Ezra was extremely excited as he makes his up to the attic. Tomorrow was Hiro's birthday, and even if their horrible foster parents weren't going to do anything special for it, he was bound and determined that the two of them were going to have their own special celebration. This afternoon he'd managed to get permission to go into town, supposedly to pick up some groceries, which he had done, but his real purpose was to get some supplies so they could properly celebrate. He couldn't get much-anything he bought had to be able to be hidden inside his backpack and stashed in the attic, plus he had barely any money of his own to spend. Still, he'd managed to get two cupcakes from the bakery as well as a special part that Hiro had been wanting for ages for an invention. The plan was to also see if he could snag something from the foster parents' liquor cabinet (they were underage, sure, but they went through enough hell that they felt justified), but he'd have to see if that actually happened because the 'rents kept a very close eye on the contents of their cabinet. Still, maybe he could siphon out a tiny bit to mix with the soda he'd also managed to get at the store. All in all, everything was coming together nicely, and Ezra was in an exceptionally good mood. That is, until he actually got to the attic.

He'd honestly expected the attic to be empty at this time of day-all the other kids were supposed to be doing chores, and Hiro should have been at the job their guardians had forced him to get after graduating early from high school at thirteen. Only it turned out Hiro wasn't at his job-he couldn't be, because he was curled up in a tiny ball on the bed that he and Ezra shared. Ezra didn't even realize that his backpack had slipped out of his hands, and he couldn't have brought himself to care even if he had noticed-something was obviously very, very wrong, and he needed to find out what so he could try to fix it.

"Hiro-Hiro, what's wrong?" he cries as he hurries over to the bed.

Hiro didn't answer, just curling even tighter in on himself, his whole body visibly shaking.

"Love..." Ezra says softly as he crawls onto the bed, carefully pulling his boyfriend's tiny form up against his own, willing some sort of comfort he was trying to give him to transfer to the younger boy as he hugs him close. "Please. Tell me what's going on."

"Y-Y'know how our foster parents made me lie on my application and say I was sixteen and just small for my age so I could get the job?" Hiro finally manages to get out, his voice soft and broken.

"Yeah," Ezra agrees with a frown-he still felt it was royally f*ed up that they'd done that in the first place.

"A-Apparently my boss finally looked into it and found out that I'm actually only fourteen-f-fifteen tomorrow, but still… I-I got fired…"

"Oh, Hiro…" Ezra gently cuddles him closer. "I'm so sorry… But… Maybe this is a good thing? I mean, you hated that job and now our foster parents can't force you into going there anymore-"

"T-They can't," Hiro agrees, voice cracking, "A-And when they found out, they got really, really mad…"

He finally tilts his face up so that Ezra could see it, and when the other teen sees it, he lets out a horrified gasp. There were dark bruises covering Hiro's usually porcelain skin and a nasty cut along the one cheek.

"T-They did this to you?" Ezra whispers, feeling his body starting to shake with barely controlled rage. He had been willing to go through many things over the years, just ducked his head and kept his mouth shut and kept going. But this-this was taking things too far. They had dared to lay hands on his precious Hiro, and that was completely unforgivable.

"I-It's not just that…" Hiro whispers, and Ezra instantly feels fresh dread sweeping through him.

"W-What else could there be?"

"S-Since I can't work anymore and I could get them into trouble if my boss turns them in, t-they're talking about sending me away…"

"Send you away?" Ezra gasps, horror coiling in his stomach like a venomous snake waiting to pounce. "N-No! T-They can't separate us! I might never see you again!"

"I know…" Hiro curls up against him, starting to quietly sob. "B-But there's nothing we can do… W-We're just kids, the government has the final say in all of this…"

For a full minute-probably the worst minute of his entire life-Ezra just lies there next to his boyfriend, feeling completely helpless at the prospect of the horrible future stretching out before him. Hiro was the one good thing in his otherwise hellish life. Without him, he didn't even know if he'd have the will to go on.

