Empathy
Chapter 1: Chance Encounters
The bright, neon lights of San Fransokyo flooded the night sky above the city, casting it in a myriad of colors that danced across the bay and blocked out the stars in the night sky. Advertisements hung from buildings, hawking their wares to those passing on the streets below. Some places though were darker and quieter than others, with only the occasional person walking under the pale, yellow glow cast by the streetlights, past buildings decorated with graffiti instead of advertisements.
One such person was a young girl, no older than twelve. She had a slim, adolescent physique over which she wore a black jacket and dark jeans, a blue backpack strapped around her shoulders. She absentmindedly tucked some of her shoulder-length, dirty blonde hair behind her ear before wiping tears from her blue eyes.
"How could I be so stupid?" she questioned herself quietly as she walked by an alley lit by neon signs. As she did, she paused to take a look around, a lost expression on her face.
"Not only that, but you managed to get yourself lost too," the girl muttered in frustration, "Nice job, Riley."
Sticking her hand into her pocket, the girl, Riley, fished a cellphone out and looked at it, before groaning as the device helpfully informed her that she had no signal.
"Figures," Riley groused as she slid her phone back into her pocket, "Now what do I do?"
As Riley thought, the unmistakeable sound of people talking floated down to her from the alley. Turning her attention towards where she assumed the sounds originated from, Riley could pick up a number of voices, though she couldn't tell what they were saying, if they were saying anything at all. What she could tell though was they were excited about something.
"Well, people are a good sign," Riley commented before a look of uncertainty passed over her features, "I think."
Riley stood at the entrance for a few moments, making hesitant motions as she listened to the unintelligible voices.
"Maybe someone will let me use their phone," Riley pondered aloud, "Or at least give me directions."
Riley glanced around at her dirty, graffiti-marked surroundings, a cat yowling as a trash can turned over somewhere nearby.
"Probably not the best part of town to be asking for directions in," Riley mused.
Riley took another moment to think over her situation before sighing.
"Not like I have much of a choice though," she concluded, "Certainly beats standing here, talking to myself. Don't want people to think I'm hearing voices or something."
With that, Riley gripped the straps of her backpack before walking into the alley, following the sound of the people somewhere nearby. As she walked, Riley found the alley was one of many that seemed to form a grime-encrusted labyrinth that wound its way behind and between the brick and concrete buildings that surrounded her. Following the voices as they grew closer and louder, Riley found herself at a crossroads of sorts, brightly lit by a lamp that hung from one of the walls. A large crowd of people, mostly those in their twenties, stood with their backs to Riley, cheering for something that she couldn't see.
"Excuse me, can you-" Riley began to say, walking up to the first person she saw but the words died in her throat as the young man shot her a confused and annoyed glance before stepping away from her. Riley got much the same reaction from most of the other people she tried to talk to, leading her deeper into the crowd.
Just as she was about to ask another person for help, a huge cheer went up from the crowd, drawing her attention towards where everyone was looking. Squinting her eyes in curiosity, Riley stepped forward through the crowd trying to get a look at what everyone was watching. Eventually, she was able to get a clear view and gasped at what she saw.
The crowd were circled around what looked like a makeshift arena, little more than a circle drawn on the ground. Inside the circle were two bipedal robots, both of which stood shorter than Riley's knee. The two robots, one red, the other black with a potbelly, clashed with one another, fighting as the crowd cheered them on.
Two people sat on opposite sides of the arena, one a tough looking young woman, the other a large, heavy-set man dressed in a purple and yellow tracksuit. Both appeared to be in command of one of the robots with the controllers they each held in their hands.
"Bot fight," Riley whispered to herself, her eyes wide as she watched the black robot grab hold of the red one before producing a buzzsaw that it proceeded to use to tear the other robot apart, the crowd shouting in excitement as scraps flew all over the arena.
"The winner, by way of total annihilation!" a woman wearing an eyepatch declared as she walked over to the large man's side as the other woman picked up the remains of her robot, "Yama!"
"Who is next!?" the man, Yama, bellowed with a laugh as he stood up, holding his robot aloft, "Who has the guts to step into the ring with Little Yama!?"
Glancing around, she saw members of the crowd shying away from the challenge despite having robots of their own, clearly cowed by the brutal execution of Little Yama's last opponent.
"Can I try?" a hesitant voice spoke up, drawing everyone's, including Riley's, attention.
