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Hiro’s vision was fuzzy with tears; the lights were blurring around him with a painful contrast to everything else.
Carpet that was typically soft beneath his hands felt rough and coarse.
“This is all your fault; why should we help you?” GoGo scoffed.
When did all of this even start? Hiro felt like he could vaguely recall telling his friends about his desire to quit his internship, but how much did he say? When? Why?
How did they even get here? He couldn’t recall the trip here in his mind…it felt like someone moved it to the very deepest depths of his mind.
“You dug your own grave, now lie in it.” Fred dismissed.
Fred? Really? Of all people to blame him…Well Hiro actually, sadly, couldn’t admit he was wholly surprised, but he was still pretty hurt…Usually he felt less serious than this.
It was like everything in his eyes was simply living through a little comic book of superhero and villain events that were to be persevered through. He wished he felt more important than simply the guy that made their suits.
“Sorry Hiro, but maybe this will teach you your lesson.” Honey Lemon sighed.
Now Honey Lemon he didn’t expect to refuse to help him…Did she not forgive him for creating the energy amplifier? It wasn’t his fault the only reason he was given not to build it was a mix of ‘it’s impossible’ and ‘because I said so’s.
He was known for being rebellious—did they actually think that was enough reason to sway him away from creating something he truly thought could revolutionize technology for the better?
Or perhaps she truly believed the situation he found himself in now was for the best…That, even though Krei is probably a terrible mentor, he’d need to experience work in the real world outside of his ideals eventually. They don’t exactly get paid for what they do as heroes.
Even Wasabi joined in on lecturing him. “You got a job. Guess you have to deal with it.”
It felt so heartless. Dismissive of his pain and simply treating him as a child he’d grown bored of babysitting. Now it was time to just let him deal with ‘the consequences’ himself.
His attempt at fighting back against his own jealousy was deserving of an entire year’s-worth of punishment. Hiro Hamada had to be humbled into never making mistakes typical of an actual teenager his age.
Damn it.
The world around Hiro felt like it was spiraling apart.
These were supposed to be his friends, but trying to tell them about his job at Krei Tech, in hopes they would help, only resulted in chastising and blame.
“I can’t believe you’d expect us to just help you out of anything that mildly bothers you.”
Was that actually what they thought he was doing? How many times did they feel like that because of him? That he was some burden that inconvenienced them with his silly problems he had to learn to deal with himself.
He tried to argue that ‘No, I don’t expect that!’ that ‘I just thought you guys would have advice, or help!’, but the words refused to escape his lips.
He…He choked on his own words. Tears pricked in his eyes and soon rolled down his cheeks with a shame indescribable to any other feeling he’d felt in time’s past.
If Tadashi were still with them, would he think this of him too?
Would his brother consider him a childish brat incapable of being worth a moment of time outside of what he can do for other people?
These were Tadashi’s friends after all…Perhaps they somehow knew him better than even Hiro did, and that he was the mistaken one on his late brother’s actual desires.
After taking a moment to compose himself, Hiro opened his mouth to speak, but all he could see around him was a blur.
Before he could even fully process what was happening, his surroundings were shifting, if they were even clear in the first place. He had assumed that they were talking at Fred’s house..? For some reason that didn’t feel right.
Rough, already unwelcoming enough carpet phased into becoming sterile, cool tiles. Now he could recognize those cold, laboratory floors from when he was locked in his own lab at Krei Tech. He didn’t need any added time to realize where he was.
The only difference from last time was that Baymax wasn’t there to help him, and he was already spiraling out of control. It was all-too familiar what he was going through.
At first he just tried slamming on the door to see if he might get a response from that, but obviously it didn’t work. If it didn’t work last time, why would it work now?
Well…He could always try what he did last time. If it didn’t get him out of here it could at least get him more control over giving Krei Tech a larger liability risk to worry about…
When he rushed over to the desk, Hiro was disappointed to see the lack of a soldering iron…they must have removed it after his previous incident.
With a frustrated grumble, he rummaged through the cupboards. To his luck (or arguably misfortune), it seems that they forgot to account for how reckless Hiro could be with a caliper.
He narrowed his eyes on the outside jaws, lifting up the caliper by the blade and slamming those jaws further up on his wrist, near his elbow.
