. Curses that, by themselves, he could probably handle.

But his brother passing.

Karmi leaving.

Obake's lingering words.

The pressure to succeed.

It was just too much.

Which is why Hiro Hamada had just done something very, very stupid.

He got the attention of the nearest passerby, an old man in a very long coat. "Excuse me, sir. Do you have the time?"

The man was probably very confused, but looked at his watch anyway. "It's 10:30, young man."

"Thank you, sir."

"If I may ask, young man," the guy continued, his curiosity piqued. "Isn't it a little late for you to be out right now? Shouldn't you be at home with your family?"

"Ummm..." Hiro had to come up with something quickly. "I'm just about to go home. My mom's coming to pick me up."

"Ahh, that's good. Don't want to stick around here in the park too long. Some weird people come out at night." The man tipped his cap to Hiro and started to walk away. "Be careful, son."

The teen genius watched him go, now feeling even worse. Lying was becoming way too easy to him at this point. And he had mentioned someone that he hadn't even mentioned in his inner monologue.

He mentally went through the events of the evening in his mind. Two hours ago, Aunt Cass would have called him down for dinner. Not hearing a response, she would have climbed up the stairs to his room, where she would have been greeted with an empty bed.

She then would have turned to her right to see a deactivated Baymax and his access port ripped out of the robot's body, the chips scattered all around the floor in a fit of rage.

She would have then called his cell phone to try to find out what the heck was going on...only for the phone in his beanbag chair to be silent, the perfect receptacle for muffling any noise that came from it.

That's when she would realize that something was truly wrong.

Maybe she'd call his friends. Maybe she'd call the police. Heck, maybe she'd call everyone.

But he didn't care.

He just wanted to be alone.

Hiro had been plagued with these sorts of problems before. When Tadashi passed, he had fallen into a very deep state of depression. Aunt Cass had taken him to a psychologist, and while the visits weren't anything to write home about, he had slowly managed to pull himself out of his funk with everyone's help.

He had thought he had gotten past everything. He had felt some sort of closure at graduation. Like everything was just starting to fall into place.

And then things kept creeping back into his brain. His brother. Karmi being taken away again, and for who knows how long. The anxiety. The stress.

He couldn't take it any more.

It was a curse of his heightened intelligence. He couldn't forget anything. Everything was there. And it was going to kill him.

Better that it happen in a place where the collateral damage would be minimal. Luckily, no one had known other than Aunt Cass that he had gone to the park with Karmi, so that was the best place to be. She would be too distressed to think clearly.

He found a light pole with a broken bulb, sitting down underneath it. It wasn't a very cold night, but all he had was his sweatshirt, and the wind was starting to blow a little bit. He pulled the hood over his head and rubbed his hands together, trying to warm his knuckles. Maybe the bush he was behind could stop some of the cold.

Why was he even bothering? Why couldn't he just leave? Why couldn't he just slam his head into the ground a few times? That would probably fix the problem, right?

Hiro put his hands in his head, trying to drown out the thoughts permeating in his mind. There were so many. It had to stop.

Why couldn't it just stop?

He felt his cheeks stain with his tears. Now his head was starting to hurt. Great. Wonderful. What else did he want to do to himself tonight?

"I remember seeing him a few minutes ago."

Hiro straightened up and looked over his shoulder. The old man he had talked to was standing a few feet away with a police officer. The man pointed off to the west. "I believe he went off in that direction. I can't say for certain."

"How did he look?"

"Very sad. Distressed. Like something was bothering him."

"He didn't happen to have anything on him, did he?" The officer tapped his notepad. "A bag? Anything?"

"Nope. I don't even think he had a phone. Asked me for the time. Very polite young man, he was." The gentlemen looked both ways before leaning in. "Is he in danger, officer?"

He put his pad away and turned the knob on his radio. "We just need to find him, sir. We don't want anything bad to happen to the boy. We have officers all around the city looking for him. If you see him again, call the city tip line, OK?"

"I will."

The two separated, the old man walking away from Hiro. The officer stood still for a brief moment, and then pressed the button on his radio. "Dispatch, this is Officer Thompson. I may have a lead in Torii Gate Park. Subject's been spotted in the past five minutes or so. I'm going to continue on foot."

"This is Dispatch," the radio squawked. "Chief Cruz is en route to your location. Standby."

"10-4."

Hiro got up to his knees. The last thing he wanted was to be found now. He had to get out of there. Slowly, he crouch-walked away from the officer, parting some more bushes to get some distance between them.

Why couldn't everyone just leave him alone? No one could help him at this point. He had to get out of there. He needed to find a new place to sulk, and it sounded like the park wasn't going to be any good now.

But then he stopped again, perched right under a thick sycamore tree.

Why did it even matter? What was the point of running? What was the point of anything? His life was spiraling out of control right in front of him, and there was nothing he could do to stop it. Maybe he should let whatever was going to happen...happen.

Hiro pinched the bridge of his nose. His head hurt so bad now; it was like his skull was going to rip in two. Maybe he should just find a place to lie down and let the night pass.

He looked up to see if anyone was around him...and said eyes fell onto the playground. It was the same one that he and Karmi had visited not even a few days ago, but it was devoid of any people. It looked very eerie with the lights around it. It would have to do.

Hiro walked forward, his shoes hitting the sand that the playground sat on. He climbed up the ladder and found the tube, sliding in until he was sufficiently lodged inside. He laid down on his back and closed his eyes, his legs curled in front of him.

If only his friends could see him now. The great and mighty Hiro Hamada, reduced to a complete and utter joke. Left in a pile of his own tears.

He wished that he could be stronger. Dealing with Tadashi's death was something akin to pulling a rotten tooth out; it had to be done, but the entire process was still very painful. But he had done it, or so he thought.

Why was he even thinking about him, anyway? He had been in his room, thinking up a new project to do for the summer, and daydreaming about going back to school...

And then his eyes had fallen to Tadashi's honorary degree. The one that had been handed to him by Granville.

And then his mind had gone to a dark place.

All of his misfortunes had flowed into him at once. It had shocked even him; the wave of emotions was so bad that he was surprised he hadn't destroyed more of his belongings.

Hiro sighed deeply. Baymax had been his creation. Not his own. That animosity had punctured his heart that tearing out the port almost felt cathartic.

But it had the opposite effect. It had only made him worse.

Great. Wonderful. Now he was starting to cry again.

"Good job, Hiro," he muttered to himself, not even bothering to wipe them away. "What a piece of work you are."

Nothing his brain was working on made any sense. Everything was just so...muddled. What he wouldn't give to just make it all go away...

He wished he could say that was the first time that thought had crossed his mind, but it wasn't. He had never mentioned it to anyone, not even the psychologist. He knew such things were detrimental to his mental health, but sharing that would have been too much. So he kept it in.

He always kept everything in. Because he didn't want to burden anyone else.

Because no one could relate to what the last year had done to him.

Hiro looked up through the crack between sections of the tube to see the tiniest sliver of moon creeping in right above him. It didn't take an astrologist to know that it was nearing midnight. He had been gone a very long time. Maybe the police had just given up.

His gaze returned back to his shoes. No, probably not. But he half-hoped they had. Maybe they just didn't care anymore. He certainly didn't.

The sound of a dress shoe hitting the rung of the metal ladder rang in his ears. But he didn't look up. His wandering mind wouldn't let him focus. He also didn't respond to the light radiating from the flashlight hitting his legs.

"Hiro?"

Nor did he react to that. But it had been only a matter of time. Someone was going to find him eventually.

"Hey."

And it was ironic that it was him.

"Are you OK, son?"

The deep tones of Chief Cruz's voice reverberated through the tunnel. Hiro didn't acknowledge his question, only sniffing loudly.

"It's been quite a long time since I've been in something like this. I'm not going to be able to fit in there. A little too snug for me."

His attempt at humor had good intentions, but the joke didn't land. Hiro stayed silent.

"Why don't you come on out, Hiro? It's been a long night for everyone."