The crowd parted and Riley could see a boy, only a year or two older than she was. He had pale features and bushy, black hair that seemed to stick out in every direction. He had a blue, zip-up, hooded sweatshirt that he wore open to display his red t-shirt underneath, along with khaki cargo shorts and dirty, white sneakers.
"I have a robot. I built it myself." the boy said awkwardly, holding up a small robot that seemed to be made up of three ball joints with two prongs coming off of each, looking like a little person with large, rabbit-like ears. From her distance, Riley could just make out the yellow, cartoon face that the boy had drawn on one of the robot's ball joints.
There was a pause as Yama regarded the boy and his robot before he laughed, prompting most of the crowd to laugh as well, causing Riley to feel a pang of sympathy for the boy.
"Beat it, kid," the woman with the eyepatch scoffed as she held up a tray, "House rules. You've got to pay to play."
"Oh," the boy said as if surprised by the question, before reaching into his pocket and pulling out a wad of crumpled up bills and an odd assortment of coins, "Is this enough?"
"What's your name, little boy?" Yama questioned in amusement.
"Hiro," the boy answered, a semi-confident smile on his face, "Hiro Hamada and this is Megabot."
"Prepare your bot, Zero," Yama said threateningly as the woman reached out to take both of their wagers before the two of them took their places on opposite sides of the arena, setting their bots down in front of them.
"Two bots enter," the woman announced as the crowd clustered around the arena, bringing Riley with them, "One bot leaves. Fighters ready? Fight!"
Riley felt that if she had blinked, she would have missed the entire fight as Little Yama easily sliced Megabot apart at the joints as it rushed forward. The crowd cheered and laughed as Hiro looked at the remains of his little bot in shock.
"That….That was my first fight," Hiro said, giving Yama a pleading look, "Give me another chance."
"Nobody likes a sore loser, little boy," Yama sneered as he began collecting the money from the tray, "Run on home."
"I have more money," Hiro stated as he held up a neat roll of bills, sharply contrasting with the crumpled wad of cash he had produced before.
"Where is he getting all this money?" Riley pondered aloud, narrowing her eyes as Hiro placed the cash on the tray with the rest of the money, Yama adding more of his own to make the pot even.
As the two set up to fight once more, the three pieces of Megabot suddenly sprung to life, rolling around on their ball joints before reconnecting. Riley's eye widened at this, though nobody else seemed to notice.
"If it could do that the whole time, how did he lose?" Riley questioned watching Hiro closely as the fight began. Hiro's previous nervousness was gone, replaced by a cool confidence as he pulled the controller apart, revealing it to be far more complex than it had appeared before.
"He's hustling him," Riley realized with shock.
"Megabot," Hiro muttered with a savage grin as the bot's faceplate shifted, switching to a red face with a predatory smile, "Destroy."
What followed was a slaughter as Megabot displayed speed and agility leagues greater than it had in the last fight, Hiro controlling the bot with an almost bored expression. The bot danced around Little Yama, breaking apart at times to better dodge the other bot's attacks, the pieces displaying the ability to connect in a long snake-like line in addition to their normal configuration. Slithering up Little Yama's back, Megabot ripped off the bot's arm before proceeding to use the same appendage to hack off Little Yama's other limb. With its opponent now defenseless, Megabot crawled up to Little Yama's shoulders, wrapped itself around the other bot's neck like a boa constrictor and popped its head off.
"What!?" Yama muttered in incredulous shock as he picked up the pieces of his bot, "How!?"
"Beginner's luck, I guess," Hiro said smugly as he began to collect the money from the tray, not noticing as the crowd started to fearfully disperse, "Want to go again….?"
The words died in Hiro's throat as he found Yama looming over him. Riley watched with wide eyes as Yama grabbed Hiro and dragged the young man into another alley, followed by three thuggish looking men. Riley hesitated for a moment as she gripped the straps of her backpack tightly, frozen by indecision. She'd seen what these guys do to robots. What would they do to a person? Narrowing her eyes and steeling her resolve, Riley jogged in the direction Yama and his men had gone with Hiro.
"No one hustles Yama!" Riley heard Yama shout as she came to a corner. Glancing around it, she saw Yama shove Hiro against a wall as his men surrounded the young man.
"Teach this punk a lesson," Yama growled as he began walking away down another alley as his men closed in on Hiro. Desperately trying to think of a way to help, Riley glanced around, before noticing a hockey stick sitting in a trash can nearby. As she looked at the stick, Riley reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone, an idea forming in her head.