It was a bit harder to achieve as violent bleeding from the lack of sharpness, but there was a significant enough wound in the middle of a harshly forming bruise.
Despite the lack of Baymax, and the lack of an ability to call from far distances, he still heard a rush of footsteps getting closer to his location.
Hiro forced the caliper out of his arm and suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to flee, like it would be a horrible idea to get caught in this state.
But there was nowhere he could go in time; he was trapped.
“Hiro?”
“Hiro?”
“Hiro!”
He jolted awake in a cold sweat, blankets ruffled and his arm on his dresser at an awkward angle. When he lifted it, he hissed in pain. It was bruised, bleeding slightly too. He probably hit it against the corner.
“Hiro. I was alerted to a need for medical attention when I noticed your vitals were elevated during your sleep, and you injured your wrist on your dresser. I detected that you were having a nightmare. Your wrist also needs medical treatment.” Baymax approached Hiro, with the same non-judgemental expression he was always grateful for.
A rush of embarrassment met him at realizing he had lashed out in his nightmare; he was relieved it was just Baymax that woke him and not his aunt being worried.
“Hah…I really must’ve not handled it well…” Hiro laughed uncomfortably before extending his arm towards the robot for it to treat.
The wound was carefully cleaned with soap and water before it was wrapped with soft gauze and tape. A small icepack was placed on top of it. “To prevent further bruising, alternate the ice-pack on for twenty minutes and give it a break for a couple hours.”
“Thanks Baymax. Do you know what time it is?” It was still dark out, so it couldn’t be too late in the morning.
“I believe it is approximately five-thirty in the morning.” Baymax informed. “You have time to go back to sleep if you wish.”
“I don’t think I will…I have a feeling I will be able to fall back into a restful slumber any time soon.” Hiro sighed, grimacing at the soft bandage above his more secure one from the other day.
“At least you went to bed early last night.” Baymax remarked.
Hiro’s day wasn’t terrible at school. He didn’t talk about his nightmare to anyone, but that was because it felt like it’d be awkward to admit all of the things that had gone on in the nightmare.
They didn’t even know he still desperately wished he could quit his job—he had no clue how they’d react to a nightmare of them all chastising and lecturing him about it all being his fault and needing to deal with it himself.
He was quieter during the school day than he typically was, but thankfully it wasn’t really questioned…or, was he glad that it wasn’t?
A part of him was sort of disappointed that no one bothered to ask if he was alright.
Perhaps he was just being overdramatic—emotional, about the whole thing. It was a sensitive nightmare after an even more sensitive event and he wasn’t certain on how to approach it.
But later in the day, unbeknownst to Hiro, someone did pick up on his atypical behavior
Someone who he’d probably hope the least if possibly even, wouldn’t at all, notice his off-attitude. Someone who he really wished would stop trying to keep such a close eye on him:
Alistair Krei.
“Intern—I mean, Hiro…You seem off today. Is it just because of yesterday, or have you not been sleeping all that well?” Krei inquired after noticing how tired Hiro looked while checking into work.
Did he of all people really have to be the first to ask if he was okay? That was a person. It felt like it had to be opposite day, or something. He swore that his boss was never this considerate.
“I’m fine, Krei. I don’t see why I have to be at your side all the time now—I’m not Judy.” Hiro grumbled, nearly tripping over his own feet when he made his way to slump against Krei’s desk.
What was his deal? Couldn’t he just take his excuses and move on? It certainly seemed like his friends were content with doing that much.
“You most certainly are not fine, young man. Look at yourself! You’re stumbling over your own feet.” Krei shook his head disapprovingly before he exhaled softly. “I want to be sure that you won’t hurt yourself as soon as you’re by yourself on the job again.”
Yeah right. Hiro had just made himself a liability…Even if being a liability didn’t warrant concern about his complete health and sleep patterns.
“This has to be a strain on your schedule too, you know. I don’t see why you bother concerning yourself with a liability beyond the bare minimum.” Hiro crossed his arms, wincing slightly at the slight pressure on his wounds.
The gesture caused Krei to spare a worried glance down at the boy, as did his words.