As soon as that thought hits him, he knows that there is no way he's going to let this happen. He would not let Hiro get taken away from him, and he was never going to let another person lay their filthy hands on the love of his life.

"We're leaving," he says suddenly, the words coming out with more force than he'd intended.

"L-Leaving?" Hiro looks up at him in quiet shock. "W-What are you talking about? We don't have anywhere to go!"

"Doesn't matter," Ezra answers firmly. "Anywhere we go will be better than here."

"W-We're running away?" Hiro whispers, fear and relief mingling on his face.

"We are," Ezra agrees, his grip tightening on his boyfriend. "I mean, how many nights have we stayed up planning in detail how we'd do it?"

"But we said we'd only do it if it was an emergency…"

"Hiro, you were physically beaten today and they're about to try to send you away! If this isn't an emergency, what is?"

"We'd still be in a lot of danger… What if the cops come after us and we get caught?"

"Either we go and take that risk, or we stay here and know for sure that something horrible is going to happen. At least this way we have a chance!"

"...All right."

"All right? Does that mean-?"

"Yeah." Hiro nods before looking up at him, a look of determination on his face. "You're right. Staying here is suicide-potentially literally. Running away is our best option. Let's do this."

"I'm glad you agree." Ezra tenderly kisses his forehead, pulling him close before saying softly, "C'mon, let's get packing while no one's up here. We can hide our backpacks under the bed and then sneak out tonight."

"Sounds good," Hiro agrees, a small frown on his face that told the other teen that he was thinking hard. "We'll need money if we're going to be able to make it on our own…"

"I guess we can find jobs wherever we end up going…" Ezra says slowly. "But you're right, we need something just to get bus fare out of here… I hate the idea of stealing, but we might have to…"

"No need to steal," Hiro answers with a small smirk. "Our wonderful foster parents forcing me to get a job did one good thing-I made a decent bit of money with all the hours I worked and the tips I got, so we can use that."

"But I thought they took all your checks for 'safe keeping'," Ezra says, frowning in confusion.

"They did," Hiro agrees with a tiny smirk. "But I kept close tabs on how much I made, so if we withdrew that much from their account, it wouldn't be stealing since it is my money, right?"

"That is true," Ezra agrees thoughtfully. "But how are we supposed to get money out of their bank account?"

"You forget that I'm a genius," Hiro answers with a tiny smirk. "I figured out their bank account password years ago just in case I ever needed it. If we stop at a couple different ATM's along the way, we should be able to get all of the money we need."

"That actually works," Ezra agrees with a grin.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah! Now c'mon, let's get packing before the others get up here so they won't turn us in."

"Right!" Hiro agrees, starting to get up to go find his old school backpack. But then he suddenly stops to turn and kiss his boyfriend's cheek. "No matter what happens, at least we'll be together," he says softly.

"Yeah," Ezra answers, gently squeezing his hand. "Together."

The rest of the day passed in a bit of a blur-the two boys scurrying to pack everything that was important to them into their backpacks and then hiding the bags well underneath the bed so that no one would see them and figure out what they were planning. Ezra realized that he sadly wouldn't be able to bring along the stuff he'd gotten for Hiro's birthday-he needed all the space he could get in his backpack-so they ended up having the cupcakes and soda a day early, sort of as a mini-celebration of both Hiro's birthday and of their plan for a daring escape. They managed to finish everything right before the others came up to wash for dinner. When they were finally called down for supper, Ezra keeps a protective hold on his boyfriend's hand all through the meal-he wasn't going to give their foster parents a chance to hurt the love of his life ever again, although fortunately, aside from a few nasty glares, they didn't actually try do anything.

