zerotohiro | Some Legends Are Told, Some Turn To Dust Or To Gold [CEREALIA INBOX]

[The urge to punch Leon in the face is rising...]

Fine. I'll even upgrade his chip to completely avoid you in public so this never happens again. [That's not happening.] ...are you okay? [It's. Baymax is a robot and a squishy walking marshmallow but he wants to be sure Leon actually wasn't hurt or anything. Being a protag is hard.]

[He'd deserve it but it'd probably be a bad idea even so.]

I'm fine.

[You can't have expected anything else.

Though he knows he overreacted and.....]

... I was simply startled. [Bullshit.]

[Stahn probably wouldn't like it either and it's something Hiro keeps in mind. You win for now, friendship mullet.]

I'd hate to see how you react when you're really startled. [He shakes his head, sticking his hands in his pockets so he doesn't have any more desire to punch him or other such things.] Where're you heading anyway?

[He'd probably stab someone-- but yeah, this is fine, move on to hopefully less volatile conversational topics--]

That is none of your business.

[Oh.

... Admittedly the truth is that he was just wandering, in an attempt to stay away from...Stahn........]

...you have no idea, do you. [Why you always lyin', etc etc.]

Shut up.

[That's a yes, he has no idea.]

Naturally I have a destination in mind. I am not the sort who would wander aimlessly. [And yet.

Here he is.

Wandering aimlessly.]

Then maybe you should start heading for that specific destination and don't let us keep you. [The way he's speaking says he's 90% sure Leon's bluffing but he doesn't want to call him on it.] How far is it?

[Hiro is 100% correct but. Even so.

Uh.

.... ]

That is none of your business.

[But.

The way he's hesitating makes it pretty clear he has no idea what direction he should saunter off into. UH...]

[All right, all right. He'll take some pity on him.]

Baymax and I were heading that way--[He points to the left]--to get food. Are you heading the same way? [He's giving Leon the choice to flounce off gracefully. What a helper.]

[Generally, this would be where Leon would less-than-gracefully take the out and stalk off.

The problem is that...well, the effects from the month haven't been all too kind, and with the way he's avoiding Stahn (so that he doesn't do anything stupid, like hug him), he feels awkwardly lonely, too.

Lonely enough to spend time with Hiro...?

Absolutely not, of course.

... Probably.

.......Damn.]

That is-- I--

[...]

Just...for a short ways. [Oh.]

[Oh, indeed. Hiro blinks in surprise because that's not really what he was expecting and he looks at Baymax uncertainly before he nods slowly. Okay. This is fine. Probably.]

...right. C'mon. [This became less funny and more worrisome again because Leon are you okay. Part of him kind of wants to nudge him along but Leon flipped out about being touched so let's not do that.] The place we're heading is sort of a ways from here. You don't think about it much, but the colony's pretty decently spread out. [Let's get going, buddy.]

[Leon actually thinks about that more than he'd like to, honestly, seeing as how he can't take the trains without feeling motion sick--having to walk everywhere really makes it sink in just how spread out this colony is.

But he's not going to say that, naturally.]

Hm.

[Aside from the noncommittal, he doesn't say much at first, though after a beat he adds:]

Where, exactly, are you headed?

[Hiro's used to walking everywhere if only because getting Baymax on the trains can be a pain in the ass sometimes. It's more conversational than anything, even though he doesn't expect Leon to really say anything. If he had his way, they could walk in total silence…but that's weird. Baymax waddles along, keeping his eyes open around the colony as Hiro leads the way.]

Burger place. Easy, fast, I can eat it with one hand while I'm working on some new sketches…it's basically the perfect food. [A shrug. If you just don't think about the fact it may not actually be a normal burger it's totally fine.] Baymax usually comes for the company. I might pick up something for my brother, too.

[Burgers, huh.... it's not a food he's used to eating, but it's not something he hates.

Not that he's going to go eat with Hiro, obviously.

But... well.]

I see.

[It seems like a pretty lame response, and he's aware of that. So after a beat--]

...From what I have seen, your companion goes with you everywhere. [Baymax, that is.]

[It's still a pretty good walk to the place. Who knows what will happen before then? In response to that though Hiro can only shrug.]

Baymax was designed to be a personal health care companion which means he's assigned to a patient that he sees needs to be treated. [He watches fondly as Baymax wanders just a tiny bit ahead, squeaking and waving hello to an alien or two that's staring at him] But when I activated him for the first time after our initial introduction he decided that patient should be me. Since then he's...pretty much become my best friend.

[All the more reason Leon angers him when he's mean to his robot, honestly.]

[...Hm. Leon can't exactly say that he understands (but Leon, you're the one whose only friend forever was a talking sword), but Baymax really does seem harmless. The fact that he's a health care robot means that he's probably honestly not a threat.