“Do you truly believe I only view you as a liability, Hiro? Sure I may…struggle…with names, but it comes with the field. And you must know that I allowed you to be my intern solely because I knew you were brilliant enough to boast about your accomplishments beyond what you could directly make for me. If I were to want an intern to one-up Liv Amara, then I definitely would need one who would be far more valuable than hers, regardless if she saw things that way or not.” Krei explained with a kind tone.
All the praise was still something Hiro felt vastly unfamiliar with, apart from when it was from his own kin. Already it felt like Krei took the whole ‘our coworkers are our family’ mindset to heart.
Despite his own hesitation surrounding Krei, he couldn’t find himself entirely against the idea of the man acting familiarly towards him…it was nice having someone treat him like a kid that needed to be cared about apart from his own aunt.
Maybe there was a reason they had enough of a spark to go on a date with one another.
“Well…do you actually think I’m brilliant enough to brag about me like parents brag about their kids?” Hiro chuckled, finding the comparison humorously accurate.
Surprisingly, Krei took no offense to it—was he welcoming of that entire idea in general?
“Of course I do.” He chuckled warmly. “Now tell me what’s bothering you. We can’t do anything to try to help if you keep everything to yourself.”
But he wasn’t sure how to admit to his boss that he had a nightmare about his friends acting cruel because he still wanted to quit his job…He was a bit afraid of what Krei’s reaction might end up being as well.
Then again, he really wasn’t getting anywhere by simply being afraid of what might happen if he told people about the stress plaguing his life at the moment.
“It’s childish but…I had a nightmare, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it.” Hiro sheepishly admitted.
The judgement he was expecting from the explanation wasn’t present in the slightest.
Krei put his hand (carefully) on Hiro’s shoulder. “Everyone gets nightmares from time-to-time. It’s a part of life that never really gets grown out of—I get nightmares about business proposals failing and my stock crashing.”
His words were comforting, though the nightmares he got didn’t seem nearly as intense as what Hiro had to deal with in his sleep.
“I uh…Still have my reservations about being forced to work here,” Hiro confessed. “But I struggle even more with the thought of admitting that to my friends; I don’t like keeping secrets from them, but I’m not sure if I trust them with knowing how I truly feel. My injury from the other day has given me lingering fears about feeling trapped too.”
He hadn’t expected to see his boss become so increasingly worried by what he said.
“Are those things what your nightmare was about?” Krei inquired with concern,
Hiro simply nodded his head; he wasn’t sure if he could justify his feelings, and he didn’t want to be lectured at such a vulnerable time.
“You do know that I am very apologetic that you got yourself hurt, and I will be making steps to ensure that it doesn’t happen again, right?” Krei was a little more insistent in tone with that question, his worries for the teenager genuine despite his refusal to let him go.
And it felt ironic in a way; Krei being so concerned for his health, yet refusing to let him quit the job that was so clearly causing him immense stress.
“You’re worried for my health, but you can’t let me quit my job.” Hiro attempted to point out the irony he at least was feeling.
There was no way that it was that hard to imagine why those were conflicting ideas.
“I can’t monitor you nearly as easily if you quit—and you are too valuable to simply let go when I already have you signed under a contract for the next year.” Krei had no shame in this, which was both strange and expected.
Okay maybe it was that hard to point out how those were conflicting ideas.
Seeing Hiro’s doubt, Krei decided to continue regardless. “I assure you that you will thank me in a few years when you can use the things from this internship to guide you in the real world.”
Hiro raised an eyebrow. “For someone so stubborn about keeping me here, you’re surprisingly calm about me having nightmares about being stuck working for you.”
“You’re known as a rebellious teenage boy, Hiro. I expect some resistance. This is a prime time in your life to learn to deal with responsibilities you don’t want.” Krei dismissed.
That actually…felt strangely assuring.
He was just a teenager with a history of rebellion. It wasn’t exactly something to punish so much as it was to be expected and handled respectfully.
And Krei was doing just that…Letting Hiro feel his feelings, and accepting it while also not giving up on him.
That felt nice, weirdly enough. To be treated like his age without there being an extra element of shame with it.
“I…Thanks, Mr. Krei. I guess I have a bit more to learn than I thought.” Hiro acknowledged with a small smile.
“No problem kid.” Krei ruffled his hair and walked towards the door. “Now, I have a meeting in a few minutes. Are you going to be able to handle accompanying Assistant and I?”
“I think I’ll live.” Hiro teased as he followed Krei.