As soon as dinner was over, the two hurried back up the stairs, telling to the others that they were tired and were going to bed early-seeing the condition that Hiro was in, no one asked any questions. Ezra knew that technically they should get some actual sleep, but if they overslept they'd miss their chance to get out of here and so they settled on sleeping in shifts-one of them would actually sleep for an hour while the other one pretended to sleep but actually kept a close eye on the clock, and then they'd trade off. When one is about to do something ridiculously dangerous and all they can do is lie still and stare at a clock, time seems to come to an absolute standstill. Each minute becomes an hour, and it was pretty much the longest night of Ezra's life. At least there was some distraction when the others started getting ready for bed-he could listen to the activities and conversations of the others as they moved around the room. A small part of him felt bad about not saying goodbye to any of the kids he had shared a room with for years. But, as he reflected on it, he had never been particularly close to any of them and so he didn't have too much to regret. Once the others went to sleep, he traded off shifts with Hiro, and then when he was woken up an hour later, it was to a completely still house. They'd both agreed to wait until midnight to actually leave-their foster parents went to bed early, usually around ten, but waiting the two extra hours would ensure that all of the adults and kids in the house should be asleep. As much as the silence was stifling, at least since his roommates were all out he didn't have to fake being asleep and so he allows himself to turn over and look up at the ceiling, reminiscing about the years he'd lived here. Most of it had been awful, but having Hiro come into his life was the best thing that had ever happened to him. That's why he was willing to risk everything tonight to make sure that he never lost his precious light.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the clock flipped from 11:59 pm to 12:00 am, and by the sudden movement from Hiro, Ezra could tell that his boyfriend had been watching the clock as eagerly as he had.

"You ready for this?" the blue haired teen whispers, looking down at the younger boy.

"Yeah," Hiro breathes, grinning up at him. "Let's do this."

The two ease carefully out of bed, barely daring to breathe as they retrieve their bags from underneath the bed. Then it's over to the empty doorway (their host parents removed the doors from all of the dormitories to prevent the kids from being able to hide anything behind a closed doors, and in this case it actually worked to the teens' advantages) before making their way down the stairs, carefully avoiding every creaky board that they'd learned the positions of from years of sneaking around the house for much less high-stake reasons. Then it's into the kitchen where Hiro carefully works to disarm the security system their foster parents had installed to try to prevent such attempts at running away. They kept the passcode a secret and changed it often, but Hiro had no issues quickly figuring it out and, in less than a minute, had it shut off.

"You ready for this?" the younger teen asks in the softest of voices as he undoes the latch on the door, repeating Ezra's earlier question to him. "We do this, and there's no going back."

"Staying here means losing you," Ezra answers firmly. "I'd take any chance if it meant even the smallest possibility of staying together."

Hiro beams up at him, leaning in gently to peck his lips in gratitude, before gently prying open the door. And then they were off.

Their first stop was at the atm outside the gas station just down the street from their house.

"You don't think they'll see us on the security cameras, do you?" Ezra asks worriedly, glancing up at the lens staring accusingly down at them as Hiro works to type in the necessary information.

"If they do, by the time they see it it'll be too late to stop us-we'll be long gone," Hiro answers impatiently. "Now hush, I'm trying to concentrate!"

"Sorry!" Ezra apologizes, quickly clamping his mouth shut.

"Okay, I'm in!" Hiro cries about a minute later.

"You are?" Ezra asks eagerly.

"Yes!" Hiro answers. "Now let me just see if I can get my money from here and then we can-shit."

"What is it?" Ezra asks worriedly "What's wrong?"

"The maximum you can withdraw from here in one day is $1000," Hiro quietly growls.

"$1000 is a lot of money!" Ezra points out, eyes going wide-he'd never even seen that much money all in one place before!

"Not in comparison to how much I actually made," Hiro sighs. "And trust me, we'll go through it pretty fast, even if we do manage to find small jobs wherever we go."

"So we can get more money tomorrow from a different machine?" Ezra suggests hesitantly.

"No, they'll probably have changed all the passcodes by then, and even if I figure them all out they'd be able to track us by seeing which atm machine we used!" Hiro tells him.

"Oh… Yeah, I guess we can't, then," Ezra says, heart sinking slightly.

