![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Casseroles and Coping
Mar. 16th, 2021 10:38 amThat night at the expo, she'd grinned over her shoulder as the boys went off to have their private talk, proud of Hiro and proud of Tadashi too. She'd known he could help his brother come around... even if it apparently needed a night's holding in jail first.
But then sirens blared... and all too fast the Expo Building began to glow red, crowned with thick black smoke. The boys had been heading the other way, but somehow she knew...
"Tadashi..."
She tore away from the rest of the group, sprinting for the building. She'd never been the fastest runner, but tonight she needed to be, would be. Faster, faster-- and then a trip sent her plummeting to the stone path. Her palms and knees didn't ache for hours, she didn't feel the grit in the heels of her hands or the blood starting to trickle down her knee as she forced herself up and kept running.
She made it just in time to see him bolt from Hiro's hold into the blaze.
She froze then... her legs, her voice, her heart... she couldn't even react as Hiro began to run in, only for the explosion to push him away, knock her to her feet too. The others remember her letting out a scream that pierced through everything, but she can't...
Food stopped tasting right, her appetite shrank... the scabs and eventual faint scars on her knee ached far more than they should have, the way the cut on her finger ached for years after it'd healed... even the gas stove's gentlest flames made her flinch. If it weren't for Inuzuka-sensei and Tsumugi-chan, it might have stayed that way... but once again, those cooking sessions proved a balm on her heart, reminded her not to let fear keep her away from something she loved. ... And Kouhei had opened up, given her secrets of how he kept himself going after losing the love of his life, someone as precious to him as Tadashi was- is, always will be- to Kotori. Caring for Tsumugi... caring for others, letting them care for you.
These were lessons Kotori carried with her as she returned from her leave at the restaurant she worked at, baked casseroles and other easy meals for Ms. Cass and Hiro and stayed for coffee when one or both of them needed it, made cookies for the SFIT crew and accepted snacks they made for her... eventually, get roped into an incredibly tiny car going way too fast trying to get away from some madman with Hiro's microbots at his command. Fred's crowing about superheroes and villains didn't appeal to her. Even the promise of answers, so tempting, she knew it would give her as much peace as giving a parched man a drop of water. But protecting Hiro and Baymax? The most precious and important in Tadashi's life- like the Inuzukas were to her- and his life's work, the one he let her have a hand in molding? That was a worthy cause. Even enough to don a suit with gliding wings and material that could absorb blows to amplify the power of her own.Even enough to don a suit with gliding wings and material that could absorb blows to amplify the power of her own, the heat of the punches and the shimmering from the suit’s material enough for Fred to dub her Sunfire. (Wasabi then protested that Fred gave HER a cool nickname when he was still stuck as Wasabi!)
Even enough to sneak into an abandoned lab in the middle of the night, flinching almost as much as Wasabi was but trying to rein it in. She needed to be brave for everyone’s sake. She needed to be calm, even as they discovered that it wasn’t Krei but Callaghan behind the mask. She had to focus on keeping Hiro and Baymax from going down that dark path, even as her own stomach twisted that Callaghan- a teacher, the teacher Tadashi gave his life to save- didn’t even care for his student. Seeing that video made it twisted even harder, showing how much Callaghan still had in common with Inuzuka-sensei while being nothing at all like him…
She only panicked when Hiro and Baymax went into that portal, falling to her knees and whispering “no no no” the same way she’d screamed that night. She’d failed, and worse… they were running towards Tadashi’s fate the way he did. Would he be proud of them, or mad at her? It was better, but not wholly so, when Hiro came back with only Abigail, or so it’d seemed. Hiro is human, irreplaceable, and she was so relieved and so proud… But Baymax meant all those nights bringing Tadashi dinner, giving him miniature lessons over whatever she could remember from her nutrition class, listening to him vent and encouraging him to keep going when a test run failed, coaxing him- sometimes forcing him- to stop and take a night to care for himself. Every bite of food, every stolen kiss, every brush of his fingers in her hair… At least until they learned that Baymax had given Hiro his caregiving chip at the last. Of course Tadashi would make a robot that clever, that steadfast and kind. Tadashi might be gone… but he’d left a legacy that would be safe, and she was proud to protect it.
Afterwards, she was the most adamant about “hanging up her cape,” as Fred put it. She was a chef, first and foremost, and besides… Hiro and Baymax and the rest of the team, they were not only doing good, but taking care of each other. They were fine without her, and that was a good thing… Besides, there are other ways to reach out and help people. Like cooking for loved ones, or for the one or two humanity projects Kotori started volunteering for since then.