Slowly, and with as much delay as possible, he uncurled himself into a crawling position and crept out. His eyes looked down the ladder to see Chief Cruz's frame. His hat was on his head, hiding his graying hair, and his eyes had very large bags underneath them, like he had been busy all night. Hiro hit the ground with both feet and just stood there, waiting for the inevitable.

"Turn around for me."

Hiro did so, and Cruz patted down his sides. It wasn't a foreign thing; it had happened to him both times he had been arrested for bot-fighting. It still felt rather off, though.

"I don't have anything, sir."

Cruz's head came down over his left shoulder.

"I'm not going to hurt you."

The police chief slightly chuckled as he finished his search. "Trust me, Hiro. I'm not worried about you hurting me."

His palm hit Hiro's stomach, checking the sweatshirt pocket before standing up again.

"I'm worried about you hurting yourself."

The gravity of the statement didn't fully hit Hiro, but Cruz knelt down anyway, looking him up and down. "Are you hungry? Thirsty?"

"I'm...umm..." Hiro closed his eyes, the pain from his brain settling in again. "I'm tired. A little cold. And my head hurts."

"OK. Stay here for a second."

Cruz leaned his head into his shoulder radio, the feedback piercing the night. "Dispatch, this is Chief Cruz. Subject has been located. I need a bus to meet me at my squad car." He looked off into the distance in an effort to remember where it was. "At the intersection of Juu and Fulton near Torii Gate Park. Copy."

"Bus has been dispatched," the voice over the radio said. "ETA is about five minutes."

"10-4. Rescind the ATL while you're at it. I'll deliver the package to its residence once it's been cleared. Have Detective Kato meet me there."

"I will send word when the ATL is down."

"Copy that. Thanks, Carol." Cruz turned his radio off, placing a strong hand on Hiro's shoulder. "Come on, son. We can wait in my car."

The two set off, the teen genius being guided by the police chief. Hiro thought for a moment about trying to get away, but the fingers curled around his body weren't going to make that happen.

It wasn't a very long walk, and before he knew it, he was sitting in the passenger seat of the car. Chief Cruz got in on the other side, looking around his center console for something. "I thought I had some energy bars in here, but I guess not. Maybe Megan ate them all..."

"I'm not hungry."

"Hiro, you-"

He was interrupted by the ringing of his phone. Hiro looked down at it in his cup holder and saw Megan's face on it. Sighing, Cruz put the phone up to his ear. "Megan, I told you that-"

What erupted out of the speaker was what Hiro only could assume was some sort of Spanish/English mumbo-jumbo. He couldn't decipher any of it, but the elder Cruz cut her off before she could get too far. "Megan, I told you not to listen in on the radio when I'm at work. I understand that it's Hiro, but you're still grounded, remember?"

A muffled response came out.

"Yes, Megan. I have him. He's..."

Cruz glanced over at Hiro.

"Look, I'll talk to you when I get home, OK? In the meantime, get off the radio. And stay in your room. I'll see you later." He hung up the call, almost tossing it back into the cup holder. He rubbed the side of his head in anguish. "Teenagers."

He then thought about who was with him.

"No offense."

Hiro shrugged. He couldn't muster up a proper response.

"She was very worried about you. She tried to get out of the house to go search for you, but I refused. I didn't want two teenagers getting themselves lost in the city tonight."

Cruz leaned back in his seat, his arm around the back of Hiro's headrest. "We were all very worried about you. We didn't want you to do something you'll regret later. Cass was practically bawling when she called into the station. You don't want her to be worried, right?"

Nothing.

"But look on the bright side, at least you'll get to ride in the front seat of the police car. You know...instead of in the back of one."

Hiro blinked into his lap.

"I looked into your file at the station. Bot fighting? Sounds like something I would do when I was younger."

He finally looked up at Cruz, who backed off under the teen genius' glare. "Yeah, I'm going to shut up now."

The humor was a mild attempt at best. Hiro knew that he was only trying to help, but tonight wasn't about feeling better. It was about him trying to get away from it all. And he had failed.

The EMT had made quick work of him, checking his vitals and giving him a line of saline before sending him back to Chief Cruz. To his credit, the man didn't talk for the entirety of way back to the Lucky Cat Cafe. Maybe he thought he had overextended his attempts to lighten the mood. Either way, as they pulled up to the house, he made no motion to chit-chat with him any further.

Aunt Cass was standing in the doorway, talking to an Asian police officer, her hands clenched together. Hiro recognized the man as Detective Kato, the person that Cruz had spoken about on the radio. He also knew him as the one that busted the entire bot-fighting operation that Hiro had been a part of.

And the person who arrested him.

Those were the days.

As soon as the car came to a stop, Aunt Cass was right at the passenger door to open it. Hiro hadn't even fully stepped out of the car before she had pulled him into her body in an iron grip.

Hiro would have hugged her back, but his arms were latched onto his sides by hers. He just kind of stood there as she didn't move for a whole minute. He heard Chief Cruz talking with Detective Kato behind him, but Cass's head was right next to his ear, muffling their speech. Finally, she let him go and wiped her eyes. "Hiro, can you go inside, please? I have to talk to the police for a second."

He wordlessly walked into the cafe and took a seat at one of the tables. He could still hear his aunt talking to the two officers outside through the cracked-open door. Kato simply nodded and stepped back to his car, patting Cruz on the shoulder before heading out. Once he was gone, however, she wrangled the older man around his neck, her emotions spilling out all over again.

"Diego, thank you so much. I don't even know what I'd do if..."

"It's OK. That's what we're here for," he mumbled.

Hiro blushed. He hadn't forgotten that Chief Cruz still had somewhat of a crush on his aunt. It had tapered off after their very brief dinner date and the adventure he had with him in Muirahara Woods, but he could tell something was still there. Something...lingering.

Their voices became even more hushed, and Hiro couldn't make out what they were saying. The two adults broke apart, their mouths moving rapidly in what he assumed was hushed conversation about him. Cruz motioned inside at him and muttered a couple of words. Cass shrugged her shoulders, not sure what to make of his silent question.

The police chief reached into his pocket and grabbed a card, setting it into her hand. He said one final thing, to which Aunt Cass nodded. They exchanged one last hug, and with that, Cruz got into his car and left. She looked down at the card in her hand with a frown, putting it in her pocket before opening the main door.

This was it. He had been waiting for this since he had stepped foot into the house. She was going to yell at him. Berate him. Ground him into oblivion. He probably wouldn't be able to go out for a very long time. And as she walked up to him, he closed his eyes, bracing for all of that.

"Sweetie..."

Hiro found himself back in Aunt Cass's grasp. This was...not what he was expecting.

"I need you to go upstairs and clean yourself up. And then you're going to sit down and eat something. You're probably starving. I'll be up in a little bit, OK?"

He didn't fight it. He got up and walked over to the stairs, taking them very slowly. He made it up to the second floor before his body stopped him.

He couldn't do it.

He couldn't go up to his room.

If he did, he would see the wreckage that he had caused with Baymax. All of the damage that had been done. And his mind was going to go back to his terrible place all over again.

So Hiro walked by the kitchen and to the living room, plopping himself down on the couch. Almost as if on cue, Mochi got off of his cat perch and hopped up to his lap.

"Hi, Mochi," he whispered.

His fingers scratched the cat's back briefly before Mochi moved to the armrest. Aunt Cass made her entrance from downstairs, carrying a plate of food and a glass of water. She set it down on the counter and grabbed a folding table, putting everything on it in front of Hiro. He could tell her hands were still shaking from the entire ordeal.

"You have to eat something, Hiro. I know you don't want to, but at least try."

Hiro looked down at the plate. It was some sort of steak, cut into fine slices, with mashed potatoes and green beans on the side. It was a surprisingly normal serving of food. He wondered if she had tried to add anything "exotic" to it, like grape juice or chili peppers. He slowly poked a piece with his fork and took a bite.

If he had been in a better mood, it would have tasted great. But it was flavorless. Unappealing. Maybe his mouth was too dry. He went to grab the glass of water...and he misjudged the distance, bumping the container with the tips of his fingers. It went careening down to the ground, shattering completely on the hardwood floor.