"Well, nothing we can do about it-let's just get the money we can from this thing and get out of here," Hiro sighs.

"A-Are we going to be okay?" Ezra asks quietly as the machine starts to spit out the allotted money. "I mean, if we don't have enough money to be able to do this…"

"Don't worry," Hiro reassures him, gently reaching over to squeeze his hand before carefully collecting the bills and tucking them into his bag. "I probably should have thought of this ahead of time, but at least I did somewhat think ahead so we should still be all right for a while."

"What do you mean?" Ezra asks, frowning slightly in confusion.

"Well… The truth is, I haven't been giving our foster parents all my tips. I had to give them enough so that they wouldn't realize I was holding out on them-and if they wondered about the amount, I guess they assume that I'm just a crappy worker-and so I managed to squirrel away about half of what I made, saving it up just in case," Hiro admits.

"That's great!" Ezra grins at him, feeling a bit of relief in his chest-okay, so maybe things weren't so bad!

"Plus there's the money I made on the side.."

"O-On the side…?" Ezra frowns at that. "What do you mean by that?"

"Okay, promise you won't be mad?"

"Hiro, what exactly have you been doing?"

"Well, you know those weekends when I'd say I had to work both morning and evening shifts?"

"Yes…"

"A lot of those weekends, I was technically only working at the cafe in the morning. In the evening, I went to my 'other job'..."

"Hiro, so help me, if you don't stop talking like Yoda and give me a straight answer-"

"I've been bot fighting, okay?"

"...Bot fighting?" Ezra stares at him in disbelief.

"Look, I'm not saying I'm completely proud of it, and I know you're going to give me a huge lecture on safety and how I could have gotten majorly hurt if something went wrong," Hiro sighs. "But I knew that if we were ever going to be able to make it on our own, whether we ran away or eventually got 'too old' for our foster parents and they dumped us on the streets since they couldn't make money off us anymore, that we'd need some cash to get us started. And I made good money in the ring-like, super amazingly good money. So I've been saving it up just to be safe. I know you may not like it, but it may be what gets us through the next months or even years if we can't find work."

"I… Okay, you're right, I don't like that you were putting yourself in danger like that," Ezra sighs. "But I can see where your intentions were in the right place… I swear I won't yell at you as long as you promise me one thing."

"What's that?" Hiro asks nervously.

"That, the next time you feel you need to go to a bot fight, you take me with you-two are better than one and I'd feel safer knowing that I was with you instead of just worrying myself sick over how you might be doing," Ezra answers, putting his hands gently on Hiro's shoulders.

"Deal!" Hiro agrees, grinning in relief up at him.

"Good." Ezra smiles and gently pecks him on the lips. "Now c'mon, I think we've got a bus to catch."

"Right!" Hiro agrees and, together, they hurry off down the street together and towards their future.

"Wow," Fred says, blinking in surprise as the story comes to an end. "That was…"

"Insane?" Hiro offers.

"Yeah, exactly," Fred agrees.

"I-I can't believe you guys had to go through all of that," Tadashi says softly. "T-That foster home… I can't believe they actually let people like that have custody of kids!"

"Same," Ezra sighs. "But sadly it does happen…"

"On the plus side, we're out of there so they can't hurt us anymore!" Hiro adds optimistically.

"That is true…" Tadashi agrees with a small smile.

"So, what happened at the bus station?" Fred asks curiously. "Were you able to get a bus without any trouble? And where the heck did you even go?"

"Okay, to answer the first question-yes, by some miracle there was a weird connecting bus thing happening at 3 am heading to LA that night and so we managed to get a ride on it, telling the lady at the ticket counter that we were heading there to visit our grandparents which is why we were travelling alone so late!" Hiro answers with a small grin.

"I don't think she would have bought it except Hiro turned up the innocent puppy act to, like, level 9000," Ezra chuckles. "I think she would have handed over her soul if he'd asked!"