... Aside from his penchant for hugging.

That's very threatening.

Still, there's an obvious question lurking there, and Leon's blunt enough to ask it.]

And why did you require a personal health care companion? [Hiro seems healthy enough, but they all know what this place can be like with hiding things like DEAD PEOPLE BEING DEAD.]

[And the rocket-powered armor. Don't forget that. But the hugs are far more threatening for Leon and he's hardly surprised when the other boy asks the question. It's about that point he doesn't look at him at all, fixated solely on Baymax and on where they're going.]

I didn't require anything. Baymax just decided I needed him because...[...he doesn't want to tell Leon. But then again, maybe Leon will finally get why Hiro's conflicted about him in general.] Some things happened back at home that kinda changed my entire life, and when someone really, really important died Baymax responded the only way he knew how and that was to take care of me until I could start fixing everything, too.

[He cuts a glance at him.] Pretty weird, huh?

[... Ah.

He wasn't expecting Hiro to give him even that much, somehow. But it's...almost a peace-offering, it feels like. Hiro learned more from Leon than Leon ever intended to give, but now the scales are a little more balanced--perhaps it's something like that.

But it does strike a chord with him. He can remember what Stahn had looked like when he'd seen Leon again for the first time--and sometimes, even now, he catches that look on his face and in his eyes. The pained, distressed look of someone who is completely agonized by what happened to Leon.

The look of someone who was left behind, just as Leon had said before.

He glances away, somewhat guiltily.

Pretty weird....]

...Of course not.

[It's not weird at all.]

Isn't that only to be expected?

[It hadn't been his goal to make Leon guilty for once. He doesn't even miss the way he responds, though Baymax picks up on it when he looks back at the two boys. Even if he's ahead, Leon will have noticed Baymax continually looks back to check on Hiro. He's been trained to look after his patient at all costs and Hiro's grown so used to it he thinks nothing of it.]

Dunno. In case you haven't noticed, it's not really in our design to do everything that's expected. [He huffs lightly.] Baymax was never programmed to understand non-physical wounds. He taught himself. Downloaded a whole database and educated himself. [On grief, specifically. He doesn't think he needs to spell that out for Leon though.]

...and anyway activating him was kind of an accident. I couldn't get him to go away after he showed up, but I'm kinda glad he didn't listen to me.

Then...

[Leon's quiet for a moment as he processes that. He thinks about Chaltier, and how the sword acts as his guide and his mentor and his caretaker all in one.

It's a lot of the same, isn't it?]

... He is your crutch, is he not?

[That is a really rude thing to say, Leon.]

I am too large to be a crutch. Crutches must be properly fitted to assure safety.

[...he can't help but smile even if Baymax says stupid things. The things Leon's saying though...he can't even deny them.]

You might be the only person who actually thinks of him that way. [But he's not wrong, and Hiro can't even deny it.] ...he's my best friend. Nobody else could have fixed this.

["Nobody else could have fixed me."]

[..... Okay, Baymax, okay. Leon arches an eyebrow at that, but he just shakes his head with a scoff that isn't entirely angry.

How can he really judge Hiro for that when he has Chaltier at his side? His friend, his crutch, and with him from nearly the beginning of his life to the end.]

... I see. [It's just a quiet acknowledgement--he can't really say anything at all.]

It was simply an observation.

[He finds the lack of outward judgement a little suspicious, but he's not going to be the one to bring it up. So he nods to Leon's response, spotting the burger place not too far in the distance.]

Yeah. So...insulting my friend? Not really a good idea. [A pause.] He's also family. Make sense? [It's tentative, but Leon's not being as much of a jerk right now. He can do the same at least.]

Hardly.

[Leon will admit that much frankly, if a little wryly. He doesn't really know what "he's also family" is supposed to mean to him, honestly--to Leon, family is an abusive father, a dead mother and a sister who never knew who he was. Family doesn't mean anything to him at all, but....

He can at least comprehend that Hiro is trying to say that Baymax is important.

So Leon doesn't elaborate any further on that throwaway statement, shaking his head.]

... Even so, it cannot be denied that he is meddlesome. [BAYMAX IS A MEDDLER. Though that's said relatively lightly, coming from Leon.]

Of course he's meddlesome. [He grins, though it doesn't quite meet his eyes.] …Tadashi was also really meddlesome when he was alive. [And still is, come to think of it.] I think he purposefully programmed him that way. Eventually you just learn to deal with having a large, squeaky shadow.

It is my job to assist. [Baymax, polite as ever, interrupts and looks down at Hiro and Leon.] Tadashi designed me to help at all costs.

Buuut a promise is a promise. I'll keep him from "meddling" with you.

Some Legends Are Told, Some Turn To Dust Or To Gold [CEREALIA INBOX]

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