Mochi jumped up at the sudden crash and vaulted downstairs. Cass, still in the kitchen, wheeled around the corner to see Hiro staring down at his plate.

"Hiro, are you OK?"

He wasn't.

Whatever final barrier had been shielding him for losing all control...broke along with the glass.

"Why?"

He almost didn't recognize his own voice. It had been so long since he had spoken, he thought he lost it.

"Why did it happen to him?"

Aunt Cass put the dishrag down on the counter and started walking toward him.

"Why did Tadashi have to die?"

"Hiro..."

"Why wasn't it me?"

He put his head in his hands, elbows propped on the table.

"Why did Karmi have to leave?"

His eyes darted around uncontrollably.

"Why do I always hurt all the people I care about? Why can't it just end? Why can't it just leave me alone?"

"Hiro."

He felt Aunt Cass's arms go around his neck and pull him close. Hiro, now tangled in her embrace, lost all control. He sobbed right into his aunt's body, Cass crying right along with him.

It was a long while before either Hamada moved. His aunt cradled his head against her chest as he let the tears fall from his eyes. His head was hurting even more now, the pain almost unbearable. His fingers gripped her back so hard that he wasn't sure whether he was going to tear her shirt.

But she kept him close. It hurt her to see him like this, but her attention was on him and only him.

Aunt Cass steered his body down to her lap, his cheek gently rubbing her pants leg. She let her hand run through his hair, and the feeling of her fingers massaging his scalp brought down his migraine to a manageable level. He stared at his reflection in the TV as she bent her head down slightly.

"This is one of those times that I can't help but think that I've failed you as a parent."

Hiro turned his eyes to see her in the screen.

"I just think that if I did something different...if I had done things better...you wouldn't have ran away."

"You didn't do anything wrong, Aunt Cass," he squeaked out. "It's me. I'm the problem."

He looked back at the floor, his next thought dribbling over his lips.

"I hate how everything has happened to me. It's too much. I can't handle it."

He closed his eyes, the tears welling up again. He felt Aunt Cass's fingers pause right on top of his head.

"I know how hard it is to lose a brother, Hiro...because eleven years ago, I lost mine."

Hiro's hand gripped her knee.

"I lost a brother and a sister-in-law. And it was so hard. I wish that I could give you something to take the pain away, but it doesn't. It never goes away. I think about him every day...and I see him every day in you."

Her hand continued to comb through his messy hair.

"I remember when he first called me to say that Maemi was pregnant with Tadashi. He was so excited, but sooo scared. He didn't know what to do. May and I helped him through everything. And then the day came. It was like a giant weight had been lifted off of his shoulders. Things just fell into place."

"And then when she had you, he was happy that Tadashi was going to have a baby brother. I think part of him wanted you to get revenge on Tadashi for all of the trouble May and I put him through in our childhood." Aunt Cass sniffled. "Maemi wasn't very fond of that. She just wanted to coddle you."

Hiro glanced at the portrait of his parents on the wall. He had never known any of that.

"You were a very fussy sleeper. But she had this trick where she would scratch your head, right on the top right here..." She tapped the corresponding part with her own finger. "And you'd fall right asleep. It was magic, I swear. I tried to do it when..."

Aunt Cass let out a sigh. "I wish Tommy was here. I wish Maemi was here. They could tell me what to do. How to help you. How to make you feel better."

Hiro slowly sat up and turned his body to face his aunt. One of her hands was still holding his cheek.

"Hiro, I don't want you to ever think that you can't come talk to me about anything. I know it's rough for you, because you're coming to the age where everything feels like it's collapsing. But I'm here for you. And if you don't want to talk to me, you have a lot of options out there."

She had something in her hand, and Hiro looked down to see what it was.

It was his phone.

"I want you to look at your phone, sweetie. You need to see it."

"I..." Hiro's breathing got heavy. "I can't. I can't."

"Sweetie." She set the cell in his hand, pressing it down. "Look at it. Please."

He bent forward, his thumb precariously hanging over the power button. He could only imagine what sort of things would be on there. Or if there would be anything on it at all. But against his better judgment, he pressed it down...

And what he saw shocked him.

The amount of missed calls were astounding. The number of unread text messages reached triple digits. Tapping a button, he saw several voicemails, not listened to, stored in the memory. All together, it would take him a long time to review every single one of them.

He pressed his Messages button, and his phone loaded with frantic texts from everyone he could imagine. Go Go. Fred. Honey Lemon. Wasabi. Megan. Aspen. Robbie. Doreen. Even Professor Granville…

"Every single one of your friends tried to reach out to you. And then they reached out to me. And they didn't ask what trouble you got in. They didn't accuse you of doing something bad. All they wanted to do was help. All they wanted was to make sure you were OK," Aunt Cass whispered. "They went out with the police to aid in the search for you all night."

Her finger came down onto the screen, scrolling it back up to top. "Well...most of them."

The text stopped going up, and Hiro's eyes fell onto the person on the top of the list.

Karmi.

She must have texted him at least thirty times, each newer one growing more and more concerned.

Genius Boy, your aunt called me and said you went missing. You need to pull your head out of your robotics work or whatever and call her.

And more worried.

Hiro, seriously. If you're not going to call her, call me, and I'll relay it to her.

Until it looked like she could barely get the words out.

Hiro please.

A tear fell down onto the screen as he read the last text message she sent:

please call me. I need to hear your voice. I need to know your ok.

Karmi was always so meticulous in her texting, and seeing her break down in her words was jarring. The fact that she took the time to reach out, even though she was suppose to be away working on a lawsuit against Sycorax with her parents...that meant everything to him.

"Hiro." She put her arm around his shoulder and kissed the top of his head. "You are so incredibly loved by so many people. I don't want you to ever forget that. I know things are hard. I know that you're angry and sad and you think that you're not worth it. But you absolutely are. And not just to me. To so many others."

He set the phone down in his lap. He couldn't look at it any more. "Where are they now? Why haven't they swarmed the house yet?"

Aunt Cass chuckled. "Because after Diego found you, I informed everybody that you were OK and that it was best for them to stay away, at least for tonight. You probably weren't going to want to talk to anyone, anyway."

She turned his face toward her. "But tomorrow, after you eat breakfast and get situated, you are going to call every single one of your friends and tell them that yourself. Do you understand?"

Hiro nodded.

"Good. Now go upstairs and get some sleep. Don't worry about this (she waved to the broken glass). I'll take care of it."

He got up off of the couch and started going up the steps. He looked back very briefly to see Cass picking the pieces of glass off of the floor. Her eyes looked so very tired, but she still kept on through everything.

"Aunt Cass?"

She brought her head up to look at him.

"You didn't fail me as a parent."

Hiro's thumb ran over the railing.

"You're the only parent I've ever known. And you're a really awesome one. You have to be to put up with me."

She rubbed her cheeks free of the streaks running down them.

"Good night, Aunt Cass."

"Good night, Hiro. I love you."

"I love you too."

Hiro continued upstairs. It was a wonder that there were still any more tears left in his eyes to cry. He never wanted to find out what the limit was, but he had to be reaching it by now.

He arrived at his bedroom and started straight for his bed. But right before he got to the foot of it, he turned around to gaze at the damage he had caused.

Baymax was right where he left him, still inflated and eyes closed. It was almost like he was in his sleep mode, if not for the access port yanked out of his chest. The pieces of it were scattered around in front of him. Hiro bent down and grabbed Tadashi's healthcare chip and the superhero chip, holding them in each of his hands.

"I'm sorry, buddy." Even though Baymax wasn't online, he didn't want to look him in the eye. "You didn't deserve what I did to you. I'll make everything better. It just...might take a while."

Hiro set the two chips on his desk and laid out on his bed. He had meant to change into his pajamas, but that wasn't going to happen. As soon as his head hit the pillow, he was immediately asleep, all of the worry and anxiety replaced by a giant void of nothing.

The next morning…

Hiro knew something was up even before he opened his eyes.