"Hey guys," Hiro said nervously, backing against the wall as his eyes darted between the three men, "Let's talk about this."
"Hey fellas!" Riley's voice rang out, bringing everyone's attention to her as she stood a few feet away from them with her phone held out in front of her with one hand and the hockey stick in the other, "Say cheese!"
Riley took a photo with her camera, causing the flash to go off in the men's unexpecting faces. Dazzled, the men stumbled back a step, allowing Riley to dart forward and sweep the hockey stick against the back of one of the thugs' legs, knocking him to the ground. Before the other two could recover, Riley ran up and checked one of them hard with her shoulder, sending the already off balance man stumbling into the other, sending them both falling to the ground. Tossing the hockey stick aside, Riley grabbed Hiro's wrist as the young man tried to blink the spots from his eyes.
"Come on!" Riley shouted before she took off running the way she had come, dragging Hiro along behind her as the young man struggled to find his feet.
"What's going on!?" Hiro questioned, his vision clearing as Yama let out an angry shout from behind them.
"I'm saving your butt, that's what!" Riley shouted back as Hiro fell into step besides her, "Now come on!"
Darting around a corner, Riley and Hiro found themselves at a T-shaped intersection of alleyways.
"Now what?" Hiro questioned as he looked around.
"I-I don't know!" Riley admitted, her eyes darting in both direction, her features screwed up in a lost expression.
"What do you mean you don't know!?" Hiro demanded with a panicked tone.
"I mean-" Riley began to say but was cut off as Yama and his men came around the corner.
"There they are!" Yama shouted, pointing angrily at Hiro and Riley as he and his men rushed towards them.
Before the men could reach them though, a young man on a red scooter came roaring down one of the alleys, stopping between the children and the men. The rider was a young man, with features similar to Hiro's, though he seemed to be in his early twenties with a lanky build and short hair. He wore a light blue, button-up shirt over a white t-shirt along with dark blue jeans, red sneakers and a black riding helmet with goggles.
"Tadashi!" Hiro exclaimed happily.
"Get on!" Tadashi shouted, prompting Hiro to grab Riley's hand and drag her over to the scooter, the two of them hopping onto the back, Riley sitting behind Hiro, before Tadashi revved the engine and the scooter zipped away.
"Great timing, bro!" Hiro shouted as he pat Tadashi on the back.
"Are you okay?" Tadashi questioned as he handed Hiro a white riding helmet to Hiro.
"Yeah," Hiro replied, the boy hesitating for a moment before turning around and placing the helmet on Riley's head, the large helmet almost covering her eyes.
"Are you hurt?" Tadashi pressed as they sped along.
"No," Hiro answered.
"Then what were you thinking!?" Tadashi demanded as he blindly slapped at Hiro, one of his blows accidentally striking Riley, causing her to let out a surprised yelp. Glancing back in confusion, Tadashi's eyes widened in surprise as he seemed to notice Riley for the first time.
"Sorry!" Tadashi apologized with an embarrassed look, "Hiro, who's your friend?"
"Oh, she saved my butt, she's-" Hiro began to say before a look of realization cross his features, "Hey, I never caught your name!"
"It's Riley!" she replied loudly lest the wind carry away her words.
"Nice to meet you, Riley!" Hiro replied with a chuckle, "I'm Hiro, and this is my big brother, Tadashi."
"Nice to meet you," Tadashi added, before his eyes went wide as he saw they were approaching a dead end, "Damnit, hold on!"
Tadashi slammed on the brakes and pulled a sharp U-turn, prompting Hiro to grab onto his seat and Riley to grab onto the back of Hiro's shirt as they swung around and took off again. Shooting back down the alley, Tadashi spot Yama and his men running towards them, taking up most of the alley. Glancing to the side, he spotted a thick board angled against a stack of boxes near one of the walls and a thought formed in his head.
"Hold tight!" Tadashi ordered as he veered the scooter towards the board, riding up it before ramping out into the open air. Yama and his men looked up in shock as the scooter sailed over their heads.
As they flew, Hiro let out a whoop of excitement, glancing at a nearby window as they went. As he did, he caught sight of his reflection, specifically the sight of Riley clinging to him. Riley's grip had shifted so that she had wrapped her arms around Hiro's torso, clinging to him closely to provide stability, the boy only just then noticing the feeling of her pressed against him. Riley's blue eyes were wide and shining and her face was split by an excited grin as she looked forward over Hiro's shoulder. A split second later and the image was gone, though Hiro could feel his face heating up despite the wind whipping against it.