"Oh, c'mon, don't exaggerate!" Hiro groans.

"I'm not exaggerating, I'm being perfectly serious here!" Ezra answers.

"Somehow, even though I just met him, I believe it," Fred says with a small smile.

"So what happened after you guys got to LA?" Tadashi asks curiously.

"Well, honestly we just focused on finding a cheap motel and then finding jobs the next day," Ezra explains.

"We managed to get a gig working as dishwashers in a small hole-in-the-wall," Hiro adds. "The pay wasn't great, but it was something, at least, and we needed to conserve our savings for as long as possible."

"Makes sense." Tadashi nods in understanding. "And the bot fighting-did you…?"

"Only a couple of times when we got really desperate," Hiro answers with a small shrug.

"Don't worry, I made sure he stayed safe!" Ezra puts in quickly.

"All right…" Tadashi doesn't look fully convinced, but he nods.

"So, speaking of the cafe we worked in," Hiro puts in as his stomach lets out a small gurgle, "all this storytelling is making me a bit hungry…"

"Okay, I get the picture!" Tadashi chuckles. "Taking a lunch break sound good to everyone?"

"I'm all for that!" Fred says eagerly.

"Me too!" Ezra agrees.

"Me three!" Hiro puts in happily.

"Okay then, I'll get right to work on that!" Tadashi tells them with a warm smile.

"I can help if you want, love," Fred says, putting a loving hand on his shoulder.

"Only if you don't mind!"

"Why would I mind having an excuse to spend time with you?"

"Aw, Freddy…" Tadashi flashes him a mushy grin.

"You need any help from us?" Hiro asks with a tiny smirk.

"Nope, I think we're good, you two just relax, okay?" Tadashi answers before eagerly pulling his boyfriend into the kitchen.

"That was too easy…" Ezra chuckles.

"Right?" Hiro laughs. "I can see where we can have some 'fun' with those two…"

"So…" Ezra settles down next to him on the couch, slipping his arm around his boyfriend's waist. "About your ending to our story… That was pretty tame compared to what actually happened that next night, wasn't it?"

"Oh, Tadashi doesn't need to know about everything…" Hiro playfully purrs as he grins mischievously over at him.

"Wow-our first motel room together!" Ezra chuckles as he and Hiro unlock the door to their room and flip on the lights. "Honestly… It's not as romantic as I'd thought it would be, but at least the place doesn't seem to be infested with bugs."

"Beggars can't be choosers!" Hiro declares, plopping his backpack down next to the bed.

"Right," Ezra agrees with a wry smile, doing likewise. "So… What do you want to do now?"

"I mean, it's too late to really start any job hunting tonight," Hiro muses. "And I'm honestly too beat right now to actually fill out any applications even if it wasn't…"

"I guess we could eat dinner?" Ezra suggests.

"Maybe in a little bit," Hiro answers. "All I really want to do right now is lie down…"

"Lying down is good, Ezra agrees with a firm nod, kicking off his shoes. "If that's what you want to do, that's what we'll do!"

"Thanks…" Hiro flashes him a grateful smile, flopping down onto the bed before picking up the TV remote from the bedside table. "Huh… Want to see if there's anything decent on given we've never really been allowed to pick our own shows since, well-ever?"

"Sounds good," Ezra chuckles, joining him on the bed.

"Awesome!" Hiro grins over at him before turning on the television and beginning to flip through the channels. Sadly there wasn't much on, but eventually they settle on a show called "Once Upon a Time"-it might not be either of their forte, but it was better than all the infomercials and self-help programs. Hiro seemed to actually be getting pretty into the episode, and was quite surprised when Ezra suddenly uses the remote to turn the volume down pretty much all the way to zero.

"You okay?" Hiro asks, glancing over at him and wondering if maybe he was having second thoughts about all of this.

"I just…" Ezra looks over at him, seeming slightly nervous, before taking the other teen's hands in his own. "I-It's your birthday today…"

"It is, isn't it?" Hiro agrees with a grin. "Wow, I'd almost forgotten with everything that happened!"