With no alarm from Baymax to wake him, he had trouble gauging how long he actually slept for. On the other hand, he had no desire to look at the clock, because that meant looking at Baymax, and he wasn't in the mood for that.

All he knew was that he felt another presence in his bedroom. But the headache that had dissipated during the night was starting to crawl back, so his eyes stayed shut.

Wait. He felt the floor shift to his left. Someone was definitely there. Maybe it was Aunt Cass checking up on him. He turned his head that way and creaked his eyes open.

It was definitely daytime; the light outside told him that. But sitting at his desk was someone, but he couldn't tell exactly who. All he could see through the slits were black leggings…

"Karmi?" he muttered.

The blurry blob uncrossed its legs and bent down closer.

"Not quite."

Oh. That's who it was.

"Aw crap."

"Get up, Hiro."

He turned his head back around. "I don't wanna."

"Get up or I'm going to make you get up."

Hiro rotated his body and sat up in bed, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "This is the best I'm going to be able to do."

The girl got up from the chair and repositioned herself on the bed, right next to Hiro's legs. "That's fine. I can do it here."

For the first time, the teen genius gave his full attention to Go Go. Her hair was reaching a level of disheveledness that rivaled his own hair, and the bags under her eyes were readily apparently. But her actual irises were staring directly into him in such a way that made him very uneasy.

"I'm here on behalf of everyone downstairs." Go Go scratched her neck. "I was told by Aunt Cass that I'm allowed to say one bad thing to you and that's it. So...I'm going to do that now."

Hiro felt her hand grabbed the front of his shirt and pull him forward. He had been expecting that; he didn't fight it at all. He had also expected her face to contort into a look of pure anger, the red in her eyes adding to it.

"Hiro Hamada, don't you ever do what you did last night ever again."

Yup. That too.

"Do you have any idea how worried we were about you? We couldn't find you at all. You could have been hurt! Or worse! We spent all night looking for you! Robbie came all the way up just to help us with the search! Aspen was halfway back to the city before Chief Cruz found you in the park! You had us all worried sick!"

"I...can't help but notice that you said more than one thing."

"Shut up."

The smart aleck comment wasn't helping things. But he had to get that out regardless.

"Now...c'mere."

What happened next was out of the blue: Go Go grabbed his head from both sides and pulled him into her body, hugging him as hard as she could. On instinct, his arms went around her waist, his emotions spilling over again.

They didn't move. Part of him didn't dare move before she did, and the other part enjoyed the physical contact.

"You're lucky Honey Lemon's downstairs helping Aunt Cass with the Cafe. If she were up here, she's probably hug you so hard your head would pop off."

Hiro let out a small laugh, and they finally separated, her hands still on his shoulders.

"Look," Go Go started, "I'm not going to sit here and lecture you about how I know what you're going through...because I don't. I don't know what it's like to lose a brother; I don't have any. I don't know what it's like to lose a parent; I have both of mine. And even though I don't get along with them a lot of the time, I know that they care about me. You have gone through more crap than all of us put together."

She poked him hard in the chest. "That's why you have to get help, Hiro. Not help from me or from Aunt Cass. You need to get actual, professional help. You can't keep going on like this. You are eventually going to get to a point where you won't be able to stop yourself, and that will be something you can never come back from."

Go Go shook her head at him. "And no one wants to see that. Not even you."

Hiro rubbed his eyes with his wrist. She took that as a sign that he understood and got up from the bed. "Now, let's go eat breakfast. You're probably starving."

"No."

She was just about to reach the stairs when she wheeled back around at him. "You have to be kidding me. Hiro, you-"

"Go Go."

The Korean stopped as Hiro fidgeted with the covers. "I'm not in the mood to be around other people right now. I just...want to be alone."

She clenched her jaw, and he thought that she was going to rail into him again. But she relented, instead choosing to nod her head. "OK. That's fine. But remember what I said. We're all here for you."

Go Go left down the steps, but not before Hiro called out to her.

"Go Go?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you tell everyone downstairs...that I'm sorry?"

She turned her head back toward him, her eyes narrowed.

"That I'm sorry for making everyone worry? That what I did was stupid?"

Go Go sighed and nodded her head. "Yeah, I'll let them know."

"Thanks."

"But you should probably know that we're on guard duty all day. We're not letting you out of our sight. Just keep that in mind."

She made off down the stairs, leaving Hiro to wonder just what on Earth that meant.

A couple hours later, Hiro was regretting not going downstairs to eat breakfast. His stomach was growling, and it was louder than any of the voices going on in his head.

But he was being stubborn. And he knew that.

He kept himself busy by trying to piece together the access port of Baymax, but he had done a number on it. Several of the pieces it broke into were too fragile to withstand anything. He was going to have to make a brand new one.

"Serves me right, I guess," he muttered, two flimsy pieces in his fingers.

"Hiro. Can you come downstairs for a minute?"

Aunt Cass's voice came up the stairs, and Hiro wondered what could be up this time. He hadn't moved from his room yet. But he got up from his chair and went down into the living room, where his aunt was waiting with a stool, a sheet, and the hair-cutting kit.

"I haven't cut your hair in a while. It's starting to spread like wildfire again."

Hiro got into the stool without a word, letting her wrap the bib around his neck. He felt the spritz of cold water come out of the small water bottle onto his hair and shivered.

"Sorry. I should've checked the temperature of the water."

"It's fine." He tried to listen to the people downstairs, but the conversations were too soft. "Who's in the cafe?"

"Honey Lemon and Wasabi. It's a good thing there's no school; they said they can stay all day if need be." She pulled up a tuft of hair with a comb and started snipping. "I don't think I'll need them to, but I appreciate it all the same."

Aunt Cass got through another couple of cuts before speaking up again.

"You had a few visitors earlier."

"I know. Go Go went upstairs."

"I'm not talking about them."

Hiro turned his head to look at her, but she pushed his cheek forward.

"Diego and Megan came by first thing in the morning."

"Really?"

"Don't act surprised. He spent all night looking for you. And Megan was, according to him, about to steal a police car and look for you as well." Aunt Cass adjusted the scissors in her hand. "She was halfway up the stairs to wake you up before Diego stopped her. Said that you waking up with her in your bed would give the wrong impression." Another couple of snips. "Because you would never have a girl in your bed at your age."

Hiro's cheeks flared.

"Anyway, he said to tell you that he hopes everything is OK. Megan too. And then, almost as soon as they left, Mr. Krei showed up."

He had completely forgotten that he had an internship with Krei. He hadn't been back there in a while, but how did he know what was going on?

"I called him on a whim last night and asked him if there was any way to track your phone. I may have freaked him out a little bit, but he had one of his engineers do a search. That's how I was able to find it. Not that it did any good, of course." She tucked the scissors behind his ear to trim the sideburns. "But he said that you didn't have to worry about going to work. You can telecomm if need be."

Aunt Cass walked around to the front, putting Hiro's chin in her hand. She tilted her head slightly, probably to see whether she cut the sideburns evenly.

"Also, he kept calling you 'Assistant' for some reason? Is that a game you play with him?"

"Not really," Hiro said.

"Well, in any case, he and his secretary came by to wish you the best. Judy, I think it was? I like her. It seems like she's in charge more than he is."

His eyes suddenly fell onto a large basket on the kitchen counter. It was filled with a ton of candy, all wrapped up with a large bow on top. "What is that?"

Aunt Cass followed his gaze over there and sighed. "That...is what happens when you call your sister with a status update at one in the morning. May sent that overnight to you. I told her that you have way too much candy here already, but she ignored me. Oh, that reminds me!"

She reached into her pocket to grab her phone and handed it to Hiro. "May told me to show you this. Peni's at the school making friends."

Hiro bent down his head for two reasons. One was for her to trim the hair on his neck. The second was to look at the picture of Peni in some sort of lab, flanked by four people in the frame. There was a girl with a red scarf and a guy with a black hoodie on her left, and a girl with wild brown hair and a guy with some sort of tech sitting on his forehead. Peni was in the center, giving a peace sign to the camera.