Hiro was snapped from his thoughts by the sharp jostle of the scooter landing, causing both him and Riley to hop out of their seats. Their combined weight from Riley gripping onto him almost sent them both falling off the scooter, but Hiro managed to grab hold of the seat and steady them.
"Oh man, sorry!" Riley apologized, her face flushing as well as she quickly let go of Hiro.
"D-Don't worry about it!" Hiro replied, smiling awkwardly back at Riley.
"I can't believe you, Hiro!" Tadashi snapped, bringing his younger brother's attention back to him, "You graduate high school at thirteen and this is how you spend your time!? Bot fighting is illegal, you know!"
"Actually bot fighting is not illegal," Hiro corrected, "Now, betting on bot fighting, that's illegal but so lucrative."
Tadashi sighed and shook his head as they sped around a corner.
"Come on, Tadashi, look!" Hiro said as he held out a stack of the money he had one, "I'm on a roll! There's no stopping me now!"
As Hiro said this, they approached an exit to the alley. Suddenly, the exit was cut off as a police car screeched to a halt in front of it, it's lights flashing red and blue as its siren wailed. Tadashi slammed on the breaks and the scooter skidded to a halt, the three of them looking with wide eyes as the police quickly began pouring out of their squad cars.
"Oh boy," Hiro mumbled.
Later,
Harsh, fluorescent lights illuminated the holding cell in the back of the police station, the light contrasting against the unpainted concrete walls and iron bars of the cells. Hiro and Riley sat together on a hard, metal bench in a cell reserved for minors while Tadashi was locked in with the general population, which included Yama and a few of his thugs.
Hiro looked guiltily at his brother, who only offered a glare in reply as he stood by the bars in the crowded cell. Glancing to the side, a look of concern crossed his face as his eyes fell on Riley. Following his brother's gaze, Hiro saw Riley had curled up in a ball, resting her forehead against her knees with her arms wrapped around her legs. Hiro glanced at Tadashi, who nodded his head in Riley's direction.
"Hey," Hiro spoke up after a moment, "Are you okay?"
"No," Riley grumbled, lifting her head up and resting her chin on her knees as she glared at Hiro, "No, I'm not. This is literally the worst day of my life!"
"Hey, it's okay," Hiro tried to placate her, "I mean, this isn't a big offence and we're still minors with no records. At least, I'm guessing you have no record. They're probably not even going to charge us."
"You don't get it," Riley replied as she looked away from Hiro.
"Then….then explain it to me," Hiro pressed.
"How can I be so stupid?" Riley berated herself, ignoring Hiro, "Not only did I decide to run away from home but now my parents have to pick me up from jail!"
Riley growled in frustration and buried her head behind her knees again as Hiro looked at her in surprise.
"You….you ran away?" Hiro questioned.
"Y-Yeah…." Riley replied, lifting her head slightly and peeking at Hiro from behind the strands of her hair.
"Why?" Hiro pressed.
"I'm….I'm not from around here," Riley explained, sitting up more as she talked to Hiro, "I'm originally from Minnesota."
"Minnesota?" Hiro questioned in surprise, "What are you doing here?"
"My dad is a kind of tech guy," Riley explained, "He's a higher up in kind of a small company that makes bot parts. With that….you know, incident that happened a few years back, San Fransokyo has been the robot capital of the world. So, when his company expanded here, they sent him to help run it."
"And you came with him," Tadashi surmised.
"And I came with him," Riley confirmed.
"But why try to leave?" Hiro questioned in confusion.
"Why?" Riley asked, giving Hiro an incredulous expression, "Because I hate it here."
"Hate it?" Hiro asked in surprise, "What's to hate?"
"Everything," Riley muttered darkly, "Everything is different here. The weather never changes. Nobody plays, or even seems to like hockey. I don't know anyone here except my own parents. You guys put broccoli on your pizza for crying out loud!"
The Hamada brothers made identical, disgusted expression, before a thought came to Tadashi.
"Wait, broccoli?" Tadashi questioned, earning a nod from Riley, "Is this from a little pizza shop staffed by a really dour goth girl? Do you live near there?"
"Yeah, like a street over," Riley replied, blinking in surprise, "How did you know?"
"We live like a block from that place," Tadashi said with a laugh, "Small world, huh?"
"Yeah," Riley answered with a small smile of her own.
