Hiro was still high on adrenaline as he walked upstairs to his room, Beck right behind him. It was a good thing he had a small bathroom up here. He assumed putting cold water on burns would help. He had never been great at human anatomy, biology, basically anything that involved living things. If you asked him to point to where his liver was, he'd probably point to his left lung.

The grief was at the back of his mind now, replaced by the need to help. Hiro was a good kid with a good heart, after all. He was still wondering if Beck had been to Good Luck Alley before and Hiro just hadn't noticed. He seemed like the type to be a little familiar with that crowd. Which wasn't an awful thing, considering Hiro himself was rather familiar with the place. Beck coughed, which pulled Hiro out of his thoughts.

"You okay?"

"Maybe?" The teenager replied.

Hiro hoped his lungs weren't messed up, because that was something he definitely couldn't handle. He could really use Tadashi right now, that nerd always knew weird medical things- wait no, don't think about Tadashi. He was really hoping that Tadashi could slip his mind for just a little while. Just for an hour.

But again, the dark corners of his mind chimed in, if you forgot Tadashi, did you even love him? If you don't feel empty and cold, does he even matter to you? What younger brother simply goes on when his older brother dies horrifically? But for now, with the help of the adrenaline, Hiro could push those thoughts aside.

"Uh, Beck, do you know any first aid by any chance? I just know that antiseptic is good."

"I'm good at robots, not humans." Beck said with a tone that was almost apologetic.

Now that was music to Hiro's ears. Hiro had never met another kid near his age that was good at robotics like he was. Immediately he felt something- maybe he should keep Beck around. Even if he probably was a bot-fighter that Hiro had just never fought

"You're good at robotics too?" Hiro asked excitedly.

"Are capacitors super annoying and fragile- yeah I am! Oh, finally, someone who's good at robotics!" Beck replied with a relieved and similarly excited tone.

Hiro was overjoyed to finally meet someone who was into the same things he was. He could almost forget about the fire, if he could just keep talking about this. But every time he looked at Beck's arms, already starting to blister, it reminded him of what happened at SFIT. But still, he had to help somehow. He had gotten this far.

"We gotta build something together soon- anyhow, uh, burns, yeah- maybe put cold water on them?" Hiro said like he wasn't sure if the statement was correct.

How could you build robots, your brother is DEAD, screamed the dark corners of his mind. But Hiro was able to push those thoughts back, for now.

"Seems like a good idea." Beck shrugged and walked into the bathroom.

Hiro heard the sink turn on and a scream of "Ow, fuck, that's hot!" coming from Beck.

"Yeah, the sink's messed up, turn the red knob for cold water!"

Hiro should've told him about that before he put scalding hot water onto his burns, he was stupid why was he even trying-

But, Hiro was shocked when from Tadashi's corner of the room, he heard what sounded like something inflating. He turned to look and saw Baymax. Wait, Tadashi had brought Baymax here? Why? But, believe it or not, he was here, and currently knocking everything off the shelf while trying to get into the main area. Beck must've heard the noise too because he stepped out of the bathroom to see what was going on.

"Is that a robot? Why is it a marshmallow?"

Before Hiro could answer, Baymax spoke.

"Hello. I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion." The robot said in Beck's direction.

"Beck, this is Baymax.. he's my brother's SFIT project. Uh, Baymax, I didn't know you were still active."

"I was alerted to your need for medical attention when you said: ow." Baymax said to Beck.

"Dude, where's your brother, I have so many questions that need answering."

Why did Beck have to ask that question? Hiro didn't want to face the fact that Tadashi was dead. Hiro wanted to pretend like everything was fine.. but he couldn't. He saw him die, there was no way anything could be fine ever again.

"Tadashi.. he's gone. There was a fire at SFIT.. and..."

Beck looked shocked at the fact there was even a fire. That struck Hiro as odd, everyone knew about the fire, he thought. Why didn't Beck know? But Hiro wasn't in the spot to think about these things, not when he was as grief-stricken as he was.

"I'm.. I'm so sorry." Beck said in an attempt to be comforting.

Hiro didn't really find that sort of thing to be any help, he appreciated the attempt. Even though he felt like he didn't deserve to be better, didn't deserve the care.

Baymax interrupted the two of them by saying "On a scale from one to ten, how would you rate your pain?" He didn't seem to notice the previous conversation.

"Six?" Beck replied.

Beck was really good at not showing pain, Hiro decided. If he had those burns, he'd still be screaming. But Beck, Beck was stoic from the looks of it.

"I will scan you now."

Beck turned to Hiro with an expression along the lines of holy shit this bot is advanced this is so cool. Hiro could tell that Beck couldn't wait to get his hands on the blueprints. But Hiro didn't know where those were, sadly. Hiro wanted to know all the tiny details just as bad. Those blueprints were like pieces of Tadashi that would always be there. Baymax was an extension of Tadashi, an extension of his good heart and need to help everyone.

"You have: second degree burns on your forearms. You may also have thermal damage to your upper respiratory tract consistent with smoke inhalation. You require medical care beyond my capability. I will call emergency services."

"No, no, no!" Beck and Hiro said at the exact same time, rushing to stop Baymax before he could call.