"I don't know what you did to her while she was here, Hiro, but you sure turned her around. She went from being so shy and a shut-in to this. I've never seen here this animated before."

Hiro knew why; it was because Peni had spent a lot of time worrying about the legacy of her parents, the status of her project with the government, and the general problem of having to save the city from a giant electrical tech-lizard. However, she was able to come out of her shell when everything was said and done.

"Here, I'm almost done. Let me check you over."

The comb weaved through his hair, and Hiro felt the teeth slightly dig into his scalp. He shuffled in his seat as he tried to get back into position.

"Stop squirming, Hiro."

"Sorry," he muttered. "I don't like getting my hair cut."

"...Neither did your father."

Hiro blinked rapidly.

"Tommy absolutely hated it. I was the only one who he let cut his hair, but since he was a child about it, he would always complain the entire way through. He liked it kept a certain way, and if you strayed from that by even one hair, he'd have a fit."

"What about Aunt May?"

"Heavens no. May's idea of getting her hair done is putting that giant ponytail of hers into a bun and calling it a day. I don't know if you've noticed, Hiro, but you come from a long line of hair disasters. Good to know you're keeping the family tradition alive."

She took one last glance over his head and set the comb down. "There, I'm done. Tell me how it looks." She handed him a mirror, which Hiro quickly glanced in.

"...It doesn't look any different."

"I think you underestimate how much hair you have, sweetie." She grabbed a dustpan and started to collect the stray hairs into it. "I could probably give another child a full head of hair with all of this."

Hiro smiled for the first time in a while, but the quiet was punctured by the growling of his stomach. Aunt Cass looked up and shook her head. "I'm going to send some food upstairs. Don't even try to tell me you're not hungry because I know you are."

A few minutes later, he was back in his bed, mulling over what to do with Baymax's access port. He'd have to go to the garage to print a new one, but who knows if Aunt Cass would even let him in there at this point.

A sudden knock on the wall caused him to look up at the new arrival: Honey Lemon with his food. Her hair was just as straight as always, but her face also looked like she hadn't gotten a lot of sleep. That didn't stop the smile from spreading on her cheeks.

"Hey, Hiro."

"Hi, Honey Lemon."

She set the tray down in front of him and gave him a quick hug. "How are you feeling?"

He shrugged. "I don't really know."

"Well..." She nodded to the cup on the tray. "I brought you some tea with your lunch. I know you don't normally drink it, but it always makes me feel better when I have a bad day."

Hiro brought the mug up to his lips and took a sip. It was a weird taste, but the liquid warmed him up considerably.

"You know what else makes me feel better after a bad day?"

"What?"

An awkward pause rang through the bedroom, and Honey Lemon turned toward the empty stairs. "That was your cue, Freddie."

"Sorry! I got distracted by Captain Fancy." Fred poked his head up into the room, a spare comic in his face. "You also didn't give me a lot of warning about this whole thing."

He finished walking into the bedroom, dragging a cardboard box of comics behind him. He finished getting everything to Hiro's beanbag chair and flopped into it. "Now this is the Casa de Fred! I could get used to this."

"What is happening?"

Honey Lemon pushed the plate a little bit forward, getting up to her feet. "I have to go back downstairs and help Wasabi. You eat all of that, OK?"

Hiro looked down at the tray: it was a sandwich, but not one he had ever seen before. The bread looked more like a baguette, and the insides had slices of crispy ham, pork, and what looked like green peppers on it. "What's this?"

"Definitely not PB&J, that's for sure."

She waved Freddie off and nodded to the plate. "Its a Serranito. Aunt Cass wanted me to make something for you, and nothing is more filling than my grandmother's sandwiches. And we're even selling some samples downstairs; she might start selling it if enough people like it. But enough about that. I gotta get back down there. You enjoy it, OK?" She gave him another hug and made off down the stairs.

Hiro looked off to his left to see Fred had settled into the beanbag chair, his own sandwich resting in his hand and his head deep into another comic.

Guard duty...

Go Go's words came rolling back into his head. Yup. That's what she meant.

"Where is Go Go?"

"She had to leave to go take care of some things. Didn't tell me anything. Not that she ever tells me anything..."

"Fred. I know what's going on. She's making all of you watch over me. Like I'm going to try to run away again or something."

He turned a page in his comic, saying nothing.

"I don't need to be watched like a child. You guys are doing all this for nothing."

"Can you blame us!?"

Fred spoke with such sudden anger that it even caught Hiro off guard. He put his comic down as he stared the boy in the bed down. "Hiro, we didn't know where you were. We called you all night. I even went to Basemax to see if we could locate you that way, but Wasabi said you had disabled its tracking capabilities."

Oh yeah. He had forgotten he had done that. That was the last thing he had done on his phone before he left it at the house.

"We spent the entire night wondering whether we would ever find you. And you have the nerve to tell us that we should just leave you by yourself. Dude, we're not gonna do that. We're your friends. What kind of people would we be if we didn't help you?"

Hiro looked down. The guilt was coming back again.

"I'm not going anywhere, buddy. I got my comics, I got my sandwich..." He waved the half-eaten food in his hand. "And I was told to be up here with you for an hour. That's all. You can deal with me for that long."

And "deal" he did. Fred didn't say much after his rant against Hiro, and it was probably for the best. When you had Fred mad at you, that's how you knew you messed up.

And after an hour, Fred did make his exit, but not before he rubbed the teen genius' head affectionately. He even left some of his newer Captain Fancy comics for him to read, with the assumption that he would give them back when he was done.

They did look rather promising. Hiro hadn't been keeping up as much as he (and Fred) wanted. Fred had mentioned something about a team-up with Captain Fancy and Franklin Flame, and the cover of the latest issue had the two standing prominently back-to-back in the shadow of an unknown foe. He reached for the comic...

And then his phone started to vibrate.

He picked it up off of the desk and took a look. It wasn't a normal number; it was on the team's secure line. But that didn't make any sense; why wouldn't the team just call him?

Unless it wasn't any of them.

Hiro answered the phone, and his professor's face came into view. Just like all the others, her eyes were redder than before, but her composure was as prevalent as ever. "Ahh, Mr. Hamada. I am glad that you answered my call. How are you faring today?"

He sighed. "To be honest, Professor, I really wish people would stop asking me that question."

"We are merely concerned for your well-being, Mr. Hamada. When your aunt called me last night, she was beside herself. I could barely get a coherent word out of her. She thought that you had made a late-night trip to your lab, and when I told her that you had already cleaned out your lab prior to the end of the semester, she broke down. I told her that I would attempt to contact you, but she mentioned you purposefully left your phone at home."

Hiro looked at the stairs, perhaps to see if Aunt Cass was going to make an entrance.

"Mr. Hamada, do you want to talk about what is troubling you?"

"Not particularly."

Granville leaned back in her chair. "Well, I suppose I cannot force you to do so. You are entitled to your privacy."

His thumb started heading toward the button to end the call.

"However..."

And then it stopped.

"I do wish to tell you about one thing."

Hiro looked into the screen to see Granville lean forward at him. She had the sternest expression she could muster on her face.

"Mr. Hamada, being a student of SFIT affords you everything that the campus has to offer. In addition to state-of-the-art classrooms and research, we try to help students with every resource that they could possibly need. And that includes someone to talk to when things get beyond their control."

Hiro said nothing as Granville tapped her desk. "On campus, there is a gentlemen who serves as the institute's psychologist. He is available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week for students to talk to. He is exceptional at his job, and I am going to strongly suggest that you use the opportunity to speak to him yourself."

"I think I've seen him before," Hiro said quietly. He tried to picture the man in his mind. "Tall guy, beard. Always wears some weird red trench coat."

"That would be him, yes."

"He seems a little..."

He didn't want to say the word outright to be rude, but it appeared that Granville already knew where he was going. "Off-putting? Abnormal?" She smirked a tiny bit. "Strange?"

Hiro didn't respond.

