Christmas Without You

Holiday Blues

Rain had been rapidly pouring down on and off that next day. The drops danced down the streets as the wind picked up - twinkling under the street lights. Gusty winds roared on occasion, causing tree branches to hit against buildings and leaves to float around. It wasn't a huge storm, but it was the biggest rainfall the city had had in awhile.

Naturally, this caused less business for The Lucky Cat Cafe. After two hours of not getting a single customer, Cass decided to shut down the cafe an hour early. Right as she finished cleaning off the counter, the bell above the entrance jingled, startling the woman. Peeking over her shoulder, she gasped seeing Hiro's friends walking inside.

"Oh, hello!" She greeted with a pep in her voice. "I didn't know you were all coming over." As she walked over to them, she noticed them all shivering and drenched from head to toe. "Look at you guys! You're soaking wet. Would you like some towels or some hot chocolate?"

The gang all shook their heads at her. "We'll be fine, Ms. Hamada," Wasabi assured.

"Well, Hiro's upstairs if you need to talk to him."

The group all looked at one another. They all agreed to go there and they knew they had to do it. Now that they were actually there, they weren't sure how to address what they wanted. What if she didn't have a clue? What if they worried her?

"A-actually, we came here to talk to you if that's alright," Honey Lemon spoke up.

The middle-aged woman raised a brow at them all. For a couple years now, they all had made frequent visits to the cafe. All of them got along quite well with Cass, and in turn, she cared about them. Every once in awhile, one of them would have a brief conversation if ordering something, but that was about it. She could tell by the serious looks on their faces that they had something big on their minds. It was why they were turning to her that had her confused. Nonetheless, she agreed to having a talk with them, ushering them to take a seat.

"So, what do you want to talk about?" She asked.

"It's about Hiro," Gogo started off semi-quietly. This alone made Cass's eyes widen. "He hasn't been himself lately."

"We keep asking him if everything is alright and he blames it on being stressed about school, but we feel like there's something else that's bothering him," Fred added.

"I guess what we're trying to ask is if maybe you've picked up on this and if maybe you know what's going on with him."

As the four friends all looked over to her, they watched as her face fell into a soft frown. She did know what really had Hiro down. However, she discovered it the hard way. Not too long after Hiro ran up to his room, Cass had walked up to the second floor, seeing the result of her nephew's fit. At first, she was ready to yell for him to come down and explain himself for the sudden damage, but then she realized why he did it. Even after putting everything back and cleaning up the broken glass, she left him alone. She wanted to comfort him and make sure he was okay, but something inside her said to let him come to her.

Thinking about what she had seen last night and the lack of his presence all day made her sigh. Her crossed arms dropped to her sides as she began to slowly pace. "Hiro is going through some holiday blues," Cass admitted. She stopped in the middle of her pacing and looked back at the four. "He's really been missing his brother these days."

The mere thought of Tadashi made the whole room fall silent. The college student's hearts sank, unable to respond right away. They all stared down at the table, now starting to understand Hiro's attitude lately. They were all pretty mad about how he up and left them to walk back to the institute the night before, yet, they were more concerned for why that happened. A couple sighs escaped from them; Tadashi's absence from the holiday's were now hitting them too.