"Didn't you try to ask that girl out once?" Hiro questioned as he smiled wryly at Tadashi.
"Shut up," Tadashi replied, shooting his brother a glare before turning his attention back towards Riley, "Seriously though, we live in the apartment above our aunt's cafe, the Lucky Cat. Best pastries in the city. You should stop by."
"I guess so," Riley agreed with a smirk, the expression quickly replaced with a frown as she glanced around at her surroundings, "When we get out of here that is."
"Yeah," Hiro agreed with a sigh as he ran a hand through his hair, "Aunt Cass is going to kill us."
"You keep mentioning your aunt," Riley observed, "Don't you live with your parents?"
The Hamada brothers shared an uncomfortable look and Riley felt a cold lump in the pit of her stomach.
"Our parents died about a decade ago," Tadashi explained, "Our Aunt Cass takes care of us."
"Oh….Oh God, I'm so sorry," Riley apologized, looking at Hiro with wide eyes, the boy's gaze focused on his shoes.
"Don't worry about it," Tadashi said, trying to mollify her with a sad smile, "There's no way you could have known."
"Still," Riley sighed, leaning her head back to rest against the concrete wall, "You can just add that to the list of stupid things I've done today."
"Why try to go back to Minnesota?" Hiro questioned, lifting his head to look at Riley again.
"I don't know, it's so stupid now that I really think about it." Riley groaned, "I was happy back there. I've barely been happy at all since we moved here. I thought maybe I could be happy again if I went back."
"Did you try talking to your parents about that?" Tadashi suggested.
"I couldn't do that," Riley answered with a shake of her head, "They've been under so much pressure because of it all….I had to be strong for them. But I wasn't strong enough."
"Riley," Tadashi said, the quiet intensity in his voice causing the girl to lower her head to look at him, "You can't do that to yourself. You can't put that kind of weight on your shoulders. No parent would want that. You should tell them how you feel."
Riley looked at Tadashi quietly for a few moments, her blue eyes locking with his brown ones. Slowly, she turned to look at Hiro, who offered her a small smile.
"Tadashi is really good at helping people," Hiro stated, "It's kind of his thing. If he gives you advice, you're best off taking it."
Riley gave Hiro a small smile back as the door to the holding area creaked open and a police officer carrying a clipboard walked in.
"Riley Andersen?" the police officer questioned, glancing around the holding cells, "Which one of you is Riley Andersen?"
"That's me," Riley spoke up as she walked to the front of the cell.
"Your parents are Bill and Jill Andersen?" the officer asked as he looked down at her, earning a nod from the girl, "They're here to get you, though I might have to hold you for a little while. Ask you a few questions about what happened tonight."
Riley's face fell at the words while Hiro looked at her with a troubled expression. Glancing at Tadashi, Hiro saw his brother give him an encouraging nod before a determined look crossed the boy's features.
"Officer wait!" Hiro spoke up, trotting to Riley's side as she and the officer looked at him, "She didn't have anything to do with the betting. That was all me. She was just lost and happened to be there to pull my butt out of the fire. My brother too."
"You're confessing to this?" the officer questioned, arching an eyebrow at Hiro.
"I….I am," Hiro answered with a resolute nod, not noticing the wide eyed look Riley was giving him, "The betting at least. I didn't organize it or anything."
"Well, luckily for you, this is your first offense, a minor one at that," the officer said as he looked over the clipboard in his hands, "Especially compared to some of the other guys in here. I don't think we'll be charging you, but I have to keep you until your guardian comes to get you."
"Aunt Cass isn't here yet?" Tadashi questioned.
"I have a Cassandra Phillips waiting outside," the officer replied as he looked over his clipboard again before raising an eyebrow at Tadashi, "Is that her?"
"Yeah, she's our maternal aunt," Tadashi explained, "So different last name."
"Fair enough," the officer stated with a nod before fishing out his keys, unlocks the cells to allow Riley and the Hamada brothers to exit, "Follow me."
Following the officer, the three of them walked out of the holding area and down the hall that led to the front desk and a waiting area. Sitting in the waiting area was three adults, one a man with a bushy brown mustache and five o'clock shadow, another a woman with long, dark brown hair pulled back in a ponytail and her eyes framed by red-rimmed glasses. The third was a woman roughly the same age, with shoulder length, light brown hair and dressed in blue jeans and a black t-shirt. Riley's eyes widened as she saw the first two adults, who jumped to their feet at the sight of her.