"I will admit that his techniques are unorthodox, but I assure that he has the student's best interests at heart. One of the things that he mandated when he first arrived was establish a trust between himself and whoever he talked to."

Granville clicked on her computer. "Mr. Hamada, you are an adult, and as one, you can set the boundaries yourself. No one has to know that you are seeking his treatment. Not your friends, not your aunt. Not even myself, if you so desire. I can simply let him know that you are interested, and the conversation can resume between the two of you."

"I don't know. I don't feel comfortable talking to someone like that."

"I know that this is hard, Mr. Hamada. And that is why I am going to take the extraordinary step of barring you from SFIT until you seek proper psychological help from someone, and I see the appropriate documentation."

"What?" Hiro said. "You can't-"

"I can. And I have." She pressed one final button on her keyboard. "Mr. Hamada, feel free to be angry with me all you want. I assure you that I probably deserve some of it. But your health is much more important than your education at this moment, and I would not be doing my due diligence if I let this go unabated. You may visit the campus if you are coming to seek my colleague's assistance, but if not, you are not to return, and if you do, I will have security escort you out."

Granville folded her hands in front of her. "Do I make myself clear?"

Hiro's mouth opened and closed a few times. The shock still hadn't worn off yet. But through it all, he was able to squeak out a measly "Yes".

"Very good. Now, I am afraid that I must depart. While students have the luxury of having vacation for a few weeks, I do not have said luxury. I won't bore you with the details. But I wish you the best of luck."

"Professor."

Granville was just about to hang up when she heard Hiro speak up at the last second. "Yes?"

Hiro wiped a tear away from his eye. He didn't want to show his emotions, but everyone else had a front seat to it over the past day; why not Granville? "Thank you, Professor."

"You are quite welcome." She let out a rare smile. "Just to be thorough, I will send his contact information to your aunt. And remember, Hiro...we are all here for you. Do not forget that."

The next couple of hours was spent in relative silence. Hiro had basically given up on the access port, instead taking the Fred route of eating and reading comics. Normally, he wasn't allowed to eat in his bed, but he guessed Aunt Cass shared his sentiment of wanting to be by himself.

But he couldn't help but think he was being watched. After Fred's turn minding the prisoner, there hadn't been another human in his room.

Animals, on the other hand, weren't part of that deal.

Mochi came by during the dinner rush, put off by the patrons downstairs. He laid at Hiro's feet while he finished the last new comic, the plate on his desk.

"You making sure I stay put too, Mochi?" Hiro asked his cat. "Everyone else has."

The family feline meowed once in response. It looked like his attention was focused on something else. Hiro followed its gaze to the window to see a squirrel on the sill, curiously peeking into the room. It wasn't an odd thing to see stray animals in his windows.

It was strange to see animals with ribbons tied around their necks.

"That's...weird."

"What is?"

Hiro's possible conversation with two animals was interrupted by Wasabi, who had a yoga mat underneath his arm. He didn't have his customary sweater on, instead opting for his tank top and loose pants.

"There's a squirrel outside, and it's acting odd."

"Odd, you say?"

"Yeah, it's..." He turned back toward the window to see that the animal had gone. "OK. Now I'm confused. Mochi normally likes chasing squirrels. Why isn't he-"

And Mochi was gone as well.

"Yup. So weird." Wasabi had a smirk that let Hiro know there was more than he was letting on, but he let it go. "Anyway, want to yoga with me? I promise I won't talk your ear off."

So now Hiro found himself sitting on the floor, back facing the clock and Wasabi leaning behind him. They had to share the mat since he didn't have one, but he didn't mind enough to say anything.

The silence was different this time. It was the kind that took some concentration to maintain, and he was thankful for that. Anything to keep his mind off of things.

"How're you feeling?"

Or not.

Hiro let another breath out through his nose. "The same as the other times people asked me."

"Sorry. You're probably sick of everyone asking you that."

Hiro shuffled his legs, trying to find his center again.

"Although you can understand why we're asking you that."

"Yeah. I do."

Wasabi chuckled. "Well, at least you haven't suffered a certain someone's wrath yet. She was getting ready to tear up and down the entire coast."

"Go Go said she didn't make it back to the city."

"I got a hold of her before she made it." Wasabi lowered the volume of the music on his phone a tiny bit. "And she was ready to beeline straight here and smother you. But I told her you needed to relax. And she's not exactly the best person to have around when it comes to relaxing."

WHOMPF!

A body came running into him, knocking Hiro over onto his back. Wasabi opened one eye to see the new predicament and grinned.

"...Of course, when has she ever listened to me?"

Hiro would have responded with something sarcastic, but his face was too busy being shoved into Aspen's chest.

"Aspen, he needs to breathe."

"Sorry!"

Hiro popped out of her bosom, getting back his oxygen. He glanced up to see the face of the marine biologist, eyes blazing blue and staring into his face. "How'd you get here? Hasn't Wasabi been here all day?"

"He has." Now her hands were on his cheeks. "I got a ride here."

"From who?"

"From me."

His shoe hit the floor as Robbie set his helmet down, adjusting his hair. "By the way, she's not allowed on my bike ever again. I thought she was going to puncture my lung on the way over here." He patted down his stomach with his hand. "I think all of my organs are intact."

All of this attention was beginning to overwhelm Hiro again. He looked down to the rug to avoid everyone's gaze. "Guys, you don't have to come running every time something happens. You guys probably have better things to do."

"...Dude, that was depressing. Don't say things like that." Robbie took a seat at Hiro's computer desk. "I drove up here in the dead of night to help everyone out. I don't think I've ever seen Go Go as distressed as I did yesterday. You're lucky that you have so many people looking out for you."

Aspen brought his head back to her body, a little gentler this time. "Hiro, you got me through the lowest point in my life. I wouldn't be where I am today without you. What kind of people would we be if we didn't return the favor? And plus..."

She rubbed his back softly.

"I always have time for you."

"Yeah, I do too...provided I let my boss know ahead of time."

All three people on the ground looked over at Robbie.

"What?"

That evening…

It had been a very confusing day.

His demeanor had shifted so much from thankful to sad to happy to worried that the headache that had plagued him at the park was starting to creep up again.

But it was the end.

The teen genius was sitting on the couch in the living room with his aunt, watching some random show on the TV. They had just finished closing up the cafe and eating dinner a little bit earlier. It was more of the steak that Aunt Cass had offered him the previous night, but he was able to enjoy it a lot more now. All of his friends visiting him had raised his demeanor significantly.

Hiro had just finished off the last of his food when he noticed a large to-go cup on the counter. "Did someone leave that here?"

"Nope. Someone's coming by to pick it up. They couldn't get off of work until now."

The front door creaked open, unbeknownst to him.

"And they're very excited to see you."

"Huh? But everyone's been here."

"Not everyone!"

A set of arms snatched him from his seat and lifted him up into the air.

"Hey, buddy!"

Hiro just gave up, letting the body squeeze him. "Hi, Doreen."

"I'm so glad you're OK, Hiro." She turned him around in her arms to face her, the furls of her jackets turned up to her neck. "I was afraid that we wouldn't find you in time."

Aunt Cass chuckled as she carried the dishes into the kitchen. Once she was out of sight, Doreen set him down gently. "I dispatched every single critter I knew in the city to try to cover ground. And I'm so glad that Tippy-Toe was able to get eyes on you."

"Who's Tippy-Toe?" Hiro questioned.

On cue, Doreen pointed outside to one of the lampposts, where he saw a squirrel sitting on top of it. Normally, seeing one at night would be odd enough...but even odder was the ribbon around its neck.

A very familiar ribbon.

"I...also had him check up on you from time to time today. Just to make sure everything was going well."

Hiro blinked. "Umm. Thanks."

"No problem, kiddo. Anything for Karmi's boy. But I gotta go! There's a marathon of Chef Gramercy's new show on tonight, and I forgot to set my DVR! Ah, there's my coffee." She snatched it off the counter and ran toward the door. "Stay strong, Hiro! I'll see you later!"

Hiro watched as Doreen ran off down the street, the squirrel hopping onto her head. All he could do was shake his head. "Unbelievable."