"Do not call anyone. I'll be in more danger if you do." Beck said to Baymax

"I do not understand. How would you be in more danger?" He asked.

"I ran away from my parents, if I go to the hospital they'll find me and go right back to beating me."

"Abuse of a minor is a crime. I will report this to law enforcement?"

"No!" Hiro and Beck said in unison, again, before stopping him from calling the police.

Hiro knew full well how useless cops were. Plus, if Beck was a part of the Good Luck Alley side of things like Hiro thought he was, they might arrest Beck too. No, the cops wouldn't help in this situation. All anyone could do was to keep Beck out of harm's way.

"So, are we clear? No emergency services of any kind." Beck said.

"This is against my healthcare protocol."

"These are special circumstances. I guess that wasn't programmed into you, but sometimes calling the cops or the paramedics is the wrong choice. This is one of those times where it's the wrong choice."

"I will add: special circumstances, into my healthcare matrix."

"Cool, cool."

Hiro was a little agitated at the moment, having just had to stop Baymax from calling 911 twice. Honestly, you try protecting someone from the authorities once and everyone just decides that no, actually, we're gonna stop you from doing that. Hiro just wanted something to go right for a change.

"Hiro. Your: body language, hormone, and neurotransmitter levels indicate that you are experiencing mood swings, common in adolescents. Diagnosis: puberty."

And Hiro thought today couldn't get any worse, this was so embarrassing and in front of the only other guy that likes robotics too, just my luck.

"Whoa, what!"

"Oh, yikes. Embarrassing, am I right? Don't worry, it happens to all of us. I was covered in pimples for all of last year." Beck said.

"How old are you, actually?"

Beck paused for just a moment before saying, "I'm sixteen. You?"

"Fourteen."

"Oh, so you're like a sophomore, right?"

"Uh, no, I graduated high school when I was 13."

Beck's face lit up like he had been told he had won a million dollars.

"No way, you graduated early too?"

And Hiro responded likewise. No way, Beck also graduated early? This was awesome. Maybe Beck had also applied to SFIT- that would be just the coolest thing in the world. But wait.. Tadashi had helped me get in. He's gone now. Did I even deserve to go, Hiro thought.

Baymax interrupted them once again to say, "You should expect an increase in body hair, especially on your: face, chest, armpits, and-"

He was cut off by both Beck and Hiro trying to shove him back into his charging port. Both Hiro and Beck were red-faced from embarrassment, the blush much more evident on the older boy's almost sickly pale skin. Hiro quickly changed the subject.

"Anyhow, Beck, I can probably wrap up those burns."

"Thanks, Hiro. I appreciate it."

"Yeah, no problem."

Hiro grabbed the first aid kit and Beck sat down on his bed, holding out his burned arms. They looked nasty, to be honest. But Hiro wanted to save them both from any more Baymax-related embarrassment, so here they were. Baymax was looking on, probably watching for any mistakes.

Beck winced as Hiro wrapped up his arms, but he didn't make a sound. Hiro had to respect the resolve to not alert Baymax to his need for medical attention again. Hiro realized he'd have to be much more careful with his exclamations of pain now that Baymax was around. Sometimes you just didn't need a healthcare companion all up in your business. Sometimes you didn't need anyone interfering in your curse word-laden rant about dropping a book on your toe.

Soon enough, he was properly bandaged. But, his jacket and scarf were burned, badly enough that people would probably ask about it. Hiro realized this probably at the exact same time that Beck did.

"Uh, do you want one of my hoodies? It'll probably be too short for you but people will ask questions about why your clothes are burnt."

"Yeah, thank you."

Hiro tossed him a purple hoodie, and Beck went into the bathroom to change. Soon enough, Beck returned and tossed his burnt clothes in Hiro's trash can. The hoodie looked like a bit of a crop top on him, honestly. Beck was a head taller than him, after all.

"What's the stain on the sleeve?"

"Oh yeah, sorry, spilled WD-40 on it."

"No problem. Happens to the best of us. Once while I was working in chemistry class, I accidentally spilled industrial strength indicator dye onto my favorite shirt. I had to throw it out.. not fun."

"Doesn't sound like fun. I'm not really good at chemistry. Just robotics."

"Same here. If there's no code involved, count me out!" Beck laughed.

Hiro had to laugh along. Beck's laugh was contagious, piercing eyes shining bright like stars. And that was when he realized this was the first time he had laughed since the fire. Did he even deserve to laugh? His brother was dead, how could he have fun at a time like this? But another part of him told him to ignore everything. If Beck was here he could pretend like everything was fine. They could talk about robots and programming and video games, Hiro could ignore the void in his heart for a little while.

Maybe there was a light at the end of the tunnel of depression if he could just keep Beck there with him. But wait, Beck said he'd leave when Aunt Cass came back. What if Beck left for good? What if something happened to him?

And then the worst happened. He heard Aunt Cass' truck pull in. Beck heard it too, and immediately shot up.

"Goodbye, Hiro!" He said as he bolted down the stairs.

Hiro couldn't catch up in time and could only watch as his new friend barreled out of the alley door and off into the street. He sunk back down against the wall in defeat. Another person had left him.