… But then the attacks on Krei began…
But then sirens blared... and all too fast the Expo Building began to glow red, crowned with thick black smoke. The boys had been heading the other way, but somehow she knew...
"Tadashi..."
She tore away from the rest of the group, sprinting for the building. She'd never been the fastest runner, but tonight she needed to be, would be. Faster, faster-- and then a trip sent her plummeting to the stone path. Her palms and knees didn't ache for hours, she didn't feel the grit in the heels of her hands or the blood starting to trickle down her knee as she forced herself up and kept running.
She made it just in time to see him bolt from Hiro's hold into the blaze.
She froze then... her legs, her voice, her heart... she couldn't even react as Hiro began to run in, only for the explosion to push him away, knock her to her feet too. The others remember her letting out a scream that pierced through everything, but she can't...
Food stopped tasting right, her appetite shrank... the scabs and eventual faint scars on her knee ached far more than they should have, the way the cut on her finger ached for years after it'd healed... even the gas stove's gentlest flames made her flinch. If it weren't for Inuzuka-sensei and Tsumugi-chan, it might have stayed that way... but once again, those cooking sessions proved a balm on her heart, reminded her not to let fear keep her away from something she loved. ... And Kouhei had opened up, given her secrets of how he kept himself going after losing the love of his life, someone as precious to him as Tadashi was- is, always will be- to Kotori. Caring for Tsumugi... caring for others, letting them care for you.
These were lessons Kotori carried with her as she returned from her leave at the restaurant she worked at, baked casseroles and other easy meals for Ms. Cass and Hiro and stayed for coffee when one or both of them needed it, made cookies for the SFIT crew and accepted snacks they made for her... eventually, get roped into an incredibly tiny car going way too fast trying to get away from some madman with Hiro's microbots at his command. Fred's crowing about superheroes and villains didn't appeal to her. Even the promise of answers, so tempting, she knew it would give her as much peace as giving a parched man a drop of water. But protecting Hiro and Baymax? The most precious and important in Tadashi's life- like the Inuzukas were to her- and his life's work, the one he let her have a hand in molding? That was a worthy cause. Even enough to don a suit with gliding wings and material that could absorb blows to amplify the power of her own.Even enough to don a suit with gliding wings and material that could absorb blows to amplify the power of her own, the heat of the punches and the shimmering from the suit’s material enough for Fred to dub her Sunfire. (Wasabi then protested that Fred gave HER a cool nickname when he was still stuck as Wasabi!)
Even enough to sneak into an abandoned lab in the middle of the night, flinching almost as much as Wasabi was but trying to rein it in. She needed to be brave for everyone’s sake. She needed to be calm, even as they discovered that it wasn’t Krei but Callaghan behind the mask. She had to focus on keeping Hiro and Baymax from going down that dark path, even as her own stomach twisted that Callaghan- a teacher, the teacher Tadashi gave his life to save- didn’t even care for his student. Seeing that video made it twisted even harder, showing how much Callaghan still had in common with Inuzuka-sensei while being nothing at all like him…
She only panicked when Hiro and Baymax went into that portal, falling to her knees and whispering “no no no” the same way she’d screamed that night. She’d failed, and worse… they were running towards Tadashi’s fate the way he did. Would he be proud of them, or mad at her? It was better, but not wholly so, when Hiro came back with only Abigail, or so it’d seemed. Hiro is human, irreplaceable, and she was so relieved and so proud… But Baymax meant all those nights bringing Tadashi dinner, giving him miniature lessons over whatever she could remember from her nutrition class, listening to him vent and encouraging him to keep going when a test run failed, coaxing him- sometimes forcing him- to stop and take a night to care for himself. Every bite of food, every stolen kiss, every brush of his fingers in her hair… At least until they learned that Baymax had given Hiro his caregiving chip at the last. Of course Tadashi would make a robot that clever, that steadfast and kind. Tadashi might be gone… but he’d left a legacy that would be safe, and she was proud to protect it.
Afterwards, she was the most adamant about “hanging up her cape,” as Fred put it. She was a chef, first and foremost, and besides… Hiro and Baymax and the rest of the team, they were not only doing good, but taking care of each other. They were fine without her, and that was a good thing… Besides, there are other ways to reach out and help people. Like cooking for loved ones, or for the one or two humanity projects Kotori started volunteering for since then.
… But then the attacks on Krei began…