"I know, right?" Aunt Cass came back in with a hand towel over her shoulder. "She sure is a bundle of energy, that one. How do you find these people, Hiro?"

It was a plethora of things (luck, superheroing, guilt by association), but Hiro let it slide.

And now he was on the couch with his hot chocolate. He was truly touched by everyone's attempt to make him feel better. He had almost completely forgotten the fact that he ran away from home the previous night, his worries bubbling up so much that he couldn't control himself.

Oh yeah. There it was again.

Aunt Cass must have noticed something, because she muted the TV and turned her body to face him. "What'cha thinking about, Hiro?"

"Things." His hands went around the still warm mug. "Everyone."

"Did you reach out to everyone like I told you to?"

"I didn't really have to. Everyone reached out to me. The only person I really called is Professor Granville."

She bent down to pet Mochi in his box, letting out a sigh. "Hiro, I know you didn't talk to everyone. I don't know why you're ignoring her."

Hiro stared at his reflection in the dark brown liquid. He hadn't said anything to anyone else, but Karmi's texts had broken him. He couldn't stand to see her like that, but some part of him was so scared to call her that he half hoped that his aunt would just forget about it.

"Hiro."

So much for that.

"I didn't show you all of the text messages she sent me, but she was a mess. Probably more than anyone. I was scared for her, and if you think what she sent you was upsetting, you should look at my phone."

"Aunt Cass, I-I can't."

"Why not?" she asked.

It wasn't an angry question. She seemed genuinely confused. "I can't put her through a conversation with me. She's been through so much over the past few months, and...I'm just going to make it worse."

Hiro felt her sit on the couch next to him, her hand on his head. "Sweetie, I think she would appreciate you reaching out to her. You're her friend. She cares about you. Don't you think it's a little unfair that all of your other friends get an update and she doesn't?"

He didn't respond, instead opting to rub the mug with his thumb.

"Or is it because you feel differently about her than everyone else?"

Yup, there was the warmth on his cheeks again.

Aunt Cass laughed. "Hiro, it's late, and you should go to bed. But call her tomorrow. Because it's the right thing to do...and maybe also because I told her you would tomorrow night."

"OK," he said.

"That's a good boy." She kissed him on the cheek as they both got up from the sofa, Hiro heading toward the stairs.

"By the way, there's a present for you up in your room. But you can't open it yet."

"Huh? Why not?"

"I can't tell you."

Hiro saw her face staring back at him. "Again. Why not?"

"Because it's a secret, Hiro. And before you ask, it's not another weather machine from Tadashi."

"OK." Hiro rubbed his nose. "How am I suppose to know when to open it, then?"

"Oh...you'll know."

The next evening…

He didn't know.

All Hiro knew was that the entire day had gone by without much happening. He had managed to go downstairs and eat breakfast with the gang like he normally did. He was able to make light conversation, and even laughed at Wasabi's recounting of Aspen raiding his pantry again. After that, he went to the garage and finally got to work on making Baymax's access port. Halfway through, he stepped out to get some fresh air and saw two animals at the end of the driveway: Mochi and Tippy-Toe.

"You two don't have to watch me anymore." Hiro waved his arms at them. "Shoo."

Both shot off down the sidewalk.

"Great. Just what Mochi needs. A partner in crime."

The rest of the day was spent fixing Baymax. He was lucky he didn't break any of the vinyl covering with his tantrum; he didn't have a replacement for that at all. But he slotted in the chips and the dock slid in, automatically staring the rebooting process. It would take all night to do, but at least he was done.

Hiro sighed as he threw his pajama shirt over his head. "I wish I could talk to you, buddy. Maybe you could tell me what to do."

He glanced back at his open laptop. He had his chat program open, however his profile was invisible to everyone. He had Aunt Cass text Karmi earlier to tell her that he'd be on in the evening, but he was still hesitant to reach out.

But he couldn't ignore her any longer. Aunt Cass was right; it wasn't fair to Karmi. He had to suck it up and do it.

Hiro walked over to his bed and sat down. His eyes went to the wrapped box that he had found on his pillow when he had gone to bed the previous night. It was fairly innocuous; it wasn't particularly tall, nor did it feel like anything metal was in it. But he had kept his word in not opening it. He just wished someone would be able to tell him when he could.

Enough about that, though. Time to do what he had to do.

Hiro looked over his friends list. The only person online was Karmi, and she had been for quite some time. Slowly, he moused over his profile picture and hit the icon, turning the dot underneath from grey to green…

A nanosecond later, a call was coming through. He picked it up, and a new chat window opened.

And there she was.

Karmi was at her desk, just like normal. He could see the bright colors on her wall, like always.

But there were a few things he could immediately tell that were different.

The sheets on her bed were changed. They were a dark blue, very unlike the off-white she had before. Her hair was still out of her ponytail and long, but it was a fair amount shorter than what he was accustomed to. A good four or five inches had been cut off of the end. She wasn't in her normal pajamas; the shirt she was wearing was loose and a light blue color unlike the black tank top from before.

Oh, and she was staring at him.

Like...hard.

She hadn't blinked for the thirty seconds Hiro stared at her. He clicked on the chat window, wondering whether the program had frozen. But no, she was still there. Guess he might as well start it off.

"Hey, Karmi."

He didn't get any response from her. She was definitely still breathing, so the computer was working fine.

"Are you OK?" he slowly asked.

"I've been sitting here in my room for the past few days."

Hiro recoiled slightly. Her voice was an octave deeper than what he was accustomed to. Coupled with her eyes and her posture, she felt and sounded like a completely different person.

"I can't go out. I have to stay in the house for...reasons. It's been incredibly boring."

He didn't like the way this was going.

"And then I heard from Aunt Cass that you ran away. And I didn't believe it, because I wasn't sure where you would go. So I texted you. Again. And again. And again. And you didn't answer. I thought if you would answer to anyone, it would be me."

Her tears began to flow down her cheeks.

"I thought you were dead." Karmi's entire body started shaking. "The way your aunt described it, she made it seem like you were not going to come back."

"Karmi..."

"You're an idiot, Genius Boy. You're the biggest idiot in the entire world. You have no idea how incredibly blessed you are, and you were getting ready to throw all of that away."

"Karmi, stop." Hiro had to get himself under control, but she wasn't helping matters. "You had no idea what I've been through. Stop trying to relate to me. You've had everything handed to you in your life. You're about to get a payout for a crap ton of money from Sycorax. If you're trying to be relatable, you're not very good at it."

All of the words tumbled out of his mouth before he could stop himself. And he knew immediately that it was the wrong thing to say; Karmi looked like she wanted to stab him in the chest. He had been fortunate enough to not let that happen in the time he had known her, but now he was just tempting fate.

But what she did next shocked him.

Karmi's hand slowly went up to her ponytail and pushed it over her right shoulder. A small cotton patch came into view, taped down to her neck. There were a couple red blotches on it.

"What happened?" he asked.

Karmi traced the outline of the patch. "A few days ago, I had a nightmare. I dreamed that I got turned back into that monster. I was clawing at my whole body, trying to get that chip that got put in my body out. I must've hit my surgical scar when I was tossing and turning, because the next thing I knew, I was at the hospital. I hadn't woken up due to the blood loss, and when I did..."

Her hand came up to her cheek, her tear flowing over her finger.

"There was so much blood..."

Now that he thought about it, her skin did look a little redder than normal. It must have caked onto her body for so long that it was going to involve some scrubbing to get it back to normal.

"I got back home after they patched me up, and I saw my bed. The sheets were completely ruined; we had to throw them out. The mattress is OK, but I can't get the smell of copper out of my room. Not to mention my nostrils..."

Karmi looked back up at him, the water in her eyes now replaced with fire.

"So don't you dare sit there and tell me that I'm not being relatable. I'm not trying to be relatable. You're not the only person who's had hardships in their life. You're not special in that way. So stop trying to be."