"Mom!" Riley exclaimed, running over to the two adults as they rushed to her, the three of them meeting in the center of the room, "Dad!"
"Riley!" Riley's father, Bill, shouted as he leaned down and placed his hands on the girl's shoulders the woman following suit by laying a gentle hand on the girl's arm, "Oh thank goodness."
"We were worried sick," Riley's mother, Jill, said, relief and worry mixed on her features, "Where have you been? Why are you here?"
"I'm sorry," Riley said quietly, "Please don't be mad."
"We're not mad," Jill assured her, "We just don't understand what happened."
"I-I ran away," Riley explained, tears starting to well up in her eyes as she looked down at the ground.
"What?" Bill asked, his brow furrowed confusion, "Why?"
Riley paused and glanced over to where Tadashi was standing with Hiro, the young man giving her a small smile and a subtle nod.
"I….I know you don't want me to, I know you need me to be happy, but I miss Minnesota," Riley explained as tears began to roll down her cheeks, "I miss my friends, my hockey team. I miss everything."
Riley turned her head to look at her parents, her cheeks going red as tears streamed from her eyes.
"I want to go home," she whimpered.
"Oh honey," Jill said sadly as she gently stroked Riley's hair.
"We miss Minnesota too," Bill stated with a sad smile.
"You….You do?" Riley asked, surprised.
"Of course," Bill stated, "I miss the forest where we used to walk."
"The backyard where you used to play," Jill added.
"The pond you first learned to skate on," Bill continued.
"We miss all of it, sweetie," Jill said, her eyes glistening, "I'm sorry that I made you think you had to be happy. It's perfectly okay to tell us these things, Riley. It's okay to be sad."
"Come here," Bill said as he pulled Riley into a hug with Jill as the girl began to cry openly.
Hiro stood to the side with Tadashi, watching the exchange with a mixture of sadness and happiness. His attention was brought towards the other woman as she walked over to the brothers.
"Are you two okay?" the woman asked.
"Yes, Aunt Cass," the Hamada brother said together.
"You're not hurt?" Aunt Cass questioned.
"No," the brothers said again.
As they spoke, Cass lashed out with both hands and grabbed the brothers by their earlobes before yanking hard.
"Then what were you two thinking?" she hissed, "Do you know how worried I was? And to involve that poor girl too?"
"They didn't try to involve me," Riley spoke up as she pulled away from her parents and wiped her eyes, "I involved myself."
"What do you mean?" Cass questioned in surprise, turning towards Riley as she eased her grip on the brothers' ears.
"I got lost and ended up at the bot fight," Riley explained as she stood up, her parents stepping to the side to let her talk, "I saw that those creeps were going to beat up Hiro and I decided to help. Your their aunt, right?"
"I am," Cass answered with a warm smile.
"I'm Riley," the girl answered, holding her hand out for Cass to shake.
"It's nice to meet you, Riley," Cass replied as she shook the girl's hand, "I'm happy to see you're alright and thank you for what you did for Hiro."
"I didn't do anything," Riley dismissed with a shrug, her face flushing as she took a step back.
"You saved me," Hiro argued, "Those guys were going to knock my teeth out before you showed up. Actually, I just realized I haven't thanked you yet."
"You don't need to thank me," Riley replied as she brushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear.
"I actually do," Hiro replied with a grin, showing the gap between his front teeth, "Stop by the Lucky Cat tomorrow and I'll get you one of Aunt Cass' pastries."
"Best in the city," Tadashi chimed in, winking at Riley.
"O-Okay," Riley agreed with a small smile.
"Great, see you there!" Hiro replied as Cass began to lead him and his brother out of the police station while bidding the Anderson's goodnight, prompting him to wave, "See you later, Riley!"
"See you later, Hiro," Riley said with a small wave of her own.
"They seem like nice boys," Jill commented with a smile.
"Yeah, nice boys who got themselves arrested," Bill added dubiously.
Jill rolled her eyes and gave Bill a bemused smile before turning her attention towards Riley.
"Well, I think that's enough excitement for one night, don't you?" Jill questioned as she offered Riley her hand, "How about we go home?"
"Yeah," Riley agreed as she took the offered hand, smiling up at her mother, "Let's go home."
A/N: Yep, another new story from me. Like the others, the idea for this one just grabbed hold and wouldn't let go until I started writing it. There are more elements to this story that will show up as it goes along, so I hope you guys like it! As always, feedback and critiques are welcome, so please review! Later!