"Y-Yeah," Ezra agrees, shyly rubbing the back of his neck. "But I didn't, and, well… I-I was wondering if you wanted your birthday present?"

"Oh, Ez, you didn't have to get me anything!" Hiro cries.

"I-I didn't exactly get you something…" Ezra mumbles. "I mean… Technically I did, but I couldn't bring it with, so this is kind of your other present. And it's not exactly a present, but it's pretty much the most important thing I could give anyone and-"

"Ez, you're adorable when you start rambling, but do you think you could get to the point?" Hiro asks with a small smile, gently but firmly cutting him short.

"Right, sorry!" Ezra apologizes, feeling intense heat rising in his cheeks. "I, um… I-It's me. You're birthday present is me-all of me, if you want me..."

Hiro's eyes momentarily narrow with confusion and then widen as the meaning of his boyfriend's words sink in. "O-Oh my gosh, Ezra… A-Are you saying-?"

"W-We don't have to do anything you're not comfortable with!" Ezra hurries to reassure him. "I just-I've known you for almost my entire life and we've been dating for a year now and I know that there's no one else I will ever love like this and that I could ever want to give myself too-"

Hiro yet again mercifully cuts off his rambling, this time with a quick but still incredibly passionate kiss to his mouth.

"Yes," he whispers huskily, eyes shining as he looks up at his boyfriend. "I-I want you… All of you… And I want you to have all of me too, if you'll have me."

"Hiro…" This time it was Ezra pulling his boyfriend into a kiss, which quickly turned from soft, shy movements of their lips together to something much more heated as Hiro's fingers reach up to tangle in the other man's hair and Ezra pulls Hiro flesh against his body.

"A-Are you sure?" Ezra whispers when his boyfriend starts eagerly tugging at his shirt, not wanting to ruin the moment but wanting to make sure that they were both in total agreement on this-that it wasn't something that Hiro was going to regret doing later and hate him for.

"I am," Hiro agrees in a tender whisper. "I-I love you so much... And I know that I want to be with you for the rest of my life…"

"Me too," Ezra whispers before finally letting his boyfriend pull his shirt off all the way, exposing his bare chest to him. It wasn't like Hiro hadn't seen him shirtless before-it was bound to have happened living in the same room and sharing a bed all these years-but the way he was looking at him like he was the most beautiful thing in the world made his heart flutter sharply in his chest. But he knew that he definitely wasn't the most beautiful thing in the world, because that title belonged to the amazing man who he loved more than anything who was already pulling off his own shirt to reveal his tiny, almost delicate form.

"You're sure?" Ezra asks one last time as he carefully moves so that he was over Hiro, feeling like his heart was about to fly right out through his mouth as the other teen starts eagerly fumbling with the button of his jeans.

"Yes," Hiro breathes, pausing momentarily to ask, "Y-You do want this too, right?"

"More than anything," Ezra answers, tenderly stroking his cheek.

"Then c'mon-let's stop talking and actually do this," Hiro answers, beaming up at him.

"That's all I needed to hear," Ezra says with a warm smile before leaning down to pull him into a passionate kiss.

About an hour later, Ezra found himself curled up next to Hiro, both of them still damp from their shower together, the blue haired teen enjoying the soft scent of the cherry blossom scented motel shampoo that still lingered in the other man's hair. Tonight had definitely been the most amazing night of both of their lives, and, even now, Ezra knew what neither of them would ever regret a single moment of it. Tonight was the first night of the rest of their lives together and he knew that, no matter where life took them, as long as they were together they would be okay. No, they would be better than okay-as long as they were together, everything would be absolutely perfect. Would things be easy? Hell no. Would they have days when they'd question everything and if they'd made the right decision by running away? Absolutely. But as long as they knew how much they loved each other, then they could live with the consequences, because being together was the most important thing in the world, and nothing and no one could ever take that away from them.