She returned her hair to her normal position. "Hiro, there are times where I'm completely jealous of you. You have friends who care about you. You have all this pomp and circumstance from being at SFIT. You have a good life. And that night...I didn't think I was going to see your stupid face ever again."

Now the waterworks were beginning.

"Hiro..."

He was struggling to get his breath under control.

"You are my best friend."

So much for that, because now he wasn't.

"I don't know what I would do if you weren't in my life. So please don't do what you did again. I don't think I could take it a second time."

Karmi wiped her cheeks and straightened up in her chair. "So, is there anything you want to say to me?"

Yeah, there was a lot of things he wanted to say. But none of them were conducive to a late-night conversation with a girl that everyone knew he had a crush on. So he decided on something simple.

"I'm sorry."

"No, you're not."

The retort was quick, as if she was expecting it.

"If you were sorry, you wouldn't have done it. I get why you said it, and I appreciate it, but you don't mean it. Maybe you will in the future. I hope you will. And I know it's hard right now, with your brother and who knows what else you haven't told me. But...I hope you feel better."

Hiro restarted his breathing. He was starting to get lightheaded again.

"And I think I know a way that I can help."

The smile returned to her face, but that's not what was drawing his attention. Something was being raised from the bottom of the screen into his view. Whatever it was, it had black hair on its head. Hiro thought it was a cat or some sort of pet to keep her company.

And then the rest of it came onto the screen.

"Hiro...meet Hiro."

Karmi was holding a perfect replication of Hiro in his normal clothes, but in doll form. The head was marginally oversized for the body, and its arms were miniature stubs, but the attention to detail was impeccable. The red shirt, the blue hoodie, the cargo shorts, the brown button eyes...it was all there. Even the-

"I could probably give another child a full head of hair with all of this."

Aunt Cass's words came rolling back into his mind, and he audibly gasped. Turns out she did, in a very weird sort of way.

"That's my hair, isn't it?"

Karmi ruffled the doll's hair with her finger. "Sterilized and preserved for longevity. Cass sent it over to Honey Lemon yesterday. It was the last thing she needed to finish it; most of it had been done for a while. The hair was the finishing touch for both of them."

Hiro narrowed his eyes. "Both of them?"

The two stared at each other, and Karmi softly smiled at him. "See, this is the part where you're suppose to open your box."

He turned his head to look at the present Aunt Cass gave him. No way. It wasn't possible. He grabbed it and untied the knot on the top. He slowly lifted the top off…

Whoa.

He very gingerly took it out of the box. If he had been impressed by the doll of his likeness, that was nothing compared to what he had in his hands.

It was a miniature version of Karmi. She had the same brown button eyes, a felt sweater, her orange skirt puffed out over her midsection, black leggings going down to her rounded feet, and even two rings of fabric around her left arm signifying the bracelets she wore.

And the hair...it was hers. It was even back into a little ponytail with a tiny hair-tie.

He was almost afraid to touch it. It must have taken a lot of work to do all of this.

"Hiro, you're hurt. I know how bad that can be, and I wish I could be there to help. But here's what I'm going to do."

He glanced back up at the screen to see Karmi with her doll in her hands.

"Whenever I think you need it, I'm going to think about you."

She hugged the doll to her chest, resting her head on it.

"I'm going to hold you close to my heart."

Karmi was crying again, but it wasn't with sadness this time.

"And I hope that I can give you whatever I can to help you feel better."

Hiro would have given literally anything in the world to switch places with his miniature counterpart right now, its face smothered into her neck. He could only hope that Karmi wouldn't notice his face getting very, very red.

"Jealous, Genius Boy?"

He saw her gaze up at him, that all-knowing smirk getting larger.

"A little bit," he whispered.

Karmi brought it up to her face, staring into the buttons. "Did you hear that, Little Hiro? He's jealous of you. Would he be more jealous if I did this?"

She put her lips on its forehead in a quick kiss and glanced over at Hiro again.

"See, now you're just piling it on."

They both shared a laugh, the first genuine one between them in a while. After it died down, Karmi looked down at her computer to check the time. "Well, I'm going to let you go. You and Little Karmi probably have some things to talk about. But don't tell each other any secrets, OK? I'll know if you do."

"Good night, Karmi."

"Night, Hiro."

He wished that he could follow it up with something more substantial, but the entire conversation had drained him of all of his energy. Hiro closed the laptop and set it on his desk. Maybe he should turn in early. He leaned back into his pillows, ready to get some sleep.

But there was one thing he had to do first.

Hiro got his doll and sat her on his chest. It was very eerie just how much detail Honey Lemon had put into their figures. It was almost like Karmi herself was staring at him.

"You think you're so smart, you know that?"

He grabbed both of its arms and moved them up and down, putting on his best Karmi impression. "Hi, I'm Karmi. I'm super smart and know everything. Do you want to read my eight hundred fanfictions about Captain Cutie? I have them alphabetized on my computer."

The doll didn't respond.

"I'm the perfect bride for him. I'm so intelligent and funny and..."

Hiro stopped himself.

"And...kind. And pretty..."

Before he knew it, he brought his mouth up to its head, planting a kiss right on top.

"Thank you, Karmi."

He laid the doll down flat on his chest. He could even smell the shampoo that she normally used in the hair. It was very comforting. The miniature Karmi was complete in every way.

Wait…

"KarMini. That's a good name for you." He tilted its head up toward him. "But don't tell your mom that, OK? I'd never hear the end of it."

Hiro turned onto his left side, slotting the doll between his arms. It was definitely better than a phone, that was for sure. He closed his eyes as sleep started to overtake him.

He was happy. For now. He didn't know when that would change, or when those feelings of dread and depression would rear their ugly head again. He only hoped he would be ready if they did.

Because he knew now...that he wasn't alone.

As the sheet covered the eyes to her doll counterpart, Karmi closed the camera program on her laptop. She had her hand over her mouth, the tears going down her face. His words had been so heartfelt at the organ in her chest was beating super fast.

"Hiro..."

She shook her head as she clutched her hand to her chest.

"I hope that you'll be alright. And if I can't talk to you...then this is the best thing I can do." She sniffed and wiped her eyes. "I just hope you never find out I had Honey Lemon put that camera in it."

Karmi grabbed her doll and tucked it into her shirt, its face staring up at her. "C'mon, Hiro. Time for bed."

She turned off the lights and threw the covers over her body. She nestled into the mattress as her bio-luminescent lamp dimmed to a soothing level.

"You think you're so smart, you know that, Hiro?"

The doll in her shirt stayed silent.

"KarMini. I wish I had thought of that. You actual son of a gun. I'll think of something just as clever for you." Karmi shook her head at his felt counterpart, rubbing her nose against its face. "But not now."

She softly pressed her lips against her doll, cradling its head in her hand.

"Good night, Hiro. Sleep well."

Karmi knew how rough life could get. She had gone through it, just like him. For a long time, she thought she was the only one.

But she was happy...not that she knew she wasn't alone.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've never been clinically diagnosed with depression.

And I never want to compare what I've gone through in my life to people who have had legitimate events happen to them.

But a few weeks ago, I went into a very dark place. One that I wasn't sure that I was going to come out of.

I did. And I wish I could say that this was a one time thing. But it's not. Every once in a while, I get so...angry. At life. At everything. I push people away and go into my little cave and block everything out.

It's not healthy. I know that. But it doesn't stop me from doing it.

I would encourage anyone who feels that way to get help. And maybe I can take my own advice some day, because apparently that's all I ever do: give out advice that I never use myself.

But sadness and depression are an all too common thing in this world nowadays, especially with what's going on now. And I am thankful that no matter where you are, they take the time to read my stories and feel a little better about themselves.

Am I better now than a few weeks ago? I'm not sure. All I can really do is just keep on keeping on. That's all anyone can do, really. I guess this is what this story's all about. Moving on.

...Oh, and a copious amount of Hiro/Karmi, apparently.

I don't know when I'll be uploading next. I know that people have been patiently waiting for Highway to Hell, but I'm not going to promise anything. I need to get myself in a better place before that happens.

So I guess...read and review, if you like.

And I'll see you next time.